3 Lies Read Online Free PDF Page B

the same day. He didn’t think to look for the glue-stain of Australia on the back door. Not that he could’ve seen it at this distance.
    They continued back to the boat. Clint tied Louie to the mast and left the dog gnawing a biscuit. He went below deck. Paige was still there.
    She snapped her phone shut when she saw him.
    “I figured you’d be gone by now.” He set his bag on the counter. “I should have taken longer.”
    “We’re not done, Clint.” She rolled her eyes and held up both hands in surrender. “I’m sorry. I mean, I don’t want us to be done. Look, I know it’s been a rough year. And this is a lot to take in.”
    “A concession? You’re slipping, Counselor.”
    “But you always wanted a baby, and now, you’ve got one on the way.” She raised her arms up and twisted on her heels. “I’m just part of the package.”
    As always. The room needed more air. He stepped around her and opened all the portals.
    “I’ve made a new life for myself, Paige. It’s not that simple.”
    “Is this about the girl you’ve been dating?”
    Her tone abraded his calm like thirty-grit sandpaper on balsa.
    “I know you started seeing someone. Your mother told me.”
    But of course she did.
    “Look, Paige. I’ve got plans for today as I’m sure you do. Let’s call a time out.”
    “Will you meet me for dinner?”
    He couldn’t think of a quick excuse, so he didn’t answer.
    “Good. Meet me at Savoureux. How’s seven?”
    Seven was fine, but he was tired of her presumption. A man has to take a stand. Even if only over dinner. “Make it seven-thirty at Bergans.”
    Her third-grade smile dimmed to half-wattage. “Seven-thirty it is.”
    He saw her to the parking lot. She parade-waved her good bye. He returned to the boat and paced for the sheer release.
    He hadn’t realized how much he missed the sea. Not to go in it, of course, but to ride it like a snorting, stamping bronco—to feel the great quaking from beneath and travel beyond the horizon of everything he has ever known, to match sail against gale and bring him again safely home. Compared to women, the peril was predictable.
    Paige. His pregnant five-months-from-ex wife.
    Beth. His oxygen. Like Dracula filtering her blood into something fresh, wholesome, pure, and vital, she renewed him.
    Where the hell was she? Her voice, her presence had become a ground wire for the static in his life.
    Two women. One baby.
    Only him in exchange.
    Yet, Beth was the one he felt he was cheating.
    Paige and he having a baby—that was something he wanted since the beginning. He even played house with her as a kid, at least when no one else was around.
    Marriage was supposed to last a lifetime.
    He removed the canvas cover from the mainsail and threw it in a heap on deck. He sat atop it, to rest, to think, but he knew. He owed it to the baby to hear Paige out, give her another chance. Maybe this time things would be different. It wasn’t the baby’s fault their timing so thoroughly sucked.

Chapter Seven
    What the hell was this?
    Routine agent updates, surveillance reports, even the occasional defector—each transaction corresponded to a code that might appear on the daily activity report. Doug Bryant knew these codes like grocery checkers knew the codes for produce. Field agents or the operatives running the missions entered some of the activities listed on his report. Computers generated other codes due to anomalies in monitored activities. The code that showed on today’s report was entirely unfamiliar.
    “Posey, have you ever seen this code?” Doug passed the printout to the tall, muscular Korean at the next desk.
    Posey Kong took the paper and handed it right back. “Nope. Never.”
    After six months in CIA operations support, reviewing the daily reports dulled. The real action lay somewhere beyond him. Any life that sparked from the reports withered in the hands of his boss, Albert Moore. Doug never understood why Albert didn’t like him.
    On the