Always Look Twice Read Online Free PDF Page A

you still want to leave?’’
    ‘‘Yes. Oh, yes. Please!’’
    ‘‘All right, then. You’ll need to do exactly what I say. Do you have a pair of pants that aren’t pink? I looked around in here, but I couldn’t find any.’’
    She shook her head. ‘‘I don’t . . . wait. A friend left a duffel.’’ She crossed to a section of the closet that held purses and totes and withdrew a green paisley bag. From inside, she pulled out a pair of dark indigo jeans.
    ‘‘Excellent,’’ Mark said. ‘‘Is there a shirt, too? Something that’s not pink?’’ He shook his head when she held up a bright yellow T-shirt. ‘‘Nope. We need dark. Black, preferably.’’
    ‘‘I don’t have dark. I only wear pink.’’
    He set his mouth in a grim line. He had no patience for affectations like that. Glancing around the closet, he grabbed a dark-hued man’s shirt that he assumed was Selcer’s off a hanger and tossed it to her.
    ‘‘It’ll swallow me,’’ she protested as she held it up.
    ‘‘Belt it. And I want your hair up and underneath this.’’ He handed her a ball cap. ‘‘Wash off your makeup.’’
    At that, Sophia Garza’s mouth rounded in horror. ‘‘No makeup? But I never—’’
    ‘‘Exactly. No one will recognize you. Now, hurry and change.’’
    She started stripping right in front of him, which reminded Mark of her recent employment. It made him sad. He remembered Sophia as a bright-eyed six-year-old who loved to ride the merry-go-round at the Brazos Bend Elementary School playground.
    He turned away and busied himself testing the rope he’d fashioned from a collection of leather belts. They would work just fine to provide access to the ground from the bedroom balcony.
    ‘‘Will this do?’’ she asked a few moments later.
    Mark turned to look and saw not the tarted-up porn star but a fresh-faced girl who belonged in Brazos Bend. ‘‘Perfect. Let’s go.’’
    ‘‘Downstairs? Through the crowd?’’ Her teeth tugged worriedly at her lower lip.
    ‘‘Nope.’’ He hauled the loop of belts over his shoulder. ‘‘We’re taking an alternate route.’’
    They exited the closet and he was pleased to see that she had locked the bedroom door. He was less happy to see that she had left the lights blazing. They were visible to anyone outside. He quickly crossed the room and flipped the switches.
    Moments later, they slipped through the French doors that led onto the master bedroom balcony. Mark surveyed the grounds below, waited for a pair of strolling guests to move beyond sight, then quickly fixed the belt rope to the balcony railing. This was the point at which they would be their most vulnerable, so they needed to get to the cliff’s edge fast. ‘‘I’ll go first,’’ he told an uncertain Sophia. ‘‘When I signal, you follow.’’
    ‘‘I’ll fall!’’
    ‘‘I’ll catch you.’’
    As it turned out, he had to do exactly that. The woman was as clumsy as she was pretty, and she squealed and made way too much noise as she crashed toward the ground. Mark winced and worried. The next stage of the plan required absolute quiet. Was she up to it?
    When a security guard rounded the corner at a run, he mentally added, If we even get to the next stage of the plan.
    ‘‘Hold it right there,’’ the guard said, his suspicious gaze shifting from the belt rope to Sophia to Mark. He carried a 9mm in his right hand.
    Mark made a lightning-fast survey. Thirties. Military bearing gone a bit soft. Reflexes probably not what they should be. Surely part of Selcer’s security rather than Radovanovic’s.
    ‘‘Is there a problem?’’ Mark asked, stepping toward the man, his palms up and out. The trick here was to move fast and give the man no time for thought.
    It took only seconds. Mark rotated to the left, and at the same time his left hand came up and across and pushed the gun away. He gripped the wrist of the guard’s gun hand, stepped forward with his left foot, and locked