Beautiful Sacrifice Read Online Free PDF

Less than nothing.
    Thief of the dead.
    “I’ve had enough coffee,” Lina said abruptly.
    Before she could stand, his hand snaked across the table and grabbed her wrist, pinning her in place. The grip was gentle. And unbreakable unless she wanted to make a scene.
    “Let’s see that hand,” Hunter said.
    “It’s fine.”
    “Okay. Then tell me about the photos.”
    “I didn’t really look at them.” She hadn’t had to. An instant was all she needed to know she shouldn’t be here, with him.
    “What’s wrong?” Hunter asked.
    His voice was gentle, but his eyes were as implacable as the hand around her wrist.
    “I don’t talk about artifacts without provenance,” she said flatly. “Or are certificates of export and import in that envelope, too?”
    Hunter glanced around the coffee shop with eyes gone as flat as her voice. Too many people. Too close.
    “How about we talk in your office?” he asked.
    “Until I see papers for those artifacts in the photos, I have nothing to talk about with you.”
    “The artifacts were taken in a drug bust at the Texas-Mexico border.”
    “Who are you?” Lina asked.
    “A man who bought you coffee. That’s all. No badges, no official inquiries, no headlines in academic magazines and reputations muddied. At least, there don’t have to be.”
    He knows, she thought, hoping her face didn’t show her fear. Somehow he knows about the scandal that nearly brought the Reyes Balam family down. And he’s threatening another.
    Isn’t he?
    “Your office?” he asked again.
    “I don’t bring grave robbers into the museum.”
    “Good. I’m not one.”
    “Or slimy middlemen or collectors who troll the black markets.”
    “Still good,” he said.
    She stared back at him with eyes gone dark.
    “Look,” he said. “We need privacy or you’ll be facing another scandal. My apartment isn’t far way. Neither is yours.”
    “How do you know?” she asked, torn between anger and a fear that made her even more angry.
    “Same way I know a lot of things. I checked you out. It’s what I do. Find things, especially if they’re lost in Mexico. I’m private. Very private. But if a public badge would make you feel better, I can call my friend. He’s with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. I’m working with him on these.” Hunter tapped the photos on the edge of the table.
    “My office,” Lina said tightly. “I know men there with badges.”
    Rent-a-cops, Hunter thought sardonically. But if they make fear go away from those beautiful eyes, rent-a-cops are my new best friends forever.
    “Your office,” he agreed.
    A few minutes later, Lina locked her office door behind her and watched Hunter fan the damning photos over her mostly clear desk. The locked door was a signal to students and professionals alike that she didn’t want to be disturbed.
    But she was more than disturbed. She was scared.
    If Hunter was lying to her about keeping his silence, her career was over. And if he wasn’t lying to her, her career probably still was over. From the little she had seen in the photos, they could easily have been the pieces her mother had been sniffing after this morning.
    Celia, what have you done now?
    With an expertise that came from years of experience caught between her warring parents, Lina smoothed all expression from her face.
    “These pieces were seized at the border by ICE,” Hunter said again, figuring she didn’t need to know about DEA and the beagle brigade.
    “You can prove that?”
    “If it will reassure you, I can bring in an ICE badge. Depending on where Jase is, it will take about half an hour.”
    “Jase?”
    “Jason Beaumont,” Hunter said. “My closest friend.”
    Lina walked over to her desk, trying not to stare at the photos.
    Failing.
    The fear that had rooted in her kept growing. Fumbling slightly, she slid into her office chair without looking away from the photos.
    Hunter studied Lina’s face as she studied the photos. Unlike the flash of panic or