Capturing Kate Read Online Free PDF Page A

you’re not dead.” His voice was short, and he helped her to a sitting position, her hands bound in front of her. “Connor—the man who brought you here—saved your life. I’m sure he’s not glad he had to hit you and dump you in the car.” His fist clenched. “It’s—” He shook his head. “But it’s better than what they wanted him to do.”
    “To kill me?” Her voice quavered.
    “He’s going to tell them he did it, and he’s putting his own life in danger. They can smell a lie and a fed like sharks. Connor’s good, but I…” His voice trailed off, taut. “He needs to pull this off.”
    “He convinced me.” Shudders started in her body and she tried to push the memories away with distraction. “Where are we?” She looked around her, wincing at the pile of bloody gauze and wipes on the floor, noting the wooden walls, plaid curtains. A cabin. Her sandals, tossed together by the door—that must be a good sign?
    Lightning pulsed and thunder crashed on top of it, and she flinched away. “Is this place safe?”
    “We’re at a safe house. It’s not an official FBI location, but it’s the best we can do under the circumstances. It’s a cabin I own, off the grid. When Connor told me he had you, we needed a close place to stash you.”
    “I’m not furniture. You don’t stash me!” She fought against the bonds. “I want to go home.”
    “And I said no. Right now, I’m your boss, the one in charge. You’re going to do what I say, when I say it, and that will keep you alive.”
    She shuddered. “You’re horrible.”
    “My team saved your life,” he corrected. “I think a thank you is in order.”
    “A thank you?” She pulled so hard at the bonds that she felt her wrists rub raw. “How about a fuck you to hell and back, you shithead asshole? Your friend back there could have stopped those men and let me go. He could have saved Ella! She was having a heart attack, I think, when he grabbed me. Instead, he brought me here in the trunk of a car and you’re keeping me tied up like a slave. Now let me go right now, and we can go to the police, and you can make your fucking FBI report and we’ll all live happily ever after.”
    “It’s not that easy.” He pulled up a chair and sat next to the bed. “If you show up again, Mancini will find out, and he’ll hire someone else to take you out. And then our cover is blown, and with it, all the work we’ve done to infiltrate over the past year. You need to stay out of sight until the case is closed. And that’s why I can’t untie you just yet. I need to be sure you won’t run away from me. We need to close him down first.”
    “For the water plant?” Her brow wrinkled. “I can help! I’ve been researching for months now. Ella is my source on the inside! Let me go and I’ll help you. I can give you all of my data. I’m so close to having what I need to prove he knew the plant was putting out contaminated water to the poorer side of town. With my information, you can arrest him. Tell the local police, and they’ll have to do it.”
    “The water plant?” He crossed his arms. “No. That’s not what we want Mancini.”
    “Then I don’t understand.” She blinked. “Why?”
    “He has other ventures.”
    “Like what?”
    “You don’t need to know that right now.”
    “Maybe I don’t need to, but I deserve to.” She stared at him. “Right now, I don’t even know if believe anything you’re saying. You could be part of Mancini’s team.”
    He shook his head. “No. His water plant, and the one he owns upstream, the chemical plant, those are his legitimate businesses. He uses them to look respectable and hide his real work.”
    “Hide… what?”
    “Kate, you’ll sign a nondisclosure later that will be legally binding. If you talk about this, it means federal prison. Do you understand?”
    She nodded. A nondisclosure meant she wouldn’t be dead. She couldn’t fucking wait for that moment to come, when this was all behind