Chill Factor Read Online Free PDF Page B

important to…hell, to everyone . And what Kevin’s done is killing him.’
    ‘You need to ask yourself something,’ he said softly.
    ‘How far I’m willing to go? Because I just said—’
    ‘No.’ His gaze held me still. ‘Why it always hasto be you . Are you that powerful, or just that arrogant?’
    I froze. Then I rolled over and pulled the hurt close. I felt his warm fingers lightly caress my shoulder. His voice was a bare whisper against my ear, soft and textured as velvet.
    ‘I’m scared for you. I lost you twice already, Jo. Please. Stop trying to save the world. Can you do that for me?’
    I had to be honest with him. ‘I don’t think I can. Not this time. It’s our fuck-up, David. I have to try.’
    I felt the warm puff of his sigh. ‘That’s what I thought.’ His lips pressed gently on the bare skin of my shoulder. I took a deep breath and turned towards him…
    …but he was gone. Disappeared. Vanished like the Djinn he was.
    Don’t go, I need you, please stay …I really did need him, especially tonight, especially here. But I was a tough girl. Tough girls don’t beg.
    I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, but the memories kept coming back.
       
    Now that I’d remembered being here before, I couldn’t forget the circumstances, and the circumstances started with Chaz.
    You probably know somebody just like Charles Spenser Ashworth III. Maybe not with as fancy a name or pedigree, maybe not as rich, but you knowhim. He’s the guy without much talent but with a whole lot of mouth, a fast-talker with flashy ideas. He never follows through, because that’s hard work. He’s all about the ideas. Ideas , he will tell you, are much more important than execution . Because anyone can do the grunt work. Men like Chaz are usually successful, because there’s an entire business culture out there who buys into the notion that actual work is cheap and somehow déclassé. He’s usually a consultant, or an executive, and he usually has a flashy car (but one without any real performance), a mistress, and at least one ex-wife and the associated ex-children.
    My Chaz was a Warden. I had the misfortune of being assigned to audit his work.
    First of all, understand that being a Weather Warden in Nevada isn’t exactly the world’s most stressful job. The surrounding states are the ones with the big problems; by the time the shit hits the fan in Nevada, the Wardens have generally had plenty of chances to slow it down or stop it. The place is strong in Earth Wardens, not Fire or Weather. So for a Weather Warden to get audited in that state is pretty…well, unusual. But for about two years prior to my assignment, there had been some funky things going on.
    It was luck of the draw as to who would get the free trip to Vegas, and it turned out to be me. Florida, California, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas,Missouri…those are the hot-weather experts, and we do get tasked for this sort of thing on occasion. If he’d been in Montana, somebody from the Vermont or Alaska regions would have been given the treat.
    But no , it had to be me. Lucky me.
    I knew I was in trouble when I arrived at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas and found that Charles ‘Call Me Chaz’ Ashworth hadn’t bothered to pick me up. I mean, if you were being audited, and you were asked to arrange transportation, wouldn’t you try to make a good impression? Not Chaz. He left a message for me to rent a car, and told me that he’d reserved me a room at Caesar’s. Since I fully intended to charge Chaz for the car, I rented a Jaguar, drove down the Neon Mile to the trashy-cool Roman extravagance of the Palace, and pulled into the valet spot. There was a wait. I hesitated for a few seconds, then flipped open the folder that I’d been reviewing on the plane.
    Even though Chaz was nominally based in Las Vegas, that wasn’t where the questionable weather behaviour was being registered. It was up in the lonely northern part of the state, the empty