Collector's Item Read Online Free PDF

what I think you’re thinking.”
    KT gave a tiny sigh of relief. She could sell this, him. “That’s why it just might work. That little scene in the hall might take some explaining, but, if we let this play out like Massey scripted it, we should both get what we want.”
    She glanced down at Massey. The white plastic ties on his ankles and wrists glowed in the light, and her pulse climbed. That could be what happened to Aunt Patricia, was about to happen to her —helpless, trapped. KT’s breath caught and then she forced the images away. Focus.
    She looked at Peyton. “You’ve got some kind of back-up team, right?”
    Peyton shook his head. “I cancelled them when I found out Marant’s princess was our Collector’s Item.”
    She glared at him. His insistence on treating her like a pampered socialite was infuriating. She stepped around Massey’s unconscious form and went to her backpack. She pulled out her cell phone, and held it out. “You’ll have to get them back. Just keep my name out of it.”
    “They’ve already got your name,” he pointed out.
    She shook the phone like a rattle. “Tell them, Massey had an alternative target you didn’t know about. I dunno. Make something up, just get them to back you up and we can take down Douglas Torne.”
    Peyton stepped over to take the phone. “And the rest of your brilliant plan?”
    “You tell Massey that you overshot me and then kept the fight going to keep me from suspecting anything. After I conked him, you knocked me out and hauled us both into my apartment before anyone noticed.”
    She touched the side of her face where it had hit the floor. The lightest touch sent a lancing pain from her chin to her eye. She turned to look at her reflection in a glass picture frame. A reddish bruise extended from her jaw line and up toward her cheekbone, the skin swollen. “Based on how this feels, this is going to be pretty spectacular. Just what we need to clinch the deal. With me down for the count, he just might buy it.”
    KT held her silence while Peyton stared at her. He had to buy it. It was a win-win. He got his friend’s murderer and Torne was bound to know who had Patricia.
    “It’s chancy, but it might work,” Peyton said at last. “You’re taking a hell of a risk, being drugged. If this goes sideways, you’ll never know until you wake up in a cage somewhere.”
    “You’ll have to make sure it doesn’t,” KT countered. “Believe me, the thought of being drugged has me spooked, but I don’t see us getting out of that one. I’m not a good enough actress to pretend to be unconscious while I’m dragged all over New York.”
    Peyton rubbed his chin and looked her up and down. “If I adjust the injection, it should wear off before we get to the hangar.”
    KT took a deep breath to try and calm the clenching of her stomach. So much could go wrong. If she thought about it too long or too hard, she’d back out and she’d never forgive herself. This was her best chance to find out who had Patricia.
    She looked at Peyton and smiled. “Then, I think we’ve got a plan.”

Chapter Four
    Peyton watched as KT’s eyelashes fluttered against her cheeks and her breath evened out. An ugly reddish bruise covered her left jaw and extended up to her cheekbone. In his experience, a bruise that size hurt, hurt a lot, but she’d only commented on its usefulness for her plan.
    He shook his head. Stephanie, the original “princess,” would have raced to the mirror to inspect her face as soon as he let her up. No, check that. She would have stood in that doorway and started screaming like a banshee. He’d have had to beat Massey to a pulp and then haul her whining high-blood ass out of the building. End of story, end of operation.
    Instead, Katarina, no, KT sized up the situation and turned his expectations upside down. Rather than demanding to be protected, she had insisted on placing herself in greater danger.
    Brave and loyal . Max’s comment bit like a