Covert Reich Read Online Free PDF Page A

girl had complete and total faith in him—trusted him implicitly. Daddy could do no wrong. But if she knew how much danger he had put her in, she’d hate him. No. He could not tell Kelly. He would have to think of something. Send her down a dead-end path.
    He set the photo down, determined to come up with a story to pacify Kelly. He took his coat from the back of the chair and pulled it on. He walked across the hall to shut the lights off in the morgue. Ty had already gone home for the day. Jake glanced around the room to make sure everything was status quo and flipped the switch. “My briefcase,” he said out loud. He couldn’t forget that. His mind was not working the way it usually did. He was too consumed by the mess he was in. He had to find a way out of it. Get back on track. This place and this situation were going to eat him alive.
    He had to find a way out.
    He took another step back towards his office, totally unprepared for the blow to his head.
    Jake hadn’t heard a thing, but now a warm sensation oozed down his back, the pain immense as he collapsed to the ground. A groan escaped his lips. His head smacked hard against the cold floor with a loud thud. He tried to pick himself up, only to collapse again. The pain grew more intense with each labored breath. His vision blurred. He knew the warm blood trickling from the back of his skull would soon run cold.
    They knew. God damn it. They knew he’d talked.
    Oh God, Kelly .
    His daughter!
    He prayed someone would find him before he died. He had to get to her before they did. Impossible, though.
    Footsteps along the floor, passing him.“Really fucking stupid. At least for your sake, we decided you are dispensable, my friend. If you weren’t, I’d be killing your kid right now. Lucky for her.”
    Jake felt another sharp pang on one side of his neck that traveled in a deadly arc to the other. His throat had been cut. He attempted to bring his hands up to stop the bleeding. No chance.
    He closed his eyes. An image of his daughter flashed through his mind.
    Then nothing.

 
     
    CHAPTER SEVEN
    Kelly finished her Chardonnay and glanced around for any sign of Jake. She wasn’t a big drinker, but after his strange behavior, she’d had a feeling the wine might calm her nerves. He was fifteen minutes late, and her patience was running thin. A voice inside told her something was wrong, but she pushed the thought out of her mind and took another sip of the wine. She would give him ten more minutes. She’d called his cell phone twice already, but it’d gone straight to voicemail. Jake almost always picked up so either his battery died or…something else had happened.
    She thought about their discussion earlier. He was a straight shooter—not evasive and not one to play games. But this felt like a game to her, and she didn’t like it at all. She would’ve never left the hospital to meet him for dinner if she’d known he was going to blow her off. It was so unlike him. And because it was so unlike him, she knew something was wrong. The sinking feeling in her stomach worsened. Five more minutes ticked away, and she decided to pay for the wine and head back to the hospital. Once in the car, she tried to reach Jake again by cell phone. She drove by his house, only a few minutes from the hospital. No lights were on and his car wasn’t in the driveway. Good. Maybe he was still at work, and he could explain what was going on. She wasn’t leaving until he told her everything. Whatever everything was.
    She pulled into the hospital parking lot and scanned it before getting out of her car. Her days at USC had taught her one could never be too careful. Walking toward the building, she noticed several police cars out front. Must’ve been another gang-related shooting or something.
    There was a noticeable buzz filling the halls. Something was out of whack. She spotted another policeman by the elevator. Kelly stopped a passing intern who was reading over a report on his