Expectation (Ghost Targets, #2) Read Online Free PDF

around the bar until he finally wheezed to a stop. "Lady, that look on your face has been screaming for a mop and a bucket since you walked in the door." He hesitated for a moment, considering, and said, "Well, mostly. There was just a moment there—"
    "I get it," she said. "You pay attention." She turned to Reed. "What's good here?"
    The bartender answered for him. "This guy's gonna have three fingers of a single malt and a tall ice water. Nothing I can do to talk him into a sandwich." He jabbed a finger at her. "You should try my nachos. Or the cheese fries if you want some real fun."
    "Nachos," Katie said. "And a diet coke."
    Reed shook his head. "Get her a beer."
    "Coke," she said more firmly, and when Reed started to object she said, "Some of us have to get back to work."
    "A beer won't kill you," Reed said, while the bartender poured a generous portion of scotch in a glass at his right hand. "Besides, I don't see any reason to go back up there."
    She colored. "I've...I'm sure you don't remember, but I've already walked out on the job in the middle of the day here. I can't afford to make a habit of it."
    "I do remember," he said. "I'm the one who made him call you back." He rattled the ice in his glass, then took a slow sip and set it back down on the bar in front of him. His eyes were fixed on the ice. "But this is not the same thing. You're not going back up to the office because you have a plane to catch."
    She frowned, and when he didn't give her any more information, she pulled out her handheld and drew up her scheduled events. Sure enough, she was booked on a flight out of town in three hours. She checked the details and said, "When did that happen?"
    "Craig set it up for you while we were in your interview," Reed said. "They disabled all notification messages so we wouldn't be disturbed."
    "In light of that..." she trailed off, bewildered. She tried again. "Excuse me for saying, sir, but with everything that's going on, should we really be leaving?"
    He looked up from his glass and met her eyes. "They could have stopped us, Katie. They've got the authority, and they know it. I've had my ticket booked since Saturday, and they haven't done a thing to keep me here. I suspect their audit will probably go a little more smoothly with us out of the way."
    She watched his eyes for a moment, but his thoughts were clearly somewhere else. He took another drink, absently, his eyes far away. Her voice sounded small in the empty bar when she said, "What have they done to you, Reed?"
    It took him a moment to focus on her, and then he smiled a sad smile. "It's not them, Katie. They're just doing their job." He took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. He looked around the dim room, taking in the empty booths lost in shadow, the scratched felt of the pool table, the dart boards on the wall. "It's Rick."
    "Reed, he was—"
    "I know," he cut her off gently. "I know what he was, at the end, but he was my friend for a long time before that. He was my mentor, Katie. He taught me everything I know about police work." He took another deep breath, let it go, then sipped on his drink. The ice rattled against the glass in the room's silence. "I was able to get into Velez's records before his system blew. That's part of how I know...." He trailed off, but Katie knew what he'd meant to say. It was how he knew she was innocent. Martin, too. He'd seen some measure of the hell they'd gone through in Velez's lair. "I saw him gunned down, and I was what—a block away."
    She caught his eyes and held them for a moment. "And it would have been me, too, if you had been any farther," she said. "Reed, you saved the day. You saved my life—"
    "And I've been answering for it ever since." He finished his drink in a gulp, just before the bartender came back in through the kitchen door. Lee was carrying a big plate mounded high with chips and cheese, and as he approached the smell of it made Katie's stomach rumble again. Reed put on a smile and shook his