Exposed Read Online Free PDF Page A

Schroder said with a grin.
    Ethan sighed. “She’s working with the U.S. Attorney’s office on the Fuentes case, all right? I’ve known her since she was five and want to make sure she knows what the hell she’s up against, check that she’s taking steps to protect herself. All right? Happy?” Yeah, he knew she was smart and all grown up, but he still needed to know she was being cautious. Marisol held a special place in his heart, always had.
    Schroder lost the grin. They all knew about el Santo and the other enforcers out there hunting each other in the turf war raging while Fuentes was trapped behind bars. “Oh.” He slanted a look at Vance. “Like Cruz’s sister, huh?”
    Vance’s face went even stiffer, a sure sign he was covering something. He was the worst poker player on the team, which was why Ethan and the others loved playing him.
    Schroder pounced, pointing at Vance. “Right there. Right there that tells me what I need to know.” He snickered to himself. “Is she hot?”
    Vance dropped the I-don’t-know-anything act and grinned. “She’s not hard to look at.” His gaze shot to Ethan. “Not his usual type, though.”
    “I have a type?” he demanded in annoyance. First he’d heard of it.
    Now all three of his teammates looked at each other. “Yeah,” Vance said with a shrug.
    “Really? And what type is that?” He raised an eyebrow and folded his arms across his chest.
    “Young, hot and a bit uh…shallow.”
    “Whatever,” he scoffed. It wasn’t like he had a wide variety of women to choose from with his work schedule, not outside of one-night stands or a weekend fling. The good women weren’t interested in light and casual for very long and he couldn’t blame them. He was tired of it too. “Anyway, it’s not like that with her, so you guys can find something else to hypothesize about.”
    “What’s really got his panties in a twist,” Vance added, apparently done with holding back now, “is that she’s more interested in her work than in him. Barely gave him a second glance when we saw her yesterday. His ego’s smarting. Fun to watch, actually.”
    Ethan rolled his eyes. “You three feel free to stay here and gossip some more. I’m getting some coffee.”
    It’d been three long days of pre-dawn wakeups and not hitting their hotel until almost midnight. They still had another meeting to get through tonight before he could head to their hotel and crash, and the moment they got a lock on their current target’s location, they’d be heading out with the DEA boys to grab him. Here Ethan was trying to help watch out for Marisol, and she couldn’t be bothered to give him the time of day.
    He strode out to the kitchen area where his other three teammates were chowing down on cold pizza from last night. The coffee pot was almost empty. “How old is this?”
    “Just made it ten minutes ago,” Bauer answered between bites. His plate held no less than half a dozen crusts and he didn’t look like he’d be slowing down any time soon. Biggest guy on the team meant one of the biggest appetites, too.
    As he poured the little coffee that was left into a mug and started a fresh pot, Ethan frowned. If he was honest with himself, Marisol brushing him off wasn’t all that was bugging him. Bumping into her yesterday had been a shock, and not an altogether pleasant one.
    Seeing her in that skin-tight yoga outfit and looking into those sea green eyes, a shock of male awareness had shot through him. Then when he’d caught her, the feel of her lithe curves pressed to him had made it impossible to see her as anything but a woman rather than the-girl-next-door he’d grown up with. He’d worked hard at reminding himself she was the latter the past few times he’d come home to visit, purposely maintaining that mental barrier between them. Safer that way.
    He knew when a woman was interested in him, and knew Marisol had had a crush on him off and on over the years. Even up until he’d left