Exquisite Danger Read Online Free PDF Page A

steady gaze. Whatever he saw in Stewart’s face didn’t make him happy, and by the anger in his expression I worried that he might break Stewart’s jaw.
    Finally Smoke said, “She never figured it out, did she?”
    Stewart gave shot me a remorseful look and shook his head. “No.”
    “You know she loved you, right?”
    “Yeah. I knew.” He looked at the ground, then back up at me with an ashamed expression twisting his handsome face. “I’m sorry I hurt her so much with my bullshit.”
    “What,” I gritted out through clenched teeth, “the hell is going on?”
    Princess whined at my feet. Smoke reached past me to soothe her while Stewart shook his head again. “Not out here. Come inside. I’ve got something to show you.”
    We made our way into the sprawling, comfortable home Stewart had equipped with every gadget known to mankind and then some. When he’d designed this place he’d done it with my help, implying that someday we’d live here together. Even though I was glad now that our engagement—which I was sure was going to happen back in those days—never came to fruition, it still hurt to look around the house and see all the things I’d bought.
    Stewart had allowed me to decorate the place when he moved in, and everything was pretty much the same. Dark leather furniture, bright throw pillows, and lots of splashes of color here and there. I didn’t know if it was because he couldn’t be bothered to redecorate, or if he purposely left it like this after I dumped his ass. Either way it depressed me that I once thought I’d live here with Stewart for the rest of my life. I focused on Smoke’s heat next to me instead of my negative thoughts and struggled to control my emotions. I’d have time to cry about it later, but right now I had to get my head on straight and remember we were here for Sarah.
    Stewart led us through the cluttered space of his living room to the entrance of his laboratory situated deep in the side of the hill. I was kind of surprised that Stewart would let Smoke into his special space, but he didn’t even blink an eye as Smoke followed me in. Princess scampered past us to her bed of pillows near one of the worktables and flopped down on them with a huff. I paused by the doorway, knowing Smoke was going to be a little surprised at the sight of an area big enough to house three fighter jets. While there were no actual jets, there were missile launchers, an honest-to-God top-of-the-line Russian tank, more electronics than there could possibly be uses for, as well as racks of experimental weapons Stewart had probably designed.
    My dad and Stewart’s family did a lot of business together and Stewart was an expert at rigging weapons with self-destruct devices and various levels of security so that if they ended up in the hands some idiot intent on detonating a bomb at the state capital, Stewart could destroy the device before any harm was done. See, what most people don’t understand is that arms dealers tend to have a great deal of respect for their product, at least the good ones do. And they know the destruction that could happen if the weapons were stolen, so they’d engineer them with different devices to blow anyone who fucked with them to bits without harming the weapon itself.
    As predicted, Smoke’s eyes grew bigger, and bigger as he took in Stewart’s toys. His hands twitched once or twice when he found something he was particularly interested in. I’m sure to Smoke, this place was like a huge toy store. After a few moments, a small smile curved the edges of Smoke’s mouth. “Remind me to talk some business with you after the girls are safe.”
    Stewart nodded then took us over to a table and turned on a super bright light surrounding a big magnifying glass. I was pretty sure the battered office chair near the wall was the same busted ass one that had been here when I left. It seemed like no one was around to remind Stewart there was a world outside his lab now that