Heat (The Stark Affair Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

up.
    Shit.
    I
hate this. Beacon is Jasper’s informant. Not sure who this person really is
because he or she uses a voice-encryption device that makes him or her sound
like a robot from a 1970s sci-fi movie.
    “Yep,”
I say.
    “Be
on the lookout. Metro is putting someone on you.”
    I
look out the window at the Miami skyline, an orange reflection of the sun
glittering in a tall building at me.
    “On
me?” I say. “Why me?”
    “Good
question.”
    “Who
am I looking for?”
    “Don’t
know. That’s all I have. Just be aware and watch for it, that’s all.”
    The
line goes dead.
    I
put the phone down.
    In
the harsh light of day, I realize how much I hate my life.
    I
look down at my yacht, pondering my strange existence. I could hop in my car
and grab the USB flash drive this morning from its hiding spot in Key Largo. Then
be in Cuba by dinnertime.
    No, Colton, not yet. Finish your work with The Talon Group.
    But
what was all that with Jasper last night? Has he figured out that I’ve been
funneling money from him for years?
    I
look over at Veronica. Out cold, but breathing.
    I
fire up my secure laptop, the one nobody knows I have. Programmed it myself.
    It’s
gone through various incarnations over the past ten years. Started out as a
modified Dell in my dorm room at MIT.
    It
all sprang from one question I asked myself... “Can I steal money from my dad
without his finding out about it?”
    So I
wrote a simple program. It was a computer-cleaning program
which everybody was all hyped about at the time. On Christmas break, I
installed it on my dad’s computer at his office.
    Back
at school, I booted up my Dell and laughed the biggest laugh any eighteen-year
old ever laughed. I could control my dad’s money from a dorm room fifteen
hundred miles away in Cambridge.
    From
there, it was easy. I wrote an algorithmic program that moved small amounts of
money around. Every time my dad’s IT guys would look into it, I changed the
parameters.
    Then
I wrote a program that detected the pattern of my dad’s IT guys. The system
became self-correcting.
    Thirteen
years later, the newest version of my “Steal
Money From Dad” program is still active. Never shut down. Millions over the years.
    And
nobody noticed because I designed it so well.
    That’s
how I fund The Talon Group.
    The
sheer beauty of it makes me laugh. Knowing I’m screwing Jasper. For years. Silently.
    And
yet he and the Board control my life.
    I
slam the laptop shut and turn to Veronica.
    “Up!”
I say. She doesn’t move. “ Yo ! Up!” I slap her ass.
    She
makes a noise like a donkey climbing a hill.
    Time
for some tough love.
    I
lean over, pull the sheet together into a whip and smack her back with it.
    She leaps
up onto one elbow. “¡Ay! ¡ Dejeme en paz !”
    She’s
a mess with hair everywhere.
    And
yet oddly still perfect. Perky breasts. Shiny caramel
skin.
    If
it were two years ago, I’d be hard again and we’d go another round.
    But
all I can think of is getting going on my final preparations.
    “Come
back to bed,” says Veronica in Spanish with playful eyes.
    “No,
I have to go.”
    I
take $1,000 and hand it over to her.
    “What’s
this?” she says.
    “Cab
fare. I’ll call.”
    She
sticks a finger in her mouth and twirls it while curling one leg up over the
other. At the same time she takes the money with her other hand.
    “Please
come back to bed,” she says as the wad of bills disappears into her fist.
    Shit,
I’ve already become a version of the Gold Clubbers, haven’t I?
    My
stomach rolls again.
    “Just
go,” I say.

 
     

Chapter
5

 
 
    Sofia

 
    “Oh honey, that’s just... no .. . just no,” says Jorge as I pose.
    We’re
in one of those trendy South Beach shops with a prissy name that makes me want
to wretch. LaTashia said she would reimburse me for
one outfit. She even approved Ocean Drive. Must be nice to have a Lieutenant’s
expense account.
    “What’s
wrong with this one?” I say , adjusting the black