I Spy a Naughty Game Read Online Free PDF Page A

Simply prying his eyelids open proved enough of a challenge, but he managed, squinting through eyeballs that must’ve been scoured with sandpaper. A blurry form leaned over him—a woman with short blond hair.
    “Emma?” he croaked.
    “Surprise.”
    Emma. Here, at his bedside. Which meant he’d been in some deep shit for her to put aside her anger long enough to give a crap about him. “Why?”
    “Why am I here? Because I’m an even bigger idiot than you are.” The catch in her voice told him the words didn’t hold quite the sting she’d intended.
    The idea cheered him immensely. “Miss me?”
    “You wish.”
    He peered at her, blinking as her features came slowly into focus. A blond halo framed her beautiful face, and big blue eyes, shadowed with concern, regarded him from under a fringe of wispy bangs. Shaking Emma’s steely calm wasn’t an easy thing for most people to do, but Blaze seemed capable of doing nothing except hurting her. Being reminded of that tempered his joy at having her by his side and put a swift end to any thoughts of teasing her.
    “What happened?”
    “You took two bullets trying to protect Jude St. Laurent from Robert Dietz,” she said, releasing his hand. “Your vest prevented serious damage to your chest, but the other shot glanced off that thick skull of yours. Never had a chance of penetrating, any more than the one to your heart.”
    He smiled at her sarcasm. The fact that she could sit there and joke with him in any way gave him hope. Before he could form a reply, however, the first part of what she said hit him. “Wait. You said ‘trying to protect.’ Is St. Laurent dead?”
    “He’s hanging in there, but still critical. He and Dietz fought, and Dietz injected him with a dose of poison that almost proved lethal.”
    “Oh, God. I ...” A series of images assaulted him, like an old, brittle reel of film jumping on the track. Scouting the perimeter of the safe house in Tennessee. Armed men, bursting through the trees. Raising his weapon, taking out two of them. Dietz, returning fire. Then nothing. “How long ago was this?”
    “One week. You’ve been pretty out of it, and we—I mean Michael and Dr. McKay—have been waiting for the swelling on your brain to subside.”
    “Christ.” A crushing weight settled on his chest, and he broke eye contact, staring at the wall opposite his bed. His head pounded with renewed viciousness.
    “What’s wrong?” She paused, waiting several long moments while he struggled with his answer. “Blaze?”
    “I was given a job to do and I failed. Because I failed, St. Laurent almost died.”
    “No! You didn’t,” she insisted. “You did what you could, but Dietz got the drop on you. He’s a snake, a disease, and nobody blames you.”
    “Not even Jude or Michael?” He couldn’t keep the bitterness from his tone.
    “Especially not Michael,” said a deep voice. Ross strode inside and closed the door behind him, glancing between Blaze and Emma. “If anyone is to blame for this colossal fuck-up, it’s me. But it’s a fuck-up I intend to rectify, and I’ll need both of you on board to do it.”
    “Does it involve shoving my M16 up Dietz’s pale white ass?” He relished the thought of making the asshole cry for mercy.
    “You’ll have to stand in line, but maybe. In the meantime, I’m putting together a team to go undercover and find out where the hell Dietz has hidden a weapon of mass destruction capable of taking out a small country. The bastard and his fellow traitors stole it from the U.S. government and plan to sell it to an antigovernment extremist group of homegrown psychos. Get well fast, because you and Emma are my star players.”
    “I take it your brand of persuasion hasn’t forced Dietz to talk,” Blaze mused. “Bastard must be tougher than he seems.”
    “I did handpick him for that very quality, among others,” Michael said with no little regret. “You guys in?”
    Blaze nodded, ignoring the spike of