Pitch Black: A Romantic Thriller (Blackwood Security Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

disagreements. At the end the trust between us was absolute, but it took us a while to get there.
    For three months after we met I hated him, then that turned into a grudging respect and over the next year, friendship. Fast forward two years, and I’d found out just how awkward it was to get permanent residency in America. I needed to stay and work at the company I’d helped my beloved tormentor build, so going home wasn’t an option. Then one drunken night in Vegas when I was moaning about all the paperwork and interviews to get a green card, a friend jokingly suggested we get married and bypass most of it.
    We’d both had enough alcohol in us that it seemed like a reasonable idea, and two hours later we left the Little White Wedding Chapel as Mr. and Mrs. The agreement was that if one of us met somebody else we were serious about, we’d get a divorce. Somehow that never happened, and nearly twelve years later we were still hitched. 
    Except now he’d gone, and I missed him more than I’d ever imagined I could when we tied the knot all those years ago.
    I’d driven a couple of miles down the road when my phone vibrated in my jacket pocket. It was standard procedure for me to have three phones, and the same for the other key people I worked alongside. Each of these phones was designated as green, amber or red.
    The green phone had a number that was given out to anyone. That number appeared on my business cards, so lots of people had it. My green phone spent most of its life diverted to Sloane. She was pretty busy.
    Employees, friends and a few clients had the number of the amber phone. Mostly I answered that one, but not today. I had no interest in speaking to anybody, let alone someone unimportant. In fact, I wasn’t sure I could summon up the energy to deal with that type of call for the foreseeable future.
    The red phone was different. It was for emergencies only and never, ever, turned off or diverted. Not a lot of people had the number, and most who did were at the funeral with me.
    And it was the red phone ringing.
    As I pushed the button on the steering wheel to answer the call, my palms broke into a sweat. What could possibly have happened in the five minutes since I’d left?
    “Speak to me.”
    An unfamiliar voice came back at me from the speakers, distorted electronically but definitely male. The line crackled, making him sound even more sinister as he barked orders at me.
    “Stop investigating your husband’s death. No more questions, and don’t cooperate with the police. If you carry on your path, everyone close to you will die as he did.”
    “Who the hell is this?” I asked, though I wasn’t expecting to get an answer. Not when the caller had gone to so much trouble to disguise his voice in the first place.
    “That doesn’t concern you. The only thing you need to worry about is keeping out of my business. Of course, if you insist on continuing, I’ll be forced to demonstrate more of my toys.”
    Even disguised, his voice had a jovial lilt at odds with his words. He was playing a game with me. A deadly game, but I didn’t understand the rules.
    “What do you want?”
    “Nothing. I want you to do absolutely nothing. Do you understand?”
    Bile rose in my throat as I forced out an answer. “I understand.” What else could I say?
    The line went dead as the bastard hung up, leaving me with only the demons in my head for company.
    Fuck, I was a mess. I had been since he died. My husband kept me grounded and thinking straight, but with him gone the monsters that were normally locked up deep inside me went for a jailbreak.
    I saw a side road coming up and took it, barely slowing. The back end of the car kicked out on loose gravel as I slewed round the corner before snapping back into line. I changed down a gear to get some acceleration and the engine screamed in protest.
    A couple of miles along the lane, I pulled over, leaving a trail of rubber behind me. The old ranch house I’d parked in