Pushing the Limit Read Online Free PDF Page A

sense of the whole situation. “Wait. You must do something like that. Didn’t you help with the attack at Sadie and Simon’s aborted wedding? I was stuck in the bathroom most of the time, but I think I heard… that
was
you, wasn’t it?” Sadie and Simon’s wedding, the day after the rehearsal dinner where they’d met, didn’t exactly go off smoothly. It didn’t happen at all. Armed gunmen stormed the house and kind of put an end to any thoughts of a romantic wedding. Not to mention the bride’s brother being shot.
    “Funny.” He nodded slowly, taking a deliberate pause. “I was there, all right. Just in time to see you running off with the brother of the bride.”
    Urgh. She cringed. “Yes. That wasn’t my finest moment. It really wasn’t what it looked like.”
    “So you weren’t completely devastated at the thought that you might lose him?”
    She paused. “I wasn’t devastated. James being shot… shocked me. But I realize now that it was just that: shock. I thought it was something else, but it wasn’t.” Hell. She looked at her glass. In vino veritas. She wanted to admit that she hadn’t really felt anything after the initial shock dissipated. But, she didn’t want him to think of her as that… cold. She changed the subject. “So
are
you with the government?”
    “I am. Do you trust me now?” He gave that player smile that had so intrigued her at the rehearsal dinner.
    She relaxed into the corner between the vinyl cushion of her booth seat and the wall. “Not even slightly,” she said. “And you can get me another red wine, if you’re up.” She looked at him, still seated.
    A split second later he figured out what she meant, and he jumped up. “I’m up. I’m up.”
    Harry felt a frisson of pleasure rush through her as she watched him at the bar. Of all the gin joints, indeed. Maybe this would mean they could actually seal the deal this time. And she was only in Iraq for two weeks, so she wouldn’t have to declare everlasting love or anything unsavory like that. No awkward conversations explaining that she’d already met, and lost, the love of her life, that she wasn’t looking for love or commitment, white picket fences, or happy families. For a second she remembered the feel of his hands and eyes on her, being practically naked for him in the garden, in the rain.
    He returned with her wine and this time sat opposite her. He jumped straight in. “You told me you’re an archaeologist, right? What are you excavating here?”
    “Nothing. We’re just doing some forward prep work for a foundation that finances student archaeological digs. Obviously the students have a finite time in which they can work and get credits outside the classroom, so occasionally my company takes the job of surveying and prepping a site for them.” Slowly, she swirled her wine about the glass, thinking about the shard of metal that they’d found just setting up the trailer on the site.
    He cleared his throat. “Have you found anything interesting? Anything to report?” The question was breezy, casual even, but she immediately knew who he was and why he was there.
    Aha. “What kind of thing do you mean?” she asked, probing.
    He leaned back in his chair and smiled.
    “You’re my liaison?”
    * * *
    Bingo. And boy was he up for a bit of liaising. “I guess I am. You haven’t told anyone about your discovery, have you?” Instinctively his eyes flickered from one barfly to the next, checking their level of interest in either Henrietta or him.
    “God, no. My assistants and our security guard know, but they know better than to tell anyone. Anything we find, be it ancient or modern, is kept secret until it can be secured from looters or other… interested people. It’s an absolutely normal protocol in my line of work.” She frowned.
    “That’s good. That’s the same SOP as we have. No one talks about anything until we can secure it.” He drank some beer.
    “I thought maybe I’d have a couple