Revenge Read Online Free PDF Page A

sensation.
    T he only t h ing I can truly sense is him. Us. We are everything.
    Mark clears his throat and stands, then bends down before me. He puts his palms on my jaw, his thumbs stroking my cheekbones. All the air in the room disappears. My mind turns into spun sugar. My blood races to meet his touch.
    “ Y ou are the m ost important person in the world, Carrie. I know you’re waiting for me to tell you my story.”
    “Yes,” I say, my lips swollen and dry. I lick them. His eyes flicker down to watch, then move back to meet my gaze.
    “You want the truth about your father.”
    I f Mark had thrown a bucket of ice water filled with pinching crabs on me, he couldn’t have shocked me more. I feel my blood recede, my senses return, and I snap back to reality like a stretched rubber band with one end dropped.
    “Yes.” My heart closes itself back in its little metal box. It doesn’t click the lock, though.
    “The truth is, arresting your father was a huge mistake.”
    I don’t m ove. Don’t breath. Don’t blink.
    He lets out a disgusted sigh. “W e were fooled. Completely snowed. I was young and green, new to the DEA. I was stupid,” he adds, beating himself up.  
    “ And if what you say about those emails in your backpack are true, then we finally have the proof I’ve been trying to track for the past few months.” Mark gives me a sick smile. “It really did take having you come home to figure out the truth about your dad.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    Mark’s smile fades. I understand why. My voice sounds about as friendly as an ice pick to the eyeball.
    “ We had the intercepted emails between Landau and your dad.”  
    “WHAT? You had them all along?” I practically scream.
    Mark holds out his palms. “No, no. Sorry. No—the ones that were used as evidence against Joe. The ones Landau made sure the police always had. The emails that set your father up to take the fall.”
    “Oh.” I feel deflated.
    “Joe was purchasing huge amounts of chemicals used to make meth. We had proof that he was approving trucks full of what we later learned were meth shipments to a dealer out on the Arizona-California border. We knew about a network of biker gangs and small-time bar owners who distributed the drug throughout the southwest. We thought that was our smoking gun, and I...”
    Mark’s words wash over me like acid. He looks at me and frowns.
    I say nothing. My hair feels weird against my neck, so I rake my fingers through it and lift it into a pony tail. My shoulders pull back and breasts thrust forward. Mark’s eyebrows go up and he looks away.
    A completely different kind of sigh comes out of him now.
    “ What you’re saying is that Landau set my dad up and you didn’t realize it,” I blurt out. All the parts of me that have felt awkward and worried about moving back home are gone. Long gone. There is a clear sense of the world in the room now. Clarity makes me bold.  
    How bold? We’ll have to see.
    Mark makes a dismissive sound in the back of his throat. “That’s one way to put it.” His eyes are full of hunger. They rake over my body. I feel a combination of matched lust and intense fury.
    All of it aimed toward Mark.
    “Didn’t anyone investigate Landau?” I ask, my words filled with outrage.
    “Of course we did. Plus, I had the power of federal resources behind me and a great team. But we think Landau beat us to the technology system. Erased the important emails.” Mark’s eyes shift over to my backpack. He looks like a kid on Christmas morning after Santa has delivered his presents.
    I startle, remembering something very, very important. “Hold on. Are you and Claudia really dating?” All my hot skin goes ice cold at the thought. “Or are you just using her to get to Landau?”
    He raises his eyebrows and gives me a weird smile. Then an eye roll. “About that.” He sighs. “I don’t like it, but dating her seemed like the only way to get information about Landau.