Saint/Sinner Read Online Free PDF Page B

rigid, and Allie tightened her grip further around the girl.
    “No,” Allie said.
    Jones cocked his head. She couldn’t tell if that was shock on his face or confusion. Maybe a little of both. “What?”
    “You can’t take her,” Allie said.
    “Is that right?”
    “That’s right.”
    “I beg to differ.” Jones drew his sidearm and held the gun—a Glock—at his side and smiled at her. But that expression turned sour when he saw her lack of reaction.
    Allie didn’t know why she was so unafraid, why her voice remained steady. She should be afraid. Not just for her, but for Lucy and whatever Jones wanted her for. It had to have something to do with Walter, but it could be anything, each possibility worse than the last.
    She found that she didn’t care what they wanted Lucy for, because she wasn’t going to let them have her. The irony of it didn’t escape her for one second. For months, she’d dreaded going to Walter’s house because it meant having to brave another round of passive-aggressive interaction with Lucy. She didn’t think she would ever get used to the teenager.
    And now, here she was, with her arms in a viselike grip around the girl, refusing to yield to Jones’s demand. If Lucy was the least bit uncomfortable by the tight embrace, she didn’t show it. If anything, the fifteen-year-old seemed to burrow even further into Allie’s chest.
    “You’re not taking her,” Allie said.
    “Are you fucking crazy? Is that it?” Jones asked.
    “Maybe I am, but you’re still not taking this girl out of this room.”
    “I’m not asking. ”
    “I don’t care. The answer’s still no.”
    Jones narrowed his eyes, his forefinger tap-tap-tapping against the side of the Glock. It was one of the bigger models, probably a G41, which meant a max of thirteen .45 caliber rounds in the magazine. More useless information that she couldn’t do anything with at the moment, though she was surprised at how easily everything came back, as if the last two years of her life hadn’t been spent going from job to job before she finally landed a good one at Gorman and Smith.
    “Man, you’re a piece of work,” Jones said, and she thought there was a glint of something that looked almost like appreciation in his dark eyes. Then again, it could just have been the ceiling lights reflecting off him at a poor angle.
    He might have had something else to say, but before he could get it out, Jones paused, then tilted his head slightly to one side. She remembered the flesh-colored wire dangling from one of his ears, and knew someone was talking to him through the radio.
    “Your girlfriend’s causing trouble,” Jones said into his throat mic, eyeing her as he said it. He listened for a second or two, before answering, “She won’t let me take the kid.” Beat. “I’m not saying she can stop me, I’m saying I might have to mess up that pretty face a little bit.” Jones chuckled that time.
    Allie watched him carefully, scrutinizing every line on his bloated face, paying attention to the way his eyes shifted back and forth between her and Lucy. She wasn’t concerned about the gun in his hand. If Jones was going to shoot her, he would have done it as soon as he stepped into the room. No. There was a reason they were both being kept alive, and it had everything to do with Walter.
    Jones finally holstered the Glock and flashed her a smile that made her skin crawl. “Looks like we’re going to have to do this the hard way after all. Lucky me.”
    “You’re not going to touch her,” Allie said.
    “Oh, I’m going to touch her, all right. Then I’m going to do more than that to you, missy.”
    Missy? she thought. Maybe that was his way of trying to intimidate her, but Allie had heard worse things, seen worse things, and all it did was make her want to snicker. But she didn’t, because she was too busy preparing for what was coming next.
    “Jack thinks you’re someone,” Jones said. “Some kind of super secretary,