Scorched

Scorched Read Online Free PDF

Book: Scorched Read Online Free PDF
Author: Laura Griffin
Just their brief conversation the other night had brought her old resentments bubbling to the surface.
    Along with other feelings.
    She pictured him back at O’Malley’s. He’d looked good, but that was no surprise. He’d always been a magnet for women with his powerful build and his piercing blue eyes. Since she’d first met him, he had a way of looking at her that made her tingle from the inside out. She’d once made the mistake of telling him what that look of his did to her, which was obviously why he’d been using it on her back at the bar.
    But that was about sex, not a relationship. They’dalways been good at the sex part—it was everything else that had given them trouble.
    Kelsey swerved around an eighteen-wheeler doing a plodding sixty in the left lane. Her phone chimed from the cup holder. She eyed it suspiciously, almost certain she knew who was calling.
    She checked the screen. Yep, Blake.
    She sighed.
    Was it personal or business? Or personal disguised as business? She wouldn’t put it past him to call her with some issue about a case they were working on and then slip in a few questions about her trip. And Kelsey knew that even if she dodged his inquiries, he’d manage to glean some detail that would somehow answer his real question—namely, did you see your ex while you were in California?
    Blake had a jealous streak when it came to Gage, and Kelsey didn’t blame him. But that didn’t mean she owed him answers. Not anymore. Their engagement was off and she was determined to keep their relationship on a purely professional level from here on out. They were mature adults. Surely that was possible.
    Her phone kept chiming. She muttered a curse and answered it.
    “Hi.”
    “When’d you get back?”
    She took a deep breath. “Just now. What’s up?”
    “I got those test results back—the DNA you asked me to send to Quantico.”
    “Wow.” She was surprised by the news, as well as the fact that this was evidently a business call. “I thought it would take longer.”
    “I thought it would, too. The lab’s usually pretty backed up, but they managed to get to it. And guess what—you were right.”
    Her stomach tensed. “About what?”
    “This guy was in the system. Not only that, he happens to be on our terrorist watch list. And he happens to be American, which you also predicted. His name’s James Hanan aka Ibrahim Antel. So, now you’ve got some explaining to do. How the hell did you know that?”
    “I didn’t. I just had a hunch.”
    Silence. “You care to elaborate? I could put that in my report, but it might raise a few eyebrows.”
    “The stature, for one,” Kelsey said, getting comfortable now that she was talking about work. “He was significantly taller than the average Filipino male, so I doubted he was native. And his dental work told me he spent much of his life in a first-world country.”
    “That doesn’t explain why you thought he’d be a criminal.”
    “That was mainly because of the implants.”
    “Implants?”
    “Cheek implants. And I saw evidence of recent rhinoplasty. Not only that, it looked like he’d had his jaw sculpted.”
    “You can tell he had a nose job?”
    “From the bone scarring at the top. I could tell he’d had a nose-narrowing procedure in which the surgeon removed the nasal bones on either side, reshaped them, and then repositioned them. There are tiny marks visible where the bones have been reset.”
    “Sounds like he spent a lot of money to alter hisappearance. Still, he could have been a tourist who wandered off on a hike.”
    “He could have,” she agreed. “But I heard some rumors while I was down there about extremist groups training in the jungle, so it seemed to fit.”
    “Hmm,” he said, and that one sound confirmed Kelsey’s suspicions. “I’m impressed. And I know some other people who are going to be, too, soon as I pass this up the chain. I’ve been doing some investigating. You know, we thought this guy was in
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