SEE HER DIE Read Online Free PDF Page B

turned and strode away. She watched, stunned, until he’d left the loft, then she stared down at the card. Her hand shook.
    This couldn’t be happening. Not again.
    Her heart thundered violently. Dizziness swamped her. Her body flooded with adrenaline.
    She couldn’t breathe. Oh, God.
    The trembling that had started in her hands quaked through her suddenly unsteady legs. She closed her eyes, took a long, deep breath and let it out to the count of ten, then repeated.
    This was supposed to be behind her. She hadn’t suffered a panic attack since her third session with Ned. At least he’d been good for something.
    Then he’d seduced her. Elizabeth forced her eyes open and banished those painful memories. She had to move, had to walk off the excess adrenaline.
    Back and forth. Back and forth. From one end of the loft to the other. Boomer probably thought she’d lost her mind, but he didn’t say anything—just did his job. Breathe in... hold it... breathe out. Again.
    Ned had taken advantage of her, used her. Now he was dead and it looked as if he was taking her down with him. Why hadn’t she stayed until he’d given her the video? She should have done whatever he asked, anything for the video. But no, she’d stormed off, knowing she’d have no choice but to go crawling back when he called again. She’d been angry. She’d had no way of knowing she would never see him alive again.
    ~*~
    Mac braked to a stop in the empty street. His gaze drifted up to the fourth floor where he’d left Elizabeth. He pounded the steering wheel. He’d done a bang-up job of recovering the ground the detectives had lost. He called himself every kind of fool. Cool, he was supposed to have played it cool. Given her space, let her tell her story. Gently guiding her as necessary.
    Dammit.
    He’d failed on all counts. If he could have kicked himself in the ass, he would have. His body hummed with anticipation. He gritted his teeth and denied the other sensation the sparring had elicited. It was that very reaction that made him push harder than he’d intended, to cross the line. He’d shaken her. The hell of it was, he was just as rattled.
    He hissed a disgusted breath.
    By five o’clock when she arrived at his office, and she would come, she’d have an attorney at her side. Then he’d get nowhere even faster. He had to find a way to regain some of the ground he’d lost, attorney present or not.
    His attention settled on a dark sedan parked on the opposite side of the street in a neighboring alley. But just in case the lady decided to cut her losses and make a run for it someone would be watching.
    His cell rang at the same time a horn blared behind him. Mac pressed the accelerator and started forward while retrieving his phone.
    “MacBride.”
    “You’re going to love this.”
    Duncan . “What’ve you got?”
    “We traced the dagger to an antique shop over on West Fifty-fifth.”
    “Yeah.” There was more. He heard it in his partner’s voice. A new kind of anticipation spiked.
    “It was purchased as a gift for Harrison by a Miss Elizabeth Young.”
    Mac’s tension eased marginally at the news that at least one loose end was tied up. “Good work.” He ignored an uncharacteristic twinge of regret that followed close behind the relief. She’d already lied to him, so he shouldn’t be surprised by this latest development. Yet he was. She’d gotten to him on some level. He didn’t like it. Not in the least. “See you in thirty,” he told his partner.
    The news would certainly work to his advantage. He couldn’t wait to see how Elizabeth planned to talk her way out of this one. He shook his head as he thought of the pretty lady who could win herself an Oscar for her portrayal of innocence and suffering.
    “Gotcha,” he muttered.

Chapter Three
    Elizabeth waited in Chico’s Cantina. She pressed a hand to her knee to stop her foot’s tapping. She rolled her head side to side to relieve some of the tension in her neck.