Stranded with a Spy Read Online Free PDF Page B

car!”
    Her dismay spiraled into panic. Cupping her hands to her mouth, Dawes screamed at the ant-like figures on the causeway far below.
    “Hey! You down there! That’s my car floating away! Do something!”
    Even she could see it was too late for anyone to save the little car. The fast-moving tide had already carried the vehicle a good half mile and it was starting to take on water. As she watched, horrified, the little car tipped to one side, rolled over and went wheels up. Like a puppy begging to have its stomach tickled, it floated a few more yards before slowly sinking into the sea.
    Utter silence gripped the crowd. Cutter could swear he almost heard the gurgle of the bubbles that rose to the surface as the mini disappeared.
    Sympathetic clucking noises from several of the Japanese tourists broke the stillness. Their tour guide approached a shell-shocked Dawes.
    “Your car, yes?”
    “Yes,” she whispered raggedly.
    “You must tell them, at the visitors’ center.”
    Dawes couldn’t tear her gaze from the gray-green water. She kept staring at the spot where the Peugeot had disappeared. One white-knuckled hand gripped the other, as if she were praying that the statue of Saint Michael perched on the steeple above her head would command the seas to part and the car to miraculously reappear.
    “You must tell them,” the tour guide insisted. “At the visitors’ center.”
    Cutter’s mind had been racing since he’d first spotted the bobbing vehicle. Whatever else Dawes might have intended to do with the data disk, his gut told him this little drama hadn’t figured into her plan. It hadn’t figured into his, either, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity that had just been handed to him on a big, golden platter.
    “This hasn’t been your day, has it?”
    The comment jerked Dawes’s head around. She’d whipped off the sunglasses she’d used as a shield up to now, so this was Cutter’s first glimpse of her eyes. Caramel-brown and flecked with gold, they were flooded with dismay…until they dropped to the puckered skin below his chin. Then the emotions Cutter had seen too many times to count clicked across her face. Curiosity came first, followed quickly by embarrassment at being caught staring.
    Apparently Dawes was made of tougher stuff than most. Either that, or she understood how it felt to be gaped at. She didn’t color up and quickly look away. Instead, her gaze lifted to his.
    “No,” she admitted, raising a hand to hold back her wind-whipped hair, “it hasn’t.”
    Cutter had grimaced when Field Dress had saddled him with this bland businessman’s cover but decided it would work like a charm in this situation.
    “Maybe I can help. I have some contacts who know this area.”
    Like Nick Jensen, aka Lightning, who’d grown up in the back alleys of Cannes before being brought to the States and adopted by one of OMEGA’s top agents. Any strings Mike Callahan couldn’t pull through official channels, Nick could through his own.
    Mallory struggled to hold back her hair and the hot tears stinging her eyes. Any other woman in her situation would have jumped at the offer. Any woman, that is, who hadn’t been savaged by the media and made into a walking bull’s-eye for predatory males.
    Granted, this one had already come to her aid once. Yet those cool gray eyes and powerful shoulders didn’t exactly put him in the tame category. Then there were those scars…
    “Do you always go around rescuing women?”
    The question came out sounding more suspicious and hostile than Mallory had intended. He answered with a raised brow and a shrug.
    “Only those who seem to need it. Obviously, you don’t. My mistake.” With a nod, he turned away. “Good luck salvaging your car.”
    God! That mess with Congressman Kent had turned her into a real bitch! Disgusted with herself,
    Mallory stopped him with a brusque apology.
    “I’m sorry. It’s just…Well…”
    She decided he