Taken in Hand Read Online Free PDF Page A

shown.
    His chief took one look at him and shook his head. “You look
    ready to explode. Maybe you’re not the right man for this
    assignment after all.”
    “I’ll be fine once I get away from all these assholes and
    their asinine senses of humor. It’s too late to call it off
    anyway. Morrison has already set the thing up, telling
    everyone I’m an old friend he reconnected with recently.”
    “Are you going to be able to do this?”
    Chad blew out a breath. “Yeah, but you can bet your
    ass I’m not going to like it. The guy’s a smug, arrogant ass.”
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    “Feeling that way is going to make it pretty hard for
    you to pretend to be a boyfriend let alone a sub—if I’ve got
    that whole thing right.”
    “Nah, I got it covered. I’ll keep my eyes down and my
    mouth shut. He’ll do all the talking for me and tell me when
    and how to move every minute, according to the reading list
    he sent.” He shook his head and gave a short laugh. “In
    private, I’ll just stay away from him to keep from punching
    his lights out.”
    “If you think—”
    Chad held his hand up to stop the chief’s alarm. “I’m
    kidding. Sorry. I won’t punch him,” he said with a laugh. “I
    will stay away from him though, as much as possible. He
    irritates the hell out of me. Let’s just hope this does put him
    on the top of the killer’s hit list, and we get this over with
    quickly.”
    “I’ll be at the funeral. If I see you’re having trouble
    keeping in character, I’ll pull the plug on you so fast your
    head will swim,” he said in warning.
    “I’ll be fine.”God, he wished he felt as confident as he
    sounded. He hadn’t read much. He’d gotten tired of having a
    hard-on and having to jack off for relief.

    * * * *

    Chad pulled up to the house and whistled softly. The
    professor lived well. He certainly lived on a higher level than
    the studio apartment Chad crashed in when he dragged in
    exhausted from work every night. The house was a long, low-
    slung brick one story, sitting in the middle of a cul-de-sac.
    The neighborhood was a good one and very exclusive. After
    checking him out, Chad understood how he could afford the
    luxury. College professors didn’t make the kind of money
    needed to support this life style. He’d come from a wealthy
    family as well as making a slight fortune on books he’d
    written, along with what he pulled in with lectures. The
    books were all about literary figures like Shakespeare and
    Marlowe and Donne, but written with a modern, popular
    appeal. One had even made the bestseller lists.
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    Pulling his old duffle bag from the back seat, he
    couldn’t help enjoying the thought that his country boy
    manners might just be an embarrassment to the lofty
    professor.
    Chad came from the small town of Dacula, only a
    short distance from Athens, but a world away in culture and
    refinement. His family was typical middle-class, his father a
    millworker and his mother a housewife. Chad had gone to
    school at the University as a night student to cut expenses,
    worked during the day to pay for it, and had never
    participated much in campus life.
    Adam—he had to get accustomed to calling him Adam,
    not Morrison—had been watching for him. He opened the
    door before Chad reached it.
    “You’re late. You’ll have to hurry to change if we’re
    going to be there on time.”
    “There’s nothing wrong with what I have on for a
    funeral.”
    Adam, nattily dressed in a navy blue suit with a snowy
    white shirt and a tie in muted shades of red, gave him a once
    over, an eyebrow rising slightly. “There is. I’ve laid clothes
    out for you in the guest room. You’re going to have to trust
    me to know the image you must project to make this work.
    You can’t look like a cop. Hurry and get rid of the gun I told
    you to leave at home.”
    “Just what the hell kind of body guard would I be
    without a gun?” Chad shot back.
    “Just how believable