The Housewife Assassin's Garden of Deadly Delights Read Online Free PDF Page B

from the look on his crestfallen face as we tore out of the lot, I give it another ten minutes before a couple of CHiP officers are pulling us over for grand theft auto.
    “You’ll do no such thing!” Jack proclaims.
    “Pardon?” I turn to stare at him. This certainly isn’t the reaction I expected. A relieved shrug, perhaps. Or he could thank me with a kiss. Then again, considering we’re going up the PCH at ninety miles an hour, maybe that’s not such a great idea.  
    Jack prefaces his answer with a shrug. “Think about it. There’s got to be some reason as to why Lee wants to keep his eye on you.”  
    Annoyed, I whip around. “You’re always blaming Lee. If you remember correctly, Ryan made the suggestion. He keeps dangling me in front of Lee—”
    “Trust me, I’ve noticed—like some sort of sparkly door prize.” Jack’s right brow lifts along with a smirk. “You already know my theory: Lee isn’t quite the choirboy you make him out to be.”
    “Must we go there, yet again?” I turn my head so that he doesn’t see the heat flush that is pinking my cheeks, then I remember it’s unlikely that he’ll take his eyes off the road.
    “You misunderstand me.” Jack glances my way, but only for a second, since we’re coming up fast on a van. When he dodges around it, the driver toots his horn.  
    “How so?”
    Jack veers off onto Topanga Canyon Road. In my van, the curves would make me queasy. In the i8, it’s as if we’re floating at warp speed. “Granted, he practically salivates when you’re within his peripheral vision—so, yes, I’d like to punch him in the face. Sadly, doing so would put me in a jail cell for the rest of my life, so I keep my cool. But, Donna, I don’t think it’s the only reason he wants to keep tabs on you.”
    “Oh?” I frown. Okay, yeah, I’m a little hurt that Jack thinks it could be anything else.
    “Remember, Carl’s demise didn’t put the Quorum out of commission. Just this morning Emma’s ComInt team finally found the connection we suspected between the Quorum and Graffias International—the banking and software conglomerate that provided the helicopter for Tatyana Zakharov’s getaway to and from Damascus.”
    Tatyana—formerly a hard woman with Russia’s foreign intelligence services, the SVR—was a part of the Quorum at the same time as Carl. She led a terrorist attack on President Chiffray here in Los Angeles, where Jeff was also taken hostage.
    That earned her a shove into an empty elevator shaft. If you mess with my kids, you’re going down—in her case, nineteen stories, to be exact.
    So, yes, this new little tidbit is interesting. “Even if Graffias International is fronting for the Quorum, what does that have to do with Lee?”
    “Didn’t you once tell me that Lee has always claimed that he’d never even heard of the Quorum, or had dealings with its members prior to purchasing Jonah Breck’s conglomerate?”  
    I nod.  
    Jonah was one of the billionaires who secretly funded the Quorum’s acts of terrorism, and in the process enlarged his very public fortune—which, unbeknownst to his stockholders who thought they were investing in green tech start-ups and eco-friendly resorts, included a snuff porn production company and website. A power play between Jonah and Carl left one man standing: Carl, whom Jonah had hired as a security consultant.
    I guess you could say it turned out to be the worst business decision of his life.
    “I’d once asked Lee when and how he met Carl. He told me that after Jonah’s death, Babette arranged for Carl to negotiate the deal between Breck Industries and Lee’s corporation, Global World Industries,” I point out.
      “That’s according to Lee,” he smirks. “There’s a sheet of paper, folded in my jacket pocket. Pull it out.”
    “That’s what she said,” I mutter, as I oblige him. The pocket is taut against his broad chest, making it harder than it would be normally.  
    We pass a gang