To Free a Spy Read Online Free PDF Page B

rim of the blue bottle of perfume he’d bought for her in New York. It was called “Angel” and he’d said it was named just for her.
    That New York evening at dinner he had told her the gifts were for never expecting anything of him. That was when she knew Jag had big bucks and would shell them out. Who besides a fool would spend that much money on a hooker unless he had a ton of it? Jag sure wasn’t some backwater on his first trip to the city who’d get caught up in the glamour atmosphere of beautiful girls and fast-flowing whiskey and max out his American Express card. What she didn’t like so much was having his security detail, usually just one man, follow them around when they went out of Atlantic City. He was always out of sight, but she felt his presence nonetheless. Jag told her the shadow was a necessary fixture in his life in government. She wondered if that was a fact. She was adjusting an earring when he knocked again. “Just a minute,” she sang, downing a second Valium for insurance, which Doc Ricardo supplied to her.
    She scanned the living room and dimmed the lighting another notch. As she stood by the door, she mentally ran through her lines that she would use later in the evening and nodded to herself. Game time. She cracked the door and gave Jag a mischievous look until he pushed it open wide and took her into his arms. At that very, most inopportune, moment, Maria Sanchez walked by in the hallway. The hotel’s head of housekeeping flashed Karly an embarrassed grin and picked up her pace. Karly had gone out of her way to make friends with Maria soon after occupying the apartment. Her housekeeping staff could be an ally or they could be a nuisance, and Karly often sent small gifts and flowers to Maria. They had become friends and Karly had called Maria for lunch many times over the years to unload her problems on her. Even The Bad need a shoulder to cry on sometimes, Karly told herself. But there was something in it for Maria, too, Karly knew: Straight-laced Maria was able to glimpse a world that was forbidden to her.
    “Don’t you look great!” Karly chirped after Maria passed, clinging to Jag’s neck. “Sorry I kept you waiting, Big Guy.”
    * * *
    Jag had drawn away. “Who was that?” he said, peering down the hallway.
    “Nobody important,” she whispered, pulling him into the room.
    “Who was it?” he said, wanting to know who’d seen him there.
    “ Jaaag , come on. It was only Maria, the executive housekeeper.”
    “The maid in the blazer! Always nosing around.”
    He was over it now. He smiled as he pulled Karly close and craned around her shoulder to get a better look at the back of her. The bottom of the cocktail dress revealed her thighs, and her tiptoeing made her calves so very appealing. She was wearing nothing under the dress, and he felt the familiar excitement as he caressed her neck.
    “How much time do you have?” she asked.
    “Hour or so. It’s downstairs at seven, then back here little later.” He followed her to the sofa near the window overlooking the ocean. “I could use a drink.”
    “Great, and I’ve got your stuff, of course,” she said, prancing over to the stereo. She was more playful than usual.
    She put on a CD and said she’d do the drinks. “You can take the cheese into the bedroom. I mean, if the bedroom’s okay with you,” she said teasingly.
    Jag liked the idea of having a drink or two, lying in bed with her, lights low, touching her skin, and it was okay with him if they put off lovemaking until later. For one thing, time was not unlimited now, and he’d have something to anticipate during the roast downstairs. After it was over, they’d have all night. All weekend.
    Karly set their drinks on the bar and disappeared into the bathroom. Jag put them with the cheese on the bedside lamp table, sliced off a sliver, popped it into his mouth and drowned it with Scotch. Pepper cheese, it was. His favorite. He lowered the lamp, undressed and