Trust Read Online Free PDF Page B

voice cried. She’s hurt you before. She ruined your life for over two years. . . . But the words were lost in the swirl of desire and hope that rose up inside him.
    He felt her breath, soft as a flower petal, on his cheek. His eyes closed.
    This was the second time he had kissed Heather in the last week. It had been so long since he had felt desirable and attractive and . . . well, like an actual guy . Like a guy who was capable of having a girlfriend. It took only a second for him to surrender, and then her hands were gliding up his arms — and Ed almost felt himself again, almost whole.

Something’s Off
    TOM MOORE WAS NEARLY DONE. Good thing, too. It was damn cold on the roof of the Nivens’ brownstone. Even though his fingers were protected by specially crafted thermal gloves, they were losing feeling. He shivered. A frigid wind had been blowing steadily for the past hour. His face and neck burned. But he had only two more connections to make. Then everything would be in place.
    Deftly Tom pulled out his wire strippers and stripped the plastic coating off an inch of clear fiber-optic wire.
    Perfect .
    George didn’t know about this receiver and transmitter. And he never would — at least not until Tom had proved his theory about George’s so-called wife.
    Ella was an agent.
    For what or whom, Tom had no idea. But he would find out. And it was crucial that George be kept in the dark while Tom went about his work. There was no way George would agree to Ella’s surveillance. There was no way George would ever suspect his darling, beautiful, urbane wife of something rotten. Love was blind. Or rather, love made you blind. Besides, so far all that Tom had on Ella were bits and pieces of circumstantial evidence: scraps of one-sided phone conversations, her mysterious trips to an apartment building on the Upper West Side — nothing concrete, no direct proof . But this new sound system would help with that. It was exquisitely powerful. It could pick up almost any noises within the brownstone, down to a whisper.
    Once the wires were connected, Tom tapped them through the battery pack, then fixed the pack to the side of a crumbling black chimney — one of two at the front of the building. Then he pressed the wires down into the roof ’s tar and covered them with a malleable plastic sheath. Only a very close inspection (doubtful in this kind of weather, anyway) would reveal that these weren’t cable TV connections.
    Methodically Tom double-checked his work so far. He knew very well just how many operations had been ruined because someone had been too careless or arrogant to doubt their own skills. Self-doubt was what kept him alive. He measured the electrical flow with his voltmeter, then quickly gathered his tools. Strange, he reflected, that his daughter’s room was only a few feet beneath him. He was doing all this for her — and she didn’t even know it.
    He felt a twinge of fear. He knew she wasn’t home. At least when she was near George, she was safe. But Tom had seen his daughter leave only minutes ago, heading out into the city, to places unknown.
    His jaw tightened. He wouldn’t think about the danger his daughter faced. He wouldn’t think about the fact that his best friend’s wife might somehow be mixed up with Loki, his twisted twin brother — the very man who put Gaia’s life at stake. Tom had a job to finish.
    Slipping a minuscule earpiece into place, he listened carefully.
    What the —
    Almost instantly he was startled by the sound of some kind of animal in pain. He flinched. A few seconds later he heard it again . . . a groan that sent chills down his spine. What was going on in there? Frowning, Tom quickly spun dials, adjusting the quality and timbre. The sound of a woman humming under her breath floated into his ear. Suddenly the noises all snapped into focus, and Tom couldn’t help but smile.
    The sound he’d heard was