Veiled Intentions Read Online Free PDF Page B

coincidence because it meant her lies matched his truths.
    Joe quietly pushed that coincidence aside and moved on to the mission at hand.
    â€œI’ll see you at the Perfect Match tomorrow night.” He stood and tucked the folder beneath his arm. “Until then, we keep doing these background checks and hope we find a smoking gun. Oh, and by the way, I insist the officers on my team follow the rules. My rules,” he emphasized. “If you jeopardize this assignment again—”
    â€œI won’t.”
    â€œIf you do, I’ll have your butt and your badge.”
    She nodded, after a contemplative moment.
    Joe almost decided to leave it at that, but there was something he couldn’t leave unsaid. “I hope it’s occurred to you that this plan is designed to send a killer after us.”
    No hesitation this time. “It has.”
    Good. At least underneath all that wisecracking talk, Katelyn O’Malley was smart enough to know what they were up against.
    And what they were up against was a killer.
    Even more, the moment they stepped inside Perfect Match, they would become the ultimate bait.

Chapter Four
    Katelyn fanned herself with the Perfect Match folder.
    Even though the sun was on the verge of setting, the summer heat was still escaping in filmy waves off the asphalt. It was muggy. A Texas-June kind of muggy that even the locals complained about. The air was heavy with exhaust fumes and the steamy smoke from the mesquite grills of a nearby patio restaurant. Not exactly an enticing combination, but the aroma of spicy fajitas was somehow pushing its way through the rest of the less appetizing scents.
    She willed herself not to sweat as she hurried across the parking lot toward the sprawling building that housed the Perfect Match Agency. Willing didn’t work. A slick bead of perspiration slithered down the center of her back, and for a couple of seconds, she entertained a pipe dream of stopping by the restaurant for a virgin frozen margarita.
    This wasn’t, however, the time for pipe dreams or sweat-cooling margaritas, even virgin ones. It was time to look for a killer.
    Katelyn stepped through the front door of the agency, mumbled a thank-you! for the Arctic blast of the A/C and made her way to the reception area.
    An empty area, she soon learned.
    Empty, no doubt, because she was early. But then, she usually was. Brayden joked that she’d inherited some bizarre fear-of-being-late gene, but her early arrival in this case would allow her time to double-check the few things she could actually double check. Exits. Bullet-accessible windows. Security cameras, like the one mounted on the light fixture in the center of the room. It also gave her some time to take a deep breath and steady her nerves.
    Someone had decorated the spacious rectangle-shaped room. Unlike her earlier visit, tonight there were bunches of gold Mylar balloons in the corners, huge bouquets of cream-colored flowers in crystal vases and bottles of champagne angled into gleaming silver ice buckets. Soft, romantic music filled the background. The stage was set for love.
    But hopefully not murder.
    She was armed with a Glock in her purse. It was her preferred poison when she needed to carry light. And thanks to the flexible, pencil-size device beneath her collar, she had two-way communication with headquarters. However, neither of those two security measures would give her much protection if someone opened fire through the trio of floor-to-ceiling windows. For all practical purposes, she was on her own.
    An obvious drawback to being early.
    The sudden clicking sound sent her reaching forher gun, but Katelyn forced herself not to draw. She needed to stay in character. It was a good thing, too. Because the click was a door opening, and the blond-haired man who came in through the side entrance wasn’t carrying a weapon but another bottle of champagne.
    He immediately made eye contact and smiled, a slightly