Christmas Guardian. Delores Fossen

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СКАЧАТЬ long, brushing against the bottom of his collar. It was also fashionably unstyled, as if he didn’t have to spend much time to make it look as if he could have been posing on the cover of some rock magazine.

      “Anna Carlyle, huh?” he asked. And it was definitely a question.

      That pulled her from her female fantasy induced by his good looks and smell. “Yes. Cody was kind enough to invite me to the party. And you’re…?”

      The corner of his mouth lifted. Not a smile of humor though. It made Kinley want to take a step back. She didn’t. She held her ground.

      “Jordan Taylor,” he finally said. “But you already know that, don’t you?”

      She was in the process of bringing the champagne glass to her mouth for a fake sip, but Kinley froze. Nearly panicked. Then he tamped down the fear that she was about to be exposed. She didn’t mind being revealed as a liar, but exposure could be deadly.

      “Yes, I did know you were Jordan Taylor,” she admitted. “You’re the host of this party. I must have seen your picture in the paper or something.”

      He eased his hand from his pocket. In his palm was a slim platinum-colored PDA. He held up the tiny screen for her to see.

      She saw a picture of herself.

      Specifically, a picture of her in the coffee shop across the street. Her worried eyes were fixed on the Sentron building. He flicked a button, and another photo appeared. Also of her. This time she was parked in a car on the street just up from his San Antonio estate.

       Oh, God.

      Kinley glanced over her shoulder, looking for the quickest way out. There wasn’t one. To get to the doors, she’d have to make her way through at least three dozen people, including twenty or so security specialists who among other things were trained to apprehend suspects. But Jordan likely wouldn’t even let her get that far, because he was the most qualified security specialist in the room and was only a few inches from her.

      She couldn’t read his expression. He didn’t seem angry. Or even curious. He just stood there, calmly, while he apparently waited for her to make the next move.

      “I was thinking about hiring a bodyguard,” she lied. “I wanted to check out Sentron first.”

      He made a hmm sound, slipped the PDA into his pocket, set both their drinks aside and grabbed her arm. “Let’s take a walk, have a little chat.”

      Once again she held her ground. Fear shot through her, but Kinley couldn’t go with him. She had to get out of there. “I should get back to my date. Cody will be wondering where I am.”

      “No, he won’t.”

      Because Jordan said it so confidently, Kinley glanced over her shoulder again. Cody and Jordan exchanged a subtle glance, and Jordan’s grip tightened on her arm.

      “When I realized you were following me, I sent Cody to the coffee shop. His orders were to strike up a conversation with you and then to invite you to tonight’s party—an invitation I figured you’d jump at.” He paused, met her gaze. “Cody’s very good at his job, isn’t he?”

      He was. Kinley hadn’t suspected a thing. Maybe because she’d been so excited about the possibility of learning the truth of what’d happened fourteen months ago?

      “I’m leaving,” Kinley insisted.

      “Yes. After we have that chat.” Jordan didn’t give her a choice. He practically dragged her in the direction of a hall.

      “I have a gun,” she warned.

      “No, you don’t. Before you stepped foot in this building, I scanned you—thoroughly.” He tipped his head to a small camera-like device positioned over the front doors. “If you’d been carrying concealed, I would have already disarmed you.”

      That caused her heart to drop even further. What had she gotten herself into? And better yet, how could she get herself out of it?

      He opened a door and maneuvered her inside. Even though she didn’t stand a chance of overpowering him, Kinley got ready to fight back. She gripped her purse so she could use it to hit him.

      But Jordan didn’t attack her. He turned on the lights and shut the door. The room was filled with wall monitors, desks, computers and other equipment. No people though. She was very much alone with a man who might kill her.

      “This is Sentron’s command center,” he explained. “Soundproof and secure. We won’t be overheard here.”

      Which meant there’d be no one to hear her if she screamed.

      He took out the PDA again and began to flick through more pictures. There was one from her college yearbook. Another of her in an airport terminal. Her passport photo. But the bulk was from newspaper articles when she’d been reported missing and presumed dead two years ago.

      “There’s about three million dollars’ worth of equipment in this room, including facial recognition software. When I realized you had me under surveillance, I pulled up every image in every available databank.” Jordan turned, aimed those eyes at her again. “I know who you are, Kinley Ford.”

      Since she didn’t know how to respond to that, she didn’t say anything.

      “You’re twenty-eight. Not a natural blonde. You have a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from University of Texas. Two years ago the research lab where you worked exploded, and everyone thought you were dead. You obviously weren’t. You surfaced again fourteen months ago, only to disappear again. Now you’re here.” He outstretched his hands. “Why?”

      Kinley chose her words carefully. “I knew Shelly.”

      He drew his arms back in, clicked off his PDA. “Did you have something to do with her murder?”

      “No.” But Kinley knew she didn’t sound very convincing. “Did you?”

      For the first time, she saw some emotion. For just a second, there was something in his eyes. Not pain, exactly. But some sentiment that he quickly reined in. “No.” He didn’t sound any more convincing than she had.

      They stared at each other.

      “You knew Shelly,” Kinley accused.

      He nodded. “She was a former business associate. I fired her because she was embezzling from me.”

      Yes. She’d read all about that. “And she was your lover. I saw a picture of you two in the newspaper.” In the photo, Shelly hadn’t been able to conceal the attraction she was feeling. It’d come through even in a grainy black-and-white image. Not for Jordan, though. In that photo, he was wearing the same poker face he had now.

      “What do you want?” he asked.

      “The truth. Among other things, I want to know who killed Shelly and why.”

      For just a second, his mouth froze around the syllable he’d been about to say. Then, he obviously rethought his response. “What other things?”

      Kinley blinked, because СКАЧАТЬ