All Jacked Up Read Online Free Page A

convey the kind of blind, sphincter-clenching terror that possibility evoked, Aubrey didn’t seem to need an explanation.
    She’d gone fish-belly white, which made him kind of sorry he’d dumped the truth on her that way. But he had to give her credit; she didn’t scream or yell, just took a couple of seconds to let it sink in before she picked up the interrogation again. “Who do you work for?”
    “I’m a federal agent.”
    “So you’re taking me into protective custody, right?”
    Shit. He should have known she’d think of that. “I can’t.”
    “What do you mean, ‘can’t’? Isn’t that what the FBI does with people like me when there’s someone like Corona after them?”
    Jack sighed. She’d keep yammering at him until he told her the truth, so he might as well do it now and get it over with. “They think I’m a mole.”
    She gave him a look that labeled him another kind of rodent—a nastier one.
    “I’m being set up,” Jack said, clenching his teeth over the whiny note of defense in his voice. Frickin’ librarians, he thought, they did it to him every time.
    “So let me get this straight. You’re a good guy, but the rest of the good guys think you’re a bad guy.”
    “Uh-huh,” he said, thinking if he limited himself to short answers he might get back in control of this conversation.
    “And the bad guys think you’re a good guy.”
    “Right.”
    “And everyone in D.C. who owns a gun is shooting at you.”
    “That about sums it up.”
    “So in order to protect me, you drag me out of the Library of Congress where, I might point out, I was perfectly safe—”
    “Except for the guy who tried to kill you.”
    “—and right into the middle of your own private war.”
    Jack felt his face heat. When had it gone south, he wondered? One minute he was giving simple, noncommittal answers and the next she’d turned it all around so he came off looking like a jackass. “I know it looks bad, but you’re going to have to trust me.”
    She held up her hand with its chrome bangle.
    “Okay, so I haven’t exactly given you cause, but you have to admit you weren’t exactly cooperating.”
    “Yeah,” she said, sighing heavily. Then she got that little line between her eyebrows. He was really starting to hate that line. “How do I know you’re not just keeping me alive as a bargaining chip?”
    “Lady, as far as you’re concerned, I’m your only hope. Corona has no reason to keep you alive—you’re of more use to him dead. The cops can’t keep you safe as long as even one of them is on Corona’s payroll. The only way to get you out of this in one piece is to figure out what you know and go public with it. Then it won’t matter if you’re alive or dead.”
    “And what do you get out of this?”
    “I get my life back.”
    “Yeah, well, you can have your life back right now, and I’ll have mine.”
    He opened his mouth to ask her what the hell she was talking about, but what came out was, “Ouch,” because she’d whipped a needle out from behind her back and jammed it into his arm.

chapter 3
    “YOUR BEST BET WOULD BE TO HEAD FOR THE nearest police station, tell them the entire story, and let them work it out while you wait in some nice, safe motel room.”
    Aubrey cradled her cordless phone between her shoulder and ear, and started shoving clothes into her hot-pink leather backpack. “Jack Mitchell said the police are crooked.”
    “And you believe him?”
    “Well . . . yeah.”
    “He pulled a gun on you.”
    “But he didn’t use it.” And he’d really wanted to, Aubrey recalled. For some reason, that made her smile.
    “He must be some kind of sweet talker to convince you to trust him after what he pulled.”
    Sweet talker? Hardly. He’d laid out the story in a strictly Friday the 13th kind of way, straight shock value. “I guess you had to be there,” was all she said.
    “Auuuu-brey.” Even from her end of the phone line, she could tell Tom was rolling his eyes.