Beyond the Edge Read Online Free

Beyond the Edge
Book: Beyond the Edge Read Online Free
Author: Susan Kearney
Pages:
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couldn’t come up with a plan to counter him. Her frustration soared. Patience was not one of her best qualities.
    Despite the lack of traffic on the road at this hour, she drove with uncharacteristic slowness past Harbor Island and Garrison Channel. Driving through the growing city and admiring the changes from seedy warehouses to shiny tourist destinations usually gave Fallon hope. She’d relocated the research institute’s headquarters from New York five years ago, believing the Florida climate would attract the world’s top researchers. And she’d been right. Thanks to her perseverance, a few tax concessions from the county commissioners, the Hanover money and several brilliant technologists, Fallon believed before the end of the decade they would find a cure for cancer.
    Pushing the thought of business away, she concentrated on the passenger beside her, who remained unnaturally still and silent until she glided over a low spot in the road.
    “What is that smell?” he asked.
    Between his need to consult a map and his curiosity over the smell of swamp and sewage, she assumed he was a stranger to the area, but she wanted to be certain before she drove to the sheriff’s office. “You’ve never noticed it before?”
    He shrugged.
    She sighed and wondered why she ever thought squeezing information from him would be possible. The man wasn’t talkative. He hadn’t even told her his name.
    The road to Brandon was a straight shot east and only a few pairs of headlights broke through the darkness. In contrast to the modern highway, abandoned warehouses and rusting fences lurked in the shadows beyond the occasional streetlight.
    She exited from the expressway onto Highway 60, Brandon’s main road. A few more minutes and she’d reach the sheriff’s office. Trying not to fidget or turn her head, she passed the turnoff to her home.
    “You missed your street.” Her passenger swiveled and raised a speculative eyebrow.
    She’d underestimated him. How had he known? She ignored him, driving straight ahead, with a brazenness she didn’t feel. “I did?”
    “Turn around.” His voice cut the air with a steely edge.
    She made a U-turn with a sinking sensation in the pit of her chest. Perhaps she should jump out of the car at the light. Make a run for it. Only the light stayed green, damn it, and she couldn’t work up the courage to deliberately crash into a telephone pole or a ditch. If the car flipped, she’d die along with him.
    As if he read her thoughts, he reached over and locked her door, then strapped the safety belt over her lap.
    “What are you doing?” She couldn’t prevent her voice from rising an octave.
    “Calm yourself. An accident would be inconvenient.”
    “Not to mention we could die.”
    “Dying would be inconvenient,” he agreed in a breezy tone and with an amused smile, as if he hadn’t understood her wry humor. “Turn right, then left.”
    Could he read her mind? Or had he investigated her ahead of time? But if he knew her address, then why had he scanned the map? “How do you know where I live?”
    The helmet covering the rest of his head disappeared, and he raked a hand through his short, dark hair. “Your driver’s license. And the map.”
    He’d barely glanced at the map, never mind plotted a route and memorized the street names, which made her believe he’d planned more than he admitted. And she wasn’t even going to think about where his helmet had disappeared to. She’d always known her wealth made her a target, but the man hadn’t mentioned ransom or extortion. He hadn’t threatened her, hadn’t touched her. Yet sooner or later the matter of her money would come up—it always did. And the sooner she knew how much it would cost her to get rid of him, the sooner she’d know where she stood.
    “What do you want with me?”
    “Not a damn thing.” He gave her another one of those charming smiles. “But it looks like I’m stuck with you.”
    His assumption that he was
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