Final Protocol Read Online Free Page A

finger to his cheek. “You spend an awful lot of time worrying about the games I play with your brother, Garner… What’s the matter?” I leaned in closer and pressed my lips to his ear. “Are you jealous?”
    Then I pushed around him and headed for the center of the dance floor.
    You might think he’d have his offices in the back. Or down below the floor, in a dungeon, where monsters like him should rot.
    But no. He kept his offices high above, and if I wanted in during business hours, I had to take the tube in the middle of the floor. Where he could see me coming.
    Garner was right behind me.
    I pretended not to notice.
    It wasn’t that hard. If he were going to try and hurt me, he’d have had more of his men with him, and he would have done it outside.
    That meant I had a bigger fear to concern myself with. I’d rather take pain over his other forms of keeping me in line. Pain was easy. The humiliations… Shudders gripped me, wrenched at me, even as I fought not to let Garner see any sign of what I was feeling.
    No matter what he’d said to get me here, my handler wouldn’t just let me walk away from a job like that.
    There would be a reckoning.
    And if he wouldn’t take it in blood, he’d take it in flesh.
    My body was already burning.
    My soul was already screaming.
    A hand came up behind me and shoved me into the tube and then Garner crowded in around me.
    As it sucked us up into the air, I bowed my head, my hands braced on the smooth, clear ’stene surface.
    I’d get through this.
    I’d done it before.
    I’d even do this job, I thought, just because doing it took me away from Jakor. Maybe this would be the last one. Maybe when it was done, I’d guide my transport into the nearest star and end it, swift and easy. Or I could just fuck with the wiring on my transport, dump the oxygen supply—I knew how to do that. I’d killed one of my targets that way once. It wasn’t a pleasant way to die, but I didn’t need pleasant. I just needed it done and final.
    Anything to be away from here, forever.
    The tube opened up and Garner slid past me.
    I stepped outside and slowly lifted my head. Darkness greeted me. This…this wasn’t good. Heart hammering against my ribs, sweat trickling down between my breasts, my shoulder blades, a dull memory worked its way free. It was an old memory; more than a decade had passed since that day. The first time I truly remembered much of anything…including the man who awaited me somewhere in the darkness.
    He owed me money. But he was too afraid to face me himself…so I’m taking you instead. You’ll have to serve in his stead…
    And here I was. Still serving. Still trapped.
    It would end when I made it end.
    Twelve years. It was enough.
    Yes. I’d do this final job, and then I’d find a way to end this. I’d either find that botanist, or I’d find my own end. Either way, I’d never return here, to this place, ever again.
    A shimmer of gold moved in the darkness and I turned my head, saw him.
    Swallowing the lump in my throat, I managed to form words.
    “Hello, Gold.”

Chapter Three
    “Garner.”
    That was all Gold said.
    A moment later, I heard the sibilant hiss of the tube as Garner left us alone. A bead of sweat formed on my nape, rolled down my back under the close-fitting tunic I wore. Inside my black gloves, my hands were damp, slick with sweat. My heart raced.
    I hated to feel fear, especially fear of him.
    My eyes adjusted to the dim light just in time to see him coming out of the deepest shadows toward me, an elegant figure of gold and black. His beauty was almost surreal, cheekbones high and carved, his mouth sensual but with a cruel slant to it. Fitting, since he was one of the cruelest bastards I’d ever met.
    His hair fell loose around his shoulders, brushing the silk tunic his wore, the shimmering gold a stark contrast to the darkness of his clothes. His hair was a few shades paler than his skin, almost the same shade as his eyes—golden. Under