For His Eyes Only Read Online Free Page A

eyebrows. “Remind me never to piss you off.”
    Jesse took a deep breath. “I thought you felt the same way.”
    He grinned. “Well, seems I’m going to have the last say, doesn’t it?”
    “ If we can track the source of the two million dollar Swiss account you will. That has to be the money Amadeo Perez paid for Green Team’s slaughter.” She paused. “What do you know about them, Tom?”
    “ Nothing. Sorry. You didn’t ask—”
    “ No.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”
    He paused for a long moment, then added in a hushed voice, “Those men aren’t the only ones who died as a result of Lanton’s double-cross.”
    Jesse remembered Martinez, and started to agree, then realized what he meant. “No!” she cried. but saw the truth in his eyes.
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER SIX
    “ How—I didn’t hear—she was twelve years old,” Jesse choked.
    She had seen pictures of Maria Hamilton. The girl shared her mother’s Ecuadorian dark hair and brown eyes. She would— should —have grown up to be a real beauty.
    “ Tom.”
    Jesse reached toward him, half blind. His fingers closed warm around her hand as her mind flashed back to the moment she’d turned away from the village and Green Team. She’d decided she had to stay alive so that she could prove Lanton’s guilt and save Amanda. She’d told herself that Amadeo Perez wouldn’t chance losing such a valuable hostage as Maria Hamilton by leaving her in the village where U.S. agents could find her. Maria wasn’t there. There wasn’t a thing Jesse could do to help her.
    “ What is it?” Tom demanded.
    Jesse shook her head. “I could have gone in for her. I left her behind to be butchered by those animals.” Tears streamed down her cheeks. “I’ll kill the mother-fucker.” She started to stand.
    Tom seized her shoulders. “You didn’t kill her.”
    “ The hell I didn’t.”
    “ Jesse, she—”
    Jesse tried to pull free.
    He held fast. “You didn’t kill her. She was sighted in southern Columbia, Florencia, an hour after Green Team went in.”
    Jesse stared.
    “ Wasn’t that about the time you were at the village?” he asked.
    She wanted to believe. “You’re lying, that’s too easy.”
    “ I’ve never lied to you.”
    He hadn’t.
    “ You couldn’t save her any more than you could have saved Green Team.”
    She pulled free. “Don’t lecture me about Green Team, Tom.”
    He leaned back against the cushion. “All right. How about Amanda, then?”
    Jesse hadn’t forgotten Amanda. For the thousandth time she wondered how she could get her autistic sister underground and keep her there unnoticed. Amanda couldn’t live just anywhere. She needed medical and behavioral specialists, and around-the-clock care.
    She’d checked with Harris that morning and he’d reported she was fine at Houghton House. If anyone could take care of Amanda, Harris could. For the thousandth time, Jesse sent a prayer of thanks for the night she’d saved Harris’ ass in that Boston bar. The Vietnam vet was the best thing that had ever happened to Amanda.
    “ How did it happen?” she asked in a quiet voice.
    “ You don’t want to know.”
    “ Don’t fuck with me, Tom.”
    She winced, then jammed her eyes shut in hopes of damming up the tears that had a long way to go before hitting dry ground. He sighed, and she steeled herself as he said, “They delivered her to the Senator in pieces.” Jesse gasped, but he went on, “OIA didn’t want to give FARC anymore ammunition, so they kept it out of the papers.”
    “ FARC,” Jesse sneered. She snapped open her eyes. “The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia. What a fucking joke. They’re nothing but a terrorist group selling to the highest bidder, and right now that’s Perez and the cocaine trade.”
    “ Too bad the Senator didn’t keep out of it,” Tom said. “Nothing’s changed as a result of his efforts to curtail the cocaine trade. The only reason the U. S. government set up