Miranda's Mate Read Online Free Page A

with the agents who’d not yet been tenured.
    She dragged her cell phone out of her bag. Her finger hovered over the power button.
    “Do not do that.”
    Her head snapped up. She’d nearly forgotten about Lars. “Not safe yet?”
    “Fraulein. After what I believe you did, you will not be safe anywhere for a very long time.”
    A chill ran down her back. “Okay. So I’ll get a new phone.”
    “At the very least. You might want to consider plastic surgery. No way to disguise your height, but a competent surgeon could—”
    “No!” The vehemence in her voice surprised her, but her wolf was in full rebellion. “No fucking way. I’ll consider colored contact lenses, but that’s the end of it.”
    He shrugged, a rather Gaelic gesture given his Teutonic bloodlines. “Another American expression, fraulein. It is your funeral.”
    “Are you trying to scare me?” Miranda kept her voice steady, but it wasn’t easy.
    “Maybe. I believe in being practical. It is not accidental Garen traveled thousands of miles. If your target gave him pause…” An oblique glance from those gray eyes grazed her, sharp as shrapnel.
    “Fine. So I’m fucked.” She crossed her arms over her chest. The motion made her ribs ache. “At least the bad guy’s dead.”
    Savage laughter filled the car. “Good for you, fraulein. You have spirit. Hang onto it. How did you end up an operative?”
    The question came out of left field. She launched into an answer before she realized what she was doing. “I was a Green Beret stationed in the Middle East. I had some, er, issues with Army policies.” She bit her lower lip, wondering how much to tell him.
    “I would rather you did not feed me a carefully constructed lie, fraulein. One of two things happened. Either they kicked you out for insubordination—”
    “Stop.” She held up a hand and gathered shards of dignity about herself. “When my term ended, I chose not to reenlist.”
    “Why?”
    “None of your business.”
    He snorted. “You guessed correctly last night. I was in a branch of the military.” He cleared his throat. “For those of us who appreciate, shall we say, latitude in how we fulfill our assignments, the military can be a bit confining.”
    She snorted right back. “No shit.” Miranda sucked in a breath. She’d just shared more information with Lars than she’d shared with anyone in the years she’d worked for The Company. Agents didn’t discuss anything personal with one another. It was as if they hadn’t had lives before becoming Company employees. She sucked in a breath, wincing as her ribcage expanded. “I told you some things. You tell me how you know Garen.”
    For a moment, she thought he was going to shut her down, but then he started talking.

Chapter 3
    Garen pulled his fur-lined leather jacket closer to his body. He paced up and down the asphalt in front of the private airport just north of Boston and glanced at his phone again. Damn it. They should have been here half an hour ago. What the fuck had happened?
    Their plane sat on the tarmac, waiting. Garen had spent a few moments admiring the sleek Learjet Challenger 300. He was looking forward to copiloting it. If he hadn’t been so anxious, he might have grinned. He and Lars had flown sub rosa missions in and out of nearly every shithole on earth. They made a hell of a team.
    His phone vibrated in his pocket. Garen made a grab for it and looked at the display. It said private . Not a bad thing, all in all. Everyone in his business put permanent blocks on their caller ID. He punched the Talk key and waited. No reason for him to say anything until he knew who’d called.
    “We are close. Ran into traffic and road closures.” Lars’ deep voice was welcome. A breath he didn’t know he’d been holding whooshed out of Garen. His grip on the phone loosened.
    “ETA?” he barked.
    “Maybe two minutes.” Lars chuckled. “Although I must admit I would prefer my time with the fair fraulein were not