Without a Trace Read Online Free

waved away a small boy with a cardboard box filled with Chiclets. “Have you finished? You’re making a scene.”
    “My brother and niece are being held by a group of terrorists. Do you think I care whether I embarrass you or not?”
    “It takes more than an Irish redhead on a roll to embarrass me,” he said easily. “But I have a policy against drawing attention to myself. Old habit. Let’s take a walk.”
    She very nearly yanked her arm away. The part of her that was pride burned to do it. The part that was love triumphed, and she subsided. In silence she walked beside him, down the narrow planks that led to the water.
    The sand was white here against a dark sea and a darker sky. A few boats were docked, waiting for tomorrow’s fishing or tomorrow’s tourists. The night was quiet enough that the music from the cantina carried to them. Trace noted that somebody was singing about love and a woman’s infidelity. Somebody always was.
    “Look, Dr. Fitzpatrick, you caught me at a bad time. I don’t know why Charlie sent you to me.”
    “Neither do I.”
    He stopped long enough to cup his hands around a match and a cigarette. “What I mean is, this situationshould be handled by the ISS.”
    She was calm again. Gillian didn’t mind losing her temper. It felt good. But she also knew that more was accomplished with control. “The ISS wants the formula as badly as Hammer. Why should I trust my brother’s and my niece’s lives to them?”
    “Because they’re the good guys.”
    Gillian turned toward the sea, and the wind hit her dead on. Though it helped clear her head, she didn’t notice the first stars blinking to life. “They are an organization run by many men—some good, some bad, all ambitious, all with their own concept of what is necessary for peace and order. At the moment, my only concern is my family. Do you have family, Mr. O’Hurley?”
    He drew hard on the cigarette. “Yeah.” Over the border, he thought. He hadn’t seen them in seven years, or was it eight? He’d lost track. But he knew Chantel was in L.A. filming a movie. Maddy was in New York starring in a new play. Abby was raising horses and kids in Virginia. His parents were finishing up a week’s gig in Buffalo.
    He might have lost track of the time, but not of his family.
    “Would you trust the lives of any of the members of your family to an organization? One that, if they considered it necessary for the common good, might sacrifice them?” She closed her eyes. The wind felt like heaven, warm, salty and strong. “Mr. Forrester understood and agreed that what was needed to save my brother and his child was a man who would care more about them than the formula. He thought you were that man.”
    “He was off base.” Trace pitched his cigarette into the surf. “Charlie knew I was considering retiring. This was just his way of keeping me in the game.”
    “Are you as good as he told me?”
    With a laugh. Trace rubbed a hand over his chin. “Probably better. Charlie was never much for back patting.”
    Gillian turned again, this time to face him. He didn’t look like a hero to her, with the rough beard and the grimy clothes. But there had been strength in his hand when he’d taken her arm, and she’d sensed anundercurrent of violence. He’d be passionate when it was something he wanted, she thought, whether it was a goal, a dream or a woman. Under usual circumstances, she preferred men with cool, analytical minds, who attacked a problem with logic and patience. But it wasn’t a scientist she needed now.
    Trace dipped his hands into his pocket and fought the urge to squirm. She was looking at him as though he were a laboratory rat, and he didn’t like it. Maybe it was the hint of Ireland in her voice or the shadows under her eyes, but he couldn’t bring himself to walk away.
    “Look, I’ll contact the ISS. The closest field office is in San Diego. You can feed them whatever information you have. Inside of twenty-four hours,