Sins of the Flesh Read Online Free

best friend.”
    “I
am
Cat’s best friend,” she immediately clarified.
    Mick leaned back in the delicate wing chair and it creaked under the weight of his body. Considering the other woman as she nervously fingered the thick gold chain at her neck, he said, “You’re angry. Jealousy, maybe? She was first chair and yet she relied on you—”
    Elizabeth’s voice escalated with each word. “To help her prepare her pieces after she went blind? While playing second fiddle, literally.”
    He shrugged, prompting her to rise elegantly from the sofa, her hands clasped tightly before her. “Cat and I are best friends. I’d do anything for her and she would do anything for me.”
    He rose from the chair as well, understanding thatshe was done with his questioning, but he pressed on. “Including giving her a place to hide?”
    “I don’t believe what they said about Cat on the news,” she answered, reaching for the thick gold chain again with a trembling hand.
    “Your friend is the main suspect in a gruesome murder, Elizabeth. These treatments—”
    “Wouldn’t change Cat. This is all a lie,” she said and walked out of the parlor and down the short hall to the door of her townhouse, clearly intending him to follow.
    At the door, he paused and handed her his business card. She wouldn’t take it, so he leaned over and left it on a carved mahogany table near the entrance. “In case you have something else to tell me,” he said and walked out.
    The door slammed shut behind him, the sound like a gunshot in the quiet of the night.
    A block away lay Rittenhouse Square. It would be nearly empty at this time of night. A good place to think.
    Mick shoved his hands in his pockets and walked down 18th Street to Walnut, crossed over, and at the corner strolled down the diagonal path to the center of the square. He stopped to listen to the sounds of the fountain, assembling his thoughts, and then sauntered to a bench located close to a streetlight.
    He sat and considered what he had learned about Caterina Shaw. Worried because he had let all that he had discovered about Caterina’s background influence him, something he rarely did. Usually all that information just amounted to raw data used to track his target. Determine its strengths and weaknesses. Prepare for the capture or kill.
    During the course of his brief investigations, it had become difficult to be so clinical about Caterina Shaw.
    He could kid himself and say that he didn’t know why, but it would be a lie. He knew precisely why.
    His search had revealed Caterina’s painful past as well as her tragic present. Neither had kept her from what she had wanted to do.
    He admired courage and perseverance. Traits he had relied on more than once to keep himself safe. To keep safe the men in the Army Ranger unit he had once commanded.
    Although he didn’t know Caterina in the real sense of the word, Mick had gotten to know more about her than was good for him if he wanted to complete his assignment. He forced himself to remember that whatever she had been before, she was now a dangerous murderer.
    Or at least that’s what Edwards wanted him to believe.
    He was having trouble buying into that, but then the last entry on her medical history played through his brain for what had to be the hundredth time since his meeting with Edwards.
    Patient has recently developed uncontrollable seizures leading to episodes of rage combined with full expression of the implanted gene sequence
.
    Mick’s early life hadn’t allowed for extensive schooling, but he had more than made up for that during his time as an Army Ranger. He had devoured whatever manuals the Army had tossed at him, in addition to finally not only obtaining his college degree but also his EMT certification.
    The medical information in Caterina’s file was therefore clear. Coupled with the information he had gathered on the good doctors Edwards and Wells, he once again tried to imagine the real-life results that could