Read Online The Accidental Assassin by Nichole Chase - Free Book Online Page B

shook my head.
    “Why don’t you go try? There’s a bed in the other room. I’ll stay out here and sleep on the sofa.”
    “What if someone shows up?” A shiver raced down my spine.
    “There are alarms and security cameras.” He turned his computer to face me. The screen was broken up into four different images. One of the front of the house, one of the back, another showing the narrow driveway that led down the side of the house and the last one was pointed at a barn of some sort just in front of a tree line.
    “Are all of your safe houses this well guarded?”
    “No.” His eyes stared at the computer and I had the impression that he was avoiding looking at me.
    “This one must be special.”
    “It’s vulnerable. The security system makes it less so.” He gave a lazy shrug.
    “Uh huh.” Not the whole story, but that was okay. It was his story to keep.
    “We’ll be safe, Ava. Go get some sleep. We don’t know when we’ll have another chance.”
    I chewed on my lip and thought about it. Sleep didn’t sound that bad, but how could I trust that nothing would happen to me while I slept? What if he decided to ditch me? What if someone came looking for us while we were unconscious?
    “How do you do it?”
    “Do what?” He raised one eyebrow.
    “Sleep, knowing that you have enemies.” I played with the hem of my sweater.
    “I trust my equipment.” He stood up and held his hand out to me.
    “It must be pretty good equipment, then.” I felt my cheeks flush at the unintentional flirtation. But that smile was playing across his lips again, and I liked seeing it.
    “Yes it is.”
    I let him pull me to my feet. I grabbed the pistol from the chair arm and let it hang loosely in my fingers. Tugging gently, he pulled me toward the bedroom where he had gotten my clothes earlier. The room was dark, but he flipped on a light on the small table next to the bed. I watched as he pulled back the blanket and fluffed the pillows. He turned to look at me once he was finished and stuck his hands in his pockets. That simple gesture made him seem somewhat vulnerable.
    “It’s not fancy, but it’s comfortable.”
    “It’s great. Thank you.” I looked at the bed and forced myself to smile. If he wasn’t an assassin I would think he was trying to be sweet.
    “Get some rest.” He turned and paused by the door. “I’ll be on the couch. Nothing will get past me.”
    “Will you be able to sleep?”
    “Don’t worry about me, Ava. This is a normal day for me.”
    He closed the door without looking back. I sat down on the bed and took a deep breath. The bed was comfortable and if I wasn’t running for my life I might even have appreciated the charm of the little cottage I was stuck in, but right then I was too busy trying to make sense out of the craziness that had completely taken over my day.
    Eventually I lay down and tried to get comfortable. Owen was right; I needed to sleep. Exhaustion weighed heavily on my shoulders and I felt like there was a beach’s worth of sand under my eyelids. While my mind was racing, my body was waving a white flag. There would be time to worry about everything in the morning. If Owen decided to bail on me, I’d figure out something. If he decided to kill me…well, there probably wasn’t much I could do to stop him.
    I shivered and pulled the quilt up higher on my shoulders. Deep down, I didn’t feel threatened by Owen. He’d had his opportunity to ditch me and hadn’t done it, but I still wasn’t sure about his motives. Did assassins have scruples? He might be British, but he wasn’t exactly James Bond. He did his job for money, not out of duty to Crown and Country. He wasn’t Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible, either. Though I had a feeling he lived in a world that was cold and lonely much like those two characters.
    My eyes drifted shut as I contemplated my murderous knight in shining armor. Even in my dreams I couldn’t escape my reality. Rachel at the coffee shop made a