Illicit Intuitions: Sensory Ops, Book 3 Read Online Free Page B

case, but we aren’t certain the threat has been eliminated.” Burgess leaned forward. “We have reason to believe you’ve been targeted. Allow us to assign you protection.”
    “Are you going to tell me everything you know?”
    “We can’t do that.”
    H shook his head. “I appreciate your concern.” But I can’t work with secrets and evasions filling the halls. “I can look after myself.”
    Lawson pulled a card from his jacket pocket and offered it. “Please call if you change your mind.”
    “Sure.” H showed the men to the outer door, as he had earlier with Ms. Sebastian.
    “By the way.” Lawson turned just before stepping outside. “Mr. Harris didn’t happen to give you some laser-powered contact lenses, did he?”
    His vision flickered with a surprise hit to his shields. Did they know about the prototype? Or were they trying to trick him?
    Channing had mentioned a government contract relating to the technology they’d worked on, but only he and Channing had known about the prototype. They’d been careful to create them and keep the notes away from Sirrahmax—especially after spotting Jefferson.
    His gut knotted.
    His heart hammered his ribs like a beater pounding a Chinese gong.
    “I worked with Channing on the concept. The laser required to see his vision to fruition proved to be too costly.” Too glitchy and unpredictable, but not as unpredictable as the customized acrylic used for the lenses. “The diagnostic tool Channing hoped to offer will never be available. Is that what this is about?”
    For a man who hated lies, he was treading awfully close to his own. But if Channing had been killed over the lenses, no way in hell was he admitting to having them. FBI or not, they had knowledge of things they shouldn’t. Even if he had sensed their honor and integrity, they wouldn’t be the first men power had corrupted.
    He’d been misled by the government before. The results had been deadly.
    “If you think of anything, please call.”
    H nodded, unable to voice the lie of agreement. Janus was back. Channing had been murdered. He was being questioned about the lenses.
    These were not coincidences, and he couldn’t share what he knew. Eston White was too securely connected to every government branch.
    As he had with Ms. Sebastian, H watched Lawson and Burgess head to their car.
    Unlike Ms. Sebastian, Lawson pulled a cell from his pocket to make a call. After a few minutes of head shaking and shielded looks back at the office, they got in and drove away.
    Dr. H grabbed a pad from Dana’s desk and jotted down the license number and car model. He wasn’t likely to forget it, but he didn’t take chances.
    As for the contacts, he was growing used to managing the risks. Still, he would learn from Channing’s murder and tighten security.
    The FBI knew something. So did he.
    Honor and integrity were not bulletproof.

Chapter Three
    Snap.
    Crack.
    Ava’s jaw popped with the force of her it’s-too-damn-early-to-consider-being-up yawn as she fumbled with the adult-proof wrapper keeping her out of her energy shot. Tingles of lingering exhaustion vibrated along her skull and forehead. At least she hoped it was exhaustion. She hadn’t been able to dodge the headache since leaving Dr. H the day before.
    An inescapable nightmare she couldn’t wake from, seven a.m. had loomed and grown more daunting with each passing hour as she’d sat in her car outside Dr. H’s second-floor condo. She had called in for a relief team, but she should’ve called them in earlier so she could get some sleep. She’d instead stayed until long after he’d gone to sleep, because studying his habits at night would help her know how to relate to him when they were together during the day. And, after identifying potential study applicants as Whitestone operatives, she’d wanted to keep an eye out for other operatives closely monitoring him.
    Her team had hoped that alerting Dr. H to the threat caught on a recording from a