Kissing Fire Read Online Free Page A

had a stare down. He realized I knew my stuff. I
knew the first person to speak would lose, so I clammed up.
    After several extremely long and uncomfortable
minutes, he finally said, “No. But I want it. So what do you
propose?”
    “One small bite at a time. We start with Seattle,
then Portland then south to San Francisco. Then, before the Juarez
Cartel knows what hit them, we are firmly ensconced in L.A.,
stealing all of their fucking business. Not only heroin, but
whatever else you wanna sell. How does that sound Mr.
Jainukul?”
    He slammed his hand down on his desk again, only
this time it didn’t startle me. This time I smiled. “Do we have a
deal?” I asked.
    “I think we do Mr. Shelton. How will you get
product?”
    “Oh, I won’t be getting product, you’ll be sending
it the usual way. We can work out the details. Is that good with
you?”
    “That is good with me. How long are you in
Bangkok?”
    “Another week. Is that enough time?”
    “More than enough.” He smiled.
    Then I smiled. I rose to my feet and let the
bodyguards escort me back to my taxi. My job would be done in a
week. Then I would be in the wind for a month. That was how we
operated. We would disappear. I had so many aliases, so many
passports, birth certificates, driver’s licenses, social security
cards that I kept them filed in a safe at my home in Montana. I
carried several sets with me when I traveled but they could be
destroyed at a moment’s notice. After next week, Mr. Shelton, would
cease to exist. When I disappeared, there were only a couple of
people that knew how to find me, Pete being one of them. I usually
went to large cities where I could blend in with the people, where
no one would notice me.
    I left Bangkok ten days later, after Mr. Jainukul,
his front men and his connections had been arrested. I traveled to
Katmandu, then back to Delhi, and I ended up in Istanbul for a
while. When I figured it was safe, I booked a flight to Washington
D.C so I could spend some time with my mom. Then I decided it was
time to go to Seattle. It was time that my sister Caroline and her
husband saw the wedding pictures that they thought their
photographer had lost.

Chapter 3
     
     
    Ava
     
    “Jeez, Melissa, don’t break it! That’s my fine china
in there.” She was slinging my boxes I’d filled with china like
they were filled with air.
    “Oops. Sorry,” she said sheepishly. “I don’t own
anything that’s breakable.”
    I’d gotten most of my kitchen things packed up in
the morning and all the boxes would be put in storage. My clothes
would be moved when I found a place to live sometime in the near
future. Or that was my hope anyway. I was mostly worried about all
the stuff in my cabinets so that’s why I’d tackled them first.
    “So what are you taking with you now?”
    “Just clothes for about a month or so. I’ll be back
here, hopefully to close on this place and if not, at least to move
my stuff into my new place out there.”
    Melissa looked at me for a second and then asked,
“Where are you gonna live until you find a place?”
    “I think I’ll stay in a hotel for a few nights and
then maybe rent a furnished apartment for a month or so.”
    “Why don’t you stay with your brother?”
    I kind of wriggled a little when she asked me that
question. “Well, I’m not sure he’d really want me to. A night or so
maybe but not for a month.”
    “Why not? He’s your brother isn’t he?”
    “Yeah, but we sort of had some problems in the
past.”
    “Oh? What kind of problems?”
    I groaned really loud. I hated to even think about
how awful I had been to him.
    “If I tell you, will you promise not to hold it
against me?”
    She looked at me kind of funny and said, “Well
yeah.”
    “A few years back, Justin had a lot
of women chasing him. I mean, I guess they all thought he was
pretty hot or something. He’s my brother so I don’t think of him
that way. Anyway, to me it seemed he was breaking hearts
everywhere.