Read Badass: Deadly Target (Complete): Military Romantic Suspense for Free Online Page A

jar back home.”
    Whew. Nailed it.
    He simply stares at me. “Look, Miss … I don’t even know your name.”
    I consider giving him a fake name but know it would take only one look in my wallet to know the truth. “Mia. Mia Hewitt. And you?”
    “Jaxson Hathaway, but everyone calls me Jax.”
    “Well, Mr. Hathaway, this has been fun and lovely, but I do need to go.” I stand, and he does too. Now, I’m staring at his chest and can just see the outline of one nipple. I sit back down and groan. Crotch level is worse. I stand back up and turn my back to him.
    Staring at that stupid blank wall, the weight of the day pours down on me again. My face burns with emotion even as anger burns in my heart. How is any of this happening? My mom. Now this. The uncertainty of what to do or who to trust. Not knowing what’s in that box that is so important or who wants it.
    Hands fall on my shoulders and turn me around. I’m staring at his chest again. “Sit down.”
    I bristle at the command, but do as I’m told, briefly wondering what he’d do if I tried to make a run for it. Shoot me? Does he even have a gun? I curse myself for leaving Mom’s in the car, but how could I have ever even considered something like this occurring?
    “Mia, who told you to come here?” he asks, straddling his chair again. “I mean, really. Who do you work for?”
    “Schubert and Company,” I answer automatically and again, wonder if I should have lied.
    “Who’s that?”
    “They produce machine components for aerospace, automotive, medical device, and technology industries. I’m a clerk there; I’ve been there for five years now.” See , I want to say, I’m just a normal, boring person.
    He barks out a harsh laugh. “Either they have you trained so well you’re incredibly convincing, or you’re actually telling the truth. I’m not quite sure yet.” His eyes travel from my eyes to my mouth, and my stomach does that little twisty thing again.
    “Well, I did spend six weeks in training and have hopes of rising to supervisor within the next couple of years. I’d love to go back to school and get my engineering degree, but…”
    He blinks at me. What? My eyes grow wide with the unspoken question.
    “Mia, who do you really work for?”
    I throw up my hands. “I’m a stripper by day and call girl by night.” I spread my arms and look down at the pink sweater set and chocolate colored trousers I wore to work this morning. “Can’t you tell?” I point to the box. “That’s a list of my Johns. Can we go now?”
    His lips twitch.
    “I’m an ex-Army Ranger,” he admits out of nowhere. “Was in the army for ten years before I was recruited by the CIA. I’ve known bad guys, Mia. Killed a bunch of them, captured even more. I take my job seriously, and I will do anything needed to protect and serve my country.”
    He looks at me, those blue eyes piercing into my soul. I swallow and twist my fingers together.
    “You are either a very talented spy who wants to do bad things to the country I love, or you don’t have a clue as to what you have in that big ass bag right there. And you don’t have a clue how quickly the information you want to carry out of this bank will get you killed. Because it will get you killed. From either side, Mia. The good guys who want to protect it will kill you for that very reason and might feel a little bit bad for it later once they learn you were just an ignorant mule.”
    Mule? Indignation rises and I open my mouth, but he bulldozes on.
    “Or the bad guys will consider you an ant that is merely in the way of what they want. They’ll delete you from their memory banks once they murder you. The only thing in this world that will remember you is the shark they feed you to when they toss you into the middle of the ocean. Then even it will forget you after it says ‘yum.’”
    I can’t breathe.
    Or swallow.
    I very well might pee my pants, but I’m holding on hard to that bodily