Read Evil Red for Free Online Page B

every nerve to keep straight and not look away
first.
    Melcher cleared his throat. “Agent Crist and I have a
professional relationship, as does everyone privileged enough to be
on my team. I’m disappointed, Valerie. I thought you worked out
your aggression at boot camp.”
    “I’m sorry,” Valerie said begrudgingly.
    Melcher cocked one brow.
    Valerie’s shoulders sagged slightly. She looked at
Crist. “I apologize for my rude remark, Agent Crist.”
    Crist nodded her blotchy face stiffly. She barely
looked at Valerie, like she couldn’t stand the sight of her. The
feeling was mutual.
    “Are we all square?” Melcher asked Crist.
    She nodded again.
    Fine, Valerie liked it better when the woman kept her
trap shut.
    “Good, then let’s get back to business,” Melcher
said. He was far less intimidating once his face and tone returned
to normal. “You have a place to live and you have your first
assignment. That leaves one other thing.”
    Great, now what?
    Melcher grabbed a set of keys off his desk. They
jangled as he held them up by a red plastic keychain. “These are
the keys to your new Honda Civic.”
    Every pleasure center of Valerie’s brain lit up like
a quickie mart after sunset. It had been so long since she truly
smiled that it felt like an unused muscle was being pulled and
stretched. Valerie would have liked to play coy, but she couldn’t.
Not for this. Not when Melcher held the keys to her very own car in
his fingertips.
    Valerie stood up and snatched the keys.
    “When you do good work you will find I can be quite
generous,” Melcher said. “Your new car is equipped with a GPS. We figured you could use it,
as you’re new to the city. Your home address and the high school
are programmed into the favorites menu.”
    Valerie only half listened. Boys had given her
jewelry before, and there’d been a certain excitement at holding a
pendant or bracelet in her palm for the first time, but those
trinkets seemed trivial as she held the keys to her new car inside
her fingers.
    She closed them in her fist, suddenly afraid Melcher
would take them back.
    “ I don ’t
have a license.”
    Valerie didn’t want to admit it, but the agents had
to know with full access to all her records.
    “You do now,” Melcher said.
    Crist reached into her desk drawer and begrudgingly
handed an ID card to Melcher. The moment Melcher held it forward,
Valerie snatched it from his fingers.
    There it was—an Alaskan Driver’s License issued to
Valerie Ward. Brown eyes. Red hair. Weight…whatever. Age…
    “ Twenty-one! ”
    “We altered your age should the occasion arise that
you need to go undercover inside a club,” Melcher said.
    This kept getting better and better. The only thing
that sucked was the photograph, taken from her junior year. Those
school yearbook portraits wouldn’t even do Scarlett Johansson
justice. But Valerie wasn’t going to worry about that right now.
She had a driver’s license without taking the test and keys to her
very own car.
    “Do you know how to drive?” Crist demanded, finding
her voice again.
    “Of course,” Valerie said. “My boyfriends always let me take
their cars for a spin.” Except
for Todd. He ’d balked at the suggestion. The jerk probably
hooked up with someone else before the ink even dried on Valerie’s
obituary.
    On to bigger and better.
    Val had her own set of wheels now and a vampire to
seduce. Easy as Eskimo pie.
    Before she could walk out the door, Crist lashed out.
“Do we need to remind you what will happen if you try to skip town
or contact your family?”
    Way to ruin the moment.
    She made Val’s sisters look like saints. Sisters
she’d never see again. Valerie knew the deal. Her instructors had
made everything crystal clear before training began. Fine, she’d
play ball… for now. Once Valerie rose up the ranks, she would
renegotiate her terms. If they’d give her a car on her first day,
there had to be more perks where that came from.
    Valerie shook