Read Red Cell Seven for Free Online

of that.”
    “I’m not sure yet,” she cautioned, glancing at her watch. She still had time. “Don’t count this thing in the sales column yet.”
    “I didn’t mean that. I meant the part about you not having a boyfriend.”
    She grinned as she glanced at the camera in the ceiling corner, which seemed to be aimed straight at her, wondering. “Okay, I’ll take it. It’s a lot of money, but hey, so what?”
    “Impulsive. Love it. What about dinner tonight? Can you be impulsive about a date with me?”
    “Where are we going? Wendy’s?”
    The guy’s happy expression disintegrated. “Is it that obvious I don’t—”
    “I’m just kidding. And I wouldn’t care where we went. Besides, I like Wendy’s.”
    “Hey, I can do better than that,” he said confidently, looking relieved. “I think I’ve still got a hundred bucks left on my third Visa card.”
    They laughed together, and it felt right. A sense of humor, and he didn’t take himself too seriously. Good, because both of those things were requirements in a man for her. Jennie tapped the phone’s box as she gave him her sincerest smile. “Just ring this up, okay?”
    “Sure.”
    She reached into her pocket and pulled out her old flip phone.
    He shook his head and snickered when he saw it. “Dinosaur.”
    “I know, but can you transfer the numbers and the pictures over?”
    “Absolutely,” he agreed as he took the old phone from her. “Let me get the SIM card out and work a little magic in the back. Give me a minute.”
    When he’d returned and the new phone was ready, he started to hand her the plastic bag filled with all the ancillaries—case, cords, her old phone, receipt—but pulled it back at the last second as she went for it. “I should show you a few really cool apps before you leave.”
    She shook her head as she checked her watch again. “No time. Gotta go. And I’m busy tonight. Sorry.”
    “Come back tomorrow then,” he suggested, relinquishing the bag. “Seriously, it’ll save you a lot of time if I do it.”
    “Maybe.”
    “What’s your name?” he called as she headed for the front of the store and the huge mall beyond.
    “Jennie,” she called back over her shoulder as she tossed her hair. “Jennie Perez.”
    “I like it.”
    “Yeah, yeah,” she murmured as she moved into the mall and her heels began clicking on the tiles of the wide main corridor. “I know what you like.”
    The Tysons Corner Center, known in the area as Tysons One, was a sprawling, multilevel mall located in upscale McLean, Virginia, just outside the Capital Beltway, fifteen miles west of the White House. One of the largest malls in the region, it was anchored by the big names: Bloomingdale’s, Lord & Taylor, Nordstrom. And with only a week to go until Christmas, the cavernous structure was jammed with shoppers searching for last-minute gifts.
    “Wish I lived around here,” Jennie murmured to herself as she admired the big diamond on the finger of a woman who was walking past. Jennie lived farther west, in Sterling. It was an okay area, but it wasn’t anything like McLean. “Maybe someday.”
    As she hurried toward the south entrance, zigging and zagging through the crowd, she took a few random pictures with the new phone. She had to admit the definition and color were much better than the old flip phone she’d been using. She tapped the reverse camera option on the touch screen and took a picture of herself.
    “Ugh,” she moaned softly as she looked at the photo. “Do I really look like—”
    Jennie stopped abruptly as she neared the entrance—six doors across, which led to the buffer lobby beyond, and then six more doors beyond that leading to the outside and a cold, gray December afternoon. Three men were just entering the mall from the buffer lobby. They were dressed in matching long black overcoats, and they wore baseball caps with the brims pulled low over their eyes.
    Her gaze flashed right when something else caught her