Read The Spy With the Silver Lining for Free Online

Cassie?”
    “Out, Mama.”
    They had already gone to the baggage claim and picked up their luggage. Since then, they had been waiting for Fourtier a long thirty minutes.
    Bastard.
    Casmir looked over her shoulder and saw the gypsy was still eyeing them. No, he wasn’t only staring, he was moving through the crowd toward them with a confident swagger, his long gray hair defying his age, as well as the fit of his jeans.
    He wore a sleazy red satin vest over a black shirt, and he was also sporting a tacky long earring dangling clean to his jaw.
    Someone should clue him in on how to dress when you’re over fifty, she thought. Playing Bojangles wasn’t working for him—not at all.
    Where the hell was Fourtier?
    He probably had stopped off somewhere for a beer.
    Casmir ushered her mother out the door and into the busy crowd that waited for taxis. She slipped past the mass of bodies, pulling her luggage behind her. Her mother followed, dragging her Paris tote, her dark glasses still in place hiding her black eye.
    Casmir spotted an unmarked taxi parked across the street. The driver was leaning against a silver SUV and smoking a cigarette. None of the tourists had spotted him yet.
    She bolted into the street, waving her hand to get the rebel cabby’s attention. He jumped to attention the minute he saw her and hurried to meet them. She thrust her bag at him, and yanked the Paris tote from her mother and heaved that at him as well. Shoving her mother into the backseat, she followed after her and slammed the door shut.
    “Are we in a hurry, Cassie?”
    “Do you want to stand in the heat, Mama?”
    “I’ve never been able to tolerate it, you know that. Goodness, it’s warm. I had no idea. This reminds me of the jungle in—”
    “Jungle? What jungle, Mama?”
    “There, you see, the heat is getting to me already. I don’t know what I’m saying.”
    Casmir felt a little dizzy herself. The air was as thick as sand inside the cab, and twice as suffocating.
    She kept watch out the window as the driver tossed their luggage into the trunk. She spotted the gypsy as he burst through the crowd just as the cabdriver climbed behind the wheel.
    “We’re in a hurry,” she said. “Step on it.”
    As the cabby sped away from the curb, Casmir watched the gypsy jog into the middle of the street, his feet lighter than she’d expected for a man his age. When he pulled a phone from his pocket, she knew she had guessed right. He was one of Yurii Petrov’s henchman—the hunt was on.
    The first thing on the agenda was to lose the gypsy. Once they accomplished that, she would phone Polax and tell him that their ace bodyguard was a no-show, and that Yurii had somehow found them.
    Then she would demand a sandy beach in Crete with a breeze, and that Fourtier be hung from a low tree over an alligator pond in his backyard.
     
    Pierce answered his phone on the forth ring. He was straddling a bar stool at the Ginger Root, enjoying his fifth beer and Linet’s assets as she made eyes at him from across the bar.
    “Lazie, you pick up my package?”
    “We got a problem, boy. Da two of dem took off. I’m chasin’, but dat sonofabitch cabby’s got a lead foot and two glass eyes. He’s gonta end up turned over in the levee if he keeps dis up.”
    “What the hell do you mean, they took off?”
    “Like a jackrabbit with his tail on fire.”
    “What made them run? Didn’t you tell her who you were?”
    “Didn’t get close enough ta introduce myself, mon ami. Dey slipped away like a greased snake on a spit run.”
    “Where are you now?”
    “In da Eldorado playin’ Starsky and Hutch.”
    “Don’t lose them. I’m heading back.” Pierce disconnected and jammed the phone in his pocket. “Sorry, honey, but we’re going to have to continue this reunion later. I got a rabbit to run down.”
    Linet pouted. “Let’s hope it don take another four years for you ta get back here, cowboy. If you still look as good outa dem jeans as I remember,