SLEEPER (Crossfire Series) by Gennita Low Page A

do you need them all?”
    Lily shook her head. “My business. How much did you pay Johnny?”
    “I’m into weapons, sweetheart, what do you think the exchange rate was?”
    She should have guessed. A few months out running around in a daze appeared to have slowed her thinking process down too. She needed to be smart here. And persuasive. “Look, Reed,” she said, smiling and looking directly into his eyes, “what if I pay you double the street price that Johnny charges for those passports? You can get new ones and have some pocket change. I really have to have the ones in your possession right now.”
    “Why?”
    “What difference does it make why?” she asked, frowning, feeling exasperated.
    “Curiosity, I guess. Like I said, that’s quite a few you ordered. You aren’t one of those child smugglers, are you? Selling babies and kids to desperate couples overseas, that sort of thing. I really hope not.”
    Lily stared at him in disgust. How dare he think that of her?
    “I don’t do business with human traffickers,” he continued, his eyes still watching her in that intense way that pulled at her insides, “although you don’t seem the type that would sell girls to men looking for mail-order wives. But then one never knows.”
    “You think I’m running a sex slave ring?” Lily asked slowly.
    It was getting really annoying the way he kept looking at her like that. It was as if he was waiting for her to do something.
    “Why else would you need so many passports? How much do you make per child? No wonder it’s urgent for you…someone must be paying a lot for these kids. Young girls are the premium, aren’t they?”
    Rage boiled over rational thought. Without thinking, Lily reached out and grabbed him by the front of his jacket. If she hadn’t been sitting down, she would have kicked him and beaten him to a pulp. The idea that he thought that she would do that to girls and children…that she would take advantage of…
    He didn’t resist when she jerked him forward angrily. Instead, he braced himself by putting both his arms on the wall behind her, trapping her face between them. She stared up, suddenly aware that his lips were a few inches away from hers. His gaze held hers, alert and watchful, with a hidden emotion she couldn’t quite understand. Her heart was thundering in her head and she fought the aggressiveness that had risen so suddenly. She had to stay in control. Maybe it hadn’t been a good idea to think she could be herself again.
    * * *
    This flower is a very complex creature.
    Reed really didn’t understand it, but sometimes he thought Arch still talked to him. One of the first things Arch had given him was a book called The Little Prince and ever since his friend had died, Reed had found himself hearing quotes from that book. Lines would pop up out of nowhere and it would make sense.
    “Let me make it very clear, mister,” Llallana said, her hands still on him, “I don’t sell or abuse women and children. As far as I’m concerned scum who do should be hung, drawn, and quartered. What I do with the passports is my business, but it has no connection with…”
    She paused and bit her lip. There was consternation on her face. Reed understood. She’d caught herself in a lie. Her business did have something to do with human trafficking, but her reluctance to lie to him was intriguing.
    He looked at Lily Noretski and again thought of that flower in the book, which had appeared out of nowhere, demanding all of the little prince’s attention. Lily caught his attention like no one ever had, with that outward exotic beauty and those thorny secrets. Being near her like this, he had the strange urge to make her tell him all her fears so he could take them away from her.
    “Maybe, maybe not,” he said softly.
    She didn’t know it, but he was her guardian and her executioner. He had to make sure she wasn’t a danger to society, that she couldn’t be used by those who had programmed her mind.