"Doranna Durgin - Heavy Metal Honey" - читать интересную книгу автора (Durgin Doranna)

he said. "I joined Hunter so we could work togetherтАжso I could do my good deeds
in the world. But I've got my own definition of good deed. Owen understood that
well enough after that business in Pittsburgh with your brother. If I'm going to work
this gig, I've got to feel there's something to it. That there's тАФ" and he cut his words
short, probably afraid of sounding just a little too Lord of the Rings.
Not a problem for Kimmer. "You want there to be honor in it," she said. "Like,
maybe, in saving people from a dirty bomb? You'd risk trading an urban population
for one woman? A woman who might already be dead?"
"Except that you're assuming she can't be of help to us. What do we lose in
looking for her, Kimmer? As opposed to sitting here in this hotel room like good
little puppets, waiting for a pat on the head and permission to go do our jobs?"
 Kimmer stroked along the top of his shoulder. Nothing provocative this
timeтАжjust plain old reaching out. The kind of touch she'd learned from Rio himself.
"I don't think I've ever heard you thisтАж" she hunted for the word, found it, and still
had trouble applying it to Rio. "Bitter."
He turned beneath her, dropping his head back to look up at her with dark eyes a
little wry, and yesтАжa little bitter. "Only because you didn't see me when I was still
hooked up to tubes and catheters and morphine, coming to terms with the agency's
failures. With the cost of those failures."
"It was just one person," Kimmer said. "One person with bad judgment."
"And a system that didn't protect my asset from the situation. Or my own
personal ass." Rio shook his head, wheat-blond hair falling back from his forehead.
"We lost more than just a foreign agent coming in from the cold that day. We lost
my friend. If I'm getting into the business again, it'll be on my terms. And that means
not losing sight of the individuals caught up in our little games."
She regarded him in silence, but not for long. Then she shrugged, her hands
resting on his chest, her toes hooked under his knees. "Okay," she said. "Then we
do both. We do it all. Bomb boys, sick mule, gamma ray package. Right?"
He grinned up at her. "You say the sweetest things."
Yeah. Right. Do it all.
Somehow.


Chapter Six


Kimmer stood in a part of Bisbee where tourists shouldn't go. A rough spot,
stuck at the end of town like an afterthought of meanness.
Good thing she wasn't a tourist.
"Owen," she'd said into the phone that late afternoon, "Rio and I are going
sightseeing in Bisbee. We have a package to gift wrap."
And he'd been silent just long enough so she knew he understood тАФ that he
should avoid asking pointed questions if he wanted to disavow knowledge of their
activity. That she was giving him the chance to say absolutely not.
But Owen had said, "Good luck with that. If you need a lift back to the hotel, let
me know."
All his way of saying he'd back them up if it came to that.
So with much cheer, she and Rio had scoured Bisbee's rough spots, asking
questions and not particularly trying to hide their outsider's nature or their intent. No
point, not with the suits sweeping through before them. No one would have talked to