Free The Archangel Agenda (Evangeline Heart Book 1) by A.K. Alexander, Jen Greyson

me safe. But still, he’d never flat-out told me not to do a job, not even the extremely dangerous ones. His aggressive, overt refusal on this one was curious ... like he knew something I didn’t.
    “Come on.” He picked up his glass of scotch. I did the same. We stood and I followed him into his “special room,” filled with computers and techno gizmos that my brain had a bit of a hard time wrapping around.
    He took the captain’s chair in front of a six-screen setup. He flicked the mouse and the computer came to life. After giving him the small amount of intel I’d garnered doing my recon at Felt’s place, he discovered the security company for Felt’s house and back-doored his way into the system. On the screen was a green glowing floor plan of the entire estate. He clicked a few more keys and separated the floors and turned the entire thing into a 3-D model.
    I set my glass down and leaned forward. “Okay, so what am I up against?”
    “This is interesting.” More keystrokes. “It looks like … for whatever reason, he’s only running a portion of his security. Must think that security guard at the front gate is enough to create an impression.” Malcolm shook his head. “He’s lazy. Installed that system when he built the house, but hasn’t run the full thing in over a year.” He turned to me with a grin. “Looks like it’s your lucky day.”
    I snorted. “I hope you’re right.”
    He spun the 3-D image around and we searched for a room that might hold relics. “There.” I pointed to a big room on the second floor. “Can you get more detail on that?”
    He switched the view and pulled up the room’s security camera. I gripped the edge of his desk. Display cases and pedestals spread across the entire room, but the randomness of it was peculiar. I recognized some of the pieces from Mom’s reports as well as bits I’d stumbled across in Ralph’s boxes. “This is the room.”
    He panned the camera. I wasn’t spotting the ring, but that didn’t mean anything. The images weren’t one hundred percent clear, and there were a lot there. I knew though that the piece was there. It had to be.
    Together we studied the room. I frowned and leaned closer to the screen. “He doesn’t have any idea what these are. There’s no other reason he’d have such a mix of Muslim and Jewish and Christian artifacts beside each other like that. It’s as if he collects them for collection’s sake.” I sat back and crossed my arms. “Typical rich guy.”
    “Yes, but that rich guy is standing between you and the next step, so you’re going to have to get in there and quickly.”
    I sucked on my lower lip and pondered all the moving pieces. “This is insane. I’m going to get caught. But I think the piece is in there. The ring has to be in that collection.”
    “You will get caught with that attitude.” He adjusted in the seat and winced.
    “Are you hurt?” I hadn’t noticed when I’d first come in, too caught up in my own crap, but now I noticed the strain at the corners of his eyes and mouth. He moved again like he couldn’t get comfortable.
    He waved away my concern. “My damn hip. I’ve put surgery off too long. They told me I won’t get another assignment until I get it fixed.”
    I arched an eyebrow at him, just because they’d demanded it didn’t mean he was going to do it. “Did you bother calling a doctor yet?”
    “Yes, dammit. I’m going in the morning. Dirty bastard is probably in cahoots with them.”
    I smiled. “Maybe, but if you have to have it done...”
    He grunted.
    That wasn’t horrible news. I could deal with him going in for surgery. But he couldn’t get sick on me. That would put him out of commission for any further help on this project.
    Malcolm reached over and patted my knee. “Work the facts. Find the holes. Watch your back.”
    I sighed. I stood and brushed the legs of my pants. “Okay. I have to get on this.”
    “Do the work, girl. Just do the work.