Free 19 Headed for Trouble by Suzanne Brockmann Page A

there and back.
    Sam worked off his frustration—or tried to anyway—with a ten-mile run. It was nearly noon before he returned to the resort.
    He was drenched with perspiration, his hair literally dripping with sweat. He would have stuck to the shade and gone straight up to his room without talking to anyone, except there was some sort of commotion by the pool.
    The hellsmaids—three of them anyway; Chloe was AWOL—were giving their full, shrill attention to a mandressed in a snugly fitting blue T-shirt and linen pants. He was height-challenged, with dark hair and …
    “Hey, sweetie,” he said as he spotted Sam dripping on the stone walkway beneath the arches, turning to greet him with a wide smile. “Rumor has it you need some TLC.”
    Alyssa apparently couldn’t make it here to Italy, but she’d called their good friend and her former partner in the FBI, Jules Cassidy, as a stand-in.
    He came right over and gave Sam a hug, despite the high sweat and slime factor. In fact, Jules gave him a big hug. A much, much,
much
too long of a hug.
    For once, Heather, Ashley, and Sabrina were wide-eyed and silent, staring at them, definitely wondering …
    So Sam cleared his throat. “It’s good to see you,” he told Jules. Which was no lie. But when he cleared his throat again and gruffly added, “Sweetie,” it definitely boosted any potential misperceptions.
    Jules laughed his ass off, of course. “Alyssa is going to love hearing about this,” he whispered as he hugged Sam again.
    Yeah, she would. Provided they would ever be in the same country at the same time again.

    “I was in Dubai,” Jules said, as Sam pulled two bottles of cold water from his suite’s kitchen fridge. He tossed one to Jules. “Thanks. It’s not
quite
the same neighborhood, but close enough. Closer than Richmond. I had some time off coming, so … Here I am.”
    “Checking up on me.” Sam toasted him then took a long swig from his bottle.
    “Absolutely not,” Jules said. Up close, the FBI agent looked tired. His usually bright smile even seemed a touch forced. He sank into one of the leather armchairsin the suite’s sitting area. “Your wife trusts you completely. Although, that
Girls Gone Wild
comment? It was probably not her most favorite thing she’s ever heard you say.”
    “I was trying to get a rise out of her. And no offense,” Sam said, half-sitting on the desk where his laptop was out and open, “but I was kind of hoping she’d be the one to show.”
    “She sounded pretty pissed off when I spoke to her,” Jules reported. “This guy she’s looking for? He knows she’s looking. He’s been messing with her. Playing games.”
    “Thanks. I love hearing that.” Sam’s blood pressure was up so high, his ears were ringing. “Motherfucker’s a sex offender.”
    “And if Alyssa were ten years old, she’d be in danger,” Jules reassured him. “She finally called in for backup, by the way. Lindsey and … damn, I’m blanking on his name … former CIA …?”
    “Dave Malkoff,” Sam supplied the name of the Troubleshooters’ operative.
    “That’s him.” Jules glanced at his watch. “They’re probably in Richmond with Alyssa right now, cuffing the guy.”
    “Good.” Which meant Alyssa could be
here
by tomorrow night.
    “Yeah, you’re way too happy at that news,” Jules said. “You haven’t checked your email, have you?”
    Sam shifted his laptop so he could see the screen, jumped on line and … Sure enough, there was an email from Alyssa. Subject:
I’m needed in San Diego
. “No. No, no, no …”
    He clicked on it, skimmed it. The good news was that she, Lindsey, and Dave had indeed caught the game-playing sex offender. The bad news was that their boss,Tom Paoletti, had another assignment waiting for Alyssa. Which meant it would be … 
What?
    “She’s going OCONUS,” Sam told Jules, using the military term for outside of the United States. “Unless I can somehow get home by Friday