Page 161 of Allegiance

Maura needed a few hours.

With each piece of evidence she found, she was realizing that she was going to have to implement the plan.

And that worried her.

It was three days beyond risky and might get someone hurt.

That was a problem.

For her.

And for them all.

* * * H U N T E R S * * *

Somewhere In New Orleans

A Bar

Deal Time

Her mother had always told her that she could make a deal with the Devil, and walk out with the goods and her soul intact.

Artemis was well aware of it too.

Some people just had the gift of reading the room, and being that damn savvy at making a deal.

Some called her a snake oil saleswoman, and some called her a ghost for the CIA, but what she called herself was an entrepreneur.

A capitalist.

Her mother had raised her alone, and she was the product of an affair. Her mother had worked in DC, and she’d slept with a powerful man, and she’d been the byproduct.

A CIA operative so good at the game, people feared her. Sometimes, she feared herself.

She’d been burned, betrayed, and hurt in the game, and it only made her better.

Meaner.

Sneakier.

Now, she was playing a whole other game, and this one was for whoever could pay her the best.

After all, capitalism was the way of the West, and she was going to make sure she was taken care of and well.

It wasn’t like she could trust a man to do that. Men were fun, but they were a distraction.

Honestly, she didn’t give a shit about them.

Not one had really piqued her interest. Oh, she’d played with a few, but none that she found were her equal.

What she wanted was someone who understood, and who could talk themselves out of Hell and back, but could see the real her.

No one ever did.

Not.

One.