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  “I am so sorry, Mr. Chandler,” she said as she moved down the steps until she was on the same one with Chandler, her heels clanking loudly against the steel stairs. “I didn’t see you, I assure you I didn’t. I didn’t even hear you come up the stairs!”

  “How could you hear anything the way you were rushing?”

  “I was . . . late for a meeting, sir,” Tori said less assuredly, his less than forgiving tone unsettling to her.

  “Is this meeting more important than your life, Miss Douglas? Or mine, for that matter?”

  Tori didn’t know how to respond. He knew her name, which stunned her, but he seemed so unforgiving! And when he removed his handkerchief to fold it over, and she saw the blood from his lip on its white form, she nearly panicked with concern. “You’re bleeding!” she said excitedly, as if she’d never seen such a sight before.

  “I think I’m aware of that,” he said with far less enthusiasm. Then he reached his hand out to her. “Help me up,” he told her. She immediately placed her briefcase and purse down and reached both of her hands for his. She, however, started pulling before he realized she would and his big bulk against her small frame was no match. Instead of pulling him up, as she tried to do with all she had, she ended up falling down, literally, in his lap.

  Her rump dropped down so hard that he had to release his handkerchief and grab hold of her before they both slid on down the stairs. This maneuver not only put her in his lap, but cradled her even further in his arms. She couldn’t believe her clumsiness and looked at him quickly, to gauge his reaction. And just like that his look had changed. Instead of the irritation he had shown previously, there was a calming look to him now. An almost caring, concerned look. And the way his big arms felt encased around her, so warm and possessive, that she began herself to calm down too.

  Ethan was also calm, as he held this wonderfully scented woman in his arms. She was gorgeous, he thought, and so sweet and soft to the touch, that his heart began to pound. And when he looked at her lips, her full, sexy, moist lips, he wanted to kiss her. To kiss his employee, for crying out loud!

  Tori didn’t know what to make of their closeness either. He was her boss, first and last, and she couldn’t afford to do anything to lose her job. They she sniffed his sweet cologne scent, looked deep into his beautiful bright blue eyes, and she suddenly understood why she had been so fascinated by him. He even pulled her closer against him, in a kind of all is forgiven truce, she suspected, but when he looked down, at her breasts, and looked back up with a heavy-lidded gaze, it finally registered with her just what kind of concerned look he was really giving her. She immediately removed herself from his grasp. Only she removed herself so quickly, jumping up as if his lap was a fire bed, that her high heel accidentally came crashing down on his hand, causing him to snatch it back and scream out in pain.

  “Oh no,” she cried, leaning down to touch his hand, “I am so sorry! Let me help you—”

  “Stay away from me!” Ethan ordered as he shook his hand and then placed it under his armpit. “I’m sorry,” he said, calmer, “but please just. . .” He gave up on talking, as the pain continued to sear him, and fell back against the rail. Tori’s heart dropped. “Mr. Chandler, I am so—”

  “Miss Douglas,” Ethan said, looking up at her, that caring, concerned look he had given her earlier now completely gone. “Have a nice day.”

  It was a dismissal, no doubt about that. And she nodded, grabbed her gear, and began to leave, feeling awful that she had to leave him this way. But when she thought to turn, to see if she could at least help him to his feet, he quickly ended that hope.

  “Goodbye, Miss Douglas,” he said sharply, without even bothering to look up at her.

  “Goodbye, Mr. Chandler,” she said, and fled.

  Tori still felt the embarrassment of that moment even now, especially as she looked at her two friends. The pained look on their faces, she thought, said it all.

  “What a bastard,” Sheila said in a low tone.

  “Did he really dismiss you that way?” Macy asked. “After holding you like that?”

  “Yes, Mace. But it’s understandable. I mean, I did almost put a hole in his hand with my shoe heel.”

  “Dang,” Macy said. “That had to hurt.”

  “Now do you see why it’s crazy for him to want me anywhere near him? He hates me.”

  “He doesn’t hate you,” Macy said. “He’s just. . . a weird white man.”

  “He hates me.”

  “Then don’t go,” Sheila said definitively. “That’s your answer to a jerk like that. Don’t go.”

  “I have to go.”

  “You don’t have to do anything.”

  “He’ll fire me if I don’t go, Sheila, alright? Arthur Coughlin all but said so himself. So I have to go.”

  “Go,” Macy said, “but take a gun with you.”

  “Oh, Mace, please,” Sheila said frowningly. “I’m just playing, dang. But I still say you should go, Tori. It’s obvious to me and anybody else who knows about these things that the man’s in love with you.”

  “In love?” both Tori and Sheila said in unison, both stunned by Macy’s words.

  “Yes, in love! I ain’t taking it back. The man loves her. Why else would he, just four days after she nearly knocked him out, want her anywhere near him? He selected her, remember? She didn’t go running to him. He remembered how she felt on his lap and he wants her with him, I don’t care what y’all say.”

  Sheila attempted to argue the point with Macy, but Tori didn’t even bother. She didn’t believe or a second that Ethan Chandler could have any feelings for her except murderous ones, especially after their two disastrous meetings. It was true that she hadn’t been able to get him out of her mind, especially after the way he held her in his arms, but that was her. She was known for flights of fancy. Ethan Chandler, on the other hand, was a captain of industry, a serious man who didn’t have time to be swooning over the likes of her. No, Macy had it wrong again. He had his reasons for selecting her, she’d concede that, but, she was equally certain, love wasn’t one of them.

  “Well?” Sheila said, and Tori, buried in thought, asked her to repeat her question. “Are you or are you not going to Florida with Chandler? Macy, of course, is all for it, but I say no, you shouldn’t go.”

  “But I have to go,” Tori said. “I asked Arthur to tell it to me straight and he did. He said I could get fired if I didn’t impress Chandler, whatever the hell that means. And y’all know my situation. I just bought that house for my parents out in Arlington Heights. Do you know how much that mortgage is? And you add to that the money I’m paying out a month for that apartment of mine and there’s no way I can lose this job. One thing about Chandler he pays his employees well. I couldn’t hope to get paid like this, based on my experience, for another eight, ten years. No, Sheila, I understand what you’re saying, I do. But I can’t afford to not go. I have to go.”

  She also had to admit, although she hated to admit it, that for once in her life she needed somebody. Because for purely economic reasons, she wasn’t even thinking about the emotional ones, she needed Ethan Chandler.

  FIVE

  She was late and she knew it, and the thought of it, of getting left behind, caused her to grab her luggage and her purse and run out of her front door as if her life depended on it. She fell back against that door, however, when she stepped outside and saw who was standing on the other side of her door, leaning against the bannister.

  “You scared the life out of me!” she screeched. “What are you doing here?”

  Bobby Rogers beamed. He loved catching Tori Douglas off guard. “Can’t a man come see his lady?” he asked her.

  “His ex-lady,” Tori corrected, “and no, the man can’t. And especially not today.” Tori began hurrying toward the stairs.

  “Whoa, girl,” Bobby said, following her, “where you going so fast?”

  “I have a plane to catch and I’m already late.”

  “As usual.”

  Tori stopped her progression and looked at Bobby. He was tall, gorgeous, with a smile to light up a room and a body that could do more than that. But the problem with Bobby was that he knew it, too, and was more than willing to spread his good fortune to any and every woman interested. “Is there a reason why you’re here, or is annoying me your goal?”

  Bobby laughed. “I came to see what was up with you. I called Fitzgerald-Waterhouse but they said you didn’t work there anymore.”

  “You knew I didn’t work there, Bobby. I haven’t worked there for over five months.”

  “How was I to know that?”

  “I told you, remember? During your every-now-and-then calls asking me to take you back?”

  “Oh, yeah, that. Well, I forgot, all right?”

  “I’ll see you around, Bobby,” Tori said, hurrying away again.

  Bobby, however, grabbed her by the arm before she could make a full getaway. “But for real, Tori,” he said. “I wanna talk to you.”

  “Talk to me about what?”

  “What you mean ‘about what?’ About us!”

  “Us? There is no us, and you know it. And let go of my arm.” She jerked it away and began moving away from him.

  “But I still love you, though,” Bobby said and Tori almost stopped in her tracks. She had loved him once. Desperately. But that was before she discovered that she wasn’t the only female loving him, or, more to the point, that he was loving.

  “Goodbye, Bobby,” she said, the pain still too real, and hurried on down the stairs.

  Arthur Coughlin checked his watch for the tenth time before pulling out his cell phone and once again dialing the number to Tori’s apartment. It was a comfortable, warm morning in Chicago, but with wind gusts up to 30 mph his oversized suit flapped like a sheet on a clothesline as he stood outside the airport. There was no answer at Tori’s place, as the phone rang and rang, but that was a good thing to Arthur because it meant Tori wasn’t still at home. But it wasn’t so good too because it meant he still didn’t know where in the world she was.

  Just as he was about to dial her number again, a cab stopped at the curb, and Tori quickly stepped out.

  “About time!” Arthur said with undisguised displeasure as he hurried to the cab. “Where have you been, Tori?”

  “It wasn’t my fault,” Tori said as she hoisted her shoulder bag up on her shoulder and grabbed her carrying case. “I mean, it was partly. I was running late, true enough, but not this late. There was a terrible accident we couldn’t avoid and we were jammed in. We couldn’t move until the wreckage was cleared, you should have seen it, Arthur.” But Arthur just stared at her as if he didn’t believe a word she was saying. “Ask the driver if you don’t believe me.”

  The driver, who seemed eager to get rid of Tori so that he could get back to making money, lifted her suitcase out of his trunk.

  “How much does she owe you?” Arthur asked, reaching into his pocket, but Tori quickly told him that she’d already paid. Arthur thereby grabbed her luggage from the cab driver and then grabbed Tori’s arm and hurried her toward the airport’s entrance.

  “Is Mr. Chandler here yet?” she asked as she moved to the swift pull of his hand and Arthur, amazed, looked at her.

  “Is Mr. Chand. . . Tori, Mr. Chandler is either very early or he doesn’t show up.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Yes, he’s here,” Arthur said, ushering her inside the airport. “He’s been here for nearly an hour, and he’s not thrilled at all that you haven’t.”

  Ethan Chandler sat quietly in a private waiting area inside the airport. Sitting beside him, in a small arch-top chair, was his security chief, Marc Grier. Marc, dressed in a pair of jeans and a sweat shirt, was leaned forward, with pen and paper in hand, going over the final details with his boss.

  “And you’re absolutely certain it’s Fred Morton?” Ethan asked him.

  “We’re certain. Absolutely. Has to be him. He’s the one with the opportunity and the access. He’s the one with the connections. The other execs are still on the list, but Morton’s at the top of that list.”

  “He has access and opportunity. But does he have the motive?”

  “Money,” Marc said and Ethan looked at him. “He needs it,” Grier added, “and needs it badly. We did some digging. He’s in hock up to his bushy eyebrows. His gambling habit has caused him to incur a lot of messy debt.”

  “But if he’s been selling cost projections, surely he’s been getting paid. His bank accounts any richer?”

  “He’s too smart for that. These are cash transactions, has to be. He’s leaving no paper trails.”

  “Naturally.”

  “Oh, Freddy’s a sharp cookie, let me tell you. He wouldn’t be on your management team if he wasn’t.”

  Ethan nodded, but such faint praise hardly made him feel better.

  “And what about this Douglas woman,” he said as if she was a stranger to him. “Victoria Douglas. Are you sure she can be of some real help here?”

  “All we can do is see,” Grier said. “I’m telling you I did my homework on this one, boss. Morton has a thing for her I’m telling you. And, from everything we could gather, he really respects her, which means he’ll respond to her quickly, which is what we need.”

  “But will he confide in her?”

  “That’s the million dollar question. We believe so but we can only wait and see.”

  Ethan hesitated. “You say he respects her. Why?”

  “He just does. I’m sure he has his reasons. And that’s why I think you made the right call. If he sees her in Cedar Key working with you, he wouldn’t get suspicious and clam up. He respects her opinions on a lot of different subjects, so he’d just figure you would too and that’s why you selected her to accompany you. If he’ll share any secrets to anybody, it’ll probably be to Douglas.”

  “Are they that close?” Chandler asked with a smile, attempting to bury the tinge of jealousy he found himself feeling.

  “They’re pretty tight, yeah.”

  “Then why hasn’t he let her in on this little scheme of his already, since they’re so tight?”

  “Proximity,” Grier said as if he’d already anticipated the question. “Too close to the action here in town. But in Cedar Key, where he expects to be alone as usual, seeing a beautiful woman like her around could soften a man, maybe make him slip to where he reveals some little piece of the puzzle that can blow this case wide open.”

  Ethan exhaled. The idea of Victoria Douglas caught up in all of this clandestine activity wasn’t sitting well with him at all. “Why not let Douglas in on the game?” he asked. “Why should she have to be in the dark too?”

  “She absolutely has to be, sir. We’ve already been over this. Like you said, Morton’s no fool. A female start pumping him for information or phrasing her questions just so, he’ll see right through that. He knows Douglas. He knows how she is. If she changes at all, we can kiss any hope of success goodbye.”

  Ethan nodded, although his face still looked worried.

  “You chose the plan, boss,” he said. “You said she was the one you wanted with you on this trip, and I couldn’t agree with you more. But if you’re having second thoughts—”

  Ethan frowned. “What are you talking about? Why would I have second thoughts? Morton and his scheme is costing my company millions, and enriching my competitors on top of it. I’ll use Victoria Douglas and ten more like her to put an end to this disaster, you understand? I don’t have second thoughts about saving my company.”

  “All right. I just thought—”

  “You just thought what?”

  Grier hesitated. “What?” Ethan asked.

  “I just thought that, I don’t know, that you might care for this one.”

  “Care for her?” Ethan asked as if it was the most incredible tale ever told. “What on earth would give you that impression?”

  You, Grier wanted to say. The way you’re always asking about her, getting me and my men to check up on her, acting as if you were angrier at Morton for taking pictures of her rather than for bilking your company. “I was just running my mouth, that’s all,” Grier said instead, as he rose to his feet. “Remember now, boss, Morton isn’t expected until the weekend. My people are already set up for surveillance and they’re ready for any actuality. Karl Brennan will meet your plane. I’ll be along in a day or two, after I check out a few things here first. But call me if you need me.”

  “Will do, Marc, thanks,” Ethan said as he shook his security chief’s hand and watched him leave the room.