A Man You Can Trust. Jo McNally

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       Chapter Two

      Nick West knew he’d startled the woman, but he was just trying to be funny. It was a joke. He figured the auburn-haired stranger would jump, then they’d both have a good laugh as he introduced himself. Humor was always a good icebreaker, right?

      He never figured she’d send a stapler flying at his head.

      He managed to swat it down before it connected with his face, but it ricocheted off the corner of his desk and smacked him in the shin.

      “Ow!” He hopped on one leg. “Damn, woman! I was just kidding around.” He rubbed his throbbing shin, unable to keep from laughing at the way his joke had backfired on him.

      But the woman wasn’t laughing. She was wide-eyed and pale, her chest rising and falling sharply. Her eyes were an interesting mix of green and gold. Her hair was a mix, too—not quite red, but more than just brown. It was pulled back off her face and into a low ponytail. She was pretty, in a fresh-scrubbed, natural way. Then he noticed her hand, which was clutching a pair of scissors like she was getting ready to go all Norman Bates on him.

      The desk was still between them, but he raised his hands as if she was holding a loaded gun. He’d already seen how good her aim was.

      “Whoa, there! Let’s dial it back a notch, okay? I’m Nick West and this is my office...I think. Am I in the wrong place?” The thought didn’t occur to him until he said it out loud. Shit. Had he just burst into some woman’s office and scared the bejesus out of her? What if this was the boss’s wife? He’d heard Randall’s wife was involved in the resorts somehow. Even if it wasn’t her, traumatizing a coworker wasn’t a good way to start his first day here.

      The hand holding the scissors lowered and color came back to her previously white knuckles. She lifted her chin, but it trembled, and there was genuine fear in her eyes. It made him feel like a jerk.

      “Look, I’m sorry. I was kidding around. I do that sometimes.”

      “You scared the hell out of me, and you did it on purpose!” Those green-gold eyes flashed in anger. “Is that how you plan on introducing yourself to everyone here? Because I’ve got news for you—it won’t go over well.” She reached up to push her hair behind her ear and took a steadying breath. “This is your office, Mr. West. I’m Cassie...um...Smith, and I’ll be working with you. I was setting up your desk.”

      Great. He’d never had a secretary before, and he’d just traumatized the first one he got. Smooth move, West. He grunted out a short laugh, rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to figure out how to fix this mess.

      “Let’s rewind and start over, okay? You’re my first secretary.” He stopped when her eyes narrowed. “What? What’d I say wrong now?”

      “I am not your secretary. I’m Mr. Randall’s executive assistant, and I’ll be supporting you with some of your projects. I’ll provide data. I’ll run reports. But I don’t take dictation and I won’t be fetching your damned coffee.”

      Well, well, well. The jumpy lady had a backbone after all. Nick knew how to be a good cop. He had no damned clue how to be a good executive.

      “Not a secretary. Got it. Like I said, I’m new at this corporate thing. In LA, I had a dispatcher and a desk sergeant. Something tells me you’ll be closer to the latter.” He nodded down to her hand. “I’d be a lot happier if you’d put those down.”

      Cassie looked down and appeared surprised to see the scissors still in her hand. She dropped them to the desk like they were burning her.

      “Sorry,” she mumbled. She continued to look down, lost in thought.

      Her body language was all over the place, causing his cop’s sixth sense to kick in. First she was jumpy and defensive. Then proud and outspoken. And now, as she apologized, she visibly shrank. He didn’t like timid women. They reminded him of victims, and he’d had his fill of victims. But then again, victims didn’t fling staplers at people’s heads.

      “Don’t apologize,” he said. “That was a juvenile thing for me to do. I gotta remember I’m not in a police precinct anymore.” And he’d never be in one again. He rubbed his thigh absently. Shoving that thought aside, he flashed her a rueful grin. “I’ll probably need your help monitoring my corporate behavior.”

      She nodded, not returning the smile, but straightening a bit. “I don’t like practical jokes, but I’m sure you’ll do fine here. It’s a good group of people, and they like to have fun.”

      Interesting. She said they like to have fun, not we. He looked around the office. He’d barely noticed it yesterday, just dropping off his boxes and checking in to his room to crash after the long cross-country drive. The view of Gallant Lake was sweet. The giant flat-screen on the wall with all the changing camera feeds was even sweeter. He saw the photo on the bookshelf and blinked. Jada. It was her death that chased him out of LA and into this new life. The picture was a reminder of how quickly good things could go bad.

      A large hand clamped down on his shoulder from behind, and Nick restrained himself from spinning around swinging. Old habits were hard to break. In this case, it would have been especially bad, since it was his new boss.

      “Sorry I missed your arrival, Nick. We had a guest giving the desk staff a hard time about the five movies on his room bill. Turns out his ten-year-old СКАЧАТЬ