Cold As Ice. Anne Stuart

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СКАЧАТЬ had a button beneath her desk to call for help if she needed it. She pressed it with her knee as she reached for the phone.

      “You don’t have an appointment, Mr. Whitman, and I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” she said. She was calm, always certain she could fix anything. “If you want to come in tomorrow and discuss your case—”

      “The telephone don’t work,” he said, lumbering closer. He was a huge man, burly and heavily muscled, and he smelled like beer and sweat. And rage. “And I ain’t got a case. You’ve been interfering between me and mine, and it’s time somebody taught you a lesson.”

      He was right, the telephone was dead. That was when she felt her first inkling of fear, but there was still the button beneath her desk. She held it, thinking fast.

      “We can talk about it during office hours, Mr. Whitman,” she said, not a trace of nervousness showing through her calm demeanor. “In the meantime I’ll have to ask you to leave.”

      He laughed. He didn’t bother to close the glass door of the cubicle behind him—he knew there was no one there to help. “I think we’ll talk about it right now. And I don’t think talking is gonna cut it.”

      She tried to run, but he slammed her against the cubicle, and the heavy glass shattered beneath her body. There were times when she could almost forget it, and times when it came thundering back. The feel of his fists against her face, her body, so that when she fell she landed on the broken glass, as he kicked her, over and over again, and the broken shards dug into her skin. It seemed to go on forever; just when she thought he’d finished and was leaving her, another blow came, another kick, and she moaned, her mouth full of blood.

      He leaned over her, yanking her up so that her face was just inches from his. “Hell,” he said, “you ain’t even worth killing.” And he dropped her back on the floor.

      She must have lost consciousness. When she woke up she was alone in the pitch-black building, lying in a pool of blood.

      She’d had to crawl over the glass. She’d made it as far as the stairs and then collapsed, lying in a broken heap, unable to move, unable to speak. She could only cry.

      She’d spent a week in the hospital. By the time she could talk, Whitman had disappeared, along with his wife and two children. People said Marge had gone willingly, and Genevieve had believed them. After all, hadn’t she received a bouquet of flowers with an almost illegible, unsigned note? “I’m so sorry.” It could hardly have come from Whitman.

      The police looked for him, but it was a halfhearted attempt. She wasn’t dead, she wasn’t even permanently injured. Her body healed with the help of medicine and physical therapy, her mind healed with the help of the best therapists, and she’d learned to be comfortable around men once more. She’d learned to defend herself and she’d left for the safer pastures of New York City, where she could live a peaceful life.

      Until she woke up screaming. Remembering.

      As she did right now.

      4

      Harry wasn’t in the best of moods. He’d been ready to make his move on the luscious Ms. Spenser when Jensen had stuck his unwanted limey nose into the room and taken her away, and now he was feeling restless, bad-tempered and ready to take it out on someone. Preferably Ms. Spenser.

      It would be no problem—the rooms were soundproofed, and even if she made a lot of noise no one would interfere. They’d either assume she was an enthusiastically noisy fuck, or that something was going on they didn’t want to know about. Either way, no one would interfere.

      He had better equipment in his massive stateroom, though, and he didn’t like having to compromise. He firmly believed in indulging his whims whenever he could, and being refused even the tiniest little treat made him very cross indeed.

      He was going to have to explain a few things to Peter Jensen. He’d been an excellent servant for the four short months he’d been working for him, but then, he’d come with impeccable references. The kind of people he’d worked for in the past required someone with the utmost discretion, the ability to look the other way and the willingness to do whatever was asked of him, with no arguments or questions.

      Jensen had proved remarkably efficient, and it hadn’t been his fault that the young Thai girl last year had run away before he’d finished with her. He could blame that on one of the men who’d caught her in the first place, and he’d taken care of him in a fitting manner.

      No, this was only a minor transgression, and once he gave Jensen a sharp reprimand he could go below and enjoy the undeniably luscious Ms. Spenser. Hell, he might even turn to fat women if he liked her curves well enough. There were some interesting variations on force feeding…

      He heard a noise, and he looked up. The engines were running again, making an odd noise, and Harry had a sudden, unpleasant premonition. His horoscope said today had a potential for disaster, but whenever he didn’t like his forecast he skipped to his rising sign for something more pleasant.

      He rose, wandering over to the window to look out at the shoreline, when he realized the goddamn ship was moving. He let out a scream of rage, slammed open the door and headed out on deck, only to run smack into Peter Jensen.

      “You son of a bitch—” Harry managed to say, before blinding pain exploded in his head. And as he sank into darkness his body climaxed in pure, murderous rage.

      The boat was moving. It wasn’t Genevieve’s paranoid imagination, it wasn’t a remnant from her nightmare. The goddamn boat was moving.

      She scrambled out of bed. She was still wearing the silk slip of a dress she’d worn last night, with her bra and pantyhose in place, if a bit rumpled. She hadn’t been that out of it, had she? She’d had a little too much to drink on top of a three-pill day, but still, she shouldn’t be having blackouts.

      She sank down on the floor beside the platform bed, dropping her head in her hands. She couldn’t remember anything, not since she left Harry Van Dorn’s side and headed for her room. She’d left with the gray ghost, hadn’t she? But she couldn’t remember anything about the walk to her cabin, whether he’d turned down her bed or kissed her good-night.

      Holy shit. She’d been facetious, trying to reconstruct her last conscious moments, but the memory, no longer elusive, came flooding back. The son of a bitch had kissed her.

      At least, she thought he had. Or maybe it was just part of her dreams, an earlier, less nightmarish part. Though if it involved kissing someone like Jensen then she’d almost prefer the nightmares. She’d learned how to fight back with them.

      She rose on unsteady feet. At least she hadn’t slept in her shoes. She walked in what she hoped was the direction of the window, feeling her way, and when she reached the heavy curtains she tugged, trying to open them.

      They stayed put, obviously on some kind of heavyduty curtain rod, but she could push the fabric out of the way enough to have her worst fears confirmed. It was midday, when she should have already landed in Costa Rica, and they were out at sea.

      Harry’s multi-million-dollar yacht ran smoothly and quietly through the waters, but there was no mistaking the feel of the engine beneath her, the sound of the water as the boat cut through the swells. She let the curtain drop again, swearing under her breath. If this was Harry Van Dorn’s idea of a joke then she wasn’t СКАЧАТЬ