A Gift For Baby. Raye Morgan

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СКАЧАТЬ place so you could have it to yourself for a month?”

      She opened her mouth to protest, but after all, what could she say? He was pretty near the mark. “You don’t know the first thing about it,” she said simply.

      He shrugged, his hard face unemotional. “All I know is, they booted all the other guests out so you wouldn’t be disturbed. And you have two bodyguards. Now what kind of message do you think all that is sending?”

      She stared at him for a moment, then turned and began to straighten the easel, preparing it for work. “My father used to say, if you want to send a message, call the telegraph people,” she murmured as she aligned the paper guides.

      He knew he deserved that, and he almost smiled. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he told her instead. “Now, if you’ve finished with me, boss-lady, I’ll get back to work.”

      She turned her green gaze on him and shook her head in wonder. “You’ve got your nerve, mister,” she said. “It’s pretty obvious you’ve never been briefed in customer relations.” She tilted her head to the side, studying him. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll turn you in? That you might lose your job?”

      He shifted his weight from one leg to the other, ready to make his escape. “Miss Kingston,” he drawled, “there are things in this life I am afraid of. Losing this crummy job isn’t one of them.” He started to turn away, but said back over his shoulder, “And neither are you.”

      “Then what are you afraid of?” she called after him. “I’d be interested in knowing.”

      He paused, still looking back. “I’m more afraid of losing my self-respect than I am of losing this job,” he told her seriously.

      She laughed softly. “What is your name, cowboy?”

      He hesitated. “Mitch Harper,” he said at last, rather grudgingly. “Happy sketching, Miss Kingston.”

      She smiled. “Happy branding, Mitch Harper. Be kind to those little dogies.”

      For a moment he stood there looking at her, like an animal poised just before flight. The picture she made with her wild blond hair and the blue sky behind her made him want to stand and stare for a long, long time. But he controlled the impulse and moved on. That was what cowboys always did, wasn’t it? They moved on, moseyed on out of there. But he knew this little encounter had changed things. She wouldn’t ignore him the next time they met. The dynamics had changed. For some inexplicable reason, he began to whistle as he made his way back to where his horse was tied.

      Hailey watched him go and shook her head. Then she turned to her easel and began to sketch rapidly, first the rough outline of a man, then the details, and before Mitch had disappeared from sight, she had a new picture of him. Standing back to examine it, she smiled. Then she tore off the sheet and quickly began drawing him from another angle, forgetting all about the landscape work she’d planned to do. Was she interested in his form because of something in him that had inspired her? Or was she merely happy to do something he’d expressly ordered her not to attempt? She wasn’t sure. Maybe a little of both. Whatever motivated her, she worked for hours, and when she was done, she had ten pictures of the man, and it made her smile to think of presenting them all to him, neatly tied in a satin bow.

      “Later,” she promised herself as she packed up her charcoals and pencils. Right now, she had to begin preparing for the dance she was going to attend tonight.

      Tonight. Ah, tonight. Maybe a little romance. Maybe… maybe just one.

      Folding the easel and putting it under a bush for future use, she walked happily back through the grass. All in all, this had been one of the least boring days since she’d arrived, and with the evening ahead of her, it promised to keep right on going that way.

      

      Mitch left the confines of the bunkhouse and wandered out under the stars. He could hear the raucous poker game going on behind him. Ordinarily he liked to join in. But tonight he was restless. Instead of heading toward the edge of the driveway, where he could look out over the valley in the moonlight, he turned toward the house. The place was lit up as though it were full of guests, as it usually was at this time of year. But there was only Hailey Kingston. Hailey and her bodyguards and a house full of help. It seemed like a waste.

      He knew only sketchy details of the case. Her father was involved in a trial in San Francisco. As he understood it, the man had gangland ties that the district attorney’s office had been suspicious of for some time, and now he was paying for his misdeeds. Just what they were, Mitch wasn’t sure.

      “He probably didn’t pay his taxes,” he muttered to himself as he sauntered along. That was the one crime the government could never forgive or overlook. At any rate, there was a lot of missing money involved, as well as some documents. The D. A. thought Hailey might have an idea where those things were hidden. And Mitch was here to see if she would inadvertently give a clue as to where they might be.

      He’d had cases like this before, but they weren’t his favorite. He preferred going after the bad guys directly, not through some woman. Unless the woman herself was a bad guy, of course. Now those cases could be a lot of fun.

      But this case wasn’t exactly topping the charts in the fun department. It was assignments like these that made him wonder why he’d ever gotten into this business, why he didn’t get out and go start up his own business somewhere.

      But he wasn’t going to change, and he knew why. He hadn’t needed therapy to get to the bottom of his own motivations. It was clear as a bell to him. He knew it had to do with his background, with his father’s failures and his own experience of being raised as a rescuer, always pulling his family back from the brink of disaster. He just couldn’t stand to see the bad guys win. He had to make sure they met their just deserts. That was also the impetus that made him side with the underdog every time. Growing up, he’d been down so far, normal life looked like a climb up a heavenly stairway to him. He wanted to make sure that didn’t happen to good people if he could help it.

      He glanced up at Hailey’s bedroom window as he neared the house. The light was on, but as he watched, the window went dark. She was already going to bed, it seemed. He’d heard from one of the dinner servers he’d struck up a casual relationship with that she’d gone to her room early with a bad headache. So that, it appeared, was that, at least for this evening.

      He smiled when he thought about their encounter that afternoon. He had to admit, she had spirit. And the funny thing was, he had a feeling she was just as bored with this extended vacation in the country as he was.

      “So do us both a favor and go home already,” he advised the darkened window. But he didn’t think she would take his advice.

      Standing hidden in the shadow of the trees, he watched as Jen came out of the house by the back door and turned to call to someone else. Another of the staff joined her, a woman he hadn’t noticed before. She was pretty, with a fluid walk that turned his head. He whistled below his breath. How had he overlooked this one? That was something he was going to have to rectify.

      But right now, he had other things on his mind and he hardly paid attention as the two women got into a small economy car and began to maneuver out of the tricky parking place. He could see through a side window that the two cops were playing cards in the game room. This might be an opportunity to gather more information. He looked back toward the parking area and saw that Jen and her fellow worker were driving off down the road. Starting toward the house, he mused over whether he would question the butler or strike up a conversation СКАЧАТЬ