Enemy Within. AMANDA BROWNING

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СКАЧАТЬ she throw away everything? How could Sophie allow it? Mickey had learnt a great deal about Leah’s grandmother’s rather eccentric views, and had come to accept it as normal—for her. Yet she had never expected her sister would act so recklessly.

      However, there was nothing she could say, because clearly the other woman saw nothing to worry about. She sighed. Sophie, for all her worldliness, seemed sublimely unconcerned by all the pitfalls lying in wait for the unwary. Because she liked him, it would never occur to her that this man she saw as estimable might be far from that ideal. Which explained why she was acting the way she was. She had probably even expected such a visitation, and had promised to help! Sophie positively thrived on romantic intrigue.

      Mickey knew from past experience that there was little point in trying to pierce Sophie’s dippy persona with a frontal attack. Once in place, she could keep it up indefinitely, especially when the person for whose benefit it was being put on was in the room. There was to be no help in that direction, unless she could get Sophie alone, and that meant ditching Ryan Douglas. Right now, she didn’t know how that was to be done.

      ‘Did they say where they were going?’ she asked tonelessly, trying to salvage something.

      ‘The islands,’ Sophie vouchsafed with a smile, unconcerned by just how vague a direction that was.

      For the first time ever, Mickey felt her palms itch, and she eyed the other woman in exasperation. ‘Which islands? The Queen Charlottes?’

      Sophie shrugged, eyes limpid and innocent. ‘They didn’t say, and I didn’t ask,’ she replied, and Mickey had to stifle a gasp hastily when for a moment their eyes clashed and Sophie’s were as clear as crystal and openly challenging.

      ‘How long have they been gone?’ Ryan asked with studied politeness, and, although Mickey could feel the tension in him, she had to marvel at his self-control.

      The older woman removed her pince-nez and polished them vigorously. ‘Two...three weeks.’

      ‘And they haven’t contacted you in all that time?’ Ryan challenged disbelievingly.

      ‘It didn’t seem so long. When you get old, you don’t count the time.’

      If Mickey hadn’t already known it, that alone would have told her that Sophie knew a great deal more than she was saying. She might disdain telephones, but she was a keen radio ham. Leah spoke to her grandmother every day without fail, and Sophie was probably waiting for a call right now! Unfortunately, if she was determined to stay close-mouthed, even a can opener wouldn’t prise her open.

      Ryan took the statement stoically, rising to his feet agilely. A poker-faced Mickey followed suit. ‘My grandmother used to say much the same thing, but that was because she didn’t want to be held to account for her sins.’

      Sophie was not a whit put out, and fairly bounced to her feet. ‘Young man, I’m too old to worry about sin!’

      He eyed her steadily for a long time, then said softly, ‘Perhaps so, but I’ll assume you have a conscience. So if by some...miracle...your granddaughter does get in touch, have her tell Peter he’s needed at home. Now I’m sure you’ll forgive us for having to rush off,’ he added with heavy irony.

      ‘You’ll come again when Leah and Peter return?’

      ‘Oh, I think you can safely bet money on that, Sophie,’ Ryan drawled with grim amusement, shaking her hand and heading for the door.

      Mickey was once more enfolded in a warm embrace.

      ‘That’s one angry man, Mickey.’

      ‘Perhaps he wouldn’t have been so angry if you’d told him everything,’ Mickey challenged, looking the older woman straight in the eye.

      Sophie laughed. ‘Dear child, what can you mean?’

      Exasperated, Mickey sighed. ‘You’re sending me on a wild-goose chase, and I don’t appreciate it.’

      ‘Then you should. There’s colour in your cheeks and a sparkle in your eye, Mickey. Ask yourself who put them there. Now run along. He’s not the sort I’d want to keep waiting, although you seem to be blooming on it!’ Sophie declared softly, and Mickey sent her a startled look.

      ‘You haven’t heard the last of it. I’ll be back, on my own, and I’ll expect answers!’ she declared, before going to join the man standing impatiently on the porch.

      Ryan didn’t utter a word until they were once more in the jeep and on their way back to the city. ‘She’s quite a character.’

      She wondered if he realised just how much of a character Sophie was, and found out in the next second.

      ‘Getting the facts out of her is like trying to wade through treacle! Those two don’t need an army when they’ve got Sophie Trenchard on their side!’

      His perception brought a reluctant smile to her lips. ‘One of a kind,’ she acknowledged wryly, and he laughed, so that it seemed for a moment they were in accord. Mickey found it strangely unsettling.

      ‘One is quite sufficient. Hell, they could be anywhere, and the only one who knows is pretending she lives in Cloud-cuckoo-land!’ he growled, thumping his fist on the steering-wheel. ‘Not that you seem to be surprised, Hanlon. Were you banking on her running interference for you? Are you still going to insist you knew nothing about it?’

      That brief moment of empathy vanished. ‘If I had, we wouldn’t be sitting here now! I don’t know how your sainted nephew managed to seduce my sister, but I’m going to put a stop to it. Damn him; Leah had everything going for her until he came along!’ Mickey cried wrathfully.

      Beside her, Ryan laughed grimly. ‘Well, they say it’s an ill wind that doesn’t blow somebody something good. Look on the bright side, Hanlon. I’m going after them, and you’re going to take me. So it looks as if you’re going to get paid after all.’

      CHAPTER THREE

      ‘MORNING, Sid,’ Mickey mumbled as she walked into the hangar next morning, smothering a yawn behind her hand.

      The grizzled mechanic sent her a grin. ‘Hiya, Mickey. Up early, ain’t ye?’

      A lack of sleep had done nothing to sweeten her mood, nor the dreadful meal she had had with Ryan Douglas after they had returned to his hotel last night. Not that the meal had been bad, just the company. It was as well she had scarcely eaten anything or she would have suffered from indigestion as well as a sleepless night.

      ‘Mr “God Almighty” Douglas insists on catching the light!’ she grunted irritably, keeping up a fiction which Ryan had insisted on. To all intents and purposes, they would be out taking photographs. For once she had not argued. She didn’t want anyone to know what they would really be doing either. Publicity of the kind this search would produce, if the story ever got out, was the very last thing either of them needed.

      Shaggy eyebrows rose at hearing the unaccustomed grumble. ‘Sounds a reasonable request to me, Mickey,’ Sid remonstrated, with the ease of long acquaintance, and she sighed heavily.

      ‘It is, but he isn’t,’ she snapped, unwilling to concede more than she had to. Over a dinner which she had barely touched, СКАЧАТЬ