Holding Out For A Hero. HelenKay Dimon

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ to tell Ms. Armstrong all about your new career plans.”

      Josh stared at the paper but did not pick it up. “What the hell is this?”

      Kane’s face lit up with amusement. “A social card.”

      “A what? Let me see.” Derek grabbed it. Studied it. Flipped it over. “It has her name and phone number and that’s it.”

      “A calling card. Unbelievable.” But it wasn’t. If there was something out there that reeked of money, Josh knew Deana would own it.

      “She’s expecting you tomorrow.” Kane mumbled that important piece of information between long swallows of beer.

      Josh heard him just fine. “What the hell are you talking about now?”

      “Since you quit your job—yeah, I know about that, you dumbass—I figured you’d need something to do.”

      “You left the DEA?” Derek asked.

      Josh talked over both of them. “I’m not investigating this kid’s case.”

      Kane shrugged. “Don’t tell me. Tell her.”

      “I did.”

      “Try again.”

      Chapter Four

      Josh eased back into a chair that proved to be as uncomfortable as it looked. It was wooden, with one thin cushion against the back—he guessed the damn thing cost more than his condo. Since it shook a bit under his weight, he tried not to move as he waited for the small Asian woman who answered the door to go find Deana.

      Yeah, she had a maid. With all of Deana’s money, Josh didn’t know why that little fact surprised him, but it did. For some reason he missed that in his background check on her. She was not the only one who liked to poke around in other people’s business. He could play that game, too. Did it all the time.

      From what he could tell, she left her property on rare occasions to attend charity events and a few social get-togethers. Otherwise she kept to herself and close to home. Seeing her place he understood why. Quiet and far from tourists and the hotels in Waikiki, her open-floor-plan, one-story house sat along Lanikai, long considered one of the best beaches in Hawaii. Possibly the world.

      The area served as a private must-visit spot for presidents and movie stars. The stretch of sand was located on the windward or eastern side of the island of Oahu in the town of Kailua. About fifteen minutes and definitely a world of wealth away from the town where Derek lived. With pure blue water clear enough to see to the sandy bottom, soft trade winds, and surrounding palm trees, the spot looked like a Hollywood creation—too good to be true.

      The inside of the house was as magazine-worthy as the outside. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked the ocean and the two small uninhabited islands about a mile offshore. Beige couches were arranged in a large, high-ceilinged room to take advantage of the view. Glass shelves filled with expensive looking vases and various small crystal things filled the walls and kept him right where he was in the wobbly chair.

      If he knocked anything over he’d be paying her back for years. And owing Deana anything was out of the question.

      “Thank you for coming,” Deana said from behind him.

      She didn’t need to speak. Even without the clicking of her heels against the koa wood floor and the sound of her deep voice, he knew she had walked in the room. Something about her set off a mental alarm in his brain. She came within ten feet and his insides switched to high alert.

      He got up long enough to be polite before returning to the impractical chair. “Not as if I had much of a choice.”

      “You’re prone to exaggeration.”

      “Not usually.”

      She sank into the only other chair in the room. It was one identical to his, but she looked completely right in the expensive seat. “Well, I find it hard to believe you felt threatened by me.”

      He noted she wore an outfit similar to the one from the courthouse a few days earlier. She could have walked out of a Northeastern prep school. High collar with a cardigan. The only difference was the pair of dress pants instead of the skirt, which was a damn shame because the woman had a decent pair of legs on her.

      “Guess you think eighty-two degrees is chilly.” As far as he was concerned, she was lucky he was wearing pants instead of shorts as he wanted to do.

      “Excuse me?”

      “The shrinking violet routine doesn’t suit you, by the way. Don’t forget, I’m the guy you tried to have fired a few years back.”

      She had the grace to wince. “That’s in the past.”

      Easy for her to say. “And the command performance this afternoon is our present.”

      “Remember how I said you had a problem with exaggerating?”

      “Nice place, by the way,” he said in what likely was the biggest understatement of his life. He tried to look around and almost tipped the chair over.

      A smile skimmed Deana’s lips. “You don’t look very comfortable.”

      Probably because he was folded in a pretzel and afraid of shifting an inch in any direction. “Your maid showed me in and pointed to this.”

      “She’s not a maid, and you can sit on one of the sofas.” Her gaze traveled all over him. “You look a little…tight there.”

      Before he could come up with a smart reply, and he was sure there was one kicking around his head somewhere, the elder Mrs. Armstrong came into the room. The addition to the crowd gave him a reason to get up and shift seats. Not like he had to wait for Deana’s permission or anything.

      “Mr. Windsor.” Georgianna Armstrong approached him with her hand held out and a smile plastered across her regal-looking face.

      She appeared warm and lovely and eager to see him.

      He knew that was a big fat lie.

      Mrs. Georgianna Armstrong, Deana’s mother, was in her early sixties. Graceful, highly respected in the community…and Josh didn’t trust her as far as he could throw her. Since the woman probably weighed about a hundred pounds, Josh knew he could get her airborne without much of a push. Still, he had dealt with this woman and with her type his entire career at the DEA. She attended charity functions one day and plotted the demise of her enemies the next. She used money to get her way and scoffed when people—any people—failed to jump at her command.

      And the woman had a crapload of money. She could trace her family back to the early Europeans who came to the islands to take advantage of the locals and pillage the land. As far as Josh could tell, her family never broke with that habit. Her grandfather and then her father bought up some of the most desired property in Oahu not already owned by the state and a few other landowners.

      The family continued to own a great deal of commercial property today, stretching all along the water in Honolulu and Waikiki. Hotels, business, high-rises—if someone had built it, they probably first bought or leased the land СКАЧАТЬ