Heat Of The Night. Donna Kauffman

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      4

      ERIN STRODE into her office and dropped her briefcase onto her desk with a thump. She dropped into her chair with similar enthusiasm.

      Her business partner and best friend, Gina Briggs, walked in a second later. She was as short as Erin was tall, but no less bold. She had thick, dark hair worn short and spiky around her face, her eyes were a vivid blue and her mouth was wide and expressive. Mainly because it was usually moving. Today was no different.

      “I’m sorry, I missed the news. I was tied up trying to get Tony out of a fix with the news director.” Tony Hallman was a popular local anchorman who had recently hired Mahoney and Briggs to beef up his public profile in hopes of getting a bump to a bigger market. Women loved him and his ratings were good. Unfortunately, women loved him because he was gorgeous and had a sexy deep voice, not because he was a particularly good journalist.

      Erin groaned, glad to have something to think about besides the disastrous press conference she’d just hosted. “Don’t tell me. He ad-libbed his own questions again?”

      Gina nodded. “He thinks he’s showing his ability to be flexible and hard-hitting,” she said with a sigh. “But he comes off looking like a moron. Ever since he heard he was up for the possible pickup in New York he’s been an egotistical nightmare.”

      Erin raised an eyebrow. “Like he wasn’t before?”

      Gina laughed easily. “Oh, his ego has always been healthy. But he controlled it, understood his strengths.”

      “Yeah, big white teeth and a voice that would melt chocolate.”

      “Exactly. Now he thinks he’s Tom freaking Brokaw. If he doesn’t watch out, not only will he lose his New York slot, but he’ll be looking for a new market outside Philly as well. Today his news director hit the roof, and chewed out Tony big time.” She shook her head. “What is it with men?”

      Erin must have given away her own current view on the opposite sex because Gina instantly forgot all about Tony and perched attentively on the edge of the desk. “So, was Detective Hunk at the press conference?”

      Erin glared at Gina, who was entirely unrepentant.

      “Hey, I’ve checked him out.” Gina shook a hand in front of her. “Talk about melting chocolate. I say we should work with Philly’s finest more often. And I do mean finest.”

      “Enough already.” But there was little heat in Erin’s rebuke. She’d known Gina since their first day of college, and because they’d shared everything ever since, she’d already let it slip that Brady O’Keefe was flying in under her hormone radar way too often for her peace of mind. Let alone her peace of body.

      Gina tapped a pen on Erin’s desk. “I don’t see any reason, when this isn’t all over, why you two shouldn’t just burn each other out of your respective systems.”

      “What I need is help getting through right now. I can’t worry about after.” She let her head sink to her desk. “Of course, that might not be a problem after the mayor fires me.”

      Gina tugged at Erin’s arm. “What?” She hopped off the desk. “Now Tony really owes me. I can’t believe I missed this. What happened? You had this totally under control. Did the hunk ruin it? I know you said he wasn’t thrilled you were his media mouthpiece, but he wouldn’t intentionally jeopardize—”

      Erin held up a hand to halt the onslaught. “I don’t know that Brady was even there.”

      Gina’s eyes twinkled. “Brady, huh.” She motioned with her hands. “Go on, just commenting here. Continue.”

      Erin leaned back in her chair. “I need coffee. And aspirin. And a shot of something really strong. Not necessarily in that order.”

      Gina gave her a wicked look. “Or a few hours in bed with the mighty fine detective. That’ll perk you right up. Or make you not give a damn. Either way.” She fluttered her lashes and sighed.

      “I shouldn’t have said anything.” Her rueful smile faded. “Not that I have anything to worry about at this point. I imagine he isn’t wasting any time recommending my dismissal to his commissioner, who will run right to the mayor.” She shook her head.

      “For God’s sake, what happened? What went wrong?”

      “I underestimated the power of sex.”

      “I never underestimate the power of sex.” Gina was as well versed in how to get things done as Erin, perhaps even more so. “And neither do you. So what gives?”

      “I thought I had it under control today, Gina. But it was awful. Like an ambush. I should have been prepared for the chance that the information would leak.”

      “Uh-oh. They found out about the pink tutu, huh?”

      Erin groaned and nodded. “And the leather mask, the bustier, even the handcuffs. The only thing that didn’t leak was the feather whip.”

      “I thought they’d kept that info locked tight.”

      Erin rubbed her temples. “Well, something that sensational, someone just couldn’t keep his or her mouth shut. I should have been prepared. I was ready to handle the inevitable questions on the location. But the clothes… I knew it was going to come out eventually, but I’d hoped to have already pumped up Sanderson’s importance to the community and how devastating his loss will be to so many charitable organizations. That way, when the inevitable cavalcade of demands for all the sordid details hit, we’d already have a solid foundation in place. I honestly didn’t think it would come out this fast.”

      Gina swore under her breath. “Well, that sucks.”

      “It was madness out there, Gina. They were rabid. Worse than a pack of wolves.” She rubbed her arms. “I feel unclean.”

      “That bad, huh?”

      “Worse then when we handled that shock jock, Harold Seaman’s, account.”

      Gina winced and whistled. “Wow, that’s pretty bad.”

      “I tried to maintain our position, but they wouldn’t even listen. You wouldn’t believe the kind of stuff some of those guys asked me. Right there on the steps of city hall. And I consider myself a fairly cosmopolitan kind of girl, but honestly they shocked even me.”

      “Men are pigs,” Gina said matter-of-factly. “They’d live with their minds in the gutter all the time if we women didn’t demand at least the veneer of civility from them. But I’m telling you, Erin, that’s СКАЧАТЬ