Risking It All: The Proposition / The Dare / The Favour / The P.I. / The Cop / The Defender. Cara Summers

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      Sierra took Natalie’s hand. “What happened to you?”

      Natalie found she had to speak around a lump in her throat. “I’m fine.”

      Rory set her stuffed mushroom down. “You have black circles the size of Wyoming around your eyes.”

      “I’ve been working.”

      “And not sleeping,” Sierra said. “Or eating. Tell us.”

      Natalie sighed. A triplet could never have secrets. Finally, she said, “Sometimes when you risk everything for something, you don’t get it.”

      And then she told them the whole story.

      “THIS ISN’T MY HOTEL,” Chance said as Tracker eased the car to the curb in front of the Blue Pepper.

      “We thought we’d have a drink first,” Tracker said. “Lucas is buying.”

      Searching his mind for an excuse to bow out, Chance stepped onto the curb. Above the traffic noises on the street came the faint sounds of laughter and music from the patio. He recognized the song the band was playing. It was the same one that he’d danced to with Natalie three months ago. That’s when everything had started between them. No, he corrected himself as nervousness twisted in his stomach. Everything had started between them the first moment he’d seen her. Had that been when he’d fallen in love with her?

      Panic slithered in to join the nervousness. “You guys go ahead,” he said. “I’ve got some business to take care of.” Truth was he had a plan to make. And he was lousy at them. “I’ll just take a cab—”

      Tracker gripped one arm and Lucas the other. “Sophie’s holding our table.”

      “And Mac will be very annoyed if we don’t bring you,” Lucas added. “Besides you owe us. I provided my boat and my chief of security for this little Florida caper of yours.”

      “Yeah,” Tracker put in. “And don’t forget the effort I put into saving your sorry ass. My arches are still sore from those high heels I had to wear. The very least you owe us is a drink and the rest of the story.”

      Chance sighed and let himself be led into the Blue Pepper. It was the last place he wanted to be. Memories of Natalie were already flooding his mind. The past week had been hectic, tying up the Ferrante diamond case in London and seeing to it that “Carlo Brancotti” was finally behind bars. Now, he needed a cool head to think.

      “Ah, Mr. Wainwright. Welcome, welcome, welcome.”

      At first, Chance couldn’t see who was speaking, but on the last “welcome,” a short man with spikey red hair burst through the throng of people waiting for tables.

      “Hi, Rad,” Lucas said. “Is my wife here?”

      “She’s with Miss Sophie. This way,” the man said as he waved a hand and led them up the stairs and into the bar.

      At least they weren’t going to have to sit on the patio, Chance thought. After greeting and being hugged by Sophie and Mac, he found himself wedged between the two women in the corner of a circular banquette.

      Sophie poured a glass of beer from the pitcher in the center of the table and handed it to him. Then Tracker cleared his throat. “There’s something you ought to know.”

      Something in the tone of his friend’s voice had his stomach muscles clenching. “What?” He glanced around the table, noted the solemn expressions and fear streamed through him. “Has something happened to Natalie?”

      “No.” Mac spoke as Sophie laid a hand on Chance’s arm. “She’s fine. She’s on the patio right now with her sisters.”

      Chance felt his throat go dry. “She’s here.” He wasn’t ready to see her, and for the first time in his life he didn’t trust himself to improvise. “I—”

      Suddenly, he didn’t care whether or not he had a plan. He had to see her. Hold her. Maybe the plan would come to him then.

      “Let me out.” He nudged Mac. “I need to see her.”

      “There’s something you should know before you see her,” Tracker said. “I—she knows you were aware all along that she was Natalie—that you were never fooled by the Rachel Cade disguise.”

      “You told her?” Chance asked.

      “Hell, I didn’t mean to. I slipped and called her Natalie.”

      Chance took a long swallow of the beer. “I take it she wasn’t pleased.”

      “She wouldn’t even let me drive her to her apartment,” Tracker said.

      “You don’t have to lecture him,” Sophie said before Chance could speak. “I already have. But you should have told her yourself.”

      “Before you took her to Florida with you,” Mac added, then shook her head. “Pretending to believe that she was this Rachel Cade when all the time you knew she was Natalie…what were you thinking?”

      Chance raised a hand, warding off their criticism. “I wasn’t. But at the time, I—” At the time he’d been afraid she wouldn’t come, and he’d wanted her with him. “I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

      The two women exchanged glances, then Sophie spoke. “Tracker says you’re nuts about her.”

      Chance pinned his friend with a look.

      “Hey,” Tracker said with a shrug. “I only calls ’em as I sees ’em.”

      “Don’t look at me,” Lucas said. “My advice is to plead the Fifth.”

      Chance glanced back at the two women. “Works for me.”

      Then to his surprise Mac and Sophie smiled at him.

      “Since you are clearly nuts about her, we’ve decided to help you dig yourself out of the hole you’re in,” Sophie said.

      Mac slid out of the banquette. “Go. Talk to her.”

      Chance felt his stomach plummet as he followed Mac out of the banquette. Natalie was here. His intention had been to spend the night working out a strategy for what he knew he wanted to do. Maybe he’d call her in the morning. Or send her flowers and then drop in on her at work. Or…

      Hell, it was the one time in his life that he dearly needed a plan, and he had no choice but to play it by ear.

      “WELL, WHAT ARE YOU going to do about it?” Rory asked as she swirled her olive around in her drink and then popped it into her mouth.

      “Do?” Natalie asked.

      “Yes.” Sierra reach over to pat her hand. “You always have a plan.”

      Natalie took a sip of her martini, then studied her two sisters over the rim of the glass. She’d just told them everything that had happened since she’d left Sophie’s party with Chance, and they were looking a lot less worried than they’d been СКАЧАТЬ