Tough As Nails. Jackie Manning

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СКАЧАТЬ Mike’s gaze dropped to the photographs. So Brianna was here only because of her aunt’s insistence. He swallowed, unsure how he felt about that.

      “I don’t think I’ll have any problem working with you, Michael.” She leaned forward, her voice throaty. “What’s past is past. We have our own lives. I don’t foresee any difficulty, do you?”

      Foresee any difficulty? Hell, that’s all he could see. But dammit, if she could work with him, then he’d sure as hell do his part. “No. No difficulty.” He even managed to smile. “Let me make a few calls while you fill out the questionnaire Bailey gave you.”

      He got to his feet as she nodded her understanding. He watched her rise, and when she stood, the sunlight from the window fell across her face and hair. For an instant, she looked as she had the first time he’d seen her, years ago.

      He’d been nineteen and caddying at the Cape Hope Country Club. All eyes had turned to her as she led her three male golfing companions from the clubhouse and stepped toward the sunlit tee.

      The largest of the men, the senior caddy Mike had seen around the club, had said something clever, and her smoky laughter was his reward.

      Mike could only stare, his heart hammering through his veins as she strolled to the first tee, the men in giddy pursuit. Dressed in a sleeveless white T-shirt and shorts that enhanced her sun-bronzed arms and legs, she appeared not to have noticed that she’d captured every male eye on the course.

      “She’s Brianna Kent, Harrison Kent’s daughter,” Dr. Parker had warned before taking a swing with his driver.

      “Harrison Kent? Of Kent Paper Industries?”

      “Hmm. The same. You so much as talk to her, and you’ll lose more than your job, son.”

      How right you were, Doc, Mike thought as he pushed back the thought. He’d lost the job, the woman and his very soul.

      After Brianna left his office, a trace of her perfume lingered. Mike shut his eyes against further memories that stirred in his brain.

      Damn him, he was a fool to take her on as a client. But she was being stalked. Who knew what kind of crazy might be after her? She needed his help, and no one did his job as well as he did. And regardless of all that happened between them, Brianna knew it, too.

      And maybe she was right; the past was past. They both were happy in their own lives. Why the hell not take her on as a client?

      Piece of cake.

      THE THREE-PAGE TALON-6 client questionnaire had taken Brianna only a few minutes to complete, but she lingered over the last sheet, purposely stalling. She needed time to pull herself together. She needed to calm the feelings that had been stirred up when she’d seen Mike again.

      Her fingers still trembled as she noticed her unnaturally scrunched handwriting. If Mike remembered her normal flowing script, he’d know how nervous she was. She hoped he’d think her anxiety was due to the idea that someone was stalking her, not from seeing him again.

      She thought she’d prepared herself to see him again. But when their eyes met and he’d flashed that heart-stopping grin, the years tumbled away. Memories of their kisses and being together rocked away that safe harbor she’d built for herself. She’d felt as breathless as when she’d first seen him.

      She mentally shook herself. Her nerves were shattered from worry and lack of sleep. That was all. Besides, what woman wouldn’t be affected by Mike Landis? He had always possessed that easy charm that made men envy him and women want to throw themselves at him, regardless of the consequences.

      The years had honed his good looks into white-hot sexuality. He’d always been broad-shouldered and muscular, but now he moved with a masculinity that was wickedly attractive—that is, if she was interested. And she definitely was not. She’d been around that hairpin curve and had the skid marks to prove it.

      No longer was she that naive, overly protected daddy’s princess, attracted to the town’s bad boy. Now she was a clinical psychologist who knew about life and the sex drives that motivated smart people to make foolish mistakes. She understood his dangerous side, too. His obsessive need to prove himself by overcoming any challenge.

      Seven years ago, she’d been that challenge. The daughter of the wealthiest man in town, she was everything the son of the town drunk couldn’t have.

      She suspected his penchant for danger had been further honed by his experiences with Special Forces. The framed picture hanging on the wall beside his desk of those haunted, grim-faced soldiers came to mind. Even with his face camouflaged with paint, Mike stood out as the team leader.

      She felt a tinge of envy. Mike shared something with those men that she had only dreamed of sharing with him as his wife. She knew he would connect with them, need them and trust them in ways he’d never been able to with her.

      The cords of her neck throbbed. She closed her eyes and rubbed the back of her head. Damn, why was she putting herself through this torment? She pulled herself up and got to her feet. With the questionnaire in hand, she hurried to the secretary’s desk. The sooner she got this over with the better.

      MIKE FINISHED his conversation with Police Lieutenant Sam Jeffries, hung up the phone and stared out his office window on the twenty-first floor. Ribbons of bumper-to-bumper traffic crawled along the streets of midtown Manhattan. Millions of people, and one of them held a camera, watching, waiting, stalking Brianna. Waiting for the right moment to…to what?

      Dammit, Bria. What have you gotten yourself into?

      From what Lieutenant Jeffries had confirmed, the company that installed and serviced the security systems for Brianna’s apartment building was highly reputable. Mike recognized the company name and agreed.

      The apartment manager had told Mike that the timer on the video cameras had stopped last night at 11:54 p.m. The repair crew had found a timing-delay loop spliced into the building computer system. Whoever had done it required sophisticated know-how and equipment. He doubted this was the work of Billie Ray Bennett, unless the guy worked for the CIA.

      Mike took a deep breath and forced himself to concentrate. But the image of how frightened Brianna had looked beneath that cool demeanor kept eating at him. If they’d been friends, he would have pulled her into his arms and promised her that he’d keep her safe.

      But they weren’t friends. No, she was a client, and she’d made very clear that’s all she was. Hadn’t she said that she didn’t foresee any problems working with him?

      He rubbed his chin, grudgingly admiring that ability in her. No doubt she’d realized long before she decided to leave him that their marriage had been the worst mistake in her life. On that they could agree.

      He glanced at the photographs of Brianna in front of him, forcing his mind onto the case not the woman.

      What kind of mind would go to such trouble to stalk her? He took a deep breath and moved back to his desk. If she agreed, he’d begin the case immediately. Once he installed the electronic equipment in her home and office, it wouldn’t take long to find the answers. But his experience told him they didn’t have much time. Whoever was behind sending her these photographs wouldn’t be satisfied for long with only scaring her. More than likely, the stalker already knew that she’d gone to TALON-6.

      A rap sounded at his door, then СКАЧАТЬ