The Secret Millionaire. Ryanne Corey

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СКАЧАТЬ than a single yellow lightbulb swinging from the ceiling, the hallway was in shadows. His face split with a grin, Zack squatted and looked at the sliver of light beneath the door of the women’s rest room. He wasn’t a detective for nothing, no sir. Now all he had to do was hurry up the stairs, station himself by the door of many signs and gallantly return her bracelet. She would have no choice but to introduce herself. He didn’t know why it was so important that he know her name, but it was. His extraordinary intellect, combined with years of detective work, had left him with amazing powers of observation and recall. She had been wearing large, glittering earrings, obviously paste, but still nice. On close inspection her black coat was not leather at all, but a less-expensive imitation. Besides the thin silver chain around her wrist, she’d also worn a chunky men’s digital watch, an inexpensive Timex if he wasn’t mistaken. Most important, she had not been wearing a wedding ring. If he remembered accurately, she’d had a ring on every finger, with the single exception of her ring finger. It was a very important finger.

      He heard the doorknob to the women’s room rattle a bit, and quickly loped up the stairs three at a time. He didn’t want to scare her by waiting in the hallway like some stalker. He’d go back into the well-lit storeroom and…and…

      He tried the fire door a second time, with more force.

      It was locked.

      He winced as he heard her come out into the hallway. He was caught like a rabbit in a snare. This was going to severely affect his dignity. He remained rooted to the spot, hot blood burning his cheeks as he listened to the click, click, click of her heels moving down the hallway.

      “Excuse me?” said a curious voice from the bottom of the stairs. “What are you doing up there?”

      Zack’s forehead thumped loudly against the steel door. “Me? Oh, I’m just being perplexed.”

      “Perplexed? Is there a problem? I know you’re closing soon. I’m sorry if I delayed you.”

      Clearly she had mistaken him for someone who worked there. He wished he did; it would have made his explanation so much easier. He took a deep breath and slowly turned around, grateful the shadows hid the telltale wildfire in his face. “Hello, there. Fancy seeing you here.”

      “You?” she asked, her eyebrows narrowing suspiciously. “What is this? Are you following me or what?”

      “You should have your ego looked at. I think it’s swollen.” Zack had learned long ago to improvise with the best of them. It was one of his survival tools when working undercover. Feigning injured innocence, he pulled her bracelet from his pocket, swinging it from his fingers like a pendulum. “You left this tangled up with one of my buttons when you fell into my arms. I was simply trying to return it to you. Sorry, but no ulterior motives. You’re sort of cute, but you’re a little cocky.”

      Now it was her turn to blush. “Oh. I suppose I jumped to the wrong conclusion.”

      “Like a kangaroo.” Biting back a smile, Zack tossed her the bracelet, and she caught it in midair with a neat flick of her wrist. “Nice catch,” he murmured appreciatively. He loved a woman with good hand-eye coordination.

      “Thank you,” she muttered, fastening the bracelet on her wrist. “This bracelet has tremendous sentimental value to me. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d lost it.”

      “No problem.” Unfortunately, the words reminded Zack there was, in fact, a major problem. Once again he tried to open the door. He tried it again. Finally he slammed his hip against the stubborn metal. “Ouch. That’ll leave a mark. Listen, I hate to tell you this, but it seems we’re locked in.”

      “What?” an alarmed voice directly behind him asked. “Locked in? As in locked in? We can’t get out?”

      Zack jumped, unaware that she had come up the stairs. He looked over his shoulder, feeling the jolt of her stabbing blue eyes a mere twelve inches from his. Even in the shadows, they seemed an intensely brilliant source of light. Her skin was golden, her generous lips stained wetly with a rich cinnamon gloss. This was the sort of woman who could give a sought-after ladies’ man a run for his money…so to speak.

      “We can’t get out,” Zack confirmed hoarsely, trying not to stare at that full-bloom rosebud mouth. “Not till they come and find us, at any rate.”

      “Are you kidding me? Tell me you’re kidding me.” Then, a full octave higher, “We’re trapped?”

      “Think positively,” Zack encouraged. “We’re not so much trapped as we are very, very secure.”

      “I’m claustrophobic!” she yelped, losing her cool. She pushed past him, jerking on the handle with both hands and nearly knocking Zack off the steps in the process. “I can’t deal with this, I tell you. I have to know I can get out of places I go into. If I feel trapped, sometimes I…sometimes I panic and…”

      “And what?” Zack asked warily, looking at her dilated pupils. “Oh-oh. You don’t look so good. Sometimes you what?”

      “I…do…this,” she muttered weakly. And for the second time in less than ten minutes, she collapsed into Zack’s waiting arms.

      Two

      Anna Smith had never been the kind of person who came unglued easily, and never in public in front of a stranger. She had a little stubborn streak. Which was why, even as the little stairwell in Appleton’s General Store was spinning into nauseating darkness, she was absolutely exasperated with herself. This was so pathetic for a twenty-six-year-old woman.

      Fortunately, she wasn’t completely out of it. She managed to more or less walk on her Gumby legs, supported by two strong arms and a bright, bracing stream of encouragement: “You can do it, here we go, down the stairs…good girl, good girl…”

      He had a nice voice, she thought groggily. And very calm, almost like he was used to dealing with emergencies like this all the time. He dragged her along, finding an unlocked door close to the stairs. He turned on the light, and Anna found herself firmly planted in a hard folding chair.

      “You okay?” he asked sharply, clicking his fingers in front of her fluttering, half-closed eyes. “Hello, there! Yoo-hoo! Coming around? You can open your eyes, we’ve got a nice big room here. No windows, but…we won’t think about that. You’ve got a door you can walk in and out of. Isn’t that nice? We still can’t get out of the basement, but…we won’t think about that, either. If you don’t say something soon, I’m going to use up all the oxygen blabbering.” A pause, then in a more hopeful tone, “I suppose I could try artificial respiration.”

      “Don’t you dare,” Anna muttered, trying to control her weighty lids. “You know perfectly well that I’m breathing. Of all the idiotic things for me to do, fainting like that…”

      Zack watched sympathetically while she tried to bury her swimming head in her knees. He’d been in a similar position himself many times after a rowdy night on the town. “That’s it, take slow, deep breaths. You’ll feel better soon.” Then, with humor, “If it makes you feel better, I have this effect on women all the time. They’re swooning here, there and everywhere.”

      Slowly, her white-knuckled hands clutching the seat of the chair, Anna forced herself to sit up straight. She saw they were in a very large storeroom of sorts, which caused her to breathe a great sigh of relief. As long as she didn’t think about СКАЧАТЬ