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CHAPTER ONE
Marcus
Danvers hadn’t had sex in eighteen months, two weeks and three
days.
And
a mere fifteen feet away, stood the reason.
Primal recognition roared through him as his nostrils
widened as if to catch her scent while his body went taut and hard
in places that had plagued him since her disappearance a year and
a half ago.
Her
slight body bent toward the marketing director of Kline
Technology, she leaned against the front of man’s desk talking
to him in a low voice. A
voice that had haunted Marcus’s dreams.
The voice of the only woman he had ever considered making a
permanent commitment to.
Veronica
Richards.
She
bent forward to pick up a stack of papers and silky brown strands
swayed against her averted cheek.
The blunt cut that ended just below her chin surprised him.
A year and a half ago her hair had hit the middle of her
back when it was down, although he hadn’t discovered that fact
until the first time they’d kissed.
She
had kept a scrupulously buttoned-up appearance in CIS’s office,
which included wearing her hair in a severe twist on the back of
her head. Her black
framed glasses that somehow enhanced her soft gray eyes had added
to the picture.
She
hadn’t been buttoned-up when he touched her, though.
She’d been full of shy passion and innocent ardor.
He’d
worked with her for three years, assuming the ruthlessly efficient
secretary had coolant rather than blood running through her veins.
It had shocked him to discover otherwise...almost as much
as learning that she had sold out his company’s corporate
secrets before skipping town.
His
hand curled into a fist at his side.
He wanted to stride across the distance separating them,
grab her by the shoulders and spin her around to face him before
demanding an explanation for the inexplicable.
She
hadn’t just betrayed her company, she’d betrayed her lover and
he wanted to know why.
The
one word question had played in the back of his mind for the past
eighteen months. Why
after three years of being the perfect secretary, loyal in every
way, had she sold information that soured a deal for CIS? Why,
after being his lover for two months, had she left without so much
as a goodbye?
Instead
of acting on his almost overwhelming impulse to demand some
answers, he forced himself to turn to his client. George
Kline, the president and owner of Kline Technology, had hired
Marcus to find an in-house mole.
"You wanted to introduce me to the marketing director?"
"Yes."
Kline nodded his gray head, the movement decisive.
"His team and the project lead teams are the only ones
with the kind of advance knowledge the person we’re looking for
has been leaking."
Ronnie
turned slightly and he saw that she still wore the black-framed
glasses. Typically,
her white shirt had been buttoned up to her neck and tucked into a
neat gray skirt. She
looked prim and cool, not at all like the sort of woman that would
sell out her boss and lover.
With
a churning in his gut, he realized his investigation had probably
been just made very simple.
"You
said there are five people on the marketing team with access to
the information that has been leaking."
"Yes,"
Kline replied, his green eyes lit with keen intelligence. "The
department is a little over twice that size, but only my top
people have open access to all our product information, including
design team stats."
Marcus
fixed his gaze on Ronnie’s profile and asked, "Did you include
admins in that number?"
Kline
frowned and swore. "No.
I didn’t even think about our departmental administrative
assistants. They’ve
got access to everything."
"How
many are there?"
Kline
was briefly silent. "Marketing
has three, the project design team has one and the sustaining team
has two, but only one would be working with the engineers assigned
to each product’s launch."
"Is
she one of them?" He pointed to Ronnie who had turned toward
them, giving him his first full view of her face.
Kline
gave him a speculative look. "That’s
Veronica Richards, one of the marketing admins.
Came to work for us about six months ago.
She has unhindered access to pretty much everything."
Kline’s
voice faded in his mind as Marcus’s gaze clashed with
Ronnie’s.
He
tried to maintain a detached air as he watched her react to his
presence. He waited
for first the recognition and then the shock to register.
His company, CIS, had its headquarters in
Portland
and she’d left before he and his partner, Alex, branched out
into corporate investigations.
She probably thought she was safe in the anonymity of the
larger city of
Seattle
, a good four hours north of
Portland
and across a state border.
As
her gaze settled on him, recognition widened her eyes instantly.
Soft lips that he had once kissed with incredible hunger
parted as all color drained from the patrician features of her
face. She swayed
slightly, her mouth forming one word.
He thought it was his name.
She looked ready to faint.
He cursed silently even as his feet pulled him forward
against his will to come to her aid.
Kline
reached her first. "Good
afternoon, Veronica. I’d
like you to meet Marcus Danvers.
I’ve hired his firm to do some consulting for Kline
Tech."
As
Marcus listened to Kline give the cover story they had agreed upon
to explain his presence, he couldn’t help wondering how the
older man could be oblivious to Ronnie’s distress.
Didn’t he see the way her body had tensed?
Didn’t he notice the short little breaths that indicated
Ronnie’s anxiety? Was
he so blind that he saw only her face, schooled into an
emotionless mask?
"We’re
looking at expansion?" Ronnie asked, her usually well-modulated
tones tight with stress.
"Maybe,"
his client responded noncommittally.
Marcus
turned his attention from her to Kline.
"I think there’s something you should know."
"Marcus..."
His name came out like a plea.
He
ignored it. No doubt
she was afraid he would tell Kline about her betrayal at CIS.
She didn’t need to worry.
Not yet. He
wasn’t ready to do that. If
she was not guilty of the espionage he’d been hired to
investigate, he didn’t want Kline jumping to the conclusion she
was and dropping the investigation, leaving himself vulnerable to
the real culprit.
Besides,
Marcus didn’t think it would take him very long to find out if
Ronnie were up to her old tricks.
"Veronica
and I already know each other.
She worked for CIS for a few years.
She’s very familiar with our information services to
investment clients." He
hoped Kline would pick up on his hint that Ronnie didn’t know
about CIS’s corporate investigation activities.
Intelligent
enough to build a garage business into a multi-million dollar
company, Kline got the message and the slightly panicked
expression in his eyes faded.
"I see. Then
she’ll be the ideal contact for you here at Kline Tech."
Turning
with a swift movement, Marcus caught Ronnie’s reaction to
Kline’s suggestion. If
she’d looked pale before, she looked green now.
She
shook her head frantically, her almost abnormal control no where
in evidence. "No."
Kline’s
gray brows drew together and his green eyes narrowed dangerously.
"No?"
Ronnie’s
mouth opened and then closed without anything coming out.
Her gaze skittered to Marcus and then away again.
"Do
you have a problem working with Marcus?" Kline asked, his
expression still grim.
Marcus
could almost pity Ronnie, having to stand under that intimidating
scrutiny. Almost.
If a corporate spy deserved pity.
She
made a visible effort to pull herself together.
"It’s just that I’m so busy right now with the new
product marketing research for Cougar. I’m
sure there’s someone more appropriate to work with Mr. Danvers
regarding investment strategies."
"On
the contrary, I prefer having someone I know answer questions and
point me to the right people.
Besides, you already know how I work.
That makes you a valuable resource."
He waited to see if she could wriggle out of that.
Her
gaze flew to his and for a second he read hope in her eyes before
it faded to wariness. "If
that is what you wish."
He
smiled, knowing the expression did not reach his eyes.
"It is. It
definitely is."
"It’s
settled then. Veronica,
you can begin by introducing Marcus around the marketing
department. I’ve got
some urgent things needing attention on my desk."
Kline once again sounded like someone’s jovial
grandfather, all steely determination gone from his expression now
that he had gotten his employee’s compliance.
Kline
walked away and Ronnie stood staring after him in complete silence
for a full minute before Marcus spoke.
"It’s
been a long time, Ronnie."
Her
head whipped up. "Don’t..."
She took a deep breath and expelled it slowly.
"Don’t call me that.
Please."
"Why
not?" he asked with mockery, wondering at the pleading in her
voice. If he didn’t
know better, he would think she was vulnerable to him.
But she’d proven she wasn’t when she disappeared
without a backward glance. "It’s
your name."
Or
at least the name he’d given her when their relationship had
turned intimate.
"My
name is Veronica. No
one but you has ever called me Ronnie.
I don’t... I don’t like it."
He
wondered at her hesitation, but chose to ignore it.
"I do like it. It
suits you, or at least it suits the woman I know you to be."
Actually Benedict, as in Benedict Arnold, suited the woman
he really knew.
She
turned pale again and he almost felt guilty for baiting her.
Then
her eyes narrowed and she said, "You don’t know me, not the
real me and you never did."
He
couldn’t argue with her. Obviously
he hadn’t known her, or he would have realized what kind of
betrayal she was capable of. "You’re
supposed to be introducing me around.
We can save rehashing old times for later."
Her
hand fluttered to her throat and she couldn’t hide the panic his
words caused her. Every
second he spent in her company convinced him more firmly of her
guilt. She acted like
a woman terrified of being caught doing something wrong.
Then again, maybe she was just afraid her past had caught
up with her. Maybe.
And
maybe she had found a pretty lucrative deal here at Kline
Technology, selling secrets to Kline’s competitors.
Was she afraid the gravy train was about to end?
Marcus
didn’t know, but that’s what he’d been hired to find out and
he was damn good at his job.
***
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