A Dangerous Dance Read Online Free PDF

treated his employees better than his only daughter. He'd believed that good treatment and good benefits paid off in spades. Only the unethical and dishonest had problems with him. Once she'd assured people she didn't intend to change things, the loyalty he'd built flowed to her. There'd been some jockeying for position after his death, but not as much as she'd expected. Magus had chosen to surround himself with people who were bright and intelligent, and top notch at what they did, ambitious to excel, but not into power for power's sake.
    Maybe it was because of his years in Australia, that down-under Oz, that he was both colorful and down-to-earth. Somehow he'd managed to be both mysterious and accessible to those he worked with. Like her, they fell under his spell and were happy to be there.
    When he began his campaign, he'd managed to connect in the same way with the voters he met as he traveled around the state. People loved him. It was as simple as that. And now Remy was willing to bet his freedom that they'd love her, too.
    She looked down at her hands, spreading her bare-of-adornment fingers and studying them as if they belonged to someone else. Gone were the cracked and broken nails of the wait and the dry skin of too much immersion in harsh chemicals. The skin was smooth and soft, the nails manicured, meticulously cared for. She ran a finger along the fourth finger on her left hand, trying to imagine it with a gold band. She didn't have to try hard.
    She looked up again, speaking aloud to her reflection, “Who are you fooling, Dorothy? You knew you were going to agree the moment he said it. You should run as far and as fast as you can. This could really hurt, but you've been hurt before and it didn't kill you.”
    Of course, in the past she hadn't been baiting a killer.
    * * * *
    Remy suggested they do the interview from Oz. The atmosphere was great and it would seem more a part of the mystique that Magus had so enjoyed creating.
    Dorothy was happy to agree. For her it meant putting off the moment when she'd have to emerge from seclusion and once again face the howl of a press corps on the hunt. For a short time after Magus's death, as new heir to his empire, she'd been a target of the press, but by being rigorously uninteresting, they'd faded away. For several years now, she'd only been covered by the business inclined press. Now she was preparing to not only be interesting, but to give the press beehive a giant whack with a stick. Smart. Real smart.
    At least she'd know real fast, if Magus was still interesting, and by default, her.
    “I don't understand why you're doing this,” Titus said, during a rare moment alone with Dorothy. “You hate the press.”
    Poor Titus. He liked his world straightforward and above board.
    “How did you ever get mixed up with Magus and Oz?” she asked, before she could stop herself. Because she was so private herself, she was careful of the privacy of those around her.
    He looked startled for a moment. “Your mother offered me the job. We went to the same high school.”
    She couldn't have been more surprised if he'd announced his parents were bugs. “I didn't know.”
    He shrugged. “I expect it's all in the file Magus kept on me.”
    “I expect it is,” she said, tacitly letting him know she'd never read it. The real truth was, she'd never thought of reading it. Titus was just there, like Magus's ghost. But now that was changed. He'd been in high school. With her mother. He'd been a teenager. Amazing. “Your parents...”
    She let the question trail off, in case it wasn't welcome.
    “They died just after I graduated. So I went into the Navy.”
    “I'm sorry.”
    “It was a long time ago.”
    That wasn't what she meant, but she let it stand. She knew what it was like to have wounds poked at. “Do you know why...?”
    Again she hesitated, as his brows lifted in polite inquiry.
    “...my parents separated. Why he never tried to contact me?”
    His cool, closed gaze