Fair Game Inc (2010) Read Online Free PDF Page B

work his way through college.
    The door swung open. Instead of being ushered in by the departing blonde secretary, chaos greeted her.
    At least three phones rang in a discordant chorus. File folders, stuffed to the point of bursting covered every surface. A flurry of green message slips caught the breeze as she entered and drifted to the floor.
    "Hello?"
    Silence answered her.
    From down the hall she could hear the low murmur of a man talking. Presumably on the phone. Amber followed the sound.
    The offices of Barlow & Charles had been nice at one time, she thought as she made her way through the inner sanctum. Tasteful paintings decorated the walls. The furniture, what she could see of it beneath the debris was upholstered in muted colors. At the end of the hallway lay a corner office. She poked her head inside.
    It took a moment to locate the occupant. The entire office looked as if someone had shaken the contents like one of those snow-globes you brought back from Niagara Falls, and left them to lie as they fell.
    A gasp escaped her lips.
    "Hang on one seca." The speaker straightened from bending over the file drawer of his desk. It took a moment for Amber to recognize him in his shirt sleeves and with his tousled dark hair. Grayson pressed the hold button and put the phone back on its cradle. The red light pulsed between them.
    "If you just have a seat out front, Ms. Shaw, I'll be right with you." Weariness worked its way into his tone.
    "Seat?" Amber asked incredulously. "There isn't one square inch in this entire office that isn't covered with paper."
    His eyebrows drew threateningly downward. "Then if you wouldn't mind standing out front for one moment, I promise I'll be right with you."
    Amber wrapped her will around her temper and strode back down the hall. Taking a stack of files from one of the chairs in the waiting room, she dumped it on top of another and sat down. Minutes dragged by. Should have brought my laptop. If Mr. Charles wanted to waste her court-appointed time that was fine with her. She could put it to good use.
    As seven minutes became ten, she found herself pacing the narrow entrance way. Her eyes came to rest on a brass plaque on one of the doors. John Barlow. Amber tried the handle. It opened easily.
    Well, J. B. was certainly nothing like his partner, she deduced. In the immaculate interior not even a speck of dust was out of place. She stepped further into the room. The mahogany desk wasn't locked, either. Amber sat in the leather chair and gently pulled open the top drawer.
    "Lose something?" The sound of his voice brought her head up sharply. Grayson leaned against the door frame. Gazing at him, Amber had to suppress a gasp. The disheveled stranger bore only a superficial resemblance to the Grayson Charles she'd met last night. Dark curls tumbled across his forehead, bearing evidence of the many times he must have run his hands through his hair during the day. A white shirt that still showed vague signs of once being starched and pressed now hung in a myriad wrinkles. Sleeves had been shoved, not rolled, above his elbows and his tie hung loosely and crookedly about his neck. If she didn't know better, Amber might suspect he had yet another identical twin lying around somewhere. The thought made her shudder. The Charles twins were enough to deal with as it was.
    Amber shut the drawer quickly and straightened. "You told me to find a seat." She glanced around the office. "So I found one."
    Grayson's expression said he knew exactly what she'd been doing. He glanced at his watch, then pointedly back at her. "You're late."
    "I got tied up on surveillance." Amber bit back the urge to apologize. He was the one who should be sorry. Grayson Charles would be the end of Fair Game, yet.
    His frown told her just what he thought of her activity. She might just as well have said something obscene.
    "You and your partner seem to have differing ideas about neatness," she said finally, to distract him for her