Haunting Rachel Read Online Free PDF Page A

bank, or at least not the usual sort; clients of Duncan and Ross offered their deposits to be invested in whatever business ventures the firm saw fit to back. The rewards could be enormous.
    So could the losses.
    Duncan and Ross, however, had a solid reputation for backing winners, and their clients were, for the most part, happy. If they thought it odd that Duncan Grant had chosen to put his first name on the letterhead, and if they wondered why he had suddenly taken on a rather unusual and rather mysterious partner around five years before, both circumstances were, by now, accepted and hardly worth comment.
    Mercy Sheridan strode briskly across the marble-floored lobby on this Wednesday afternoon, headed for her office. She wasn’t sure just how much longer it would
be
her office, but for now she still had work to do. The paperwork involved when a partner died suddenly was incredible, and between that and the work she had been doing for Nicholas as a favor—he had never used a personal assistant, but found the need for one now that Duncan was gone—she had managed to keep herself busy.
    Once Duncan’s affairs were settled, however, she would have to start sending out her resume.
    “Mercy?” Leigh Williams came suddenly out of her side office, frowning. “Now that you’re back, I need those balance sheets for the auditor. I hadn’t realized you’d be gone so long. You
could
give me the combination to Duncan’s safe, you know.” A tall and sophisticated blonde, the office manager always made Mercy feel both underdressed and overly cautious, to say nothing of tardy and inefficient.
    “Not without Rachel’s permission,” she said lightly, resisting an impulse to remind Leigh that she knew this fact of Duncan’s will very well. “I’ll get the papers and bring them to your office, Leigh.”
    “Thanks. Oh—and congratulations, by the way.”
    Mercy frowned. “For what?”
    “For trading up. Or, at least, not losing ground.”
    “Leigh, what’re you talking about?”
    “Why, I’m talking about you becoming Mr. Ross’s personal assistant.” Leigh’s pale blue eyes were coolly amused and not a little speculative. “That seems to be on the agenda.”
    Mercy shook her head. “You’ve been misinformed.”
    “Then so has Mr. Ross. He’s been telling everyone you’re going to stay on and work for him. I need those papers as soon as possible, Mercy.” Smiling, Leigh turned and went back into her office.
    Mercy stood there for only an instant, gazing thoughtfully at nothing, then went on through the quiet lobby. But instead of going to her own office or the one that had belonged to Duncan Grant, she went directly to the big corner office occupied by Nicholas Ross.
    His door was open, but he was on the phone. Mercy closed the door behind her, then sat on the arm of one of his visitor’s chairs. And while she waited, she studied him.
    Even sitting as he was, and behind a huge mahogany desk, he was obviously an unusually large man, and unusually powerful. His dark suit was expensive and well made, his shoulders could fill doorways, and his presence was nothing less than massive and overpowering. One glance, and anyone would want Nicholas on his or her side no matter what the fight was about.
    No one would ever call Mercy a small woman, yet Nicholas made her feel absurdly delicate. He also made her feel incredibly feminine, especially when her quiet voice was contrasted by his harsh growl.
    She supposed some people would be afraid of him.
    Maybe most people.
    Because he was so big, because he sounded so roughand angry—even when he wasn’t. And because he was ugly.
    With the best will in the world, she could describe him only as ugly.
    He was barely forty, but looked older. He looked, as the saying went, like ten miles of bad road. Maybe twenty. His face, tanned years ago almost to the color and consistency of old leather, was marked by several small scars he had gotten God only knew where or how, making