Her Dark Knight Read Online Free PDF Page B

Lucheux’s when he first spotted her?
    “She didn’t succeed in getting his signature so I sent her back.” Her tone didn’t suppress her fury that Madelaine had somehow failed in her mission, which wasn’t the case at all.
    “The goal wasn’t for him to sign fake papers, but to meet her. I say she succeeded admirably.”
    Giselle hissed out a breath. He enjoyed seeing Giselle thrown off her game.
    “If he isn’t already, Chevalier will soon be preoccupied with her,” he said.
    “He can’t honestly believe she’s his dead lover.”
    Madelaine disappeared from sight but Lucheux kept watch over the street. He didn’t comment on Giselle’s statement because a part of him wasn’t so sure. The resemblance Lainie Alexander had to Madelaine, Countess of Flandres, was beyond eerie and bordering on downright scary. What if she was the reincarnated Madelaine? What would it mean?
    Giselle turned to him, her expression incredulous. “Surely you don’t believe it’s her.” When he didn’t respond, she laughed. “You do!” Lucheux mashed his back teeth together. He hated when Giselle laughed at him. Those pale eyes that disconcerted him on many an occasion looked troubled. “You believe it too,” he said softly. “You’re afraid it’s her.”
    She stopped laughing and scoffed, but wasn’t able to stop the flash of fear in her eyes. His comment hit the mark. Interesting.
    “Of course not,” she said.
    Lucheux had known Giselle for many centuries. He was tied to her in ways that defied description and both sickened and enraged him. In all that time he’d never seen her afraid. He considered her fear quietly and tried to decide how to use it against her.
     
    Lainie stood outside The Chevalier and rubbed a sweaty palm down her skirt. In the light of day the building looked different with its darkened windows and the door closed and locked. Not precisely abandoned. More like waiting for something to happen.
    This early in the afternoon the only things moving were a few pieces of trash fluttering in the cool breeze. She shivered and stood at the front door in indecision. No line of people waited to get in. No bouncer turned her away. Nothing but a big, black door and her clamoring nerves faced her.
    Last night she’d escaped this place, promising herself she would never return and now here she was, not even twelve hours later, right back where she said she wouldn’t be. Damn Giselle. And damn the fact Lainie needed this job so much. If she had only herself to worry about she’d walk away. Forget the job. Forget the great pay. It wasn’t worth Giselle’s abuse or facing Chevalier again. But it wasn’t just her. She had responsibilities and a sick father who relied on her.
    “Come on, Lainie, don’t be a coward.” She’d never been a coward. Not when the government stepped in and tried to take her family’s farm. Not when she worked all day and attended college at night for five years. And not when her father slowly shriveled away to a shell of himself after he lost his land and certainly not when she had to make the difficult decision to put him in a nursing home. Coward wasn’t in her vocabulary.
    She looked to the right and left. Chevalier picked his place of business well. At one time it had been an abandoned warehouse among a block of other abandoned warehouses. According to the research she’d done at work this morning, he’d bought the block, refurbished the buildings and now rented all of them out. Businesses lined the bottoms and apartments the tops. Six years after his purchase people were on waiting lists to rent those apartments. She couldn’t even imagine the amount of money he’d spent to undertake such a huge project. But it paid off. He was now one of the richest men in Milwaukee and one of the five hundred richest men in the United States.
    She looked at the door again. Time was up. Giselle wanted those papers by tomorrow and Lainie was damned if she was giving up her Saturday to