High Stakes Read Online Free PDF Page B

brother.”
    “She’s not the First Lady yet. The president came through the surgery just fine.” Rachel hated that some people had declared Mark Langley as permanently incapacitated. She’d done a segment on the tasteless nomenclature.
    “Whatever.” Leaning back against the doorjamb, Rubin crossed his ankles.
    “When does he start?” she asked him.
    “You mean you don’t know that, either?”
    “No.”
    They both looked up when Crane Davis came to the doorway. Nearly fifty, with gray hair and a still-fit build,
he
was always in her corner. “I got good news.”
    “Raskin beat you to the punch. How’d it happen?”
    Crane gave Rubin a disapproving look. “John Walsh”—the top network official—”called the mayor, who called the CEO of
CitySights
. Since the acting president of the United States was a former New York senator, the mayor wants things smoothed over between O’Neil and you.”
    Inside Rachel a war battled:
Yay! she was going to see Dylan regularly
. And:
Oh, no, she was going to see Dylan regularly.
“How will it go down?” she asked as neutrally as she could.
    Turning to Rubin, Crane said, “Could you give us some space, Raskin?”
    Scowling, Rubin nodded and left.
    Crane closed the door and sat across from her. “O’Neil will investigate you in three ways. He’s allowed to scrutinize all your previous stories for any kind of mishandlings; he gets to follow you around your job and go on assignments with you.”
    “That’s not too bad.”
    “There’s one more thing. He insists on being filled in on your background. By you.”
    “No way.”
    Crane’s eyes were clear and caring. “It’s a deal breaker and we can’t afford to break this particular deal, Rach.”
    Exasperated, she leaned back in her chair. She had secrets she didn’t want anybody to know about. “What exactly does
my background
consist of?”
    “You’ll have to ask him.”
    Her phone buzzed. The intercom speaker said, “You have a phone call, Rachel.”
    She knew, she
knew
who it was.
    “Dylan O’Neil.”
    Damn.
    “Put him through,” Crane said to her, “and play nice. This is the chance you wanted. And it’ll get you places.” Crane was pulling for her to get the foreign reporter assignment and was planning to be part of her team.
    When Crane left, Rachel picked up the phone. “Rachel Scott.”
    “You won.” Dylan’s deep baritone came across the phone lines. Even angry, his voice skittered across her nerves.
    “Not quite. I’ll go along with the first two requirements but not the last. You don’t have a right to pry into my background.”
    “I check out the background of all the subjects I investigate. I’m meeting with the KPRAY people this afternoon to start the process. I’ll be digging into everything about them.”
    “Into their personal lives?”
    “Yeah, to see what their motivation might be.”
    She got up and closed the office door Crane had left ajar, then whispered into the phone, “You didn’t sleep with those others, Dylan.”
    “Nope. And believe me, I’ll never make the mistake of sleeping with the enemy again.”
    She couldn’t control the little gasp that escaped her. “We’re not enemies, Dylan.”
    “Yes, Miss America, we are. So, I’m free tomorrow morning. Come to my office with a list of the projects you’ve worked on. We’ll start to get to know each other then.”
    She hated his autocratic tone. But she agreed, wishing like hell she hated everything else about him.

 
    Chapter 4
     
    The offices of KPRAY broadcasting were in the Village, not far from the pub, which surprised Dylan as much as their modest size. Up a flight of stairs, seven private offices with several cubicles and tables filled the main area. They employed twenty workers; one met Dylan before he could wander around. “Mr. O’Neil, I’m Jamie Linton.”
    He’d expected a man, maybe in a suit, maybe older. This woman looked about thirty with short red hair, freckles, wearing jeans and a