In Her Sights Read Online Free PDF Page B

the same air Addison carried. Even trapped and at her mercy, she appreciated how he hadn’t folded under the pressure.
    A desk matching the same wood tones of the lobby furniture was
along the back wall. An elderly woman sat at it, flipping between pages on her
desk, then looking at her computer. A plaque labeled Mary Parker sat on
the edge. She looked up and gave Lexie a warm smile that crinkled the corners
of her brown eyes. She had long, silver hair that flipped a little at the ends
and huge pieces of dangling, green costume earrings that Lexie loved. “Can I
help you, dear?”
    “I have an appointment with Clayton Addison at nine.”
    Mary’s eyes widened a touch at the corners, and she cleared
her throat as she stood. “Yes, Ms. Olympia. Right this way. I thought I
recognized you from the paper.”
    Lexie smiled at the woman. Staff, workers, the general
public—all of them were a very powerful group of people. After all, a
successful business was built on the backs of hardworking individuals. Whenever
there was a chance, it was always a good idea to reinforce the sweet
philanthropist image the papers made her out to be. It hadn’t been easy earning
the name Melville’s Sweetheart in a metropolitan area of over two
hundred thousand people. It was moments like this and being pictured in the
little Magnolia Weekly society pages that had built her reputation. “Hopefully
I didn’t have anything in my teeth in the picture.”
    “Oh.” Mary laughed a little and shook her head. “Of course
not.”
    Lexie leaned over. “I always worry that’s going to happen.”
    “I don’t think I ever thought about it before, but it would
make me a nervous wreck to know my picture could be taken at just any moment
like that.”
    Mary directed her toward a wooden door ten feet to the right.
No windows around it, nothing. Just a solid-looking door. Before they reached
it, it swung open and he stepped out.
    Somehow, she managed not to trip all over her feet. Or her
jaw that was surely on the floor.
    Addison was the picture of a dream model out of a magazine—no,
scratch that. Magazines were flat, and this man was no flat picture.
    His gray suit fit snug in all the right places. His hair had
been styled with what she would guess to be fingertips lightly dipped in gel. A
freshly shaven jawline completed the package. She didn’t know what his cologne
was, but as she moved closer, the scent overpowered the clean and coffee smells
of the office. It was woodsy: pine and earth. He was nothing like the rough-looking,
troublemaking man from last night she’d considered shooting.
    This businessman didn’t look like anyone who knew anything
about breaking and entering, much less actually able to perform it as
successfully as he had. He….
    She chuckled. He, with his two opposite sides, reminded her
of her .
    She cleared her throat and dug her nails into her palm.
Lord, she had to get herself together. A laughing ditz was not the way to be
taken seriously. “Mr. Addison, thank you for agreeing to this last-minute
appointment.”
    “It never crossed my mind to refuse you.” He backed up
before he stepped to the side and showed her to his office.
    The space was tidy and masculine—but unlike the simple
lobby, pictures of a chocolate lab, fish, and other hunting things were on one
wall. An oversized desk that wasn’t just for show if the amount of files, books,
and papers stacked across the top meant anything. A big blue marlin was mounted
on a different wall. Shelving that alternated between books and framed
photographs of men wearing those black shirts with the company logo across
their chests.
    He moved behind his desk, gestured at the chairs for her to
have a seat, and sat in a leather chair that didn’t make a sound as he settled
into it. “You asked for this meeting. What can I do for you?”
    She sat in the lightly padded leather chair in front of his
desk. “I want to know more about this stolen item you came into my house