The Fatal Fortune Read Online Free PDF Page A

Guinevere listened and participated while she sipped her coffee, but she was disappointed when no one mentioned Madame Zoltana. That was the thing about undercover investigations, she decided. You had to have patience. Hadn’t Zac always told her that? Unfortunately, patience was not one of her virtues.
    Guinevere glanced at her watch as she thought of Zac. She was due to meet him for lunch. She had vowed she wouldn’t ask him for any more advice, but she decided to change her mind. Perhaps he could suggest some method of bringing up the subject of Madame Zoltana without arousing suspicion. She’d probably have to listen to another lecture on not getting involved, but it would be worth it if she got some useful pointers.
    * * *
    Zac left his office a few minutes before noon and strolled down to Second Avenue to pick up Guinevere for lunch. He was pleased with the way plans were going for his big move up. The movers had promised to arrive on the specified day, and the new furniture was already in a warehouse, waiting to be delivered. As far as Zac could see, there were no real glitches on the horizon in the moving department, but he knew that some were bound to develop. It was a law of nature.
    The real problem was getting Guinevere to send him some secretarial candidates. He was beginning to think he’d made a mistake, asking her to handle the initial interviews. At the time it had seemed reasonable enough. After all, she was the expert at hiring secretaries, and she had a whole stable of them to draw on. But so far he hadn’t been presented with a single live choice, and it was beginning to worry Zac. What was the holdup? He wanted the secretary to move into the new office suite on the same day that the furniture was installed. Zac liked things neat and tidy.
    The August sun was heating the city to a mellow seventy-eight degrees. As he neared the high-rise where Guinevere was working, he removed his jacket and slung it over his shoulder. Perhaps it would be a good day to eat at one of the restaurants in the Pike Place Market. Zac considered the matter closely as he approached the revolving doors of the building. He was hungry. Through narrowed eyes he spotted a blue blazer among a crowd of people stepping out of an elevator, as he walked into the cool lobby.
    Guinevere didn’t notice him immediately. She was talking to a man who had exited the elevator beside her. Zac watched the two of them cross the wide slate lobby floor, and something tightened inside him. Guinevere was smiling, but there was something unnatural about her normally warm, charming smile. Zac frowned at the way the man’s tawny head was bent toward her. He got the impression Guinevere’s companion was trying to talk her into something. Probably lunch.
    Impelled by a distinctly primitive need to stake his claim in front of the other man, Zac went forward purposefully. “Hi, Gwen. Ready for lunch?” His voice was a low-pitched, gravelly sound that was meant to catch the attention of both parties. It did.
    Guinevere’s reaction startled Zac. She turned her head at once, something akin to relief in her eyes. Then she was hurrying toward him, her high heels clicking on the slate floor. “Oh, there you are, Zac. I’m ready.” The smile was as full of relief as her eyes, and she did something she almost never did in public. She came to a halt in front of him, stood on her toes, and kissed him.
    Zac recovered almost instantly from the shock and took her arm with possessive force. He was intensely aware of the tawny-haired man watching them. Zac glanced back casually as he guided Guinevere toward the door, and his gaze collided with that of the watching man. Zac decided he didn’t like him at all. Coolly he turned his back on him and ushered Guinevere through the revolving doors.
    “Who was that?” he asked without preamble as they reached the sidewalk.
    “Nobody important. Just someone who works for Gage and Watson,” Guinevere said quickly.