The Switch Read Online Free PDF Page A

greased for him in order to make his university, the Air Force, and NASA look good. Let's make allowances for the Indian kid. It'll make for great PR.
    Probably no one within his experience had ever said that or even thought it. But he hated to think that someone might have. Just as he'd told Longtree and Abbott, he had never used his heritage either as a crutch or as a leg up.
    If somebody took that as a denial of his origin, then that was their problem and just too damn bad.
    He slapped a light cologne onto his face and ran his fingers through his unrelentingly straight black hair. His Native American genes had certainly been the dominate ones. He had Comanche hair, Comanche cheekbones. His mother had been fifteen-sixteenths Comanche. If it weren't for Great -G reat-Grandfather, he might look even more Native American than he did.
    As it was, a lanky wrangler on a ranch in the Oklahoma panhandle had taken a fancy to Great-Great-Grandmother shortly after the Indian Territory became a state. From him Christopher Hart had inherited a tall, rangy physique and eyes that his first lover had deemed "Paul Newman blue."
    His eyes had been one of his old man's excuses for leaving. Unfortunately, he had some of his father's blood, too.
    Impatient with the track of his thoughts, he strapped on his wristwatch, shot his cuffs, and he was ready. Before leaving the room, he glanced at the itinerary that had been faxed to his Houston office. He checked the name of his contact and committed it to memory.
    Actually, he would have preferred to drive himself from the exclusive Turtle Creek area where The Mansion nestled, largely unseen, on an ultra-private lane. With no more than an address and his reliable sense of direction, he could have located the Hotel Adolphus easily.
    But the group bestowing the award had insisted that he have an escort. "She's more than a chauffeur. She's media-savvy and knows all the local reporters," he was told. "You'll appreciate having Melina Lloyd to run interference for you. Otherwise you'd be mobbed."
    As he stepped through the doors of the hotel, a woman approached him. "Colonel Hart?"
    She was wearing a simple but elegantly cut and very expensive-looking black cocktail dress. Sunlight painted iridescent stripes of color onto her hair, which was almost as dark as his. It was worn straight from a side part. No bangs. She had on sunglasses.
    "You must be Ms. Lloyd."
    She extended her hand. "Melina."
    "Call me Chief."
    They smiled at each other as they shook hands. She asked, "How is your room? Satisfactory, I hope?"
    "Complete with a basket of fruit and a bottle of champagne. The staff has treated me royally."
    "That's what they're famous for."
    She nodded toward a late-model Lexus waiting at the end of the canopy-covered walkway. A doorman had the passenger door already open for him. Melina Lloyd tipped the young man handsomely. "Drive safely, Ms. Lloyd," he said to her as he waved them off.
    "You must be a regular here," Chief remarked.
    She laughed. "Not me. A few of my clients stay here—the really famous ones," she added, giving him a sidelong glance. "When I want to splurge, I love to come here for lunch. It's good people-watching, and they make scrumptious tortilla soup."
    "I'll tuck that away for future reference."
    "Adjust the air-conditioning to your liking."
    The curtain of dark hair swished across her shoulders as she turned her head to check for oncoming traffic before pulling out. He caught a whiff of fragrance.'
    "I'm comfortable, thanks."
    "What time did you arrive in Dallas?"
    "About two this afternoon."
    "That's good. You've had some time to decompress." "I went out to the pool."
    "It wasn't too cool?"
    "Not for me. I swam some laps. Worked on my tan."
    She cruised to a stop at a red traffic light and turned her head. "Your tan? That's an Indian-insider's joke, right?"
    He laughed, pleased that she got it and even more pleased that it didn't make her uneasy to comment on it. "Right." She smiled