Cara Summers - Risking It All

“And if she does?” Tracker asked.

“I’m trying to prevent that. I told her that Slade’s gone, that I’m his vice president in charge of retail acquisitions. That’s when she guessed I was acquiring Silken Fantasies.”

Tracker couldn’t prevent a laugh. “She’s as smart as her sisters.”

“I wonder if she knows that,” Hunter mused.

“How’s that?”

“Nothing.” He watched the huge black Labs race toward her, topple her over on the grass. When she sat up and looped her arms around their necks and let them lick her face, he was abruptly and totally charmed.

“I’m going to keep her here until we sort this out,” Hunter said.

“And just how do you plan to do that?”

The plan was beginning to take shape in his mind. “Jared Slade doesn’t give interviews. I’ll offer her the next best thing—an interview with his vice president in charge of retail acquisitions, Mark Hunter. I use that name when I travel,” he explained. “There’s even a personnel file on Mark Hunter in the Dallas office.” Then he thought to ask, “I assume there won’t be any problem with her staying here on the estate?”

For five beats there was dead silence on the other end of the line. “She’s the sister of a friend of mine. I don’t want to see her hurt. Her sister wouldn’t want to see her hurt. Neither would Lucas.”

Hunter’s brows rose. There was a clear warning in Tracker’s voice. “Let’s look at it this way. The interview will be legit, and it will be the next best thing to interviewing Jared Slade. She’ll have the scoop she needs to get her a full-time staff position at Celebs. And I’ll have the certainty that she’s here where I can keep an eye on her while you’re springing the trap we’ve set.”

“I don’t know,” Tracker said.

“There’s something else to consider. What if she’s not just lucky and smart? Someone sent an anonymous tip about my hotel to Celebs and not to the Post, as you mentioned earlier today. What if the bastard who set the bomb is using her as a pawn in the game he’s playing? Until we know what’s going on and who the players are, she’ll be safer here with me than she’d be trying to get a lead on Jared Slade’s whereabouts.”

As he watched Rory throw a stick for the dogs, he waited out the silence again.

“Why do I think that there’s a more personal side to this than you’re telling me?” Tracker finally asked.

“Because your nature is to be suspicious. But neither one of us wants her stumbling onto something that will lead her down to the Keys,” Hunter said.

“Yeah.” He sighed. “You’re right. I’ll be in touch when I have something.”

After hanging up the phone, Hunter walked to the French doors. Whatever he’d said to Tracker, he wouldn’t lie to himself. He wanted Rory Gibbs with him for very personal reasons that had nothing to do with her safety or protecting his anonymity.

He didn’t kid himself, either. Keeping her here was every bit as risky as letting her go. But he hadn’t built Slade Enterprises by running away from risks. He would just have to be careful. He watched her race across the lawn with the dogs chasing her and felt his body begin to harden again. Would she be that reckless, that abandoned when they made love again? He wanted to find out. He would find out, Hunter decided. Soon. That decision made, he began to plot a strategy for handling Rory Gibbs.

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