Bitter Gold Hearts Read Free Page A

must have done the job till now because there hasn’t been a hint of scandal since the old girl left town.”
    One more scowl.
    The door sprang open and a man stomped into the room. “Willa, has there been any more word about...?” He spotted me and pulled up. His eyebrows crawled halfway up his forehead, a trick for which he was famous. To hear some tell it, that was his only talent. “Who the hell is that?” He was renowned for being rude, too, though among people of his class that was a trait the rest of us expected.
     
     

__IV__
     
    Willa dount spoke up. “There hasn’t been any­thing yet. I expect we won’t be contacted for a while.” She looked at me, her expression making that a question. “They like to let the anxiety level rise before they come after you. It makes you more eager to cooperate.”
    “This is Mr. Garrett,” she said. “Mr. Garrett is an expert on kidnappers and kidnappings.”
    “My god, Willa! Are you mad? They said don’t tell anybody.”
    She ignored his outburst. “Mr. Garrett, this is the Stormwarden’s consort, the Baronet daPena, the father of the victim.”
    How he twitched and jerked! Without changing her tone or expression, Domina Dount had hit him with a fat double shot, calling him consort (which labeled him a drone) and mentioning his baronetcy (which wasn’t he­reditary and purely an honor because he was the fourth son of a cadet of the royal house). She may even have gotten in a sly third shot there, if, as you sometimes heard whispered, Junior wasn’t really a seed fallen from the senior.
    “How do you do, Lord? He has a good question, Domina.” I’d been working up to it when he burst in. “Why bring me in when the kidnappers said don’t tell anybody? A man with my reputation, and you sent out what amounted to a platoon of clowns, with the girl dressed flashy enough to catch a blind man’s eye. It’s not likely the kidnappers won’t hear about it.”
    “That was the point. I want them to.”
    “Willa!”
    “Karl, be quiet. I’m explaining to Mr. Garrett.”
    He turned white. He was furious. She’d made it clear who stood where, who was in charge, in front of a lowlife from down the Hill. But he contained himself. I pre­tended blindness. It isn’t smart to see things like that. Willa Dount said, “I want them to know I’ve brought you in, Mr. Garrett.”
    “Why?”
    “For young Karl’s sake. To improve his chances of getting through this alive. Would you say they’re less likely to harm him if they know about you?”
    “If they’re professionals. Professionals know me. If they’re not, chances are they’ll go the other way. You may have moved too soon.”
    “Time will tell. It seemed the best bet to me.”
    “Exactly what do you want me to do?”
    “Nothing.”
    She blind-sided me there. “What?”
    “You’ve done what I needed you to do. You’ve been seen coming here to confer with me. You’ve lent me your reputation. Hopefully, Karl’s chances have been improved.”
    “That’s it?”
    “That’s it, Mr. Garrett. Do you think a hundred marks adequate recompense for the loan of your reputation?”
    It was fine with me, but I ignored the question. “What about the payoff?” Usually they want me to handle that for them.
    “I believe I can handle that. It’s basically a matter of following instructions, isn’t it?”
    “Explicitly. The payoff is when they’re most nervous. That’s when you’ll have to be most careful. For your own safety as well as the boy’s.”
    Senior snorted and huffed and stamped, wanting to get his hand into the action. Willa Dount kept him quiet with an occasional touch of her icicle eyes.
    I wondered what the Stormwarden had left her in the way of leashes and whips. She sure had the old boy buffaloed. Karl Senior was still a handsome man though he was running away from forty — if he had not already sneaked past fifty. Time had dealt him a few wrinkles but no extra pounds. His hair was all