Carved in Stone Read Free Page B

trail that led to camp.

Chapter 2
     
     
    “Just who the hell are you, anyway?” Nate spun around and confronted Alex as she stalked into the clearing.
    “I told you.” She snarled between clenched teeth, barely containing her fury. “I’m Alex Martin. Remember, the photographer you hired? The one who’s supposed to climb some cliff and take photos of mysterious petroglyphs? The one who totally rearranged her schedule at your request? The same one who kindly filled in on a moment’s notice to replace your regular photographer? Or don’t you recall any of that?” She threw her knapsack to the ground, almost spilling her mug of coffee in the process.
    “I hired Alexander Martin.” Nate closed the distance between them and glared at Alex. Eyes filled with contempt and body tense with anger, he spoke in a low, controlled voice. “I want to know where the hell he is.”
    “Painting seascapes at Big Sur, you jerk,” she shouted, stepping even closer and poking him none too gently in the chest. Nate stepped backward and stumbled over a tent peg, obviously unprepared for her attack.
    She moved with him, punctuating each word with another jab to his broad chest. “He retired six years ago. When you called Martin Photography you called me. I own the company and I am the one you hired.”
    “I did not hire a woman. This isn’t a job for a woman.”
    She stopped dead in her tracks, and she might have laughed if she wasn’t so pissed. “You didn’t really say that, did you? That this isn’t a job for a woman?”
    He ignored her. “I hired Alexander Martin. I distinctly instructed my secretary to call—”
    “Martin Photography. Which happens to be my studio.” Gaining confidence, Alex addressed him as if she were speaking to a small child. “So you’d better get used to me, ’cus I’m the woman you hired. I have a contract with your signature on it. Unless you want to pay me off up front and send me home and deal with a whole lot of very uncomfortable press coverage, I would suggest you apologize for your rudeness so we can both act like grown-ups and get to work. What do you say, Dr. Murdock? Do you think you can manage that?”
    Alex looked Nate slowly up and down with the same contempt he’d shown her, then backed off and took a dignified sip of her rapidly cooling coffee. If only her fingers would stop trembling, she might be able to carry this off.
    She really, really hated confrontation of any kind, but dammit all, she needed this job. Except what kind of jerk told a woman to her face that this wasn’t a job for a woman? Eyeing him over the top of her mug, she silently prayed her expression was calm enough to mask the emotions churning inside.
    She felt sick. Once again, Alexander Martin was the preferred choice. She’d been so sure this time!
    Would the competition with her father never end? She might have idolized the man when she was little, but it hadn’t taken long to find out what he was really like.
    It was difficult enough for a woman to gain a name in her field, but Jessie was right. The fact that she was the famous Alexander Martin’s only offspring made the hurdles even higher.
    In its own way, Alex knew her studio was an admission of failure, an attempt to find success in her profession away from the nature photography that would always be her true love.
    Though weddings and graduations and family portraits might pay the bills, they would never take the place of photographing an ancient ruin, a tiny flower, or an eagle during its diving, soaring courtship flight.
    What hurt even worse was the fact she knew she’d given up too easily. She’d allowed her father’s duplicity to chase her away from the work she loved. The work she was meant to do.
    Not this time. This was her job, her chance, and Nathan Murdock was not going to take it away.
     
     
    Stunned by the woman’s outburst, Nate paused. Obviously there was a misunderstanding of epic proportions. Just as obviously, the mistake