Hands On Read Free

card.
    â€œGoddamn!”
    A private investigator? He looked out of the tintedwindow toward the bar as if he could see the blonde. Cassie York, private investigator.
    â€œShit!”
    She was going to screw everything up. Bask would know his latest con was a bust, and disappear. And Dalton would be stuck following this guy for the rest of his sorry career.
    No way. He got out of the car and practically sprinted to the back door. A dark blue Mercedes pulled into the lot just as he let himself in. With his luck, it was probably Bask, just because now he didn’t want him to show up.
    Dalton swore when he creamed his finger in the door in his haste to get to Cassie York. He had to stop her. Whatever she had planned. No matter what.
    Â 
    C ASSIE REALLY HATED playing the dumb blonde. But it worked. Every time. Men could be so stupid. She smiled at the bartender, and then sipped her diet cola from the straw he’d given her. Although it was more a salad bar than a soda. He’d dumped in cherries and orange slices and even a couple of green olives.
    She wasn’t complaining, though. She’d skipped lunch to get here on time. One flattened Milky Way was all she’d had since her breakfast of dry cereal.
    Hell, she’d starve for a week to get this assignment. Her first big case. Okay, so it was her first case, period. But she’d worked as an assistant to Chet, sleazeball private detective extraordinaire, long enough to know what she was doing.
    Even Jennifer Madison had faith in her. Hired herin a heartbeat. Explained what an important case this was, how it was more than just another case, how it was personal. And Cassie wouldn’t let her down. As an added bonus, once Cassie cracked the case and put Robert Bask behind bars, she’d rub Chet’s nose in it.
    She cringed, thinking about the one time she’d slept with him. Had she been out of her mind? Sure, he was good-looking, but he was so full of himself. Of course she’d been only twenty-two, fresh out of college and overly impressed with the well-dressed, fast-living Romeo. At twenty-four she was a lot wiser now.
    And cynical.
    â€œCan I get you something else, darlin’?” The bartender gave her a toothy grin.
    Darlin’? God, she hated endearments. Especially from strange men. She gritted her teeth and resisted the urge to correct his grammar. Instead, she smiled and leaned forward.
    She really hadn’t meant to give him a view down her scooped-neck Victoria’s Secret T-shirt. “Do me a favor, sugar.”
    â€œSure.” The guy eagerly leaned toward her.
    She touched the end of his dark beard with the tip of her polished pink finger. “Don’t tell Robert I was asking about him.”
    â€œNot a word.”
    No one else had heard her inquire about Bask. Except maybe the man wearing the Stetson who’d been sitting at the bar when she came in. He’d apparently gone to the bathroom and didn’t seem to care why she was here. Good thing.
    Too late it had occurred to her that she shouldn’t have asked about the guy at all. She should have just waited, acted coy once he arrived, waited for him to make a move. Cassie was his type, according to his wife. He liked twenty-something blondes with long hair, not too tall or thin.
    But he’d married Jennifer’s friend, Marianne, who’d turned fifty-five two months ago, and had never had a blond day in her life. She had money, though, and Robert seemed to like that, too.
    Cassie’s job was to test his faithfulness. Not her first choice of assignment. But the case was important to her boss. And if the guy turned out to be a gold-digging lothario, Cassie would expose him. With pleasure.
    She took another sip of the cola and then fished out a cherry. At the other end of the bar, the waitress placed an order with the bartender, which gave Cassie a small break. The guy had hung around like a dog hoping for scraps.
    She scooped out