A Murderous Game (17 page)

She might not even be home. He
hadn't called because he didn't want to give her an opportunity to come up with
an excuse why he couldn't stop over, or to make a hasty getaway. He knocked on
the door, wondering if it would have been too obvious if he'd brought
chocolates.

"Well
hell-oh
!"
The sultry brunette standing in the doorway radiated hot. Her deep brown eyes
said
s-e-x
, any way you like it. "Long time, Gage darling,"
she drawled, catching him by surprise.

He searched her face. "I'm
afraid I'm at a disadvantage."

She gave him a once over that would
have made most men blush. "Oh." Her lips curved with feline
pulchritude as she studied him. "I don't think so." She extended a
hand.

He took it. "Do we know each
other?" he asked, thinking she seemed vaguely familiar.

"I'm Abby's best friend. I was
there the night of the infamous diary debacle."

He nodded, remembering a tall young
girl with dark waist length hair. "Rachael, right," he said, amazed
when the name came back to him after all these years.

"
Oooh
darling, I'm flattered." 

"Who is it,
Rach
?" Abby's voice came from somewhere inside.

Rachael pulled him through the
door. "She's not as opposed to you as she's trying to convince
herself," she said in a rushed whisper. "If she doesn't come around
soon, call me. I'll give you some pointers. I know her better than
anyone." She smiled broadly then gave him a gentle shove into the room
before closing the door.

It took Gage a minute to regain his
wit. "Thanks," he finally said with a chuckle. He shook his head and
met her gaze with a warm smile. "I'll remember that."

She winked at him then started to
walk toward the kitchen, crooking her finger for him to follow. He did,
realizing he'd just found himself an ally. A very formidable one if he wasn't
missing his guess.

~~~

"Who was at the—" Abby
looked up and froze in the middle of the kitchen floor, a bowl of nachos in one
hand and a bottle of wine in the other. She stared at the achingly handsome man
in faded jeans and white oxford shirt.

"Gage, what are you doing
here?" Her eyes shot to the manila folder in his hands. She took several
shaky steps to the counter and set the wine and chips down. Before he could see
how her hands trembled, she slipped them into the pockets of her navy blue
slacks.

He gave her a lazy smile.
"Hello, Abby." His eyes lingered on hers, infinitely, halting time.
She had to dredge deep for the strength to look away before she fell under his
spell.

Rachael leaned against the
doorframe grinning like a stupid goose.
Some best friend
.

"I hope I'm not
intruding." Gage glanced from Abby to Rachael. "I just happened to be
in the neighborhood and thought I'd drop this off." He handed Abby the
folder, his fingers stroking the length of hers when she took it.

"What is it?" she asked,
trying to focus on something other than the dangerous sensations he set off
with a simple touch.

"A positioning paper our
internal marketing group put together. I want to get your thoughts on it."

"Sure. I'll look it over
tomorrow and give you a call on Monday. I intended to call you anyway about
some ideas I had for targeting residents."

Gage rubbed his jaw. "Normally
that would be fine, but I'll be tied up in meetings all day Monday and Tuesday,
and I want to get things rolling on this immediately." He frowned, as if
trying to think of an alternative. "All right look, why don't you go over
it tomorrow? I can drop by in the evening, say around six. We can discuss your
other ideas then as well."

Meeting him tomorrow at her house
didn't sound like a good idea. She had to try to keep their relationship
professional so neither one of them got hurt. It would be best to meet in one
of their offices, preferably during the day when other people were
around. 

Gage glanced between her and
Rachael. "I've interrupted. I won't take anymore of your time." He
nodded to Rachael. "Good to see you again."

"A pleas-
zure
,"
Rachael drawled with a wink.

Abby furrowed her brow. Why did she
have the feeling she was missing something?

Turning back to her, Gage said,
"I'll see you tomorrow, Abby. Enjoy the rest of your evening."

"Umm, about
tomorrow."
She blurted before he could leave and she'd be stuck.
"I sort of had plans and, well... I promised Rachael's mother I'd come
with
Rach
on her next visit...to the nursing
home."  She glanced nervously at Rachael. "We're close. I've
always been like a second daughter. And, well, I haven't gone for a while, and
I already told her I'd be coming. Why don't I read things over and first thing
Monday I'll send—"

"Oh,
Ab
,"
Rachael said dramatically. "I forgot to tell you." She laid a hand on
her heart, and Abby knew she was doomed. "One of Mom's nurses called this
morning. Mom's been having problems again with, how do I say this delicately?
Well, with constipation." She smiled sweetly at Gage. "If things
don't, you know, come out all right on their own, they're going to give her an
enema tomorrow. You know how cranky Mom is when she gets one of those. I told
her I'd wait until the middle of the week to visit, when she's feeling
better."

Abby would kill her. She glanced at
Gage. He was staring at Rachael with his mouth open. He blinked and snapped it
shut.

"Well, I guess that settles things."
His voice squeaked, as if he were biting back a laugh. "I'll see you
tomorrow, Abby." As he passed Rachael on his way out of the kitchen, he
said, "I hope your mother's, err, condition improves soon."

"Oh," she assured him,
sounding totally unconcerned, "it will."

As soon as the front door clicked
shut, Abby whirled on Rachael in disgust.

"How could you!" She
threw her arms up, exasperated. "Didn't you get it? I didn't want to meet
with him tomorrow? Damn it,
Rach
, I thought you were my
friend. And how could you give your mom an enema? Jeez freaking Louise!"

"I am your friend, your very
dearest friend. That's precisely why I
freed
you up for that absolutely
gorgeous hunk of male. And don't go condemning me about Mom. I only gave her constipation.
How do you think she's going to feel when she gets back from Paris and discovers you've put her in a
nursing home at the tender age of fifty-four?"

Abby picked up the bottle of wine
from the counter and filled the two glasses she'd set there earlier. Lifting
one up, she held it in front of her lips. "There will come a day, my very
dearest friend," she said with gentle warning, "in the not too
distant future, that I will have my revenge." She took a sip of wine, and
with a sardonic smile added, "And I promise you, it will be sweet."

~~~

True to his word, they talked
business.
GFI's
internal group had proposed some good
ideas, especially those for marketing the luxury condos and pricey townhouses
that would border the river. Abby told Gage what she agreed and disagreed with
and why. He asked tough questions and listened quietly while she answered. He
genuinely seemed to value her opinions.

"We should consider
advertising in the Wall Street Journal, as well as other business
journals." Abby crossed her legs and balanced a notepad on her knee.
"That way you'll attract some of the executive relocation market before
some corporate realtor puts them in a million dollar mansion out on the Main Line. In fact, we should get a list of local
companies doing corporate
relos
and find out who
handles their executive programs."

They'd been working over an hour
when Gage suggested ordering a pizza.

"They said it would be about
forty-five minutes," Abby said after she hung up the phone. "I'm
going to make some coffee. Want some?"

"Yeah, I could use a shot of
caffeine." He followed her into the kitchen. "What are your thoughts
on how we get buy-in from the local business community?"

"You'll get some
resistance," Abby said as she ground beans for the coffee. "But you're
going to have some strong supporters, too. Philadelphia's a big restaurant town.
Riv
One will bring in people who like to eat out and can
afford to spend the money when they do."

She filled the carafe with water
and poured it into the coffee maker. "Even though there'll be a five-star
restaurant on-site, residents will try other things, so other restaurant owners
will welcome you. Since they're already part of the club, I'd use them as
advocates."

She turned around and leaned
against the opposite counter from Gage while the coffee brewed. "I haven't
focused on this aspect too much yet, but I'll put together a list of possible
supporters and resisters."

They continued discussing some of
her ideas. Gage had a reputation for being extremely intelligent, aggressive,
ruthless and unemotional. But standing in her kitchen, in a pair of faded jeans
and a butter colored button-down shirt, Abby had a hard time believing a lot of
that.

Absolutely he was intelligent, and
she'd even seen examples of his aggressive business strategies. No one who'd
accomplished what he had could do so without being aggressive.
But unemotional?
Ruthless?

The doorbell rang and Abby looked
at her watch. "
Wow, that
was fast. It's only been
about twenty minutes."

Gage pushed away from the counter.
"I'll get it. It looks like the coffee's done. You pour and I'll pay for
the pizza."

Abby took two cups from the
cupboard and filled them. Not knowing what he took, she got out cream and
sugar, too. She got out plates and forks and set them on the counter.

After several minutes, she began to
wonder what was taking him so long and decided to check.

"Everything okay with
the—" She jerked to a stop just past the kitchen door. A cold wave of
dread rippled through her. She didn't need this. And she would not,
would
not
, allow this man to disrupt her life whenever the urge struck.

~~~

Gage watched Abby take a step
forward, then another, narrowing her eyes as she crossed the room. "What
are you doing here, Dick?"

Dick Carpenter glared at Gage then
charged through the front door uninvited. The man stormed toward Abby, his face
distorted with anger. Gage flexed his hands at his sides, ready to spring if
necessary.

"What the hell's going on
here?" Carpenter yelled, only inches from Abby's face. "How dare you
let that bastard into my house?"

He swung back around, the vein in
his forehead bulging. "Get out!" He shook his finger toward the door
as if Gage might need help with which way out was. "Get out or I'll have
your ass hauled to jail for trespassing."

Crossing his arms, Gage leaned
against the now closed door. He wasn't going anywhere, not unless Abby told him
to go, and even then he'd have to give it some serious thought before he'd
leave her alone with this guy.

"Stop it!" Abby said
heatedly. "This isn't your house. It's mine! And if anyone's not welcome
here, it's you." She took several quick steps, positioning herself, for
reasons Gage didn't understand, between him and her ex.

If it were up to him, Gage would haul
the guy out onto the sidewalk and pitch him into the street with the rest of
the trash. But it wasn't his place. Abby had a right to handle her ex as she
saw fit unless the man tried to hurt her. In that case he'd make it his place
whether she liked it or not.

"You have no business here,
Dick. Not that I owe you an explanation, but Gage and I are working and you're
interrupting."

"Working my
ass!"
Carpenter got in her face again. "And don't tell me
you're handling the development Faraday stole from me. Harold already told me
he'd been assigned to work it." He attempted to grab Abby's wrist, but she
stepped beyond his reach. Something rumbled deep in Gage's gut, primitive and
instinctive. He took a step forward.

"I don't have to explain
anything to you." Abby inched further away from her ex.

"You lying bitch. If I find
out you're sleeping with this lowlife, I'll make you regret it."

Gage's control slipped another
notch.

"Get out of here, Dick!"
Abby's face burned with color. "I mean it. Get out now!"

Carpenter ignored her and threw a
hateful glance at Gage. "That development should have been mine. You might
have won the bid, but things aren't over yet. You'll find that out soon
enough." His eyes spilled vengeance. "I'm going to bury you, Faraday.
No one takes what belongs to me." His gaze narrowed before sliding to
Abby. "And that includes my wife."

"Ex-wife," Gage reminded
him dryly, "and if you threaten her again, I might lose my patience and
have to hurry you along."

Carpenter started to laugh.
"You're a big talker, aren't you?
Big ladies' man, too,
from what I've heard."

How had Abby gotten mixed up with
such an ass? Gage stuck his tongue in his cheek. Just keep your cool, he told
himself. It'd only upset Abby more if he decked the creep.

"Yeah," the other man
snorted. "Billings
told me you're supposed to be some kind of international playboy or something.
So what are you doing hanging around my wife?"

"I told you to leave,"
Abby said, her voice taut with barely controlled anger. "Leave or I'm
calling the police."

"I'll leave. But I'll be back
when your boyfriend isn't around. I've still got stuff here and I want
it."

"If that's what you came for,
I'll box up everything and send it to you. But don't come back again; I don't
want you here."