LITMIR.BIZ

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the University of Kansas and Oak Park High School had never heard of him. And slowly she’d realized that while she’d told him everything about herself, he’d offered her almost nothing in return aside from a few basic facts, all of which had turned out to be lies.

      She’d felt like a fool. How could she have fallen so hard for a man who hadn’t cared about her in the least? Of course, she was acting like an even bigger fool now for wasting time thinking about him at all.

      Kim was right. Anything beat a man who was there one day, gone the next, with no goodbye, not even a halfhearted attempt at the old “It’s not you, it’s me” excuse. Just a note on his pillow and a trail of lies to remember him by.

      “He was probably married, you know,” Kim said.

      “I know.”

      “Or just a world-class jerk.”

      “I know.”

      “Or both.”

      Alyssa sighed. “I know.”

      “You need to stay away from guys like him. Go for ones who’ll offer you some kind of future.”

      “Who are also self-important snobs?”

      “Okay, then, tell me. If Tom was a dud, what are you looking for in a man?”

      She didn’t know, exactly. It was so hard to describe the man she saw in her head sometimes that it would sound stupid to say it out loud. She wanted a man who was interesting. A man who was exciting, who knew how to excite her.

      Her mystery man in Seattle.

      He lied to you and left you, and you’re still obsessing? What’s the matter with you?

      Kim sighed. “Look. All I’m trying to say is that you may be looking for something that’s just not reality. If you’re still waiting for that dashing man to ride up on his white horse and sweep you off your feet, you’re going to be alone for the rest of your life.”

      Intellectually, Alyssa knew her sister was right. Still, something inside her said it was better to be alone than with a man who demanded everything and gave nothing.

      “After all,” Kim went on, “you’re pushing thirty. You need to be thinking about settling down.”

      “I’ve got a good job. I don’t need a man to take care of me.”

      “You’ve got a job that requires you to work twelve hours a day and pays you for eight. Lawrence Teague is a gazillionaire, but does he pay you what you’re worth? If you didn’t get an apartment out of the deal, it’d be slave wages.”

      “I make enough. And I like my job.”

      “Right. Running in circles for a bunch of rich people. Sounds like a real blast to me.”

      Kim just didn’t get it. Yes, the people who lived at the Waterford were wealthy. After all, it was arguably the most prestigious apartment building in the city of Dallas, one of seven identical buildings owned by Starlight Properties in major metro areas across the country. It climbed twenty-three stories into the North Dallas skyline, offering housekeeping services, a state-of-the-art security system, an on-site spa and hair salon, as well as a health club. As Tenant Relations Manager, it was a challenging task for Alyssa to keep everyone in the building happy and life running smoothly, but she thrived on it.

      “Speaking of Mr. Teague,” Alyssa said, “he’s flying from Houston to Dallas early tomorrow morning. I’m picking him up at the airport.”

      “Good. That’d be a great time to ask him for a raise.”

      Alyssa ignored her sister’s remark, thinking instead about her most important task whenever Mr. Teague came to town: making sure he got star treatment. That meant picking him up in a limousine, putting fresh flowers in his suite, having his clothes cleaned and pressed if necessary, making reservations wherever he chose to dine. He might own the building, but she was the hostess there to welcome him to his home away from home.

      Alyssa’s cell phone rang and she pulled it out and put it to her ear. As soon as she heard the panicked voice speaking broken English interspersed with Spanish expletives, she knew her problem-solving abilities were about to be put to the test.

      After determining the gist of the problem, Alyssa hung up and turned to Kim. “One of the housekeepers accidentally broke a vase in the penthouse apartment.”

      “Oops. Better hope it’s something cheap.”

      “Up there, nothing’s cheap.” Alyssa shoved the cell phone back into her purse. “Gotta go.”

      “I’m sorry your date sucked,” Kim said. “I’ll try to do better next time.”

      “Kim? Didn’t I tell you there isn’t going to be a next time?”

      Kim just flashed one of her “that’s what you think” smiles. Alyssa wanted to scream with frustration. But instead of fighting it, she merely said goodbye and double-timed it up the street to the Waterford. Right now the problem in Gerald Owens’s penthouse was more pressing than her problem with her sister’s matchmaking.

      Okay. A broken vase. That was only a minor crisis, one she could deal with long before Mr. Teague arrived tomorrow morning. By the time he got here, he’d see nothing but a smoothly operated building and four hundred happy tenants.

      AS DEREK STONE strode through the parking garage of the Waterford, he felt that familiar rush of adrenaline that pulled every nerve taut and heightened all his senses. Even though the intelligence he’d received about this situation was reliable and the job had been scripted right down to the last footstep, that trace of uncertainty kept his head up and his body on full alert.

      He passed one late-model luxury vehicle after another, testimonies to the wealth of the people who lived in this building. If Gerald Owens occupied the penthouse, his business of gathering blackmail information on U.S. government officials had to be pretty lucrative. Maybe even as lucrative as Derek’s business, which today just happened to involve retrieving blackmail information before it could cause a government incident.

      Derek adjusted his earpiece to make sure the communication was loud and clear between him and the surveillance van parked across the street, and then he pulled his backpack more securely over his shoulder. When he reached the door that led to the private elevator lobby, he glanced over his shoulder and saw no one else in the vicinity.

      “I’m at the door,” he said softly.

      Through his earpiece, Derek heard the soft clacking of Kevin’s fingers on his computer keyboard. A moment later the door lock clicked open. Derek entered the lobby and headed for the private elevator that led directly to the penthouse suite.

      “I’m in,” he said.

      Derek listened to a few more seconds of Kevin’s keyboard clacking and then the lock clicked behind him.

      Perfect.

      Derek loved tightly integrated high-tech security systems like this one, because it made his job so much easier. Once they were breached, all it took was a few keystrokes to open doors all over the place. Not that the average hacker could penetrate a sophisticated system like the one at the Waterford, but the men on Derek’s team left average in the dust.

      “Okay,” Derek said. “I’m at the elevator.”

      “I’ve bypassed the circuit that reads the key card,” Kevin said in his ear. “Just punch in the code. It’s sixty-eight, fifty-four. That’s six, eight, five, four.”

      Derek entered the numbers and the elevator doors opened.

      “You’re a genius, Kevin.”

      “Uh-huh. Can we talk about that raise now?”

      “Don’t get cocky.”

      As the elevator ascended, Kevin said, “The doors will open into the apartment itself. You can head to the safe right away.”

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