Mad, Bad and Blonde - Cathie Linz [24]
“No. That’s one mistake I’m not going to make.” Faith had already made enough mistakes to last her a lifetime.
The next morning, Faith woke up and rolled off the living room couch, only to clutch her head and wonder why her dining room table was at a weird angle that way. Too much wine. Headache. Elbow ache. She’d hit it on the hardwood floor when she’d fallen, and now her funny bone was making her entire arm tingle.
Faith felt better after she’d taken a shower and drank her first cup of coffee. She wore one of her new Italian outfits for her first day of work. Most of the boutiques in Positano specialized in summer resort and swimwear, but she’d managed to find a few things she liked. The bold red wraparound jacket and black embroidered skirt weren’t so avant-garde that they would make her look like a runway model. Okay, so it would take more than an outfit to make her look like a runway model. It would also take more than a change in hair color and style. But she didn’t want to look like a runway model so that was fine. She wanted to look more like Jennifer Garner in Alias and less like Jane Austen.
Faith practiced the stiletto catwalk she’d seen a woman demonstrate on the Today Show once. Her four-inch heels were not at all practical for walking the distance to West Investigations’ office. But damn, they made her feel powerful.
She packed them in her bag and reluctantly put on more comfortable shoes. Her black Keds weren’t librarian shoes. They were comfortable and sensible.
She went back and forth, switching between her Keds and her stilettos until she caught sight of the clock and realized she was in danger of being late her first day on the new job. She hurried out, still wearing the stilettos. They went better with her outfit.
Oh yeah, she felt like one confident woman. Until she stepped outside her building and saw Caine waiting for her.
He eyed her approvingly, his head-to-toe look up and down her body incredibly intimate. “Nice move, sunshine,” he drawled.
Chapter Five
Faith gave Caine a dismissive look before taking out her iPod, inserting the white earbuds and playing Carbon Leaf’s “A Life Less Ordinary.”
“You can ignore me, but I’m not going away,” Caine said.
“You are going away if I sic Yuri on you.”
“Who’s that? Your bodyguard?”
“Close enough. Yuri is my doorman.” She looked over her shoulder to wave him toward her only to find that Yuri wasn’t at his post at the moment.
“I heard you’ve gone to work for your father,” Caine said.
She paused her music. “Why do you care?”
“I don’t.”
“Then why are you here bothering me?”
Instead of answering, Caine said, “Was that your plan all along? Was your sob story as a jilted bride just a cover for your real reason for visiting Italy? To steal one of King Investigations’ clients?”
She stared at him in amazement. And not the complimentary kind of amazement. “You are as delusional as your boss.”
“Did you tell your father about us?”
“There is no us.”
“There was. In Positano that night.”
“Why are you so nervous about my father finding out? Are you afraid he’ll beat you up?”
“Your father is the one who should be afraid.”
“How dare you threaten him!”
“How dare your father mess up the investigation so badly that he killed my father.”
“My father assures me that the investigation was very thorough and no mistakes were made.”
“Did he offer to show you the case file? No? I didn’t think so.”
“He would if I asked him to.”
“Dream on.”
“You’re just trying to make trouble. Stop following me around.”
“I’m not following you.”
“So you just happened to be standing here outside my condo building?”
“No, I wanted to find out why you lied in Italy.”
“Me? You’re the one who lied.”
“You said you were a children’s librarian.”
“I was. I’m not anymore.”
“Why?”
She almost blurted out a litany of reasons. Because she wanted to teach Caine a lesson. Because she wanted to prove that her father had done nothing wrong. Because she wanted to be tougher and meaner so that no other man would ever take advantage