She paused, wondering how much more to tell him. For now, the less said the better, she decided. If she mentioned the key, the new receptionist, and the Mob lawyer who’d shown up, Burke would find a way to interfere with her plan. Or worse, he might go rushing headlong into a dangerous situation.

“But why you?” he demanded. “There must be somebody else I can count on to look out for my interests until I’m back on the job.”

“Think about it,” she said. “The paid employees can be bought or fired. The agents on commission are pretty much working for themselves. As long as they get paid, they don’t care who’s in charge. The one person who’s loyal to you is your wife.”

His jaw tightened as the words sank in. “But wouldn’t Garrett realize that, too? The man isn’t stupid.”

“Neither am I. So far I’ve got him believing that my only interest is saving the theater, and that I can influence you to change your mind about signing the contract. As long as he trusts me—”

“No!” Burke’s fist came down on the table, splattering coffee. “It’s too risky, Allison. I won’t stand for your doing this!”

Allison took a moment to sponge up the spilled coffee with a tissue. “You can’t forbid me, Burke. And the only way you could stop me would be to tell Garrett the truth, which would put me in even more danger. We’ve got to find out what he’s up to with the Mob and stop him. Right now I’m the only one who’s in a position to do that.”

He shook his head. “I have a bad feeling about this. It’s my job to take the risks, not yours. If anything were to go wrong, I’d never forgive myself.”

“No, listen,” she said. “All I’ll really be doing is stalling for time. When you go to your desk in the other room, you’ll find your unfinished loan application in the front of the file drawer. As soon as you’ve finished and signed it, I’ll take it to the bank, or even drive you there to deliver it in person, if you want. Once it’s approved—”

“If it’s approved.”

“Once it’s approved, you’ll have the cash you need. The Edgeway people will have no reason to be involved.”

“True,” Burke said. “But even with the loan, we won’t be out of the woods. It’s a lot of money. If we can’t pay it back, we could still lose everything.”

“What are you saying? That we should just sit back and let Garrett hand the American Heartland over to the Mob?”

“Lord, no! I’m betting everything I own on this project. I just want you to be aware of the risk.”