Chapters (57)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Foreword
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Praise for Linwood Barclay
- Also by Linwood Barclay
- About the Publisher
Joe’s smile turned less lascivious as he loosened his grip on Sandra. “I just wanted to give you a kiss for good luck.”
Sandra relaxed, rested a hand on his chest instead of trying to push him away. She blew a strand of hair away from her eyes. “I’m a wreck.”
“No. You’ve got this.”
“I do? The CEO’s already complaining of food poisoning.”
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “I was in there when it happened. She went running off so fast she almost knocked over her assistant. But I don’t think it was anything she ate. Probably just nerves, like you.”
“Yeah, well, there’s a lot riding on this, for all of us. So long as nothing else goes wrong, I could get a lot of other jobs out of this.”
“It’s gonna be great.” He gave her shoulders a squeeze.
She shrugged, immune to his attempt to boost her confidence. Suddenly, she had a question. “What the hell are you doing in here?”
“Just checking things out. Someone tried to plug something in, wouldn’t work, came in here and found the breaker had flipped. Bud, the maintenance guy? He’s around somewhere, but I was able to find the problem. I’ve been doing the rounds, making sure everything’s okay from a security point of view.”
“You’re the best,” Sandra said.
It was his turn to shrug, “I want everything to go perfectly for you. These corporate types are very worried about security, you know, other companies snooping around, so I’ve been trying to put them at ease. That Lisa Carver, man, she’s a piece of work.”
“Her assistant’s no better.”
Joe paused, then said, “Listen, I’ve been thinking.”
“Joe, not now.”
“I’ll be quick. I just wanted to say, it looks like I’m going to be able to move my mom into a place. I think I’ve found a good spot for her. So once that happens, you and me, I mean, we could, or I could move in—”
“Joe, I haven’t even told the kids about you. What are they going to think? One day, I’ve got no one in my life, the next day, you’re standing in the kitchen in your boxers frying some eggs?”
“I know, I know, we have to start gradual. All I’m saying is, think about it. Would you at least do that?”
She nodded quickly, not so much because she agreed, but because she had work to do.
“I have to go,” she said.
“Yeah, okay, me, too, as it turns out. I got to take a run down to the ferry dock.”
“Why?”