Free Drop Dead Gorgeous by Linda Howard Page A

Daddy wouldn't steer him wrong, and my life would be a lot easier if I didn't have to do all of Wyatt's training myself . On the other hand, well, I'm a button-pusher.
    "You can just write a check for me to get started," I said cheerfully. "I'll let you know when I need more. I know this great carpenter, and though he probably won't be able to get started right away I can meet with him next week and show him what I want and let him get started on the plans."
    He stilled, going wary again. "A check? A carpenter? What plans?"
    One great big button, duly pushed. Life was good.
    "You do remember how this conversation started, don't you?"
    "Yeah. You and Siana were talking about my dick."
    "Not that conversation, this conversation. The redecorating one."
    "Got it. I still haven't made the connection between my dick and window treatments," he said wryly, "but I'll go with it for now. What about how this conversation started?"
    "A pantry. You don't have one. I need one."
    An incredulous look entered his eyes. "You're evicting me from my office? And you expect me to pay for it?"
    "I expect you to pay for the lion's share, yeah. You have more money than I do."
    He snorted. "I drive a Chevrolet. You drive a Mercedes."
    I waved that away. Details. "I'm not evicting you. I'm moving you into a new office. We'll divvy up the space of the living room." It was a big room, and I didn't need all of that space for a home office for myself. The biggest portion of it, yes, but not all of it. "You need a bigger office anyway, you have so much crammed in the pantry you can barely get yourself in there."
    That was nothing but the truth. It was a mystery to me why, when he'd done such an extensive remodeling of the house when he first bought it, he hadn't included an actual office for himself. The only explanation was that he was a guy. At least he'd put in an adequate number of bathrooms, though that could have been the building contractor's idea; certainly the idea for the pantry hadn't come from Wyatt.
    I watched him wrap his mind around the idea of a bigger office, and realize I was right—he needed more space, and I needed a pantry. "All right, all right. Do whatever you want, and I'll pay for it." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I came here to tell you about the security tapes, and somehow I end up spending twenty thousand dollars, at least," he muttered, mostly to himself.
    Twenty thousand? He wished. I kept that part to myself, though. He'd find out soon enough. "You got the parking-lot tapes?" I was a bit incredulous. "I didn't think you would, since she didn't hit me. Did the mall just hand them over?"
    "As a matter of fact, yeah, but I could have gotten them anyway."
    "You'd have needed a warrant, and no crime was committed."
    "Reckless endangerment is a crime, honey."
    "You didn't say anything about reckless endangerment last night."
    He shrugged. In his view, cop stuff was his business, in sort of the same way keeping the lap pool at Great Bods properly chlorinated was mine; I didn't discuss every detail with him, and come to think of it, he discussed very little cop business with me. I didn't exactly agree, because cop business is way more interesting than pool chlorination, which was why I snooped through his files every now and then. Okay, whenever I got the chance.
    I waved away his lack of communication, which, regarding his work, he had no intention of remedying anyway. "What did you find?"
    "Not much," he admitted, frustration glinting in his eyes. "To begin with, the mall has an outdated system that uses tapes instead of being digital. The tape is worn out; I couldn't make out a tag number, just that the car was definitely a Buick. Our tech guys said the tape should have been replaced a month or so ago, it literally has holes in it. They couldn't pull anything really useful from it."
    "The mall doesn't replace the tapes with new ones on a regular basis?" I asked indignantly. The mall was lax? I felt betrayed.
    "A lot of