Free A Dangerous Game by Lucinda Carrington Page B

fabric.   The mock seduction act
    had aroused her as well as Peter.   Maybe I should wear a bra, she
    thought.   Then she heard the sound of a car horn outside; it was too
    late to change now.   She noticed Peter was looking at her with unusual
    intensity.   She pirouetted playfully.
     
    "Do I look suitably dressed for this party?"
     
    "You look fine," he said.
     
    "Very sexy."
     
    "But not sexy enough to persuade you to stay home."
     
    He looked suddenly guilty.
     
    "The hospital gets money from Carlos Marquez.   So we have to b
    sociable."
     
    The warning bells started ringing again.   She sai nothing but she did
    not believe him.   Was he suggesting that the Marquez family would
    refuse to fund the fashionable La Primavera if one or two of the
    medic;
     
    staff weren't at a party?   There was something wrong about all this.
     
    Peter was keeping something from he and it made her feel angry.
     
    Whatever it was, she was determined to get to the truth before the
    evening was over.
     
    Chapter Three.
     
    "The Marquez villa was on the outskirts of Techtatuan.   After driving
    for about twenty minutes, Paulo stopped in front of a pair of massive
    gates.   He blasted his horn, and the gates swung open, letting through
    two burly men.   They both wore smart suits that looked slightly too
    small for them and they stopped when they reached the car, one on each
    side.   Paulo wound down the window and the largest of the two men
    peered in.   A pair of dark, snakey-cold eyes gave Jacey a swift,
    impersonal glance.   She shivered unexpectedly.   She recognised this
    type of man;
     
    he would kill without compunction, if his paymaster gave the order.
     
    "You have an invitation, sir?"   The question, aimed at Peter, sounded
    only barely polite.
     
    Jacey felt suddenly irritated at being so pointedly ignored.
     
    "We both have invitations," she said crisply.
     
    The blank killer's eyes looked at her again.   The man said nothing but
    simply held out his hand and took the card that Peter offered him.   A
    quick look, and it was handed back.
     
    "Is this your woman, sir?"
     
    "Yes," Peter said.
     
    The man nodded and stepped back.   A different face suddenly appeared at
    Paulo's window.
     
    "Don't loiter, Indian.   Drop your passengers and come straight out.
    We'll be waiting."
     
    "Of course, Senor," Paulo said obsequiously.   As the car moved forward
    he muttered something that Jacey recognised as Chachte.   It sounded far
    from polite.
     
    She turned angrily to Peter.
     
    "So I'm your woman, ami?"
     
    Peter shrugged.
     
    "What did you want me to say?"
     
    "You could have told him to go away and find some manners, the fat
    sexist pig!"
     
    "You don't say that sort of thing to Schlemann's heavies," Peter
    said.
     
    She stared at him.
     
    "I thought this place belonged to Carlos Marquez?"
     
    Peter shrugged.
     
    "It does.   But the goons are Schlemann's.   He gives the orders and they
    obey.   Why do you think everyone's so afraid of him?"
     
    "Doesn't Hernandez object?"
     
    "Of course not," Peter said.   He smiled without humour.
     
    "The Generalissimo needs Schlemann.   How else would he get the money to
    buy all those pretty uniforms?"
     
    The car swung round a thick clump of trees.   Jacey had been expecting
    the Marquez villa to be impressive, but even so, she was surprised at
    its overpowering opulence.   Before them was a massive, columned portico
    and huge double doors, and the whole building was swept by coloured
    searchlights that bathed the white walls in alternating shades of blue,
    pink and green.
     
    "I don't believe this," Jacey exclaimed.
     
    "Disneyland meets the Grand Hotel."
     
    "I believe Senora Marquez had a hand in the design," Peter said dryly,
    as he got out of the car.
     
    "She had rather flamboyant tastes."
     
    "Had?"   Jacey repeated curiously.
     
    "She's dead?"
     
    Peter hesitated.
     
    "Presumed dead.   She disappeared about six months