Free The Hostage Bride by Janet Dailey Page B

up.”
    Bick released a harsh, laughing breath of scorn. “Don’t bother. You know as well as I do that the man probably doesn’t know a debit from a credit. He isn’t the one who made those entries.” Only one person could have—Tamara. He gritted his teeth, a muscle jerking in his cheek at the fierceness of his reaction.
    Adam was aware of it, too. There was a long, heavy silence that Bick couldn’t break, unable to say what they were both thinking.
    “Bick, I’ll … uh … talk to Miss James, if you want me to,” Adam offered finally.
    Bick wanted to push the problem onto Adam’s shoulders. The truth was he was afraid of a confrontation with Tamara. He was afraid of what the result might be. Bick tried to rationalize his desire with the thought that Adam would be more objective. But, whatever the outcome, the problem would eventually land on his desk. He had to face it now or be torn apart by questions.
    “No, I’ll handle it.” He forced the words out of his tightly clenched jaw and rubbed a hand over the bands of tension knotting the cords in his neck. “Have … Stein’s secretary—whatever her name is—call Miss James and tell her that I want to see her … here.”
    “Do you … want me to stay or leave the two of you alone?”
    “You’d better stay,” Bick said, sighing, because he wasn’t sure what his reaction was going to be. “At least until we get to the bottom of this.”

Chapter Five
    Mrs. Danby had said Bick wanted to see her right away, but Tamara didn’t need that admonition to hurry down the corridor to Mr. Stein’s office. Her stomach was fluttering with nervous excitement. She felt ridiculously like a schoolgirl and sternly reminded herself that she was an adult, not a giddy teenager. But it didn’t slow her racing pulse.
    Darting a quick smile at the elderly secretary, Tamara walked directly to the door leading into the private office. She knocked once, and a voice that she recognized instantly as Bick’s gave permission to enter. Opening the door, Tamara couldn’t keep the suppressed joy at seeing him again from sparkling in her jewel-blue eyes. Bick was standing behind Mr. Stein’s desk, his attention focused on some papers on its top. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the movement of a second occupant in the room. She toreher gaze from Bick to identify the second person.
    “Hello, Adam.” She greeted him naturally and turned back to the man who had summoned her. “You wanted to see me … Mr. Rutledge.” She remembered, just in time, to address him formally.
    Bick lifted his head and Tamara was frozen by the icy cold look of his green eyes. “Come in, Miss James,” he ordered.
    As she walked toward the desk, her gaze darted from Bick to Adam to the ledger books on the desk. An alarm bell went off in her head and Bick’s next words confirmed what she feared. “Mr. Slater and I want you to tell us what you know about the missing twenty thousand dollars.”
    “Y … You know about it.” Her legs started to turn to jelly.
    “Yes.” Something savage flickered across Bick’s expression.
    Unable to stand without support, Tamara slowly lowered herself into the armchair in front of the desk. A faint laugh bubbled from her throat, venting some of her tension.
    “I actually feel … relieved that you know about it,” she said, a little surprised at that discovery.
    Bick appeared unmoved by her admission. “What happened to the money?”
    “I borrowed it.” Tamara would have followed that statement with an explanation, but she was interrupted by Bick.
    “With whose permission?” he snarled, towering behind the desk to physically intimidate her.
    There was a puckering frown on her forehead as she tried to defend herself. “With nobody’s permission—at least not officially.” At the gathering thunder in Bick’s features, Tamara hurried on with an explanation so he would understand. “I approached Mr. Stein several times with the intention of asking