Free Desert Devil by Rena McKay Page A

never in her life accepted the offer of a drink from a man she had just met under such casual circumstances, nor did she have any idea what a margarita was. But she recklessly nodded yes. If there was a chance to find out something which might be useful in her battle against Taylor Electronics, she was not going to let the opportunity slip by.
    She left her car parked where it was. Brian stopped to throw a real estate pamphlet into his car. It was not as luxurious and expensive a model as Thorne's Porsche, but it was low-slung and sporty. He touched her elbow lightly as they rounded the busy corner. Juli hesitated once, thinking she saw a familiar silvery flash among the cars passing by on the street, but a passing truck blocked her view before she could be certain.
    The lounge was cool and dim, soft music coming from some unseen source. The tables were almost unoccupied at this hour. He guided her to a secluded table in a corner and ordered two margaritas. They chatted conversationally about the weather, local property values, exchanging impressions of Arizona in general. Juli was anxious to work the conversation around to the subject of David and his job, but she didn't want to be too obvious about it. The drinks arrived and Brian took a quick, appreciative gulp of his.
    "Ah," he said. "Lovely. Margaritas and air conditioning are all that make Cholla bearable. Of course, that was before I met
you
," he added, inspecting her with unconcealed interest.
    Juli smiled and eyed the frothy, delicately green-tinted drink doubtfully. "What is it?"
    "Mostly tequila and lime juice. Try it. It's much better-tasting than it sounds."
    Juli sipped tentatively, surprised to find the sweetly tangy taste quite pleasant. She touched the rough salt crystals rimming the curved glass. "Salt?"
    He nodded. "The rim of the glass is rubbed with lime juice and then dipped in salt," he explained. "Of course, the
real
way to drink tequila is to sprinkle the salt on the back of your hand, take a sip of tequila, and then have a lick of salt. Somewhere in there you're supposed to suck a lemon, too. However, the more civilized among us, including myself, prefer the salt-dipped run. And lime juice."
    Juli wrinkled her pert nose and laughed. "That does sound a bit more civilized."
    "And sanitary," he added. He leaned forward. "I hate to say this, but I hope your cousin's place doesn't sell too soon so you'll stay around for a while."
    It gave her the smallest crack of an opening. "I think David must have liked it here. Or perhaps it was the job he liked, more than the town."
    "It's a good job, all right," Brian admitted. "Taylor Electronics pays well. But then they'd have to, to get anyone to stay in this godforsaken place."
    It was on the tip of Juli's tongue to say that she found Cholla quite pleasant and, given a little time, thought she could learn to love the harsh, dry beauty of the desert. But she held her tongue, not wanting to get sidetracked on that line of discussion. "You said you were doing David's job?" she prompted.
    "In a manner of speaking. His death created a vacancy in the department, and I was hired to fill it. However, David was involved in product-testing at the time of his death, and I've since moved over into actual research."
    "Oh." Juli felt vaguely disappointed. That was the same story Thorne had told her. She sipped the cool, refreshing drink, wondering if she dared come out with what was really on her mind. Would Brian Eames be interested in helping her?
    "I understood that the company expected great things of David when they hired him, but from what I hear he had other things besides his job on his mind."
    "What do you mean?" Juli questioned cautiously.
    Brian's brow wrinkled slightly and he shrugged. "Actually, I'm not sure. David was such a loner that no one seemed to know much about him. Maybe he got involved with a woman. Or drinking. Who knows? But he had something on his mind. However, I can't say I'd condemn a man for