Free Under His Cover-nook by Lyric James Page A

called, left another message for Cynthia, then climbed the stairs to her office.
     
     
     

 

Chapter Eight
     
    When Jade walked in her office, Rhys was setting a stack of papers on her desk. He turned to her and smiled. “Have a nice lunch?”
    “It was…informative.”
    A quizzical look crossed his features as he leaned back against the edge of her desk. “I just had two very interesting phone calls.”
    Not caring what those conversations were about, she walked around him and sat down. “That’s nice.”
    “Two women I haven’t spoken to in several months just called to congratulate me on my engagement. They wanted to know who the lucky woman was.”
    Jade focused on the papers on her desk, while butterflies zinged around in her stomach. She should have guessed something like this would happen.
    He turned and leaned forward, placing both his hands flat on top of the table. “Both said some woman from the The Herald called and told them I would be announcing my engagement in the next few days.”
    Still not looking at him, she nodded her head. “Uh huh.”
    “A woman by the name of Michelle Conner .”
    “Wow.” She picked up a note that had been left on her desk and scanned the print. What in the world had she been thinking? She should have come up with a better cover story before she picked up the phone and called those women.
    Rhys took the paper she was holding. “Michelle Conner . Jade Conner . Coincidence, don’t you think? This reporter and you both have the same last name.”
    “Definitely,” she said, nodding her head. “There are probably a thousand and one people with the last name Conner.”
    “It was you, wasn’t it?”
    Her gaze snapped up to his. “Okay fine, it was me.”
    He spread his hands wide before placing them back on the desk. “Why?”
    “I’m a private investigator, Rhys. I’m conducting an investigation. I told you my theories this morning. It could be a former lover.”
    “But why contact these women?” he queried.
    She stood so her eyes were level with his. “Because they are the ones I’ve seen you with the most. Look, I can only come up with three possible motives, or people who have it out for you. Someone who wants revenge for something you did to them, someone who knew you and spent time around you when Maya was born, or an angry ex-lover.”
    He looked at her incredulously. “So, you think one of them is threatening me?”
    She shrugged her shoulders. “Why not? It’s a possibility. Every red-blooded woman in Tennessee you’ve dumped probably wanted to be Mrs. Rhys Cunningham.”
    “Neither one of those ladies were the least bit unhappy with our break up. If you would have told me who you were planning to talk to, I could have saved you the trouble.”
    Jade rolled her eyes and sank back down into her chair, crossing her arms over her chest. “So, I’ve heard. They were more than happy to tell me how wonderful you are, how much they enjoyed spending time with you, and how great you are in bed.” Okay they didn’t actually say that, but it was implied. She picked up a folder sitting on her desk, then slammed it back down again, got up and went to the coffee pot sitting in the corner and poured herself a cup. “And I still have two more to question on my list.”
    “ What ? Who?”
     “Cynthia and…Jackie.”
    “It’s not Jackie.”
    “Right, because she worships the ground you walk on? Because you know just how to spoil a woman?”
    “It’s not Jackie…” He hesitated, as if he should say something but wasn’t sure he wanted to say it. “It’s not Jackie. And I doubt its Cynthia either.”
    Jade turned and faced the wall, sipping her coffee, anything to stop looking at him and imagining him doing all the things he did to those women to her. Plus, she hated hearing the way he said her name. “Why, because you’re so sure you made each and every one of them a happy woman?”
    Before she even realized it, Rhys had come up close behind