Free Double Dare by Vicki Hinze Page A

exactly what was it? “Look,” she said. “I really don’t want a war with you. I was serious earlier. You have been helpful here, and we do have to work together. It will be so much easier if we do so on a friendly footing.”
    “I don’t want a war, either. But let’s face it, you like me and I like you.” He stopped a second and sadness swept over his face. “The battle lines have been drawn. Between you and me, but even more so, between you and a man I’ve never met, and between me and a woman you’ve never met.” He chewed at his lip. “For what it’s worth, Maggie, I’m sad, too. I guess when we get down to it, we’re both victims of our experience.”
    His sadness slid through her protective shield. “I guess we are.” Mutual regret that they suffered hit her hard. Looking at Justin Crowe honestly, she regretted it deeply. She might even resent it.
    “Under the circumstances, I feel it’s only fair to tell you that I don’t trust you, either, Maggie.”
    That shocked her. She hadn’t lied, hadn’t given him any reason to doubt her personal ethics or her professional abilities. So why did he feel this way? Finally, she steeled herself and worked up the courage to ask. “Why not?”
    “I can’t.” He placed his napkin on the table and signaled for the check. “No matter how smart or capable a woman might be, I could never trust a woman who holds so much sadness and bitterness in her heart that she has no room left for understanding or compassion—or even benefit of doubt enough to suspend passing judgment on the past and consider looking at the present.”
    Now Maggie was offended. Enormously. “Don’t judge me, Justin.” She had enough trouble with judging herself.
    He lifted an eyebrow. “Didn’t you judge me?”
    She had. But he had cheated on Andrea. Of course, Maggie acknowledged that. What sane woman wouldn’t? “That’s different.”
    “Only because you’re the one doing it.”
    The waitress walked over and placed the check on the table.
    Maggie swallowed her resentment, anger and that foolish hurt. She’d learned many things from her experience with Jack and Karen. One was that sometimes you just have to accept the inevitable. And what was inevitable here was that, while they liked each other, trust was absent.
    And unfortunately, in situations such as this Priority Code Three mission, success often came down to trust, to following a hunch, to noticing some minute detail at subliminal level and having the courage to act on it.
    Discriminating against your partner’s judgment could mean the difference between success and failure, life and death.
    But the difference wasn’t simply a matter of choosing to go along; Maggie had to believe in what she was doing and in her partner. In those critical seconds where a snap judgment had to be made, Maggie wouldn’t trust Justin’s judgment and he wouldn’t trust hers.
    And that frightening truth significantly decreased their already thin odds for success.

Chapter 4

    “A h, Maggie.” Will Stanton smiled, then nodded at Justin.
    In the security office, they walked over to the marble counter separating the reception area from the desks, and Maggie set her purse down to give her shoulder a break. Everyone on his staff was busy either at the computer or on the phone. Some were on both. “We’ve got that list for you, Will.”
    “Great. I’m already getting in a couple confirmations from the owners off the first one we distributed. So far, mostly from the B-stores.”
    The smaller stores would be able to comply with the requests more quickly. The A-stores, like Macy’s and Krane’s, needed more time. “Excellent.” Maggie motioned for Justin to pass the list over.
    Daniel Barone silently entered the security office behind them. He snagged the list from Will before he had a chance to even glance at it. “Let me see that.”
    Barone reviewed the items, slowly and methodically, and then looked over at Maggie. “Our staff will