Up Close and Dangerous Read online

  Logan and Peaches were at the house with her, as was Cam. They had come to help her pack, but there was precious little left of her belongings. Cam was white with rage, but they were both controlling it. Peaches was the one who was on the verge of a major temper tantrum, and Logan was keeping an eye on her as she stormed from room to room.

  Now Seth was here, and even though she knew he hadn’t tried to kill her, she didn’t feel like dealing with his shit right now. She jerked the door open and stood squarely in the doorway, not inviting him in. Behind her, she heard Cam moving forward to stand just at her shoulder.

  But Seth made no move to enter. Even though he was usually on his second or third bar stop by now, he didn’t look wasted. In fact, he looked sober, which astonished her. He was dressed simply, in slacks and a pullover shirt, his dark hair trimmed and combed, his harsh face expressionless.

  “A lot of people think I caused the crash,” he said abruptly. “I just wanted to tell you that I didn’t.”

  “I know,” she said, so surprised she could barely speak.

  Surprise flared in his eyes, too. He hesitated, then turned to leave. Bailey began to close the door, then stopped because he had stopped, his foot already on the first step down. He turned back.

  “Who did it?” he asked. She could tell he hated having to talk to her, but he wanted to know. “Was it Tamzin?”

  Tamzin? Tamzin was vicious and petty, but she wasn’t organized enough to do something like that. “No, it was Cam’s partner.”

  “Bret?” Seth was obviously taken aback. “Are you sure?”

  “We’re sure. He confessed,” said Cam.

  “Son of a bitch,” Seth muttered. A mirthless smile touched his lips. “I guess Tamzin and I are more alike than I thought. She assumed I’d done it. I thought she had.”

  He took a deep breath. “You deserve to hear this. It hit me hard when I realized my sister automatically assumed I was a murderer. I took a long look at myself and didn’t like what I saw.” He met Bailey’s startled gaze and gave a mirthless laugh. “I’ve gone to work at Wingate Group. In the mail room. Grant wants to see if I can stick it out.”

  Bailey held tight to the door. She had to, or her knees would have given way in shock. She didn’t know what to say, so she blurted, “I’m going to give the management of the trust funds to someone else, probably a bank officer.” She couldn’t believe that Seth, of all people…had Jim been right in his reading of Seth, after all?

  Seth’s jaw tightened, and he glared at Bailey. “Don’t,” he snapped. “I want you handling them. I won’t hate it so much if someone else is doing it, and I need you there as motivation. That was Dad’s plan, wasn’t it? I figured it out. He thought I’d hate you so much, hate you controlling my money, that I’d do whatever I had to do to straighten out my life. He was right, damn him. He was always right. He probably told you to use your own judgment about when to turn control over to me, didn’t he?”

  She couldn’t do anything except nod.

  Seth’s mouth twisted. “He trusted you, and nobody could read people like Dad. So I’m going to trust him, trust that he knew what he was doing. You keep on managing the funds, so I can prove you wrong. One day you’ll hand control over to me, then you’ll be out of my life and I’ll never have to see you again.”

  “I look forward to that day,” she said honestly.

  He looked past her and Cam, into the foyer. His eyebrows knitted together as he noticed the damage, the broken glass, the defaced walls. “What the hell happened in there?”

  “Tamzin,” Cam growled.

  “Have her ass arrested,” Seth said coldly, then turned and went down the steps, disappearing into the darkness.

  Cam removed Bailey’s hand from the door and closed it, then tugged her into his arms.

  “Let’s go,” he said, kissing her mouth when she looked up at him. “There’s nothing for you here. From now on, you’re living with me.”

  Bailey smiled, trailed her fingertips over the bruises on his face. She felt absolutely no anxiety about that decision. “All right,” she said, suddenly so happy she felt as if she could float off the ground. “Let’s go. I’m ready.”

  About the Author

  * * *

  LINDA HOWARD is the award-winning author of many New York Times bestsellers, including Drop Dead Gorgeous, Cover of Night, Killing Time, To Die For, Kiss Me While I Sleep, Cry No More, Dying to Please, Open Season, Mr. Perfect, All the Queen’s Men, Now You See Her, Kill and Tell, and Son of the Morning. She lives in Alabama with her husband and two golden retrievers.

  By Linda Howard

  A LADY OF THE WEST

  ANGEL CREEK

  THE TOUCH OF FIRE

  HEART OF FIRE

  DREAM MAN

  AFTER THE NIGHT

  SHADES OF TWILIGHT

  SON OF THE MORNING

  KILL AND TELL

  NOW YOU SEE HER

  ALL THE QUEEN’S MEN

  MR. PERFECT

  OPEN SEASON

  DYING TO PLEASE

  CRY NO MORE

  KISS ME WHILE I SLEEP

  TO DIE FOR

  KILLING TIME

  COVER OF NIGHT

  DROP DEAD GORGEOUS

  UP CLOSE AND DANGEROUS

  Up Close and Dangerous is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2007 by Linda Howington

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  BALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  www.ballantinebooks.com

  eISBN: 978-0-345-50013-7

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