Bait & Switch by Darlene Gardner Read Free Book Online Page B

Starting with your weakness for strippers and ending with your unfortunate gambling problem.”
    Mitch cleared his throat. “You’re right about that.”
    “I’m glad we understand each other.” He picked up a squishy rubber stress ball from his desk. His sharp features tightened. “What you said when Peyton and I were dancing, about hurting me if I didn’t let you cut in.”
    “Yeah?”  
    Gaston squeezed the ball. Hard. “You were kidding, right?”
    Mitch kept quiet. He was confident he could beat Gaston if it came down to hand-to-hand combat, but they were involved in another kind of struggle.
    “Because I’m a reasonable man, I’m willing to overlook this little thing you’re carrying on with Peyton. Make no mistake about it, though. When it comes time for me to take a wife, she’s the one I’ll choose.”
    Mitch fought not to recoil at the thought of Gibbs so much as touching Peyton. “I think she’ll have something to say about that.”
    “Peyton does what her parents want her to do, and her parents want her to marry me.”
    “You can’t expect me to believe you love her,” Mitch said.
    Gaston laughed, a rasping, unpleasant sound. “Of course I don’t love her, but she’s a Charlestonian born and bred. She’ll provide me with the perfect cover.” He heaved a sigh. “This conversation is boring me. I didn’t call you back here to talk about Peyton.”
    Mitch had to unclench his teeth before he responded. “Why did you call me here?”
    “I have your first assignment.” He spoke in a cruel whisper, the culture gone from his voice. He rubbed his smooth cheek. “Guy by the name of Cooper Barnes works at a restaurant in North Charleston. If he doesn’t pay up, I want you to break something.”
    Mitch blinked. “Break what?”
    “A leg, a finger, an arm. I don’t care which. Just get the money and make him understand he can’t mess with me.”
    His brother, Mitch realized with sinking dread, was a debt collector for a bookie.
    “Nobody messes with me, Mitchell,” Gaston bit out. “You’d do well to remember that.”
    The instant he was on break, Mitch ducked outside the club and called Cary’s cell. No answer. He disconnected, tried his Atlanta apartment and listened to the phone ring unanswered. His grip on the phone tightened, impotent anger welling up in him.
    His brother owed him a lot of answers. At the moment, one question was more important than the rest.
    Where the devil was Cary?

CHAPTER SIX

    Lizabeth Drinkmiller sat alone outside a Key West cafe at a table built for two, chastising herself for being unable to go through with her grand plan.
    She glanced down at the fancy alcoholic concoction with the colorful paper umbrella floating on its surface. A rum-ba , the menu had called it. Sure to make you want to shed your inhibitions and dance . The drink had been sitting in front of her for thirty minutes, and Lizabeth still couldn’t bring herself to take a sip.
    Why had she believed she’d act any differently on a two-week vacation than she did the rest of her life?
    She was what she was. An information professional with a masters degree in library science who was more at home with computers than people. No wonder she hadn’t had a date in almost two years. She was the epitome of every bad stereotype about a mousy librarian, as boring as heat in the tropics. Like a chameleon that attached itself to a leafy, green bush, she faded into the scenery so well nobody noticed her.
    She might as well start going by the name Lizabeth the Lizard. Even the dye job she’d done on her mousy brown hair didn’t make a difference. Of course, at the last second, she’d put down the bottle of Yowlin’ Yellow and gone with Barely Brunette.
    She’d been more daring while shopping for a vacation wardrobe, choosing outfits that showed so much skin she’d nearly fainted dead away when she saw herself in the dressing-room mirror. But what good was a miniskirt when she had her legs tucked