Dangerous to Know by Merline Lovelace Read Free Book Online

his health and social history over IIN.”
    â€œThanks, Cyrene,” Doc replied, then quickly signed off. “Get changed,” he told Maggie, his eyes a flat steel blue. “We’re going hunting.”
    She nodded, already on her way into the bedroom. Slamming the door behind her, she peeled off the halter and stuffed it into her purse. That little dot was going with her wherever she went.
    Working frantically at the zipper of her red shorts, she hurried toward the ornate wardrobe that held Meredith’s clothes. She had the shorts halfway down her hips when she heard a sharp pounding on the door to her suite.
    Kicking off the clingy shorts, Maggie grabbed a pale lavender silk kimono from the wardrobe door and flung it on. She dug in her purse for her .22 and dashed out of the bedroom as another staccato rap sounded on the oak panel.
    His weapon in his hand, David melted back into the shadows beside the huge nineteenth-century armoire that housed the suite’s entertainment center.
    â€œIt’s probably the boutique, delivering my purchases,” she told him softly.
    â€œCould be,” he replied. “Or it could be one of Meredith Ames’s customers, sent up by the accommodating concierge. Whoever it is, get rid of him. Fast!”
    â€œRight.”
    Tucking the .22 into a pocket of her kimono, Maggie pulled open the door.
    If the individual standing in the corridor was a delivery boy, he’d forgotten his packages. If he was one of Meredith’s customers, he was a precocious one. Small and wiry, with a shock of red hair and a splash of freckles across his thin nose, he couldn’t have been more than ten or twelve years old.
    To Maggie’s considerable amusement, he gave her a cheeky grin and ran his eyes over her bare legs with a blatant masculine approval that was all French.
    â€œMademoiselle Ames?”
    â€œOui?”
    â€œBon.” He turned and called out, to no one in particular that Maggie could see, “Your friend is at home, mademoiselle. You can come out now.”
    Keeping a firm grip on the weapon in her pocket, Maggie leaned out the door and peered down the corridor. When a pileof laundry in a wheeled hamper a few yards away began to heave, her eyes narrowed. Sheets and towels tumbled over its sides, and then a disheveled blond head poked its way out of the mound.
    While Maggie gaped in astonishment, the street urchin went to help Paige Lawrence climb out of the laundry cart.
    The woman looked as though she’d run a marathon—and finished dead last. Her hair straggled down her back in wet, tangled snarls. Her bright red jacket had disappeared, along with one of her shoes. The narrow gold bandeau covered only the center of her breasts, leaving the full curves above and below bare. Her shorts rode down in front and up in back as she clambered awkwardly over the side of the cart and clumped down the hall on one high-soled platform shoe.
    â€œI’m sorry to bother you like this,” she murmured distractedly, “but I’m in something of a predicament.”
    â€œSo I see.”
    Paige shoved her wet, tangled hair out of her eyes with one hand. “I fell into the bay and lost my purse, along with my passport and all my money.”
    She’d lost a lot more than that, Maggie thought wildly. She couldn’t even begin to anticipate Doc’s reaction when he saw his sweet, demure former fiancée.
    â€œWhy don’t you tell me about it inside?” she suggested faintly.
    Paige flashed her a relieved smile. “Thank you. I was hoping I could count on you. This is all so embarrassing.”
    When she limped awkwardly into the foyer, the cocky boy strolled in right behind her. Hooking both thumbs in the waistband of his rather scruffy-looking shorts, he gave the ornate sitting room a quick once-over and whispered softly.
    â€œA palace, mademoiselle, ” he commented in swift, idiomatic French. “You must do