Dark Cover (The DARK Files #2) by Susan Vaughan Read Free Book Online

with young Ray?Nick went into soldier mode, but then he shut down and shut her out. His harsh comment about not being a hero kept repeating in her brain like an annoying tune. She’d noticed nothing unusual in his file.
    What was going on?Whatever it was, his suspicious actions didn’t bode well for this operation.She had to find a way to spend time with him, so he’d open up. That plan would exacerbate her other problem — hiding her inconvenient awareness of him. She would be her usual friendly self, and keep things on a professional plane.
    As long as they were alone.In public, that was another story. Would he have his hand on her? His arm around her?How could she ignore the lure of his woodsy scent mingled with salty male? Or forget the solid feel of his arms? Or was it the lure of the forbidden and the mystery she sensed in his soul?
    Think of him as your brother, like Jason or Troy. She tried to imagine Nicolas Markos scouring her face with mud after she’d doused him with the garden hose.Dream on. Professional interest, not personal involvement. Detachment. She repeated the mantra. And sighed. Her mind wasn’t on the task at hand. She’d been at this computer too long. She hit Page Down.
    She and her so-called fiancé were spending the day at Alexei’s import business. Nestled among antique shops and galleries, the old brick building housed a retail shop and offices on the ground floor and more offices and warehouse space in a second story.
    Across the street, in an upstairs storage room, was another DARK surveillance unit. During the night, they’d secreted electronic bugs throughout the business. Cameras and microphones covered the entrances, front and back.
    Since she was supposed to be a magazine editor and savvy with computers, Vanessa aka Danielle had the task of examining the electronic books. Probably Nick’s ploy to stash her out of the way.
    Accounts were straightforward, up to date, but so far contained no hint of transactions for the New Dawn Warriors, let alone several million spare bucks.Even with the smattering of econ theory she remembered from college, she didn’t think it took an economist or even an accountant to see that Markos Imports was sinking, not as fast as the Titanic, but as inevitably.Without an infusion of new stock and without Alexei’s contacts, clients and vendors were abandoning ship.
    When the numbers on the computer screen began to blur, she left the cramped office and went in search of Nick.She found him in the executive office that occupied the entire back of the shop.
    The lavish suite dazzled with a kaleidoscope of patterns and colors — burgundy-and-navy Persian rugs, black-lacquered cabinets and tables, gold-framed paintings and Japanese brush drawings. A cobalt-blue porcelain vase stood on a low hammered-brass table. A black-and-gold enameled dragon guarded one end of a mahogany desk, the twin of the one at the house.She waited quietly at the doorway while he conversed with the manager and assistant manager.
    Nick’s burnished-olive skin contrasted with the snowy white of his band-collared shirt. She had yet to see him in a tie, but he looked every inch the CEO in a navy pinstripe suit.
    All day he’d spent in negotiations. Sessions with the employees who didn’t want him to sell and with importers who might buy the shop meant walking a tightrope. He was in command, quiet but firm and decisive, putting her in mind of a conquering knight.Or the Greek tycoon of her first impression.
    The shop manager was an elegant, wand-slim Chinese-American woman named Celia Chin. “The rugs are no problem,” she was saying, “and the small decorative pieces. We sell a few every day. We could continue if we could obtain more.”
    Emil Alfieris, the assistant manager, stabbed the air with an emphatic index finger. “Alexei traveled abroad on buying trips. If—”
    “But Alexei is gone, and that won’t be happening.” Nick spoke softly, but in a tone that brooked no