Face in the Frame by Heather Atkinson Read Free Book Online Page A

button beside her face. Her eyes flew open and he was delighted to see they were a radiant sapphire blue and very beautiful. She started to talk, the voice soft and husky - very sexy. She spoke about a trip to the shops and what clothes she bought. He was strangely excited when she spoke about skin-hugging dresses and killer stiletto heels and he listened to the lovely voice, enraptured. When her mouth and eyes closed, the face dropping back into death, he pressed the button again.
    “Sylvie,” he said, rolling the name around on his tongue, tugging at the belt wrapped around his corpulent belly. “It suits you.” He went quiet to listen when she started to talk about her favourite music. Sylvie was really very interesting.

CHAPTER 5
     
    Cass woke the following morning, rudely roused by her alarm clock beeping in her ear. She hit the off button then snuggled back down under the duvet, trying to ignore the headache banging against the front of her skull. She shouldn’t have had that last glass of champagne. The memory of Lucas topping up her glass returned and she smiled into the pillow. All the men she usually got involved with were tough and had macho jobs, so Lucas’s gentleness and artistic nature were a very refreshing change. Yet there was still something very alpha about him and she found the combination extremely appealing.
    Warm, happy thoughts about her date to come that evening were destroyed by the memory of her row with Brodie. That had never happened before, they’d always got on so well and he never usually criticised her work. In hindsight she knew she was in the wrong, she’d drunk more than she should have and arranged a date with a man her boss thought could be a murderer. Both of these were no-no’s and she knew it. She didn’t have a leg to stand on. But she really liked Lucas and she wanted to keep their date that night.
    After thinking the situation over very carefully she decided to go into work and apologise. Brodie would be expecting her to be ready for battle. Going in all contrite would throw him, then hopefully she could convince him there was nothing wrong with her going on her date. They’d never argued before and she couldn’t stand it. Brodie was central to her world and she needed him but there was no way she was telling him that.
     
    Brodie sat at his desk, replaying his row with Cass over and over, torturing himself with it. She would come in here like a whirlwind, all hair and angry eyes and he was determined to stand firm beneath the force of her magnificent wrath.
    His office was segregated from the rest of the office, walled in, complete with blinds. Cass liked to call it the Bullpen because she said he stomped about inside it like one. Often his clients - who could be scared and nervous - didn’t like to talk in front of his employees, so he brought them in here to talk, pulling the blinds if necessary to give them complete privacy.
    He looked up at the poster of Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, that he’d pinned to his wall and sighed. “Why is life so bloody complicated?” He cocked a grin. “I bet you’ve got it all sorted, you wee minx.”
    Through the window of his office he saw the main door open and Cass walk in, looking paler than usual, hair pulled back into a slightly messy ponytail. Clearly she was suffering from a hangover. Good.
    Impatience and a little foreboding swept over him as she took her time removing her coat and hanging it up then locking her purse and mobile phone away in her desk drawer - it wasn’t her co-workers she didn’t trust, in their line of work security was paramount.
    Hastily he looked down at his desk, pulling some papers in front of him so she wouldn’t know he was even aware of her presence. There was a knock at his office door and he didn’t call come in because she normally just walked inside without waiting to be invited. This time she didn’t and he smiled inwardly. It seemed she’d seen the error of her