Gold Raven by Mercedes Keyes Read Free Book Online

know if he is one and the same.”
    “ I hired and paid you to get a job done, and this is what I get?”
    Winston shrugged nonchalantly saying nothing more.
    “ You owe me something more. It is reasonable to ask, should you hear any word of this so called bandit being taken, I’m to be immediately notified! In addition…” Manny cleared his throat. “There are two more persons I wish you to find.”
    Winston’s brow lifted. “I see…and who might they be?”
    “ A slave, she was stolen from my property, and a child.”
    “ A child? To whom does this child belong?”
    “ The child is mine. A small babe at the time she was taken, and well – she would be a young woman now. As for the slave, her name is Lena, Ceś alena.”
    “ I see.” Clarence Winston returned arrogantly. Manny expected to see shock from the investigator, but not a hint of surprise changed his smug features. Instead, the man took a deep breath as if he were bored with Manny and said, “It seems I cannot help you with them either, you see… I’ve already been hired to find her.”
    His answer had been the reason for Manny’s explosive question.
    “ Just as I said Mr. Webster, I’ve been hired to find her by someone else.”
    “ No doubt, by the bastard who stole her from me!” Manny bit out. “Who is he? What is his name?”
    Again Winston shrugged, gesturing with the parting of his fingers he held together tapping them in a steeple, leaning with his elbows on his desk. “That is privileged information. There are matters of confidentiality between my client and I, matters in which I cannot share… surely you can understand that.”
    Manny stared down at Clarence Winston and wondered what was going on? ‘Was Winston’s new client the one who’d taken her? That didn’t make sense; wouldn’t he have her now? And if he didn’t have her…then who? Who had taken her?

Or, had she escaped somehow? There had been two men at the mansion looking to collect her. Did they find her, only to lose her again?’
    “ I’ll top what he’s paying you. After all, this began with me. I more than compensated you for your services. You still have that yet to fulfil. I’m willing to up the ante-…”
    “ Mr. Webster, Mr. Webster…that is no way to do business. Such dealings could be detrimental to my reputation.” He answered calmly, reaching for his pipe to light it in a show of patience. The act was to minimize Manny’s importance, to make his needs and offer trivial. His manner also served to get right beneath Manny’s skin, stomping on nerves that were stretched to the limit when it came to Lena and his children.
    “ Detrimental? Reliable? Ha! Only sure thing about you sir and that is, that you’re a did-reputable ass. That is all is all that can be relied upon!”
    Clarence calmly shrugged while trying to light his pipe. “Be that as it may, Mr. Webster; you are entitled to your opinions. It is obvious you do not approve of my methods of business…might I suggest you seek assistance elsewhere, to ah, locate your bastards.” Clarence could have sworn that he’d only blinked, before he was snatched from his chair to lie across his desk in the most awkward position. With the front of his suit bunched in Manny’s fist, he gulped staring into menacing blue/green eyes barely two inches from his own, that were now widened in fear.
    “ Clarence Winston; I’m going to leave your office now; simply because, I haven’t the needed to reach in through your scrawny throat to grab your worthless heart, and rip it from your pathetic body! But mark my words…I will find Ceś alena…and God help you, if you should stand in my way, or, cross my path in the process! Your time is coming…but not today.” With a forceful thrust of his fist, Winston was sent flailing back to land heavily in his seat, the weight of his body, sent his chair scraping back across the floor.
    Manny turned and stormed from his office building in a frustrated mix of