Living on the Edge by Susan Mallery Read Free Book Online Page B

do it twice,” she said.
    â€œInteresting, but not exactly the characteristics of someone willing to kidnap or kill.”
    She dried her hands on a towel and faced him. “You don’t believe me?”
    â€œI need more than this. Tell me about his company. You said he took it over when his parents died. How did they die?”
    She rinsed the pasta pot, then put it on the top shelf of the dishwasher. “A car accident. They’d gone away skiing and they lost control of their car on an icy road.”
    â€œWas there any investigation into their deaths?”
    â€œWhat? No. Why would there be?”
    â€œIf you think Hilliard is capable of having you kidnapped and killed, why not do away with his parents, too?”
    â€œBut he…” The thought stunned her. Was it possible? Could he have done that? “I don’t know,” she said honestly. “Maybe he could have.”
    â€œTell me about your father’s company.”
    She wiped off the counters, then returned to the table. “Adams Electronics makes tracking equipment for the military. As soon as someone creates a stealth technology, someone else tries to figure out a way to make it obsolete. My father’s company has several contracts with the military. They bring him different foreign technologies and he finds a way around them.”
    â€œBut the family fortune can’t all come from military contracts.”
    â€œIt doesn’t. There are usually by-product discoveries, and that’s where the real money comes from.”
    Tanner continued to write. His impersonal, professional manner made it easier for her to think about the past. It was more distant with him around, plus there was no way Christopher could find her here.
    â€œYou’re the only child,” he said, more a statement than a question.
    â€œYes. I’m sure my father wanted more children. Certainly a son to carry on in his footsteps. I was never very interested in the family business. I don’t have the math gene.”
    â€œNot everyone does. Your mother?”
    Madison leaned back in her chair and folded her arms over her chest. “She’s, um, dead. It’s been aboutten years. She didn’t have the math gene, either, although she could trace her lineage back to the Mayflower. Very east-coast old money, old family. My father was an upstart scientist who stole her away from her Ivy League fiancé.”
    â€œWhat does his family do?”
    Madison frowned. “The old boyfriend?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œHe’s in construction. Skyscrapers and hotels.”
    â€œSo there’s nothing to connect him to this situation?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œSo what’s Hilliard into that’s so hot?” he asked.
    â€œSome kind of innovative jamming technology. What I’m hearing is that it’s the first jamming device that can’t be defeated. So if someone were trying to track, say, your plane, and you were able to jam their radar signals, you could fly virtually invisible.”
    â€œGet a fighter jet right over D.C. and no one would know?”
    â€œExactly.”
    â€œPowerful.”
    â€œIf it happens, it’s going to be worth millions.”
    Tanner tapped the pen. “Maybe worth enough to kill for.”
    She didn’t want to think about that.
    â€œIs he smart enough to do it?” Tanner asked.
    â€œI don’t know. My father thinks so. He’s been very excited about the project for over a year now.” Blaine had always mentioned it when she’d first tried to talk about why she was leaving Christopher. As if her husband’s brilliance was reason enough to stay.
    â€œIf Hilliard builds it, can your father figure out how to work around it?”
    â€œHe didn’t seem very confident about the possibilities.”
    â€œIs he in on the deal with Hilliard?”
    She knew what he meant. Were the two men working together to create more