Mackenzie's Magic by Linda Howard Read Free Book Online Page A

might have worked if she hadn’t grown up watching her petite mother rule over a household populated by brawny males. She was very much her mother’s daughter; it never occurred to her to be intimidated. Instead she poked him harder.
    "You said a tip led you to Solomon Green. Obviously the FBI has been working on this for a while, so just as obviously you have to have a list of suspects you’re watching. One of those suspects is now working at Solomon Green, isn’t he? That’s what tipped you off." She scowled up at him. "Why did you say I was a suspect, when you know darn good and well—"
    "Hold it." He held up a staying hand, interrupting her. "You were a suspect. Everyone was. I know who my main suspect is, but he isn’t working alone. This ring has to have the collusion of a lot of people. The owners are the main ones to profit, but any of the employees could also be in on it."
    She didn’t like to think any of her people would be involved in murdering a horse for profit, but she had to admit it was possible. "So you followed him there and you’ve been watching him, trying to catch him in the act so you’ll have proof against him." Her dark eyes caught fire. "Were you going to let him actually kill a horse, so there would be no doubt?"
    "That isn’t the outcome we’d like," he said carefully, watching her. "But we’re aware that could be the scenario."
    Her eyes narrowed. She wasn’t fooled by his formal "official speak," used by both the military and law-enforcement organizations. Reading between the lines, she knew that while he might not like letting a horse be harmed, he’d been willing to let it happen if that was what it took.
    She wasn’t thinking of slugging him; she was angry, but not foolish. He’s already proven he was more than a match for her. Still, the expression on her face must have made him think she was about to try again to take him down, because his hand came up in one of those lightning-fast movements and caught her wrist, holding it against his chest.
    She drew herself up to her full five feet almost three inches and lifted her chin. "I refuse to sacrifice a horse. Any horse."
    "That isn’t what I want, either." He gently cupped her stubborn chin, his fingertips tracing over the satiny skin of her jaw. "But we can’t make our move until they do something conclusive, something we can make stick in the courts. We have to tie everything together in a knot some slick lawyer can’t undo, or a murderer is going to walk. This isn’t just about horses and insurance fraud. A stable hand was killed, a kid just sixteen years old. He must have stumbled across something the way you did, but he wasn’t as lucky. The next morning there was a dead horse in the stall and the kid was missing. That was in Connecticut. A week later his body was found in Pennsylvania."
    She stared at him, her dark eyes stark. The Stonichers might just be after the money, but they had aligned themselves with people who were truly evil. Any regret she might have felt for them vanished.
    MacNeil’s face was like stone. "I won’t move too soon and blow the investigation. No matter what, I’m going to nail these bastards. Do you understand?"
    She did. Completely. That left only one thing to do. "You refuse to compromise the case, and I won’t let Pleasure be hurt. That means you’ll have to use me as the bait."

Chapter 6
    "A bsolutely not." The words were flat and implacable. "No way in hell."
    "You have to."
    He looked down at her with mingled exasperation and amusement. "Sweetheart, you’ve been the boss for so long that you’ve forgotten how to take orders. I’m running this show, not you, and you’ll damn well do what I tell you to do, when I tell you to do it, or you’re going to find yourself handcuffed and gagged and your sweet little ass stuffed in a closet until this is over."
    Maris batted her long eyelashes at him. "So you think my ass is sweet, huh?"
    "So sweet I’ll probably be biting it before