Mad, Bad and Blonde by Cathie Linz Read Free Book Online Page B

willing to bet your job that she’s no threat?”
    “Affirmative. She’s a children’s librarian.”
    “A great cover. Who’s going to suspect the librarian? No one except me.”
    “You suspect everyone,” Caine said.
    “That’s what’s made me the man I am today: Chicago’s leading investigator. The story was in the Chicago Tribune today, page two. West’s days as top dog in this business are numbered.”
    “Hmmm.” Caine wasn’t really paying attention. Faith had wandered into a shop that sold clothes, and she hadn’t come out yet. But a woman with a big hat and giant sunglasses was strolling out. She wasn’t wearing any of the clothes Faith had worn earlier, but something about the way she walked, the sway of her hips . . .
    His gaze went down her tanned legs to her shoes. She was wearing the same sandals Faith had worn this morning. She’d had them handmade three days ago by a wizened guy in a skinny storefront barely wide enough to stand in. She’d picked the blue fake gems that dotted the tops because they were the color of the water here.
    “Gotta go,” Caine told Vince before following the woman as she made her way up the street.
    “Nice try,” he muttered under his breath.
    He saw her go into another tiny boutique. “Two can play that game, Sunshine.” He tugged a baseball cap out of his back pocket and bought a sleeveless T-shirt from a vendor’s outdoor stand next door, all the while keeping an eagle eye on the boutique. By the time Faith came out ten minutes later, wearing the same bogus huge hat, sunglasses and telltale sandals, he had changed his appearance and his posture.
    He saw her nervously glance over her shoulder and look right past him. Damn, he was good. The surveillance techniques he’d learned in the Marine Corps served him well in his current position.
    She ducked into another store. This time she came out with a backpack and two bags filled with her purchases.
    Another store, another bag and an escort. An elderly couple, the man on the left, the woman on the right, bracketed her like bookends. As the street narrowed and the crowd grew, they stood behind Faith to let her go ahead.
    Caine kept track of her hat, which he could see above the crowd. Thank God Faith was tall. She wove in and out of the throng of tourists filling the area, turning it into a pedestrian traffic jam.
    Shit, he’d lost her.
    No wait, there she was. On the move again. Fine by him. He wasn’t about to let her go.

    Jeff West stared at the phone in his home office. It wasn’t quite eight in the morning here in Chicago, but he couldn’t wait any longer. Faith had called at midnight last night and told him about Caine.
    Vince had gone too far this time. Jeff had to do something about that. He couldn’t let that bastard get away with it.
    Jeff had already put one of his best agents to work overnight digging up information on Vince. And he’d set his best computer geek to hacking into Vince’s e-mail files. Illegal, certainly, but necessary. It’s not as if Vince hadn’t done the same to Jeff, which is why he was constantly updating his firewalls and security systems.
    Jeff picked up the phone and dialed. Vince answered as Jeff had known he would.
    “I know why you’re calling,” Vince preempted him by saying. “You saw the article in the Trib describing me as Chicago’s leading investigator.”
    “You’re Chicago’s leading bastard! How dare you send one of your thugs to trail my daughter on her vacation to Italy.”
    “What’s wrong, West? Afraid of what I’ll find?”
    “Going after me is one thing, but going after my family . . . That’s low, even for you.”
    “You taught me everything I know,” Vince said.
    “You know nothing.”
    “I know more than you think.”
    “If I find out you had a hand in my daughter being left at the altar—”
    “Save your empty threats. I didn’t have anything to do with that mess. You and your daughter created that debacle all by