Prescription: Makeover by Jessica Andersen Read Free Book Online Page A

until later. The quickie job had landed Peterman a big settlement, and now the land shark considered himself one of Vasek & Caine’s biggest supporters. He’d hired William for small jobs ranging from medical background checks to photographs of doctors taking “working” lunches in high-dollar hotel rooms. It was steady work, but it wasn’t exactly Vasek & Caine’s target clientele.
    Then again, William thought, eyeing Maxine Waterson, even land sharks like Peterson tripped over the moral high ground now and then.
    “I’ll do my best to help,” he said, consciously gentling his tone. “Can you tell me a bit about your case?”
    She was slow to answer, scanning his face with quick, nervous glances as though trying to decide how much to say. Then her shoulders straightened and her head came up.
    She smiled widely and said in Ike’s voice, “Gotcha.”
    William bolted up out of his chair, banging his hip against the desk and overturning the cup full of pens, which pelted to the floor like shrapnel. “Goddamn it, Ike! What kind of a game are you playing?”
    She tossed her hair, which was obviously a wig once he knew to look. “I’m playing
your
game, William. And I did okay. Admit it — you had no idea who I was.”
    He bared his teeth. “That’s not the point.”
    Not even a hint of Maxine’s shy slouch or soft countenance came through when Ike stared him down through eyes that had seemed colorless moments earlier but now gleamed an intense, no-nonsense brown. “That’s
exactly
the point, and we both know it.”
    Footsteps rang in the hallway. Ike slouched back to her Maxine persona as Max skidded into the room, glared at William and barked, “What the hell’s going on in here? Why are you yelling at your client?”
    “Just look at her, will you?” William pointed, hoping to hell Max would see through the disguise.
    He didn’t. His eyes slid past Ike’s face, which was once again hidden behind strands of brown hair, and skimmed her body, which was disguised in a too-large kitschy sweatshirt and what had to be six layers of long johns under her jeans.
    Max looked back at William, eyes hard. “Your point?”
    William exhaled sharply. “It’s Ike.”
    She tucked her fake hair behind her ears, revealing a triple piercing on one side with the top hole empty. She grinned. “Hiya, Max. Fooled you, too.”
    Max looked stunned. Then ticked. But within a few seconds annoyance morphed to speculation. He gave her a thorough once-over. “Huh.”
    William snapped, “Don’t even think it. She’s not going in.”
    Max frowned and said, “Ike, can you give us a minute?”
    Reluctance was obvious in the set of her shoulders and jaw, but she headed for the door. She turned back at the threshold. “Look, just so you both know…I can do this. I
need
to do this. Zed deserved better.”
    For some reason that ticked William off worse. He snarled, “Just because he died doesn’t mean you have to.”
    He expected her to snap at him. Instead she lifted her chin, shot him a glare he couldn’t even begin to interpret and stalked from the room, slamming the door at her back.
    I KE WAS SHAKING BY the time she got to the small waiting area that separated the elevator lobby from the hallway leading to Max and William’s offices. She wasn’t trembling because she was scared of what they might decide — hell, she was going to do this with or without Max’s blessing. No, what had her shaking was the rush of adrenaline. The thrill of being someone else. The absolute high of seeing William’s face go blank when he figured out who she was.
    She could do this. More importantly she
wanted
to do this. It was almost as though everything she’d done in her adult life had led up to this moment. She had the research background to play the role of a visiting scientist. She had contacts at Boston General who would give glowing references for Maxine Waterson. She had the tech savvy to hack into any computer system and pull out the