Raiders of the Lost Corset by Ellen Byerrum Read Free Book Online

brakes. The last time he visited, he said he wanted to take a break. He didn’t seem to be able to say why. Clumsy words between them escalated into a scene. What about Paris? she asked. She had been so looking forward to spending time with Vic in Paris after wrapping up Magda’s story.
    “I’m not going to Paris,” he had told her. “I don’t even like Paris.”
    “How could somebody not want to go to Paris?” she demanded.
    He had a little list: They don’t like Americans. They smoke, they smoke in restaurants, they let dogs eat in restaurants. They let dogs smoke in restaurants. He thought he was being funny, but she didn’t think so. She insisted on his real reasons for not wanting to go with her. He gave her more comedy. She thought this little routine must be just a pathetic cover-up for breaking up with her. And it broke her heart that he couldn’t tell her what he really meant, whatever that was; he had to make a silly joke out of it. It quickly turned into a full-scale fight.
    “Good-bye then,” Lacey had said. She led him to the door and pushed him out.
    “I didn’t mean forever,” Vic said. “I just don’t want to go to Paris.”
    “Fine.” She spat the word. “But the next time you decide to play hardball with my heart, I won’t be home. I’ll be in Paris. Without you.”
    “Lacey, wait.” Vic was as handsome as ever, a dark curl falling over his forehead, trouble in his jade-colored eyes, his strong jaw set.
    Her last glimpse of him was at her apartment door, which she shut firmly. Lacey had waited for a full minute with her back pressed to the door while her heart sank in a sea of unresolved feelings. Then the tears came. He hadn’t called since; nor had she. It had been over a week.
    Take a break indeed, she thought. Vic was the one who complained they had waited for years to start their relationship, then they waited months to consummate it. Then it was over before it even began.
    “It’s complicated,” she repeated to Trujillo. “But I’ll always have Paris. All to myself.”
    “Sorry, Ms. Lane,” Trujillo said, “sounds like Superman’s succumbed to Kryptonite.”
    “Drop it, Jimmy Olsen.”
    “Hey, you two.” Mac’s voice brought them back to reality. “Do the comic book thing on your own time.”
    Trujillo rose from his chair. “Send me along, Chief. Lacey and I have tag-teamed before. And I’ve never been to Paris. Sounds great.”
    “You’re not stealing my story,” Lacey said. “This one is all mine.”
    “Double byline. S before T. ” He aimed the killer smile at her. It didn’t work this time. She was over all of Tony’s tricks. Mac was rubbing his smooth dome in pain.
    “I haven’t decided anything yet,” Mac said. “I gotta talk to Claudia. Get out of here, both of you. You give me a headache.”
    “Just let me know whether I’m flying to Paris this week on The Eye ’s time or on my own,” Lacey said, standing to go. “You can run my backup columns while I’m gone.” She tried to calculate whether she could afford the hotel room the paper had booked. The plane fare could be deducted in installments from her paycheck.
    She didn’t care. Paris beckoned. The lost corset beckoned. She had a story to chase. She smiled in a last attempt to soften her editor.
    “It’s a treasure hunt, Mac. Everyone loves a treasure hunt.”
    She slipped out of the office with Trujillo hard on her heels, but he was distracted by a phone call on his cell.
    “No, no, I’ll call you later, babe,” he was murmuring into the phone under his breath. “No, later than that, sugar, I got a story —”
    “Another blonde, Tony?” Lacey teased. He looked like he’d been caught stealing cookies. “Don’t strain your brain, boy. With you they’re always blondes.”
    Lacey left Trujillo with blonde trouble and made her getaway.
     

Chapter 5
    Lacey retrieved her file of information on the Romanov corset from her overstuffed desk. It included maps to the location