Razor Sharp by Fern Michaels Read Free Book Online

in.
    The Sisters were unified once again. Annie realized that it felt good.
    Annie nodded in Myra’s direction. She was happy to see that Myra’s eyes were clear and focused. Her expression clearly said that the two of them were back on track. Annie nodded to show she understood and accepted Myra’s silent apology.
     
    “Close the door, guys,” Maggie said to her star reporter and lover, Ted Robinson, and her star photographer, Joe Espinosa.
    As a rule Maggie did business with her door wide-open. Everyone on the floor knew that when the door was closed it was worth their lives even to speculate as to what was going on behind it.
    “This must be important since it’s quitting time,” Ted said as he tried to gauge Maggie’s mood.
    “About as important as it gets. We have a live one this time. I can tell you what I know, but I can’t give you names. Yet. Listen up.”
    Maggie was like a runaway horse until she wound down and looked at her two primo employees. “I know this is a second Pulitzer. I can feel it. I can smell it. Hell, I own it! So, make me a promise, guys.”
    Both men looked at Maggie, and solemnly intoned, “I promise,” in unison. Maggie sighed, knowing in the end they would deliver because they were the best of the best.
    “I hate to ask this, Maggie, but whose side are we on?” Ted asked.
    Maggie stiffened and locked her gaze with Ted’s. “Whose side do you think you’re on, Ted?”
    Ted looked at Espinosa. “Your side, boss, which—if I can read you correctly—is the madam’s,” Ted said, opting to take the high road.
    “I knew that,” Espinosa said airily. He already felt sorry for the men they were about to start tracking.
    “Good choice. I want hard proof, two sources, every little thing on background on every one of those miserable creatures. If it ever comes to court, the madam will be represented by Lizzie, with Cosmo Cricket in the background, but that is not our concern right now. Are we clear on that?”
    Ted and Espinosa both nodded, their faces serious as they tried to imagine what was going to go down and how it was going to work out.
    “I want sterling headlines. I want impeccable sources. I want material that deserves to be above the fold. I want people standing in line waiting to buy the paper, and I want special editions with one-of-a-kind reporting and dynamite pictures. I want my competitors to hate the hell out of me and both of you. We’re number one, and I want to stay at number one! Tell me you’re going to make it happen. I have people straining at the leash waiting for your answer. Oh, yes, a really nice bonus and a five-day vacation in Hawaii will be your reward. It’s okay to call it a bribe, but I’m tossing it out there.”
    “We’ll make it happen, Maggie,” Ted said.
    “Yeah,” Espinosa said.
    “You’re still standing here! Move!”
    “I thought we were going out to dinner,” Ted grumbled.
    “ I’m going out to dinner. You’re going to work. Go, already!”
    Maggie knew her dinner was going to be a street vendor’s hot dog, which she would eat on the run. She took the thought as a lucky omen. Hot dogs and scoops equaled a Pulitzer.

Chapter 5
    C osmo Cricket lumbered out to his state-of-the-art kitchen, where he made coffee. While he waited for it to drip through, he walked back down the hall to the front door to pick up the morning paper, which had been shoved through the mail slot. He carried it back to the kitchen, his thoughts on Lizzie Fox and her arrival later in the day. Right then, right that minute, right that second, that nanosecond, all he could think of was Elizabeth Fox and how good it was going to feel when she was snuggled in his arms. Whatever news the paper held was of absolutely no interest to him. That wasn’t usually the case. Normally, he read it from cover to cover, line by line.
    But Cosmo Cricket was a creature of habit, and his habit was to get up, brush his teeth, shower, shave, and have his first cup of