Scoundrel for Hire (Velvet Lies, Book 1) by Adrienne deWolfe Read Free Book Online Page A

could somehow speed up her resolution.
    Guilt was such a trial. Here in her grasp—she waved a rolled-up edition of the Rocky Mountain Sun —she held the ideal plan to ruin Celestia, and yet she was having second thoughts. Doubts, for heaven's sake! How many times had she told herself she couldn't afford to have scruples when the opposition had none?
    She blew out her breath. Maybe she'd be less squeamish if Papa's love weren't at stake.
    Her bottom lip quivering at the thought, she swept past the moonlit balcony and the French doors she'd opened to counteract the blast of piped-in heat from the hotel furnace.
    Damn Celestia Cooper's greedy soul. Papa should have been at the meeting tonight. Silver had needed Papa at the meeting, if not for protection, then at least for moral support. When she'd accepted her speaking engagement two months ago, her business mind hadn't allowed her to consider the fact that she might be ogled like a common tart. But that's exactly what had happened, triggering the insidious old fears. Why couldn't she seem to escape them after all these years? No one had wanted to listen to her discourse on mineral high-grading, thanks to the diamond mine furor, and the few members of her audience who had paid her any attention had stared glassily at her breasts. She'd battled a queasy feeling the entire time she'd been on stage.
    Looking back on those nerve-rattling twenty minutes, she liked to think she'd handled the front-row lechers with aplomb; even so, she couldn't quite shake the sensation that she was still being... well, watched.
    Shivering, she gripped her newspaper tighter and did her best to put such nonsense from her mind.
    Needless to say, the only saving grace of the Mining Exchange fiasco had been the plot she'd concocted against Celestia. That fraudulent Mr. Markham had given her the idea—an unscrupulous idea, to be certain, but one that was no less ripe with potential. Celestia had proven she lacked a conscience. She'd made a lifelong career out of duping hardworking, God-fearing people. To Silver's way of thinking, it was time to fight fire with fire.
    She winced. Now that was an abominable pun.
    Still, there was no denying Celestia could use a taste of her own medicine. The woman probably deserved a whole lot worse—a jail term, for starters—but she'd been too clever for the prosecutors. With the law predisposed to be lenient to females, Silver knew the only way she'd be able to protect her father was to stoop to Celestia's level.
    Well, not exactly to Celestia's level, Silver corrected herself, taking another brisk turn around the room. She could never physically hurt someone or damage their property. She wasn't above teaching Celestia Cooper a lesson, though. In fact, she felt morally obligated to. Hadn't God shown her the way by crossing her path with that Markham imposter? If meeting a scoundrel-for-hire wasn't the result of divine providence, Silver didn't know what was.
    Sighing, she halted beside the bed.
    Even so, her plan was not without its risks. A hundred or more things could go wrong, all of them at a moment's notice. With her father's fortune, his happiness, even his safety at stake, dare she take a professional swindler into her confidence?
    This was the question that plagued her more than any other as she stood by her bedside, worrying her bottom lip. Every now and then her gaze strayed indecisively to the contents of her carpetbags, strewn across her quilt in preparation for packing.
    She still had time to abandon her scheme for a less imaginative one, she reluctantly reminded herself. She doubted a man of her would-be conspirator's character would rise with the sun, so she could slip out of the hotel, avoid the office address she'd so impetuously given him, and book herself a seat on the morning stage. No one would be the wiser. No harm would be done.
    Except, of course, that Celestia would have used the day to her advantage, worming her way further into Papa's