The Cutting Edge by Linda Howard Read Free Book Online

been doing at night as well as the bogus work necessary during the day, but his mind was still running at full speed. He was totally caught up in their covert search for the embezzler. “Did you get any useful information from Miss Conway last night?” he asked absently when Brett entered the office.
    â€œI’ve made notes,” Brett answered, taking a small notebook from his inside coat pocket. The details he’d noted were insignificant, except to himself and Evan. He’d had to be careful in his questioning, since Tessa wasn’t a gossip, but he’d gotten a surprising amount of information from her humorous tales.
    Evan read the notes, frowning as he added the information to the profiles he was compiling on each employee under suspicion, which was, at that point, virtually everyone.
    â€œWhat do you have on Sammy Wallace?” Brett asked slowly, frowning at himself for asking the question. He didn’t like the possessive jealousy he was feeling; he’d never felt it for any woman before, and he didn’t want to feel it now.
    Evan’s head snapped up. “He’s a computer genius,” he said slowly. “He has a system at his apartment that the CIA could use. From what I’ve found so far, he has to be the prime suspect. What made you ask?”
    Brett shrugged, his eyes intent. If Wallace was the prime suspect, he’d make damned sure Tessa didn’t have anything else to do with him.

CHAPTER THREE
    A LL DAY LONG , Tessa had looked forward to Sammy’s undemanding company as an antidote against the tension that curled in her stomach at just the thought of Brett Rutland, and Brett had occupied her thoughts so much that day that she wondered if she’d made a mess of everything she’d done.
    â€œAunt Silver, you never warned me about men like him,” she grumbled aloud, as if her aunt were in the room with her instead of almost an entire continent away. “I think I’ve met the man I could really love, but it’s not safe to love him. He’s a real heartbreaker. So what now?”
    Take it as it comes.
    That was exactly what Aunt Silver’s answer would be. She was a wonderfully romantic woman, but soundly based in common sense. Silver had probably faced the same dilemma when she met the man who would eventually be her husband. From what she’d heard from both her mother and Silver, Tessa had surmised that her uncle had been as wild as a mink, with charm to burn and an itch for Silver that Silver had been determined he wasn’t going to scratch. Their running battle had lasted for almost two years and kept three counties enthralled, wondering who would win. Silver had won, and their marriage had been as temptestuous and as loving astheir courtship. It must run in the family for the women to fall in love with rakes and rascals, she thought.
    â€œI won’t fall in love with him!” Tessa said fiercely as she took the stairs up to Sammy’s apartment, then admitted to herself that she was whistling in the dark.
    When he answered the door, Sammy’s face was flushed with excitement and his hair was mussed. “Tessa, just wait until you see the new computer we’ve put together! It’s a real honey.”
    Tessa was thoroughly familiar with computers, but only from a user’s standpoint. She knew absolutely nothing about microchips or interfacing, and wasn’t interested in learning, but she smiled at the enthusiasm on Sammy’s face. “Tell me about it,” she invited.
    â€œSee for yourself. Hillary’s here, too.”
    Tessa had never met Hillary before, but Sammy had often talked about her. Hillary lived on the floor above him, and she was as wild about computers as he was. Tessa supposed it was a case of kindred spirits. The young woman she saw seated at the display terminal and practically attacking the keyboard only reinforced that original supposition, for Hillary was as blond as