The Tycoon Meets His Match by Barbara Benedict Read Free Book Online Page B

“You…her…hey, y’all used to hang around with Bobby years ago. I remember you.”
    His leer deepened. Trae edged back another few steps.
    “Hey, where ya going? Got a six-pack I’m willing to share. We can, uh, hash over old times.”
    “It’s been a blast seeing you again, Beau, but I’ve got to run. Places to go, people to see. Flight to catch.” This last was uttered over her shoulder as she hurried down the street. Behind her, she could hear Beau calling, first pleading then turning increasingly nasty as she rounded the corner and ducked out of sight.
    Did he honestly think she’d step one foot inside that dive he and Bobby called an apartment? Hadn’t her quest to find Lucie already been enough of an ordeal?
    It had taken her over two days to get here from Rhys’s estate. She’d been forced to wait for Rosa’s grandson, Raymond, to return with his boat. Convincing him to turn around and go back to Florida had taken considerable patience and tact, not to mention a serious depletion of her funds. And then, once she got to Miami, she’d spent the rest of the time in bureaucratic hell while Quinn and her government contact straightened out the mess of her missing passport.
    And now she had to grab a flight to California.
    Hailing a cab, Trae fought off a growing uneasiness. Her funds—even with Quinn and Alana’s supplement—were rapidly dwindling. She eyed the backpack she’d stuffed with Lucie’s loosest clothes and necessary toiletries, and the three hundred dollars she’d found jammed in a pocket. She’d brought it along, figuring her friend would need the cash, but unless she found Lucie soon, Trae might have to use the money herself.
    It would be a loan, used only in an emergency, but it wouldn’t hurt to be prepared. Bad enough to imagine Lucie in New Orleans, a place they knew from their days at Tulane, but the prospect of her friend wandering around the streets of Hollywood was even worse.
    And what about once she did find Lucie? Back when she’d started this search, Trae hadn’t thought past the moment they would connect. How there would be two mouths to feed, two bodies needing shelter, two fares for the long journey home…
    Then again, Rhys had been in the picture, she realized as the taxi sped to the airport. Rhys, who always took care of everything.
    Entering the airport and walking to the gate, she found herself thinking about him, wondering where he was, what he was doing. Probably still spinning his wheels back in Miami, she thought with a grin. His stubbornness would never allow him to admit defeat. She wondered if he’d figured out yet what a mistake it had been to leave her behind, to underestimate her abilities. He would eventually, when she was the first to reach Lucie.
    See how you like it then, Paxton , she thought. Not fun, is it, being left in the dust?

    Watching her from the other side of the concourse, Rhys felt anything but dusty. On the contrary, he felt at the top of his game. All things considered, he could be pleased with his progress. Okay, maybe it had been sheer luck, spotting Trae on Bourbon Street last night, but the difference between success and failure lay in how a man played out his hand. With skill and decisiveness, he’d tailed her. Undetected, he might add, to the dingy apartment on Esplanade that somehow seemed familiar.
    Granted, he’d heard little while she’d grilled the drunk at the door, but he’d been in the perfect position to overhear her instructions to the cab driver when she left. From there, it had been a snap to follow her to the airport, where he’d found her flopped in a seat, waiting on standby for a flight to Los Angeles.
    Which still wouldn’t take off for at least another hour.
    A full hour in which he could be working, he thought in frustration. Hoping to maintain a low profile, knowing even a carry-on would slow him down, he’d opted to check his laptop with his luggage. All he had left was his BlackBerry. And the Times