Double Dealing (2013) by Linda Cajio Page A

the ransom money? By the way, who are you going to ask for the ransom?”
    She groaned aloud. “I’m not asking anybody!”
    “Then I’ll be around for a while.” Jed picked up the plate and glass and handed them back to Burrows. “Eggs over easy and bacon, please. And coffee.”
    “Would you care for some mulberry pancakes, sir?” Burrows asked. “I have the batter already prepared.”
    “Great!”
    Rae groaned again.
    “Very good, sir.” Burrows returned to the range.
    Turning to her, Jed rubbed his hands together in anticipation. “Now that breakfast is settled, we’ve got to figure out who you’re going to get the ransom from. Like most companies, Atlantic has a policy of not paying ransom money for their employees, so they’re out.”
    “Jed—”
    “My parents are retired now, so their income is limited,” he continued. “My brother just graduated from med school, so he doesn’t have a thriving practice yet. Gee, I’m beginning to feel like the kid in the O. Henry story who nobody wanted back.”
    “Dammit, Jed!” she exclaimed, waving a handin the air. “The kidnapping was just a joke, okay? After breakfast is over, I’ll drive you back to the hotel so you can get your car.”
    “You were very serious last night, weaving in and out of traffic like the entire Philly police force was after us,” he pointed out. “Why would you bring me here otherwise? Or lock me up with a tarantula as a guard?”
    “Well, I … uhm … see …” Humiliated at her own sputtering, she lamely said, “You can go now.”
    “But I can’t,” he protested. “I’ve got to stay here until a ransom is paid. That’s Article Four, Section One of the Kidnap Handbook. By the way, Harvey is a good guy to bunk with. He doesn’t snore.”
    “Cute, Jed,” she snapped. “But you’re not staying. You are supposed to be looking for a new site for the complex, and you can’t very well do that if you’re kidnapped, can you?”
    He stroked his mustache for a moment, then said, “As long as I have a phone to keep in touch with my people, I can, and it’d be a damn good way for you to make sure I do. What’s the matter, Rae, are you chickening out?”
    She glared at him. “There’s nothing to chicken out of!”
    “Then I’ll just hang around until we can figure out who’s going to pay the ransom. I assume I have freedom to move around the house and grounds. After all, you can always set the dogs after me. Where are they?”
    “Outside,” Burrows said, before she could give a caustic reply. He set a cup of coffee in front of Jed. “Your breakfast will be ready in just a few minutes, sir.”
    “Thanks.” Jed glanced down at his lap. “I’ll need a change of clothes, and my car is still at the hotel. If they haven’t already towed it away. Have you had it moved, Rae? It’s a dead giveaway that I’m missing.”
    “Damn you, Jed,” she muttered through gritted teeth.
    “After I have finished here, I can retrieve your car for you, sir,” Burrows volunteered, returning to the work area. He expertly flipped the eggs over in the pan. “Mr. Coe, our next-door neighbor, owns a bookstore in Center City. He can drive me in. Miss Rachel really shouldn’t return to the scene of her crime.”
    “Burrows!”
    “Excellent,” Jed said, grinning at the butler. “Could you stop by my place and get me some clothes?”
    “I believe I could, sir.”
    Furious with the two of them for teasing her, Rae jumped to her feet. “That is enough! If it makes you so damn happy, Jed, then consider yourself kidnapped.” She shook her finger at him. “But you damn well better be on that phone, really trying to find a new site for the complex. And you damn well better find one!”
    She whirled on her heel and stalked out of the room.
    After breakfast, Jed eventually found her in the music room. He assumed it was the music room, since a grand piano sat in regal majesty in one corner, a harp reposed in another, and gleaming