Never Leave Me by Harold Robbins Page B

into someone you know?”
    “What if you do?” I countered.
    “I don’t have to explain anything to anybody,” she replied. “But you——” I didn’t let her finish. “I’ll do the worrying for me.”
    “Brad,” she protested, “You don’t know what people will say, how they are, what they do——” “And I don’t care,” I interrupted her again. “I don’t give a damn about people. All I care about is you. I want you near me, close to me. I don’t want to be away from you now that I’ve found you. I’ve
    spent too long a time waiting for you.”
    She came very close to me, her eyes searching my face. “Brad, you mean that, don’t you?” I nodded. “We’re here, ain’t we? That’s answer enough.”
    Her eyes were still on my face. I don’t know what she sought there, but she must have seen what she wanted. My voice stopped her before she got to the door. She turned to face me.
    “Wait a minute, Elaine,” I said. “We gotta do things right.” I scooped her up in my arms and carried her across the threshold.

Chapter Ten

    THE administration building of Consolidated Steel was new and shining-white, just inside the steel wire grating that fenced their property. Behind the building lay the black, soot-covered foundries, their chimneys belching flame and smoke into the clear blue sky.
    A uniformed special officer stopped me as I came through the door. “Mr. Rowan to see Mr.
    Brady,” I said.
    “Do you have a pass?” he asked. I shook my head.
    “An appointment?” “Yes.”
    He picked up a telephone on a table near him and whispered into it, all the while watching me carefully. I lit a cigarette while waiting for him to pass me. I had time to take just one pull when he put the phone down. “This elevator, Mr. Rowan,” he said politely and pressed a button on the wall.
    The elevator door opened and there was a second uniformed special officer in the elevator. “Mr.
    Rowan to Mr. Brady’s office,” said the first officer as I went into the elevator.
    The doors closed behind me and the elevator began its ascent. I looked at the operator. “This is almost as bad as getting to see the President,” I smiled.
    “Mr. Brady is Chairman of the Board,” the special officer dead-panned.
    For a moment I fought an impulse to tell him that I was talking about the President of the United States but it would have been wasted so I kept my mouth shut. The elevator stopped and the doors opened. I stepped out.
    The special officer was right behind me. “This way, sir.”
    I followed him down a deserted marble corridor, past a series of pine-panelled doors. Between each door was an electric light in the form of a torch in the hand of a classic Greek figure. At almost any moment I expected one of the doors to open and an undertaker to come out to direct us to the remains.
    He paused in front of one of the doors, knocked lightly, then opened it and waved me in. I blinked my eyes at the light in the room after the gloomy corridor and heard the door close behind me.
    “Mr. Rowan?” The girl at the large semicircular desk in the centre of the room looked up at me inquiringly.
    I nodded and walked towards her.
    She got up and came around her desk. “Mr. Brady is tied up at the moment and extends his apologies. Would you care to wait in the reception room, please?”
    I let out a silent whistle. After this, nobody could tell me that the only thing Matt Brady had on his mind was steel. Not with a babe like this for a secretary. This kid was built for long-distance hauling and she had the equipment that went with endurance.
    “Must I?” I smiled.
    The smile was wasted, for she turned and led me to another door. I followed her slowly, enjoying the clock-work. This was a dame who knew what she had and made no bones about it. As a matter of fact I couldn’t see a bone anywhere. She held the door open for me.
    I stopped and looked at her. “How come you ain’t wearing one of them special cop uniforms?”