On the Job by Beth Kery Page A

don’t you go to bed? You promised to take me out on the boat tomorrow.”
    Tony glanced up at her with dark shining eyes. “You’ll always love me, won’t you, Maddie? No matter how stupid I am?”
    She sighed. He must be drunker than she’d thought. She pushed back a dark curl off his forehead.
    â€œAlways. Because you’ve always been there for me, Tony, you and your mom and dad.”
    He gave her such a sweet smile she didn’t turn away when he softly kissed her on the mouth. After he’d left her room, she glanced at her bedside clock. It was ten until twelve. There was just enough time for her to throw on some clothes and meet Walker. She thought of him waiting for her there in the shadow-shrouded gardens. He’d said he wanted to talk. He’d said he wanted to make it up to her.
    She wanted him to try more than she cared to admit.
    You’ve always been there for me, Tony .
    Her spine stiffened at the thought. Walker hadn’t been there for her when she needed him. All she’d gotten from him was some phone calls, which she’d ignored. He’d said his good-byes, although Madeline refused to reciprocate. She’d rushed out of his arms, not wanting to hear Walker’s promises and soothing words. She recalled perfectly the evening she’d gone to his Incline Village apartment and knocked at the door. Some thin, fraying remnant of hope had remained.
    It’d evaporated when she heard the hollow quality of her knock. Walker’s tiny apartment where they’d shared hours upon hours of joy and rapture was empty.
    She shut out the lamp and curled on her side. Her indecision caused a pain of sorts in her belly that she tried to alleviate by pulling up her knees until she rested in a fetal position. Her brain seemed ablaze, making sleep impossible.
    The glowing numerals on the bedside clock read 12:17 when she heard her bedroom door click open. She clamped her eyelids shut. It might have been Tony returning to woo her, but it wasn’t. Madeline just knew somehow.
    His tall shadow loomed over the bed.
    â€œAre you awake?” he asked quietly.
    â€œYes,” she whispered.
    He tossed back the sheet. His arms slid beneath her, and Madeline rolled toward him as he lifted, hitting his chest with a thud. His scent—clean, spicy soap and the fresh odor of the pine forest—filtered into her nose. She inhaled deeply. He paused next to the bed.
    â€œAre you going to scream?”
    â€œNo,” she whispered.
    His hands moved slightly on the back of her thigh and along her ribs, feeling the skimpiness of her gown. “Do you have a robe?”
    â€œAt the foot of the bed.”
    A few seconds later, he carried her silently out of her opened bedroom door into the moonlit hall.
    He’d said he wanted to talk to her, but neither of them spoke as he deactivated the alarm and then reactivated it once they left the lodge. They remained silent even when he set her in the passenger seat of his car and they drove through Tony’s lush grounds and exited the security gate. The tense excitement of a midnight secret mission tightened her chest and tingled in her limbs as he drove through the silent, seemingly enchanted streets of Carnelian Bay and eventually turned onto Route 12, the road that encircled the entire lake. Madeline saw the moonlight shimmering in the dark water.
    â€œWhere are we going?” she asked in a hushed tone.
    â€œI bought a house in King’s Beach. It’s large enough to live in as well as run the business until I rent some commercial property.”
    â€œWasn’t one of your staff guarding me?”
    He glanced over at her. “I have watch of you tonight.”
    A ripple of sensation shivered through her, and she pulled her robe closer around her. Neither of them spoke another word until Walker turned onto a winding mountain road and finally pulled into a drive. Once he’d put the car into park,