Unbreakable

Unbreakable by Blayne Cooper

Book: Unbreakable by Blayne Cooper Read Free Book Online
Authors: Blayne Cooper
Tags: Romance, Lesbian
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up and she shook her head a little as she handed the manila folder back to Ted Gramercy. He looked a little guilty for jolting her out of her thoughts.
    "I'm sorry. I drifted off there for a moment." The late afternoon sun peeked through the thin white blinds in the main office of Gramercy Investigations, painting stripes across Gwen's yellow silk pantsuit. She moved a little in the chair, her backside numb from sitting there so long. She handed back the folder and the reports she'd spent the past hour reading. She felt like a voyeur for looking in on her old friends' lives this way. But one of them, at least, had left her little choice. "I can't believe you found them all so quickly."
    The tall man sat back in his chair and his lips curled into a pleased smile. "It's always someone close."
    "I didn't want to believe it could be one of them," Gwen broke in emphatically. Then she drew in a measured breath to calm herself. "It's not easy to accept that one of the people you loved so as a child is now blackmailing you." Her grip on the email in her hands tightened.
    He gently cleared his throat and gave his client what he hoped was a suitably sympathetic look. It was one he'd cultivated over the years after having to tell many a wife and husband that their spouse was indeed cheating. "I'm sure it isn't, Mrs. Langtree. Should… umm… I understand that you want to keep this quiet, but the best way to deal with blackmail is the police. They're the best–"
    "No."
    He reached out to comfort her. "I'm sorry I–"
    Gwen gave him a wan smile. "I have another plan in mind. One that doesn't risk my life going up in flames quite the way going to the police would."
    He removed his hand, noting the determined eyes looking back at him. "And does Gramercy Investigations fit into this plan?"
    For an answer Gwen reached into her Louis Vuitton purse and extracted four blindingly white envelopes, each one closed by a gold seal. "I want you to hand deliver these to each of the women you located, including Audrey in Utah. I need to know with absolute certainty that they received what's inside these envelopes. And I don't want them being returned to the house if something goes wrong with the post office or a courier."
    He nodded, turning the square envelopes over in his hands. "You're inviting your blackmailer to a wedding?" he ventured, unable to curb his curiosity.
    Gwen rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Not to a wedding. Though those are invitations. I need to find out who is doing this and put a stop to it before it's too late. They'll all come…." Her voice gentled and nearly dropped to whisper. "No matter what happened, they promised." She swallowed thickly but quickly regained her composure. "You see I'm the oldest of the bunch and I'm having a birthday next month."
    Ted Gramercy blinked slowly, still clearly bewildered.
    The corner of her mouth quirked. "In a few weeks I'll be really, incredibly, amazingly old."
    He whistled through his teeth. If Gwen Langtree were what old ladies looked like nowadays, he was barking up the wrong tree with younger woman.
    She stood to leave. "I'm going to be 40."

  
      
CHAPTER THREE
      
    Present Day
St. Louis, Missouri
        
    K ATHERINE EMERGED FROM her kitchen, licking chocolate icing from her index finger. There was another loud rap at her door. "Hang on a sec. I'm coming." Absently, she padded across the room, her mind focused more on her upcoming date and the brownies she'd broken down and bought at the supermarket that afternoon than on who could be knocking.
    She peered through the peephole to find a tall, but non-descript man in a ubiquitous blue blazer, white shirt, and wrinkled, beige Dockers standing in the hall. He smiled brightly, knowing she was looking at him, and she found herself smiling back, despite the fact that she figured he was here to sell her something she didn't want and couldn't afford even if she did want it. She unhooked the chain and opened the door, stepping out into

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