Faceoff Read Online Free Page B

landscape richly green with mature trees and parks.
    Shit. Shit. Shit.
    She’d spent the whole week there busting her butt trying to show them she was ready for the promotion, feeling sick with guilt about that, but determined to show everyone at the firm she was there…and they went golfing. Without her. And didn’t even bother to tell her that everything had changed.
    She tapped a pen on the desk. Her chest ached, the muscles in her neck and shoulders burned and even her jaw throbbed from clenching her teeth. Then she jerked when the pen in her hand cracked―she’d tapped it so hard on her desk she’d broken it. She stared at the broken utensil. More pressure built inside her. She wanted to get up and walk out. Just walk out.
    She couldn’t do that.
    But she could do something.
    She hit her computer keyboard and the monitor flickered to life. She pulled up her email program and started tapping away. Half an hour later, she’d rescheduled and delegated and sent out an email telling everyone she was going to be away from the office for the next week. She closed down her computer, started to put some files into her briefcase and stopped. She looked down at them. Her stomach hurt with that familiar gnawing pain. She needed this break. She wasn’t even going to take work with her. She was going to the lake.
    It was almost physically painful to leave the office empty-handed, but she forced herself to do it. Walking home along Rorie, she fought the anxiety that tightened her muscles to the point of making it difficult to breathe. This was going to be good. This would be fine.
    In her condo, she didn’t even bother to change out of her suit, just grabbed a suitcase and started throwing things in. What did she need for a week at the lake? A few bathing suits. A few pairs of shorts and tank tops. Flip-flops. Sunscreen and a big can of bug spray.
    She paused to download some books onto her digital reader, enough to keep her busy for a week of lying on the beach. No legal briefs or depositions or research materials for her. Just an assortment of romance novels by favorite authors she hadn’t had time to read for a long time.
    She hauled her suitcase down to her car in the parking garage, heaved it into the trunk of her little BMW and slammed the lid down. She was outta there.
    Traffic was already getting heavy heading out of the city. Friday afternoon and everyone else was apparently getting an early start on the weekend too. Once out of the city and onto Highway 59, she pressed the gas pedal until the speedometer needle was at a hundred and five clicks, just barely over the speed limit. She had about an hour drive ahead of her and that was time to do a lot of thinking.
    She could kick herself for being such a pushover, such a sucker that she’d sacrifice her personal life, her family life, for the firm, for making partner. But just because Jim and Alex were golfing together didn’t mean anything. It didn’t mean that Alex was going to be the new partner. But glumly, she couldn’t help feeling it wasn’t a very good sign. She turned things over and over in her head until the terrain on either side of the highway changed from scrubby to marshy as she neared Lake Winnipeg. Then she turned off the highway into the tiny resort town of Crystal Beach.
    She was there. Even just driving down Main Street toward the public beach made her relax ever so slightly. She passed the familiar little businesses, the grocery store, the bar, the bakery, the tiny little movie theater that only played movies on weekends. She let out a long breath. Disappointment still weighed on her, though, that she wasn’t arriving here as a full-fledged partner in the law firm. She wasn’t yet a big loser in that race, but she almost felt like it. Damn.
    She turned onto Maple Street, then Bluebell Lane, a narrow tree-lined street that followed the curve of the lakeshore with cottages on either side. On the west side of the street the cottages backed onto