The Desperate Game: (InterMix) Read Online Free Page A

leaned back in the black steel-mesh chair, apparently satisfied with the results of his accusation.
    Guinevere fought a short, violent battle for control and surprised herself by winning. “My
venture
into StarrTech was a different matter. A private matter.” She picked up the brandy, her grip so savage that it was a wonder the glass didn’t shatter. She forced herself to drink.
    “There was something different about your contract with StarrTech?” Zac inquired benignly. “Something that set it apart from other short-term temporary assignments?”
    “If you’re going to make an accusation, I’ll get a lawyer. If you’re not, then I don’t need one, do I? Either way, I don’t intend to say anything further on the subject of my business at StarrTech.”
    Zac waited for a long moment, watching her. “I won’t be making any accusations to StarrTech management, Guinevere Jones, because I think you’re going to cooperate. Isn’t that right?”
    She made herself inhale slowly, seeking a way to calm herself. “Blackmail.”
    “Just as I promised.”
    “Do you always make good on your promises?”
    “Keeping my promises is one of the few things in which I still believe, Gwen.”
    She focused on the massive yellow bookcase across the room. “What is it you want me to do in exchange for your silence?”
    “I want you to go back into the computer services department at StarrTech, doing pretty much the same sort of clerical work you did the first time. But this time around you’re going to be my eyes and ears in the department. I need some answers, and you’re going to get them for me.”
    She moved her head in a vague denial. “What about the Elf? How do I know he’ll keep quiet?”
    “As I said, Russ is a friend of mine. He’ll do whatever I ask him to do in this matter.”
    “Somehow I find it hard to imagine,” Guinevere said.
    “What? That you’re being blackmailed?”
    “No, that you and Russ Elfstrom are such close friends. You’re not a friendly type, Mr. Justis.”
    “Russ and I go back a long way together.”
    “How unfortunate for you. That’s just about the most depressing thing I’ve heard since the last time I talked to my sister’s shrink.”
    Justis blinked owlishly, assimilating that information and trying to make sense of it. “What’s this got to do with your sister?”
    “Never mind. Tell me what you want, Mr. Justis. And then go back to your pond.”

Chapter Two
    “You’re making a mistake, Zac. I wouldn’t trust that woman to make brownies for a kindergarten bake sale, let alone be your inside man on this.”
    “My inside woman,” Zac said mildly into the telephone. He leaned back in the used swivel desk chair that had been such a bargain six months ago when he’d spotted it on sale. At the time he’d been certain he could live with the squeak. Now he wasn’t so sure. It was becoming increasingly annoying. “Don’t worry about it, Russ. Everything’s under control. I know what I’m doing.” You had to sound confident. Image above all. He’d read that somewhere recently in one of those damn business journals he’d been forcing himself to peruse.
    “I hope so. God knows she sure managed to slip one by me the first time she showed up in my department. The conniving little bitch.”
    Guinevere’s success in outfoxing Russ Elfstrom even for a few months was something his friend was never going to be able to accept with any equanimity. Zac wondered why it bothered him to hear Russ call her a bitch, though. Theoretically he shouldn’t care one way or the other what kind of language Russ used regarding Guinevere. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was now Guinevere’s boss, Zac decided. Maybe one automatically felt some obligation to defend one’s employees. An interesting development and one he hadn’t expected.
    Zac studied the bare walls of the tiny office suite he’d rented in the downtown high-rise. There was no view. The floor-to-ceiling