Caroline looked at both of them. "I think we should run an Internet search on him."
"Google him?" Allison asked thoughtfully. "I like it. That’s a good idea."
Jamie was horrified. "You can’t do that! It’s unethical." She glanced toward the front door, even though she knew Mandy was out at dinner with Damien and probably wouldn’t be home for another hour. Prying into Mandy’s business didn’t sit right with her. "And there’s nothing wrong with Damien, he’s just a little reserved. I’ve met lots of weirdos doing social work, believe me, I know the signs."
She could also spot a cockroach at twenty paces, but that was another story.
"You want weirdos? Try working retail." Allison shuddered. "God, I hate my job."
Caroline was heading into the living room, still dressed in a pale gray suit from work. She picked up her computer case and whipped the machine out.
Jamie abandoned her spoon and rushed to Caroline’s side, tripping over her ankle-length skirt in the process. "I don’t think this is such a good idea. Mandy won’t like it."
"Mandy will never know we did a search unless something is wrong; then she’ll thank us for warning her before the baby is born."
"I think you’re smart to do it." Allison perched on the corner of the couch, ice cream carton in hand. "He could be a deadbeat dad for all you know."
Caroline was biting her lip, clicking away. Jamie tried to follow on the screen, but computers weren’t her thing, and Caroline was opening windows too fast for her to catch but a glimpse.
Suddenly a big newspaper article popped up and Caroline paused.
"Holy shit," Allison said, her words mumbled behind a mouthful of ice cream.
"What?" More than a little nervous, Jamie read the headline. "Husband arrested in Southloop slaying… What is this all about?" But somehow she knew what it meant, and her heart started to pound. It couldn’t be, it just couldn’t.
Caroline sucked in a sharp breath. "The cops arrested Damien for killing his wife! Oh. My. God." The computer went unbalanced on her legs and toppled to the floor with a horrible crash. "I never thought, I mean I never, oh shit, oh shit, what are we going to do?"
"He must not have done it." Jamie swallowed hard, shock sending a shiver through her. "Otherwise, he’d be in jail, right?" She gripped a throw pillow. "Right?"
Allison reached for the laptop. "That’s a damn good question. One we should answer. Then we need to see if Mandy knows Damien’s fascinating marital history."
Somehow Jamie dijdn’t think that would lead to the enrichment that Beckwith had assured Mandy was right around the corner.
Chapter 23
"There’s something I meant to tell you about this morning," Damien said, straightening the silverware on his napkin. "But you were in such a hurry to get to the office I barely got a word in before you shoved me out the door."
He grinned at Mandy sitting across the table from him, thinking how ironic it was that she had been the one eager to rush off to work and he’d been thinking that just once in a while it would be nice to spend the day lounging in bed.
"Well, really, no one was expecting you to be there today, since you cancelled all your appointments, but if I didn’t show up, it would look really bad. Like I don’t go to work when my boss is out of town."
Mandy had a tight black top on with a black-and-white floral skirt, though he couldn’t see the knee-length skirt under the table. But he had a great view of the top and her healthy cleavage spilling from the open neck. She had put on a necklace, a little oval encrusted with diamonds, and it dipped enticingly toward her breasts. When she sat back, her belly rounded under the stretchy shirt, and he thought she was the hottest, sexiest woman in existence.
"For all they know, you could have taken a personal day." He knew she was right, but it had been difficult to walk away from her to head home and change his clothes.
Then when he’d gotten to the office, she had hidden from him. It had been a long, torturous day where he had walked around with the knowledge that he loved Mandy and she loved him. It had seemed like something so momentous should call for at least one day off, and he’d paced around the eighteenth floor restlessly, until Rob had told him he was scaring the employees and could he just stay in his office if he was going to pace and scowl?
He was starting to think that Mandy had set up a cubicle in the woman’s rest room, because he hadn’t seen her all day. And now he was starved for her.
"Damien, executives can do what they want. Secretaries can’t. Everyone talks and watches and gossips and they already think it was odd that I went to Punta Cana with you. And they are all catching on to the fact that I’m bursting out my clothes."
"And quite beautifully." He couldn’t help but glance at her chest again.
"Oh, stop it, you lecher," she said, laughing. "You know, I’m going to have to quit this job. If we’re going to be involved, that is."
"We are." He was firm on that point. Beyond firm. He was concrete-solid, steel determination.
"There are too many conflicts of interest. I don’t want everyone in the office talking about me."
"So we’ll just switch you with someone else’s assistant. You don’t have to quit." He didn’t want to be the cause of that. He didn’t want to give her any stress or cause to worry about her health benefits. "Though it brings me to tears to give you up, I can see the wisdom of us not working directly together."
She laughed. "What a gesture. You mean, you’ll be willing to go on the Great Assistant Hunt all over again? Just for me. How sweet."
"Sweet is not normally a word used to describe me. But yes, I’ll suffer through another Lanie for you." He was starting to think he’d do just about anything for Mandy. "Anyway, I’m trying to tell you something."
"What’s that?" Mandy took a sip of her Diet Coke and licked her lips.
Damien frowned. He’d been so busy staring at her breasts he hadn’t really noticed what she’d ordered. "Should you be drinking that? They’re really not sure about the safety of aspartame."
She was still smiling, but her eyes got a little sharp. "I’m just going to pretend you didn’t say that."
"What? You read the book – didn’t it say that?" He hadn’t dreamt that. He hadn’t even slept the night before.