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“Party lasted that long, did it?” She pretended to misunderstand, because she really didn’t want to blush and give Courtney a reason to suspect Jaci had had her own late-night party, one she promised herself would not be repeated.
“Well, Ian had much to make up for,” Courtney informed her. “I get rewarded for behaving politely at these functions. You know, the ones where I have to allow piranhas like the Robertses under my roof. ”
Courtney’s voice vibrated with disgust. She had learned of the problems Jaci had with the Robertses several years before, during their friendship in England. Courtney’s parents had hired Jaci after meeting her, to redesign a guest house, and they, too, had been informed of the rumors after hiring her.
Marguerite and Dane Mattlaw had brushed aside the gossip and welcomed Jaci into their family, though. Their acceptance and friendship meant more to Jaci than she had ever been able to express. But now, just as Jaci had feared, that friendship would cause Courtney several problems.
“I warned you. ” Jaci tightened her lips at the reminder of the trouble the Robertses could cause, and shifted her attention from her fury at Cam. “It won’t stop until I’m gone. ”
“Why don’t you kick her ass?” Courtney suggested with a clearly bloodthirsty smile. “Pull her hair out and make her orthodontist another fortune by knocking those overly bright teeth down her throat. I’ll cheer you on. I’m certain I can find the proper outfit for the occasion. ”
Jaci had to smother her laughter. She was afraid Courtney was much too serious. This was, after all, the woman who had sucker-punched the mugger she and Sebastian had saved Jaci from in England. They hadn’t known her. They had heard her cries as they left the club they had been to, and raced to her rescue.
“Be good, Courtney. ”
Courtney frowned. “That only works with Ian, my dear. He has the proper reward for such restraint. You do not. ”
Jaci shook her head. “This is my battle, my friend. What did they do after I left?”
Courtney’s lips thinned.
“You may as well tell me. ” Jaci could feel her stomach sinking. They always did something.
“No more than they ever do whenever they manage to insinuate themselves into whichever party you’re attending. Made their nasty little innuendoes and smiled those superior smiles of theirs. Ian should have let Cameron dust the floor with that bastard Richard, like he wanted to do. ”
Jaci breathed in roughly. “What are you talking about?”
“Ian stepped outside just as his investigator Cameron was getting ready to follow Congressman Roberts to the study. ” Courtney smiled. “He distracted Cameron, of course. ” She pouted. “I wouldn’t have minded a bit helping that luscious investigator hide the body after he killed him and I informed Ian of that quite clearly. ”
“And in those exact words. ” Ian stepped into the room as he gave his wife a mock glare. “Sweetheart, luscious isn’t a word you should be attaching to my investigator, you know. ”
Courtney smiled sweetly, her brown eyes twinkling with love. “I’m not blind. ”
“I’m sorry, Ian,” Jaci breathed out roughly. “I did warn Courtney when she offered the job what was coming. ”
“Yet you didn’t refuse the job,” he pointed out.
“If I refused every job that could cause me problems, I?
??d be out of work. ” She stared back at him coolly. “I gave her more than the standard warning that I give anyone else, once I know they’re associated with the Robertses. ”
Ian poured his own coffee, then moved to the table and sat close to his wife, staring back at Jaci, his gaze brooding, watchful.
Dressed in black pants and a white silk shirt, his dark hair pulled back from his face to the nape of his neck, Ian Sinclair looked like the finely honed dominant force she knew he was.
“A bit more of an explanation would have been nice,” he suggested. “It’s hard to deflect the problems they could cause without information, Jaci. ”
Well, that was one of the more unique attempts to get an explanation from her.
“I don’t need anyone to deflect problems for me. ” She pushed the cup back and stared him in the eye.
It wasn’t always easy. Ian’s gaze could be brutally piercing.
“It seems to me that you do,” he stated. “How many jobs have you lost this year because of them?”
“That’s why your deposit is nonrefundable. ” Her smile was all teeth. It wasn’t the first time she had been in this position. It wouldn’t be the last. “Would you like me to leave, Mr. Sinclair?”
He merely stared back at her silently as Courtney glared at him. Rather than causing her friend further problems Jaci decided, in that moment, that leaving this job might not be a bad idea.
