Read Online One Mad Night by Julia London - Free Book Online

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    â€œDon’t be so nervous,” Chelsea said, reading him easily. “It’s just a key.”
    â€œIt’s her desk .”
    â€œRight. And it was Paulson’s fridge, but I didn’t notice you worrying about that.”
    â€œHow can you not see that surviving and snooping are entirely two different things?” he demanded.
    â€œIt’s exactly the same thing!” she insisted as they reached the door of the conference room.
    â€œJust open the door,” he said impatiently.
    Chelsea tried a key. It wouldn’t turn. Ian would have gone onto the next key, but she withdrew it and tried it again, as if she thought she hadn’t inserted it correctly. “Well, this one doesn’t work.”
    Ian tried not to tap his foot as she tested the next one and, again, made several attempts when the key clearly would not turn.
    â€œHere, let me,” he said, reaching for the keys, but Chelsea slapped his hand away. “Stop it. I think I can open a door!”
    â€œDo you think you can do it tonight?”
    She stopped what she was doing to level the look of an irked female on him. “Okay, you need to calm down now. Slow and steady always wins the race.”
    â€œNot this one. You’re too slow. No one has this kind of time.”
    â€œAre you kidding? We have nothing but time.” She turned back to the door and tried another key.
    Ian groaned and sank against the wall as she tried another one. And another.
    She went through at least ten keys before she tossed her head back and sighed to the ceiling. “These aren’t the right keys.”
    â€œYes they are,” he said and motioned for the keys. “Give ’em.”
    â€œDid you not just see me go through them all?”
    â€œYes. Every single one of them, turning them this way and that like a little kid. Some keys need to be jiggled and coaxed. Let me,” Ian said, and he grabbed her wrist in one hand, lifted her arm, and pried the keys from her fingers with the other hand.
    Chelsea bowed grandly and gestured to the door. “By all means, Mr. Rafferty. Show me your superior door-opening skills.”
    Ian began the process again while Chelsea stood by his side, her hands on her hips, muttering a variety of I told you so’s . It wasn’t long before he realized he was going to be forced to concede that these were not the right keys. He groaned. “You’re right,” he forced himself to say.
    She smiled with far too much pleasure. “Of course I’m right. I won’t say I told you so again , but we both know I did,” she said smartly and took the keys from him. “This is the wrong set. Which makes no sense, seeing as how we are an office of doorless cubes. How many keys could this office possibly need?”
    Ian didn’t care. He only cared that a drink was not in his future. “I guess that’s that.”
    â€œThat’s that? You give up too easily!”
    â€œDo you have any bright ideas? Besides riffling through everyone’s desk and personal things?”
    Chelsea suddenly gasped, startling him. “I know who has them!” She grabbed his hand, pulling him along now. She dropped his hand in Andrea’s office and darted around the desk to return the keys.
    She opened the drawer she’d found them in. “Marian Zarin. Know her?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œShort? Reddish hair?” Chelsea said as she returned the keys to the place where she’d found them. “She’s different but…” Something caught her eye. She picked up a paper from the drawer.
    â€œBut what?” Ian asked.
    â€œDifferent,” she said absently, her gaze on the paper.
    â€œYou said that.” He looked at the paper now too. “What do you have?”
    Chelsea was not listening to him. She squinted at the paper and then suddenly gasped, her eyes going wide. “Oh my God ,” she said