Read Online Deadly Currents by Beth Groundwater - Free Book Online

Vic. I’m as mad as a weasel in mid-war dance.”
    Rob laughed. “I’d love to see your version of that dance. What’re you mad about?”
    “Tom King’s widow is suing Uncle Bill.”
    “I heard that on the river rumor circuit. Anything I can do to help?”
    “Yeah, stop stealing his customers.”
    “I’m not stealing your uncle’s customers.”
    “What do you call it then, when he gets cancellations and people call you instead?”
    “Mandy, most callers don’t say why they’re calling. They don’t tell me they’ve just cancelled a trip with your uncle’s company.”
    “What about the ones who do? You could tell them they’ve got their facts wrong and they should go back to my uncle’s company.”
    “I could, but I don’t because then we would both lose their business. People who’ve cancelled on your uncle have already made up their minds. I can’t change that. All I’d do is piss them off enough that they’d call someone else. How would that help Bill?”
    “How is booking his customers yourself helping him?”
    “For one thing, I’m giving work to his guides, so they don’t leave him.” Rob paused. “Look, I can understand why this whole situation’s upsetting you. But there’s nothing you can do to fix it, so you might as well relax. It’s Saturday evening. Let’s go see a movie or something, then we can talk about this. I’ll even buy you one of those toffee-coffee shakes you like at the ice cream store.”
    “Oh, no. You’re not bribing me with treats.”
    “That’s not what I—”
    “I’m too upset to go out with you tonight. Besides, I’ve got to work tomorrow, and I’m sure you’re busy managing all those extra customers you’ve booked.” Too late, she realized she had spit out the last sentence with too much venom.
    “That’s not fair, Mandy,” Rob shot back, “and you know it. Stop being such an idiot.”
    Idiot! She opened her mouth to reply, but the line was dead. Rob had hung up.
    _____
    At a quarter to five, Cynthia poked her head into Mandy’s office. “Hi. Thought I’d stop in on my way to work. Ready for the latest blonde joke?”
    Mandy felt drained after the meeting with the park managers, but she rolled her eyes, the expected response to Cynthia’s friendly jabs at Mandy’s natural hair color. “Go ahead.”
    “A blind guy on a barstool shouts to the bartender, ‘Wanna hear a blonde joke?’ The guy next to him says, ‘Before you tell that joke, you should know something. Our bartender is blonde, the bouncer is blonde. I’m a six-foot-tall, two-hundred-pound black belt. The guy next to me weighs two thirty, and he’s a rugby player. The fellow to your right is six-five, pushing three hundred, and he’s a wrestler. Each of us is blonde. Think about it, mister. Do you still want to tell the joke?’”
    Cynthia paused for effect. “The blind guy says, ‘Nah, not if I’m gonna have to explain it five times.’”
    Mandy gave out a little snort, but couldn’t bring herself to actually laugh.
    After a long look at Mandy’s face, Cynthia propped a butt cheek on the corner of Mandy’s desk. “Okay, spill it. I heard about Paula King’s lawsuit. Is that what’s bugging you?”
    That opened the floodgates. Mandy launched into a twenty-minute rant about stupid paperwork, stupid rafting customers blaming her uncle for King’s death, and stupid Rob for stealing her uncle’s customers.
    Cynthia folded her arms. “C’mon, Mandy. Rob’s not stealing your uncle’s customers.”
    “It sure looks that way to me.” Mandy folded her own arms across her chest.
    “Why would he do that to your uncle? Rob’s obviously got the hots for you. Why would he mess that up?”
    “Money. Why else?”
    Cynthia cocked her head. “Is something else going on between you and Rob?”
    “Oh, no, you aren’t turning this into some relationship thing. It’s business. Underhanded, sneaky business, but just business.”
    Though the unresolved issue of Rob