Read Online On the Loose by Tara Janzen - Free Book Online

about, the one with you on the cover.” The one with her on the cover re-creating the famous photograph of Marilyn Monroe standing over a grate in the sidewalk with her skirt flying up, the back issue he’d had to buy off some Internet magazine trader in Hell-and-Gone, New Jersey, and pay an outrageous amount of money to get. Yeah, that one.
    She’d told him about it the night they’d met in San Luis, and after getting home and spending the following two days thinking about her pretty much nonstop, he’d gone on a mission to find it, alone, bypassing Skeeter, who was so damn good at finding everything anyone at Steele Street wanted. Some things a guy needed to keep to himself, like chasing millionaire heiresses to ground, millionaire heiresses he didn’t have a chance of landing.
    But hell, it couldn’t hurt to know more about her—or so he’d thought.
    â€œThe article was interesting, very well done.” For a cupcake extravaganza.
    Honey slanted a glance up at him from her book. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
    Yeah, enjoyed it—not quite.
    â€œAre you still involved with a lot of charity organizations?” Her list of good deeds had taken up a good third of the interview, and he’d been impressed. Good deeds and an overwhelming net worth were a natural combination, but still commendable, even if, every now and then, those good deeds ended in arrest and front-page scandal.
    It happened. He wasn’t going to hold it against her, but he’d definitely started to understand why someone with newly found saintly inclinations, like her sister, preferred to keep their distance from the family.
    And then, after scandalous good deeds and newspaper headlining arrests, there had been the rest of the interview, the other two thirds, the bulk of it, which had given him plenty of pause and way too much to think about, and none of it really any of his damn business.
    â€œA few,” Honey said, turning partly toward him, a note of curiosity in her voice—rightly so. Idle chitchat wasn’t Smith’s strong point, and if she remembered anything about him—which he had good reason to doubt—she’d remember that, but he didn’t have a lot to work with here, at least nothing of substance. The article had been a fluff piece, all fluff. Apparently, she was the queen of it. There hadn’t been a hard fact in it anywhere, because there were no hard facts in her life, none that he’d been able to find anyway, and that had been bugging the crap out of him, the fluff and the two thirds of the interview devoted to her famous boyfriend.
    Two fricking thirds of a two-page article, more column inches than
Ocean
had given “The New State of Lingerie,” which apparently was Alabama, and a “refreshingly retro” style created by a designer working out of her shop in Mobile—’Bama Mama Brassieres. The designer and her wares were all the rage, and sure, he could dig it. He liked bows on bras, especially if they untied. And ’Bama Mama’s did.
    â€œAnd I didn’t know you’d had a job—once.” Smith let the last word drop with a little more weight than he’d intended, and being a quick girl, Honey picked up on it immediately.
    â€œDon’t bother to disapprove of me, Mr. Rydell,” she said, turning back to her book. “I’m simply doing the best I can with what I’ve got.”
    Tough work, but he guessed somebody had to do it.
    â€œHow many more times are you going to call me Mr. Rydell?”
    â€œAs many times as I need to.” She snapped another page over in her book.
    Fair enough.
    He rearranged himself in his seat and wished he’d eaten a bigger damn breakfast on his last damn flight. It was a long way to El Salvador.
    â€œLook, Mr. Rydell,” she started in again, turning to face him, her tone slightly exasperated. “Being the director of fund-raising for the