Read Online Perfect Partners by Jayne Ann Krentz - Free Book Online Page B

president’s office, Joel headed down the hall to the stairs. He never took the elevator. You had to wait forever for the damn thing. At least it seemed to Joel that he had to wait forever. He noticed a lot of other people did not mind the short delays. At any given time he could find a large percentage of his staff standing around in the hall, wasting time while they waited for an elevator.
    He opened the stairwell door and started down, frowning in anticipation of what he might find in the conference room. During the past two weeks Letty had turned out to be energetic, unpredictable, and potentially the most explosive of the incendiary devices Joel was trying to juggle these days.
    She had thrown herself wholeheartedly into the business of learning all she could about Thornquist Gear. She was spending twelve hours a day in the building, working on the sales floor, out on the loading dock, and in the accounting department.
    Three days ago he’d found her trying on down jackets in the clothing department. The memory made him smile faintly. The thick, voluminous coats had swamped her small frame. The added layers of padding over her already pleasantly rounded bosom and hips had done amusing things to her figure. She had looked like a plump little pigeon with feathers fluffed against the cold.
    Joel, who had started to grin, had stopped immediately when she blithely informed him she thought Thornquist Gear needed to add a line of petite-sized down jackets.
    “These things look great if you’re six feet tall,” Letty said. “But for those of us who are five feet four or under, they’re a bit much.”
    “We’ll talk about it later, Ms. Thornquist,” Joel cut in before the floor manager could add his two cents to the discussion.
    She nodded, temporarily satisfied. “I also want to talk about widening the color range. Look at these jackets. Rows and rows of dull blue, flat green, and off-red. Not very exciting.”
    That observation annoyed Joel. “Those colors happen to be called midnight, khaki, and burgundy. They’re the most popular colors in down jackets.”
    “Well, I think we should consider carrying jackets in yellow, bright red, and turquoise,” Letty said, waxing enthusiastic. “At least in the women’s styles. Women like bright colors.”
    The floor manager started to nod in agreement.
    “I think we should discuss this at another time also, Ms. Thornquist,” Joel said very politely through his teeth.
    “Certainly. I’ll just make a note.” Letty whipped out a pen and jotted a few words down on a clipboard she carried with her everywhere.
    Joel had given strict orders that Ms. Thornquist was to be treated with the respect due the president and owner of the firm, but that she was not to be bothered with petty details. Unfortunately, Letty had a way of prying details out of people. Just last Wednesday, Joel had walked into her office and found her immersed in a printout of extensive data about last quarter’s sales figures. He was stunned to discover that she had been asking questions all over the building, and that by noon she had a disconcertingly thorough grasp of Thornquist Gear’s current financial picture. It was sheer blind luck that she had not stumbled into information that would clue her into the Copeland Marine Industries takeover.
    Joel had gone straight down to Accounting that afternoon and instituted tighter controls on all computer printouts ordered from the president’s office. Henceforth the requested printouts were to be sent to his office first. He would personally go over them with the new president.
    Sooner or later, Joel thought as he reached the third floor, he was going to have to deal with the Copeland Marine situation. After all, once he made his final moves, there would be no way to keep the takeover a secret. He had to have his explanations ready. They had to sound like good business and nothing more.
    Problems. Firecrackers waiting to explode
.
    And the most potentially