Read Online Scoundrel for Hire (Velvet Lies, Book 1) by Adrienne deWolfe - Free Book Online

the ruby on her hand. "I daresay you heard me correctly the first time, Mr. Jones."
    "But I assure you, the novelty hasn't worn thin."
    "And I assure you, this is not a laughing matter! I am not in the habit of... of consorting with confidence men, but my father's utter disregard for his safety, his reputation, and his business has forced me to this lamentable end!"
    "And here I thought you saved my neck because you liked me."
    She shot him a quelling glare. "Might I continue?"
    He swallowed another chuckle. "Yes, yes, by all means. So this conniving gold digger got her hooks in Midas Max, eh?"
    "You said you didn't know my father," she countered suspiciously.
    "I know his reputation. His magic pickax is legendary around these parts."
    "Yes, well..."
    She cleared her throat, and he suspected she was thinking what he was: Maximillian Nichols was a horny old devil with more luck than brains. Of course, she was probably thinking it in more ladylike language.
    Nichols was renowned for blundering into his fortune. His first strike was the indirect result of his charity to a hard-luck stiff who'd had every intention of swindling him with a worthless claim. However, that "worthless" claim yielded pay dirt almost immediately when Nichols started puttering around its shaft. After buying three more "bust" claims and striking bonanzas in every one, speculators had dubbed him "Midas Max."
    She raised her chin. "You haven't met 'conniving' until you've crossed paths with Celestia Cooper, I assure you. Madam Celestia, as she calls herself, parades around town purporting to read palms. She prescribes talismans for good fortune, potions for love, and amulets for physical complaints. She even professes to speak with spirits. Dead men's ghosts, for heaven's sake! I mean, really. Have you ever heard anything so preposterous?"
    Actually, Rafe's idea of preposterous was Silver on the rampage against some harmless crackpot. Whatever did a millionaire like Max see in Celestia Cooper, anyway? She must be breathtakingly beautiful.
    "But the truly worst part," Silver confided, gripping her newspaper in a stranglehold now, "is that this... this witch torched a church and burned it to the ground."
    A lopsided grin tugged at his lips. "To the ground, you say?"
    Silver nodded.
    Well now. I'll have to shake the crackpot's hand.
    "If I wasn't so certain Celestia was just a showboater, I might be swayed to believe her love spells and potions really do work. Papa insists on marrying her, even after that church-burning incident."
    Sounds like I'll have to shake Max's hand too.
    "I've warned Papa time and again," Silver raved on, oblivious to his efforts to keep a straight face, "but Celestia has so thoroughly pulled the wool over his eyes, I fear he can't see how she'll fleece him in the end. He's a trusting soul. As such, he has no concept of the numbers of barracudas that swim in the backwaters of our society."
    "And you do?"
    She blew out her breath. "That is not the point. The point is, Celestia Cooper must be stopped from marrying my papa and breaking his heart!"
    Rafe gazed into her luminous, worry-filled eyes and was sorely tempted to applaud. Brava. He couldn't remember a more convincing performance. Silver was turning out to be quite the little flimflammer, wasn't she? First, she'd lied to the good citizens of Leadville for him. Next, she'd tried to dazzle him with that "role of a lifetime" pitch. Now she was claiming she didn't want her daddy to marry because his happiness was her priority.
    Hell, do I have sucker written all over my face?
    Silver's only priority, Rafe decided, was her daddy's fortune, those very same millions she stood to inherit by her lonesome if she kept him from marrying the competition.
    "So you figure you'll bait one mountebank with another, eh?" He gave her a mocking smile. "When it comes to defrauding frauds, you think I'm a sure bet?"
    "Well... yes. Don't you?"
    "Certainly. But then, I couldn't be successful if I didn't