Forbidden Fantasies Bundle(125)

But Gage hadn’t made contact with Jed. She was sure of that. The only person Gage had spoken to was the bartender. George was his name, and he’d been very closemouthed when she’d questioned him about Zoë that night. The only thing he’d let slip was that she was Dr. Sierra Gibbs’s research assistant at Georgetown. But that had been enough for her to track down Zoë’s address.

Perhaps Jed hadn’t shown up. She certainly hadn’t spotted him.

But then Jed Calhoun was reputed to be a master of disguise. He could easily have been there and she’d missed him. She’d expected to finger Jed by watching Gage Sinclair. So either Gage had spotted her and aborted the meet, or Jed Calhoun had never intended to show up.

Either way, Zoë McNamara was the key to her finding Jed Calhoun. Gage had sent the envelope to her. Why her?

That was the question that had Bailey stumped. Once she’d gotten to the office, she’d accessed Zoë’s personnel file and verified her memory that Zoë had worked almost exclusively for Hadley Richards during the two months that she’d been at the CIA. There was nothing in her file that indicated she’d been anything but an excellent analyst.

But there’d been those rumors she was having an affair with Hadley Richards just before she’d resigned. One thing was certain: she had to find Zoë and talk to her.

But the woman hadn’t come home last night. Bailey glanced at her watch. It was nearly noon, and she hadn’t shown up at her house or the university.

Number one on her agenda when she’d left Zoë McNamara’s apartment had been to hire a P.I. she knew and trusted to stake out Zoë McNamara’s house and office.

Bailey couldn’t recall ever talking to Zoë while she’d worked for Hadley, but she’d seen her every now and then. She’d been mousier-looking back then, and she certainly hadn’t seemed to be Hadley’s usual type. Bailey’s heart went out to her. A young woman like Zoë wouldn’t have had a clue as to what she was dealing with when it came to a shark like Hadley Richards.

Now she was in a Ph.D. program at Georgetown and working as Dr. Sierra Gibbs’s research assistant. From what Bailey had been able to gather, the two women were doing some kind of sex research.

The only other thing she could think of to check was the work that Zoë had been doing for Hadley Richards during those two months. Her assistant, Margaret, was getting that information for her right now.

When Bailey realized that her tapping foot had picked up its rhythm, she stilled it, and her gaze shifted to her image in the window.

A night of tossing and turning and trying to make sense of stuff that didn’t easily separate into neat categories didn’t contribute to the General Patton image she liked to project while she was in the office. The gray linen suit and the bright turquoise blouse didn’t quite negate the dark circles underneath her eyes.

And the frosting on the cake was the fact that she felt as if she was being followed. Oh, she hadn’t spotted anyone, but the prickling sensation now and then at the back of her neck was a sure sign. She’d sensed it when she’d left Zoë McNamara’s apartment last night and then again this morning when she’d come to work.

The hell of it was, she hadn’t been able to spot anyone. Whoever was tailing her was good.

Swallowing a sigh, she turned back to her desk just as Hadley Richards knocked once and strode into her office. She raised her brows. “I didn’t know you had an appointment.”

“I do now,” he said as he closed the door and then strolled forward to settle himself in a chair.

She remained standing.

“I want to continue the discussion about that job you were supposed to do in Colombia.”

Her brows shot up. “You mean the job I did in Colombia? I don’t know what more I can do to reassure you that—”

“What were you doing at the Blue Pepper in Georgetown last night?” Hadley asked.

Her mind was racing as Bailey sat down at her desk and met his gaze steadily. “I was having drinks with friends.”

Hadley leaned back in his chair. “Gage Sinclair was there, too. He’s one of two men that Jed Calhoun might have contacted—if he wasn’t dead.”

Bailey said nothing. But once again she was reminded that Hadley Richards was not a man she could afford to underestimate.

“Do you know what I suspect?” Hadley asked.

“No.”

“I believe that you’re not as certain as you want me to believe that our dead man hasn’t risen. And you’re watching Gage to see if he’s been contacted. Has he been?”

“No. How many times do I have to tell you that the last time I saw Calhoun he was lying dead in an alley in Bogotá?”