page14 (1/2)
At first, things had gone as she’d expected Her forenation when she’d stepped down from the pickup truck
“Miss Angelica,” he’d said, “I mean, AH What a nice surprise We had no idea you were comin’ to visit”
Angelica had sht someone with me, Tom,” she’d said “He represents Landon Enterprises and he’d like to take a look around”
It had been hard not to laugh at the look that had come over Tom’s weathered face
“That’s just e need, on top of everything else,” he’d uy who don’t know oil wells from inkwells, come to tell us how many drill bits we should use and how many feet of pipe—”
“Hey, ” Cade’s voice had been as cheerful as his suys are the experts here You’re gonna have to explain things to me”
Angelica ground her teeth in frustration as she renition—that had come over her foreman’s face
“Don’t I know you?” he’d said, and Cade had grinned modestly, all but scuffed his toes in the dust and said, well,that he’d spent his life—his life, daht have seen him around
“I’one white
“Cade Landon? That’s the Landon Miss Angelica— I ht us?”
“Yeah,” Cade had said, while Tom pumped his hand “Nice to meet you”
“Cade Landon,” Tom had repeated, still stunned “For crissakes, AH, why didn’t you tell us… Oh Hey, sorry I didn’t elica, I—shit! I mean—”
Cade had slapped the htly on the back “The lady understands, To her by her initials Isn’t that right, Angelica?”
By then, Angelica had been incapable of saying anything Not that it had mattered Tom was too busy He’d called the other men over and soon the whole bunch had been clustered around Cade as if he were either the patron saint of oil exploration or the latest incarnation of Elvis Presley, and from that point on it had been all downhill
A hard elica’s shoulders She stiffened, looked up into Cade’s s face and whispered a word that made his eyebrows lift toward his hairline
“Why, sugar,” he said softly, “I’m shocked! I never dreamed they let you talk that way at Miss Palmer’s”
“You—you liar,” she said “You cheat! You no-good, miserable son of a—”
“Miss Angelica?”
Angelica looked around, glowering Her forehnecks, bea at her
“Yes?” she snapped “What is it?”
“We just want you to know—the boys and s the way you’d have liked It wasn’t nothing personal, Miss Angelica, it was—the thing is, you don’t know this business” He shuffled uneasily from one foot to the other, looked to Cade for a nod of approval and cleared his throat “If only you’d said it was Cade, here, who’d be okaying your orders—”
“She’s speechless,” Cade said quickly, as Angelica drew in her breath “Isn’t that right?” His eyes flashed a warning as he drew Angelica to her feet “Just give us soelica around, explain some of e discussed”
When they’d put soelica jabbed her elbow into Cade’s ribs
“Let go of me,” she snarled
“Only if you promise to behave”
“Why should I? You’re a lying, cheating, no-good-”
Cade laughed softly “What’s that old saying about the pot calling the kettle black?”
Angelica flushed “I’ve no idea what you’re talking about”
“I’ll just bet you don’t Anyway, you wouldn’t want to upset the guys, would you?”
She swung to face hie
“The guys,” she said through her teeth, “can go to hell”
“You don’t ood bunch I even know a couple of the for me in the Gobi—”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were an oilman?”
He smiled “You didn’t ask”
“Ask? What do you mean, I didn’t ask? I didn’t have to ask, dammit You should have said—”
“Why would I have said anything?” Cade was still s, but his eyes had turned cold “You’d alreadythere was to know about me, that I was a hatchet man, a human calculator—”
“Isn’t it bad enough you came down here to steal Gordon’s from me? You didn’t have to make a fool of me, too”
“Are we back to that? If there’s a thief here, sugar, it’s you This company is no more yours than it is the man in the moon’s”