The Perfect Frame Read online

  Finding the office empty threw him into a panic. His heartbeat quickened. Where was Toni? He eyed the door to the CEO’s office. He could only imagine what could be happening if she was in there with him.

  Should he knock or just go in?

  Not hearing any sound emanating from within, he turned the knob. What he saw when he opened the door was Toni standing in front of the file cabinet with her hand in a drawer.

  “Oh, Mack!” She pulled her hand out, then fell back against the file cabinet. “You almost scared me to death.”

  “Where’s Clifford?”

  “He had an early morning conference. When you turned that knob, I thought he had cancelled the meeting and decided to come into the office.”

  “You never mentioned anything about a conference.”

  “It slipped my mind with everything that happened. I only remembered when I came in and found he wasn’t here.”

  Mack folded his arms. “And decided to do what?”

  “See if I could find something to figure out what he’s planning for me.”

  “If he’s as clever as you say, he wouldn’t be stupid enough to leave anything like that lying around.”

  She sighed, her face crumpling in defeat. “I thought because the door was locked…You’re right, he wouldn’t.”

  “If it was locked, how did you—never mind. Come on and go across the street and have a cup of coffee with me.”

  “I sure need one.” She smiled. “All right.”

  Toni and Mack left the office and headed for the elevator. When the doors opened, Pat Davis stood inside. She looked from Toni to Mack, then back at Toni with a questioning smile on her face.

  “I’m going across the street to the Coffee House,” Toni said, hoping to get away without revealing her companion’s name, but knowing Pat, she shouldn’t have wasted the energy. The woman didn’t move.

  “Pat, this is Mackinsey Jessup. Mack, Pat Davis, Townsend’s best executive secretary, and my friend.”

  “Pat,” he said, beaming a charming grin on her.

  Shifting the papers to her left hand, Pat extended her right hand. “Mack.”

  Toni looked up at Mack. “We’d better be going. I have a lot of work to do before Mr. Clifford gets back from San Diego.”

  Pat gave Toni a you-have-some-explaining-to-do-later smile before heading for the office.

  During the ride down to the lobby Toni and Mack were silent, each deep into their own private thoughts.

  Toni shot a quick look at Mack’s profile, wondering what he was thinking. Had he really believed her reasons for searching the CEO’s office? For a moment she could have sworn that a tinge of doubt had seeped into his face and voice.

  Although Mack continued to face the elevator doors, he managed to observe, out of the corner of his eye, Toni’s expression as she tried to guess his frame of mind. He wished he could completely discount her as a suspect, but he couldn’t.

  The Coffee House was crowded when Toni and Mack walked in. It took a few minutes before the hostess came and showed them to a small corner table. After the waitress had taken their order and left, Toni focused her attention on Mack.

  “What should I do?”

  “I don’t know. You’ll have to wait until he gets back and see what happens.”

  “But how can I possibly work with him, knowing what I know? And especially after he intimated that I might have an accident.”

  “He can’t follow through on any of his threats now. He neutralized the situation when he involved me and the security people. What you have to worry about is how he set things up to frame you, and then try to counter his next move. Basically the ball is in his court.”

  Toni definitely didn’t like the idea of that man being in control of any aspect of her life or her career. She had believed him when he’d said that honest work had its own reward and he intended to see that she received hers. She’d been foolish to trust him.

  The waitress returned with their coffee.

  “To be on the safe side, I think you should have your locks changed once you get your keys back.”

  “I think you’re right.”

  Mack covered her small cold hand with his large warm one, caressing the soft back with his thumb as he gazed into her dark, anxious eyes.

  “It’s going to be all right. You can trust me, sweet Toni.”

  She wanted to, but she’d trusted Clifford and look where that had gotten her.

  Mack saw the wary glimmer in her expressive eyes and he let her hand go, picked up his coffee and sipped it.

  Toni followed suit, quietly studying him as she did so. She was suddenly concerned with the way Mack’s lips lingered on the rim of his cup and her urgent desire to feel the warmth of his lips moving sensuously over hers.

  Mack felt her eyes on him and sensed the shift in her thoughts. He didn’t look up, just continued to drink his coffee as though he were savoring it instead of thinking about how much he wanted to taste the sweetness of her mouth. For a moment he was lost in his own vivid imaginings. Then reality reasserted itself. He was a professional and right now he wasn’t acting anything like one.

  “If Clifford is setting you up, how close do you think he is to achieving his goal?”

  If? Toni frowned. Did Mack doubt her? “According to the person he was talking to on the phone, he’s almost there.” She thought for a moment. It had to be the Harper account he intended using to close the frame tightly around her. “I don’t know,” she answered.

  Mack could tell by the look on Toni’s face that she was holding out on him. What could he say to get her to open up to him? And how was he going to handle things with her once she knew his position regarding the case?

  Mack glanced at his watch. “I think we’d better be getting back. I have some calls to make and a desk piled high with work.”

  Toni stiffened at his sudden change of mood, wondering what had brought it on. “I have work to do, too,” she muttered.

  As they rose, Mack realized what he had done and wanted to say something to make up for it, but what could he say? They stopped at the cashier counter and Mack paid for the coffees. Before heading across the street, he took her arm. With his next words, he tried to get back to their earlier closeness.

  “My brother should be back at the office by now.”

  “Your business is a family business, then?”

  “Marcus is the only member of the family who works with me. My brother Matthew is a lawyer and has his own practice. Mariah is still in college, although she has threatened to join me at the office when she graduates.”

  Toni laughed. “I’ve noticed that all of your names begin with the letter M. Not a coincidence, I take it?”

  “No. It’s my mother’s romantic obsession, I’m afraid. Her name is Marianna and my father’s was Mali. She felt his branch of the family should start their own tradition. I remember hearing them laugh about it when we were kids.” Mack’s voice changed from one of sharing confidences to one of remembered pain.

  “My father died when I was ten. He was born and raised in Liberia, and was a chemist by profession. Several months after arriving in the States, he met my mother and six months later they were married. During the seven years he waited for his citizenship to become permanent, he took any job he could find close to the line of work he was qualified in.”

  “And did he finally get a chemist position once he became a citizen?” Toni asked.

  “Yes, at a metal and graphics plant in Vernon, California.” Mack’s jaws clenched and he paused a moment before continuing. “He was killed a year and a half later. He was the victim of a drive-by shooting while on his way home from work. My mother was expecting Mariah at the time.”

  “Oh, Mack, I’m so sorry.”

  “It happened a long time ago.” His jaw flexed and he gave her a small smile. “I don’t know how I got off on this subject. Whenever I’m with you…”

  “What?”

  He shrugged. “I can’t explain it.�
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  “Jessup doesn’t sound African to me.”

  “My father changed it. In its original form you would have difficulty pronouncing it.”

  They walked into the lobby of the Townsend Building. An elevator stood waiting. When they reached Mack’s floor, he held the door open.

  “What time are you going to lunch?”

  “At one.”

  “I’ll come for you then. Be ready.”

  “Yes, sir.” She saluted.

  He grinned, then let the doors close. Toni smiled, allowing the warm feeling of connecting with Mack flow through her. When the elevator stopped on the seventh floor, she stepped out, then headed down the hall to the office. Her smile disappeared when she saw Frank Clifford standing beside Pat’s desk talking to her. Toni noticed the strained, pinched expression on her friend’s face. She wondered what they could possibly be talking about to put that look there. When Mr. Clifford saw Toni, he straightened to his full height and beamed a charming, guileless smile on her.

  “Toni, I’m glad you’re back. I need to talk to you. Come into my office.” Then he strode into it.

  “Listen, when you get time, I want to hear all about Mack Jessup,” Pat commented. “I know he has offices in the building, but until today I’d never seen him. I was off on maternity leave when he did some work for Townsend’s five years ago.” She smiled. ’d have to say he’s a real hunk. Evidently you’ve been holding out on me, girl. How long have you been seeing each other? Is he your mystery man?”

  “Pat!”

  “Oh, all right, I’ll wait until later, but not much later.”

  “Thank you,” she said. The time to confront her boss had arrived. She smoothed her hands down the sides of her slacks and walked over to his door. Taking breath to gather her composure, she turned the knob and entered.

  Frank Clifford was sitting behind his desk thumbing through some papers when she walked in. He looked up. “I have some things that belong to you, I believe.”

  He put the papers down on the desk and delved inside his bottom desk drawer and extracted her purse.

  “The keys are inside. I was worried about you, Toni. I waited for you to miss them and come back. But when you didn’t, I went home.” He cleared his throat. “As you’ll remember, I had intended to catch a late night flight to San Diego. But before I could leave for the airport, John Riley’s secretary called to say the meeting would have to be rescheduled for next Wednesday because her boss had suddenly taken ill.” He sent her a contrite smile. “I feel bad about having asked you to stay last night to do that report. As always, you did an excellent job.”

  “Thank you.” That was all she could manage as she reached for her purse, bewildered. Was she losing it? Had she just imagined the previous night? He was acting as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened! As if he hadn’t told someone the trap he’d set for her was almost ready to be sprung! As if he hadn’t threatened to end her life!

  “You look tired, Toni. Why don’t you go home early today? Whatever you have to do can wait until Monday.”

  “But—”

  He gave her a fatherly smile. “No buts. That’s an order.” He picked up the papers he’d laid down minutes before and started studying them.

  Toni stood fingering the strap on her purse for a few seconds before turning to leave his office. She went back to her desk, stowed her purse in a bottom drawer and dropped into her chair. What kind of mind game was he playing with her? She turned on her computer and reviewed the Harper account, as well as several others, and found absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.

  By lunch time, Toni was more then ready to get away from the office. She evaded Pat’s determination to question her about Mack and hurried to the elevator. When the doors opened, she saw Mack standing inside.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, studying her intently.

  “I don’t know.”

  “You look poleaxed.”

  “That’s exactly how I feel,” she said, stepping into the elevator beside him and pushing the close button.

  “What happened? He didn’t try anything with you, did he?”

  “No, quite the opposite. Mack, he’s acting as if nothing happened.” How could she explain this without sounding like a raving lunatic?

  “He did give you back your keys and purse, though, didn’t he?”

  “Yes. But, Mack, I want you to know I wasn’t lying about what he said. Everything I told you really happened. You do believe me, don’t you?”

  “I believe he frightened you,” Mack said carefully.

  “But you don’t believe me about his scheme to frame me?”

  “I didn’t say that, I—”

  The elevator stopped on the third floor and the doors opened.

  “Mack!”

  “Marcus.”

  “I would ask where you rushed off to,” Marcus gazed appreciatively at Toni, “but I can see the answer to my question is standing before me.” He grinned. “Well, Mack, aren’t you going to introduce us?”

  “Toni Carlton, my brother, Marcus.”

  She extended her hand. There was more than a passing resemblance between the brothers. They were both tall and had that same sexy, magnetic mixture of Latin and African charisma.

  “Pleased to meet you, Marcus.”

  “Call me Marc. And believe me, the pleasure is all mine.”

  “I think we should be going,” Mack said to Toni.

  “I think that maybe you should go alone,” she answered coolly.

  “Toni.”

  “I’m really not hungry now, Mack. We can have lunch another day.”

  “But we need to talk.”

  “I don’t think we have anything more to say to each other,” she said, but her look told a different story.

  Mack knew he’d blown it. He stepped off the elevator. For a moment Toni stood glaring holes through him before pushing the close button.

  “Toni, wait we—”

  The doors slid closed.

  “Damn it,” he growled, banging his fists on them.

  “It can’t be you, the original silver-tongued devil, who usually talks his way out of any unpleasant situation with a woman.”

  Mack glared at his brother. “You’re asking for a world of hurt, my brother.”

  “Why? Because I dare to criticize the great Mackinsey Jessup?”

  “All right, all right, you’ve made your point,” he gritted out, stalking past his brother, back to his office.

  * * *

  Toni got off on the seventh floor and marched down the hall to Townsend’s. Pat started to grill her on the subject of Mack the moment she walked through the office doors, but stopped short when she saw the warning sign to back off flashing in Toni’s eyes.

  After clearing her desk, Toni stopped by Pat’s on her way out. “I’m leaving early.”

  “Why?”

  “Mr. Clifford insisted.”

  She frowned. “Weren’t you supposed to go to lunch with Mack?”

  “I changed my mind and decided to go home instead.”

  “Are you sure you’re feeling all right?”

  “Just because I chose not to go out to lunch with Mack doesn’t mean I need my head examined.”

  Seeing the hurt look on her friend’s face, Toni relented.

  “I’m fine, Pat, really. See you on Monday.” And she headed for the door. As she waited for the elevator, Toni glanced back at Pat and thought about her friend’s attitude toward their boss and concluded that whatever her reason for it, she was no doubt justified, as Toni herself felt justified considering what he was doing to her.

  On the way down to the parking lot, Toni’s feelings about her own situation were intensifying. Frank Clifford was evidently playing a game of cat and mouse with her, keeping her wondering how, when and where he was going to make his next move. And make no mistake about it, she was sure he would do that in his own good time. What could she do in the meantime to save herself? Knowing he was planning to destroy
her, but not when, would surely shred the threads of her composure.

  If she tried going to the president with this without any proof, he not only wouldn’t believe her, but he’d think she was crazy.

  Toni got off the elevator and, flashing her keys in front of her, smiled at Bill as she moved on to her car. She fastened her safety belt and glanced down at her clothes. She would have to return Mack’s sister’s clothes and get her own things from his house. The thought of facing Mack again made the nerves in her stomach jerk. She had been willing to trust him, but that was before he’d showed her his true colors.

  Thirty minutes later, Toni eased her car into her assigned parking space beneath her apartment building. A wave of loneliness washed over her. After spending one night with Mack, she now dreaded going up to her empty apartment. How could she be missing him this much when they’d only just met?

  Once inside her apartment, Toni showered, then wrapped herself in a mint-colored terrycloth robe. Realizing how hungry she was, she went to the fridge and took out the makings for a salad and a sandwich. It wouldn’t be anything like the meal Mack had prepared for her.

  Oh, Mack.

  When the door buzzer sounded, her heart started racing.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Toni pushed the com button. “Yes.”

  “It’s Mack, Toni.”

  She let out a relieved breath at the sound of his voice and held the button down to unlock the outside door.

  An eternity passed until she heard his knock. Toni rubbed her hands down the sides of her robe. Then, pulling the tie tighter around her waist, she opened the door.

  “I know it’s late, but I had to see you. I couldn’t let an entire weekend go by without letting you know how sorry I am.” He grinned crookedly. “I think I’d better come inside and offer a proper apology.”

  “All right.” Toni signaled him inside, closed the door, then led him into her living room.

  Mack took in the ambiance of the room at a glance. It was totally feminine, but with none of the frilly touches some women added that could make a man feel as out of place as an elephant in a flower garden.

  Toni’s furnishings were comfortable, yet had a subtle elegance about them. The recliner couch set was made of a tweedy material done in mint green, peach and cream. A brass and glass tree branch lamp extended across the back of the couch. The pictures on the walls were of homey scenes with houses surrounded by trees and shrubs. Thomas Kincade, if he wasn’t mistaken.