Cowboy and the Angel by Marin Thomas

Author:Marin Thomas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2008-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

“What do you mean, you quit?” Duke growled into his cell phone. He’d contacted Mr. Santori to give him the go-ahead to resume demolition of the warehouse. He hadn’t expected Santori & Sons to walk off the job.

He paced Renée’s tiny kitchen wearing nothing but boxers, not sure his body’s sudden spike in temperature had to do with his anger or because the house was a damned sauna. “An unforeseen complication arose last week, but I give you my word there will be no more interruptions.” Santori responded by putting Duke on hold to take another call.

Sweat beaded across Duke’s forehead and he swiped at it. Last night after picking up the boys and their meager belongings, they’d stopped at Duke’s hotel and he’d grabbed his laptop and a change of clothes before they’d headed to Renée’s. Once they’d arrived at her house, she’d issued instructions for the boys to shower and go straight to bed, then she’d left to deal with the DCFS emergency.

While the kids took turns in the bathroom, Duke had gathered their dirty clothes and tossed them on the floor in the laundry room off the kitchen. Then he’d confiscated extra blankets from the linen closet and had made a large sleeping pallet on the living-room floor. Since there weren’t enough blankets to go around, and the kids didn’t have pajamas or clean clothes to change into, Duke had jacked up the heat, transforming the small house into the Amazon jungle. Once the four little Tarzans had drifted off to dreamland in their underwear, Duke had waited up for Renée.

When she hadn’t arrived home by 1:00 a.m. he’d dozed off on the couch. He’d awoken at 3:00 a.m. Still no Renée, so he’d stripped to his boxers and stretched out on the couch under a sheet and had fallen asleep.

The smell of fresh-brewed coffee woke him at 7:00 a.m. He’d wandered into the kitchen, eager to see Renée, but found only a note taped to the microwave with her cell phone number scrawled on it. She’d come home, changed clothes and had left for another day of work.

“I’m here,” Duke answered when Santori returned to the line.

The foreman was short and to the point. He’d taken another job and didn’t have time to demolish Duke’s warehouse. When Duke brought up the fact that Santori had signed a contract for his services, the man exploded, arguing that he hadn’t dared decline the other job with Christmas around the corner and his men needing a paycheck.

By the time the foreman calmed, Duke had made up his mind to take his business elsewhere—even if it meant losing his deposit. He wanted the job done right and with Santori harboring ill feelings Duke didn’t trust the foreman not to cut corners out of spite. With a disgruntled goodbye, Duke disconnected the call. “All because of a bunch of homeless kids.”

“Did we get you in trouble, Mr. D?” Timmy hovered in the doorway, wearing a worried expression.

“No, Timmy. My argument with Mr.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.