The Best Revenge by Justine Davis

Author:Justine Davis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Silhouette
Published: 2010-09-06T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

What a difference a week made, Jessa thought.

When she’d thought of St. John as a general, she’d had no idea how right she was. With an almost military precision, things began to happen.

That it was St. John’s plan she had no doubt.

That it was working, she couldn’t deny.

She was awed. Amazed. And feeling more than a little wonder at the speed and meticulousness of an operation that was happening completely behind the scenes, beneath the radar.

But what was in the forefront of her mind, despite all these things, was the ever-growing need to know, to understand, who this man was. And how he’d become a man able to bring incredible influence and pressure to bear in such a short time. How had battered, tortured Adam Alden become this coolheaded, taciturn and undeniably powerful force of nature?

A customer drew her attention, then more of it as she had to search her memory to recall where the sewing machine needles had ended up. She smothered a sigh as she rang up Mrs. Walker’s purchase. She simply couldn’t keep up with all the stock they carried and run the store, too. She had hired a local high school student—Mrs. Walker’s nephew, in fact—to do the more physical things, like move things from the barn into the store when inventory got low, or put items on shelves. Problem was he sometimes put things away where they would fit, not necessarily where they would go in a logical way.

As the woman left, she realized that computerizing needed to happen sooner rather than later, even if she had to go with two or three programs to accomplish what she wanted. With as much time as she spent finding things and updating things manually, she could input the data, a bit at a time. It would take a while, and for that time she’d be doing double duty, but she could handle that.

She just didn’t know if she could handle that and this campaign at the same time. She’d have to—

“Sewing machine needles?”

She nearly jumped. She was getting more used to the silent way he moved, but he still startled her too often for her comfort. She wondered if that stealth mode was something he’d developed as a kid, trying to hide his presence from his father.

“Not something we’d normally carry,” she said when her pulse had slowed to the still-too-fast rate it seemed to maintain around him, “but Mrs. Walker has been a customer for years, and it’s not that much trouble.”

“Specialized.”

“It’s what we do.”

“Rare.”

She bristled slightly. “If you’re going to suggest I stop such things, forget it.”

He lifted a brow at her. “Wouldn’t. You know your business.”

She took a breath. “Thank you. The efficiency expert dad consulted a couple of years ago, after he got sick, was always telling him things like that.”

“Destroy what made you.”

“Exactly,” she said, warmed by his grasp of what she’d tried to tell the man from Portland who had bustled about the crowded aisles and piled shelves with a sort of distaste that reminded her of a pansified prig faced with a mud puddle.

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