Daisy Tucker and Mr. NYC novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Cowgirl Bride

Four hundred people were reading my arrest report at the same time.

I could see the glow of it on their faces.

I took a breath and spoke into the microphone, since I was still holding it.

"It's real. It's mine. I'd do it again."

There was a short silence.

"Next question," I said.

Somebody in the third row whooped.

Somebody else stood up and started applauding.

A woman from accounting joined him, and then it was ragged and loud.

Not all of it was friendly, but enough of it was.

Simone put the microphone down very gently.

"The meeting is adjourned," she said.

It was the quietest thing I had ever heard her say.

The chairwoman's office was on thirty-nine, with a window full of river.

She was seventy-one and wore pearls the size of chickpeas.

She looked at Rhodes and me over the rim of a teacup.

"Mrs. Hargrove," she said. "Are you after my friend's grandson's money?"

"No, ma'am."

"What are you after?"

"A mop," I said. "And fifty-eight thousand dollars, due to the Sublette Stock Bank on January fifteenth. I'm going to earn both."

"Both," she said.

"The mop is already paid for."

Her mouth moved.

It might have been a cough.

"Rhodes, did you offer her a prenuptial agreement?"

"No."

"Did she ask for one?"

"No. She asked for nothing."

"Hm." She put down her cup.

"Then either she's a very good liar, or she is exactly what Amos would have picked."

"The board will observe, Mrs. Hargrove. We'll be watching you with great interest."

"Yes, ma'am."

"And Miss Vansittart," the chairwoman said, to nobody, in a tone like a closing drawer, "will be watched with more."

By midnight word had gone through the tower.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Daisy Tucker and Mr. NYC from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.