Read Family Man for Free Online

restaurant business for three generations.
    But then, as his father had once explained, no Gilchrist ever cooked any more than was absolutely necessary. It was a family tradition.
    The word “family” caused Luke's back teeth to clamp together. He closed the oven door, poured himself a glass of cabernet, and wondered if the official Gilchrist guardian angel could cook. He figured she probably could. She looked like the wholesome type who would be at home in the kitchen.
    Luke smiled as he recalled the way Katy had clutched her briefcase in front of her as if it were a battle shield. No doubt about it, Ms. Wade was perfect personal assistant material: faithful, loyal, and devoted to the end.
    Luke sipped his wine and contemplated Katy's future with moody fascination. She did not stand a chance of holding Gilchrist, Inc. together by herself. Not even with the help of Fraser Stanfield, whoever the hell he was.
    Gilchrist, Inc. was a true family business in the old-fashioned sense of the term. If no other Gilchrist was smart enough or strong enough to step into Justine Gilchrist's shoes, the end was in sight. That was why the company's upper management was getting nervous. They knew damn well the five Seattle restaurants and Gilchrist Gourmet would have to be sold if Justine had indeed lost her grip.
    Selling off the assets was the only reasonable course of action the guardian angel and her friend Stanfield could take. Luke wondered if Katy understood that.
    Of course, even if she did, Justine Gilchrist would undoubtedly forbid the sale. Luke remembered his father's description of Justine: Boadicea in her knife-wheeled chariot ready to take on the Romans and anyone else who got in her way.
    Justine Gilchrist had fought long and hard to build Gilchrist, Inc. And she was just as stubborn as Luke's father had been. She would never consent to selling the business to outsiders.
    Which meant there was no good alternative available to Katy Wade.
    Which meant disaster for the redoubtable Ms. Wade, because she clearly was not one who would quit.
    Not that it was any concern of his, Luke decided. If Katy could not see the writing on the wall, that was her problem. Too bad she felt indebted to Justine Gilchrist. A smart personal assistant in Katy's position would abandon ship real fast at this point.
    But something told Luke that Katy was the type to go down on the bridge.
    She would go down fighting all the way, too.
    He strolled back down the hall to the study. The computer was humming softly. The sound soothed Luke. He got rid of the calculations he had been doing for his client and punched up a familiar file.
    He was not certain why he had started keeping tabs on Gilchrist, Inc. a few months ago. Curiosity or sheer boredom, probably. After he had started getting the messages from Katy Wade he had paid more attention to the information he had quietly been collecting.
    Luke sat down and propped his heels on the desk. He leaned back, took a swallow of wine, and contemplated the facts displayed on the glowing screen.
    He wondered how long it would take the angel and her friend Stanfield to figure out that the losses they were suffering at two of the restaurants were due to more than just a temporary downturn in the Northwest economy.
    The pattern that was taking shape was an old and familiar one. Someone was systematically and cleverly bleeding cash out of Gilchrist's Grill and Gilchrist's of Bellevue.
    Things looked and felt wrong at Gilchrist Gourmet, too, although the problems there did not fit a pattern yet. There were just problems . Far too many of them. The kind that crippled a business. If Gilchrist Gourmet kept sliding downhill the way it had been doing for the past six months, Justine would be lucky to sell it at a fraction of its original value.
    No doubt about it, Katy Wade was going to need more than a pair of wings and a halo to save Gilchrist, Inc. She was going to need the devil's own luck.

CHAPTER

THREE
    K aty stood at