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doesn't leave you any time to accept this sort of assignment right now?"
    "Don't sound so hopeful," he said dryly. "I can make the time. The part about finding out what happened to Fitzgerald is for real? Miss Isabel really wants me to look into it?"
    "Yes."
    "It does make a convenient excuse," Cade said, nodding thoughtfully.
    "It's not an excuse," Jamie exploded tightly.
    "Whatever you say, honey."
    "Damn it, Cade, if you're not going to take the job seriously, then forget it."
    "After Miss Isabel's gone to all this trouble to provide you with a way of approaching me that doesn't hurt your pride? I wouldn't dream of it. I accept the offer of employment." Cade took a long swallow of beer and grinned at Jamie's infuriated expression. "Did she happen to say how much she's paying?"
    "I'm empowered to negotiate your fee. Miss Isabel assumed it would be quite high," Jamie said stiffly.
    "Miss Isabel is a very astute woman."
    "Well?" Jamie demanded, as calmly as she could. "How much?"
    "For finding out whether or not Fitzgerald might still be alive? I'll have to think about it. I'll let you know over dinner tonight."
    Jamie brushed aside the reference to dinner. "Why do you have to think about your fee? Don't you have an established amount? How much did you get paid for your work this summer?"
    "You don't seem to understand exactly what it is I do for a living," he retorted smoothly. "I'm not a private in-vestigation I'm a charter-boat captain. There's a difference."
    "But someone hired you to go after Hadley Fitzgerald in the first place," Jamie pointed out. "I remember you said something about your relatives having invested in one of his, uh, programs." She had almost tripped over the word 'scheme'. Something in her did not want to grant this man the satisfaction of knowing that she suspected he had been right about Hadley. She had already surrendered too much to Cade Santerre.
    "My sister and her husband didn't hire me to do the job. They simply asked for some advice. They were desperate. I started looking into the situation and decided I might be able to put a stop to Fitzgerald's activities. Then I got in touch with the authorities, who already had a lot of questions and suspicions. We put together an operation designed to find Fitzgerald's real set of accounts, not the one available for public inspection at the L.A. office."
    "And you found them at his home in Santa Barbara. With my help," Jamie tacked on disgustedly.
    "I would have found them with or without your help. Jamie, we've been through this. You're a fool if you're feeling guilty. You have absolutely no reason to feel that way. Fitzgerald deserved to be exposed and you know it. You're too genuine and honest yourself to condone criminal behavior. Would you actually want to let someone like Fitzgerald continue operating just because you worked for his sister, who happened to be a nice old lady?"

    "Now you're the one straying from the main subject," she retorted haughtily. "About your fee—"
    "I've told you, I'll decide and let you know over dinner," Cade said with an air of finality. "Where are you staying?"
    Jamie frowned. "At a little motel in town." She gave him the name.
    "I know it. I'll pick you up around six."
    "I don't think dinner is necessary!"
    "Come on, Jamie," he coaxed with unexpected gentleness. "What about just for old times' sake?"
    "When I think of the 'old times' we spent together, I have a tendency to lose my appetite."
    "I'll pick you up at six," Cade repeated with a new touch of cold steel in his voice.
    Jamie took one look at the chill in the tawny gold eyes and knew she couldn't win; not if she wanted to carry out Miss Isabel's wishes. Putting down her can of beer with unnecessary force, she acquiesced with a short nod and made her way off the Loophole without a backward glance.
    Cade watched her leave, disconcerted by the abrupt departure. Whatever her real reasons for seeking him out, there was no doubt that her pride was still at full