"Casey Daniels - Pepper Martin 01 - Don of the Dead" - читать интересную книгу автора (Daniels Casey)

"The light?" He waved like the suggestion was an annoying insect. "That whole bright white light thing?
It's forbabbos . You know, dopes. The kind who believe in all that sappy stuff. Not me. When I go out,
honey, I'm going to go out in style." He tipped his head back and smiled. "I'm going to make my exit to
the strains of Sinatra singing 'My Way.'"

"So finish your unfinished business and leave!"

"You don't think I would have done that before now if I could?" Anger flared in Gus's eyes. He rose to
his feet and when he reached across my desk, I thought he was going to slap me. Instead, he grabbed for
the stack of magazines I'd just gathered up.

His hand went right through them.
 "See?" He plunked back down in his chair. "How can I take care of things for myself when I can't do a
thing? And when nobody can see me? Or hear me? Nobody but you."

There was some unspoken message in what Gus said. I wasn't sure what it was, I was only sure I didn't
like it.

The next second, the truth dawned. I shook my head and sat back in my chair, distancing myself from
the whole thing. "Oh, no. Whatever it is, I'm not going to help. I wouldn't know how if I wanted to and
besides, I don't want to. You're the great criminal mastermind. Why don't you justтАФ"

"Like I said, I can't." Gus's voice was as low and just about as friendly as the purr of a hungry lion. "You
think I like asking for help? You think I wouldn't rather go to my friends? Or my son? A goodconsigliere
, that's what I need right about now. Instead, I get a little girl with no brains and a big chest."

"Hold on there, pal. I might be young, but I'm not a little girl and I'm not dumb. I'll have you know, I'm a
college graduate."

"College is wasted on girls. They should stay home, get married, and have babies. Besides, if I had to
guess, I'd say you majored in something like homeec . Or was it art history?"

It was art history.

I wasn't about to admit that to Gus. Just like I wasn't going to tell him that at the time I declared my
major, I never thought that I might actually have to use my overpriced education as a springboard to
making a living. After all, my life had been laid out before me like my mother's had been before her. I had
a tradition to uphold, and generations ofLivingston (her maiden name) women who served as my role
models.

First, college.

After all, it was expected, and besides, it gave me a place to make just the right contacts and Mom
something to talk about when her friends at the tennis club asked about her only child.

Then, an engagement. But only, of course, if it was what Grandmother Livingston liked to call "the right
match."

Three cheers for me, mine was as right as they came. It arrived in the form of JoelPanhorst , who just
happened to be on the brink of being named a partner in one of the most prestigious financial firms in the