Chapter 3

2 years ago

Mg13

@Mg13

Lesson sixteen in her father's lexicon. 'Catch them at the door and make them sweat!' To complete the scene she swiveled around so that her back was to the door.

The door opened with a squeak;there was the sound of movement behind her, and then a rush of feet. 'We got him, Ms Handa,' somebody yelled.

Geet whirled her chair around.Things were very much out of control. A husky man with white-streaked hair was standing in the doorway, one of  his big hands on the  throat of each of her two remaining security men. 

'We got him,' one of the two repeated weakly.

'Yes, I can see you've got him.'Sarcasm dripped all over the floor.

'Cut it out!'

All three of them quit the ruckus on cue. 'Now, what's going on?'

'I'm-' the very big stranger started to say, but she interrupted.

'I know who you are. What I don't know is what's going on.'

'This is the guy,'  Rajeev  insisted. 'I seen him out the front door.

Sinha and Guru walked over across the street to see what he was doin', and he dumped them both. Both at the same time, mind you! You want I should call the cops?'

'I want,' she said, sighing,'that you both would go far away and let me talk to this—gentleman. He has an appointment with me.'

I have? Maan Singh Khurana shrugged his shoulders and rearranged his torn shirt.

Well, perhaps I do. Uncle's letter was short on specifics but long on 'wants'. I want you to get your butt up here and help me straighten out this girl. Do anything necessary. I can seethe vultures circling around her head already.

Only his uncle was more old-fashioned than that. Butt was the polite word, which the old man would never use.

The two guards hesitated for a moment, then ducked out of the office and closed the door gently behind them.The woman was looking at him as if he were a side of beef. 'And how did all that happen?'

Maan shrugged his shoulders again. She had a nice voice. Deep for a woman, and marvelous control. 'I was standing across the street waiting to meet you when these two yahoos came running at me. And then they both tripped over each other. One of them grabbed my shirt to keep from falling. Never saw such a thing in my whole life. I knew they came out of this building, so I thought it might be neighborly to come and tell you all about it.'

'Very appropriate,' Geet said as she pursed her lips and went back to her executive chair. He was coming to see her. The game had started. Her control was instantly renewed. Perhaps her father was still haunting that chair.

Damn. She shifted her position nervously.

The big man sauntered across the room, moved the two straight backed chairs off to one side, and pulled the couch from under the window over to take their place. Then, without a by-your-leave, he slumped into it, with one foot dangling over the end.

And now, Geet told herself, I take control of the situation by—by how? Rack her brain as she might, she couldn't think of a sensible thing to say. So she stared. As he did.

'And what do I call you?' she finally blurted out.

'Maan,' 

he said softly.'Leastwise that's what my pa called me. Don't tell me that you're-'

'I'm Handa. Now, what did the doctor tell you about me or this job?'

'Not a blessed thing,' Maan told her in all honesty. 'Not a thing.'

'But you can't help wondering, I suppose?'

'You could say that.'

'Well, I'll tell you all about it,' she said. 'But first you and I have to get to know each other a great deal better than we do now. So for that purpose we'll go out to my ranch and spend a month just making ourselves acquainted. You are free to travel, I suppose?'

The big man waved a casual hand.

'And you have better clothing?'

He looked down at himself, and then up at her in chagrin. 'This stuff looked pretty good when I left the hotel this morning,' he said mildly. 'I never expected a bunch of goons to try to tear my clothes off.'

'Don't worry about that,' she told him as she got up briskly, reached for the briefcase she normally took home with her, and then rejected it. No extra work, she told herself as she pressed the button on her intercom.

'Beth. I'm going out to the ranch. I'll be gone for a minimum of four weeks, and I want no interruptions while I'm out there. Absolutely none!'

'Yes, ma'am,' the intercom burped. 'But there's this man in the outer office who keeps trying to tell me he has an appointment with you.'

'Well, call Security and have them bounce him,' Geet snapped. 'I don't have any other appointments!' Geet thumbed the switch off.

For the first time in four years,Handa Enterprises would function with nobody at the helm. 'Come on—er—Maan.'She beckoned with her imperial little finger. It wasn't until moments later,locked into her private lift with him, that she recalled how gracefully he had come to his feet and followed. It was a good beginning, she told herself. A big,healthy man, smoothly functional—and mannerly, she added as he helped her into the limousine.

'It will take some time to drive out to the Bar Nine,' she told him.

'Don't mind me.' He was already at the window. 'I like to look at the scenery.'

'That's not exactly what I had in mind,' she countered. 'There are a million things I want to know about you.This dossier was compiled in a hurry, so naturally there are a few things missing. Now then—you were born in... ?

1'Waco, Texas,' he replied.'Thirty-four years ago. Is that the kind of thing you want to know?'

'Approximately. Any communicable diseases?'

'Not now.' He gave her another one of those quizzically gentle looks.

'Oh, you mean childhood diseases?I guess I had everything most kids have.'

'I see. And none of them—er—impaired any of your— physical functions?'

'Only one I know of is when the bull stepped on my foot,' he said, nodding sagely. 'On occasion when it rains the damn thing aches a little. But the Air Force doctors said there was nothin' wrong with the foot. Psycho something, they said.'

'Psychosomatic?'

'The very word,' he acknowledged.'Besides, it doesn't rain all that much up here in Kansas, I hear. If you're worried about experience, I ran a good-sized spread by the time I was fourteen.Horses, cattle—even-' a little tinge of contempt slipped in '—sheep.'

'Yes, that relieves my mind,' Geet said and, for the life of her, despite all the lists she had made beforehand,she couldn't think of a single other question to ask. For the rest of the ride she alternated, staring out of the window, and, when he did the same, shifting to stare at him.

What in the world am I doing? Geet pondered. I could get all this information from behind a desk, on a personnel form. And that's not what I want to know. So how do you go about asking a man a question like the one I want to ask, when I can't even phrase it to myself?

Besides, he's not exactly what I expected. There's something free and easy behind all that—muscle. When he smiled he looked downright handsome. When he had something to say he seemed to think it over before wagging his tongue. But of course, as her father had warned her a time or two in her young life, 'There's more handsome men sittin' on death row over in Leavenworth than you'll find singing in any church choir!'So she leaned back against the cushions, shut down her mind and, because she seldom got more than five hours sleep a night, promptly dropped off.

hey guys, sorry for the delay. but my laptop charger got burned without which I can't run m laptop.