Perfect Partners

chance?” Morgan asked.
    Joel eyed him warily. “Some.”
    “Excellent.” Morgan beamed. “I just happen to have brought along a small set. Can I interest you in a game?”
    “I am not, by any chance, being hustled, am I?”
    Morgan gave him a reproachful look. “What a suspicious mind you have. I was just thinking of a friendly little game to pass the time.”
    “How friendly?”
    “Well,” Morgan said with an air of grave consideration, “I suppose a small wager might liven things up a bit, eh?”
    “What kind of wager did you have in mind?” Joel asked as he watched Morgan open his duffel bag and remove a miniature chess set.
    “We’ll think of something.” Morgan opened the board and set out the pieces. “In the meantime we might as well have a little chat.”
    “About what?”
    “This affair you’re having with my daughter,” Morgan said bluntly. “I want to know when you’re going to marry her.”
    Joel groaned. “I knew you were going to start with that. Dammit, Morgan, stay out of this.”
    “Can’t do that. I’m opposed, on philosophical grounds, to the idea of you having an open-ended affair with Letty.”
    “The hell you are.” Joel smiled faintly. “You’re opposed to it because you were brought up on a bunch of old-fashioned midwestern small-town notions. And all the lofty education you’ve had hasn’t changed those notions one bit, has it?”
    “Afraid not.” Morgan surveyed the chess pieces and then leaned back in his chair. “Her mother would never have approved and neither do I.”
    “Don’t worry about it, Morgan. I was brought up in a small town, too, remember?”
    Morgan cocked a bushy brow. “Meaning?”
    “Meaning I’m going to marry her. Eventually.” Joel considered his first move.
    “Mind if I ask why you’re waiting?”
    Joel glanced up. “There’s the little matter of Thornquist Gear to be cleared up first.”
    “Ah.” Morgan looked satisfied. “Afraid folks will think you married her for the company, is that it?”
    “That’s it. When Letty decides to go through with the deal I had worked out with Charlie, I’ll marry her.” He moved his first pawn.
    Morgan nodded. “A standoff. Should be interesting to see what happens next.” He leaned forward and moved a pawn.
    “About that wager of ours.”
    “What about it?”
    “What do you say we specify that one way or another you and Letty will be married by next spring?”
    Joel was not all that sorry when he lost the match an hour and a half later. What the hell, he thought. One way or another he did plan to be married to Letty by the spring.
    At midnight Morgan crawled into one of the Thornquist Gear sleeping bags that Joel had commandeered for the night. He eyed Joel, who was still sitting at his desk. “You going to get some sleep?”
    “Maybe. Later. I think I’ll take another walk around the building. Check in with the security guard.”
    “You just heard from him fifteen minutes ago. Everything’s quiet. Everything’s probably going to remain quiet. And if anything does happen, your high-tech security system will wake you up and tell you about it.”
    “I know. But I don’t feel like sleeping.” Joel stood up and opened his desk drawer. He removed the revolver he had put there earlier. “I’ll be back in a little while.”
    “You be careful with that thing,” Morgan advised. “Don’t go shooting yourself in the foot.”
    Joel went out into the hall and shut the door behind him. He headed for the stairwell to start another floor-by-floor tour of Thornquist Gear.
    He had built this place, he thought as he walked past the silent, empty offices. He was responsible for every square inch of it, from the display cases on the first floor to the sizable payroll the company met every month. He had made the decision to get into catalog sales, and he had supervised the installation of the expensive new mainframe computers that were needed. He had pored over the designers’ plans every time the sales floor had been expanded. He had selected the security system. He had established the management hierarchy that made the company function so effectively.
    And now Thornquist Gear stood like a stone wall between him and the future he wanted with Letty. Somehow he had to find a way to climb that wall.
    The call from Echo Cove came at six in the morning. Joel was brewing coffee and watching for the first hint of dawn over the city when the phone warbled. He grabbed it halfway through the