The Cowboy

writer these days, not a business executive. You don't need to know anything about this."
    "Damn you, Rafe, don't you dare patronize me. I don't trust you to treat Moorcroft the way you would any other business competitor. Not after what happened last year. I want to know—" She broke off abruptly, glancing at the open door.
    Rafe followed her gaze and saw Hatcher standing on the threshold. He looked uncertain of what he should do next. "I'll, uh, come back later, Rafe."
    "No," Rafe said. "Maggie was just leaving. Come on in, Hatcher. I want to get this Ellington thing finished today. Sit down."
    Margaret hesitated a moment and then apparently thought better of making a scene in front of Hatcher. "We'll discuss this later, Rafe." She turned and stalked out the door, the elegant line of her spine rigidly straight with anger.
    Hatcher stared after her, looking more uneasy than ever. "She knows about the Ellington deal?"
    "She walked in here and saw the damned file lying on the desk."
    Hatcher paled. "Sorry. I know you didn't want her to find out about it."
    Rafe bit off a curse. "It wasn't your fault. Never mind, I'll deal with Maggie later. I can sugarcoat the facts and calm her down. Let's get back to work."
    Hatcher drew a deep breath. "Rafe, I think there's something you should know."
    "What?" Rafe jabbed at a key on the computer console and narrowed his eyes as a familiar spreadsheet popped onto the screen.
    "There's been another leak of information."
    That caught Rafe's attention. He swung his gaze back to his assistant. "Bad?"
    "The latest set of offer figures. The ones we drew up this week. My inside information tells me Moorcroft has them."
    "This time around we were very, very careful, Hatcher," Rafe said softly. "Only you and I knew those numbers and they existed only in this file. We wiped them out of the computer after we ran the calculations."
    Hatcher studied the desktop for a long moment before he looked up. There was a desperate expression in his eyes. "You're going to have my head if I say what I have to say next, Rafe."
    Rafe looked at the man he had trusted for the past three years. "Just say it and get it over with."
    "There's been someone else here in your house with access to these figures for over a week. I hate to be the one to point this out to you, but the fact is the really bad leaks began after she got here."
    Rafe was so stunned he couldn't even think for a moment. The accusation against Margaret was the last thing he'd been expecting to hear. He had prepared himself for something else entirely.
    For an instant he simply stared at Hatcher and then he came up out of the chair, grabbed his startled assistant by the collar of his immaculate shirt and yanked him halfway across the desk. "What the hell are you trying to tell me?"
    Fear flashed in Hatcher's eyes. "Rafe, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything. But someone has to point it out to you. And as long as it's gone this far, there's more you should know."
    "More?" Rafe's hand tightened.
    Hatcher looked down at the corded muscles of Rafe's forearms and then up again. "My sources tell me she saw him shortly before leaving Seattle to come down here."
    "Hatcher, I swear, I'll break your neck if you're lying to me."
    "It's true," Hatcher gasped. "I've known about the meeting for a couple of days but I've been afraid to tell you. But now you're practically accusing me of being the leak and I've got my own reputation to consider. Ask her. Go on, ask her if she didn't talk to Moorcroft before she flew to Tucson."
    "There's no way she would have talked to that bastard."
    "Is that right? Ask her if Jack Moorcroft didn't offer her a nice chunk of change to find out what she could about what we're up to. You want to pinpoint the leak? Don't look at me. I've been your man since the day I came to work for you. I've proven my loyalty a hundred times over. Try looking close to home, Rafe."
    "Damn it, Hatcher, you don't know what you're saying."
    "Yes, I do. I've just been afraid to say it out loud for several days because I knew you didn't want to hear it. But you've never paid me to be a yes man, Rafe. You've always said you wanted me to speak my mind and tell you the facts as I saw them. All right, I'm doing just that. She betrayed you once and she's betraying you again."
    Rafe felt himself hovering on the brink of his self-control. He hadn't been this close to going over the edge since the day he'd found Margaret with Moorcroft.
    He made himself