An Independent Wife (3 page)

He was more than a top reporter-he was a celebrity.

Sallie was already bored with the entire business. First thing this morning she was going to ask Greg for an assignment, anything to get away until things calmed down. She'd already been three weeks between assignments so no one would think it odd that she was becoming restless. It was more than a month until the charity ball in Sakarya and she didn't think she'd be able to sit still that long.

Suddenly noticing the time, she cast a last quick glance over her slender form, neat and capable in dark blue slacks and a blue silk shirt. Her hair was pulled back and braided into one long fat rope and, as the final touch, she had added a pair of dark glasses. She could tell anyone who asked that she had a headache and the light hurt her eyes; the glasses weren't so dark that she couldn't work with them on if necessary.

Then she had to rush, and as the elevator in her apartment building was notoriously slow in arriving she used the stairs, running down them two at a time and reaching her bus stop just as the bus was closing its doors. She yelled and pounded on the doors and they slid open and the driver grinned at her.

"Wondered where you were," he said jokingly. In actual fact, she was a regular bus door pounder.

She made it to the office with a minute to spare and collapsed into her chair, wondering how she had made it across the street without being hit at least six times. The blood was racing through her veins and she grinned. It was time for some action when her usual method of getting to work was beginning to seem exciting!

"Hi," Brom greeted her. "Ready to meet the man?"

"I'm ready to do some traveling," she retorted. "I've been here too long. I'm growing cobwebs. I think I'll beard Greg in his den and see if I can't get some action. "

"You're nuts," Brom informed her bluntly. "Greg's quick today. You'd be better off to wait until tomorrow."

"I'll take my chances," Sallie said blithely. "Don't you always? Hey, why the glasses? Are you trying to hide a black eye?" Brorn pounced, his eyes lighting up at the possibility that Sallie had gotten involved in a brawl somewhere.

"Nope." To convince him she raised the glasses to let him see for himself that her eyes were normal, then set them back in place on her nose. "I've got a headache and the light is bothering me."

"Do you have migraines?" Brom asked in concern. "My sister has 'em and the light always bothers her."

"I don't think it's a migraine," she hedged. "It's probably just a nervous reaction to sitting still for so long."

Brom laughed, as she had meant him to, and she made her escape to talk to Greg before Rhy arrived and all chance was lost.

As she neared Greg's open door she heard him on the phone, his voice curt and impatient, and Sallie's eyebrows rose as she listened. Greg was by nature an impatient man, one of the doers of the world, but he wasn't usually unreasonable but his attitude now didn't strike her as being reasonable. Brom was fight, Greg was "quicker" than usual, edgy and irascible, and she had no doubt that it was all due to Rhy's impending arrival.

When she heard the phone crash down into the cradle she poked her head around the door and inquired, "Would a cup of coffee help?"

Greg's dark head jerked up at the sound of her voice and his mouth moved into a wry grimace. "I'm swimming in coffee now," he grunted in reply. "Hell's bells, I didn't know there were so many idiots working in this building. I swear if one more fool calls me--"

"Everyone's nervous," she soothed.

"You're not," he pointed out. "Why the glasses? Are you so famous now that you've got to travel incognito?"

"There's a reason for the glasses," Sallie retaliated. "But because you're being nasty I won't tell YOU."

"Suit yourself," he growled. "Get out of my office."

"I need an assignment," she pointed out. "I'm at the snapping stage myself."

"I thought you wanted to be here to meet your old hometown pal," Greg shot back. "Anyway, I don't have anything to give you right now."

"Come on," she pleaded. "You've got to have a little something. No riots, no natural disasters, no political kidnappings? There's bound to be a story for me somewhere in the world!"

"Maybe tomorrow," he replied. "Don't be in such a hurry. For God's sake, Sal, I may need you around in case the Man gets testy. An old friend is nice to have around--

"To throw to the lion?" she interrupted dryly. Abruptly Greg grinned. "Don't worry, doll, he won't tear you to pieces, only maul you around a bit."

"Greg, you're not listening to me," she groaned. "I've been stagnating here for three weeks. I need to earn my keep."

"You don't have any sense," he observed.

"You don't have any sense of mercy," she retorted, "Greg, please."

"What's the damned hurry?" he suddenly yelled. "Dammit, Sal, I've got a new publisher coming in and he's not exactly a babe in the woods. I don't expect to have any fun today, so get off my back, will you?

Besides, he may ask to see you, and I sure as hell want you here if he does."

Sallie collapsed into a chair, groaning aloud as she realized that she would have to tell Greg the truth.

That was the only way he would give her an assignment, and perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad thing if Greg knew. At least then he wouldn't keep trying to throw her at Rhy. And realistically Greg had a right to know the circumstances and be aware of the complications that could arise from her very presence.

Gently she said, "Greg, I think you should know that Rhy might not be so glad to see me."

He was instantly alert. "Why not? I thought you were friends."

She sighed. "I can't say if we're friends or not. I haven't seen him in seven years, except on television.

And there's something else. I wasn't going to tell you, but you'll need to know. Do you know that I'm married, but that I've been separated from my husband for years?"

Greg nodded, a sudden stillness coming over his features. "Yes, I know, but you've never said who your husband is. You go by your maiden name, don't you?"

"Yes, I wanted to do everything completely on my own, not capitalize on his name. He's very wellknown. As a matter of fact, my husband is... umm ... Rhydon Baines."

Greg swallowed audibly, his eyes growing round. He gulped again. Sallie didn't lie, he knew, she was brutally honest, but-Rhydon Baines? That tough, hard-as-nails man and this fragile little fairy with her laughing eyes? He said roughly, "My God, Sallie, the man's old enough to be your father!"

Sallie burst into a peal of laughter. "He is not! He's only ten years older than I am. I'm twenty-six, not eighteen. But I wanted you to know why I want an assignment. The further away I am from Rhy, the better it is. We've been separated for seven years but the fact remains that Rhy is still my husband and personal relationships can get sticky, can't they?"

Greg stared at her in disbelief, yet he believed her. He just couldn't take it in. Sallie? Little Sallie Jerome and that big, hard man? She looked like a kid, dressed all in blue and with that fat braid hanging to her waist. He said softly, "I'll be damned. What happened?" She shrugged. "He got bored with me."

"Bored with you?" chided Greg. "C'mon, doll!" She laughed again. "I'm nothing like I was then. I was such a cowardly little snit, no wonder Rhy walked out on me. I couldn't stand the separations caused by his job. I made myself sick with worry and nagged him to death, and in the end he walked out. I can't say I blame him. The wonder is that he lasted as long as he did."

Greg shook his head. It was impossible to imagine Sallie as a timid person; he sometimes thought that she hadn't a nerve in her body. She was willing to take on anything, and the more dangerous it was the more she enjoyed it. It wasn't an act, either. Her eyes would sparkle and the color glow in her cheeks whenever the going got difficult.

"Let me get this straight," he muttered. "He doesn't know that you work here?"

"I wouldn't think so," she replied cheerfully. "We haven't been in touch in six years."

"But you're still married. Surely he sends you support checks-" He stopped at the outraged look on her face, and sighed. "Sorry. You refused support, right?"

"After I could support myself, yes. When Rhy left I had to fend for myself and somewhere along the way I acquired a backbone. I like doing for myself."

"You've never asked for a divorce?"

"Well ... no," she admitted, her nose wrinkling in puzzlement. "I've never wanted to remarry and I don't suppose he's ever wanted to, either, so we just never got around to a divorce. He probably finds it convenient, having a legal wife who's never around. No ties, but it keeps him safe from other women."

"Would it bother you? Seeing him again?" Greg asked roughly, more disturbed than he cared to admit by the idea of Sallie being married to Rhydon Baines.

"Seeing Rhy? No," she said honestly. "I got over him a long time ago. I had to, to survive. Sometimes it doesn't even seem real, that I was-that I ammarried to him."

"Will it bother him, seeing you again?" persisted Greg.

"Certainly not emotionally. It has to be over for him, too. After all, he was the one who walked. But Rhy does have a temper, you know, and he might not like the idea of his wife working for him, even under a different name. And he might not want me around to cramp his style. I have no intention of interfering in his private life, but he doesn't know that. So you see, it would be a good idea to send me on assignment and keep me away from him, at least at first. I don't want to lose my job." She topped all of this off with a sunny smile and Greg shook his head.

"All right," he muttered. "I'll find something for you. But if he ever notices that you're his wife I know nothing about it."

"About what?" she asked, playing dumb, and he wasn't able to stifle a chuckle.

Sallie knew better than to push her luck with Greg, so she left him with a quick, heartfelt "Thanks!"

and went back to her desk. Brom was gone and she was relatively alone, though only a partition separated their little cubicle from the others, and the clatter of typewriters and hum of voices were as plain as if there was nothing between her and the rest of the office.

By the time Brom returned with a steaming cup of coffee she felt more relaxed, her anxiety eased by Greg's promise to help keep her out of Rhy's sight. She finished the article she was writing and felt pleased with the end product; she liked putting words together to form ideas and felt an almost sensuous satisfaction when a sentence turned out as she had planned.

At ten o'clock the buzz of the office ceased momentarily, then resumed at a lower hum and without raising her eyes Sallie knew that Rhy had entered. Cautiously she turned her head away and pretended to search for something in the drawer of her desk. After a moment the buzz resumed its high pitch, which meant that Rhy had left after taking a quick look over the office.

"Oh, God!" a female voice cried over the others. "Just think, a hunk like that is single!"

Sallie grinned a little, recognizing the voice as that of Lindsey Wallis, An exuberant office sexpot with more mouth than brains. Still, there was no doubting that Lindsey was serious in her appreciation of Rhy's dynamic good looks. Sallie knew as well as anyone the effect her husband could have on a woman.

Fifteen minutes later her phone rang and she jumped on it, an action that raised Brom's eyebrows. "Get the hell out of the building," Greg muttered in her ear. "He's on his way to meet everyone. Go home.

I'll try to get you out of town tonight."

"Thanks," she said and hung up. Standing, she collected her purse and said, "See ya," to Brom.

"Flying off, little birdie?" he asked, as he always did.

"It looks that way. Greg said to pack." With a wave she left, not wanting to linger, since Rhy was on his way down.

She stepped into the corridor and her heart nearly failed her when the elevator doors slid open and Rhy stepped out, flanked by three men she didn't know and the previous publisher, Mr. Owen. Rather than walk straight toward them she turned and went to the stairs, being careful to keep her eyes lowered and her head slightly averted, but she was still aware that Rhy had stopped and was looking after her. Her pulse thudded in her veins as she darted down the stairs. What a close call!

Waiting at the apartment for Greg to call nearly drove her mad with impatience. She paced the floor for a while; then excess energy drove her to clean the refrigerator out and rearrange her cabinets. That didn't take much time as she hadn't accumulated a lot of either food or utensils. At last she hit on the perfect way to pass the time: she packed her bags. She loved packing, going through her essentials and putting them in their proper place; she had her notebooks and assorted pens and pencils, a tape recorder, a dog-eared dictionary, several paperbacks, a pencil sharpener, a pocket calculator, replacement batteries and a battered flashlight, all of which traveled with her wherever she went.

She had just finished arranging them neatly when the phone rang and she answered it to hear Greg's terse voice giving her the welcome news that he had an assignment for her.

"It's the best I could do, and at least it'll get you out of town," he grunted. "You're on a flight to D.C., in the morning. A senator's wife is making big noises about a general leaking classified information at a drunken party. "

"Sounds pretty," Sallie commented.

"I'm sending Chris Meaker with you," Greg continued. "Talk with the senator's wife. You won't be able to even get close to the general. Chris will have a brief on it for you. Meet him at JFK at five-thirty."

Now that she knew her destination Sallie was able to complete her packing. She chose conservative dresses and a tailored pants suit, not her favorite clothes, but she felt that the restrained clothing would help her with the interview, making the senator's wife more trusting.

As usual, she could hardly sleep that night. She was always restless the night before she left on assignment if Greg gave her any warning of it. She preferred having to rush straight from the office to the airport, without having time to think, without wondering if everything would work out, without wondering what would happen if Rhy ever recognized her....