The Full Story. Dawn Stewardson

      “Of course.”

      “And he thought it could be…?”

      “The list is endless. I’m exaggerating,” he added quickly, even though he wasn’t exaggerating by a lot.

      “In any event,” he continued, deciding it would be wise to change the conversation’s direction, “what happened today just goes to show how even the most straightforward plan can fall apart.

      “Billy wasn’t supposed to give Ken the slip and head for New York, I wasn’t supposed to end up on the wrong end of a gun and the killer wasn’t supposed to get away.”

      He had another swig of beer, assuming he must have satisfied her curiosity by now.

      However, she barely waited for him to swallow before saying, “But now that he did get away, and now that you think he might show up at NBS in the morning, how will you deal with it?”

      “Well, if we haven’t found Billy before then, we’ll go with Plan B—watching to see if the hit man does show up at NBS. And insuring Billy’s safety if that happens.”

      Mickey looked thoughtful, then said, “I asked you about this before, but you didn’t tell me. How did Billy know someone was trying to kill him?”

      When he hesitated, she added, “I wouldn’t use it in a story unless I’d checked with him, first.”

      “Yeah, okay,” he said slowly, reminding himself once more that he didn’t have much reason to be overly cautious. He’d never known Lydia to make a mistake.

      Besides, as soon as Billy was back in circulation he’d be telling anyone and everyone what had happened. He knew their star well enough to be sure of that.

      Focusing on Mickey again, he said, “A couple of weeks ago, Billy almost totaled his Porsche—was incredibly lucky that he only got shaken up. And when his mechanic checked over what was left of the car, he discovered that the brakes had been tampered with.

      “Then he had a look at Billy’s other vehicles and found that someone had done the same thing with all six of them. That was when his people contacted RCI.”

      “And RCI contacted you.”

      “Uh-huh.”

      He watched her take a sip of champagne, absently thinking that he’d never in a million years have imagined today unfolding as it had, would never have pictured himself winging his way across the country at all, let alone with a beautiful woman who smelled like…