ICK LEANED BACK IN HIS CHAIR, WATCHING while Jack Collins, Mary, Jim and Tony filed into his office. He had agreed to this meeting about Lauren only because Jack had insisted that it was vitally necessary for the corporation's sake, in case she should decide to sue them.

Sue them for what, Nick thought bitterly. He wished to God he were somewhere else right now. Anywhere else. They were going to talk about her, and he was going to have to listen. She had been gone for a month, and he still hadn't been able to tear her out of his mind.

He kept expecting to look up and see her walking into his office, her shorthand notebook and pen in hand, ready to write down his instructions.

Last week he had been deeply engrossed in the corporation's new financial statement, and suddenly a woman in the reception room had laughed. It had sounded like Lauren's soft, musical laugh, and he had leaped out of his chair, telling himself that he intended to drag her into his office and warn her for the last time to stay away. But when he strode into the reception area and saw that it was some other woman, his heart had sunk.

He needed a rest, he told himself—some relaxation and the right sort of diversion. He had been pushing himself too hard, trying to drive her out of his thoughts by working until he was mentally and physically exhausted. All that was going to change now. In a few hours he was leaving for Chicago to attend the international trade committee meeting— the meeting he had walked out on to go rushing after Lauren, and which had now been rescheduled so that the committee could conclude the business they'd been unable to resolve without his vote. On Sunday, three days from now, when the meeting adjourned, Vicky was joining him in Chicago, and they were flying to Switzerland for three weeks. Three consecutive weeks of skiing during the day and making love at night should solve all his problems very nicely. Spending Christmas in Switzerland again, as he had three years ago, was also a vastly appealing idea.

Whom had he spent it with three years ago? He tried to remember.

"Nick," Jack Collins said, "may I begin?"

"Yes," he said shortly, turning his head toward the windows. How long would it take before he could blot out the memory of Lauren weeping at his feet? "Please don't do this to us," she had sobbed. "I love you so much."

He rolled his gold pen idly between his fingertips, aware that Tony was watching him angrily, just waiting for the slightest opportunity to plead Lauren's defense.

Her defense, Nick thought sarcastically. What defense? Because Lauren was Italian, Tony was automatically biased in her favor. Because she was so heartbreakingly beautiful, Tony was blind to her treacherous nature. He couldn't blame Tony, because he himself had been just as blind, just as stupid. Lauren had captivated him, fascinated and enchanted him. From the very first, he had been enthralled by her, rendered senseless by his uncontrollable, fiery desire for her…

"I realize," Jack Collins was saying, "that Lauren Danner is a very unpleasant topic to all of you, but the five of us in this room have all known each other for many years, and there's no reason we can't speak openly among ourselves, is there?"

When no one replied, Jack sighed with frustration. "Well, she's a damned difficult subject for me to discuss too. The investigation on her was technically my responsibility, and I'm going to tell you now that it was done very poorly. The young man who handled the security check while I was in the hospital was inexperienced and overeager, and that's putting it politely. If I hadn't been back in the hospital twice since then, I'd have looked into this before.

"Now that I have," he continued doggedly, "I'll admit that I still can't figure the woman out—at least not completely. I've already talked to each of you separately. Now I'm hoping that by bringing all of us together we can resolve some of the contradictions that keep bothering me. Perhaps each of us has a part of the puzzle, and now we can fit them all together. Tony, for the time being I'm going to address myself only to Nick, Mary and Jim. I'd like you not to comment until the end."

Tony's black eyes narrowed with impatience, but he clamped his mouth shut and sat back on one of the green sofas.

"Now then," Jack said, directing his attention to Nick, Jim and Mary. "All three of you have told me that you believe Lauren Danner applied for a job here because she wanted to spy on us for Philip Whitworth. And all three of you have indicated that she was an extremely intelligent young woman with superior typing and shorthand skills. Right?"

Mary and Jim said yes. Nick nodded curtly.

"Then the next question I would ask is, why would an intelligent, skilled secretary fail every single clerical test she was given and claim that she had never been to college when in fact she has a master's degree from a university, which tells us she's a gifted pianist?" When everyone remained silent, he continued, "And why would an intelligent, educated woman who wants a job so that she can spy, do one of the silliest damned things I've ever seen—write on her application under positions desired the jobs of president and personnel manager?"

Jack looked around at the withdrawn expressions, of his audience. "The obvious answer is that she did notwant to get the job. In fact, she did everything in her power to make certain she wouldn't be offered one, didn't she?" No one answered and he sighed, "As I understand it, she was on her way back to her car from the interview when she met Nick, who interceded on her behalf that same night. The next day Jim interviewed her, and in a complete about-face, Miss Danner decided to work for Sinco and accepted Jim's job offer. Why?"

Jim leaned his head back against the sofa. "I've already told you and Nick what Lauren told me. She said she met Nick that night, and she accepted the job because she wanted to work near him. She said she thought he was an ordinary engineer who worked for Global."

"And you believed her?" Jack asked.

"Why wouldn't I?" Jim sighed disgustedly. "I saw her crying when she found out who he really was. I'm the same idiot who also believed that Whitworth was a relative of hers, and that even though he had asked her to spy on us, she wouldn't do it."

"Actually," Jack said, his mouth twisting with grim amusement, "Whitworth is her relative. I checked it out, and according to the Whitworth family tree, which was traced about thirteen years ago and recorded in a book used mostly by society snobs, the Danners are seventh or eighth cousins of the Whitworths."

The uncontrollable spurt of joy that Nick experienced was instantly quashed. Cousins or not, Lauren was still his stepfather's mistress.

"I understand," Jack said, massaging his temple as if he had a headache, "that Miss Danner did not request to be assigned to you, Nick. In fact, I understand from Weatherby that she was adamantly opposed to the idea."

"She was," Nick gritted. He couldn't stand much more of this. Talking about her was twisting his gut into knots.

"If she truly wanted to spy for Whitworth," Jack persisted, "why would she argue against being assigned to you, when working for you would have given her much better access to confidential information?"

Nick picked up a file on his desk and began reading it. "She didn't want to work for me because we'd quarreled about a personal matter." She didn't want to sleep with me, Nick added silently.

"That doesn't make sense," Jack said firmly. "If you'd quarreled, she should have relished the opportunity to retaliate by coming up here and spying on you."

"Nothing about that girl makes sense," Mary said hesitantly. "When I told her about Nick's mother, she turned as white as a—"

"I don't have the time for this!" Nick cut in curtly. "I'm leaving for Chicago. Jack, I can clear this up in a few sentences. Lauren Danner came to Sinco to spy. She's Whitworth's mistress. She is a consummate liar and a magnificent actress."

Tony opened his mouth to argue, and Nick said in a low, thunderous voice, "Don't defend her to me, dammit! She let me introduce her to my own mother and stepfather! She stood there letting me make an ass of myself by introducing her to her accomplices, one of whom is her lover! She betrayed all of us; not just me. She told Whitworth about Rossi and had Whitworth's people swarming all over Casano looking for him. She provided bidding information to Whitworth that is going to cost Sinco a fortune in profits. She—"

"She wasn't Whitworth's mistress," Jack interrupted when Tony leaped to his feet to protest. "I know that's what my investigator told you, but the truth is that, although Whitworth does own the apartment, he only visited her there once, on the night she arrived, for perhaps thirty minutes."

"My stepfather's age must be impairing his—"

"You stop talking about Laurie like this!" Tony spat out furiously. "I—"

"Save your breath, Tony," Nick snapped.

"I got plenty of breath to spare, and now I'm going to have my say! Dominic and I heard what Whitworth said to her the day they had lunch at my place. Laurie told him right off that you and her were getting married, and she told him that she was going to tell you she was related to him. As soon as she said that, Whitworth started talking about how you might think she was his mistress and that you might think she told him about this Casano. Laurie got upset and told him she didn't say nothing about Casano, and she wasn't his mistress. Then she asked him right out if he was trying to blackmail her. He said he was bargaining with her. He said he'd keep quiet if she would give him information—"

"Which she did," Nick snapped. "Within an hour! She did it because she intended to keep right on lying to me until Whitworth finally put us out of business."

"No!" Tony shouted. "She told him she would die before she'd do anything to hurt you. She—"

Nick's hand slammed down on the desk as he surged to his feet. "She's a treacherous bitch and she's a liar. That's all I need to know. Now all of you get out of here!"

"I'm going!" Tony almost shouted, stomping across the office. "But there's one more thing you need to know. What you did to her hurt her worse than I've ever seen anybody hurt. You threw her out with no coat, no money, no nothing, and does she call Whitworth? No, she walks eight blocks in the cold and rain to collapse in my arms. So I'm tellin' you now—" Tony drew himself up to his most impressive height and slapped his hat on his head "—from now on you're off my list, Nick. If you wanna eat in my restaurant, you better bring Laurie with you!"