Never Leave Me by Harold Robbins Page B

added.
    “Oh—yes,” she remembered. “For long?” I asked.
    “Only a few minutes,” she said. “Then Mr. Brady left.” “Chris say anything?”
    She shook her head. “Not a word. He left before you. He seemed very nervous.”
    I took another pull at my drink. I didn’t like the looks of it. Even if Matt Brady did put the word out, how could he get the list of my clients so quickly? He had to have some inside help.
    Mickey was watching me. “What’s wrong, Brad? What got into everybody? McCarthy label you Communist?”
    I grinned. “Just as bad,” I said. “Brady marked me good and proper.”

Chapter Seventeen

    I GOT home for dinner real tired and beat. Marge took one look at my face and steered me to the living room. “You better have a cocktail before you eat,” she said quickly. “You’re all wound up.”
    I sank into the club chair and looked at her. It was as if I had been away for a long time. There was concern in her eyes but she didn’t say a word until after I had sipped the drink.
    “What’s wrong, Brad?” she asked.
    I leaned my head wearily back against the chair. I closed my eyes. “I got troubles,” I said. “Brady didn’t like the way I talked so he’s out to get me.”
    “Is that bad?” she asked.
    I looked at her. “Bad enough,” I said. “I lost about eight of my best accounts to-day.”
    A kind of relief came into her eyes. She sat down on the arm of the chair. “Is that all?” she asked.
    I stared up at her, bewildered. We were going broke and it wasn’t important to her. “Isn’t that enough?” I demanded. “There’s nothing worse that could happen.”
    She smiled down at me. “Yes there is,” she said softly. “Lots worse. And I thought it was happening, too.”
    I didn’t understand her. “Like what?”
    She took my hand. “I could lose you,” she said seriously. “And I thought I was going to, you were acting so strangely. But now I know it was only business. Ever since this steel thing started you haven’t been the same.”
    I didn’t answer.
    “That’s why you were so upset all the time, why you didn’t come home last night. Wasn’t it?” I nodded, not daring to speak. My voice might have betrayed me.
    “Poor, tired baby,” she said softly, pressing her lips to my cheek.…
    Jeanie had a date so we had dinner alone. While we ate I told her what had happened during the day. Her eyes were solemn as I spoke.
    “What are you going to do now?” she asked when I had finished.
    “I don’t know,” I answered. “I’ll have to wait and see what happens to-morrow. It all depends on how much business I have left, whether I can keep the agency going. At any rate, I’ll have to start shrinking it soon. We can’t afford the payroll the way it is now.”
    “You’ll have to let some people go?” she asked. “There’s nothing else to do,” I answered.
    She was silent for a moment. “What a shame,” she said softly.
    I knew what she was thinking. “It’s not so bad for them, honey,” I said. “It’s not like when I was let out during the depression. There are plenty of jobs now. It’s just a shame to break up an outfit like this. It took a long time to build.
    “What does Chris say?” she asked.
    I knew she thought a lot of him. I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know what he thinks,” I answered. “I didn’t see him all day. He went out early in the day.”
    “That’s peculiar,” she said. “Did he know what was going on?”
    “I don’t know,” I said. “But I got a hunch that he does.” I explained my suspicions to her. “I can’t believe it!” she exclaimed in horrified tones.
    I smiled at her. “Ambition is a vicious master,” I said. “It pushes a man in many directions. Some
    of them are not so nice. It’s one of the conditions of society.” “But not Chris!” she said. “You’ve done so much for him.”
    “Have I?” I asked. “Look at it from his viewpoint. He’s done so much for me. Now he wants