by Dale Mayer
She turned her head and looked at the man. “Oh, my God! That’s him, one of the two kidnappers.”
Dezi nodded. “Good. I want to make sure we get all these guys.” At the open van, Dezi dumped him in the back. “He’s unconscious right now, but I don’t know for how long. I need the cops here so they can pick up these guys.” He turned to look at her, opened his arms, and she rushed inside them again. “Are you okay?” he breathed against her ear. “My God! When you didn’t come back in the house …” His arms closed convulsively around her.
She rubbed his back as she hugged him tight. “I’m okay, honest. It wasn’t the most pleasant experience, but I got out soon enough. Good thing Vince was already in the area.”
Dezi nodded. “I would imagine he saw the van racing about, so he made sure they couldn’t go anywhere.” He shrugged as if that was a minor incident. “Outside of the fact I’d really love a pair of shoes”—he looked down at his bleeding feet—“it’s all good.”
Just then sirens could be heard in the background.
He smiled. “And here comes the cavalry to the rescue.”
“But where’s Vince?”
Dezi turned, keeping his arms around her, checked both sides of the van and frowned. “That’s not good,” he said. “I need to go after him.” He looked at the guy in the van. “As soon as the police get here, I’ll search for Vince.”
She tried to step out of his embrace. “Go get him now. He could be in trouble.”
“He could be.” Dezi’s voice was hard. “But I’m not leaving you with this asshole.”
But she wasn’t having any of it.
Finally he pulled out his phone and sent Vince a text. When his phone rang almost immediately afterward, it was Vince. “Are you okay?” Dezi asked.
“Yeah. I’m leading this guy back to the van. I wish I could knock him out and throw him over my shoulder. He’s just feisty enough that he’s gonna try and make a break for it again.”
“When he does, knock him down and out,” Dezi recommended. “It’s much easier to control them when they’re dead weight.”
“Yeah, my shoulder took a bit of hit in our fight,” Vince said. “Wasn’t sure I wanted to pack him. This guy’s a heavyweight.”
Dezi chuckled. “I’d come help you out, but I don’t want to leave Diamond alone.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Vince said. “I’ll be there in a couple minutes.”
Ending the call, Dezi put his cell in his pocket and smiled. “Satisfied?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m not. Not until we get to the bottom of this.”
He stared at her house, hoping the other guy was still trussed up like a turkey. But he didn’t dare leave until the cops got on the scene.
A moment later the first of the cop cars pulled up. As soon as the officers got out of the vehicle, Dezi left one there with the asshole and Diamond and then headed to her house with the other cop. Luckily the intruder was still on the kitchen chair where he’d left him. They checked him over, then picked him up and carried him out, tossing him into the van beside the other one.
As Dezi stepped out of the way, Vince came around the corner with his guy. The two men high-fived.
“That’s the three of them,” Dezi told the cop.
Vince stepped back slightly.
Diamond threw herself into Vince’s arms and hugged him tight. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
He hugged her gently.
She remembered his shoulder. She stepped back with both hands to her mouth. “I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you?”
He gave her a drunken grin. “The day a hug from a lady hurts me is the day I need to roll over and die.”
She chuckled. “You guys just like to think you’re invincible,” she said, “but you’re not. You can be hurt just as easily as anybody else.”
Dezi tugged her out of the way as the cops grabbed the third suspect and loaded him into the back of a cruiser.
Finally the policeman walked over to him and said, “Need some explanations here.”
Diamond took charge. Dezi and Vince stood and listened as she gave a full explanation of everything that had gone on so far. It was a bit convoluted, but the cop seemed to be getting it.
He scratched the back of his ear. “Is anything missing from your home?”
She shook her head.
Dezi interrupted, “Well, there wasn’t, not when we checked just before all this kerfuffle occurred. But I can’t guarantee it’s all there now.”
She turned to look at him.
He shrugged and said, “Just in the spirit of being honest. We don’t know for sure.”
Slowly she nodded and turned back to the police officer. “He’s correct.”
“And you know one of these men?”
She pointed out Sammy’s boyfriend. “That’s a new friend of a man who works for me.”
“I’ll take them to the station, get their injuries checked out.” The cop turned to the two unconscious men being loaded into an ambulance that had just arrived.
Dezi stepped forward. “You should keep them sedated. They’re both martial arts nuts, and they’re not easy to knock down. Keep them down and under heavy guard.”
On that note the officers handcuffed the men to the stretchers, just to make sure they didn’t escape en route. He came back and said, “Thanks for the warning.”
Dezi nodded. “Don’t want you to get taken by surprise, like I was.”
The officer turned to Dezi, Vince and Diamond. “I know you’re tired and stressed, but we need statements from all three of you.”
“First we need to check her vault in her home office,” Dezi said. “Then maybe …”
“Any chance the statements could be in the morning?” Diamond asked hesitantly. “We could all come down together and do that.”
He handed her a card and said, “Make it early please.”
She beamed up at him. “Eight o’clock? Is that okay?”
He smiled and waved as he headed to his cruiser. “Eight is perfect.”
Chapter 9
She woke up early in the morning to her phone ringing. Groggily she reached for her cell on the nightstand and saw it was her father calling.
“Good morning, Dad,” she said, trying to take the sleep out of her voice and her eyes at the same time. She flopped back on the bed. “I’m still half asleep. Is there a reason for calling so early?”
“I just heard about the incident at your place last night,” he bellowed in her ear. “Why did you not call me?”
At that, her eyes popped open, and she frowned. “No need to call you afterward. The cops took the kidnappers away, the vault was untouched so there was nothing for you to do. I didn’t want to bother you. Everyone agreed,” she confessed. “Normally you’re not close. You would have been in Europe, and I probably wouldn’t have told you at all. Well, maybe later, much later.” Of course it wasn’t the right thing to say to her father.
“That’s outrageous,” he said. “I’m here in town now, and to hear you were attacked and carried off … It is absolutely horrific,” he roared. “Do you think I really want to hear I have yet another daughter kidnapped?”
She winced at the reminder. “Sorry.” She rolled over to see Dezi stretched out beside her, his silvery gray eyes open, a worried look in them. She stroked his cheek and curled spoonwise up against him. His arm came around and tucked her closer to him. She smiled, loving the connection.
“It’s one of the reasons I wouldn’t have said anything to you,” she said. “You’ve already been through one kidnapping. This was different.”
“Not really,” he said, his voice heavy. “It’s still putting the life of one of my daughters in danger.”
Her heart warmed. She knew part of the outside world wondered if he ever thought of her any differently than his other daughters, but she’d always felt he didn’t. They’d had a special bond since she was little. Finding out her parentage hadn’t changed that for her. She’d gone
through a period of disquiet, but realizing her father hadn’t treated her any differently had washed it all away. Her heart always warmed when she heard him say things like this. It told her it hadn’t changed for him either.
“I wouldn’t want you to worry.” On a more positive note she said, “And, if you heard all about last night, you also heard Dezi and his partner saved me.”
“Damn good thing,” he said, his voice still hard. “That’s what they’re paid for. And because you’re having an affair with the hired help, you have to be careful he doesn’t lose his awareness of what’s going on around you.”
Of course Dezi was close enough to hear her father’s words. She winced at the sleeping with the hired help comment. From her father’s point of view, that was exactly what it was. From her point of view, that had never entered her mind.
Dezi gently stroked her hip, but she could sense almost a distancing in his body. She rolled over and frowned at him. He frowned right back. She shook her head, letting him know that had nothing to do with this, but she had to get rid of her father first to say the words.
“I’m fine, Dad. We’re going to the police station this morning to give our statements. We caught all three men,” she said, “so hopefully the cops can get to the bottom of this quickly.”
“I hope so,” he said heavily. “Don’t put me through something like that again.” He hung up.
She rolled over in bed and looked up at Dezi. “Somehow my father found out about last night’s events,” she said unnecessarily. Her gaze wandered over Dezi’s face, worried at the stiff line to his jaw. “And just because you heard his comment doesn’t mean that is the truth.” She was determined to face this head-on. “My father has always had visions of people sleeping with the help. He probably had more than a few affairs himself with the hired help.”
Dezi’s eyebrows popped up. “So he thinks you’re following in his footsteps?”
“I hope not,” she said, “because, in his world, women who do that are of a completely different ilk than men who do.” She gave Dezi a wry grin. “It’s the age-old what’s good for the gander isn’t good for the goose.”
At that, a chuckle burst out. “I don’t care what he thinks,” Dezi said. “I do care what you think.” He slowly stroked her cheek with his knuckles. “I’d hate to think that’s how your relationships have been.”
She shook her head. “You already know about my relationships,” she said. “You asked enough questions, investigated both of my recent ex-boyfriends, so you already know the truth. And I don’t consider you hired help. Am I grateful you rescued me last night? Absolutely. But we were already involved before that. And I know,” she deliberately emphasized know, “that you won’t make the mistake of thinking that gratitude is why we’re here together.”
He seemed to consider her words for a long moment; then he leaned over and kissed her gently on the temple. “Okay,” he said tenderly. “I’ll keep to the memories of how we came together.”
She slid her arms around his neck. “We have to be at the police station in an hour and a half, and we need food first.”
He chuckled. “Vince will probably meet us here this morning. I don’t know when to expect him.”
“I don’t know either,” she said, “but if we’re fast …” She wiggled her eyebrows at him.
He chuckled and lowered his head. “Fast, but not too fast,” he said. “I don’t want to miss anything.” And he kissed her.
Over an hour later, freshly showered and dressed, they finally made it into the kitchen. She put on coffee and said, “We’ll need to-go cups in order to get to the police station in time.”
“That works for me.” He walked to the refrigerator and asked, “How much time do we have?”
“Well, we could be a little late,” she said, remembering his promise to fix breakfast.
He dug in the fridge and pulled out a carton of eggs. “Do you have any bread or wraps or anything?”
She went searching. Before too long he already had an omelet going in the fry pan. She was amazed at how quickly and easily he made a meal out of what appeared to be absolutely nothing worth cooking in her fridge. But he had found fresh bell peppers and mushrooms and onions and tomatoes, and there was even bacon. Thank you, Naomi.
When she sat down to her plate, she stared at it in admiration. “This is awesome.”
He chuckled. “This is simple. This is not even real cooking.” Then he changed his wording. “No, that’s not true. This is the kind of cooking I tend to do.”
“You can cook for me anytime,” she said.
He got a text just then. He pulled out his phone and said, “Vince is checking out of the hotel room. He’ll meet us at the police station.”
She slowly lowered her fork. “Does that mean he’s heading back to Levi’s?”
Dezi nodded. “At least for today. We need to collate all the information everybody’s been pulling up and also find out what these three guys in the police station are into. Many of the names on our list have been cleared—possibly all but a couple. I’m staying here to keep watch on you.”
She beamed. “Good,” she said. “That’s exactly what I want to hear. I want to hear you’re not going back at all.”
At that, he chuckled. “Hey, I have a job to do,” he said, “but it’s not very far away.”
“No, it’s not,” she said. “So does that mean you might be interested in seeing me after this is all over?”
“Whether I’m interested in seeing you or not after this is all over,” he mimicked her, “has nothing to do with how far away I currently live.”
“Long-distance relationships suck,” she said with a grin. “But, if you’re only forty-five minutes away, that’s hardly long distance.”
He chuckled. “Absolutely true.” He finished his plate, rinsed the dishes, came back, took her empty plate and asked, “Are you ready to go?”
She nodded. “Yes, but I want to take some of the designs I was working on back to the office afterward.” She called out as she walked toward her bedroom, “I’ll get into the vault and grab some stuff I need, and then I’ll be ready.”
As he finished tidying up the kitchen, she walked back into the bedroom and then headed to her office and the walk-in safe. She disarmed the security system and stepped inside, looking for the designs she wanted. And froze, her heart slamming against her chest. She dropped to her knees. Each of the shelves full of her paper drawings had been cleaned off. She could hardly breathe.
Dezi appeared at the doorway. “Are you ready?”
Slowly she turned to face him. “They’re gone,” she whispered. “They’re all gone. All my designs. All my finished designs are gone.”
*
He did a quick search through the vault and then took a slower look, making sure nothing had fallen behind the shelves.
As he searched, she talked. “I put them all in here last night. You were here with me. Remember? You told me to change the combination.”
Squatting, he turned to look at her and nodded. “What did you change the combination to?”
“Just a different variation of the same numbers.”
He frowned. “And who would know that you changed it?”
“No one but you,” she cried out, raising both hands in frustration.
He nodded. “Okay, so we know for sure your sketches are not in here. Is anything else missing?”
She stared at him and then went through the drawers in the vault. “No. The partial designs are here as are the jewels. These are rough drafts of not-yet-completed designs—just ideas in progress. Not my finished ones.”
He stood, tapping his foot on the floor, his hands on his hips as he thought about it. “So they came after just your design sketches, or they didn’t have enough time to take anything more than that.”
“But we caught the three men. None of them were carrying anything like that.”
Dezi’s jaw locked. “I’m afraid they were a diversion,” he announced. �
�Although that’s a lot of men for a diversion. Maybe one of them was expected to come in and get what they came for.”
“Then why kidnap me?”
“Because it gave them free access to the safe.” He swore heavily. “We even said to the cops last night that, as far as we knew, nothing had been taken, but we didn’t know for sure, and we didn’t come back and immediately check, did we?”
“No, we didn’t,” she said, tears welling in her eyes. Angrily she brushed the tears away. “It’s so sad somebody took these.”
“Do you have copies of them?”
She nodded. “Yes. Yes, I do.”
“And where are those?”
“I scanned them to my cloud storage last night for safekeeping.”
“Who would have known about that?”
“Only those who have access to my work,” she said. “They would have gotten a notification that I had added a certain number of new files to the cloud storage.”
He nodded. “Right. Somewhere along the line, did you also send an email or a memo or text to yourself about the new vault code?” As he watched, the color drained from her face, and he realized she had. “Because you have trouble remembering numbers, don’t you?”
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Yes, I do,” she said. “I’m dyslexic. And I get numbers backward all the time. I have to write them down, or I’ll never remember.”
“Where did you write it down?”
“I have a password file on my laptop,” she said with a groan. “I opened it, changed the password, and then I closed it down.”
“And don’t tell me it’s backed up in the same cloud storage?”
Shame-faced, she nodded her head.
“So anybody who has access got a notification that you changed that file, correct?”
She stood, wrapping her arms around her chest and started to shake violently.
He leaned forward, tugged her into his arms and held her close. “We’ll have to change your security habits to keep you safe, to keep your creations safe, sweetheart.”
