Then she recalled his exact words and smiled to herself. He didn’t just think she’d been a help. He thought she was terrific.
“We’re almost home,” he said, glancing out the window, then at her again. “Can you stay for a while, or do you have to head right back?”
“I can stay.” She only wished she could stay for a lot longer than a while.
As the limo turned off the road and into Eagles Roost, she remembered about the champagne and moved over to one of the seats beside the fridge.
“I was hoping,” she said, pulling out the chilled bottle and handing it to Sully, “we’d feel like celebrating. And these three other bottles,” she added, taking them out as well, “are imitation stuff for the boys. The man at my deli swore they’d love it.”
“Well, we won’t have to wait long to find out.” He gestured through the window to where all five kids, plus Roxy and two of the three cats, were sitting on the porch. As the limo pulled to a stop, the boys and Roxy charged down the steps.
“So?” Freckles was asking before they even had a chance to get out of the limo. “Did you guys have a good appointment?”
“It was fine,” Sully said.
“Is that champagne?” Hoops asked, staring at the bottles they were holding.
“One is,” Sully told him. “The others are kids’ champagne. Lauren thought we might want to celebrate.”
“Celebrate what?” Billy demanded.
When Sully glanced at her, Lauren gave him a little shrug, hoping he didn’t think the champagne had been a mistake. She hadn’t considered that he might not want to confide in the boys.
“Celebrate,” he said, turning back to them, “that our appointment had to do with the funding for Eagles Roost. And that it went pretty well.”
“So we got our money back?” Billy said. “Everythin’s fine now? We can stay here? For sure?”
“Well, things aren’t quite all worked out yet. But they’re looking better.”
“All right!” Billy hooted. Then the boys began giving each other high fives and grinning like Cheshire cats.
It made Lauren smile. If her board members had known how happy these kids were at Eagles Roost they’d have doubled the program’s funding instead of chopping it. But the fact remained that they’d chopped it. She could feel her smile fading, because she knew Sully wasn’t out of the woods yet.
The boys obviously figured that things being not quite worked out meant they were almost worked out. Which was undoubtedly what he wanted them to think so they’d stop worrying. In reality, though, things weren’t worked out at all. Not for the short term, at least.
The long term would be all right. She was certain that once she explained the true story about the bank robbery, the board members would decide to reinstate Sully’s funding for the next fiscal year.
As for the short term, though, every last cent of the foundation’s money had been allocated to other programs by now. So Sully was definitely going to have to find another source to keep Eagles Roost going for the next year.
He caught her gaze and motioned that they should go inside. The moment he started toward the lodge, the boys all fell into step after him…making him look like a champagne-toting Pied Piper.
She stood, following the six of them with her eyes for a moment, thinking that one way or another she was going to ensure this program didn’t run short of money.
LAUREN WAS GLAD she’d thought about bringing the kids’ champagne because it proved a hit. By the time the bottles were empty, the boys were all pretending to be tipsy. And even though they were acting incredibly silly, she couldn’t help laughing with them.
It was awfully hard to believe that each of these kids had come from an impossible home situation. Or that, as Sully had told her, they’d all arrived here with low self-esteem and a whole lot of other problems. Obviously, their chief eagle was a miracle worker.
She watched him horsing around with them for another minute, then reluctantly glanced at her watch again. The limo driver had an evening booking, so she really couldn’t stay much longer.
“Sully?” she said. “I’m afraid I’ve got to get going.”
“You could sleep over again,” Billy said quickly. “The Yankees are in Toronto tonight. You could watch with us.”
“You must be forgetting,” Sully said to him, “there’s no TV-watching these days. That,” he added to Lauren, “has to do with their caper at Ben’s.”
“Well,” Billy suggested, “how ’bout Monopoly, Lauren? We sometimes play that.”
“I’d like to, Billy. I’m sure it would be a lot of fun. But I really do have to get home.”
“I’ll walk with you to the limo,” Terry offered.
“We’ll all walk with her,” Tony told him.
“No,” Sully said firmly. “You’ll all stay in the lodge. I want to talk to her alone for a minute.”
The boys reverted to their tipsy routines while they were saying goodbye. Then they stood inside the screen door, giggling and calling more drunken-sounding farewells across the clearing to her, until Sully turned and ordered them to knock it off.
“Now, about Saturday,” he said, looking back at her. “The kids are getting picked up around ten, so I’ll leave as soon as they’re gone. That should get me into Manhattan about two or so. And assuming you’ve got Blackstone’s address by then…” He paused, rubbing his jaw.
“Look,” he went on at last, “I’d like to simply show up at the guy’s place and surprise him. But it would be best if I went on my own. As soon as I tell him who I am, he’ll know Ben blew his cover. And he sure isn’t going to be happy to see me, so—”
“No, Sully, I want to go with you. I really do. Besides, you might need my help. His building’s bound to have security, and it’s easier for a woman to talk her way around a doorman. And we make a great team, remember? Which means I should definitely be along.”
He didn’t say a word, merely stood gazing at her, the look in his eyes saying he’d be kissing her if the boys and her driver weren’t watching. So where were magic wands when you needed them? She’d dearly love to make everyone else disappear for a few minutes.
“I know you have a good point,” he said at last, “but I still don’t think—”
“Let’s wait until Saturday to decide, all right?”
“Well…all right.”
“Good. I’ll expect you around two, then.” Her heart had started pounding, so she paused long enough for a deep, slow breath. Even though she’d already decided to take the risk, that didn’t mean it wasn’t incredibly scary.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” she said as the driver opened her door. “You don’t have to wear a suit to the exhibit opening unless you’d like to. A lot of Marisa’s artist friends would boycott it if they had to wear suits.”
“Oh…right…glad you thought to tell me.”
She gave him a smile that made him wish she wasn’t leaving. Then the driver closed her door, climbed into the front, and they were on their way.
Sully stood staring after them, thinking about the opening. He’d thought about it a lot since she’d first mentioned it. But despite all his thinking, he hadn’t come up with an excuse to get himself out of having to go. And after she’d come all the way up here and helped him with Ben, there was no way he could say he wasn’t going. Not even if, by Saturday, he’d thought of the most fantastic excuse in the history of the free world.
No, he was a doomed man. He’d have to meet her parents. And her sister. And her brother. Not to mention the assortment of other relatives.
It was going to be like running a gauntlet, he just knew it was. Or facing an entire panel of Spanish Inquisitioners. Or being caught in sniper fire in the middle of a barren field.
He didn’t have a single doubt about how awful it would be. The only thing he didn’t know was which Van Slyke would take the first potshot at him.
RATHER THAN 10:00 a.m., it was more like eleven before the boys got away from Eagles Roost. Tha
t meant, Sully thought, glancing at his watch, he probably wouldn’t make it to Lauren’s before three. If the traffic was bad, it would be well after.
He gave her a quick call to say he’d be late, then loaded Roxy into the van. Once he’d dropped her off at old Zeke Scrouthy’s, he headed for the Adirondack Northway—which, southbound, would take him practically into Manhattan.
By the time he reached the highway, he’d begun thinking about how he was going to convince Lauren she shouldn’t go to see Dirk Blackstone with him. That just wasn’t a good idea when Blackstone was a crook.
Oh, he might be a rich crook, with enough money to pay somebody like Leroy Korelenko to do his dirty work, but he was still a crook. And in case he turned out to be trouble, as well, it would be far better if Lauren wasn’t along.
If she was bound and determined to go, though, how was he going to stop her? After considering the question for a few miles, he decided the easiest thing would be to take her with him but convince her to wait in the van. At least until he’d had a chance to scope things out.
That problem solved, he forgot about Blackstone and let himself think about the prospect of spending time with Lauren. The thought was so appealing that every time the odometer clicked over another mile he grew more eager to reach the city. By the time he was heading across the Triborough Bridge toward Manhattan, he could hardly keep a smile off his face.
He’d always been a decisive man, so all the indecision he’d felt about her had bothered him. But he’d done some rational thinking after she’d left Eagles Roost on Wednesday, and he’d realized he hadn’t been seeing the forest for the trees, that Lauren wasn’t her money or her family or any of the other things that had been bothering him. She was simply herself. So he wasn’t going to keep dwelling on the fact that she was up to her beautiful blue eyes in money.
He turned down Lexington, drove south a few blocks, then cut over to Fifth Avenue, wondering why that forest-trees thing hadn’t occurred to him right off the bat, why he’d let all the other stuff bother him so much he hadn’t zoomed right in on what a terrific person she was.
Because she really was. The kids liked her, Grace and Otis liked her, even Roxy liked her. As for him… Well, he liked her so much he’d begun to wonder if he wasn’t well on his way to loving her.
That possibility, he had to admit, was more than a little unnerving, but he was trying not to let it worry him too much. And as for this weekend, he intended to simply enjoy being with her.
The traffic on Fifth Avenue was heavy, but he eventually reached her building—a beautiful old dark brick place just above East Seventy-third—and turned the van over to the parking valet stationed by the front door. Since there was still no trace of Lauren’s car, she’d arranged for him to use her space.
When he got to the building’s entrance, he stepped aside and waited while a woman with a large black poodle made her way out. The dog had a rhinestone-studded leash and pink bows on its ears—bows that any self-respecting country dog would have torn to shreds rather than be seen wearing in public.
The doorman exchanged pleasantries with the woman, patted the dog, then turned his attention to Sully. He was extremely polite, but it was clear he was the first line of defense against any riffraff who might try to get in.
The second line of defense was lurking inside the lobby—another doorman type, who called up to Lauren’s apartment to make sure she was actually expecting company.
“Mr. Sullivan?” he said, hanging up his phone. “Go right on up, sir.”
He nodded, then headed over to the elevators and stood absently gazing around while he waited. From the street, the place had clearly said “money”—even if it said it in a subdued way. In the lobby, the word was quietly echoed by marble, wood and expensive furnishings. All in all, Lauren’s building was even more impressive than what he’d been imagining, and he’d been imagining something pretty impressive.
When one of the elevators finally arrived and carried him smoothly up to the ninth floor, the door opened onto a hallway with walls papered in pale green grass cloth. The dark green carpet felt a foot deep beneath his shoes.
There were only four apartments on the entire floor, two on either side of the elevators, which meant each of them had to be enormous. He was just about to check the numbers for Lauren’s when one of the doors opened and there she was.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Hot on Dirk Blackstone’s trail
“HI,” LAUREN SAID from her apartment doorway, giving Sully one of her fabulous smiles.
He simply gazed at her. He couldn’t figure out how she managed to keep getting more beautiful every time he saw her, but she did. Her pale blue dress made her eyes look impossibly, heart-stoppingly bright.
“Are you coming in?” she asked, stepping back to let him past her and into an entrance foyer as big as an oversized bedroom.
Fleetingly, he wondered how clean her creamy marble floor would stay if his kids were running around on it. Then she shut the door and smiled at him again, driving every last thought of the boys from his mind.
“Let’s just hang that in here for the moment,” she said, taking his garment bag and slipping it into a closet.
“Thanks. I thought about dropping it off at my buddy’s, but it makes more sense to just change here, right?”
“Right,” she said, turning back to him.
He hesitated a second, then draped his arms around her waist, pulled her close and kissed her.
Just as he was thinking they didn’t have to be in any hurry to leave for Dirk Blackstone’s, she murmured, “Sully?”
“Mmm?” He kissed her once more.
“Sully?” She whispered against his mouth. “We have to talk for a minute.”
Reluctantly, he loosened his arms to let her take a backward step—pleased when she reached for his hand as she did.
“Come into the living room,” she said, leading him across the sea of marble. It flowed from the foyer over to the far side of the living room and along into a formal dining room off the far end. Here and there, the marble was covered by lush area rugs the color of toasted almonds.
Not letting go of Lauren’s hand, he wandered over to the windows and checked out her view of Central Park, reminding himself again that he wasn’t going to think about her money—which was proving a little tough when her apartment made him feel like the proverbial fish out of water.
“Beautiful place,” he said, thinking how completely different it was from Eagles Roost.
“Thanks. I really like it. But let’s sit for a minute.”
He walked over to a couch with her, taking another quick glance around as they sat down. The room, about the size of a football field, was decorated with a combination of antiques and big overstuffed furniture covered in a pale yellow print. Between the boys’ snacks and their sneakers, they could really do a number on that fabric.
The only thing in the entire room that didn’t look expensive was Killer, who even clean and groomed looked like a streetwise tom. He sat unobtrusively in a wing chair, watching Sully through golden slits of eyes.
Figuring he’d leave renewing acquaintances with the cat for later, Sully focused on the large paintings that hung on one long wall. Like the furniture, they were pale in color, and the four of them were obviously related somehow—all depicting some sort of Medieval theme. They weren’t abstract, but were hardly realistic, either.
“Do you like them?” Lauren asked.
“In a way,” he said honestly.
“They’re my sister’s. Part of a series she’s just finished called Dreaming of Lancelot and Guinevere. Some of the others are in her new exhibit.”
He nodded, wishing he’d known to read up on the Knights of the Round Table.
“So,” Lauren went on, “I’m afraid there’s been a slight hitch in our plans.”
For a joyous half second he thought she was going to tell him the exhibit opening had been postponed. Then she said, “Chester ran into a bit of a pro
blem when he tried to check on Blackstone’s fax number. He’d expected that matching it up with a home or office would be straightforward, but it wasn’t.”
“You mean we don’t have our friend’s address or phone number.”
“No, not yet.”
That started a sinking feeling in the pit of Sully’s stomach. He dearly wanted to know why Blackstone was so eager to buy Eagles Roost, and the sooner he knew, the happier he’d be. But if he couldn’t get to the guy this weekend he’d be out of luck until after Grace and Otis were back. The baseball team’s camping trip was a once-a-summer event.
He realized Lauren had been speaking and looked at her once more. “Sorry? My mind was wandering.”
“I said that Chester still figures he can get what we want, he just ran out of time. In fact, when he called me to explain what had happened, he was at the airport—on his way to some out-of-town job.”
“And he gets back when?”
“In a week or so. But he said if we didn’t want to wait, we could have a shot at it ourselves.”
“Good, then we will.”
Lauren smiled. “Now, how did I know that’s exactly what you’d say?”
“Because you’re clairvoyant?”
She laughed at that.
When she did, it took a major effort not to reach for her. But he knew if he did, he might forget Blackstone even existed.
“The only thing about doing it ourselves,” she said, “is that Chester was worried we’d blow it. And he said if we did, we might make it harder for him.”
“So we won’t blow it. What do we do?”
“Well, the problem is that the fax number Ben had isn’t for a private fax machine. It’s the number of a business called Fax Depot, on Forty-Second Street—a place that still sends and receives faxes for people, believe it or not. Blackstone’s one of their customers.”
“I’d have thought,” Sully muttered, “a guy with twenty thousand bucks to give Leroy Korelenko would have his own fax machine.”
“Maybe he does. Maybe he just doesn’t want anyone being able to track him down too easily.”
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