"He paid double my rate, but the gig wasn't as presented. I was about to void my contract for non-compliance on the part of the principal when Miss April showed up.
Thought I should stay around."
April pulled herself together. "You two know each other? Glennon, you knew he followed me? Daniel, you knew where I holed up? What the fuck?"
"April, you worked here all week. How the hell did you miss the fact that the entire building is wired, that I have at least one man on duty twenty-four hours a day?"
A metallic click came from Glennon's direction as he thumbed the safety on his weapon.
Daniel did the same. "Miss April, to answer your question: we don't exactly know one another. We are, shall we say, aware of each other."
"I'm so relieved." April gathered her belongings. "Well, you two play nicely with the other children. I have a previous engagement. Adios, muchachos."
"Bloody hell, Garrett, what did you do to piss her off?"
"None of your damn business."
"You should know that the last bloke who rattled Miss April's cage suffered a split skull, a massive concussion, and will never father children."
April's level of annoyance grew; she knew the tone of her voice definitely reflected it, but she was tired and cranky."Looky here, thanks for the great news. It's a huge relief to know that I'm not wanted for manslaughter, plus, Doctor Demento can never reproduce to build his own band of depraved demon spawn. Have fun, boys. I'm outta here." April grabbed her gear, then headed out of the garage.
Daniel's solid body blocked her path. "Miss April, I cannot allow you to leave."
Glennon's voice sounded closer. " Miss April? Whatever. Wyndsor's right. You were lucky before. You won't last out on the street alone. Come back inside."
"Cannot allow? You cannot allow me to leave?" Try as she might, she couldn't manage to move past the Incredible Hulk. Her ire grew.
"Guys, I'm very confused by who's on which side. Also, daylight's approaching, but I have yet to reach the blasted sidewalk. Imagine that. You've blown my whole plan to shit."
In the budding light, April finally made out the profiles of both men.
Glennon spoke into his transmitter, then appeared to listen. "We can't stay here.
April, go back upstairs, get some shut-eye. We'll sort this out after the sun comes up.
Wyndsor?"
"She broke cover. I'm not leaving. And I think we've been made."
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Glennon's voice rolled out in a low growl.
"Corner, at the coffee shop. I was about to check it out when your girl here decided to bolt. Her safety became my priority. When I looked back, whoever had been there was gone."
"Sonofabitch. Our surveillance cameras just picked up activity by the corner. It might not be anything, but—"
In a reflexive move, April stepped back into the deeper shadow, pressed her back against the wall. She pointed toward Daniel, spoke in a voice tight with anger.
"So, let's get this correct, just for the sake of argument. You followed me, then someone followed you. You led the goony squad right to Garrett's lair, and now he's following me as well. I'm still stuck in Jersey, with a madman after me. I'm so fucking impressed. Brilliant planning. Absolutely fucking brilliant. Your mothers must be so proud." And my mother would wash my mouth out with soap for breaking out in potty-mouth.
Daniel's voiced dropped even deeper. "I wasn't tracked. Angelo was a screaming lunatic when I left, had his boys searching everywhere. If they've gotten close, it's more luck than anything else. Let's not waste time on what doesn't matter. We need to get you back inside, keep you under cover."
April snorted in frustration. "Yeah, well, I'm not going anywhere with either of you. I have places to go, things to do. Stuff that directly affects my physical well-being."
"Wyndsor, heads or tails?"
"Too dark to see."
"Just call it, will ya?"
"Heads."
"Great. You grab her. I'll grab her stuff."
April wasn't following the conversation. "What are you two . . . ?"
She stifled a screech as Daniel swooped her up, threw her over his shoulder as if she was a feather pillow. Her ass faced forward. She pummeled his back and shoulders with no effect.
Daniel grunted. "Damn it, quit pounding on me. Stop wriggling all over like a worm."
Glennon gathered up her belongings, then trailed after Daniel."She has the guest room. You get the sofa."
"Does anyone care what I want?" April, her head upside down, snarled.
Both men responded. "No."
* * * * *
After April reached the guest room, she swallowed two nighttime pain relievers, stripped down to her underwear, crawled into bed, then zonked out. When she woke, the sun had been up for hours.
Freshened up and dressed again, she opened her door, peered cautiously down the hallway. The sound of harsh voices came from the direction of the kitchen. Damn, no way to sneak out unnoticed.
"There is no option."
"And you're sure?"
"Sure enough."
April approached with a measure of vigilance. The two men had faced off on either side of the kitchen table, each with a mug of steaming coffee in hand. At least they don't have weapons.
"You're sure of what, exactly?" She helped herself to the coffee, avoided eye contact with Glennon.
"Wyndsor thinks he knows why Martone has such a burr up his butt over you."
"I don't think I know. I do know."
At the mention of her former fiancé, April’s gut clenched. "Do you mean other than I kicked him in the nuts and bashed him over the head? Dammit, I knew it wasn't over. He's never going to leave me in peace until he's run over by a bus. A really big bus. With giant spikes sticking out of the tires. Or maybe decapitated, then his head and body burned separately so he couldn't come back to life."
Neither man responded.
"Look, I've had about enough of this cloak-and-dagger bullshit, really. I could have been out of everyone's hair by dawn, but no, the Testosterone Twins wouldn't let me leave." Agitated, April set her cup on the table hard enough to splash droplets of coffee. She crossed her arms. "So, give it up, big guy."
Daniel shot her a hard look.
The glare she returned was worthy of Medusa. "Honest to God, I didn't do anything else to him. I just wanted to be gone, to get away clean. Not taunt the bastard so he'd come after me. I'm not a masochist or a total idiot. I do have some sense of self-preservation, however belated."
Daniel pulled out a chair. "Sit, have your coffee. Take your time, but tell us what happened at the estate. It's important."
She settled on the seat, closed her eyes. These heartless bozos wanted her to dredge up nightmares better left buried, being only recently dead. She took a swallow of coffee—hot, light, sweet—then dragged fingers through her hair.
The motion caught Daniel's attention. "You cut your hair." He looked closer.
"That's not your real color."
"Yeah, well, there were mitigating circumstances."
"I saw the dye job." Glennon hid a smile.
Daniel remained the focus of her attention. "Look, I already told Mr. Garrett the basics. Angelo tried to strangle me. I got away. He cornered me, slashed me. I kicked him in the nuts. Bashed him over the head for good measure. Then I ran. That's it."
Daniel prodded. "What did you take?"
"He caught me by surprise, which tanked my previous escape plans. I only had time to grab my shoulder bag and laptop, personal belongings."
"All right, that's a good beginning. Then you ran from the house?"
"Yes. No. Not quite. I went across the hall to his office. Used the fireplace poker, broke into the big file drawer in his desk. Found my stuff. Dumped everything into my shoulder bag, zipped it. Stuffed my laptop in its bag. Then I ran down the hall and out the front door."
"And you didn't take anything else?" Daniel pressed hard.
&
nbsp; "My license, ID, credit cards, personal stuff. Whatever was in the drawer. That's all."
"Did you see anyone?" Glennon chimed in. "Did anyone see you?"
"I'm sure some of the staff saw me in the hallway. They wouldn't interfere, we got along all right. Most of the servants are illegals from Guatemala. They hate Angelo; he treats them worse than slaves." She nodded toward Daniel. "You were still parking the car, I guess."
"I was expected to take dinner after I delivered you to the door. I ate in the kitchen only if Martone's men were not there. Usually I took meals in my room, which was in the carriage house. All his guards bedded down in the carriage house, unless Martone had company. I explained about the lack of efficiency in his method, but he was the boss." He looked down at his cup. "I didn't know about the attack. I should have escorted you inside before I drove to the garage."
Glennon made a rude noise. The two men traded snarly looks.
April shook her head. "Not your fault. No way to predict he'd go batshit when he did. I went out the front gate so the alarm would trip. Then I circled through the woods to the back of the property. I hoped that Angelo would send his idiots out the front, figuring I'd head back to the city."
"And then . . . ?" Glennon asked.
"Is this really necessary?"
"For your protection, yes," Daniel said. "You're in a lot deeper than you know."
April, about to respond in smartass vernacular, gave him a look. Then another, longer look.
She'd only ever seen Daniel in a dark suit, white shirt, dark tie, aviator shades, hair trimmed almost military short, always immaculately groomed. Now, damp from his shower, longer-than-usual shiny black waves teased the back of his neck. Thick black lashes set off stunning steel gray eyes. Strong facial features, jaw square and chiseled, a slight cleft in his chin. He needed a shave. The borrowed black sleeveless GMG T-shirt he wore stretched tight over massive shoulders and chest. Even tighter than on Glennon, who was totally buff. A 75th Ranger Regiment tattoo graced one bulging shoulder. As he reached for his coffee, she saw Rangers Lead the Way tattooed under a stylized Ranger tab on the other shoulder. Black Ninja-style pants finished the picture.
Keep away. He's papered with "no trespassing" signs all over. Pay attention to the business at hand. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to get the hell out of here.
April snapped back. "I was bleeding. I used my shirt to staunch the blood. Hunkered down until dark, until I could find somewhere safe."
On the day of the Great Escape, April had worn a black skirt suit, black pumps, white shirt. When she looked in the mirror, she'd been amused to see that she could have passed for a Secret Service agent. Later, she'd hoped the suit would allow her to blend. Just one more young professional woman in the city. She hadn't counted on bleeding.
Once safely hidden amongst the heavy undergrowth in the woods, she'd folded and tied the shirt around her middle to keep pressure on the wound, then slid back into the jacket. Stayed low until dark. Crossed the highway via the overhead walkway.
Snuck into a little Catholic church behind one of the malls. The priest found her in the sacristy as she tried to staunch the fresh flow of blood. Father, I'm not Catholic. He'd smiled kindly. "We can't all be perfect. If we were, I'd be out of a job." The good nuns from the convent next door cleaned the wound, dressed their foundling in freshly laundered, thrift shop hand-me-downs, then bedded her down on a small cot with clean sheets.
"My folks flew out on the Friday after the week of engagement festivities wound down. The last of the booze-soaked hangers-on left. I was finally alone with Angelo—
then, my time in hell began. He's a smooth operator, I'll give him that much. He'd arranged everything so perfectly, no one would suspect anything was wrong.
Especially me, the stupid farm girl in the city."
She shook her head. "If there is such a thing as reincarnation, and we come back to earth to atone for our sins, I must have been a bitch-and-a-half in my previous life. I landed directly in Dante's Inferno. Well, Martone's Inferno."
Her voice cracked. It took her a few minutes to gain control again.
"The nightmare seemed to go on forever. I sorta lost count. Until, on that special morning, Mr. Wyndsor the Bodyguard took me to and from the book shop."
April acknowledged Daniel with a small wave of her fingers. To her surprise, he looked uncomfortable.
She ticked off the days on her fingers. "Saturday afternoon I bashed Angelo, Saturday night at the church, Sunday with the nuns. Yeah, I'm sure that's right. Monday morning, hitched a ride on the church bus to a little savings and loan no one knew about. I have a safety deposit box."
Her temple pounded; she massaged it. "I grabbed a grand of the three thousand Mom gave me—she didn't trust Angelo—stashed everything in the box that might be traceable. The bus dropped me at the mall with some elderly church ladies. They mall-walked, I hit a discount drug store. Bought hair dye, colored contact lenses, more bandage stuff. Snuck through the woods behind the buildings to a cheap motel the truck drivers use. Changed my hair and eye color, bailed out of the motel that night."
She averted her eyes. "I'm not usually paranoid or anything, but I felt someone watching me."
"Someone was watching. Me." Daniel shifted his stance. "I picked up your trail in the woods. You were good, I'll give you that much. Missed the church, caught up to you at the drugstore, sat outside at the first truck stop motel. Watched from the parking lot.
Martone's mob checked cab companies and commercial bus lines, any transportation that headed back to the city or metro airports."
"Great, if you were spying on me, I don't need to explain."
"I wasn't there. Please continue," Glennon said.
April heaved a big sigh. "I moved around to different coffee shops, used free Wi-Fi, checked the news. I didn't know if Angelo was dead or not, if I'd killed him."
"And if you'd killed him?" Glennon asked. "What then?"
" Then I would have done a Snoopy Dance of absolute joy, shaved my head, changed my name, and headed west in a heartbeat. I figured if he was dead, the goonies would be running around like headless chickens."
Daniel leaned forward a bit. "What did you do at the bank?"
April considered. "I pulled out everything from my shoulder bag that had my name or an ID number, stashed it all in the safety deposit box. Even my cell phone. And I pulled the battery out, first. I was afraid I'd screw up and use something that could be traced."
The men exchanged looks. April didn't miss the swap.
"Now what?"
"Apparently, it's not that simple. Daniel and I were, ah, discussing it before you joined us."
"So?"
Leaving his seat, Daniel wandered into the living room, then turned to her.
"Martone never pays attention to his employees. To guys like him, we're beneath notice. I maintained the illusion of being deaf and dumb, the perfect servant." He walked to the windows overlooking the street, careful not to present a target to anyone outside the building.
April glanced from Glennon to Daniel. "I don't get it. You're telling me this, why?"
"Look, there's no nice way to say this. Martone needed to transfer assets into your name. Your unmarried name. He's under federal investigation on any number of charges. His band of sleazy attorneys badgered him to divest himself of financial interests outside of the family. Didn't want anyone's hands on his assets. He thinks he's a big-time player, a boss, the next capo. He's really just another spoiled, stupid criminal.
In my experience, stupid translates to dangerous."
Glennon nodded.
"Now he needs you back. Or dead. A live body or a death certificate. He doesn't particularly care which."
April couldn't find her voice for a moment. Her first attempt resulted in a squeak, so she took a swallow of coffee, forgotten and barely warm, before she tried again.
"He told me that he wanted to place some inconsequential papers in my name, as a
sign of his trust in me. What a complete idiot I am. I believed him, never looked at the documents." Her mother's business voice boomed loud and clear in April's memory: never sign anything before you read every last word.
"After you were married, he could prevent you from turning evidence against him. The word is he jumped the gun, expecting to be indicted."
"Indicted for what?"
Glennon grunted. "Believe me, the list is long and hideous."
"And you didn't take anything else from Angelo?" Daniel's eyes bored into hers.
"Anything at all?"
"Damn it, why do you guys insist on asking me the same freakin' question. No!"
Her level of agitation skyrocketed. "Why?"
"Just a hunch," Daniel said. "Word is that he's looking for something other than your corpse or your signature."
"Well, now, aren't you a little ray of sunshine."April shook her head."No, I have nothing of his. My shoulder bag, my laptop. Driver's license, birth certificate. Credit cards, bank cards. Dead cell phone. Whatever other ID was in the desk drawer." Her face scrunched up with the effort."Holy shit! Wait! The ring. I have the freakin' ring!"
Both men jumped to attention at her unexpected shout.
"The engagement ring. He made me wear it. I think to show everyone that he owned me." She brought her shoulder bag to the kitchen table, dumped the contents on the tabletop. Unzipped the inner pocket, took out a folded envelope, then tore it open.
She held up a large, exquisitely filigreed ring of pink gold, encrusted with what appeared to be diamonds, emeralds, and rubies. It was superb, an antique, a museum quality piece. "I forgot about it until I washed up at the convent. Took a bit to scrub the dried blood from the filigree. It's Angelo's great-great-great-somebody's ring, handed down through the family for generations. He's probably after the damn ring."
She placed the ring on the table, pushed it toward Daniel. "Mail it to him from another town. Then he'll stop looking for me, right?"
Both men carefully looked through the items she'd dumped on the table.
Hunting April Page 6
