He nodded. "Last night, a strange thing happened to your dad," he said. "A strange thing also happened to you, and to me. So let's take a closer look at what all three of us have in common."
There was an odd inevitability to it, as the name popped out of her, like it had been waiting to be let free. "Osterman," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"But...but he's dead," she said helplessly. "Three years ago, now. He was burned to a crisp. A fire in his lab. It's a dead end."
Kev shook his head. "Osterman murdered and tortured people for decades. I don't buy the fire in the lab. There's more to it than that."
"So you'll take Des up on his offer to look at the archives?"
Irritation flashed across Kev's face. "I don't look forward to having him in my face, but it's a start. He might be in cahoots with your dad, so that's a risk." He grimaced. "I'll call him. I guess."
"Call him," she suggested. "Call him now. Let's get started."
Kev shook his head slowly back and forth. "I get started, Edie. Not you. You stay guarded in a safe, remote place."
She stared at him. "What do you mean?"
"What I said. No more, no less." His eyes were hard as flint.
Her spine straightened. "No," she said. "We do this together."
"Don't start." She'd never heard his voice sound so cold. He sounded like a different man. "This is an argument that you will lose."
Well, she was a different woman, too. "No, Kev," she said. "I have not exchanged one prison for another. Or one warden for another."
"I'm sorry that you see it in those terms."
"Those are the only terms there are to see," she said. "Consider this. To make this work the way you want, you would have to genuinely abduct me. Right here and now, in this restaurant. I refuse to comply. I am done with that bullshit. Now and forever. Understand?"
His eyes closed. A muscle twitched in his jaw. "Christ, Edie."
"You can't do it, Kev," she said quietly. "It's just not in you. You're not like my dad. And thank God for that."
He buried his face in his hands. "Shit," he muttered.
Several minutes passed while she let him digest that. He finally lifted his face, his eyes blazing with intensity. "A compromise," he said.
"I'm not compromising about this," she told him.
"Please," he said. "I can't tell you why I feel this way, but I sense it so strongly. You're in danger. You, specifically. Those men were trying to abduct you. Your father is trying to control you. Somebody's trying to frame you for murder. Des Marr wants to fuck you. Everyone is after you, babe. Just let me do this one thing alone. The archives. Just that. Just stay off the screen for just a couple of days, while I get a clearer sense of what we're dealing with. Please, Edie. I love you."
"That's not the issue!" she snapped. "Do not use that against me!"
"I just found you!" His voice was rough. "Let me keep you safe for a couple days, at least! I'm so afraid of losing you. I came so close last night. I can't stand it. It would kill me. It would fucking destroy me."
"What about my fear of losing you?" she yelled back. "Isn't that just as valid? This is not fair! Why aren't we arguing about me giving you permission to traipse around alone, huh? Explain that to me!"
His mouth hardened. "Sure, I'll explain it. Extensive martial arts training, three guns, five knives, and a roll of garotte wire. Sorry, correction. Four knives, since I left one in that fucker's leg. That's why I go, and you stay. Just a couple days. That's all I'm asking, Edie."
"And then? What happens then?"
"Then we renegotiate," he said smoothly.
She tilted her head and regarded him through slitted eyes. "Like hell we do. You think you're so slick, don't you?"
"Slick ain't even the word for it," said a harsh, gravely voice from behind them. "Watch out for Kevlar, the mystery man, honey."
Their heads whipped around. Three people were arrayed near the table. An older man led the phalanx, about seventy, broad and thickset, with a scowling bulldog face, a grizzled crew cut and glinting silver stubble. A woman of roughly the same age built like a large brick flanked him. Same downturned scowl, same bulldog face, but her hair was a bouffant helmet of curls dyed matte black, and she wore a paisley polyester caftan and lots of clashing plastic jewelry.
On the other side of the old man was a muscular, dark, extremely handsome guy who was grinning crazily, from ear to ear. She recognized the dimples from the Lost Boys magazine article.
Wow. This was Kev's adopted family.
Kev let out a sigh of resignation. "Edie, meet the Ranieris."
Kev would never have dreamed that he could be grateful to that motley crew for interrupting, but he could've kissed them. Even Tony.
"I coulda shot your ass up ten times over for how you wasn't paying attention, kid," Tony scolded, and then he and Rosa trained squint-eyed stares on Edie as if she were a heifer being considered for purchase. Bruno just scoped her shamelesly, waggling his eyebrows.
"Nice, Kevlar," he said, in admiring tones. "Sweet."
Tony sat next to Kev. Rosa sat next to Edie. Rosa's fixed, hungry stare made Edie squirm in her chair. Bruno took the last chair.
"So this is her," Tony said heavily.
"Edie, this is Tony Ranieri, Rosa Ranieri, his sister, and Bruno, their grand-nephew," Kev announced.
Edie nodded with a shy smile, and murmured a greeting.
"So you're the billionaire's daughter," Tony announced.
Fucking ouch. Kev hissed through his teeth. Tony had the grace and subtlety of a jackhammer. "Tony, goddamnit--"
"You ain't what I expected," Tony sounded faintly miffed.
"What did you expect?" Edie asked, bemused.
"A fluffhead socialite," Bruno offered helpfully. "Gidget goes to Paris. You know, pearls and heels and ringlets and a big dress."
She laughed. "I've got the big dress, at least. It's at the hotel."
Kev thumbed the cell on, and pulled up the photo he'd taken of her in the dress. He handed it to Tony. "Get a load of the dress."
Tony peered over his glasses, staring into the little display screen, and let out a grunt of cautious approval. "Hmmph. That's more like it."
Rosa grabbed the phone, and let out the exact same satisfied grunt. "Nice dress. Now that looks like a billionaire's kid."
They stared at Edie again, trying to cross-reference the big dress billionairess image with the flesh-and-blood girl, but he could see that they were struggling with it. Edie had dressed down again, bigtime. Back were the dark rimmed, awkward glasses, the long mop of concealing hair, the faded jeans, the loose, knee-length button up sweater. Strange, though. Trying to disguise her beauty made it all the more poignant for him. It also made him want to grab her, peel it all off. Wallow in her splendor. God. So pretty. She glowed.
"I actually don't have anything to do with the billions," she blurted out.
Tony and Rosa looked at her blankly. "How's that, honey?" Tony asked.
She looked uncomfortable. "I was cut out. I'm just your average starving artist now. No billions. In fact, my bank account's over-drawn."
Tony grunted. "Yeah, we heard your daddy was a real hard-ass."
She slanted Kev a glance. "Yeah, there seems to be a lot of that in my life lately."
"So what's wrong with you? Why'd he cut you off?" Tony demanded. "What did you do?"
"That's Edie's private business, Tony," Kev said.
"No, it's OK," she said. "There are a lot of reasons, actually. I embarrass him. I say whatever I'm thinking at the wrong times, I don't dress appropriately, I chose the wrong occupation, and I, ah...I don't follow orders well." She shot Kev another hard look.
He gazed back. She wanted a challenge? He'd let the Ranieris loose on her. Let them tear and rend. He'd be damned if he'd intervene.
"And now he's pissed because of Kev," Bruno concluded. "It's a real Romeo and Juliet scenario. Super romantic. Man, I go for that."
"I wasn't expecting a
ll of you to come out here," Kev complained.
"You weren't thinking," Bruno said. "Fortunately, you've got me to think for you. Zia Rosa's the person least likely to be associated with you in a cyber-search, so we had her rent the car. And once she knew, you think she was going to stay behind? With a new girlfriend to grill?"
"I guess not," he said, with ill grace. "Jesus. What a circus."
"So me and Tony and Rosa go back to the city in my car, and I go back to work this afternoon, since some of us poor slobs actually have to work. Remember work? Or has it been too long, for you?"
"I know all about work," he muttered.
Bruno snorted. "And I come up to the cabin tomorrow morning bright and early to spell you and do my pit bull imitation, so that you can go do your Osterman archives searching bullshit in santa pace."
"Ah! Really!" Edie's tone made Kev's stomach sink. "So you two have already organized everything! How helpful of you!"
Everyone promptly found something else to look at. Bruno looked up at a wall full of Indian artifacts, whistling. Tony and Rosa became deeply absorbed with the tugboat going by on the river outside.
In fact, Kev had taken great care to discuss this aspect of the plan with Bruno while Edie was in the shower. For simplicity's sake.
"This stuff takes some advance planning," he muttered lamely.
Her elvish eyebrow tilted up to a dangerous angle. "It would have been nice to be invited to the planning session."
"So, ah, Edie!" Bruno broke in, his voice big and fake and hearty. "How'd you like the rose petals and the candles?"
Edie couldn't help but smile at that transparent, bouncing clown. "I loved them," she said softly. "It was wonderful. The food was marvelous, too. Thank you. It was a lovely thought."
Well, hell. Bruno's instincts and timing were better than his own, but that reflection just irritated the shit out of him. Sweet-talking punk. "Breaking into my apartment was somewhat less wonderful, though."
Bruno gave him an indignant look. "Just trying to help you out, buddy. You would never have thought of rose petals on the bed in a million years. Watch and learn." He waggled his eyebrows again. "A guy gets amazing mileage out of a little gesture like that."
Kev was so grateful for the giggle that burst out behind Edie's hand, he decided not to come down on Bruno after all. For now.
Edie turned her attention to Tony. "I've been so curious to meet you, after what Kev told me," she said.
Tony looked intensely suspicious. "What did he tell you?"
"How you saved his life," Edie said. "And chased that guy away who was beating him, and left your job to hide Kev. That was brave."
Tony grunted. "Stupid, more like," he said gruffly. "Real nice '83 Cadillac Escalade I had to get rid of after I put him in the backseat. He was more like raw hamburger than a man. Shoulda seen that damn car. Had to bribe someone to bury the sorry piece of shit in a landfill."
Kev winced. "Jesus, Tony! Too much information!"
But there was no stopping Tony. "It ain't like you can take a car to an auto detailer and say hey, man, can you get a couple a quarts of human blood outta this thing? Fuck, no. Had to ditch the whole car for this crazy punk. He cost me money from the start. Shit, he still does."
"And sewing him up, ah, madonna santa," Rosa flapped her hands expressively. "His face. Like sewing wet tissue paper."
Kev slanted Edie an apologetic glance. "Sorry," he muttered.
"It's OK," Edie replied. "I saw you in that condition, too."
That was a shocker, and required lengthy explanations about Edie's presence at her dad's office that fateful day eighteen years before. But Kev was getting antsy. "We need to move," he broke in.
Tony and Rosa hovered next to Edie while he paid for the meal, eyeballing her as if she were some exotic animal. They were going to embarrass the shit out of him. The price he had to pay for their help.
Zia Rosa opened fire. "You want babies, honey?" she demanded.
Edie turned pink. "Yes," she admitted. "Very much. Someday."
Zia Rosa snorted. "Someday? What's this someday crapola? You ain't getting any younger." She glared at Kev. "He certainly isn't."
"You don't even know how old I am, Zia," he reminded her, as he stuffed his change into his wallet.
"Old enough." Zia Rosa dug in her imposing shiny black plastic purse, and tossed him the keys to a rental. "Old enough."
"Edie's twenty-nine," he informed her.
Rosa was unimpressed. "My nonna back in Brancaleon was a grandmother by the time she was twenty-nine!"
"You can't be recommending that as family planning," Kev said.
Rosa gave his good cheek an admonishing pat. "You wait too long, your sperm's gonna get old."
"My sperm is fine, Zia. Back off."
Edie embraced the older woman, and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Give us a little time. We need to work out some things first," she said. "But we're already talking about it."
"Talk?" Rosa's mouth quivered as she sternly refused to smile. "I know what makes babies. It ain't talk. You don't start now, Tony and me'll be too feeble to be good nonni. The babysitting, the diapers--"
"I ain't changing no fuckin' diapers," Tony said darkly.
Zia Rosa spat something at him in that language Kev often cursed in. Edie glanced at Kev. "What did she say?"
Kev hesitated, but Bruno leaped into the breach. "She said, 'shut up, dickhead,' he translated cheerfully. "Very grandmotherly, huh?"
"Good-bye, Zia," Kev said loudly. "Thanks for the car. I owe you."
Tony and Bruno each took one of Zia Rosa's elbows, and hauled her toward the door.
"Eat my pork tenderloin!" she called. "Rice pudding, too! It's in the trunk!" She jerked her chin at Kev. "Strong sperm! Eat meat!"
Tony and Bruno led Rosa out to the parking lot. When Bruno's BMW pulled away, Kev looked over the garish yellow Nissan Xterra that had been parked beside it. An eye-jarring, memorable color, but what the fuck. That was Zia Rosa for you. "Sorry about that," he said.
"Don't be sorry," Edie said. "She's impatient. She wants grandbabies. She thinks of you as her son. I think she's great. I think they're all great."
He glanced over at her, startled. "Really? You do?"
"So direct," she said. "You know where you stand with them."
It was the God's own truth, but it had certainly never occurred to him to be grateful for it. "Huh. Glad it works for someone. Let's move."
CHAPTER 22
Tony's cabin was in the middle of nowhere. Kev crossed the river at Cascade Locks, drove east on the Washington side to White Salmon, and then headed north up into the mountains around Mt. Adams. The roads grew progressively smaller and rougher, winding higher until they were teetering on crumbling, washboarded gravel tracks barely wide enough for the vehicle's axle. Bumping over washed-out creeks, crawling past collapsed shoulders, rockfalls, cliffs. Heart-in-mouth driving. Kev stomped upon all attempts at conversation, so she stared out the window, fuming as the miles crawled by.
If he'd wanted to trap her up here, he'd done a great job. It would take her ages to hike out of this place. If she didn't freeze to death or get eaten by a hungry predator first.
When he finally parked, she slid out, startled at the sweetness in the air, the vast silence that contained infinite songs and sounds. The trees at that altitude were a shaggy, short collection of hardy conifers, interspersed with dead white skeleton trees and choked with gray undergrowth. There was a shallow, trembling lake, a cold wind whiffling across its reedy surface, the water as transparent as glass.
Kev grabbed her hand and her suitcase, and pulled her through a thicket of trees. On the other side was a tiny clearing, with a cabin. It was humble, just a box made of weatherbeaten wood. Kev undid a heavy padlock and went inside, throwing open the shutters. Inside was a tiny kitchen, bathroom, a sleeping area with a curtain to divide it. One bed, covered with a canvas drop cloth and a plastic tarp. A sealed plastic bag full of bedding sat on top
of it.
"I'll get a fire going, and light the propane for the water heater," Kev said. "In a couple hours, it'll be warm enough for a shower."
She looked around, charmed. "Did Tony build this?"
Kev grabbed a handful of kindling from a box by the door and crouched in front of a potbellied stove. "No, this isn't Tony's style. He bought this place about twenty years ago. The widow of a friend of his who got killed in Nam needed the cash. Tony's not much of an outdoorsman, but he used to bring me and Bruno up here, just to get us out of the city. I've been keeping the place up, last ten years or so."
"It's beautiful," she admitted. She didn't experience the grandeur of nature very often. But she loved it, when she got the chance.
"Yeah, I love it up here." His face was thoughtful, as he lit the crumpled paper inside his tower of kindling and watched the flames take hold, licking at the twigs and bark. "I feel more comfortable here than anywhere else. Maybe..." His voice trailed off.
Edie finished his thought. "You came from a place like this?"
"It's possible," he admitted. "I have dreams. A house in the woods. Mountains, trees."
"People, too?" she asked, hesitantly.
He nodded, his face somber in the dimness. "I can see their faces in the dream, and hear their voices, but it all slips away when I wake up," he admitted. "Like a wall slamming down. I can't hang on to it."
"So the memories are there," she mused. "Just blocked."
"I don't know how to pry them out," he said. "There was no physical trauma to my brain. The people who did this to me didn't cave in my skull. I think the block is self-inflicted."
She sat down on the bed. "You did it to yourself? How?"
"I don't know. It's protective, to keep Osterman out. It's just that I can't undo it. That's just my hypothesis, though. Who knows what really happened. I'll probably never know. I just have to accept that."
She looked around the tiny cabin. Kev followed her gaze. "It's pretty basic," he said. "No cable TV, phone, cell or Internet. It's one of the reasons I like the place so much. But I'm sorry if you get bored."
Fade to Midnight Page 31
