Played

by Barbara Freethy

  “What if he was blackmailing you? Holding your father hostage?” J.T. challenged. “Would you still tell me the truth then? Because from where I sit you’d do just about anything to protect your old man.”

  She’d never considered either of those possibilities, and a chill ran down her spine. “Why would you suggest that Evan has my father under his control?”

  “It’s a possibility. There has to be a reason why you’re keeping secrets.”

  “Well, it’s not--” Her words were cut off by the sound of her father’s voice, louder now.

  “Christina,” her father said.

  She frowned, wondering where he was. He seemed to be calling her from the other side of the wall. That was when she realized there was a door hidden in the shadows. She jumped to her feet. “He must be in there,” she said, rushing to the door. “I don’t know why he keeps saying my name like that. It’s creepy.”

  “Everything about this place is creepy. I think you’re being set up, Christina.”

  “Why would you say that?”

  “Because the location is too perfect -- a building under construction, a woman alone...”

  “My father wouldn’t set me up,” she countered, moving across the room.

  “Let me go first,” J.T. said.

  She supposed she should have argued that she was a capable, independent woman, but in truth she preferred having his big, strong body in front of hers. “Be careful,” she whispered. “I can hardly see a thing.”

  As he opened the door, a bright light blinded them. J.T. took a step forward and she went with him. She didn’t realize they were in a tunnel until the walls began to turn around them. With the light in her eyes and the walls spinning, she could hardly stand up straight.

  “Hold on to me,” J.T. said.

  He didn’t have to ask twice. She had a death grip on his arm. He wasn’t going anywhere without her. She tried to concentrate on his back instead of on the white walls going around and around. She’d never been good at spins. She’d even thrown up once on the merry-go-round at the park. Why had her father asked her to meet him here? Why was he putting her through this? He knew she wouldn’t find it fun.

  J.T. moved relentlessly forward. She had no idea how he was doing it, but she was more than a little grateful to have him leading the way. Finally he reached another door and shoved it open. They walked into a room filled with mirrors. Oh, God, more horrors, only the horror was her. Everywhere she looked she saw her body distorted into grotesque shapes and sizes, made worse by the fluorescent light hanging on the ceiling. At least it was better than the spinning tunnel. That was something.

  The voice came again, louder this time. “Christina.”

  “Where are you?” she shouted.

  J.T. reached for something on a table. He held up a cassette player just as the voice came again: “Christina.”

  She gulped back a knot of fear as the truth sank in. Her father wasn’t in this building. It was a setup. What the hell was going on?

  “What is this -- another signal?” J.T. asked. “Some game the two of you play? Because if it is, you are both seriously twisted.”

  “No.” She gave a worried shake of her head. “My father wouldn’t bring me into a place like this and scare the crap out of me.”

  “Really? Then why did he ask you to meet him in an abandoned building? And why did you come without question? You had to believe he was here.”

  “I did, because it’s not the first time,” she muttered.

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s not the first time,” she repeated more loudly. “Okay, yes, we’ve met in strange places before. Over the years, whenever my father is in trouble, he has asked me to meet him in clandestine spots. Since he left the museum five years ago, he thinks people are watching him. Maybe he’s right. Maybe he is under surveillance. I don’t know what he’s been doing. To be honest, I haven’t wanted to know.”

  “Until he showed up at the same time as the Benedetti diamond,” J.T. said, a perceptive gleam in his eyes.

  “You’re right. I hadn’t heard from him in months until I thought I saw him outside Barclay’s Wednesday night. That’s why I went to his house. He called me later that night when you and I were at the coffee shop, and he asked me to meet him at the zoo the next day.”

  “The zoo?”

  “He likes crowded public places or deserted, abandoned buildings -- places where he can hide in a crowd or we can be completely alone. He loves drama. It’s part of his charm, I guess you could say.”

  “I think I’ll reserve judgment on his charm,” J.T. said with a sigh. “So far he’s pissing me off. What did he tell you when you met yesterday at the zoo?”

  Christina hesitated, wondering how much information would be too much.

  “You still don’t trust me?” J.T. asked in amazement.

  “It’s not a matter of trust. You’re an FBI agent. You’re sworn to uphold the law.”

  “And you think your father is breaking it?”

  “If he was, I sure wouldn’t want to tell you. He’s the only family I have, J.T. And I love him. I don’t want to lose him.”

  J.T. stared at her for a long moment. “I respect your loyalty, Christina. I do. I even admire it. Maybe if I had worried about my own father more, he’d be alive today.” His voice hardened. “But I’m concerned that your loyalty will take you into the middle of a very dangerous situation. If Evan wants the diamond and your father wants the diamond, they’re either working together, or they’re about to clash. Either way there’s going to be trouble. Maybe I can help.”

  “I want to tell you. I’m just afraid that...” She didn’t know how to say it.

  “I’ll put your father behind bars? Perhaps, if you trust me, I can prevent that from happening. As far as I’m concerned he hasn’t committed a crime yet.”

  “Okay, but don’t make me regret this,” she warned. She drew in a deep breath, not even sure where to start. “Yesterday when I met with my father he told me to call in sick today, that something could go wrong with the diamond.”

  “Because he was going to try to steal it?”

  “No, because the diamond is cursed. He’s worried about me.”

  He shook his head, his expression skeptical. “Oh, come on, Christina. There’s no curse. That’s just his cover story. He doesn’t want you to be around when he tries to steal the diamond. That way you can’t be blamed.”

  She wanted to deny it, but how could she? “I begged my father to go away, to leave it alone. He knows how much Barclay’s means to me. He knows how hard I’ve worked to put my life back together. At least, I thought he did. I had to remind him yesterday that the reason I work in an auction house now is because no one at a museum would hire me. He ruined my name along with his own. I asked him to leave me in peace.”

  “Then why did you come running to meet him today?”

  She debated telling him the rest, but the situation was unraveling so fast, she wasn’t sure she had another choice. Her father wasn’t here; that much was clear. She didn’t know if he’d left when he’d realized J.T. had followed her, or if he had never been here at all. “I came because when I looked at the diamond through the gem scope, I noticed a discrepancy between what I was seeing and the appraisal report. There was a very small flaw that was noted by the original appraiser in Italy that I couldn’t see.”

  “What kind of flaw?”

  “A naturally occurring mineral inclusion in the shape of a heart.”

  “Which means what?”

  “I don’t know. It just bothered me that the stone didn’t exactly match the specs in the original report.”

  His gaze sharpened. “Let me get this straight. The diamond you looked at yesterday is a fake?”

  “It’s a very slim possibility. It’s also possible that I couldn’t see the flaw in the light I had and with the scope that I was using. It was such a small variant. And when I looked at the chain and the clasp, I couldn’t believe that a
nyone could duplicate an entire necklace so perfectly. That’s why I didn’t say anything to anyone -- except my father. I asked him if he’d heard about someone trying to copy the diamond.”

  “Because you had doubts.”

  “With my father around, I always have doubts,” she admitted. “He actually suggested that the Benedettis might have made the switch in Italy -- that they’re trying to sell off a fake stone and have set me and Barclay’s up to take the fall.”

  J.T. rubbed his chin. “That’s a different spin.”

  “I thought so. At any rate, my father said he would ask around. He has contacts in the jewelry world. That’s the last I heard. I told him I needed to know this morning so I could make a decision about what to do. I don’t want to sell a fake necklace. I also don’t want to cause a big crisis if I’m wrong. That’s it. That’s the whole story. And that’s why I came here today, because I was expecting to meet with him.”

  “Thank you.” J.T. leaned forward and surprised her with a kiss.

  It was a brief caress, but the touch of their lips immediately took her back to the night before and the passion they had shared.

  “I know that wasn’t easy for you to do,” J.T. said. “I appreciate the vote of confidence.”

  “Don’t let me down.”

  “I’ll try not to,” he promised.

  It was not the definitive answer she would have liked, but it was clearly all she was going to get for now.

  “We need to leave,” J.T. said. “Whatever plan is in motion, it’s happening at the auction house, not here.”

  “Do we have to go back through that spinning tunnel?” She looked around the mirrored room for another exit, but couldn’t find any.

  “I don’t see any other way out.” J.T. walked back to the door through which they’d entered. It was closed.

  She didn’t remember shutting it behind her. Her pulse began to speed up as J.T. wrestled with the knob. Had someone come up behind them and closed the door? She hadn’t heard anything, but she’d been caught up in J.T.’s questions and the tape recorder.

  “It’s locked,” J.T. said, confirming her fears.

  “Oh, my God!” Panic swept through her body. “We can’t be trapped in here.”

  “I’d say that’s exactly what we are -- trapped,” J.T. replied, a grim note in his voice. “I told you this was a setup. Your father wanted to make sure you weren’t at the auction house this morning.”

  She immediately shook her head. “My father would not set me up like this. He wouldn’t trap me in this house of horrors.”

  “He wanted you to call in sick and you refused. So he took matters into his own hands.”

  “That can’t be the explanation.”

  “All right. Then I’ll give you another one,” he said, surprising her.

  “What?”

  “Evan. He wanted you out of the way -- maybe both of us. He knew I’d follow you, that I’d want to protect you.”

  This was her fault, she realized. She’d acted far too impulsively. She’d led them both into a bad situation. A sudden grinding sound, followed by quiet, drew her attention to the door. The tunnel in the next room had stopped, she realized. Maybe someone was coming to rescue them. “Hello,” she yelled. “Anyone there?” She pounded on the door. “We’re locked in here. Let us out.”

  A burst of laughter came from the other side of the door. Christina stiffened. That wicked, evil laugh did not belong to anyone she knew.

  “Who’s out there?” she called. She looked at J.T., seeing the truth in his eyes.

  “It’s Evan,” he confirmed.

  Chapter Nine

  “What does he want?”

  “You know I can hear you, Christina,” Evan said with amusement. “Why don’t you just ask me what I want -- what I’m doing here?”

  “How do you know me?” she asked instead. “I’ve never met you.”

  “Of course you have. You just didn’t realize it. We’ve actually spent some quality time together.”

  J.T. grabbed hold of the doorknob and yanked as hard as he could. Unfortunately, the knob came off in his hand and the laughter grew louder. Obviously Evan had loosened the screws, but the lock was intact. J.T. squatted down to look through the hole. He could see the edge of a suit coat but nothing else. “Dammit, Evan, what the fuck are you up to?”

  “I thought we’d have a little fun today in the fun house. It was just going to be Christina and me. I didn’t know you were coming to play, too, J.T. Well, the more the merrier, I always say.”

  His voice sounded weird, disembodied, as if he was talking through a speaker or under water. He was trying to disguise his voice, J.T. realized. Why? Was he afraid they would recognize him as someone they’d spoken to in the last few days?

  “What do you want?” J.T. asked. “I’m sure you have some plan in mind.”

  “Of course I do, but that’s for me to know and you to find out.”

  “Don’t play games.”

  “Why not? I love games. You used to love them too, J.T. You were the big man on campus -- the football star. You couldn’t be beaten, except by someone better than you -- someone like me. You never see me coming, do you?”

  J.T. hated the smug tone in Evan’s voice, the reminder that Evan had eluded him for so many years. His hands clenched into fists. He wanted to smash Evan in the face. He wanted to hit him until he was bloody and dead. He’d never felt so much rage for any other person in his life. But he wouldn’t give Evan the satisfaction of reacting.

  “It’s almost too easy,” Evan continued. “You’ve slowed down, J.T. Your father would be so unhappy with your performance these days -- so disappointed in your inability to come through when it counts. You’ve choked, J.T. We both know that. You’re no longer a clutch player. You can’t win anymore. You’re a loser.”

  “I’m going to put you away,” J.T. said. “You’ll see who wins in the end.”

  “I don’t think so.” Evan laughed again. “I’d love to stay and chat, but I have things to do. It’s a very important day, you know.”

  “Wait,” Christina interrupted. “How did you get my father’s voice on the recorder? How did you imitate his handwriting? What have you done with him? Where is he?”

  “Ah, your father -- Marcus Alberti, a very interesting man -- some might say a man after my own heart. It’s a pity really.”

  “What’s a pity?” she asked, fear in her voice and in her eyes.

  J.T. shook his head at her. He didn’t want her to give Evan any more power, and there was nothing Evan enjoyed more than knowing someone was afraid of him.

  “What’s a pity?” she repeated desperately.

  Silence greeted her words. Evan was gone.

  J.T. slammed his fist against the door. The impact sent a massive pain from his wrist to his shoulder, but it released some of the tension in his body.

  “He’s gone,” Christina said, terrified. “He left us here.”

  Her face was pale, and she was trembling. J.T. hauled her into his arms. She was stiff and cold. “It’s okay,” he said soothingly. “We’re going to be all right.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think so. He set all this up so perfectly. God! What do you think he did to my dad?”

  “Probably nothing,” he said, wanting to reassure her.

  “It didn’t sound like nothing. He had my father’s voice on tape. He copied my father’s handwriting. I was completely convinced that note was from him.”

  “Evan is extremely clever. But just because he taped him and copied his handwriting doesn’t mean he hurt him.”

  “If he didn’t, where is he? Where does he think I am?” Christina pulled out of J.T.’s arms and began to pace in small, agitated circles. “We have to get out of here.” She stopped abruptly. “My cell phone,” she said, reaching for her purse. She frowned as she tried to dial. “No signal.”

  “I figured,” he said. “Evan probably checked that out ahead of time.”

  “What are w
e going to do?”

  He wished he had an answer. She was looking to him to save her and her father, and he very much wanted to do both. Restless, he roamed the room, running his hands along the sides of each mirror, wondering if any one of them might cover up another door or some sort of secret passageway. Was there really only one way in and out of this room?

  “What are you doing?” Christina asked.

  “Searching for another way out.”

  “I’ll help. It’s better than just standing here.” She followed his lead, checking the opposite wall.

  They didn’t speak for almost ten minutes. By then they had covered every inch of the small room. They met in the middle. J.T. took her hands in his and gazed into her eyes. “I’m sorry, Christina, but I think we’re going to be here until someone comes to find us.”

  “Which could be a long time from now. Who knows when the construction crews will be back?”

  She let go of his hands and put her arms around his neck, pressing her face into the curve of his shoulder. He gave her a tight hug, knowing it wasn’t nearly enough.

  “At least we’re together,” she murmured. “If you hadn’t followed me, I’d be all alone in here. I guess your nosiness paid off.”

  He smiled as he stroked her hair. She was already bouncing back. She certainly wasn’t a woman who stayed down for long. He liked her spirit. “Following you is always interesting.”

  She stepped out of his embrace and sat down on the floor by the door, leaning her back against the only bit of wall space that wasn’t covered by a mirror. He sat down next to her, suddenly tired. They hadn’t slept more than an hour or two the night before. Not that he was complaining. He put his hand on her knee. She was wearing a tan business suit with a short skirt. He moved his fingers up her thigh. She swatted his hand away.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Just passing the time,” he said with a small smile.