Luci shook her head. “I do,” Isabella blurted. “Luisa. Like a Spanish woman’s name. L-U-I-S-A.”
“How do you know that?” Luci asked her.
Isabella shrugged. “I dunno. Guess I’m observant. I remember wondering why the boat had a girl’s name. Ty explained it ‘cuz he learned at the maritime museum…” she started to cry. “Ty! What about Ty? What are we gonna do about Ty? Mom, he could be in real danger!”
Luci ran a hand through her hair and grasped the back of her neck. “I…I am so sorry, Isabella…I…I didn’t…I thought…”
Isabella hugged her mother. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it now. We’ll worry about it after we get Ty back, okay?”
Pete clicked off his BlackBerry. “Okay, ladies, well, I think that was helpful. We’re gonna have to sit tight for a while, but Mike sent out a few of his guys. Turns out the idiot put the phone in his real name: David Rose-Ramirez.”
“Ramirez? That jerk isn’t even really Italian?” Isabella was outraged.
“Rose-Ramirez? Why is that name so familiar?” Luci asked.
Pete nodded. “Mike and I thought the same thing. His father was Rafael Rose-Ramirez—who robbed The First National Bank in Raleigh a few years ago. It was all over the news. You probably heard of it even in New York—he got away with the robbery and was in the middle of a second when the guy took two hostages and was shot by police. He hung on for about a week before he died. His son talked about bringing a lawsuit on the hospital and police department—saying he didn’t get the proper care because he was a criminal…”
“He robbed the same bank twice?”
“Nope, the second bank was somewhere else…in Washington. Washington, Luci. You know, I don’t think they ever found the bulk of the money from the First National robbery…”
“Pete,” Luci interrupted, “I didn’t hear about that on the news. I heard about it at work. Rafael Rose-Ramirez died at our hospital!”
“Holy sh…er, crap!” Pete said, looking at Isabella. “So what did his son want with you?”
“I know,” Isabella spoke up. “The money. He was looking for the money. In our house. And the Bakers’. And the Randalls’. And the Overmans’.”
“What?” Pete and Luci asked simultaneously.
“Mom, remember? All the septic trouble? A little coincidental, right? And Nonna Rose said that there are no coincidences.”
“Oh, my God!” Luci exclaimed. “So the guy who knew my name…he knew my name because he…he…”
“Worked for Rick…er…David or whatever the jerk’s name is,” Isabella finished for her. “Mom, they only went after houses with basements. Ty and I figured that out. We were going to the library to see if we could…hey, let’s go down to our basement. Maybe they left some evidence…”
“Let’s not,” Pete stopped her, already calling his brother. “This new development is just what my brother’s gonna want to hear about. He’ll probably send a team right over.”
Luci shook her head, biting her bottom lip—a habit she got from Isabella…or had Isabella picked up the habit from her mother? “Isabella, I am so sorry. I am. I was such an idiot. You were right and…”
Isabella hugged Luci again. “Mom, you didn’t know. It’s okay. He was pretty smooth…”
“But…you knew. Isabella, you knew!”
“Yeah, well, I trusted my instincts, Mom,” she told her. What she didn’t tell Luci was that her instincts were buzzing again—this time about Ty. I’ve got to get to him, but how?
Pete’s phone rang again. He looked at the screen and frowned. “Dr. Myers.” He shook his head. “Yeah, all right, I’ll be there in twenty minutes—maybe thirty. I’m coming in from Bath. Yeah, okay.” He hung up the phone. “Luci, I’ve gotta go. I’m on call and they’re expecting an MVA with multiples…sit tight and wait for the SBI team to get here. Don’t go down into that basement—and don’t let Isabella either…Speaking of Isabella, where’d she go?”
Luci spun around. Isabella was gone! “If she went to that basement, I’ll kill her,” Luci threatened as she walked to the basement door. “Isabella! Are you down there?” She looked down into the darkness. Even Isabella wasn’t stubborn enough to go down into the basement without a light. “I don’t know where she went off to…”
“Don’t worry about her, I’m sure she’s okay. I’ve gotta get outta here. Call me if you hear anything about Ty, okay?” He hugged Luci, revved the Jag’s engine and drove away.
“Geez, that took you long enough!” Isabella exclaimed as she tried to extricate herself from the tiny space behind the passenger seat where she had hidden the minute she heard Pete had to go into Washington.
Pete slammed on the brakes, and Isabella was thrown forward. “Oooph, careful. I have broken ribs, remember?”
“What are you doing in my car?” Pete demanded.
“Um, going with you,” Isabella stated simply.
“What do you mean, ‘going with me’? Going with me where?”
“You’re going to the hospital, right? I’m going to go to the docks where Rick’s boat was tied up to see if it’s still there.”
“No, you are not!” Pete yelled at her.
“Um, yeah, I am,” Isabella yelled back.
“And you think I’m stupid enough to let you do that now that you’ve told me your plan?”
“You don’t have any choice,” Isabella told him, “because you have to get to the hospital for an emergency.” She was smug and way too pleased with herself.
“Oh, so you’ve thought of everything, right? Wrong. Okay, we’re on the way to the hospital. You are going to wait with me at the hospital. Then I’m going to take you home. Don’t you think the SBI would have already checked out the boat, anyway?”
Isabella crossed her arms. She hadn’t planned on that. Crap, crap, crap. She decided not to argue with Dr. Pete at this point, so she tried a different strategy, “Maybe you oughta call my mom, huh? Let her know I’m with you?” She smiled widely, which caused Pete to look up at the ceiling of the car and groan slightly.
“That smile work with Ty? Because I know you’re full of crap, Isabella!” He pulled his BlackBerry out of his shirt pocket and punched a few numbers. “Hey, Luce, it’s me. SBI get there yet? Don’t worry, they will. Oh, yeah, and don’t worry about her. She’s with me. She had this brilliant idea of checking out the boat on her own. Yeah. Yeah, I’m learning that about her pretty quickly. Nah, don’t worry about it. Who’s the triage nurse today? Anika? Perfect. I’ll have Anika keep an eye on her while I’m with my patients, and then I’ll bring her home.” “Don’t look at me like that, Isabella.” “Yeah, Luci, your daughter just gave me a look…oooh! That red hair certainly suits her, doesn’t it?”
“Quit talking about me like I’m not here!” Isabella scolded. Stupid adults, she thought, why can’t they just trust me? I was right about Rick; I know I’m right this time…
“Okay, we’re here,” Pete said as they pulled into the doctors’ parking lot. “Don’t even think about leaving the ER. I’m going to leave you with Nurse Anika—she’s not one to mess with, Isabella, trust me. The woman has absolutely no sense of humor. I’ll be an hour—two at the most, and then I’m taking you home. You aren’t going to do Ty any good with a broken leg—and that’s what your mom is gonna do to you if you don’t come home with me. Okay?”
Isabella smiled a tiny smile. “Yes, Dr. Pete,” she told him in an artificially sweet voice. “Anything you say.”
“Isabella LaFelini! Don’t pull that sweet crap with me! I’ve got your number, miss!” He took her by the shoulder and directed her to a large black woman sitting at a desk in the middle of the Emergency Room waiting area. “Nurse Anika, this is Isabella. Isabella, Nurse Anika. Isabella is going to sit out here with you, Anika, while I see these MVA patients. As soon as I’m finished, I’m taking her home. She is to sit here, Anika. Not to move a muscle from this waiting room. Okay?”
“I ain’t no babysitter, Dr. Myers,�
� Anika told him in a rich island-accented voice. “I’m a triage nurse.”
“I know, I know,” Pete turned on the charm, “but this one time. Isabella is Luci LaFelini’s daughter, Anika. They had a possible break-in at their house, and Isabella’s best friend is missing. I’ll buy you a piece of that chocolate cake in the cafeteria later…”
“Your charm doesn’t work on me, you blue-eyed devil,” Anika laughed. “Try again.”
He took a twenty-dollar bill out of his wallet. “Does this work?”
Anika snatched the twenty out of his hand and laughed gleefully. “There you go. Green always trumps blue!”
“You’re breaking my heart, Anika,” he told her laughing, “…and my wallet,” he added as he was buzzed into the emergency suite.
Isabella rolled her eyes and headed for the ladies’ room. “And just where do you think you’re going, missy?” Anika asked her.
“I have to pee,” Isabella told her.
“Terrible. You poor thing. Sit down.”
“But I have to go…”
Anika laughed. “Dr. Charming paid me twenty bucks to keep an eye on you, missy, and that’s exactly what I’m gonna do. So sit your skinny butt back down.”
Isabella was fuming. Ooh! She is such a …Isabella grabbed her pendant through her top. She suddenly had an idea. She would wait for the right opportunity—she would know it when she saw it. Ty was counting on her—and she was going to help him!
Thirty-One: Isabella to the Rescue
HE HAD WORKED on it for more than an hour, and his back was killing him from bending over in the tight, dark space, but Ty finally managed to gnaw through the tape that was binding his wrists. He had decided that it was duct tape because of the smell and taste of it as he chewed on it in the dark. And just how did you know what duct tape tasted like, he could almost hear Isabella asking him, teasing him. Isabella. He loved her. He had to tell her—he had to get out of this so he could. Ty tried to send her his thoughts: I’m here, Isabella. On the boat. You were right, Isabella. Rick is a bad guy. I’m here, I’m here…
Isabella. Before he had loosened the tape on his mouth, he had been having doubts that he would ever see her again. But now… He pulled the tape from around his wrists and wriggled his arms to try to loosen the tape that bound the top of his arms and shoulders. He would work and work until he was free. He was going to be free. He needed to tell Isabella how he felt about her…and nothing was going to stop him. He had something that no one could steal from him. He had hope.
It had been nearly forty-five minutes, and Isabella’s moment of opportunity hadn’t yet arrived. “Aren’t you going to lunch at some point today?” she asked Anika, who responded with a long, loud laugh.
“Oh, is dat your plan, missy? Sorry to disappoint, but I had lunch before you came in wid Dr. Blue Eyes. Try again!”
Crap, crap, crap! Isabella sat back in the uncomfortable waiting room chair, almost defeated when the doors of the waiting room burst open. “You have to help my baby!” a woman screamed, holding a small child in her arms, both of them covered in blood. “Please, you have to help!!”
Anika pushed herself up away from the desk, pressed the buzzer to open the emergency department automatic doors and escorted the woman and bleeding child in. And as soon as she did, Isabella grabbed the door and ran out. She found herself in a long corridor with fluorescent light that was so bright it nearly blinded her as she grabbed her pendant and rubbed it furiously. “C’mon, c’mon,” she tried to concentrate on the transformation. “C’mon. Ty needs me!”
Suddenly Nonna Rose’s words filled Isabella’s head. Nove e molto pericoloso.
“I don’t care, Nonna,” Isabella blurted out loud, “I don’t care if nine is dangerous. It’s for Ty. I have to help Ty.” She yawned. “Oh, good…now where can I go?” She pushed open a door and found a patient’s room with an empty bed. Careful not to let the door close completely, she curled up on the bed and fell asleep.
“And just what are you doing in here?” Nurse Anika yelled. “Get outta here!”
Oh, God, Isabella thought, how did she find me? She opened her eyes fully to look down upon her paws. Oh, thank God!
“Get out of here, you filthy beast!” Nurse Anika screamed at cat Isabella, nearly making contact with Isabella’s broken ribs with the end of the chart she tossed at her.
Isabella ran through the open door and down the hall. At the end of the hall, she saw daylight, and without even thinking, she ran through the door. She was free! Free! Free to help Ty! She glanced around, decided it was safe to cross the highway and made her way to the boat dock.
Isabella panted as she padded up to the boat dock. The heavy breathing hurt her side, but nothing was going to stop her now. The Luisa was still tied where they had left it on Friday. She paused to catch her breath and noticed two men on the deck. One was the man who had kicked her—she’d never forget that jerk. The other—she squinted against the bright afternoon sun—might have been Rick or David or whatever his name was. She leapt up on the line that moored the yacht, and her claws dug deeply into the heavy nautical rope. She climbed carefully and steadily and ducked into the lower deck through a porthole.
“Ty? It’s me. Where are you?” She waited a second until her eyes adjusted to the dark. There was a small cabinet at the end of the room she was in. “Ty? You in there?” she whispered as she went to the door.
“Isabella?” he whispered back. “Is that you?”
“Yes, hold on. I’m going to try to get this door open.”
“Try?” Ty whispered. “Try? Why ‘try’? Is it locked?”
“No,” Isabella told him, “but it’s one of those stupid closures with one of those stupid buttons that you have to turn all the way while pressing down on it, and I’m having a hard time with my claws…”
“Claws!” Ty was almost too loud. “Isabella!” he scolded in a softer voice, “you transformed again? But it’s your ninth…you…you can’t…”
“Oh, shut up, Ty,” Isabella told him, smirking as a cat owner knows a cat can. “There!” she opened the door.
“OMG, I am so glad to see you,” Ty wriggled out of the tape around his shoulders as Isabella used her claws to release his ankles. “You shouldn’t have transformed, though, Isabella. It was too dangerous, and you promised. What happens if…”
“Would you stop? I promised, but that was before you were in trouble. You can yell at me later, Ty. Right now, let’s get outta here.”
Ty tiptoed up the stairs with Isabella close behind. “There are two men on deck,” Isabella warned him in a whisper as they reached the top of the stairs. “At least there was when I got on board.”
“And just where do you think you’re going? Huh?” It was Rick/David. They were caught. Again.
* * *
Thirty-Two: Held at Gunpoint
“Anika, where’s Isabella?” Pete asked when he finally emerged from the emergency suite.
“How do I know? I told you I’m not a babysitter, Dr. Blue Eyes,” Anika said without looking up from her crossword puzzle. “We got busy—I had that puncture wound to deal with—the kid was bleeding all over the place. When I came back, she was gone.”
“Gone? What do you mean, gone? That was more than forty minutes ago. Why didn’t you come get me?”
“Like I said, not a babysitter, Doc.”
“Dammit.” He quickly dialed his brother. “Mike, you did send a team to the yacht, right?” He was making his way to his car as he talked. “You what? What do you mean you didn’t know where it was docked? In Washington, Mike. I’m on my way there now, but I think Isabella is already there! Yeah, you call the locals. And Mike, tell ‘em to hurry!”
Pete tore out of the doctors’ parking lot, thankful he had dropped so much money on the fast car. He needed to get to the dock, and he needed to get there now!
TY AND ISABELLA froze in place. “Get over here!” Rick/David said gruffly and pushed Ty down onto the deck floor. “Now what the h
ell am I gonna do with you?”
Isabella started breathing again. She hadn’t been seen. She peered over the top step, and quickly assessed the situation. Rick/David was the only one on board. She looked around again and again but didn’t see anyone else. Well, that’s good, Isabella breathed in relief. I can handle Rick/David.
Or could she? Never taking his eyes off of Ty, he pulled a handgun from his pocket. “Any idea how much trouble you’re in, kid?”
Ty stared at the gun, at the man wielding the gun, and at Isabella. He tried to motion to Isabella with his eyes, get outta here! But Isabella was focused on the gunman, who was pacing the deck. “I didn’t want anyone to get hurt, kid,” Rick/David told Ty, “all I wanted was my old man’s money. It was his—and he’s gone, so it’s mine. All I wanted was that damned money! But no, you and your stupid little girlfriend…”
“Isabella is not stupid!” Ty retorted.
“Oh my God! Are you really talking about that girl? Now? When I have a friggin’ gun in your face? Maybe I’m wrong,” he bent over the cowering Ty, getting close to his face, “maybe you’re the stupid one!”
Perfect. Isabella jumped, claws extended, onto his back and dug deeply.
“What the hell?!” Rick/David jumped and whirled around. He tried to pull Isabella off his back, but she had a strong grip. “Get away from me, you little…” Isabella did let go, but only to get a stronger grip on his back and neck. She knew enough from her mother’s medical books to know that there was a major blood vessel in the neck. She sunk her teeth in deeply, drawing blood immediately.
He swung at her again, and this time, the gun went off. The loud report surprised Isabella and she temporarily weakened her grip, at which time Rick/David grasped her firmly and threw her hard against the rail. She slumped to the floor, bleeding and didn’t get up.
“Isabella!” Ty screamed.
“Oh, isn’t that sweet? You named your little pussycat after your little girlfriend. Well, guess what? I’ve killed your pussycat. I’m gonna kill you. And maybe when I’m done with you, I’ll go back and kill your little girlfriend and her mother. I know where they live, after all…” he taunted.
The First Nine Lives of Isabella LaFelini Page 18
