Shana figured she wouldn’t get a better opening than this to find Cap.
“I’m going out for air.”
Patty grunted in response and Shana grabbed her coat on her way out the door.
Of course, Cap still wasn’t answering his phone and wasn’t in his office or at home, so this was going to take skills to catch up with him. His cottage would be the better place to wait for him. He had to come home some time and she planned to wait him out.
So Shana staged her first stakeout since leaving Australia. It was less than ideal since she didn’t have a car, but that didn’t stop her. She hid in the snow-covered evergreens diagonally across the street with a good view of the front door, the drive and the path to the back door and a good portion of the back yard. The other side of the yard was on the dead-end side of the street so she figured she’d catch him at some point unless he was off-island and his assistant swore he was not away and she would know if he was. The woman was getting testy about Shana pestering her about Cap’s whereabouts for the past five days.
After ninety minutes of mind-and body-numbing vigilance, she spotted him as he pulled the car up the street and into the driveway. Time to pounce. With relish and use of her not-so-rusty skills, she moved across the street in a low crouch and up the driveway to come up directly behind him as he walked toward his back door. She put a hand on his shoulder. He spun around.
“What the hell, Shana?” Cap’s hand stopped mid motion like he’d been ready to draw his gun on her. She smiled.
“You’ve been avoiding me.”
“So you ambushed me?”
“A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.” She turned the wattage up on her smile and heaved a breath, aware that it heaved her chest to nice advantage at the same time. Double courage.
“I need to talk to you.”
“And it couldn’t wait until tomorrow?”
“No—it’s about tomorrow.”
“Oh.”
It was the way he said it. He knew. And she knew his answer.
“You know there’s no way in hell I would live to eat another meal if I showed up as your date for Valentine’s tomorrow. Dane would kill me—but first he’d torture me. And he might even finally kill you.”
“Dane doesn’t own me.” Her smile had long gone as she planted her hands on her hips and moved a step closer. Damn Dane.
“You two have some things to figure out.”
“You think so? Well maybe this would help the figuring process—if you and I—”
“No way in hell are you throwing me in the middle of Dane and you to fuel—”
“You’re right. Never mind.” She spun around, realizing she was being colossally unfair to Cap. “I’m sorry—I…” She turned back to Cap and lifted her chin and looked him in the eyes—those beautiful kind eyes. “It’s not like I don’t have any feeling or interest in you—”
“I know. I feel it too. There’s a tug. But—”
“Dane.”
“Dane and you have—”
“Nothing.”
“Something. Something big enough to douse any spark between us whenever he’s around. And it’s nothing he says directly to me so don’t go blaming him for that.”
She turned away again and knew she couldn’t blame Dane completely. Cap put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around again to face him.
“And you know it’s not just Dane. I see mutual sparks between you.” His words were soft and stinging and not accusing at all. She felt like a child being talked to by her older brother—an experience she’d never had before since she was the older sister who was always doing the talking to her younger hellion brothers.
She let out a breath and jutted her chin higher.
“Maybe. But this state of limbo can’t last forever between Dane and me.”
“I’ll be here.”
She shook her head. “Married to your job?”
“You got my number.”
Shana did not have the patience for this kind of work, but she wasn’t going to waste a week of effort and come away with nothing. Pacing around the room since she got back from her unsettling talk with Cap, she knew she had to put her last ditch plan into action. As soon as Patty went in the bathroom, she would set her plan in action. Now all she had to do was wait. Calling up all her reserves, every last drop of patience she had, she sat in her chair watching and waiting. Her toe was itching to tap, but she willed it to stay still as Patty typed away on her computer, unaware. Shana pretended to read a magazine.
Then Patty stopped typing. This was the moment of truth. Would she close the laptop or leave it open? Shana had been rehearsing a distraction in her head for the past thirty minutes.
“I can’t wait to meet the mystery date.” Shana stood and drew Patty’s full attention. Patty turned, swiveling her chair around—without closing the laptop. Shana smiled at her. She had a plan B, but hiding the small digital recorder could be iffy and might render it inaudible. After this was over she was going to talk to Dane about getting some equipment—the kind that could be hidden. But knowing Dane, he probably had all kinds of things stashed in his attic.
“Yes—me too,” Patty said. “Look, Shana, I need to make a few calls and then I’ll be dressing—you don’t mind staying in your room for a while.”
Shana overlooked the fact that Patty wasn’t asking. Not for the first time Shana wondered what kind of man would go to this trouble for such an unlikeable woman. But she nodded yes and turned to her room because this suited her plans perfectly.
“I’ll knock on your door when I’m ready.”
“Sure. You’re the boss. I’ll catch up on last season’s Game of Thrones,” Shana said. She closed the door between their rooms and heard Patty lock it from her side. Shana smiled. This could be good. Not taking any chances, she stayed planted at the door to listen. She heard the woman talking after a minute, but her voice was muffled like she was purposely trying not to be overheard. Naturally. Shana was betting the woman had something to hide and she relished finding out what it was.
Chapter 11
“I’ll meet you at the restaurant. You get there early and check the place out. I have a call to make,” Dane said into the phone.
“How am I supposed to get there?” Shana asked.
“Go with UBER.”
“UBER? On the island?”
“Of course—get with it, girlie. It’s a sad day when the old wizened legend is more hip than the young sexy apprentice.”
“Thanks for clarifying.” She paused. He held the phone, didn’t sign off like he would have normally done. He knew she wanted to say something.
“But, Dane… I wanted to talk to you… before the evening gets started—before our dates showed up and Patty—”
“No time now, sugar. Talk can wait. I can’t wait. Later.” He stamped a finger on the red icon without a whisper of a pause. He took a breath. He didn’t want to hear what she had to say. He knew what she had to say. Maybe.
He turned back to his computer screen and the picture of a very old book. Time to check back in with Governor Peter John Douglas. A/K/A, the general to a few, very few, friends. And he was one of them.
He hadn’t thought Cap was one of them, but he must have been wrong about that.
His phone buzzed in his hand before he had a chance to dial. He put it to his ear.
“Governor.”
“Don’t give me that too-cool-to-live tone of voice, Blaise. I was going to read you in on this—I got unexpectedly hung up on other business. Just got in—in the nick of time to save my marriage.”
“I’m on her side on this one, general. So read me in.”
“You know about Patty Baker and her expertise on old books and documents. You know the FBI hired her—”
“How do you know I know this?”
“I have friends at the FBI. They keep me posted. Up to a point. Which is why I brought in Captain Colin Lynch.”
“For that reason and the minor deta
il that he knows Patty Baker. Really well.”
“Yes. Or he used to. I asked him to rekindle, but in a way that was not suspicious. I only found out recently how he went about it. Clever. He killed two birds with one stone. He got back in touch with Patty and got you and Shana involved surreptitiously at the same time.”
“You okayed that?”
“I told him to bring you in if he needed to. I asked him to let me know first. He took that permission requirement seriously apparently.”
Dane snorted. “So he got us involved without telling us about it because he couldn’t get hold of you to get permission?”
“That’s what I’m saying. He’s one of my few men who follow orders.”
“So he is one of your men.”
“Of course.” Peter paused. “Look Dane, I apologize for not bringing you in sooner—right away. In retrospect I was being overly cautious.”
“No need to explain.” Dane meant it, but he heard the tightness in his own voice.
“I became involved when two good friends of mine approached me,” The governor said. “The auctioneer for the upcoming auction on the 15th and the owner of the rare book that Patty is charged with authenticating.”
“I figured something like that. Why did they suspect her?”
“She made some comments to each of them separately about how much her authentication was worth. The book owner was aware of several frauds at rare book auctions over the past year—worldwide—and he didn’t want to get caught up in that. He knew his book was authentic because it had been given to his great-great grandfather by the author himself and handed down directly. He had kept it in a collection on display at the Houghton Library at Harvard, but they turned over their collection to display other works. That’s when my friend decided to auction the book, figuring another museum who prized it enough to pay would display it.”
“How damn noble.”
Peter laughed. “Vintage Dane the legend commentary. We’ll have to have a beer soon.”
“What’s the current status?”
“Colin—Cap is going to sweep Patty off her feet and do a thorough search of all her things, including and especially her computer and messages and texts—or get her to confess all in the course of pillow-talk. The FBI has been too close to her until now for us to get anything.”
“We’ve delegated that duty to Shana. She’s been close by and might have found something by now.” Dane realized that may have been what she wanted to talk about. He sincerely hoped so. He said, “But what I’d like to know is why the hell the FBI doesn’t suspect Patty?”
“Because they brought her in. After the first forgery was discovered, they brought her in to authenticate and work for them at the following auction—to authenticate ahead of time in case there was a switch at the auction house—this was their theory. My theory is that the forger found a new partner in Patty Baker.”
“You had Acer look into her finances and discovered that her sister had set up a Swiss bank account—with deposits tracking the same time line as the last three auctions.”
“You spoke with Acer.”
“He was happy to fill me in since he’d already done the background I’d asked him for.”
“So now we only need to catch her red-handed.”
“Cap has her set up if Shana doesn’t have the goods on her already.”
“Yes, but I’ll let him fill you in on everything. Does Shana know?”
“Not yet.”
Peter whistled into the phone and Dane pulled it away from his ear.
“You’d better come clean right away with her. Take it from me—withholding information from your … partner is a no-no.”
Dane had nothing to say to that and let it go a beat before Peter spoke up again.
“So how is your new partnership going?”
“I don’t know. I truly do not have any idea.”
Peter laughed.
They signed off.
Dane tensed up for his next call. This time, he knew Cap would answer. Cap now had the go-ahead from the general, Governor Peter John Douglas. With his shoulder muscles bunched into painful coils, he rolled them and took a breath. He would be all business. He pressed Cap’s number, number two on auto dial.
“Dane.”
“What the hell, Cap?”
“Dane. You know then?” Cap took a breath. Dane said nothing. He would let Cap bail himself out of this one all on his own.
“I thought—” Cap paused again, then continued. “I was wrong. But I had planned to read you and Shana in. I sent the envelope to set it up and she got it in the mail quicker than I expected. She must check it hourly. I had to send the note to set it up for Patty Baker—the whole long-lost love thing. I was going to tell you when you two came over but then you sprung the whole Valentine’s Day bet thing on me and I—”
“You lost your mind?”
“It was unprofessional. I realize that now. But it seemed harmless at the time. I didn’t know Patty would be on the island for a week and that Shana would be sticking with her—that Shana is a damn good bodyguard by the way.”
“You’re an idiot.” That was all Dane could muster. “We ended up in the same place we would have anyway.”
“You’re an idiot. About the Valentine’s Day—”
“We don’t have time to talk about this foolishness. I need to go pick up Patty and bring her to the restaurant.”
“What about Shana?”
“She went early to check the place out. We’ll meet her there. I was going to go early, but I needed to talk to the governor—and you. Shana doesn’t have a car. So I’m Patty’s chauffeur.”
Shana stood tall and rigid as she walked into the restaurant. Still not sure if she should have told Dane about her failed Valentine’s date sooner, she felt the rumble of nerves deep down and lifted her chin. The last thing she could think of doing now was eating dinner, with all the fluttering in her gut, but she figured getting the goods on Patty and her mystery man would muffle the backlash when Dane found out.
Cap turned her down and it would have been hard enough to deal with Dane if she had showed up with Cap for her date, but showing up with no one and then having to admit that she’d asked Cap and he’d said no, seemed like a crazy thing to do. She may as well lie at his feet and let Dane step on her throat.
She knew she’d have to do it anyway—she had to tell him. Or he’d find out and there’d be hell to pay. He might end up chasing her off the island with a gun. Or chasing Cap off the island. Or both of them. Checking out the entry and the powder room areas was quick business, luckily, since it had taken her longer to get there than planned. She barely had five minutes before show time.
The first person she saw as she stepped inside the warm and glowing dining room was Captain Colin Lynch. Her smile was genuine and automatic, but it was closely followed by a major dip and rise in her gut as if the butterflies were going on a rollercoaster ride. He’d changed his mind.
She had no idea if that was good or bad at this point. Confusion filled her like suds churning and overflowing in chaos. As she felt her smile crack, she took a deep quiet breath. Cap smiled back at her, but it was a funny smile, filled with apprehension and apology. He must be even more worried about Dane than she was.
That message in his face snapped her own tension and sparked her caring into action. Cap looked good in the dark form-fitting suit and bright blue tie. He was taller than Dane and his face was more classically handsome—didn’t have the same edginess. She walked forward to greet him with a warmer than usual hug. Cap smelled good, his scent subtler than Dane’s. She would put him at ease. And she would stop comparing him to Dane.
“What the hell, Cap? I’m glad you changed your mind, but are you toying with me—have you been taking lessons from the legend?”
He pulled out a chair and sighed.
“No. It wouldn’t do any good if I did. I… have a seat, Shana.”
The butterfly returned and took another turn on the
roller coaster in her gut at Cap’s tone. This new set of nerves was not about Dane’s reaction to her dating Cap—she was worried about Cap. Something was wrong and it was the kind of something she might not be able to do anything about.
“What is it? Tell me.” She sat and he took the chair opposite her. He looked at her a moment. She waited him out.
“I’m here to meet with Patty Baker.”
Chapter 12
“You son of a bitch,” Dane said. He stood behind Shana and grabbed hold of the back of her chair. She had visibly stiffened like some wizard had waved a wand and turned her to ice.
“Don’t overreact,” Cap said, with a wary gulp in spite of his reasonably calm voice. “You know about Patty—”
“I don’t give a shit about Patty Baker. You’re a bastard and I ought to throttle you.”
“What the hell, Dane—”
“Both of you sit,” Shana hissed at them. “You’re causing a scene—where’s Patty?”
“Ladies’ room,” Dane said through a clenched jaw. He took a breath and continued. “We have a minute—there’s something we need to discuss about Patty.” Dane looked down at Shana and tried to keep the knife blade sharpness from his gaze as she looked up at him with sparkling, defiant eyes. He took a seat between her and Cap. Right where he ought to be.
“But first—this is about you and Shana.” He aimed his deadly serious stare at Cap. The man visibly winced.
Shana said, “There is nothing—”
“Don’t you goddam lie to me. I know you asked him to be your date.”
“I didn’t—” Cap started to say to Shana. Shana only glared with growing anger and something else—guilt? Regret?
“Then you know he said no,” Shana said. Dane had not been sure about that, wasn’t sure of the reason—if it was just because of Patty and the sting that he would have to say no, or if he genuinely rejected his girl. He looked at the man.
“You’re a bastard,” he said. “You said no to Shana. First you lead her on so she asks you, then you say no—for what?”
Beachcomber Valentine Page 7
