by Sandra Cox
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Gabby pulled into the parking lot of Caring Paws and cut the engine. As Jericho began to howl, Ned looked at his friend and whined uneasily.
Getting out, Gabby opened the door to the backseat. She pulled the carrier out, set it on the ground and rubbed her arm. “You’re gaining weight.”
Ned stuck his head out of the car, looked at his surroundings and like a turtle drew his head back in. Gabby tugged on the leash. The turtle wannabe didn’t move.
“Good dog. Good Neddy,” she said through clenched teeth as she pulled on the leash.
He didn’t budge.
She yanked at the same moment he decided to cooperate and sat down with a thump in the parking lot. Ned licked her face.
Pushing him away, she picked herself up and dusted off her denim shorts. Carrying the screaming cat and pulling the dog she walked in the door.
The receptionist looked up and smiled. Her hair was burgundy and spiked. “Ms Bell how nice to see you again.”
Gabby smiled back. “Hi, Nellie.”
The receptionist stood up and tugged on her skirt.
Gabby’s smile widened. Same ole Nellie.
“I’m sorry to hear you’ll be leaving us. Where exactly are you going?”
Gabby blinked. How did she know about that? “New Orleans.”
“Cool.”
An assistant in a white lab coat appeared at the door. “Ms Bell, you can bring them back now.”
Gabby nodded and followed her into the examining room.
The vet, a middle-aged woman with long graying hair and a bit overweight walked in, “How’s my boys?”
Ned wagged his tail and Jericho hissed.
Dr. Smith laughed. “Let’s start with Ned.” She gave him a brief but thorough exam. “He’s healing just fine. I hear you are moving.” She talked as she worked.
“How did you know that?”
Dr. Smith looked at her in surprise. “Why you told Nellie when you called to make your appointment.”
Gabby’s gaze sharpened. She was beginning to get one of those feelings and it wasn’t a warm fuzzy. “I didn’t call to make an appointment.”
Dr. Smith paused, syringe in hand. She looked at her briefly then plunged it quickly into Ned. It was over before he knew what happened. “I’m sure that’s what she told me. Aren’t you moving?”
“Not permanently.”
Dr. Smith shrugged and pushed back a lock of hair that had escaped her ponytail. “Maybe Nellie misunderstood.”
“Maybe.” The skin on the back of Gabby’s neck began to crawl. Something’s wrong.
“Now for Jericho.”
Gabby tapped her fingers against the side of her legs, willing the vet to hurry.
As soon as Dr. Smith finished up, Gabby hustled the animals out of the office.
Hurry, hurry, hurry, pounded in her brain.
She went through an intersection on a yellow that was turning red.
The next light she ran didn’t have a glimmer of yellow. At least I looked both ways, Gabby consoled herself, just before she heard the whoop, whoop, whoop of the siren.
Looking in the rearview mirror, her hands tightened on the wheel. “Damn!”
The white squad car followed her home.
A middle-aged black woman, dressed in blue, got out of the car as Gabby pulled Ned out.
“Going to a fire?”
“Sorry Nancy.” Her mind clicked. Nancy had been with the force for four years.
The officer stood hands on hips. “Girl, you know your daddy would have a fit.”
Gabby swallowed her impatience. “I know.”
Nancy shook her finger at her. “Don’t let it happen again.”
“I won’t.”
Nancy started back toward her car, as Gabby hauled the cat carrier out with her free hand and began to run for the door.
The officer reached her car, put her hand on the door handle then turned. “Do you want me to come in and look around?”
“Please.” Gabby was already reaching for her key.
Sensing her urgency, Nancy hurried up the walk. “Wait.”
As Gabby started to open the door, Nancy motioned her away. “Stay here,” she whispered and stepped inside, her gun drawn.
If she hadn’t been burdened with the animals Gabby would have followed her in. As it was she felt, she’d be of more aid to Nancy keeping them corralled outside.
She waited in a fever of impatience ’til Nancy opened the door.
“No one’s here.”
Taking the animals inside, her gaze swept the living room as she unsnapped Ned’s leash and opened the carrier.
Both animals rushed to the bedroom.
Nancy, who stood in their path, stepped nimbly out of the way. “Why don’t you take a look around and see if anything’s missing.”
Gabby ran to the bedroom. Her gaze flew to the globe sitting in the shadows on the bookcase. Ned stood with his fur on end, growling. Jericho was puffed up to twice his normal size. “Nothing’s missing.” But someone’s been here.
“You want to check the rest of the house?”
Gabby laughed. “Nancy, you know I don’t have anything worth stealing.” Except maybe a green crystal ball that has very unusual powers.
“You’ve had a tough time. Just take it easy.” Nancy patted her arm reassuringly.
Gabby closed her eyes in embarrassment. Did everyone know about her situation?
Nancy walked out of the bedroom and let herself out of the house.
Standing by the bed, Gabby stared at the globe. If someone had broken in, they would have taken it. And why this elaborate ruse to get me out of the house if it wasn’t to get to the globe?
Ned stood next to her, stiff-legged. She patted his rump. “I wish you could talk. Someone’s been here, haven’t they?” He licked her hand and whined.
She cocked her head to one side studying the crystal ball. Its color didn’t seem as brilliant, but in the gloom it was hard to tell.
Gabby walked over and touched it. Nothing happened. Her eyes widened and her stomach dropped.
Reaching out in slow motion, dreading what she would find, Gabby picked it up. Nothing.
Gabby’s breath hitched in her throat. She felt faint. That son of a bitch switched globes on me.
“Damn you, Christopher, damn you! How could you make love to me then steal from me.” Tears of pain and rage rained down her face. She heaved the globe against the wall where it landed with a satisfying thunk.
Splotches of heat permeated her cheeks. “You’ll be sorry for this Christopher Saint. I promise you.”
A small voice in the corner of her mind whispered, The animals wouldn’t have reacted this way to Christopher. But it was drowned out by hurt and pride.
* * * * *
Christopher sat in the study nursing a Scotch. He should call Gabriella. It had been three days since he’d left and he’d had time to calm down and reflect.
Maybe in her own way she was trying to protect him. As mad as he’d been, he would probably have slugged her pain-in-the-ass father and ended up in jail.
He rubbed his forehead. What was it about the woman that caused him to lose all sense? Up until she burst into his life he’d been considered cool and calculating, seldom if ever bested and now he spent half his time going off half-cocked like a kid in high school.
A ruckus in the foyer disrupted his thoughts.
A dog barked.
Surely not. Christopher’s mood lightened and he began to smile. Had she come back? He stood, but before he could take a step the door burst open.
She stood in the doorway, the light streaming in, limning her figure. Again, he was reminded of a Viking queen. A Viking queen dressed in khaki shorts and a lime green tank top that set off her satiny, honey-colored skin to perfection. She looked magnificent, magnificent and angry. Now what?
She marched in. Ned pushed past her and nearly knocked him over in his eagerness to lick his face.
Whatever Christopher was expecting it wasn’t this. “Don’t tell me you’ve lost it again!”
“You should know you stole it.”
They stood glaring at each other in the gloom.
“And just when did I perform this feat? Sometime between making love to you and you showing me the door?” He stared down his nose at her, breathing heavily through it.
Her chin jutted out. “No.”
I’m familiar with the angle of that chin. It means Gabriella is in mule mode. “So just when did I take it?” He enunciated each word, trying his best to tamp down his anger.
“Yesterday, when I was at the vet’s. Someone called and made an appointment in my name. But I’m certainly not telling you anything you don’t already know.” She flipped her hair out of her face.
“And you say the globe’s gone?”
“Let me count the ways. The globe is gone. I no longer have the globe. You stole the globe. That’s three. Shall I continue?”
“Zip it, Gabriella.” This time his voice sounded more preoccupied than angry and he began to pace. “When did you first notice it was missing?”
“This is ridiculous. You know when it disappeared.”
“Humor me.”
Gabby sighed loudly. “When I came back from the vet’s and touched it.”
He stopped pacing, turned and frowned. “Pardon me?”
Gabby stared at him, the beginnings of doubt creeping across her face. “When I came back from the vet’s and touched it nothing happened.”
“What usually happens?”
“You know.”
“Sorry.” His voice was polite. “Actually, I don’t. Other than the one time I caught you in what appeared to be a trance of passion while you were holding the globe, I’ve no idea. Oh yes and that you supposedly see me in it.”
Pink crept into Gabby’s cheeks. “The way you say it, makes it sound disgusting or bizarre.”
“Actually, I found it rather titillating,” he admitted.
A wave of scarlet washed from her neck up to her hairline.
Christopher watched in amusement then took pity on her. “But we are straying from the point. You think someone substituted an imitation for Aunt Tam’s crystal?” He frowned, perplexed.
“I know it.”
“Go get it.” Seeing her mutinous expression he added, “Please.”
“It’s in the car.”
“I’ll go with you. You drove? Does your father know you are here?”
“Yes and yes. I left a message on his phone.”
He raised his eyebrows and quirked his lips. “Chicken.”
Her expression sheepish, she shrugged.
When they reached her beat-up Probe he cleared his throat but refrained from making any aspersions about her form of transportation as he pulled her duffle bag and ancient suitcase out of the car.
“It runs just fine,” she said defensively. “Not everyone can drive a Jag you know.”
“That’s right, only those with well-honed driving skills.” He sat the bags down and shut the car door.
“That’s not what I meant,” she said hotly.
Christopher gave her a lazy grin.
“You are so irritating.”
“Really, love? And I try so hard to please.” He watched as amusement warred with irritation on her expressive features and was pleased to see amusement win out. “Whatever the reason, I’m glad you’re here, Gabriella,” he said softly.
Gabriella looked at him then quickly looked away. She reached in the front seat and pulled out a white square box and started to open it. “Here it is.”
Christopher looked around. “Let’s take it inside.”
As they walked in, Gabby asked. “Where is everybody?”
“It’s Tuesday, Beatrice’s day off. And Aunt Tam is in the solarium. How did you get in? I didn’t hear the doorbell.”
“I walked in. You should start locking your doors.”
Christopher laughed, amused. “Maybe I should at that.”
They went into the solarium and he pulled a loupe out of his pants pocket.
Gabby eyed him from beneath veiled lashes as he studied the globe. Dressed in khaki shorts, a white polo shirt and loafers with no socks, he still managed to look like he’d just stepped off the front of GQ. She looked down at her wrinkled tee and khakis with a soda stain on them. It just wasn’t fair.
He took the ball out of the box and studied it in a businesslike manner. “Well, I’ll be damned. She did switch it on you.” He sounded almost admiring.
“She?”
“It’s got to be Lai.”
Gabby’s lip curled in distaste. “Your old girlfriend?”
“For my sins,” Christopher admitted.
“Well you can tell your girlfriend for me, I’m getting my globe back.”
It was like a metamorphosis, but instead of a butterfly the man standing in front of her turned into a tiger, a dangerous tiger.
His whole bearing changed, from a relaxed stance to an alert animal ready to pounce at the slightest provocation. It took every ounce of self-control that Gabby had not to take a hasty step backward. Instead, she jutted out her chin and stood her ground.
“You stay away from that woman.”
Gabby said nothing but her expression was mutinous.
“I will send you home to your father so fast your head will spin. I’ll tell him he needs to throw you in the slammer under armed guard 24/7 and even then you won’t be safe. She is a dangerous, dangerous woman, Gabriella and don’t you ever forget it.”
“I want my globe.”
“Did you not hear a word I said?”
“I’m not deaf. Though by the volume you are speaking at one would think so.”
He grabbed her arms. “Read my lips. I will get your globe back.”
“How?”
“My plan isn’t finalized.”
“Meaning you don’t have one.”
“You are the most infuriating woman I have ever known.”
“Why because I don’t kowtow to you?”
“Kowtow? Who uses words like kowtow?”
“I do.”
“Never mind. Do I have your promise that you will leave the globe to me?”
“No,” she said slowly as the grip on her arms tightened painfully, “but I will make a compromise. Whatever we do…”
“We?”
“We,” she said firmly. “We do together.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Lai sank into the seat of a luxury SUV she’d rented to drive to New Orleans. She would have preferred a limo or an airplane but Lai had learned to always do the unexpected. She really didn’t think the blonde bitch would tumble to the exchange for awhile and when she did, she would surely blame Christopher.
But Lai had stayed alive by overthinking. Worst case scenario the ox would blame her. She would tell her daddy and daddy would have the airports watched.
No one would be expecting her to make a twelve-hour trip in the car when she could fly, no one except perhaps Christopher. His mind was every bit as canny as hers.
He had been her best pupil. And he had also given her the most intense sexual gratification she had ever known. She might not be in love with Christopher Saint but she coveted him as she did fine jewelry and plush surroundings.
It was one of the reasons she’d left her native Calcutta.
Lai pushed the radio button to a New Age station and swung onto the highway, merging smoothly into traffic between a semi and a white Grand Am.
She drove straight through, except for an occasional stop for coffee or any other caffeinated drink. She held the big SUV to the speed limit not taking any chances with getting pulled over by the state police.
At the last stop, she wiped off all traces of makeup and put her shiny black hair in two ponytails on top her head. Except for the keen intelligence in her coffee-colored brown eyes, she could pass for sixt
een.
Dressed in shorts and a tank top, no one looking for Lai, the sophisticated woman of the world, would look twice at this young girl with the boyish figure.
The only problem Lai encountered was when two pimply faced teens had tried to pick her up. But a couple of well chosen phrases about the pimples on their face and their lack of facial hair had quickly caused them to lose interest.
The teens had thrown out a few phrases of their own. But words ran off Lai like water off a duck’s back. She’d been called those particular names since she was twelve years old.
Years ago being called a slut and worse had hurt her, but now she had the power to crush anyone that spoke against her. Sometimes she did, sometimes she let them live.
Lai turned into the French Quarter and drove carefully down the narrow cobbled streets.
She gave a low bark of laughter. All these weeks, Christopher had searched for her and she had been in New Orleans, almost under his nose. Having the exchange in the mountains had added a layer of smoke. If he looked for her in the States, he would look for her in North Carolina or possibly Chinatown where she had previously sent him on a wild-goose chase.
She pulled in front of an 1830s Creole double cottage and parked the car. The apartment had two bedrooms, a half bath, a master bath with a Jacuzzi and a courtyard in the back surrounded by black wrought iron.
She shared the cottage with a pretty young black girl. No one would expect her to have a roommate, especially a female roommate.
Turning off the car, she grabbed a small burgundy shoulder bag and two gift sacks, one held the globe, the other a trinket for her roommate. The trinket, bought at an expensive jewelry store, sat in a discrete gold sack with pale yellow tissue showing at the top.
It was nearly five in the morning. The streetlights were still on. The black of night had softened to a deep velvety gray.
Lai looked around appreciatively. The decadence and sumptuousness of the city struck a responsive chord in her soul. As she pulled a key out of her shoulder bag, her fingers touched the cool metal of an ivory-handled ladies’ derringer.
Dangling the key, she walked with the lithe movements of a feline up the brick walkway. The air was warm but not unbearably so. Coming from Calcutta, the heat didn’t bother her.
