by Lisa Jackson
He studied one of the signed paintings, trying to focus. Thinking about Evie right now was a really bad idea. Next to it was a poster announcing an art show at a gallery down the street tomorrow night. “Are you W. St. Clair?”
“Yes.” She sounded shy, maybe a little embarrassed. Or maybe it was just nerves with him in her studio this late at night. He could see where she’d been framing some paintings at a workbench in the back.
“You say someone told your wife I would be here late?” she asked. He could hear her trying to come up with an explanation. “I can’t imagine who would have told her that.”
He shrugged and moved through the paintings, trying not to look out the front windows. Just act normal. The thought almost made him laugh. A normal man would be smart enough not to have gotten caught. And he was caught. Even if he ditched the disk, he wasn’t sure he could save himself. Those men wouldn’t be after him unless they knew he’d double-crossed them.
“I had to work late myself tonight,” Simon said, making it up as he went. Nothing new there. “I was afraid I wouldn’t get here in time. You see it’s our anniversary. Ten years. My wife told me about a painting she saw here and I thought it would make a great anniversary present for her.”
Evie had bailed after six years. Hadn’t even waited for the seven-year itch.
“Your anniversary?” The artist smiled. She wanted to believe him. Simon knew he was laying it on a little thick but he needed her to feel safe. To act as if she’d known he was coming. Act as if nothing was wrong for the men who he knew were outside watching him. Watching them both.
The ploy seemed to be working. He saw her relax a little, her movements not as tense as she stepped away from the front windows.
“Do you mind if I just look around for a few minutes?” he asked. “I know I’ll recognize the painting she fell in love with from the way she described it.”
“If you tell me—”
“You do beautiful work. I can understand why she was so taken with your paintings,” he said, cutting her off.
“Thank you,” she said, sounding less suspicious although clearly still cautious. “I have a show coming up tomorrow night so I was working late framing. I’m afraid some of the paintings aren’t for sale—at least until the show tomorrow night. I hope your wife didn’t choose one that’s tagged for the show.”
“Well, if she did, I’m sure I’ll find something that she’ll love.” Simon heard her go back to the bench. All she had to do was look up and see him from where she worked. He continued to move through the paintings, pretending to admire each as if in no hurry to find the one his wife wanted.
There was only one spot in the small shop where she wouldn’t be able to see him. Nor would anyone outside have a clear view because of several large paintings that hung from a makeshift wall.
He found a painting that was marked For Show, Not For Sale and slipped the knife from his pocket. He quickly cut a small slot along the edge of the paper backing the framed painting—one of a colorful sailboat keeling over in the wind—and slid the disk inside between the paper and the artwork.
The disk fit snug enough that it made no sound when Simon picked up the painting as if inspecting it more closely. No one should notice the careful cut he’d made. Not that anyone would get the chance. He’d be back tonight for the painting just as soon as he got rid of the two men after him.
He breathed a sigh of relief as he picked up another small painting of a Florida street market, colorful and quaint and the painting was not tagged for the show.
“This is the one. What does the W. stand for?” he asked as he took it over to her.
“Willa.” She smiled as she saw which painting he had selected. “An excellent choice.”
Simon paid in cash and watched her carefully wrap it, priding himself on the fact that he hadn’t once glanced toward the front windows. Anyone watching him from outside would think this had been his destination all along. At least he hoped so. Everything was riding on this.
“You really saved my life,” he said, smiling at the young woman. “I can’t tell you how relieved I was to see that you were still around tonight.”
She handed him the package and smiled back. “Happy anniversary. I hope your wife enjoys the painting.”
“Oh, she will.” Evie would have had a fit if he’d brought home a painting by an unknown. Evie liked nice things. And Simon had failed to give her what she needed.
Swallowing down the bitterness, he idly picked up one of the flyers by the cash register announcing Willa St. Clair’s gallery showing the next evening and pretended to study it before he folded the flyer and put it into the breast pocket of his jacket.
She followed him to the door.
“Good luck with your show tomorrow night,” he said as she started to close the door. “Maybe my wife and I will stop by.”
“It’s just down the street, at the Seaside Seascapes Gallery.”
Simon nodded as she closed and locked it behind him, then he turned and started back the way he’d come, taking his time, the small painting tucked under his arm.
He waited for the two men to accost him as he walked down the street. Two blocks from Willa St. Clair’s art studio, and he hadn’t seen anyone who wanted to kill him. Maybe he’d been wrong. Maybe he’d hidden the disk and blown off his delivery meeting for nothing.
He should have been relieved. But instead, it made him angry. He’d panicked for nothing. Now he would have to go back and get the damned disk after the studio was closed. Worse, he would have to set up another delivery meeting. Any change of plans always increased the danger.
At his car, he beeped open the doors, the lights flashed and he reached for the door handle.
They came at him from out of the darkness, surprising him. Simon reached for his weapon, but he wasn’t fast enough. The small painting he’d bought fell to the ground with a thud as the larger of the two grabbed him, the smaller one taking his gun and searching him.
“What the hell do you want?” he bluffed, recognizing them both. “You scared the hell out of me. You’re damned lucky I didn’t shoot you both.”
The smaller of the two men scooped up the painting from the sidewalk and tore the canvas from its frame, tossing it aside when he didn’t find what he was looking for.
Simon considered whether he could take them both and decided he’d be dead before he even had one of them down. No, he thought, he had a much better chance if he could get them to take him to their boss. He’d managed to bluff his way this far. He had to believe he could get himself out of this, as well.
“Where is it?” the small one demanded as he jammed a gun into Simon’s kidneys.
He groaned. “Where’s what?” The big one hit him before Simon even saw him move. The punch dropped him to his knees.
“Not here,” the smaller one snapped and Simon heard the sound of a car engine.
A moment later he was shoved onto the floorboard of the back seat, something heavy pressed on top of him.
He tried to breathe, to remain calm. The disk was hidden. If he played his cards right, he could get it back and still make delivery. Too much was at stake to give up now.
If there was one thing Simon Renton was good at it, it was talking his way out of trouble. Didn’t everyone say he was like a cat with nine lives?
He just hoped he hadn’t run out of lives.
CHAPTER TWO
Simon was dead.
Landry Jones stood in the large office of the Tampa warehouse fighting the urge to put a bullet hole into the brains of the two men who’d killed Simon. Stupid fools.
But then he’d have to take out their boss, Freddy D., and that wasn’t part of the plan. At least not yet.
“We almost got him to tell us who he was working with,” said the larger of the two thugs, who went by TNT or T for short, no doubt because of the man’s short fuse.
The other man, known as Worm, was smaller, cagier and meaner if that were possible. “I told T to back o
ff a little but Simon was giving him a lot of grief.”
Knowing Simon, he would have purposely got T going, so the fool killed him before he gave up the names of the other undercover cops who’d infiltrated the organization.
Landry swore under his breath. “That’s why I wanted to handle this. I would have gotten the names out of him.”
Freddy D. studied him from beneath hooded gray eyes. “Maybe. Maybe not.”
Landry shook his head angrily. “So where’s the disk Simon supposedly made?” he asked the two thugs. “Or did you kill him before he told you that, as well?”
“Easy,” Freddy D. said, but turned his big bald head to take in T and Worm. “Tell me you got the disk.” The tone of his voice made it pretty clear that T and Worm might not be around long if they didn’t.
Landry held his breath. T squirmed but Worm looked almost cocky. “He told us where to find it,” Worm said.
Landry let out the breath he’d been holding. “Great. You don’t have the disk, you don’t even know if it exists or if Simon was a cop or not.” He felt the corpse-gray eyes of Freddy D. shift to him again.
“My source said he was a cop and that there were two others working with him in my organization,” Freddy D. said.
“Yeah? And what if your source just wanted Simon dead and you running scared of your own men?” Landry asked, knowing he was stepping over the line. “Simon was smart. He was good for business. Now he’s dead and there might not even be a damned disk.”
“Cool down…” Zeke said from where he lounged against the wall. Zeke Hartung, known affectionately as Zeke the Freak, was tall and slim with rebel good looks. Landry had never asked how he got the nickname. He didn’t want to know.
“We all liked Simon,” Zeke continued. “If he was a cop, then I’m a cop and I’m taking you all in.”
The men in the room laughed nervously. Landry met Zeke’s gaze. Zeke smiled. The bastard loved to bluff.
“If your source says there’s a disk, Freddy D., then there’s a disk,” Zeke continued. “So let’s find it. Find out what’s on it. Find out where Simon got his information—or if these two morons killed the wrong man.”
“Who you calling a moron?” T demanded, going for Zeke.
Freddy D. stopped it with a wave of his hand. “Zeke’s right. Once we have the disk, then we’ll know who we can trust. So where is this disk and why don’t I have it yet?” Freddy D. asked, a knife edge to his voice.
Even Worm looked a little less sure of himself. “Simon said he hid it in a painting in one of those art studios down by the beach.”
“You think he’s a cop, you think he has information on a disk that will bring down the entire organization or make it possible for some other organization to move in on us, and you trusted him to tell you the truth about where he hid it?” Landry demanded incredulously.
Freddy D. shot Landry a look that dropped his blood temperature to just above freezing before turning that cold stare on T and Worm. “So why didn’t you just get the painting and bring it to me?”
Worm swallowed, his Adam apple bobbing up and down. “It’s in this art studio. The thing is the shops are all open now. We can’t just waltz in and take the painting in broad daylight.”
Freddy D. sat up, his weight making the chair groan. “Don’t take it, you fool. Buy it. How much money do you need?”
T and Worm exchanged a look. “It’s not for sale.”
Freddy D. sat back as if Worm had slapped him. “You aren’t serious.”
“The painting is part of an art show tonight at some gallery called Seaside Seascapes,” Worm said. “I just thought I’d go to the show tonight and buy the painting.”
Freddy D. groaned. “You? At an art show?”
“Better than sending T,” Landry said.
Freddy D. swiveled around in his chair to pin Landry with that corpse-gray gaze again. “You go, Jones. T and Worm will be waiting for you in the alley to make sure there are no problems. You buy the painting, make sure you get it tonight, you hand it over. They’ll be watching you the whole time. Have a problem with that?”
“That’s assuming T and Worm aren’t undercover cops,” Landry said sarcastically.
Even Freddy D. laughed at that.
“I don’t know. They’re dumb enough to be cops,” Zeke said.
Both men looked like they could kill Zeke, but were smart enough not to try. At least not right now in front of the boss.
“I don’t want those two in the alley,” Landry said. He knew the best thing he could do right now was to go along with Freddy D.’s plan. But it was too late in Landry’s life to do the best thing. Far from it.
“Think about it, these two hanging out in the alley behind a fancy art gallery?” Landry said. “First off, anyone who sees them is going to call the cops, thinking they’re staking out the place. Secondly, if your source is right and Simon was a cop working with the feds and had made a disk he planned to hand over, then the feds are looking for this disk, too.”
Freddy D. narrowed his eyes at him, and for a moment Landry thought he might tell T and Worm to kill him. “While not eloquent or wise, you do make a good point. You’re saying that Simon might have gotten the feds word where he hid the disk.”
Landry doubted it. Otherwise the feds would be busting down the doors right now, guns blazing. “I think it would be a mistake to underestimate Simon. I know if I was him and I spotted these two behind me, guilty or not, I’d do whatever I could to cover my ass.”
“I’ll cover the alley,” Zeke said. “Or better yet, I’ll go to the art show and let Landry wait in the sidelines.”
“Like you know squat about art,” Landry said, then pretended not to care. “Whatever.”
Freddy D. raised a hand. “Landry goes in. Zeke, you take the alley. T and Worm won’t be far away just in case.”
Just in case any of them thought about double-crossing him. “I want that disk,” the boss said.
“If it exists,” Landry added, and Freddy D. gave him a warning look before turning again to T and Worm. “What do we know about this artist where Simon said he hid the disk?”
The thugs exchanged confused looks.
“The painting he had on him was signed W. St. Clair,” Worm said. “Simon said her name was Willow.”
“Or something like that,” T said. “He wasn’t talking too clearly.”
Freddy D. groaned. “What about the artist? Is it possible she’s his contact?”
“You hear sirens?” Zeke asked sarcastically. “If the feds had the disk we’d all be facedown and handcuffed.”
“Zeke’s right,” Landry said. “So what does this painting look like? You did get that, right?”
Worm looked like he was itching to punch Landry’s ticket. “It’s a painting of a sailboat. It had a red and white sail and the boat was blue. The boat is at full sail and there is a blond woman at the wheel. Her hair’s blowing back and she’s kind of hanging off to the side like she’s having a great time.”
Landry stared at Worm, amazed they’d gotten that much information out of Simon about the painting but weren’t sure about the artist’s name. He wanted to believe that Simon had made up every word of it. But Landry had seen T in action and knew that few men could withstand that form of torture. Even Simon.
“I’ll find the painting,” Landry said.
“I also think it would be wise to find out what the woman knows about Simon,” Freddy D. said. “Either way, she’s a loose end.” Freddy D. was looking straight at him. “You have a way with the ladies, Landry. Take care of her.”
* * *
WILLA ST. CLAIR GLANCED around the gallery at all her paintings hanging on the walls and could no longer suppress her excitement. She still couldn’t believe it. All the hard work, the long hours painting then framing, had finally paid off.
Just when she thought that her life couldn’t get any better than this, she saw the handsome dark-haired man standing by the door.
He’d cau
ght her eye several times earlier, lifting his wineglass and giving her a nod. She’d felt herself warm, complimented by his attention.
Now he smiled and she saw that the crowd had thinned. Clearly he was waiting for her. Her heart beat a little faster.
Several of the stragglers came over to congratulate her. Like her first two openings, this one had been an incredible success. She still couldn’t believe it. Almost all of the paintings had small red dots on them, indicating they were sold.
Her dream had come true. She tried to calm her runaway heart, took a deep breath and turned to look toward the door.
He was gone.
Her disappointment pierced the helium high she’d been riding on just moments before. She’d taken too long. He’d gotten tired of waiting.
She couldn’t help feeling regret. He’d made a point of getting her attention during the show. But each time she hadn’t been able to get away to talk to him. She’d hoped he would find a way to talk to her before the evening was over.
“Great show, sweetie,” the gallery owner, Evan Charles, said, coming over to give her an air kiss beside each cheek. “Everyone was just raving about your use of color. You’re a hit.”
She thanked Evan and promised to let him know when she had enough paintings ready for another show. Taking her wrap from the closet by the door, she stepped out into the Florida night air, closed her eyes and breathed it all in as he locked up behind her.
You’re not in South Dakota anymore.
She smiled to herself. She would never tire of breathing sea air. She could hear the cry of the gulls and the lull of the surf not a block away. She loved Florida. And Florida, it seemed, loved her.
“Beautiful night,” said a male voice as warm and silky as the night air. “Beautiful woman.”
She opened her eyes and turned already smiling, knowing it was him. He had waited for her.