Heart of a Hero

by Marie Ferrarella

  A feeling of accomplishment surged through Rusty. One down, a million to go, but he’d made a difference, brought one shattered family together. There was no substitute for the feeling that was rushing through him. “I’ll feel more blessed if you have a line on that vehicle I need.”

  “Already taken care of. Sam made a couple of calls,” she told him. He could hear the smile in her voice as she mentioned her husband’s name. “Know anything about hooking up cables?”

  “Can a bird fly?”

  “Not all of them,” she reminded him. He was the youngest member of the agency, and since he’d come to work for them before he was even out of college, they all felt rather protective of him, a feeling she knew frustrated him at times. Still, it didn’t keep her from saying, “Just be careful, you hear?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  She gave him the location where he could find the truck. “This is a huge favor. The man who’s lending you the truck is a friend of Sam’s and he’s going out on a limb. His supervisor’s out of town until Monday. He’s going to need the truck by then.”

  “No problem.” He sincerely hoped that by the end of that time they’d have the information they needed. “Besides, after that, it gets to look too suspicious to have the same truck hanging around the area.”

  Savannah was well versed in the drill. Surveillance was the backbone of the job. “Let me know if you need another vehicle rounded up.”

  “You’ll be the first to know,” he promised with a laugh. “I’ll be in touch.”

  “Be sure you are. Oh, and Rusty, Cade says to tell you, good work with that girl.”

  Cade was not stingy with his praise, but it was always nice to hear that his efforts were appreciated. “Tell him thanks.” Rusty rang off, flipping the phone shut. Tucking it away, he looked at Dakota. “We’ve got—”

  “The truck, I heard,” she told him.

  Because she’d been one once, she thought of the runaway. The one he’d just helped. Except in her case, there would have been no loving parents to return to, no arms waiting to embrace her. Just the state, waiting to place her in yet another loveless setting. Dakota looked at Rusty. He’d put himself out for no reward other than the good deed itself. She’d stopped believing that people like him existed a long time ago.

  “So that girl’s parents are coming to get her?”

  He nodded, getting out of the car. “I told you, we deal in happy endings.”

  She prayed that whatever luck he had held out a little longer. “I’m going to hold you to that.” She closed the car door firmly.

  He looked at her over the roof of the car. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  Every rule had an exception. Mentally, Rusty crossed his fingers that this case wouldn’t turn out to be the exception.

  But he knew he wouldn’t let it, because no matter what it took, even if her son wasn’t physically at Del Greco’s Las Vegas estate, as long as he had some clue that Del Greco did have the boy, he was going to find Vinny for her. He wasn’t about to give up until he saw Dakota holding her son in her arms.

  It was a promise that went beyond the verbal contract he’d given her when she’d come to the agency. It was a commitment he made to every case he worked on. And never so fiercely as the one he made now, to her.

  The smile on her lips was sad. “You know, I almost believe you.”

  He tried to not be swayed by the sadness he saw in her eyes, struggled against the desire to take her into his arms and just hold her, just comfort her. She’d only take it as a come-on, not what it was. One human being reaching out to another.

  Besides, he thought, maybe she was right. Because what he was feeling wasn’t completely altruistic.

  He was going to have to watch that.

  “Good.” He unlocked the motel door. “Like I said, keep working on that trusting thing. You’ll get it down pat yet.”

  Chapter 11

  The delivery truck driver, Sonny, according to the name stitched in white just beneath the Santini’s logo on his navy-blue shirt, eyed the hundred-dollar bill Rusty was holding out to him the way a starving dog eyed a sirloin steak that was just out of reach.

  Dakota could almost see the man literally drool at the bill. Barely out of his teens, if that old, the hundred had to seem like a great deal of money to him.

  Still, the driver slowly shook his dark head, torn and uncertain which way to go.

  Sonny scratched his head, as if the moral dilemma he was contemplating was just too much for him to handle.

  “I dunno, I dunno.” He repeated the phrase like a mantra.

  At exactly twelve noon, the tall, strapping grocery store errand boy had loaded Santini’s small delivery truck at the rear of the store and left the premises. Tailing him to make sure of his destination, Rusty had pulled his newly rented car in front of the truck less than three miles away from Del Greco’s compound.

  Sonny had leaned out the window, shouting obscenities, his temper flaring. His temper was extinguished as soon as he saw Rusty get out of the car and walk toward him. When he was told to step out of the vehicle, Sonny only gripped the steering wheel harder and cowered. However, seeing Dakota approaching behind Rusty, the request to step out of the vehicle had suddenly seemed less like a threat and more like an invitation.

  The offer of money was made quickly and succinctly, but it seemed to sail right over the younger man’s head. His IQ appeared to be only a little larger than his shoe size.

  Sonny stood now, shifting from foot to foot, clearly undecided and just as clearly tempted. His dark eyes slanted toward Rusty. “Tell me again why you want to take my place and deliver the groceries?”

  In a quiet, calm voice, Rusty repeated what he’d said only minutes before. “Mr. Del Greco’s my uncle and I’m just playing a trick on him.”

  Sonny chewed on a near-nonexistent lower lip. “I don’t know. Mr. Del Greco and the others, they’re very particular about who comes in and out.” A thought appeared suddenly to strike him and he looked as if the force of the blow might knock him down. “You could be a policeman or something.” He looked from Rusty to Dakota nervously. “And then Mr. Del Greco would get real mad. He might even—”

  Rusty was quick to cut in. “Do I look crazy to you? Do I?” he pressed.

  “Um, no.” Sonny stared at him, trying to discern whether he’d answered correctly.

  Still holding the hundred aloft, Rusty slipped a conspiratorial arm around the younger man’s shoulders.

  “Hey, I know what my uncle does for a living. If I weren’t his nephew, do you think I’d be stupid enough just to waltz right in there, unprotected? Without a hundred guys right behind me? My uncle’s ‘associates’ would cut me down in a heartbeat.”

  The explanation seemed to make sense to Sonny. Or maybe the temptation of the hundred had won out over what little common sense the young man possessed. In any event, he nodded his head vigorously in agreement.

  “Okay, but this won’t take long, will it? I gotta have the truck back pretty quick. Mr. Santini’s got a temper, too. I don’t like it when he yells at me.”

  “Not long,” Rusty promised, relieved that he had won the driver over so easily. “I’ll just be in and out, have a laugh with the old man and be back before you know it.” He indicated Dakota. “You can even stay with my girlfriend for collateral.”

  Dakota’s mouth dropped open in surprise, but the protest she was about to make at being called his girlfriend faded. Whatever it took to get Vinny back, she was willing to do. Even baby-sit a wisdom-challenged delivery truck driver.

  Sonny’s muddy eyes brightened as he looked at Dakota. That cinched the deal for him.

  “Okay.” He plucked the hundred from Rusty’s hand and shoved it happily into his pants’ pocket.

  Rusty took hold of his arm. “Get in the truck, I need to change clothes with you.”

  Sonny was instantly horrified, afraid that he had somehow made a huge mistake. “Hey, wait a minute, you didn’t s
ay nothing about taking off no clothes. I don’t do that kind of stuff with men.”

  Rusty bit back his impatience. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Dakota struggling to not laugh. “Neither do I,” Rusty assured him. “But I have to switch clothes with you. Otherwise, they’re going to know that I’m not from Santini’s and the joke’s over before it even starts.”

  Sonny pursed his lips, thinking. His eyes squinted from the effort. He glanced over again at Dakota. “All right, I guess.”

  Ten minutes later Rusty was behind the wheel of Santini’s Grocery’s delivery truck, dressed in Sonny’s navy-blue shirt and khaki pants and driving toward the Del Greco compound. He waved at Dakota just before taking the turn that led him down the hillside.

  Dakota sat in the rental car, her heart in her mouth. The light beige car was parked behind a row of trees that hid it from the view of anyone who looked up from the estate. She watched the truck grow smaller and smaller before it finally disappeared behind towering, black wrought-iron gates. She could just barely make out a guard in a booth just to the right of the entrance.

  Though she didn’t want to think about it, she had a bad feeling about the venture.

  The bad feeling grew as time ticked away.

  It didn’t help matters any that the delivery boy was sitting next to her and keeping up a stream of nonstop chatter that was swiftly driving her crazy. Occasionally, she offered monosyllabic answers when he paused to suck in a breath, saying “So, what do you think?”

  Every few minutes she glanced at her watch, then at the clock on the dashboard to make sure her watch hadn’t stopped. Her stomach began to tighten as her anxiety continued to escalate.

  Too much time had lapsed.

  Just how long did it take to plant a damn surveillance device? It had to be less time than had gone by, she reasoned. Fifteen minutes had ticked away since the grocery truck had disappeared from view.

  Was he even still alive?

  She resisted the urge to chew on her nails. Beside her, Sonny droned on. Something about an exciting experience on his prom night. She had a feeling that, left unchecked, he could go on this way indefinitely, recounting every event in his life. She stopped even making token answers.

  What if the men inside saw through Andreini’s story? What if they didn’t believe that Sonny had taken half a sick day and that he was subbing for the younger man? What if they saw him plant one of the surveillance devices?

  He’d be dead before his fingers had a chance to leave the bug.

  A chill ran down her back as fragments of scenarios continued to suggest themselves to her.

  She’d read accounts of Del Greco in the newspaper after she’d found out that he was Vincent’s father, accounts that had made her blood run cold. The small, gray-haired man with the aristocratic hands and gentle smile could order the systematic wiping out of an entire family while eating a fine gourmet meal without so much as pausing for a heartbeat.

  What if Del Greco was ordering Andreini killed while she sat here thinking?

  It would be her fault, all her fault. She couldn’t just sit here like this any longer, waiting to see if Andreini returned. If he was in trouble, she had to do something to help him.

  The best way was to create a diversion. Dakota made up her mind. She was going down to the house. Once she reached it, it was anyone’s guess what she was going to do. She only hoped an idea would hit her between now and five minutes from now.

  “Hey, lady, what are you doing?” Sonny suddenly halted his narrative midsentence as Dakota turned the key in the ignition. His eyes brightened. “Are we going somewhere? You know, Mr. Santini doesn’t like it if I take too long. Of course, if a honey like you’s involved, he’ll understand. Maybe,” he added nervously, his Adam’s apple dancing up and down his throat.

  She’d had just about all she could take. “Number one, I’m not a honey. Number two, will you please just sit still and shut up?”

  “Hey!” Sonny protested indignantly, his voice cracking just enough to embarrass him. “I didn’t come looking for you, you guys came to me, and—”

  The door on the driver’s side suddenly opened. Dakota jumped, her fist pulled back. She curtailed her punch just in time.

  “Omigod, you’re all right.” With a cry of relief, she bounced out of the car and threw her arms around Rusty. “You’re alive.” Without thinking, only reacting, she kissed him soundly on the lips.

  To say that he was surprised would be one of the great understatements of the decade. But Rusty always knew how to rise to an occasion and this time was no exception. Slipping his arms around the warm, supple body that was pressed against his, he let the kiss happen, absorbed her feverish embrace as his due after having survived a walk through the lion’s den. For a moment there he hadn’t been altogether sure that he would.

  Maybe if Del Greco’s capo hadn’t been inherently lazy, he might have been forced to undergo closer scrutiny after he’d given his story about Sonny getting sick. When the other man had challenged him, Rusty had offered to leave the groceries on the doorstep if he was under some kind of suspicion.

  Didn’t make any difference to him, he’d said to the capo. The pay was the same. Del Greco’s first-in-command had waved him into the kitchen, telling him to unpack the groceries and be quick about it.

  When he’d folded up the bags and put them away where he was told, Rusty had finally found the opportunity to plant one of the tiny, state-of-the-art surveillance chips that were part of Megan’s bag of tricks and that would allow them to both see and hear what was going on in that part of the Del Greco house. Stopping to tie his undone shoelace in the living room had allowed him to plant the other on the leg of an antique table.

  That done, though he moved slowly in keeping with his laid-back, lazy image, he couldn’t get out of the house fast enough. Dakota’s unexpected greeting was just icing on the cake.

  The kiss was deepening, sucking her into it. And Dakota was going willingly. Tantalized, for a moment she almost allowed it to continue. But then she came to what was left of her senses.

  What was she doing?

  She realized that stress had pushed her over the brink. Why else was she passionately kissing a man she hardly knew?

  She’d let her emotions get the better of her. Big mistake. Backing up, she looked at him and flushed.

  “Sorry.”

  Sonny, looking on with intense envy and vicariously enjoying the ride, scratched his head, puzzled by her abrupt change of direction.

  “Why is your girlfriend apologizing for kissing you?”

  “Long story.” Blowing out a breath as he tried to catch his bearings, Rusty clapped his hand over the delivery boy’s shoulder. “C’mon, let’s get you back into your own clothes and on your way before your boss starts getting suspicious.”

  The call to reality did the trick, although Sonny looked rather reluctant to call an end to the charade. With a sigh, he allowed himself to be herded away.

  Ten minutes later, with an extra hundred dollars in his pocket to insure that this little episode was “just between them,” Sonny drove the delivery truck away. He paused only once to look longingly over his shoulder at Dakota.

  For the second time that day Dakota felt as if she were ready to climb out of her skin. Waiting until the driver was out of sight was driving her crazy.

  “Did you see him?” she demanded the second Sonny was down the road. “Did you see Vinny? Is he on the compound?”

  Rusty shook his head. “I didn’t see him. I didn’t even get a chance to see the head man.” If Del Greco was present in the house, he had been nowhere in sight. “If your son’s there, most probably Del Greco has him in one of the upstairs rooms.” He looked at her. There were tiny lines on her forehead where her brow had furrowed. He fought the urge to smooth them out with his fingers. He thought of the way she’d greeted him. “Were you worried about me?”

  She shrugged, looking away, upbraiding herself for having lost control li
ke that. But it had been such a relief to see that he was still alive and that she wasn’t responsible for his demise. “You took a long time, I didn’t know what to think.”

  To him, time had raced by while he’d been in the compound. “Planting bugs isn’t like sticking on postage stamps.”

  “I know,” she snapped curtly. “It’s just that…” She saw the amused look on his face and damned him for it. “I didn’t want your blood on my conscience, all right?” Uncomfortable with the way he was looking at her and the way she was reacting to him, she shifted the focus of the conversation. “Besides, if I’d had to sit here listening to that mindless dolt try to seduce me one more second, I was going to be the one committing murder.”

  “He tried to seduce you?” Not that, of course, he could blame Sonny. In any case, he judged that Dakota was more than the younger man’s match.

  She laughed shortly. “Did everything but get out and perform a tribal mating dance around the car, preening like a peacock.”

  Rusty got into the vehicle, waiting for Dakota to come around to her side.

  “That’s what you get for being gorgeous.” He started the car. They had to hide this one and bring out the cable truck. “A kid with his hormones at peak running order can’t be held responsible for behaving like an idiot in heat around someone who looks the way you do.”

  She pulled her seat belt into place, frowning at his description. “Am I supposed to be flattered?”

  If he was going to flatter her, he would have used far more flowery language than that. “No, just understanding. Men tend to act like fools when their brains go into meltdown.”