by Cara Summers
A man emerged from the taxi and started down the alleyway. Gripping Maddie’s shoulders, Jase turned her so that she could see.
“Adam,” she murmured.
Together they watched as he let himself easily into the back door of the store.
“That answers one question. He has the new code. So he could stage another robbery at any time.”
“Or he could just pilfer a few pieces here and there, hoping that no one would notice.”
He turned to her, smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Good theory. Have I told you that I like the way your mind works?”
Then Jase opened the window and climbed out onto the fire escape. There was an ominous creaking sound.
“What are you doing?” Maddie asked.
“Getting out of here.”
“We’re going down the fire escape?”
Jase held out a hand. “C’mon. While two of my best operatives are keeping Adam occupied, we’re going to go on a little field trip to your cousin’s apartment.”
“Why?”
“We may find another puzzle piece there. And I want you out of the store. I took a chance even bringing you here. This is where that hit woman picked you up yesterday.”
As she placed her hand in Jase’s and threw her leg over the sill, Maddie made the mistake of glancing down. Her head spun once, and the moment she shifted her full weight onto the grated flooring, it creaked again.
“Don’t look down.”
“Already did.”
“Think you can make it?”
She met his eyes. “You haven’t lost me yet.”
“No. And I don’t intend to.” Leaning down, he kissed the tip of her nose. “I’ll go first.” He shut the window. “We have to move fast. Do you think you can run in those shoes?”
“Sure.”
Jase turned and led the way down a flight of steps.
Keeping her eyes fastened on Jase’s back, Maddie took a firm grip on the hand railing and followed one tense step at a time. Rattles and groans joined the creaks. She was surprised that no one had run into the alleyway to find out what all the noise was about. When Jase reached the first landing, the whole fire escape swayed.
Maddie’s head spun again. “I don’t think this has been used in a while.”
“Hang in there. It’s almost over.” Dropping to his knees, Jase lowered the ladder. It made a little shrieking sound and particles of rust rose in a fine spray. “I’ll be right beneath you.” He turned and began to climb down.
Maddie braced a hand against the brick wall of the building as the fire escape groaned and swayed. Then she heard the sound of the impact as his feet hit cement followed by a soft grunt.
“C’mon. I’ll catch you.”
For a minute, Maddie closed her eyes. Don’t think about it. Then, drawing in a deep breath, Maddie gripped the railing, ignored the slight sway. Think of something else. Jase. In her mind, she pictured him standing beneath her, ready to catch her if she slipped. With that thought in mind, she turned around, dropped to her knees and found the rung of the ladder with her feet. Slowly, she began her descent.
“Atta girl,” Jase said.
She kept his image in her mind as she located the next rung and the next. She pictured what his face looked like when he was above her, thrusting into her, the crinkles that formed at the corners of his eyes when he was grinning. She recalled the concern she’d glimpsed briefly in his expression when he’d watched D.C. walk with that cane. The cold steel she heard in his voice when he went into security mode.
She’d known him less than forty-eight hours and yet she knew so many sides of him. Her right foot dangled in the air and she gripped the ladder tightly.
“Just drop. I’ll catch you.”
For only a moment, she hesitated. But even then, she didn’t picture the distance to the ground. The image in her mind was Jase below her, his arms outstretched, that long, lean body braced to catch hers.
When she let go and fell, she felt her heart take the same fast tumble.
Arms as strong as steel clamped around her. “Gotcha.”
For an instant, she felt him sway. Then he set her solidly on her feet.
“Ready?”
She turned to him then. And the fear that snaked up her spine had less to do with the fact that her life was in danger and much more to do with the man. She wasn’t sure she was ready for what she was coming to feel for Jase Campbell. But she was going to get ready. Taking his hand in hers, she said, “Yes.”
Side by side, they raced for the end of the alleyway.
15
TWENTY MINUTES later, Jase and Maddie climbed the stairs in Adam’s apartment building.
“You’ve given me a whole new perspective on the lack of security in New York City dwellings.”
Jase slanted a look at her. She hadn’t commented as he’d gotten them into the basement of the building through an emergency-exit door. The alarm had sounded, but before anyone had appeared in the hallway, he’d urged her into the stairwell. “This one has excellent security at least at the front end. A doorman and another man on duty at the desk.” That was why he’d chosen a different entrance.
“Can you get into any building this easily?”
“Depends. I was in a hurry, and I was lucky.” He knew enough not to depend on luck for everything. He’d been able to hail a cab on Fifth Avenue and he’d switched taxis twice before arriving at Adam’s building. He was as sure as he could be that they hadn’t been followed, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d overlooked something.
On the fourth-floor landing, he pushed through the exit door. “Another time I might have pulled a D.C. and spun a story for the doorman that would have gotten us into Adam’s apartment in a more legitimate way.”
When they reached apartment 457, Jase motioned her to one side of the door. Then he knocked loudly. He counted ten beats, then knocked again.
Nothing.
Only then did he take the small case out of his back pocket and begin to work on the lock. Less than two minutes later, he had the door open. Still on the threshold, he scanned the living room. Something had his gut clenching, but there was no sound, no movement and nothing to be seen but dust motes dancing in a slant of morning sunlight.
Hurry, he told himself as he stepped into the small foyer. All he caught was a blur of movement, but it was enough to have him turning slightly. As a result, the blow hit him in the side of his head instead of the back.
“Maddie, run.” He managed to choke out the words as the pain, immediate and fierce, grayed his vision. Then his world went black.
MADDIE STOOD frozen as she watched Jase crumple to the floor. Then a hand grabbed her arm and jerked her forward into the room. Even then, she wasn’t able to shift her eyes away from him. Blood was oozing from a cut on his head.
A shove from behind had her stumbling past Jase’s lifeless body. A spurt of anger freed her from paralysis. She whirled on her attacker. She would have lunged forward had it not been for the gun in the woman’s right hand.
“Dorothy?” Maddie stared at the impeccably dressed woman standing in front of her, taking in the details as her sluggish mind raced to keep up. Adam’s mother was wearing a royal-blue suit today. The color contrasted nicely with the blood dripping from the fireplace poker Dorothy held in one hand. Jase’s blood.
Maddie swallowed the hysteria threatening to bubble up. She had to think, she had to find a way to help Jase. She’d been trained in self-defense tactics by Cash. The first rule was to distract your opponent. For now, she just had to stall. Keep Dorothy talking.
“What are you doing here?” Maddie asked.
“Adam called me.”
Dorothy took two steps forward, and Maddie backed up in retreat. They were out of the foyer now, farther away from Jase. That was good. But in the stronger light, what Maddie saw glinting in the older woman’s eyes had fear nearly freezing her again.
“He saw you leaving by way of the fire
escape,” Dorothy continued. “I was still on my cell talking to him when the police arrived to take him in for questioning. That was your doing. Don’t bother to deny it.”
Dorothy’s voice was calm, composed, making the lethal weapon in her hand seem surreal. Keeping the gun steadily aimed at Maddie, she moved sideways to the fireplace and hung the poker on its hook. Good, Maddie thought. There was only one weapon to worry about now. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t play innocent.” Dorothy moved closer, and this time Maddie held her ground. She had to if she was going to get that gun away.
“I know what you’re doing. Your friend runs a security firm. Jase Campbell. Adam recognized the name the moment you introduced him.”
“He’s also Jordan’s apartment mate,” Maddie said. “And a good friend.”
“But that’s not why you brought him with you to Eva Ware Designs. Before she died, Eva told Adam that she’d hired Jase Campbell to investigate the robbery. And I knew when I saw him with you yesterday that you intended to stir everything up again. It’s all part of your goal to push Adam out of Eva Ware Designs. And for that you have to die, just as Eva had to die.”
DIE. That one word penetrated the fog clouding Jase’s brain. Then he remembered. The woman standing just inside the foyer. Maddie was in danger. How long had he been out? Experimentally, he opened his eyes just a little and rode out the wave of pain. He could just make out the two women standing in a slash of sunlight about ten feet away.
Dorothy Ware had a gun aimed at Maddie. Anger and fear flooded through him. Jase shoved both aside and resisted the urge to get up. When he moved, he’d have to be fast. And he had to be sure that he wouldn’t get dizzy. Wouldn’t stumble. Slowly, carefully, he raised his head off the floor. Pain spiked at his right temple, but there was no dizziness.
MADDIE SAW two movements at once. Jase lifting his head and Dorothy raising the gun slightly. Don’t panic. Stall.
“Is that why you hired the hit woman?” Maddie asked.
Surprise flickered for a moment in Dorothy’s eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I prefer to handle things on my own.”
Maddie didn’t let herself look at the gun. “You still haven’t told me why you’re here.”
With her free hand, Dorothy gestured toward the purse that sat on the arm of one of the sofas. “Adam asked me to come and take away the jewels.”
“The jewels?”
“Adam is not entirely stupid. He knew he wouldn’t get away with another robbery. So instead, he’s been bringing pieces here one at a time. Eventually he’ll sell them in the same way he sold the others. He couldn’t afford to leave them here now that the police are involved.”
A chill snaked its way up Maddie’s spine. Dorothy spoke about her son’s actions in the same matter-of-fact tone she might use to discuss the weather. Don’t panic. Just keep her talking.
“Adam robbed Eva Ware Designs? Why? He’s rich.”
Dorothy sighed. “Not anymore. He has a gambling problem, and he hasn’t conquered it yet. He’s gone through his trust fund, and Carleton wouldn’t help him out. He claims he can’t because money has become very tight at the bank. Plus he’s still annoyed with Adam for not taking a job at Ware Bank. He could be a VP by now. So Adam had to borrow money elsewhere.”
“At a high interest rate?” So Jase had been right.
“Yes. Luckily, I sit on the MOMA board with a man who helps people in Adam’s situation.”
“John Kessler?”
Dorothy frowned. “How did you know?”
“The man’s a loan shark,” Maddie said.
“Nonsense. He helped Adam when his father and I couldn’t. Of course, I did what I could to help him with the payments, but I couldn’t go on doing that forever. I told him he had to be a man and take care of the problem. And for once in his life, Adam stepped up to the plate.”
The pride in Dorothy’s voice had Maddie’s blood turning even colder.
“He robbed Eva Ware Designs of a few baubles to take care of the debt once and for all. Everything would have been fine if Eva hadn’t figured it out. When she confronted him about the robbery and discovered that Adam was still gambling, she actually threatened him. Adam, in spite of his faults, is a Ware.”
“Did she threaten to have him arrested?”
“Of course not. Adam’s family. She told him that she would settle his additional debt, but that he would have to leave Eva Ware Designs. Can you imagine that?”
For the first time, Maddie heard a thread of emotion in Dorothy’s voice.
“She was going to fire Adam! Adam, whose dream was to run Eva Ware Designs one day. I couldn’t allow that to happen. That’s why I had to kill her. That’s why I have to kill you.”
Beyond Dorothy’s shoulder, Maddie saw Jase spring to his feet and lunge forward. Later, she remembered everything in freeze-framed moments. Dorothy started to turn. Jase was still too far away to reach her in time. Without any thought on her part, Maddie flew forward and brought the edge of her hand down hard on Dorothy’s gun arm. The gun fired into the floor.
The shot was still ringing in Maddie’s ear when she grabbed the arm she’d just hit and kicked Dorothy’s feet out from under her.
Jase flipped the woman over and sat on her while he put plastic restraints on her wrists and ankles. Then he pulled out his cell, punched in a number, and handed it to Maddie. “You talk to Stanton. He’s going to yell at me and my head hurts.”
As she took the phone, he smiled at her, then winced and said, “Is that one of the moves your friend Cash taught you?”
“Yes.”
“I owe him one.”
IT TOOK a lot of charm, arguments and dogged determination, but in just three hours Jase was letting Maddie lead him down the hall to his bedroom. The stop at the emergency room had been at Maddie’s insistence. Stanton had joined them there and questioned them both in the waiting room.
While he’d been X-rayed, poked, prodded, stitched up and given a prescription for twenty-four hours of bed rest, she had stayed by his side.
That’s when Maddie had asked the question that was foremost in his own mind. “You don’t think that it’s over, do you?”
“Hard to say,” he’d replied. “That’s why I haven’t called D.C. yet. I don’t want anyone in Santa Fe letting down their guard until we know more.”
According to Stanton, Carleton Ware had been shocked when he’d heard the news about his wife and son. Stanton’s take was that the reaction rang true. Neither the wife nor the son had implicated him. Carleton was out of town attending a conference, but he’d sent a team of lawyers to the station. However, the hard evidence had started to dribble in. The security cameras at Eva’s garage had caught a good shot of Dorothy behind the wheel of Eva’s car on the same night that Eva was run down. And Dino had tapped into Eva’s bank account and found a withdrawal of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars two days before her death. Apparently that had gone to Adam to pay off the additional debt he’d incurred since he’d robbed the store. Jase’s informant had also phoned in. One of the fences he’d contacted had given a description of Adam.
“I don’t believe Dorothy hired the hit woman who shot at us in the park,” Maddie said. “I don’t think she could have faked the surprise I saw in her eyes when I asked her about it.”
“I’m not so sure she hired the hit either. Perhaps Adam did,” Jase said.
“The terrible thing is his mother would be proud of him if he did.”
They’d reached his bedroom, and Maddie steered him through the door and onto the bed. He let her fuss over him, rearranging pillows. But when she turned to go, he took her wrist and pulled her down on top of him.
“Jase,” she said. “The doctor said bed rest. You have a possible concussion.”
“That doctor was only twelve years old. Besides, it’s equally possible that I don’t have a concussion.”
“Either way, you need rest.”
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br /> With one hand he held her in place. With the other he drew her head down and brushed his lips over hers. “Stay with me.”
When she melted against him, a little of his tension eased.
Lifting her head, she said, “We’re just going to rest.”
He smiled slowly. “For now.” He eased her to his side and turned to face her. It occurred to him that they were in the same position as when he’d opened his eyes and first seen her. He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’ve waited a long time to get you back here in my bed, Maddie.”
When he saw the nerves flash into her eyes, he felt his own knot more tightly in his stomach.
“We don’t need to talk now,” she said.
Patience. He’d thought he could draw on it. Promised himself that he would. But he couldn’t.
“I know that you have a lot on your plate. Your aunt has been arrested for murder, your cousin for robbery. You’ve just begun to get settled in at Eva Ware Designs and get your questions about your mother answered. We haven’t even had time to search Eva’s apartment or office to see whether there’s any evidence that she and your father kept in touch over the years.”
“I have an idea about that. A hunch. We can check it out later. Right now you need to rest.”
Hadn’t he promised himself during the eons of time they’d spent in that emergency room that he’d wait for later, too? There were so many reasons why he shouldn’t push her now. And one reason why he had to.