A Perfect Fit

by Heather Tullis

  After a few minutes she corrected the issue and sent the guests on their way, then ran through the problem with both of the service experts so they would know how to fix it next time. She was nearly finished when she glanced up and saw Trent going up the staircase to the second floor.

  She finished reviewing procedures with the girls, but kept sneaking peeks at the staircase. There wasn’t anything up there except convention space and the executive offices. Trent would probably follow the windy hall and end up at the other staircase.

  Vince walked over to her, a plate of food in his hand, and smiling. “I wondered if you were about done here.”

  “All finished.” She said goodnight to the girls and took Vince’s elbow. “Can we take a quick detour on our way back to the ballroom?”

  “Sure.” He lifted a stuffed mushroom cap to her mouth and fed it to her.

  The flavors burst on her tongue and she sighed with appreciation. “Wow. Remind me to tell Rosemary how amazing she is.”

  “There’s more where that came from.” His voice was barely more than a low rumble, but it made her shiver. Or maybe that was due to the light brush of his hand along her spine through the thin fabric of her dress.

  “I can’t wait to try them all.”

  His gaze practically sizzled in the air as he looked at her. “If there are extras, we might have to take some back to my place to celebrate privately.”

  “I think I could get behind that.” She was grateful for his steadying presence as they ascended the stairs.

  He turned her around and backed her against the wall once they were out of sight of guests. She melted into him. “I’ve never been so glad to get away from a crowd before.” She lifted her mouth to his and savored the kiss for a long moment.

  “Mmmm. I should have brought you up here a while ago. Maybe we could duck into your office for a few minutes.” His mouth glided along her jaw to her ear. “I’ve wanted to get you alone since I saw you in this dress.”

  “Now’s not the time.” She shivered as his breath fluttered against her neck and his lips teased the sensitive skin beneath her earlobe. “I have people downstairs I’m supposed to mingle with.”

  “Duty never ends.”

  “Isn’t that the truth?” Her eyes flashed over the glass doors into the executive offices and she thought she saw movement. She stopped and stared as a shadow crossed in front of the door to Lana’s office. “What’s going on?”

  “What?” Vince asked, glancing behind him.

  “Hold on.” Cami moved to the glass doors that led into the offices and pushed one open. It wasn’t locked as she thought they had left it earlier.

  “It’s probably just Lana, come back to pick up something,” Vince said, but he kept his voice pitched low.

  “Yeah.” Still, Cami wasn’t sure she believed it.

  Vince slid the plate of hors d’oeuvres onto the office manager’s desk, and led the way to Lana’s door. He twisted the handle and opened it quickly.

  Trent stood on the other side, riffling through some papers. He glanced up in surprise at the sound of the door opening.

  “What are you doing here?” Cami asked.

  Chapter 37

  Trent’s eyes grew wide and his mouth dropped open for just a second before he covered it with a smooth smile. “Hey, Lana asked me to drop some papers up here.” He circled back around the desk. “You have a really nice hotel, did I mention that earlier? You must be so pleased with how everything is going tonight.”

  “Yes, it’s been great.” Cami crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down. “What are you really doing up here? The room was locked.”

  A flicker of anger erupted on Trent’s face, yet it vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared. A congenial smile flashed onto his face and he moved toward them. “How about if we head back down to the party?”

  Vince grabbed Trent by the arm as he tried to waltz by. “Not so fast. The lady asked you a question and you need to answer it.”

  “Hey, get your hands off, lawn boy. I’m not doing anything wrong.” Trent tried to pull his arm out of Vince’s grip, but ended up with it twisted high behind his back.

  “Then how did you get in here?” Cami pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and speed dialed Joel.

  “The door was open.”

  “I checked that lock myself. I know it was locked.” She looked at him, disgusted. “You’re a terrible liar, Trent. I have no idea how I never saw it before.”

  His blue eyes flashed at her. “You saw what you wanted to see.”

  “Hey, Joel,” Cami said when he picked up. “We have an intruder in Lana’s office. Could you come up here?” He stated he would and they hung up.

  “Who did you call?” Trent asked.

  “Our head of security. He has a knack for getting to the bottom of things.” Cami leaned back against the desk and looked at Trent, whose face was turning red from anger. “Tell me, Trent, what else have you been up to lately?”

  His eyes darkened and his jaw hardened. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Really?” Vince twisted Trent’s arm more, causing him to suck in a pained breath.

  “I think you know what I’m talking about,” Cami said. “The news reports, the pictures and rumors. I know you’ve heard of them.”

  “Of course. Everyone’s heard about them. That doesn’t mean I had anything to do with it.” Trent winced as Vince gave his arm another yank. “Stop that. I’m not doing anything wrong here.”

  Cami called Lana and asked her to come up to the office. She would need to take a look through her papers and make sure nothing was missing. When she finished, she looked at Trent again. “How about if you come clean now and save us all a lot of hassle?”

  “Right. Because you’re one of the mighty DiCarlos, so I should just kowtow and do whatever you want. Follow your rules, accept your decisions. Your father did everything he could to ruin me. It’s only by luck that I still have a business.”

  “He’s hardly to blame if he chose to go with a different company. He had to make the right decisions for the hotel chain—regardless of personal relationships.” Of course, he’d never liked Trent, and actively tried to convince her to break up. No use mentioning it, though.

  He snorted. “Right, what’s best for the company, which is why he put his six daughters all to work here—it had nothing to do with personal relationships.”

  She decided to ignore that as he was both right that the decision had been a personal one, and wrong that it had been a bad move for the business.

  The hall door opened and Joel entered the front office with another security guard. Lana and Blake entered in their wake and Alex wasn’t far behind.

  The second security guard took Trent into the next room while Joel did a sweep for bugs—finding several that hadn’t been there last he’d checked. Since the day he’d found the bugs and cameras at their home, Joel had been doing a sweep of each of the sisters’ office areas every couple of days, but until now they had been clean. “Looks like we found our problem,” he said as he finished Lana’s office. “I’ll have to do a full sweep of everyone’s areas again tonight, just to be sure he didn’t manage to sneak in any others. Also, I’ll get Mrs. Grady to meet us at the police department for a lineup, see if she recognizes him.”

  Cami felt faintly ill at the thought that Trent might have been behind everything. She knew he’d been unhappy about their breakup, but she had no idea he could hate like that.

  “I know everyone’s upset,” Alex said after Joel left the office, “but we do still have a party going on downstairs, and an awful lot of the key people are up here instead of there. We really ought to head back down, put on our social smiles, and get through the evening.”

  He was right, though it didn’t make Cami any more excited about returning to the crowd and pretending everything was great. She was glad for Vince’s arm around her shoulder as he led her toward the hallway. “Okay, let’s get back to it
.”

  “Don’t look so excited,” Lana teased, following on their heels. “Someone might get the idea that you aren’t an avid social climber.”

  “And that would be a terrible shame.” A thought popped into her head and she turned to Lana. “Trina. She’s got to be wondering what’s happened to Trent by now.”

  Lana cursed, then let out a huff of irritation. “Right. So who gets that pleasure?”

  “I’ll take care of it,” Alex volunteered, though a glance in his direction showed grim lines bracketed his mouth.

  Relief filled Cami as she allowed Vince to lead her back down the staircase. She had barely eaten anything before the confrontation, but though her stomach was still empty, she didn’t think she could eat anything more.

  Chapter 38

  Monday night Cami was curled up in an overstuffed chair in the living room, watching Rosemary and Jonquil debate professional basketball teams. Rosemary argued that the Chicago Bulls were hands down the best while Jonquil thought the Seventy-Sixers would beat their socks off this season. Cami didn’t really understand the draw of watching people run up and down a court for three hours, but watching her sisters argue was plenty entertaining.

  The doorbell rang and Jonquil jumped up to answer it. At the door she turned to face them, “Cami, you have a vis—” her words cut off as an arm came around her neck and a glint of silver lifted to her temple.

  Cami felt her throat close off as she recognized the gun only an instant before seeing Trent was the one holding it. Jonquil’s blue eyes widened with terror as she looked at all of them. “What’s going on?” she asked, her voice high and squeaky.

  “Shut up.” Trent’s arm tightened around her neck, making her bow to the side. “Camellia knows exactly what this is about. Don’t you, sweetheart?”

  Rosemary and Delphi stood to face him. Cami rose to her feet and glanced to the kitchen where Sage had been only a moment later. She was huddled behind the kitchen island, tears streaming down her frightened face and texting with shaky fingers. Lana was in her room; with any luck, she’d stay there. “Hey, it’s going to be okay,” Cami said to Jonquil, though her voice quavered, belying the way her heart raced and her hands sweated. “Trent, I heard they released you this morning. You don’t want to hurt her. Let her go.”

  “You really think I’d give up the advantage when I finally have everyone’s attention?” He chuckled, but didn’t look amused. “Do you know how hard I’ve worked to get it?”

  “What do you want, Trent?” Cami used his name deliberately, hoping it would make him feel in control and calm him.

  “A little respect would have been nice. You know, this is all yours and your dad’s fault. It didn’t have to be this way.” His eyes darted, taking in the room around him, but not really settling on anyone.

  “Then you can let the others go and just deal with me.” The thought of being alone with him while he carried a gun was almost more than she could handle, but Cami couldn’t let one of the others get hurt. She was the real target here. “You can tell me exactly where I went wrong and how to fix it.”

  “What do you think I am, an idiot?” He tightened his arm more around Jonquil’s neck, causing her to gasp slightly as her head was yanked back. “Besides, I’ve decided you’re all going to pay—you’re all his daughters, sharing in the spoils gained at my expense.”

  “What are you talking about?” Rosemary asked.

  He lifted his thumb and cocked the revolver as he glared at her.

  Cami took the second of distraction to dart a glance at the balcony. She’d seen Lana’s auburn curls flash into her periphery, then disappear. Cami really hoped Lana was calling the police. And Joel. His special training had to be an asset right now and the police station was miles away. They just needed to hold Trent off until help could arrive. Was it possible? Would any of them come out of this alive? “Don’t do this, Trent. They’re not responsible for anything.”

  “They exist.” He shrugged as if that were reason enough. “I should take you all out of the picture, make a clean slate. I should have done that in the first place, just set a bomb to go off while you all slept. The world would be better off without the DiCarlo blood trying to manage and control the world. Your father ruined my life, you know. If he hadn’t interfered, I’d be riding high and happy, even if we hadn’t gotten married.”

  Cami must have looked as surprised as she felt because his chuckle held twisted joy. “You didn’t actually think I was in love with you, did you? I was trying to get an in with your father so he’d take my contracts, then when he didn’t, I figured marrying you so I had access to your fortune would be good enough.” His eyes narrowed again. “I don’t know what he told you to keep you away from me.”

  “Nothing.” Cami folded her arms across her chest. “I knew he didn’t care for you much, but he didn’t say why you didn’t get the contract. He got sick, acting weird; I was busy worrying about him and juggling work. Then I realized you were being a pushy jerk and decided to end things.”

  “Cami!” Jonquil’s voice was panicked and her voice high pitched. “What are you doing?”

  But Cami ignored the question and kept her gaze on Trent. “It wasn’t until later, when I told my dad you’d proposed, that I’d accepted, but I’d already called it off that he mentioned there were some underhanded dealings going on and to keep my distance. He never elaborated.”

  “You’re lying. I don’t believe it.”

  “He had a few more important things to worry about—like the fact that he was dying. And trying to juggle visits from six daughters without us finding out about his illness or each other.” This last she added with a touch of irony in her voice. Funny how hard he worked to keep them apart while he was alive, only to force them all together the moment he died.

  Trent moved farther into the room, stationing himself at the bottom of the stairs. “Whether that’s true or not, it doesn’t change things.” He gave Jonquil’s slim neck another yank, causing her to gag slightly as tears poured down her cheeks. “When your father pulled his contracts, I lost everything. He spoke to all the wrong people, people I owed money to, people who had the power to fix my problems. I can’t get a contract anymore.”

  He seemed to enjoy elucidating every perceived slight. “At the gala I was just looking for information. I wasn’t going to hurt anyone, but you had to stick your nose where it wasn’t wanted.”

  “You didn’t belong in the executive offices. And you’ve done plenty of sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong, lately,” Cami pointed out.

  “Trina won’t have anything to do with me now.” Trent’s words came out in a growl, his eyes dark and his face harder than Cami had ever seen it before. “She was my ticket out of this mess. That’s your fault.”

  That line of thought was faulty in so many ways, Cami couldn’t begin to list them all. She caught movement out the door window and saw Joel peeking in at them, a hand gun in his grip, and a rifle over his shoulder. Then he was gone. It didn’t change the fact that Trent had a gun to Jonquil’s head, but it did make Cami feel better. They just had to keep his finger from getting twitchy. “I didn’t say anything to Trina, but it’s not like she wouldn’t miss you when you didn’t come back. Someone had to tell her what happened to you.”

  “Who’s this Trina chick?” Rosemary asked.

  “Shut up. This is between me and Cami,” Trent yelled.

  “So why won’t you let Jonquil go? If it’s between us, there’s no need to hurt her.” Cami took a couple of steps in his direction.

  “Stop where you are or I will kill her.”

  She believed him, but she needed to get just a little closer. “And then your situation will get worse than it is already. Why make it harder for yourself, Trent?”

  Lana appeared at the balcony behind him with a softball in her hand. She was amazingly accurate when she threw stuff, but Cami needed to get the gun pointed somewhere else first.

  “It’s not like I have anythi
ng left. You’ve taken everything from me now. Your whole family is responsible. And you’ll all pay. One at a time.” A grim smile slid onto his face. “Starting now.”

  “Everyone get down.” Cami lunged for his arm, yanking it away so the shot plowed into the kitchen island. Sage screamed. Lana threw the ball, beaning Trent in the head. Jonquil gave him an elbow in the nose, making blood spurt. Both Joel and Vince pushed through the front and garage entrances, guns out and ready to fire.

  “Get down!” Joel yelled. “Drop the weapon!”

  Another bullet shot from the revolver and Cami rolled behind the coffee table just before twin blasts filled the air, almost simultaneously.

  “Don’t you dare move.” Joel began swearing heatedly and Cami glanced under the heavy wooden coffee table to see Joel’s knee in the middle of Trent’s back.

  “You shot me.” Trent sounded a little dazed.

  “No shit, I’m glad you noticed.” He paused, turning to Vince. “Get the girls out of here. And call for an ambulance. The creep’s going to live, but he’ll need his wounds tended.”

  Cami looked up to see Vince standing over her. She felt wetness on her cheeks, not sure when she started crying.

  Vince pulled her up into his arms, wrapping her in a tight, if short embrace. “Hey, baby, are you all right? Are you hurt?”

  “I’m fine.” Cami felt the loss of his arms as he released her, but pretended not to as she wiped her face. She looked around at all of her sisters, taking stock to see if they were okay.

  Sage cried and rocked behind the kitchen island and Cami went over, checking to make sure she was okay.

  “Fine. I’m fine. I’m fine.” She continued to repeat the words to herself, not responding to Cami’s other questions.

  Cami looked up to Vince pleadingly, and he took Sage’s other elbow so they could get her out of the house.

  Joel looked up and saw Sage, his eyes widened and his nostrils flared. “Are you okay?”