by Vivien Dean
There was only one way to find out.
Standing before the mantle, he scanned the canvas one last time, needing to assure his suddenly pounding heart that it really was his museum. He settled on the windows he knew overlooked the Native American display and lifted a finger to touch the bit of raised oil paint of the pane.
Nothing happened.
Frowning, Aaron poked it again, this time a little stronger. Everything remained the same, no rushing in his ears, no nausea from sudden movement. Resting his palm against the picture, he sighed as he came to the conclusion that it was just that. A picture. Nothing mystical about it. Not the easy answer that would get them home without having to deal with ethical dilemmas.
Stepping back, Aaron headed for the desk on the corner and the phone he’d spied there. The painting might not be the key, but odds were very good that its presence meant Mack had to be the safety. This had the potential to save them a lot of time and effort. The others would want to know as soon as possible.
With Maddy curled up in the corner of the couch, still looking very much like she should be back in bed, getting more rest, it was hard for Cash to listen to Kate and Ava discuss the list they had taken from Lombardi’s office, divvying up the addresses to try to determine who they would see first. He knew it was essential, but it still felt like busy work, when he just wanted to get this whole mess over and done with.
Considering how many years he had spent guaranteeing he wouldn’t be responsible for even more deaths, having Maddy come so close, and then thanking him for saving her when it was his fault she got hurt in the first place, was a bitter pill to swallow. In spite of her protestations, she needed more time to fully recover, and it took every ounce of his self-control not to pick her up and carry her back into the bedroom.
Every once in a while, Maddy glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, offering a shy smile before turning her attention back to the strategy session. Her behavior had been off ever since waking in the middle of the night, and Cash couldn’t put his finger on what exactly it was. Based on her actions and the few cryptic remarks she’d made, he wanted to believe her feelings ran deeper than she’d previously admitted. Nothing would make him happier than to hear her reciprocate his love. He wouldn’t push it, though. One thing at a time. When she wanted to tell him, she would.
He would try not to think about it in the meantime.
When the phone rang, Cash was the one who leapt to his feet to answer it, allowing the women to continue working, and silencing Maddy’s protest with a disapproving frown. Hearing Aaron’s voice on the other end of the line, though, brought a smile to his face.
“You have got to be bloody kidding me.” His voice carried to the other end of the room, stopping the conversation as all three women swiveled to watch him, but all Cash cared about was Aaron’s good news. “Is this an early birthday present or something?”
“No, I’m looking at it right now.” There was a fumble when Aaron shifted the phone in his grip, followed by, “And now I’m touching it, which, trust me, was a huge disappointment.”
Kate had risen from her seat and hovered now at Cash’s elbow. “What is it?” she mouthed silently.
“We might not need your list after all,” he replied. To Aaron, he asked, “Is it bolted to the wall?”
“Hang on.” A pause and then a thump. “Nope.”
“Bring it over. I’ll wager that’s our doorway home.”
“That’s a problem. Mack’s expecting me to bring stuff back to him at the hospital—”
Cash snorted. “Like the wanker is going to miss his unmentionables. Bring it over.”
“The flipside to that is that the car is waiting for me downstairs,” Aaron argued. “I can’t come here for Mack’s things and then go over to Maddy’s before I take them back. Not with you being the reason he’s in the hospital in the first place.” He paused. “How about this? You come over here and pick up the painting, and I’ll go to the hospital as planned and see if I can find the mark on Mack. That way, we’ll get confirmation if it’s him or not, and we’ll still have the painting in our possession.”
“I like that. Give me the address.” Cash rummaged for a pen and paper, scribbling down the information as Aaron spoke. “That’s not too far from here. Which, considering the history he and Maddy are supposed to have, makes me more than a little angry.”
“Operative word in that sentence, history,” Aaron prompted.
They made the arrangements to meet, and Cash hung up the phone, tucking the paper into his pocket as he turned to face the women.
“Well?” Kate demanded. “Do we get to find out what’s going on, or are you going to make us drag it out of you?”
Cash couldn’t hide his smile as he crossed to Maddy’s side. “Aaron found a painting that looks like home.”
Maddy brightened visibly, sitting up with more energy than she had displayed all day. “Where?”
“Mack’s place.” Briefly, he detailed what he had discussed with Aaron, noting the fading pleasure in Maddy’s face. When he was done, her tiny nose was wrinkled and her mouth was drawn tight as if she had a bad taste in it. “What’s wrong?”
She shrugged, her eyes slipping guiltily to the side. “I hadn’t considered that we’d actually know the person we were going to have to kill.”
Cash crouched down in front of her, forcing her to meet his gaze. “We don’t have a choice in the matter, you know that, right? It’s him or us, and considering what he’s already done, I have to admit, I’m not too fussed about the option here.”
“I know, but—”
“He’s probably not even real anyway,” Kate interrupted. Everyone looked to her, waiting for her explanation. “If H’roven is going to the bother of creating a safety mechanism, he’s going to make one he can control. He can’t risk giving such a responsibility to a person in this dimension with more free will than an artificial construct will have.” Her mouth twisted into a smile. “It’s funny, but in hindsight, Mack’s the perfect safety. He’s powerful, with a lot of added protection. We should have figured out it was him from the start.”
“Well, we know it’s him now.” Turning back to Maddy, Cash reached out and cupped her cheek, drawing her attention back to him. “Just don’t think about it, all right? You go rest, and by the time you wake up again, odds are good we’ll have both the painting and Aaron’s confirmation.”
She was motionless as he leaned in and kissed her, but the faintest of responses, her mouth soft and probing beneath his, assured him she would handle it with her usual aplomb. Maddy was strong. Even without having lived with this sort of thing her whole life, he didn’t think she would take long to come to grips with it. She was a woman who rolled with the punches.
Besides, it wasn’t as if she was going to be the one to kill Mack. That was a pleasure Cash was reserving entirely for himself.
Maddy remained silent long after Cash had left. She didn’t understand how he could think Aaron was going to find anything out, but he had left little room for argument, cutting off her sudden nerves about killing someone—whether H’roven created him or not—and trying to get her to rest until the entire situation was dealt with. Part of it pissed her off. Yes, she felt weaker than normal, and yes, another day of sleeping sounded like heaven, but that didn’t give Cash the right to treat her like she couldn’t pull her own weight. She was hardly going to be stepping in front of any more speeding bullets any time soon.
And how exactly was Aaron going to confirm Mack was their target? Short of holding the man down and stripping him, Maddy couldn’t see how someone like Mack would allow a subordinate access to such private information. It required intimacy. Familiarity. Trust. And in Mack’s case she was sure, the opposite sex.
“You’re off in la-la land,” Ava commented, startling Maddy from her reverie. “Wanna go lie down for awhile?”
She looked up, and in the space of time it took her to do so, Maddy figured out exactly how to make herself useful
. “Actually, I’m kind of hungry. What are the odds you two could run to the deli down the street and get some lunch? Enough for everybody. Cash will probably be hungry by the time he gets back, and it’ll be faster than trying to scrounge something up here.”
“We could do that,” Ava agreed. She stood and stretched, grimacing when her back audibly cracked. “I am going to be so glad to get home to my own bed. Between those shoes I have to wear for work and everything that’s conspiring to keep me from getting a decent night’s sleep, I think I’ve subtracted ten years from my life.”
“Not much longer,” Maddy said with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“Are you going to be all right without us?” asked Kate.
It was harder to pretend in front of Cash’s sister. The woman was ferociously astute, so much like her brother that Maddy found it a little off-putting, even as much as she liked her. But she nodded anyway under the narrowed gaze, maintaining as steady a façade as she could muster.
“The deli isn’t that far,” she said. “It’s not like you’ll be gone that long, and I’m not moving from my comfy spot until somebody makes me.”
Joking about her condition seemed to appease whatever worry Kate had, and they gathered their things to go. It wasn’t until the door snicked shut behind them that her breath came out in a rush, so quickly she only then realized she’d been holding it. She had to be fast, which meant ignoring the protestations her body was already putting up as she rose to her feet.
The number she wanted was scribbled next to the phone. By the time she finished dialing, Maddy felt lightheaded, wondering if maybe this might not be the best idea after all. But the other end was answered before she could change her mind, and she barreled forward with it anyway.
“Gino? It’s Maddy. How long would it take you to come over and pick me up?”
The last person Aaron wanted to run into blocked the entrance to the hospital.
“We gotta talk,” Lombardi said, the muscles twitching in his jaw.
Sammy hovered behind him, evoking images of the cartoons Aaron used to watch on Saturday morning where the tiny dog was hopping and yipping around the big bulldog. Only Sammy wasn’t moving. Well, his body wasn’t. His eyes were jumping back and forth from Aaron to Lombardi like they were playing tennis.
“Later,” Aaron replied. He didn’t want to waste time he didn’t have, dealing with crap that wouldn’t matter in the long run, so he shifted his stance, making the overnight bag he carried more prominent without deliberately thrusting it into Lombardi’s face. “Mack needs his things.”
With a jerk of his head, Lombardi motioned Sammy to step forward. “Anybody can play messenger,” he said when the smaller man reached to take the bag. Aaron had little choice but to relinquish it or otherwise risk a scene.
Lombardi didn’t say another word before Sammy disappeared inside, reaching inside his jacket to extract a chewed cigar. Ambling over to a stone bench, he sat down with a puff, broad cheeks growing even wider with the exhalation of breath, and lit it up, then gestured with the lit tip for Aaron to come over.
“You tell Mack about what happened with Marty last night?” he asked, his eyes narrowed so thin they were barely slits.
Aaron shook his head. He had deliberately avoided bringing it up in the few minutes he had had with the mob boss. It seemed like inviting trouble.
“See, normally I’d have a problem with that.” The cigar shifted from side to side in Lombardi’s mouth as he seemed to weigh his next words. “Mack doesn’t like being left out of the loop, especially when it comes to things he takes a personal interest in.”
“But this is different.”
When Lombardi looked up at him, Aaron decided then and there they had all underestimated the man. The shrewd awareness lurking in those watery eyes made him feel like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
“You could say that.” Taking the cigar out of his mouth, Lombardi used it to jab at the empty seat next to him. “Take a load off. You and me got some things to clear up.”
His first instinct was to do exactly as he was told. But Aaron had a role to play, and Mack’s right-hand man wouldn’t bend under a subordinate’s order. He held his ground, shoving his hands in his armpits and affecting his coldest glare. “You want to tell me what this is about? Because Mack’s not going to be too happy if I don’t show up pretty soon.”
“This is about fixing what’s wrong.” The response came spitting back, almost before Aaron had finished speaking. “Because we both know Maddy didn’t end up at the hospital last night.”
This time, Aaron couldn’t hide his surprise. It would seem that the extra work Gino had taken to cover Maddy’s tracks hadn’t been that thorough after all.
Lombardi shoved his cigar back between his teeth with a frustrated growl. “Don’t know why the hell everyone thinks I’m such a sap,” he said. “Maddy’s been my favorite girl since before she hooked in with Mack. Of course I’m going to check in and make sure she’s all right. She got beaned on my watch, didn’t she?” He growled again, puffs of smoke wafting around his head. “Is that why you haven’t told Mack yet? Because you’re still trying to figure out where Cash and Gino took her?”
It was as good a reason as any, so Aaron played along.
“I know you’re Mack’s wingman,” Lombardi continued, “but you do realize that if Cash doesn’t want you finding her, you’re not going to, right? You seen ’em last night. He’s nuts for her. He wants her out of the business, and this is the perfect chance for him to get it done. If we see her again in the light of day, I’ll eat my cigar.”
“Why are you telling me all this?” Aaron asked warily.
“Because if we want to come out of this smelling like roses, you and me need to be smart. You’ve got a loose cannon in Marty, and I don’t want to lose my club because Mack decides to make this even more personal than it already is. We play this my way, everybody wins.”
“And your way is…?”
Lombardi met his gaze full on. “You tell Mack what happened last night. Except in our new and improved version, Marty’s a better shot. He doesn’t just put the hurt on her. She dies, and he’s the one responsible.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Maddy met Gino at the small market around the opposite corner from the deli, sliding into the front seat next to him before he could get out and help her. She had finished getting ready in record time, fearful of Kate and Ava returning before she had the opportunity to get away, and was already feeling the effects of her exertion. A thin film of sweat made her silk blouse cling to her skin, and the roar of her blood in her ears made her grip the armrest on her door as Gino pulled back into traffic. Neither went unnoticed by his sideways glance.
“You sure about this?” he asked. “No offense, but you don’t look so good.”
“I’m fine,” she said with far more force than she felt. “Just get me to the hospital, okay? I want to get this over with.”
With a small nod, Gino lapsed into silence, his knuckles white around the steering wheel. She hated putting him in this position, but if they wanted the truth as quickly as possible, Maddy didn’t see any other way to get it. Mack trusted her more than anybody else. Only a nurse could get closer to him at this point.
Though she felt more in control when they pulled up in front of the hospital, that security fled when she saw who sat in front of the building.
“Go around to the back,” she said, sitting forward as she stared at Lombardi and Aaron.
“What? Why?” It took only a moment for Gino to notice what had caught her attention. He paled as he snapped back in his seat.
“I thought you had Mr. Lombardi covered,” Maddy said. Gino maneuvered through the parking lot, circumnavigating the building to take her around to the Emergency Room exit. “Why would he be here?”
“I don’t know,” came the terse response. He kept glancing in his rearview mirror, though the pair were long out of sight. “But Keating w
on’t talk, will he?”
His worry drew her sympathy, and she smiled in reassurance. “Aaron’s on our side. He told Cash he didn’t even let on to Mack that anything happened to me. The last thing Cash needs right now is another reason for Mack to hate him.”
“True.” Gino parked near the entrance, but this time, he was out of the car and around the front before Maddy could open the door. “Last chance to back out,” he said, cupping her elbow, holding her steady as she climbed from her seat.
She shook her head. “Just be my eyes and ears. I want out of there before anybody figures out what I’m doing.”
Letting him lead her into the hospital, Maddy concentrated on calming her thundering nerves as they made their way to Mack’s room. If luck was on her side, Mack would be asleep, and she could look him over without any worry about his reaction. If not, then she would have to be creative in how she got him to divulge the presence of a birthmark.
There was a moment, when she pushed open the door and saw him lying there so still, that she thought for once, good fortune was on her side. But then the door whispered closed behind her, Gino on guard outside for any arrival, and Mack turned his head, his lashes parting to view his new arrival. The look in his eyes made her stomach knot.
She’d had only the others’ descriptions about what had happened between Mack and Cash. While Maddy knew to expect the worst, she wasn’t prepared for the swollen cheek, the livid purple bruising, the scarlet and black burn along the side of his neck that disappeared beneath the hospital gown. Cash did this. The reminders that he’d done it unwittingly or in her honor were only a slight balm in the face of the vicious reality.
“You came.” His lips barely moved as he spoke, but the voice was exactly the same. Coming from his battered features, it made her skin crawl even more than it had before. “For some reason, I didn’t believe that you would.”