Hidden Sanctuary, page 20
“I thought I was supposed to be bad cop?” Griffin said.
I tilted my head to look at him. “How about we both be bad cop?”
“Works for me.”
Mick’s eyes widened.
“And you thought he wouldn’t take me seriously if I wasn’t dressed,” I said.
Griffin hauled Mick to a sitting position. “I’m going to take this gag off,” he explained. “When I do. There will be no yelling. No swearing. In fact, if anything other than Pauline’s location comes out of your mouth, I will give you to Tru.”
Mick’s eyes grew even wider.
I grinned, but I was sure it looked anything but amusing.
“Do you understand?” Griffin asked.
Mick gave a frantic nod.
Griffin pulled the cloth down. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know,” Mick croaked.
“Wrong answer,” I growled, and before I could think, I backhanded him, splitting his lip.
“Wait! Wait! I have a phone in my pocket. You can call her.”
“Better,” I said. Besides, I was starting to shiver. I shifted from one foot to another, my feet tingling.
Griffin searched him and came up with a cell. He handed it to me. “Get in the car and turn on the heat. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Thanks.” I hurried back, started the engine, and cranked the heat up as high as it would go.
I called the last number Mick had dialed.
“Well?” a female voice asked. Pauline. “Is it finished?”
“Not even close,” I replied.
Chapter 18
“Tru?”
Hearing the surprise in Pauline’s voice almost made it worth freezing to death.
Almost.
“It’s me. Alive and kicking,” I replied. Silence. “Pauline?”
“Yes.”
Perhaps it was wicked, as my mother would say, but it felt good to hear the worry in her voice. “We need to talk.”
“I suppose we do,” she sighed.
Outside, the trunk slammed with Mick still in it, I assumed. Griffin got in the car and I set the phone to speaker. “Did you really think I’d be that easy to get rid of?” I asked.
“I hoped so,” she replied.
Griffin and I looked at each other in surprise. “Griffin—”
He shook his head, indicating for me to shut up. I finished, “Would be pissed if he were here. You’re lucky that it’s just me. I’m more likely to leave you alive.”
“Where is Griffin?”
“Back at the suite. He was hurt in the fire you set.”
“Why would I believe that? He would never allow you to leave alone.”
“Do you think I gave him a choice?” I asked. “I’m like you in that way. I do not always ask permission for my actions.”
I could almost feel her uncertainty over the phone. She might not believe me but she couldn’t be sure. I didn’t plan to give her enough time to verify my story either way.
“How did you get Mick’s phone?” she asked.
“Element of surprise and a big rock,” I replied.
Griffin gave me a thumbs-up.
“Is he—”
“I didn’t call you to chat,” I interrupted. “I want my tiles back.”
“I do not have them on me,” Pauline said, but I heard the lie in her voice. “I will need time.”
“You have one hour,” I said, taking the same tactic she had when she’d called me at the hotel.
“That is not enough time.”
I glared at the phone. “I don’t recall offering you a choice. You will get the tiles and meet me at a place of my choosing.”
“What if I cannot?”
“Then I’ll talk to Simon. Tell him everything.”
“You would not. If you did, you would expose the others,” she said.
I laughed, and it sounded bitter and raw, even to me. “They’re not my friends. Efra is.” I was on a rant now. “Do you think I care what happens to the others?”
“They are of Marian blood.”
“Yes, but they’re not family. Besides, I can warn them before you or your people can get to them,” I finished, toning it down a notch. “And if that’s not enough, I have a suspicion they can take care of themselves. Now, agree to my terms or I will tell Simon you’re a Marian.”
“He will not believe it.”
“I’ll make sure he does.”
“An hour?” Pauline asked.
She’d believed me. I sagged in relief. “I’ll call you,” I said, and flipped the phone closed.
“Nice recovery.” Griffin kissed me on the mouth.
I leaned into him. They say that when one is close to death, it makes life that much more precious, and right now, time with Griffin was almost as precious as the tiles. Especially since I knew that even though I had the upper hand on Pauline, she was still going to try to double-cross me.
For a few minutes, my whole world was Griffin’s hands on my skin and his mouth pressing against mine. We fogged up the car windows like teenagers.
Then Mick began to yell.
“We should get going,” Griffin said, starting the car.
“Where to?” I asked. Retrieving my wet clothes from the backseat, I spread them out as best I could, so warm air could dry them.
“While I was following you, I called Leslie, and she used the sounds that you mentioned, a partial trace and a list of Adriano holdings to make a best guess as to where she might be hiding. One of the warehouses on the list isn’t too far from here.”
“Okay,” I replied. “But this time we use my necklace to pinpoint her location. I know you don’t like it, but it’ll save us a lot of time we don’t have.”
Griffin glanced over, his gaze sliding from my eyes to the middle of my chest. His eyes widened.
“Tru…”
In that instant, I knew what he did.
My necklace was gone.
We spent five minutes searching the area, but I already knew it was hopeless. The river had taken it, and wherever it was, it was too far away for me to feel.
I patted the empty spot on my sternum. “Let’s go,” I said, blinking back tears. I’d cried once today and that was enough. “If we get close enough, I’ll be able to feel her even without amplification.”
Griffin didn’t argue, but opened the car door, surprisingly polite. “Are you going to be okay?” he asked once we were a few miles down the road.
“Yeah,” I replied, hoping I sounded more sure than I felt.
Taking care not to disturb my broken arm, Griffin squeezed my bare thigh. “Do you need the crystal to do that dowsing thing you do?”
I shook my head. “I just had it so long. It was my lucky charm.”
“We’ll make our own luck.” He pushed my hair away from my cheek. “Since it’s gone, is there anything I need to do or say to help you focus and find Pauline?”
“No.” The implication of what he’d said washed over me. “You won’t fight me on using my talent?”
“No, I won’t,” he said.
“What changed your mind?”
He hesitated, as if considering his words carefully. “I thought about your gift while I was following the limo. What you are. What I am. If I can trust you to go off with a guy like Mick and take care of yourself, then I’m a fool to not trust you to use a gift you’ve had your whole life.” Leaning sideways, he placed a quick kiss on my shoulder. “I trust you.”
“Thanks,” I exclaimed, overwhelmed. A simple word, but a complicated feeling.
Another few miles through the countryside, a small town came into view. It wasn’t quaint. Wasn’t pretty. Wasn’t anything one thought a provincial French community should look like.
This was a working town. Factories. Parking lots. A few run-down stores.
And on the outskirts, a multitude of warehouses. It made sense that she was here. She was frightened. Scared. Hiding from the Marians.
Who would look for Pauline Adriano out here?
I closed my eyes as we drew close. Where are you, Pauline?
I sank into my breathing and opened my mind. A familiar energy line appeared in my mind’s eye. Pauline. And near her, a patch of white.
The tiles. She had them.
I pulled away before they could overwhelm me with their power. I was getting better. My control over tile energy had increased.
My eyes popped open.
“You okay?” Griffin asked.
I smiled. He’d given me a pretty speech, and I knew he trusted me, but I couldn’t expect him not to worry about my welfare.
After all, that was his nature. “Fine,” I replied. I pointed to the right and a huge warehouse. “That way.”
“You sure?”
“Positive.” Now that I knew Pauline was there, she shone like a beacon in my mind. Griffin slowed the limo and pulled around to the side of the building. Leaving the sweater and keeping Griffin’s coat, I struggled into my wet jeans and sneakers, needing his help with my crippled arm.
By the time I was ready, my arm throbbed.
I took a deep breath, blowing out any thoughts of failure with my exhalation. My eyes locked with Griffin’s. This was the moment we’d either win or die, and we both knew it.
He pressed his gun into my palm. “Take this. I saw that you lost yours.”
I pushed it away. “Griffin, she’s an opportunist. She is not going to kill me. She’s going to give me the tiles, and I’m going to walk out of there.”
“You don’t know that,” he insisted. “And besides, I have Mick’s gun.”
“I’m a lousy shot,” I reminded him. “This might do us both a lot more good if you were holding it.”
He put it back into my hand. After weighing it on my palm, I jammed it in my pocket. Then I kissed him. “Back me up,” I murmured against his mouth.
“Always,” he whispered.
We got out of the car and walked to a side door. “Five minutes and I’m coming in,” Griffin said.
I didn’t argue. A quick hand squeeze and I slipped into the building.
Using a box as cover, I took stock of my surroundings. Whatever action I’d heard earlier had stopped. The warehouse was silent. The floor was crowded with boxes, forklifts and shelving. There were stairs approximately fifty feet away, and at the top, what looked like an office.
Pauline was there. I felt her.
I headed for the stairs. Standing at the bottom, I took a deep breath. Almost over.
Resolutely, I walked up the steps. The top landing was small, as was the office. My heart pounded. I took a deep breath and flung the door open. Pauline was on the phone, and her head shot up as the doorknob bounced off the wall.
I leveled my gun at her and smiled.
She set the receiver back in its cradle. “What a surprise.”
“I bet,” I said, fighting back the urge to jump over the desk and pummel her. “I’ll take those tiles now.”
“I don’t have them,” she replied, looking up at me with her big, lying doe eyes.
I took a step closer. I was on a tight timetable. “One more lie and I’ll beat them out of you.”
I must have looked as serious as I felt because she jumped up. “They are in the safe.”
“So move,” I growled.
She smoothed her dress, pleading with her eyes. “You do not understand. I am trying to do you a favor. Simon will kill you if you take them.”
“And you are so very concerned with my health.” I held up my arm, letting the coat slide back to reveal my bound arm. It throbbed painfully with each heartbeat, and I would have killed for an aspirin. “This was courtesy of your henchman.”
“He was not instructed to kill you. Just to keep you away,” Pauline insisted.
If I didn’t know she was such an amazing liar, I’d have believed her. I shook my head. “Give me the tiles, or I’ll blow your little secret.”
“You cannot,” she begged. “He will never forgive me.”
A twinge of pity surprised me. I understood her fear. I’d lived my life as different and paid the price. Lost my family. Friends. Lovers. I knew how she felt.
I could even admit that fear of loss kept me from getting close to others, and turned me into almost a good as liar as Pauline.
But it had never driven me to murder. “Then he’s not the one,” I replied.
Pain played across her features.
“Is that why you took them?” I asked. “For him?”
“Yes.”
I was surprised that she admitted her motivation.
“I saw them and I knew he’d want them. He’s been searching for them, you know. I thought I could give him all the tiles. I knew the Marians would take me in once they saw my bruises.”
“You got him to hit you?” I asked, appalled.
“I asked him to,” she said. “Told him that it was part of my plan. My surprise. It worked, did it not?”
The thought made my skin crawl. “Does he know where the farmhouse is?”
“No.”
I believed her. There was an aura about her, a desperation that I felt to be true. “Why not?” I asked, wanting to know.
“I wanted to give him everything at once. Not parcel out my present to him in tiny, insignificant bits.” She chewed on her lower lip as if suddenly realizing the folly of her plan. “It was to be a grand celebration. Like Christmas.
“I thought if I could give him everything….” Her voice trailed off.
“That he’d love you,” I finished.
She didn’t give an affirmation. She didn’t need to. Simon wanted the tiles, and she wanted Simon. It was a story that every woman knew, and it never ended well. It didn’t help that Pauline was an opportunist, not a planner. It set her up for failure.
“He doesn’t know about the tiles, does he?”
She shook her head.
“The other Marians?”
She shook her head again.
I believed her, and if she was lying, I had leverage. “Good. Keep it that way and your secret is safe with me.”
The fact that Simon was gathering tiles didn’t escape me. Who knew why, but I suspected that a man with that much power craved only one thing. More power.
I didn’t know what he would do with that power, and I didn’t want to find out. “Hand over the tiles.”
She went to a wall safe, taking a few seconds to look back at me with weepy eyes. “Do not make me do this. He knows I planned something. Let me give him these if I must keep the Marians secret.”
“You have got to be kidding!” I said, stunned at the depth of her desperation.
I cocked my gun. “I’m tired of arguing. Just do it.”
She fumbled at the combination.
“I cannot remember….”
I took a step forward. So close to her that there was no chance I’d miss if I fired. I didn’t say anything and didn’t have to.
“A minute,” she said, her voice trembling.
A minute? How much time did I have left before Griffin came in? This was taking entirely too long.
I glanced at the clock on the wall. I was out of time. “Quit stalling,” I said.
Behind her tears, a glint of satisfaction appeared.
I realized what was going on. She was stalling, waiting for someone. Making one last effort to save her plan.
Hell! And here I was, letting her do it.
I put the gun to her head. “Now.”
She opened the safe and pulled out a red silk drawstring bag.
The tiles. My redemption. My salvation. Their energies sang in my blood, as familiar as my own heartbeat.
Relief would have to wait. Someone was coming, and whoever it was, I didn’t want to be there when they arrived. I snatched the bag from her and jammed it into my pocket.
I exited and made for the stairs.
Pauline followed. “When Duke Simon discovers that you have the tiles, there is not enough distance to keep you safe,” she shouted at me as I backed down the stairs. “He will never forgive you.”
“I promise that if he does find me, I’ll make sure he knows you gave them to me.”
She paled.
“He already knows,” a male voice said, just loud enough for me to hear. The hairs on my neck rose.
Pauline looked past me and took a startled step back. “Simon?”
“You gave her the tiles?” he said.
I glanced over my shoulder. Still halfway across the floor, he walked toward us. “Did you think you could come to one of my warehouses, of all places, and not be noticed?” He shook his head. “I knew you had something planned. Something interesting. I did not think it was betrayal.”
“Please,” she begged. “I did not mean to be disloyal.”
“Yet you are, and now you must be punished.”
A shot rang out. I cringed, then realized I wasn’t hit.
Pauline staggered backward. A crimson stain emerged on her shoulder and spread out. She fell to her knees, her eyes wide with surprise.
It seemed she was right. Simon didn’t forgive anyone. Not even her.
Time crawled to a halt as I crouched low.
I slid on my butt down the metal stairs; it was painful but quick. Another shot rang out, and the air shifted as the bullet glanced past me then ricocheted off the step.
I reached cement. A figure was at the other end of the warehouse. Simon. Another shot echoed through the building. This time from a different direction.
“Run!”
Griffin. Still crouching, I headed toward his voice, using the boxes and shelving as cover. More shots echoed. I tried to ignore them as I ran. If I paid too much attention, I might never move.
Someone grabbed my coat and jerked me behind a box. I screamed in pain and panic.
It was Griffin. He grabbed my face, shushing me and kissing me. “It’s okay,” he murmured. “It’s okay.”
I kissed him back, then shook my head in exasperation. “I almost wet myself,” I hissed.
He grinned, and I realized that gunfire was fun for him in a weird, perverted way. Taking a deep breath, I leaned against a box. “I’m a dowser, not a soldier or a freaking spy.”
“And lucky,” he said. He grabbed the edge of my coat. There was a hole in it.
A bullet hole. Another inch and the projectile would have hit my thigh.
