Lifestyles of the Witch & Famous (19 page)

Did they want to take that chance?

Dead silence struck the room.

Tyler thought for a moment he’d gone deaf, then he heard his own voice – “Shit!” – and a crash as Barry pulled open the door so hard it slammed back against the wall and the knob came off in his hand. He tossed it aside, and the two of them nearly cracked the doorframe as they bulled through it, side-by-side.

Then stopped.

Staring.

At the open door across the hall.

Double shit.

Tyler charged into the boys’ suite, knowing what he would find. Nothing. Molly was gone. So were Jeremy, Josh, and the bird, all four of them taken flight.

Numbness settled over him like a lead shroud.

I was right about her?

He couldn’t believe it. He didn’t want to be right, not this way.

Moving like a deep-sea diver on the ocean floor, he walked back into the hall. Barry shoved his cell phone into his hand, and closed his fingers around it when Tyler couldn’t seem to grip it.

“Ty, it’s Wilson, from Security. I just called him, but he wants to talk to you.”

Swell. Tyler didn’t want to talk to Wilson, didn’t want to talk to anyone just then, but he was the boss. If there was a crisis, he had to give the orders. Besides, he was a man, a big, strong, tough man. Tough guys didn’t break over stuff like this. He blinked a sudden moisture out of his eyes – must be dust (
damn worthless housekeeping staff
) – and listened to the gruff voice on the other side of the connection.

Uh-huh. Well, at least he knew where she was. Approximately. Now if he could just muster together enough brain cells to figure out what to do about it.

He returned the cell to Barry. “It seems Molly knows how to crack safes. Either that or she really is magic. She’s taken off with my diamonds. Wilson says she was last seen crossing the airfield, wearing jeans and a black shirt. That was about ten minutes ago. He thinks she’s heading for the prairie. Security just sent a team after her.”

Barry cleared his throat. “Ahem…there was something else Farrell told me to tell you. Why, I don’t know, unless he’s trying to divert suspicion from himself by playing business-as-usual. Since you buzzed him tonight, I suppose he figured he’d better return the call.”

“Yeah, I suppose.” Tyler waited for the news, whatever it was, feeling the numbness grow heavier.

“Farrell said he finally finished Molly’s background report. Took him awhile to locate what she did before she was with your brother, but he found out, if you’re interested.”

“Let me guess. She was a burglar?” Did he really mean that as sarcastically as it sounded? Yes, Tyler was afraid he did. Although it was probably the truth, too.

Never trust a woman.

“No,” Barry said, ignoring the sarcasm. “She ran a Karate school. She’s a Black Belt.”

Tyler sighed. “Yeah, that would have been my second guess. She just kicked the crap out of the west wing guards, Butch Bronson and Dan Murdock.” Big men, both of them. “That’s why she has a ten-minute lead. It took them that long to regain consciousness and report what happened.”

“I’ll bet they feel dumb.” Those probing hazel eyes scarcely blinked. “So…what are you going to do?”

Good question. Tyler only had three real options. Let her go, let his security team handle it, or…

The image of a deliciously feminine little blonde taking on two brick-hard men in hand-to-hand combat flashed across his mind’s eye. He almost grinned. Damn, he’d have liked to see that. Talk about spunk.

The lead shroud lifted a bit.

More images rolled in on the heels of the first – memories of that same blonde taking on
him
in other “hand-to-hand” activities – and a fist squeezed inside his chest.

The shroud cracked like a sheet of ice shattering under a mallet blow, leaving him hurting and angry beneath. Not a pleasant sensation, but at least it
was
sensation. He wasn’t cold numb anymore. He could think and act again. And feel.

He knew what he had to do.

Three months…

He’d have those months, damn it. She’d wanted that stupid contract. She was going to stick to it if he had to drag her back by her braid.

“I’m going after her,” he said. “Just me. Contact Security and tell them to call off the dogs—”

Dogs?

Wait a minute, what had Wilson told him? Tyler racked his brain, straining to remember that fuzzy phone report. He blanched.

Oh, no…

His security team had, perhaps, been a tad overzealous tonight? Embarrassed, no doubt, by the ease with which Molly had stolen his diamonds and beat up Bronson and Murdock. Frankly, they were pissed – taking no more chances with her, Wilson had said. The James security team didn’t dick around. They knew from past experience their collective ass would be grass if they did, and that their boss would turn into a lawn mower. They hadn’t sent only men after Molly. They’d—

“
Shit
.” Tyler’s gaze went wild. “They turned loose the dogs.”

Real dogs. Large dogs. Dogs trained to track.

And attack.

Holy fucking shit—

He lunged down the hall.

“Call them off!” he yelled to Barry. “I don’t care how they do it, but get those dogs away from her –
now
!”

Chapter 12

12:26…

Sidestep, whirl, leap, kick – almost like a dance, but to the music of thuds and grunts. None of them hers, thankfully. Molly was out of practice, but so, it seemed, were the guards. If this was the best the James security team could do, she wasn’t impressed. She spun and kicked again, and the last of her pursuers crumpled unconscious to the ground. He and his buddy were going to have nasty headaches when they awoke. Poor guys. She’d apologize to them later. If allowed the chance.

Scanning the area, finding it clear, she took off running. Dry earth crunched under her feet as she raced across the private airfield, the last barrier between her and the open prairie where the dugout lay. Ahead loomed a hanger, behind which Carlotta and André should be waiting if all had gone smoothly on their end.

The trio had split up after leaving the boys’ suite, Carlotta to change clothes, André to deliver the twins to the girls, and Molly – following Carlotta’s directions – to grab the ransom. The directions had worked, mostly, and a glittering fortune now sat safely stashed in a small pouch in the pocket of her jeans.

She skidded to a stop and breathed out in relief when she saw the pair at the far end of the hanger, leaning against the back wall, André with his ponytail and pink boots…and his camera still slung around his neck. Marvy.

Carlotta looked surprisingly natural and unfashionable in an outfit that almost matched Molly’s. Black pullover, faded jeans, and battered tennies. Who’d have thought she owned such attire? Her glamorous red hair she’d tucked up under a scarf tied on gypsy-fashion, and she held a state-of-the-art flashlight in each hand, but they wouldn’t need them with a clear sky and full moon overhead.

The Queen of the Heavens beamed out like a beacon, turning the scrubby terrain beyond the airfield into a magical patchwork of silver light and mysterious grays. Soul stirring eerie beauty. A moon bright enough to cast shadows. Imagine that. Molly stole a precious few seconds to turn her face to it, soaking in its soft power, calling for courage and strength, asking for the safety of her missing boy. A Witch’s prayer, born of a woman’s need to protect her own.

A desperate woman, once more playing a desperate game. Tyler did have a knack for driving her to extremes, didn’t he? To whore, then jewel thief in one night. It shocked her to consider how easily she’d fallen into both roles. Especially the first. What on earth had she been thinking when she dreamed up that
contract
?

Protecting the boys. The same thing she was doing now.

Yes, of course, that was the only reason. It had nothing to do with testing the magic between her and Tyler, exploring the passion, seeing if it could outlast Carlotta’s predicted time limit.

Hell, even if it did last, there had to be more to a relationship than passion. How about mutual respect, friendship, sharing the same interests and ideals? All the things she’d had with Steve…and could never have with his brother. She and Tyler faced life from opposite ends. They wanted and believed in opposite things. Three months, three years, even three centuries wouldn’t change that.

An asinine idea, her business contract had been. Pure grabbing at straws, hoping for the impossible, when she knew better. And he’d probably cancel it now anyway, since she’d stolen his diamonds. How she’d hang on to the boys at this point… Crap. She had to get Stevie back safely first.
Then
worry about the rest.

Mentally kicking herself into action, she sprinted the length of the hanger to the figures at the end. André greeted her with a bright smile and a brighter flash, but Molly was ready for that.

“You closed your eyes!” he complained, then snapped his mouth shut at his companion’s glower.

“I’ll close
your
eyes permanently, if you don’t stop taking pictures,” Carlotta threatened. “Him and that damn camera.”

“So? It is what I do.” Andre chuckled and shrugged. “My little fashionista is angry because I photographed her in her
très chic
hiking ensemble.”

“Twelve times.” Carlotta sighed. “But the last six were only to annoy me.” She turned an aggrieved gaze to Molly. “I was afraid you’d never get here. What happened? Were the diamonds not where I thought? Did something go wrong?”

Only if you counted a pair of unconscious bodies as “something wrong.”

Molly gave her a weak smile. “The diamonds were where you said they’d be, in the wall safe behind the Picasso in the library. And you remembered the combination right.”

“I should hope so.” Carlotta’s cat-grin appeared. “Ty used my birthday for it.”

Terrific. Molly really needed to know that. How many other reminders of ex-wives did Tyler keep lying around? With his backlog of marriages, a ton probably. Not that she cared. Much. This little
reminder
just reminded her she’d never be anything more than another notch on his bedpost – even if it felt now like he’d carved that notch into her heart.

“I was worried he might have changed the safe, or at least changed the combination,” Carlotta said, looking relieved that he hadn’t.

After André had led off the twins, Molly had been able to fill her in, briefly, on why the diamonds were needed. It seemed only fair since she was making the woman an accessory to the crime. She’d better fill her in on the rest of it now.

Cough.

“Um, no. As far as I could tell, the only thing he’s changed is the security system. I turned off the safe’s alarm the way you told me, but they…ah, must have added some hidden surveillance cameras or something. Two guards surprised me when I ran out the back of the house. They obviously knew I was coming and were waiting.”

“
Ai dios mio
—”

“Oh, it was all right. I surprised them even more.” Molly grinned. “I know Karate. Apparently, they don’t.”

Carlotta returned the grin. “How very careless of Tyler. His security men used to be far sharper than that.”

“And I missed this?” André slapped his hands against his head. “What photos I could have made! What art! The expressions on their faces must have been
extraordinaire
!”

That was one way of putting it, Molly supposed. The grin disappeared as she glanced from André to Carlotta. “Stealing the diamonds was bad enough, but I’ve just added assault and battery to the crime. I really don’t want to involve you two any further. Just point me in the right direction, and I’ll find the dugout on my own.”

“Not a chance,
chica
. Even if I thought you could find it, André and I wouldn’t let you go alone. Tyler will know we’re involved anyway. If nothing else, he’ll guess I’m the one who gave you the combination.”

Straightening her scarf, Carlotta stepped away from the cover of the hanger’s wall and hit the open scrub land with an easy, swinging stride, leaving Molly nothing to do but run to catch up. Scattered clumps of knee-high dried grasses rasped against their jeans, and sun-baked clay soil scrunched beneath their shoes. A sudden burst of brilliance brought a split second of harsh noonday to the moonlit midnight world.

Carlotta jerked to a halt and spun about. André, several paces behind her, released his camera, letting it dangle from its strap around his neck, and met her glare with wide-eyed innocence. She stalked forward and shoved the flashlights she carried at him.

“Here. I doubt we’ll need these, but hold on to them just in case.”

“Why me?” Sputtering indignantly, he waved the two cylinders in the air. “How can I make my pictures with these filling my hands?”

“That’s the idea.” She executed a neat about-face and resumed the lead.