Worth the Trip (29 page)

Trip believed that, at least; he couldn’t do otherwise. So he took a mental step back and refocused his energy into productive thought instead of blind rage. Lucius wouldn’t harm Norah. And she didn’t know where the loot was, which meant there was another reason he wanted her out of the house.

Think, he told himself, pacing away from Puff. The bedroom door was locked. Why would she lock it? She didn’t want to keep him out, that much was clear from last night. And thinking about last night had the panic rising again. He shoved it down. If she didn’t want to keep him out, it must be her father she’d locked out, her father who’d been trying to worm his way into that room since the second they got back. Hell, he’d probably orchestrated the whole damn thing.

“You set this all up,” he said to Lucius.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“The beating, the safe house. You weren’t hurt as much as you pretended to be. The second I brought Norah to Marion you started planning your escape.” A miscalculation Trip would have to live with. “Once you slipped out of the safe house you came straight here, knowing this is the first place we’d look. Except we were conveniently tied up three states away, along with all the treasure hunters, because they followed me and Norah out of the city and left the playing field clear for you.”

“Do you hear yourself boy? I’m even impressed with the man who could think that far ahead, and keep the FBI and half the country occupied while I slip in here and grab the loot, which we both know isn’t here.”

It sounded far-fetched, even to Trip, but Lucius was probably the best grifter to walk the face of the earth. His only mistake was reaching too high for the brass ring, and even that he’d managed to work to his favor. In fact, the whole thing made sense in a twisted sort of way.

“There’s something in this house you want bad enough to risk alienating your own daughter.”

“Alienating, bah,” Lucius sneered, but there was a thread of doubt in his voice.

“It’s a big risk,” Trip pushed. “If you can’t get me out of the house—and you can’t—you’ll have to leave her where she is, and I’m willing to bet the whole fifty million and my job that Norah isn’t there willingly. The longer she’s subjected to whatever—or should I say whoever—you got to grab her, the angrier she’s going to become. That’ll work against you, Puff, and you’re going to need her to deal with me, so time is on my side.” And he sat down, arms crossed, willing to put his money where his mouth was.

Lucius picked up his paper, calling Trip’s bluff.

But Trip wasn’t done yet. “There’s one other thing you haven’t considered,” he said. “The man, or men,” he qualified because he couldn’t imagine one man being able to handle a pissed off Norah, “who has her. What are they going to do when they don’t get the word to let her go in the next couple of hours?”

Puff’s hands fisted around the edge of the paper.

“It’s your game, Puff.”

“You’re on the court, too, boyo.”

“Me? What can I do?”

“You can go look for her. Be a cop. Ask the neighbors if they saw anything.”

Trip got up and peered out the window at the deserted street. “Seems to me this is the kind of place where everyone has an honest job to go to, and those who don’t mind their own business.” He turned around. “It’s the kind of place someone would count on being able to abduct a woman in broad daylight and get away with it.”

Puff sighed. “You’re a hard, cold man, Jones. I wonder what Norah will make of you when she finds out.”

“Why don’t we ask her?”

“Is that a challenge, boy?”

“You bet your ass, old man.”

“I DON’T BELIEVE YOU,” NORAH SAID. “MY FATHER
wouldn’t have me kidnapped. He knows I have no idea where the loot is. Raymond and Hollie are behind this.” She knew she was grasping at straws, but she’d close her hands over thin air and defy gravity if it meant she didn’t have to believe her own father, the father she’d loved and missed for fifteen long years of felony conviction, would do this to her.

“Who?” Bobby asked.

“Raymond Kline,” Norah said. “I told you to go talk to him because you’re failing your classes.” Still no glimmer of recognition in Bobby’s eyes. “He’s the dean of the Midwest School of Psychology, the college you attend. Remember?”

“Oh, that dude. Never met him in my life.”

“But . . . your mother works with him. She’s an advisor at the college.”

“Not for long. Once we get our hands on that fifty mil, we’re never gonna hafta work again. Except you,” he said to Bill Simonds. “You’re just the hired help.”

“Not as long as I got her,” Bill said, hooking a thumb in her direction.

“Wait a minute,” Norah said.

Bill shot her the proverbial look that could kill, but he settled for being rude. “Shut up.”

“I’ll deal with you later,” she said, turning back to Bobby. “What does Myra have to do with any of this?”

“Um . . . I’m not supposed to talk about that.”

Crap.
Norah let her shoulders slump.
Another betrayal.
She’d been hoping Bobby’s presence was just a coincidence, that Raymond had blackmailed him into kidnapping her in return for not flunking out. That hope flew out the window.

She wanted to grab him by the neck and shake the truth out of him, but she needed to get out of there first and worry about the details later. Or let Trip worry about them. The details were his department, although there was going to be hell to pay when she got face-to-face with Myra.

“Bobby, you have to let me go.”

“Can’t. But I’m just supposed to keep you here for a little while. D—Lucius is going to call and tell me when it’s okay to release you.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Bill put in.

“We’re just renting your house,” Bobby said. “You aren’t even supposed to be here.”

“
Surprise
, genius, you’re not the only one with a plan. Shit, you’re not even paying me enough to deal with her.”

Norah rolled her eyes. “Like you’re such a picnic,” she said.

Both men turned to stare at her.

“Explain away,” she said. “I can’t wait to hear how you’re going to justify kidnapping. Consider it practice for your criminal trial.”

She could see Bill struggling, and for a minute she feared she’d pushed him too far. In the end, though, he was so proud of himself he couldn’t resist showering her with his brilliance. Then there was the part where he figured she wouldn’t be around later to make trouble for him. It was now that mattered, though, and the best way to find an opening was to distract him. And what better distraction could there be than to let him pump himself up on ego?

“It was me following you,” he began. “I made a deal with a loan shark. Yeah, I can see you think I’m nuts, but look at this place.”

Norah didn’t waste her time. Where her house was all polished woodwork and bright charm, his was dingy and depressing.

“This house has been in my family just as long as yours has been in your family,” Bill was saying, “but I ain’t no fancy college professor making six figures.”

The truth was she probably made less than he did. She’d just been left in a better position financially because her mother had taken out mortgage insurance, and left her enough to make sure the taxes were paid until she could finish college and start bringing in a decent income. And saying that would only piss him off more. She wanted Bill to relax, not give him a reason to take his anger out on her.

“I was one of the guys in the car that buzzed you after your talk-show gig, and I was working with them on the way out of Chicago. If not for that bitch, Hollie, we’d have had you but I gotta thank her, too, since her interference kept them from going all
Godfather
on me. As it is, they made it clear I put you into their hands this time or they break my—”

“Here’s a preview,” Norah said, jumping to her feet and kicking him in the kneecap. He went down like a redwood, howling and holding his leg. Bobby froze, his eyes shifting between her and Bill, not sure what to do, but since Bill was already hobbling to his feet, she barged into Bobby and bolted for the door, hearing the air whoosh out of Bill’s lungs as the kid fell on top of him. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Bill kick Bobby aside and lunge to his feet, a pistol in his hand.

Norah was at the front door, but her hands were tied behind her. Bill’s first shot splintered the woodwork beside her head. She had no choice but to turn around, fumbling for the doorknob behind her then struggling to turn it as Bill brought his gun to bear on her legs, taking his time so he could wring as much satisfaction as possible out of wounding her.

She abandoned the doorknob, deciding to race down the hall when Bobby dove for Bill, shoving him off balance just as the door burst open and sent her sprawling. She twisted—it was that or do a face-plant into the worn wooden floor. She landed on her side, saw her father on the stoop and her heart fell. Until she saw Trip behind him. Armed. And his gun was bigger than Bill’s.

Trip shoved by her father and headed for Bill, no hesitation, no concern for his own safety. Norah took one look at his expression and knew without looking that Bill had surrendered. And probably wet himself.

And then Trip looked at her and she felt the blood drain out of her face, too. “I was abducted,” she said in her own defense. “Why are you mad at me?”

“I let you out of my sight for five minutes and you do something stupid.”

“Stupid?” she said, her voice rising into a shriek. “Are you kidding me? What did I do that was stupid?”

“You went outside.”

“How was I supposed to know someone was going to kidnap me?”

“Because someone has been trying to kidnap you from day one.”

“Yeah, well, where were you?”

“Busy listening to the Lord of the Lies dance around the truth. Why aren’t you yelling at him for having you kidnapped?”

She shot her father a look. He scrambled over to help her up. “Let me explain, darlin’,” he whispered behind her back under the guise of untying her hands.

Norah ignored him. “I am angry,” she snapped at Trip, “but I understand why he did what he did.”

“For the money.”

“And you chose your job over me.”

“Do you hear yourself? You’re not making any sense.”

“I don’t have to make sense. I didn’t ask for any of this.”

“If it wasn’t for your old man robbing a bank, neither of us would be here.”

“And that would make you happy, wouldn’t it?”

Trip held her gaze for a second or two, the air all but crackling between them before he turned away to deal with Bill, tying his hands with a curtain cord so old the drapes it held back fell to the floor in a cloud of dust. But the curtain cord held. Then he looked at Bobby.

“Don’t hurt the boy,” Lucius said, abandoning her to head for Trip.

Norah was still bound, but the ties were loose enough for her to wiggle one hand free. She rubbed her wrists absently, watching from the entryway as Lucius ranged himself next to the kid, the two of them squaring off against Trip in the stream of afternoon sunlight pouring in through the filthy, curtainless front window. They were talking loud, arguing. The words failed to make an impression on Norah because pieces of the puzzle were falling into place, and not just about the loot.

Lucius looked over at her, their eyes met, and he went sheet white.

“Time for explanations,” she said, even though she had a pretty good idea what was going on, if not the exact details.

“Let me deal with these two,” Trip said, meaning, of course, Bill and Bobby.

“Do whatever you want with him,” Norah said, pointing to Bill, “but the kid is coming with us.”

Trip frowned at her, but he checked the ties on Bill’s wrists then shoved him into the hall closet and braced a chair under the knob. Bill didn’t object. Bill was probably thinking about the potential wear and tear on his kneecaps.

Trip caught Bobby Newcastle by the back of the shirt and quick-stepped him to Norah’s house, and by the time they got there, he’d called his handler and arranged for Bill to be taken into federal custody.

“Talk,” Trip said as soon as Norah’s front door closed behind them all.

The silence was deafening.

“Who are you?” Trip said, pointing at the kid.

Bobby tried to sidle back into the shadows. Norah was behind him, so she shoved him back into the light.

“Take a closer look at him,” she said to Trip.

He did, his frown of confusion fading away as his gaze switched between Bobby’s face, Lucius’s face, and hers.

“Well, I’ll be a sonuvabitch,” he said, his gaze finally landing on Norah. “That answers a question or two.”

“Yeah, like why my mother finally divorced him after staying married to a man who’d proved himself untrustworthy for so many years.”

“That’s uncharitable, darlin’.”

“Don’t play the guilt card with me, Lucius. Not when you’ve got enough hanging over your head to keep the Vatican in business for the next decade.”

Lucius opened his mouth, but she shot him down again, not in the mood for his games. “Tell me what Myra has to do with this,” she said, needing the explanation, but needing the time more, to decide how she was going to handle the situation.

“Wait,” Trip said, “why do you think your agent is involved?”

Norah gestured to the kid, still standing partly in front of her quaking in his shoes. “Meet Bobby Newcastle, Myra’s son and, apparently, my half brother.”

“And Puff’s co-conspirator, I take it.”

“He’s the one who grabbed me,” Norah said to Trip by way of confirmation, “after my
—our
father sent me outside looking for you.”

“Kidnapping isn’t his only skill,” Trip said.

Norah shot Bobby a sidelong look. “Robin, I presume?”