Hide and Seek (12 page)

Shaking her head, she handed the CDs over to Dominic. “They’re just CDs, guys, not the crown jewels or anything.”

“We’ll see, Josie, we’ll see,” Dominic muttered as he slid the first disk into his laptop.

Josephine stood behind him, watching the neatly ordered accounting books appear on the screen.

She waited patiently as Dominic hastily scrolled down them, obviously just skimming them, until she pointed out the relevant files.

“There, that’s the factory.”

As Dominic opened the relevant folder, the three brothers crowded around the small laptop. William gently pried her away from the group.

“This might take a while, love. Why don’t you go up and keep Sophie and Christiana company? You can girl-chat while we mull and nitpick down here. It’ll be very slow and boring with these guys, trust me.”

Josephine sighed. “Well, I do feel like a quick nap, after all that traveling and that delicious food. Just wake me up in an hour or so, okay?”

William simply smiled, and kissed her softly. When he pulled away, Josephine smiled.

“What kind of kiss was that?”

He leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “That was a my-brothers-are-watching-us-like-hawks-even-if-they-don’t-seem-to-be kind of kiss. I promise to make up for it later tonight, when we’re alone in our rooms.”

Josephine smiled mischievously. “You could come up and have a nap with me, you know.”

William groaned in her ear.

“Don’t tempt me, love. You have no idea what sort of reaction that will create down here though. It took us
months
to stop teasing Art when he’d take a nap with Sophie. Particularly when there’s such important work down here to do I’d simply never live it down. Go on up and I’ll join you as soon as we’re done. Just have a quick nap and I’ll think of a novel way to wake you, hmm?”

Josephine smiled, kissed him once more and said her goodbyes to the other brothers.

In William’s rooms, she had a quick shower, getting in and out as fast as possible as even this different shower gave her heated memories of William’s shower in his apartment.

Changing into super-baggy sweats, she crawled into William’s huge bed, snuggled down under the covers and was soon deeply asleep.

Chapter Eleven

Tony Petrelli drove up to the tiny village on the outskirts of the National Park. It was just after noon, and he was weary and hungry from all the traveling he had done in the last few weeks.

That stupid broad had caused him far more hassles than he could ever have envisioned. At least his contacts were all still blissfully unaware of the potential problems.

One of his snitches had finally found the owner of a bar complaining far and wide of his heavily pregnant waitress working so close to her due date, apparently desperate for the money. The story itself was not unusual; it was the shiftiness and anxiety that surrounded the girl and her similar name that had drawn Petrelli’s instincts.

Discrete inquiries and an exchange of money passing hands had netted him all her current details. As he headed over to investigate personally, the tail he had placed on her had kept him informed as she headed back across the state of Montana and apparently into the arms of a fellow cop.

Petrelli could have smiled with how she appeared to be making life so easy for him. He could show his badge, sling a little BS and have her “safely” under his jurisdiction hopefully by the end of the day. A little accident on the long car ride back to Seattle and his worries would be over.

Smiling to himself at how easy everything was panning out to be, he parked just outside the only small hotel in the tiny village. William Rutledge’s next door neighbor, a friendly old lady, had been only too eager to divulge all her gossip when his badge had been flashed. Her directions were clear and concise. Petrelli felt that the fact everything fell so neatly into place could only be a sign of good things to come.

Booking himself a room, he asked the old man behind the registration desk where the best place for a hot meal would be. The broad might be important, but at the moment a hot meal and a quick nap seemed far more urgent. And anyway, with everything being sewn up so neatly, who the hell needed to rush?

“Only one place to eat around here, and that’s the café. They can serve you something hot if you’d like. Simple fare, but certainly tasty.”

Thanking the man, he headed out to collect his meal.

He found the café to be much like the rest of the village, small, but clean and well run. Settling for toasted sandwiches, which were easy to bring back to the hotel, he chatted to the young waitress, who introduced herself as Rita.

Delicately phrasing his questions, he found that William Rutledge did indeed live in a large house just a short drive up from the village. He smiled politely and thanked Rita for both the information and the bag of steaming sandwiches she placed before him.

Back in his hotel room, he sat on his clean bed to eat the simple lunch in his sparse room.

Having driven for the best part of thirty-six hours straight, he knew a quick nap was in order before heading out to talk to William Rutledge. Knowing how most cops thought and trusted their fellow officers, Tony had no worries about being able to convince William that the bitch Josephine had lied to him, whatever farfetched story she had conned him with.

He smiled meanly about how nice it would be to finally see her face, watch all her carefully naïve plans fall to pieces around her. His gut knew the whole pregnancy thing was a sham designed to garner sympathy and maybe even throw him off the scent. How stupid could a woman really be?

After setting the alarm clock for three hours hence, he lay down on the bed and plotted his strategy one last time.

It should be easy convincing the country hick that a city girl had lied to him, pulling the wool over his eyes. It was doubtful that she had confessed anything even remotely close to the truth. There was a warrant out for her detainment and arrest; she was implicated in drug pushing and possible smuggling. Tony had the law behind him and proof of the facts he would be impressing on Rutledge.

He had brought a copy of the warrant with him—and that alone should be enough to convince a country hick with no knowledge of the story behind the slut’s dealings. Simply showing the warrant and his badge would probably be enough to have Rutledge handing over the broad’s current hiding place and washing his hands of the whole scenario, thinking he was doing the right thing—which indeed he was.

Laying back and closing his eyes, Tony smiled. After the “accident” he could continue with his plans for the factory, he’d just be more subtle this time and wipe the records that moron Jonathon hadn’t thought of. Everything was falling nicely into place.

Compared to his dealings with mobsters, hardened criminals, and hyped-up junkies, dealing with a stupid female accountant, and a country cop was a cakewalk.

This would be like taking candy from a baby.

* * * * *

Josephine woke up to a curiously quiet house. The afternoon sun shone brightly through the open curtains and into the masculine bedroom.

Josephine smiled sleepily. If she were going to stay here, she would definitely have to add a few touches of her own. A new bookcase for one thing, maybe a few plump cushions in the window seat for another.

Rubbing her eyes, she turned over and glanced at the clock. 3:04 p.m., it read.

Blinking, she sat up and looked again. Why hadn’t William woken her up, or joined her? Getting out of bed and changing back into her maternity dress, Josephine put on her socks and shoes and waddled out of William’s rooms, stretching her aching muscles.

The house was weirdly quiet—surely the guys were still looking at that damned information and arguing over what they wanted to do?

Josephine found Sophie in the kitchen, making a pot of tea.

“Where are they?”

Sophie made a face and grabbed two mugs from the cupboard. “They’re off down in the village, playing their manly games.”

“Manly games?” Josephine queries, confused.

“Yeah, have a seat, the dandelion and chamomile tea is nearly ready.”

Josephine made a face. She
hated
herbal tea, but the doctor had cautioned her against regular tea and any coffee. Sophie caught a look on her face and laughed.

“You get used to it, trust me. I hated the stuff all throughout my pregnancy with Christiana, but Artemais wouldn’t let me drink anything else. He made the guys hide their coffee and real tea in their bedrooms, so I wouldn’t steal some of it. The only thing you’ll find in here is the herbal stuff…and now I can’t seem to drink anything but it. Maybe you can be a good influence over me and at least get me back onto Earl Grey.”

Josephine sat down as Sophie placed a steaming mug full of weak-yellow filled tea in front of her.

“Oh trust me, the instant these boys pop out I’ll be bringing in only the best. I don’t know how people can think drinking flowers can be good for us. It tastes disgusting.”

Sophie laughed as they sipped their tea.

“So, why have the boys left us alone up here, when they get to go down and have all the fun?”

“Well,” Sophie smiled, “both you and Christiana were down for your naps. William and Artemais quite rightly didn’t want me coming with them and leaving the two of you alone. Now that you’re up, Little Miss should be up shortly, and we can go down into the village. There’s a shop down there I simply
must
introduce you to, and then we can join the boys. I bet they’re in the café, drinking a beer and ‘plotting their strategy’.”

Both Josephine and Sophie laughed at the mocking tone she used.

“Ah well,” Josephine finally hiccupped out when their giggles had died down, “I suppose the only strategy that can really work is I’ll have to head back over to Seattle and trust the cops with everything. I’ll file a report and with luck that will be the end of my involvement. I really should have done that from the start, but it was a rather scary thought doing it alone, particularly when I really didn’t think I could trust the cops.”

Sophie reached over and took her hand.

“That’s okay, just think of it like this. If you hadn’t run, you’d never have met William, and you certainly wouldn’t be enormously pregnant with twins and a ready-made family, would you?”

Josephine smiled. “No, that’s true.”

“So,” Sophie smiled and got up. Crossing over to the fridge, she pulled out an extra-large tub of yogurt. She grimaced in sympathy when Josephine made a disgusted face at the tub. “Tell me all about the pregnancy. I suffered from the
worst
case of afternoon sickness in the history of womankind…”

She trailed off as a loud, screeching wail cut through the house.

“Ah, damn.” Hastily replacing the tub of yogurt in the fridge, Sophie slammed it shut again. “That’s Little Miss Princess now, but at least we can feed and change her and be on our way. Wait until you see this place, it has the most delicious lingerie and whoo-boy, the toys…”

As Josephine followed Sophie into the baby’s room, she frowned.

“Toys? The twins aren’t even born yet; I might wait a while to get them some toys.”

Sophie turned back to grin hugely at her. “No dear. Not toys for the babies,
adult
toys.”

Josephine’s eyes lit up. “Oh,
perfect
! Do you know if they have any paintbrushes?”

* * * * *

Tony Petrelli pulled on his coat and picked up the keys to his room. Heading down to the registration desk again, he rang the bell on the desk.

The same old man who had signed him in earlier came forward from the back room where soaps blared from an ancient TV.

“Oh, it’s you,” the man started. “I saw William just a little while ago. He’s in the café down the road.”

“Thank you,” he replied easily, glad he wouldn’t need to bring out his identification. He had decided while dressing that if it became necessary, he would bring out his badge and cop ID, to smooth the way, but the less people he needed to inform, the better.

Tony trotted down the street to where the grocery store, gas station, and handful of small shops were scattered around a bar and a café. Slowing down to a leisurely stroll, he casually entered the small café.

The bell above the door rang out, and he managed to keep from flinching at the declaration of his entry. Quickly glancing about, Tony saw that no one paid him any mind. The café was almost empty at this mid-afternoon hour. The smell of cooking onions and roasting meat emanated from the kitchen, a young waitress sat at the counter, snapping gum and reading what looked to be a girl’s magazine.

The only customers were four men crowded around one tiny table, solemnly talking. Knowing that one of these men must be William, Tony let his eyes wander over all four of them quickly, but carefully.

That casual glance was enough for him to realize that these men were related. Each had the same colored hair, and roughly the same build. With similar facial structures, Tony figured they were possibly cousins, or more likely, siblings. Used to such monkey wrenches being thrown his way, Tony walked up to the waitress with barely a pause in his step.

“A coffee and a copy of your newspaper, thanks, love,” he casually said, laying down a bill on the counter. Picking up the paper the waitress nodded at, he headed over to a table a few yards back from the brothers and waited for his coffee.