In Plain Sight (Stolen Hearts) (26 page)
Read In Plain Sight (Stolen Hearts) Online
Authors: Kate Kelly
Was he going crazy? He grabbed a glass of sparkling water from a passing waiter and gulped it down.
Actors kept making entrances, the idea being that most people waited in the foyer to be seen and heard until the last minute when they all had to enter the theater for the awards ceremony. He drifted back to Leita to suggest they go inside when a flash of red caught his eye.
His breath chugged to a stop, like someone had karate chopped him in the throat.
Rubies, not sapphires
. A woman he’d never seen before stepped off the elevator and into the crowd, wearing a stunning ruby necklace. It was the necklace Bridget had copied, and he’d helped with. He hadn’t had the opportunity to see the necklace in one piece, but he knew instinctively it was the same one. Bridget had lied to him—again. She’d let him think it was a sapphire necklace. Even when he questioned her at the farm, she’d insisted he’d gotten it wrong, and that the replica she’d been working would replace a sapphire necklace. No doubt to save him, but Goddamn it, she’d lied to him.
His brain splintered into a thousand pieces as he tried to process the information. Gage lurked by the elevators, watching him from the edge of the crowd with a frown on his face. DeMarco had moved closer to him, as if getting ready to grab him if he blew up. Good move, because he sure as hell wanted to blow up on someone.
Calm down
. The FBI would be on him if he didn’t stay cool. He dragged in a breath and scanned the crowd again. Was Bridget here? She would be, wouldn’t she? This must be where they’d decided to exchange the necklace. Bridget had finished the necklace and probably let it be known that it was for sale. But she’d also told the FBI. Which was good. Right? Of course. That meant she was going straight.
He shoved down a hysterical laugh. Irish and straight, like that was ever going to happen. So who wanted the necklace so bad, they were willing to kill for it?
Honey appeared at his side and slid her arm through his. “How are you holding up?”
He covered her hand with his hand. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“That’s a strange thing to say. Especially as you’re the one who looks like they’re about to have a meltdown. I think we both need a drink.”
Rafe let her guide him out of the main area where most of the people and press had gathered.
“Two Scotches, straight up,” she instructed the bartender.
“Did you see that ruby necklace?” he asked.
“Sure did. It’s a beaut. Cheers.” She clinked her glass against his. “Rats. Here comes that damned persistent reporter from
Telltale
. I’ll leave you in peace.” She glided away.
He tossed back his drink and rested his hands on the bar, his back to the room. He’d been involved in this mess from the minute he’d met Bridget.
She
hadn’t mentioned sapphires. Gage had. And strangely, Rafe had met more of the people who could be involved than Gage had. What were the chances he’d recognize someone here tonight from the jewelers’ circle of acquaintances?
No, that was stupid. If it was someone from that group, why risk being publicly exposed? Why not exchange the necklaces when no one was around?
Because Bridget would insist on a public venue like this one. A flamboyant thumbing of her nose at everyone, the feds and the thieves.
How could he not love a woman like her?
A woman glided up to the spot where Honey had been. He glanced at her and looked away, then looked back, his muscles tensing. He’d seen her before, hadn’t he? She watched him with a sly smile on her face.
Cleo? Chloe?
Claire
. Bridget’s friend from the gem show.
“Hello, Rafe. I didn’t expect to see you here, but then I didn’t expect to see a lot of the people who showed up.” She eased closer to his side. “Turn around slowly. There’s someone you’ve been…dying to see on the other side of the room.”
His heart a solid lump in his throat, he turned and looked across the room into Bridget’s wide, frightened eyes. He automatically moved as if to go to her, but Claire put her hand on his arm to keep him in place.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. The man standing directly behind her has a gun aimed at her back.”
Rafe glanced at the bulky man hovering behind Bridget, then looked back to Bridget. She held his gaze, a silent entreaty darkened her eyes as a tear rolled down her face. Tears rushed his own eyes before he blinked them away.
“So. I have the necklace,” Claire said in a singsong voice. “Now we’re going to use Bridget as a human shield to get out of here. Her chances of survival go up the longer the FBI stay away. I’m counting on you to pass that message along.”
“Now?” He couldn’t look away from Bridget. It was as if they were telegraphing everything they hadn’t had time to say to each other.
“I wouldn’t waste any time,” Claire said, acidly.
“Right.” He walked across the room as if to go to Gage, but caught Honey’s eye and touched the side of his nose with the tip of his finger, a sign they’d once upon a time had agreed on, meaning
rescue me
. He’d rescued the star from stupefying boredom on many occasions.
Honey pushed her way out of the people clustered around her and immediately walked over to meet him. “You called?” Her eyes twinkled.
“Eleven o’clock. Beautiful woman in dark blue dress, red hair.”
Honey slipped her arm through his and discreetly turned. “And?”
“She’s the mother of my child. Guy’s got a gun on her. You have to distract the gunman so I can jump him.” His voice shook, and he held onto his friend for a second.
“Rafe, if he has a gun he could shoot you and the woman. There’s always tons of security at these things. Surely someone can help.”
“I’m getting my hands around that bastard’s neck in about five seconds. Are you going to help or not?”
Honey narrowed her eyes. “Mother of your child, eh?”
“Make a scene
now
.”
As he turned toward Bridget, Honey spun on her heel, tossed her drink in a man’s face standing beside her and slapped his cheek. A gasp rippled through the room. “Keep your hands to yourself, you pervert,” Honey yelled.
Everyone in the room turned to stare, even the gunman. God help him and everyone else if there was more than one person with a gun in this room. The FBI had guns but he wasn’t worried about them.
He streaked over to Bridget, yanked her away from the gunman, who, like everyone else, was momentarily distracted by Honey’s outburst, then shielded her with his body from the gun that was now pointed at his chest.
Rafe lunged, grabbed the man’s throat and drove his knee into the man’s groin as he felt the gun press against him.
“Fuck.” The man crumpled to his knees, the gun slipping from his hands as he cupped himself.
Rafe plowed his fist into the guy’s face. Once, twice…No one, ever, was going to hurt his Bridget. He swore to God he’d kill anyone who laid hands on her again. He got in one more satisfying punch to the nose before someone grabbed his arm and held him back.
“Settle down, man,” Gage said in his ear. “Go take care of your lady.”
A movement to his left distracted him, and he turned in time to see Claire try to scamper from the room, but the woman wearing the fake ruby necklace stuck out her foot and tripped her. A man with a badge and a gun cuffed Claire and hauled her to her feet at the same time as another agent led the man who’d held a gun on Bridget out of the room.
Several women started crying and there was a rush for the entrance. Rafe elbowed his way through the crowd to Bridget and wrapped his arms around her. She grabbed the lapels of his jacket and held on as if she were drowning.
He held onto her just as tightly. Anger still simmered in his veins as he gulped for air. He rested his cheek on the top of her head and waited until his heart beat synchronized with hers.
After a few minutes, he ran a hand over her hair and pressed her face into his chest. “Are you okay?”
“No. But I will be.”
Rafe leaned back to look at her face. “If I’m not mistaken, that almost sounded like an honest answer.”
She pushed away from him, straightened her dress and shoved her hair back off her shoulders. “A moment of weakness.”
He put a finger under her chin and forced her to look him in the eye. He grinned when he caught her fleeting smile. “I expect nothing less than complete honesty from my wife-to-be.”
“Poor woman. I suppose you have devious methods to get the truth out of her.” Her mouth twitched again.
“I can do devious.”
“Really?” She twinkled up at him. “I believe my schedule is free for the evening.” She glared at the two agents grinning at them.
“Claire Fairchild will probably keep us busy for a while. But you have to return to Boston in the morning. We’ll need your help,” Gage said.
“You don’t think you’re getting off that lightly?” Rafe glared at the FBI agents as he pulled Bridget close to his side. He watched the young woman he was supposed to escort, Leita, being led out of the room by her agent. Honey waved at him with a broad smile on her face before she slipped out after Leita. He turned his attention back to Gage. “What the hell were you thinking to put Bridget at risk like that?”
Gage unbuttoned his suit jacket and rested his hands on his hips. “Me put her at risk? I wasn’t the one who went all kamikaze and attacked an armed man in a crowded room.”
“He had a gun on Bridget.”
“You should have let us handle it. People could have gotten hurt.”
“I repeat, the asshole had a gun on Bridget.”
DeMarco put his hand on Gage’s shoulder. “You would have done the same thing if Sophie had been in Bridget’s place. So would I for Serena.”
Gage looked like he’d swallowed something bitter as he digested DeMarco’s observation. After a minute he sighed and nodded his head. “Okay. Unofficially, I apologize for putting Bridget’s life at risk. But I gotta tell you, it was more the FBI just trying to keep up to her than plotting to use her as bait.” He cracked a smile. “You’re going to have your hands full staying one step ahead of Bridget O’Neill.”
Rafe laughed. “Believe me, I have a very good idea of exactly what I’m getting into.”
He slipped his arms around Bridget’s waist from behind as they watched the agents leave the hotel. His hands covered her belly, and when he felt the small roundness emotions blindsided him. “That’s our baby.” His voice broke.
Bridget covered his hands with hers and leaned back into him. “That’s our baby.”
“We’re going to get our happily-ever-after, aren’t we?”
She laughed a startled chuckle. “I think we are.”
Ten Months Later
Rafe savored the cold, effervescent taste of beer sliding down his throat as the sun beat down on him. He absorbed the mouthwatering smell of barbecue smoke, children racing around the yard, making mostly happy sounds, adults lazily talking about nothing more important than the first baseball game of the season, and the weight of his three-month-old son, Evan, snuggled on his chest. A year ago he couldn’t have imagined feeling so content.
“Did the contractor finish the kitchen cupboards yet?” Sophie plunked down in the lawn chair beside him and leaned over to kiss the red fuzz on the top of Evan’s head. “I remember when Michael was quiet like that. He’s so busy now crawling all over the place, I don’t know what we’ll do when he starts walking.”
Rafe looked around the backyard. “You’ve got a pretty big yard fenced in here. You should be good for another two years before he starts climbing the walls.”
“Ha. Ha. Is that supposed to help?”
“Considering I’m on the other side of that fence, I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.”
Sophie grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “I love our new apartment, and I love living beside you and Bridget and Evan. Even with Vince’s house selling so quickly, we couldn’t have bought the apartment without your help.”
He grinned. “It works for me, having you next door. Whenever the construction gets to be too much, I get to escape over here.”
“Who knew Bridget would be so domestic? Is she still shopping for curtains for the dining room?”
Rafe took another sip of his beer. “That’s where she is right now. Apparently there’s a sale she just couldn’t miss. If I have to look at another paint chip, I think I might go insane.”
A little boy ran up and leaned against Rafe’s knees. He put up his hand and waited until Rafe high-fived him, then giggled and ran away.
“I can’t keep their names straight,” Sophie said.
“Tommy. His mom’s coming to pick him up soon.”
“You have to cut out the babysitting service, Rafe. It’s enough you teach them how to draw. If word gets out you’re a pushover, every mother in this neighborhood will take advantage of you and dump their kids off after school.”
“I don’t mind having kids around.”
“And Bridget?”
“She’s so busy arguing with Armand’s family about his will I doubt she’s even noticed that we have extra people at the supper table. No wonder he’d told Bridget he didn’t have to worry about money. She thought his money came from the jewels he’d stolen, but it turns out he was from an old aristocratic family that has deep pockets. If Bridget inherits Armand’s part of the estate, and it’s looking like she might, my wife will be a rich woman.”
He shifted in the lawn chair when Evan started making small noises. “It’s not that she cares about the money, although having money’s nice. But they approached my Birdie the wrong way. You want to get her to do something, you’ve gotta come at her sideways.”
“Kind of like how you got her to give up Sophie’s MG?” Gage loomed above them, a wide grin on his face.
Rafe snorted. “I’m learning.”
By the time he’d gotten around to admitting to Gage he’d bought Sophie’s sports car, Bridget had fallen in love with the old piece of junk and claimed it as her own. Problem was, she was an insane driver. Like Gage before him, Rafe had insisted she use their new SUV when Evan was on board, and he worried nonstop when she took the MG on her own. Any day now, he planned to rip something off the engine to disable the car, although it was hard to deny Bridget anything she wanted. He didn’t even try to hide the fact that he was crazy in love with her. The payoff was she felt the same way about him.
They all turned their heads toward the front of the house at the roar of a motor and the sudden squeal of brakes. Gage laughed and slapped Rafe on the back before swinging ten-month-old Michael into Sophie’s arms.
“We finally got Alphonse Donati thanks to Claire Fairchild’s evidence,” he said to Rafe.
“Donati?” Rafe sat up straighter. “I met that slimeball at the tradeshow when Bridget first returned to the States. I thought you told me it was impossible to infiltrate the Donati family.”
Gage grinned. “I’m a patient man. His story pretty much jives with Claire Fairchild’s. For years Donati suspected Armand Godat of stealing jewels. It was hard to know for certain because Armand already had his family fortune. It wasn’t until Donati saw Bridget and Armand together that he understood how Armand was pulling off the heists. He wanted a piece of the action, but Armand shut down and stopped stealing for years until Donati came to him with a witness.
“Bridget’s brother, Darcy, had told Claire about Bridget reproducing a necklace years before, and Claire was happy to pass that information along to Donati when she realized Darcy had no intention of resuming their relationship. She’ll get five years for that indiscretion, probably.”
Rafe rubbed his son’s back. “From what you’ve told me about the Donati family, she’s lucky she’s alive. Bridget mentioned once she thought the Donati family was involved with the mafia?”
“Not just involved. They
are
the mafia. When we get through with Donati, he’ll have several life sentences. Lots of dirt there to dig up. Anyway, knowing that Armand cared for Bridget, Donati threatened to expose Bridget’s part in replicating the first necklace. Armand bought Donati’s silence by agreeing to do the same thing, replace an original, priceless piece of jewelry with a copy. The Frenchman must have quickly realized he’d made a pact with the devil. The Donati family was never going to let Armand and Bridget walk away free. What they were doing was too lucrative and much lower risk than gun-running or dealing in drugs.”
Rafe frowned down the ground. “That’s why Armand gave Bridget a gun and helped plan our escape. He knew even then, he wasn’t going to survive.”
“Probably. Strange man to figure out,” Gage said. “He had no problem breaking the law, and he almost ruined Bridget’s life. Yet, he sacrificed his life for hers and left her his estate.”
Sophie stood and shifted Michael onto her hip. “It’s too nice of a day to talk about guns and mafia and bad people. I need your help in the house, Vince. The beer cooler needs to be filled up again.”
A minute later, Evan raised his head as Bridget breezed into the backyard. Rafe felt a complete affinity with his son at that moment. They both loved Bridget with blind passion. He watched her stop and say something to DeMarco that made him laugh, but all the while her eyes scanned the yard until she found them in the shady corner.
She grabbed a chair on her way and swung it round beside him. “How are my guys?”
Rafe hummed under his breath as he watched her discreetly undo the top few buttons on her blouse. At first he’d been nervous about her breast-feeding in public, but Bridget didn’t have the least bit of a problem with it.
She held her arms out for Evan, who was now wide awake. So was Rafe. She glanced at him from under her lashes as she settled Evan in her arms.
Rafe held her hand and looked around at the strange mix of people enjoying themselves. If someone had asked a year ago where he thought he belonged, he likely would have said on a yacht in the Caribbean or a villa in the south of France. He would never have imagined feeling content living in his old neighborhood. But he was because Bridget was here, and they were building a home and a life together.
He couldn’t say he’d finally managed to get one step ahead, but he was almost certain he, at least, had caught up to her.
Except… “Bridget, what was that cryptic message in a heavily accented voice left on the answering machine yesterday?”
The End