Sadie shrugged. “Then he loses it. He's a determined man. Dennis seems to be pretty levelheaded. The two of them are pretty much like you and me, they listen to each other. Still, I wish we had gone to the authorities back in Natchez. I'm not sure what, if anything, can be done here. I hope Matt has more than his arm up his sleeve.”
Lily snapped the cell phone open the moment it rang. “Matt?” She listened. “You got a good look? You're sure they're the ones? Okay, we're on our way as soon as we can get a taxi.”
“They're at a place called Red Tango. Matt says fifteen minutes, maybe less. And, he said it is the Laroux brothers. He got a real good look at them when they parked their car. He's wired, Sadie. I wish you could have heard him.”
“Then we better get going. It's just a hop over to the lobby. There might even be a taxi waiting,” Sadie said, excitement ringing in her voice.
“I'm a nervous wreck, and you're excited! Sometimes I just don't believe you, Sadie.”
“I'm just as much a nervous wreck as you are. I wonder what kind of place it is.”
“Matt said Dennis told him it was pure sleaze. Guess he went inside to check it out. It figures.”
“With all that money they stole from Matt, you'd think they'd go first-class. Sleaze?”
“Maybe this is what they're used to. Babes, chicks, whatever the word is today. One-night stands, no commitments, that kind of thing. Fun, fun, fun and the money stays where it is. They spend just enough, have a good time, and they don't draw any attention to themselves. I see a taxi.”
Lily looked around for the doorman but didn't see him. She walked over to the waiting taxi, and said, “Can you take us to the Red Tango?”
The driver looked them over from head to toe. “Are you sure you want to go there? It's not the kind of place ladies go to unescorted.”
“We're meeting our husbands there,” Lily said, climbing into the backseat.
The driver shrugged. He shifted gears and rolled down the driveway. Sadie sighed. Lily took a deep breath as she rolled down the window. “Lower your window, Sadie, so the wind blows your hair all over. We need to look . . .
wanton.”
Sadie coughed and sputtered but did as Lily requested.
Twelve minutes later, the taxi driver pulled to the curb. Music blasted their eardrums as they exited the cab. Two burly men looked them over. Bouncers. “They look like Jesse Ventura,” Sadie said.
Lily looked around for Matt or Dennis, but they were nowhere in sight. She couldn't see the open-air Jeep either.
“It's pretty crowded tonight, ladies. We'll take you in. Do you want a table or the bar?”
“A table would be very nice.” Sadie reached inside her purse for a ten-dollar bill. “I can't hear myself talk,” she screamed in Lily's ear.
“There must be a thousand people here! How are we ever going to find anyone?” Lily screamed in return.
“I changed my mind. We might do better at the bar,” Sadie shouted again as she handed the bouncer the ten-dollar bill. “Hold my hand, Lily, so we don't get separated.”
The bouncer sliced a path for them that was four deep and ended at the bar right next to where Dennis Wagner was seated.
“Can I buy you lovely ladies a drink?” Dennis leered.
“We don't even know you,” Sadie said haughtily.
“I'll have something blue with an umbrella in it,” Lily chirped, her gaze sweeping the room. “We're looking for some friends. However do you find anyone in this crowd?”
“I'll have a piña colada, and I want two cherries on top,” Sadie shouted.
Dennis gave their order to a scantily clad bartender. He poked Lily gently and let his gaze tell her where to look.
Both women stared across the room where the three Laroux brothers were holding court with a bevy of nearly naked women.
“We're overdressed,” Sadie said.
“But we look good,” Lily said. “Thanks for the drink. We'll take it from here. Come on, Sadie. I think I recognize those guys in the villa a couple of doors down from ours. Let's introduce ourselves before our eardrums get ruptured.” She leaned over and shouted into Dennis's ear, “Wait here to see if we have any luck luring them back to the villa.”
Sadie led the way, using her elbows, her hands and once she kicked someone to make him get out of the way. She was breathless when she reached the brothers' table. “Look, Goldie, our neighbors!” she trilled.
“Would you look at that!” Lily trilled in return. She leaned over the table and smiled. “Tiffany and I saw you walking past the villa this evening. Fancy meeting you here. Such a small world. We were just getting ready to go back to our place to party it up. We wondered if you would like to join us?”
“Why would we want to do that?” the one named Junior said as he pointedly looked at the array of skin surrounding him.
Sadie smiled. “Because we're worth it!”
“In spades,” Lily smiled.
“Maybe some other time,” Junior said.
“Your loss, honey,” Sadie said, turning to leave. “See ya.”
“Hey, wait, I'm up for a party,” another brother said. “I'm sick of sitting here every night. Do you girls have a car?”
“No. We came in a taxi.”
“Hold up. I'll come with you. You can stay, Junior. We'll take a taxi, you can keep the car.”
“We agreed to stay together,” Junior said. “Remember when we made that rule.”
“Then come with us.”
“You guys decide what you're going to do,” Lily said. “We don't belong in a place like this. You guys look like you have too much class for this dump. Are you that hard-up?”
It was all Junior needed to hear. He shook loose from the women hanging around his neck. “This better be worth our while.”
Sadie turned around. “I'm up for a midnight swim, how about you, Goldie?”
“Ooooh, sounds good,” Lily said.
They pushed their way toward the bar where Dennis was paying his tab. “Thanks for the drinks,” Sadie bellowed. “We're going home now.”
Dennis ignored her as he shoved his way to the door.
Outside in the sweltering night air, Junior came up behind Lily, and said, “We can give you a ride back to the villa.”
“Well, sure. That's nice of you.”
“Real nice,” Sadie said, removing the younger brother's hand from her rump. “Stop that! I'm not one of those tramps you left behind inside. I thought you guys were a class act.”
“Does that mean you two girls are a class act?” Junior demanded.
Sadie sighed. “Maybe we made a mistake, Goldie.”
Lily sighed. “Maybe we did.”
“You didn't make a mistake,” Junior said. “Our car's over here. Unless you changed your minds.”
“Okay, we'll accept a ride home with you,” Sadie said.
“Our cups runneth over,” Junior said snidely.
Chapter Sixteen
Matt Starr paced the path leading from Lily's villa to the one rented by the Laroux brothers. He was so close and yet so far from his goal. Dennis, who was pacing right along with him, placed a hand on his arm. “Take it easy, buddy. The girls are okay. They can handle this. Now what the hell are you doing?”
Matt threw his arms out and raised his head to look skyward at the millions of twinkling stars. “You doing that universe thing again? We should be going to the police now that you definitely I.D.'d those guys. The cops could be here in minutes. C'mon, Matt. Let's make some decisions here.”
“I want my money back. The only way that's going to happen is to confront those bastards and make it happen the way they made me give it up. If we break into their villa, we'll be arrested. If we can figure out a way to get in while they're there, we have the upper hand. I have an idea. I'll call Lily and suggest they go to the beach. That means the brothers will have to go back to the villa to get their bathing suits. We lie in wait, and the minute they're inside, we go after them. With the girls, there's four of us and three of them. We can't take a weapon, that's premeditated. We wing it. What do you think?”
“Is that what the universe is telling you?” Dennis muttered.
“No. It's what I'm telling you. I never did anything like this before. It's as new to me as it is to you. Just bear with me, okay? All we need is their computer. I want to do to them what they did to me. I haven't forgotten for one minute what they did to Gracie. Not for one damn minute. They're gonna pay for that. Are we going to do this or not?”
“All right, but I'll call Lily. You're too juiced up. Just stand there, Matt, and be quiet. We can make this work if we all get in sync. You need to be calm, and you need a clear head.”
“Okay, make the call.”
Dennis dialed Lily's cell phone and waited. Her cheerful response grated on his ears. “Hi. Listen, I'll make this quick. Matt wants you to head for the beach. Send the guys back to the villa for their bathing suits. We'll be in the bushes somewhere waiting to pounce the minute they get inside. Meet us there.”
“Well, hi, Carol. I almost gave up on you. Oh, yes, we're up for a midnight swim. We just met some of our neighbors this evening. Do you mind if we bring them along? Great! Hold on a second, and I'll ask the guys.”
Dennis waited, the cell phone pressed tight against his ear. He waited until she spoke to him again. “Okay, Carol, we can be there in ten minutes.”
Dennis snapped the cell phone shut. “They're on the way. Don't make a sound, Matt. This is your big moment, and you don't want to blow it.” Both men stepped into the dense shrubbery. “I hear them,” he whispered.
“What are you so worried about, Junior?”
“Doesn't it seem a little strange that those two girls picked us out of all the men in that club? For all you know this could be a setup.”
“They're from Bluefield, West Virginia. They can't know anything.”
“You also need to shut up, voices carry in the night air,” Junior said coldly.
Dennis poked Matt in the arm. “Okay, they're inside. Here come the girls.”
Lily rushed up and grabbed Matt's arm. “What do we do now?”
“You girls go in first, through the front door. We'll be right behind you. I'm assuming the door to the rear patio is locked. Surprise is on our side although Junior's not as stupid as you think. He's already suspicious.”
“This is like the Keystone Kops,” Sadie hissed.
“You two girls home in on the youngest one. He's not the brightest crayon in the box. Dennis, you take the middle one, and I get Junior. Let's go!”
“What's taking you guys so long?” Sadie trilled as she opened the door and stepped through, Lily right behind, Dennis and Matt brought up the rear.
“If that bastard Marcus was here, we'd have a grand slam,” Matt hissed.
“Who's there?” Junior called from one of the bedrooms.
At the sound of Junior's voice, Matt broke ranks and raced around the corner. “It's just me, you son of a bitch! Don't move! If you do, I'll blow your fucking head off! Now, sit the hell down and haul out that computer of yours! Now!”
“What the hell . . . how . . .”
Matt heard the bedlam behind him, but he ignored it, his gaze never wavering from the man standing in front of him. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the man's laptop on the desk in the corner. Could he take him? He was in shape, but he wasn't sure. If he was going to stand there and think about it, he might as well give it up. He rushed forward, his right foot shooting forward to land square on Junior's shinbone. Junior's leg gave out, and he went down on one knee as Matt's left foot shot upward to smash against his nose. Blood spurted in all directions. “Dump my dog, will you?” He swung around again, his right leg shooting forward, then upward, to knock Junior off-balance.
“You got me, ease up.”
“Like hell. You're gonna pay for what you did to Gracie. You left her out there to die, you scumbag. Nobody does that to my dog. You hear me? You left me out there to die. I'm taking you back there, you bastard, and I'm going to strip you naked and turn you loose the way you did me.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Junior whined. “We left you clothes and we notched the trail for you. At the most it should have taken you four hours to get to the main road. And we didn't dump your dog. We put her in a safe place. I like animals. We stole your money, but we didn't hurt you.”
“You made me miss my wedding. You dumped my dog, and you left me to die. I spent two weeks in the hospital hanging on by my toenails. I don't even know why I'm bothering to talk to you. You move even one muscle, and you'll wish you hadn't. Dennis!” he shouted.
“I'm here, buddy. I'm happy to say there wasn't a scrapper in the bunch. We tied both of them up with sheets. Howzit going, big guy?”
“Take a look! Give him his computer and then call the police. Boot up and log on. I'll do the rest,” Matt snarled.
Fascinated, Dennis watched the blizzard of numbers sweep across the laptop screen. The moment the last transaction was completed, Matt picked up the laptop, walked out the front door, tossed it onto the flagstone path. He stomped on it until there was nothing left but a mass of crushed plastic. Then he stomped back inside.
“Did you call the police?”
“Yep. They're on the way. I have a call in to the Natchez police, too. Our work here is done,” Dennis said dramatically. “This is going to hit the papers, Matt.”
“I know. It's okay now. I made good on it. My investors can't fault me for this. They will view it as a shining example of how I handle a crisis.”
“How'd you find us? We didn't leave a trail,” Junior asked, a towel to his bloody nose.
“A vision. Your biggest mistake was not believing me when I told you I would track you to the ends of the earth. I would have probably let you get away with it and kissed the money good-bye if you hadn't dumped my dog. I found my dog just the way I said I would, but I didn't do it alone. I had lots of help.”
“I want a lawyer,” Junior shouted.
“Yeah, I guess you do,” Matt called over his shoulder. He put his arm around Lily and pulled her close. Dennis did the same thing to Sadie.
“Can we get something to eat, Matt? We haven't had anything to eat today,” Lily said.
“Honey, I am going to buy you the best meal this island has to offer even if I have to wake someone up to cook it for you. And then I am going to give you anything in this whole wide world that you want for a wedding present. Anything, Lily. If it's in my power to do it, it's yours. But first, we have to go to the police station so I can sign the complaint. You guys with me on this?”
“You bet,” Dennis said.
“Always,” Lily said, squeezing Matt's hand. “I can't believe it was so easy. The two younger ones just . . . gave up and sat down. You're okay, aren't you?”
“Honey, I am so okay it's sinful. I wouldn't want to do it again, though. What's your best guess, Dennis, is the stock going to go up or down?”
“It's going to skyrocket. You're the man! Investors love this stuff. Next week we unveil Open Door 2001, and it's clear sailing on the really big XML announcement. You're golden, buddy!”
“Except for the black cloud where Marcus is concerned.”
“Marcus is history, Matt. What goes around comes around. A month from now if someone mentions his name we'll say Marcus who?”
Â
Â
Betsy Collins stared around her look-alike Holiday Inn room. If there was one color she hated above all others, it was orange. She had to get out of there. She had to go somewhere that was stimulating, someplace that suited her. She could afford it now. She could afford to buy anything her heart desired. Anything. She didn't move, didn't lower her legs from the bed where she'd propped them. Suddenly all her energy was gone as well as the desire to do anything but sit and swig on little bottles of Coca-Cola that didn't even taste like the Coca-Cola in the States.
She thought about her daughters and how she'd left them behind and all because of her own greed. Did they hate her? How could they not hate her? If there was a way to get them on this side of the ocean she would find it. She wasn't giving up her children. Temporarily yes, long-term no. She just needed a bit more time to come up with a plan. She could see her reflection in the closet door that she'd left open. Who was this person sitting on the chair in her underwear with her feet propped on the bed? A greedy, selfish woman who never thought about anyone but herself. The same greedy, selfish woman who drove her husband away with her constant whining and outrageous demands. It was okay to cry now because she hadn't applied her makeup. What was she supposed to do now?
She couldn't go back to the States. That was a given. She took a moment to mourn the loss of Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue and all the specialty stores where she shopped. “I'm a woman without a country,” she wailed. “My husband left me, and my children hate me. Where did it all go wrong?” How and when did she turn into this hateful woman in the closet door mirror?
It happened when Marcus started to climb the corporate ladder. Don't blame Marcus, blame yourself. “I wish . . . I wish . . . I wish I had the answer to all my problems.” She moved from the chair and threw herself on the bed, where she sobbed until she couldn't cry anymore. “I wish I had a fairy godmother who would let me wish and wish and wish. Someone who will keep my wishes and dole them out when needed and not one minute before. I wish I could go back to being more like Lily Harper. I was like her once. I could be like her again. I know I could. How hard would it be for the fairy godmother of her dreams to turn her into a clone of Lily Harper? It wasn't so much to ask, was it? All she had to do was say, I wish I was like Lily Harper. I wish . . . I wish . . .”
What was the point to all this wishful thinking? She was simply too tired to think about things like this. She pulled the orange-and-brown spread down to cover herself and was asleep within seconds.
Betsy woke to darkness. She felt disoriented. How long had she slept? Obviously all day since it was now dark outside. She felt terrible, her head ached, and she knew her eyes were puffy and swollen. And she was hungry. Room service again. She dressed and used the phone in the bathroom to order her dinner. She crossed her fingers that there would be something on television other than CNN. She would probably be up all night since she'd slept the day away.
Thirty minutes later, Betsy snapped on the light in the bedroom at the same moment the knock sounded on her door. She stood in the doorway waiting for the waiter to place the tray on the round table between the two chairs. She signed the check, then locked the door.
She looked down at the tray and grimaced. A ham and Swiss cheese sandwich, a salad that looked like it was all lettuce, a pot of coffee, and a bowl of canned fruit. She reached for the napkin, felt the weight as she shook it out to find a silver chain with a pendant. How quaint. How tacky. So tacky her daughters would love it. It must be something the hotel gave to guests to make up for the awful orange-and-brown bedspreads. She shrugged. Because there was no reason not to, Betsy slipped the necklace around her neck.
“My life is never going to be the same again,” Betsy whimpered aloud, as she bit into the ham and Swiss cheese sandwich.
Â
Â
“That's the last of it,” Matt said, piling their luggage by the front door. Before you know it, we'll be in Las Vegas and we'll both be saying I do. Someone's here, Lily.”
“Oh, it's Mr. Sonner. I'm glad he got here before we left. I'll be ready to go as soon as I show him the closet. You can start taking the bags out. Where are the dogs, Matt?”