Chapter Twenty-six
B
lake had just parked the car and was getting out when he heard it. The gunshot echoed clear into the woods behind the cabin. Fuck. “Rhonda.” He whipped out his gun.
He didn't know how he made it up the short drive while his heart had stopped beating, but he did. A smart man might take the time to access the situation. But a man in love with a woman carrying his child didn't give a shit. Not bothering to see if the door was locked, he kicked it in, readying himself for what he might find.
A woman screamedâhis mother, a hand held over her heart at seeing him. Sarah was bent over, cradling her wrist and bawling like her hand had been cut off.
“Rhonda,” he shouted.
“Over here.” Rhonda stood from behind one of the couches, a gun in her hand.
Blake blew out a loud breath, dizzy from relief. He ran to her, tucking his own gun back into his waistband. “Are you hurt?” He quickly eyed her up and down for injuries.
“No.” She shook her head. “I'm fine. Thanks to your badass mother and my whip. But we need to get out of here,” she said, far too panicked to be waving a handgun. “That bitch has friends coming to kidnap me.”
“No she doesn't,” he assured her, resisting the urge to smile like a ridiculous fool at how beautiful she looked pregnant and plump with his kid. God he missed her.
“Yes she does. She's been checking her watch the entire time she's been here.”
“Shouldn't we tie her up?” His mother stood guard over Sarah, looking like she'd really enjoy doing it, or smacking her again with the whip she clutched in her hand. While unsettling, it did him proud to think his mother had helped save the woman he loved.
“Just grab her by the hair so we can leave.”
He had to calm Rhonda down. “
No one
is coming. I promise. The people Sarah paid aren't holding to the bargain.” He extended his arm and opened his hand, thinking it was best to disarm her before he tried to hug her.
“How do you know that?” she asked, hesitantly giving him the gun.
He took it and released a long breath. “Because they're the ones who sent me. I wouldn't have known where to look for you otherwise. You sure you're all right?” Her face looked flushed.
“I'm fine,” she said, waving him off.
It hurt to think she wasn't happy to see him, but he pushed that aside for now.
“I rang for the police a while ago. They should be here any minute.”
“Mother.” He was relieved she was all right too.
“Son,” she countered with an impish grin.
His father was going to tear him a new one for getting his mother involved. “I'm glad you're safe. I'm sorry. Had I known about Sarah, I never would have asked you to talk to Maggie.”
“Not your fault. Go on now, I'll watch this crazy hag while you give the mother of your child a proper greeting.” His mother then shoved Sarah onto the couch and stood over her. “Move, and I'll happily yank every strand of hair out of that miserable head of yours.”
There was one thing Blake needed before his mother did just that. He went over to the sofa and leaning over Sarah, opened her coat. Then he ripped the necklace with its diamond charm off her neck. “You won't be needing it where you're going.”
Sarah opened her mouth to argue, when out of nowhere his mother slapped her daughter-in-law hard enough to send her flying across the cushions.
He thought to intervene but seeing the murderous scowl she was giving Sarah, he figured she had everything under control. Blake turned his attention back to Rhonda, whose mouth gaped open.
“Never get my mom mad.” He approached her like he would a skittish cat. Time and time again, he'd put her life at risk. Who could blame her if she never wanted to see him again?
“No shit,” she agreed, stunned by what his mother had done.
“Rhonda, are you sure you're okay?” He didn't know the first thing about pregnant women. All he knew was that he wanted to hold her but was afraid she'd reject him. Whatever happened here, these two women had shown more balls than he could ever imagine.
“Listen,” she said, the tension in her face relaxing as she smiled. “They're playing our song.”
Outside, police sirens wailed, becoming more shrill with each passing second.
Anything he may have wanted to ask or say would have to wait as uniformed officers stormed the cabin. But she smiled. That had to be a good sign. He hoped.
* * *
“I don't understand,” Rhonda said, after leaving his mother in her suite at Caesar's Palace. Maggie had offered her the guesthouse. However, Lady Helen had insisted she stay at the hotel, claiming she might never get another chance to stay in Sin City and she was
bloody well
going to enjoy it. Rhonda was growing to love that woman. She'd thwacked Sarah with a whip. Rhonda would bet that if all of Scotland didn't love her already, they would now.
Blake escorted Rhonda through the golden rotunda and throng of tourists waiting to check in. “Sarah,” he explained, “used the data stick she'd pilfered off Madison and found Krupin's contact information. Like she told you, she exchanged the diamonds for a favor. Only Krupin doesn't take kindly to being used as a pawn. Then he figured out it was Sarah selling the stones, not Madison. He was sorely pissed.”
“So he turned Sarah in?”
“No, he called me. Krupin also doesn't like to owe favors.”
He kept her in suspense until they were outside and he'd given the valet his car keys. “I nailed his nephew's killer. Remember our tête-à -tête on the plane? In his book, he owed me. I wasn't going to argue.”
“How did Sarah know where to look for me when . . .” She cut herself off, not wanting to embarrass him. Given his profession, she hadn't been sure he
wouldn't
find her.
“When
I
didn't know? It's okay. You haven't hurt my feelings. And don't give Sarah too much credit. She'd learned a few tricks from Harris and bugged my mother's cellphone. My mother had let it be known she wasn't happy about our situation. Sarah figured, correctly, she was her best chance at getting to you.”
And there it was. He'd gone and said it. Their
situation
. There was a lot that needed to be said, but for now they'd deal with this crap. “What about the data stick? Wouldn't his name be on it? Did she offer that to him too?”
“No, she was keeping it for insurance. You don't make a deal with the mob and not have back-up. She knew enough to do that. She married my brother for power and money. And I can attest first-hand to her lack of scruples or fidelity, but that she was screwing Harris since before she married Colin surprised even me.”
“She said Harris had saved her father from public humiliation. Sounded like hero worship to me.”
“If that was the case then it was misplaced. The documents she was referring to were evidence linking her father to Russia. Secret Service had been looking for those for years. Harris was protecting his own ass, not her father's.”
“Has Colin been told?” The poor guy. His wife going to jail was one thing. Everything else might have the effect Blake had feared.
“My mother is telling him. Apparently we may have been wrong about Colin. She suspects Colin got wind of Sarah's affair. The last few months have been hard on him, but he didn't crumble or fall apart. He's reconnected with all the old friends Sarah had scared off. Maybe Colin is beginning to see his life without his âlovely' wife.”
Rhonda tilted her head to one side, scrunching up her face. “Did you throw up in your mouth just now?”
“Pretty much.”
Their car arrived. He took the keys as the valet opened the door for her, assuming she was getting in. She glanced at Blake, who watched her expectantly. She'd rehearsed what she'd say to him when she saw him, but had considered it to be along the lines of “Meet your son or daughter.” Or, if she reconsidered and allowed him in the delivery room, “Shut up and push yourself.” Now what could she do?
“I can take you back to the cabin. I'm sure the police are done with it by now.”
“All my things are there.” It made sense. Would he want to stay with her? He'd been trying to find her since Scotland.
He seemed disappointed, but nodded anyway. She got in the car and waited for Blake.
“So, where's the data she stole?” she asked, attempting to keep things between them neutral. This was what had brought them together. And now it was over.
Blake stuck his hand in his front pocket and pulled out the chain he'd ripped off Sarah's neck. He dangled it between them. “Here.”
She took the diamond pendant as he drove out of the hotel's parking lot. It was the one she'd seen Sarah wear the evening they'd met. Three inches in length, the stones were set side by side, starting with three at the top and working their way down to one. Where a cross guard would be on a sword, this was plain platinum with two more diamonds on each tip. The pommel held the chain. “It's the one your brother gave her for their anniversary.”
“No, it isn't. After I got the call from Krupin, I had Monty do some digging to find out what she'd been up to the last few months, and with whom. He tracked a credit card receipt to a jewelry designer in London, the same one who made the necklace found in Dubai. Monty wanted to know if she'd actually given all the stones to Krupin or kept some, so he called the jeweler. That,” he motioned with his chin at the pendant, “is it.” He took a right onto Paradise Road toward the airport.
“Why would she make a duplicate?”
“Pull the pommel from the sword.”
She did, and withdrew a USB flash drive the size of a small fingernail. “Impressive.” She eyed the gadget and froze. “Oh my God. What kind of stuff is on this thing? How many people can it bring down?” She snapped it together and quickly tossed it into the console between them, wanting no part of the foul thing.
“Yeah, I hear you,” Blake said. “No telling what's on it.”
“What are you going to do with it?”
“Ryan will see that it gets into the right hands. Now, if Sarah was stupid enough to copy it onto her computer, the police will find it. But considering the effort she took to wear it around her neck, I don't think she took that route.”
Frankly, she had serious doubts about the brains everyone gave Sarah credit for. But for all she knew, Sarah could be an evil genius as well as a deranged one.
“Monty will meet us at the airport to take it off our hands. Then we'll head up to Tahoe. If that's all right with you?”
“Sure. The farther away I am from that thing the better.” She rubbed her belly, hating Sarah for threatening to take her baby and appreciating her own decision not to end her pregnancy. It would have been one of the biggest mistakes of her life, and she'd made plenty.
To think that bitch thought she could pull off pretending that Rhonda's baby was her own. “Could she have done it? Made people think this baby was Colin's?”
Blake fisted the steering wheel, the muscles in his jaw tightening. “If he'd thought to question the paternity, he'd have ordered a standard test. Unfortunately, that wouldn't have been good enough. And he wouldn't have had any reason to suspect the baby was mine to have insisted on a more comprehensive test. So yeah, she might have gotten away with it. But she didn't. Let's be grateful for that.”
She was grateful for a lot of things. One thing especially. She was grateful for Lady Helen on all kinds of levels. It was true, Sarah would never have found her if not for Blake's mother showing up at the cabin, but that nut job had been determined to find Rhonda and take her baby for her own. No, that scene had played out the way it was supposed to. And if Lady Helen hadn't shown up, Rhonda wouldn't have the biggest decision of her life to make.
She wanted to say more to Blake, but she'd wait until they were on the plane, when she could have his full attention.
At the airport she finally got to meet the infamous Monty, who'd arrived via motorcycle. She'd imagined a cute geek, but if they'd had geeks like this in her computer courses, she might have taken more than the prerequisite class. He looked a little like David Beckham, except without the steely edge, a softer, more laid-back version with glasses. And like all of Ryan's men, he was super-nice to her and rude to Blake.
“Not that you care, but I'm not a delivery boy,” Monty said. “That's Cowboy.” He reached out a hand for the CD case Blake had used to hide the pendant.
“I just thought you needed some fresh air. You know, sky, sun, birds. There's more to life than computer screens and video games.”
“Ha. What would you morons do without me and my
video
games? I'm surprised any of you know how to answer email. Hey Rhonda, besides the crazy lady, how was the cabin? Maggie's promised to let me use it over the holidays.”
“It's nice. You'll love it,” she said.
“Wait, you know about the cabin?” Blake shoved Monty.
Monty grinned. “I know everything, dumbass, and before you say anything or touch me again . . .” He held up a hand. “Maggie swore me to secrecy, and she had Christian as back-up. Two against one, bud.” He walked past Blake, returning the shove with one of his own.
Before this turned into a
who has bigger balls
match, Rhonda stepped between the two of them. “Do we need a time out?” she asked the two children.
Blake growled at Monty, who simply grinned from ear to ear, egging Blake on. She didn't know who was worse. But before anything more happened, Monty got on his bike and roared off, flipping Blake the bird.