You are Mine (16 page)

Brian turned and looked into Caroline’s
teasing eyes. “She is at that,” he said thoughtfully as he pulled
the note from his pocket. “But she left me something.” He felt his
blood zing with anticipation as he read and he tightened his grip
on Caroline before showing her the note.

His gaze frantically searched the area for
the long, thin frame of the messenger, but she was nowhere to be
found. He looked back at Caroline. She was staring at the note.
“It’s all right,” he said. “At least now we know.” When she nodded
in agreement, he too looked at the note. It had only eleven words,
but in its brevity, was still quite chilling.

Alexander Brickman is in Mackinaw City and
will be here tonight.

Chapter Eleven

“Your ass is mine, Paragon.”

Cell phone plastered to her ear, Essence
lifted a brow, but kept walking away from the park. “Really? I
didn’t know you got down like that, boss --”

“Shut up and get back to your hotel. By
deliberately making contact with Keenan, you’ve jeopardized this
mission.”

Essence frowned and looked around. “But how
did you --”

“Fucking shut your mouth and get back to
your hotel. Now.”

She straightened indignantly. “Hey, wait
just --”

“Now.” And then he was gone.

Speechless, Essence slipped her phone back
into her pocket. “What’s he doing here?” she muttered as she
hurried toward the docks.

***

“She’s barely more than a child,” Brickman
said dismissively. “There is no way --”

Tomás Guerrera sneered. “You are just like
my uncle, no? You think because someone is young, female, beautiful
and a soft American that they can not be dangerous or, or…what is
the word? Treacherous. I tell you that my man saw my cousin’s
girlfriend Esencia make contact with your Mr. Keenan. You will
believe me or not, but it is the truth.”

Brickman nodded. “I’ll take care of it.”

“No, you will do nothing to the girl. I told
you only so you would be aware that your element of surprise may
now be gone. I will handle the girl when we get her back to
Mexico.”

Brickman spread his elegant hands and
inclined his head. “As you wish.” When the other man had left,
Brickman turned to Jonathan. “Did you notice anything off about the
young girl?”

Jonathan shrugged. “Only that she reminds me
of the other one.”

“What other one?”

“You know. The one you want; Mrs.
Keenan.”

Brickman decided that he wouldn’t give in to
his brother’s need to taunt him, nor would he give in to his own
desire to kick his ass. He only said, “You think so, do you? I
didn’t notice. Ida?” He called to her in the bedroom area of the
suite. “What do you think?”

“No, Alex. She doesn’t look like
Caroline.”

He smiled at Jonathan. “See? Once again,
you’re wrong. Now, let’s get back to what we were discussing before
we were interrupted. That little tidbit from Guerrera Jr. puts a
kink in our plans. They were already dicey to begin with.”

“I wouldn’t really call them
plans
,”
Jonathan put in. “After all, all we were going to do was snatch her
off that private terrace they’ve had dinner on for the past couple
of nights.”

“Again, you speak idiotically. If we’ve lost
the element of surprise, then there’s even less of a chance of us
succeeding with this. What I need is another way to make the whole
thing less risky.”

“Ummm…let’s see...perhaps if we didn’t do it
all?” Jonathan suggested in a tone of sham helpfulness.

Brickman smiled coldly. “Make that your last
time, baby brother.” He rose and went to the door, picking up a
low-brimmed hat and putting it on his head on his way. “I’ll be
back,” he announced and left.

“Jonathan.”

Brow quirked in surprise, Jonathan walked
into the bedroom to answer Ida’s summons. Her face still carried
bruises, but they were fading and at least she was able to sit up
now. “You called me?” he asked, taking the chair across from her at
the small round table.

“Yes. Though it is amusing, don’t you think
you’re playing a dangerous game taunting Alex the way you’ve been
doing?”

“Why do you care?”

“I was just curious. Why do you do it? Don’t
you know he’s not above hurting you as badly as he’s hurt me? Maybe
even kill you?”

Jonathan shrugged. “If he does, he does. He
took away the one woman who ever wanted me, and I realized that
that’s what he’s done his entire life: take. And he doesn’t care
who it hurts, as long as he gets what he wants. Without Brunetta
what is left for me to live for now? Our mother is dead, our father
disowned us long ago. What is left, Ida?
His
dirty dealings?
Making money for
his
bank accounts?” Face florid with rage
and tears in his eyes, he now slammed his fist on the table for
emphasis, “What. Is. There?”

“How about revenge?” Ida asked quietly.

Taking deep breaths to calm himself down,
Jonathan gave her a look from the corner of his eye. Finally, he
sat back and said, “I’m listening.”

***

“SO, what do you think?” Caroline asked Jae
as she sniffed the aroma coming from the pot he was stirring on the
stove. From the corner of her eye, she watched Brian pace back and
forth with the cell phone to his ear.

“Regarding what, ma’am?”

Caroline rolled her eyes and sighed. “Oh,
please. We’re long past that. What do you think about the situation
with Brickman? When do you think he’ll make his move?”

Jae pinched some seasoning out of a bowl and
added it to the simmering pot. “I can’t be sure, but my best guess
is that it will be tonight as we eat dinner on the terrace. It’s
the only thing that makes sense.”

“Yes, that’s what Brian and I think, too. We
think if he’s had us watched, then that’s the only time he can be
sure of because we’ve eaten dinner on the terrace almost every
night.”

“Exactly. I’m thinking that he’ll be here
some time after eight, which is why we should do things the way
we’ve done them every night this week.”

“But a storm is due in…”

Jae nodded. “In the early hours of the
morning, yes. It’s pure conjecture, of course, but he’ll likely
come tonight to avoid that storm.”

“And of course, we’re also guessing that he
knows we’re due to leave tomorrow,” Caroline put in, feeling a
weird kind of terrifying anticipation. She wasn’t looking forward
to meeting Brickman, but what kept running through her mind was
that their nightmare was finally coming to an end. “And knowing
that information would give him even more reason to come
tonight.”

“Yes, I believe so. The problem is we’re
working on a lot of suppositions.”

Caroline frowned. “True, and also on a note
from a model. It’s all so surreal. I’m trying to figure out how a
model that can’t be any more than nineteen or twenty is involved
with Alexander Brickman,” she said thoughtfully and picked at a
stalk of celery.

“That’s what Jack has been trying to find
out all afternoon with no luck so far,” Brian said as he joined
them in the kitchen. He watched Jae pour his stew into a tureen.
“He says he’s got one more person to check with, but it’s a long
shot.”

“What else did he say?” Caroline asked as
she grabbed the salad she’d mixed earlier from the
refrigerator.

Brian grabbed the stack of plates along with
napkins, silverware and the bottle of wine. “I’ll tell you
everything at dinner.” He left the kitchen for the terrace.

“I’ve got the bread and the salad,” Caroline
offered as she followed him.

“I’ve got the guns,” Jae said grimly.

“ARE you positive that the woman who bumped
into me was a model?” Brian asked.

Caroline nodded as she took a bite of crisp
romaine lettuce from her salad. “Oh, yes,” she answered after
swallowing with difficulty. “I’m positive. I could never forget a
face like that, and I’ve seen her in Alvarado’s shows and in
European fashion magazines for the past couple of years.”

“I’m sorry, but who is Alvarado?” Jae
asked.

“He’s a Spanish designer I’ve being
following for the past few years. My mother and I have gone to a
few of his shows.”

“I see,” Jae said contemplatively. “And this
woman who bumped into Mr. Keenan earlier today models for this
designer.”

“Yes.” Caroline buttered a piece of hot,
crusty bread and then dropped it back onto her plate. Her hand was
shaking so badly, she had to put it in her lap. She felt Brian’s
hand cover it and looked up at him. She tried to take comfort from
the confidence she saw in his gaze and took a deep breath, before
saying, “Unless she’s got a twin sister; that was Cesare Shahidi I
saw at Marquette Park today.”

“So now we have to decide if her message was
meant to be a help or a hindrance to us,” Jae said.

“Exactly,” Brian said as he finished up his
bowl of stew. Unlike Caroline, he had to eat. When he’d been a cop,
he’d always had to feed his hunger before going out on a raid or
anything else that posed a huge threat. His nervous energy was
somewhat appeased by it. “This stew is delicious, Jae. Is that pork
and chicken you’ve put in it?”

Jae nodded slowly. “Yes. It’s called
ragoût de poulet à la sarriette
-- chicken stew with savory.
I’m pleased you like it. I thought it would make a perfect dish on
such a cool night.”

“Hmm,” Brian agreed as he served himself
another bowl. “Anyway, getting back to the problem at hand. It
doesn’t really matter what the purpose of her note was because we
have to be on alert either way, if she meant to trick us or help
us.”

“Yeah, I think so, too,” Caroline said
thoughtfully as she took a small bite of bread, and then drank
water to make sure it went down smoothly. “So going on the safest
assumption, which is that Brickman is somewhere nearby and
watching, we need to act as normally as possible.”

“Yes,” Brian confirmed, “the pale little man
is here. I can feel him, and soon he will feel me -- the wrath of
Brian.”

Caroline snorted, and then fell into a
helpless fit of giggles. “‘The wrath of Brian’?” she wheezed
between guffaws, “what do you think this is? A
Star Wars
movie?” She looked at her husband, who’s only response was a
dispassionate, “it will be swift and it will be deadly,” sending
her into more fits of laughter.

“And it’s
Star
Trek,
not
Star Wars
,” he corrected with a sniff.

“Oh, my mistake,” she got out between more
chuckles. She leaned over, and crooking her finger in a come-hither
gesture, waited until his face was inches from hers before saying
earnestly, “I love you, you kook.”

“Knew that would get ya,” he teased and
pecked her on the mouth. He looked over at Jae. “And your wrath,
Jae?”

Jae quirked a brow in amusement, but quoted,
“‘In the souls of the people, the grapes of wrath are filling and
growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.’”

Brian lifted a brow and then nodded slowly.
“That bad, huh?”

Laughing along with both Caroline and Brian
at the teasing, Jae said, “Sorry. Sometimes, I just can’t help
myself.”

“It’s all right,” Brian assured him. “I like
that we have a bodyguard who can quote great literature, cook like
a master chef and move like a phantom. Now if you tell me you can’t
shoot worth a damn, we’ll have a problem.”

“I’m sure he’s better than I am,” Caroline
said as she ate some of her stew, her stomach having unknotted.
“You know, I wonder which one of our tricks worked. The newspaper
article, the mention on the gallery’s website or the brochure we
left at the house with the sticky note on it giving the dates we’d
be here. I hope it was the article in the paper because at least
then I’d know that letting that photographer follow me around last
Friday wouldn’t have been for naught.”

Brian chuckled and explained to Jae, “She
hates publicity of any kind. When she had her first show and the
gallery wanted her to allow a reporter and photographer in for a
feature story to pump up the show, I thought she’d walk away from
everything rather than --”

“It’s an exaggeration, but it’s not far
off,” Caroline interrupted. “But I did the interview and took
pictures then for the same reason I allowed it last Friday: to lure
Brickman in. The story was supposed to have run on Sunday.”

Jae nodded. “It was a good idea, just like
the one Mr. Winthrop had to leave the brochure at your house and
the other one you had for the story on the gallery website. All
very simple ideas. It’s usually the simple ones that work
best.”

Caroline was finished with her stew and
pushed the bowl away. “That was great, Jae, thanks. Anyway, it was
probably the article that got Brickman. We haven’t heard anything
from Jack about a break-in at our house and it just seems less
likely that Brickman would check out the gallery’s website.”

Brian grunted. “He’s obsessive. I’ll bet he
checks that website for news on you at least twice a week.”

Caroline only nodded before changing the
subject. “Tell us what else Jack had to say when you talked to
him.”

“Okay, so I’ve already told you that he
hasn’t been able to find out anything about this Cesare person and
what her role might be. He did say, though, that it wouldn’t be
unusual for her to be working for some government agency
undercover, though it is more likely that she’s just traveling with
Brickman for some reason.”

“Oh, no.” Looking horrified, Caroline shook
her head in dismay. “Do you think she’s with him against her
will?”

Brian shrugged. “I’m afraid there’s no way
of knowing right now, and I know I only saw her briefly, but she
didn’t seem to be coerced or abused.”

“And don’t forget, she tried to take you
down,” Jae reminded the table. “So maybe there’s more to that first
option than we know.”