Bait (35 page)

“
Zelda!
Wynne, let me go! I've got to help her!”

Wynne's hold tightened. “No way.”

As Maddie struggled to free herself, Baron, still barking, stuck his big head partly under the ATV's frame. Beholding doom, Zelda cranked up the volume. Maddie gasped, knowing that she was about to watch the thing flip. When it did, she was pretty sure Zelda would be sushi.

“Dog!” McCabe yelled over the din, and Maddie saw that he was skirting the edge of the backyard, keeping a wary distance between himself and the action even as he tried to attract Baron's attention. The backyard was dark, shadowy, silvered with rain. McCabe had something in his hand, something he was waving. “Dog! Look over here!”

“His name's Baron!” Maddie shouted.

“Baron! Here, Baron! Look over here!”

That did the trick. Baron quit barking, lifted his head, looked around, saw the man waving something at him and seemed to take a long, hard look. Then he whirled and charged.

“Shit.”
Throwing whatever it was he was holding, McCabe bolted for the fence. Behind him, with a fearsome volley of barks, the behemoth hit full-throttle.

Maddie's jaw dropped. Her breathing suspended. Her eyes widened as she watched McCabe race toward them like the hounds of hell were on his heels.

Oh, wait, one of them was.

Movement at the rear of the action caught Maddie's attention as she goggled at McCabe's leg-pumping dash for the fence. Zelda, no fool, was taking advantage of the reprieve to dart away.

“Zelda!” she shrieked. “Here, Zelda, this way!”

Zelda seemed to hear, because she tore up the ground, heading in the opposite direction.

“Run!” Wynne yelled encouragement. Maddie realized, with some indignation, that he was shaking with laughter.

Then her indignation lessened as she figured out that, instead of focusing on Zelda, he was cheering on McCabe.

“D'you want me to shoot it? D'you want me to shoot it?” Gomez screamed, practically dancing with agitation beside them as he waved his gun. Until that moment, Maddie hadn't even noticed that he and Hendricks had joined them.

“No!” Maddie cried, horror-stricken at the idea of murdering a neighbor's pet.

“No shooting,” McCabe roared. He was only about six feet from the fence and coming on like a freight train. Baron, open-jawed and roaring, was almost close enough to take a huge chomp out of his ass.

NINETEEN

Jump for it! It's gaining on you!” Wynne bellowed.

McCabe glanced behind him.

“Shit.”
McCabe dived for the fence from about a yard out just as the snarling, slavering beast leaped for him.

And came up short at the end of a chain.

McCabe hurtled through the bushes and crashed to the ground. Baron yelped and crashed to the ground. On opposite sides of the fence.

The men around Maddie let out a collective
whoosh
of breath.

“That thing's a man-killer.” Gomez sounded awed.

“Told you,” Hendricks said.

Then, with Maddie in tow, they all kind of sidled over to look down at McCabe. Having landed on his stomach, he had now rolled onto his back, where he lay motionless and spread-eagled, eyes closed, chest heaving, with the rain pattering down on his face.

“Now
that,
” Wynne said thoughtfully, “I would have paid good money to see.”

“Fuck off,” McCabe said without opening his eyes.

Having recovered quicker than McCabe, Baron was once again on his feet, straining at his chain and barking hysterically at them from the other side of the fence.

All of a sudden the back door to his house opened and a man stood in the opening, silhouetted against the light.

“Baron! Shut up!” the man yelled, in a tone that sounded like he meant business. The dog kept barking hysterically. The man slammed the door shut again, vanishing from sight.

“Way to control your dog,” Wynne said wryly. His hand was locked around Maddie's wrist now. No way was she going anywhere, even if she had wanted to, which, she discovered, she no longer did. Still ...

“Zelda,” Maddie said in a forlorn voice.

McCabe's eyes opened. Lifting a hand to shield them from the rain, he seemed to look her way.

“That was just about the stupidest damned thing I ever saw,” McCabe said to her with an unmistakable edge to his voice. Baron was still barking, but his enthusiasm was starting to wane and Maddie heard McCabe's words quite clearly.

Maddie knew what he meant, since that was more or less what she just had been thinking herself: Running into the dark like that after Zelda had been nothing short of dumb. In her panic over the dog's escape, though, she had all but forgotten that
there was somebody out there who wanted to kill her.
And A-One Plastics was still incommunicado....

But thinking she'd probably done something dumb and having McCabe yell at her for doing something dumb were two entirely different things.

She channeled her best Robert De Niro, planted her one free hand on her hip, and glared down at him. “Are
you
talkin' to
me
?”

McCabe sat up. From the way he looked at her, Maddie got the impression that he was spoiling for a fight.

“You think?”

“So, kiddies, how 'bout we head on back to Maddie's apartment before somebody starts taking potshots at us?” Wynne said, making a hasty intervention before things could heat up.

“Good idea.” It would have been a perfectly pleasant reply—if McCabe hadn't said it through his teeth.

“I need to look for Zelda,” Maddie said mutinously as McCabe got to his feet.

“To hell with Zelda,” he said, looming over her.

Maddie bristled.

“Easy for you to say. It's not
your
business that'll go down the tubes if I lose the damned dog.”

“To hell with your business, too.”

“Time-out.” Wynne started to walk back in the direction from which they'd come, pulling Maddie along behind him. From that position, she glared back at McCabe.

“I need that dog.”

“What you need is your head examined.”

“Cool it, both of you,” Wynne ordered. Then, to Maddie in a soothing tone, “After we get you safely back to your apartment, we'll find the dog. Promise.”

McCabe was right behind her, close but not close enough so that Maddie could read his expression. She could, however, feel the vibes he was giving off. And the vibes told her that he was in a towering snit. If she'd been less mature, she would have stuck out her tongue at him. If there had been no one to see but McCabe, she would have stuck out her tongue at him. But Gomez and Hendricks were back there, too, so she reluctantly put the impulse on the back burner. Sick with worry over Zelda—all right, over the Brehmer account—as she might be, Maddie nevertheless realized that letting the men look for the dog was only good sense. As vital as recovering Zelda was, it wasn't worth getting herself killed over.

“Well, lookee there,” Wynne said softly as they rounded the honeysuckle hedge. He nodded in the direction of the parked cars.

Maddie was bent over, scooping up her abandoned shoes—what with the rain and the mud, they were never going to be the same again—but something about the tone of his voice made her look up instantly. Her eyes widened, and she sucked in a breath of soggy, sweet-smelling air.

There was Zelda by the Camry, scarfing up french fries that must have spilled to the pavement when Maddie had exited the car so vigorously.

Zelda,
Maddie almost cried, but, remembering how Zelda had responded to being called by name before, she swallowed the impulse, freezing in place instead so as not to startle her. The men behind Maddie nearly bumped into her before they, too, got with the program and stopped.

“Shit. Here we go again.” Maddie could tell by the disgusted tone of McCabe's voice that he, too, was looking at Zelda. His next words were growled in her ear. “Leave it to us this time, okay? We'll get the damned dog for you.” Then, slightly louder, he added, “Wynne, you take Maddie on inside.”

“Will do.”

Wynne's hand tightened around Maddie's wrist, but he needn't have bothered. Being at the edge of her parking lot had made her remember how she had been shot, and remembering how she had been shot made her glance nervously all around and want to run for the hills. If three big, bad FBI men couldn't capture one little dog, the country was in more trouble even than she was, was how Maddie figured it. So as Wynne started moving, she went with him without protest, contenting herself with watching over her shoulder as Gomez and Hendricks, after a hasty consultation with McCabe, crept around behind the Camry. There was no way to be certain, of course, but she guessed that once they were in position somebody would give a signal and the three of them would close in on Zelda, who was still stuffing her face.

On that happy thought, they reached the door and Wynne ushered her inside. The house was dimly lit and quiet, as it generally tended to be, given the nearly soundproof 1920s construction, plus the work schedules and dispositions of the tenants. The doors on either side of the grand oak stairway that led to the second and third floors were both closed. Maddie trudged upward, her feet in their now-shredded pantyhose slippery on the stairs, her ears keenly attuned to any sounds she might be able to hear from the parking lot. Still in his navy jacket and khakis but now looking a great deal the worse for wear, Wynne huffed behind her, one hand on the banister, leaving a trail of damp footprints in his wake. At the sound of footsteps above them, Maddie glanced up to see June Matthews coming along the second-floor hall toward the stairs. Carrying a folded umbrella and wearing a lightweight black raincoat and heels, she was clearly on her way somewhere. Her face changed as Maddie and then Wynne reached the second-floor landing and she got a good look at them.

“Hey, June,” Maddie said.

“Is everything all right?” June asked in a wary tone, pausing with one hand on the newel post to watch as they headed on up toward the third floor.

Maddie glanced back at her, saw her knit brows, and realized in that split second how the situation must appear: herself wet, disheveled, and shoeless, sporting huge runs in her pantyhose and a scowl to boot, with a huge and equally wet and disheveled man right behind her, clearly following her upstairs to her apartment.

“Everything's fine, but thanks for asking,” she said, summoning a would-be cheery smile. Wynne, who had looked around when June spoke, smiled too, showing large, even white teeth. Coupled with that cherub thing he had going on, the smile must have done the trick, because June relaxed and continued on her way. Then Maddie and Wynne reached Maddie's apartment, and he followed her inside.

The apartment was dark except for the dim glow of the outside halogen spilling in through the windows. Maddie started automatically for the curtains—closing them before she turned on the lights was what she had in mind—when a series of shrill beeps penetrated her consciousness, stopping her in her tracks just a couple steps into the room. Her eyes widened. Her immediate thought was
bomb.

“What ... what ... ?” she sputtered, even as her eyes flew to Wynne and she realized that he didn't look the least bit perturbed. Either he was deaf, or there was something she was missing here.

“Security system. McCabe had it installed this afternoon. Because we're kind of shorthanded now, you know.” He turned to a keypad by her front door that was a new addition to the wall decor and punched in numbers. As Maddie goggled, the beeps stopped. “Your code is the last four digits of your phone number, by the way. Or you can change it if you want.”

“Did anybody
ask
me ...” Maddie began hotly. Then her voice petered out as it occurred to her that under the circumstances a security system was probably an excellent thing to have. She finished in a milder tone. “I'm glad I didn't come home alone.”

And proceeded across the room to close the curtains.

“I don't think you're supposed to be alone right now. I think that's the point.” Wynne flipped the switch that turned on the lights. “You know, you really shouldn't've took off like that out there. It could have been dangerous.”

“Don't you start, too.” Having closed the curtains, Maddie turned to scowl at him, realized that he was dripping all over her hardwood floor, and crossed to the bathroom, from which she extracted a towel. “Here.” She threw it to him.

“Thanks.” He started toweling off. Maddie watched critically. He was such a big man. She tossed him another towel.

“When you disappeared into the dark like that, I gotta tell you, you scared us.” Wynne looked up from vigorously rubbing his head to fix her with reproving blue eyes. Wet and woolly now, his hair puffed out like golden dandelion fluff around his head. “McCabe about went ape-shit. He was out the door before I even got the car stopped. He's probably still going to be a little ticked off when he gets up here.”

Wynne sounded like he was warning her.

“Good for him,” Maddie said, unimpressed. She'd shed her jacket and the bulletproof vest by this time, and was standing just inside the bathroom door and rubbing her hair with a towel, too. The area that had been covered by the vest was relatively dry. The rest of her was pretty much soaked through. It showed just how wet she was that the air-conditioning, for just about the only time in her experience of it, actually felt cold. She could feel the chill as it blew over her skin.