Charmed and Dangerous (33 page)

“But what about Cassie?” Maddie asked. “Where is she?”

“There is an all points alert out on her for calling in the bomb threat,” Henri said. “No one knows where she is.”

“Did the police at least nab Levy or Philpot?” David snarled.

Henri smiled. “They did even better.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“They arrested both Levy and Philpot, almost a dozen collectors and they recovered seven stolen paintings including your aunt’s Rembrandt.”

“No kidding? They’ve got Aunt Caroline’s Rembrandt?” David slumped against the back of his seat. Well, at least that was something. He imagined the joy on his aunt’s face when he returned the painting to her and his spirits lifted. This wasn’t over yet. He would get Shriver too.

“Levy brought the Rembrandt to the auction to dump it. Apparently the pressure we’ve been putting on him was too hot. He was desperate to ditch it.”

“High five,” David held up his left hand.

“You Americans with the victory celebrations.” Henri grinned and smacked his palm.

“Hey, it’s been a long time coming. I’m due a little victory dance.”

“Not so fast,
mon ami.
I’m afraid there’s more unpleasant news.”

“What’s that?”

“The Cézanne and the El Greco are still missing. The ones we found at the Vivaldi auction were forgeries.”

David sucked in his breath. Cassie had been a busy girl. “Where are the originals?”

“That’s what your supervisor wants to know,” Henri said.

David swallowed. “You called Jim Barnes?”

“No, he came to Venice after receiving your telegram.”

“I didn’t send him a telegram.”

Henri shrugged. “Someone did. And they signed your name. The telegram said you had the originals in safe-keeping.”

“What? I don’t have the originals!” Panic took hold of him. Calm down. Chill. You’ll figure it out. You’re so close to wrapping this up. Don’t take a dive now. “Who could have sent Jim the telegram with my name on it? And why would . . . oh, shit.”

His eyes met Maddie’s and in unison they both exclaimed, “Cassie.”

Henri went to the boat launch to meet the police and oversee Jocko Blanco’s arrest. “Go on,” he told David. “Find Shriver. This case belongs to you. After ten years, you deserve the win.”

Leaving Henri behind, David and Maddie ran through the streets of Venice looking like a deranged Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. If she hadn’t been so worried about Cassie, Maddie might have seen the humor in the situation. As it was, she was desperately missing her half-a-heart necklace. Ever since she’d lost that necklace in Spain things had gone dramatically from bad to worse.

They zipped around the Carnevale crowd and clattered through the Piazza San Marco on the boards set out to provide a makeshift walkway for spanning the encroaching tidewater. They arrived at the Hotel Polo where Shriver and Cassie had been staying. An investigative team from Interpol was there, along with David’s boss Jim Barnes, meticulously combing through Shriver’s room for evidence.

“Marshall,” Barnes barked, the minute he spotted David standing in the doorway.

Maddie saw David’s shoulders tense and his jaw clench. “Yes, sir.”

“You look like hell, man.” The salt-and-pepper-haired Barnes was in his mid-fifties with a bulldog face, buzz cut and stocky build.

“Ran into a slight problem.”

“I hope the other guy looks worse.”

“He does, sir.”

“And what’s with the foppish outfit?” Barnes made a face at David’s costume.

“Undercover at Carnevale,” he said.

Maddie had never seen this side of David. All correct and by the book. It was a far cry from the usual loose cannon persona he wore in the field. He was a secret bad boy, she realized. Eager to please those in power, but deep down inside not really willing to let go of control for anyone.

Jim Barnes took the telegram from his pocket and handed it to David. “You want to explain this?”

Maddie hesitated in the hall behind him, her gaze trained on David’s face. Would he tell his boss the truth? That he had recruited Cassie to spy on Shriver and she’d been the one to make forgeries of the paintings and hide the originals?

Would he assume responsibility for breaking all the rules and take his lumps? Or would he pretend that Cassie’s accomplishments were his own and throw her sister to the wolves?

“Do you have the original Cézanne and El Greco?” Barnes asked.

Maddie closed her eyes briefly. Please, David, please, David, please say the right thing.

“Yes,” David said and with that one word, he shattered all hope for their future.

Maddie opened her mouth to call him a liar, to defend her sister, but no words came out. She was too stunned to speak. Mind numb with the realization that David actually would do anything to win, no matter what the cost, she turned on her heel and stiffly walked away.

“Good job.” Jim Barnes slapped him on the back. “Now bring in Shriver and Cassie Cooper and that promotion belongs to you.”

“Maddie,” David called out to her. “Wait a minute. I have to talk to you.”

But she didn’t want to hear rationalizations or excuses.

“Maddie!” David bellowed. “Stop right there.”

To hell with that. She was one person he wasn’t going to best. She ducked her head and ran. I won’t cry. I won’t give him the satisfaction of breaking my heart.

“Maddie, don’t you dare take another step.”

She flipped him the finger just before she dashed through the fire exit door and plunged down the stairs.

“Sir,” David said to Jim Barnes. “I need to leave right this minute. I love that woman and I’ve got to straighten things out. She’s misunderstood my intentions.”

“Well isn’t this just precious. Bullshit, Marshall. What you need to do is tell me where those paintings are.”

“I don’t have access to them at the moment.”

“What do you mean you don’t have access to them? Did you send me this telegram or not?”

“I did not.”

“Then who did?” Barnes’s face was a thundercloud.

“Cassie Cooper.”

“Shriver’s girlfriend? What’s she got to do with all this?”

David blew out his breath. If Barnes got pissed, then Barnes got pissed. At this point, he didn’t much care. He wasn’t going to hang Cassie out to dry, no matter what Maddie believed him capable of. “She’s not Shriver’s girlfriend.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s been working for me all along.” Which was true. Cassie had been on his side whether he’d known it or not.

“You told her to call in a bomb threat?”

“I told her to do whatever she had to do to stop Shriver.”

“So you went behind my back and recruited her. Just like I told you not to.”

“Yes, I did. And it was a good solid plan.” Until Blanco had fouled things up. “We’ve been working together to round up Levy and Philpot and Shriver and the stolen artwork.”

“So where’s the El Greco? Where’s the Cézanne?”

“Cassie has placed them in a secure location.”

“How do you know?” Barnes glared, his nostrils flaring.

“I just know.”

“So if she’s working for you, then where is she? Where’s Shriver?”

“At the moment, I don’t know.”

“Are you sure she wasn’t just scamming you, Marshall? Ever think that maybe you’re the dupe?”

“I’m not a dupe.”

“Bring me Shriver and those paintings, Marshall. Now. Or you’re out.”

“You’re firing me?”

“If you go after that woman, yes. My patience with you is at an end. You’ve gone behind my back one time too many. Your call. Either the promotion or the boot.”

David ground his teeth. He was jerked in two opposing directions. On the one hand there was his job, which was much more than just a job. It was a career. It was his identity. Once upon a time the promotion would have meant everything to him.

But now there was Maddie.

Fireworks were going off on the Grand Canal. A parade of lights on the water. A spectacle of flotillas. Maddie ran through the narrow streets along the canal not knowing where she was going, not really caring. All she wanted was to escape David and the aching pain in her heart.

She kept running until her side hurt and she couldn’t get her breath. She had trusted David and he’d betrayed her. With one bald-faced lie, he’d claimed to have the paintings and he’d taken credit for the work Cassie had done. He didn’t care about her or her sister. All he cared about was winning.

Her stomach twisted in knots. A rocket exploded into ribbons of colorful light overhead. The crowd oohed and aahed.

Maddie skirted a clot of people lined along the bridge and turned down the cobblestone walkway. Glancing up, she was taken aback to see she was on the steps of the Hotel Vivaldi. The place where Shriver had held his illegal auction and Cassie had called in the bomb threat. She didn’t see any policemen. Had they already cleared the robbery scene?

The crowd was on the move, trailing along the canal, following the water parade away from the Vivaldi. Within minutes, the immediate area was silent, deserted.

From her peripheral vision, Maddie caught movement in the shadows of the side street. A man and woman struggling over something.

It’s none of your business, Maddie. Stay out of it.

Another rocket from the fireworks display exploded into the night sky.

The couple was silhouetted in the reflected glow and she could clearly see the man had a gun.

Maddie’s heart leapfrogged into her throat.

It was Cassie and Shriver.

Years of honing her protective instincts toward her sister sent Maddie hurtling straight for them. She didn’t stop to think things through. Only one thing pounded in her head—the same thought that for the past eighteen years had rarely left the forefront of her mind—save Cassie, save Cassie, save Cassie.

“Get away from my sister!” she yelled and with the intensity of a wrestler intent on full body smackdown, Maddie charged into Shriver.

And knocked him into the canal.

“What are you doing?” Cassie shrieked as Shriver disappeared into the black water.

Maddie spun around to face her sister. “Are you all right?”

“Dammit, Maddie. You’ve gone and screwed up everything.”

“What?” Cassie was mad because she’d saved her life?

“When are you going to stop interfering?” Cassie’s eyes flashed fire and she sank her hands onto her hips.

“I was just trying to help.”

“Well stop it! I’m tired of you always running interference for me. You act as if I’m a child. We’re not nine years old anymore and I’m not your responsibility, so leave me alone.”

“But I came to Europe after you.”

“No one asked you to. That’s the problem. You’ve always just assumed it was your place to take care of me. Well, it’s not.”

“But you’re always getting into trouble.”

“Maybe that’s because I’ve never had to suffer the consequences of my actions. You were always there to catch me if I fell, so why hold back? But guess what, Maddie? I’m tired of being the airhead sexpot. I wanted to be strong and competent and capable like you.”

“But . . . but . . .” Maddie sputtered, completely taken aback. She had no idea Cassie felt this way. “I vowed I’d never let anything happen to you.”

“Vow, vow, vow. I’m so sick of you waving that vow in my face. Know what I think about that vow, Maddie? Here’s what I think about that stupid vow of yours.” Cassie ripped the half-a-heart necklace from around her throat and flung it into the canal.

“Cassie!” Maddie gasped and instantly her hand went to her own neck to finger the necklace that was no longer there.

“There! The necklace is gone. The vow is broken. You’ve been exonerated of all guilt. It was never your fault that I fell into that pond. It was my fault. All mine. Stop being a martyr and get a life.”

“Is that what you think of me?” Maddie asked, aghast. All the times she’d resented Cassie for having to clean up her messes, Cassie had been resenting her for doing the cleanup.

“Ladies, ladies,” Peyton Shriver interrupted, climbing up the side of the retaining wall with his gun pointed right at Maddie’s head. “Let’s not fight. Let’s just go get the originals of the Cézanne and El Greco.”

“I’m not afraid of you,” Maddie said. “There’s two of us and one of you. Your gun is wet. It probably won’t fire.”

“His gun might not fire,” said a familiar voice from the darkness. “But mine will.”

Chapter

TWENTY-SIX

D
AVID PUSHED UPSTREAM
against the mass of costumed tourists following the fireworks water parade. He had no idea which direction Maddie had gone. Nor did he know where to start looking for Shriver, Cassie or the paintings.

He was almost back to square one. Maddie hated him. Shriver was on the lam along with the paintings and he hadn’t a clue what Cassie was up to. If it weren’t for Blanco, Levy and Philpot cooling their heels in jail and Aunt Caroline’s Rembrandt sitting safely in the evidence room, he would feel like a total failure.

It’s not over until it’s over.

He wasn’t out of options yet.

Pausing in the doorway of a closed shop to let the thick of the crowd pass him by, he called the police station to see if Henri was still there. The chief officer on duty told him Henri had gone to the Hotel Vivaldi. Not knowing where else to search, David decided to hook up with his Interpol counterpart and see if he had any thoughts on Shriver’s possible whereabouts.

But no matter how hard he tried to concentrate on the job, he couldn’t stop thinking about Maddie.

He’d known by her shocked reaction that she’d misunderstood when he’d told his boss he knew where the paintings were. He hadn’t meant to usurp Cassie’s victory but rather to include her as his partner.

Maddie had immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion and assumed he was taking credit for Cassie’s
coup.
He didn’t know why he’d phrased it the way he had unless deep down he’d been unconsciously testing her trust in him.

She’d failed miserably.

Or maybe you were the one who failed for testing her loyalty in the first place,
whispered the angel on his shoulder.