Cursed by Love (25 page)

“We’ve seen you exerting plenty of
‘influence’ in the past week.” This from Uncle Harold, smirking.

“Yeah, I was trying to charm her into
finding a buyer for the Lotus ourselves, but she sees right through that. She’s
been talking like she’d prefer to put our appraiser from the show in charge of
selling the item. She’s uncomfortable with selling it to a private bidder and
wants to go through a professional.”

Blackie fixed him with a stare. “Who
does she think’s running this deal? He’s the one with all the contacts.”

Gabe spread his hands to show he didn’t
have a clue about what was going on. He looked over at Harold, who seemed to be
trying to back away from the scene. Odd though, Gabe noticed a feverish
excitement in his eyes. “I just want the best price for the damn thing, but
Molly’s not convinced.”

Blackie stabbed the stiletto into the
top of Gabe’s desk, marrying its perfect surface. “I guess you’d really hate to
see another accident befall your sister. Or what’s your niece’s name? She’s a
pretty little thing, isn’t she?”

Okay, that threat registered high on the
Chills-Down-The-Spine chart, but before Gabe could force a response out of his
mouth, Uncle Harold chimed in. “Hey, we’re not going to hurt anyone. You
promised.”

“I promised?” Blackie smiled like he
didn’t know the meaning of the word. “Well, we don’t want to.”

“What is it you want exactly?” Whatever
charade they’d been playing, the game was now over. Gabe wouldn’t risk any
threats to Chloe or Sierra.

Blackie leaned into Gabe’s space,
letting his hot oniony breath hit him in the face. “Get the girl to sell the
Sleeping Lotus, or I’ll find another way to get it.”

“Hey, I’m doing my best,” Gabe said,
relieved he didn’t break into a cold sweat. “I want the money. Need it, but I
don’t have any leverage with Molly in getting the jade from her. I was trying
to romance her into the sale.” He shrugged and lied. “But she dumped me. She
said there were no sparks, you know?”

Muscle Man had been standing with his
arms crossed slightly behind and to the right of Gabe. A gigantic hand reached
out, wrapped around his forearm and squeezed like a tourniquet.

“Then you’ll have to appeal to her on a
different level.” Blackie finger jabbed Gabe’s chest in punctuation of each
word. “Don’t make any mistakes. My client wants the Lotus. He’ll pay top dollar
for it, but we’re not opposed to… acquiring it the old fashioned way.”

Out of nowhere, Gabe’s cell trilled its
whimsical tune. He had the phone in his hand before he noticed it wasn’t
ringing. And he didn’t want to jump to any conclusions, but he doubted if any
of the other guys in the room were harboring a secret affection for Disney
jingles.

Which meant Molly was somewhere nearby.

The realization hit him in the solar
plexus. Her presence could only mean more trouble.

“What the hell?” Molly heard he scariest
of the three thugs ask when her phone started to ring.

“It’s his cell.” Harold nodded toward
Gabe.

Jogging Suit patted Gabe down and found
the phone. “It’s not ringing.” He dropped it into his own pocket. “But I’m
gonna
keep this nice phone with the girly ringtone.”

Molly stepped into view with her phone
to her ear and smiled brightly. Pretending her knees weren’t banging together
as the man in black stepped toward her, she held up her finger like she’d be
with them as soon as she finished her conversation.

“Yeah, Mom,” she said, with her gaze
fixed on Gabe. A serious, tense,
worried
Gabe, who was trying not to
look like he was glad to see her. “I’m at a warehouse on Marshall with Gabe. We
should be home for dinner soon.”

The man in black took her phone from her
hand and tossed it onto the concrete floor where he stomped it to bits. He
rubbed his hands together in anticipation of a conversation Molly did not want
to have. “Look who’s here. Just the lady I want to talk to.”

She’d slipped inside the door more than
the agreed to five minutes ago, but it took her about half that time to stiffen
her quaking legs. After easing her way into the warehouse, she’d tried to
eavesdrop before being discovered.

Or maybe, just possibly, she’d delayed
because she was chicken.

She knew the past five minutes had
seemed like five hours to Gabe’s Granddad. And she’d answered the call to let
these thugs know that someone in the real world knew where to look for them.

With her heart in her throat, she
focused on Gabe. Even with tension hanging in the air, their usual electrical
connection arced between them. Just being in the same room with him and seeing that
he hadn’t been hurt centered her. She took strength and courage from his
presence.

Ignoring the man in black and his
wicked-looking knife, she went straight to Gabe, put her hand on his shoulder
and squeezed. “Hi, honey. Sorry I’m late. What’s Harold doing here?”

“Gabe said you dumped him.”

She cleared her throat and tried for a
carefree giggle that came out like a mouthwash gargle instead. She ruffled
Gabe’s hair playfully. “We argued a bit earlier. I guess, he thought it was
more serious than I did. You didn’t really think I was mad, did you, sweetie?”

“I wasn’t sure,
sweetie
.” He
narrowed his eyes at her, trying to send her some kind of message, but she
didn’t know what. “You know I’m not good at reading between the lines.”

The thug with the knife moved closer.
The sharp pointy object gave her pause.

“This isn’t the way I wanted this to
go,” the man in black said, “but you blundered your way in here and this farce
is over.”

“What do you want?” Molly asked.

“The Sleeping Lotus. Both halves. I’ll
pay whatever I have to, but I want it, now. ‘No’ is not an option.
Six-hundred-thousand dollars is the top offer.”

“That’s fine,” Molly said, willing to
agree to anything at this point. “But not possible. My half is in a
safe-deposit box at the bank, and I won’t be able to get it for you until
tomorrow. If you want to call me in the morning, we can work out the details of
the sale then.”

“Are you crazy? We can’t let you go
anywhere.” Harold said. “Gabe told us you weren’t interested in selling.”

“Just another misunderstanding, I
guess,” Molly said. “You’ve convinced me. I didn’t realize there was any reason
to hurry over the decision, but if you’re so eager to have it, I’m willing to
sell.”

“Are the two pieces in the same bank?”

“I don’t know,” Molly said. “Where’s
yours, Gabe?”

“Fifth/Third on Reading. Yours?”

“Fifth/Third on Edwards,”

“When do they open?” the man in black
demanded.

“Nine AM, I think.”

Jogging Suit scowled. “Then it’s going
to be a long night for the two of you. You’re staying with us until we get the
Lotus.”

“Staying with us where?” Harold asked.
“She just told someone on the phone where we are.”

“That’s why we’re moving,” the man in
black said. “Come on, Tony. Bring Shaw. Harold, you get the girl. I know
somewhere we can lay low ‘til morning.”

“We’ll need the keys to our safety
deposit boxes,” Molly blurted out.

“No you won’t.” Blackie’s smile turned
sinister. “You’ll tell us where they are, and we’ll get them for you.”

After Granddad’s call to Molly
disconnected abruptly, he knew he had to call the police. But instead of
waiting in the car like Molly had told him, he’d crept up to the warehouse to
see what was going on. He could see Harold and some other guys questioning Gabe
and Molly. And he could see all of Contract Communications office stuff strewn
about the room. Just as he was ready to creep back to the car and call the
police, Harold and the other two guys gathered Molly and Gabe up and hustled
them out the door on the other side of the building

Leaving all the office equipment behind.

He hurried back to the car and got
behind the wheel, ready to follow the gray sedan that was taking Gabe and Molly
away. He’d call the police if there was trouble, but if he called them and they
came to the warehouse, they wouldn’t find anyone. But, they would still look
around and spot all the crap that belonged to Contract Communications. And they
would take it into custody as evidence of a crime, holding it hostage for who
knew how long.

Yep, he’d follow the car that contained Gabe and Molly,
notifying the cops when they got where they were going, but he’d call someone
else along the way.

“Hello, Sierra?” he said. “Who we got available? I found the
office equipment and need as many people as you can get together to go pick it
up as soon as they can get there.”

He followed the gray sedan out 465 to the east edge of
town. He then drove on by as the car turned into the driveway of an old
farmhouse. Pulling off onto a picnic area on the side of the road, he got out
of the car and edged up to the house.

For all his skepticism on the subject,
Gabe wished he possessed even an ounce of Sierra’s psychic ability. If he did,
he’d be communicating his ass off with Molly, Sierra, Granddad, the police, and
anyone else who would listen.

Gabe figured he and Molly were safe
enough until morning when it was time for them to retrieve the pieces of the
Sleeping Lotus. Then, all bets were off. He couldn’t decide how deeply Harold
was involved in this scheme or if he was in over his head. If push came to
shove, whose side would he land on?

The car turned up the driveway of an old
farmhouse. It didn’t look like much, but at least it had a roof. He hoped these
bozos would leave them alone for the night, and they could figure out a way to
escape

Harold grabbed Gabe’s elbow and pulled
him toward the house. Muscle Man went for Molly, pulling her along more roughly
than Gabe thought necessary. She stumbled once and almost pulled Muscle Man
down with her, but he righted himself like a
weeble
.

Inside, they were taken to the kitchen.
Two rickety chairs were lined up back to back and Molly and Gabe were forced to
sit. Harold tied Gabe’s hands and feet to the chair, and Muscle Man got the
privilege of tying up Molly. Gabe had never been a particularly violent man,
but he wanted to kill the bozo for causing her emotional or physical distress.
He turned his anger against his uncle.

“Good job, Harold. How’re you going to
get out of this one? This trick puts an end to Contract Communications, and you
won’t get any more help from me or Granddad.” Gabe sneered at Blackie and
Muscle Man. “Your cohorts don’t look all that trustworthy either. They’ll
probably cut you out of whatever your share of this scam is.”

“Shut up,” Harold said. “You don’t know
anything about it.”

“I know you must owe somebody big-time,
and you’re trying to pay off.”

“Yeah, but once that’s done, I’ll have
plenty of money to pay you off, too. The Sleeping Lotus should have been mine,
not yours to begin with.”

“Funny you think so. I think it should
belong to all the Shaw family, not just you.”

“Hey, this wasn’t my idea. These guys
came to me with an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

“What was the offer, Harold? How much
did it take to get you to sell us out?”

“It’s a sweet deal.” Harold’s eyes
darted right and left to see if the other guys were listening. “I help them get
the jade, and I get two-hundred-thousand. They take out what I owe Tony’s boss
from my share, and I get the remainder. I was going to split it with you.”

“Generous.”

“Who gets the Sleeping Lotus?” Molly
asked.

“Some European collector with a lot of
ancient Chinese erotica and a lot of money. The appraiser from the show came up
with the buyer. The collector’s paying that expert twice what the rest of us
are getting.”

“You talk too much, Harold,” Blackie
said, again with the knife. “They don’t need to know any of this.” He bent to
tie the legs of Molly and Gabe’s chairs together. “We’re leaving you here
tonight. We’ll be back in the morning to take you to get the two jades.”

“Jiminy,” Molly said. “You could have
let me use the bathroom before you tied us up.”

Just then the backdoor burst open and a
quartet of police officers arrived with Gabe’s Granddad bringing up the rear.

Hours later, a dispirited Gabe returned
to the office. While the police had questioned him, Molly had left the
building. He hadn’t been able to talk privately with her since she’d shown up
at the warehouse, scaring the holy crap out of him. Granddad had told him to
come by the office before going home, but he’d gone by Molly’s house first. She
hadn’t been home.

Without a better destination in mind,
he’d turned the Harley toward the office. Not expecting to like what he saw, he
pushed open the door and stopped short. Instead of the empty tomb he’d
pictured, music, chatting, and laughter came from the other room. It sounded
like a party in progress. Puzzled, he crossed the lobby and peered through the
doorway to the computer room.

Yep, a party.

A party populated with furniture and
computers, and overflowing with people. A party with music, food, and drink,
for
cripe’s
sake. All they needed to make it a real
celebration were streamers and confetti.

There was Terry, dressed like a coed in
a pleated skirt and sweater set, performing a jitterbug with his tiny
girlfriend Vera, who was wearing an almost identical outfit. There was Sierra.
And Chloe.

An assorted group clustered around empty
pizza boxes, laughing and chatting like old friends. Granddad held court in the
middle of another group, apparently relating one of his tall tales. Dominic
slouched in a chair nearby with headphones covering his ears and his fingers
flying over a game on his phone. Lenny made balloon animals for Chloe and
anyone else who would take one.

It looked almost like full-staff. Like
the office looked on any busy day, but no one was working. And everyone looked
happy.

Happy?

After he leaned against the door
scratching his head for several seconds, people stopped talking and looked his
way. Did he know how to suck all the fun out of a party, or what?

“Gabe, great! You’re here,” Granddad
said.

Chloe skipped over and held her arms out
to him. He swung her up and perched her on his hip. “How you doing there,
pumpkin?”

“Look, Uncle Gabe.” She planted a noisy
kiss on his cheek. “We have furniture again.”

“I see that.”

“It’s better for cartwheels and
somersaults without it,” she told him. “But Granddad says I’ll get all my toys
back.”

“Yep,” Granddad said. “All your stuff
back, too, Gabe.”

“Files and all.” Sierra rolled to a stop
beside him.

Relief gushed through him and he
staggered backward. He lowered Chloe to Sierra’s lap before he dropped her. “
My
stuff? You mean
our
stuff, don’t you?”

Sierra thought about it before
answering. “Yeah, that’s what we mean.”

He pushed away from the door and moved
forward to clap the old man on the back. “Granddad, you’re a wizard. I never
doubted this would happen, but tell me how you did it.”

“I have my ways.” The old man preened
just a bit. “And I was afraid the police would keep it as evidence, so I had it
removed from the old warehouse before they could confiscate it.”

Bunch of bent rules there. Just like
Granddad. If the police didn’t ask Gabe about the furniture, he wasn’t about to
mention it. However, he couldn’t help frowning as he considered how to explain
Harold’s involvement to Granddad. At the police station, he’d been told Harold
was released on his own recognizance, which meant his uncle was probably half
the way to St. Louis by now. “Is Harold here? I’d like to have a word with
him.”

“He’d like to have a few words with you
too.”

The irony was not lost on him. “I’ll
bet.”

“No kidding,” Granddad assured him.
“Harold was working with the police on this one.”

“Did he tell you that whopper? And you
believed him?”

“It’s the truth.” Harold stepped in from
the other room. “I met the pointy-eared guy at one of the casinos last week. He
tried to talk me into getting the Sleeping Lotus for him. When I told him no,
he involved Tony, the muscle man for a loan shark I owed money to. They called
in their debt and wormed their way into the Sleeping Lotus deal. I’d looked all
over Dad’s house already. We decided if it was hidden here, it would be easier
to search if they took everything to a separate location.”

Gabe had his doubts. “You couldn’t have
figured out another way? Like having the cops catch them in the act? Or wearing
a wire? Or coming to me?”

“It was a stupid plan, and caused you a lot
of trouble, but it was kind of fun, too.” Gabe knew Harold well enough to know
that he liked the drama of it.

Granddad clapped Gabe on the back. “He
had on a wire today. That’s how the police knew where you were before I called
them.” Gabe scratched his head. Could it be true? Was he an idiot to consider
it? He would for Granddad’s sake. “Thanks, Harold, I owe you one.”

“No, son, we owe you.” Harold put on his sincere face. “Dad
and I’ve been talking it over, and we know how much you do for us every day.”

Sierra threw in her two cents. “Harold’s a pain sometimes,
but he’s not the only one. We want you to know how much we appreciate you
sticking with us.

Granddad offered the final say. “We’re all going to be more
help to you from now on.  You’ll see. You won’t be the only one hell-bent
on making this operation a success.”

Wow, that was quite a speech. Granddad
didn’t get all sentimental and sincere over every little thing. And his family
didn’t admit to their faults very often either. He choked up a bit to know they
appreciated his efforts and were ready to dedicate themselves to the project
also. About bloody time.

Except something about their cooperation
took the wind from his sails. Because they acted like they were doing this for
him. And all along he’d thought he was doing it for them.

He cleared his throat. “We will be a
success one day soon. I appreciate all of you and the confidence you’ve shown
in me.”

Just then, Molly stepped in from the
other room, loaded down with an ice bucket and a tray of spring rolls. She
stopped at the sight of him and offered a tentative smile. Definitely a day of
surprises.

Gabe made his way toward her through the
crowd, accepting high fives and congratulations as he went. Sierra gave him a
hug.

“You’re here,” he said to Molly. “Come
with me.” He took the spring rolls from her and passed them to Sierra. Setting
the ice bucket on a table, he grabbed her hand and pulled her into his office.
Inside, he leaned into her, wrapped her in his arms, and took a deep breath as
the day’s tensions flowed out of him.

Whoa, sensory confusion. He looked at
her again. Yep, it was Molly. Soft and sweet as ever.

And she smelled like strawberries?

When did that happen? Where was the
Molly that smelled like oranges?

But who was he kidding? He didn’t care
if she smelled like oranges, strawberries, pumpkin or broccoli. “What happened
to the oranges?”

“Oranges?” She scrunched her face in
confusion. “Oh, my body lotion and shower gel. I ran out of orange and switched
to strawberry. Don’t you like it?”

He nuzzled her neck, breathing her in.
“It’s my new favorite.”

He moved from her neck to her mouth,
nibbling her lips. The kiss quickly deepened. Her tongue met his in a torrid
dance that made him ache with need. He pulled her close, closer, as close as he
could get her. So close she’d be there beside him, inside him, always.

Always.

To his knowledge,
Shaws
didn’t think in terms of
always
. Most of the time, thinking in terms of
tomorrow threw him for a loop. Today had turned out fine, after all, but there
was always another catastrophe looming, just waiting to get the drop on him.

He slammed on the brakes and pulled
away, but the bemused expression on her face reeled him back in. Kissing Molly
with careful exploration put his patience and attention to detail to good use,
lingering over every texture and nuance.

“My heart about stopped when you came
into that warehouse today.” His hands stroked along her sides, cupping her
bottom, and pulling her hips against his erection.

“When I saw Harold and that big guy
force you in there, I had to do something.”

“Thank you,” he said. “But don’t ever do
anything like that again.” His thumb teased her nipple, and a moan passed from
Molly’s mouth into his.

“Knock, knock,” an amused voice said
from right behind him. “Earth to Gabe.”

And yet another public display.

With an effort, he broke contact with
Molly’s mouth, but held her in his arms when she tried to move away. “What?” he
barked, looking around at Sierra.