Light in Shadow (19 page)

There was a short pause. “If I say yes, it makes it sound like I'm not doing much business.”

“You want the job or not?”

“I'll take it,” Stagg said. “Business is a little slow.”

“How soon can you be here?”

“Let's see, the flight from San Diego to Phoenix takes about an hour in the air but there's the time change. If I leave now I should be in Whispering Springs by six or six-thirty. That work for you?”

“It works.” He gave Arcadia's name and address to Stagg. “I'll talk to her. She'll be expecting you. I'm leaving town with my client as soon as I can get away. We'll be back in Whispering Springs sometime tomorrow.”

“Where are you going?”

“Las Vegas.”

“I take it this isn't a gambling junket?”

“I'm getting married.”

“Yeah? How many times does this make? Three? Four?”

“Four.”

“Well, you know what they say,” Stagg said. “Fourth time's a charm.”

“I've heard that.”

He filled Stagg in on Leon Grady and the situation.

“Grady will probably be gone by the time you get here. It doesn't look like he knows about Arcadia Ames, but I don't want to take any chances.”

“Got it.”

Bonnie walked into the office just as Ethan hung up the phone.

“What's going on?” she asked.

“Congratulate me,” Ethan said. “I'm getting married.”

“Married?”

“You know what they say, fourth time's a charm.”

 

“A bodyguard?” Arcadia
contemplated Ethan. “For how long?”

“A couple of days,” Ethan said. “Just until we can be sure that you're not on Grady's blackmail list.”

“If he was aware of me, he would have made his move by now.”

“It will make Zoe feel more comfortable if she knows that you're in safe hands while we're out of town.”

He was right, she thought. Zoe would worry.

“Okay,” she said. “But only until you two return.”

“I appreciate the cooperation. His name is Harry Stagg. He'll show up around six or six-thirty if all goes well.”

She smiled slightly. “Is he just a big hunk of muscle or is there some brain?”

“There's some brain.” He looked into the nearest display case and saw several pieces of unusual looking jewelry. “Got any rings?”

“Yes.” She tipped her head to one side. “Don't tell me that you want to buy one for Zoe?”

“When you get married there's supposed to be a ring.”

She studied him for a long moment.

“You ought to know,” she said softly.

They flew into
Las Vegas that evening. At eleven o'clock they were standing in front of the altar of an all-night wedding chapel.

The ceremony was everything one could hope for in a Las Vegas wedding, Zoe decided. The chapel, a glittering little palace decorated with a lot of crystals and candles, was tucked away on a side street just off the Strip. It featured a blue carpet, a white gazebo, and several large vases overflowing with artificial blue flowers.

The minister bore a striking resemblance to Elvis in one of his heavy phases. His assistant, who doubled as bridal attendant, witness, and secretary, was a retired showgirl. The woman cried when the vows were spoken. The tears looked genuine. Zoe was not sure that was a good sign.

The most disconcerting moment occurred when Ethan, at the appropriate moment, produced a gold ring cut with an unusual design.

The best part was that she got to sign her full name on
all the legal paperwork, Sara Zoe Luce Cleland. No more hiding in the shadows.

Fifteen minutes later, Ethan guided her outside into the neon-lit night. They slipped into the endless stream of people moving from one magnificent casino resort to another.

Zoe clutched the little bouquet of real flowers that the assistant had pressed into her hand just before the ceremony. The circlet of gold glinted on her finger.

“You thought of everything,” she said, trying to sound blasé. “How did you come up with a ring on such short notice?”

“It's not from any of my previous marriages if that's what's bothering you.” There was an edge to his voice.

She felt herself turn red and was grateful for the shadows of night and neon. “I was just curious, that's all.”

“I picked it up at Gallery Euphoria before we left. Arcadia knew your ring size.”

“Oh.” She spread the fingers of her left hand and studied the gold band. “It's quite beautiful. Must have been expensive.”

“Arcadia gave me a deal.”

“I'm sure she'll let you return it for a full refund,” Zoe assured him.

“It's not going on your bill as a miscellaneous expense, so stop worrying about the cost.”

She realized that she had insulted him.

“It's just that I'm already so deeply in debt to her,” Zoe said, trying to explain. “After we got out of Xanadu I could not access any of my own cash or credit cards. We had to use the money that she had stashed away in an offshore account. I'm making regular monthly payments to her, but the truth is I won't be able to repay her for the costs of using the Merchant's services and my business start-up expenses until I cash out of Cleland Cage. That probably won't happen until a few months after the merger takes place.”

Ethan looked intrigued. “Arcadia is into things like offshore accounts?”

“In her other life she used to be a very successful financial trader. She invested for clients and for herself. She knows an incredible amount about really arcane business stuff. She's the one who helped me figure out that Cleland Cage was vulnerable and that a takeover was in progress. She mapped out the strategy for me.”

“Huh. Never would have guessed.”

Zoe looked at the ring sparkling in the light of a neon-lit doorway. “It was a nice touch,” she said, still searching for the right note.

“You don't have to wear it if it makes you feel uncomfortable.”

“It's okay.”

“Not like the ring makes the marriage any more legal.”

“I know.” She tightened her grip on the flowers. “I said it's okay. I'd appreciate it if you would not snap at me right now. I'm a little tense.”

“Was I snapping at you?”

“Yes.”

“Sorry.”

“I think we're both tense.”

“You certainly seem to be a little high-strung this evening,” Ethan allowed.

She resented that. “I'm entitled. It's not like I get married every day.”

“Well, maybe
you
don't get married every day,” Ethan said gravely. “Some of us, on the other hand, have had considerable experience in that regard and I can assure you that—”

“Oh, shut up. I am not in the mood to joke about your previous experience, so don't start.”

“Fine. Not like it's my favorite topic, anyway.”

A cloud of guilt settled on her. He had probably been trying to lighten the mood with a little self-deprecating humor, and she had overreacted.

A long stretch limousine cruised past on her left and turned into the spectacularly illuminated entrance of one of the mega resort casinos. A woman dressed in a glittering
sequined gown got out. She was followed by a man in black-and-white formal attire.

On the right, people dressed in jeans and tee shirts drifted past on a long, moving walkway that bore an unsettling resemblance to a lolling tongue. They disappeared into the mouth of a giant casino.

Up ahead she could see the brilliant gold and silver sign advertising the hotel where Ethan had made reservations for the night. They had dropped off their luggage earlier when they had checked in, but there had been no time to go to the room before Ethan had hustled her off to take care of the few formalities required to get married in Nevada. She did not know if he had booked two rooms or one and for some bizarre reason, she had found a lot of excuses not to inquire into the matter.

“I'm sorry,” she said quietly. “I shouldn't have said that. Especially not after all you've done. I really don't know how to thank you.”

“Forget it.”

She examined her rapidly wilting flowers and the ring on her finger. “That's a little hard to do under the circumstances.”

She expected him to make an acid comment, but he said nothing.

They passed the entrance to a high-end shopping mall built into a hotel. Another doorway invited them to view a world-class exhibition of old masters. Zoe knew that if she and Ethan allowed themselves to be lured into either the mall or the art gallery, they would eventually be fed straight into the resort's casino. That was how Las Vegas survived. The bellies of the great, glittering beasts were the gaming floors, and the creatures required around-the-clock feeding.

“Ethan?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?”

“It's a little late to be asking personal questions,” he said very seriously. “You ought to ask those before you marry the guy.”

She smiled. “I'll remember that.”

“What's the question?”

“How did you get into the private investigation business?”

He said nothing for a few seconds. She thought that he might not answer her at all.

“I was the family screwup,” he said eventually. “Took after my uncle Vic. Dropped out of college. Joined the army. When I got out, I went to work for a large security firm in L.A. for a couple of years and then I went out on my own.”

“Bonnie told me about what happened to your brother.”

“Figured she said something that night we had pizza.”

Zoe looked at the crowds up ahead on the sidewalk. “I know how it feels to lose someone like that.”

“I realize that.”

“I understand what it does to your insides to want justice so badly you can't sleep and to have people tell you that you should just keep quiet and let the authorities handle it. I understand how it feels to wake up in the middle of the night knowing that the system isn't going to work for you.”

He reached out and took her ring hand, lacing his fingers through hers.

“I know,” he said.

“That's why you're going through all this for me, isn't it?” She clutched the flowers. “Because you've been in my position. You know how the obsession for revenge eats at you. How it can make you a little crazy.”

“Yeah.” He tightened his fingers around hers. “What was he like?”

“Preston?” She summoned up some of the old memories. “He was warm and loving. Caring. Kind. A truly decent man. Pretty much the exact opposite of his relatives. He was the outsider in his family. They're all business people. Preston loved his art history.”

“And you loved him.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Yes, I loved him. By the time I met Preston, I had been alone in the world for a long time. In his own way, because he was so different from the others in his family, Preston
was also very much alone. I think that was the reason we were drawn together.” She swallowed. “We promised each other that we would take care of each other.”

“And then he got killed.”

“Yes. I didn't do a very good job of taking care of him. The only thing I can do now is try to avenge him. While he was alive, Preston cared about the future of Cleland Cage, but as far as I'm concerned, it was Forrest and the company that are responsible for his death.”

Ethan kept his grip on her hand. “Drew was four years younger than me. He was everything I was supposed to be. He finished college. He was successful in business and he served on the board of a charitable foundation. He didn't screw up three marriages. He found a woman who loved him. He started a family. He was a fine father and a pillar of the community.”

A chill of understanding went through her. “You were his older brother?”

“You know what that means?”

She exhaled slowly. “It probably means that somewhere deep inside, you felt that you were supposed to take care of him.”

“Yes. But I didn't do my job. He got killed.”

The words echoed all the way through her.

“Do you think,” she said very carefully, “that the reason you were obsessed with getting justice and the reason I want revenge so badly is because we both feel that we failed in our responsibilities?”

“Got a hunch that's part of it. What do you think?”

“I think you're right. But it doesn't change anything, does it?”

He squeezed her hand. “No, it doesn't change a damn thing.”

Maybe nothing had changed when it came to her need to avenge Preston, she thought, but something was certainly different about her relationship with Ethan. She wondered if he felt the link between them or if it was a product of her imagination.

They walked past a shallow man-made lake that fronted another giant hotel complex. Small boats, their bows adorned with colored lights, floated across the surface of the water. The little vessels, together with their cargoes of laughing passengers vanished under a bridge into yet another casino.

“You know what?” Ethan abruptly changed direction, dragging her with him. “You were right. It's been a long day and we're both stressed out. What we need is some distraction. Come on.”

Surprised, she clung to her drooping bouquet and hurried to keep up with him. “Where are we going?”

“I'm feeling lucky.”

“Join the crowd. Las Vegas is designed to make you feel lucky.”

“I'm serious.”

He whisked her through the nearest casino entrance, plunging them both into a world of flashing lights, tinkling slots, and a sea of card tables. The sounds of laughter, conversation, and lounge music filled the air.

Ethan dragged her to a blackjack table.

“I don't know how to play,” she said quickly. “At least not in a real casino.”

“Then stand right there and think positive thoughts.”

He took a seat. Zoe wrapped both hands around her bouquet and tried to think positive thoughts.

Ethan played with no outward show of emotion, but when he got to his feet fifteen minutes later, he seemed satisfied. He tipped the dealer and pocketed his winnings.

“Good news,” he said. “I won't be billing you for the cost of the hotel room. I just won enough to cover it.”

Room. Singular.

“It's all right,” she said hastily. “I really don't mind. I understand that out-of-town expenses aren't included in your basic fee.”

“Think of it as a wedding present.” He handed her some quarters. “Here. Try your luck.”

“I never win when I play slots.”

“Give it a shot.”

“Oh, all right.” She snatched a few of the coins out of his hand, dumped them into the nearest machine, and pulled the handle.

Quarters tinkled pleasantly in the tray.

“Hey, Ethan, look.”

More coins cascaded into the bottom of the slot.

“Oh, my gosh,” Zoe whispered.

Ethan lounged against the nearest one-armed bandit and grinned. “Guess this is your lucky night, too.”

The quarters continued to rain down into the tray.

“Here, hold my flowers.” She tossed the bouquet at him, opened her tote, and went to work scooping up her loot.

Ethan waited until she was finished before he took her arm. “Let's get a drink to celebrate.”