Hot Toy (6 page)

“Yes,” Trudy whispered back. “Well, no. For all I know, that's Reese's glee club out there. Maybe it's his bowling night. They're all wearing the same jacket.”

“Be serious, Trudy. You're risking your life for a doll so your nephew won't be disappointed on Christmas Day in spite of the fact that his father is gone and his mother is in a gin coma.”

“Hey.”

“Shhhh. He's already disappointed, Tru. His family's gone. Give Reese the doll. When he makes a run for it, we'll arrest him. He won't get away with it.”

Trudy pushed him away. “First, my sister is not in a gin coma. Second, his family is not gone; he has me and his mother when she sobers up. Third, if I give Reese this doll and you arrest him, the doll becomes evidence and I never see it again. So no. Leroy is going to get this doll tomorrow morning. He is going to believe in Santa, since he can't believe in men or nannies. When does your backup get here?”

“I don't think you can indict all men because of one Rat Daddy.”

“Yeah? How many times have you lied to me tonight?”

Nolan leaned back against the wall. “Too many to count. But I'm still here trying to save your cantankerous butt. That should mean something.”

“I have only your word for that and as we know, you lie.”

“Okay. We'll sit here and wait and hope Reese doesn't find us.”

“That's your plan? Hope he doesn't find us?”

“You always this cranky?”

“Only when I'm cold, I'm tired, I'm scared, and men keep lying to me while I'm trying to get a kid the Christmas present he deserves.”

“Okay,
fine.
” Nolan shifted on the platform, his whisper savage in the darkness. “We'll take the doll if we can get out of here with it. Just promise me that if he says, ‘The doll or your life,' you'll give him the doll.”

“No.”

“Trudy—”

“I can't.” Trudy swallowed hard. “Leroy believes. Do you know how long it's been since I believed in anything? In anybody? But Leroy believes that when he comes downstairs tomorrow morning, there'll be a MacGuffin under his tree. He
knows
there will be because he believes in Santa Claus; he believes the world is a good place. And he's going to keep on believing that because I'm taking this doll home no matter what.” She shifted against the cold wall. “Besides, nobody shoots anybody over a doll.”

Nolan sighed. “I suppose it has occurred to you that you've lost your grip.”

“No,” Trudy said. “I've lost my faith. My grip is
just fine.
” She pulled the shopping bags closer. “Leroy gets the Mac and Courtney gets the Twinkle, and then we'll put our lives back together.”

“Their lives,” Nolan said.

“Mine, too. My resolution for 2007 is to start believing in people again.” She leaned closer to him. “I might start with you if you help me get this doll home.”

He was quiet for a while. “Okay. I'll try to help you.”

She pulled back. “I'll try to believe in you, then. No guarantees, of course.”

“Okay, fine, I will help you,” Nolan said.

“Promise me,” Trudy said, gripping his coat. “Promise me that Leroy will have this Mac tomorrow morning.”

“Trudy—”

“Fine.” Trudy stood up, trying to keep her bags from rustling. “I'll do it myself. Could you move? I need to get past you to the stairs.”

“I promise,” Nolan said.

She looked down at him in the dark. “Easy to say.”

“I promise,” he said grimly, getting to his feet. “But now you have to do what I say.”

“And why would I do that?” she said.

“Because you trust me.”

“Ha.”

“Then why are you listening to me?”

Trudy bit her lip. “I might trust you a little.”

“All the way, Tru,” Nolan said. “If I'm going to get you out of here, you have to do exactly what I say.”

Trudy felt him close, his body warm next to hers in the darkness. If she was going to start trusting people, he might be the place to start. “You never even kissed me,” she whispered. “What was that about? You never—”

He bent and kissed her, not gently, and she clutched at his jacket, wanting something to hold on to, putting her forehead against his shoulder when he broke the kiss because it had felt so right, everything about him felt so right.

The radio changed to “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.”

Our song,
Trudy thought. “Okay. I trust you. What do we do next?”

“Pray,” Nolan said, sounding a little breathless. “Because we're in a world of hurt here.”

“Well, then—”

Something moved behind him and Trudy saw one of the minions, just his face, for a second before Nolan jerked his elbow back and caught the guy across the nose. He turned and hit him again before he fell, catching him before he rolled off the platform. Trudy fumbled in her purse for her miniflash, but by the time she found it and turned it on, the guy was at Nolan's feet, his arms tied behind his back with a belt, and Nolan was putting on the guy's blue jacket.

“Turn that off,”
Nolan whispered, and Trudy did.

“So you're a cop,” she whispered back.

“Here's the plan.”

“How you did know where to hit him?” Trudy said. “It's dark as hell in here. How did you know?”

“You were looking at him,” Nolan whispered back. “I hit what you were looking at. We have to move now; this guy found us and the others will, too. So I'm going down there to distract them. You're going out the door. If there's nobody out there yet, run for the street.”

“I'm not leaving you,” Trudy said, holding on to his sleeve.

“Trudy, I'm safer with you out of here than I am with you in here. You're a distraction. Now follow me until I get out into the light and they see me. Then run like hell for the door. Got it?”

She didn't want to leave him, that was wrong. But he was probably right, she wasn't going to be any help at all. “Okay.”

“One more thing,” Nolan said, and kissed her, and this time it hit her hard, he was going out there to save her, and she kissed him back with everything she had.

When she came up for air, she was dizzy. “Maybe we should stay here,” she whispered. “Hiding is good. We could do this until the backup shows.”

“They'll come looking for this guy,” Nolan whispered back, nodding to the minion at his feet. “We'll do this later.” He looked at her, shook his head, and kissed her again, and she relaxed into him, irrationally happy about the whole mess.

Then he stepped back and she sighed.

“Right. Later,” she said, and followed him down the stairs toward the light.

*   *   *

Nolan left her in the first row of shelves nearest the door, just steps away from the lighted part of the warehouse and the way out. “Watch until their backs are turned,” he said. “Then run like hell.”

She nodded, and he disappeared down the row again as her heart pounded.

He would be okay. Nobody killed over toys, even Major MacGuffins. They wouldn't do anything to him. She was almost sure. She bit her lip and waited, and then her cell phone rang and she grabbed it and answered it before it could ring again.

“Don't do that,”
she whispered into the phone.

“You didn't call me,” Courtney said. “You're fifteen minutes late.”

“Yeah, well there are guys after us,” Trudy whispered.

“What guys?”
Courtney said.
“What us?”

“Nolan and me. Reese's got a ring of toy thieves here—”

“Toy thieves? What are you talking about?”

“Call nine-one-one,” Trudy said, and then realized Courtney didn't know where they were. “We're—”

Somebody took her cell phone out of her hand, and she screamed and turned.

“Let's talk,” Reese said, and shut off her phone.

“I'm not giving you the Mac,” Trudy said, holding her bags behind her.

Reese sighed. “Trudy, I don't know what Nolan's told you, but I'm positive it's not the truth.”

“He's a cop.” Trudy took a step back. “And boy, are you in trouble.”

“He's a double agent for the Chinese government,” Reese said.

Trudy tightened her grip on her bags. “Whoa. You've got a better imagination than he does. He said you were a toy thief.”

Reese looked taken aback. “A toy thief? Who the hell steals toys?”

“The Grinch,” Trudy said. “I don't know. It sounded plausible when he said it. It still sounds plausible compared to the Chinese-double-agent bit.”

“I am not a toy thief,” Reese said.

“But you don't have a nephew, either. Because we're in this warehouse and there are no Mac Twos, which means you had to get me here for some reason.”

“The Chinese spy codes.” Reese nodded toward her bags. “They're in that MacGuffin box. I'm with the CIA and I need them.”

“Fat chance.” Trudy stepped back again. “I don't care what alphabet you flash at me, you are not taking this Mac from me.”

“Look on the box, Trudy,” Reese said patiently. “In the lower right-hand corner, there should be a black X.”

“There isn't,” Trudy said, holding the bag tighter.

“It's small,” Reese said. “Look for it.”

Trudy hesitated, but he met her eyes without flinching.
He's telling the truth,
she thought, and put her bags down. She took the Mac box out of the bag and stepped into the light to look at it.

Sure enough, in the lower right-hand corner on the back was a small black X.

“You put it there,” Trudy said, not wanting to believe Nolan was the bad guy.

“When?” Reese said. “You haven't let that box out of your hands since you got it.”

“Oh, hell.” Trudy swallowed. “I need this doll, Reese.”

“It's okay,” Reese said. “I don't need the doll. I just need the instruction sheet. That's where the codes are. Deal?”

Trudy bit her lip. Leroy didn't need the instructions; he probably knew more about the toy by now than the designers did. Toy hijackers and Chinese double agents were both ridiculous; Leroy was real. “Okay.”

Reese held out his hand for the box, and she tightened her grip.

“Just the instructions.” She opened the lid and felt down the back of the box for the paper, but there was nothing there. “Damn.” She held the box into the pool of light cast by the fixture far above her and looked in. “It must have fallen under the doll.” She carefully pulled the doll out, still wired into the cardboard backing that showed explosions, and shook the box upside down.

“Trudy,” Reese said, his voice grim.

“I'm looking.” Trudy dropped the empty box to unwire the MacGuffin to see if the instructions had lodged behind it.

Reese picked up the box and began to dissemble it, checking in all the folds. “It's not here.”

“It's not here, either.” Trudy pulled the cardboard background away from the doll and handed it over, holding on to the Mac tightly. “And it was earlier.”

“How do you know?”

“Because Nolan checked—” She stopped, appalled.

“Nolan opened the box and took out the instructions,” Reese said, sounding grim.

“But he put them back, I saw him,” Trudy said. “He slipped them behind the cardboard and closed up the box.”

“He palmed them, Trudy. He got the codes.”

Trudy thought back. “He couldn't have. I was watching him, right up to…”

Reese looked at her patiently.

“Right up to when you called to me in the checkout line,” Trudy said, clutching the Mac closer and feeling miserable. “I looked away to talk to you. Did you see him take them?”

“No,” Reese said. “I was looking at you.”

Trudy felt ill. “Can I have the box back? At least I can give the doll to Leroy for Christmas.” She bent, keeping the doll in one hand, and picked up the shopping bags with the cow and the Twinkletoes in them.

“Look,” Reese said. “I need your help. Nolan's a bad guy, and he's somewhere in this warehouse with those codes, and he trusts you. You call to him, get him to come out to us, and we'll take it from there.”

Trudy stepped back. “You'll hurt him.”

Reese shook his head, moving closer. “You watch too many movies. Spies don't hurt people, they just swap information. And that's all we're going to do. Take back the codes.” He smiled at her, his baby face reassuring. “Just call out for him, Trudy. He'll come to you. He likes you. Then you can take the doll and go home, and you'll have done a good thing for your country, too.” She hesitated and he said, “Of course, I'll have to check the doll before you go to make sure there's nothing else there.” He held out his hand for the MacGuffin.

Of course you will,
Trudy thought, and looked around him at the door. Could she shove him out of the way and get out?

“Come on,” Reese said. “Who are you going to trust, me or the guy who lied to you and stole the instruction sheet?”

Good question.

She stuck the Mac under her arm, looped the two remaining shopping bags over her wrist, and opened her purse.

“Trudy?” Reese said.

“I'm gonna go with the guy who lied,” Trudy said, and Maced him.

*   *   *

Reese had stopped screaming by the time Trudy found the staircase again, which comforted her some. If he was really a CIA agent, she'd just Maced a good guy, but on the other hand …

Actually, there wasn't an other hand. She'd just Maced a good guy.

“What the hell did you do to him?” Nolan whispered, and she jerked back, almost dropping her last two bags.

The Mac she kept her grip on.