Liberty...And Justice for All (19 page)

“Always,” he said, and stroked my face. “Just like I promised.”

T
ony and Mia
had left an hour before we did, with their small son and two private security guards in tow. He said they were closing the club for now, going somewhere safe. “I’ll call you,” Tony had said to Matthew.

“Call me with a wire transfer, dude,” Matthew said back, so I assumed that we hadn’t billed him for our evening’s work yet.

Mia was finally conscious. She looked over at me from her wheel chair; they were hustling out of the hospital, the staff as angry and appalled with them as they were with us.

Thank you
, Mia mouthed at me and Catherine, her eyes wide and dark as she cradled her son.

That was it. That was all I got to see of her.

“Do you think they’ll be okay?” I asked.

“I kind of doubt it,” Matthew said. “Maybe if they stay out of Vegas, and sell Fierce to someone who wants to play nice with the dealers…”

“Thats’ not solving the problem, though,” I said.

“It’d solve their problem,” Matthew said. “Sometimes that’s enough.”

“But what are we going to do about them? The Freeman cartel?”

Matthew scoffed at me. “Nothing, Liberty. We’re going to cash our check from Tony and we’re going to move on to the next case. We aren’t able to police the bad guys forever, Lib. That’s not what we do. Consider it a win that we took out as many of them as we did and lived to get out of there. Okay?”

I shook my head at him. “They’re just going to do it again,” I said. “Someone else is going to want out, and they’re going to kidnap another dancer. Another mother. And they’re going to keep bringing bad drugs into the city.”

Matthew was tying his combat boots, not looking at me. “There’s always going to be drug dealers, and cartels, and kidnappings, and bad shit. There’s always going to be bad guys. No matter what.”

“Well, we can’t just let them get away with it,” I said.

Matthew looked up at me and smiled. “Exactly,” he said, triumphantly. “That’s exactly why we do what we do. One bad guy at a time.”

I looked at him and frowned.

“I think you have your answer about the future, Liberty. I think you’ve known what it was for a while.” He grinned at me widely. “I’m looking forward to working with you, Boss.”

“Don’t call me that,” I snapped.

“It’s better than Boss Wife or Boss Lady—isn’t it?”

A
fter a long
, gauze-filled private flight, we’d managed to get John safely back to the house.

Ian and Michael had set up a temporary room for us downstairs in one of the guest bedrooms. John was still on an IV and was on strict bed rest. We’d scheduled an appointment for him to see his regular physician in Providence. Even though he was pale and had lost a lot of blood, he was restless. He was on the bed, tossing a small football from hand to hand.

“John,” I said, “should you really be playing catch while you’re hooked up to an IV and have a bunch of stitches?”

He gave me a lopsided smile and kept tossing the ball. “I can’t just sit here. I feel like I’m going to explode.”

I sat down next to him. “It’s not forever,” I said. John usually worked out at least two hours a day; he was always in motion. Lying in bed was not his thing. His restlessness was coming off him in waves. “At least the Red Sox are on. They’re always on. So you have something to watch.”

Michael had said that he’d make a full recovery shortly—
if
he stayed in bed and healed. If he got up and started trying to do sit ups, run, anything—his wounds would reopen and he’d be set further back.

“Are you planning on finally dealing with your family?” John asked. “I think you’ve pushed the jewel thief about as far as you can. Someone looking for attention like that isn’t going to appreciate the fact that you went to Las Vegas just so you could ignore them.”

“I didn’t go to Vegas just to ignore them,” I said. I picked at the comforter and frowned. “I just needed a little…space from the nasty jewel thief who is probably related to me.”

“They make Sasha look really good,” John said. “I don’t even know what to say about Alexandra and Marks at this point. Have you spoken with her?”

I shook my head,
no.
“I have to call her today. Now. And I’m going to have to call some sort of meeting with all of them, I think. Do you mind if I ask them here?”

“This is your house, babe. You do whatever you want.” He stopped tossing the ball long enough to tap me on the chin. “You do know, though, that if there is someone in our home who wants to hurt you…that I’m going to hurt them first.”

“You can’t move,” I said. “You can’t hurt them.”

“Liberty—”

“Whoever this is thinks I won’t be able to ever figure it out. So I’m going to ask them all to come here. And then I’m going to figure it out.
That
is going to be enough hurt for whoever the thief is. Being bested by a two-bit, illegitimate stripper. You won’t need to lay a hand on them,” I said. “I got this. I may not have actually had it in Vegas, but this is my family, this is my jewel thief, and this time, I really can handle it. I promise.”

“I’ll still shoot someone if I have to,” John said, and shrugged.

“You won’t have to.”

“You don’t have to keep saying it. At least let me have something to look forward to, besides watching baseball and reading financials. I didn’t even get a chance to shoot that guy who grabbed your ass back in Vegas.”

I rolled my eyes and then buried my face in my hands: I did not want to think about Cyrus ever again, grabbing my ass or grabbing anything else. “Speaking of something to look forward to,” I said, changing the subject. “What are we going to do after this? After you get better and I beat up my new relatives a little?”

John smiled at me and sat up a little straighter. “What would you like to do?”

“I have a couple of ideas,” I said, noncommittally.

“Me too,” John said.

“Like what?”

“You tell me first,” he said.

“Don’t play hard to get,” I whined.

“You already got me,” John said. “It’s what comes next that’s the adventure.”

We looked at each other, neither of us budging.

Ian knocked and poked his head in. “Sorry to interrupt,” he said. “Liberty, you have a call.”

I got up and nodded at John. “I’m looking forward to hearing your answer later.”

“I’m looking forward to hearing yours.” He kept tossing the ball.

I rolled my eyes and looked at Ian. “Your son can be difficult sometimes.”

“My son?” Ian asked, in mock indignation. “I had no idea.”

I took another look at Ian, and noticed that he was very nattily dressed, with crisp button-down shirt, a cashmere sweater and an ascot. “You’re looking very dapper,” I said to him, suspiciously.

“I have a date, my dear,” he said, matter-of-factly.

I stopped in the hall and turned to him. “With who?” I squealed.

“Her name is Therese Granger, and she’s quite proper,” he said, smoothing his shirt. “We are going into Providence for lunch. I hope she likes my ascot.”

“If she’s quite proper, she’ll love it,” I said. He checked his watch. “Go and have fun—I’ll get the phone. Tell me
everything
when you get back.”

“I’ll report back before dinner. And then we’re going to make some plans for that family of yours.”

“Yes,” I said. “Yes, we are.”

I went into the kitchen and grabbed the house phone, which Ian insisted on keeping even though we all relied on our cells.

“It’s Alexandra,” my half-sister sniffled into the phone.

“Oh honey—what’s the matter? Are the girls okay?”

“They’re okay. It’s Marks. He’s just being such a complete ass.”

I looked out the window at the rolling green lawn. “Why don’t you two come out next weekend?” I asked, trying to sound more cheerful than I felt. “Maybe a weekend in the country will do you some good.”

“I don’t think Marks is going to be excited about that…” she said.

“I was going to call you anyway. I feel really bad about when I came out to see you guys. I made you so sad. It was a big mistake. Huge. Come out and let me make it up to you.”

“Um…” She hesitated.

“Tell Marks I insist. Actually, tell him that John insists. And that he won’t take no for an answer.”

I
decided that
, if I was going to execute my new semi-formed plan smoothly, I was going to need some assistance. I walked around the grounds, half looking for Catherine. I didn’t see her out by the barracks, in the gym, or by the pool.

Finally I found her down by the beach. With Corey. Even though they weren’t touching they jumped back from each other when I came down the beach. “How’s it going, you two?” I asked, innocently.

“It’s going,” Catherine said. “What is it that you want, exactly?”

“I need your help.”

“What else is new?” Catherine asked.

“I’m going to invite my new siblings out to the house for the weekend,” I said. “Do you think you can help?”

“This weekend?
All
of them?”

I smiled at her. “Yep. All of them.”

Catherine looked a little pale beneath her bronzer. “I’ll help you if you help me.” She shot a quick look at Corey. “Let’s get planning.”

“See ya later,” she called to Corey, and followed me up to the pool.

“Why are you doing this?” She asked, once we were a safe distance away from him. “I thought you were being nice to me.”

“I am being nice to you—this isn’t about you,” I said. “What’s up with you and Corey, anyway?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “He’s nice.”

“
Nice
?” I asked, exasperated. “What do you know about nice?”

“Not much,” she admitted. “I don’t know. We’re just hanging out.”

“Is that what he thinks?”

“He’s probably in love with me,” she said, inspecting her nails.

“Who could blame him?” I snorted.

She looked at me and rolled her eyes. “The point is, Liberty, it’s new. And having Jacoby here is going to complicate it.”

“Not if you don’t sleep with him again, it won’t.”

“I’m not planning on it,” she said, “but he keeps texting me. He’s gonna be all over me. And I don’t want to hurt Corey’s feelings.”

“My brother’s been texting you?” I asked, appalled. “When he’s part of an ongoing investigation? And you haven’t bothered to tell me?”

“It was mostly sexting,” Catherine said. “I figured I’d spare you. See? I’m trying to be nice, too.”

I sighed. “I’m going to call all of them this afternoon. Then I need you to help me plan things. You can text Jacoby later—be up front with him. Tell him you’re seeing someone else now and that you won’t be having personal relations with him this weekend.”

“That’s very momish advice,” Catherine said.

“He’s my brother,” I snapped. “And we’re running out of time. I need to get that necklace back, and then I need to figure out what I’m doing with the rest of my life.”

She looked at me skeptically. “I thought you had it all figured out—you know, marry a billionaire, live in his house, get your nails done, have his baby, etcetera, etcetera. What else do you need to plan?”

“I didn’t marry your father for his money.”

“I know—you really love him. That’s even more gross,” she said.

“I’m talking about what we’re going to do with the business.”

“I thought you wanted him to retire. Not get shot anymore,” she said.

“That’s exactly it—I don’t want him to get shot anymore. But I also don’t want Michael, Sean, Matthew, Corey, Jacob and the rest of the guys to be out of a job. By the way,” I said, “please don’t parade Corey around in front of John. Don’t get him into trouble. I won’t say anything, but if John finds out you two are seeing each other, he might ask Corey to leave.”

“Not if he wants me to stay, he won’t.”

“Are you thinking of staying?” I asked. Eva and her husband were coming back in two weeks. I figured that Catherine would be heading home by then, back to Pilates, sunshine and her mother’s fancy credit cards.

“Maybe,” Catherine said, “if I have something to do. I can’t just sit around all day every day, getting my nails done.”

“I thought you were into that.”

“If you do it full-time, it becomes a job,” she sighed. “I worked for Angel for almost ten years. When I had time off, I pampered myself. Ordered clothes, got my hair done…it was a reward. When all you do all the time is reward yourself, it gets harder to feel it.” She shrugged. “Being in Vegas, having a challenge like that…holding a gun…I sort of…miss it. Miss the rush.”

I just blinked at her.

“I know you don’t want to hear it—” I started, wanting to say that she reminded me of John.

“So don’t say it,” she finished. “Baby steps, remember? Now let’s go plan to trap our jewel thief. I think this is going to be exciting. Let’s plan a gala! We can all wear gowns, drink cocktails and figure out who the bad guy is! It’s gonna be so old school!”

I didn’t share her enthusiasm, but at least somebody had some. Resigned, I followed her into the house as she started rattling off ideas about cocktail parties, interrogations disguised as party games, and of course, what she was going to be wearing for all of it.

C
atherine had been positively
civil all afternoon, waiting patiently while I called my half-brothers and sisters. I asked them all to come out for a weekend of sun and relaxation: I’d offered to pay for their transportation, promised them lots of time by the pool and the ocean, a massage (Catherine’s idea), a gala (Catherine’s idea), and a local chef preparing farm-to-table meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner (ditto). I basically offered them an all-expenses paid luxury resort weekend package and a big, whopping apology. I told each one of them that I no longer blamed them for the theft of the necklace.

I’d been mistaken, I told them.

I was sorry, I told them.

Of course, I was neither mistaken nor sorry, but I wanted them to all come out, either out of greed or out of curiosity.

Much to my surprise, Katrina, Jacoby and Robert all accepted. Alexandra and Marks were coming as well. Maybe it was out of curiosity. Maybe it was because of the offer of free massages.

Whatever the reason for their acceptance of my invitation, one thing was clear. It was going to be the family reunion from hell.

Catherine had started sketching out ideas after that, making lists for a cocktails menu, which rooms to assign to people, and which bikinis she was going to wear.

“It’s kind of brisk weather for bikinis,” I said, eyeing the multi-colored leaves outside.

“The pool’s heated. Plus, it’s part of my larger strategy.”

I narrowed my eyes at her.

“I swear I won’t sleep with your brother again,” she said quickly, “but I have to make him sad about it. At least allow me that.”

“Are we having dates for the gala?” I asked. “‘Cause my date’s bedridden.”

“We can,” she said. “You don’t have to have a date. You can just watch.”

“Watch what?” I asked. “I don’t even know what a gala is.”

“It’s just a dressy party with fancy drinks served on silver platters,” she said, dreamily. “It’s going to be our big finale.”

“Huh?”

“We’re going to figure out who the thief is,” she said, optimistically. “And we’ll announce it to your whole family. Then the thief can be scorned, you can be celebrated, win-win. All while wearing fancy clothes.”

“Awesome,” I said, dreading the next couple of days.

“Liberty. This is going to be good. I like planning parties. You should have let me plan your wedding. Then it wouldn’t have sucked so hard.”

My mouth dropped open. “My wedding did not suck.”

“It was totally boring,” she said, sympathetically. “You were just too drunk to notice.”

“I wasn’t
drunk.
”

“Well, I wasn’t drunk enough. Beach sand is bad for heels. Heels are good for weddings. There was not enough dancing at your wedding. People were just standing around…
chatting
. It was boring.”

I furrowed my brow at her and she went back to list-making. “Maybe you can let me plan a vow renewal,” she said, under her breath, “that doesn’t suck. Just saying.”

“
W
e’re having a
party
?” Ian asked that night over dinner.

“Yes,” Catherine said, clapping her hands together. “Technically, it’s a gala.”

“Do you mean black tie, dear?” he asked. He poured more wine into his glass. He saw the look on my face and poured me some more, too.

“Of course,” Catherine said, stuffing a forkful of salad into her mouth. She was positively upbeat. I didn’t know what had gotten into her.
Probably Corey
. If that was the case, it was okay with me. He could take her home right after dinner.

“And we’re going to announce who the thief is the last night they’re all here,” she said, grabbing the bottle of wine from him and filling her glass to the brim.

Ian pushed his glasses down to the brim of his nose. “Do you know who the thief is?”

“Not yet,” Catherine said.

“Do you expect to know by Saturday night?”

“I hope so,” Catherine said. She waved her hand dismissively. “We’re going to be employing all sorts of tactics.”

Ian raised his eyebrows. “Tactics?”

“Bikinis. Cocktails.”

Ian chewed his salad thoughtfully. “Sounds good.”

“Are you coming?” I asked. I hadn’t had a chance to ask him how his lunch with Therese went.

“To the gala? Where my granddaughter and my daughter-in-law unmask the jewel thief who broke into our home and sent you disparaging and threatening letters?” Ian asked. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“And you get to dress up,” Catherine added.

“May I bring a date?” Ian asked. I noticed he was gripping the stem of his wineglass for dear life.

Catherine looked startled and coughed.

“Of course,” I said, beaming at him.

“Oh, this is gonna be good,” Catherine said. “Epic.”

A
fter dinner
, Catherine and I went to the barracks. We were briefing the guys on our last-minute plans for the weekend. “I’m not sure how your bikini strategy is going to work on Alexandra and Katrina,” I said.

“We’ll have Matthew handle the ladies,” she said, nodding at him.

“He can’t do that—he’s married. He’s a
dad
,” I said.

“I’m not above using my body for business purposes,” Matthew said, flexing his enormous bicep for the rest of us to admire. “All in the name of commerce, Lib. I can use these big guns on your sisters.” He looked up at us. “That sounds kind of hot, actually.”

“You want me to call Mer? Maybe she can try to answer the phone while she’s nursing your new baby and running after your toddler all at the same time. That should go over well,” I said.

“She trusts me. Relax,” he said. He rubbed his hands together, excitedly. “This is gonna be
awesome
. I can’t wait to have all those people here, trapped. I can’t wait to figure out who it is! We should put money on this—which one of us is gonna figure it out.”

“I got five hundred on me,” Catherine said immediately.

“Five hundred on
me
,” Matthew said back, challenging her.

“You guys can’t gamble—this is work!” I said. I needed John off of bed rest. The children were
not
behaving for me.

“I put five hundred on Liberty,” Corey said.

Catherine rounded on him. “What?”

“I figure that’ll give you all the inspiration you need to win this thing,” he said, beaming at her.

Catherine’s face softened a little. “Oh. In that case…you’re on.”

He smiled at her and she smiled at him.

Matthew raised his eyebrow at me and then coughed into his fist. “Get a room!” he cough-talked.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Don’t. We have to get prepared for this. We’ve been off playing war games in the desert. We need to wrap this up—they’re going to be here in less than 48 hours.”

Catherine and Corey were still looking at each other. Matthew shook his head and clapped me on the back, leading me away from them.

“Let them be,” he said. “I never saw him like that over a girl before. And she’s never seemed so human.”

“Let’s get her a Hello Kitty t-shirt for a wedding present,” I said. “She totally still deserves it.”

“
S
o let
me get this straight. I’ve been in our bedroom for approximately one day, and Catherine has already organized a weekend getaway for your entire family so that you can catch the thief. You apologized to all of them for asking them for alibis and begged them to come. This weekend includes poolside cocktails, a chef and a
gala
, whatever the hell that is. And you’re supposedly going to find the thief before everyone leaves. Even though you have no leads.

“Matthew’s gonna flex his biceps and try to get your drunk sisters to hit on him and spill their guts. Oh, and my dad’s bringing a date, even though he hasn’t been on a date since my mother died. Do I have that right?”

I stood there, nodding, waiting for him to pinch the bridge of his nose.

Instead, his face relaxed into a large smile. “I gotta hand it to you two. You’re prolific.”

“I can’t take any credit,” I said. “It’s all Catherine. She’s organizing everything. She’s totally into it—she’s even taking wagers that she’s going to be the one who finds the thief.”

“What’s gotten into her—Corey?” John said, simultaneously laughing and wincing at his own joke.

“It’s not just that,” I said. I sat on the bed next to him and stroked his thick, wild hair. I couldn’t wait until he was completely healed and I could run my hands all over him again, down that powerful body of his.

“She likes being involved in something. I think she likes the work. And I didn’t get the chance to tell you how, er, excited she was when we were out in the desert in Vegas. She was really good with her gun,” I said. “She was totally calm under pressure. She reminded me so much of you.”

“That’s good. It’s nice to hear that she’s connecting with something—even though it’s something dangerous. But at least it’s not a carton of cigarettes and a bottle of Grey Goose.”

“It’s real progress,” I agreed. “She actually seems happy.”

“Eva will be thrilled. She emailed me earlier—she can’t wait to get home and have Catherine come back.”

I paused for a beat. “What if she doesn’t want to go back? What if she wants to stay here?”

“There’s not going to be much for her to do after we wrap this thing up, babe,” he said, evenly.

I looked at his face: it was controlled, neutral. Whatever he was thinking inside, whatever his wishes or desires were about the future, he was going to keep them private. He wasn’t going to tell me how he felt and try to sway me.

“I’d like it if she stayed,” I blurted out, surprising myself. “She keeps things…interesting. But I only want that if you want that.”

“She’s my daughter. Of course I want that.”

“Then it’s settled,” I said, standing up.

He grabbed my wrist and gently pulled me back down. “We haven’t settled anything.”

“We have. You want to keep running your business. You want to keep your men in jobs. You want your daughter to stay—and if she wants to come and work for you, so much the better.

“I want all those things, too.”

“I thought you wanted me to quit and you wanted to have a baby,” John said, watching my face.

I smiled at him. “I want that, too,” I said. “I’d especially like it if you didn’t get shot again any time soon. But I think we’re going to have to stay in business. There’s too many bad guys out there. We need to fight them.”

“One bad guy at a time. One at a time,” John said.

“I know.” I looked up at him. “We can’t stop doing what we’re doing. We’re helping people.”

His lopsided grin came out, like it only did for special occasions.

“What about getting pregnant?” He asked.

“I want to,” I said. “I don’t know how that would work. Obviously, I can’t be out on assignment if I’m pregnant. But I can still help run things. You can show me…”

“That’s exactly what I wanted to hear,” John said. “I want that, too.”

“Perfect. Because you’ll be right beside me. I can’t have you out in the field getting shot while I’m stuck here, pregnant and going crazy being worried about you.”

The lopsided grin receded; now he was looking at me warily. “Are you saying that I have to be administrative if we’re going to do this?”

“No babe,” I said, rubbing his hand. “Only when
I
have to be administrative. So we can be together.”

“We don’t have to be together every
second
,” John said. “Most couples aren’t.”

“We aren’t most couples,” I said, smiling at him sweetly. “We already decided that we can’t be apart.”

We stared at each other for a beat.

“I need to get better soon,” John growled at me. “I need to remind you who’s the boss.”

“Ha ha,” I said, and kissed him on the cheek. “If I remember correctly, the last time we were together, I was clearly in charge.”

“I liked it,” John said, his eyes glittering.

I started to feel flushed and slutty. I made myself stand up and move away from John: Michael had clearly said
no physical activity.

Damn him.

“Send Ian in here,” John called, as I headed to the door. “I need to find out what’s going on with my old man.”

“Yes,
sir
,” I said.

“That’s more like it, babe.”

“
T
oday’s the day
,” Catherine said, sweeping past me into the kitchen. My family was scheduled to arrive later that afternoon.

“You’re excited,” I mumbled, pouring myself a coffee and making one for John.

“You’re not,” she said, eyeing me suspiciously. “You’re gonna need to put some fake-up on, Liberty. Seriously.”

“What the hell is
fake-up
?” I asked, miserably stirring my coffee. Her enthusiasm made me feel tired. “Can you not use trendy words on me before I have caffeine?”

“Fine,” she sniffed. “Just go drink that and adjust your attitude. We have a lot going on today.” She went over to the island and started going through her endless lists, crossing things off.

I grabbed my coffees to head back to the room; I need to get dressed and get my game face on. She was right.

I was nervous.

I stopped before I left the room. “Thank you,” I said.

“You’re welcome,” she sniffed, and crossed another thing off her list.

A
few hours later
, I’d had enough coffee, and I’d almost had enough of Catherine. She was on a mission, barking orders at me, a pen stuck behind her ear and a cigarette constantly dangling out of her mouth.

We’d set the pool area up with fresh flowers, potted plants, candles and misting fans.

“Where’d you get all this stuff?” I asked.

“Online.” She shrugged. “I one-clicked it all. I got you some new clothes, too,” she said, strategically placing coasters at intervals between the lounge chairs.

“Like what?”

“A dress for tomorrow night. And something besides capri leggings and t-shirts to wear.”

I looked down at myself. I didn’t even remember what I’d put on this morning. I had on…black capri leggings, flip flops and one of John’s ratty Navy t-shirts. I tossed my hair and drew myself up to my full height. “I like my clothes. I like to be comfortable. I like to be able to breathe.”