Magnificent Folly (10 page)

Cassie.

Of course she could make it, dammit. She moved carefully toward the front door, keeping her neck very straight, so that the pain was only a throbbing ache. She had to make it to Andrew. She was
going
to make it.

The cool breeze on her cheeks felt invigorating, but it didn’t help the nausea. Well, that would have to go away too. She would not have it. She wouldn’t be beaten by those hoodlums. She held tightly to the banister as she made her way slowly down the steps of the deck.

Why didn’t they answer the door?

She pounded again, but the thump sounded weak and ineffectual even to her own ears. She was so tired, but she had to pound harder or they wouldn’t hear. She lifted her hand again.

A slit of light appeared beneath the door. They had heard her. The door swung open.

Andrew.

His fair hair was tousled, his eyes glittering in the lamplight. Why didn’t he say anything? He was looking at her so strangely.

Maybe she was the one who was supposed to say something. Her lips tried to form words, but nothing came out.

“What is it, Andrew?” It was Quenby’s voice, issuing from somewhere in the room behind Andrew.

Finally one word struggled from her lips. “Cassie …”

She pitched forward in a dead faint.

Andrew was sitting in the chair beside the bed when Lily opened her eyes. His hand instantly covered her own on the counterpane. “It’s going to be all right. We’ll get Cassie back, Lily.”

Light poured through the bay window across the room, revealing an unfamiliar bedroom. Of
course, it was the cliff cottage, she realized. She had come to Andrew for help. “What time is it?”

“Almost eight o’clock. You showed up on the doorstep at three in the morning, and you’ve been unconscious ever since.” A muscle jumped in his cheek. “You scared the hell out of me. You were covered with blood, and you looked as if—”

“They hit me. Twice.” Lily tried to sit up. “I thought there was only one man, but the other must have been standing beside the doorway when I—”

“You don’t have to go into the details.” He pushed her back against the pillows. “What’s important is getting you well and getting Cassie back.”

“Have you called the sheriff? They should put out an all-points bulletin.”

“Not yet.”

She looked at him incredulously. “Why not? You’ve had five hours. Those horrible men have
Cassie
.”

“Don’t get so upset. It’s not good for you.” Andrew frowned with concern. “Quenby has training
as a nurse and says she doesn’t think it’s more than a mild concussion, but you should take it easy and—”

“Don’t get upset?” Lily sat bolt upright in bed, ignoring the jolt of pain in her temple the movement caused her. “My daughter has been kidnapped by …” She trailed off as she lifted her hand wearily to her head. “I don’t know who they were. I don’t even know why they took her. I thought they were burglars, but one of them said … For some reason they wanted Cassie. Ransom? For God’s sake, do they think I’d live in a cheap bungalow like that if I had any money? And what if it wasn’t ransom?” Panic iced through her. “What if they hurt her, Andrew? What if—”

“They won’t hurt her, love. I promise you.”

“How can you promise anything?” Lily swung her feet to the floor. “I have to call the sheriff. I saw one of the men. I can give them a description. That should help them to find him. Maybe I can look at some mug shots and identify—”

“These men wouldn’t be in the mug books, Lily.”

“They could be. You don’t know if—” She broke off as she caught sight of his expression. “Dear God,” she whispered. “You do know.” She couldn’t comprehend it. Andrew
knew
these men. He knew something about Cassie’s disappearance. It was all a part of this nightmare from which there was no awakening. She gazed at him in horror. “You did this?”

“No.” Andrew’s voice was sharp. “Do you think I’m a monster? I wanted to kill when I saw you standing on the doorstep last night.”

“Then you know who did it,” Lily said flatly. “You know who took Cassie.”

“Yes.” Andrew’s lips twisted. “So perhaps I am to blame. I wasn’t absolutely sure they were tracking you and Cassie, so I took a chance on waiting to see if I could persuade you to come with me willingly.”

“A con instead of a blackjack?” Lily asked coldly. “You might have succeeded. You certainly showed a talent for the game.” She shook her
head incredulously. “I was actually beginning to believe in you.”

“Lily, everything I told you was the truth.”

“Your confederates are going to be disappointed when they find out I’m not a pigeon worth plucking.” She laughed harshly. “You should have kept in closer touch with them, and they wouldn’t have expended such needless effort. I can see how the newspaper publicity might have made it appear Cassie was the goose who laid a stockpile of golden eggs, but—”

“This isn’t about money, Lily.”

“What do you mean? Of course it’s about money. What else could it be?”

Andrew leaned wearily back in his chair. “It’s about Cassie. And about me.”

“What are you saying?”

“There won’t be a ransom note.”

She gazed at him in silence. “You said you wouldn’t try to take her away from me, you bastard.”

“I won’t. I didn’t. These are
not
my confederates, dammit. They don’t want Cassie because
they think they might get money from you. They want her because they know she’s my child.”

“That’s absurd. They couldn’t know. Henry wouldn’t talk to a stranger.”

“Henry didn’t have to tell them. A month ago his office was broken into and his files were stolen. They were in code, but we knew a cryptologist could probably break it, given enough time. Henry notified us at once, but it was too late to detect any traces by the time our team reached the university.”

“Wait a minute.” Lily held up her hand. “Why were his records in code?”

“They are … were confidential.”

“Of course, but that seems a little extreme.”

Andrew was silent.

“And why were they particularly interested in your daughter? Are you a Wall Street tycoon or something? Maybe a member of the millionaire boys club?”

Andrew flinched. “Lily, I know this is difficult for you, but—”

“Well, are you?”

“I have enough money to be comfortable. Money is easy to come by in the Clanad. We don’t need much in Sedikhan.” He paused. “But I told you this isn’t about money. I won’t receive a ransom note either.”

“Then, by all that’s holy, what is it about?”

Andrew shook his head. “You wouldn’t understand, and if you did, you wouldn’t believe me.” He smiled crookedly. “Hell, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you the sun rises in the east, at the moment.”

“I’d certainly question it. Tell me anyway.”

“No, there’ll be time enough for that later. Instead, I’ll tell you Cassie is safe and that those men have no intention of physically harming her. She may be frightened, but that’s the extent of the damage they’ll do to her while she remains here in the U.S.”

“While they’re here? Are they planning to take her out of the country? Where, for heaven’s sake?”

“Said Ababa.”

She shook her head dazedly. “What the hell is happening here?”

Andrew impulsively put out a hand as if to touch her. As she flinched back, his hand dropped to the arm of the chair. “She won’t be hurt.” His hand closed on the arm of the chair, his knuckles white. “I know you can’t believe in me, but please believe that, Lily. For your own sake, believe Cassie’s safe.”

“How can I, when you won’t tell me anything? Not even where she is or—”

“I don’t know where she is.” Andrew’s eyes were haunted. “I’m expecting a phone call from Gunner at any time, with more information. He and Quenby are trying to track them.”

“Track? This isn’t the day of the Pony Express or Buffalo Bill. Call the FBI, dammit.”

“We can’t.” Andrew paused. “It would be dangerous for Cassie. These agents don’t want the reason they took Cassie to come to light, and a public investigation would do that. Besides, Gunner has a better chance of tracking them. The
Clanad has agents in this area, and this is Gunner’s job.”

“His specialty is finding kidnapped children? What kind of a job is that?” She closed her eyes. “I want my little girl back, damn you. I don’t care about your Clanad or those bastards who took her. I just want Cassie home.”

“We’ll bring her home. Safe.”

Her eyes opened wide and glittered coldly as she gazed at him. “I don’t know what kind of mess you’ve involved yourself in, but Cassie and I aren’t part of it. If Cassie is hurt because of you, I’ll punish you, Andrew.”

“Oh, I know you will,” he said thickly. “You already have.” He smiled with an effort. “Gunner thinks they haven’t had time to smuggle her out of the country yet. They don’t have a network in this—”

The phone rang in the other room.

Andrew pushed back the chair and jumped to his feet. “That must be Gunner. I’ll be right back.”

Lily heard him pick up the phone and answer,
but she couldn’t hear what he was saying. She struggled to her feet, swayed as a wave of dizziness assaulted her, then moved slowly across the room. Clinging to the jamb of the door, she was just in time to see Andrew hang up the receiver. “Does he know where she is?”

“Oh, for Lord’s sake.” Andrew gazed at her in exasperation. “You look as if you’re about to collapse any minute. Did you have to follow me?” He didn’t wait for an answer, but covered the distance between them in three strides, lifted her in his arms, and carried her back to the bed. “And yes, he knows where they are. The agents who took Cassie are Hamid Kalom—he’s the one with the scar—and Said Baharas. They’ve taken Cassie to a lodge called the Edelweiss Inn, about a hundred miles north of here. The inn is owned by a Said Ababa national, and Gunner says they’re waiting for a plane to arrive at the private airport nearby to take Cassie out of the country.” He placed her on the bed. “Cassie is being held in one of the chalet bungalows on the grounds of the lodge and she’s fine, Lily.”

“How could she be fine, when she’s probably scared to death? And if Gunner and the men he’s with know where Cassie is, why don’t they go in and get her? Suppose the plane they’re waiting for arrives and they take her away?”

“Lily, these agents aren’t …” Andrew halted, searching for words before he finished. “Professional.”

“What do you mean?”

“The government of Said Ababa has always relied on brute force to get what it wants. The men who run that country are acquirers, not creators. You can see how slapdash this entire operation is turning out to be. No planning.”

“Then let’s take advantage of their blundering and get Cassie back.”

“We will,” Andrew said quietly. “But we have to go slowly. Gunner says that the first reaction these agents will have if cornered is violence. Kalom particularly has a reputation for viciousness. They’ll strike out and won’t care that what they’re destroying has value to them.”

“Cassie,” Lily whispered. “They’ll hurt Cassie.”

“No harm will come to Cassie. I’ll just have to be careful to make sure Cassie’s protected before Gunner moves in.”

“And how do you propose to do that?”

“I’ll find a way. I’m leaving for the inn immediately. Gunner is sending a helicopter to pick me up.”

“I’m going with you.”

Andrew nodded. “I thought you’d say that. I suppose I can’t convince you to stay here and let us handle it?”

“No.”

“Or that after the bang on your head you shouldn’t do anything but rest?”

“No.”

“All right.” Andrew held up his hand as she started to speak. “But there are conditions.”

“Conditions! My daughter is—”

“You do what I tell you to do.” Steel edged Andrew’s voice. “No questions, no arguments.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then you don’t go with me.”

“I could follow you to this Edelweiss place.”

“And if you did, I’d use any method at my disposal to make you do as I said. There’d be no option then.”

All trace of boyishness had vanished from Andrew’s demeanor, and the hard-edged toughness of which Lily had caught only fleeting glimpses had come to the surface. “I could lie to you.” She paused. “As you lied to me.”

“I never lied to you.”

“The hell you didn’t. You came here and conned me while persuading Cassie you were the greatest thing since sliced bread, and all for some purpose of your own.”

“I didn’t con—” He stopped, and then broke out with violence, “Lord, you don’t even know what conning is. I could have shown you. I could have—” He halted again and then shook his head wearily. “There’s no use trying to convince you while you’re so worried about Cassie. Will you give me your word you’ll let me lead, if I take you?”

She gazed at him, frowning. “Okay,” she said slowly. “But if I think you’re moving too slowly I may change my mind and go my own way.”

He smiled crookedly. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?” He turned to leave the room. “I’ll go down to your cottage and pack your bag and get a few things for Cassie. Should I bring anything in particular?”

“No, anything will—Wait, there is something. Her music box.” Lily felt the tears sting her eyes. “It’s a little-girl pianist sitting at a baby-grand piano that revolves and plays a Bach prelude. I bought it for her when she was only three, and she takes it with her everywhere she goes. She plays it every night before she goes to sleep, and …” She stopped and tried to steady her voice. “It should be on the nightstand beside her bed.”

“I’ll get it.” He glanced back over his shoulder. “Will you keep still and rest? I’ll help you get to the bathroom to clean up and brush your teeth when I get back.”

“I’ll lie here.” Lily closed her eyes. “And I’ll let you help me. I’m not about to waste my strength
on a useless gesture of independence, when I may need it later to help Cassie.”

“Very sensible. I hope to hell you continue in that vein.”

She heard Andrew’s retreating footsteps, then the closing of the door.

He was gone. She was alone. The knowledge sent a surge of depression through her that she knew was completely unreasonable. Except for Cassie, she had been alone for many years, and this was no different. The closeness she believed to have been forged between her and Andrew she now considered a mirage that had vanished. She had to accept the fact. Thank heaven she hadn’t fallen completely under his spell. Yet if she hadn’t come perilously close, then why was the hurt of his betrayal such a throbbing wound?