T is for Temptation (55 page)

“Made a bargain with God?” The question seemed automatic, cheerful, but the hollow hope in her eyes pierced his very soul. “How can that be?”

“I don’t know. Let’s just do it. The doctor said there’s no reason I couldn’t father a child, and you obviously had your doubts. You went to the drugstore to buy one of these, didn’t you?”

She nodded mutely.

“And you love kippers for breakfast?”

Clapping a hand over her mouth, she glowered at him, took a deep inhale and spat out a terse order, “Don’t say that word again, not until I tell you it’s okay.”

They read the instructions together, and she vanished into the bathroom. An eternity later, or so it seemed, Tee came out and bumped into him pacing a tight circle outside the door.

“Five minutes, right?” He checked his watch.

Tee rested the container on the bedside table and worried her lower lip, all the while casting sidelong looks at the plastic, cup-shaped object.

He snagged her hand and caged it between his, chafing her cold skin, hearing the seconds thundering by. The digital readout advanced so slowly, he was tempted to shake the blasted alarm clock. At last he muttered, “Time,” and gave her fingers a reassuring squeeze.

“You do it. I can’t. I’m not looking.” With those words, she pressed her lids shut and cupped a hand over her eyes, immediately splaying two fingers for a peek.

Shifting to her other side, Jake shielded the container with his body and checked the results.

Positive.

Elation and primordial male pride crowed through him and he knew he wore a foolish grin because his lips couldn’t close enough to form words.

Whipping around, he showed her the results. She was in the same position as before, but fixated on the plastic.

“I knew Elaine was right. I knew it,” she whispered and met his gaze, puddles brimming from her wide, glowing eyes. “For so long, I haven’t believed in my gift, in being a witch. Elaine gave me the confidence to do it. She’s so secure, so certain. When she asked me to bring her grandchild to visit, I knew.”

“You forgive me?” Jake searched her features.

“We’re having a baby, darling. Right now I think I could forgive Tony.” She frowned and then added, “I take that back. He’s beyond forgiveness.”

About to haul her into his lap, he hesitated when the doorbell pealed. He arched his eyebrows. “That’ll be Arthur. What do you want to do?”

“Can we keep this our secret for now?”

“Yeah, I think I’d prefer it. I never thought I’d have a child.” Unable to resist, he nuzzled the pulse beating at the base of her neck. “You have life growing within you, Tee. A life we created. It’s the most daunting thing I’ve ever faced.”

“I’ll never fall asleep tonight.” She kissed him on the mouth and traced the ridge of one cheekbone. “It is daunting, but so wonderfully exhilarating. I think I could conqueror the world. I feel like doing cartwheels.”

He knew he was the one turning green now, as her equestrian acrobatics flashed through his mind. Wiser than he recognized, Jake immediately resolved to get her ob-gyn on his side before issuing commands about what Tee could or could not do with her blasted horses.

“Arthur’s here,” Alex’s voice called through the door. “We’re waiting for you two.”

They found everyone seated in the living room. Mid-afternoon sunlight brightened the area, streaming good cheer through the picture window. Jake and Tee took the love seat, and he instinctively drew her as close as possible. She rested her cheek against his shoulder.

“Finally. We’re all on tenterhooks,” Henry griped. “Arthur, do we have any new information?”

“Right. Here we go. Alex, we took your relayed recommendation and leaked the news of Tony Trent being alive to our informants,” he said without preamble. “Initially, we were going to do a media blast and start an international manhunt, but that would only drive him further underground and limit our chances of capturing him.”

“How are you looking for him?”

“The usual surveillance methods, credit card watches, and
Trent
’s photo,” Arthur explained. “All agencies are on critical alert, in particular all points of departure.”

“Is Tee still in danger?”

“Yes, but not to the extent she was before, Jake. We’ve completed a background profile on all four individuals, Constantine, Trent, Leandro, and her stepbrother.”

“There is a connection, then?” Alex asked.

“Yes and no. First
Constantine
. He’s a sleeper mole who appears to have been in place for years. Quite frankly, the only organization we believe capable of such long-term planning is the old KGB.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“No, Jake. While the Berlin Wall came down decades ago, the old Cold War spy cells weren’t automatically dismantled at that time. Many old KGB operatives are now
Russia
’s newest millionaires. These men have an extensive worldwide network, with contacts from
Afghanistan
to
South America
. When we dug into
Constantine
’s background, we came up with more questions than answers.”

“Like?”

“We believe he was born in a village on the Swiss-Italian border. Until the age of eight, he attended the village’s school. There’s no record of him after that until he showed up in
California
and was admitted to
Berkley
at the age of seventeen. A brilliant scholar with a knack for finance, he did his Master’s at Harvard, his PhD at the London School of Economics, and was snatched up by Interpol right after his dissertation, which by the way, won him international accolades.”

“No clue as to the missing nine years?”

“Nothing, no Baron Constantine in any country we’ve checked. We did learn, however, from his initial resume to Interpol, that he spoke eight languages, including Sanskrit, Japanese, and several Oriental dialects, in addition to his native Italian.”

“So Tiny was right when he said the man who wrote the riddle knew ancient languages,” Alex commented, casting a sideswipe at the giant. “Then, we can assume the passcode Tiny broke is
Constantine
’s?”

“Precisely, although I’m loath to think he would surrender it to Tony’s possession.”

“I second that, Arthur. I reckon Tony stole the blasted thing.” Jake tugged on his earlobe. “Finally, more answers than questions.”

“Still no clues as to the second passcode or the optical ID, though,” Alex said and added, “But I digress, continue, please, Arthur.”

“Actually, Gratnach, if you’re ever looking for employment, we’d snatch you up,” Flood stated. “My superiors are very impressed with your work.”

Tiny inclined his head.

“With the focus on the war in
Iraq
, all efforts in
Afghanistan
have been minimized, allowing the three major drug lords to grow their businesses exponentially. This resulted in a big problem.”

“Surplus cash,” Alex muttered. “Nice problem to have.”

“Is this where Tony comes into play?

“Indirectly, Jake. The drug lords activated Constantine, who in turn organized the takeover of a Uruguayan bank.”

Pinballs hit targets everywhere. “Tony.”

“Yes. In
Uruguay
, Tony became involved in petty drug trafficking and advanced to robbery and kidnapping. Prime targets were wealthy banking families.”

“Ready, available cash,” Alex rasped. “Heck, why I didn’t I think of this before? The general’s granddaughter.”

“Correct on both counts. The general’s family owned the bank. Tony kidnapped the granddaughter. The whole transaction, from capture to ransom, lasted three weeks. During that time,
Constantine
made his takeover bid.”

“That’s how he and Constantine hooked up,” Jake stated. “The granddaughter.”

“The family refused to cede control of the bank.”

“But, they paid the ransom,” Alex said. “That’s where the 20K deposit came from.”

“Yes, but
Constantine
knuckled Tony into giving him the girl. They kept her hostage to ensure the family’s cooperation.”

“How did Tony end up in
Trinidad
?”

“Me,” Henry said. “I knew the Uruguayan ambassador, and he mentioned him one day and his gold medals.”

“You can’t take the blame for that, old boy.” Arthur fingered his goatee. “By the time you offered him a position, his gambling debts were so large he had to get out of
Uruguay
in a hurry. He made a payment on the sum he owed and left.”

“How much did he owe?”

“Close to a million. Apparently, while in
Trinidad
, he hit on the idea of financing his lifestyle by smuggling drugs from
South America
, and within a few months, he managed to wipe off his debt and started to make money.”

“He lived at Eight Bells for the first two months,” Tee said. “Mother was redoing Greenbriar, and he couldn’t stay there. That’s when he bought the boat.”

“And inveigled his old pals Graziella and her brother to
Trinidad
. Then he ran into the same problem as the Afghan drug lords. Cash.”

“Did he pick my name out of a hat?”

“Actually, Jake, I think you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Apparently, you signed the deal with British Petroleum during that period, and the local media did a feature on rising stars in the industry, focusing on you.” Sir Arthur tapped a copy of said article in the file laying open on the coffee table. “We found this in the caretaker’s residence behind Eight Bells.”

“Blasted hell.”

“Don’t beat yourself up,” Alex interjected. “It wouldn’t take a genius to recognize you needed cash to finance the business’s expansion. And we did do the requisite background check.”

“Blast, Alex. I misjudged the man completely.”

“No, he deliberately misled you. Made sure you underestimated him. I suppose he approached
Constantine
and offered to launder a portion of the cash with the deliberate intention of stealing the money. Then he planned his own death.”

“That sums it up, young Mayfield. What we don’t know is why he showed up today and what he’s after. The other three plainly believed Tee knew about the missing money. Now, they know
Trent
’s alive, and we believe they’ll focus their efforts on him.”

“Could he be after the information from the photograph?”

“I find it hard to believe that he’d have only one of the passcodes. Admittedly, they’re complex and difficult to commit to memory, but the only way he can get at the money is if he has both of them. No, it has to be something more.”

“He was after Tee,” Jake said and knew it as an unassailable truth.

“There’s one small incident that none of this explains.” Alex shoveled his hands through his hair and propped his elbows on splayed knees. “Who burgled the
Trinidad
office and why?”

 
“Damned good question. Tee, did you do that inventory after I left
Barbados
?”

“Yes, I didn’t discover anything new. Almost all the paperwork was destroyed, and you know they took all the equipment.”

“Perhaps his colleagues were behind the theft. Maybe they were looking for the other passcode.” Sir Arthurs’s cell phone dinged, he glanced at the LCD, and rose to his feet. “Time for me to get back to the office. If any of you come up with anything new, call me at once.”