The Marquesa's Necklace (Oak Grove Mysteries Book 1) (13 page)

He made me hide in the bathroom when breakfast arrived. “I don’t want anyone to find out you’re here,” he whispered as he closed the door behind me. I listened as he opened the hotel room door and chatted with the bellboy. From the bellboy’s enthusiastic “thank-you,” he got a substantial tip. I waited until the ghost knocked softly on the bathroom door before I came out.

I couldn’t keep calling him a ghost. I needed a name for him. So between bites of the heavenly eggs—and yes, I made him take the first bite—I asked him. And, oh yes, I noticed when he didn’t answer right away.

“My name is Elijah,” he said, putting down his fork and holding out his hand. “My friends call me Eli.”

I toyed with the names in my mind as I shook his hand. The grip of his hand was exactly the right mixture of strength and gentleness, although he held on for a fraction longer than normal. I liked the name Elijah, but I could see him as Eli. But we weren’t friends yet. “Glad to meet you, Elijah,”

He looked hurt, but our conversation got interrupted by the ringing of his cell phone. He didn’t say more than “yes,” “no,” or “uh-huh,” so I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about. After he put the phone back in his pocket, he reached out and touched my hand. “I’ve got two guys coming up,” he said, “To figure out our next move. They’re good guys, but a little weird.”

How much weirder could things get? So I hurriedly finished my breakfast while Elijah started another pot of coffee.

This time, he didn’t make me go into the bathroom when we heard the knock on the door. It was an odd pattern—four soft knocks, then a loud one, a pause, followed by two soft knocks and three loud ones. Let the weird begin.

Elijah smiled as he opened the door. The two men who came in looked like leftovers from a punk rock band. I stared as they slithered into the room. “Harmony Duprie, meet Lando and Scotty.”

Chapter Sixteen

Elijah and the two men exchanged a series of high-fives and other mysterious moves. “Sorry I had to yank you out of the Con,” Elijah said. “But this is important.”

I blushed as the two newcomers examined me. They were both tall and skinny, dressed in baggy T-shirts emblazoned with cartoon characters, worn-out jeans, and tennis shoes. Except for their hair, they could have been twins or brothers at least. “She looks totally worth it,” the man with the red Mohawk said. “What do ’ya think, Wonder Woman?”

“Naw,” said the one with the lime green buzz cut. “Spitfire. Definitely Spitfire.”

I used to read Wonder Woman comics. But who the heck was Spitfire? Elijah noticed my confusion. “Okay, can it. Time for you clowns to get to work.”

“Where are we setting up, oh Fearless Leader?” The green-head pulled his backpack off his shoulder and set it on the floor as he surveyed the room.

“Not here. The next room is mine, and you two will be in the room beyond that. They all have connecting doors, so we don’t have to use the hallway unless we want to. That also puts you two near the stairs.”

“And we can mount a webcam outside our door to monitor the hallway, including the elevator. But wouldn’t it be better if we had the middle room?” Mr. Mohawk asked.

“I need to keep you two as far away from Harmony as possible,” Elijah grinned. “You are too easily distracted by a pretty girl. And guys? Lose the hair. I need you to blend in with the locals, not scare them.”

“I kinda like it,” the one with the green hair said, rubbing his hand across the top of his head. “But no worries, I brought some dye with me. And remember, you owe us.”

Elijah sighed. “Yes, next year I will pay for you to go to the big convention.”

“Woot!” Mr. Mohawk pumped his fist in the air. “San Diego, here we come!”

I still had no idea which one was Lando and which one was Scotty as they got their key cards from Elijah and disappeared through the door. That was the least of my worries. “Uh, Elijah, what is going on?”

“Sorry about that. They are some of the best in the business, but I had to call in a favor and haul them out of a regional comic con.”

I’ve heard about Comic Cons. That explained the hair and the comment about Wonder Woman, but nothing else. “What business? Why are they here? And why am I here, and how did I get here?”

He pretended to check his phone. It hadn’t rung, so I decided he was avoiding the question. I wished I had Wonder Woman’s lasso to make him talk. Finally, without looking up, he asked, “How much of last night do you remember?”

I licked my bottom lip. The swelling was gone, but not the scab where Rufus had hit me. And under the gauze on my arm, my wrist hurt when I moved the wrong way. I remembered too much. As I thought about it, I also remembered my dream. I caught my breath.

“You! You came and got me! You brought me here!” His right cheek twitched. “How did you find me, anyway?”

I heard an amused chuckle from the connected door. “You might as well go ahead and tell her, boss man,” Mr. Mohawk said. He slouched against the doorframe and rubbed his back against it. “I suspect she won’t rest until she figures it out.”

“Which one are you?” I snapped. “I’m guessing Lando.”

He grinned. “Points to the lady.”

“Are you all set up?” Elijah asked, trying to change the subject. I wasn’t about to let him off that easy.

“Not even. I’m going to make couple more trips down to the van for the equipment. Is there anything you need?”

“You don’t happen to have a spare pair of glasses and some clean clothes in the van, do you?” I asked. “Hopefully a size twelve?”

Lando looked me over. “I’ve got a shirt you can borrow,” he answered. “It’ll be big enough for two of you, but I washed it last week.”

I wrinkled my nose. “It’s a sweet offer, but maybe you should just take me to my place. As a matter of fact, since you have a vehicle, you can take me home. I’ll stay there while you guys play whatever this game is that you have going. Better yet, I’ll get my spare keys and you can drop me off at the Wrangler parking lot.”

“No!” Elijah practically leaped in front of the outer door, his arms opened wide. “You can’t go anywhere. It’s not safe.”

If I had been in a better mood, I might have felt touched by Elijah’s obvious concern. But the sleeping pill had given me a headache and I was cranky and tired of men telling me what to do. A swift kick to the kneecap might be all I needed to take him down and get me out the door.

“So you’re keeping me a prisoner?” I asked as I bounced slightly on the balls of my feet to test my balance. Being barefoot wouldn’t help any, so the kneecap wasn’t the best target.

He lowered his arms. “No. I’m trying to protect you.”

I threw a couple of jabs at an invisible punching bag as I continued bouncing. The exercise seemed to be helping get rid of the aftermath of the drugs. I was beginning to feel more like myself again. “Protect me from whom? Everyone? No one?” I stopped bouncing and started rocking my weight from one foot to the other.

Elijah threw a glance at Lando, arms crossed, still holding up the doorframe. Or was it the other way around? “That’s part of the problem. We haven’t nailed that down yet.”

I may not have known the who either, but I knew the why. But I wasn’t going to tell them yet. If they could keep secrets, so would I.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked. “You can forget keeping me locked in here.”

Lando straightened himself up and stretched. “I vote we make her part of the team. From what you’ve said, she’s a sharp cookie, and I haven’t seen anything to convince me otherwise. We need a local connection anyway. Google maps can’t tell us everything.”

The muscle in Elijah’s cheek started twitching again. He took a deep breath and noisily exhaled. I had already spotted my way out as soon as I was alone. Or alone with only one of them. Scotty I thought I could take down. Even though Lando was bigger than me, I knew a few moves that might work against him.

But I had my doubts about Elijah. Now that he’d taken off the ill-fitting suit coat, I was seeing previously hidden muscles under his tailored white shirt. And I remembered how effortlessly he had carried me last night. No, he might be trouble.

He glanced at me and back to Lando. The twitch stopped abruptly. “You win,” he said. “She’s in.” He glanced at me again. “But the first order of business is figuring out how to get her some more clothes. The entrance to her apartment is out in the open, and if one of us buys a bunch of woman’s clothing, it’ll look suspicious.”

“I’ll call my friend Janine,” I said. “She has a spare key. She can go pack me a suitcase.”

Elijah shook his head. “And if anyone is watching your place, all they’ll need to do is follow her to get to you. No.”

“Not if she goes up through the interior staircase.”

By now Scotty, with his hair wet but dyed a dark brown, had joined us in the room. “You’re in an apartment? Do you trust your landlord?” he asked.

“Landlords. Absolutely.”

Lando grinned. “Do they own a computer?”

“Yes.” They didn’t use it for much more than checking email, surfing, and playing solitaire, but they had one. I helped them update it once in a while.

Scotty grinned. “Time for PC Masters to get back in business.”

Elijah looked as puzzled as I felt.

“We developed a phony business as a gag. We have signs in the van already, but we’ll need to stop at a uniform shop and buy matching shirts,” Lando said.

“Used it to crash an ex-girlfriend’s party once. Nobody asks any questions when you show up in a marked van and wear a uniform-type shirt.” Scotty explained. “We walk into your landlords’ place carrying empty boxes; we come back out with filled ones. No one knows the difference.”

“Then I can go,” I said.

Lando shook his head. “No. We need to make some major changes to your appearance first. Cut your hair and dye it.”

It took me a long time to grow my hair this long. “No haircut,” I said firmly.

“A wig then. And we need some padding to make you look heavier.” Lando smiled. “A Mrs. Doubtfire look. A cane to disguise your height. What do you think, Eli?”

“It could work.” Elijah examined me. “I don’t know that I like it, but it would give her a way to leave the room.”

“I’ll want to get my supplies out of Pittsburgh,” Lando said. “So it’ll take a day or two. Sorry, Harmony, but Scotty and I will find a way to keep you entertained in the meantime.” He winked at me and grinned. “We’ll even let Eli help.”

It seemed as if this was all part of a long-standing joke between the three of them. I decided to play along. I batted my eyes at Lando. “Just what did you have in mind?” I asked in my sexiest voice, and slowly ran my tongue across my lower lip. Lando blushed and Scotty roared with laughter, but I was startled as I snuck a peek at Elijah’s face.

Anger? Hurt? Disappointment? Even jealousy? I decided my best course of action was to push a little harder. “I’m sure you guys can teach me a thing or two,” I drawled. Sometimes I don’t know when to stop. “Since we are going to be spending sooo much time together.”

Scotty was laughing so hard he was snorting. “I’m not so sure you won’t be the one teaching us something,” he finally managed to get out. “You are so going to fit in. Welcome to the team, Harmony.” He panted, trying to catch his breath. “That was fun but we need to get down to work. Can you call your landlords to tell them we are coming?”

I frowned. “Sure, if I had my cell phone. I don’t know what happened to it.” A still glowering Elijah reached into his pocket and pulled out a very familiar object. I started making a mental list of all the people I needed to call.

“I picked it up last night,” he said. He didn’t give it to me when I held out my hand for it. “The battery is dead and we will leave it that way.”

“It’s my phone.”

“Yes, and it’s how they can track you.” He tossed the phone to me, and it felt lighter than normal. He must’ve noticed my puzzlement, because he patted his pocket. “I’m keeping the battery for now. Any calls you make will be on throw-away phones. You brought some along, right?” he asked, directing his question to the guys while keeping his eyes on me. What did he think I was going to do, attack him and try to wrestle the battery away from him? It didn’t take me long to figure out this was a battle I wasn’t going to win.

I knew Luke’s number by heart, and dialed it on the cheap phone Lando handed to me.

“Put it on speaker,” Elijah whispered after the first ring.

By the fourth ring, I wasn’t sure Luke was going to pick up, but on the fifth one, he did. “Hey, Luke,” I said casually.

He recognized my voice immediately. “Where the hell are you, girl? The cops have been all over looking for you. They said you’d been kidnapped.” He yelled something to Joe in the background.

“I was, but I’m safe with friends now.” At least I hoped they were friends. “Are the police there now?”

“No, they left, but we’re supposed to call them if we hear from you.” Elijah shook his head violently.

“Don’t do that. I’ll explain later. In the meantime, you are going to get a visit from a couple of computer repair men.” I stuck my tongue out at Scotty as he mimed typing. “I need you to take them upstairs through the inside door so they can pick up a few things for me.”

“Are you sure you’re all right, honey?” Joe asked.