Yet José felt no fear, and not just because he was in shock.
“In my dreams,” he said as a headache flared under his skull. “I’ve seen you in my dreams.”
“Butch says hi.”
“He does?” God, he felt so confused. And yet also totally clear. “Really? He’s still okay?”
“Yeah.” The man glanced at Stan. “He would have been here in person, but he couldn’t keep up with your car on foot. So I’m his stand-in.”
“You saved my life.”
“I did, true.”
“Thank you.”
The man stared at him for a long time. Then tilted his head. “You know, you’re welcome. And there was no way I was going to let you die. It’d break my roommate’s heart and I can’t let that happen.”
“Butch is your roommate?” When the man nodded, José smiled a little. “So you’d really know if he was okay. Good.”
“Yeah. Well, I gotta go. You got any message for Butch?”
“Tell him to go to church.”
“He does. Midnight mass, Wednesdays and Saturdays, without fail. We moved the work schedule around to make sure he could go.”
“Church is important.” José rubbed over his eyebrow. “You’re going to take my memories now, aren’t you.”
“It’s for the best—”
“How did you know this was going to happen?”
There was a pause. “It’s my curse. To know the how, but rarely the where, and never when. So in most cases, I just have to follow my gut.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Thanks, my guy—”
“Wait.” José put his palm up. “Keep taking care of Butch, will you? I tried to. I failed. But I think . . . I think you’re doing a much better job than I ever did, aren’t you.”
The man got really serious for a second. But then he smiled a little and nodded.
“You’re a good man, José de la Cruz. And let’s just keep this between ourselves, shall we? I’ve heard that true Good Samaritans don’t need their deeds to be known, and although I’ve never been much for that whole savior shit before—and probably never will be—I got a soft spot for the Boston cop we both respect so much. Besides, he’d get all emotional when he thanked me and really, who needs that.”
The stranger who was not really a stranger stood up, and José found himself bracing for a familiar sting—
“One week?” the man in leather said. “No, you take that pretty wife of yours away for two weeks. You guys go and enjoy yourselves. Happy retirement—”
We have to make some noise. Sorry—”
Before Rio could ask what Luke was talking about, a gunshot rang out and then the guard dropped to the terrace and didn’t move.
“I thought I told you not to shoot him!”
“I didn’t,” he hissed.
Meanwhile, an alarm started to go off inside, shrill and very loud, and the countdown to police arrival got rolling.
“I just knocked him out,” Luke said. “Before I shot the lock.”
Okay, that explained why one of the French doors was lolling open.
“You ready to do this?” he asked.
Without another word, Rio entered first, but it wasn’t like she knew the layout any better than Luke did. Still, it didn’t take a genius to know that whoever was upstairs was going to do one of two things: They were either going to come down with a weapon, or they were going to call for reinforcements.
Which might, or might not, be Caldwell Police.
Probably not on that one. Assuming they were in the right place, Stephan Fontaine had plenty of street resources, in spite of all his legitimate business contacts and philanthropy.
Taking off at a run, she suddenly knew what she was looking for—and yet she didn’t understand why it mattered so much, given the alarm, given everything. But she had to find the fountain. It would confirm that which was still only speculation at the moment.
If she could find where she had been held, though, she could make the final connection, plug the background in with the foreground.
She raced through a blur of rooms, dining, sitting, a library, a study—
And there it was. The fountain was around the last turn, in that room she remembered, with the chair she’d been tied to. As she skidded to a halt on the black-and-white marble floor, it was all as it had been: The falling water, the golden clock on the mantel, the drapes.
Turning around to Luke, who had been following her, she saw past his shoulder a man coming down the formal staircase in a silken robe.
And for a moment, she froze solid. Especially as Stephan Fontaine looked right at them.
They were in the shadows, though, because he had failed to reopen the heavy curtains from when he’d brought her here.
Why, she thought. Why had he taken the risk?
And as soon as she wondered that, she knew the answer: Because he believed he could. Because he had been safe in this house, and hidden from his Mozart games for so long, that he believed he was invincible. With all his money, legally or illegally gotten, the world was his for the taking—and people like her, people like her brother and her parents, didn’t matter. He had his fortune, and his power, and his fake status, and all the lives that he ruined along the way didn’t matter.