Take My Breath Away…

Gabe stared at her. Why hadn’t he seen it before? The coldness in her went so deep. “When Dee set off the alarm, you didn’t have time to switch the paintings, so you left her there. You abandoned her. That’s why she was shot. And then you framed my father with the Matisse.”

“They had to pay. They were keeping me from being all that I can be.”

When she glanced at the overhead lights, Gabe was certain that his time was running out. “But it turned out that you couldn’t fulfill your potential without a partner after all. Even after you joined G. W. Securities, you couldn’t pull off the kind of thefts that you’d pulled with Dee. That’s why you visited Claire Forlani in Italy. And when you learned that she’d inherited her mother’s talents, you gave her Dee’s bracelet and persuaded her to follow in her mother’s footsteps.”

It wasn’t surprise he saw this time, but shock. In spite of that, her gun hand remained steady.

“What I’m not sure I understand is why you tried to kill her. Was it because you feared betrayal? Or maybe you’d begun to sense that she wasn’t going to need you. She was going to be able to make it on her own. Had she already threatened to leave you after this job?”

Bright spots of color stained Debra’s pale cheeks. “No, Claire made a stupid mistake. She was supposed to steal the statue after tonight’s robbery. Your signature and fingerprints would be found on it, and that would convince the FBI that you were behind all of the thefts. You’d be arrested and sent to jail, just as your father was. That was the plan.”

“A good one,” Gabe said as he prayed for time. He wanted to get that gun before the lights went out again. “But once Claire strayed from it, everything started to unravel. You couldn’t use her for this job, so you had to come up with an alternate strategy. Then you found a second security system. And whatever your latest plan is, it won’t work.”

“Yes, it will. Did you think I wouldn’t find a way around your system?”

Debra pulled a flashlight out of a pocket in the wide gown of her skirt. “The lights will go out again any second, and they won’t come back on. You’re going to disarm your new alarm and give me the Cézanne or Nicola Guthrie will be killed.”

Fear hit him so hard that for a moment he lost his breath.

The muffled explosion and the blackout occurred at the same instant. Then came the sound of smoke alarms. The only light in the room came from Debra’s flashlight and it glinted off her gun.

“I don’t believe you have Nicola,” Gabe said just as his cell phone vibrated.

“That will be her now.” Debra set her flashlight on the small table with the silver bowl and aimed it at the painting. Then she pulled her own cell phone out of a pocket. “Mark Adams has a gun pressed to her gut. Not to her head or her heart. That would be too easy. If the trigger is pulled, she’ll bleed out slowly, painfully.”

He said a prayer to St. Francis, then spoke into the phone that Debra handed him. “You all right?”

“KEEP YOUR EYES ON ME and everything will be fine,” Mark murmured softly.

Nicola badly wanted to glance around the table, to send a signal to Nash or her father. Several minutes had gone by, and the lights hadn’t flickered again, but she was very much aware that Mark had his cell phone in his hand. She wasn’t sure how much time she had. But her instincts told her that Mark was telling the truth about Gabe.Even as a waiter set a filet in front of her, she kept her eyes on the agent who had worked so closely with her father. “Why are you doing this?”

His smile was wry. “I was given an offer I couldn’t refuse. And the person I work with is very capable.”

“Debra Bancroft.”

Before Mark Adams could confirm or deny, there was the sound of an explosion. The floor in the ballroom vibrated, the chandeliers chimed. Then the room was pitched into blackness.

Mark’s hand grasped her arm. She managed to snag her purse before he pulled her quickly toward the ballroom door. She heard her father’s voice, telling everyone to be calm. But she figured Nash would be after her in a flash.

“In here.” Mark shoved her into a storage closet right next to the ballroom. She heard the lock click and then felt the press of a gun into her side. “Don’t make a sound,” he breathed.

She didn’t dare. They both heard footsteps running past toward the stairs to the lower floor. The room they were standing in was pitch-black. But she could picture it in her mind. The windowless room was used to store tables, chairs, glassware and china that her stepmother used in the ballroom. Very carefully, she slipped the strap of her purse over her shoulder. She wanted her hands free, and if she got the chance, she would go for her gun.

More footsteps rushed by.

She nearly jumped when Mark pressed a cell phone to her ear.

“Tell Wilder that you’re alive and you’ll remain that way as long as he does what he’s told.”

“You all right?” Gabe asked.

“Yes. He has a gun.”

Then the line went dead.

17

“YOU WON’T GET AWAY with this, Debra.” Gabe kept his voice calm in spite of the fear roiling inside of him. He had to push the image of someone holding Nicola at gunpoint out of his mind.

“I will with your help. Or Nicola Guthrie dies. Right now. All I have to do is punch one number into my cell.”“Why don’t you fill me in on your plan? I’ll be of more help if I’m not operating blind.”

“Or you’ll be more prepared to stop me. Turn off the second layer of security and get the Cézanne out of its frame. No tricks.”

Gabe stepped closer to the glass case, pressed his thumb against the keypad and punched in a code. “I have to have some guarantee that Nicola Guthrie will be safe.”

The glass slid open and Debra stared at it. “It’s voice activated. I figured that much. But what else?”

“A certain combination of words.” And he could lock the painting up again just as easily.

“Don’t even think of saying them again. Just get it out of the frame. We don’t have much time.”

Gabe couldn’t have agreed with her more. Time was not working in his favor. Jonah couldn’t make a move, not with Nicola being held hostage. And once he handed the painting over to Debra, he would have nothing to bargain with.

“NOW WHAT?” Nicola whispered. She felt Mark ease away from the door. From the sound of his breathing, she knew that he was standing across from her. The gun was no longer pressed to her side, but it was close. No more than a foot or two separated them in the narrow room. She formed a mental picture of him in her mind.

“As soon as she signals me that she has the painting, we’ll leave. That explosion you heard set off a fire in the kitchen area. They’re already evacuating the ballroom, and we’ll slip out with the others. As long as we have you and Wilder as hostages, they’re not going to stop us.”The plan sounded good on the surface. And Mark might even take her along. But Debra wouldn’t be taking Gabe. Once she had the painting, she’d kill Gabe and take off on her own.

Ruthlessly, Nicola pushed back the surge of fear. It wasn’t going to help her a bit to keep thinking about how much danger Gabe might be in. She had to concentrate on Mark Adams. He was her only chance of improving Gabe’s chances.

“You’ve surprised me, Mark. We suspected that someone in the FBI office might be involved, but I didn’t think it was you. You’re a family man.”

His short laugh held no humor. “Used to be. My family is breaking up. My ex-wife is about to remarry and start a new life. Debra has helped me through a rough time. With the money we’ve made on these robberies, we’ll also be able to start a new life.”

His belief in Debra was very strong in his voice. Nicola figured her best strategy was to chip away at that trust.

“What’s taking so long? Debra has to have the painting by now. She’s not going to call you.”

“Shut up.”

“She’s going to leave you behind.” In her mind, Nicola tried to imagine exactly where Mark’s gun was. She pictured his height and exactly where the angle of his elbow would be. “If you kill me, there’s no way you’ll get away with it. My father will hunt you down. If you stop now, you can make a deal.”

“She’s going to call.”

“No. She’s going to cut her losses. That’s the way she operates. Do you know that this isn’t her first string of robberies? She’s been at it for twenty years or more and she’s never gotten caught.”

“You’re lying.”

“She’s good—so good she’s never even made it onto Interpol’s or the FBI’s radar screen. No wonder you let her dupe you. There’s a good chance she’s been stealing art here in Denver ever since she went to work for G. W. Securities. That means she’s got money tucked away. And so far the people she takes on as partners end up dead. This morning she tried to kill Claire Forlani in her hospital room.”

“That’s not true.”

But the quaver in his voice was just what she’d been waiting for. In a very quick move, she lunged for his gun hand and used all her weight to shove it aside. There was a deafening explosion as she brought her knee up hard into his groin.