“Shut up. I won’t put up with that nonsense right now.” She was striding toward them. “For your information, your guards were indisposed.”
“Drunk?”
“I didn’t mean that. I should have said permanently indisposed. Muntz, Fantinelli, Blackman…They were all fools.” Her glance shifted to Dee and she stiffened. “What happened to your mouth? It’s cut.”
“She had an encounter with one of your apes. I believe it was Muntz,” Jessie said. “But it doesn’t really matter which one. Since you’re in charge, you’re responsible.” She tilted her head. “You should have come back sooner.“
“I couldn’t come back sooner. I had to give them time to finish that bottle of champagne.” Her eyes were blazing. “And I’m not to blame for this. Nothing happened to her all the time I had the bitch here. I didn’t choose those men. It’s his fault.”
“Whose fault?” Dee asked softly. “And why were you so careful about those guys guzzling down that champagne? Jessie thinks that you were planning on ridding yourself of them.” She paused. “If that’s true, I have to ask myself: What weapon? If you were going to do it, the answer would be poison. Everyone knows poison is the prime weapon used by women.” Her lips twisted. “And it would suit your twisted humor to put the poison in the champagne that was meant to celebrate their newfound wealth.”
“It was just convenient.” She lifted her chin. “I could have used any weapon.”
“But you didn’t?”
“No, I didn’t. The idea did amuse me.” She added, “So maybe you could be smarter than I thought. But it won’t do you any good. In the end, he always comes back to me.” She turned and strode toward the bathroom. “I don’t have time to talk to you any longer. He’ll be here soon. I’ll get a washcloth and clean up that cut, and he’ll just be happy that he had me to keep them from hurting you even more…”
“Rattlesnake, indeed,” Jessie murmured, gazing after her. “And you were firing on all cylinders while you were probing her just now.”
“Because I suddenly put everything together about the reason why she had to be involved in this,” Dee said. “Though it’s bizarre and I can’t—”
“He’s here.” Charlotte was hurrying out of the bathroom. “I know the sound of that monster car.” She carelessly wiped Dee’s mouth with the wet cloth. “Now don’t give me any trouble or you’ll be sorry.”
“I’ll do my best,” Dee said. “I wouldn’t want you to be upset with me when we’ve grown so close. You might—”
The door was thrown wide open. “Hello, Delilah!”
Dee and Jessie turned and stared in disbelief at the man standing in the doorway.
It was Noah Calderon.
“Are you all right?” He hurried forward. “I can’t tell you how worried I’ve been about you. You have to understand why this happened. Why it had to be like this.”
“Understand?” Dee was still staring at him in bewilderment. “Unless you’re here to rescue me, then I don’t think that’s a possibility. You did this, Noah?”
“Son of a bitch,” Jessie murmured.
“Shut up,” Noah said savagely. “This is partly your fault. She was always talking about you when we were together, and I could see that she wanted to be like you. You were only a glorified bodyguard. She couldn’t understand that she was so much more than you’d ever be.” His lips twisted bitterly. “And that the two of us together could rule the world if we chose. We were the perfect couple.”
“Except Dee didn’t agree with you,” Jessie said sarcastically. “And I don’t even remember commenting on you to her while she was dating you. She must have had the good sense to make up her own mind what a loser you were.”
“I wouldn’t insult me if I were you,” Noah said with soft venom. “I have a possible use for you, but that can change in a heartbeat. Why do you think I chose you to deliver that ransom? A threat or pain to you and Delilah would do anything I wanted. But I’m beginning to believe it might be time to totally eliminate your influence with her.”
“What are you talking about?” Dee asked through set teeth. “I’ve been listening to all this bullshit you’ve been muttering but I can’t believe it. You have to say the words. Did you actually have the insanity to do this to me?”
“Of course I did,” Noah said calmly. “There was nothing insane about it. You wouldn’t pay any attention to me when I tried to talk you out of breaking up with me. You even laughed when I tried to tell you we should stay together, that the two of us were perfect for each other.” His lower lip curled. “No one laughs at me. I was brilliant, everyone admired me, look at all I had accomplished. And yet whenever you were with me, you were like a shooting star that made me shine even brighter. You were wrong to try to destroy that. So I had to keep it from happening.”
“I liked you, Noah. I thought you were fun. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I only wondered if you were getting too serious when I had a career to think about.” She was still shaking her head. “And what you did was insane. How could you even think it wasn’t?”
“People have told me before that they thought I was crazy, but it was only because they were jealous of what I’d become. All you have to do is understand that we were meant to be together and obey me.” He frowned. “Though it’s going to be much more difficult now. I had to do a lot of shifting and adjusting. I’ll have to take you away and see if we can come to some kind of agreement that will please me.”
“Take me away?” Dee’s voice was suddenly hoarse with anger. “You took me away, you son of a bitch. And you killed people to do it. Is that what you call shifting and adjusting?”
“You don’t know what I’ve gone through for you.” He bent toward her. “Do you realize I risked twenty-five million to make this work?”
Dee shook her head. “What are you talking about?”
“He paid the ransom to himself,” Jessie said. “It drew away suspicion and brought him access to the investigation. He was right there with us.”
Noah smiled. “Exactly.” Then he added quickly, “But that didn’t mean I wasn’t forced to put that money at risk. I had to trust some men who had proven to me they would do almost anything for cash. I had no assurance that they wouldn’t take off with that ransom payment, so I placed tracking chips in the money bands. I gave them a signal sweeper that shouldn’t have detected those chips, but one of the men, in a moment of rare initiative, brought another one of his own that was more powerful.” He grimaced. “The cash tracking chips were detected, and the whole thing almost blew up in our faces.”
“But then you had your chance to do it again and sent me into the Los Angeles River,” Jessie said sardonically.
Noah clapped his hands together. “Yes, well done, by the way. It kept me in the investigation’s inner circle, and brought you to us. Necessity really is the mother of invention, isn’t it?”