Virgin in Disguise Read online

Cabrini turned her away from the counter with a firm hand on her shoulder. “Relax.”

  “But we need to get into that box.” Denied access made it seem more urgent than she’d realized.

  “We will.”

  His calm response didn’t alleviate her tension. “We need to get into that box before someone else finds a way to bre—”

  He cut her off with a kiss.

  “What was that for?” she asked when he released her.

  His low tone didn’t carry beyond her. “To stop you before you said something that landed security on our butts like the proverbial ton.”

  “There are other ways to get me to stop talking.”

  “True, but they aren’t nearly as much fun.” He gave her another quick kiss.

  “Fine.” She shook her head at his boyish grin. “You got me to stop, now what do you suggest?”

  “When the front line doesn’t give you the answer you want, you go to the next level.”

  Of course. Like that would be easy. Nothing had been easy since taking Cabrini into custody. She took a deep breath and turned back to the counter.

  “I’d like to speak to the manager.” She put as much reason and calm into her request as she could muster.

  As if on cue, the glass door opened. Only, rather than a business-suited banker, a uniformed security guard entered.

  Tillie rose from her desk.

  “What the…?” Angel gaped at the banker.

  The woman stood with shoulders back, head raised to an imperious angle and a steel rod down her spine. “Either this woman is trying to illegally gain access to a box or she illegally rented the box.”

  The guard turned an impassive eye on her. Cabrini slipped his arm around her waist.

  Several hours, three management levels and untold repetitions of the situation later, the bank manager finally accompanied them back to the vault area.

  Tillie was slightly less of a Hun. Once the manager had thoroughly assured her, and overseen the completion of a new signature card, she escorted Angel back to the secured area.

  Butterflies performed acrobatic loop-the-loops in her stomach when the box slid out of the slot. The sensation caught her off guard.

  Tillie led her to a small room. “Take as much time as you need.” Her attitude had certainly been adjusted.

  The door of the privacy room clicked shut, and Angel rested her hands on the flat, metal box. How long had it been since anyone looked in it? Who had been that last person? Her father?

  Her hands shook. The emotions seeped into her awareness one by one. Sadness as she relived the loss of her father. Anger at the arsonist responsible for his death. Fear that the contents of the box would be worthless. Until she opened the box, for all she knew, it could be empty.

  Where was Cabrini and his assurances when she really needed him?

  Needed him. She could admit that, there in the tiny room, where there were no witnesses. Four days with the man and she wanted him with her, felt something missing when he was gone.

  They thought so much alike, it sometimes seemed as though they were connected at the brain.

  If she didn’t watch out, she’d start to rely on him. And then he’d leave.

  She hadn’t wanted to get involved with a man for exactly that reason. She didn’t want to lose her independence, get used to the strength of having a partner, only to lose that person. Her mother was a living example of the kind of hell that could create.

  Her life might not be perfect, but at least it was of her own making, not the result of an ill-fated love.

  She didn’t need Cabrini to be complete. She had her job, she had her mother. Maybe someday she’d have a cat.

  The hard, metal edges of the safe deposit box dug into her clenched hands. She needed to concentrate on the task at hand.

  A fine tremor ran through her fingers. She took a deep, cleansing breath. There was nothing to be concerned about. Whatever the box held, it wouldn’t change the world.

  The lid opened on silent hinges. She laid the contents out on the desk then sat back in the hard chair, staring at what her mother had been so desperate for her to see.

  Patrick Donovan’s legacy consisted of an envelope with black-and-white negatives and a flat box containing a reel of audiotape.

  She slipped the contents into her briefcase, closed the box and opened the door.

  Tillie returned the box to its slot in the vault wall, then ushered Angela back to the lobby.

  Her high heels beat out a quick tempo on the marble floor. Cabrini stood, and a sense of relief warmed her. Opening the box had been harder than she’d imagined it could be. It would be good to have a partner to help figure out what the contents meant.

  “Something’s been bothering me, Elf.” Frank held open the door to the street as they exited the bank.

  “Just one thing?”

  “Well, no, actually. There are several things, but I thought I’d start with one.”

  “Okay, what’s the one thing?”

  “Did you tell your mother or her companion where we were staying?”

  She slipped her sunglasses into place. “No. I figure the less they know about the particulars of whatever I’m working on, the better off we all are.”

  “Who did you meet with while I checked in at the hotel?”

  “No one. I worked out at the club, then went to the salon to get my hair colored.” She frowned. “What are you getting at?”

  “How did Sorenson and the thug brigade find us?”

  The streetlight changed and they stopped at the crosswalk. Elf turned to him. “You think I leaked our location to someone who sent them?”

  “No. You’re too good at your job to make that kind of slip.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  “Which leaves us with, how did they figure out where we were?”

  The light turned green and they moved with the pedestrian traffic.

  “Do you think someone’s been following us?”

  “If they are, I haven’t spotted them.”

  “Considering I followed you for a week…” She let the comment trail off.

  “I was careless, I admit it. But I wasn’t expecting my cover to be blown. Now I know it has been and I’ve been watching very closely. No one followed us until the thug brothers showed up.”

  “Okay, then we’ve got a couple things to figure out this afternoon. You can work on how we were found, and I’ll work on the contents of the box.”

  “Speaking of which…”

  “We need to get to a sound studio.”

  “I assume you’ll tell me why, eventually.” He motioned her ahead of him through the hotel’s revolving door. He scanned the entrance and the skyway-level balcony. There didn’t appear to be anyone other than the valet and bellmen hanging around.

  The bell captain responded to his signal. “Yes, sir?”

  “Could you bring our car around, please?” Frank handed him a ticket.

  “Certainly.”

  They drifted to a corner of the entrance that sheltered them from prying eyes and still afforded access to a quick getaway. He slipped his arm around Elf’s waist and pulled her close.

  A dull clang announced the arrival of an elevator. Tension hummed through his nerves, all of his senses on alert, as he watched half a dozen people get off the elevator. They wore convention badges and were engaged in an animated debate. None of them belonged to the thug brigade.

  Elf sighed. She’d been wound as tight as he was. Nothing about the day had gone according to plan. He would have liked a little more one-on-one time with her, alone in their room, but that wasn’t likely to happen anytime soon.

  He settled for holding her close, breathing in her scent as they waited.

  The car arrived. This time Elf took the wheel. “My brain hurts. I need some caffeine.”

  He glanced at his watch. Mid-afternoon, and neither of them had eaten. “Food wouldn’t hurt, either. Maybe we can find a phone book and locate a sound studio while we eat.” r />
  “No need. I’ve got it covered.”

  He watched her navigate the traffic streaming towards the Uptown neighborhood. She’d been quiet ever since leaving the bank. Something ate at her. He could probably come pretty close to figuring out what, but he’d rather she told him.

  “Any idea what’s on the tape?”

  “It could be an old recording of songs. Maybe voice letters from when Dad was away in the service. It may all mean nothing.”

  Or it could be the key to everything. Elf kept wanting to fight the reality he knew they faced. They didn’t have much time, but he’d give her what he could to come to terms with Dexter’s betrayal.

  “Care to share what else you found in the deposit box?”

  Several blocks passed before she answered. “Some negatives.”

  There was more. He could hear it in her voice but until she said the words… “Talk to me, Elf. What’s eating at you?”

  “Everything. How did they find us? Who sent them? Why?”

  “We know who and I have a pretty solid idea why, but you don’t want to listen to that theory.”

  “It doesn’t seem possible. There has to be something more to it. Sorenson could be behind this. Maybe he’s setting up Dex.”

  “That could be possible, I suppose.” Possible, but not likely. “What about the negatives? Any idea what’s on them?”

  “I couldn’t tell. The images were too small and the light in the bank wasn’t exactly ideal.”

  “Add photo lab to our list of needs.”

  “No. I’ve—”

  “Got it covered,” he finished for her.

  The slightest of grins tugged at her mouth as she pulled into the parking ramp attached to Calhoun Square. “We can eat someplace here.”

  There was a variety of restaurants to choose from, and Frank led the way to the wrap sandwich shop. “This will be faster.”

  They ordered and settled at a table off to the side, where they could see the mall and street entrances to the shop.

  Elf picked at her sandwich. “I’ve got a friend who’s something of a techno-nerd. She might be able to help us with the film and the tape.”

  “Do you trust her?”

  “She’s helped me a number of times. In fact, you met her at the CC Club.”

  “The uptown babe is your techno-nerd?”

  “Appearances can be deceiving.”

  “That’s become painfully clear to me on this assignment.” He wadded his food wrappers into a tight bundle. “So what is she going to do for us?”

  “Two things, I hope. Use her computer setup to scan the negatives and give us prints. While she’s doing that for us, I’ll use her audio equipment to listen to the tape.”

  “Your friend has a reel-to-reel machine just lying around?”

  “That’s her main business, actually. Her sound studio is quite popular with a lot of the ad agencies and production companies in town.”

  “A buddy who does car disguises, a friend with computer and sound specialties… Any chance you have an electronics expert in your address book?”

  “Sure, along with race car driver, martial arts master, weaver, photographer. I’ll be calling him if Tina can’t work her magic on the film.”

  “You’ve got quite a collection of talented friends.”

  She shrugged. “We help each other out when we can. It’s a good—Heidelberg.”

  “What?” He glanced around the room without being obvious.

  “Thug brothers are back. How did they find us?”

  “Let’s worry about that later. Right now, we need to lose them. Again.”

  “That’s not going to be so easy.”

  “We did it before.” He stood and led the way out to the street.

  “Yeah, but this time my thug has something in his hand, and he’s watching it pretty close.”

  “I noticed. It might be a tracking device of some kind.”

  “You think we’re bugged?”

  “How else could they find us? The real question is, how did they bug us? And which one of us?”

  Chapter 14

  “They must have planted something when we were at the hotel.” Angel watched over her shoulder as they turned the corner. Her stomach flip-flopped. She slowed to a stop. “Which means it’s in the car. We’ve got to find another means of transportation.”

  “I’ll buy the bug theory, but I think you’re off on the location.”

  “If not the car, where do you think they planted it?” She backtracked to an entrance they’d passed. “Let’s see if we can lose them in the bookstore.”

  Cabrini followed her in and they wove their way through the tall book stacks. “How did they find us at the hotel so easy? No one followed us there. If the tracer is on the car, there’s no way they could have pinpointed where we were after we parked.”

  Angel scrubbed her hands through her hair. Everything he said made sense. She hated that, hated the implications. “Okay. If it’s something that allowed them to follow us to the hotel, then it has to be something we carried with us.”

  He held out his hand and flicked his fingers. “Let me see the car keys for a second.”

  “You think…” She dug in her purse and pulled out the key ring. “In this?”

  “It makes sense. What else are you likely to carry with you after you’ve parked?” He studied the key fob for a moment then pried it open. “Bingo.”

  Nestled inside the casing was a tiny transmitter. Cabrini pulled it out and snapped the fob back together. “Who would have access to these keys?”

  A cold fist clenched around Angel’s stomach. “It’s a short list. Mom doesn’t drive.”

  “That leaves you and your mother’s companion. Has anyone else driven it?”

  “Mechanics at the dealership, maybe, when we take it in for service.”

  “What dealer did you pick up the car from?”

  “I didn’t. Dex had it delivered. But that was almost two years ago.”

  “He could have planted it then.”

  No, that was too far-fetched. She started to tell him that when he motioned for silence. He whispered, “They just came in.”

  Cabrini led their way through several rows of books, pausing every few feet to check the progress of their trackers. They made it to the video section and stopped again. Laying the tracer on a row of DVDs, he leaned close. “I love irony, don’t you?”

  She looked at the movie title. Enemy of the State. Will Smith, Gene Hackman, bugs and tracers, covert operations—one of her all-time favorite movies. A smile caught her by surprise. She turned to say something, and discovered Cabrini still leaned close. His lips brushed hers. A tiny shiver danced down her back.

  “Let’s get out of here.” He laced his fingers through hers and led her out of the store, up an escalator to the second floor and out to the parking ramp.

  “Don’t you want to wait and see if you’re right?”

  “No need.” He opened the passenger door for her. “I know I am.”

  “About the tracer, maybe.” The door closing interrupted her. When Cabrini settled behind the wheel, she continued. “You don’t know for sure who planted it.”

  “Sorenson as good as told us.” He brushed the back of his fingers over her hand as he reversed out of their parking spot. “Sooner or later, you’re going to have to accept that maybe Dex isn’t the great guy you want him to be.”

  “I know.” She leaned her head against the leather seat back. “It’s just that…I don’t understand why. Why, after all these years of helping out, watching over us, treating us like his own family, why would he turn on me?”

  “Maybe we can figure that out when we hear what’s on the tape.” He stopped the car at the parking ramp exit. “Where are we going?”

  “Tina’s studio. Take a right and head towards the lake.”

  She directed him on a circuitous route around two of the city’s lakes. Other than her directions, they drove in silence. Cabrini left her to her thought
s. She avoided thinking.

  After parking on a residential street not far from Lake of the Isles, she led him down a block and around a corner. Many of the houses they walked by in the next couple of blocks were older, dating from the early 1900s, with stained-glass windows and wraparound porches. They were homes built to escape the city and raise a large family. Now they housed upwardly mobile, double-income couples.

  Cabrini followed her around another corner to a tall, weathered wood gate. The slightly askew sign proclaimed Tina’s Tunes. Through the gate, a path led around a small flower garden to the carriage house that had been converted into a state-of-the-art sound studio.

  A snippet of the song “Welcome to my World” announced their arrival when she pushed the door open.

  “Yo, Tina,” she called with a Brooklyn accent.

  The soft murmur of voices floated down from the studio loft. Footsteps followed. “Hey, kiddo. What’s up?”

  Angel met her partway up the stairs. “Sorry to bother you, but is there any chance I can tap your audio expertise?”

  “Sure. I’m booked for another hour with this client, then I’m free.”

  “Could I borrow your computer and scanner in the meantime?”

  “No problem.” Tina frowned. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. It’s just been…” She shook her head. “I’ll fill you in later.”

  Tina shrugged and headed back to her client. “You know where everything is.”

  It was challenging, but Frank did his best to stay out of the way as Elf moved around the closet-sized office, turning on equipment, booting up the computer system and opening programs.

  Each time she brushed against him, he wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her. His reaction bordered on insanity.

  The last thing she’d tolerate would be him trying to coddle her.

  Not that that changed his wanting.

  She finally settled into the desk chair. He leaned against the credenza behind her.

  With easy familiarity, she arranged a strip of negatives on the scanner. In a matter of minutes, she filled the screen with several images.

  He leaned closer to get a better look, and her scent wound through his awareness.

  She shifted in the chair and, for a fraction of a second, he thought she moved closer to him. Then she reached for another strip of negatives and put them on the scanner. He sighed, feeling just a bit foolish at enjoying the moment while she seemed to be oblivious to his reactions.