Escaping Vegas (The Inheritance Book 1) (14 page)

“Taking it to the agents by yourself? You should wait until Brandon gets there, Cole. Why do you need the site information?” Thaddeus asked.

“I’ve got a plan for how to return it and not put myself in too much jeopardy. I need the site information because I plan to let the agents know in a roundabout way that I have the dragon now and that Madalina is out of it. This way, they’ll leave off harassing her, and I can make arrangements to return the damned thing and be done with it.”

“I got it; I’m with you. This will lure them away from her, at least in theory. As much faith as I have in your ability to protect yourself, I wish you’d let me send Brandon. Since you won’t, at least let me take care of leaving a message on the antique site. I know what to say to get their attention,” Thaddeus said.

“In theory. So far, the agents have been pretty predictable, going straight for who they thought had the item. That will shift to me.” Cole set the dragon down and raked a hand back through his hair. He said, “All right. Yeah. Go ahead and make contact with the agents on the site. I’m sure they’re scouring every comment on the listing, looking for any clues. I also need you to locate the nearest forger we know.”

“Forger? What for? You lose your passport?”

“No. I need someone skilled in making duplicates and copies of more than fake identification and things like that. Someone around the Los Angeles area. I don’t want to have to travel too far.”

“You’re going to have a copy of the dragon made? You’re not considering giving the agents the fake one, are you?”

“No, no. It’s a peace offering, of a sort. Hurry, Thaddeus. Make contact with the agents and text me when you hear back. The sooner I know their focus has shifted to me, the better I’ll feel about leaving Madalina alone. And find me that forger as soon as possible.”

“I’m on it. I’ll call you or text you as soon as I have some information.”

“Thanks.” Cole ended the call and slid the phone onto the table next to the dragon. He figured he had perhaps four, five hours tops before Thad made contact with the agents. Handing the artifact over so easily rubbed him the wrong way, especially after the terror the men had inflicted on Madalina. Yet after examining all the avenues to safety, this was the fastest, most expedient way to shift the agents’ attention. Now that this mission had a new trajectory, he considered his next move. Smoothing things over with Madalina would have to wait until he had more information.

If she’ll allow you to smooth things over at all.

C
HAPTER
E
IGHTEEN

T
hat unbelievable
bastard
! He used you.” Lianne sniffed and coughed, then raised a fist full of tissues to the heavens while she ranted. “There was no way it could have been anyone else. Whoever took that dragon knew
right
where to look. Otherwise, the agents would have had to search my whole house—with me in it. No, it was Cole all right. Mr. Good-Looking-I’m-Taller-Than-Everyone-Linebacker-Liar!”

Miserable, Madalina listened to Lianne say all the things she’d already thought a hundred times over. Sitting in the corner of Lianne’s couch, legs curled beneath her, she resisted reaching for the box of tissues because once she started crying, she wouldn’t stop. It wasn’t just Cole—it was everything. It was Vegas, the car chase, her wrecked house, the accident . . . everything. Now the dragon was gone, along with Cole, and she couldn’t recall a time when she’d ever felt so low. She wondered whether sleeping with her had been a part of the plan all along or whether he’d just been scratching an itch. Did it matter? Rubbing her forehead with her fingers, she tucked her other hand between the bend of her knees and watched Lianne pace circles in the small living room. Lianne had been gracious enough to come pick her up at the hotel and bring her back here.

After all, Madalina reminded herself, she had nowhere else to go.

“And you don’t even have his phone number to call and tell him off, do you? We don’t know where he lives, exactly, or where he’s gone. I swear, I’d get in the car and go after Mister Blue . . . Green . . . Whatever-Eyes and give him what for. That
bastard
,” she repeated.

“What’s worse,” Madalina said with a desperate little laugh—nothing about this was funny at all—“is that the agents still think
I
have the dragon—that has to be what they’ve been after all this time. So they’ll abduct me again, probably torture me, and I won’t be able to tell them anything.”

“Oh. Oh! I’m so mad I could spit.”

Had her situation not been so dire, Madalina would have found Lianne’s fury amusing. She’d never seen the blonde so worked up. And the dragon wasn’t even hers.

It’s not yours anymore, either
, she reminded herself. She didn’t know what was worse: Cole playing her the whole time, or the fact that she’d wound up losing the gift from her grandfather after all. Then there were the Chinese agents, who would distract themselves with finding
her
while Cole made a clean getaway.

“I’m not exactly happy, either. I just don’t know what to do. Call the police like we’d planned but turn
him
in for theft? Maybe they’d be able to track him down.” The thought made Madalina sick. The whole thing made her sick. She wouldn’t be able to turn Cole in, even though he’d clearly used her, as Lianne had so bluntly pointed out.

“Hey, that’s a good idea! We should do that. I mean, he broke into my house, so I could press charges on that front, too. He’ll go to jail—exactly what he deserves.” Lianne plucked at the hem of her pea-green T-shirt in agitation. She’d thrown on jeans and sneakers to pick up Madalina from the hotel. Her nose was still red, like her eyes, the cough a little more prominent than the day before.

Madalina stared at the floor in front of the couch. Yes, it was a good idea. Yes, that’s probably exactly what they should do. It was the smart option. She needed protection. She knew the men would, eventually, track her down. Tomorrow was her last day off of work, then she would have to go back and relieve the manager and the two other employees who’d covered for her and Lianne during their absence.

The vacation she’d so badly needed had turned into a nightmare.

“It’s probably the right thing to do.” Yet there she sat, anger stirring beneath the shock she couldn’t quite shake. Madalina just couldn’t believe Cole had lied the whole time. Maybe his real name wasn’t Cole at all.

“Why aren’t you throwing things and ranting? How can you not be mad as hell?” Lianne asked, dabbing her nose with the wad of tissues.

“I am mad. I mean—I’m really angry. It’s just . . .” Madalina didn’t know how to explain.

“Just what?” Lianne gasped, eyes widening. “You
slept
with him, didn’t you?”

Madalina groaned.

“Oh. My. God. You did. How could do you that?” Lianne held up a finger. “Don’t answer. I’ve got eyes in my head, but still.
Madalina.
”

“I didn’t know! How could I have known he was involved? I mean . . . he saved my butt in Vegas. He drove me all the way home, got me out of my house when the agents showed up—”

“And probably planned the whole thing from the start. How was it you two met, exactly?” Lianne asked.

Madalina cringed. “I accidentally hit him with my purse.”

“Are you sure it was an accident?”

“I was blocking the entrance to the casino, and then I slipped and my bag went flying out when I tried to catch my balance. It hit Cole in the shoulder. That was when he caught my elbow and helped me straighten out. There’s no way he planned
that
part, anyway.” But had he been following her into the hotel? Just looking for an excuse to meet her, which she’d unwittingly given him?

“He was right behind you, just waiting for an opening,” Lianne declared, as if she, too, had come to the obvious conclusion.

“Maybe,” Madalina said. Even then, in those first few moments, she remembered what an impact Cole had on her. He’d been surly, but she’d admired the view nevertheless.

“Bastard,” Lianne hissed again. “All right. Let’s go to the police station. We need to get it reported so they can start looking. He’s probably a hundred miles away already.”

Madalina rose from the couch and pushed at the thighs of her jeans to straighten the fit around her legs. She needed to go to the police and give a statement. At the same time, it was the last thing she wanted to do. Angry as she was at Cole, she didn’t want to get him into that kind of trouble. What was wrong with her?

“Come on. I can see you hesitating. Look,” Lianne said, snatching her purse off the counter after throwing away the tissues. “Maybe you kind of thought he was good-looking—”

“Kind of?”

“All right, you really liked the way he looked . . .”

“It’s more than that.” Madalina felt as if cannonballs were attached to her ankles, making it difficult to walk. She fell into step behind Lianne, heading toward the pass-through door to the garage.

Lianne stopped and turned back, a frown creasing her brow. “You’re not crushing on him, are you?”

Madalina lifted a shoulder in a helpless gesture. That was the million-dollar question. “It’s different than that. I can’t explain it.”

Lianne gave her a pitying look. “I’d think that what he just did to you would wipe out any kind of feelings you might have had.”

“I’m in shock, that’s all. Part of me doesn’t think it’s real.”
I can still feel his hands on my hips and his mouth in scandalous places. How can he have used me? He’ll show up any second with an excuse I can believe in.
And that, Madalina realized, was her problem. She didn’t want to turn Cole in because she thought it was all part of his grand plan—that he’d
had
to take the dragon and would return like a knight in shining armor.

Lianne set a hand on her shoulder. “I know it’s distressing. I can tell by the look on your face that you’re feeling conflicted. But Madalina, where is he, then? He hasn’t called, didn’t even bother to leave you a message.
He’s gone.
”

Madalina met Lianne’s eyes. She had no excuses, no more suggestions. He’d left her vulnerable and exposed. The police were the only ones who could protect her now. With a renewed sense of ire, she said, “All right. Let’s go.”

Madalina plopped into the front seat of Lianne’s Toyota and banged the door shut. The interior of the sedan was hotter than the sweltering California heat, making beads of sweat appear on her forehead. Or perhaps the sweat was from what had just happened inside the police station.

Lianne sank into the driver’s seat and shot an incredulous look at Madalina. “What happened in there?”

“I froze.”

“Clearly. You didn’t even bring up the agents! I thought the whole point was to get you some protection.” Lianne jammed the key into the ignition and turned the engine over. She fiddled with the air-conditioning, aiming the vent at her face.

“I just . . . I couldn’t tell them everything. If I told them about the agents, then I’d have to tell them about the dragon, and then I’d have to tell them about Cole.” Madalina wasn’t happy with herself either, but a switch had flipped when she’d come face-to-face with the detectives on the case of her ruined house. She hadn’t been able to mention Cole’s name or his role with the dragon.

Why was she so hell-bent on protecting him? He still hadn’t called, hadn’t left her any kind of message. Every hour that went by that she didn’t hear from him just cemented the truth: he’d used her, as Lianne repeatedly pointed out.

The detectives on her case hadn’t batted an eyelash over the questions she’d asked about the break-in, which was the excuse she’d given for being there in the first place. No new leads, no new information. The Chinese agents had covered their tracks well.

“What are you going to do?” Lianne asked, steering the Toyota onto the road.

In the aftermath of the blackout, city employees were everywhere on the streets, trying to get the stoplights working. Power had been restored, finally, to residential areas and most businesses. The boutique was up and running, although their manager had reported very slow sales in the wake of the outage.

Madalina surveyed the commercial district, then the residential areas as they got closer to Lianne’s house. Wary and uneasy, she kept a constant lookout for trouble.

“I don’t know yet. I need some time to think. I know it’s risky, but can I stay at your place for the next day or two?” Besides random hotels, it was the only place she had to go. What she needed was her car, but it was in the garage at her house, which was surely being watched.

What Madalina wanted was access to the Internet and a little more time. She also needed to contact her parents to make sure they were all right. As much as she hated to disrupt their travel plans, she didn’t want them to be surprised by an unexpected visit from the same people who were after the dragon.

“Of course you can. I won’t pretend that I’ll be comfortable waiting to see if the agents break down my door, but you know I’m with you, Mad. We’ll figure it out. I can have Nelly manage the boutique as long as we need her to. It puts a bit of a crimp in our profit margin, but this is more important right now.” Lianne pulled into her short driveway, then into the garage.

Madalina was eternally thankful just then that Lianne had decided to put her energies into figuring this out rather than badgering her to go back to the police with all the information.

As for Cole West, Madalina intended on delivering a surprise or two of her own.