Hidden Legacy (31 page)

“Make yourself comfortable.”

Briana in her arms, Juliana didn’t move.

Will sighed. “This will all go easier if you cooperate.”

“He won’t come.”

“You underestimate my powers of persuasion, Miss Shales.” He advanced toward her. “He’ll come when I’m ready for him.”

Will handed Juliana two lengths of rope. “Tie your daughter to that chair.”

Briana’s terrified eyes broke her heart. Juliana tried to comfort her as she wound the ropes gently around her daughter’s wrists.

“A little tighter,” Willy said.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

“It’s okay, Mommy Mine. I won’t cry.” But her lips trembled and her chest heaved.

Juliana hugged her, holding back her own tears. “I love you very much. You know that, don’t you?”

She nodded, sniffing.

“That’s enough of that,” Willy said. “Sit.”

Because she couldn’t leave Briana behind, Juliana sat. Holding a careful distance so she couldn’t get a good kick or punch in, and with the gun cold against her neck, he slipped handcuffs around her wrists and clicked them onto the chair’s arms.

“I promise you’ll feel no pain.”

He raised the gun to Briana’s temple.

Cindy’s dead eyes flashed before her. Juliana wailed and strained against her restraints, stripping skin. “No, please, no!”

“FBI, freeze!” came a voice from the parlor’s entrance.

He’d found them. Lucas had found them. She had never seen such a magnificent sight as Lucas standing there braced to defend them.

“Hands over your head, Willy,” Lucas yelled. “Do it now!”

With a simple twist of his body, Will put Briana between two guns.

* * *

“Come on in, Agent Vassilovich.” Will glanced at his watch, carelessly waiving the Colt in his hand, grazing Briana’s hair. “You’re a bit early, I’m afraid. Your surprise isn’t quite ready.”

“I’m surprised. Put your weapon down. I have twelve men outside ready to turn you into Swiss cheese.”

“You’re bluffing. At this point your employer would believe me before he’d believe anything you said.” His smile twisted with pure malevolence. “I hadn’t thought you cunning enough to figure out where I was so soon. I thought I’d have to call you, as usual.”

Willy shrugged, snugging the weapon closer to Briana’s temple. She whimpered.

I can’t lose her now
.

Bone-numbing fear wrenched his guts. But he couldn’t look at her, couldn’t look at Juliana. He had to keep his attention on Willy.

“Put the weapon down.”

“The least you could do is thank me,” Will said, ignoring Lucas’s command.

“Thank you?” Lucas sneered, calculating angles and odds. “For what? Making my life hell?”

“I did you a good turn.”

“Ruining my career was a good turn?”

“I gave you back your daughter. A child needs her father. Maybe if….” He shrugged. “But then no, maybe not. It’s too late for all of us, isn’t it?”

“I do owe you a debt for bringing Juliana and Briana back into my life,” Lucas acknowledged, hoping the admission would let Willy’s guard down a notch. “Without you, I’d still be looking for that something more.”

A pleased look crossed Willy’s face. “That’s right,
Special
Agent Vassilovich, you do owe me. I’m so glad we understand each other.”

“Yes, we do, Will. That’s why I know you really don’t want to hurt them.”

Instantly, he knew he’d said the wrong thing. Willy became agitated.

“Don’t mock me! Do you think using Briana as bait was a coincidence? How do you think I’ve been so successful for so long?” He smiled, but there was nothing jovial about the movement. “We’re so much more alike than you care to admit. Like you, I make it a point to understand the obstacles in my way. You were an obstacle.”

“How did you find them?”
Let Willy show you how clever he is.

“It’s amazing what people are willing to tell a stranger for the price of a donut and a cup of coffee. Your deep dark secret, aren’t you curious as to where I found it?”

He wouldn’t give Willy the satisfaction of admitting the fact intrigued him.

“That little clerk in your communications department. The divorcée who’s always trying to get your attention through her son.”

Connie Weil. Of course. She’d met Juliana briefly six years ago, and sensed more than she’d been given about her relationship to him.

“A cup of coffee, a donut, and an attentive ear. That’s all it took.”

“And you used what you got out of her to manipulate me.”

“See, you understand more than you think. Juliana was your weakness. Then I found her weakness. And, as they say, the rest is history. Too bad we’re on opposite sides of the fence, so to speak. You’re the first person I’ve met who’s worthy of my admiration. Like father, like son.”

Lucas tensed. “What does my father have to do with this?”

“You have no idea who I am, do you?” He pouted. “And I left you so many clues. You’re proving quite a dissappointment, not-so Special Agent after all. No appreciation of the subtle.”

Lucas didn’t move a muscle, but a dim memory suddenly popped into his mind. A silent alarm tripped at a selectman’s home. His father was the first officer on the scene and apprehended a young man. That young man’s father: Wilbert Putnam II. He’d made a big fuss about the whole mess, and his son had gotten a mere slap on the wrist for his misdeed.

Will smiled pleased. “I see you do remember. Yes, that was me. Your father taught me a valuable lesson that day. I’ve never let an alarm get the best of me since then. Imagine my pleasure when I discovered it was you who was pursuing me with such lust. It was my turn to teach. You are like me—just like me.”

“Why steal stones? You have money. Why not buy them?”

He shrugged. “They were mine.”

“They belonged to others.”

“They called to me. They knew I was worthy of their power.”

Willy’s greed knew no logic, but Lucas would have to convince him it did. “Let them go. You don’t want them.”

“But you do. Haven’t you guessed what I want?”

“Not the Sapphire.”

“No, not the Sapphire. Not anymore. It was to have been your daughter for the jewel. Now it must be her life for a life. You took away my Bijou. I’ll take away your Briana. Juliana is a bonus. After all, you care for her still.”

Weapon gripped hard, pointed at the Phantom, Lucas could not shoot, couldn’t risk hitting Briana, killing his own child. He stepped forward for a better aim.

“Tut, tut.” Will shook the gun at Lucas and snarled. “Back off, Vassilovich!”

“Let her go.”

“You don’t want me to put a bullet through her head, now do you?” He pushed the .22’s safety button.

Resigned, Lucas took a step back, raised his hands in capitulation.

“There, now that’s better. Two more steps. That’s a good boy. One step to your right. Now sit in that chair by the door.”

Sitting in that confining wing chair, Lucas felt like cornered like a rat. No way to escape, no way to help the people he loved.

“Put the gun on the floor. Nice and easy. That’s it. Give it a little shove in my direction, if you would.”

Against all instincts, Lucas obeyed. The weapon twirled across the aged Aubusson carpet and stopped halfway between him and Willy.

“Once again, you’ve ruined my plans, Vassilovich. I had such a scene in mind.”

Cindy’s posed death came back to him in a sudden, vivid flash. “There’s no need now. I’m here.”

“I can flow with the situation.” Willy laughed. “But you already knew that, didn’t you? At the museum. At the airport. I showed you that.”

Willy waived the Colt in Juliana’s direction. “Her?” Then at Briana. “Or her? Which one goes first? Your choice. Watching them die might prove a greater blow than simply finding them arm in arm with your counterfeit Nadyenka Sapphire between them.” He feigned a pout. “That wasn’t very nice of you, Agent Vassilovich. Giving me a figment of my desire. Bijou knew the difference. She needed the jewels’ power. You deprived her. You killed her.”

“It’s not them you’re angry at,” Lucas insisted, keeping his tone neutral though his anger boiled over. “It’s me. They’ve done nothing to you. They’re victims. Just like you are.”

“Yes, you’re right. Simple victims of your ambition.”

“Let them go. Let’s settle this between us. Man to man.”

“You took everything I had from me. I want to give you the same experience.”

Become him
. “What you really want is to remove that obstacle in your way. Destroy what’s destroyed your life.”

“No,” Juliana said. “Lucas, don’t—”

“It’s me you want to hurt. It’s me you want to kill. I represent everything you hate, Will, everything you despise. Law, order. And I’m smart, smarter than you are. You know that. You hate that. If it hadn’t been for my boss, you’d be in jail now. And you know that I’ll never let you go. You can kill Briana. You can kill Juliana. But I’d still be out there ready to destroy you. And you know you won’t get me. Because you’re right, Willy, I
am
just like you.”

Willy straightened. “When you’re right, you’re right,
Special
Agent Vassilovich.”

The Colt discharged.

Briana screamed.

Something thudded against the side of his head.

“No!” Juliana launched forward, chair and all.

“Juliana!” His voice sounded far away. He tried to rise to shield her from Willy’s raised weapon. Keep her safe. Keep them safe. “Juliana—”

The floor slapped up to meet his face.

Everything went black.

Chapter 18

From her vantage point on the floor, Juliana saw Lucas lying still on the carpet. Willy ambled over to Lucas, kicked him in the ribs, gaining a groan.

Lucas is alive!
Her joy was quickly eclipsed. With utter calm, Will cocked his gun once more and pointed it at Lucas’s head.

He’s going to kill him in cold blood
.

Working furiously, she yanked one hand free of the handcuffs, shredding her skin in the process. Blood trickled warm and sticky down her arm. Her thoughts raced in a maze like a mouse on speed.

If she tried to help Lucas she risked getting hurt and leaving Briana at Will’s mercy. If she chose instead to scoop up Briana and flee, Will would execute Lucas.

She tore her second hand free, swallowing her scream of pain. Scooping her purse from the ground, she launched it. The leather ball connected with Will’s arm, knocking the gun off target. The weapon discharged, then clattered to the floor. The bullet shattered the bulb of a lamp on the table between the two windows, throwing the room in sudden darkness. Sparks frizzled, arced. The curtains ignited.

“Fire, Mommy, fire!”

“Hang on, sweetheart. Hang on. I’m coming.”

Growling, Will charged at her. Without thinking, she heaved the chair and hurled it at him, knocking him to the ground.

While Will struggled to get up, she scrabbled for the gun. She patted the ground, connected with the cold handle.

The flames greedily ate the curtains, licked at the furniture. Too close, much too close to Briana.

“Mommy!”

Light puffed up. Heat filled the room. Acrid smoke swirled in a dark cloud above them.

Will’s hand came out of nowhere, jostling her for the gun. She kicked at him, would not release her grip on the weapon. She bit the back of his hand, gained possession and aimed the barrel at his chest. She couldn’t miss this target. Huffing and scuttling backwards, she got up, never taking her gaze from him.

Will just smiled. “You won’t shoot. It’s not in your character.”

She swore, and in the heat of her anger, squeezed the trigger. The bang startled her backwards. The concussion stung her hands.

Will stared at his bleeding shoulder and crumpled to the ground.

I’ve killed him!