She entertained herself by watching Isaac prowl through the crowded room in his tuxedo, his lean form and wavy brown hair drawing more than one interested woman’s gaze. Grange, with his inky black hair and flashing silver eyes, had a very similar effect on the female population at the ball, but after her mother had announced their engagement, the ladies had reigned in some of their fascination with Grange.
The obvious physical power and the level of testosterone rolling off these two men set them very much apart from the other businessmen here. These two men enjoyed women, appreciated their minds and bodies, and the women could somehow sense it. It drew them with an irresistible magnetism.
He’s with me, she thought more than once. They’re
both
with me.
The startling, delicious pleasure of that idea still felt new to her. And yet, there was something so undeniably right about it. She could hardly wait for this party to be over so that she could go home with her men and start creating that lifetime of passionate nights that they had promised her.
Carolyn craned her neck, unwittingly digging her nails into Grange’s arm. His warm hand covering hers alerted her, and she pulled back a little.
Nina was standing beside Isaac at the buffet table, running her signature red-tipped claws down his arm.
Carolyn watched with a frown. How had Nina gotten an invitation to one of the most exclusive events of the year?
The answer to that quickly became apparent as Randall Wells, her father’s current favorite, tried to retrieve his date, gently pulling her away from her open pursuit of a disdainful Isaac.
Take that, office piranha, Carolyn thought with a smug little smile.
Nina turned and looked across the room, and when her eyes settled on Carolyn, she glared before turning to Randall and draping her thin, flexible body against him. Randall smiled helplessly down at her, and Nina preened under his attention.
“Whoever that woman is, she’d like to set your hair on fire, darling. Watch your back,” her mother said quietly.
Carolyn laughed.
“Excuse me a moment,” Grange murmured politely and, moving in the direction of the buffet tables, melted into the crowd.
“That creature was falling all over Randall, and he was just eating it up,” Annalise said indignantly. “He should know better than to bring someone like that. If your father sees that, he’ll have something to say about it.”
If her father didn’t like the public image Randall’s date created, Randall would definitely get a lecture on Monday morning.
Oh, poor Randall, Carolyn thought, feeling sorry for him in spite of herself.
“Since my date has deserted me,” she said, smiling, “I think I’ll take this opportunity to freshen up.”
Her mother nodded absently and patted her arm as Carolyn passed her in the direction of the back hallway. She had no intention of standing in the inevitable long line to use the washrooms designated for public use.
Being a Winston did have its privileges, namely, escaping to the cordoned-off family section of the house to use the washroom beside her old bedroom.
Climbing the long curved staircase would have been utterly impossible in heels, and Carolyn was glad that she had worn her strappy flat sandals again. Her ankle was already protesting from all the dancing earlier and she could only imagine how much worse it would feel if she had succumbed to her own vanity and worn the glorious stilettos that were the true match to the golden silk gown.
As she passed her old room, she heard a muffled thump. She stopped and carefully pressed her ear to the door, but the sound wasn’t repeated. She waited another minute, then two. Nothing.
Curious, she began to slowly turn the doorknob. She knew exactly how to turn it to avoid any sound thanks to the numerous times she had surreptitiously left this very room in the middle of the night to sneak a treat from the kitchen. Just as she started to open the door, she was shoved from behind. She gasped as she twisted her good ankle and fell heavily to the floor to land beside the prone body of Charlotte Morse.
Turning to her back quickly, she was shocked to see Nina leaning against the closed door. She was smiling, so cool and malicious as she held a tiny gun on Carolyn.
Carolyn sat up and checked Charlotte’s pulse. Weak. She was unconscious, but still alive.
“What is this?” Carolyn demanded. “What did you do to Charlotte? This is my bedroom, and Charlotte’s out cold on the floor.”
“Charlotte will live, which is more than I can say for you,” Nina said sharply.
Carolyn made a move to get up, but Nina pointed the gun at her face and motioned her back down.
“Nina, I think you’d better explain yourself.” Carolyn used her most commanding voice, wanting to make sure that every word was picked up by the receiver she was wearing in her bustier. She had also tapped Charlotte’s ear wire when she checked for a pulse, giving the emergency signal. By now, Burgess would be alerting Grange, Isaac, and Conn that there was a situation. Carolyn just had to keep Nina talking long enough to give the guys an opportunity to get to her.
“Don’t pretend that you don’t know!” Nina snarled. “You know exactly what this is about!”
“Why don’t you tell me?”
Nina kept the gun pointed right into her face.
“You stole my men. You and Sara. Dash, Isaac, and Grange were mine long before Sara even came here, and I’ll have them again. I’ll be the one to console Isaac and Grange when you commit suicide tonight in your old room.”
Nina was nodding and smiling, congratulating herself on her plan.
“Nina, no one will believe that I would commit suicide tonight,” Carolyn said mockingly. “And Charlotte certainly wouldn’t commit suicide in my old room. Your plan is total crap, Nina. How are you going to get out of this?”
She kept saying Nina’s name, wanting there to be no mistake in identification—just in case.
Chapter 15
Grange headed through the crowded ballroom as fast as he could without causing a panic. He had to get to Isaac, to alert the team that he was beginning to suspect that Nina had something to do with the threat to Carolyn. When Annalise had pointed out that Carolyn should watch her back around Nina, something had just clicked in his mind.
Nina had access to Carolyn’s office and would know her home address as well. Nina was still chasing both Grange and Isaac, and she had known that Grange dragged Carolyn from their meeting and into his locked office. If Nina had managed to catch a glimpse of Carolyn when she left his office, it would have been more than obvious that something had happened between them.
Nina always painted her long nails bright red, and the brick that sailed through Carolyn’s window had been painted with insults in a shining scarlet red.
Nina disliked Carolyn’s pet bird.
It was a frighteningly good fit.
The instinct that had kept him alive in some of the most dangerous places the Army could think of to send him was clamoring, pounding with every beat of his heart. He picked up speed without realizing it.
Conn intercepted him halfway. Talking on his own com system already, he dragged out another ear wire and slipped it over Grange’s ear. He keyed it to activate.
Isaac was beside them suddenly, and then they were out the side door and on the back stairs, three former soldiers with hard eyes and a shared purpose.
Grange’s heart stopped in his chest then started hammering when his ear wire picked up Carolyn’s voice.
“Nina, no one will believe that I would commit suicide tonight, and Charlotte certainly wouldn’t commit suicide in my old room. Your plan is total crap, Nina. How are you going to get out of this?”
“Don’t antagonize the crazy woman, for Christ’s sake,” Isaac muttered as they raced up the stairs together. His face was stony, but his eyes were feral.
Grange felt more than a little wild himself.
He heard Burgess on the wire, panting and announcing his location as leaving the surveillance van and entering the kitchen, proceeding up the side stairs.
There was a cry of pain through the wire. Carolyn!
Then Nina’s voice came through.
“It is a good plan,” Nina said petulantly. “Too bad you’ll never see how good this plan is. You’ll be dead. It’s so easy to kill when you’re just ridding the world of vermin. The bird was nothing. Soon, you’ll be nothing. Isaac and Grange will be heartbroken, and I’ll be there to help them get through it. They’ll get over you soon enough.”
Nina’s voice faded out for a moment, and there was another cry of anger and pain.
“Then, when Sara dies, Dash will be mine again, and I’ll have all three men back. Back with me where they belong. They’re mine, and you know it. You’ve always known it, and you just wanted them because they were mine!”
Nina was almost screaming through the wire now, clearly a step away from losing control. They didn’t have time for finesse. The crisis was already happening.
The men rounded the corner into the upper hall at full speed. Conn pointed ahead, and Grange zeroed in on the second door. He just continued running flat out, never slowing his pace. He lowered one shoulder in a classic football tackle position, hit hard, and blasted through the solid oak door on the first try, with Isaac and Conn a bare step behind him, just as a gunshot reverberated through the room. Shards of glass were raining down on them and the smell of cordite was overpowering.
“Please, please,” he found himself chanting, as he staggered over a body. He dropped to his knees, half-blind, and hauled Carolyn, feebly struggling, against his chest. He was almost sobbing for air as he ran practiced hands over her, searching for the bullet wound. He knew he had heard a shot, and Nina had been holding a gun on his Carolyn.
Isaac was on his other side, calling her name anxiously, speaking softly to her, holding her hands to his heart.
“Carolyn, tell me where,” Grange said. “I can’t find—where are you shot?”
“I’m fine, but my ankle,” Carolyn said, moaning. “I’m fine. I haven’t been shot. The door hit her and she shot my lamp.”
Hearing her voice, seeing her clear gaze, Grange finally calmed enough to pull back a little and truly assess her condition. He was deeply thankful to see that she didn’t appear to have any bullet wounds, but there was a bruise forming on her cheek, and her formerly good ankle was swelling rapidly.
“She kept kicking my ankle,” Carolyn said. “I was rolling to take her out while she was off balance, and the door exploded. I would have had her.” It sounded like a complaint.
Grange and Isaac shared a look then they both laughed in sheer relief. If Carolyn could sit on the floor in a silk gown amid the splinters of a destroyed door and complain that the rescue had arrived a little too soon, all was right in their world.
Conn had a dazed but defiant Nina cuffed and handed off to a whistling Burgess, who had sprinted from the van and up the back stairs to take the backup position. Burgess had always disliked Nina and would no doubt be pleased to see her heading off to jail.
Grange fully expected an I-told-you-so from Burgess about hiring Nina as soon as the dust settled. And he would listen to every word without offering any defense. Burgess had been correct about Nina in every way.
As soon as Nina was escorted out, Conn turned his attention to Charlotte, who was starting to stir. His face was a study in pain, and his hand trembled when he brushed her hair back from her stark white face.
Grange exchanged glances with a startled Isaac. He shook his head sharply, but he knew that Isaac would come back to it at a later date. Isaac was like a bulldog with any kind of puzzle.
Isaac had radioed for a medic team as they barreled up the stairs, and the team carried Charlotte from the room on a stretcher, heading for the closest hospital. She had been hit over the head from behind by Nina, and the medics felt she had been unconscious for too long. She needed to be in hospital for tests.
The remaining medic started toward Carolyn.
“No hospital,” Carolyn said firmly. “I’ll submit to the medic, but I’m not going to the hospital.”
Isaac opened his mouth to protest, but subsided at a look from Grange. If the medic recommended she go to hospital, she would be going. No sense fighting about it until it was necessary.
The medic knelt down and touched her puffy ankle with gentle hands, manipulating it lightly. Carolyn bit back a moan of pain. He looked up at Grange and Isaac hovering, and shrugged.