Hot Ice

  “Not all of us think in terms of money, Mr. Lord,” Dimitri said calmly. “There’s a matter of principle at stake, you see. I believe as strongly in reward as I do in discipline.” His gaze flicked down to his mutilated hand. “Yes, just as strongly. Take him along, Remo, he’s creating quite a fuss.”

  “Keep your hands off me.” Springing up, Whitney dashed the contents of her snifter in Barns’s face. With fury carrying her, she doubled up her fist and planted it squarely on his nose. His squeak and the squirt of blood gave her momentary satisfaction.

  Doug took his cue from her and, bracing himself against the man behind him, reared back and smashed his foot under the chin of the man across from him. They might’ve been mowed down in that instant if Dimitri hadn’t signaled. He enjoyed watching the doomed struggle. Calmly he took the derringer from his inside pocket and fired into the vaulted ceiling.

  “That’ll do,” he told them, as if speaking to obstreperous adolescents. He watched tolerantly as Doug gathered Whitney to his side. He was particularly fond of Shakespeare’s tragedies that dealt with star-crossed lovers— not only because of the beauty of words, but because of their hopelessness. “I’m a reasonable man, and a romantic at heart. In order to give you a bit more time together, Miss MacAllister is welcome to go along while Remo proceeds with the execution.”

  “Execution,” Whitney spat at him with all the venom a desperate woman can gather. “Murder, Dimitri, doesn’t have such a clean, cool ring to it. You delude yourself into believing you’re cultured and suave. Do you think a silk dinner jacket can hide what you are, and what you’ll never be? You’re nothing more than a crow, Dimitri, a crow picking at carrion. You don’t even kill for yourself.”

  “Normally, no.” His voice had frozen. Those of his men who had heard the tone before tensed. “In this case, however, perhaps I should make an exception.” He lowered the derringer.

  The terrace doors burst open, shattering glass. “Put up your arms.” The order was authoritative, delivered in English with a classy French accent. Doug didn’t wait for the outcome, but shoved Whitney behind a chair. He saw Barns grab for his gun. The grin was blown off his face.

  “The house is surrounded.” Ten uniformed men trooped into the library, rifles at the ready. “Franco Dimitri, you are under arrest for murder, conspiracy to commit murder, kidnapping…”

  “Holy shit,” Whitney murmured as the list lengthened. “It really is the cavalry.”

  “Yeah.” Doug let out a breath of relief, holding her warm beside him. It was also the police, he reflected. He wouldn’t exactly come out smelling like a rose himself.

  He saw, with a feeling of inevitability and disgust, the man with the panama walk through the doors. “I should’ve smelled cop,” he muttered. A man with a shock of white hair strode into the room with an air of impatience.

  “All right, where is that girl!”

  Doug saw Whitney’s eyes widen until they seemed to cover her whole face. Then with a bubbling giggle she sprang up from behind the chair. “Daddy!”

  C H A P T E R

  16

  It didn’t take long for the Malagasy police to clear out the room. Whitney watched the handcuffs being snapped onto Dimitri’s wrist below a fat emerald cuff link.

  “Whitney, Mr. Lord.” Dimitri’s voice remained soft, cultured, calm. A man in his position understood temporary setbacks. But his eyes, as his gaze passed over them, were as flat as a goat’s. “I’m sure, yes, quite sure we’ll see each other again.”

  “We’ll catch you on the eleven o’clock news,” Doug told him.

  “I owe you,” Dimitri acknowledged with a nod. “I always pay my debts.”

  Whitney’s gaze met his briefly, and she smiled. Once again, her fingers trailed down to the shell around her neck.

  “For Jacques,” she said softly, “I hope they find a hole dark enough for you.” Then she buried her face against her father’s clean-smelling jacket. “I’m so glad to see you.”

  “Explanations.” But MacAllister held her fiercely for a moment. “Let’s have some, Whitney.”

  She drew away, eyes laughing. “Explain what?”

  He struggled with a grin and huffed instead. “Nothing changes.”

  “How’s Mother? I hope you didn’t tell her you were trailing after me.”

  “She’s fine. She thinks I’m in Rome working. If I’d told her I was chasing our only daughter all over Madagascar, she wouldn’t have been able to play bridge for days.”

  “You’re so clever.” She kissed him, hard. “How did you know to chase me all over Madagascar?”

  “I believe you’ve met General Bennett?”

  Whitney turned and faced a tall, rangy man with stern, unsmiling eyes. “Of course.” She offered her hand as though they were at a well-mannered cocktail party. “At the Stevensons’ year before last. How are you, General? Oh, I don’t believe you’ve met Douglas. Doug…” Whitney signaled to him across the room where he was mumbling out a tangled statement to one of the Malagasy officials. Grateful for the respite, he went to her. “Daddy, General Bennett, this is Douglas Lord. Doug’s the one who stole the papers, General.”

  The smile turned a little sickly on Doug’s face. “Nice to meet you.”

  “You owe Douglas quite a bit,” she told the general and poked in her father’s jacket for a cigarette.

  “Owe,” the general blustered. “This thief—”

  “Secured the papers, keeping them out of the hands of Dimitri. At the risk of his own life,” she added, holding up the cigarette for a light. Doug obliged her, deciding he’d leave the explanations to her after all. She sent him a wink as she blew out smoke. “You see, it all started when Dimitri hired Doug to steal the papers. Of course, Doug knew right away that they were priceless and had to be kept out of the wrong hands.” She drew in smoke, then waved the cigarette expressively. “He virtually took his life in his hands to secure them. I can’t tell you how many times he told me if we found the treasure, what a priceless contribution to society it would be. Isn’t that so, Doug?”

  “Well, I—”

  “He’s so modest. You really must take credit where credit’s due, darling. After all, securing the treasure for General Bennett’s foundation nearly cost you your life.”

  “It was nothing,” Doug muttered. He could see the rainbow beginning to fade.

  “Nothing?” Whitney shook her head. “General, as a man of action, you’d appreciate just what Doug went through to prevent Dimitri from hoarding the treasure. Hoarding,” she repeated. “He intended to keep it to himself. To wallow in it,” she added with a slanted look at Doug. “When, as we all will agree, it belongs to society.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Before you express your gratitude, General,” she interrupted, “I’d appreciate it if you’d explain to me just how you arrived here. We do owe you our lives.”

  Flattered, and confused, the general began an explanation.

  Whitaker’s nephew, terrified by his uncle’s fate, had gone to the general confessing everything he knew. Which was considerable. Once the general had been alerted, he hadn’t hesitated. The authorities had been on Dimitri’s trail before Whitney and Doug had climbed off the plane at Antananarivo.

  Dimitri’s trail had led to Doug, and Doug’s, because of their escapades in New York and D.C., to Whitney. She had reason to be grateful to the ever-eager paparazzi for several grainy pictures in the tabloids her father’s secretary poured over.

  After a brief session with Uncle Max in Washington, the general and MacAllister had hired a private detective. The man in the panama hat had picked up their trail, dogging them just as Dimitri had. When they’d jumped from the train heading toward Tamatave, both the general and MacAllister had been on a plane to Madagascar. The authorities there had been only too happy to cooperate in the capture of an international criminal.

  “Fascinating,” Whitney said when it looked like the general’s monologue would go on until dawn. “Sim
ply fascinating. I can see why you earned those five stars.” Hooking her arm through his, she smiled. “You saved my life, General. I hope you’ll give me the pleasure of showing you the treasure.”

  With a cocky smile over her shoulder, she led him away.

  MacAllister drew out a cigarette case and flipped it open, offering it to Doug. “Nobody bullshits like Whitney,” he said easily. “I don’t believe you’ve met Brick-man.” He gestured to the man in the panama. “He’s worked for me before, one of the best. He’s said the same of you.”

  Doug eyed the man in the panama. Each man recognized the other for what he was. “You were at the canal, just behind Remo.”

  Brickman remembered the crocks and smiled. “My pleasure.”

  “Now.” MacAllister looked from one man to the other. He hadn’t succeeded in business without knowing what went on in men’s minds. “Why don’t we get a drink and you can tell me what really happened?”

  Doug flipped his lighter and studied MacAllister’s face. It was tanned and smooth, a sure sign of wealth. His voice had the ring of authority. The eyes that looked back at him were dark as whiskey, as amused as Whitney’s. Doug’s lips tilted.

  “Dimitri’s a pig, but he stocks a good bar. Scotch?”

  It was nearly dawn when Doug looked down on Whitney. She was curled, naked, under the thin sheet. A slight smile touched her lips as though she were dreaming of the rush of lovemaking they’d shared after they’d returned to the hotel. But her breathing was slow and even as she slept the sleep of the exhausted.

  He wanted to touch her, but he didn’t. He’d thought of leaving her a note. But he didn’t.

  He was who he was, what he was. A thief, a nomad, a loner.

  For the second time in his life, he’d held the world in his hands, and for the second time, it had vanished. It would be possible, after a time, to convince himself that he’d come across that big break again. The end of the rainbow. Just as it would be possible, after a very long time, to convince himself that he and Whitney had had a fling. Fun and games, nothing serious. He’d convince himself because those damn strings were tightening around him. It was break them now, or not at all.

  He still had the ticket to Paris, and a check for five thousand the general had written to him after Whitney had had the retired soldier bubbling with gratitude.

  But he’d seen the look in the eyes of the officials, of the private detective who recognized a con and a thief when he saw one. He’d earned a reprieve, but the next dark alley was just around the corner.

  Doug glanced at the pack and thought of her notebook. He knew his tab came to more than the five thousand he had at his disposal. Going over, he rummaged through her pack until he found the pad and pencil.

  After the final total, which caused him to lift a brow, he scribbled a brief message.

  IOU, sugar.

  Dropping both back in the pack, he took a last look at her while she slept. He slipped from the room like the thief he was, silently and swiftly.

  The moment she woke, Whitney knew he was gone. It wasn’t a matter of the bed being empty beside her. Another woman might have assumed he’d gone out for coffee or a walk. Another woman might have called his name in a husky sleepy voice.

  She knew he was gone.

  It was in her nature to face things directly when there wasn’t a choice. Whitney rose, pulled back the blinds, and began to pack. Because silence was unbearable, she switched on the radio without bothering to fiddle with the dial.

  She noticed the boxes tumbled on the floor. Determined to keep occupied, she began to open them.

  Her fingers slid over the flimsy lingerie Doug had picked out for her. She gave a quick, tilted smile at the receipt with her credit-card imprint. Because she’d decided that cynicism would be her best defense, Whitney slipped into the pale blue teddy. After all, she’d paid for it.

  Tossing the box aside, she drew off the lid of the next. The dress was rich, rich blue, the color, she remembered, of the butterflies she’d seen and admired. Cynicism and all other defenses threatened to crumble. Swallowing tears, she bundled the dress back into the box. It wouldn’t travel well, she told herself, and yanked a pair of wrinkled slacks out of her pack.

  In a few hours, she’d be back in New York, in her own milieu, surrounded by her own friends. Doug Lord would be a vague, and expensive, memory. That was all. Dressed, packed, and utterly calm, she went to check out and meet her father.

  He was already in the lobby, pacing, impatient. Deals were cooking. The ice-cream business was dog-eat-dog. “Where’s your boyfriend?” he demanded.

  “Daddy, really.” Whitney signed her bill with a flourish and a completely steady hand. “A woman doesn’t have boyfriends. She has lovers.” She smiled at the bellboy and followed him out to the car her father had waiting.

  He huffed, not entirely pleased with her terminology. “So where is he?”

  “Doug?” She gave her father an unconcerned look over her shoulder as she climbed into the back seat of the limo. “Why I have no idea. Paris perhaps—he had a ticket.”

  Scowling, MacAllister plopped back against the seat. “What the hell’s going on, Whitney?”

  “I think I might spend a few days on Long Island when we get back. I tell you, all this traveling’s exhausting.”

  “Whitney.” He clamped a hand over hers, using the tone he’d used since she was two. It had never been overly successful. “Why did he leave?”

  She reached in her father’s pocket, drew out his cigarette case, and chose one. Staring straight ahead, she tapped the cigarette on the dull gold lid. “Because that’s his style. Slipping out in the middle of the night without a sound, without a word. He’s a thief, you know.”

  “So he told me last night while you were busy bullshitting Bennett. Dammit, Whitney, by the time he was finished, my hair was standing on end. It was worse than reading the report from the detective. The two of you nearly got yourselves killed half a dozen times.”

  “It concerned us a bit at the time, too,” she murmured.

  “You’d do my ulcer a world of good if you’d marry that empty-headed, weak-jawed Carlyse.”

  “Sorry, then I’d have one.”

  He studied the cigarette she’d yet to light. “I got the impression you were—attached to this young thief you’d picked up.”

  “Attached.” The cigarette snapped in her fingers. “No, it was strictly business.” Tears welled up and spilled over but she continued to speak calmly. “I was bored and he provided entertainment.”

  “Entertainment?”

  “Expensive entertainment,” she added. “The bastard’s gone off owing me twelve thousand, three hundred and fifty-eight dollars and forty-seven cents.”

  MacAllister took out his handkerchief and dried her cheeks. “Nothing like losing a few thousand to bring on the waterworks,” he murmured. “Often happens to me.”

  “He didn’t even say good-bye,” she whispered. Curling into her father, she wept because there didn’t seem to be anything else she could do.

  New York in August can be vicious. The heat can hang, shimmer, gloat, and roll. When a garbage strike coincided with a heat wave, tempers became as ripe as the air. Even the more fortunate who could summon an air-conditioned limo at the snap of a finger tended to turn surly after two weeks of ninety-degree-plus weather. It was a time when anyone who could arrange it fled the city for the islands, for the country, for Europe.

  Whitney had had her fill of traveling.

  She stuck it out in Manhattan when the majority of her friends and acquaintances jumped ship. She turned down offers for a cruise on the Aegean, a week on the Italian Riviera, and a month-long honeymoon in the country of her choice.

  She worked because it was an interesting way to ignore the heat. She played because it was more productive than moping. She considered taking a trip to the Orient, but—just to be obstinate—in September, when everyone else trickled back to New York.

  When she’d returned
from Madagascar, she’d treated herself to a wild, indulgent shopping spree. Half of what she’d bought still hung, unworn, in her already-crowded closet. She’d hit the clubs every night for more than two weeks, hopping from one to the next and tumbling into bed after sunrise.

  When she lost interest in that, she threw herself into her work with such vigor her friends began to mutter among themselves.

  It was one thing for her to exhaust herself with rounds of parties, quite another to do so during working hours. Whitney did what she did best. She ignored them completely.

  “Tad, don’t make a fool of yourself again. I simply can’t bear it.” Her voice was careless, but more sympathetic than cruel. Over the past few weeks, he’d nearly convinced her that he cared for her almost as much as his collection of silk ties.

  “Whitney…” Blond, tailored, and a little drunk, he stood in the doorway of her apartment, trying to figure the best way to ease