Chapter Thirteen
Sabina padded silently to the study. The cold wooden floors under her bare feet reminded her she needed to find some socks to put on. The temperatures had dipped into the forties and the house felt chilly.
She walked into the den, concentrating on the picture of a sailboat behind the desk forcing her eyes away from the deer head that hung over the door. She abhorred hunting. Folks could talk all they wanted to about “harvesting” and keeping the numbers down but it all came down to the thrill of the hunt, that some men and women just plain enjoyed the kill. How could it possibly be a rush to take the life’s breath from another living creature? She’d never understand.
Getting her mind back on business, she walked to the large mahogany desk. The surface was so shiny she could see herself in it. With two fingers, she absently smoothed out the frown line on her forehead. She slid open the right hand drawer where she would have expected a gun to be but the drawer held only papers. Puzzled, she sat down in the oversized leather desk chair and opened the middle drawer. As she crossed her legs, her knee brushed against cold steel.
Rolling the chair back, she bent over and peered under the desk. Strapped to the underside of the desk was a gun the size of a cannon aimed at whoever stood in front of the desk. All you had to do was pull the trigger. “Good thinking, Johnny.” She stretched her lips in a grim smile and went through the rest of the drawers. In the bottom right drawer beneath a stack of papers was a Glock. Yes this room would definitely do for a showdown.
Getting up, she walked across the room, punched the elevator button and rode to the master suite. As she got out, her eyes, like magnets, went to Maureen, lovely Maureen, earth mother extraordinaire, who used herself over and over again to heal others. If it wasn’t for the woman lying in this bed, her mangled body would be lying in a cairn of stone.
She walked to the bed and pushed the stray hair back from Maureen’s face. Maureen shook her head from side to side and murmured in her sleep.
Eyes narrowed, Sabina studied her friend. Her color seemed a little better, less translucent and gray. Her eyes were not as sunken. But she still had a way to go. Ah well, uninterrupted rest would take care of that. But how long did they have?
She rubbed her arms, her hand lingering on her bare left forearm. Her arm ached like a bad tooth and her skin felt too tight over her bones. Victoria was coming. She could feel it.
Should I wake Maureen and warn her? No, she needs her sleep, needs to regain her strength, to fight the evil coming.
Her jaw set, she bent over and opened the drawer on the night stand.
The drawer was empty except for a small derringer. She grinned. She was coming to appreciate Johnny Morelly more with every passing minute. She stuck the gun in her pocket and walked into the huge walk-in closet. Men’s clothes hung on one side and women’s on the other. The woodsy scent of cedar filled her nostrils. In the corner stuck between a navy-blue pin stripe suit and a black suit was a machine gun. She shook her head. Even with the power amulet, Victoria would have to move like lightning to stay out of the range of that thing.
Then again, she was afraid she might take her friends out in the process if she tried to use it. Probably better to let sleeping dogs lie or in this case let machine guns lie.
We’ll see. At least I know its there.
She looked in the next room and saw Bella sleeping peacefully, her hand tucked under her pillow, on a queen-size bed with bears cavorting around the edges of the coverlet. Sabina shook her head. Bears and moose seemed to be the theme in the bedrooms. She approached the bed and slid open the bedside table. If Johnny was true to form, there should be a gun here too.
The drawer stuck. She gave a yank causing the lamp on top if it to rock. Quick as liquid silver, Bella rolled over, her ladies’ derringer pointed straight at Sabina’s heart.
“Sorry, sugar, reflex.” Bella stuck the gun back under her pillow.
Sabina blinked a couple of times and clutched her chest. “Jeez, Bella, you scared the life out of me.”
“Well, shug, I can’t say you did too much for mine either and I can ill afford it at my advanced years.” Bella pulled herself up on the pillows and leaned back against the headboard. Touching her amulet, she gave herself a quick glam.
Sabina grinned in spite of herself.
“What are you doing?” Bella asked smothering a yawn.
“A gun inventory. This place is an arsenal.”
“Really?” Bella brightened. “Though I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“I’d forgotten your love of guns.”
“I don’t believe in hunting and I don’t believe in killing. But I do believe in protecting yourself.”
“Um,” Sabina responded, tapping her lip, her thoughts elsewhere as an idea began to form.
“What are you thinking about, shug?”
“Bella, do you mind if I borrow your amulet?”
“Of course not. Whatcha got in mind?”
“I think I know how to put a kink in that hellion’s tail and hurry her visit to us.”
“By all means, then.” Bella took off the amulet and handed it over. As their hands touched, electricity surged into both of them.
“Wow,” Sabina said as she slipped it on her arm. “That never fails to surprise me. Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of it.”
“If I was worried, I wouldn’t have given it to you.” She slid back down on the bed and nestled into her pillow. “Wake me in a couple of hours.”
“Will do.” She had no intention of waking Bella. Bella had spent the night standing guard. Now it was her turn. Walking out of the room, she closed the door behind her then checked out the rest of the house. She found at least twenty guns before she was through.
Good lord. They could protect themselves against a small army.
After she’d made a mental note of where each gun was located and what type it was, she grabbed a cup of coffee and headed for the study.
She set the coffee down, turned on the computer and touched the creativity amulet. She didn’t consider herself a geek but working in the bookstore she’d stayed abreast of everything that was going on in the cyber arena. And she had a friend.
Sabina grinned. Marcus had never admitted to being a hacker but there was nothing he couldn’t do with a computer including make it talk. She’d had a problem a year or so ago with identity theft. He’d shown her how to protect herself and how to get her money back. There had been no need to go to the police.
“Okay, baby, talk to me.” She sat with her fingers poised on the keyboard then began to type, the keys clicking beneath her fingertips. She chewed on her lower lip thinking, then once again touched the amulet. It would be too soon for Victoria to have laundered the bank money though she was betting the jewels were already in underground pawn shops.
It took her a couple of hours but she finally managed to get hold of Victoria’s social security number and all her credit cards. “Bingo. And now the fun begins.”
There was an orphanage in Italy she’d love to donate to but it would raise flags sending huge sums of money out of the country. “Let’s just see what we can find here in the States.”
She did a search and decided on an orphanage in Philadelphia, a battered women’s home in Detroit and a soup kitchen in Charlotte. “Christmas a couple of months early,” Sabina murmured, grinning, as she ordered extravagant items these people would enjoy but never be able to afford.
When she’d maxed out Victoria’s cards, she turned her attention to her bank account and transferred money to Maureen’s horse rescue program.
It was midafternoon when she finished. If Victoria wasn’t already on her way, this would hurry her along. She leaned back in the chair and sipped her coffee then made a face. It was cold and tasted bad. She closed her eyes for a moment.
When she opened them the room was dark. She jumped out of her chair, her heart pounding. How could she have fallen asleep?
She ran for the door then stood there poised. She touched the derringer in her pocket for reassurance.
I’m damn lucky I didn’t put a hole in my leg
. She looked up and down the hall. Everything was unnaturally quiet but that could be because the women were sleeping.
Backing up, she took the elevator up to the bedroom. Sabina listened a moment before she opened the door. When she didn’t hear anything, she pushed the button, the derringer in her hand. She looked around. Except for Maureen’s even breathing, the room was quiet.
So far so good but she couldn’t shake the feeling something was wrong, terribly wrong. Dread raked skeletal fingers up her spine and seemed to lock around her throat. Her breath lodged in her chest and for one moment Sabina feared she’d hyperventilate.
She’s here. I can feel it. It’s like she’s thrown a black shroud over me and is trying to suffocate me.
She shook herself.
I’ve never had to deal with evil before. Except for a few notable exceptions, my village has always been peaceful and placid to the point of dullness. Get a grip.
Don’t be so damn spineless.
She pressed her hands against her belly and took a deep breath.
I can do this. Maybe she’s not even here.
But every instinct Sabina had told her it was so. Victoria was here. In this house.
She cracked the door and put her eye to the slit. Bella’s door stood open. Pale yellow light streamed out of it and rested on the floor.
Sabina pushed the door open wider and looked around. She eased out into the hall, her back against the wall, her hand wrapped around the small derringer. Goose bumps roughened her skin as voices drifted toward her, too indistinct to make out.
She crept forward, one agonizing step at a time. Sabina stopped just to the left of the pool of light slanting through the doorway.
Bella sat on the edge of the bed, her jean-clad legs resting on the floor, her body twisted toward the door. Victoria bent over her, her voice and body language threatening. “Where is the amulet, bitch?” A sharp crack followed as Victoria slapped her. Bella’s head jerked backward from the blow.
Icy fury replaced Sabina’s nervous sickness. She touched the amulet and stepped into the pool of light.
As if sensing her presence, Bella turned her head. She saw Sabina and looked away. “Well, sugars, is it a turn-on watching your boss beat on another woman?” she asked conversationally letting Sabina know there was more than one person in the room.
Victoria shot her arm out and pointed with her finger. A V appeared on Bella’s cheek along with the scent of burned flesh.
Sabina lunged forward. Bella shook her head violently, warning Sabina back. “And what guarantee do I have, I’ll walk out of here alive?”
“None. But you’ll die a less painful death.”
Sabina bit her lip so hard, she drew blood. Catching Bella’s eye, she pointed downward and slunk back into the shadows. Bella would understand. Creativity and beauty still glowed on her skin.
She raced for Maureen’s room on silent feet. Slipping inside, she shook Maureen hard and whispered in her ear, “Victoria is here.”
Maureen came instantly awake.
Sabina ran into the closet, grabbed the machine gun and handed it to Maureen then pointed to the elevator. They climbed in and it whisked them soundlessly downstairs.
“Where’s Bella?” Maureen asked tersely.
“Victoria has her.”
“Then let’s go after her.”
“There’s at least one other person in there. Bella will bring her to us,” Sabina said feeling the skin stretch taut across her features.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Maureen said, her expression grim as she strode out the elevator.
“So do I.”
“I can’t use this thing. I’d probably kill everyone in sight.” Maureen held the machine gun out toward Sabina.
“I had in mind using it for show,” Sabina admitted. “There’s a gun holstered under the desk and one in the drawer. Why don’t you sit at the desk and greet them when they walk in?”
Maureen gingerly set the machine gun on the desk and settled into the chair. “Where will you be?”
“Hiding in the shadows. I intend to make a miraculous return from the grave.”
The dark drapes were partially open and the rising moon penetrated the white sheers at the window throwing shadows across the room.
Sabina stepped behind the heavy burgundy drapes. When the time was right she would move from behind the drapes to the center of the sheers. Hopefully, throwing her voice would give a ghostlike effect, especially if the moon cooperated and shone behind her. “Did you find the guns?” Sabina whispered.
“Yes.”
A moment later the door slammed back against the wall.
“I thought as much.” Victoria’s crazy laughter filled the room. “Put the machine gun down, Maureen. Don’t try anything stupid, or else I’ll turn your friend here into a fricasseed cow. That might be fun.” She gave an insane giggle. “Binnie and silent Sam,” she giggled again, “have their guns pointed at your head.”
“I can take you out in seconds,” Maureen said coolly.
“You mean you can take out me and your friend. Then again we could always do the OK Corral thing and see which is faster, a machine gun or the amulet. Of course, your bitch-friend stays here in front of me while it’s going on.”