California Schemin' - Kate George [65]
He had propped up his casted leg on the cushions and had his head resting on the arm of the couch. I dropped onto the other couch and relaxed into the pillows.
“Nice space,” I said. The places I’d been confined flitted through my brain. Tom’s office, a room at the posh hotel where I used to work. The trunk of a car. This was by far the most comfortable. That didn’t make it any less menacing.
“I used to like this room,” Beau said, “when I didn’t know it was a cell. Let’s go out the window and steal the Jeep.”
“We should wait until they’ve had time to clear the limos out of the road, or we’ll be trapped.” I looked around for a clock. “I figure another hour should do it.”
“Seems reasonable. I’m going to take my stuff.”
Beau hobbled around the room, picking up his clothes and packing them into his suitcase. He limped and grimaced when he put weight on the casted leg, but he didn’t complain. He paused at the drafting table and rolled up the drawings. These he shoved in the top of his backpack.
Beau headed back toward the bathroom, and I went to stand by the windows. The view of the mountains was spectacular, but what I wanted to see was if there was a way around the house. There was enough flat ground that we could get out the window, but I had no idea what we’d find when we rounded the corner. I hoped Beau would be able to manage with his luggage and cast.
Beau had his suitcase open on the bed when the upper door opened. Moose stood on the upper landing and looked around. He couldn’t see Beau or his suitcase, thank goodness.
“Wallace wants to see you.”
“Both of us or just me?”
“Just you.”
I glanced at Beau and hoped he could read my mind. He could get help while Wallace was distracted.
I climbed the stairs and followed Moose down the hall into the main living area. It was another huge room with a freestanding fireplace right in the middle of the room. A copper hood and chimney hung from the ceiling, sucking up the smoke from the fire. I could feel the heat five feet away.
Wallace was sitting on one of the couches with a view of the deck and the hills beyond. I veered away from the fireplace and sat on the couch opposite him.
“You wanted to see me?”
“I’ve been going about this thing the wrong way, appealing to your sense of civic duty. Obviously, you don’t care who they let loose in California. Can’t blame you. I’d feel the same way if we were talking about Vermont.”
“You have no idea,” I started, but the senator held up his hand to silence me.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “I realized I need to make this a life-altering experience for you. You need an incentive. Put simply, if you ID those two men, I’ll see to it you never have to work again. You can work if you want to, of course, but you’ll be set financially. You’ll get to choose.” Wallace smiled at me. “But if you don’t do as I ask, I’ll see that you never work again.”
“Are you out of …”
“Oh, I know,” he interrupted me again. “You can always find someone to hire you as a waitress or a maid, a babysitter or a stable hand. But you’ll never have a real job again, a meaningful job. You’re newly fledged career as a reporter will certainly be over, and you won’t be going back to work at that swank hotel they’ve got hidden out in the sticks. A maid with a criminal record wouldn’t go over well there, I’m sure.”
I closed my mouth. Wallace thought I could be bought or blackmailed or both, but I could turn this to my advantage. I just needed time to figure out how. I needed to talk to Beau, if he wasn’t already gone.
“I want to …”
“Don’t make a hasty …” he started.
I lost my temper. Damn it, there’s only so much interruption a girl can take.
“Will you stop interrupting me? You win. I’ll think it over, but I want to talk to Beau, as well. I’ll come up when I’ve made up my mind.” I thought briefly about telling him I’d knock on the upper door