Dead Even - Mariah Stewart [110]
Stumbling onto the Valley of the Angels five years ago had been the icing on the cake. The reverend had needed a man who was very adept with numbers. Jules had needed a place to lay low. It had been a marriage made in heaven. He’d been permitted to try out the ladies who’d flocked to the reverend’s side, but he’d never touched the underage ones. Uh-uh. Personally, he’d thought that whole thing was sick, but as long as they kept their hands off his daughter and paid him as handsomely as they did, well, he didn’t really give a damn. Most of those girls were on the skids when they were brought in anyway, hooking and using drugs and putting their lives in danger every day. At least the reverend offered them a safe haven, one where they could get themselves cleaned up and off drugs, get fed and clothed. Okay, so after a while they were turned over to some old geezer with money to burn and a desire for sex with a girl young enough to be his granddaughter. They were still off the streets, weren’t they?
Frankly, Jules didn’t give a damn about any of it. He was getting his. Money and a fine young new wife who never questioned him, who never seemed to care how often he spread his handsome talents around. It had been one sweet life, until Mara had pushed herself into it, sent whoever it was she’d sent to grab Julianne and split.
He shook his head. That was all Prescott needed to hear, that Jules didn’t know who had spirited her away. When the reverend had asked, Jules had told him it had been a private detective hired by Mara. Prescott hadn’t pressed it, but in his heart, Jules wasn’t 100 percent certain himself. He assumed Mara was behind it. Who else would care enough to go to all the trouble of getting someone into the compound, waiting patiently while the whole scheme was set up? It had to be Mara. Jules had known better than to show any sign of doubt when discussing it with Prescott. The reverend had been incensed that he’d been duped by Miss Ruth—whoever she really was—and that there was now someone on the outside who knew what really was going on inside the Valley of the Angels.
Thinking about Prescott made Jules feel just a little bit edgy. He knew that the reverend would make good on his threat to come after the girl himself if he had to. If it came to that—if it looked as if Jules couldn’t control his own child, his own life—well, just where would that leave Jules?
No one who’d ever left the compound had surfaced to talk about what had gone on there. Prescott wasn’t about to take the chance that Julianne would be the first. That she was the daughter of one of his most trusted financial counselors meant nothing at all. Jules knew that, and it bothered him, but it merely strengthened his resolve to find Julianne and take her back himself.
Then there was the question of Miss Ruth. Jules knew that Prescott would go to the ends of the earth to track her down. He didn’t want to be around when Prescott found her.
Mara, of course, was the key to finding Ruth. It was Jules’s plan to take Mara with them in order to turn her over to the reverend. He might as well make points where and when he could. He figured Prescott would have his men take Mara to one of his many homes that were scattered throughout the country, and would, more likely than not, send Jules and Julianne to a different location.
Assuming, of course, that Prescott didn’t have other plans for the two of them. Jules’s mouth went dry at the thought of what Prescott could do to them, if he wanted. He could easily kill Jules, and send Julianne to one of his clients. Handing over Mara, which hopefully would lead to finding Ruth—if in fact that was her name—would go a long way toward rectifying the problem. A speedy return of Jules and his daughter would further placate Prescott.
So, if he was to survive, he was going to have to take care of business now. They would have to leave, the three of them, and they would have to leave soon. Prescott had lent him his private plane, and he’d had someone meet him