Smokin Seventeen - Janet Evanovich [69]
“Now what?” one of the men said.
“Now we put the bags in the safe.”
“Do we need to count it?”
“No. It’s already been counted. Just shove the bags in.”
The closet door muffled sound, but I heard a thud and some scuffling.
“Close the door and lock it,” one of the men said. “Then we can watch TV until Nick comes home.”
The bar of light disappeared from the bottom of the door and the men left the room. A couple beats later the television droned from the living room.
“What are we going to do?” I whispered to Ranger.
Ranger’s voice was low, his lips skimming across my ear. “We’re going to stay here until either all of them leave or Nick goes to bed.”
“That could take hours!”
“Yeah,” Ranger said, his hand sliding up to my breast.
“Stop that!”
“I liked you better when you had vordo.”
“You’re not suggesting we do it in this tiny closet with two men watching television in the next room, are you?”
“It’d be limiting,” Ranger said, “but at least you wouldn’t have your ass on the horn.”
After what seemed like three days but was closer to an hour, Nick Alpha came home. He stomped around in the kitchen, moved to the living room, and talked to the guys watching television. I caught a few words, but for the most part the conversation was lost to me. The television was silenced, and a short time later a door slammed shut. And a few minutes after that a toilet flushed.
“I’m going to take that as a good sign,” Ranger said.
We waited a while longer, and Ranger cracked the door. The apartment was dark and silent. Ranger took my hand, and we ever so quietly crept out of the bedroom, down the hall, and out of the apartment. We were down the stairs, running for the car when Alpha’s door crashed open, and Alpha fired off a shot at us. He was firing at sound and not sight, and his shot went wild. He squeezed off a second and third at the Cayenne, but we were already in motion, racing to the side street.
“Light sleeper,” Ranger said.
“What do you suppose he had in the safe?”
“Money from something illegal. The possibilities are endless.”
“Do we care?” I asked.
“No.”
“Do you think he’s the killer?”
“No. He’s the right height, and he was involved with some of the victims, but he feels wrong. I think he’s a gun guy. I don’t see him strangling four people.”
I hated the idea that Alpha might not be the killer. If he wasn’t the killer I had to add him to the list of people who were out to get me. Now the list would be Nick Alpha, The Killer, Regina Bugle, and possibly Dave. Although I didn’t actually know if The Killer wanted to eliminate me. Maybe he just enjoyed creeping me out. That was a comforting thought. If it was true, it meant only two people wanted to kill me for sure. It wasn’t clear what Dave’s plans were at this point.
Ranger drove through town and pulled into his building’s garage. He parked and turned to me. “Would you like to come upstairs?”
“Thanks for asking, but I think I’ll head home.”
“Still not feeling the vordo?”
“The vordo is gone.”
In the beginning it was a huge relief, but now I was starting to worry. I’d just been locked in a dark closet with Ranger for an hour, and I’d felt nothing. It was like the dead zone down there.
“I don’t need vordo, babe,” Ranger said.
Possibly true, but I didn’t want to find out. What if he was wrong, and I’d never be the same again? I was going with the head-in-the-sand program tonight.
“Rain check,” I told him.
A half hour later I was idling in my parking lot. I’d driven around and didn’t see Regina Bugle lurking anywhere. Dave’s parents’ car wasn’t here, and I