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Kit nodded.
“The two families have received ransom notes. Someone is holding the bride and groom hostage.”
“Then Roman is off the hook?”
Nik shook his head. “Parker is favoring Roman for the kidnapping. Of course, he had to have had accomplices. There’s an APB out on his sister Sadie right now.”
“Sadie? They think she played a part in all of this? You’ve got to be kidding.”
“She’s disappeared. No one has seen her or talked to her since last night.”
“And Roman ended up falling over a railing, getting a skull fracture and having to undergo spinal surgery because…”
Nik shrugged. “The best laid plans often run amok.”
Kit let out a frustrated breath. “This whole thing is ridiculous. I couldn’t even make this plot work in one of my books. Why would Roman and Sadie kidnap their own sister?”
“The line of reasoning is that they had to kidnap both the bride and the groom to divert suspicion from themselves.”
“That’s crap. What kind of motive is Parker giving Roman?”
“Money. The Olivers had to come up with a lot of money for that land deal on the Orange County coastline and…” Nik let his sentence fade away as he suddenly pointed to one of the TV screens.
Kit glanced up to see Carla Mitchell’s face on the screen. Beneath her image were the words Breaking News. Kit immediately recognized the man standing to her left as Angelo Carlucci. The man was in his fifties and, though his hair was gray, he still looked fit. Carla introduced him and then let him speak into the microphone.
“Since the police aren’t doing anything to get my son back, I’m addressing this plea to Mario Oliver. I know that we’ve been business rivals. I also know that your son is behind this terrible tragedy. He shot my son’s bodyguard. But I don’t care. Just give me my son back. Please.” He passed the microphone back to Carla.
“Well, the shit is going to hit the fan now,” Nik remarked. “I’ll bet Commissioner Galvin is already on the phone to Parker.”
On the screen, Carla was saying, “You heard it here first. Roman Oliver is a prime suspect in the murder of Paulo Carlucci’s bodyguard and in the kidnapping of Paulo Carlucci.”
“This is going to get very ugly if Roman is tried in the press,” Nik said. “The D.A. will be under a lot of pressure now to charge Roman.”
“Theo’s going to have his hands full.”
Nik glanced at him. “Theo’s taking the case, then?”
Kit nodded. “He’s at the hospital right now.”
Nik put his hand on Kit’s shoulder. “If I were in Roman’s shoes right now, Theo’s the man I’d want on my side.”
“Yeah.” Kit felt some of his tension ease. “You know, Drew pointed out something to me.”
“Drew, the client?”
“Yeah. She said that for a secret wedding, this one wasn’t much of a secret. If Roman and Sadie got wind of it, so could’ve some others. And I’m thinking maybe the bodyguard could have spread the word to someone else who had a reason for stirring up the hatred between the two families. Who would benefit from doing that?”
Nik snatched another Greek fry as he turned Kit’s theory over in his mind for a minute. “Nice scenario. J.C. was thinking the same thing last night. There is that big land deal that the two families are in competition for. Maybe someone wants their attention elsewhere. Stirring up a blood feud would do that nicely.”
“If both families have to ante up big bucks to get back their kids, what happens to the land deal?”
“I like the way your mind works.” Nik swatted Kit’s hand away to steal another fry. “I’m going to give Cole Buchanan over at Rossi Investigations a call and have him do some research. He might as well earn the money the mayor is paying him to give me backup with J.C.”
Kit glanced over at Drew and wished to hell that he could tell his brother what she’d remembered. It would go a long way in clearing Roman.
He listened to Nik leave a message for Cole Buchanan. Then together they brainstormed by running over the possible suspects again. He objected heatedly when Nik offered the theory that Sadie Oliver might have masterminded the whole plan either by herself or in partnership with Michael Dano. But he knew the value of considering even the most remote possibilities. And all the while, he kept checking to see what Drew was doing.
“You can’t keep your eyes off that client of yours, can you?” Nik asked.
Kit looked back at his brother and knew immediately that he’d made a mistake. Nik had always seen too much. He watched as his brother shifted that very perceptive gaze to Drew.
“There’s something you’re not telling me and it has to do with Drew, doesn’t it?”
“No…I—”
“Dammit.” Nik looked at Drew again. “She’s part of it, isn’t she? She’s the mystery blonde, the woman that J.C. saw come into the church with Juliana. And you haven’t brought her to the station? What in hell are you thinking? You could lose your license for withholding evidence in a homicide.”
As Nik slid from his chair, Kit grabbed his arm. “I’m not withholding evidence. Not yet. I…I need you to listen.”
Nik stared at his brother for a moment, then nodded. “This had better be good.”
J.C. WAVED A HAND in the direction of the bar. “They’re about to get into a brawl.”
Drew glanced over and saw the tension between the two men. Even at a distance, she could feel temper coming off them in waves. Guilt roiled in her stomach. She had a good idea what they were fighting about. She started to rise, but J.C. clamped a hand on her arm. “Leave them be. I have four brothers and they fight all the time. My stepmother boots them out of the house so that they don’t break the furniture. Men.” She lifted the half of the gyro that Drew had sliced off for her. “There’s a basic genetic difference between them and us.”
Drew kept her eyes on Kit, and only relaxed a bit when she saw Nik slide back up on his stool.
“Of course, there’s the physical difference, too.”
The smile in J.C.’s voice had Drew turning back.
“I can handle the physical difference. In fact, I enjoy handling it.” She grinned at Drew, then jerked her head in the direction of the brothers. “They certainly are magnificent specimens, aren’t they?”
“They’re beautiful.” The Angelis brothers were really something. Nik was a bit shorter than Kit, but there was a toughness emanating from him that made you forget that. He had the same classic features, made all the more attractive because his nose was a bit crooked. Her stomach settled a little as the two brothers continued to talk without either of them throwing a punch. “The first time I saw Kit he reminded me of a fallen angel.”
“Good description. The first time I saw Nik, I thought of Adonis, the mortal man who had two goddesses fighting over him.”
“They’re certainly something to fight over.”
“You should have some of this gyro,” J.C. said around a mouthful of food. “It’s excellent. I really have to get the recipe.”
Absently, Drew picked up a fry. If Kit had told his brother who she was, it was only a matter of time before Nik came over to arrest her. Unless…Kit talked him out of it. Narrowing her eyes, Drew decided that was exactly what was going on right now. “But Kit is not an angel.”
“Neither is Nik.”
“Kit’s a stubborn, determined man,” Drew said. “He pretends to listen, and then he just goes and does exactly what he wants.”
J.C.’s eyebrows shot up. “I’d say it runs in the family.” Then she grinned. “They must get it from their dad. Looks like he was about to get his way when we walked in.”
“It’s not fair. And I can’t let him make every decision for me. I think…I’m afraid I’m the kind of a woman who does that—leans on a man, I mean.”
J.C. lifted the wineglass and handed it to her. “You’re afraid of that? Don’t you know?”
Drew shook her head. “I can’t remember anything about myself. I have amnesia.”
J.C. almost spit out a mouthful of gyro. “Amnesia? Seriously? Like in the soaps? I can’t imagine. Did you want to talk about it?”
Drew did, and they took turns sipping from the wineglass. J.C. only interrupted once to point a fry at her and say, “So you must be the mystery woman, the one I saw get out of the car with the bride.”
“I guess. I can’t remember anything. I just get flashes now and then.”
J.C. squeezed her hand. “You’ll remember.”
“I have to turn myself in. People are following Kit because of me, and he could probably lose his license for not cooperating with the police.”
J.C. handed her the wineglass. “You’re sloppy in love with him, aren’t you?”
Drew took a sip to quell the rising panic. “No. Of course not. And I’m not going to fall in love with him. He’s…we’re…that’s not going to happen. It can’t.”
She glanced at Kit and then back at J.C. “I’m going to need your help.” She pressed a hand against her heart to steady its rhythm. “All you have to do is keep Kit distracted for a few minutes. Tell him that I’ve gone to the ladies’ room. Can you do that? Please?”
