Still polishing the final manuscript of Dangerous Allies. Since it’s the first in the series, I want it to be perfect before you see it! It also introduces our protagonist, tabloid darling Ruby Delaney.
Meanwhile, here’s the current version of Chapter 2.
CHAPTER TWO
Ruby’s lips twitched as her cellphone screen filled with the macabre grin of an eight-year-old vampire. Tossing her bag onto the king-sized bed, she clicked on the video message.
“Hi, Auntie Ruby! It’s us!” the girls squealed.
Ruby laughed while Naomi showed off her pointy-toothed scowl and blackened eyes and tiny Sarah giggled behind a pink feather boa.
Then Naomi rushed up to the camera.
“Daddy, let me!” she shrieked.
The video dissolved into a swirling view of Naomi’s hands, the wall, and a cat wearing a crooked paper hat. Finally the camera steadied on Sarah, who grinned and help up the family’s long-suffering feline while her big sister moved in for a ‘whisker-cam’ close-up. The cat stared glumly at the camera. Naomi backed up for a wider view and Sarah’s face reappeared.
But the little girl’s smile had faded.
“Why aren’t you here, Auntie Ruby?” she said, her lip quivering while the cat dangled from her arms.
“I told you, Sarah,” Naomi broke in, “Auntie Ruby’s not coming. Just like last time.”
“That’s enough,” their father said. The screen went black.
Ruby slumped onto the bed, staring at the phone in her hand. It wasn’t her fault. What was she supposed to tell them? Listen, girls, your uncle, Wall Street wizard—she rolled her eyes—Antony Carver said he needed time alone with his wife? With a sigh, she tossed the phone next to her bag and headed into the ensuite. As a caring aunt, she had been a bit of a letdown so far. Perhaps a shower would help wash away the scent of failure.
Ten minutes later, she tucked a bath towel around her chest, wiped a swath of condensation from the mirror with her forearm and frowned at the dark circles under her eyes. Five more languid days at sea would be boring, but at least she would lose those bags.
Rubbing her hair briskly with another towel, she walked into the bedroom and retrieved a large leather tote bag from the floor. Ruby flung the second towel over the back of the vanity chair and sat down with the bulging tote bag on her lap. She unzipped the top, peered in, and made a face. As usual, her ‘go-see’ bag was long overdue for a clean-out. Why on earth did she carry so much stuff around? She was no longer a model, lugging everything from spare heels to hairspray to her jobs and auditions, but she still hauled this shoulder-wrenching burden almost everywhere.
As she rummaged through the leather tote bag for a concealer stick, her fingers closed on something soft and rubbery. Ruby pulled out a pink rubber bracelet with a Hello Kitty logo on the front. The bracelet had a USB stick hidden in the clasp and she had intended to give it to computer-crazy Naomi during her visit to Vancouver. The visit she had cancelled to be with her husband.
So where was he, then? Ruby placed a hand over her heart and closed her eyes, picturing the scene. Antony would walk in and flash that crooked grin that always melted her heart. She would put one hand on her hip and pout. He would shrug sheepishly and apologize. They would laugh, and tumble together onto the brocaded bedspread—
She opened her eyes. Right. Which rom-com script was that from?
Sighing, she returned her attention to the tote bag. It was still packed with essentials for her trip to Vancouver: tiny jars of theatrical makeup, spirit gum, and liquid latex; wigs for her and the girls; even gelatin capsules of fake blood. Her nieces loved to put on plays for their dad, Quentin, whenever Aunt Ruby visited. Naomi had wanted to be a vampire this time. So had four-year-old Sarah, who believed vampires ate peanut butter.
Ruby slipped her hand into a zippered side pocket and drew out a tiny velvet bag. One tug on the frayed drawstring and a polished green malachite pebble fell onto her outstretched hand. She clasped her fingers around its cool stone surface, remembering the day she and Lily had found it on the shore. Reaching for her cellphone, she rolled back the girls’ video and froze the screen. Sarah looked more like her mother every day. The same vivid blue eyes, the same soft smile.
With a sigh, Ruby tucked the pebble back into its bag and resumed her search.
Finally, at the tote’s very bottom, the concealer stick rolled into her hand. She swept the theatrical supplies and the Hello Kitty bracelet back into the bag, but as she replaced it on the floor a metallic gleam on the carpet caught her eye. She bent over for a closer look. Plucking a pair of sapphire and platinum earrings from the carpet, she held them up to the light and stared at the sparkling stones. How the heck did those get there? Antony would be furious they weren’t in the safe.
Why weren’t they in the safe, though? Ruby frowned. Had she worn them last night? Her frown deepened. She couldn’t remember. Oh, dear God. She couldn’t remember wearing earrings worth as much as a small car less than twenty-four hours earlier. What else had she forgotten? Drawing a sharp breath, she closed her eyes a moment. Then she placed the earrings carefully on the vanity. No harm done. Just put them back in the safe.
The earrings’ velvet-lined box was wedged between the vanity mirror and a bottle of hand lotion. Ruby tucked the earrings into the box and then padded down the hall to the bedroom at the suite’s far end, beyond the main living area. There, she stopped at the wall safe and stared at the key pad, her plan thwarted because she had no idea what code Antony had used to program the lock.
Hari Bhatt—chief financial officer for Antony’s company and best man at their wedding—was always ribbing him about his easily guessed passwords. Once he even found several passwords written on a yellow sticky note taped to Antony’s computer. According to Hari, who had recounted this tale during dinner at the Carvers’ Manhattan apartment, Antony had simply replied, ‘So what? Security is what I pay you for.’
Grinning, Ruby flexed her fingers. Maybe she wasn’t as smart as Hari, but she could figure this out. First, she keyed in Antony’s birthday. Nope. Her birthday. Nope. Their anniversary? As if. Her fingers hovered over the keys. She tried the date that Carvon, Antony’s company, had been incorporated. Ruby had seen photos of magnums of Cristal being popped in the office that day, the champagne spraying the floor, the desks, even their suits. So you’d think … But still, nope.
Tilting her head, she studied the keypad. It had both letters and numbers on it, so she tried T-I-M-N-C, for ‘This Is My New Code.’ The safe beeped and the door clicked ajar. She rolled her eyes and chuckled. Might as well use 0-0-0.
Sliding stacked folders to one side to make room for the earrings, Ruby noticed a red leather box leaning against the back wall. She tugged out the box and took it over to the bed for a better look. Pushing Antony’s cardigan aside, she sat on the bed and placed the leather box beside her. Brows furrowed, she stared at the rich embossed leather. Could it be a gift? After turning the small gold key in the lock, she flipped open the lid and stared at the contents.
It was not a gift.
The box was stuffed with documents and, on top, two bundles of hundred-dollar bills. She picked up the plastic-wrapped bundles and checked the markings on the plastic. Each bundle held one hundred bills. Twenty thousand dollars in all. Why would Antony need twenty thousand in cash on a cruise ship?
Ruby placed the plastic-wrapped bills on the bed and turned back to the box. Under the bills were four passports, three American and one Canadian. She picked up the first American passport and thumbed to the data page. Antony’s photo looked back at her. Dropping that passport on the bed, she picked up the next one. The second passport bore Antony’s picture as well, but a different name. A name she had never seen before. She picked up the Canadian passport and flipped it open. Antony’s picture stared out at her yet again, but her stomach lurched as she read the name beside it. Quentin Wade.
Ruby’s hand shook as she dropped the open passport on the bed. The air conditioning in the bedroom had been cranked up high, and she shivered as water dripped from her still-damp hair onto her bare shoulders. She stared at the passport, rubbing her throat. Why would Antony, an American citizen, have a Canadian passport? But more than that, why was it in her brother-in-law’s name?
Quentin Wade.
Mild-mannered assistant English professor, beloved father of Naomi and Sarah, bereft widower of Ruby’s deceased sister, Lily. How had a passport in his name come to be locked aboard a ship cruising the Caribbean, thousands of miles from Vancouver? It couldn’t be Quentin’s real passport, since the photo was Antony’s. Ruby bent over, her shoulders curled, fighting a wave of panic.
Straightening up, she took a deep breath and pulled the leather box nearer. Two manila envelopes lay under the passports. She ripped open one envelope and shook out its contents. Certificates with green embossed edges spilled out. The name and logo of a Cayman Islands bank was printed along the top, followed by tiny printing and a holograph that rippled when she tilted the heavy vellum pages against the light.
Bonds. Ten bonds. Each for one million U.S. dollars. And the second manila envelope looked as if it held the same. She scanned the bonds for the registered owner’s name and found nothing. These were bearer bonds, cashable by anyone who held them with no questions asked. Having once researched them for a television role, Ruby knew bearer bonds were still popular with criminals and screenwriters, but real ones hadn’t been issued in the United States for decades. She smoothed a finger across a hologram, frowning as it caught the light.
Sliding the bonds back into the torn envelope, she placed both envelopes on the bed and scanned the remaining items in the box. It contained only a printed itinerary and two plane tickets for a flight to Caracas from an airstrip on Pintado Island. The Apollonis would arrive at Pintado Island in two days. Was Antony planning to leave the cruise? And if so, why would he need two tickets?
Ruby brightened. Maybe one was for her. Maybe this was a second honeymoon surprise, and the fake passports an elaborate joke. She pressed her lips together. That didn’t sound like Antony.
She turned back to the papers on the bed, leafed through them for the third American passport and opened it. A blonde woman in her early twenties stared back at her. The name was unknown to Ruby. So was the face.
Son of a bitch. Water trickled down her back as she gaped at the passport. Shivering, she reached for Antony’s cardigan and started to slip it on. The room’s edges shimmered as tears stung her eyes. Ruby ripped the sweater off her arm, bundled up the cashmere, and hurled it across the room where it landed on the floor in a heap. She crossed her arms and leaned over, feeling as if she had been kicked in the stomach.
Plane tickets. Fake passports. And a blonde. It made for a compelling narrative. But the bonds? What were they for?
A voice startled her and she jerked her head around.
“Sorry. I thought the room was empty.” Mila, the maid from the balcony, stood in the doorway. Clutching towels to her chest, she stared at the money on the bed. Then she backed slowly out of the room.
