Part 24 (1/2)
Point. Point. Point. f.u.c.king point. Okay? ”You just like him better than me because he's like all your detective show dreams come true and all I can offer is suggestions on what your most flattering color in manservant suits is.”
Archibald chuckled before running his finger down the length of her nose. ”I will not deny Master Samuel's appeal is just a notch above yours in that particular department. But this is what I'm really saying, Miss Phoebe. Sam had secrets he certainly should have revealed to all of you much sooner in this game.”
Phoebe snorted.
”However, I don't believe he did this with malice or to save his own hide. I believe he did this to keep you all safe while he figured out what to do to keep his colleagues as far from you all as possible until he found what will save the two of you. You do realize, if his agency found out about all of you, they'd find out about him. He'd be locked away somewhere, as is protocol, according to Sam, and then where would you be? It was better he kept this an inside job.”
She rolled her face on the counter so her forehead was at the ready for the head banging she shouldn't waste a second longer avoiding. Yes. That made perfect sense. d.a.m.n perfect in all its sense. ”I lost my temper, didn't I?”
Archibald held two fingers together and grinned. ”I would offer the words just a smidge.”
But he could still have been lying about how he felt about her ...
”And as an aside, I can't remember ever hearing a man in such distress as I did your Samuel when he thought he would never lay eyes upon your beauty again. Oh, the phone calls back and forth between himself and Mistress Wanda. Loud, miss. Very abrasive.”
”Really?”
Archibald's eyebrow rose. ”Really, miss. And now, while this chat has been lovely, I believe I'm quite disoriented.”
Phoebe popped up, hopping off the stool and helping Archibald to a standing position. She gave him an impulsive hug, one he returned with an awkward pat on her back.
”I'm off, miss. Kojak awaits!” Archibald rambled off to the guest bedroom, leaving Phoebe to stew in his wise words.
Yes. Sam had lied.
But she'd been lying, too.
Both of them had done it in order to protect someone.
And she had to come clean with Nina and Sam soon in order to keep Penny safe.
Soon.
SAM grabbed one of his disposable phones and punched in the number for Harlan Luftkin. Another of his more questionable contacts, but without a doubt, his most trusted, despite his tawdry past. While he waited for the call to connect, he sifted through some of the DVDs Archibald had left in his room that Nina and Phoebe had missed when they were cleaning up after the apartment was burglarized.
One in particular caught Sam's attention-a blank one that was mixed in with his movies.
But he forgot all about it when Harlan answered on the first ring. ”Sammy?”
”Yeah. I got trouble.”
”Name it.”
Words were something Harlan didn't do much of. It was what Sam liked most about him. He cut right through the bulls.h.i.+t and went for your throat. ”Penny Reynolds. Twenty, in a wheelchair. Highland Hills long-term care facility in New York. Get there. Just watch for now. Keep it on the down low unless s.h.i.+t gets heated. Whatever it takes, make sure she's safe until you hear from me. Also-I need low-key manpower on a Mark Boyer, Manhattan. Keep your distance. He's easily freaked out, but not in the direct line of fire for right now.”
”You givin' permission for me and my friends to play with our guns?”
”b.a.l.l.s to the wall, Harlan. Take out any f.u.c.k that gets in your way except the staff at Highland. No collateral damage.”
”It's like f.u.c.king Christmas and Charlie Manson's birthday,” he quipped, his southern tw.a.n.g accenting the word birthday.
”Then merry, merry, happy, happy,” Sam said before clicking the phone off.
Pulling his s.h.i.+rt over his head, Sam shrugged it down over his waist and reached for his gun.
While he'd scanned the files Stinky had sent him, something had occurred to him. Something that should have occurred to him much sooner than four hours after Phoebe's harrowing entry into that clinical trial. His emotional attachment to Phoebe-the total center she'd become of everything for him-had kept him from looking at the big picture from all angles.
One huge f.u.c.k-up on his part? The freaks had Phoebe's phone and her purse, and every one of them was listed as a contact in there.
Surely she'd called Penny from that phone any number of times, and now they could locate her apartment, too. Thankfully, Mark, after the scare of that first night, had decided to take their cat and go stay with a friend when Phoebe had packed it up and come to his place.
If they wanted to lure Phoebe to them-Penny was a sure bet. Harlan was the best he had to offer. The best candidate for getting the job done swiftly and silently with no remorse for the effort. Harlan would die before he gave Sam up out of some misguided belief he owed Sam his kid's life.
Sam had never looked at it like that. It was his job to save people. Harlan's people included. But right now, he was glad Harlan was on his side.
f.u.c.k. He could really use some skilled backup right now.
PHOEBE sat in a ball on the chair, her legs tucked up under her, thinking. Sorting through this mess. When Sam entered the room, his large frame blocking out the dim light they left on for Archibald, he paused in front of the chair she sat on. His face no longer held the handsome, open beauty it had once held. It was set with determination. Hardcore determination.
”Where is everyone?”
”Oh. Look. It's the FBI guy,” Phoebe poked. Her chat with Archibald had eased most of her anger-not all, but most.
Leaning over her, Sam placed his hands on each arm of the chair and forced her to look at him. ”I'm going to say this once, Phoebe, and once only. I tried to explain to you. You didn't want to hear me. I did this to protect you and everyone else. The less you knew about why I was here, the better. Whether you approved of my judgment call or not. There it is. Deal.” He pushed off the chair with a jolting shove of his hands and a hard set to his jaw.
Her eyes shot upward, meeting his two flecks of black granite. This was not the cute, cuddly Sam of twenty-four hours ago. The one whose eyes she could get so lost in. This was FBI Sam. Hard. Cold. With a plan.
But he was right. So she caved. ”You're right. Our differences aside, we have some real problems to deal with. And there's something I have to tell you-all of you. Before this goes any further.” The knots in her stomach twisted at what she had to do next.
”You mean about your other sister, Penny?”
Her eyes flew open while her fingers clenched the edges of the sleeves on her sweater. ”You know?”
”I'm the FBI guy. I know everything.” His sarcasm dripped into the air between them and oozed all over her.
Phoebe held up her finger. Why was it okay for everyone else to be angry with him? According to Wanda, Nina had torn into him. ”First, lay off the sarcastic, put-upon c.r.a.p. You caught me totally off guard, and it's been, in case you missed the part where I almost bought it, a long d.a.m.n day. Plus, you did lie to me. Second-if you're going to wander around with a stick up your a.s.s because I called you on this-wander around somewhere else. I'm not going to have you covertly attacking me. Be a man and give me the courtesy of saying it to my face!”
Sam shot her a look of disbelief. ”You mean, shoot straight, Phoebe? Like you did with me about your sister?”
Oh, foul. Big foul! ”My sister was none of your beeswax, buddy! And she certainly didn't affect anything that was happening to us. Unlike the fact that you work for the f.u.c.king F-B-I!” she shouted between clenched teeth.
”Then why didn't you tell us about her?” Sam insisted like the skilled interrogator he was.
And it made her cave with the guilt that had been eating her up since this had begun. He might as well have shone a flashlight in her eyes and threatened to make her talk.
Phoebe let her head fall to her heavy chest, the misery welling up in her like a dam ready to burst. ”I kept it from Nina because it was enough that I had diagnosis death hanging over my head. I wasn't sure she could handle that and a brain-damaged twenty-year-old who needs constant care. Nina didn't handle me very well. So I figured after this was all over, we'd part ways and she never had to be the wiser. I love Penny like nothing and no one on the planet. She's my heart, and she's my responsibility for as long as I'm still here. She's one of the very reasons I get up in the morning, and I won't allow anyone to shun her the way Nina shunned me. She's sweet and una.s.suming, and loves everyone with no judgment. Sometimes to her detriment. She doesn't have the ability to understand when she's being mocked. Nina would do nothing but frighten her. And aside from that, everything got so crazy, I didn't know where to begin. I'm sorry.”