Just after Sarah stepped inside the house, Theo followed her. He moved as silently as possible. Any hint he was around would jeopardize the whole situation.
He had to trust the other two signs were in position. The front door was locked, but Theo hadn’t wasted his time when he’d been at school. He learned to pick every type of lock he encountered, mostly due to the many pranks he pulled with Charlie so long ago. This lock was simple, taking no more than a few seconds. Theo slipped past the door, the hinges squeaking just a bit as he went.
The place was rather like a mausoleum inside. Cold marble floors and lofty ceilings kept the house almost as chill as the outdoors. Somewhere a fire burned—he could smell it— but not here. He was glad for his greatcoat.
He heard something to his right. Footsteps. He moved toward the sound, hoping it would lead him to Sarah.
Theo followed the noises for a little while, never quite catching sight of whoever was making the sound. Unfortunately, he was too eager to be suspicious of that little fact. Thus, Theo walked directly into a trap.
As he passed through a doorway into a new room, he felt a sudden rush of air—his one hint of danger. Ducking, he sensed something whip over his head.
A muttered curse in Italian revealed his attacker. Rossi. Theo turned to where the man must have been standing in the shadows. Rossi was bigger than him, but perhaps not as fast.
Or perhaps he was. Theo made a grab for the dark shape, and missed. Rossi stepped out of the way and then swung a fist at Theo.
“So much for big and clumsy,” Theo muttered.
Rossi heard him and gave a grunting laugh. “Just like everyone. You see me and think he’s stupid and slow. Can’t be stupid and slow when you fight wild animals for a living.”
“Noted,” said Theo. He deflected the blow—barely—and dodged out of the way of the next hit.
Rossi grazed him when he struck again, and Theo wasn’t sure how long he’d last against such a fighter. They tussled for a few moments, exchanging blows. But the fight was largely silent until Giselle appeared.
“Matteo!” she gasped. She added something in Italian that Theo didn’t understand, but he caught the anger and urgency in her tone.
He felt the urgency himself. He didn’t like not knowing where Sarah was. He had to finish this and get to her. Rossi wanted to end it too. He stepped up his attacks, keeping Theo dancing just to stay clear.
But Rossi made a mistake. He pressed Theo too far, too fast, and the scuffle moved closer to where Giselle was standing in the doorway.
Theo saw his opportunity. He tricked Rossi into following him and then slipped near enough to Giselle that the other man reined in his movement and had to retreat.
Theo took one more step. He could avoid Rossi.
What he did not avoid was the large vase on the stand behind him.
Before he could make a grab for it, the whole thing teetered, hanging in space. Then it fell to the floor, where it met the hard marble with a resounding crash. Ceramic shattered and flew everywhere.
“Damn,” Theo muttered.
Everyone was surprised by the noise. Theo recovered first, shoving Giselle back through the doorway she’d just used, then following her. She screamed as she stumbled back, but Theo had already turned the key in the lock and yanked it out.
“That should keep your friend for a few minutes,” he said. “Now stand up.”
* * * *
At a sudden crashing sound, Arceneau whipped his head away from the papers and toward the doorway, his eyes dark with fury. “You did not come alone, did you?”
“I don’t know who it could be,” Sarah said. She wasn’t lying. She didn’t know precisely which agent was there.
“Get up, Miss Brecknell. We’re leaving this room.” He gathered the papers up.
“Why? You don’t need me now that you have the papers.”
He drew a pistol. “I often take things I don’t need, just because I like them. I said get up.”
She rose shakily to her feet. “Please don’t shoot me.”
“Do as I say and I may not. Now walk toward that red door over there and open it.”
He ordered her out of the room. Without a doubt, he was leading her away from Theo.
* * * *
Theo prayed the lock would hold for a little while. He faced Giselle, who was on the floor, scrambling for a weapon of some kind.
“Stop doing that and stand up,” he ordered again.
Giselle saw his face, and followed his instructions. She rose to her feet and put her hands out, though her expression was hardly frightened.
“You should have killed me,” she said. “But you didn’t, because I’m a woman.” She sneered.
“You wouldn’t be the first woman I killed,” he said. “But if you answer my questions, I’ll let you leave here alive.”
“I’m not interested in your questions.”
“When did you meet Charlie?”
She glanced at him sulkily. “Why?”
“He kept you for over two years. What I want to know is whether you met him before or after you started working for Arceneau.”
“Before.” Giselle was watching him closely now. “Who do you work for?”
“I’m not interested in your questions,” Theo echoed. “When did Arceneau contact you about the cache?”
“Two months ago. Last year, one of his lieutenants was killed, and Arceneau spent a lot of time finding out exactly why. He discovered that the lieutenant’s courier was Charlie. And that Charlie was selling more documents for money on the black market. Then he learned about me because Charlie and I were together. He found me, and offered me the chance to retrieve the cache. If I succeeded, I’d get paid.”
“And if you didn’t?”
She couldn’t quite hide a shiver. “I’d be killed. Along with Matteo. Arceneau doesn’t like loose ends. He gave me a deadline, and I knew I couldn’t find it on my own in time.”
A huge bang rattled the door. Rossi was trying to smash it open.
“So you had Rossi frighten Sarah into helping,” Theo went on. “Why her?”
“Charlie told me all about her. How clever she was. He said she worried him sometimes. If anyone could uncover his clues, it would be her. She understood how he thought.”
Theo shook his head. “Charlie kept his lives separate from one another. He’d never tell you what was happening in his other worlds. Not his work, not his espionage. Certainly not his social world.”
Giselle tossed her head. “You don’t understand, do you? He loved me. He talked to me about everything. He talked to me about that girl. He’d tell me how innocent she was, how naïve. He couldn’t stand her. So he came to me, and I satisfied him. He planned to disappear with me after he sold enough of the documents.”
“He would forego a respectable marriage to spend a life with his art model mistress?”
“Of course. He loved me. He would take me to Italy, if I wished. But we would also see India, China. Wherever we wanted to go!”
“India and China were also places he told Miss Brecknell they would go. Coincidence? Or was it just easier to talk about the same places when he lied to you?”
“How dare you. He wouldn’t lie to me. He told me about the cache of papers, remember. He told me his plans for the future.”
“But he didn’t tell you where he hid the papers. And he never brought you to his hunting lodge. Face it, Giselle. He didn’t trust you or like you any more than anyone else. You were useful to him, so he used you.”
“He brought me gifts!”
“Let me guess. Your necklace was one of them. A single pearl—from Bahrain.”
She looked uncertain for the first time. Her hand fluttered up to her throat. “How could you know that?”
“He gave a matching necklace to his fiancée.”
“You lie.”
“Why would I lie about that?”
“I don’t know!” Giselle backed away, upset.
The door shook again, and splintered. Theo was prepared this time, and he stepped out of Rossi’s path. The man barged into the room, holding a heavy pedestal, perhaps the same one that had been holding the vase.
“We’re going to destroy this whole house,” Theo muttered.
“Let her go!” Rossi yelled.
“I don’t have her. She’s right there,” Theo said.
“Giselle!” Rossi saw her and ran to her, dropping his makeshift battering ram. “Are you all right?”
“I am,” she reassured him. “This man and I were just having a little chat. You can kill him now.”
Rossi turned to face Theo. “The lady suggests I kill you, and I think she’s right.”
Theo inhaled. Rossi looked furious, his blood already up from his assault on the door. Theo wouldn’t stand a chance against Rossi in a fair fight.
Then again, he didn’t see any reason to fight fair.
“She is undoubtably right,” Theo said, keeping his tone agreeable. “She definitely wouldn’t want you to know what our chat was about.”
Rossi glanced at Giselle. “What’s he mean?”
“Nothing,” she said quickly. “He’s just trying to stay alive.”
“I don’t mind telling you the topic of our conversation,” Theo told the other man. “All you have to do is ask.”
“Don’t listen to him!” Giselle cried out.
“Tell me,” Rossi growled.
“Gladly. I had a few questions about your lover’s association with Charles Wolverton—the man whose cache you’ve been after.”
“So?”
“Well, I just wanted to know what story he told Giselle about taking her with him when he left the country. She believed he would—she was his mistress, after all…”
Rossi turned on her in sudden fury. “So it’s true. You did cheat with him. You said you didn’t, but you lied.”
“No! I love only—” But her words were choked off as Rossi attacked her and put his hands around her throat.
Theo leapt forward to pull the man off, but Rossi was incredibly strong, and maddened by the revelation of his lover’s trick. Giving up on the idea of being able to yank him away, Theo seized the knife he kept hidden, and stabbed the blade into the other man’s side in a calculated move.
Rossi looked stunned for a moment, then howled in pain. He released his grip on Giselle, who choked in desperate breaths. She tried to speak, but no sound came out.
“Don’t try to talk, Giselle,” Theo advised. “You’re lucky he didn’t crush your throat. Just concentrate on breathing.”
He turned his attention to Rossi, who was now awkwardly gripping his wound with one hand, and glaring at Theo. “You struck me while my back was turned.”
“Yes, I did. Not very honorable, but I’m in a hurry. Don’t take the knife out just yet. You might bleed to death if you do. You should thank me—I chose not to go for your throat.”
“Why keep me alive? Why keep her alive?”
“You might be useful. Listen to me,” Theo said. “If you know a single scrap of information about Arceneau, it may keep you from a quick death…or a slow torture. Keep that in mind.”
At that moment, Bruce appeared, pistol in hand. “I see you took care of these two already.”
“Yes, but now I need to hand them over to you to watch. I have to find Arceneau before he leaves the house.”
Giselle watched him with wide eyes. She lifted one hand from her throat to point to a door.
“What?” Theo asked.
She pointed again, more insistently.
“Arceneau is here now,” Rossi whispered. “Right behind that door.”
Bruce nodded. “Off you go. Don’t worry about these two. I’ll keep a close eye on them.”
Theo needed no more encouragement. Within seconds, he was through the door.