Her father’s lips were shut tighter than a clam. Other than having her and her sisters sign various documents, he’d barely uttered a word in the past five days. The tension surrounding him was so thick Norma Rose could almost see it, but no matter how hard she insisted he tell her what was going on, he refused.
Refused.
She was furious, fed up and sick. Literally sick to her stomach. Hadn’t been able to eat and at night she cried. Something she hadn’t done in years. But Ty had disappeared. Utterly disappeared. It was as if he’d never been at the resort. In her life. Even her memories were foggy. If not for the constant ache inside her, she’d almost believe he’d been nothing more than a phantom she’d conjured out of thin air.
Norma Rose scrubbed her face one more time, trying to wash away the evidence of another sleepless night. Glancing into the mirror over the sink, she concluded all she’d done was take off a layer of skin. All the cosmetics in the world wouldn’t disguise the bags under her eyes or the hollowness of her cheekbones.
She had to try. Tonight was Big Al’s party.
After applying makeup, which didn’t help, she pulled on a dress. A black one that was far more fitting for a funeral than an anniversary party, but it fit her mood. She then went to her room, where she added black shoes and gloves and rather than a headband, she put on a black pill hat.
Twyla and Josie both encountered her in the hallway, their brows raised, yet they made no comment, at least not about her outfit. They were both dressed in vibrant colors.
“The decorating is completed,” Josie said. “You have to come see it. The ice sculpture is gorgeous.”
“Ice sculpture?” Norma Rose asked, needing something to say.
“Yes,” Josie said. “I told you about it. They are becoming a rave.”
“It’s in the shape of a swan,” Twyla added. “Most impressive.”
Nothing could impress her. Not even all the work her sisters had done. Something she truly needed to appreciate. If not for them, the resort may have dried up and blown away. She just didn’t have the energy it needed. That had never happened before, but she didn’t know how to get it back. It was already two in the afternoon and she was just now venturing downstairs.
Her sisters, however, had been up since the break of dawn. When she’d asked them to take over Big Al and Palooka George’s parties they’d jumped in like they’d been running the place all along. At the time, she’d believed she’d be glued to Ty’s side, not mourning his absence like an army widow. That’s truly what she felt like—a widow. Having lost the one man she’d loved more than life itself.
A sigh burning her chest escaped and covered the sob that wanted to be released. She was afraid to think where Ty might be. The mystery behind Dave’s poisoning had vanished with him. At least that’s how it seemed, considering no one would talk about it.
“You should add a long string of pearls to your outfit,” Twyla said. “It would liven you up a bit.”
Norma Rose caught the glare Josie shot at their other sister while she hooked her arm. “She looks lovely just as she is,” Josie said. “Black has always been Norma Rose’s favorite color.”
“Yes, it has been,” Twyla said, hooking Norma Rose’s other arm. “Wait until you see the ballroom. Forrest Reynolds will be green with envy.”
Josie leaned forward to once again glare at Twyla, and Norma Rose knew she had to respond. Her sisters had been extremely understanding over the past few days. “I’m excited to see the ballroom,” she said, digging deep to pull up a portion of her past resilience. “But I don’t give a rat’s ass if Forrest is impressed or not.”
It was Josie who started giggling. When Twyla joined in, Norma Rose’s lips started to quiver. It was either laugh with them or cry. She went with laugh.
“I knew you were still in there somewhere,” Twyla said as their laughter died down. “I knew it would take more than a good-looking lawyer to take down my sister.”
Josie, done laughing, groaned. “Twyla—”
“No,” Norma Rose said, stopping Josie’s reproof. She hadn’t been taken down. Just the opposite. Ty had lifted her up. Made her feel things she’d never imagined. “Twyla’s right. Ty is good-looking.” Loving him, as she now knew she did, may have made her stumble, but it hadn’t brought her down. And no one would control her love life this time. No one. Looking at her sisters, she said, “And just so you both know, he’s mine.”
Both her sisters lifted their brows and then nodded.
Norma Rose didn’t have to conjure up a smile. It formed all on its own. “And no man will ever bring a Nightingale girl down.”
“Never,” Twyla said.
“Ever,” Josie added.
Arms hooked, they descended the sweeping staircase as one unit—three sisters working together—into the ballroom that was decorated more beautifully than imaginable.
People started arriving before Norma Rose had a chance to see all of the finest details, but she knew they were in place, so she wore her best smile and greeted each person as if they were a guest of honor.
When Forrest arrived, she even greeted him, leaning forward for him to kiss her cheek. He was as handsome as ever, but that stirred nothing inside her. Then again, no one could get a rise out of a corpse. She still felt dead inside, but now she was going to do something about it.
An elegant dinner was served before the music started, and by then, tired of twirling her thumbs on the sidelines—for her sisters had seen to every detail and there truly was nothing for her to do—Norma Rose stepped outside onto the balcony, where the evening sky was darkening and faint stars were poking through. Big Al and his wife were dancing, holding one another as if it was their wedding night instead of years later. Once unable to imagine what it would be like to share life so intimately with one person, Norma Rose now knew that was exactly what she wanted. Moving away from the huge windows, she didn’t stop at the staircase, but walked all the way down to stroll across the freshly manicured grass.
Slim Johnson was a good musician, and the smooth even notes of the love song he played floated softly on the breeze, mixing with the sound of a few frogs calling to their mates.
Her wandering took her past the large pines that separated the lawn from the road leading to the cabins. Uncle Dave was back to his prime self, inside with the other guests, drinking soda water.
He refused to talk about Ty, too.
There had to be someone that knew where he’d gone. No one could just vanish, and all she had to do was figure out who that might be. Besides her father. He knew.
It would shock him, as it had her, but neither the resort nor her father would stop her from loving Ty. Ty probably wouldn’t believe it, either, not at first, but she’d convince him. She’d already had to convince herself, which, in spite of all she’d believed in the past, had been relatively easy.
There was no sound or movement from the trees, but instinct flipped a switch inside her. Awareness had her heart and her breath quickening as she moved closer to peer into the shadows.
“Hello, Norma Rose.”
Disappointment hit her like a sledgehammer. “Hello, Chief Williams,” she replied. “What are you doing hiding in the trees?” She meant to sound casual, but an inkling of dread tickled her spine. The chief was on the guest list, as he was at most parties, yet she hadn’t seen him arrive, and even if she’d missed him walking in, she’d expect him to be at the bar, consuming as much alcohol as the others.
“Just taking a stroll,” he said. “Like you.”
A rustle in the trees stung her already heightened sense of hearing. “I was just looking for Bronco,” she lied.
“Bronco’s out front.” Ted took a hold of her arm as he spoke.
“Let go of me,” she demanded, with no results. Her struggles were nothing against his strength, and once he’d pulled her into the trees someone else grabbed both of her arms from behind. Norma Rose opened her mouth to scream, but Ted clamped a hand over it. His other hand held the back of her head and one of his legs hooked around hers to stop her thrashing.
“Got those cuffs on?” he asked.
* * *
The music had just started when Ty arrived at the party, and he congratulated himself for purchasing a new suit in Chicago. The glitz and glamour of the shindig outdid the Ritz of New York parties, and he’d known Norma Rose would be dressed to the hilt. Black, as usual. She was a sight for sore eyes, standing next to the patio windows.
He was about to cross the room when Roger appeared at his side. It was just as well, get the business over first, then nothing would interrupt him and Norma Rose.
“Where’s Ginger?” Roger asked as they left the ballroom.
“Safe.” He’d thought about collecting Ginger, but as he’d told Roger before leaving, he wasn’t about to put anyone in more danger. There was enough of that already. “I checked.” He left it at that. Sooner or later Roger would discover what Ginger was doing in Chicago, and Ty wanted Bodine long gone by then.
Once in Roger’s office, Ty handed over an envelope he’d negotiated hard to obtain while meeting with his superior in Chicago. “Your amnesty papers,” he’d said. “Fully notarized. You help us catch the worst of the worst, and you, your properties, businesses and family will never be indicted.”
“And my suppliers?” Roger asked.
The man didn’t give an inch, but Ty already knew that. “I can’t promise what happens outside of your property, but I will say you need to have a product people want to buy.”
Roger rubbed his chin thoughtfully, reading between the lines of that answer before he asked, “When will it go down?”
Ty wished he had an answer. “I don’t know for sure. I still haven’t discovered when or how Bodine will arrive.”
After putting the envelope, still sealed, in his desk drawer, Roger shook his head. “Norma Rose still isn’t going to like this.”
“I know,” Ty answered. “I’m prepared for that.”
“Are you?”
He shrugged, not exactly sure if he was prepared for anything when it came to Norma Rose. He’d put everything on the line for her and his gut told him it would work out. That’s what he believed and would continue to do so.
“I saw her walk out the balcony doors when I was coming to meet you,” Roger said. “Good luck.”
Ty went out the front door; walking around the outside of the building would be faster than making his way through the crowd in the ballroom. He wasn’t planning on asking her to marry him, not tonight. Not until this was over, but he had missed her. Lord, he’d missed her.
Night had fallen, but the moon was out, as were the stars, and they lit his way. He rounded the building and took the stairs leading up to the balcony three at time. It was empty, and he walked the length of it, looking through the windows for a glimpse of Norma Rose. He ran down the other set of steps and surveyed the lawn. The freshly cut grass held faint impressions. Footsteps. He followed them all the way to the tree line, where his stomach fell to his heels.
Lying beneath the pines was a single black glove.
A car started in the distance, and Ty bolted for the parking lot, shoving the glove in his pocket as he ran. Bronco was near the front door, just as he’d been earlier, and Ty shouted, “Norma Rose was just kidnapped!”
Bronco arrived at his truck as Ty opened the front door. “Take my car,” he said, handing over a set of keys. “This truck will never catch whoever it is. Tuck and I will follow in his.”
“They took the back road,” Ty said, already running toward the other man’s car. A brand-new Duesenberg that had a one-hundred-horsepower engine and was said to reach a hundred miles an hour. Ty hoped so. His heart had never beaten so frantically and he had never, not even in the trenches of war, experienced this terror.
The engine leaped to life with the growl of a lion, power rumbling through the entire car. Ty steered it toward the road that lead past Dave’s cabin, as well as several others. When he came to the thin row of bushes that separated the road alongside the cabins from the hidden trail, he blasted through the greenery, giving no thought to the car’s black paint. He had to crank the wheel around a tree or two before he bounded onto gravel again, where he hit the gas harder.
Used only for secret deliveries, the road was well used, but also well hidden. The moonlight barely filtered through the trees overhead, yet Ty refused to turn on the lights. When the other car realized they were being followed, he’d be on their back bumper. The road was only a couple of miles long, ending at the back of the train depot, where another hidden road entered as well, one that ran parallel to the main highway before heading west into central Minnesota, where the most popular shine in America was made. His superior had claimed the demand for Minnesota Thirteen was coming in strong from European countries, which meant every gangster was going to be looking for a piece of the pie, and the reason the government had given in to Ty’s demand of amnesty for Nightingale.
He’d never have imagined a woman could make him see things differently, but she had and now he had to prove he was right to his worst critic. Himself.
First he had to find Norma Rose. Whoever had taken her was leaving a cloud of dust behind them. The train whistle was blowing as Ty arrived at the depot. The bouncing light on the engine was approaching fast and Ty briefly calculated if he could make it across the tracks before the train barreled past.
Tossing caution aside, he didn’t let off the gas. The light filled the interior of the car, the blast rattled his ears and he couldn’t quite say if the car jostled so hard from the tracks, or if the front guard of the train slightly caught his back bumper. Either way, he cleared the tracks and wrenched the wheel in time to make the tight corner onto the second hidden road.
Then he allowed himself to breathe, ears ringing from the horn blast, or maybe the cursing he was sure the conductor was now doing. Eyes on the road ahead, Ty noted the absence of dust and braked to whirl the entire car around. At the highway he glanced both ways. The only vehicle on the road was heading south, so that’s the way he went. It had to be the car Norma Rose was in. He became more convinced when it turned east on an unmarked road. The other car clicked on its lights then, most likely convinced it hadn’t been followed. Ty also recognized that it was a St. Paul police car.
Why hadn’t he warned her about Williams? The man had failed in kidnapping Dave, so had chosen the next best thing. The better thing. Roger would do anything to get his daughter back. So would Ty.
He eased off the gas to get his mind in order. His gun was in his truck and Bronco was nowhere to be seen in the rearview mirror. No doubt he’d been stopped by the train. Williams turned again, and Ty followed, but hung back. The next turn the other car made appeared to be a driveway. Ty took the Duesenberg through the shallow ditch on the driver’s side of the road and squeezed the car between two pine trees, where he parked. He climbed out and hurried up to what indeed proved to be a driveway.
A ramshackle house, leaning to one side with shutters hanging off the windows, glowed in the headlights as the squad car rolled to a stop. Williams climbed out, dragging Norma Rose beside him while a third person, who Ty presumed from her figure to be Janet Smith, got out of the passenger side and hurried ahead to open the door of the house.
Cursing for leaving his gun behind, Ty scrambled through the bushes growing along the driveway and then around to the side of the house. There were no broken or open windows and he couldn’t hear a thing, until the front door opened.
Staying out of the headlight beams, Ty eased to the edge of the house.
“She’ll be fine until morning,” Janet was saying. “You need to get back to the party before you’re missed.”
“You know where to park the squad car after dropping me off?” Williams asked.
“Yes. I’ll also make the call, let the big man know the bird is in the cage. You just make sure you put that ransom note someplace where it won’t be found until morning,” Janet said. “I was afraid we were being followed there for a little bit.”
“No one was following us,” Williams said. “I had one eye on the rearview mirror the whole time. There were no lights behind us except that train. Which was perfect timing. That’s why we took this little girl. No one would think to follow a squad car. And I know the perfect place for the ransom note. With Norma Rose out here, no one will go into her office until morning.”
“When they can’t find her,” Janet said with a laugh. “We can’t fail this time.”
They climbed in the car, and their laughter hung louder in the air than the car’s engine as Williams backed up and headed down the driveway.
Ty ran around the back of the house, just in case Williams noticed his car and came back. Throwing open the back door, he hissed, “Norma Rose!”
There was no answer, just thumping. Ty rushed toward the sound, stubbing his toes and tripping over furniture along the way. She was in the center of the main room, tied in a chair like an actress left by a villain in a silent movie.
“Are you all right?” he asked, while pulling the rag tied across her mouth over her head. “Hurt anywhere?”
“Yes and no,” she said. “Ted and Janet grabbed me at the resort.”
“I know. I followed.” He searched for the knots in the rope wrapped around her.
“Where were you?”
“In Chicago until a short time ago,” he answered, finally finding a knot.
“My feet are tied, too, and there’s a set of nippers on my wrists,” she said. “What were you doing in Chicago?”
“Damn it,” Ty whispered, now searching for a knot on her ankles. “It’s darker than sin in here. I was working.”
“Open the front door,” she suggested. “Let the moonlight in. This is Janet and Jeb’s old house. Where they lived before he was arrested.”
Ty found the knot, untied it and then he kissed her. Just a quick kiss, as she was still handcuffed, however, it soon turned into several short, sweet kisses when her lips met his with smooth perfection.
“Come on,” he said against her mouth. “Let’s get out of here.”
She stood, with his help. “The door’s straight ahead.”
“Are you all right?” he asked again. “Not hurt anywhere?”
“I’ll be fine once you get these nippers off my wrists.”
Ty found the door and opened it, amazed by how much light the moon provided. She was even more beautiful than he remembered. He pulled out his pocketknife and picked the lock.
Rubbing her wrists while he pocketed his knife and the cuffs, she asked, “Did you find the snitch?”
“I’ll tell you on the way,” he said.
“No.” She planted her feet stubbornly on the not-so-stable front porch. “Tell me now.” When he didn’t answer right away, she insisted, “I deserve to know. I was just kidnapped.”
He’d already told her father—already told himself—that she was the woman he loved and would love from this day forward, but he’d yet to tell her. He couldn’t. Not until a few other things were taken care of. “There is no snitch,” he said. “Williams was trying to keep any suspicion off himself. He and Janet are the ones who attempted to kidnap Dave, trying to drug him with rotten shine so he’d pass out and make it easy on them. When he became ill instead, they panicked.”
Even with the threat of Williams returning, Ty’s mind was wandering. He wanted to kiss her, hold her. Tell her how beautiful she was with the moonlight glistening in her hair, off her skin.
“So they kidnapped me this time.” Frowning, she asked, “Why?”
“There’s a mobster by the name of Ray Bodine. He wants a piece of your father’s action,” Ty explained. He felt relief at that explanation. It was time he told her. “Kidnapping a family member is his way of getting it—rather than asking for ransom money, he’ll ask for a partnership.”
“This Bodine, he’s the man you’ve been after since you arrived, isn’t he? The reason you came to Minnesota?”
Done withholding the truth from her any longer, he nodded. “Yes.” He took her hand. “Let’s get you back to the resort. My car is in the trees by the road.”
She shook her head. “If I go back, the only people to get arrested would be Ted and Janet, but—”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Ty growled. There was no way in hell he’d put her in that kind of danger.
“It’ll work,” she said. “You know it will.”
He did. That was the problem. Looking into those magnificent blue eyes of hers, something fluttered inside him. This was Norma Rose, and her intensity, her drive and take-charge attitude were only a few of the things he loved about her.
“It’ll work, Ty, they’ll never suspect, never see it coming.”
Hiding a grin and a good portion of his excitement—for this could work in more ways than one—he said, “On one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“That I stay with you.”
She lifted a brow, glanced at the open doorway and then back at him. Her smile rattled his insides like nothing ever had before.
“Deal,” she said.