Page 44 of Passion and Deception

Barney glared at him. “Because of your stupid plan, we’re humiliated!” He paced and huffed again, his fury increasing now that he had an audience. “The bank foreclosed on our homes, our cars were impounded and,” he threw a hand in the air for dramatic effect, “I’m forced to drive a Honda!” He turned, glaring at his long-time friend. “A Honda, Barney! I’m driving a freaking Honda!”

Humphrey rubbed a hand over his thinning hair, trying to ignore the panic. “I know!” he grumbled and shot up from the lumpy chair. “Don’t you know that I get it!”

He breathed in deeply, thinking about the men who had invested a large amount of funds into a bank for their condo project. Barney wasn’t aware of that pot of money, nor was Barney aware of the dangerous man who had provided that funding. Antonio Bendito was a terrifying man, with connections to the criminal element that weren’t as concerned about legality as some other investors might be.

Humphrey wasn’t sure how he was going to resolve paying that man back now that Sheik Al Qadar had backed out. Unfortunately, Bendito wasn’t a man who could be ignored. He’d convinced the mafia boss to get in on the “ground floor” because Sheik Ramit Al Qadar was going to invest in the project as well, which would bring in many more investors to the project. For the past several months, he’d assured himself that Antonio Bendito wasn’t expecting his money back soon. However, the man was starting to ask questions about the project’s start date.

Because there were no other investors, and the project hadn’t been approved by the local government, Bendito was becoming suspicious.

“Do you?” Barney demanded, leaning forward as Humphrey poured himself more scotch. “Do you really? I’m sleeping on my grandmother’s sofa!” He huffed with indignation. “We’ve become a punch line with our former friends!”

Humphrey spun around, his eyes tight with anger and suppressed fear. “I know!”

“Then what are we going to do about it?” Barney demanded, taking another long sip of his drink, feeling the burn as well as the numbing effect that he craved. Damn, he needed to feel numb. A good shot of something stronger might help, but he didn’t have the money for anything stronger. Plus, his grandmother would toss him out onto the streets if he came home stoned. The woman didn’t mind him being drunk, most likely because her husband had been drunk most of their married life. She just considered it one of those “boys will be boys” issues and pretended to ignore it.

“I told you,” Humphrey snapped. “I have a plan!” He downed more scotch. “And it’s a good one.”

Barney walked over to the other chair. They were threadbare and some of the springs had died two decades ago, but after trying to blackmail a sheik…and failing…he was now a beggar. Until he could figure out how to resuscitate his bank balance, he wasn’t going to gripe about not having a comfortable chair to sit in.

“We were going to steal that damn baby,” Humphrey exploded, lifting his hands, one of them holding the glass now half-filled with liquor. “I still think that the Maggie-bitch was the one who messed up our plans with the photos.” He groaned, bracing his hands against the window frame as he looked out at the perfectly manicured courtyard below. But he didn’t see the topiaries or the pansies. His only thought was the memory of those dark, intense eyes of Antonio Bendito and the unspoken threat that now hung over him.

“We messed up, Humph,” Barney stated, staring into the last few drops of scotch in his glass. “We messed up big time.”

Humphrey spun around, furious with his friend’s comment. “It would have been the perfect punishment to steal that stupid baby and sell it back after the bastard had paid dearly to get the brat back.” He sighed, rubbing his palm over his forehead. “Sheik al Qadar would have paid millions to get the annoying snot-maker back!” Just as suddenly as his anger erupted, it left him.

Humphrey stared at his friend. Barney slumped deeper into the pathetic chair, frustration emanating from every cell of his body. He lifted the crystal glass to his lips and gulped the alcohol down like it was apple juice, then slammed the glass down onto the desk.

“Yeah, I agree that it was a good plan,” Humphrey replied, the alcohol smoothing out his fury and humiliation. He flung one leg over the arm of the chair and snorted. “But you can’t find the baby. Hard to extort a man when one doesn’t have the baby.”

“I know!” he sighed, then shook his head. “Unfortunately, I have no freaking idea where they’ve gone! Maggie was scheduled to go back at work on Monday and I was going to snatch the kid from her house while the babysitter was sleeping.” He rubbed a hand over his face again.

Barney roused himself slightly, glaring at his friend through bleary eyes. “What the hell, Humph! You said you could deliver! After the photo fiasco, I never asked exactly how you were going to get us out of the land deal mess, nor did I actually care! I just wanted revenge for that bastard messing with us.” He lifted his glass up, but then realized it was empty. How had that happened? He turned his gaze back to his friend. “Plus, I figured you were going to talk to al Qadar when he came to visit Maggie or when he visited the club again! You were supposed to have the upper hand!”

Humphrey shrugged, matching drunken glares with his friend, but the effect wasn’t nearly as effective as it might have been if he’d been sober. “We were both evicted from the club, remember? And that bastard, Levi Harris, refused to refund the eighty-five grand in annual dues! He just kicked us out and I have nothing now! Nothing! I’ve lost my home and all of my connections!” He sighed, dropping his chin so that it was resting on his chest. “I was counting on this deal going through more than you!” he grumbled, shoving a finger towards his only friend. “I tried everything to make this deal go through! I paid that prick on the zoning commission ten grand to push the zoning permits through! I tried to get a really powerful investor, which would have lured other investors. What have you done over the past twelve months other than flaunt your ability to play poker with idiots that don’t have nearly the intelligence that I have? Huh?”

Barney’s eyes widened. “You think you’re so smart?”

“Yeah!” Humphrey sneered back. “Yeah, I know I’m pretty damn smart! And what about the guy we brought into the club after you were kicked out? I thought he had some sort of ‘in’!”

Barney shrugged. “He got pissed when the pictures didn’t work.” He sighed heavily and shook his head. “That’s why you should have come through with al Qadar!”

The two glared at each other, then out the dingy window. “Kidnapping the baby would have been a good plan,” Humphrey commented.

Barney sighed, all the fight burned out of him. “Yeah. It would have.” He lifted his empty glass, contemplated getting up for another round, but the bottle was too far away and this ugly, previously uncomfortable chair was now pretty nice.

Humphrey stood up and grabbed the bottle, pouring the last bit into his own glass. Before he sat down again, he turned to look at his friend. “Are we in hiding?” he asked.

Barney snorted. “Hiding from what? Al Quadar doesn’t know anything about our plan to kidnap his kid.”

Humphrey narrowed his eyes, trying to focus on the two men walking into the house. “Then…why are two big, burly men coming up the steps of my grandmother’s house?” They looked vaguely reminiscent of the men he’d seen at Bendito’s office.

For some reason, the alcohol wasn’t giving him the numbness he’d been craving anymore. Something about the determined, resigned expressions on the men now speaking to his grandmother warned him that something very bad was about to happen.

Chapter 28

The next two weeks were blissful for Maggie. They were a bit like a honeymoon…but not a honeymoon. Although, Maggie wasn’t exactly sure what to call this time with Ramit. She and her new husband ate nearly every meal together and Nadia was thriving. Ramit spent a great deal of time with her while Maggie delighted at Ramit’s adoration for his tiny daughter.

When they weren’t spending time with Nadia, Ramit encouraged her to spend time alone with him. It was almost as if he were courting her, which was silly, since they were already married. Granted, they were married strangers, which was sometimes awkward. Still, his undivided attention felt…nice. Especially after he’d left her so suddenly a year ago. His efforts to “court” her now were like a balm to her wounded soul.

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