Page 49 of Renegade

He turned to look at me with a guarded expression. I knew whatever it was had to be bad. He didn’t want to tell me.

“Miguel?”

“He had a weapon aimed at me.”

I gasped. “No!”

He nodded. “She demanded the ruby. I said we didn’t have it, and she must have believed me because she left, saying she hoped it wouldn’t be too late to save you.”

My mouth dropped open in shock. He’d deliberately run up from the garden with a gun in his hand to find me. I felt sick to my stomach knowing how close he’d come to getting shot by one of the overly enthusiastic security guards when all he’d wanted to do was get to me as soon as possible. The Getty had state of the art surveillance systems and a twenty-four-hour control room. And I wondered if there was anything on the outside surveillance cameras. But I had a feeling there would be nothing identifiable. They knew what they were doing. There were so many things Miguel was leaving out like the fact that we’d been threatened in McNulty’s stairwell. We were going to get to the bottom of this when we were alone.

“So, that’s why you had a gun in your hand which aroused my guard’s suspicions?” Parker asked.

“Yes, the threat to my partner sounded like a legitimate one and I acted on instinct, not thinking about the weapon in my hand, just running as fast as I could to make sure Raven was okay.”

Parker nodded. “Okay, that makes complete sense.” He turned to me. “Were you also threatened?”

I immediately shook my head, wanting to reassure not only Aston and Flores that I was okay, but most of all, Miguel. “Not at all. I went to get a fresh flute of champagne for the woman who’d approached us but couldn’t find the bar. It took me a long time to realize there isn’t one and that the waiters were the only ones passing out drinks. When I returned to the spot in the gallery where I’d left Miguel with her, they weren’t around, so I spent a while looking for them. Figuring they might have come out here for some air, I left the gallery. I’d just come outside when I spotted Miguel running up from the garden.”

Parker nodded. “Who is the woman? Did you know her?”

We both shook our heads. “She came up to us while we were inside the gallery and started flirting with me,” Miguel said honestly. “She fit in with the crowd. Figuring I might be able to get some information out of her, I flirted back while Raven went to find her another glass of champagne at her request. Red dress, red hair. She was wearing about a million dollars in diamonds and rubies, and I thought she might know something about your ruby. It would have been a good lead had it panned out.”

“What was her name?” Mrs. Flores asked, looking very concerned as her brows furrowed.

“She claimed to be a woman by the name of Rosina Cassanova,” Miguel replied. “But I doubt she’d use her real name.”

“She’ll be easy to find on the surveillance cameras,” Parker said, dispatching four of his guards to take a look down in the garden, although we all knew they were long gone.

“My apologies to you, Mrs. Flores, and your guests,” the head of security said as he also issued a curt, “My office. Now,” to the men who’d originally accosted us. “When we have moreinformation, we’ll contact you.” We all exchanged details, and they left.

“Did she say anything else about my ruby?” Mrs. Flores asked, very interested now.

Miguel shook his head. “No, but she knows we’re looking for it. I don’t know how she got that information.” He let the statement hang in the air for a few seconds before going on. “Maybe she thought we’d already found it and wanted us to hand it over. It’s hard to say. Maybe she and the person with the gun wanted to send us a message.”

“Well, I’d say, we’ve got the message,” Aston said. “I’m very sorry you went through that. And just for the record, I don’t know how your involvement in the recovery got out. It didn’t come from us,” he said quickly. He turned to Mrs. Flores with a frown. “We’re doubling your security.” He looked around. “WhereisMr. Mancuso anyway?”

“Salvatore wasn’t feeling well this evening, so I came here alone,” she replied, having gone quite pale as she put a hand to her pearls. “I didn’t want to disappoint Mr. Butler by skipping his installation and it never occurred to me to worry that my life might be in danger at the Getty, surrounded by so many people, Gregory.”

“Considering what happened here tonight, I’d take Mr. Aston’s advice, at least until we recover the pendant, Mrs. Flores,” Miguel said.

She nodded. “Yes. Yes, of course.” She turned back to her lawyer. “Will you see to it?”

He bowed. “With haste.”

I wanted to roll my eyes. If neither of them were involved in this case, they were sure putting on a good act. My gut toldme Tawny Flores was just as innocent as she looked in the disappearance of the ruby. Perhaps shewasup to her eyeballs in it, but I seriously doubted she had that kind of acting ability.

She turned back to us. “Please keep yourselves safe until this is done,” she pleaded. “If anything happened, I’d feel horrible.”

I exchanged a glance with Miguel before inclining my head.

“We always take our safety seriously, ma’am,” Miguel said.

“Was there…” I hesitated. “Was there someone you wanted to introduce us to tonight, Mrs. Flores?” All I wanted to do was go home and make sure Miguel was okay.

“No, oddly enough, none of my husband’s business associates ended up making the event this evening,” she replied. “I’m so sorry to disappoint you, especially considering the terrible ordeal you both went through.”

“You couldn’t have known, Mrs. Flores,” I said, reaching out to shake her hand. She covered mine in hers, looking genuinely sympathetic.

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