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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.
