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“Oh, my God. Steph—Steph—stay awake. Stay awake. Talk to me.”
She heard him, and felt him lifting her up and carrying her, but she was finding it difficult to keep her eyes open.
“Stay with me, Steph. Stay with me.”
Using her last ounce of strength, she gazed up at his handsome face.
“That’s it, that’s good, look at me, just like that.”
Emerging from the syncope, she discovered he was sitting on the ground, leaning against the oak tree and cradling her in his arms.
“Marco,” she whimpered, staring up at him as tears dribbled down her cheeks. “I didn’t know who to trust. I had no choice. I had to get to you.”
“It’s okay, just tell me what happened.”
“Benny said I had to go to the safe room, but I didn’t want to spend all night locked up, so I went down to the wine cellar.”
“Because that makes all kinds of sense,” Marco grunted.
“But when I got there I heard a voice. I looked through the crack in the door and saw Stu. Marco, he was talking to Oleg. He was warning him. He told him I’d found the—uh—thingie.”
“Cufflink?”
“Yeah, but he didn’t say that. It was a word I’ve never heard, but I knew what he meant. He listened for a minute, then he said,I can do that.I’ll text you when everything’s ready, and thank you for the opportunity, Mr. Zeppelin.”
“That’s when you locked him in?”
“I thought about it, but it was too risky. I was afraid he’d get out, so I hit him on the head with a champagne bottle.”
“Jeez, Steph. Why didn’t you just go to Benny?”
“I didn’t know if I could trust him—or anyone. I mean, Benny had the cube. Why didn’t he just destroy it? The only thing I could do was take Stu’s place, and Marco, if Stu’s working for Oleg, what about Brent? That’s why I didn’t tell you it was me when we arrived to pick you up.”
Letting out a heavy sigh, Marco leaned his head back against the tree.
“Steph, you don’t have to worry about Brent. If he was working for Oleg we’d both have tags on our toes.”
* * *
Marco was no longer confused.
He knew exactly what to do.
“Everything’s going to work out,” he murmured, hearing the sound of the returning Harley echo through the quiet street.
As the bike rolled into the curb, Joe and Brent scrambled off and raced over to them.
“Boss, what happened?” Joe asked urgently.
“Steph was hurt when the bike went down in the woods. What’s the situation?”
“Everything looks normal. Eddie and Bruce came out of the guardhouse when we rode by, but not like they were worried about anything.”
“Good, listen up. Stu is working for Oleg. Steph found out and locked him in the wine cellar.”
“That’s why she—?”
“Yeah, Joe,” Marco interrupted. “She didn’t know who she could trust, so she came out to find me.”
