Rarities Unlimited 03 - Die in Plain Sight

queen.”
    Savoy’s fingers tightened on the contract he was reading. “My mother, your wife.”
    “Don’t remind me.”
    “Then don’t remind me,” Savoy said in a clipped voice, standing up. He flexed fingers that weren’t as supple as they once had been and ached every time the wind turned cold. Unlike his father, he felt every year of his age, even if he didn’t look it. “I can’t touch the past and I’m sick of hearing about it.”
    “Huh. Well, the past sure as hell can touch you, so you might open up your damned ears and learn something.”
    Only if you have something new to say, Savoy thought.
    But he knew better than to speak it aloud. That would just lead to a shouting match. He didn’t need that. More important, the future didn’t need that. The future needed Ward’s agreement, no matter how reluctant, on the New Horizons deal. The longer Ward delayed, the more likely it was that something would come spectacularly and publicly unstuck in the family, and Angelique would bolt all over again.
    “Are you going to restore Bliss’s credit?” Savoy asked, his voice carefully neutral.
    “Has she agreed to quit fighting me over the ranch?”
    Savoy managed not to flinch. Sooner or later Ward would see the newclause Angelique’s lawyers had appended to the deal. Then his father would throw a shit fit.
    According to the “agreement to agree,” the merger couldn’t go through without Bliss’s written approval.
    “I don’t know. What does Rory say about it?” Savoy asked.
    “They’re getting married again.”
    “Really? When?”
    “Couple of days.”
    Savoy shrugged. “He might as well. He’s your son in everything but name.”
    “Not if he takes Bliss’s side in this.”
    “Does he know that?”
    “He knows.” Ward’s finger stabbed at the sheet he was reading. “What the hell is this ? Since when does this merger need an eighty percent agreement of all private shareholders in Savoy Enterprises!”
    Savoy pinched his nose in an unconscious echo of his father. In some cases, headaches were indeed catching. “Since Angelique realized how deeply Bliss is against developing certain portions of the ranch, Angelique doesn’t want ‘to be a source of familial discord.’”
    “How the hell did she find out?”
    “Jesus, Dad, the woman would have to live under a rock not to know Bliss’s stand on developing the ranch. Radio, TV, newspapers—take your pick. They’ve all featured our dirty laundry at one time or another, and Blissy makes a wonderful poor little rich girl.”
    Ward hurled his drink into the fire, glass and all. The explosion of sound sent Honey Bear scrambling for a calmer place to sleep.
    “That bitch Bliss has twenty-four hours to sign this deal,” Ward said to the fire. “Then I’m going to the lawyers. All she’ll inherit from me will be ten dollars and my sincere hope that she roasts in hell. Tell her, Savvy. Tell her tonight.”
    Savoy gathered the papers and left without a word. He’d seen his father mad before, but not like this. Not since his mother was alive. Cold, not hot.
    Blissy, what have you done now?

Corona del Mar
    Friday night
39
    T urn left, turn right, run in circles, repeat sequence,” Ian muttered.
    Susa ignored him.
    Lacey didn’t, but she didn’t say anything, either. She could see his reflection in the rearview mirror. His eyes were darker than night. His mouth was flat. She knew he was irritated that she wouldn’t tell him why the trip to the storage unit was necessary, but she couldn’t help it. The paintings would speak for themselves. They would have to. She didn’t know how to explain them, and she didn’t feel like answering all the questions they would raise if she told everyone about them before they got there.
    Too late for second thoughts now, she told herself.
    Hoping she was doing the right thing, she pulled the cashmere coat her parents had brought closer around her. It was a lot warmer than the velvet-patch coat, but not nearly as colorful. Black was pretty much black, and she preferred bright.
    Ian checked the mirrors. His faithful escort had gotten careless. Instead of running a streetlight to stay on Ian’s bumper, the deputies had stopped two blocks back like good little citizens.
    Ian didn’t feel like a good little citizen. He opened the gap between the two cars, pushed the next light, and turned right into a residential area without signaling. Then he put the accelerator on the floor and did the