Part 15 (1/2)

Raven strolled toward him, smiling. ”What you don't seem to understand, maestro, is that you've been royally conned. Luther Adrian was never here. In fact, a couple of Daniel's men have him in custody some miles from here. With a little help from us, Skye tracked him down weeks ago.”

Hagen had totally lost command of the situation, but he wasn't about to accept it. With a fine show of rage, he roared, ”How dare you people interfere with a federal operation.”

”Pretty when he's angry, isn't he?” a new voice commented with satisfaction.

Hagen turned his head slowly. They were all there, he realized. All of them. They had been practically under his nose for two weeks, all wearing costumes. There was Rafferty Lewis, and Zach Steele, the one who had just spoken, and Lucas Kendrick-all accompanied by their smiling wives. There was Kelsey. And Derek Ross, with a pet.i.te brunette who was clearly his wife. Hagen looked back at the two standing before him, and the bogus Adrian spoke.

”Twins,” he murmured. ”In fact, you've been calling me Skye for the past week. But I'm Dane.” He slipped an arm around the giggling blonde dressed as a chorus dancer who had come out of nowhere to join him. ”This is Jenny. My wife.”

”I hope you two are quitting,” Daniel said severely as he, Gigi, and Katrina joined the group. ”You've blown your cover.”

Skye pulled Katrina into his arms. ”We are.” He looked at Hagen with bright eyes. ”You know Katrina, of course,” he said. ”She's my wife.”

Gigi grinned. ”Is she? I must admit, I wondered about that.”

Hagen glared at her. ”You knew about this?”

”Of course I did,” Gigl told him calmly.

Hagen tended to respect deviousness, but he still wasn't prepared to go down without a fight. ”You've stabbed me in the back,” he raged at her.

”You have used that line before,” she observed musingly.

What Hagen might have said to that, they were destined never to know. A sudden awareness made him turn his head slowly and stare at Josh Long. ”You're taping this.” he said in a hollow voice of realization.

”Naturally.” Raven waited until her husband had turned off the camera and lowered it to his side, then said to Hagen, ”I read somewhere that a former director of the FBI kept secret tapes and files in case he needed weapons against possible enemies.” She smiled. ”Daniel isn't that ruthless. So we'll hold the tape, just to make sure you stop using people like p.a.w.ns.”

For the first time, Hagen realized that Raven knew what he had planned to do. He cleared his throat and shot an accusing look at Daniel, but that distinguished gentleman shook his head.

”No, they didn't find out from me. Once they knew, I just confirmed it. You went too far when you tried to kidnap Long to try to persuade his friends to find Adrian for you.”

”Much, much too far,” Raven said sweetly. ”Try anything like that again, and we'll hear of it. You know we will. And we'll release our tape to the media.”

”Blackmail!” Hagen said bitterly.

Josh looked at his wife with an expression of mild surprise. ”How about that? He understands the concept.”

Hagen drew the shreds of his dignity around him and took half a dozen steps away from them. Then he stopped and turned back around, staring at Gigi. ”Well?” he snapped.

She was standing with her hands linked before her, her expression serene. ”Well what, John?” she asked gently.

”Are you coming with me?”

She sighed soulfully. ”You still want me?”

His eyes narrowed. ”Gigi,” he began awfully.

Gigi chuckled and went to him. Slipping her hand Into the crook of his arm, she said consolingly, ”Never mind. We'll raise horses, and you shall enjoy yourself planning strategy for the races.”

He led her away, and it was only when they were out of earshot that he said judiciously, ”They did that very well. It's a pity they have so many scruples.”

She smiled at him. ”Yes, John. It certainly is.”

Raven looked up at her husband. ”John?”

”It does seem a prosaic name for someone like Hagen,” Josh agreed dryly.

A gleam entered Raven's eyes. ”And speaking of names.” She took his hand and they joined the others, who were gathered in a loose group near the fun house. ”Kelsey?”

Kelsey took one look at his ex-partner and decided he didn't like the expression in her eyes. ”What?” he said warily.