Most definitely a move the real-life Calico Jack would’ve appreciated.
My father’s hands went up in the air slowly. His eyes narrowed. “Is that Frank Jansen’s kid? Christ. Okay, listen. I can see we’re all emotional right now, so why don’t we take it down a notch—”
“Back the fuck up,” Seb said.
My father raised his hands higher. “Look, I get it. Everyone wants a piece of the Golden Venus. But seriously, what would you do if you actually got your hands on it? Do you know who to sell it to? How to protect it and yourself? Because you knowonce the world knows you have it, bad people will try to take it from you.”
“Bad people like you?” I asked.
He lowered his hands a little. “Come on, Paige. I’m not the bad guy here.”
“You’reliterallythe bad guy!” I shouted. “Look around! You’ve been holding me hostage—good people don’t do that!”
“This is hardly a prison cell. That mattress alone is worth more than that beach cottage you’ve been holing up inside.”
“Goody for you,” I said darkly.
“That cottage was never meant to be occupied in the winter, you know. It was just a summer house. Kitty spent the last of her cash getting it insulated after your mom died. I could never understand why—not even a valuable piece of lakefront.”
It sounded like he knew a lot more about me than I did about him. And where was he going with this?
“I can help you with that,” my father said. “Get you into a real house. Something in Haven Beach, or if you’re going back to Harvard, I’ll buy you something out there. I’ll even go downstairs and write you a check right now—to show you that I’m speaking in good faith.”
“So generous,” Seb said. “Can’t imagine there’d be a catch to that.”
“No catch,” my father insisted. “Just let me help you retrieve the Golden Venus. I’ll get the rings from the Vanderburgs, and we’ll ride out together. You just say where, and I’ll drop everything I’m doing today and go with you. We’ll do it together—we can be a family again, Paige. This statue was meant to stay in the family, so let’s honor that, okay, baby?”
He couldn’t sound less convincing if he tried. And to be honest,I wasn’t sure he really was. No way in hell he actually thought it would convince me.
I held out my hand. “Why don’t you start this little show of good faith by giving me my phone back.”
His hands dropped to his pants pockets, which he patted, giving me a sheepish look. “Sorry, I must’ve put it down somewhere. We can go find it together, if you’d just ask your friend to put the gun down. Come on, Paige. This is silly. We’re family.”
A female voice called out distantly from somewhere in the house. “Mr. Lee? I have the key. Do you want me to release them?”
Something like a smile came over my father’s face. He shouted behind him, “Go on, Ester. Let’s see if Thing One and Thing Two can make these two kids start thinking more reasonably.”
He stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly.
“Hey!” Seb warned, pointing Calico Jack more firmly at my father. “Don’t move, or—”
I, too, wanted to know what Seb was going to say after that “or,” but he didn’t get a chance. My father turned on his heel and raced out the bedroom door.
“Son of a bitch!” Seb said.
The good thing was that he’d left the bedroom door open.
The bad thing was that something big was galloping down the hallway toward us. A pair of them. I caught a glimpse through the open doorway of two sleek Dobermans with studded collars running hell-for-leather toward us.
Thing One and Thing Two.
My blood turned to ice as a little whimper escaped my lips.
Why did it have to be Dobermans... ?
“Shit!” Seb said, abandoning the prop gun on the bed to grab my hand. “Out the balcony!”
We raced toward it, shoes crunching on the broken glass, and ducked through the broken door, onto the balcony.
