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"Double-crossing bitch," said Vic in the middle of an awful lot of silence

"You should talk," snapped Newton

" &039;S not my fault I did what I had to do I didn&039;t want to work for Kyler"

But Angela waved them both down, all of her attention focused on Opal

"You&039;re serious?"

Opal nodded "I worked for Vaughn because he didn&039;t make fun of me

Chaven does I don&039;t like him and I don&039;t want to work for hi thes, instead" I think we all knew that she was telling the truth Opal&039;s absolute literalness could be trusted

Angela settled into an unexpected stillness, but her brain was probably racing along like a new addingout the debits and credits of Opal&039;s offer Then she laughed It was the same joy-filled shout she&039;d burst with outside amid the destruction she&039;d so casually tossed around

Opal scowled "Don&039;t laugh at ht her breath "Oh, no, honey I&039; at you It&039;s Chaven

You work things right withat Chaven Can you iine the look on his face?"

"Then you&039;ll hire me?"

"You&039;re on probation," she said decisively

"What do you mean?"

"Pull this off and you&039;ll never have to work for a piece of scuood as Kyler did Better"

Ever practical, Opal stated, "He paid me a thousand a month"

"Get aith those books and I&039;ll guarantee you fifteen hundred"

"You&039;re going to trust her, just like that?" asked Doc

"Why not? I said she&039;s on probation She&039;ll get a chance to prove herself when the time comes Besides, I&039;ve et away from him"

"And what if she decides she doesn&039;t want to be here, either? Don&039;t you think shewith Kyler?"

She swung back to Opal "What about it?"

"I worked for Vaughn, not for Chaven or any of the others, just Vaughn He&039;s dead, so I&039; out on him Here, I&039;ll work for you, but not for him or him" She indicated Doc and Newton

That ed "Well, you can&039;t beat that with a stick, but aren&039;t you rinned "That&039;s how you get ahead of the others I&039; for people; it&039;s up to theh, then too bad"

"Long as you knohat you&039;re doing"

"Long as Chaven doesn&039;t And he won&039;t Isn&039;t that right, Vic?"

Vic turned a gray face on her, a dead

"Angela, I&039;ll do anything you want"

"Yes, I know you will It&039;s the only chance you&039;ll get fro happens toto make sure you live"

Vic puzzled over that one, his y to make much sense of it

"Huh?"

Doc leaned forward "What she means is that if you make a mistake, you&039;ll wish you were dead before we&039;re finished with you"

"I&039;ll do whatever you say Proela I pro for later Screw up and I&039;ll be in thefreely "I won&039;t screw up-"

"Save it," she ordered, with a dangerous edge to her voice

He shut his mouth and saved it

Doc chuckled "So what&039;s next?"

"I&039;d like to go hoestion

He looked surprised "Would you now?"

"Later," said Angela "First I deal with Chaven, then with you Understand?"

I nodded wearily It hadn&039;t hurt to try If Escott called back, oing to bank on her goodwill

"God, he looks terrible" She frowned as though it were somehow my own fault

Newton eyedcatching, do you?"

"Doc?"

Doc shrugged at theotta bad sto for it?"

The answer to that one would only cos I kept my mouth shut and shook my head

"Maybe he wants to see your diploela said, her plump lips marred by an unkind smile "If you haven&039;t hocked it yet"

Doc only shrugged again It seemed to be his ready answer for a lot of business

"Why do you say s like that to him?" Opal unexpectedly asked

The query didn&039;t bother Angela Her reply was siet aith it"

Opal next turned to Doc "Why do you let her say ela She looked interested in the answer, as well "Because, my dear, I can&039;t afford to have pride these days"

"Why not?"

"Pride doesn&039;t buy you stuff like this" He pulled out the flask and drank froet a taste for the old deets in the way of your enjoyment"

"That stinks"

"I suppose it does, but you haven&039;t gotto stand on, either"

"What do you mean?"

"Didn&039;t you just sell yourself out to Angela so you could ith your precious nuot numbers, where&039;s the difference?"

Opal took the point right away, scowled, and turned back to Angela "Does that s to ela shook her head "No, I won&039;t And neither will anyone else here" She gave her ed it one way or another No one cracked anything like a smile

The scowl abruptly relaxed Labor relations satisfactorily settled, she took off her glasses to polish thery," she announced to no one in particular

Angela nodded at Newton "Kitchen Give her whatever she wants"

"Sure Y&039;want anything yourself?"

She glared at the phone with disgust and waved them out

"When&039;s Chaven due to call?" I asked

"Soon" Hardly an answer, so she ht if he wanted She&039;d wait I couldn&039;t Co and no, I didn&039;t want to think about that horrific possibility just yet

"Angela?" This from Vic, who stirred painfully next to me

She sounded bored "What?"

"I I&039;h spot, I know that"

"All your doing, Vic, not mine"

"Yeah, I know that I just wanted you to know that I really didn&039;t want to go over to Kyler"

"Uh-huh"

"Honest Theat the last second about Frank Paco&039;s own unfortunate condition "Well, he didn&039;t give us much of a choice He&039;d just as soon skin you alive as look at you We-"

"Uh-huh &039;Didn&039;t want to go over&039; "

"There&039;s others who feel the same Mort, Gabbo, lots of others They was too scared not to Once word gets out about Kyler being dead, they&039;ll want to coain"

"Like the way you want to now"

"On the level, Angela I know the spot I&039;m in After the deal you just made with Opal, you can&039;t sendback with the books"

"Looks like the boy&039;s finally grown some brains," coms, I swear to you I&039;ll ith you, do whatever it takes to help you get Mr Paco back"

Her face was stone

"Then when it&039;s over, I&039;ll just tell Chaven that I&039;uys hear that, they&039;ll come back themselves I could talk to &039;em, tell &039;em about the books They won&039;t want to ith Chaven They knoon&039;t be able to hold things together the same way Not the way you can"

The stone cracked a little After a long pause, she sighed "All right, Vic, you get a second chance"

Vic could hardly believe it, sputtered, and started gushing his thanks

"Screw it up and you&039;re dead," she added, which helped sober him

He relaxed back on the sofa Less subtle than the deathsy scent of his nervousness and white-faced fear He desperately wanted-needed-to take her at her word, but I didn&039;t think she could afford to keep it It being no business of ht he&039;d been too ready to assist in taking ood luck to hiela pounced on it

"Yes, it is What&039;s he decided? Yeah, he&039;s here Just a ainst her body "Chaven wants to talk to you, Vic Watch what you say"

He nodded, as pale as his bandages "I&039;ll be careful"

Doc helped walk hiela had picked up the gun once ainst Vic&039;s temple

"You just remes back over to "

Another nod &039;"Lo? Chaven? Yeah, it&039;s me I&039;m okay Yeah, they&039;re treatin&039; us fine Opal&039;s ela wants to deal, what about the boss? Okay Okay" He gave the earpiece over to Angela and wearily put his head down on the desk She grabbed it and hunched over the phone to un

"All right, what&039;s Kyler decided? Uh-huh uh-huh Yeah, we can be there by then, but why there? Uh-huh I want to talk to ht Then I want to talk to Kyler so he can explain " She muffled the earpiece "The lazy so-and-so didn&039;t want to bring in Daddy"

"Bet he wants to bring in Kyler even less," iven her I didn&039;t bother to return it After afor breath "Daddy! Are you all right?" She laughed at his reply, sounding a little forced "Well, those ain We&039;ll make sure What was that? Daddy? Daddy?" Her expression abruptly went cold, reflecting the change in speakers "Okay, you just keep hiela slammed the earpiece back on its hook

"What&039;s the story?" asked Doc

"We meet at the old boat dock in an hour"

"Why there?"

"He&039;s co yacht that belonged to Morelli and will send a boat out from it Daddy&039;ll be in the boat"

"Why the hell does he want to do it that way? If anted to we could pick the ducks when they return Kyler would never take a chance like that" He glared atwith hi"

"I&039;m not," I answered faintly "And you&039;ll talk yourself into a real circle with thinking like that Go for the si the yacht so he can du as he&039;s out there, he can use it to e He&039;s not worried sohim with a stiff"

It both annoyed and ah that turned into a sharp gasp of shock Without warning, Vic erupted from his chair and fell onto her They dropped out of my view behind the desk Doc froze with indecision for a crucial e

Vic staggered up He&039;d gotten her gun He looked almost as surprised about it as the rest of us He put his back to the wall and crab-walked toward the door

"No trouble," he gasped, eyes wild "No trouble I just want outta here"

Angela&039;s reply was anything but genteel

He ignored it and kept going for the door He made it, made a clumsy but successful scrabble to open it, and ay As soon as he was out of sight, Angela was on her feet and ripping open one of the desk drawers

Doc gave a start "My God, girl, you can&039;t-"

"Yes, I can," she grated She straightened, with a grenade in each fist "Watch hied after Vic

Doc ave it up He found lengthy solace in his flask

"Quite a handful, isn&039;t she?" I observed, seeking calm conversation in the middle of all the insanity

He nodded tiredly "Her whole life Why Frank didn&039;t raise her to be a nice girl, I don&039;t know"

"When I saw him-at Kyler&039;s-he said he did just that"

"You knohat I mean, kid She&039;s no floozie, but she&039;s sure not a regular kind of girl Maybe it&039;s a sign of the tin of Frank Paco&039;s skill as a father God help Vic

The burglar alarm bell went off Doc ju the house," he concluded He walked to the

"He&039;sfor the cars I sure hope she doesn&039;t"

Dru a bad thunderstorm Doc blanched and let the curtain fall back He rubbed at his eyes as though they were sore, then looked at , but sed it back like adrink

"Want one?" he asked tonelessly

I said no Several minutes crawled by without another word The alar, then we heard footsteps at the door Sheldon, his hand and ar, poked his head in

"Hey, Doc, what the hell&039;s going on here?" His eyes were heavy and fogged from whatever painkiller he&039;d had that day

He wore a rumpled pajama shirt, carpet slippers, and a hastily pulled on pair of trousers

"Angela&039;s out taking care of Vic," said Doc with a pale grin

"That double-crossing-hey!" He had caught sight ofhere?"

"He&039;s helping us get Frank back"