Fatal Charm

Tony looked at her and smiled. “I took it upon myself to find it.”

“You’re a pain in the neck, Mr. Ramos.”

“Call me Tony. Once you calm down, you’ll see you have no reason to be angry. We do have some very important business to discuss, and this is away from your day-care center. You said you didn’t want me going there.”

He was being so reasonable—and so polite—she felt outclassed as she struggled to keep her temper in check. “I’ll meet you back at my place.”

“Mommy, aren’t we going to go play with Winston?”

“Not now, honey. Maybe later.” Amanda tried to get her pulse to slow down. He was so charming, it was hard not to trust him. Yet no matter how controlled and well mannered he seemed to be, his reputation told a different story. She had to be careful around this chameleon-like man.

She drove home slowly, postponing the inevitable confrontation. By the time she pulled into her driveway, Tony was already there. She had no idea how he’d found her address, but she had to make sure he didn’t feel free to stop by whenever he wanted, bringing his problems here to her home. He was a man with a cause she could respect, but she would not allow him to compromise her daughter’s safety.

“I have to talk to this gentleman, Peanut,” Amanda said, taking Hope inside. “Will you go to your room and play for a bit?”

“Can I take some cookies?”

“One.”

“Two?”

“Ah, you’re learning all about counting, are you?” she said, smiling. “Well, I suppose two, but that’s it.”

Amanda took Hope’s hand in hers. Glancing back at Tony, she gave him the look, a warning for him to keep quiet. To her surprise, it worked as well on him as it did on the kids at the day-care center.

“I’ll get my daughter settled, then you and I will talk,” she said in a glacial tone.

As Amanda poured a cup of milk and fished two cookies out of the jar in the kitchen, Tony walked up to Hope and crouched down beside her. “Hi. I’m Tony. What’s your name?”

Hope smiled. “I’m not supposed to talk to strangers, and I don’t think Mommy likes you,” she said.

“You’re absolutely right on both counts, Peanut, but I need to talk to this stranger myself. Now here are three mini chocolate chip cookies for you to take to your room.”

Hope’s eyes gleamed as she noted that the cookie count had suddenly been increased. “Yeah!” She took the cookies and followed her mother out of the room.

* * *

TONY GLANCED AROUND the living room while he waited for Amanda to return. The woman had Spartan tastes. Everything was meticulously clean, but there wasn’t much in the way of furniture. A simple wood-framed sofa with plain off-white cushions stood in the center of the room. Two straight backed chairs that looked like something left over from the Spanish Inquisition had been placed across from it.

He turned around, hearing Amanda’s returning footsteps on the baked-tile floor. Steely anger was clearly etched on her features.

“Mr. Ramos, how dare you show up here at my home? The fact that I’m willing to help you does not give you that right. And while we’re at it, how did you get my home address?” she demanded, searching his face with all the warmth she’d reserve for an insect that had crawled out of her cupboard.

“I have friends who help me from time to time.” He summoned his best smile, hoping to thaw her. Most women considered him handsome, and he wasn’t above using his looks to get their cooperation when the situation called for it. Considering how angry Amanda was, he certainly needed any edge he could get with her. “I’m not as impossible to deal with as you might think,” he said. “Why don’t you give me half a chance?” He kept his gaze steady, penetrating, and locked on hers, a gesture meant to disarm. He’d been told before that it packed a sexual wallop that made it particularly disconcerting to the fairer sex.

Amanda continued to glower at him, apparently unaffected. “Oh, I see. So you obtained my address behind my back and that’s supposed to be okay with me?”

So much for sexy looks. “Well, no, not exactly.” Tony gave her a chagrined half smile, and quickly changed tactics to reasonable concern and an apology. “I’m sorry if I’ve upset you, but after your last call, I felt it would be best for us to talk in person. I came by, saw that your home was secluded, and figured it would be okay for us to meet here. Everything would have worked out fine, too, if you hadn’t panicked.”

“So it’s my fault? You have a lot of nerve!”

Tony looked at her admiringly. She was beautiful in a girl-next-door kind of way, all gentle curves and softness. Right now, fury made her look radiant. Her cheeks were flushed and her hazel eyes sparked with life. “I don’t know how to make you understand,” he said in a conciliatory tone, or as close to it as he could ever come. “It’s obvious how devoted you are to your own daughter. Think how awful it would be for you if our positions were reversed.”

He deliberately moved closer to her, standing near enough to hopefully shake some of her self-assuredness. He knew he had to play on her emotions, because if she backed out now, he’d lose his only lead to Carmen. With that in mind, he glanced around. He needed ammunition. Spotting what he was searching for, he walked over to a shelf and picked up a Christmas photo of Amanda and Hope. He smiled sadly.

“Hope looks just like you. She has your eyes...and your smile. I envy you.” He saw her start to thaw.

Amanda moved to the sofa and motioned for him to take a chair. “I will help you, Tony, but if you continue to act like a Neanderthal, I’ll treat you like one, even if it means beating you over the head with a club to prove I mean what I say. Is that clear?”

He blinked. No one had spoken to him like that since Mrs. Trujillo in sixth grade. “Er...sure.”

Amanda gave him the details she could afford to divulge about the call she’d received, then told him about the car she’d seen near the day-care center. “I called the police to ask them to stay on the alert for that vehicle, but I didn’t tell them about you or the messages from the kidnappers. I just told them someone was watching the center.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “The kidnappers—and I think it’s safe to assume we’re dealing with more than one person here—left you no other option. You did what you had to do to protect the children in your care.”

“Right. So what’s next? Like it or not, we’re in this together. Is there any way to stop them? My life, by your standards, might be dull, but I like it. I want it back.” Amanda was determined.

“So you want to go on the offensive?” Tony asked, surprised.

“I didn’t pick on them, they picked on me. I don’t want any trouble with these people. They scare me. But if we go strictly by their rules, they have no incentive to keep their word. I don’t think we can afford to put any faith in their assurances.”

Tony watched Amanda carefully. Something about her had changed and instinct told him that it had something to do with the reason she’d been chosen as intermediary. “This goes beyond your trying to protect the reputation of your day-care center. You’re holding something back.”

“Don’t underestimate how much my day-care center means to me. By encroaching on it, they declared war.”

Tony watched Amanda. From her expression, especially her eyes, he could tell she was terrified of something. Yet she was not about to tell him what it was. He wouldn’t get answers by asking, either. Good thing he still had several tricks up his sleeve. “Their primary interest isn’t your day-care center. That stakeout was focused on you. I’d bet my last dime on it.”

Amanda shrugged, nervously searching for an answer. “It’s not your money you’re betting. That day care is part of me. The question remains. What are we going to do?”

“I want to attach a tape recorder to your phones, here and at work. If the woman calls again, I want to hear her voice, disguised or not.”

“All right.”

Tony studied her telephone. What he needed in addition to the recorder was one well placed bug hidden right in the middle of her living room—one she’d know nothing about. He had one in his surveillance kit in the car. A little gem like that would allow him to hear anything Amanda said, either here or in the adjacent room. A receiver and tape recorder hidden outside in the hedge would ensure it.

He turned around abruptly and caught the unguarded expression on Amanda’s face. She was frightened and trying hard to keep the lid on her fears. She was doing a pretty good job of it, too. He wondered what was going on inside her head. He had to know what secrets Amanda was keeping locked away—the stakes were too high to allow her any privacy. At the first opportunity, he’d set up his equipment and lay her life bare before him. As he contemplated the thought, it twisted in his mind. Passion sent a furnace blast of heat flashing through him.

Forcing the distracting thoughts away, he took out a tape recorder from his pocket and made a show of setting it up. He felt Amanda coming up behind him a few minutes later.

“What good will it do to use that little tape recorder? Surely you can come up with something more sophisticated?”

“Not without getting the phone company and local law enforcement involved.”

“You’ve decided not to do that, I take it.”

“I have a friend in the FBI, my former partner. He’ll help me and keep it unofficial.”

“Good.” She knew that there was no way he could elicit official help, but this way at least there would be someone there in case the kidnappers turned ugly. “You’re too close to this emotionally, and I have no experience with this kind of thing. It was a bad idea for us to try and handle this on our own.”