Come Toy with Me

Dino unfolded himself from the chair and picked up the key and the envelope. “If that’s all, sir, I’ll take this back to my hotel room and go over the specifics.”

McGuire rose and extended his hand. “Good, good. You’ll report for duty at the Cheshire Cat tomorrow no later than eleven hundred hours.”

“Yes, sir.”

McGuire waited until Dino had his hand on the doorknob. “One more thing.”

Dino glanced back.

“It’s not part of the job, but it would be great if you could get Cat to relax and have a little fun. The girl is so focused on her store that she doesn’t take time to smell the roses anymore.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

McGuire managed to hold in his sigh of relief until he’d watched the elevator doors slide shut on Dino Angelis. That had gone almost too smoothly. Then he took his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed a familiar number at the Pentagon.

“Jimmy, you’ve called to tell me you owe me fifty bucks, right?” Bobby Maxwell asked.

Grinning, McGuire sank into his chair. Bobby had always been a bit cocky, so he kept his tone serious. “You haven’t won the bet yet. They haven’t even met. And first things first. My daughter’s in danger. That’s his primary mission.”

“A little adventure is just what they need. It’ll bring them closer.”

“It might turn out to be more than a little adventure.”

“Angelis has the best instincts of any man I’ve ever trained.” Bobby’s tone too had turned serious. “If there’s something going on in your daughter’s store, he’ll spot it. And he’ll know what to do.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I am. And I’m also right about the fact that he’d make the perfect man for our little girl.”

“We’ll see,” was all McGuire said. But he was already hoping that his friend Bobby would win the little wager they’d made. He too thought that Dino Angelis just might be the perfect match for Cat.

CASS ANGELIS’ CELL PHONE RANG just as she was about to leave the tower room in her house. A glance at the caller ID had joy bubbling up inside of her. “Dino?”

“You probably already know I’m not going to make it home for Christmas.”

She’d sensed that much last night. She’d also sensed there was more, but the images she’d seen in her crystals hadn’t been clear. Except for the woman—tall with reddish hair and stunning green eyes. Turning, Cass moved to her desk and sat down. The client who was due any minute would have to wait. Cass could hear traffic noises in the background on the other end of the line.

“I’m in Manhattan on a job. I couldn’t say no.”

“I understand.” And Cass did in spite of the band of pain that tightened around her heart.

For a moment, there was silence on the other end of the line, and Cass waited. Of all of her “children,” her son Dino had always been the most reserved.

Twelve years ago when her husband Demetrius and her sister Penelope had been killed in a freak boating accident, Cass and Dino, her brother-in-law Spiro and his four children, Nik, Theo, Kit and Philly, had moved into the huge house Cass’s father had built. From that day on, Cass had raised her nephews and niece as her own, and Dino had come to regard them more as brothers and kid sister than cousins. Dino had been the only one who’d had a desire to see the world, the only one who’d moved away from San Francisco.

“There’s a woman,” Dino finally said. “I sense that the Fates have put her in my path for a reason. And I had a vision about her.”

The redhead, Cass knew. “You’ll figure it out.”

Dino laughed then, and Cass’s mood suddenly lightened. “You’ve been saying that to me for as long as I can remember.”

“A mother’s job,” Cass replied. “And I don’t recall that I was ever wrong.”

“I’ll get home as soon as I possibly can. My discharge papers are coming through in a couple more weeks. That was supposed to be your Christmas present.”

“Well.” She hadn’t seen that, hadn’t even allowed herself to hope for it. “I’ll have a surprise for you too—when you get here.” She wanted Dino to meet Mason Leone, the man she’d been dating, in person before she told him that after all these years, she’d fallen in love again.

The traffic noises grew louder. “I have to go. I’ll try to keep in touch. Love you.”

“Love you, too,” Cass said, but Dino had already disconnected.

A quick glance at her watch told Cass that she still had a few minutes before she had to go down to her office. Crossing quickly to her desk, she took her crystals from a drawer. Midnight was usually the hour when she could see things more clearly. But she simply couldn’t wait.

Sinking into her chair, she cleared her mind and waited. One by one the crystals began to glow in her hands. In their centers, mist blossomed, parted, then closed again. In one, she saw Dino in his full dress uniform dancing with the redheaded woman she’d seen before. Around them, lights twinkled. As the mists thickened in one crystal, they thinned in another.

Cass glimpsed a doll this time, with a porcelain face and a red silk dress. When her attentionwas drawn to a third crystal, Cass felt fear knot in her stomach. She could see the redheaded woman again, but she was no longer with Dino. She was in a dark place, and she was facing the barrel of a gun. The shot that rang out nearly had Cass dropping her crystals.

In spite of the client who was waiting for her, Cass sat where she was for a few more minutes while fear warred with joy inside of her.

Dino and the woman would be facing serious danger, but Dino had been right. The Fates were making him an offer, and if he chose to accept it, he would find his true love.

ON HER WAY DOWN from her office, Cat took a moment to breathe and glance around her store. A toddler clutching his mother’s hand had decided to sing along with the rendition of “Jingle Bells” pouring out of the sound system. Another child was busily plucking ornaments off the Christmas tree she’d set up in one of the corners. Cat grinned. She had to retrim that tree almost every night, but it was worth it.

The bell over the Cheshire Cat’s door jingled. From her vantage point halfway up the spiral staircase in the center of her store, Cat spotted Mrs. Lassiter and Mrs. Palmer, two of her most loyal customers. No doubt they were here to pick up their dolls. She dashed down the rest of the stairs. Just as she reached the two women, the bell jingled again, and more customers pushed their way into the store. Cat briefly shifted her gaze to the newcomers, and she immediately recognized them as two sisters, Janey and Angela Carter. They had also ordered the dolls. Cat sent them what she hoped was a welcoming smile.

“I came to pick up my granddaughter’s doll,” Mrs. Lassiter said in a voice that carried. “It’s one of the special ones you ordered from that place in Mexico.”

“Yes. From Paxco, Mexico.” Cat did her best to project calm reassurance. “I’m sorry, but they haven’t arrived yet. I expect them—”

“You said they’d be here today. What’s the problem?”

Ignoring the nerves dancing in her stomach, Cat smiled. “No problem.”

“When will they arrive?”

Cat wished she knew. “I’m hoping tomorrow. Thursday at the latest.”

The bell over the door jingled again, and a portly whitehaired man entered and looked around. Cat was sure she’d never seen him before, and yet there was something about him that was familiar. He crossed to Adelaide and cut rudely into the line in front of her counter. Someone voiced a protest, and for a moment Adelaide lost her usual pleasant expression. She even dropped a toy soldier she was about to ring up. Then she said something to the man and pointed in Cat’s direction. As he strode toward her, Cat suddenly figured out why he might look familiar. With his white hair and mustache, and the narrow unframed spectacles that sat nearly on the end of his nose, he reminded Cat a bit of Santa Claus.

Oh, how she wished he were. Where was Santa when you needed him?

“But you’re not sure?”

Cat shifted her gaze back to Mrs. Lassiter. Worry outweighed the annoyance in the older woman’s voice now, and Cat could see the same concern reflected in Mrs. Palmer’s face, as well as in the Carter sisters’.

The shop was packed. It was Christmas week in Manhattan and lunch hour—that time of day when both locals and tourists poured into stores with one purpose—to finish their Christmas shopping.

And her father had wanted her to join him for lunch in midtown? Right. Her family didn’t really have a clue about the kind of pressures that built once you combined Christmas, children and toys.