Foxy Roxy Part 3

"Good. I'll send the jet to meet you in New York. We need you here immediately."

"What's wrong?"

"It's important to show family solidarity in a crisis, that's all. I don't want anyone thinking Hyde Communications might be weakened by recent events."

"I'm sure the company will survive." Arden checked her watch and tried to calculate the minute she might feel emotionally capable of coping with her family.

If Quentin heard something negative in her tone, he pretended otherwise. "I want everyone in upper management to be on alert. Your presence is required."

"I'm not management, Daddy-upper or lower. I've never been employed by Hyde Communications, and I don't-"

"Can anyone hear you? Don't be talking company business within earshot of the press. Those media b.a.s.t.a.r.ds will screw us to the wall if we leak the wrong message."

Most of her fellow pa.s.sengers were making their way to the gate. Arden could see them gathering their comfort measures-cashmere pashminas, spritz bottles of moisturizer, little bags of cosmetics. She wanted to remind Daddy that she wasn't working for the company. Not now, not ever. But the Xanax was stealing blissfully into her brain.

"You're an important part of the team," Daddy was saying. "I need reliable help if we're going to weather this storm."

Hyde Communications didn't need any help in its inexorable march to world domination. Pretty soon her father would have control of cell phones, television, and Internet coverage in every country and most of outer s.p.a.ce.

The only thing he couldn't dominate was his youngest daughter. One by one, her siblings had given in, taken his money, and done his bidding-even if it meant giving up their right to think their own thoughts. But Arden managed to resist. She had more esoteric interests than cell phone towers. There was art and history. Wonderful books to absorb and- "It's time you left that dead-end job, Arden." He interrupted her thoughts. "The market for fine art has collapsed completely. I read about it in the Journal. You should reconsider joining Hyde Communications."

Feeling almost serene, Arden asked, "Are the funeral arrangements made?"

He took the bait. "There are legal issues we must iron out first. Right now, though, I'm too busy doing damage control where Monica is concerned."

"Monica?" Arden was surprised to hear the name of Uncle Julius's latest wife, who she thought was a pleasant woman with a pa.s.sing good understanding of impressionist painters. "What's she done?"

"Well, she set fire to the family homestead," Quentin said quite unnecessarily. Who hadn't heard about the blaze started by the outraged wife of a billionaire? Even the European press printed photos. He continued, "But turns out Monica has been systematically raiding my mother's house for anything valuable. Silver, furniture, porcelain-everything. The woman's been acting like a drunken sailor on sh.o.r.e leave! All in the name of charity, for G.o.d's sake. She may have given away dozens of masterpieces! I need your help getting back the most important items. Surely there are loopholes in these museum deals."

"What's Monica given away?"

"Who knows? Why Julius let her run rampant, I'll never understand. You can look around and see what's missing. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that woman was getting kickbacks. There had to be something fishy going on."

Arden noted that her father was focusing all his rage on Monica, when he was probably feeling angry with Julius instead. Redirecting emotions was nothing new in the Hyde family.

Arden said, "My flight arrives at noon. But don't send a plane, Daddy. I'll fly commercial."

"It's no trouble to-"

"No, really, I can manage for myself."

"All right," he said, sounding doubtful. "But get home soon. We need you here, Arden."

He terminated the call with that.

She shut off her cell phone and thought about how much nicer it would be to find a pleasant hotel and just hole up for a while. Maybe wander some galleries. Hike in the Black Forest to absorb the clear air. But she shouldered her bag and got into the line to board.

Although she hadn't really enjoyed the many pleasures of her family's fortune-no boats, no long visits to lavish vacation homes, no cosmetic surgery, no runway shows or lunches with movie stars-the one thing Arden might actually mind losing would be the Hyde family art collection. Or perhaps-if she were truthful with herself-the right to bask in the glow of the reflected good taste of her relatives. It was easier to enjoy the company of art than the people who'd collected it.

But it was very trying to spend more than an hour with her grandmother Dorothy, fondly known as Dodo. Too many questions, too many expectations. Uncle Julius's death was going to send everyone scrambling to restructure the family hierarchy, too.

The dread of seeing everyone again bubbled up in Arden's throat like bile.

She closed her eyes and tried to conjure up the soothing Van Gogh. And the Calder mobile that slowly spun in the sunlight cast from the skylights at the family's island getaway. Dodo's Rauschenberg hung in the corporate headquarters of Hyde Communications, where it was hardly appreciated by the employees, but served its purpose when compet.i.tors needed to be impressed. While they admired the painting, they often didn't notice they were being consumed by her father, absorbed into the ma.s.sive corporation, stripped of their own ident.i.ty, eaten alive.

So why had Julius died? Why hadn't Arden's father been the one murdered instead? Quentin was the ruthless corporate raider with enemies all over the globe. Julius had become little more than a harmless, aging playboy.

"Miss?"

Arden woke and handed over her ticket.

"Have a nice flight."

She shuffled onto the plane and found her seat. The man in the window seat looked pleased to see a well-dressed young woman stowing her Gucci carry-on next to his, but she ignored him as she settled in.

The flight attendant appeared with a tray of beverages. "Something to drink, miss?"

"Yes, a vodka rocks, please. Just a small one."

"Right away."

As the steward went away, Arden groped in her bag for that other half Xanax. She found a stray Ativan, too. A lucky, just-in-case find. By the time she had to face her family, she would be fully anesthetized.

4.

It was late when Roxy helped Nooch stash the statue in a back corner of her warehouse-a damp and smelly area so skeezy where even the most determined snoopers were unlikely to explore. They threw a tarp over the statue, bound it loosely with twine, and walked away.

With a feeling she might score big with this find, Roxy happily filled various buckets of water for Rooney while Nooch scattered chewie bones and nuggets of kibble around the perimeter of the chain-link fence to keep the dog roaming throughout the night.

She was reaching to haul down the garage door when a small, dented pickup fishtailed into the yard and slid to a stop on the gravel in front of her. The driver's window was down, and the shriek of guitars burst into the night air. Some crazy Irish punk rock. Punching off the CD player, the driver leaned out the window.

"Flynn," she said when she recognized him. "Shouldn't you be washing dishes?"

"Shouldn't you be home in bed?"

"Sorry to spoil your fantasy." Roxy sauntered over to the pickup, but didn't lean down to get intimate.

The light from the dashboard illuminated the sharp cut of Patrick Flynn's cheekbone and the stubble on his jaw, but his eyes were in shadow, so she couldn't gauge his mood. He probably wanted to keep it that way.

The back of his truck was cluttered with a bunch of little cages full of straw that had a definite stink. Roxy took a step away from it. "What the h.e.l.l are you doing? Hauling livestock?"

He grinned a little. "Free-range chickens."

"You're kidding, right? You're a farmer now?"

"I'm experimenting for the restaurant. Fresh ingredients, you know. Nothing but the best."

"I remember a time when you ate only hot dogs and onion rings. Now it's fancy food and guys saying, *Yes, Chef' when you give orders?"

Instead of answering, he grabbed a rumpled sweatshirt from the pa.s.senger seat and threw it at her. It was the hoodie she'd wiggled out of earlier. "You dropped your gla.s.s slipper earlier, Cinderella. I'll trade it for my hockey helmet. Which I believe you stole last week."

She caught the sweatshirt with a grin and slipped it on. It was two-sweatshirt weather these days. In another month she'd add a flannel shirt to her layers. "You playing tonight? This late? Don't you have to get up early to milk cows or something?"

He shrugged, his gaze slipping down her body as he watched her dress. "Some of the guys rented the rink in Harmar. It's the only time available now that even five-year-olds have a hockey league."

Flynn used to have a cute dimpled face and curly dark hair, not to mention melting blue eyes that he'd used to full advantage back in high school. But after flunking out of community college for too much partying and doing two tours in Afghanistan, not to mention b.u.mping around parts of the world where tourists didn't venture, he was no longer cute. Now he radiated something lean and hard-something dangerous that made little girls nervous, but turned grown women's heads.

Not Roxy's, however. Not anymore. She said, "Don't you and your friends have anything better to do at this time of night? Like go home and sleep?"

"Life's too short. What about you? I thought you might be singing somewhere tonight."

Roxy shook her head. "Only occasional weekends."

In the last couple of years, she'd been asked to sing backup vocals for some local bands. Not a career or anything-more of a hobby, although she liked the extra bucks. She was surprised that Flynn knew about it. She hadn't told anybody. Not even Nooch.

He said, "Where's my helmet?"

She jerked her head. "Inside."

He stayed where he was, engine running, but with a ghost of a smile tugging at the edges of his mouth. "I'll wait. You might pick my pocket if I go in there."

Roxy went into the office and came back a minute later dangling a battered hockey helmet by its strap. She tossed it to him. "Sorry about the scratches."

He turned the helmet in his hand, examining the minor damage. "How does the other guy look?"

"Worse." Roxy grinned and slid her hands into the hip pockets of her jeans. "I wore it to figure out who was breaking into my office for petty cash. Good thing, too, because he took a swing at me."

"I presume he's in jail now?"

"Why would I call the police? He'd just come back. Which he won't now."

"You took a shot at him?"

"Unlike you," she said, "I don't keep guns around. No, I belted him with a two-by-four. Sent him home crying to his mommy. He was just a methhead kid. Easy to scare."

Flynn shook his head. "Eventually there's somebody in this world who is going to outfox you, Roxy."

Nooch appeared out of the darkness, along with Rooney. The dog jumped up and planted his forepaws on the door of Flynn's truck, looking for attention. Flynn reached out and roughed up the dog's big head.

Nooch said, "Hey, Flynn, thanks for dinner. You sure learned how to do some good cooking while you were away."

"Glad you liked it."

"Next time, how about some dessert?"

Flynn laughed. "Anything in particular?"

"I like marshmallows. Anything with marshmallows."

Wagging his head, Flynn shoved Rooney away and put the little pickup in gear. "I'll see what I can do."

He drove off, leaving Nooch with a smile on his face. The b.u.mper sticker on the back of the pickup read, Marine Corps: When It Absolutely, Positively Must Be Destroyed Overnight.

Rain began to spatter on the gravel.

Roxy turned away and thought about hoisting the Monster Truck up onto the lift to work on the rattle in the driveshaft, but her cell phone rang. She grabbed it.

"Yeah?"

"Roxy?"

She recognized the voice of Trey Hyde, slippery youngest brother of Julius. Although it was a surprise to hear from yet another Hyde in the same night, she said, "Long time, no see, Trey. You gonna steal from me again?"

"I thought you made me a loan." Trey laughed musically. "For cab fare to get to the airport. Didn't I pay you back?"

"You will," she said. "One way or another."

"How about another?" he said just as playfully. "Can we get together? We could talk about economic Darwinism again. Or just-you know. Screw around. My place?"

Roxy knew all she needed to know about Darwin and the strong devouring the weak. Hang up on a jerk? Or let him satisfy the urge that had been building inside her all day?

She said, "I'll see you in half an hour."

When she clipped the phone shut, Nooch was chewing on an already ragged fingernail. "I know that look on your face," he said. "Are you going to do something that'll send you to confession?"

"I'll take you home first."

Suddenly it was raining like h.e.l.l. Typical for October-balmy one minute, then blowing sleet the next. Tonight, the rain pounded down hard, washing grit from the streets. Roxy drove Nooch home with the wipers clacking on the truck's windshield.

Fifteen minutes after Trey's call, she arrived at a former riverside factory that had been converted into lofts for the city's young elite. Thomas Xavier Hyde-Trey to those who a.s.sociated with him-kept one of the lofts for when he returned to Pittsburgh.

Trey spent most of his time in the Caribbean doing modern-day treasure hunting. With sonar, radar, and Inspector Gadget wizardry, his expedition team looked for sunken pirate ships and the Spanish gold they'd taken down with them in hurricanes. More accurately, Trey paid for the gadgets and stayed onsh.o.r.e with various American girls gone wild while others did the grunt work.

Whenever Trey did give up the fun and sun to come home, it was for the purpose of wheedling more money from his mother to pay for the next expedition. Hunting for another long-lost man-of-war seemed to need so much cash up front, Roxy often wondered why Trey didn't just take the dough from his family and forget about using the million-dollar vacuum cleaner to suck gold ingots and bra.s.s cannons from the ocean floor.

But everybody, she supposed, needed a hobby-especially the loser third son of a powerful family.

Roxy slipped past the doorman and rode the elevator to the fifth floor. Shaking the rainwater from her hair, she walked down a long hallway to the last unit.

Trey must have been pacing inside the loft and checking the peephole, because the door suddenly opened and the Pirate of the Caribbean seized her arm to pull her inside. He snapped shut his cell phone and tried to kiss her.