“Ice on ice.” Gage snorted a laugh.
“You can be sure the necklace will be safe with me.” Anil pumped an arm in the air. “No one will get past The Butcher.”
I scribbled another line on the whiteboard. My drawings looked like the football plays my brothers used to sketch on the family whiteboard when I was trying to watch My Little Pony on TV.
“What about me?” Emma asked. “After I’ve helped with parking all the cars, I’ll have nothing to do except sit in the limo and wait to take the unhappy couple to the airport for their honeymoon.”
“You’re the key to Part 2 of Plan B,” I said. “Saving Bella. I haven’t talked to her yet because I wanted to run through it with everyone first. After Emma has sorted out the parking, she’ll drive the limo to the boat rental place and rent a small . . . and I repeat, small . . . motorboat, which she’ll drive across the lake to the shore of the Angelinis’ property. Meantime, after the dinner and necklace stealing and while DJ Ka-Poor is dropping his sick beats, Bella will go upstairs ostensibly to get ready to leave for her honeymoon. Instead, she’s going to change out of her dress, sneak out the back stairs, and run through the forest to the beach. Chloe and I will meet her at the boathouse. Emma will then take Bella in the boat down to a secluded boat launch where Ben will be waiting in a cab. They’ll go straight to the airport and fly off to start their new life. While we’re gone, Rose, Jack, and Gage will take turns guarding the necklace in case mysterious bellhops show up with guns.”
“That is curiously specific,” Emma said. “Care to elaborate?”
“Ask Jack.” I’d avoided asking more questions about the intruders during Jack’s grovel in the car because I didn’t want to hear the answers. I still wanted Jack to be a good guy and not part of the criminal underworld.
“We’re not the only people who want the necklace,” Jack said, leaning forward, knees on his elbows. “There is a particular individual with whom I have a long history. He shares my interest in acquiring certain objects but for different reasons. He has a larger team at his disposal, and they are more than willing to use violence to achieve their ends, although they rarely hurt innocent people.”
“What?” Emma’s brow creased in a frown. “Did anyone understand what he just said?”
“In gaming speak, he’s got an evil nemesis who sends out his hench people to steal things Jack wants to steal, using force if necessary.” Anil looked over at Jack. “Or did I misunderstand?”
“I wouldn’t use the word ‘steal,’？” Jack said. “But the rest is fairly accurate.”
I didn’t care about an evil nemesis or hench people. I had fixated on one word. “？‘Rarely’？” I glared at him. “They ‘rarely’ hurt innocent people? You said you knew they wouldn’t hurt me. Every time I think I can trust you, I get a big fat slap in the face.”
“You were never at risk,” Jack said. “Some things are a matter of professional courtesy.”
“What profession? What if they thought you had the necklace? If I hadn’t chased them away, would they have tortured me to force you to bring it to them? What if they peeled off my skin to make a dress?”
“Why would they do that?” Jack’s brow creased in a puzzled frown. “They had their own clothes.”
“I put on lotion this morning.” I was in full-blown panic mode. “I rubbed it on my skin.”
“This is on you,” Chloe said to Rose. “You made her watch all those old-school serial killer shows. She still hasn’t gotten over Silence of the Lambs.”
Rose gave an apologetic shrug. “I thought she liked them.”
“I think the bigger question is, are they going to steal the necklace out from under us?” Chloe asked, patting my hand to calm me down. “Does your evil nemesis have a name? Who should we be watching out for?”
“Mr. X.”
Emma threw back her head and laughed. “This is like a B-list crime show, the kind you stream at two a.m. when you’ve watched everything on Netflix and you can’t afford HBO.”
“Mr. X won’t send anyone else after the necklace because he knows we’re after it and he’ll let us do the heavy lifting,” Jack said. “Our most difficult task will be keeping the necklace safe once we get it. That’s why I hired Gage. He’s the best.”
“Well then, he’s going to have a new job that involves staying near the van when you or Rose are inside guarding the necklace.” I was irritated with Jack all over again. Why didn’t he tell me about Mr. X? What profession required the courtesy of not hurting people after breaking into their home with a gun?
“What about the elephant?” Gage asked. “What’s it going to do while I’m watching the van?”
“Show of hands,” I called out. “Who wants the elephant to join the crew?”
Every hand went up. My crew was nothing if not accepting.
“There you go,” I said to Gage. “Problem solved. It can be your backup.”
Twenty-Five
Everything went perfectly the morning of the wedding until it didn’t.
“Where’s the priest?”
Jack tied a swath of white chiffon to the delicate curved wedding arch on the Angelinis’ back lawn, where the ceremony would take place. He’d decorated the aisle with lilies, hydrangeas, and sprays of pink roses, and sprinkled rose petals between the seats. With so much natural beauty already packed into the setting, it was truly magical.
“I haven’t seen him.” Jack added a sprig of greenery to the arch. “But the organist mentioned he wasn’t happy you’d made him come so early. Maybe she knows where he went.”
As if on cue, the organist played the first few chords of the theme song to The Phantom of the Opera. I’d dreamed of playing Christine in our middle school production of the play, but the school didn’t want a Christine who was always off-key.
“I wasn’t leaving anything to chance,” I said. “This day has to be perfect. I’ll go talk to her and find out what’s going on.”
I went in search of the organist. She knew the priest well. He was old and tired easily, so maybe he’d gone to find somewhere to rest. We walked through the main floor of the house, knocking on doors.
“Maybe he’s still asleep,” I said. “He might have gone on an all-night prayer bender and now he’s hungover after one too many Hail Marys.”
My sacrilegious joke failed to amuse.
We found the priest unconscious in a puddle of soup on the kitchen floor. I called an ambulance and the paramedics whisked him away to the hospital. I assured a horrified Mrs. Angelini that we would find a replacement, but after a valiant effort and many phone calls to church administrators, I was unable to find a priest available on short notice. I checked online but there were no “Dial a Priest” services that could deliver.
“We can’t have a wedding without a priest.” I sank into one of the outdoor chairs while Jack fluffed organza beside me. My first wedding was going to be over before it began, and with it our heist, Bella’s escape, and my chance at saving Chloe.