Peter didn't know when Vicky intended to steal the exhibit, but running with the assumption that she had been planning this for quite a while he alerted the museum staff and those in charge of security (not me this time, unfortunately) right away, then drove straight there with Vecchio. Luck was on their side, for they arrived before she did--barely.
Oh, BTW, that's a second ice cream you owe me. Ray did wind up going to the museum.
I'll say this about her, she doesn't mess around when it comes to getting a job done. I wonder what the ensuing events looked like from her point of view.
Victoria smoothed a wrinkle in her sleek, black body suit and waited for Jack to show up at their appointed meeting site. Raising capital for this venture had been simple; she merely talked her way into several minor bank jobs. Anyone could acquire funds if he were clever and unscrupulous enough. This time money wasn't her goal, it was only a means to an end. No, she only truly desired one thing in this world. She wanted Fraser.
Just as she was about to check her watch, Jack joined her in the shadows. He was a bit too slimy for her to associate with on a regular basis, but his knowledge of the area and his higher-than-the-average-thug intelligence made him a good right hand man for this job. "What took you?" she demanded.
He looked around before responding, as if afraid someone would overhear. "Silver and Larson haven't reported in. I think they got a lead on that troublesome witness who's been evading us."
She frowned. "I told them to be here... Oh, well. If they manage to take care of him properly, it'll be worth it. If not, they know my ground rules." She had enough experience with ice to be able to incorporate it into her voice at will. "Are the others in position?"
"Ready and waiting for your command."
"Excellent. You know your instructions?"
"I'm the backup. I stay here and make sure you get away without a hitch."
She patted his shoulder. "Hopefully you'll be bored to tears." She picked up her walkie talkie and spoke into it two words. "Move now." She tucked the small unit into her belt, secure in the knowledge that the men she had hired were already converging on the museum. "See you on the way out."
Jack saluted as she left for her rendezvous with destiny.
Just as she started to push open the door to the exhibit room, which one of her advance team members had left unlocked for her, she heard a crash of breaking glass and a series of thuds, as of flesh hitting flesh. If those dunderheads had started fighting over the prize--! She threw open the door, gun drawn, a second before her walkie talkie crackled to life.
"Cops! They're onto us, let's get outta here!"
She could see instantly that it was true. One of her men had been knocked through a display case, and two more sprawled on the floor, unconscious. She easily spotted the two policemen amid the chaos. One of them dropped the man holding the walkie talkie with an impressive spin kick, coming to rest with the grace of a leopard. The other crouched partially behind the central display.
She took aim at the standing figure. She hadn't yet killed a cop, but her desire for the ruby was an icy core within her and it gave her the power to do anything necessary to accomplish her goal.
"Caine, look out!" shouted the half-hidden man as she pulled the trigger.
That voice! She hardly noticed that her target dove out of the way in the nick of time. The sound of that voice held her paralyzed until a bullet drilled into the door by her head. A burst of adrenaline exploded in her and she twisted to duck out the doorway, but a strong hand caught her wrist and dragged her back inside.
She struggled to get away, but he spun her expertly into the circle of his arm and shoved a gun behind her ear. "Well, well, what have we here?" he asked in that voice. He snatched the red wig from her head and tossed it on the floor, revealing the dark curls she had pinned up underneath.
She seethed with anger, letting it crystallize inside her with the sharp edges of a snowflake. That voice belonged to Ray Vecchio, the only man who had been able to thwart her ambition. Because of him, Ben wasn't with her now. Vecchio had shot her lover in the back to prevent him from escaping with her.
But if Vecchio was here, perhaps...? She contested his grip slightly as a token resistance, expecting it to remain steady. "You won't shoot me," she said. "You're a cop." In front of her, the other policeman stood a few feet away and watched. Her men in this room were all out cold, and the others had no doubt gotten away, warned by the message she had been too late to heed.
"Oh, yeah? Is that what you think, Victoria?" He ground the muzzle of the gun against her skull. She had to bite her lip to avoid crying out in pain. "Do you remember what I said to you that first time? 'If you hurt him, I'll kill you.' Ring a bell?"
She remembered, and his tone as he dropped the words in an offhand manner chilled her. He would kill her, and not think twice about it. She swallowed. The other cop, Caine, reflected the tension of the situation in his face. He held out a calming hand. "There's no need for that, Vecchio. We have her. Let the law sentence her."
The pressure of the gun diminished, although not very much. "You heard what she did to Benny," he said, speaking to the other officer. "She did something to him that I thought no one in the world would be cruel enough to do. She took away his innocence. You don't know what heartbreak is until you've looked into those big Mountie eyes and seen the utter devastation of all his dreams."
His voice trembled with emotion, but his grasp on her stayed firm . She had to get away from him, somehow. She didn't want to die, but she would rather he shot her than take her to jail again. Perhaps if she tried talking him out of it, he would relent. "Ray," she began, "Ray, think about this--"
Her words choked off with a gasp as he grabbed her throat with the hand not holding his gun. "Shut up!" he commanded. His palm was hot and sweaty against her skin.
Caine took a step forward, now clearly worried. "Detective! She's not worth it. Not in cold blood." He took another step. "Put the gun away."
The fingers squeezed more tightly around her neck, leaving her struggling to breathe for an eternal instant, then released with a vicious jerk. The Chicago cop groaned in resignation, lowering the gun from he r head. "You're right. She's not worth it."
While the two policemen relaxed instinctively as the moment of danger passed, she drove her elbow into Vecchio's stomach and shoved him into the other man, then dashed through the doorway and sprinted down the hall. She knew it wouldn't take them long to catch up with her, so she had to find a hiding place, and quickly.
The time she had spent mapping out the museum came in extremely handy. She turned into a cross corridor, took an immediate left, and tucked herself behind a statue of Satan in the "Religions of the World" exhibit, well covered by the raging flames at his feet. She could wait until they had passed her in their search and then sneak out, to meet up with Jack.
She no longer cared about the ruby. Somehow fate had caused another crossing of paths, and this time she would not lose.