She snickered. "His skin was pretty good actually."
Zach's scowl made her wink. "He's an arrogant little prick who thinks much more highly of himself than he should. Pretending to be into him totally bolstered his confidence...not that it needed much." She made a face. "He told me to come to his place and he'd fix all my problems." Her fake deep voice had Zach chuckling.
"I told him I couldn't come without you and then he got super flirty and said, 'Bring him along; I'm sure we can find a quiet little corner when he's not looking.' Bluch! Can you believe that? It will almost be a pleasure bringing this guy down."
The gagging noise she made restored all of Zach's faith in her...but it didn't quiet the clatter stirring within him. They were going into William Tenner's home. It didn't matter that he was out of town. Things could still go seriously wrong.
Zach tried not to let his anxiety show as he fidgeted with his fork. "So, what's the plan? We go to the party and then what?"
Lucy drew in a breath and slowly released it. "Well, I'll ditch you for Billy and then get him to take me upstairs."
Zach's head jerked back, the fork clattering onto the plate. "Excuse me?"
She reached for his hand. "I won't do anything with him, I just need to make him think I will."
"And how are you gonna do that?" He flinched away from her touch.
"Zach, you're just really gonna have to trust me." Her expression was so sincere, he knew he could. He wanted to, but...
"I do trust you," he clipped.
"You don't sound like you do."
He grit his teeth. "I do, of course I do. I just don't trust him."
"That small fry?" She pointed to the door he'd left by. "If I can handle that creep Miles Filmore, I can handle Billy Tenner. I just need to convince him to get me into his father's office."
"And then what?"
"That's the tricky part." She rubbed her earlobe. "We'll have to think of some way of knocking him out so we have time to search the office. I don't want to physically hurt him though." She nibbled her lip. "But we need him to be spaced out long enough for us to do our thing and get out of there. He'll wake up in the morning, hopefully thinking that he's hung over and only have vague memories of the girl who wouldn't even tell him her name."
"He didn't want to know your name?"
"I told him he could call me whatever he wanted to." She stuck out her tongue, obviously disgusted by her flirty persona.
Each time she gave away her self-disgust it settled Zach's nerves that much more. Maybe he could survive this party. Logically he knew he could trust her. What choice did he have?
"So how do we knock him out then?"
"A roofie?"
"Yeah." Zach cringed. "But how would we get one?"
"I don't know." Lucy shrugged. "We could get him really drunk, but that would take too long. We want him to assume he's had a lot, but he'd have to have a ton to really knock him out, wouldn't he?"
Zach nodded, not really sure. He'd never been drunk off his face before. He had no idea how much alcohol it took to down somebody.
"What about chloroform?"
His eyes bulged. "Where did that idea come from?"
Lucy chuckled. "I don't know. Isn't that what they do in the movies? Put a rag over the victim's face to knock them out?"
"Could work, but again, where would we get it?"
She shrugged.
"I think we need to chat with Uncle Al. He has a bunch of connections in this town. He can probably get us whatever we need." Zach pulled out his phone and brought up the number.
"Do you think you can handle this?" Lucy squeezed his wrist. "The party, I mean? I could go alone if you need me to."
Leaning over the table, Zach made sure he spoke slow and clear. "You are not going to that party without me. Like hell I'm throwing you into that lion's den alone."
Her eyes glistened as she smiled.
Zach's thumb hovered over the call button. "You don't have to do this, you know?"
Her eyes were skittish, but her voice was steady. "Yes I do, Zach. It's probably our only chance to get into the house. We've got one shot and we don't have the luxury of time. We have to make this work."
"We will." He nodded, not feeling the confidence he should. Pressing the button, he lifted the phone to his ear and waited two rings. "Hey, it's me...Yep, I think we've got a plan."
Chapter 20
LUCY
"So he's not in town?" We weren't even in the door and Alex was standing on the front steps peppering us with questions about Tenner. "When does he get back? Do you think you can get into his office? What's the kid like?"
Zach put up his hand to stem the flow of questions. "Let's go upstairs and nut it out. Lucy's pretty sure she can get Billy to take her up to Tenner's office."
"Oh, yeah? How'd you work your magic?"
Alex nudged me gently with his elbow, his eyes sparkling with mischief.