Beach Blanket Bijou (Pajaro Bay) Read Free Page A

do you have to say for yourself?" She glared at him, furious.
    Then Ben reached for something that had been sitting out of sight behind the cardboard box.
    It was a gun.
    Both Carmen and Quinn just stared.
    "Are you crazy, Ben?" Quinn stammered. "A gun?"
    He didn't look crazy, though. He looked scared, and determined, and really angry. "Don't move. Either of you. I'm almost done."
    "Almost done with what?" Carmen said.
    Quinn took a step toward her, wanting to get between her and that gun, but Ben raised the gun toward him. "I said, don't move."
    Quinn put his hands up. "All right. I'm not doing anything. We're just here for the dog."
    "The dog? What's the dog got to do with this?"
    Carmen frowned. "Oh, no." Then she looked up at Ben. "You've been sabotaging the research."
    "Of course. What did you think?"
    Carmen laughed out loud. "I thought you were sneaking treats to the dog, you idiot. That's why I was yelling at you." Then she backed her chair up and reached down to pick up Bijou. "That's all I meant."
    Ben lowered the gun a fraction. "You didn't know?" Then he raised the gun again. "It doesn't matter. It's too late now."
    The computer beeped, and he glanced at it. "And now it's too late for you to do anything about it."
    "About what?" Quinn asked.
    "Still don't have it figured out, dog guru?" He gestured toward Carmen with the gun, and Quinn felt a lurch in his stomach. "They have everything. They think they rule the world. Well, they're not the only ones who deserve money."
    "Money?" Carmen snapped. "This is about money?"
    Ben used one hand to disconnect an external hard drive from the computer and drop it into the cardboard box. "Of course it's about money, Carmen. You have no idea what being poor is. You think you're so high above it all."
    "I don't think that," she said.
    "It doesn't matter," said Ben with finality. He took a step toward Carmen and pointed the gun at her head. "You," he said to Quinn. "Come here and take this box. We're leaving."
    As Quinn went to the desk to get the box, Ben suddenly looked down at Carmen.
    Bijou was standing up on Carmen's lap and licking at Ben's gun hand. "Get that mutt off me before I shoot it!"
    Carmen grabbed Bijou and held her down.
    Ben turned back to Quinn, who was quietly standing in front of the aquarium, holding the cardboard box.
    "Now we're going." He gestured with the gun.
    Quinn didn't move. "Look," he said reasonably, "just take the box and go. We won't stop you."
    Ben shook his head. "I've got to get out of the country before anyone notices what happened. That means you need to come along."
    Quinn thought of pointing out that he could just shoot them instead of dragging them along, but he figured that wouldn't be a good idea. "Okay," he said reasonably. "Where are we going?"
    "Come on."
    He led them at gunpoint through the yard to the Cordova dock. Halfway down the dock toward the yacht, he stopped them. "Don't move." He walked down a little ways farther, then they saw a dark-clad figure in the shadow of the yacht.
    "You idiot," the man said. "Why did you jump the gun?"
    "Edmund disappeared," Ben answered. "You told me that was the signal, so I'm here. But why didn't you tell me it was going to be tonight. I almost didn't get everything downloaded."
    The voice in the darkness was contemptuous. "I didn't warn you because we didn't kidnap Edmund. He disappeared. You should have called me before making your move."
    Then the man stepped toward them, and Carmen shouted, "You?!"
    Her ex-fiancé Jeff Yung stood there, a gun in his hand.
    "It was you behind all this?"
    "He's paying me a million dollars to give him the software, Carmen," Ben said. "Sorry." Then he turned back to Jeff. "But if the buyers don't have Edmund, what will we do?"
    Jeff looked at Carmen so coldly Quinn wondered how the man could have ever pretended to love her. "We still have a chip."
    "Take her," he told Ben, motioning with his gun toward Carmen.
    "Take the box and go," Quinn said. "You don't need