door’s locked and she’s taking a shower.”
Silvio pulled his hand from his pocket, revealing the pistol he’d been hiding. He pointed it at Griffin. “I’d suggest she hurry. We are to meet Signore Adami out front with the map in hand in exchange for your friend. And he wants to know that he has the only copy, or the deal is off.”
There was a moment of silence, and then Griffin shouted Sydney’s name.
“I’m washing my hair,” she called back.
“Hurry.”
Griffin leaned against the bathroom door, heard the blow dryer start up, and wondered what the hell Sydney was doing in there.
Adami’s man stood in the center of the room, his arms crossed. “You’re sure she’s going to come out?”
“She has to. There are no windows.”
“What’s taking her so long?”
“She’s a girl. That’s what they do.”
The man’s phone rang. He flipped it open, said, “Pronto.” Then, “Adami is here. He wants reassurance that the map is here. Now.”
“No cameras in the bathroom?”
“We are not without some scruples,” he said, which was when Griffin wondered if there really were cameras in the room at all. Griffin had purposefully taken a shower just in case there were cameras in there, in order to steam the things up. He was not about to destroy the map and let anyone see it being done. Adami had no scruples, and he doubted that anyone who worked for him did, either. Definitely not this man, who demanded, “Let me see the map or Adami leaves with your friend.”
“Sydney! The map. I need it now.”
He heard the blow dryer shut off.
A few seconds later, the door opened a crack, and Sydney stepped out, holding the tube, her hair looking damp, as though she hadn’t bothered to dry it all the way.
“The map,” Griffin said, nodding toward Sydney.
“Show me.”
Sydney unbuckled the lid. His heart skipped a beat as he peered in, saw a bit of yellowish white. It was there, he realized, watching her tipping it upside-down to slide out the parchment partway. He wanted to throttle Sydney. She was supposed to have destroyed it. Francesca sucked in her breath at the sight of the fleur-de-lis on the outside corner. When she tried to move closer, Dumas put his hand out to stop her, and Sydney tapped the rolled parchment back into the tube and handed it to Griffin.
The man said into the phone, “It appears to be the map…”
“Satisfied?” Griffin asked.
“Signore Adami will be once he is assured there are no copies. I’ll need to search the room and the bathroom, as well as any of your possessions.”
“All yours,” he said, indicating the man could check the hotel room.
Adami’s man walked through the room, looking in Griffin’s backpack, the armoire, then behind it. He ripped off the sheets, checked beneath the mattress, around and beneath the bed, then in the drawers of the small bedside table, as well as the desk. And that confirmed it for Griffin that there were no cameras. They would have known that he and Sydney came straight in, opened the map, and then took it into the bathroom. He no doubt knew they were dusty because he had someone posted out front, and that person had seen them walk in. The man pocketed a small pad of paper he found in the desk drawer.
Griffin looked Sydney in the eye, trying to figure out what she was up to, why she didn’t destroy the map as ordered. “He wants to check the bathroom, to make sure there is nothing hidden in there.”
“Have at it,” she said, pushing the bathroom door wide open.
Adami’s man walked inside, looked around, peeked behind the door and into the shower, then came out. Into the phone, he said, “All clear.” He listened a moment, then told Griffin, “He’s waiting downstairs in the car.”
“I want to know my friend is safe before we go down there.”
“You don’t call the orders.”
“Then you don’t get the map.”
He nodded, said into the phone, “He wants to talk to his friend…” He handed the phone to Griffin.
“Tex?”
“Griff? I told you not—”
And then Adami saying, “Bring me the map. You have five minutes, or your friend dies.”
37
When Griffin refused to hand over the map to Adami’s goon, instead giving it to Sydney to hold, she had a feeling it was just in case any fighting had to be done. Griffin would be free.
She slipped the parchment tube’s leather strap over her shoulder, allowing the tube to hang across her back, as Adami’s man ushered all through