by Pamela Clare
The driver was talking quietly to someone on his earpiece—one of De Luca’s men or De Luca himself—and the man in the passenger seat wasn’t paying attention to them when Tadeo slid something over to Kevin. His friend didn’t look at him as he handed it over, but continued staring out his window.
As that ball in his stomach expanded into a full-fledged adrenaline dump, he casually cupped the piece of paper in his right palm, keeping it low against his outer thigh as he read it.
Don’t react. De Luca’s getting busted tonight. You’re supposed to be there too, but I can’t do that to you. No other time to warn you. Jump out at next stop and run. Don’t stay in city, cops will find you. Sorry, mano.
Kevin felt all the blood drain from his face, his fingers turning numb in his gloves. He didn’t dare look at Tadeo. This wasn’t a joke. His friend wouldn’t mess with him about this. For a split second he wondered if this was some bullshit way to cut him out of the eventual sale of the Dragon Collection, but knew that didn’t make sense. De Luca would have other ways to get rid of him. Something he’d thought long and hard about. In the end, there had been more reasons for De Luca to keep him alive in the long run, especially since Kevin had proven himself to be a valuable asset.
So this letter was real. And if Tadeo knew his boss was getting busted it meant he’d been somehow involved in it. He must be working with the cops, which explained why he hadn’t been able to tell him before now. They’d been at De Luca’s place the last three days preparing for this job. The man hadn’t been willing to let any of them out of his sight for even a moment. Tadeo was taking a huge risk by doing this, by letting him go.
A small thread of guilt wormed its way through him because Kevin wasn’t sure he’d have done the same thing for Tadeo. No, he knew he wouldn’t have.
As they neared a traffic light that had just turned red, he slowly reached out and slid the lock to unlock. Knowing there was no time to second guess himself, he jerked the door open and jumped from the slow rolling vehicle. There were shouts of alarm from behind him and one car honked, but he ignored everything as his feet hit the sidewalk. Racing back in the opposite direction the SUV was headed, he didn’t turn around. Unless they planned to open fire on him, they’d never catch him. And there was no way they’d risk engaging him in a chase or shootout, not when they were carrying those diamonds.
Once he reached the upcoming corner, he risked a glance behind him and didn’t see the SUV anymore. He knew he couldn’t stick around here long. Not if Tadeo’s note was real. No, he’d need to steal a car and head out of the city limits. And he knew just the place to go.
Ellie had taken him to a cluster of caves out in the desert once. He’d been there twice since he’d gotten out of prison. It had been clear no one had been there in a long time so he’d used it to stash a run bag. Because he believed in always being prepared. Especially after going to prison. There was no way in hell he was going back. Originally he’d scoped out the caves to see if she’d hidden his money there but he hadn’t found anything. No disturbed earth and no tracks other than from a few coyotes. Hell, he hadn’t even been sure she’d kept his money, but he’d had to look before he contacted her.
Now he was grateful for his hideout. He could stay there for a few days and wait out a manhunt if the cops gave chase. Since he couldn’t ask Tadeo for more details he had no clue if the police would care enough about him to lock down roads or not. He couldn’t take the chance they would and get caught at a roadblock.
Chapter Eighteen
“It’s impressive how well you hid all this,” Jay said to her as he looked down at the dust covered bags of cash on the cave floor.
Ellie shrugged, holding onto the handle of the shovel as she half-leaned against it. A light coating of dust clung to them after the twenty minute trek to the cave from where they’d parked, more after the actual digging. “The small rocks hid the disturbed earth well in case any hikers stumbled onto these caves.”
Jay grunted. “Doubtful, considering how far out of the way this place is.”
“I know, but still. Plus, Kevin knew about this place.” At her words, Jay stilled. The light from the battery-operated lanterns played across his hard features, but it was hard to read him.
“Should I not talk about him?” she asked. Ever since she’d met up with Kevin at the shopping center Jay had been uber-protective. But he hadn’t spoken about Kevin directly since then. It had all been in terms of ‘the plan’ and how they planned to make sure he went back to jail. She’d basically been on lockdown with no contact with anyone at work since then. Jay and Wyatt had wanted to make it appear as if she’d left town. They’d been vague when questioned about her by hotel employees and even though she’d been going stir crazy in the suite, she’d understood the need for her to remain out of sight.
Shoulders relaxing, Jay shook his head as he let out a long breath. “You can talk about your past. I don’t ever want you to hide any part of yourself from me. I just hate that guy for bringing so much crap into your life.”
She smiled, understanding. “I get it. And it’s not—”
When Jay suddenly froze, his huge body going impossibly still, a streak of fear raced up her spine. She hadn’t heard anything. He held a finger up to his mouth and immediately turned off the nearest lantern with a quick flip of a switch. As the cave plunged into semi-darkness, he pulled a gun from his ankle holster. Bending down, she started to turn off the other lantern on the ground next to the biggest bag of cash when a familiar, hated voice echoed through the cave.
“Drop the gun or I shoot the bitch,” Kevin said, his voice low and angry.
Ellie’s head snapped up, fear lancing through her as she scanned the mouth of the cave. With the light next to her face and the front of the cave so dark it was impossible to see much except the silhouette of Kevin’s body.
Jay stood about three feet away from her and a couple feet closer to the mouth of the cave. She watched as his hand clenched once around his gun. It was angled down as he hadn’t fully stood. By the time he raised it, Kevin would have already shot one of them. She knew he’d shoot her first. She also knew that if Jay dropped his weapon, Kevin would kill them both. While she had no clue why he was here, he was, and that told her he knew she’d lied to him. Her heart stuttered in her chest.
“Don’t drop it,” she said, her voice strong.
Jay still hadn’t moved as Kevin stepped deeper into the cave with them. Now she got a good view of him. Like an angry rain cloud, his expression was as dark as the black clothes he was still wearing from the casino robbery.
“You might hit me, but I’ll blow her head off before you raise it.” Kevin’s voice was calm as he held a gun pointed directly at her. He wouldn’t miss either. Not with this big freaking spotlight illuminating her face.
She still hadn’t stood from her crouched position, too terrified to make any sudden movements and have him get trigger happy.
The silence in the cave seemed like a giant void until Jay finally spoke, his voice low and calm. “I’m dropping it now,” he said as he placed his gun on the hard earth.
Even with all his training, Ellie realized he was too far away to attempt rushing Kevin. Kevin would shoot him before he’d made it two, maybe three steps. She could actually see it unfolding in her mind and fought the nausea swelling inside her.
“What are you doing here?” she rasped out.
Kevin trained his gun on Jay as he stood up, making Ellie’s panic skyrocket to epic proportions. He couldn’t shoot Jay, he just couldn’t. She refused to believe it would happen even though she saw the menacing glint in her ex’s eyes.
“I’m still not sure,” he said to Ellie, but kept his gaze and gun trained on Jay.
All Ellie could seem to focus on was that gun, her tunnel vision threatening to make her lose the small window of opportunity she might have. Mentally shaking herself, she looked at Kevin’s face, tried to keep her voice steady. “What do you mean?”
�
��I mean exactly what I said, I’m not fucking sure,” he snapped. “After the heist one of my boys told me to run because a big bust was going down on De Luca. Something tells me you two know something about that. Was the whole heist a setup? Are the jewels even real?”
“It wasn’t a setup,” Jay said smoothly, drawing Kevin’s attention from Ellie. “But I think your friend lied to you.”
No! Ellie wanted to shout, but understood what Jay was doing, understood that she’d get only one chance to save them. From her crouched position, she reached back with her right hand and wrapped her fingers around the revolver tucked into the back of her pants. Jay had given it to her for this desert trek. It had been in case they ran into wild animals and needed to scare them off.
Not to defend themselves from a real life monster. Unfortunately that’s what she had to do.
“No way he lied,” Kevin continued, shaking his head vehemently. His hand shook as he punctuated each angry word. And all his attention was on Jay.
On the man she loved.
Overcome by the strangest calm, Ellie used his distraction to her advantage and brought the weapon around. Since it was a double action revolver she didn’t have to pull the hammer back.
She simply fired and kept firing until she’d emptied the chamber. Kevin dropped where he stood, his hands flailing out as she nailed him in the stomach then the chest. The cave echoed loudly from the report, her ears ringing and her hands trembling as she stared at Kevin’s fallen form.
When he didn’t move from the dusty ground, she dropped her arm, but couldn’t stop the shaking that had taken over her entire body. She’d been to the shooting range with Jay multiple times and knew how to use guns. Hell, she lived near the desert, practically everyone here owned a gun. But she’d never thought to use it on a person before. Not unless absolutely necessary.
She could hear Kevin struggling for breath, the ragged sounds permeating the cave until they simply stopped, but she couldn’t force herself to walk any closer to him. Her feet refused to listen to her brain.
Jay moved to Kevin’s body and kicked his gun out of the way before bending down next to him. He stayed there for a long moment, searching for a pulse beneath his jaw before standing and turning back to her. “He’s gone,” he murmured.
Ellie opened her mouth to respond, but couldn’t make her voice work. Jay moved toward her cautiously, as if she was a frightened animal. “You’re okay, baby,” he murmured soothingly.
She blinked once, everything coming back into focus in a rush. Placing the revolver on the ground she nodded and finally found her voice again. “I know. I…he was going to kill both of us.”
Jay nodded, his expression fierce as he gathered her into his arms. She gripped him tight, linking her arms around his waist and burying her face in his chest. Tears burned her eyes, not because of Kevin but because she could have lost Jay. A sob built in her throat but she bit it back and held onto Jay, soaking up his strength. She wasn’t sure how long they stood there holding each other but eventually Jay pulled back.
He swiped a callused thumb over her cheek, his expression gentle but determined. “We’ve got to make a decision here and now. Call the cops and explain the money or leave with the money and never tell a soul about this. No one. I won’t even tell Hayden about this. Just you and me and the desert will know. Before you decide make sure it’s something you can live with. I say we leave this piece of garbage to the coyotes, but it’s not my call.”
She wasn’t sure what it said about her, but she didn’t have to think long about her decision. That money could do a hell of a lot of good in the right hands but if the police were called it would end up in a dusty locker somewhere. Worse than that, if they got involved, it would drag Jay deeper into this mess. How could he explain why he was out here in the desert with her digging up money? And how the hell would she even explain the money in the first place? She couldn’t do that to Jay. She’d acted to defend him and could live with what she’d done, knowing there had been no other choice. Since Kevin didn’t have any family she wouldn’t be stealing closure from anyone if he just disappeared. “We leave and tell no one.”
Relief flooded his expression. Nodding, Jay stepped back from her. He lifted one of the smaller bags of cash and handed it to her. “Take this to the car and wait there. I’ll be back once I’ve taken care of his body and I’ll bring the rest of the money.”
Frowning, she shook her head and dropped the bag before picking up the nearest shovel. “We do this together.” Because there was no way in hell she was making him deal with this all on his own, not when it was her fault he’d been dragged into this mess in the first place.
She knew she could trust Jay with this secret forever. Just as he was showing that he clearly trusted her.
Chapter Nineteen
Ellie waited as her computer shut down before pushing back from her desk. Even though it was Sunday, she’d decided to come in and get some work done. Mainly that had involved answering the hundreds of emails she’d received for those few days where she’d just disappeared. After they were sure that De Luca and his crew were under arrest and the charges were sticking, Wyatt had told everyone she’d been sick with a terrible flu. So now she had a bunch of flowers and balloons lining her office.
Which made her smile.
She really did love working here. But more than anything she loved Jay. So much that it filled her until she wanted to tell everyone how wonderful the feeling was. Which she knew was stupid. But now that he knew about her past and didn’t judge her, all that fear she’d had before was just gone. He loved her for exactly who she was. After everything they’d been through together she knew without a doubt that Jay was the kind of man to be there for her through the good times and the tough ones. Just as she would be there for him. Always.
He’d wanted her to work from home today but she’d known exactly how that would have gone. She wouldn’t have gotten a single thing done.
As she grabbed her purse, her office door opened, surprising her. This floor was private to her, Wyatt and the security staff, and she knew Wyatt had taken the night off to spend it with Iris. Since the security personnel rarely needed her, she was surprised when Vadim stepped inside. She’d thought he would know their boss was off for the evening. “Hey, V, Wyatt’s not here.”
“I know, I came to see you.” His voice was soft, nonthreatening and still, the man made her nervous.
“Okay.” She stayed where she was, purse in hand.
As if sensing her hesitancy, he half-smiled and took a step back toward the door, putting more distance between them in a clear attempt to put her more at ease. “I saw on the news that Santa Claus visited Vegas early Thursday morning.”
Ellie knew what he was referring to but wasn’t sure why he was bringing it up. Iris, Wyatt, and Hayden must have guessed what she and Jay had done—anonymously donating the money to various non-profit organizations, not the other thing—but no one had said a word because nothing needed to be said. “Yeah, me too.”
V stood there for a long moment as if trying to find the right words and she wondered if some of her anxiety around him had more to do with his lack of social skills than anything else. Finally he cleared his throat, almost nervously. “It was good what you did…” He trailed off in that odd way of his, shrugging.
She still thought he was a bit intimidating, but she smiled and stepped out from her desk. “I’m heading out. Want to walk me to the elevators?”
Smiling, sort of, he nodded and opened the door, stepping out before her. Now she realized he definitely wanted to put her at ease and this must be his way of showing it. Limited social skills she could deal with, especially since he’d gone above and beyond to help her. Sure it had been at Wyatt’s asking, but he still hadn’t had to do it.
“So the real jewels are back in place?” she asked, making small talk.
“Yeah, oversaw them being moved from the vault to the display myself. Security’s even tighter now. They won’
t be here much longer anyway. The museum is taking them back.” He was hard to read, but sounded pleased about that.
“I bet De Luca was pissed to find out the jewels he got were fake.” To know that his own man had betrayed him.
V just grunted a sound of agreement.
Tadeo Bejar was testifying against De Luca for not only being the mastermind of the jewel heist but for a whole mess of other things including drug and human trafficking. He hadn’t admitted to tipping Kevin off, but the cops were pretty certain that was why Kevin had run the way he had. No one could prove it though and since Bejar wasn’t a threat to her, Ellie didn’t really care. Kevin wasn’t going to be a threat to anyone ever again. The cops were still looking for him and she felt bad about that since they’d never find a body, but there was nothing to be done. The police assumed he’d gone on the run and would attempt to escape to Mexico and that assumption was fine with her.
After saying goodbye to Vadim she got into the elevator and pressed L for lobby. She’d left her rental car with valet earlier because the thought of walking to and from the parking garage alone had made her nervous. She knew Kevin couldn’t hurt her, but after what had happened in the desert, she still felt raw and vulnerable and yeah, scared. Being back at home with Jay eased most of her lingering fears, but she wasn’t naïve enough to think they’d go away overnight.
It belatedly registered that the elevator had gone up instead of down. Frowning, she pressed the L button again but the doors opened on one of the top floors and stayed there. She depressed the button a couple more times but nothing happened. “What the heck?” she muttered to herself. She’d have to call maintenance or take another elevator because she wasn’t walking down a bazillion flights of stairs in her heels.
Stepping out into the tiled area, she paused at the sight of a big white sign with a red arrow drawn onto it. Underneath it said ‘This way, Ellie’. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight, a slight smile tugging at her lips.
