“What is going on?”
“There was something about Mrs. Montgomery that I remembered. She is paranoid, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So, she wouldn’t trust banks. That’s what I thought.” Jody looked at the file on the Montgomery house. They were always calling the police for something. “All her jewels are in her safe. She is always freaking out that someone has gotten into the safe.”
“Oh yeah, she drives the patrol cops nuts.”
“I bet Black Velvet will break into that house tonight.”
“Wow that’s quite a leap.”
“Think about it. Mr. Montgomery loses his keys down some guy’s pants.”
“Okay, I’m still not catching on.”
“Mrs. Montgomery hires male dancers to do private shows.”
“How do you know that?”
“It’s in a report. See, she thought one of the dancers she hired took something.” Jody showed Linda the report. “So, I’m guessing that she and her husband watch dancers together.”
“Kinky.”
“Well each to their own. Anyway, see where I’m going?”
“Okay I’m starting to get your line of thinking. It can’t hurt to check it out. But Jody … what if it is Hunter?”
“I don’t know.”
“We will check it out and worry about the other stuff later. Maybe Hunter isn’t Black Velvet the thief.”
“Maybe.”
Jody hoped to God that this one time she was wrong.
* * * *
“Everyone, get your asses to the stage!” Melinda bellowed into the intercom.
Hunter sighed and pushed the duffle bag with his gear for tonight’s heist under his bed.
“What the hell does that woman want now,” he grumbled as he left his room.
When he got to the stage all the other dancers were already there.
“She sounded pissed,” Zoltan said as Hunter approached him.
“When doesn’t she?”
“All right, one of you assholes stole from me. Who was it?” Melinda was positively livid.
“Where is your precious Adonis?” Hunter asked.
“You.” She pointed to Dai. “Go to Adonis’ room and tell him to come here.”
Dai hurried from the room.
“Which one of you stole from me? I will search all of your rooms to find out.”
After a couple of moments, Dai came back alone.
“Well, where is Adonis?”
“He isn’t in his room.”
“Looks like you found your thief,” Hunter said.
“Shut up, Hunter,” Melinda growled. “Everyone, we are checking rooms. We will start with Adonis’ room. Come on, I want you all to stay in my sight.”
Hunter became a little nervous. If Melinda found that bag under his bed, it sure the hell wouldn’t look too good.
When they arrived at Adonis’ room, Melinda was shocked to see all his stuff was gone.
“Oh, that bastard!” Melinda yelled. “All of you go to your rooms, except for you Hunter.”
Melinda called the police as she waited for the other dancers to leave.
“You should have known better than to hire a man like him,” Hunter said.
“Shut up Hunter. I don’t need your smart-ass mouth right now.”
Hunter could see that she was very upset. He almost felt sorry for her … almost.
“When you went to Mrs. Montgomery’s house, did Adonis say anything to you?”
“Not really. What did he steal from you?”
Melinda turned around and looked at Hunter. “He got into my safe and took all the money I had in there. It was the month’s earnings, plus what Mrs. Montgomery paid.”
“Whoa, that’s a lot of cash.”
“I know that, you asshole.” Melinda sat down on Adonis’ bed. “He was so beautiful.” She chuckled. “Lei would have checked his background first. She always did that for every dancer. I didn’t check Adonis’ record until I already hired him. The women loved him … God, am I a stupid woman.”
Hunter wanted to feel sorry for her, but after all the crap she had given Zoltan and Dai, hell, all of the dancers around here, he couldn’t bring himself to feel any kind of empathy for her. She was getting what she deserved. Karma can be a real bitch sometimes.
“If that’s all, I want to go back to my room,” Hunter said.
“No, you are going to stay here with me when the police come.”
Hunter sighed. There was no point arguing with her. Besides, if he did this one thing she would leave him alone for the rest of the day.
“The police are here,” one of the guards said.
“Good, send them to me.”
Hunter was surprised to see Jody and Linda enter the room.
“Oh great, icing on the cake,” Melinda grumbled. “You are a cop, that’s rich.” She started to laugh.
“The sooner you give us your statement, the sooner we can catch your thief,” Jody said. She smiled at Hunter she couldn’t help it.
“All right, you little bitch. Adonis broke into my safe and took all my money.”
“You know for a fact it was Adonis?” Linda asked.
“This is his room and all his shit is gone. I would say he might be guilty. Hey, wait a minute.” Melinda walked over to Linda. “You’re the one Maxim quit over. Do trouble-making bitches travel in packs?”
“This is irrelevant at the moment,” Jody said.
“You took my dancer, the one who had the biggest fucking cock of any dancer in this shit hole of a town. You might as well have stolen from me, too. I hope Maxim plays too rough with you and fucks you up.”
“Could we get back to the robbery?” Jody asked.
“Adonis and Hunter went to Mrs. Montgomery’s home yesterday, and Adonis started acting funny after that. He was very quiet in bed last night, very distracted. I just figured Hunter did something to him. When I woke up this morning he wasn’t in my bed. I just assumed he had simply gone back to his room. He did that on occasion.”
“You and Adonis were lovers?”
“Yeah honey, we were lovers. Geez … I went to put some money into my safe. That is, when I saw the safe was empty. I gathered all the dancers to ask questions and found out Adonis was gone. Now go do your job and find him before he spends all my money.”
“You were at Mrs. Montgomery’s house yesterday too, Hunter?” Jody asked.
“Yeah.”
“Never mind him, go find my money. Guard, show them out.” Melinda waited for Jody and Linda to leave. “Hunter, you can leave now.”
Hunter left the room and hurried to the front gate. He was disappointed that Jody was already gone. He quickly shook it off, he couldn’t think about her now. He had to finish getting ready for tonight.
* * * *
“Jody …” Linda didn’t know what to say as they drove back to the station.
“Hunter was at Mrs. Montgomery’s, too. We will have to stake out her place tonight.”
“What about Adonis?”
“He is probably long gone by now. Besides, I’m not going to rush too much to help that horrible woman.”
“Jody, maybe Adonis is Black Velvet the thief?”
“I wish I could believe that. However, Adonis is just a run-of-the-mill thief. Come on, he didn’t even bother to cover his tracks after he stole Melinda’s money. Black Velvet wouldn’t have been that clumsy.”
“If Hunter does turn out to be Black Velvet the thief … we should let him go,” Linda said.
“We can’t do that.”
“Why not? It’s obvious he isn’t taking the money for himself. He is taking the money to help the people he cares about.”
“It’s still against the law.”
“So what?”
“How can you say that?”
“I’m just saying that if I found out Maxim was Black Velvet the thief, I would at least hear his side of the story before I decided to bring him in or not. You love Hunter, how
could you not at least hear him out.”
“Maybe he planned this. If he was the one that erased his records, it would be easy for him to find out the cops on his case.”
“Yeah, perhaps, but you went to the club. He didn’t tell you to go.”
“It might have been a lucky break.”
“I doubt it.”
“Let’s catch him first. He might not even be the thief we are looking for.”
“We better get a little sleep before we stake out Mrs. Montgomery’s house.”
“That’s a good idea.” Jody went to Linda’s apartment. Maxim was there cleaning up the place. This was a strange sight indeed.
“Hey baby, Jody and I have to take a nap before we go back to work. Looks like it will be a long night.”
“I will go out to give you some quiet.” Maxim looked over to Jody. “Hello Hunter’s pixie.”
“Excuse me,” Jody said.
“That is the name we gave you at the Alcazar. Where is Hunter?”
“Why do you think he would be with me?”
“He is not working at the moment.”
“So …”
“You are trying too hard to act nonchalant,” Maxim chuckled.
Before Jody could say another word, Maxim picked up Linda and kissed her. He gently set her down and swatted her hard on her ass. “I will be back later, so get some sleep,” he said as he caressed her hair, “get some sleep too, Hunter’s pixie.” He left the apartment.
“I am surprised that Hunter isn’t with you. Oh, I hope he isn’t waiting outside your apartment for you.”
“I doubt it. He is probably getting ready to rob Mrs. Montgomery.”
“Let’s get some sleep.” Linda didn’t want to press the issue. She wouldn’t know what she would do if she found out the man she loved was breaking the law. To choose between doing your job and your man … she felt so sorry for Jody. She only hoped that Jody didn’t make Hunter pay for what Derek did to her.
* * * *
Hunter managed to get out of the Alcazar. Melinda was taking out what Adonis did to her on everybody. He had to pull off this heist. He had to get Zoltan and Dai out of that place.
Hunter walked all the way to Mrs. Montgomery’s house, which wasn’t a short stroll, either. It took him nearly two hours to get here. He couldn’t chance any cab records putting him anywhere near Mrs. Montgomery’s house.
When Hunter came in view of the house he saw Jody and Linda’s car.
“Shit,” Hunter mumbled. He half-assed expected to see Jody here, but he sure the hell hoped she wouldn’t be. Luckily he factored her into the plan. Now his timing would have to be perfect.
He snuck over to the bushes he planned to use for cover. Each step seemed painfully slow, but he couldn’t draw Jody’s attention to him. It was more than the fact that he would go to jail if she got him. He didn’t want to hurt her. She would surely see this as a betrayal. Hell, he would. He didn’t know her when he started this whole thievery thing, but he doubted she would believe him.
He opened up his laptop and hit the code to shut down the security system. He took a deep breath. He had ten minutes at most to get to the safe and get clear of the house before the system went back on. He planned to be out in six minutes. He shot his grappling hook with the rope attached to it. His aim was perfect. He checked to make sure it was secured then he climbed up to the window.
“The security system just went down,” Linda said as she closed her laptop.
“Black Velvet is here. Let’s go.”
“It could be a glitch in the system.”
“Let’s go, Linda.” Jody got out of her car and started to walk around the side of the house, Linda was right behind her. Both had their guns drawn.
“Damn, this is a big house,” Linda said as they rounded the back.
“Shh,” Jody said.
As they turned the corner they saw a man clad in black climbing down a rope.
“Stop!” Jody yelled as she lifted her gun.
Hunter jumped down the rest of the way and dived into the bush. He grabbed his laptop and took off running.
“Stop or I will shoot!” Jody screamed as she gave chase.
Linda hurried back to the car and climbed in. “Damn it,” she muttered when she saw the keys were not in the ignition. It was not like Jody to do something like this. They always left the keys in the car, just in case one of them had to go back and get it to pursue the suspect. Linda got out of the car and ran toward the sound of Jody’s gun firing.
Jody fired two more shots in the air as she sank down to her knees in the middle of the road. She watched the man run off until she could no longer see him.
“Hunter,” she whispered as she started to cry.
“Jody, are you hurt? I heard gunshots.” Linda checked Jody for injuries.
“No, I’m not injured.”
“Then what were the gunshots. Did you shoot the thief?”
Jody lifted her gun up and fired another round in the air. “I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t shoot him.”
“I wouldn’t have shot a thief either.”
“We should have caught him.” Jody lifted the car keys up. “I knew it was going to be Hunter.”
“You don’t know that for sure.”
“The body, the way he moved … it was Hunter.”
“What do you want to do?”
“We should go to the Alcazar and bring him in for questioning. Hell, he might even have the stolen goods stashed in his room when we get there. But …”
“I will stand by whatever you want to do.”
“Call the station and tell them the suspect got away.”
“You are going to let him go?”
“I didn’t say that. I want to handle this without anyone else getting involved.”
“Okay.” Linda helped Jody to her feet and they headed back to the car. Jody sat there silently as Linda called the station. They went through the motions of going over the crime scene, contacting Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery, filling out the reports and explaining things to the captain. Since they were only supposed to patrol past Mrs. Montgomery’s house, the captain commended them for noticing the thief in the first place. Jody was pleased with this. She didn’t want to jeopardize Linda’s job.
When everything was over Jody went home. She felt numb. Did Hunter plan everything from the beginning? Did he feign affection for her hoping she would let him go if she caught him? Did it matter whether he did or didn’t? The fact of the matter was he was Black Velvet the thief.
Jody sorrowfully chuckled when she remembered what Linda said when she tried to get her to go to the Alcazar in the first place. “Maybe Black Velvet the dancer is also the thief?” Jody asked.
Yet, each time she wanted to harden her heart to him and do her job, she would see his smile in her mind. His smile was so genuine, no one could fake that.
Jody downloaded a song and placed it on a data strip, and then she wrote a note. She called a courier and arranged for the song and the note to be delivered to Hunter in the morning. That was that, there was nothing else to do until tomorrow night when she went to the Alcazar. She went to bed and fell into a fitful sleep.
Chapter Fourteen
Hunter woke up the next morning to someone pounding on his door.
“All right, alright … damn …” he rolled out of bed and put on his robe. “What the hell is it?”
“This came for you,” the guard said as she handed him the envelope. “A word to the wise, you better dance your ass off tonight. Melinda is in a real shitty mood and it won’t take much to get fired.”
“Thanks for telling me that.”
“No problem.”
Hunter closed the door and went to his small kitchen. The look on Jody’s face last night tore at him. She could have shot him. Hell, he thought for sure she and Linda were going to catch him. When he heard the shots he thought she had shot him. He saw her sink to her knees. She looked defeated. His heart still ached even thinking about that.
Did she know it was him? How could she? No … she couldn’t have known it was him.
He grabbed a cup of coffee. He sold all the jewelry last night to his buyer and made three million dollars. Zoltan and Dai could stop dancing now. He should be ecstatic, and yet he wasn’t. He couldn’t get that look on Jody’s face off his mind.
He opened the envelope. He saw the data strip and the letter. He opened up the letter and started reading.
Hunter,
I know you are Black Velvet, the thief. I could have caught you last night, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I might have enough evidence to prove this, but you may be able to prove otherwise. We both know that you and Adonis were at that house shortly before the robbery. And with Adonis’ record and his recent robbery of Melinda’s safe you could easily pin it on Adonis.
I want to know. I want you to tell me that you are the thief that I have been trying so hard to catch. I have enclosed a song on the data strip. If you did do these robberies and you want to tell me, you will dance to this song tonight. If you want to deny everything, dance to a different song. Either way I will know if you truly loved me or if you were just using me.
For the record … I do love you. That is why I didn’t just arrest you last night. I couldn’t … even if I wanted to.
Hunter set the letter down and placed the data strip into the player. The song was titled “Black Velvet.”
She told him in the letter that he could pin everything on Adonis. Why would she do that?
He sat there silently listening to the song. When it was over, he took the data strip out and just held it in his hand.
He did love her, he really did. As much as he didn’t want, as much as he never wanted to give someone his heart, he couldn’t stop himself. She made it too easy to love her. However, if he confessed, he would most certainly go to jail. But would Zoltan and Dai get caught up in all of this, would Allison and the children?
He had a lot to think about before tonight’s show. Either way he went he was going to lose something, his freedom or Jody.
“Damn Dad what should I do?” he whispered to himself.
* * * *
Jody and Linda walked into the Alcazar and took their seats. Linda didn’t want Jody to go alone, even though Jody tried to protest otherwise.
Jody watched dancer after dancer perform. She paid little attention to any of them. Even when Zoltan danced, she couldn’t focus. Her heart pounded in her chest, her stomach knotted up. She knew Hunter was coming out soon. Everything was riding on this one dance.
Black Velvet Page 11
