“Yes…yes!” She threw her head back and her hair fanned out behind her as she came. Her muscles pulsed and quivered, like her body wanted to bring me along with her, but I held on as she relaxed. She collapsed onto me.
My hands were still on her hips, and I raised and lowered her. “Take me,” she whispered in my ear. I started thrusting upward into her in time with her downward thrusts. She moaned and panted against my throat, urging me on, begging me to make her come again. Nothing else in the world existed except her and me and our bodies connected, working each other into a crazed frenzy. A wet slapping sound filled the room along with our cries as we both went over the edge again.
“So…amazing…” she whispered as she pulsed around me again. Her body shuddered on top of mine. And it was amazing. She was perfect for me.
Why did she have to be who she was?
Chapter Fifteen – Vienna
I woke up hours later when he got out of bed. He was always up before dawn. I guessed that was something that carried over from his days in the military—I was an early riser considering that I didn’t have a traditional day job, but I generally liked to wait until the sun rose before I got out of bed.
I stayed still so he would think I was still sleeping and didn’t roll over until the door closed quietly behind him. I ran my hand over his side of the bed. It was still warm. I pulled his pillow into my arms and snuggled against it. It smelled like him.
My eyes flew open. I was acting like a girl with a crush. Crap.
I didn’t have a crush on him. It just so happened that he was good in bed. Very good. And he was good to me, too. He waited until I came before he came, for one. I wondered if he knew how rare that was. Or maybe I had only ever slept with jerks. That was possible, too.
I couldn’t let myself fall into a trap just because we had slept together, and falling for him would definitely be a trap. If things worked out with the DA and the cops, I would leave in a heartbeat. I already had a plan in place. Rio was perfect at that time of year—warm enough to swim and go to the beach, but not sweltering. It would be the ideal place to disappear for a while until I figured out something a little more long-term. I just had to be sure I was clear and nobody would be looking for me.
Including Dylan. Only I had probably just made things more difficult for myself by sleeping with him.
Nah. He doesn’t care about me. I was just another girl, somebody for him to sleep with. Once I had a deal worked out and the client was under arrest, I could slip away and he could get back to his life. Because that’s what would happen otherwise. He would go back to work. He had a good job, something he was proud of. I would only stand in his way if I stuck around, anyway.
Stop thinking things like that! I realized I was pouting when I thought it, and a strange tight sensation built in my chest. It’s not him. It’s knowing that I will never have anybody good like him.
That was the truth, I guessed. Because I never would. He was special, a good man, honest and principled. I wouldn’t meet anybody like him who wanted to be with me once he knew what I used to do. Once I was in Rio, I wouldn’t steal anymore. I had more than a quarter of a million dollars spread over a half-dozen accounts and could live a comfortable life for years all around the world, where money went farther. Maybe somewhere in Central America.
It wouldn’t matter, though, even if I went straight for the rest of my life. I would always have to lie to the man I was with. He could never know I used to do. Nobody worth loving would love me.
How did my parents do it? I sure wished I could ask them, but I hadn’t seen either of them in years. I realized I had lost track. It was probably sometime around my twenty-first birthday, right after I pulled my first big job. Like they wanted to wait until they knew I’d be able to take care of myself before they left me. Then again, I could’ve been fooling myself into thinking they loved me more than they did.
They were lucky. They had found each other, somehow. I would have to settle for short-term hookups or else spend the rest of my life alone. Either way, it wasn’t what I really wanted. The worst part: It wouldn’t have bothered me if I hadn’t known him. I never knew a good, honest man before.
***
Ricardo unbuttoned his suit jacket and sat on the couch. “Can I get you something to drink?” I asked.
He chuckled. “You sound like you live here.”
“I sort of do, don’t I?”
“I guess that’s better than being miserable. I’m fine, thanks.” I sat in a chair with my feet drawn up under me, while Dylan stood in the center of the room with his arms crossed.
“What have you heard?” he asked, all business.
“For one thing, I’ve talked to a few friends in the DA’s office.” He turned to me. “The consensus is, you need to deliver. Big time. No empty promises, in other words.”
I nodded firmly. “Understood.”
“What does she have to do, exactly?”
“Bottom line: nobody signs an agreement clearing her of all charges until this client of hers is behind bars. And, of course, the jewels have to be delivered, too.”
I nodded thoughtfully. “Like I said, I’m happy to do anything they need. I have to have a promise, though. I need something in writing. I mean, Erich’s dead. This could be dangerous.”
“I can make that happen on my side, but you need to get your lawyer involved.”
“I’ll call him this morning.” I glanced at Dylan, whose face was motionless. What was he thinking? He was always going on about hating it when I didn’t share my plans with him. I would have to fill him in on what was worth sharing. He couldn’t exactly know about my plan to fly to Rio as soon as I was clear.
I wished I could be excited about the idea when I looked at him, but it wasn’t possible. I felt that same tightening in my chest that I had earlier in the morning.
I looked at Ricardo, instead. “Then what? What can we do to find this person?”
“We were hoping you could provide a little more insight. For example, did you know any of Erich’s friends? Did you have any contacts in common? Maybe they knew about a meeting he was scheduled to have with this mystery person.”
I barely bit back a smile. “I don’t know if Erich had any friends,” I admitted. “He was a lot like me, only worse when it came to personal connections.”
“Meaning what?”
“I don’t think people like us have friends in general. Acquaintances, maybe. Contacts, yes. But for instance, there’s not a single person from my personal life who knows I’m here. Not a single person has called me in over a week. That’s because I’m not close with anybody.” There went that tightening feeling again. Damn it, I liked my life the way it was. If I chose to go out and have fun, I had casual friends I could call up to hang out with. We had fun together, but that was where it ended. It was always enough for me before. I hated myself for suddenly feeling like a loser.
Ricardo pursed his lips. “That doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.”
“It’s always worked for me.” I shrugged and told myself it didn’t matter.
He didn’t believe me, I could tell. He had a very readable face. “Did he have more than one cell phone, do you know?”
That, I could answer. “Sure, he had at least two.”
“And you saw them yourself?”
I nodded. “Yeah, sometimes one or the other would buzz when we were meeting up and he would send a text or answer a quick call. He always carried two, maybe more. He never explained why—like, which phone was for which type of contact.”
“There was no phone with the body,” he explained. “And that’s what makes us think this was more than just a random accidental death or overdose. Someone took the time to take his phone.”
“Which means he was probably talking with the person who killed him,” Dylan muttered.
“Or there’s evidence they had scheduled a meet-up, yes. But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. We have a request in with his service provider for records
of all calls and texts.”
“You can do that?” I asked in surprise.
“Of course. This is saying his phones were in his name, which we’re hoping.”
“I didn’t know him to use another name,” I said. “He wasn’t that slick.”
“We’ll see.” He stood, re-buttoning his jacket. “Meanwhile, get on the phone with your lawyer. Let’s get this process started.” He smiled at me one more time before he left. Dylan saw him to the door. When he came back, he wasn’t smiling.
“You’re lucky he likes you the way he does,” he muttered. “Otherwise, you’d be screwed.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s willing to play ball because he likes you.” He sank down onto the couch. “I’ve seen him be a real hard ass with people he didn’t like.”
“I guess it pays to be nice.”
He looked me up and down, eyes narrowed. I figured out what he was thinking and rolled my eyes. “You’re wondering if I’m being nice to you so you’ll do something for me. Isn’t that right?”
He shrugged. “Do you blame me?”
“Yeah, I do. I thought we were past all that. I can’t help it that Ricardo wants to go to bat for me or whatever, but don’t forget it’s in his best interest, too. He’ll find out who wanted to pay for the robbery and who probably killed Erich. I’m not the only person getting something out of this.”
“Yeah, yeah.” He picked up the remote and turned on the TV. My blood started simmering.
“Hey.” I got up and stood in front of the TV. “I mean it. Don’t shut me out like that. I’m not using you.” I couldn’t believe the words were coming from my mouth, especially since I had started off with the express purpose of using him. Something had changed.
“I believe you.” Only he didn’t. He wouldn’t look at me.
“You don’t get to do this. You don’t get to shut me out after what happened last night. I understand if you don’t want to do it again because it’s unprofessional. But you don’t get to treat me like I’m nobody. That’s not fair.”
He looked up at me with a sigh. “You’re right. It’s not fair. I’m sorry.”
“I forgive you. I guess.”
He smirked. “Are you gonna get out of my way? Because there are zombies that needed killing.”
“Only if you let me play, too.”
“I guess.” He tossed me a controller, and I sat next to him. As long as he wanted to be friends, I would do anything. He was the last good man I would ever know, after all.
Chapter Sixteen – Dylan
It was like a summit on Monday morning at the police station. Pax was waiting for us in the conference room, along with Ricardo, the Assistant DA and Vienna’s lawyer. Marty looked a lot like I had imagined he would look—hell, he looked like any lawyer named Marty who was willing to represent a confessed cat burglar would look, right down to his pinky ring.
We shook hands, then took seats at the table. “I think we should get this moving,” Marty said. “I have another meeting in an hour.”
Vienna rolled her eyes. “Sorry to take up your time, Marty.”
“It’s okay, hon.” He patted her hand like he thought she was serious. Yeah, he was pretty much like I had imagined he would be. That wasn’t a compliment.
The ADA, a girl who looked young enough to have just graduated law school, slid a small stack of papers across the table. “This contract draws up what will be expected of your client in order to drop the charges against her.”
Vienna leaned over to skim over the contents along with her lawyer. “So I help you locate and capture the client. I hand over the jewels. You drop all charges and I’m a free woman.”
“That’s it, essentially.”
Vienna straightened up in her chair and stared down the ADA. “I don’t want to know what you’ll essentially do. I want to know what you will definitely do.”
“We will definitely drop all charges against you. You will be a free woman.”
“Thank you.” She nodded to Marty, who nodded in reply. I could only sit back one more time and be amazed at how tough she could be, especially when she was dealing with somebody who pretty much held her life in their hands. It didn’t seem to phase her one bit.
Vienna signed the contract, which had already been signed by the DA, then signed a second copy for herself. Marty slipped it into his briefcase, then shook the ADA’s hand. The two of them left together, murmuring something in legalese.
“Well. That was uneventful.” Ricardo looked around the table.
“I got what I needed. Now, what do you need from me?” Vienna folded her hands and leaned in.
“We got our hands-on records from two separate phones,” he explained. “Maybe you can help make sense of some of these messages.” He slid print-outs to her and she pored over them. I couldn’t make sense of them, either. But she seemed to understand.
“A lot of this is dealing with other jobs, potential jobs, and a few meet-ups with somebody who’s clearly providing him with junk.” She tapped her inner arm and shook her head. “He always swore he got clean. I never wanted to do business with a junkie.”
She put aside one set of records. “This looks like a personal phone,” she said. “The one he used to contact his dealer, that sort of thing.” She shuffled the other set of records. “This is the number he always contacted me from, so it’s probably the one he used for business. See? Here’s texts to and from my number.” She pointed them out to me. The last one from her requested a meeting, dated almost two weeks earlier.
“If that’s his business number, it looks like the last few texts were to the same number. They never say anything concrete,” Ricardo mused.
“No, and I don’t know their code. But the number eight is in here, which makes me think they had set up a meeting for eight o’clock.”
“So we think this is the person he set up the meeting with, then?” Pax looked from us to Ricardo.
“It could be.” He pulled a phone from the inside pocket of his jacket. “Here you go.”
“What’s this?” she asked. He slid it over and she caught it.
“This is a burner phone. You’ll use it to contact that number.”
It might have been my imagination, but it seemed like her skin paled a little. “Oh. Okay.”
“You all right with that?” Pax asked. “I mean, it’s part of your agreement.”
“No, no. Of course. I get it. It’s just, you know…one thing to talk about it, and another thing to do it. This is a dangerous person, whoever this is.”
“Fair enough.” Ricardo looked sympathetic. “But this is how it has to be.”
“We’ll keep you safe. It’s what we do.” Pax looked and sounded sympathetic, too.
“They killed your friend.” She turned and looked at me, then nodded.
“You’re right. He did.” She sounded stronger then. “What should I do? How do I reach out to this person?”
“Shoot them a text. Tell them you know Erich met with them, and that means they know what you have for them.”
She nodded at Ricardo’s instructions. “Right.”
“But don’t mention the jewels directly,” he added. “Let them mention what you’re holding. We have to make sure they are who we think they are.”
“Okay.” Her hands trembled just a little as she typed the phone number in, then typed out the message. I know who you are. You know what I have for you.She glanced at me and I nodded. She sent the message.
“And now we wait.” Ricardo sat back. “I don’t think they’ll keep you waiting long.”
Sure enough, the phone buzzed with an incoming message only a minute later. We all craned our necks to read it. It’s about time. When can I get what you owe me?
“Slow down,” Ricardo murmured. “We still don’t know if this is the right person.”
“How about ‘Tell me what it is I owe you first’?” she asked.
“Yeah. That works. We have to get confirmation.” So she type
d it in and sent the message over.
Something you thought was worth a hundred grand to locate.
She looked at us. “That was my fee.”
“So it looks like this might be our guy.” Ricardo couldn’t hide the excitement in his voice. “But tell him you don’t believe him. Ask exactly what it was you were supposed to locate.”
“Okay. Jeez, my blood pressure right now,” she laughed shakily. “I thought going through with a job was exciting.” She typed out the message and sent it.
Three pieces. A necklace, earrings, bracelet.
“That’s it. That’s what I took.” She held her head in her hands. “Wow. I can’t believe I’m doing this. I’ve never contacted a client before.”
“Relax.” I took a chance and rubbed her back, even with the guys in the room with us. She needed the comfort. “You’re in good hands here, you know? You’ve got Ricardo and his team, me and Pax. You’ve been to the office. You see we’re not screwing around.”
“That’s true.” She flashed me a smile. “Okay. So what do I say now?”
“Tell them you have what they want, and you’re willing to meet up as long as they guarantee you’ll get your fee.” She nodded and typed up what Ricardo told her to say.
That’s never been a problem. I have the money. I need to be sure you’re not jerking me around.
“I want to unload these pieces,” she muttered after reading the message aloud. “I have to skip town for a while and need the money.”
“Sounds good.” So she sent that, and passed around the phone so we could read the reply. Very good, Miss Worth. Meet me tomorrow, nine pm, by the carousel in Central Park.
“Fuck me to tears,” she muttered, and buried her head in her hands again. I had never heard her use that turn of phrase before. “He knows who I am. I knew he had to be the one who broke in. Bastard.”
“He’s not playing around,” Ricardo agreed tersely. “But neither are we. Don’t worry. We’ll get you out of this.”
***
“You don’t have to keep looking around,” I murmured from the driver’s seat.
Lewis Security Page 40
