High Stakes

by Fern Michaels

  This was no time to be thinking of flowers or his mother. He had to clear his mind and concentrate on Pilar Sanders. He had to take one more deep breath before he had to beard the lioness.

  The moment he had himself under control, Toby sauntered down the back hallway that led to the second floor and the dressing room for the dancers. When they were off duty, they hung in the break room. Across from the break room was a small office that Pilar used on occasion. That was where Toby headed. He rapped sharply on the door and waited. Instead of calling out for him to enter, Pilar opened the door herself and ushered him toward the one chair in front of a stylish chrome-and-glass desk.

  “I’m so glad you could make it, Toby, and you’re right on time, too. I asked you here because I have a very stunning, lucrative offer to make you. I hope you are as interested in it as I am,” Pilar said, getting right down to business.

  Toby waited, his stomach churning.

  “Where’s your ladylove?” Pilar asked as she rifled through papers on the glass-topped desk.

  “She’s waiting for her friends outside. They’re going to have dinner here and watch one show. I’m not sure of their plans after that.”

  Pilar nodded before she moved all the papers aside. Her hands clasped in front of her, she leaned forward to make eye contact with Toby, whose first thought was, She’s been crying. How he knew this, he didn’t know. He waited patiently.

  “In the past few days, I have been in touch with a man in Hong Kong who is in charge of some big hotel casino they are building. The owner also owns the Babylon Casino in Las Vegas. I had to do some research to make sure the man’s offer was legitimate. China is far away, as you well know. Anyway, one of the richest women in the world owns the casino in Las Vegas and the one being built in Hong Kong, which is due to open in December. Perhaps you’ve heard of Countess Anna de Silva. She’s the female version of Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, or that Saudi sheik who seems to own everything the other two don’t. I’m sure you’ve heard of her, since she lives only a little ways outside Washington, D.C.

  “Anyway, he has made me an offer to take my dancers to Hong Kong for the grand opening. At first they wanted only all the past Mr. Decembers, but I had to tell them that wasn’t possible. They are willing to accept all the club’s lead dancers, and you are the best of them all. A trip to China, Toby! Is that exciting or what? We haven’t finalized the monetary end of things, but it will be substantial. Count on it. Everything paid for, all expenses. Think of the travel, and all free. I am so excited, and so is my husband. Offers like this come along only once in a lifetime. Don’t you agree? Of course you do,” Pilar babbled.

  “Actually, Pilar, I’m not excited. I was looking forward to being Mr. December and the calendar. I told Mia all about it. How am I going to tell her that isn’t going to happen? I’ll look like a fool. I do not want to look like a fool.”

  Pilar froze in place. Whatever reaction she’d been expecting, this was not it. “Tell . . . tell her we’re revamping the clubs. I need you in Hong Kong, Toby. Gabe thinks we should shut down the Mr. December and the whole California deal and just keep Miami. We discussed having Carlie take over California, but she doesn’t have enough experience. She could, however, handle Miami, as it is not that demanding. The pressures for California are so far out of the box, it’s almost impossible to contain them.”

  “What are you saying, Pilar? Either I go to Hong Kong or I’m out of a job, and Mr. December and the calendar are down the drain? Did you forget about my contract?”

  “Of course I didn’t forget about the contract. We’ll honor it. Of course we will. You’ll be paid the fee we agreed on, but there won’t be a calendar. You can sue me over that if you want. This is a win-win for you, Toby, and the others, as well. The money is all clear money. I’ll see to that. A nice nest egg for you and your new girlfriend. A month, Toby, that’s all.”

  She’s nervous. She’s chewing her bottom lip. I bet if I asked for a raise right now, she’d give it to me. “I see that you’re excited, but the offer is not for me. I can’t see myself leaving the country. The whole world is in turmoil, as you well know. There are terrorists everywhere you go. People shoot down planes or put bombs on them. Sorry, but I prefer to stay here, safe and sound. Count me out. Besides, I don’t want to leave Mia for that long. My heart just wouldn’t be in it. As it is, I’m really pissed, and I don’t mind telling you how annoyed I am that the Mr. December gig is down the tubes. I was waiting for that strutting power. Hey, listen, it’s getting late and I have to change. Thanks for the offer, though.”

  “Toby, wait! Listen, talk to Mia about it. Maybe she would like to tag along. You said she’s rich, so she could pay her own way. She could take a semester off and gain some life experience. It’s China, Toby! This offer could put all you dancers and the Supper Club on the map. You’ll be able to name your own price. It doesn’t get any better than that.”

  She’s desperate. Her voice is cracking. Ha. “I’ll mention it to her, but don’t be surprised if she says no,” Toby called over his shoulder. He stopped in the doorway and turned around. “I’m not getting it. The other lead dancers are just as good as I am. I’m sure they’ll jump at the offer. You won’t even miss me.”

  Toby slammed the door shut and sprinted across the short hallway to the break room, then into the dressing room, ripping at his clothes as he went along. Did he pull it off? He wasn’t sure. Maybe, maybe not. Pilar Sanders was no fool.

  Something was up, and whatever it was, it wasn’t good. He could feel it right down to his toes. And then it hit him. He hadn’t seen anything on Pilar’s desk. No phone, and the iPad she was never without had been nowhere in sight. In her handbag? No. Both were always either in her hand, stuck on like with glue, or in one of her pockets. He couldn’t remember seeing a purse, either. Pilar always had a fancy designer purse hanging off her shoulder. That had to mean something, but what? He wished he knew more about women. Mia would probably know, and that guy Jack would know for sure. He had to find a way to send a text to Dennis between sets.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Tell me again why we’re doing this?” Ted Robinson grumbled as he slapped a huge metal magnet on the side of the Post van, which effectively transferred ownership from the Post to Martucci Heating & Air.

  “The Sanders woman has been inside for fifteen minutes. Toby just went in. So what is our game plan here, Maggie?” Espinosa said. “Do we just sit out here or what? Nothing is going on. Pure waste of manpower. We should go inside. Like Ted said, why are we here? And what’s our game plan?”

  Maggie looked at her colleagues as she waited for Dennis to weigh in. When he just rolled his eyes, she decided to speak. “It’s my gut. The hairs on the back of my neck are moving, and my right eye is twitching. Does that tell you anything?” she snapped.

  “Yeah, yeah. Settle down, guys. Maggie’s woman’s intuition is at work. Just remember, she’s never wrong,” Ted said, a sour note to his tone.

  “That is so sweet of you to say that, Ted. But then, it’s true, so it hardly counts. You can call it whatever you want, but I know something is going to happen right here. I know it. If you all weren’t so busy being pissy to me, you might have noticed that rickety pickup truck that pulled alongside Mia Grande’s dude magnet car. Ha! I got you all there. None of you saw that, right? Mia is sitting there, and Avery Snowden just pulled in. Shame this parking lot is so lit up.” The minute the words were out of Maggie’s mouth, six of the overhead halogen lights went out, one by one.

  “He shot them out!” Dennis blurted. “Did you see that? Avery must have used a sound suppressor. Wow, it’s really dark now. Just those four lights around the door. Well, there were four by the door, but now there is only one,” he continued as three more lights blew out. “Obviously, something is going down, and whatever it is, this darkness will mask it perfectly.”

  “I think we should exit this van, fan out, and be ready for whatever happens,” Maggie whispered. “Be very quiet
. Avery gets testy when anyone treads on his territory. I don’t think he realizes we’re here.”

  “Ah, like what? That guy Snowden can take care of himself. I’m thinking Mia can, too. What do you see us doing?” Dennis asked, his whispery voice sounding jittery.

  Maggie made a very unladylike sound deep in her throat. “For investigative reporters and one investigative photographer, you three are sure off your perch tonight. Did you not see those three men over by the Dumpster before the last light was shot out? Harrumph! It must be true that only women are observant. I’m not so sure it was Avery who shot out those lights. Ted, unscrew the overhead light in this van and be quiet when you get out. Remember, now, not a sound.”

  “Do you think those three men no one can see but you are going to do something to Avery and Mia? Like an ambush?” Dennis asked, his voice now a hissing whisper.

  “Avery and Mia were here first. At least Mia was. If the threesome are bad boys, they’re here for something else, probably Ms. Sanders or Toby. Right now, I imagine that Avery and Mia are trying to figure out what’s going on just the way we are,” Maggie said.

  Dennis was already tapping out a text to Avery Snowden, alerting him to a possible ambush. He ended the text with, We are three car lengths away, one aisle over from where you and Mia are. We are low to the ground. Advise.

  The return text was curt and succinct. Go home.

  “Like hell!” Maggie snarled under her breath. “Spread out. Oh, oh, hold on. Someone is coming out the door. Look. It’s Pilar Sanders!”

  The supper club owner was silhouetted in the backlight from inside the club. She stood for a moment, staring out into the darkness, before she turned around and walked back into the building.

  “She’s probably going for a flashlight,” Espinosa said just as the light over the back door to the supper club went dark. “Avery is on the move. He’s going for her car. I can see him. Mia is right behind him. I see two sets of legs. What the hell is he doing?”

  “My guess would be breaking into her car. You guys really are not observant. When the woman was standing in the doorway, she didn’t have anything in her hands, and there was no purse over her shoulder. She probably left them in the car. Avery wants them. I guess he thought this would be a better way than a snatch and grab,” Maggie said.

  Ted let loose with a ripe expletive. “Then he must be stupid, because the dome light will go on when he opens the door. Which brings me to my next question. How is he going to open the door without the alarm going off? Mercedes-Benz prides itself on its car security.”

  “I do not know this for a fact, but I would wager that no one at Mercedes-Benz knows Avery Snowden. I also know for a fact that Avery has one of those gizmos that shut down the car, and you just open the door. Just like that. Fergus told me about it once. And I also saw it in a documentary about car thieves. I guess you missed that, Ted,” Maggie sniped.

  “Where are the badasses?” Dennis whispered.

  “I can’t see them. They could be anywhere. At least we now know it wasn’t Avery who shot out the lights. Okay, Avery is in the car. I heard the door open,” Maggie said.

  “I didn’t hear anything,” Ted said.

  “You didn’t see anything, either, as I recall. I did, so that’s all that’s necessary,” Maggie snapped. “You all need to get with the program here. We’re supposed to be a team, so let’s start acting like one. Rule number one, be observant!”

  “Oh, oh, look toward the door. It’s opening. Sanders is on her way out, and she has a flashlight, one of those little pen things,” Dennis said.

  Maggie looked up and saw Pilar Sanders outlined in the light spilling from inside the supper club. The moment the door closed behind her, the only thing to be seen in the darkness was the small pinpoint of light pointing toward the ground. Maggie turned her head at a familiar sound. “Okay, everyone back up. I just heard the door close. That has to mean Avery got what he came for. Quiet now. Not a sound.”

  They all heard the shrill squeal at the same time and literally froze in place. Then they heard Pilar Sanders’s voice for the first time, and it was reedy, high pitched, and fearful sounding. “I don’t carry any money with me. There’s nothing of value in my car. Take the damn car. Just leave me alone! Here, take my earrings!”

  The voice that responded was a mix of Spanish and English, and it did not sound friendly. All the group could hear was, “No car, no earrings. You take this. Senor Delgado say you no do your advertising. He want to see tomorrow. Much advertising. You comprende?”

  When Pilar didn’t respond to the fearsome-sounding voice quick enough, they heard the sound of a slap, a hard sound, then Pilar’s scream. “You comprende, sí,” said the voice, and this was followed by a grunt of pain from Pilar.

  The group heard the sound of serious retching before Pilar managed, “Yes, I comprende.” Then they heard the sobs.

  Avery motioned for everyone to move back as far as they could, which they did, and they waited for Pilar Sanders to start up her car. No one spoke until her headlights vanished from the parking lot.

  “What the hell!” Ted said.

  “Never mind ‘What the hell?’ What do you think the four of you are doing? Why are you here?” Avery Snowden stormed.

  “We’re here because I had a feeling something was going to go down. We didn’t know you would be here, Avery. We’re reporters, damn good ones, or did you forget that? Therefore, this parking lot is fair game. This is what happens when all parties don’t share information,” Maggie said testily. “You go your way now, and we’ll go our way. But first, what did you get from her car? Don’t make me pull it out of you, either.” Menace rang in Maggie’s words.

  “Yeah, don’t make her pull it out of you,” Dennis said, backing up his colleague.

  “Everything I came for. Contents of phone and iPad. It’s all here. I’m heading out to the BOLO Building now, and it will be there for you all when you get there first thing in the morning. Go home now, and be damn glad you didn’t get your heads blown off. From here on in, you stick to what you do best and leave me to do what I do.”

  “Fine!” Ted snapped spitefully. “While you’re doing that, we’ll be talking to the only person who might know this Zuma Delgado person and what’s really going on. We’ll make sure we keep it all to ourselves. Screw you, Snowden, and the horse you rode in on. All we wanted to do was help.” With that off his chest, Ted ushered his colleagues back to the van, where Espinosa took the wheel. “The nerve of that guy! He thinks he’s some kind of prima donna.”

  Ted continued to seethe until a text message came through from his friend Zack, at which point he shoved all thoughts of Avery Snowden to the back of his mind.

  Ted fired off a return message. We’ll meet you in twenty minutes. Park in the underground lot at the Post. We’ll find you. We’re in a white van.

  * * *

  Pilar raced down the road at eighty miles an hour, not caring if a cop or trooper pulled her over. Right now, right this second, she knew she would be dumb enough to try to outrun the officer as she tried to put as much distance between herself and the scary-looking threesome who had attacked her in the parking lot.

  She wanted to reach for her cell phone to call her husband, but she needed both hands on the wheel the way she was speeding. Her destination was Supper Club Six, where she was to meet up with Gabe.

  Eight minutes later, Pilar roared into the parking lot and skidded to a stop directly in front of the rear entrance. She shifted into PARK, then closed her eyes and leaned back against the headrest. Her heart was still beating so fast that she thought it would leap right out of her chest. She was twitching from head to toe. There was no way her legs would let her move so she could enter the club. Gabe would have to come to her. She pried her hands from the steering wheel and leaned down to pick her purse up off the floor, where she’d left it when she arrived at Supper Club One.

  It wasn’t where she remembered putting it. And her cell wasn’t in the i
nside pocket, where she usually dropped it, but on the bottom of her bag. Her heart started to thump even harder when she realized her remote had not unlocked the car door. She distinctly remembered not hearing the distinctive chirp, but she’d been in such a panic, she hadn’t paid attention at the time. She reached up and turned on the dome light as she pawed through the Chanel handbag. Phone was there; wallet still there. She counted the money. Nothing missing. Credit cards all in their respective slots. And yet she knew someone had been in her car. She quickly typed a text to her husband. She powered down and sat statue still until her husband climbed into the car five minutes later.

  Gabe saw it all at a glance, the panic, the tears, the trembling body of his wife as she reached out to him. He leaned over and grabbed her shoulders. “Tell me what happened. Take deep breaths, Pilar. You know what to do. You’re safe. Do you hear me? You are safe.” His voice was soothing, even though he suddenly felt as fearful as his wife looked. “You need to calm down, or I can’t help you. Better yet, get out of the car, and I’ll drive. I’m taking you home.”

  “Yes, yes, home. I want to go home, Gabe. Maybe we should take a taxi. They know this car now. We have to get another one. Sell this one. I never really liked it, anyway. Mercedes-Benz cars are overly touted. Tomorrow,” Pilar babbled as she climbed out of the car, not knowing if her husband could hear her or not.

  “I’m going to park this car, and we’ll go home in mine. We can pick this one up tomorrow. Trust me, Pilar, a taxi is not a good idea.”