“Get the two of us a flight to Vegas, you mean.”
“Three,” Sager cut in. “Make it three seats.”
“But this is gonna be dangerous. And Bluebelle needs you.”
“I’m going, mi hermano. She knows how it is. Fact is I need her more than she needs me most times. If she were here she would be using Siri to book the seats for the three of us herself.”
I nodded succinctly. I couldn’t speak. Brothers back to back again.
Sager’s eyes were bright. I could tell he was processing a similar emotion. “We’ll lose time in the air. No way around that.”
Translation. You gotta keep it together, Juaquin. Three hours she would be with him. He could do a lot of bad things to her in that amount of time. But I couldn’t think like that. Thoughts like that blanketed my mind in red. I had to focus on her to keep the beast at bay. On the calm she brought me. I had to get her back. And getting her back would take all of us and all of our wits and resources. “Call Timmons,” I told my brother. “Get her working any connections she has. We’re going to need all the help we can get.”
“I’ll call Justin Jones. The FBI and Homeland Security have been grilling him about Joe Campanella for months. Maybe they can do something, get local law enforcement to take quicker action than we can manage on our own.” It didn’t feel like it right now, but having that connection might very well make a difference.
“Addy,” I turned my gaze to Footit’s owner. I had felt her listening all along. “Do you have your car parked here? Can you take us to the airport?”
“Hell, yeah. Already ahead of you.” She held her keys up in the air. “I hope you have your ID’s for security. I’m ready to roll.”
* * *
Miriam
“Jasmine,” Campanella barked after unlocking and opening the door to his office. “What the hell are you doing in here?”
“Nothing,” she replied, looking guilty in addition to being terrified.
“Really?” He didn’t believe her. I didn’t believe her. “Then why were you just on my computer?”
“I…uh…” She fluttered one of her hands nervously, but I noticed her slide a thumb to press something very small deeper into her front jean pocket. “Miriam!” she exclaimed, spying me out in the hall. “You’re back early from Seattle.”
“Get the girl in here and out of the hall.” Campanella waved at the guards to bring me in. It being after hours, his secretary had gone. We had not seen anyone in the narrow corridor we had taken directly from the parking garage, but I supposed he wanted to be cautious. It would probably be awkward though not impossible to explain the restraints they had put on me before we had exited the limo.
“What’s going on Daddy? Why’s Miriam wearing handcuffs?”
I shuffled in between the guards. I didn’t speak. I watched and waited. I didn’t know how this was going to go down with her in his office. But one thing I knew for sure. Jazz would help me if she could. Just her unexpected presence might buy me time and throw a kink in her father’s devious plan.
“That’s not really any of your concern. I believe I made myself clear when we had our discussion about the side of my business you stumbled upon a few weeks ago. This is a similar matter. You know what Miriam does for a living, so you shouldn’t be surprised that she has agreed to do an adult only film for me. Her duties with you have ended.”
“Really?” Her eyes widening, Jazz glanced at me for confirmation.
I nodded.
“Oh. Well, I guess that other probably pays pretty well.” She inched toward the door slowly.
“Jasmine?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
“What’s that in your pocket?”
“Oh, crap. I’m sorry, Daddy.” She withdrew a USB drive. “I got another bad grade in math. The teacher sent you a bunch of extra homework for me. I downloaded it. I was going to take it to one of the smart kids in class to try to get him to do it for me.”
“Oh.” His brows rose. “That’s dishonest, you know.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” She placed the drive on his desk.
“Quite devious, too.”
She hung her head.
“But I applaud the initiative you took to rectify the situation.”
“Truly?” She lifted her head.
“Yes. But I don’t like you entering my office without permission. So your punishment will be finishing that work yourself.” He pointed with his gaze, and she retrieved the drive. “All of it. I want it done tonight.”
“Fuck. I mean fine.”
“And Jasmine,” he called as she headed toward the door.
“Yeah?” She stopped and turned back to face him.
“You should know that I have cameras in here like everywhere else. I trust you only so much. I will verify. And if I ever find you in here again without an invitation, I won’t be so understanding.”
* * *
King
“Mike. Hey. Thank God you answered your cell. Listen. I’ve got bad news. Sager, Bryan and I, we’re on a plane getting ready to take off for Vegas. Miriam’s in trouble. Can you pick us up at the airport?”
“So you know.”
“I know that Campanella has her against her will. Is that what you mean?”
“Yeah.”
“How did you come by that information?”
“At the airport. Campanella’s goons held me off when they grabbed her.”
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah, just a little banged up is all. I ditched one of his lackeys, but the other one and I went mano a mano. I messed him up pretty good. They took him to the ER and me down to the police station. I just got released. They say I’ll have no problem claiming self-defense considering he was packing heat, and I was unarmed. They’re sending a couple of officers to the Tropicana to investigate, but I’m not hopeful they’ll find anything to corroborate my claims about Miriam. Campanella’s not going to be parading her around, and they don’t have enough evidence to get a search warrant. It’s just my concerns against whatever lie he chooses to tell them.
“In other words, a waste of time.”
“Yeah. What’s your plan? I’m scared to death for her.”
I was, too, but I didn’t say that out loud. Failure was a nonstarter. I would get her out. “We’ll figure it out by the time we get there.”
“That doesn’t sound promising. No offense to you guys, but this is the mafia we’re talking about on their own turf.”
I heard a drop in volume on his end of the line.
“Fuck. I’ve got another incoming call from Frank MacKenzie. Her ex-boyfriend’s been ringing in nonstop. He can wait.”
“No, go ahead and take the call. I gotta get my phone turned off or the flight attendant’s gonna kick me off the plane.” They hadn’t been exactly welcoming after recognizing me from the Mile High video. Apparently they took that stuff pretty seriously. I didn’t really care how they felt about me so long as I got to Vegas. Timmons had gotten all three of us bumped up from coach to first class.
“Faster to get off the plane once it arrives,” she had insisted when I had protested. Felt wrong to sit comfortably while not knowing what Miriam might be enduring.
“Ok,” Mike allowed. “But one more thing before I let you go. We all know Campanella’s gonna be waiting for you. So when you deplane, don’t go to baggage claim like she did. Use the VIP exit. I’ll find out where it lets out, and I’ll meet you there with a friend’s car. Hopefully, his thugs won’t recognize it or think to search for you anyplace beyond the usual areas.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Miriam
I could close my eyes, but I couldn’t pretend. This was real. It was going to happen. And it was going to happen to me. I couldn’t stop it.
I glanced around the space made up to look like the regular Tropicana rooms upstairs. But this one was different. A dresser with no knickknacks on top of it and nothing in the drawers. A minibar with no contents in the fridge.
An easy chair in the corner but no window or view behind it. No additional avenue of escape beyond the locked door that I had been brought through and nothing around that I could use as a weapon.
They would return shortly. Not that anyone had said anything since Campanella’s office, but I knew. So I didn’t sleep. I didn’t close my eyes. Hours passed, but I had no way to mark them other than the strain of tension in my limbs. My thoughts were scattered but circled around the things that mattered most in life, the ones I loved and regrets involving them. Instead of lashing out at my mother or my brother, I wished I had told them the things I appreciated about them. I wished I had leveled with my sister. She was so smart she might have foreseen the trap Campanella had laid for me when I hadn’t. And Juaquin. I wished I’d had more of his smiles. More of his touch. More of everything with him.
Time crept on.
I tried to stay awake, but I only grew more and more weary.
More and more emotional.
And more and more afraid.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
King
I turned my cell on as soon as the wheels of the plane touched the runway. It lit up with a barrage of missed messages. Before I had a moment to start sorting through them, my cell rang.
“Mike, hey.” My screen had identified him. “We just landed.”
“Not Mike, Mr. Acenado. It’s Frank MacKenzie. Mike’s here right beside me receiving medical attention. I insisted on him coming to the hospital to get his nose reset and those busted ribs of his wrapped.”
“Frank, as in, Miriam’s ex-boyfriend?”
“Yes and no. Frank MacKenzie is my name, but I’m not a building contractor like she thinks I am. I work for the government, Homeland Security Investigations specifically. I’m a special agent for HSI. I’ve been undercover investigating Vincenzo Campanella for child trafficking and pornography. But explaining everything would be complicated. Let’s just say Miriam was our chance to get close to his daughter without raising suspicion.”
“Jasmine.
“Yes. She’s a brave little girl with a strong sense of justice. Surprising given who her father is. I credit Miriam. I think her influence has made a world of difference for Jasmine. And as for Miriam, I’ll tell you upfront that I’ve wanted her to be mine for real since I took on this investigation. Mike here tells me that’s no longer an option. Says her heart belongs to you.”
Maybe it did. Her actions said it did. But right now I couldn’t wrap my brain around anything else beyond the priority of getting her back.
“Anyway, the important thing is we know Campanella is holding her. The FBI alerted us to what’s going on through Justin Jones, a mutual acquaintance. I made the decision to move in while you were airborne. We have an arrest warrant. We have the personnel I need. We’ve also got access to his security system. We’re going to get Miriam out of there safely, I promise.”
“I want to be there.”
“I can’t let you. You could jeopardize the operation. It’s highly irregular.”
“I won’t jeopardize jack. I want the same thing, to get her out of there as soon as possible. I won’t interfere. But I want to be as close as I can be when you bring her out.” No if we got her out. I wasn’t allowing for that possibility. “She would want me there.”
“Yes, I believe she would.” He sighed. “Alright. But you have to do strictly as I say.”
“Bueno.” Nothing good about the situation, but he had agreed, and I wanted to get started. I wanted to claw the seatbelt off my lap, throw open the airplane door and drop to the tarmac to facilitate that happening faster. We were going to get her. Hands curled into fists, I stared out the window willing myself to be patient though I was certain I could run faster than the damn plane was taxiing. “Her brother,” I remembered. It was difficult to focus. “He comes, too.”
“Fine.”
“And my brother.”
“Anyone else? The rest of the band, perhaps?”
“No. They’re not here. Just us three.”
“Good. You’ll need to keep everything I’ve told you confidential. The fewer that know the better our chance for success.”
I got that. We hadn’t even told my family or hers what was going on. “Where should we meet you?”
“I’ll be waiting at the gate when you deplane. I think you’ll recognize me.”
I did recognize him, though I looked at him differently after he flashed us his HSI badge. He took us to an office in an unmarked SUV. One of many businesses within a strip mall, it was pretty nondescript except for having Homeland Security Investigations etched on the glass door.
Inside there were rows of desks along with about a dozen individuals who were either on the phone or engrossed with whatever their computer monitors displayed. Not a single one wore a uniform which was fortunate. It would have made them seem more like cops with whom I had a sketchy history.
“Mac.” A fit man in his mid-forties approached us. “Glad you’re back.” He gave Frank a chin lift, then turned his attention to us. “Jeff Fox. Special Agent in Charge.” He grazed a brief, but somehow thorough, glance over me and my bandmates. “Any difficulties?”
“No.”
“Any new developments?”
“None.”
“We got your informant out.”
“Good.” Frank aka Mac looked tremendously relieved by that piece of information.
“She got us the access codes we needed and overrides to all the cameras before she left.”
“Bless her.”
“I have no doubt he suspects her. Her future is totally up in the air if we don’t succeed. We need to move quickly.” Jeff honed his gaze on me. It was no longer observant. He was worried it might already be too late for Miriam. Every muscle in my body locked tight.
“Miriam Jackson is the wildcard. Could throw a wrench in everything if you let your emotions rule you.” He put a hand on Frank’s shoulder. “You have to set your feelings for her to the side. Think logically. No distractions.”
Frank nodded once. “Have you narrowed down where he has her?”
“Somewhere on the lower levels. A section that can only be accessed from the hallway outside his office. Where we know he has the others. We’ve got a computer forensic analysis agent on it.”
“Only one?” He frowned.
“Yeah. The rest are working on getting us key card access to every single other nook and cranny of the place.”
“We got a trace on his personal cell yet?”
“Negative.”
“Can’t proceed with the breach until we have it. I need to know where he is so I don’t put her or the others at any more risk than they already are.” Frank scrubbed a hand over his face before peering at his superior. “You’re not telling me what I want to hear, Fox.”
“SRT is ready to roll the minute we have all those things.”
“Flash bangs? Chain cutters? Breaching rams? Everything on my list?”
“Yeah. Everything you wanted the Special Response Team to have.”
“Except full access to the Tropicana. Except confirmation of her exact location,” Frank complained.
“Got it! All rooms! All cameras!” A thin agent wearing glasses at a nearby desk whooped loudly and brandished a celebratory fist in the air.
“Alright, everyone. This is it.” Fox turned to address the room. “We have our op plan. Victim’s coordinators are on standby at the scene. A Public Affairs Officer is prepared to make a statement to the press once we’re through. Let’s do this. We finally got the bastard where we want him. Let’s roll.”
Chapter Forty
Miriam
I bolted awake at the sound of the opening door. Two goons came in, different ones with colder faces and meaner eyes. I tried to moisten my lips, but my mouth was too dry. It had been too long since I’d had water.
They avoided eye contact as they went to work setting up an industrial grade movie camera. Others were concealed inside the room, I had no doubt.
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I warily watched them, a million scenarios running through my brain. None of them good. Still, I remained on the floor with my back to the corner, awaiting my chance.
Lights on tripods went up next. They trained them and the camera on one area. The bed. I avoided looking at it, my gaze skittering over it as quickly as my thoughts did.
The door hinge creaked, a pitiable sound that frayed my nerves. The guards had left the door ajar. For the moment both of them had their backs to me. I saw my shot, and I took it, bursting from the corner in a full out sprint. My vision tunneled and my heart slammed around inside my chest as I ran toward that narrow slice of freedom.
Get to the hallway, I told myself, but I didn’t make it. Not even close. I realized then that they had only been baiting me.
They joked about how easily they had caught me as others entered the room. They formed a circle around me, stripped my clothes, taunted me.
The first open palmed slap came without warning, knocking me to the ground. My cheek blazing, I cursed and managed to regain my feet. And then another hit me. And another.
Chapter Forty-One
King
They put us inside an unmarked van full of surveillance equipment and federal agents parked right outside the main entrance, so close I could have almost hit the hotel marquee with a rock, but the headset wearing analysts were still having trouble patching into the security system. Voices that had been loud and boisterous with preoperational adrenaline became hushed and anxious. I caught snippets of whispered conversations. Speculation about a delay. I was just about ready to throw open the door and storm the place on my own. Bryan, Sager and I exchanging glances that said they were with me if I did. Suddenly the security camera feeds flickered, pictures replacing the previous static on the screens.
Scandalous Beat (The Tempest Rock Star series Book 6) Page 22
