What I hadn’t realized until the moment it matteredmost, was the associate I’d entrusted to keep everything safe for me also hadsticky fingers. Sayer had lied about where he kept everything. He’d safeguardedhis own fortune by stealing mine.
When Francesca and I ran, I had cash, but none of thetruly valuable items that would have given us complete financial freedom. Andkept my name clear.
Now here they all were. These things were mine. All ofthem. I’d stolen them fair and square. And Sayer, the bastard that he was, hadnot only tracked me down and interrupted my peaceful existence, but he’d chosento flaunt all of my trophies as if they were his own.
I was going to murder him.
Okay, not really. But as long as he didn’t murder mefirst, I was going to get back every single thing of mine and rub his nose init. Then Juliet and I would be gone for good.
Chapter Twelve
“What do you think, Caro?” Gus asked, still grinninglike the foolish idiot he was.
I met his gaze and told him the truth. “I think you’reshowing off.”
“This is quite the impressive collection,” Jesse addedneutrally. He could sense the obvious tension in the room. But he was acivilian, a nice guy that only knew nice people. He could not fathom the badblood between us or the origin of the priceless items in the room.
Normal people didn’t automatically assume everythingsurrounding them was stolen. Or that the girl they had a crush on used to workfor the Russian mafia and had the reputation of being a high-class thief. Thatwas fantasy to the everyday person. Fiction.
Gus shrugged. “Honestly, I inherited most of it.”
I blinked at him, still shocked at his unabashedarrogance. “Is that so?”
“The lady everything originally belonged to up anddied.”
“She died?”
Gus held my gaze, “Well, she’s dead to me.”
I rolled my eyes and turned to Sayer, hopefullyappealing to a more levelheaded moron. He held his hands in the air and walkedfurther into the room. “We’re not here to pick a fight, Six. We’re hoping foryour opinion. We’re wondering how much this is all worth?”
The door clicked closed with a sort of ominousfinality at the same time I said, “I don’t know why you think I’d know theanswer to that question.”
The room went dark, and a red light came on over thedoor.
“What the hell?” Jesse asked.
“Oh, no,” Gus sighed, not sounding worried in theslightest. “Sayer, you forgot again.”
The previous dread flared through my belly. Holy shit,this was the moment! Goodbye, cruel world. “Forgot what?” I asked all eventones and false bravado.
“The security system,” Sayer explained, his voicesounding like it had been dragged across a gravel road. Now that his face wascast in shadow, I imagined a raging monster coming to life inside him. Amonstrous beast fueled by the love of his life disappearing, abandoning him toprison and crime and hell. “We’ve taken special measures to keep this roomsecured, but the door has been acting funny since we got the system installed.It keeps locking us inside.” He let a heavy pause settle over us. “The only wayto get out is for someone to open the door from the other side.”
I ground my teeth together to keep from screaming infrustration. “You’re kidding.”
Sayer’s face was cast in darkness, but I felt his gazecrawl all over my skin. “Afraid not.”
My mind spun, desperate for an exit. This was a recipefor disaster. If Gus and Sayer weren’t planning to murder us, then I didn’twant Jesse finding out any of my secrets. Fine, if we were being held atgunpoint or Sayer had handed us two shovels and ordered us to start digging ourgraves, I might have fessed up to Jesse. He would have a reason to know then.
But since Gus and Sayer had yet to start screwing ontheir silencers, I decided to spare Jesse the information that would likelylead to his later demise. Yes, it was dangerous for Juliet and me, but also forhim. If thebratvahad come back into my life, I needed to do whatever it took to save Jesse fromthat world. I needed to do for Jesse what I couldn’t do for Sayer all thoseyears ago.
“Call someone,” I ordered, pointing at the desk phone.“Call your hostess.”
“The line isn’t set up yet,” Gus answered.
Son of a bitch.I stormed over to a phone and picked it up. Sure, enough there was nothing butempty sound. I made a fool of myself crawling around on the floor, groping inthe darkness to test the jacks. Then I did it to the second phone. Nothing.
Kneeling in the middle of the office in my littleblack dress, I remembered my cell phone. I yanked open my clutch and pulled itout. No service.
