I hide my surprise at his admission. I suspected this and am glad to finally have some confirmation. “This is going to sound random, but if I just so happened to be looking for a guy named Tito from Whiskey Rivers, would you know how I could find him?”
Might as well keep going if he’s so willing to talk.
He gives me a curious look. “Man, Tito been gone a hot minute. He stole a bunch of money from some folks at The Buckit Club and skipped town over a year ago. Hadn’t been heard from since. Why?”
“I want to have a little chat with him.”The same chat I’m going to have with you before long.
“Well, I ain’t sure what to tell you, my guy. Like I said, he been gone. So when is my court date?” He runs his hands through his greasy hair, making me cringe. Who knows when the last time he showered was.
“I tell you what, Kaleb, I’ll ask for a six-month extension on the court date, and if you can stay clean and give me information about Madam LaBell, I’ll have a chat with the judge and see if I can get the charges dropped before it even goes to court.” If I can get the information from him, it might not even be necessary to send the girl in.
“You’d do that for me man?” he says hopefully. He just doesn’t know how far I’m willing to go to bring them all down.
“Yes. I’m very busy with high profile cases and this is just minor stuff. Shouldn’t be an issue to have it taken care of, but if you fail to give me the information I need, I’ll revoke that favor and you’ll rot in jail.”
He gulps and squirms in his chair. Good. I hope I make him nervous.
“I’ll get it, I promise. You ain’t gotta worry. Thank you so much, man, I owe you big.” There are specks of who knows what on the chair he was sitting on when he gets up to leave.
I send a text to Judge Vernon, the justice court judge, telling him that I need a six-month extension on the Kaleb Cherry case. He sends a quick “done” reply back.
My office is going to need to be cleaned again.
Sasha is waiting for me by the VIP parking area, dressed in a slinky silver dress and platform heels. She looks like a walking felony but my desire for her is long gone. I take her arm in mine and swipe my card for access to the top level of the Diamond Aces Casino where Sapphire is located.
When we get to Vade’s private lounge, he’s sitting in a booth with a cigar hanging out of his mouth. Neither Marcus, Ethan, nor the girl are here yet. I check my phone and see a text from Ethan.
7:06 p.m. - Be there soon. Someone kept refusing to leave the house dressed like she is and insisted on changing.
My curiosity piques. I wonder what she picked out to wear that she didn’t want to leave the house in. I’m sure whatever Emma helped her with will suffice, unless it’s jeans and a T-shirt.
Marcus arrives shortly after me, taking the seat to my right. The waitress comes by with our first round of drinks. By the time we are on our second one, Sasha won’t get off my coat and my annoyance starts to flare. It’s 7:45 p.m., where the hell are Ethan and the girl? I’m ready to get this meeting started.
I pick up my phone to call Ethan.
“Goddamn, is that who I’m giving undercover operations and self-defense lessons to?” Marcus’ voice causes me to look his way instead. I follow his line of sight, and my eyes nearly bug out of my head at the sight of the girl walking in the lounge on Ethan’s arm.
She’s wearing a short red minidress with matching red lipstick and high heels laced all the way up her toned calves. She’s got her hair pulled up with curled tendrils hanging down,the smooth curves of her neck and shoulders on full display. My cock twitches, giving her a hypothetical round of applause.
I make a mental note to thank Emma later for making sure she was dressed to impress—because I am very impressed and that’s something that doesn’t happen often. By the look of things, I’m not the only one. Vade and Marcus are both gaping at her. If I didn’t need them, I’d kill them…or at least take an eye.
Ethan leans over and whispers something in her ear, putting her beautiful smile on full display, and suddenly I want to punch his lights out. Her eyes lock on mine for a brief moment but quickly turn to Ethan who leads her over to our table, both of her hands holding one of his, keeping her from anxiously picking at her fingers.
The men at the table, myself included, stand to greet her as she takes the seat Ethan holds out for her. Sasha stays seated, eyeing her carefully, but doesn’t say anything. The girl smiles as Ethan introduces her to everyone but doesn’t look my way.
That shouldn’t get under my skin as much as it does. Marcus and Sasha are the only two who don’t know her true identity. Marcus seems thrilled to meet her. Sasha not so much, even though she thinks the girl’s my niece.
“What would you like to drink, Emily?” The fake name I gave her tastes sour coming off my tongue.
She takes a seat and gently slides one leg up the other, careful not to spread her legs as she crosses them. It’s such a sensual move, I can’t help but give her a wicked grin when she looks my way. She quickly looks away—again. What the fuck?
“I’ll have a margarita, please.” The waitress takes her order and walks off. The girl goes back to looking everywhere but my way. I grit my teeth, trying to keep my composure.
After everyone has their drinks, I go over the plan. From Sasha’s role in training the girl to dance and be alluring to men, Marcus’ role in undercover and self-defense training, to Ethan’s roll in surveillance. Vade and I will be there to supervise and make sure everything goes as planned.
Vade, Ethan, and I are currently the only ones aware of Kaleb Cherry’s involvement and have decided to continue with the girl’s training in case he turns out to be an unreliable source. I’m hoping that’s not going to be the case because none of us want to send her in.
Everyone seems to understand their part, and to my surprise, the girl doesn’t ask any questions. Whether she’s surprised, or nervous, I can’t tell. I’ll go back over everything with her later—one-on-one. She must have questions and concerns that she doesn’t want to discuss in front of people she doesn’t know, which is understandable. She best believe I will ask her why she’s ignoring me.
