Chapter 13
Cap left to do his job. Acer drummed away at his keyboard, researching the Internet like only he could for the information they needed. The sun tilted toward the afternoon in the sky. Dane got on the phone to his go-to assistant, junior detective Ronnie Ryan. The kid answered on the first ring.
After Ronnie delivered the envelope with the notorious picture of Del and Beaumont to Nate Beaumont’s yacht, where he would hand it off only to Beau himself, Dane would wait an hour to make his call.
He watched Ronnie through his binoculars from a few boats away, smiling at the ridiculous disguise the kid wore.
No one would believe that goatee was real.
He wasted no time getting back to the beach shack to make his call.
With Shana watching him, Dane hung up from speaking with Beaumont.
Beau had mostly been impressed with the fact that Dane had his cell number.
Apparently, no one else did. Dane had told him he got it from Del.
When Beaumont told Del about the call, as he inevitably would, Del would figure Dane got the number from Harvey, or Harvey’s papers.
In reality they had a cyber security hacker named Acer up their sleeve.
“Beaumont agreed to meet us on board the yacht tomorrow night at 8 p.m.”
Dane wanted to make sure it was dark. He figured it played into Beau’s suspicion that they might need to do the kinds of things that were best done under cover of darkness.
Shana’s expression didn’t change. She was in her fierce warrior princess mode. Dane took deep steady breaths and tried to Zen himself out of the havoc this caused with his libido. As if she’d read his mind, Shana turned and walked down the hall.
“I’m taking a shower,” she said over her shoulder. It comforted him to know he wasn’t the only oversexed person in their relationship.
While they waited for their appointment, Acer and Cap did some homework and found that Beaumont’s security team consisted of two men.
Plus, he had a woman on board. It was unclear whether the woman would be there for their meeting, but Dane was fairly certain Beaumont wouldn’t be calling in outside security for the meeting due to the sensitive subject matter.
The only wild card was whether or not Pratt went with him. Dane would assume, for the sake of planning for the worst-case scenario, that Pratt was one of his men. This wasn’t far-fetched since they assumed Del was with Beaumont and Pratt was clearly with Del.
Dane looked up when Shana joined them in the living room office, fresh from her shower and wearing a white T-shirt and short-shorts with heeled sandals. He licked his lips, inside his head. On the surface, he remained calm. Or most of him did.
*****
“What’s the plan?” Shana felt her teeth tingle with the edge of nerves.
“Acer and I are going to Beaumont’s yacht tomorrow.”
“Hell no. You are not freezing me out of this setup. Acer is good at lots of things, but I’m better in a close fight.” It was a point of pride with her.
“I hate to admit it,” Acer said, “But she could be right. I might be rusty. I say the more, the merrier.”
“There ain’t nothin’ gonna be merry about this outing,” Dane said.
He stared her down, but Shana was ready.
Even his super-duper glacial look wasn’t going to sway her.
She lifted her chin and slung her hands onto her hips, then stepped her right foot with its pink-painted nails and strappy white sandal eighteen inches apart from her left.
The power stance never failed to work its magic, lifting her attitude from bold to ballsy.
Never failed to have its effect on Dane either.
The effect wasn’t intimidation, though. It was more like turned-on distraction. But she’d take it.
Dane’s phone buzzed. He slipped it from his pocket and flicked a glance at the screen.
“Shit.”
It was Bill Gable calling him. Not a good sign.
“I need to meet with you.”
Dane heard desperation in his voice and, even after accounting for the man’s melodramatic nature, he knew it was real.
“Okay. One hour. State beach. On the pier where the tiger shark scene from Jaws was shot. Where two men thought they had Jaws, but they didn’t.” Since Gable was in the film business, Dane knew he’d know the scene and the spot.
“How apropos.”
“Don’t get yourself followed.” Dane ended the call.
Shana gave him a skeptical raise of one brow.
“You do realize that Del is going to follow him. Or someone will—maybe his trusty pretend deputy.”
“Yes, I do realize that.”
“Maybe we should meet him someplace more conventional.”
“And ruin all the fun?”
“We don’t want to blow tomorrow’s operation with Beaumont.”
“Seriously. Del will know about tomorrow’s meeting.
If he follows Gable to the beach, there’s no way he’ll be able to get close enough to overhear without giving away his position.
I’m betting he’s not ready to do that. He wants Beau to do the dirty work for him and he wants to make sure it gets done. ”
“I’ll be carrying,” she said.
“Who said you were coming to the meeting?”
“I’m your partner. Someone needs to look out for you.”
“I’m only agreeing because it’ll take two of us to keep Gable from getting himself killed. He’s wired to the point of panic and I think you’ll be able to calm him.”
She rolled her eyes. He smiled.
“Seriously. I would end up shooting him if left on my own to deal with him.”
“I believe you.” She went to the kitchen drawer and took out her gun. The sight never failed to stir a twinge of excitement in him, but that would need to wait.
Dane drove the Jeep to a spot almost a half a mile short of their destination and they walked the rest of the way along the beach like an ordinary couple out for a romantic moonlight stroll.
“Do you wish we were out here to enjoy the ocean and the stars?” he asked her.
“I’m good at multitasking,” she said. He snorted his agreement. She elbowed him in the ribs.
He caught her up in his arms and grabbed a fistful of luxurious golden hair, then whispered close to her ear.
“When we get back to the shack, I’m sending Acer out because I don’t want to worry about him hearing you scream in the throes of ecstasy.”
He felt her shudder and kissed the impossibly tender spot behind her ear.
After a blinding moment of longing, she pulled away and he let her go.
She ran the rest of the way to the pier and he followed.
He would always follow. The knowledge didn’t calm him, it spread a coil of tension from his gut to his chest. The tightness lodged there until it was impossible for him to run even at a slow trot.
He caught up to her at the end of the pier where Bill Gable stood vibrating with excitement and fear.
“I overheard Del talking to someone. He was outside on the terrace under my bedroom balcony. Don’t worry—he didn’t see me.”
“What did you hear?”
“He was talking to Nate Beaumont. I don’t know what was said precisely, but I’m pretty sure you’re in grave danger, Dane.
He said your name and associated some pretty foul language with it.
And said something about disappearing.” Gable was shaking and Shana knew it wasn’t because of the cool sea breeze.
She put a hand on his shoulder to calm him.
Dane said, “You do know what I do for a living, don’t you?”
Gable shook his head and waved his hands around. “But you don’t understand. This was a real, direct threat. He’s a very serious guy, this Nate Beaumont, a mean, vicious bastard. I hear he’s smart and calculating and knows his business ABCs too.”
“Bill, we appreciate your concern, but we know the risks. We’re professionals. We can handle it.”
“I know you can, but I thought I should warn you. Let you know you were right about this guy Del.”
“Good to know,” Shana said. She didn’t roll her eyes.
“Let’s get out of here,” Dane said. “We’re going to the Lucky Parrot for a drink and you’re buying.”
“Good. I could use a drink.”
“Why are we going out?” Shana asked.
“I’ll bet you…” Too many obscene things flashed through his mind about what he wanted to bet Shana, but he spared her the embarrassment of mentioning them in front of Bill.
“Bet me what?” She lifted her chin and he saw the edgy understanding in her eyes.
He lowered his voice. “I’ll bet you Penny’s new and improved fee that Del had Gable followed here tonight.”
Gable looked around like he was expecting to find a ghost.
“I’m driving,” Dane said to Gable. The man handed over his keys as they approached his silver Land Rover.
“You sure you can handle this, Dane?” Shana got into the passenger side, leaving Gable to sit in the back seat. He didn’t seem to mind. Dane figured he was too scared to complain.
“It has more than a speedometer and a radio on the dashboard. All the fancy controls might confuse you.”
He figured she was only half kidding. But he’d driven fancier cars than this. He owned a Jag, didn’t he? Albeit the Jag was kept in storage ninety percent of the time. He pressed the button to start the car and pulled away from the curb without incident.
“Shana, keep an eye out for Delbert or Pratt or someone else following us. Now that we got Nate Beaumont into this game, who knows who he might bring in?”
She saluted him and alternated her eyes between the rearview and side mirrors.
“What do you want me to do?” Gable said from the middle of the back seat as if he couldn’t choose sides between him and Shana.
Dane stopped himself from saying the first thing that came to mind and said instead, “You can tell me everything you know about this character Beaumont.”
“What makes you think I know anything about him?”
“I saw his name on a guest list for one of your parties a while back when we were working security for you.”
The man’s jaw dropped and Shana’s head snapped around.
“How the hell did you remember that? I gave you a list with a hundred names and that was almost a year ago.”
Dane shrugged. He had no explanation.
“Answer the question.”