29. Erin
CHAPTER 29
ERIN
A ri beckoned me into the bedroom and closed the door. Boy, it had been a hell of a week, and it was only Wednesday.
This job had changed beyond all recognition. What had started as two distinct tasks—track down the freak launching thugs at Cole and his staff and find out whether Kelsey was having an affair—had turned into one big, messy case.
But our team was still invested, Rusty included. How could we not be? We’d seen the faint shadows of bruising around Selene’s eye, and after what Jace had done to Kelsey… I sure hoped he wasn’t sleeping tonight.
I’d watched from the other side of the street as Kina and her friend laid into him in the lobby of his ritzy apartment building, and they’d even gotten a positive pregnancy test from somewhere—you know, one of those pee-on-a-stick things. Jace had gone slack-jawed when the girl waved it in his face. Then I’d gotten distracted as a guy walked past me and carried on into the building. Jimmy. That hadn’t been a coincidence, right? Kina said he’d taken the elevator to the fourth floor, so we figured he was a neighbour of Jace’s. All those annoying little loose ends were getting tied up.
“Alexa wants to speak with us,” Ari said.
“Is it news from the dark web?”
“I don’t know, but I sure hope so. It’s about time Ace placed another ad.”
Today, Alexa was on the beach, and she was also a Siamese cat with vivid blue eyes and a haughty expression.
“That’s a neat filter,” Ari said, and the cat beamed at her.
“Thanks. I designed it myself.”
“Tell me you have news.”
“I have news.”
“Did AceInTheHole place another ad?”
“You can try to guess the entire conversation if you want, but it might be quicker if I just told you.”
“Well, hurry up then.”
The cat vanished, and a screenshot appeared in its place. I leaned closer and squinted at the tiny writing.
Wanted in Vegas.
Deliver an impactful message to a guy who owes me money.
$5k, video proof of completion required.
Oh, he was getting smart. Last time, he’d only asked for photos.
“Can you mock up a video?” Ari asked.
“I could, but even the best AI can’t replicate the human experience. In any other week, I’d call Jez, and she could bring Cole back from San Gallicano so we could bash him up a bit for a photo shoot, but she’s so happy on the boat. Like, she’s smiling, and I haven’t seen her smile that way since— Well, for a long time.”
“Hold on, you don’t mean you’d actually punch him?”
Alexa liked to take things to extremes, but surely even she wouldn’t risk causing bodily harm to her friend’s significant other?
“Latex and make-up,” she said. “Assuming he isn’t allergic to latex.”
“So you’d let him in on the secret?”
“Latex and make-up and propofol.” Sheesh. “We need a stand-in,” she continued. “All we have to do is find a guy with the right build, transform him into Cole, break into Uncle Mike’s house, and make the video.”
“Oh, that’s all?”
She either didn’t pick up on the sarcasm or chose to ignore it. “And I’ll add a little surprise to the file when I upload it to Amber Road.”
“What kind of surprise?”
“A Trojan. We’ll have access to his IP address, his webcam, his whole hard drive.”
“If he’s good enough with computers to know his way around the dark web, won’t he spot a Trojan?”
“People use the dark web for different reasons. I don’t think Ace is a hacker.”
“Oh?” Ari asked as my spidey senses tingled. “So why is he there?”
“I’ll keep that to myself for now. Believe it or not, I actually hope I’m wrong on this one.”
Ari stiffened beside me. “Is it worse than hiring thugs to beat up an innocent man?”
The cat nodded.
“And if Erin’s theory is correct, we think Ace is a member of the Fuller family, right? Is he dangerous? Because Selene’s stuck in an apartment with Jace Fuller until we can get her out of there.”
“Do you have a plan for that?”
“We’re working on it, but she rarely seems to leave the hotel, and it’s not as if we can storm in and drag her out of there. ”
“I mean, you could.”
“Okay, we’re not going to. For her sake, we have to do this with as little drama as possible.”
We’d spent the day researching Jace’s and Selene’s movements, the types of places they went together, and we’d earmarked three possible events where Jace might take his wife along as arm candy. Then we could free her from his clutches. The soonest took place on Friday, the opening of a new show on the Strip. Kelsey would try to glean more information from Jace about their movements.
On-screen, the cat shrugged. Did actual cats shrug? I wasn’t too sure.
“Up to you,” Alexa said, and then she disappeared. Was a goodbye really too much trouble?
Ari turned to me with a hopeful smile.
“So… How do you think Rusty would feel about latex and make-up?”
“No propofol?”
“No propofol.”
***
Rusty said yes. Of course he said yes.
Kelsey was okay with doing architect stuff around Jace, but she drew the line at staying at the Neptune overnight. Not when Jace had access to a master key. Even with the chain on her door, she couldn’t sleep, so after one restless night, she’d begun coming back to Mav’s house. Which meant Rusty was sleeping in the race car bed. Yes, he could have moved permanently into the master suite, but Kelsey would probably think that was weird, seeing as we were dating, and nobody wanted to land Rusty in the doo-doo. We’d told her most of the truth, but she didn’t need to know he’d originally come to Vegas because of doubts over her fidelity.
And I didn’t mind sharing a room with Rusty. Maybe I even liked it .
I liked curling against him on the princess bed while we watched a movie. I liked having his arms around me. I liked the soft kisses as I fell asleep.
It was then that I knew I’d sleep with him. Even if sex gave me the ick, I’d do it to keep this man at my side. The future scared me but in a different way than before. Hockey stars dated women like Kelsey—beautiful, smart women—and I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.
But tonight, I had him.
And when his breathing slowed halfway through an old action movie, I didn’t nudge him awake and tell him to go back to his own bed. No, I pulled a blanket over him and settled against his side. I could easily love this man.
Perhaps I already did.