Poker Face

by Cindy Dees

  “More like a dead duck,” Christian corrected from the back seat.

  “It’s time to call the police,” Stone said grimly.

  Tucker glanced at Christian in the rearview mirror. “You’re the slick talker. You call the police.”

  “I think we’d better call Mrs. Lacey first. If this thing goes public, I don’t want her blindsided.”

  Stone nodded. “Good idea. I’d rather have her on our side than trying to crucify us.”

  Christian looked reluctant as he placed the call to the senator’s wife and put her on speakerphone. “Good morning, Mrs. Lacey. How’s Texas?”

  “Do you know why there’s no sinning in Texas during the summer, Christian?”

  “Why, ma’am?”

  “Because Satan himself would rather stay in hell than come to Texas at this time of year.” Stone smiled as the woman asked, “What can I do for you this morning, Christian? It’s a little early in the day for Jack to have messed up already.”

  Stone’s eyebrows rose. The lady knew her husband well.

  “I’m afraid you’re being optimistic, ma’am. You haven’t by any chance heard from him in the past twelve hours or so, have you?”

  “No. Why?” The keen intelligence Christian had mentioned before had obviously kicked in, and her voice was sharp with concern, or maybe suspicion. He didn’t know her well enough to read that tone. Either way, she was definitely not happy.

  Christian winced, obviously taking her tone personally. Had the two of them been alone in the vehicle, Stone would have been inclined to give the guy a supportive smile.

  Christian said heavily, “Jack has disappeared from his hotel room, ma’am. There’s no sign of a struggle and no ransom demand to indicate there was any foul play. However, we also can’t rule it out.”

  “What about that fancy security firm he hired? How did they lose him? Does this have anything to do with those death threats he’s been getting?”

  “I’m sure Jack is fine. But, the security firm terminated the contract, effective late last night. Jack was… singularly uncooperative… with them, and they felt they couldn’t guarantee his safety. Ethically they felt obliged to pull themselves off his security detail.”

  Stone noted that Christian neatly dodged the question of whether or not Jack had been kidnapped or worse.

  Jill swore rather more saltily than one would expect of a genteel Southern woman, and Stone grinned reluctantly.

  She asked tartly, “Has the Wild Cards’ man left Miami yet?”

  “No, ma’am. He’s here with me now.”

  “Hire him to work for me. I need him to find Jack and keep me from killing him.”

  Christian looked over at Stone questioningly, but he wasn’t prepared to answer Christian’s silent question until he spoke with his boss again. Stone held out his hand and rocked it back and forth, indicating that maybe he would take the job and maybe not.

  Jill Lacey was speaking again. Her tone of voice was leaning sharply toward anger now. “For God’s sake, Christian. You have to keep this whole thing from turning into a media circus. The election is in just under a year. He can’t afford any scandals between now and then.”

  Stone stared down at the phone and up at Christian, silently asking, Are you going to tell her?

  Christian sighed.

  “Speaking of which, ma’am….” Christian trailed off, obviously unsure of how to tell her delicately about Chesty.

  “Jiminy H. Christmas. There’s a woman involved, isn’t there?” she asked baldly.

  Give the woman full marks for knowing her husband.

  Christian visibly winced. “Uhh, there might be, ma’am.”

  “Don’t pussyfoot around with me, Christian Chatsworth-Brandeis. I know my husband. How bad is it this time?”

  This time? Okay. Jill Lacey really had her spouse’s number.

  “She’s a porn star, ma’am. Famous enough that the media would run with it. I’m afraid they’ll have a field day with the story.”

  “Tell your man from Wild Cards to prepare a quiet plan to dispose of Jack’s body, just in case.”

  He couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not. He was willing to cross a lot of lines in the performance of his job, but hiding a body was not one of them. Alarm sluiced through him.

  She continued, “And tell your fancy security man he’d better find Jack before I do. Because I am going to pull his scrotum over his head and feed his balls to him one by one before I choke him to death.”

  “Got it, ma’am. Scrotum. Balls. Choking. Check.”

  Christian’s dry comment made her laugh enough to break the tension a little.

  “We’ll find him for you. Don’t you worry, Mrs. Lacey.”

  “I trust you completely to handle this with speed and discretion, Christian. It goes without saying that there will be no police or FBI. Cops gossip like old women, and we can’t afford a leak to the media. If Jack doesn’t get the infusion of cash he’s supposed to be paid for this Florida publicity junket, he’s going to have to suspend his campaign.”

  Stone was startled. He’d had no idea the senator’s campaign was in such dire financial straits. No wonder Christian was stressed-out.

  “What about his scheduled appearances specifically over the next several days, ma’am?” Christian was asking.

  “We can’t cancel them. Find Jack and make him by golly appear. Make it clear to him that he has got to go to every scheduled appearance. Each one represents a large and vital campaign donation.”

  “But, ma’am.” A pause. “He’s not here. I can’t make him materialize out of thin air.”

  “You’ll figure out something, Christian. You always do.”

  Right. Because Christian could fix anything apparently. Stone did not envy the guy this particular toxic-waste cleanup. This mess might be too big even for him to manage. He glanced into the back seat at Christian, who looked nonplussed. What the hell did Jill expect the guy to do anyway?

  Christian replied blankly, “I’ll do my best, ma’am.”

  Brave man.

  Christian disconnected the call and stared off into space, either thinking hard or just completely in shock. An urge to crawl into the back seat, gather Christian in his arms, and hug it out until the guy relaxed and breathed a little, came over Stone. Unfortunately, they both needed to be on their A game at the moment and not miss some crucial detail in figuring out what the hell had happened to Lacey.

  At length Christian roused himself in the back seat to ask, “So. Stone. Any chance I can interest you and your employer in a new client with a missing husband she needs found very, very quietly?”

  Chapter Six

  STONE HAD no idea if Wild Cards, Inc. even took missing persons cases. “Let me call my bosses. I think this one will take both Martin’s and Pere’s sign-off.”

  He called the cofounders of the firm, got them on a conference line, and filled them in briefly.

  “What’s your gut telling you about this one?” Pere asked him grimly. “Did this guy take a runner with his porn star?”

  “That’s my belief, sir. He has hooked up with her before apparently. I don’t think she’s a one-night stand gone wrong.”

  “Can you find him?”

  “He’s not that smart. I can find him.” He added grimly, “But it’s a hell of a risk for you to take with your company’s reputation.”

  “We are aware of that, thank you,” Martin replied wryly. “Pass the phone to the senator’s aide, Mr. Chatsworth-Brandeis.”

  It took a while, off speakerphone, for Christian to talk the owners of Wild Cards into taking the job. They weren’t happy at the prospect of having to deal with Jack Lacey in any capacity. Eventually, for an exorbitant fee, Stone was back on the job, this time working for Jill Lacey.

  “Thank God,” Christian muttered as he disconnected the overseas call. He looked grimly at Stone. “You’re up, slugger. Find my boss.”

  “Here’s the thing. If this is an actual abduc
tion, we’ve got nothing, and the kidnappers have a nearly insurmountable head start. We would have to sit tight and wait for a ransom demand.”

  Christian frowned.

  “So,” Stone continued, “we’re going to operate for now on the assumption that Jack was not kidnapped and that he and Chesty took off of their own free will and are tucked away somewhere private, having a good old time.”

  He pulled his pistol out of its holster and reversed it in his hand, holding it out butt first to Christian.

  “What are you doing?” Christian asked sharply.

  “Handing you my weapon.”

  “I don’t want it!”

  “If I pull a B and E in Chesty’s house while armed, it’s a third-degree felony. If I’m not armed when I do it, it’s only a second-degree misdemeanor. Take the gun.”

  “Whoa. Wait. As in breaking and entering? You’re going to break into her house?”

  “As in taking a look around inside for any leads and not disturbing anything?” Stone replied. “That would be correct.”

  Christian winced. “Technically, I can’t let you do this.”

  “Take a nap and don’t watch. This is what Mrs. Lacey is paying all that money for.”

  Christian subsided but he looked unhappy. It was sexy as all get-out the way he glared at Stone, promising hell to pay later. Not that Stone anticipated having a minute alone with him until the senator was located. Dammit.

  But he would love to see how Christian punished him for being bad. The idea sent a ripple of delight up his spine and a tremor of trepidation down it. For a pretty man, Christian could still pull quite the grim scowl.

  Stone said to Christian, “If it makes you feel better, I don’t like having to do stuff like this either. It’s why both my bosses and I are so reluctant to work this job.”

  He hopped out of the SUV, ignoring the partial erection filling his slacks, and jogged around to the back of the quaint house.

  As break-ins went, this one was as straightforward as they came. Chesty’s backdoor lock was ridiculously inadequate. He could’ve opened it with a paper clip. Literally.

  He checked the sink: no dirty dishes. He opened the refrigerator: no milk. No fruit or fresh vegetables either. Nothing that would spoil quickly. Either Chesty didn’t cook at all, or she was an extremely neat person who ate no healthy food, or she’d been planning to be out of town for a while.

  A quick look around the house revealed that all the laundry was done and key toiletries missing from the bathroom. She’d definitely buttoned up her house to go out of town. But when? And why?

  A blinking light on her answering machine shed more light on the situation. “Chelsea, it’s Bob. Pick up the damned phone. You missed another audition yesterday. You’ve got to quit doing this. You’re going to get a reputation for being a flake, and you can forget getting decent-paying roles once that happens. There are a hundred girls hotter than you, younger than you, and kinkier than you just waiting to take your place in the adult-film industry. So get off your ass and call me, or I swear, I’ll dump you as a client.”

  Stone guessed that ruled out Chesty being gone on location at a film set. And she’d been up to something yesterday during the day that had been important enough to miss an audition over.

  There was no more to see in the house. He headed back outside, locking the door behind himself. He strolled back to the car. Running people drew attention, but walking people who looked unconcerned and acted as if they belonged in a place rarely drew any.

  He climbed back in the vehicle and reported his findings to the other men.

  Christian frowned. “So if she was planning to be out of town for a while already, did she kidnap Jack?”

  An interesting theory. He replied, “She would be a rocket scientist among porn stars to plan a kidnapping in advance, manage to catch Jack’s eye at that party among all the other professional talent working the joint, and then to successfully disappear with him.”

  Tucker added, “Not to mention Jack left the hotel without a fight. If she was, in fact, abducting him, she tricked him into walking out under his own power.”

  Stone replied, “You’re assuming she didn’t drug him and call in an associate to carry him out.”

  “As in she had an accomplice?” Tucker exclaimed.

  “I have no reason to suspect that, but neither do I have a reason to rule it out.”

  Tucker swore as he drove. “Why didn’t she kidnap him back in California, then? They actually went back to her hotel for most of their assignations. Why not snatch him then?”

  Stone shrugged. “Maybe it was a test run to see if she could lure him out. Or just a preliminary interaction to see if she could make contact with him.”

  Tucker observed, “That makes it sound like spies grabbed him.”

  Stone replied, “I’m not ruling anything or anyone out at this point.”

  They drove in silence back toward South Beach.

  He asked, “You two know your boss better than I do. Is he gullible enough to be trapped by a woman and/or ruled by his dick?”

  Both men snorted.

  “Oh, hell yes,” Christian answered.

  Okay, then. Jack Lacey was stupid enough to be hoodwinked, and he was addicted enough to sex to let it ruin his life. Part of him wanted to let this jerk go down in flames and not get found in time to avoid a scandal.

  But one look at Christian’s stricken, pale face and Stone cursed under his breath. Fine. He’d find the damned senator. If not for Jack’s wife, then for his own lover.

  “Where to now?” Tucker asked.

  They had to find a trail. No matter how faint or how cold. They needed a starting place from which to move forward. He answered, “Back to the hotel. If they snuck out, they probably didn’t walk to their final destination. Let’s check out the taxis that worked the hotel last night.”

  The next several hours were tedious and frustrating as they combed through hotel security camera footage. Eventually Christian pointed at the video monitor. “There. That’s him.”

  Stone leaned down over his shoulder to peer at the grainy image. “The guy in the baseball cap?”

  “I’d know his walk anywhere.”

  Stone watched a nondescript sedan pull up at the curb in front of the senator. Chesty stepped into the camera frame briefly before sliding into the back seat of the car. Baseball Cap followed her, never showing his face to the camera. But the height and build were right for Lacey.

  “That looks like a private car, not a taxi,” Christian commented. “Unless it’s a rideshare vehicle.”

  “Possible. Or, it could be Chesty’s accomplice driving.”

  Christian swore quietly.

  Stone commented, “That’s the first time I’ve seen Jack and Chesty together when she hasn’t been crawling all over him. If anything, their body language is somewhat formal. What’s up with that?”

  Christian shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

  He said encouragingly, “The good news is Jack and Chesty weren’t being herded into the vehicle at gunpoint. I think we can safely say Jack entered that vehicle voluntarily. Either we’re not looking at a kidnapping, or he hadn’t figured out what was happening yet.”

  “What the hell was he thinking?” Christian burst out.

  Stone grunted. “Did you get a good look at her? I don’t think thought has much to do with it.”

  They made brief eye contact, and Christian looked away guiltily. Yeah. Neither one of them was in a position to cast stones at Jack Lacey for thinking with his dick last night.

  It took a bit of calling around to figure out that the owner of the vehicle registered to the license plate in the video did, indeed, drive part-time for a ride-sharing service.

  After that, it took only a quick call to the Wild Cards, Inc. operation center to yield the destination to which the Uber driver had delivered the senator and Chesty. Stone had no idea how the guys at the company obtained the information, and he didn’t ask. He
reported the destination tersely to Christian. “They were taken to the South Miami Marina.”

  “Oh God. What do you want to bet he’s gotten on a party boat with a bunch of women and booze?” Christian groaned. “The press will get ahold of this for sure. How soon can you get him back here, Stone?”

  “Depends on where he is. If they’re fucking their way through the Florida Keys, pretty fast. A quick call to the Coast Guard, and they’ll have him on a helicopter back to Miami in a few hours.”

  “And if they’re not in the Keys?”

  Stone shrugged. “If he’s gone outside of US jurisdiction, it could take longer.”

  “How much longer?”

  “Days or weeks. Depends on how willing he is to come back to America.”

  Christian groaned. “He’s got a major appearance at a Latin American Chamber of Commerce event the day after tomorrow. Massive campaign donations will come from it. You’ve got to get him back in time for it!”

  “I’ll do my best. Let’s head down to the marina and find out what boat he’s on and where it’s headed.”

  It turned out not to be that easy, however. Stone had to more or less threaten the marina manager’s life before the name of the yacht—the Wrastle Castle—was forthcoming. As for its intended destination, the beleaguered manager disappeared into a back office to get the navigation plan.

  “Do you always bully people into giving you what you want?” Christian muttered.

  “Do you want to find your boss or not?” Stone muttered back. “Mrs. Lacey didn’t hire me to be nice. She hired me to get results.”

  “Yes, but your tactics are making enemies for my employer.”

  “Do you care?”

  “In this case, not particularly. Jack created this mess. He can deal with the fallout. But in general, I don’t approve of such tactics.” Christian tilted his head, considering him. “You don’t stick around long enough after a job to face the consequences of your actions, though, do you?”