Handbags & Hooligans

by Laina Turner

  “Surely, we can get around that.”

  “Not legally,” Cooper said dryly. “Not that it matters to you much.”

  “Sometimes the rules just don’t make sense. Like now. If I told the detectives my idea, they probably wouldn’t even pay attention to it, and we would wait for them to do nothing.”

  “Calm down, I wasn’t suggesting we wait. I was simply making an observation.”

  We pulled into the parking lot and parked in front of her building.

  Cooper turned to us. “You guys stay here. I’ll be right back. It’s apartment 1A, right? And you said it was a black cat in her room?”

  “Yes, but I’m coming with you,” I said, unbuckling my seatbelt.

  “Absolutely not,” Cooper said sternly. “What we are doing is technically breaking and entering, and I will take the risk. You will stay here.”

  “But if you get caught, wouldn’t we still be accessories?”

  Cooper just looked at me. I don’t think he appreciated my comments, so I just shrugged and kept my mouth shut. He walked into the building.

  “You’re so hard on him, Pres,” Jared said.

  “Don’t start with me. That wasn’t personal, it was about Ashley.”

  “I’m just saying he loves you, and you need to give him a chance.”

  “Jared, you know it’s complicated.” I was saved from any more questioning on my love life by the appearance of Cooper coming out the front door. He opened the car door and slid into the driver’s seat.

  “Did you get it?”

  “Yep,” he said tersely.

  “Well, what was it?”

  “Let’s get out of here first.”

  “Why can’t you just tell…”

  “That’s why,” he said glancing in the rear view mirror.

  I turned in my seat, as did Anna and Jared. There was a black Mercedes behind us.

  “That car?” I asked. “Who is it?”

  “It’s the guys from the bar we met Sweetie at. I assume they work for Benigni.”

  “Are they following us?” Anna asked.

  “It looks that way,” Cooper said.

  “What are you going to do?” I asked him.

  “Head back to Harrah’s. It’s a lot more populated than Jesse’s apartment, and I want to stay where the people are. Presley, grab my phone will you?” It had slid onto the floor off the console, and I picked it up and handed it to him. He punched in some numbers and then put the phone to his ear. “I think someone is following us,” he said after a moment. “Yeah, I’m headed to Harrah’s. Are you sure? You don’t need to bring this to your hotel.” I assumed at this point he was talking to Simon. “Okay then, see you in about ten.” He snapped his phone shut.

  “Was that Simon?” I asked.

  “Yeah. He said to drive to his hotel and pull around to the service entrance. He will be waiting back there for us.”

  “Ooohh. This is getting exciting,” said Jared.

  “Not the kind of exciting we want,” Cooper said.

  “They must want whatever you found in her apartment. What did you find?”

  “A SD card.”

  “So we need to see what’s recorded on that card, and then we might find where Ashley is.”

  “Exactly.” He turned down the street that would take us in the back entrance to the Palazzo. The black Mercedes was still behind us.

  We pulled into the service entrance, and I saw Simon standing outside with a couple of his security guys. We reached him, and Cooper shut off the car. The black Mercedes pulled in, and then I assumed they saw Simon, because they quickly backed out.

  After a few seconds, Cooper said it was okay to get out. He walked over to Simon and stuck his hand out to shake his. “Thanks, man. It seems like they didn’t want to deal with you.”

  “Then they must not be as dumb as I thought,” said Simon. “Why were they following you?”

  “We were at Ashley’s apartment, and I found something I think they were also looking for, and I have a feeling they don’t want anyone else to have it.”

  “They’re definitely Benigni’s guys. Now that they know you have this, they won’t leave you alone.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  “We need to find out what’s on that card,” I said.

  “Why don’t you guys come in? I’ll bet we have something here that will read it. My security team has all the gadgets you could ever want, and you’ll be safe here.”

  “Then what are we waiting for?” I said. We followed Simon into the hotel and down a hall into a room that was filled with tons of monitors and people looking at them, watching for cheating I assumed. I could see a bank of monitors on the tournament—think that scene in Oceans Eleven where Andy Garcia takes one of the Oceans Eleven guys into his security room to show him how safe his jewels would be. It was very much like that. He led us into a small private room with glass windows, so you could see what was happening in the room, but it must have been soundproof, as I couldn’t hear what was going on out there.

  “So, what do we have?” Simon asked.

  Cooper pulled a small SD card out of his pocket and set it on the table. “This is what I think they wanted and now correctly assume I have. If they took Ashley, and I’m thinking now that is pretty likely, there must be something she had on this card that they don’t want getting out.”

  “Which is what we need to find out,” I said. “Simon, do you think you have something that can read it?”

  “Yes, it’s just a normal SD card. I should be able to pull whatever is on the card up on my laptop. Let me go get it.”

  “Cooper, what are we going to do once we have proof that Benigni has Ashley?”

  “Turn this over to the police is what we’re going to do, Pres. This is not something we need to get any further involved in. Benigni’s guys are following us; not a good thing.”

  I wasn’t sure how to tell him I felt we needed to find Ashley and couldn’t wait for the police, but was saved from doing so by Simon coming back into the room with his laptop. He sat down, grabbed the SD card, and slipped it into his card reader that was hooked to his laptop with the USB. We all looked anxiously at Simon’s laptop waiting to see what would come up on the screen. It only took a few seconds, and what we saw on the screen shocked me. I don’t know what I was expecting, maybe Benigni with someone else’s wife or something. This was much more hard–core. There were shots of what I assumed was a drug deal including Benigni and his men, then a shot of Benigni pointing a gun at the back of someone’s head, with the next shot of the same guy lying flat on the ground with a bullet hole in the back of his head.

  “Wow, did Ashley take these?” Jared asked.

  “She must have, or she knows who did, since she had them. No wonder Benigni doesn’t want to let these fall into the wrong hands. Cooper, what are we going to do?”

  He hesitated and looked at Simon.

  “We need to take this to the cops,” Simon said, “but Cooper, I’m not sure if they’ll get to Ashley in time.”

  Chapter 22

  I wasn’t looking forward to being alone with Cooper because I knew he was being patient and the time would come where he would grill me. However, I think my luck was about to run out.

  “We need to talk, Pres.”

  “Now?”

  “I told you that you would have to talk to me at some point, Presley. Now is as good a time as any.”

  Cooper was right; he had warned me. I had just been hoping I could put it off for a long time and not think about it. No such luck. I should have known he would hold me to it. He was also right that we shouldn’t avoid getting things out in the open. I just didn’t want a difficult emotional conversation. Did anyone? “Okay, fine. We can talk, but can we put a time limit on it?” I smiled to let him know I was teasing. Sort of.

  “The time to stop talking is when we get things worked out for good.”

  “What do you mean for good?” My heart raced a little as I wonder
ed if he meant for good as in ending things; to never leave the door open, not even just a little bit. I would be devastated. What did that mean?

  “I think you will agree we can’t keep doing what we’re doing. I know we made a decision a while back that we were in two different places in life and unfortunately not living in proximity, but we can’t seem to break things off and just be friends. The feelings aren’t just going to go away, and either we figure out how to make this work, or I don’t think we should talk anymore.”

  I was floored. I really didn’t think he would ever say that. I guess I took for granted that at some point maybe we could figure things out. Now I was confused. I didn’t know what to do with this ultimatum.

  “You don’t have anything to say about that?”

  “I don’t know what to say, Cooper.”

  “Don’t you have feelings for me still?”

  “Of course I do. I just had put my mind in a place of thinking we were just going to have to figure out how to make this not being together work. Plus we argue so much.”

  “We argue, and we have passion.” When he said that, he gave me a look that gave me shivers. He had a point there. “You can have those two things without disagreeing at times, and I for one wouldn’t give that up. Would you?”

  I had to admit I wouldn’t. The one thing I loved about Cooper was that I always knew, no matter how much we disagreed, we would always at some point work things out. “No,” I told him, “I don’t want to give that up. But I don’t know what the solution is.” This really upset me. I didn’t want him out of my life, but how could we make it work? “I have no idea what to do, Cooper.”

  “Then listen and have an open mind.”

  “Okay.”

  “I think we should give this a try again and see what happens.”

  “But…”

  He held his hand up to stop me from continuing. “I said listen and have an open mind. I know the logistics of where we both live are one of our main problems. So I was thinking. I travel a lot, so why don’t you come with me?”

  I started to open my mouth again, and he rushed on.

  “I have plenty of money. You can take a leave from your job, travel with me, and try to write the book you’ve wanted to write. We give it six months, enough time to really make sure we can tell if it will work or not, and then figure out the next steps from there.”

  “Wow. I really don’t know what to say.” It sounded amazing, but did I really want to give up my job and friends to travel with Cooper? What if it didn’t work out? Even scarier—what if it did?

  “Then don’t say anything right now. Just think about it until we find Ashley, and then we can talk again.”

  “Okay.”

  Chapter 23

  He came by again,” Anna said to me over the phone. We had all gone our separate ways about an hour before: Jared to play the slots, Jesse to work, and Anna and I to sleep. I had just fallen asleep when she called and woke me.

  “Who? Jeff?”

  “Yep. Said he was on the way to the airport to catch the red eye and wanted to apologize one last time—and try to get me to forgive him.”

  “What did you say?”

  “The same thing I said yesterday; not a chance.”

  “Are you sure, Anna? I mean, he did a horrendous thing to you, but you’ve forgiven him so much already, and you’ve always said you felt he was your soul mate. So, are you sure this is what you want? I would understand if you gave him another chance.” I would think she was crazy, but I would understand. “I will always support you no matter what you decide.”

  “I know, Presley. Believe me, I have thought long and hard about it, and I just don’t think he will ever change. It’s not even a matter of this particular instance of him leaving me at the altar; I can understand cold feet. It’s more about his never wanting to give me any kind of commitment to the point that he would hurt me like this. He will never change.”

  “I’m afraid you’re right, though for your sake I wish you weren’t. I assume you told him all this?”

  “Yes, everything. I wanted him very clear on where I stood and why I really wanted him to just leave me alone and stop trying to get me back. We’re done, and we both need to move on and not hurt each other anymore.”

  “How’d he take it?”

  “Frankly, I think he was expecting it. I have to give him some credit for trying at least.”

  “So, you’re really ready to move on?”

  “I think so, Pres, and I’m not nearly as sad about it as I would have expected to be.”

  “That’s good, I guess.”

  “Enough about me. What’s up with you and Cooper? You two seem to be getting along well; I just didn’t want to ask you in front of everyone else.”

  “Yeah, we are getting along well. He asked me to take some time off and travel with him,” I nonchalantly said.

  “He did? When?” Anna practically screamed. I was wide awake now. “Why am I just now hearing this?”

  “I haven’t made a decision yet. There’s too much going on right now with Jesse and Ashley to even think about my own life.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. You can’t always make up excuses. Your life is more important than anyone else’s. You’re the one who has to live it, and you need to be happy and do what you want to do. What’s the hang up?”

  “It’s just all so much. I feel overwhelmed. Give up my job just for him? I don’t know.”

  “He’s not asking you to give up your job. He asking you to leave it for a short time and see if you two can make things work. Think of it as a good time to work on your book.”

  “That’s what he said.” I sighed. “It just seems like a big step.”

  Chapter 24

  What makes you think Michelle knows where Ashley is?” Jesse asked me as we arrived at The Pink Pony. We had snuck off from everyone else, as I didn’t want our entire posse to descend on the place. It would be way too obvious. Cooper wasn’t going to be too happy, but he often wasn’t happy with me. So I figured, what was one more time?

  “It just makes sense. Ashley has told you twice now to remember to feed the cat. We got the SD card from her stuffed cat, but what else could she be referring to?”

  “Okay, let’s say you’re right. Why would Michelle go out on a limb for her? This is Benigni's club after all.”

  “Yep. That’s why she has been resistant to talking to us. She didn’t want to put either Ashley or herself in jeopardy by telling anyone. Not even Sweetie.”

  “So, what makes you think she’ll spill her guts to us now?” Jesse asked.

  “Well, I hate to pull out the big guns, but I’m telling Sweetie if she doesn’t give it up.”

  “We’re going to have to wait a bit. She’s on stage right now.” We walked over to the bar.

  “What brings you in tonight?” Sweetie said to me as I sat down. He reached behind the bar and grabbed a bottled water. “I thought you were done with your waitressing career.”

  “I am, but I want to talk to Michelle.”

  “You are a persistent thing. You know she won’t be happy that you’re here wanting to talk to her again.”

  “I don’t care. She needs to be more helpful.”

  Sweetie raised his eyes. I hadn’t been this aggressive before. It wasn’t normally me, but I had a gut feeling Michelle had the phone Ashley had called on—or at least knew where it was. And this was the final piece in finding Ashley. I somehow knew it. I felt it in my gut.

  The music ended, and Michelle walked off stage, noticing we were there.

  “Wait for me, Jesse. I’ll be right back,” I said and hopped off the stool to quickly follow her back to the dressing room. I didn’t want to give Michelle any chance to sneak out again like she had on a few other occasions. I had just stepped through the door of the dressing room when someone grabbed my arm and pulled me to the side. I was startled for a minute until I realized it was Michelle.

  “What the hell are you doing her
e?” she spat.

  “You know why I’m here, Michelle. What I don’t know is why you have played all these games. Someone’s life hangs in the balance.”

  “Whose? Ashley’s?”

  “Uh, yeah.”

  “So you figured out I must know something, but you don’t know the truth about Ashley?”

  “I’m not following.”

  “Ashley is DEA.”

  “Drug Enforcement?” Holy crap. Never in a million years would I have thought cute, petite Ashley was a DEA agent. Her looks and stature were probably to her advantage working undercover. Does Sweetie know?”

  “Of course he does, and that’s a problem. You didn’t tell him why you came tonight, did you?”

  “No. I just told him I was going to talk to you whether you liked it or not.”

  “Good.”

  “Why? He is one of the good guys. Isn’t he?”

  “Yes and no. Listen, we can’t talk here. Please don’t tell Sweetie anything. Not a thing from here out. Now leave. I get off at three. Meet me here.” She scribbled an address on a piece of paper and handed it to me.

  “Where is…”

  “Figure it out. You got this far. Now get out of here.”

  I walked out of the dressing room back to the front and had a thought. I hoped Jesse hadn’t said anything. I would have thought nothing of telling Sweetie, and I was sure Jesse wouldn’t either. I got back to the bar and couldn’t tell if anything had been said. Sweetie had the same expression as always.

  “Get anywhere?” Sweetie asked.

  “Nope. Bought the same as usual.”

  “Your tough tactics didn’t work?” he teased me.

  “Guess I’m not as tough as I thought. C’mon Jesse. Cooper has already called three times. I’m sure they’re all wondering where we went.”

  “You guys snuck off without your friends?” Sweetie raised his eyebrows. “Shame, shame.”

  “Well, Cooper doesn’t so much like the fact that I’ve worked a few shifts here, so I thought it best we not tell, and I figured we would be back before they really noticed we’d been gone long. C’mon, Jesse.” I just wanted to get out of there. This casual conversation with Sweetie was making me uncomfortable. “Bye, Sweetie. Talk to you later.”