She’d rather play some more slots, but she diligently trailed along after Bastien as they went from casino to casino and still came up empty at the end of the night. She was down fifty bucks and her feet were killing her.
“It’s possible they were casino hopping and we kept missing them,” she said once they were back in his car and had given up for the night. Kicking off her shoes, she rubbed her aching feet. As they headed back toward South Beach, Mikelina was thoroughly not in the mood for any hanky-panky—especially if the groom showed up while they were fooling around.
“I’m exhausted,” she said to Bastien when they were back in South Beach. “Can you just drop me off at my hotel?”
“You don’t want to stay?” Bastien asked.
She shook her head. “I’m so tired I can’t even think. Touch base with me tomorrow, though. Enjoy the parasailing.” Her head was still whirling about her mother and Kirk kissing.
“All right,” he said quietly. “Tomorrow can you contact the owner of the beach house? I’d like to know their asking price. I might buy it if Jace doesn’t.”
“I don’t even know if it’s for sale,” she said, holding on to her temper. She needed to remember that this was business first and pleasure later. There shouldn’t even be any pleasure, so she should get that out of her mind. But with him looking so sexy and confused sitting next to her, it was hard to remember that she had a job to do and that was to make sure all her guests had a good time, not just Bastien.
“If the owner does wind up selling,” he went on, “and you need a place to store your things, let me know?”
“Thanks,” she said. “I’m good. I could always drop it off at my aunt’s house.”
“Or maybe your mother can take some of it?”
“Yeah,” she said. She wondered how serious it was between her and Kirk. Was her mother spending the night with him?
She squeezed her eyes shut. She did not want to think about that. With her father in jail and her mother in a new relationship, where did that leave her? She could live quite happily off the sale of the beach house. But then where would she go? Where would her home be if not that house?
The rest of the car ride was quiet and when he pulled up in front of her hotel, she thanked him absently and walked into the hotel as if she was sleepwalking. When she got to her room, she opened up her laptop and searched to see what the visiting hours were for the Federal Correctional Institution in Miami.
As much as she hated to visit him, she needed to see her father before she decided to do anything about the house.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
BASTIEN HADN’T SLEPT well last night. He woke up surly and annoyed that Jace still hadn’t bothered to touch base. This not calling or answering his phone was bullshit. It was childish and Bastien was done messing around.
He called the private investigator that had given him the dossier on Jace Benjamin.
“Mr. Ainsworth,” Henry Jacobs said, picking up the phone on the first ring. “What can I do for you?”
“I need you to track down Jace Benjamin for me.”
“I thought he was with you.”
“He’s supposed to be, but he keeps disappearing. His cell phone is conveniently out of battery. I’m worried he’s screwing around on my sister.”
“I can help you track him down. When was the last time you saw him?”
Bastien gave him the details as well as the cell phone numbers of all the groomsmen.
“I’ll give you a report this afternoon. But it may take me a little longer to find him.”
“When you do, I might have you fly out and tail him.”
“I’ll clear my schedule.”
“While you’re looking, can you do a property record search on this address?” Bastien rattled off the beach house’s address. “I’d like to get some information on the owner. I’m planning on making him an offer and I’d like to see if there are any pressure points I could hit to get a better deal.”
“Will do.”
After Bastien rang off with the private investigator, he called Mikelina. From the background sounds, she was in the car.
“Are you sure I can’t convince you to go parasailing with me?”
“Not for all the espressos in South Beach,” she said. “Besides, I’ve got a meeting this morning. I’m going to be gone until late afternoon. Has Jace checked in yet?”
“Nope, but if he’s staying true to form, he’s probably sleeping somewhere. If I do hear from him, it probably won’t be until after he wakes up around three this afternoon.”
“Well, as soon as you hear from him, please let me know. Is there anything I can do for you in the meantime?”
Bastien wanted to make a sexy comment, but she sounded so distant he didn’t feel comfortable with it. “You can go out to dinner with me tonight. If you’re free. Maybe we can go to a movie afterward.”
There was a long pause. “Like a date?”
“Yeah, you’re my girlfriend for the next two weeks, right? That’s what people do. Dinner and a movie?”
“More like Netflix and chill.”
“I could do that, too. But I’d like to take you out on the town. You pick the place.”
“I’d like that.” Her voice warmed up a bit and he was glad. “How does seven o’clock reservations sound?”
“It sounds great.”
“Oh, wait. You’re scheduled to go to Casa Tua tonight with the bachelor party.”
“Fuck the schedule.”
“I think I just had an orgasm. What did you say?”
“I said, I want to be with you tonight. If the idiots want to go to Casa Tua, they can go without me.”
“Well, what are the odds that they’re going to show up?”
“I have no idea.”
“Because we can take the reservation. There’s a members-only lounge that I can get us into, and if they decide to join us, we could ditch them and go back home.”
Home. He liked that. Home could be this beach house. This could be her home base in South Beach.
The thought hit him like a splash of cold water. He had just met her. He still didn’t know her last name. And after having mind-altering sex with her for the past few days, he wasn’t sure how to ask her for it now without sounding like an idiot. He needed to reel himself in fast before she hooked him like her mother had hooked Kirk Diamonte.
“I don’t want Jace to ruin another night for us. I’m done babysitting them. At this point, I just want to protect my sister.”
“I had an idea about that. Text me her number. I’ll call her to see if she received the larimar jewelry that Jace sent. While I’m on the phone with her, I’ll see if he’s called her or if she knows what he’s up to. Coming from me, it won’t be suspicious. She won’t expect me to know where Jace is, like she would if you asked.”
“That’s brilliant,” he sighed. “I would really appreciate it.”
“Good. I’ve got to get going. I’ll be incommunicado for a few hours, but don’t worry. I’m not pulling a Jace.”
“I can’t wait to see you tonight,” he said.
“Enjoy flying through the air in a chair above shark-infested waters.”
“Hey, at least I’ve got a parachute attached to it.”
“See you soon.”
Bastien grinned and realized he was as smitten as a high school girl with her first crush.
* * *
Mikelina waited for her father to be brought out to her. This was only the second time she had come to see him. It was hard for her to see him in the orange prison jumpsuit and even though he was in a minimum-security prison, he still had cuffs on his arms and shackles on his legs when they walked him through the door.
They weren’t allowed to hug or touch, in case she slipped him contraband, so they sat awkwardly facing each other across the table.<
br />
Tanner Presley looked older and bitter. The laugh lines around his eyes weren’t as prominent as the frowning ones across his brow. She tried to see him as the father she remembered and it was getting harder and harder to remember that man. That’s why she needed the beach house. That’s why she couldn’t sell it.
“Do you need anything?” she asked to fill the silence.
“If you can swing a couple of hundred dollars more a month in my account, I’d appreciate it.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” Mikelina couldn’t stop wringing her hands.
“Why are you here? Have you changed your mind about my guilt?”
She looked around and saw that no one seemed to be paying much attention to them, but she lowered her voice anyway. “No. I saw the computer files. I found your backups, and before I turned them in to the FBI, I read them. I know exactly what you did and to whom.”
His mouth twisted. “I can’t believe my own daughter ratted me out.”
“You were already busted. I handed over evidence.”
“There would have been reasonable doubt if you hadn’t.”
She shook her head. “No. You made mistakes. The most important one being deciding to cheat people out of their hard-earned money.”
He glanced around, too, and then leaned forward and spoke in a tone barely above a whisper. “I didn’t take it from people who didn’t have it to lose.”
“Yeah, you did. Remember Mr. Edwards?”
Tanner looked away. “I had bad intel on that. There was a misprint of a couple of zeros.”
“You denied a dying man peace that he had assets to leave to his heirs. But that was just one out of a dozen people you cheated.”
“Everyone cheats. I got caught. My sentence is bullshit and you know it.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, Mikelina said, “I’m not your judge or your jury. I’m not even your lawyer. I’m your daughter. And I’m trying to find a way to get back to a normal life.”
“Cry me a river. I’m in a one-room cell with a roommate who picks his nose and snores.”
“What is he in for?”
“Insider trading. He’ll be out by Christmas.”
“What’s your lawyer say about parole?” she asked.
“Not a chance in hell for at least another five years. Maybe ten.”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She couldn’t live in limbo for that long. She couldn’t afford to live at the beach house either. She wanted a home base. She wanted to go back to New York where she had a life outside of her family.
“Your mother is divorcing me.”
“I know,” she said.
“That’s loyalty for you. Who is she seeing?”
Mikelina opened her eyes. “What?”
“She wouldn’t have done this on her own. She must have found a rich man to take care of her. Someone powerful enough to gloss over this scandal in society so she could go back to her friends.”
“Well, why shouldn’t she?” Mikelina said. “She didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Everything I did, I did for you and your mother.” He jabbed a finger at her.
It caught the guard’s attention, but he didn’t approach them.
“Don’t blame this on us. No one asked you to do anything illegal or dishonest.”
“Did you think your college was free? Do you think your mother’s spending account gets paid by the tooth fairy every month?”
“Dad, if you were having financial problems, why didn’t you tell us?”
“Because I wasn’t. I had everything under control until poor Mr. Edwards had his lawyer audit me.”
“Because you were stealing from poor Mr. Edwards.”
Tanner leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Don’t be naive. Broker fees are a cost of doing business.”
“Yeah, if you’re actually making the trades you said you were. Look.” She held up a hand. “I didn’t come here today to talk about this. What’s done is done, right?”
Tanner grimly nodded.
“I have a couple of people interested in buying the house.”
“Don’t you fucking dare sell my house,” he said in a low, ugly voice.
“It’s my house. And you’re not going to be using it for another five to ten years. I’m paying taxes on it, have been paying taxes on it since you signed it over to me.”
“There’s gratitude for you.” He shook his head. “You’re a real chip off the old block, you know that? You and your mother are bigger thieves than I could ever be.”
“That’s not fair,” she said through numbed lips. “I was planning on splitting the sale money three ways. Me, you and Mom.”
Glaring at her, he said, “You should ask for six million.”
“I’m not sure if that’s in the ballpark. I was thinking of half that.” She wanted to get a glimpse of the father she remembered. She could use her father’s advice. She leaned forward eagerly. Maybe by selling the house they could all get a fresh start, new life. New memories.
“It’s worth at least five. Get a real estate agent. Put the money in my account. And don’t come here again. Guards, we’re done here.” Tanner scraped back his chair and glared down at her until they escorted him back through the door of the prison.
Mikelina held it together as she walked back to her car. Taking short breaths through her nose, she blinked back tears that were threatening to burst out of her. With shaking fingers, she opened her car door and got in. As soon as she closed the door, she let herself mourn for the loss of her father.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
BASTIEN HELD MIKELINA’S hand as they waited for their dinner. She had picked a cozy Italian restaurant off the beaten path. It was quiet and the food and wine looked amazing. Everything would be a perfect romantic date, but she seemed sad and distant.
“Did I do something wrong?” he asked.
She focused on him instead of staring at the tablecloth. “No, I’m sorry. I’m just a little distracted.”
The waiter poured them large glasses of ruby red wine from a decanter and then scraped the bread crumbs off the table before moving on. Mikelina reached for another roll and buttered it.
“Did your meeting not go so well today?”
She nodded. “That’s the understatement of the year. I spoke with the owner of the beach house. He’s not really looking to sell, but he threw out a figure of six million.” She shrugged.
“Thanks for asking,” he said. It seemed rather high, but he’d wait to see what Henry dug up. “Can you tell me what’s bothering you?”
She sighed. “I saw my father today.”
Stroking his thumb over her knuckles, he understood her melancholy. “He’s not taking the divorce well?”
“He’s bitter and angry and blaming everyone while refusing to take responsibility for his poor decisions.”
“Sounds a lot like my ex.”
“He said some hurtful things. I’m trying not to internalize them too much. I know it’s got nothing to do with me, but...” She shook her head. “I’m having a hard time bouncing back from it.” Mikelina took a deep sip of her wine. “Being with you here is helping, believe it or not.”
“I’m glad. I want to be here for you. I want more than just the sex.”
He liked that she blushed at that.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “I love the sex. I’m hoping for some tonight.”
That coaxed a smile out of her. “I think that can be arranged. Have you heard from Jace?”
“Nope. But I’ve got someone working on it.” He glanced at his phone. “In fact, he should have touched base with me before now. So if I keep checking my messages, it’s not you. I’m just looking to see if we have the house to ourselves tonight.”
“I’m sorry. I forgot to call Kitty toda
y. Like I said, I was distracted. I’ll call first thing tomorrow. But if she hasn’t heard from him, what’s our next step? Do we go to the police?”
“He’s not an official missing person until he’s been gone forty-eight hours. The clock is ticking, but there’s nothing the police can do until we have proof he’s not just jacking off in a chicken ranch somewhere.”
“I think if he’s jacking off in a chicken ranch, he’s doing it wrong.”
Bastien smiled. “I wouldn’t know.”
“Uh-huh. How was parasailing?”
“It was great. I saw a big nurse shark as I was floating around. But then I realized if it was big when I was looking at it four hundred feet in the air, then up close and personal it was probably the size of my car.”
“It might have been a manatee.”
“It was brown.”
She twirled her fork at him. “I’ve seen brown manatees.”
“That’s more comforting. I wouldn’t mind swimming in the same ocean as a manatee that size. The shark on the other hand, no way.”
“Yeah, you guys are going water-skiing tomorrow.”
“Allegedly.”
As they were finishing up their dinner, Mikelina visibly began to unwind. He encouraged her to drink some more wine and by the time they finished with dessert, she was a little bleary-eyed but back to her old self.
“Are you ready to get out of here?” he asked.
“I’m ready to make some new memories,” she said, slurring her words a bit.
“I hope it involves a moonlight swim without suits.”
Her smile was bright and happy. The tension inside him broke apart. She was okay. They were okay. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a determined woman in a skin-hugging dress storming over to them.
Mikelina gasped. “Carmen,” she said.
Carmen grabbed hold of Mikelina’s water glass and dashed it in her face. “How dare you? How dare you come to this restaurant?”
“Hey!” Bastien lunged out of his seat and wedged himself between the two women. “Just who the hell do you think you are?”
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