Finally, Sedarno laughed. “After you, darlin’.” Jess climbed into her cart, and the two men climbed into theirs. Adam watched as both sailed off down the first fairway.
He needed a drink.
Chapter Eight
Jess wasn’t surprised, exactly, that Adam was waiting in her suite when she returned from the golf course. She was surprised at the three beer bottles on the table in front of him and the fourth in his hand. At the cold squint of his eyes. The tight jaw.
He was pissed that she’d called an audible. Well, too bad. He needed to understand that she could pull her weight in this partnership. Besides, she could play a round of golf in her sleep.
She waited for him to say something. When he just sat there glaring, a knot formed in her stomach. She didn’t want him to be upset with her. As hard as it was to admit to herself, she’d been hoping he might be a little impressed with her initiative and execution. If not, she’d at least been looking forward to talking through the day with him.
It had been a bit nerve-racking at first, but after the first tee shot the rest of the afternoon was fine. She bought drinks and joked around with Knoll and Sedarno, but she also gave the men a lot of space. She didn’t forget who she was dealing with; she stayed out of their way.
When they realized she wasn’t going to be a chatterbox or slow them down, the men had actually been pretty friendly. Knoll was clearly a slobbering meathead, but Sedarno was quick-witted. Her short game had been a mess, which seemed to endear her to him. He had given her quite a bit of good putting advice.
Warily, she sat down on the sofa next to Adam and pulled off her visor. “Did you listen to them in the cart? Did they say anything that we can use?”
“Yep.”
When he simply continued to glare, she felt a spark of her own temper ignite. “What did they say? I deserve to know.”
“You little idiot,” he seethed. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
The spark of temper grew into a blaze of anger. “Yes. I helped us. They did all their ‘serious’ talking in the cart. So now we have more information. Frankly, I’m surprised you aren’t thanking me.”
He slammed the beer bottle in his hand on the coffee table, making all of the other ones shake. She couldn’t stop the flinch. Wow, he was livid. For the first time, she felt uneasy. Had she screwed up their plan? She couldn’t see how, but why else would he be so furious?
“Let’s play this out, Blondie. Let’s say you win in our little situation here. You manage to take Knoll down, catch him red-handed with the 25 million dollars in diamonds. The diamonds will go wherever the Feds take them, and Sedarno is left empty-handed. You think he’s not going to be interested enough in Knoll’s arrest to look into it? What if you’re mentioned in the news story about the arrest? Or what if he simply does a little Google-ing on Ignatius like I did and sees your picture in the Trib? You’re a chameleon, but you spent the whole damn day with him, Jess, and there’s no way he won’t recognize the woman in the photo as the woman who popped out of nowhere in Vegas when he was meeting with Knoll and fucking outdrove him.”
Before she could react, he just kept going. “You don’t think he’s going to put two and two together? Because Knoll might not be as bright as he once was, but Sedarno’s as sharp as they come. As sharp as the ice pick he used to kill a cheating ex-mistress.”
He put his hands on her shoulders and gave her a shake. “You think the mob boss is going to be forgiving? When he’s been denied 25 million dollars?”
Another shake. “Jesus fucking Christ, Jess. You better hope I steal those diamonds before there’s any further connection between you and Knoll.”
His hands gripped her shoulders tightly, and his blue eyes were practically glowing with fury. Then his gaze dropped to her lips for a long moment, and the air between them grew warm and thick. She inhaled a shaky breath, uncertain in that instant if he was going to shake her again or kiss her.
To her half relief/half disappointment, he did neither. He stood and went to the window, watched the sun setting on the Strip. “I don’t know what I was thinking, to get you involved like this.”
Jess forced herself to look away from the long line of his rigid body, to focus on his words. So...no. She hadn’t really thought as far ahead as that. She hadn’t thought about the connections. Maybe she had acted like an idiot. Shit.
She’d have to worry about that later. For now, she was still trying to process his anger. She hadn’t put their goal in jeopardy. In fact, if the information on the recording was good, she’d put him one step closer to the diamonds. She may have put herself in future danger, but why did that make him so upset?
Her voice was incredulous when she spoke. “Are you mad because...you’re worried about me?”
He didn’t answer for a long moment. When he did, his voice sounded more tired than angry. “Trust me, I’m as surprised as you are.”
She didn’t know what to say next, so she said nothing. She’d worked at Ignatius for most of her adult life and when she was accused and fired, not one of the co-workers she considered friends defended her. Except for Andrew, the rest of her family chose to believe the scandal instead of her protestations of innocence. They had pushed her away without one real conversation.
But here was this man—a professional criminal, of all things—and he believed in her innocence because he was smart enough to look at the facts and willing to listen. He was angry now, not because she’d somehow messed up his diamond-stealing plan but because she had put herself in jeopardy.
Jess felt abruptly disoriented. She could almost see her ideas of how the world worked and her preconceived notions of people...they were moving and shifting in her peripheral vision.
She didn’t know how to react when he left the window and stalked silently across the room to kneel in front of her, so she froze. She absolutely didn’t know what to do when he stared into her eyes, his own blazing with a startling mix of lust and leftover anger, so she closed hers.
When she opened them again, he was gone.
* * *
Jess showered and changed into a pair of cut-offs and a red t-shirt. Three hours of flicking through the channels on the flat-screen TV later, she resigned herself to the fact that Adam wasn’t going to come back.
That man made her crazy. In more ways than one.
Starving and restless, she decided to wander along the Strip and grab a burger somewhere. As she took the elevator down to the casino, she couldn’t ignore the pit of disappointment in her stomach. He’d told her they couldn’t be seen together—and that was before she pissed him off. But she must have been harboring some fantasy that they’d be able to spend time together somehow. Which would have been really stupid, she knew that. She was already way too entranced by him. Even if they were currently working together, their ultimate goals weren’t aligned. Getting any more involved with him would be a mistake.
But wasn’t Vegas the place where people went to make mistakes?
The Strip was crowded with tourists. She wolfed down her burger, realizing she hadn’t eaten the entire day. It felt good to be walking among other people in the warm night air. She smiled at the fountains in front of the Bellagio, smirked at the mini-Eiffel Tower in front of the Paris, watched the roller coaster at New York, New York. She was grateful for the endless distractions. She didn’t want to sit alone in her hotel room waiting for a man who was too upset with her to return that night.
She kept walking until she stood in front of the new star of the Strip, the Skylar Hotel. The tango competition was there, she remembered, wondering if she should go in. Well, why not? The night was young and she had nothing else to do.
She bought a ticket and entered an enormous auditorium with stadium seating, a large stage in the center, and a Jumbotron hanging over it. The lights were low and it took a moment for her eyes to adj
ust to the darkness. On stage, a couple in ornate red and black costumes prepared to take the floor. Jess took a seat up high and in the back. The cavernous stadium was less than half full, and she was grateful she wasn’t squeezed right next to someone chatting, texting or talking on a phone.
Because the dancing was riveting. Aside from a few episodes of “Dancing with the Stars,” Jess had never seen professionals. She was mesmerized by the footwork. Some of the steps were quick and light, but then there were slow, sliding stretches. The dancers would walk in one direction for a full minute—and then do four different direction changes in ten seconds. It was just so sensual. The energy and the longing, the way they threw their bodies on one another...it was like sex on hard wood.
The couple finished in a tight embrace to a wave of applause. Jess clapped furiously before leaning back to wait for the next performance.
Suddenly, she felt a tingle on the back of her neck. The air felt warmer and thicker. Her thigh muscles clenched. Adam. Her breath caught with excitement.
“I know you’re behind me,” she said softly.
“Don’t turn around. Lots of cameras here.” Speaking low, his voice was rough and hoarse. Jess closed her eyes, glad he couldn’t see her breathing go shallow. It wasn’t fair, she thought. Not fair at all that just the sound of his voice could make her go hot and liquid.
“How did you know I was here?” he whispered. “I didn’t make a sound.”
When she wasn’t looking at him, it was easier to tell the truth. “I felt you.”
He made a sound that was almost a groan. “You’re as...aware of me as I am of you?”
She needed to lighten this up or damn the cameras, she was going to turn around and climb in his lap. She wanted her voice to sound light and carefree. But when the words popped out, they just sounded breathless. “I think our pheromones like each other.”
He let out a growly laugh that made her hands go to fists in her lap.
She swallowed. “Did you follow me here?”
“Yes. Are you enjoying the dancing?”
“Very much.”
Trying to ignore her body’s molten response to the man sitting behind her, she focused on the dancing couple’s routine. Their tango was more dramatic than the last, a tumultuous love story told by their bodies. One moment, their facial expressions and body language were pure romance. The next, they played hard to get with each other. Then, they were on the verge of violence. Later in the dance, the man was the seducer and the woman was the prey.
She started to laugh then. It was just too ironic.
He spoke and she envisioned the smile on his lips. “You’re thinking that’s us, aren’t you? That you and I are doing some strange tango.”
“Aren’t we?”
Adam didn’t answer. She didn’t want him to vanish again. “Isn’t there somewhere we can go?” She asked. Even though it was a little easier to speak plainly without the light of those blue eyes on her face... “I want to look at you while we talk.”
There was a long moment of silence. If her body hadn’t still been so attuned to him that it almost hurt, she would have thought he left. “There’s a dive bar off the Strip. Kinney’s. I’ll meet you there.”
Chapter Nine
Kinney’s was just as dingy as Adam remembered from his last visit. Small, dark, and two miles off the Strip, few tourists made it in. Old school country and western music blared out of the jukebox in the corner, and a guy had been puking in the parking lot when his taxi dropped him off.
But it was worth it. Kinney’s was as off the grid as it was possible to be in Sin City.
In his wildest dreams, he’d never imagined taking Jess there. Even when he’d suggested the partnership and invited her to Vegas, he never conceived of the two of them spending time together in a dive bar away from the security cameras. Now, he may have daydreamed about the two of them off the cameras and naked in her hotel room. But not this. This was more like a...date?
She walked in the bar and every single muscle in his body tensed. Dressed simply in cut-off jeans and a faded red shirt, she outshone every other woman in the city. Tonight was the first time he’d ever seen her with her hair down. Dark and long, it lay down her back, falling just below her shoulder blades. The ends had brushed his knees when he sat behind her in the auditorium. He’d literally sat on his hands to keep from touching it.
“You’re not wearing your disguise.” He liked how her eyes raked over his face and chest. He wondered how low her eyes would have gone if the bottom half of him hadn’t been hidden by the high-boy table.
“Nope.”
“Just Jess and Adam tonight then?” His breath caught at the simple intertwining of their names. Jess and Adam.
He cleared his throat. “It’s a novelty,” he agreed.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” she said. “There was a long cab line.”
He handed her a bourbon. “I’m good at waiting,” he said. “I do a lot of waiting in my line of work.” Ugh. He wanted to kick himself. She might have admitted to the physical attraction between them, but that didn’t mean she was ready for an open conversation about his day-to-day criminal activities.
She surprised him again. “Tell me about your work.” When he gave her a skeptical glance, she said, “Really. I promise to never repeat a word. I just want to know you a little.”
There was no guile in her gaze, and Adam’s chest started to ache. When was the last time he’d had an entirely honest conversation with a woman he was interested in? Never.
“Tell me about golf first,” he asked.
Jess rolled her eyes, but nodded. “Well, when you’re the only girl in a large family with no mom, you’ll do anything to get Daddy’s attention.” Her tone was bright and carefree, but her eyes looked sad. “My dad and most of my brothers were sports-crazy. They played baseball, soccer, basketball—everything. So, I did too, hoping that my dad would spend time with me after school or on weekends like he did with my older brothers. But I sucked at everything, so it didn’t work.”
She paused to take a gulp of bourbon, and Adam blinked away a mental picture of a skinny, brown-eyed little girl desperate for some attention.
“My dad has always loved golf. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up, but in Chicago there are a ton of park district courses that you can play for cheap. One Saturday, when I was about nine, my Dad and brothers were about to leave for the golf course when my babysitter canceled. They had no choice but to take me.”
Jess looked off in the distance with a small smile on her full lips. “I can still remember my first tee shot. I watched my Dad and brothers go...and then it was my turn. I wanted to hit the ball so well, so hard, so far. And I did. My first tee shot outdrove all of my brothers’. Honestly, I think I did it by sheer force of will. My dad turned around with his mouth wide open. It felt like the first time he ever really saw me.”
She shrugged, meeting his eyes again. “So, golf became my thing. I had finally found something my dad would pay attention to.”
“Did you even like it?”
She grinned. “I liked winning. And it’s how I got my scholarship to college. Plus, it was good for me. If I didn’t have golf, I probably would have spent my entire life in my bedroom playing on the computer. I spent plenty of time doing that already.”
Something about her combination of words here—her spark of competitive toughness along with the mention of computers—reminded him of the question he’d wanted to ask since reading the first newspaper article. “You’re such a fighter, Jess,” he said. “When Davies made those unfounded accusations against you, why didn’t you attack with a lawyer? Why didn’t you sue Ignatius for wrongful termination and slander?”
She jerked backward a little, almost as though he’d physically hit her. For a moment, he thought she would deflect. But
instead, she looked at him straight in the eye and took a deep breath. “I started to. But... I told you about my dad and golf. That was one of two things that ever made him proud of me. The second was working at Ignatius.” She sighed. “My dad is a salt of the earth guy. He worked in construction for years and he’s a devout Catholic—goes to church twice a week. So when I was a rising star at the biggest Jesuit University in the country, he was as happy as I’ve seen him.”
Adam closed his eyes, briefly. “Your dad asked you to drop it.”
She squirmed on her chair before giving him such a sad smile he felt it in his chest. “I want to defend my father, but I’m just still so hurt. Yeah, he asked me to drop it. So I did.” She drained the small amount of bourbon still in her glass.
He hesitated, but then went ahead and said what was on his mind. “No mom?”
Jess gave a slow shake of the head. “She died when I was four. Right after she had Andrew, my younger brother. I don’t really remember her.”
“I don’t remember mine either.” The words just popped out. He couldn’t fucking believe it.
“Did you live with your uncle?” She asked. He froze. How the hell did she know about Tony? Oh, that’s right. She had found his arrest record and done a background check. His entire body tensed; this was enough of this line of questioning. He never discussed Tony. Not with anyone.
Which made it bewildering when his mouth opened and his lips moved. “My parents died when I was five, and after a few weeks in foster care, I went to live with my mother’s brother, Tony. I’d never even met him before.”
But he’d idolized him immediately. “He was so cool,” he said to Jess, smiling at her. “He didn’t care if I went to school. We ate McDonald’s whenever I wanted. He had the most interesting group of friends who came by the apartment at all hours of the night.” Plus, Tony was unexpectedly affectionate. “He hugged me, all the time,” he said softly. “For a traumatized orphan who’d seen what foster care was like, he was a godsend.”
Caught in the Act: A Jewel Heist Romance Anthology Page 26