Hope to Lie (DeSantos Book 2)

by A. R. Case

  “So this is a gift?” She swept her arm around her. “Must be nice to be you.”

  He studied her. “Have you ever heard the expression, don’t bite the hand that feeds you?”

  “See, that’s what I mean. You want me to play nice. Maybe woo me a little, get me drunk so I put out, and then you can bail on me without feeling guilty. Well, newsflash, if I make mistakes, I make em sober. That’s why we need to negotiate now.”

  “Alexis, that is not how things work.”

  “No? See I know how things work. Like there was this mogul in the city, New York, not this little town, well, okay he’s been here, too, but that’s not the point. Anyways, he said the exact same thing to me. Right after he offered me a modeling gig. I’m five-fucking-two. Like I’d ever be a model. I know another expression, nothing in life is free, so what do I owe? Because I pay my debts, upfront.”

  Ellis nodded his head and shook it right after. “I’m glad you do, and I’m also glad you didn’t fall for that old line.” He set his phone down on the fancy table that loosely could be called a desk because it had a drawer and a slot for the phone cord. “You owe me three albums. See, Chris isn’t the only person who invested in your career. I stand to make at least eighteen percent return on the merchandising alone. That’s better than most stock portfolios. But if you only do two albums, I’m down about a quarter-million. That’s not great, but I’m still in the black, with a new business line.”

  “What if I don’t make any albums?”

  “That’s what insurance policies are for.” He pulled a set of papers out of his briefcase. “A copy of your contract and the insurance rider Chris had you sign last week. Page six. The LLC is Chris and I.”

  Alexis didn’t take the papers offered. She’d read the contract. The only new part was the ownership of the LLC. That stung.

  “I’d also like information,” he said.

  “Now we get to the middle of the Tootsie Pop.”

  “What is the other business Chris is starting?” Ellis asked.

  There was a gleam in his eye. Damn. She needed to sit down before her nerves killed her.

  “Something with real estate, I think.” The couch was too low, and she felt more comfortable on a barstool behind the wet bar. Under it was more than ten types of alcohol. She didn’t recognize a couple of names. The ones she did recognize were impressively expensive.

  Would ten a.m. be too early to start drinking?

  “Do you know where?”

  She glanced at him, then continued rummaging. Scotch. Yuck. Rum, maybe? “There’s one place he said would make a good parking lot. Apparently, Hammond would be interested. It’s right next to that property he wants for another casino.” Ah, score! One of the good tequilas. Unfortunately, the smallest glass was a tumbler. She sniffed the bottle to make certain it was truly the good stuff.

  “Really.”

  Ellis had a way of making questions into statements. Alexis preferred Chris’s straight-forward approach. Two fingers of tequila went into the glass. “There’s at least ten properties, and he turned down quite a few more. The papers covered the living room for a night or two.” Two swishes to see if it clung to the glass. It did, of course. She inhaled the vapors wafting up. Vanilla, with a wicked edge to it. If only it tasted like that. It was fire on her tongue and smoky going down. “Ah.” She breathed to make the vapors prickling her nose dissipate.

  “Who owns the properties?”

  “People like Redd.” Another sip. “You know, criminals.” She winked at him.

  Ellis smiled then shook his head. “Never thought DeSantos was that much of a risk-taker,” he hummed.

  “Oh, he’s not. They are all legal.”

  “Even better.”

  The phone on the desk, not Ellis’s cell, rang. It startled Alexis so much a few precious drops of alcohol spilled on her fingers. She was licking them off as she eavesdropped on the call. “I see, yes, patch him through.” There was another pause.

  “DeSantos.” There was a pause, and Ellis’s smile dropped. “Who is this?” He covered the mouthpiece to ask Alexis a question but was interrupted. “Put DeSantos on. I need proof.”

  “Chris, are you okay?” Franco’s voice got a bit louder. “Put him back on. No, I’m not alone.”

  There was a moment where the silence was deafening. Ellis Franco put the phone into its cradle very carefully.

  “I need to call the authorities.” Franco began searching for information on his phone. But his personal phone rang this time. “Not a good time.” Then, “Chris, are you…put him on.” There was a span of conversation. Ellis wrote down an address on a notepad. “None of your business.”

  “Ellis, what is going on?” Alexis asked.

  The caller hung up again.

  “What was all that?” She put the glass to her lips to chug the remainder of the glass. Maybe her hands would stop shaking so much.

  “Your ghost is trying to ransom Chris.”

  Alexis coughed on the fumes. “Ransom, as in money for Chris?”

  “That’s what I said.” Ellis opened his laptop, searched for information. Then he dialed the contact on the site. He was placed on hold.

  “I know an FBI agent.”

  Franco straightened. “You making this up?”

  “Why does everyone think I lie all the time?”

  “Because you do,” Franco observed.

  She screamed in frustration. On her phone, she called Mills. “Hi, secret agent man, I need you, big boy. Put on something sexy to wear.”

  Ellis disconnected his call to listen.

  “No, I’m not kidding, Mills. Leather pants, or just those damn skintight blue jeans you kick ass in but wear a tight, black and sexy shirt, not those stupid knockoff concert shirts, and that dog collar I saw you snag from the hospital. Did you keep the chain, too? You kinky boy.”

  She pulled over the pad of paper that Franco had written on and rattled off the address. “Hop on it or I’ll tell Crank you’re being bad.” She hung up.

  “Do we have time for all that?”

  “No, but you wanted authorities, he’s one. And he can throw a mean punch. Let’s hope he calls his friends this time. You know, the guys in suits?”

  Franco was still shaking his head an hour later when they pulled up outside a dive bar in one of the worst sections of the city.

  ~~~~~~~

  “I don’t understand why you hate me so much.” Chris tested the zip ties around his wrist. They were slightly slack. There hadn’t been a chance to get Ghost alone until now, and his hands were tied. Literally. At least the two Brigands who’d been with him last night were gone. The odds were a little better in Chris’s favor despite the zip ties.

  Ghost played with his knife, flipping it open and closed. “Are you certain this Franco guy is going to show?”

  Chris wasn’t certain. When Ghost had finally picked a target, Franco was one of the last ones Chris thought Ghost’s scheme would work on. Not because he didn’t know him well enough, but because Franco didn’t invest emotionally, friends or not.

  “There’s always another target,” Chris answered.

  “Naw. We’ll stick with your plan for now.”

  It wasn’t Chris’s plan. He had a plan, but he couldn’t act on it. Mills should have been following Chris last night and then today. But apparently, he hadn’t because there’d been zero cavalry so far. Unless the agent had a different plan. All of the plans were crossing over themselves, and not moving fast enough for Chris. It was fucked up.

  The waitress Ghost had paid to escort Franco to the back room came in. “They’re here.”

  “How many?” Ghost asked.

  Chris was supposed to be playing at being hostage, despite the very real zip ties, so he stayed quiet.

  “Two.”

  “She with him?”


  “Yes.”

  Ghost smiled. Chris got an uneasy feeling.

  It worsened when Alexis and Daniel Mills walked in.

  “What are you doing here?” Chris broke character. He needed Alexis safe, not playing the hero.

  “It looks like I’m designated ass-saver today,” she answered.

  “Where’s the rich guy?” Ghost asked.

  “He’s back in the car, with a bodyguard, like all smart, little, rich boys should be,” Alexis said.

  Ghost pointed at Mills, “I see Crank still has his dog following you.”

  “Yes, that’s why he’s got my collar and everything.” Alexis bumped Daniel’s arm. “Show him, sweetie.”

  “Slowly,” Ghost warned. He had his gun in hand again. He pointed it at Mills.

  Mills complied, zipping his coat down to show off the collar which had previously been on Alexis. He did it in a way so his hands were visible the entire time. However, the scowl on his face was not pretty.

  “I’ll be damned. You kept it.” Ghost chuckled. “I may have underestimated you.”

  Alexis looked around the room and addressed Ghost. “How’d Chris con you into doing this scam anyways?”

  “It’s not a scam,” Chris said.

  Alexis rolled her eyes. “Of course not, because kidnapping for ransom is so cliché when it’s done for real.”

  “Maybe if certain women didn’t show up instead of the right people I wouldn’t have to.” Chris growled under his breath.

  Ghost laughed. “Dog, go get the money. I don’t see you carrying it.”

  Mills looked at Alexis and Chris, and finally at Ghost. “That’s not how this goes down.”

  The gun moved off Mills to Alexis. “Yes, it is. You go get it.”

  “Alexis is supposed to get it,” Mills said.

  “I’m changing your script. Go, dog, go.” He laughed again, this time at some inner joke.

  “Go, Dan,” Alexis said, and made a shooing gesture. “Take Chris with you.”

  “No.” Chris balanced on his toes to stand up.

  “Fuck this.” Ghost hit Chris against the head with the butt of the pistol. Then he pointed it at Mills. “Kneel, dog. Your time is done.”

  The agent didn’t comply aside from holding both hands up and taking a step backward.

  “Jesus, you don’t have to shoot him. I have the money with me.” Alexis scowled. She pulled it out of her black tote bag.

  “I knew I liked you, Blue, but I’m afraid you didn’t listen when I said I’m changing the script.”

  “I thought you wanted Ellis’s money?” She waved a bundled stack to get his attention off Mills. It only half-worked.

  Ghost motioned to the back door. “Move.” Alexis started toward the door. Ghost continued. “Chris was thinking too small, and while I appreciate him getting what you got in that bag there, I need more. That’s where you come in.”

  “Chris doesn’t have that kind of money lying around, so ransoming me isn’t going to work.”

  “You’re not listening. You have at least four hundred grand laying around. See, your little ex-boyfriend, Dylan, he was a regular chatterbox. You don’t pick ‘em very well, do you?”

  “Obviously not. What did you promise so he’d rat me out?”

  “He was cheap. Apparently, he’s two months behind on rent because Mommy and Daddy cut him off, and a certain girlfriend he’d been dating was broke. So he needed to be free of that to find a new girl to sponge off of. But then, the old girlfriend got rich and held a grudge. Poor guy.”

  “He’s a damn liar. I paid last month’s rent.”

  “Takes one to know one,” Mills muttered under his breath.

  “Shut up, Dog,” Alexis snapped at him. Mills shut up.

  Ghost watched the exchange. “You got him trained, huh.”

  “Duh.” Alexis pointed at the collar. “Mine.”

  Ghost nodded like it made sense. “Open that.” Ghost indicated the back door to Mills.

  The agent moved between Alexis and Ghost to open the door. His position allowed her to go out first. He held the door for Ghost, but the man motioned with this gun to lead the way. Mills complied.

  Chapter 24 — Good cop

  Someone was tapping Chris’s face, and they weren’t being gentle about it. “Ow. That hurts.”

  “You’re bleeding,” a familiar voice said.

  He opened his eyes, well, one of them. Ellis was over him, and Chris was on the floor. “Damn it, my head hurts.”

  “I think you were hit on the back of the head. I can call an ambulance. Where’s Alexis and that FBI agent?” Ellis asked.

  Chris launched up to a sitting position and immediately regretted it. His fingers came away from the back of his head sticky and red. “She’s not with you?”

  “No. She and that agent came in here and I was supposed to wait in the car, but…”

  He finished for his friend, “But it was taking too long. How long?”

  “That’s what I like about you, always knowing the most immediate problem.”

  “How long?” Chris scowled.

  Ellis straightened up. “Exactly twelve minutes. She said ten, he said fifteen. I figured I’d split the difference and get them both mad at me. The bar out there was empty, and the bartender said you were in here. Apparently, there’s no brunch crowd.”

  Chris tried to stand up but wobbled. Ellis caught his arm to keep him from falling onto his face. “The waitress.”

  “Who?”

  Shaking his head was a mistake. The edges of his vision went black. “Dark hair, no ass.”

  Ellis looked at him with one eyebrow higher than the other.

  “Ghost was working with a waitress here. She should still be here.”

  “Ah, yes she is.” Ellis hesitated. “Do you need help walking?”

  Glaring at his friend was limited to a half-assed slide of his eyes sideways. Moving his head would hurt too much. As it was, he couldn’t spare more than a glance at Ellis because it threw his balance off. The spot where Ghost hit him was throbbing to his racing heartbeat. “No.” He looked out at the alley where a dumpster, a scattered stack of cardboard boxes, and two broken chairs took up most of the space. It snowed earlier in the week, and not melted. Tire marks from Ghost’s truck made a sharp vee pattern where he’d backed up then left the alley. He and Ghost’s footprints trailed to the building and three sets dotted the snow from the building back to where the truck had been. There was no sign of struggle or blood. He looked at the scene for a second or two, then turned back into the building. “Let’s get that waitress. You’re the good cop. Offer her money.”

  “Huh?” Ellis stayed rooted to the spot he was standing.

  Chris turned back on him. “Or not, I guess.” He shrugged and turned to leave.

  “Chris, wait.”

  “Ellis, I don’t have time. Alexis shouldn’t have been here. Whose idea was that?”

  That got the man unstuck. “Hers, not mine. I thought she’d be okay if that agent was with her. But I assume they are both gone. Do you have a plan?”

  “Yes, question the waitress, figure out how well she knows Ghost, and find out if she knows where he’s been staying, then if that doesn’t work, hit the usual places and kick his ass when I find him.”

  “What about waiting for the authorities?”

  Chris glared at him. “Like the FBI agent that just let himself get kidnapped?” He spit on the floor, showing his contempt.

  Ellis looked uncomfortable.

  “Listen, I get it if you don’t want to help. Just please don’t get in my way.” Chris snagged a napkin from the waitress station that was just outside the private room they’d been in.

  “Why am I the good cop?” Ellis asked.

  “Because I don’t think you can do bad cop
.”

  His friend scanned him up and down. “Well, you do look the part I suppose.”

  The girl was stocking the bar. Chris walked into her space until she backed up against the wall. The manager on duty looked over and began to say something, but Ellis pulled out a fifty-dollar bill and said, “We just want a moment of her time.”

  The girl eyed the money, Ellis’s clothes, then Chris in his leather jacket. “I don’t know anything.”

  “Do you know where he might be hiding from me?”

  She glanced at Ellis again. He looked at the ceiling fixtures. “Quaint place. I wonder when it was last inspected for pests.” The manager frowned in their direction and moved closer.

  Chris smiled. He pulled out his wallet and held up a hundred-dollar bill. “I forgot to tip. Where is he?”

  Ellis continued his inspection of the area. “Did they even mop in the last decade? I see at least seven health code violations, and…” he glanced at the room, “…two building code violations. I wonder whether these folks enjoy working? Because one call and they don’t have a job.” He frowned and pulled a handkerchief from his pocket. He made a show of wiping his hands.

  The hundred disappeared from Chris’s fingers. The manager grabbed it. “He’s holed up in that piss-orange, shit-hole motel on Forty. The non-chain one.”

  Chris smiled. He knew which one it was. “Thanks, nice place you’ve got here.”

  They left in Ellis’s sedan.

  “I take it back. You can be bad cop from now on.” Chris dabbed at the sore spot at the back of his head.

  “Thanks. I enjoyed that immensely.” He glanced at his GPS and turned a corner. “Are you certain we shouldn’t call the police?”

  “When Ghost called, did you try to call the police?”

  “FBI office.” Ellis trailed off, making a noise of disgust.

  Chris waited.

  “They put me on hold.”

  “That’s Ghost’s truck. Go past and turn left. There should be a side street that goes along on the backside.”

  “Lovely neighborhood. I should buy it and bulldoze it for condos. There’s easy highway access, and zoning would be easier to arrange.”