Dangerous Secrets (Tall, Dark & Deadly #2)(47)

He shoved a hand to her throat. “You have no idea what you are into, bitch. What journal?”

Gina grabbed at his hands, gasping for air. “Let go,” she squeaked. “Let…go.”

“You going to tell me what I want to know?”

“Yes. Yes.”

He loosed his hold on her neck but didn’t let go. “I heard Julie talking to someone named Diana about a dead person’s journal. I did some research and figured out that’s Elizabeth’s sister.”

“Where is it?”

“She and that Walker brother have it,” she hissed.

“You’re going to get it for me and you can forget the fifty-f*cking thousand dollars. The only one who’ll be paying anything is you if I don’t get it. That price will be your life. The people I work with will bleed you dry to get what they want and then make you disappear.”

***

Judge Moore sat on the edge of the lumpy mattress and dropped his head into his hands. “Shit,” he mumbled letting the word echo through the empty room.

He had gotten himself into a hell of a mess. If Arel found out he had done him wrong he would be a dead man. Just hearing his wife had caused more trouble would be enough to make Arel mad enough to draw blood. If Arel ever found out he and Dragonfly had double-crossed him, they’d be digging their own graves.

He picked up the hotel phone, knowing the call wouldn’t be traced because no one would ever know he had been there. The line rang three times before he heard a clipped hello.

“We have problems,” he said without any greeting.

“Damn you, I told you to never call me at work.”

“Unless you want Arel to know his trusted man Dragonfly did him wrong, you’d better listen.”

Silence greeted him for several long moments in which he could tell the other man was walking, probably to privacy. Finally, he said, ”Go on.”

“My wife had a journal which she gave to her sister. I doubt it exposes us to the police, but she saw you with me several times. We need that journal so Arel can’t get to it.”

A series of muffled curses rumbled across the line. “So I’ll do the sister and get the journal.”

“She gave it to Julie Harrison and if you kill either of them, you know damn well it’s going to bring attention on me.”

“No bodies, not murder. Believe me, I know how to make people disappear.”

“And if you bring me down, I’ll take you with me.”

More silence. “What do you propose we do then? Sit on our f*cking hands?”

“I have someone close to Julie who’s going to get me the journal. Once we know what’s inside, we can decide what to do about anyone who’s read it.”

“When will you have it?”

“Soon.”

“Get it and get it now, because if you don’t make me feel as warm and fuzzy as a school girl in pink quickly, I’ll deal with this my way.”

The line went dead.





Chapter Sixteen


Tuesday flew by for Julie. She stood in Luke’s bathroom, dressed in an emerald silk knee-length gown, applying her lipstick, and wondering where he’d gotten to. They’d spent the afternoon at the gallery readying it for tonight, and Luke had used the excuse of helping her to plant some surveillance equipment. The charity event included a live band and the dancing began at seven. Fortunately there were volunteers the door, so she didn’t have to be there any longer than she had to be without Luke. Her nerves were jumping all over the place, but worrying about him was making her crazy. He and one of his men were going to break into the judge’s house while he was at the event and look for the safe Elizabeth mentioned in the journal. And while she knew Luke was an ex-SEAL, she also knew exactly what she’d told him back at the airport. SEALs could die, too.

Voices carried from the other room and she grabbed her small cocktail purse from the bed and went looking for Luke. She found him and Blake both in all black, and there were two other, also very good looking, men – one with a short, military cut, the other with longish blonde hair that curled at the ends.

Good lord, she thought. Their mothers must have taken some sort of hormone to breed hot men. There was so much testosterone in the place she was afraid the apartment might go up in flames.

Luke pulled her under his arm, his big body warm and wonderful, and she clung to him. She didn’t want him to die.

“I told you about the task force that’s in on tonight. They’ll be nearby watching, but we have our own team in place, and they are the only ones you are to trust, ever. I don’t care who shows you a badge, the people in this room are the people you listen to.”

“Okay,” Julie said. “Do we think there’s a problem with the task force?”

“We have a judge involved and the Dragonfly who has yet to be identified. We aren’t taking any chances.” He motioned to the dark haired man. “This is Jesse. He’s going to be driving the cab that is taking you to the gallery.”

“He’s a former NYPD detective,” Blake said, leaning against a counter, arms folded. “We couldn’t trust that he wouldn’t be recognized at the event so he’ll stay out of sight. He’ll be nearby if you need him though.”

Jesse gave her a two-finger salute. “Your chauffeur awaits, madam.”