Off Limits(138)

“Okay, honey. Alix . . . I love you.”

“I love you too, Mom. See you at the house.”





Chapter 30





Alix





Salinas, California is supposed to be the center of the California wine country. It’s situated in an area a few miles inland of the Big Sur coastline region, and is located in the middle of the biggest grape producing valley in California.

The reality of Salinas is that it’s a pretty poor area, actually. With lots of undocumented immigrants, migrant farm laborers, and not a lot of good schools, Salinas is a picturesque crap-hole of a town. Gangs and gang violence are always bubbling beneath the surface of the town, and even when I’d come up to do modeling shoots, my agency had been very specific about me being in and out of town during daylight hours only.

Still, driving down main street, the town looked pretty. “This place looks nice enough to me,” Rita said, looking around. “It looks like an old-fashioned small town.”

“Mostly,” Vince said. He pointed toward a store on his right. “But check out the wall on the corner there.”

I looked, seeing lots of spray-painted graffiti, and nodded. Indecipherable to me, it was still a clear sign that there was lots of violence in the area. “So what now?”

“Now, we put out the bait, let Sydney try and bite, and deliver him to Vince’s friends,” Kade said. “Then we go back for Dad’s service.”

“It was a nice touch that Layla, even when she was so angry, delayed the service so you could attend,” Vince said. “Just sayin’.”

“Well, I am his son, but yes, I agree.” Kade said. “Go ahead and park here. Rita, do you have a wireless signal?”

“Strong and clear,” she said. “What do you need?”

“Have you gotten any more updates on Syd’s location?”

“None. He’s gotten wise about Web usage, and that hit at the ATM certainly wasn’t him.”

Considering that the feed had shown a woman, I nodded at the understatement. “Probably another one of his targets,” I muttered. “So are you ready?”

Rita nodded and pulled out her cellphone. “It’s wirelessly linked to this computer, so I can upload it to his email without him getting my number. If he thinks he’s got security measures, he can’t even imagine what I’ve got going on here.”

I nodded and got out of the car, making sure that a large sign for Salinas was in the background. I looked in at Kade, who nodded and gave me a thumbs up. Time to go to work.

I’m not much of an actress, one of the reasons I never went in that direction, but it wasn’t hard to work up some tears and anger in my voice. After all, the bastard had blackmailed me, hit me, cheated on me, tried to either kill or rape me, and had certainly tried to kill Kade. When I was ready, I hit the record button on the phone.

“Syd, I tracked you down. You ruined my life, you son of a bitch, and I can’t take it anymore. Kade’s left me, my Mom hates me, I can’t work any longer . . . motherf*cker, I can’t do it anymore. So, you win. You have my phone number, call me. Tell me how much it will take to get you off my back forever, get those files deleted, and get a new start on my life. Please, Syd.”

I shut off the camera and wiped at my eyes, quickly getting back into the car. Rita handed me a couple of tissues, and I blew my nose noisily. “Well, that’s certainly not dainty.”

“Can it, Vince,” Rita said, not even lifting her eyes from her computer as she typed. “Just make sure your boys are ready when Syd calls to set something up. He’s too arrogant not to.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Rita grinned and tapped the touchpad on the laptop. “Good boy. Now we wait.”

We didn’t have to wait long, Sydney must have had a phone notification or something set up on his email. My phone rang, and I looked. Syd. “Hello, Sydney.”

“So Alix, coming to your senses, are you?”

“I’m still not coming back to you, Sydney. I’d rather jump into the Pacific off Big Sur.”

Sydney’s evil laugh chilled me, and I had to resist hanging up right then. I wondered again, for perhaps the millionth time, how I could have fallen for Sydney. “Alix, I don’t want a relationship with you anymore. I just want money, and perhaps some sugar. You think you can do that?”

“You still want to f*ck me,” I said, a quick grin flashing across my features as Kade’s fists tightened in his lap in the front seat. “Fine. What the f*ck ever. Get your f*cking rocks off, as long as you delete the damn files. I want them all deleted, Syd. And you take down the videos of me and Kade from the websites you put them up on.”

“You know that won’t ensure they won’t pop up in the future.”

“It’s a start,” I said, letting him think I was deluded. It’s the Internet, once something hits it, it almost never comes off. I knew that very clearly. I grew up in modeling and in the Los Angeles area. “Where and when?”

“There’s a motel, just north of the Northridge Mall on Main Street. The Bluebird of Happiness. Meet me there in forty-five minutes. No car, you walk up and I’ll meet you in the parking lot. We can talk money and sugar then.”