Best Laid Plans(104)
Nate knew what had really happened down there, but Sean didn’t completely trust FBI phones, so was discreet.
“How certain are you?”
“I wouldn’t ask you if I wasn’t almost positive.”
“The girl confirmed that Rob Garza hired her to take dirty pictures of Worthington, and that he gave her the syringe. She swears she didn’t know the drugs would kill him.”
“She just gave him up?”
“No—it took being nearly killed twice to scare her into cooperating. Kenzie and two other agents are on their way to Garza’s office right now. They’ll bring him in for questioning, but I swear, Sean, if you retaliate, I can’t protect you.”
“I won’t. Thanks, buddy.”
Sean hung up and called Donnelly. “Where are you?”
“Trying to get into the hospital. It’s a f*cking zoo out here.”
“I’m on the fourth floor. A private office, room E four-oh-four. Hurry.”
*
Adeline had been trying to reach Tobias’s people all day. Nothing. Nothing!
Her life was over. She was going to lose everything.
She straightened her spine. Never. She was too strong, too powerful to take this hit sitting down. She had plenty of money, plenty of resources.
She found Joseph Contreras in his small, tidy office off the kitchen. “You have to find Tobias, or someone! Tell them I’ll pay him. Everything he thinks I owe. And more.”
“I’ve tried, Adeline.” Joseph looked pained and worried. “I’m concerned about you. I think we’ve underestimated this man.”
“I don’t know how! He was left with nothing two months ago. How could he do this to me?”
“Maybe he had a bigger network than we thought.”
She didn’t see how that could be, but there was no other logical explanation.
“Then we need to take a vacation,” she said.
“Tonight?”
It was already afternoon. It would take time to liquidate money. There was plenty in her offshore accounts, but very little—since Jolene’s lawyers had frozen all of Harper’s assets pending distribution per his will—cash on hand.
“Tomorrow morning. We need to quickly and quietly drain my accounts.”
“Should I call Rob?”
“No,” she snapped. “I don’t trust him. Even if he had nothing to do with bringing that whore to San Antonio, there’s something strange about that whole situation. He screws her in D.C. and two months later she’s here? Either Rob is playing both sides, or he’s an idiot. No one can know what I’m planning. Don’t use any of my phones. I don’t trust the feds. Who do they think they are coming in here and treating me like a criminal? I’m an elected official! I’m their boss.”
She paced, angry and nervous and scared. “Have everything ready by tomorrow and we’ll leave, first thing in the morning.” She froze. “You will come with me, right?”
Joseph smiled and rose from his desk. He was a tall man, with a hardened expression, but still very handsome. He’d been with her for nearly five years, and was the only one she could truly depend on.
He put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her lightly. “I am honored that you want me to join you. I promise, I’ll make sure everything goes smoothly.”
“You always do,” she said, a bit breathless. They’d only slept together a couple of times, but each time had been a slice of heaven. “Do you want…?” She left the thought open.
“Yes,” he said, running his thumb over her lips. “But I have much work to do to make sure everything goes off without a hitch. In two nights, we’ll be in Andorra. And then … we’ll let nature take its inevitable course.”
He was right, of course. She was just feeling a bit lost right now. And scared. “The guards are still here, right?”
“Of course, Adeline. I’ll check in with them before I leave to take care of the business. They’ll make sure you’re safe. Don’t leave the house. I won’t be long.”
*
Rob Garza had spent all yesterday and last night making calls, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Elise Hansen was his contact. He’d been using her special services for the past nine months, had learned nasty bits of information about the people he worked with and for, in addition to having fun screwing the little whore. But who hired her to kill Harper? It had to have been Adeline … she must have found Elise after catching them in her office. She’d been so mad, but Rob ignored it because she was happy with the information Elise had uncovered. Yet … that was the one explanation. Adeline hired Elise to kill Harper because she no longer trusted Rob. Not only hired her to kill Harper, but frame him. It wouldn’t take the feds long to track Elise down to D.C., and back to him.
And Adeline had the audacity to imply that it was him who’d come up with this asinine plan? That he’d hired the whore to kill Harper?
The backstabbing bitch.
Unless it really was Tobias—then they were both dead.
Elise Hansen was certainly capable of killing someone. At times, she’d snuck up on him in his apartment in D.C. The way she’d looked at him, she’d seemed to be just as happy screwing him as stabbing him with a knife. But she’d always come through. Always.