Best Laid Plans(116)

She walked upstairs.

She certainly had bravado when no one else was around, Joseph thought.

He followed her up the stairs. If she wouldn’t drink the tea, which would have been a far more peaceful death, he’d be perfectly content to make her suffer.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have the time to prolong it. He suspected that Kincaid and Crawford would realize that they’d been manipulated.

Adeline started to type in the code to the safe. This was the one thing he needed her to do, because she was paranoid and changed the code every week. He needed the banking information.

“Why aren’t you packing?” Adeline said before hitting the last two numbers.

“I’m packed.”

The bell rang.

“Dammit! See who that is.” The safe default beeped. “Now I have to wait five minutes.”

He glanced at his phone and pulled up the security feed. Two federal agents, the two who had been in the car. Their guns were out. One moved around to the rear entrance.

How had the feds figured it out so soon? Were there only two agents?

He could handle two agents.

But he couldn’t wait five minutes.

He reached out and grabbed Adeline.

“Joseph? What?”

He scowled. “You pathetic, greedy little bitch. I wish I had time to make you suffer—because I certainly know how.”

Before she could respond, he jerked her body one way and her head the other. Her neck snapped.

“I never worked for you,” he said.

The bell rang again.

Joseph ran down the stairs, then down into the basement. Behind the wine rack was a hidden door. Harper had closed it off because he was worried about home security when his daughter was little, but the door still worked—Joseph had made sure of it long ago. He grabbed his stash of guns next to the exit, slipped out into the side yard, and used the darkness to run to the barn. He picked up a secondary bag of supplies in one of the stalls, and tossed everything behind the seat of his truck, which he’d hidden in the barn instead of Adeline’s Cadillac.

He sat behind the wheel and called Tobias.

“I couldn’t get the codes from the safe. We’ll need to use Everett.”

“I’ve already put the plan in motion.”

Through clenched teeth, Joseph said, “I told you to wait.”

“You’re not in charge. And obviously, I was right—Adeline wouldn’t open the safe for you.”

“The feds were knocking on the door. I had to break her neck.”

“Finally. Damn, I hate that bitch.”

Joseph wanted to break Tobias’s neck. If he hadn’t f*cked up to begin with, they wouldn’t have been in this mess. Though if Tobias hadn’t f*cked up two months ago, they might never have learned about the FBI sting. One silver lining in a cesspool of disasters.

“I’m going to base, you’d better not screw this up. We need that money if we’re going to rebuild.”

“I’m taking care of it.”

“If anything happens to Elise, I’ll kill you myself.”

He hung up. Joseph had never wanted Elise and Tobias to work together. They were both dangerous on their own, but together they were reckless. It was like they fueled each other, each trying to outdo the other. But he’d promised that he would protect both of them, no matter what.

Thank God they weren’t his family.





CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX



“Who is Mona Hill and what information do I have about her?” Kane asked Sean after he hung up with Lucy.

Sean told him the truth. He told Kane everything, including that Hill had Lucy’s rape tape.

“You should have killed her,” Kane said. “She now knows where you’re vulnerable. Another reason why I have no attachments.”

Sean had thought the same thing—not that he shouldn’t love Lucy, but that he should have killed Mona Hill. But he wasn’t Kane, and killing someone was always the last choice on his list. He was hedging his bets that Mona’s affection for her sister would keep her far away from him and Lucy. “I know where she’s vulnerable.”

“The difference is she’s ruthless and will take out innocents. You won’t. She’ll figure that out eventually.”

Sean ignored the comment.

“It makes sense now,” Sean said. “Adeline has been laundering money for Tobias, and two months ago—when we raided Trejo’s compound—something changed in their relationship and she backed off. There was a shitload of transactions right before and after we found the guns, and nothing for the last two months. James Everett was talking to the feds, Harper Worthington started investigating his wife, and Garza came up with the plan to use his pet hooker to kill Worthington.”

“Garza was a pawn,” Kane said. “It was all Tobias. And if James Everett was talking to the feds, I’m betting he’s dead, too.”

“They need Everett,” Sean said. “The escrow accounts are controlled by Adeline and Everett. The Texas Land Holding group.”

“So he might not be dead now,” Kane said dryly. “Give Tobias a few minutes to torture the money out of him.”

Kane was certainly in a shitty mood, but it probably had something to do with his informant being killed.