Best Laid Plans(121)
“Jimmy,” she said. “You’re being slow. Which makes me think you’re f*cking with me.”
“I’m not! I swear. Come see. The network is slow. I don’t know why, it’s just taking a long time for every command. I don’t know what else to do. I’ve tried everything.”
“Maybe if Pete f*cks your wife? I can have him FaceTime you while he tears her up. That would be fun. Maybe that would motivate you. Naw, it would probably just turn you on. Especially if I have Pete spank her.”
“Please don’t hurt my family.”
“Oh, no, Daddy, I wouldn’t think of it. Spank me, Daddy. Harder.” She laughed. Oh, damn, she was having fun. “Jay, make sure Daddy isn’t lying to us.”
She watched as Toby’s right-hand goon walked behind the desk. He pressed the gun to Everett’s temple and looked at the screen. “It’s going, Elise. Forty-seven percent.”
“This is the fourth account! Don’t you guys have broadband or a T3 connection or something? Are you in the f*cking stone age of the Internet?”
Everett was shaking. “They could be updating the system. Or doing maintenance or … I don’t know, I don’t know!” he sobbed.
Her phone vibrated and she saw that she had a text from Pete. Shit, that guy was needy. She’d told him to do one thing and this was the third time he’d texted her. But she looked, because she wasn’t stupid. If there was a problem, she needed to know about it.
She pulled her phone from her pocket and read the message. “Oh, shit! I don’t f*cking believe it. Toby is going to be thrilled.”
Jay gave her an odd look. She rolled her eyes. She didn’t care what the goon thought. She called Toby.
“Hey, big brother, I have some in-ter-est-ing news.”
“Everett is dead and we have my money.”
“Our money,” she corrected. “Almost as good. Your two favorite federal agents showed up at Everett’s place. They’re disarmed and tied up, waiting for us.”
“Kincaid and Crawford?”
“Kincaid and Donnelly.”
“Are you sure?”
“Pete just texted me.”
“I don’t trust him.”
“He’s harmless.”
“He’s an idiot.”
“True. So? Can he shoot them? Gut them? Maim them? Rape them? Cut their fingers off? Hey, I can get Donnelly’s dick for you. Box it up with a pretty bow.”
“Shut up.”
She laughed.
“Something’s wrong.”
She stopped laughing. She liked playing games, but Toby had the best instincts of anyone she knew, even herself. And she was pretty damn magnificent.
“Get out.”
“What?”
“It shouldn’t be taking this long. He’s stalling, or the feds are already there. How much do we have?”
She looked over at Jay. “Toby wants to know how much we have.”
Jay looked at his tablet. “Three point three.”
She repeated the number. Toby swore a blue streak, and she held the phone away from her ear.
“Elise, dammit! Are you there?”
“Sorry. Dropped the phone.” She winked at Jay. “You were saying?”
“Do exactly what I say,” Toby said in a low voice. “Tell Jay to stay until we reach ten mill, then kill Everett and disappear. But you need to leave now.”
“What about the agents? I don’t like Kincaid. She looked at me funny. I think she’s psychic or something.”
“There’s no such thing as psychics.”
“Yeah, well, she was suspicious.”
“Tell Pete to kill them all.”
“Are you sure?
“Do what I say or I will kill you, Elise. You’ve been pushing me this week.”
“I’ll kill you first,” she said in a singsong voice. “Stop, Toby. You know I love you more than anyone in the whole wide world.” She winked at Jay. “You’re my big brother.”
“Then start listening to me, little girl!”
“Hey, I’m moving. You don’t have to be such a bully.” She kissed the phone and hung up.
“Jay, come here.”
The big lug lumbered over. She stood on her tippy toes and whispered, “The boss says when we get to ten mill, you know what to do.”
Jay nodded.
She loved stupid hunks.
She kissed him, because she knew he hated it when she did that, then she turned to Everett. “Good-bye, Jimmy.”
“Please. My family. Don’t hurt them.”
“They’re better off without you.” She didn’t say that they, too, were going to be dead, because then he might not finish giving her brother back his money.
Well, their money, because they were family.
*
Sean heard every word Elise said.
He and Kane were in the office adjoining Everett’s. Sean had hooked up his own computer to the network and was slowing everything down, while simultaneously transferring the money to a different account than what was being shown to Everett and the goon watching him. He estimated that Everett had transferred just over two million dollars to Tobias before Sean set up the account to siphon off the funds. Now every transaction went directly to an FBI-controlled account. He kept the transfer moving slowly because there was no doubt in his mind that Elise would kill Everett as soon as he was finished.