The Dangerous Thief (Stolen Hearts #3)(25)
“I don’t know the name of the restaurant yet, but I can get it. I don’t think I’ll be close enough to hear anything, though.”
“I don’t need you to hear anything. Think you can get a hold of his phone?”
James didn’t have to think twice about it. “Not a chance in hell. I mean, I could, but not without him knowing.”
Toni nodded but didn’t seem surprised. “Figured. Then I’m going to need Willa to do it.”
“Willa isn’t stealing her father’s phone.”
“I thought she wanted to help.”
“She wants to help but she also has no idea what she’s doing. She’s a debutante, not a thief. If we need the phone, I’ll figure out how to get it.”
She raised a brow. “That’s a quick switch from not a chance in hell to I’ll figure it out.”
“I’m a flexible guy.”
Hart must’ve sensed the tension and he got off the couch and came closer. “What’s the problem? Why do we need Belli’s phone?”
“We don’t need it forever,” said Toni. “We just need to borrow it. If I can get a cloning program installed, then we’ll be able to track all of Belli’s incoming and outgoing calls, texts, and even turn on the mic whenever we want to listen into his conversations.”
Hart’s face scrunched up as if he’d just smelled something sour. “I worked a stalking case once with a cloned phone. That’s nasty stuff.”
Toni shrugged it off. “Don’t look at me with those judgey little eyes. Jadon Belli is a nasty guy. The more I dig into his revenue streams, the more convinced I am I want him rotting at the bottom of Lake Michigan.”
“If it gets us closer to Sterling, let’s get it done,” said Hart. The words seemed to leave a bad taste in his mouth. James knew that Hart used to be a cop, but he figured he’d be more used to the more uncomfortable details of what they’d all been working on lately. Usually when you spent enough time around morally compromised people, it tended to rub off.
And the righteous ones like Hart tended to fall the farthest off their moral high ground.
“Let me know what I need to do.”
Toni eyed James. “I’m going to write it down. And you’re going to give it to Willa.”
“Willa isn’t a professional.”
“Willa is the mark’s daughter. There’s literally no one else better to do this. Just because he trusts you with his daughter’s life doesn’t mean he’s going to trust you with things that are really important to him. Like his phone.”
“How did you managed to get him inside so fast?” asked Hart.
“Oldest trick in the book,” said Toni. “If you want to get someone into the inner circle, you need to discredit everyone else who is there.”
“We should be happy there’s any security left after the work-up that Toni did,” muttered James.
“All those guys were scum anyway. I barely had to fabricate anything to make it look like they were trying to get their boss fired.”
“You did too much,” said James, trying to walk the line between gentle warning and annoyance.
“It got the job done, didn’t it?”
Hard to argue with the results. But James knew the security world better than Toni. “Belli was unsettled to begin with. With the issues in his own security force, I want you to be on the lookout for new guys. They might start outsourcing.”
Hart frowned. “What kind of outsourcing?”
“The bad kind. It could be a whole team of guys just like me.”
“Just like you, as in qualified? Or just like you, as in you’ve worked together and they’d know you?”
“That really depends on the guys,” said James.
“Well, that’s a bridge we’re going to have to cross when we get there, isn’t it. For now, focus on the phone. All you have to do is download an app. I’ll tell you exactly how to find it and where to get it. Once it’s on Belli’s phone, we can use it to get almost everything on him.”
“So we’re going to have to unlock it too,” said James.
Toni clicked her tongue as a way to agree with him. “And you want to know who would be most qualified to know the password to Belli’s phone?”
All James could muster out was an annoyed growl.
––––––––
––––––––
Willa stared at her closet and then at the clock on her cell phone once more. She had officially been standing in her bra and panties for twenty minutes. She was going to have to pick out an outfit eventually, but she wasn’t even close to figuring out what to wear.
What did she want this outfit to say? Devoted daughter. Spy. Sexy? No, she shouldn’t want to dress sexy for James. But she did. But just because she wanted to didn’t mean it was a good idea. But she did normally dress sexy, so if she covered up too much, that might be suspicious too.
Damn it. She winced at her own indecision. It was a dinner. Grab a dress and get it over with. Willa closed her eyes; she reached out and pulled a hanger off. When she opened her eyes, she saw the short sparkly mini dress and immediately vetoed it. The next one she grabbed was black with a very subtle print of white flowers. But the attention wasn’t supposed to be on the print. The dress was exceptionally short, but with long sleeves and a modest neckline, all attention was supposed to go to the legs. Good enough. She slid it on and then pulled on some matching black ankle boots. After she gave herself a once-over in the mirror, fluffing her hair so it appeared thicker and making sure her nude lipstick was in place, she went to her bedroom door. She’d managed to avoid James all day, but she knew she couldn’t stay away from him forever.