Sinclair Justice (Texas Rangers #2)(49)
He gave her dangly earrings that were also enormous flawless diamonds suspended on smaller diamond waterfalls, which she attached. With the diamanté pins holding up her hair and the shimmery bronzer she’d applied to her shoulders, legs, and arms, the only place she didn’t sparkle was her mouth, which was a deep, luscious red.
But as she looked at the glittering stranger in the mirror, the cold, rational part of her brain that had saved her thus far took over. This would simplify things. She wouldn’t have to try to slip out with her small jewel case after all. What she was wearing would bribe half of the corrupt cops in the city.
“But I will let you keep it if you help me close my deal tonight. I’ll make up the cost in a month if all goes as I plan.” He turned her into his arms and kissed her deeply, thrusting his tongue into her mouth as far as he could reach.
She managed to stay still and even squeeze him back, as if she enjoyed this, but she wanted to bite down on the fleshy protuberance. It was all she could do not to kick him with her stiletto. He expected blind adoration from her in return for even being allowed to wear these probably million-dollar baubles. Because it was expected, when he released her, she managed a smile. “They’re beautiful. Thanks for letting me wear them. But after the party, you need to return everything. They would buy a lot of security. . . .”
He looked a bit gratified at her assurances, but then his gaze narrowed and his hands on her shoulders tightened enough to hurt. A harsh tone entered his voice. “I want you to stick close to Jesús and see what you can find out and observe. I think he’s selling me out.”
Yancy’s alarm was genuine. “Why do you say that?”
“We lost almost a thousand pounds of merchandise to the Knights Templar. He’s the only one other than me and Tomás who knew the entire route of the shipment.”
Yancy turned to him and straightened his bow tie, pretending deep concern. Her lush mouth even trembled a bit. “They’re the worst . . . If they’re trying to take over, aren’t you in danger?”
He smiled at her cynically. “You’d lose your meal ticket and your protector, sí?”
She backed away a step, pretending deep offense. “You’ve been good to us, and I’m grateful. I’m honestly trying to help.” She met his eyes steadily, and he relaxed a bit.
He hesitated, and then led her into his capacious bathroom, which was on the outside wall of the house. “No one else knows about this but Tomás. We are setting a show tonight for the Chechens, to impress them that here in Mexico, we know how to be elegantly continental.”
This certainly explained the elaborate party, Yancy reflected, complete with covered dishes and a planned cigar-and-brandy remove into the study while the women gossiped in the salon. Her attention snapped back to Arturo.
“But if something should happen, I want you and Jennifer to be able to get away. Go to the safe house I showed you.” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and stabbed in a code. The red light on the digital whirlpool tub, which she’d thought was linked to temperature, turned green. He then pressed the whirlpool jet button on the big fiberglass tub three times, waited, then pressed it again three times. A click sounded, as if a lock were being opened. He stood aside.
To her amazement, the tub slowly rose sideways with a humming sound, and she realized it was on a hydraulic lift. He leaned down and flipped a switch. Dim lighting showed a small but navigable circular staircase winding down into darkness, with wooden studs on each side. She realized the staircase was inside the walls. She eyed the long mirror on the wall at the end of the tub. Ingenious. It wasn’t just for decoration. It hid a cavity that must have been built with the house. This staircase obviously wound down two complete floors.
“I’m seriously impressed,” she said sincerely. “Where does it end?”
“A tunnel beneath the compound wall that ends beneath the big tree across the road. This is one reason I bought the house.” He pressed the jet button again three times, and then again three times, and the cavity slowly closed as the tub took its normal position. The light turned red again.
He eyed her and spoke slowly and deliberately. “And there’s an alarm that hooks directly into the security panel. If I don’t deactivate it with my cell phone, it will go off, so no one else can use the tunnel without my authorization.”
Message received. Yancy nodded her understanding. “I won’t tell anyone or go near it unless something awful happens.”
He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Help me catch Jesús and seal this alliance and I’ll enter the code into your phone.”
He was very good at the carrot-and-stick routine, she thought irritably, but she only smiled, as if gratified by his generosity, amazed by his arrogance, that he thought it was okay to abduct women and force them into sexual slavery and then expect their adoration . . . but now wasn’t the time for anger. The location of the staircase gave her another bargaining chip, but if all went well tonight, she’d never need that code. She appraised her image in the mirror, looking for flaws, but found none.
He nodded approvingly. Then he held out his arms for her to appraise him. “How do I look?” he asked.
Like a peasant trying to be a billionaire by wearing a Savile Row tuxedo, she wanted to say, but she nodded, as if impressed. “Like a king.”