Triple Diamonds (Mystic Nights Book 2) (28 page)

“Mrs. Sassacus, hear us out. We would clear one wing of the hotel. They won’t know it’s empty. We will bring in help. I’m thinking local PD needs to be in on this now, and of course, we’ll send for my brothers as back up. We have done this lots of times. It’s what we do.”

“I’m not sure,” she wavered looking to her sons for their guidance.

Gio was speaking again. “This problem could go on and on unless you get the top guys. They have their tentacles into a few reservation kids already and are recruiting more. We really need to get the top out or the rest will fall. And we won’t be able to do that by busting a bunch of kids. We need Justin and Eddie to roll on Willie or else he appoints new recruiters and they just bring in new faces in a couple of months when things die down,” Gio explained.

Tawny looked at Tom who was nodding in agreement with the Marino brothers. She looked at Joseph and Jonathan next.

Jonathan spoke first as he approached his mother’s desk and stood behind her. “Okay. I think it is a decent plan. But I definitely want to be sure no hotel guests are in danger.”

Joseph wanted this over and Lesley and Wesley and other kids on the reserve to be safe from these vultures. “What if we use the fourteenth floor, the east wing? We reserve that floor for special guests, and I think other than us, and the Senator staying on that floor right now, we have only two other guests. It would be easy enough to move them, keep them out of harm’s way, and then we use one of the rooms to stage the sting operation.”

Tawny considered it. “Jonathan, what do you think?” Tawny looked to him to get his opinion on the matter.

“Okay, I like it. It could work. But I’m still confused. How do we get this bogus Intel fed to Justin?”

Gio cleared his voice. “Well . . . We do have an idea for that too.” The man’s ice blue eyes met Joseph’s and he saw steel in them. The hair on the back of Joseph’s neck began to prickle. He said nothing waiting for the man to continue. He did. “Your girlfriend.”

Joseph took a step back like he had been shot. “Hell no!”

Nikko stood up running his hands through his black hair. “You can say no,” Nikko put in, “but please, again, hear us out first.”

Joseph was shaking his head still. “No. No danger comes to her. It’s out of the question.”

“Please listen. Absolutely not. We wouldn’t be putting her into any kind of danger. She’ll be protected at all times.” Nikko waited and watched as the man’s eyes searched his.

It was Jonathan who spoke. “Go on. Tell us the plan first. We need to hear more before any of us will even consider it.”

Joseph didn’t want to hear it, but his brother’s look said listen first. He would do that and then tell these guys were to go with their idea. If Jewel was in any danger he wouldn’t go along with it.

“It’s simple really. She just needs to drop the bait. She is picking the boys up from the youth center every day. Justin hangs out there, she mentions she has to work tonight because of some high class society type that is having a dinner party at nine. She warns them to stay home, in front of Justin. But she’s got to let it drop that said lady is rich, dripping in jewels, or some such line. Something like that. You can even be there when she delivers the news, and we will be watching and listening. Maybe she is canceling plans,” he used air quotes when he said the word plan, “that she has with you and the boys for the evening.”

Joseph let his breath out slowly. It
was
pretty simple. Justin wouldn’t do anything at the center. And he would easily buy the story. If that was the extent of Jewel’s involvement, he could use her. But he wanted to be upfront and tell her everything. It had to be her choice. He let out his breath slowly and began to pace. He needed to think it through. He didn’t see how that would put her in harm’s way. Everything would go down on the fourteenth floor and they would be able to keep it contained. He gave his assent with a quick nod. “But she gets protection until it’s over. And she gets to know why.”

Both brothers nodded their agreement. The tension in the room relaxed as the two men went over the other details of the plan and then put in the call to get their brothers there. Everything would be set for nine o’clock that evening.

‡

J
ewel was very
surprised by her early morning visitor. She hadn’t expected to see Joseph until later that afternoon. She was busy unpacking and cleaning the small two bedroom house. But the moment the door opened he swept her into his arms and planted a passionate kiss on her. Even in a pair of cut off shorts and t-shirt with and bandana covering her hair, she looked good to him. Especially now that she had given him this second chance. One he didn’t hope he blew by asking her for her help with taking down the criminals that had been plaguing the casino for months.

“My domestic goddess,” he teased her, not wanting to ruin the moment too soon by blurting out what was really on his mind and what had prompted this visit.

“Well, if you would have told me you were coming, I’d have cleaned up a bit,” she laughed pushing his hand away that was cupping her bottom suggestively. “I’m gross, and sweaty.”

“Never gross, but maybe a little sweaty,” he continued to tease her as he tried to reach for her again, but she swatted him once more for that comment and pulled out of his reach.

“Listen, buddy, you’re not getting anywhere with me with those types of comments. Deny. Deny. Deny.”

“Okay, you win. You are beautiful, gorgeous, and look amazing in those shorts. Now come over here so I can kiss you properly and show you just how attractive I think you are in that get up.”

She gave him a sideways glance, still wondering why he was there, but the look he gave her with those coppery eyes made her smolder. She succumbed to him and went back into his arms. And he showed her how he felt in a nanosecond. Cupping her ass while he kissed her, he pushed his erection into her core. It sent spirals of electricity coursing through her and made her forget all else. The effect he had on her was instantaneous.

When her arms began to roam and her hands began to claw at his back, he regretfully ended the kiss. It was not why he was here though he was sorely tempted to have her first before breaking the news to her. But he knew that wouldn’t be fair to her.

When he pulled back from the kiss, he continued to hold her until her breathing returned to normal.

“Okay, spill Sassacus. What brings you by? I know you didn’t come to help me clean or unpack, and I can sense you have something else on your mind aside from us.”

His sigh spoke volumes, and she knew her instinct was right. There was something serious on his mind. When her eyebrows arched up, he started. “We got a lot of new Intel this morning. Justin is definitely involved. His cousin, a guy named Eddie Bauer, is in bed with some gang bangers from Hartford. They call themselves Iron Rush.”

“Oh my God,” she gasped. “The twins need to know about this.” Justin in a gang. He was probably trying to get them in, and that’s why he’d resurfaced recently. So far she had kept Joseph’s suspicions to herself. She hadn’t wanted her brothers to dislike Joseph for the presumptions he had made, but she didn’t want her brothers involved with someone who was in a gang.

He saw the anxiety flicker across her face. He hated to make it worse, but he had promised to at least ask for her help. “I agree, but there is more.”

She felt a trickle of fear course down her spine at his words.
What more?
She wanted to know it all. “Go on,” she encouraged. She didn’t want to be kept in the dark. Not about this. Her brothers’ futures were on the line.

He didn’t know how to start, so he just plunged ahead. She needed to hear it all. “We hired some guys from Tampa, and they don’t have proof of Justin’s and Eddie’s involvement, well, nothing we can use in court. They have them talking on audio, and a bit of video, but it was obtained illegally. Nothing would be admissible.”

“So, they can just keep doing what they are doing until they are caught? That is ridiculous. People could get hurt.”

“I know,” he was just as exasperated as she was by the intricacies of the law. But the law was there to protect the innocent, too. And that was why these protections were there. Sadly they protected the guilty, too, on occasion. “Justin and Eddie are what you call recruiters. They were probably trying to recruit your brothers. Invite them to parties, bring them around girls. Get them fake IDs. Some gambling to show them the money. They get them hooked. It’s how they work. So not only are they stealing and involved in illegal activities like drugs, they recruit younger kids to commit the crimes so they don’t get busted, but if the kids are busted when they are minors, their time is usually shorter and if it isn’t too serious it doesn’t appear on their permanent records.”

Jewel was flabbergasted. Justin had been trying to lure her brothers into this gang. He had to be stopped. “I really want my brothers to know about this, Joseph. Then they will believe me when I tell them Justin is bad news.” She was clasping the charm he had given her last night. He hated making her worry like this. But there was still more to tell.

“I agree. We can tell them together. But they have to stopped, caught red handed, so they don’t try to lure any more kids into a life of criminal activity.” He was watching her carefully. He hated having to ask for her help, but it seemed like the only way to make this sting operation a success. And time was of the essence. The Marinos wanted this to go down tonight.

She must have clued into something. Her next question told him that. “Why are you telling me all this?”

He shook his head but continued. He could barely meet her questioning eyes. “I want to be honest with you, but remember it’s your choice. The two men from Tampa have a plan that could bring them all down, so they won’t be recruiting anymore kids from the reserve. But it requires some help. A small favor.”

She placed her hand over her chest and looked at him angrily. “The boys aren’t getting involved.” Her words were firm, brokered no argument. But she had miscalculated that assumption. It wasn’t them they needed. It was her.

He quickly reached for her hands and pulled her to him. “No, of course not, Jewel. They didn’t ask for their help. But . . .” He paused looking for the right words. “They do want to do a sting. And the plan is to lure them to the casino. We have cleared the fourteenth floor, and have no one up there currently. We have our family suites up there, and six other guest rooms. Currently two are being prepped with local undercover PD. We just need a way to get the word to Justin that some fancy rich couple is there tonight, having a catered private dinner downstairs at nine, and then let the chips fall where they may.”

“Again, I’m not putting the boys in danger. No.” She tried to pull away.

She still wasn’t grasping his meaning. “They don’t want the boys to drop the word.”

Her heart stilled. She stilled. The way he was looking at her frightened her. She didn’t know where he was going with this.

“They want you to do it.”

Her voice came out in a squeak. “Me?” She managed to slip her hands from his grasp.

He surged ahead. Again, he felt like an ass for asking her. “When you pick up the boys from the youth center before going to work today, their idea was for you to say you are canceling your plans with them and me tonight because of this dinner party. They want you to drop the name of some made up socialite, say Mrs. Aubrey Johnson is in town and requested that you cook a formal meal for her and her guests in the private dining room. And you couldn’t say no, the dinner is at nine. That will give them time to set up the rooms upstairs and get everything in order to take them all down.”

She stared at him blankly. This was a shock to say the least. Not what she had been expecting at all
. Did she want to do this? What if they got away? And they figured out she was part of the sting?
She could be putting her and her brothers into even more danger. It didn’t make sense.

“But, I’m not working tonight. What if they check and don’t see me in the kitchen?”

“We could always have Louis put you in tonight. We will keep someone in the kitchen in plain clothes to keep you safe. They’ve promised to have security on you and your brothers until this is finished and the bad guys are all brought in.”

She thought about what he was asking her to do, and she could tell he hated doing it. Pain and worry was etched across his face. “What do you think?” she asked him wanting to hear his thoughts.

His hand swept through his closely cropped hair. It was shaking. “Honestly? I hate the idea. But we don’t have anyone else that Justin would believe. These thefts are getting out of hand. The effect on the casino if word gets out . . . You.” He ended lamely. “But, it’s your call. I can’t ask you to do it. Just know we will have you protected, watched from the moment you step into work until all the bad guys are brought in.”

She knew these thefts were causing havoc at the casino. And from what he said she would be fully protected. “What about the boys? They thought we were going to a movie tonight?”