A Sinful Mistake Read online

  Manny closed his eyes and shook his head wordlessly.

  Fortune’s reaction was more patient. “You don’t have to write up anything. It’s not an Avon order. Just get Bull to talk. Imply that you know about his involvement in human trafficking. Hint that you’re making a crap ton of money. Play up to his ego. You need a big strong man to join you, something like that.”

  I groaned.

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, stop being a baby,” Fortune said. “Every woman on this planet knows how to fake an—”

  “Whoa,” Manny held up both hands. “Stop right there.”

  “—to fake an interest, is what I was going to say.” Fortune picked up the RPG and hoisted it on her shoulder. “Touch the weapons with confidence, look Bull straight in the eye, and make sure he knows you’re doing him a favor.”

  “I am?”

  Fortune blew out a long breath. “Yes, you are. You’ve already got this up and running, it’s a real money maker, and he can get in on the action under one condition.”

  I nodded. “One condition. Right.” I swallowed hard. “What condition?”

  “That Gertie remains alive and well. Make her the deal breaker.” She set the grenade launcher on the table. “Play up that you can trust him because Gertie does. Send him the message that her well-being is of the utmost importance. That should put an immediate end to his desire to kill her. That million-dollar life insurance policy will look like chump change compared to what you’re offering him.”

  I nodded. Not because I understood or agreed with everything but because my throat was constricted with fear.

  “We ready to fit her with a wire now?” Manny looked at his watch. “The boss said to make sure you have everything you need.”

  A wire? “Are you sure you shouldn’t be the one to do this, Fortune? After all, you’re far more experienced at playing a role than I am.” I swept my arm over the table full of weapons. “Not to mention that you speak ‘weapon’ fluently.”

  “You’ll do just fine, Stephanie. As long as you carry yourself with confidence, you’re golden. Let Bull assume you know the names of the weapons, and if he calls you out for some reason, just stare at him like you can’t believe how dumb he is.” Fortune steepled her fingers and held them to her lips as she studied me.

  I felt grossly inadequate under her scrutiny. It wasn’t that I was unwilling to try to save Gertie. I was willing, but I was also terrified.

  “I believe in you,” Fortune said. “Look at all the speeches you give about frou-frou manners, and yet you somehow manage to keep a straight face.”

  Manny cleared his throat. “Look, Miss St. James, I don’t mean to interfere here, but you don’t have a choice. You gotta do this.”

  I nodded. “You’re right, Manny. I can’t let Gertie down.”

  He shrugged. “Yeah, well, there’s that, sure. But don’t forget that you promised the boss that you’d get him the information he wants. There’s no backing out now.” He clamped a beefy hand on my shoulder. “Let’s get you wired.”

  “YOU KNOW, MANNY’S HANDS were surprisingly gentle for a man of his size.” I stared at the white lines stretching out on the highway in front of us. “I bet he’s got some stories to tell.”

  “Yeah, well, what we should be worrying about is your story for Kase.” Fortune blew past a semi-truck at what felt like seven hundred miles per hour, although I’m sure she was only doing a hundred.

  “What if he says no?”

  Fortune pulled a face. “You’ve got him wrapped around your little finger.” She shot me a quick look. “How serious are you two?”

  “Serious enough not to want to alienate him with a request for classified information.” I plucked at a loose thread on my linen skirt. “I’ve never felt like this about anyone before. I think I’m in love.”

  “You think?”

  “No, I know. I am in love with Kase. He’s incredibly smart, sweet, protective, and gentle with me, but I know he respects me too.” I smiled. “He’s funny, and he’s good-hearted. He likes animals.”

  “Well, if he can tolerate that Persian of yours, I’d put a ring on it.” Fortune grinned. “How’s that for girl talk?”

  I nodded approvingly. “Not bad.”

  We drove the remainder of the way to New Orleans in silence. I’d tried to assure Fortune that I could drive into New Orleans by myself but she’d insisted on accompanying me. I didn’t know what she was thinking about, but I was rehearsing ways to butter Kase up for information. However things went down, I hoped they’d happen quickly.

  We’d only had a very short visit with my great-aunt and Gertie in the morning. Frankly, neither looked well. Aunt Ida Belle appeared especially exhausted. Why wouldn’t she? I was sure if she had any sleep at all last night, it was with one eye open so that she could keep an eye on Gertie. During our visit, Gertie had introduced us to Mary, the very nice volunteer, who spent most of the morning hanging around their room. My guess was that Mary was Big Hebert’s plant in Bayou Gardens, for which I should remember to thank him later.

  We arrived in the Big Easy in record time, thanks to Fortune’s predilection for speeding. She dropped me off in front of Kase’s apartment complex, refusing to come in. She had errands to run and wanted to grab a burger, so her story went. But before I could close the door, she handed me a black velvet drawstring bag.

  “What’s this?” I asked as I took it.

  “Just a little something you might need.” She pointed to my handbag. “Just slip them in your purse. You don’t have to use them unless Kase gives you grief about leaving.”

  Something in the way she avoided my eye prompted me to open the bag. I drew out a pair of gleaming silver handcuffs. “Handcuffs? What on earth are these for?”

  Fortune grinned. “If Gertie were here, she’d have some suggestions.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure she would. But I’m asking you.”

  She shifted in her seat, an uncomfortable expression on her face. “Consider them your ace in the hole if you need to make a quick exit. We’ve got to get back to Sinful in time for you to meet Bull tonight.”

  I studied the handcuffs. “Am I correct that these are in lieu of drugging Kase like you did?”

  “You’re not going to guilt me into an apology.” She took the cuffs from me, gave me a quick demonstration on how to use them, and then handed them back. “I gotta go, I’m double parked. Good luck.” And with that, she gunned the Jeep and took off.

  I tucked the handcuffs in my purse, certain that no matter what happened this evening, I wasn’t going to need them.

  But it turned out I was wrong. We did end up using the handcuffs, or more accurately, I ended up using them. Our visit started out wonderfully. The rush of genuine happiness I experienced when Kase opened his apartment door surprised me. Being with him felt natural, whether we were making small talk over a glass of wine or breaking bread together. I welcomed the chance to sit closely together on his sofa but I was on my guard. Getting swept away in a moment of passion would derail my plans for the night.

  Everything was fine until the talk turned to what Big wanted. As per Fortune’s directions, I didn’t play coy with Kase or beat around the bush. I just flat out told him what I needed from him.

  His first reaction was to frown. “Darlin’, you know I can’t give you that. My work’s classified.”

  I traced the length of his snake tattoo with my fingertip. “I know, Kase. And I respect that. But I need something to give the Heberts to repay them for their help in setting Bull up.”

  He lifted a skeptical eyebrow. “I would have thought you’d advise a hand-written thank you note for such an occasion.”

  I pulled back from his embrace to look him in the eye. “This is serious, Kase. I can’t go back to Sinful without something for them.”

  His eyes darkened. “I’ll take you back myself and you just let me sort out the Heberts. No one will be needing anything by the end of the evening.”

  The s
teely determination underpinning his words spooked me. “I don’t need to be rescued, although I do appreciate the offer. What I need is your support, your trust, and one tiny morsel of information to feed them.”

  His refusal was absolute, which I honestly expected. What I didn’t expect was his insistence on driving me back to Sinful. “Listen, Stephanie, I’m not going to let you endanger yourself. Not when one call to Carter can offer Gertie the protection she needs. You’ve been playing with fire but I’m taking away the matches now.”

  “You can’t prevent me from meeting with Bull.”

  “Oh, yeah?” His lips twisted into a smirk. “Just try to stop me.”

  Oh, why did he have to say it that way? It was almost as if he were asking for it. “I will if I have to. Be reasonable, Kase.” My cell phone buzzed and I looked at it. “It’s Fortune. She’ll be downstairs in three minutes.”

  “I’m going down to have a word with her.” Kase started to stand.

  “Wait, please.” My heart was thundering in my chest at the thought of what I was about to do, but what choice did I have? I slipped my right arm around Kase’s neck to pull him in for a kiss while I reached into my purse with my left hand. When I was sure he was thoroughly distracted, I snapped one of the handcuffs over his wrist.

  Kase pulled back in surprise but before he could react I snapped the other cuff around the wrought iron coffee table beside him. As he stared incredulously at what I’d done, I slipped the handcuff keys in between the sofa cushions. In a couple of hours, when I was meeting with Bull, Fortune could call to tell Kase where to find them. I shot to my feet and moved away so that he couldn’t grab me with his free hand.

  “Stephanie St. James, I swear to you, you’d better unlock these damn things right now.” Kase’s eyes blazed pure fire. One I doubted my words would easily put out.

  “I’m sorry, Kase, I really am.” I grabbed my handbag. “Just tell me something about this person the Heberts are interested in. Anything that will mollify them will do.”

  His answer was to let loose a string of profanities such as I’d never heard. He yanked on the cuffs but all it did was shake the lamp. I grabbed his phone from the table before he thought to.

  “I’m going to leave this here.” I laid it on the kitchen table.

  “Don’t you dare leave me like this,” Kase demanded.

  “I don’t want to, but I have to.” And then, before I could change my mind, I ran from the apartment, making sure to lock the door behind me.

  Fortune was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. “How’d it go?”

  “About how you’d expect.”

  “Well, did you have to use them?”

  I nodded. “Clink.”

  She winced. “He’ll forgive you. Eventually.” She didn’t sound wholly convinced. “Don’t look back, but one of the Heberts’ thugs is following us.”

  It took everything I had not to glance over my shoulder. “Why?”

  “To make sure you’re doing what you said you would, namely getting something from Kase.”

  As we drove toward Sinful and my meeting with Bull, I wondered if perhaps I’d gone too far. I needed to help save Gertie, but loosing Kase was going to be a high price to pay for doing so.

  Chapter Ten

  AS MY MEETING WITH Bull neared, my nerves were on the verge of shattering into a million tiny fragments. I was wired, literally and figuratively. “I don’t think I can do this.”

  “You have to,” Fortune said. “Bull’s expecting you. It’s too late to change the plan.”

  I paced the length of Fortune’s kitchen. “Can we call Kase now and tell him where the keys are?”

  She shook her head. “It’s too early. I’m sorry, Stephanie, but we can’t take the chance that Kase will rush down here and interfere.”

  I doubled my pace, which in Fortune’s relatively small kitchen, made me feel like a fish swimming in circles in a tiny fishbowl. Our trip to New Orleans had been nothing sort of moronic. We’d accomplished nothing, unless you counted the obliteration of the one relationship that meant the most in the world to me.

  Why was I following Fortune blindly? Go to New Orleans, she’d said. I went. Handcuff your boyfriend, she’d suggested. I had. What next? Shoot Bull Dozer between the eyes? Would I blindly follow her next order? No. Enough. I couldn’t do this.

  Fortune’s cell phone rang before I could tell her I was pulling out. She wasn’t twenty-five seconds into the conversation when I knew something was wrong. Deathly wrong if her ashen pallor was any indication. I held my breath as she asked a curt series of what, when and how questions.

  “What’s wrong?” I demanded when she hung up.

  Her gaze locked onto mine. “It’s Gertie. She’s gone.”

  Gone. That one word sucked the air from my lungs. Gone where? Gone how? I struggled to articulate a question but couldn’t.

  “That was Ida Belle,” she said, her voice shaky. “She’s at Bayou Gardens still. She thinks someone drugged her, and while she was out, they took Gertie.”

  “What are we going to do?” The panic in my voice matched the terror that coursed through my body. Poor Gertie. Poor Aunt Ida Belle. She must be beside herself. “Should we head over there now?”

  Fortune dropped her head in her hands. “Just give me a minute to think.”

  A minute? We couldn’t afford that. “But Bull doesn’t know why I want to meet with him. He’s still focused on the insurance policy.” Which meant every second we wasted talking was a grain of sand slipping through the hourglass that was Gertie’s time left on this earth. I ran to the bathroom and, pardon my unladylike commentary, promptly lost my lunch. I splashed water on my face. Pull yourself together, Stephanie.

  Fortune knocked on the bathroom door. “You okay?”

  I opened the door and slumped against the doorframe. “I was sick.”

  “So I heard.” She pointed to my chest. “At least we know the wire works.”

  I cringed. “Sorry. I panicked.”

  She studied me through narrowed eyes. “Are you going to be able to make it through your meeting?”

  My eyes widened. “I’m still going through with it?”

  Fortune nodded. “Yep, in fact we need to move it up if possible. Which means you need to call Bull. Not only that, you have to act like you don’t know that Gertie’s unaccounted for. Can you do that?”

  Without hesitating, I nodded. “Give me five minutes to wash up and I’m ready.”

  It turned out that I only needed four full minutes to clean up. I grabbed my phone and pocketbook and followed Fortune out to the Jeep. “Can we call Kase now?” I asked as she pulled out of her driveway.

  “No.”

  Why was I asking? Kase was my boyfriend, I was the one who’d cuffed him. And just why had I deputized Fortune as my commander-in-chief? Enough. As much as I’d grown to respect my great-aunt, Gertie, and Fortune, it was time for me to quit looking to them for direction. I pulled out my phone and dialed Kase’s number. Only as I hit the green ‘call’ button did I realize that I’d moved his phone out of reach before I’d left. My heart sank. He wasn’t going to be able to answer.

  “You’ve got a hell of a nerve calling me.”

  I jumped as Kase’s growl came through my phone. “How’d you reach your cell?” was the only thing I could think to ask through my shock.

  “No thanks to you.” He was quiet for a long moment, which I must say unnerved me far more than if he were reading me the riot act.

  “Uh, Kase? I’m sorry about the handcuffs.”

  When he spoke after a long moment of silence, his voice was dangerously low. “You’re going to have to do better than that.” How I wished he’d added ‘darlin’ to the end of his sentence, but he didn’t. “In fact, you’re going to get your chance as soon as I get to Sinful. See you in a little while.”

  He ended the call before I could respond. I looked sideways at Fortune. “Kase in on his way here.”

  She pounded the ste
ering wheel. “Crap.”

  I bit my lip to keep from asking her what we were going to do next.

  “So, here’s what we’re going to do next,” she said as if she could read my thoughts. “You call Bull and tell him that you want to move your meeting up. Try to act as nonchalant as possible.”

  Nonchalant was the furthest thing from what I really felt but she was right. My hands shook so badly that it took me three tries to dial Bull’s cell number correctly. But, to my relief, I managed to bluff my way through the conversation.

  “Great job,” Fortune said when I’d hung up. “You sounded like a girl scout selling cookies.”

  Oh, please. How hard was it to convince someone they wanted a box of Thin Mints? Nowhere near as hard as convincing someone to enter into an illegal weapons ring. In order to hold onto what vestige of sanity I still had, I focused on breathing in and out for the rest of the drive. I should have been praying, but my gut instinct told me that, in all likelihood, God was growing tired of the scrapes I kept getting myself into.

  I shared the sentiment. In spades.

  WITH MY STASH OF RUSSIAN weapons safely stowed in the backseat, I drove the Jeep toward the designated spot where I was to meet Bull Dozer. I’d left Fortune parked in Aunt Ida Belle’s SUV less than a mile away. Far away enough to be out of sight but within the wire’s transmission range.

  Bull had readily agreed to move our meeting up when I’d implied that he’d benefit greatly from agreeing to do so. He’d snapped at the bait like a ravenous bayou alligator. What on earth had Gertie seen in the man? I shuddered.

  Our rendezvous point was a road-side vegetable stand a couple of miles outside of Sinful. The choice struck me as odd when Bull had originally suggested it, but Fortune was convinced that it was used in his smuggling operation. I pulled up and reverse parked so that the Jeep was facing the road for an easy escape, just as I’d promised Fortune I would.