Chapter 8
CALI PUSHED A CONTRACT across the table at the diner Xavier picked out. Her father and mother were sitting across from her, with Thompson and his slimy body to her left.
“You can sign this,” she told her parents. A copy of it had been given to a legal advisor for the FBI, and it was deemed legal and binding and severed all business ties with her parents and Thompson. Now all she had to do was get her parents to leave and help Sadie make her arrest.
Easy peasy.
Right.
“I’m impressed you were able to get this kind of cash in such a short period of time. What did you do? Sell yourself?”
Her mother gasped.
“I have a rich boyfriend,” she said, holding her father’s stare. Boy, was he going to have a ton of questions when this was over.
“I noticed you and that Sumner guy at the Marriott. He’s some sort of crime reporter, right?” Thompson asked.
Sadie had warned her how quickly this could go sideways if she wasn’t careful.
“And a novelist, but now we’re splitting hairs.” She watched her parents sign on a few different pages.
Her father handed them back, staring at her with the same evil eye he used to give her as a kid when she’d stayed out past curfew.
“Mom, Dad, you can go now,” she said.
“Not until I get my money.”
“I’ve got it.” She held up an envelope of cash with a shaky hand. “My parents leave, and you get your money.”
“Fine,” Thompson said. “It’s been nice doing business with you.”
“Cali,” her mother said with wide eyes. “You’re coming with us, right?”
“In a minute.” The plan had always been to have her parents sign and leave. They’d been coached on what to say and do. Cali needed them to follow through. She understood their concern for her safety, but there were six federal agents armed and ready if this didn’t work.
Her dad helped her mom from the booth.
She watched them as they left, constantly glancing over their shoulders. Had to be hard to leave their only child with a man who’d been bullying half the neighborhood.
She moved to the other side of the booth.
Thompson stared at her with an ominous smile. “My money,” he said with a snarl.
She placed the large envelope on the table, keeping her hands pressed against the paper. “Along with the cash, there is a key to a locker at the train station. In the locker is the same buyout for every business in this neighborhood.” She pushed another envelope across the table. “Here are the contracts, all signed, voiding the previous ones. They just need your John Hancock.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he leaned back in his seat. “Like hell am I going to do that.”
“What you’re doing borders on illegal.”
He laughed. “No, it doesn’t. Not my fault if they don’t understand what they are agreeing to.”
“You mislead them regarding your buyout clauses and then you force your bogus suppliers on them. I think, if taken to a court of law, a judge and jury might see things differently.”
“You’re mistaken, little girl.” He leaned forward, keeping his hands under the table. “You talk a good game, but you’re way out of your league. The only reason why we’re letting your parents off the hook is because you proved to be more resourceful than we expected and we don’t need that boyfriend of yours poking around our business.”
“We?” she asked.
“I have business partners,” he responded with narrowed eyes. “And while amused by your creativity, they won’t be pushed into backing out of the other binding, legal contracts.”
“Why not? What is it that the Costello’s really want with these businesses?” Her heart beat so hard that along with the federal agents listening in, she bet the entire diner could hear it.
Thompson cocked his head.
“Who?”
“Don’t play dumb. I know you work for them, and I know it’s a legit,” she held up her fingers making quotation marks, “business, but the Costello’s have other dealings shadier than this one, and I have to think that whatever those are, it’s the reason they want to put these poor people out on the streets.”
“You’ve got it all figured out, don’t ya?”
A hard object hit her leg with a gentle tap. She jerked her knee away.
“That’s a gun. In case you were wondering.”
“Are you threatening me?” Her throat rattled worse than her hands shaking against the table.
“Consider it a warning. Now, I’ll take the money, and the key with all the other cash, but I’m not signing anything, nor will we be negotiating any new contracts. We’re taking over those establishments, and there isn’t a damn thing any of you can do about it.” He jabbed her thigh, pressing the nozzle of the gun hard against her leg. “If you meddle in my business again, I’ll make sure your parents don’t make it to their next birthday. Got it?”
She nodded, fighting back the tears. She hoped Sadie had all she needed to make the arrest.
“Watch your back,” Thompson said as he rose, stuffing the gun in his pocket.
She kept her hands flattened on the Formica table top, gaze glued to Thompson as three agents stormed the diner, guns pointed, yelling at him to hit the deck.
“You’re a dead woman,” Thompson said as Sadie slapped a set of handcuffs around his wrists. “You and your parents.”
The tears broke free, streaming down her cheeks. She dropped her forehead to her hand, letting the sobs bellow from deep in her gut.
“Cali.” Xavier’s voice filled her brain and engaged her heart with a sense of belonging she never wanted to lose.
His strong arms wrapped around her body like a favorite blanket. “Shhhh, it’s going to be all right.”
“I’ve never been so scared in my life.” She rested her head on his shoulder.
“You did good,” he said, smoothing down her hair. “I’m sorry we had to put you through that.”
“I’d do anything for my parents.” She glanced up at Xavier. “I owe you a lot of money, and I have no idea how I’m going to pay it back.”
“What money? We got the cash you gave to Thompson back.”
“The money I’m asking for you to buy me out of the contract with Infidelity. I don’t want to have anything between us, and we would just wonder if that was the only reason we were together.”
His smile brightened the room and filled her heart with joy. “I’ll buy it if you want me to, but I love you, and the only thing I care about is finding ways to show you just how much you mean to me. You’re everything I’ve ever dreamt about.”
“And to think, all it took was a good old-fashioned shakedown to land the woman of your dreams.”