Chapter Nineteen
Present Day
I looked down at the text Frankie sent me, all my emotions bubbling over with righteous indignation. This was highway robbery.
The dollar amount for three new identities stared at me, eyebrows lifted in mild disdain. It seemed to ask, “What?” in that teenager tone of some of our resort guests that drove me crazy.
“You’re what,” I told the identities. “You’re too expensive.”
The number didn’t change. Son of a bitch.
It was almost the end of the day, but this couldn’t wait. I pulled my purse out of the filing cabinet and reached my hand into the hidden pocket, retrieving my emergency track phone. I didn’t trust cell phones or text messages or really any kind of smart technology.
Like I said, paranoia was my best friend.
I texted Frankie from my real cell asking if we could talk.
Innocuous enough, right? But she would see the code. Five minutes later when she replied with a curt, Sure, I knew she had her own track phone and had settled in a secured location.
I slipped my normal cell into my purse, and slammed everything away in the metal cabinet taking the burner to the bathroom. I dialed her number from memory and counted the rings until she answered.
“Why is it so much?” I asked on a raised whisper.
“Juliet,” she answered immediately. “You were right. You need a lot of paperwork for kids.”
“We don’t have enough, Francesca. Not for that amount.”
Something banged on the other end of the phone. She hit something. Or kicked it. “They’re coming for us, Caroline. We have to do something.”
Cash.
This was a cash flow problem. We had money. We had assets. But we didn’t want to trip any wires or alert any unnecessary authorities. We had to leave Frisco discreetly or people would start looking for us. Maybe not many, but enough to start a snowball effect that could land us in serious trouble.
Maggie, for instance. Jesse. Juliet’s preschool and daycare teachers. Our landlord—especially when we left a whole bunch of shit behind.
If we had rock solid identities, none of it would be a problem. We’d lay low for a while and reemerge in a brand-new town as brand new people.
But we didn’t know these counterfeiters. We were putting blind trust in strangers, which sat wrong with me. I wasn’t going to chance everything else too.
So what we needed was cash.
Or something of value that we could turn into cash.
“The office, Frankie. Sayer’s office. It’s flush.”
“Caroline…”
“Come on, it’s perfect. And it all belongs to me anyway. They stole it from me.” My tone hardened with conviction the more the plan developed in my head. “I’d just be reclaiming what’s rightfully mine.”
“This sounds like a terrible idea,” she warned.
“What other options do we have? Give me another solution and I’ll gladly take it.” Although that wasn’t entirely true. The more I thought about getting all of my things back, the more I liked the idea.
It was mine anyway. Sayer had no claim to it. The fact he had it in the first place was a good reminder he had never trusted me like he claimed to. He had never believed my promises. He’d used me, manipulated me and then counted on my trust in him to pocket a hell of a lot of insurance.
“We could do something here. In town. Something fast but low maintenance. Like a laundromat or something.”
“You want to rob a laundromat?”
“Or the till here. I could just walk out with it today after I get off. They’re insured. The Lodge would be fine.”
“No way. You’re crazy. Come on, Frankie, think this all the way through. They would catch you on camera. And as soon as word hit DC, whatever’s left of the syndicate would come for us. We have to be smarter than that. We can’t make mistakes.”
“Sayer will know that it’s you,” she argued.
“But he won’t send an army after us. If anything, he’ll come after me himself. Just him. Just me.”
“And Juliet?”
That made me pause. What would Sayer do if he found my daughter… our daughter? “Give me something else then. Anything else. I’ll take it. I’ll do it. Whatever it is. Just tell me what to do, Frankie. I’m out of options.” My voice was a ragged whisper. I could feel the exhaustion all the way to my bones. It was a painful, intolerable thing, like a clenched fist on the jugular of my soul. I wanted to escape just so I could find somewhere new and take a nap.
I just needed to catch my breath.
When Frankie spoke again, she was resigned. We both knew the answer. It was dangerous, but it was possible. And nobody in Frisco got hurt.
“What do you need me to do?” she asked.
“Where is the guy? Where can we get the papers?”
“Denver,” she whispered. “He said a week.”
“Set it up then. We’ll leave tonight and lie low until the papers are ready. As long as they’re in process we can live off cash for a week. That will give us time to fence the goods and come up with enough to pay him.”
“Tonight?”
“Can you pick up Jules? I’ll meet you at home. Have everything packed up and ready.”
I guess all of my leave in good standing, don’t raise questions philosophy was thrown out the window. But with Sayer’s basement office calling my name, it finally felt like we had a solution.
“Sayer will never forgive you for leaving him twice, Caro. Are you sure you’re up for this?”
She was right. Sayer would never forgive me. And if I ran off with all his cash, he might never give up looking for me either.
But that was a risk I was willing to take.
I would be smarter next time. I would never let my guard down. I would never get comfortable.
“Frankie, can you pick Juliet up tonight or not?”
“I can get her,” she agreed. I could feel that she wanted so say something more. Whatever it was swirled in the air between us, clogging up the line, stifling all the breathable air.
“Be ready to go,” I ordered, cutting her off before she made me question myself.
I hung up our call and slipped it into my pocket. It was so much smaller than my other phone, I barely noticed it.
“Hey, Mags,” I called, stopping by her office in an effort to implement my plan immediately. “I got a call from daycare and they said Juliet is super sick. She started throwing up earlier today.”
Maggie’s expression immediately fell with concern. “Oh, no. Is she going to be okay?”
I waved a hand in the air and furrowed my brow. I needed to be concerned but not overly so—this was just the flu. And I was a veteran parent. “Yeah, she’ll be fine. She just caught a bug or something from school. It’s that time of year when all the little kids start wiping their snot everywhere.”
“Do you need to go?”
“I called Francesca and she’s going to grab her since she’s closer, but I’m wondering about tomorrow. Her daycare’s policy is twenty-four hours without a fever. And she’s throwing up and who knows what else is wrong with her. Would it be possible to get the day off? I know that puts you in a bind but—”
“Oh, stop,” she ordered. “We’ll be just fine for one day.” She pointed a finger at me. “Just make sure it’s only one day though. Otherwise things start to fall apart and I’m too old to deal with all that.”
My smile wobbled, despite my years of training and my ability to lie. I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to hurt Maggie or leave her. “It might end up being two days. Or even a week. You know how these things hang on.”
She sobered and moved closer to me. “Are you worried, darlin’? She’ll be okay. It’s just the touch of the flu. Nothing that she can’t handle.” I was full-fledged crying now, weeping like a complete moron and total guilty party. “Oh, no, Caroline. Did I say something to upset you? I’m so sorry.”
I moved around the desk and met her halfway, clearly concerned for me. I threw my arms around her neck and started sobbing against her shoulder. She hesitated, but eventually hugged me back. It was the first time we’d ever embraced. Neither Maggie nor I were the touchy-feely types, so there had never been anything more between us than an occasional high five.
Realizing how strange I was acting, I pulled back and started wiping my eyes. “Sorry,” I hiccupped. “I don’t know what came over me. Sometimes the single parent thing is really hard.” And I started crying all over again, because that was true but it was also a lie. And I found that I didn’t want to lie to Maggie. I didn’t even care about protecting her. I wanted to confess, to spill everything just so she could give me guidance. I’d survived five years on Maggie’s good, wise advice and it sucked that the time I needed it the most I couldn’t ask for it.
“Caroline, you’re worrying me.”
Laughing nervously, I took another step back. “I’m PMSing or something. I’m acting like an idiot.”
“Are you sure you’re okay? Is there something you want to talk about?”
Yes. So much. “I’m really okay,” I promised her. And it wasn’t a total lie. This was hard. This was unbearable. But saving Juliet would make it worth it. Keeping Francesca away from her psychotic family of criminals would make it okay. “I’ve just been stressed lately and I keep everything bottle up. That was the cathartic release I needed.”
Her frown deepened. “You’re a terrible liar.”
I wasn’t. I was the best liar. Which meant I could lie myself out of this situation too. “I’m going to go check on cabin ten. They called earlier to say their dishwasher was acting funny. I’ll find out if we should call the handyman or if it’s a simple fix. Then I’ll take off for the night, okay?”
She still had that concerned look on her face. “You’ll call me if you need me?”
“Of course. Thank you for offering.”
I was halfway through the door when Maggie added, “Give my love to Juliet. Tell her when she gets better you two can take me out to dinner.”
Her suggestion made me smile. “Oh, wow, Maggie, that’s so generous of you.”
She smiled and her brows relaxed, transforming her face from drill sergeant to stunning. “If you’re good, I might even let you take me to a movie.”
My head tipped back and I laughed a real, genuine sound that I was beyond grateful for. “You’re so full of it.”
It was her turn to laugh. “You love me for it.”
Heading toward the front door, I was grateful for the natural opportunity to reply, “I do love you for it. Very much.”
By the time I stepped outside, I felt marginally better. Maggie and I were parting on a good foot. On Friday when I still hadn’t shown up for three days, she might hate me. And I wouldn’t blame her. But today we were as good of friends as always. And I would remember this goodbye for the rest of my life.
I did what I said I was going to do. I drove the ATV to cabin ten and talked to the guests about their dishwasher and what it was doing. I could see Sayer’s Jeep up a short hill at the end of this driveway. And when I left cabin ten, Gus’s Subaru had joined it.
They were both there. Now was my chance.
I hurried back to the office and got it ready for the rest of the week. I wasted precious seconds organizing and scheduling and writing To Do Lists for Maggie and making sure she had access to all of our different passwords. I just wanted her to be set up for success. I didn’t want her to lose me and flounder because she didn’t know our social media passwords or how much we paid the paper goods delivery guy.
When all was said and done, I pressed a kiss to my palm and laid it on the tall, worn counter. This place had been a second home to me for five years. I was going to miss it as fiercely as I would miss Maggie.
Driving back to town with the mountain in my rearview mirror felt like a death, like I was watching someone die. So I focused on the drive ahead, refusing to watch the life behind me fade.
I got back to town near six o’clock. The sun was hovering low over the peaks of the distant mountains and the sky was darkening quickly. The temperature was dropping too, giving the air a bite, smelling of possible snow.
After driving around the block three times, I parked in an alley between two resort hotels just off Main Street. I left my Murano unlocked and circled around the block so I could walk down the main road and enter the DC Initiative through the front door.
I was dressed for work, but not sloppy, so I hoped I didn’t draw too much attention in my black, distressed skinny jeans and thick gray cardigan. The hostess seemed to turn up her nose at me, but I didn’t get the vibe that she was watching me in particular, at least no more than she was judging the world around her as a whole.
“I’m just going to have a drink at the bar,” I told her, flying by without slowing down.
Cass was bartending again and I was grateful to see her. I should have been ducking from any people that could spot me, identify me, testify against me, but there was something about seeing a familiar face that calmed some of my frantic nerves. Besides, I’d only been in here once, I didn’t exactly have the place perfectly cased.
“Hey, mama,” she greeted me as I slid onto a bar stool. “What brings you in tonight with no date and no kids?”
I smiled weakly. “That exact reason? I need some me time.”
She nodded enthusiastically. “Can I get an amen?” She held up a bottle of gin and a bottle of vodka. “Pick your poison?”
I pointed at the gin. “Lime and tonic please.”
“You got it.”
Fiddling with my purse straps, I made a show of pulling out my phone to check it and then tucked it away when there was nothing. “Hey, Cass?” She raised her eyebrows indicating that she was listening even though she was in the middle of my drink. “Last time I was here, Sayer and Gus took Jesse and me to the basement. Is it only the office down there? Or are there other rooms? I was so like, shocked by their office, I can’t seem to remember anything else of what I saw.”
She laughed. “Right? I can’t believe they have all that stuff just lying around. But I guess it’s secured and neither of them have permanent homes right now. So maybe it’s the safest place for them? Who knows.”
“You’ve seen everything?” Great, all I needed were more witnesses that could place the Leighton to a specific place, city, state with me.
“I mean, I didn’t get a special tour…” She lifted her eyes and gave me a poignant look. “But I’ve been down there to have meetings and talk to them and whatnot. There’s a diamond necklace that I’m fairly confident weighs more than me that belongs in the Tower of London.”
The diamond necklace had once belonged to an Austrian empress. I’d lifted the shiny bobble from a Russian ambassador during a job. It had been very dangerous and very secured. It had taken months of planning and a huge amount of luck. We’d been sent in for documents. I came out with a necklace, a matching pair of earrings and tiara. I remember feeling entitled to them after nearly getting caught and extradited to Russia. “No way,” I feigned awe. “I didn’t see a diamond necklace! I was too overwhelmed to take any of it in.”
Her smile turned conspiratorial. “I’ve heard rumors that there’s an entire drawer of expensive jewelry. It must be worth millions.”
It was in fact, worth millions. Millions and millions and millions. But most of it was too dangerous to fence. There were only a few pieces that wouldn’t be tied directly to me and in those, there were only a few pieces that would get their actual value in cash.
Austrian diamonds were pretty and fun to brag about. But the street value for them was atrocious. Nobody appreciated history anymore. But more than that, there was greater risk with getting caught. Online databases and technology advances in CSI made everyone a little more cautious about getting involved with a hot item.
“Aren’t they afraid someone’s going to steal it all?” I asked Cass.
She shrugged. “Actually, no. They’re maybe the nicest people I’ve ever met. I think if you needed money or something, they’d just hand it over to you. You wouldn’t even have to steal it.” She glanced around and leaned in. “Last week, I had a really bad day. Get this. My ex showed up in town and tried to take Max away and when I called the cops, he tore my apartment apart and then he stole from me. All of my money. Not only did Gus and Sayer give me the week off, they still paid me.”
“That was nice of them.” I didn’t mention that this business was probably a money laundering front and they were most likely washing money through her. Nor did I mention that they probably went after her ex and made sure he was never going to come back. Because that would upset her.
I was a good friend like that.
This also explained the gooey stars dancing in her eyes for Sayer and Gus. I would too if they’d cleaned up my mess like they did Cass’s. Instead, they showed up and made mine bigger. They took the mess of my life and tripled it, quadrupled it, fucking blew it up until all I could see was a mess and all I would have time for was mess.
I laid a ten-dollar bill on the bar. “Where’s your restroom?”
She pointed toward the back where I already knew it was. “Thanks, Cass.”
“Hey, let’s have a playdate soon,” she suggested. “Max would love to get together with Juliet.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I smiled, hiding the sadness in my eyes. “Juliet would love that too.”
We said official goodbyes and I walked toward the back, pretending to look for the restrooms.
It didn’t matter where I was walking because I slipped down the stairs as soon as I was hidden behind the art display dividers. I crept down them slowly, remaining as inconspicuous as possible. Nobody seemed to notice me or my snooping. Which was a good thing because I planned to do a lot more of it.
At the bottom of the stairs, I took my time opening doors down the corridor and listening for anyone that could have followed me. I found the supply closet and a janitor’s closet, and lo and behold, an emergency exit to outside. It led to a stairwell that resurfaced in an alley.
I went back to the supply closet, found a box cutter and snipped the wires connected to the push bar on the door just in case an alarm went off when I opened it. I tucked the box cutter into my pocket and headed for the office.
It appeared to be locked, which I had suspected it would be. But it seemed to be a more complicated system than the first time I was here. It wanted fingerprints and a key code. I didn’t have the right fingerprints, nor did I have time to figure out the right code.
Damn it. I was just about to try to box cut my way through the door, when I noticed there were no lights on the keypad. I pushed my pointer finger to the scanner and nothing happened.
The lock system would be highly sophisticated, eventually, when they set it up. Currently, it was absolutely useless.
Smiling at my good luck, I pulled out my old set of curtain picks and quickly worked the mortise handle. It clicked open with a satisfying tick and I walked into the office with dollar signs cha-chinging in my eyes.
No, it was more than that. To say I was excited to make money was not the whole truth. It was the satisfaction from the job, the thrill of the hunt and spike of adrenaline.
I stood in the dark in the middle of the office, my blood rushing and a smile on my face, realizing something crucial. Oh, my god, I’d missed this. I felt more alive than I had in weeks… months… maybe years. Everything was suddenly in color again. Not just black and white or muted tones, but vibrant, effervescent, neon hues.
I wanted to believe I was all upstanding citizen and righteous moral compass, but the truth was, I was a criminal. To my very core. This was the life I had been raised in, the only truth I had ever known.
Caroline Valera was good at lying, but she was very good at stealing.
Tonight would not only be my vindication, it would be my redemption.
Moving immediately to Sayer’s desk, I flipped his lamp on and surveyed all that was available. I opened my big purse and started dumping things in it. Jewelry and a signed rare baseball, a collection of very old, very gold coins, whatever I could find that I thought would fetch a decent paycheck. I pulled the Leighton off the wall and set it near the door. It was mine. The hitman’s handbook too. And a Faberge egg that could have terrible consequences if anyone ever found out it was me that took it.
More, my greedy thief’s heart whispered.
It’s yours anyway, my better, usually moral side agreed.
He stole it from you.
Scanning the office, my eyes fell on the safe. I walked over to it and slid my hand along the top.
“What are you hiding?” I asked it. I could never have unlocked it without help. It was big and bulky and complicated—all the things I hated in a safe. And it was by a brand I didn’t recognize which meant I couldn’t even wing it. I had no idea how it was built or the secret to cracking it. It was a total and complete enigma.
Except it wasn’t locked.
I noticed the crack at the top when I ran my fingers over it. Gripping the large handle, I pulled. It opened. Haha! Hello, secrets.
Although part of me had to wonder how juicy these secrets were if Gus and Sayer didn’t even bother locking the safe behind them.
But when the door was open, I couldn’t decide if I wanted to know them after all. I had been expecting more valuables, maybe files they didn’t want other people to find. I wanted something from Sayer’s time in prison or Gus’s stint as the bookkeeper for the bratva.
Instead, I got one manila envelope. In the entire safe, just that one, thick, ominous envelop. And if the titling wasn’t a warning then I didn’t know what was. I started to question my entire time down here.
Where were Sayer and Gus? Didn’t they have a restaurant to run?
Had no one noticed me come down here? Was it really that easy?
No. On all of the jobs I’d ever been on, not one had been this easy.
In fact, we could say this was too easy.
Which meant something was wrong. This was a trap.
Caro.
That’s what was written on the envelope.
Simply, understated Caro written in Sayer’s handwriting.
I couldn’t shake the paranoid feeling that I’d just walked into something that I wouldn’t be able to walk out of, but I had to see what was inside the envelope. I mean, I was already planning on leaving tonight. There was nothing that could keep me in this town. Nothing that would entice me to stay. No matter what Sayer had been able to gather on me.
There was no reason to be scared of a paper. Or an envelope. Or what was in it.
“Just do it,” I ordered myself. Shaking my head, I snatched it up and wondered why it was so heavy. I meant to drop it in my purse and get the hell out of there. I meant to maybe just burn it before I ever knew what was in it.
But that wasn’t what I did.
And how could I have? This was my life. I deserved to know what Sayer had done.