Chapter 4
Jessica did yet another search on Gary. She ran various aliases that he had gone by during their time together. Nothing yielded any results. She had heard from a mutual friend that he had taken off with the profits they had acquired from posing as casino executives buying up failing casinos around the city, their biggest and best scam yet, and was living in Oregon on a houseboat. He was running scams up there too with some new, young female partner and he was doing pretty well. Gary sure knew how to get the needy and lonely young women to trust him. He played such an endearing father figure. Then he would disappear on that new one too, probably to go hole up in the Riviera or something with the savings of dozens of young women. She was certain that he had been plotting this for a while and was running scams on other con artists as well as his obvious victims. Such a slimy piece of crap.
Jessica hissed in frustration as she slammed her laptop lid shut. She was so sick of thinking about Gary and dreaming about him. Growing up without a father, or really even boyfriends of her mother’s since her mother was always too busy working to date, Jessica had felt that Gary was all she had been looking for. She was so happy, so complete, with him around.
He taught her the tricks of the con artist trade. For their first heist, he hid behind a curtain at a casino bar, to make sure that she felt safe as she flirted with older men. She couldn’t believe that she was the same Jessica, as she leaned against the bar in a skintight dress, her hair teased huge and her makeup dramatic and smoky, trying to lure men into her trap. Finally, a man in a brown business suit paid for her. He seemed unaffected when she informed him that she was only seventeen as he led her up the stairs to the room he had rented.
“I require the money upfront,” she told him first.
“Sure,” he obliged, pulling out his fat wallet and handing her two hundred-dollar bills.
“You can do better than that,” she winked. “If you want the deluxe treatment.”
He frowned, but he reluctantly pulled out two more hundreds. They were crisp and Jessica could smell them already. That was her favorite smell, the smell of money.
“May I do a line?” she asked him, after accepting a shot of whisky. “It makes me hornier.”
Looking excited, he had nodded. “Be my guest.” He waved at the smooth top of the mahogany table in the room.
She tapped out a fat, white line of a crushed allergy pill from a vial in her pocket and snorted it up through one of his own rolled-up hundreds. Then she began to shake and moan and let her eyes roll back. She fell across the floor, letting spit pool on the carpet under her. The man shouted, “Are you okay?” as he shook her. And when she didn’t respond, he dashed out of the room. Jessica hesitated, scared that perhaps he had called the cops. But of course he hadn’t. He had rented the room with a card and didn’t want to be implicated with the drug overdose of an underage prostitute. Piece of shit.
She felt ashamed of it at first, but soon she got over it, as she realized what ghouls these men were. She was like a piece of garbage to them, something they were more than willing to have sex with and then throw away. Of course she never let them touch her before she pulled her fake overdose, but they all stared at her like vultures ready to tear into her flesh. Then they ran, not caring that she had supposedly died. Her life didn’t matter to them. Her life didn’t matter to anyone, except Gary, who was always waiting for her after a heist with a big smile on his face. He assured her that these men deserve to be scammed. They were the equivalent of human garbage – not at all worthy of her.
Throughout her childhood, she had watched her mother skim a few dollars off of her checks and stick them in a cookie jar over the stove. She had worked every day to create a college fund for Jessica. Jessica also planned to get her first job after she graduated high school to add to that fund. Her mother wouldn’t let her work during school because she placed more importance on Jessica’s studies. They had gone through college brochures together when Jessica was a junior. Jessica thought about becoming a vet because she loved animals so much.
But then there was that fateful day. “Jessica, please come in here and sit down.” Jessica entered the living room, her heart thumping. Her mother was pale. “Please hold my hand.”
Jessica’s knees quaked as she took a seat beside her mom and clasped her mom’s cold hand. “Mom? What is it, Mom?” She had never seen or heard her mom like this before.
“I have cancer.”
That was the day Jessica’s life ended. At least, her happy life. It had been only misery since that terrible, gut-wrenching moment, which struck her heart like a drum. Her mother had no insurance and had to use all of Jessica’s life savings. So after her mother had passed away, Jessica had had to box everything up in a storage unit and go live in a shelter for homeless youth until she met Gary. Gary offered her a chance to make that money back. She put a big chunk aside after each scam that she and Gary pulled off – and they pulled off every one without a hitch. Jessica hope to one day leave this life, as exhilarating as it was, and do something that would make her mother proud in Heaven. She wasn’t so sure about going to college since it had not done her mother much good, but she knew how to fake credentials. She could make herself into something awesome, something honorable.
But despite all of her best intentions, and all of her justifications for her crimes, she came home one day to the posh hotel room she shared with Gary and immediately sensed that something was wrong. The TV was on, loud, but Gary wasn’t there. “Gary?” she called, as she noticed that his shoes and suits were missing from the closet. She went through the drawers and the closet, and found that all of his things were gone. So was his phone charger, and his wallet, and the other miscellaneous things he left in the night stand drawer next to his bed. Confused, she tried to call him, only to find that the number had been disconnected.
For days she sat alone in the hotel room, sure that Gary would come by. There had to be some explanation. Usually, when he felt that someone was getting too hot on their trail, he would let her know. They were partners, a team, practically father and daughter. Why would he bail without her? Slowly the realization of what he had done crept in, but she was still too scared to check their bank balance. When she finally did, her worst fears were confirmed when she saw the balance was zero.
With Gary’s abandonment and her mother’s death, Jessica only had herself left. She didn’t mind. Life was fine. She had thought she would be in a happier place by now, but oh well. At least she looked scalding hot as she strode into her legitimate job again that Wednesday.
Evan was there, waiting for her with a black coffee. “Do you remember what all your ladies like for coffee?” she snarked as she accepted the cup from him with a sexy side glance.
He seemed confused. “All my ladies?”
“Yes. I’m sure you’re quite the ladies’ man.”
Evan laughed, his cheeks flaming. “Not really. I suppose I could be if I wanted to, but I don’t really have time for dating these days. I haven’t had a relationship in years.” He glanced at her. “Do you have a special someone?”
“No.” She smiled warmly but left the conversation at that. She wanted to create some mystery.
“Let’s step into my office for a moment,” Evan suggested, opening the door for her. It still surprised her at what a gentleman he could be. He was really good at his game, because he didn’t act snide, disinterested, or condescending like most playboys. He was so good at the unassuming, sweet game. So good that she was starting to actually wonder about him as a person, like what he was into, and what he thought about when he wasn’t working himself to the bone. He was very muscular….
“Is there something wrong?” she asked when he indicated for her to take a seat.
“Not exactly. I just wanted to chat a bit before we got to work on the plans today.” He sat across from her and straightened his spine.
Jessica started to get a bad feeling. The way he looked at her…it was as if he knew more than he was letting on. “Okay. Chat about what?” Jessica was wondering if she should bolt. She had a good instinct for when someone was on her trail, and her spidey senses were tingling badly.
“There’s nothing wrong, I want to assure you of that. But…I have some questions about your foundation. I was curious if perhaps I could visit and see the orphans? But I see no physical address.”
Jessica had come prepared for this. “We can’t do that for the safety of the children. Sorry. In order to come, you would have to apply for a background check.”
“That’s no problem. I am more than able to pass a background check.” He beamed at her. “Christmas is coming soon, and in my father’s honor, I always make donations to various youth homes around the city. My mother does not approve, but,” he shrugged haplessly. “It’s my personal money. Not hers. I earn it.”
“Why do you let your mother control you so much if you don’t like her values?” Jessica was trying to make him uncomfortable with a highly personal probe to deflect his interest.
But he disconcerted her more by refusing to follow her lead. He seemed more than happy to share personal details about himself. “She feels better thinking that this business is still hers and I won’t take that from her. She misses my father, I know that. This was his company so I can’t just kick her out of the business. However, she is no longer on the board. She is here of her own volition and her word is now law.” He sighed, a guilty look on his face. “She is still a shareholder, but nothing more. I had to do that for my own sanity. Well, anyway, I would like to extend one to your organization as well. Perhaps I could even be Santa. I’ve been dying to be Santa. I haven’t had the opportunity before.” He grinned like a little boy and produced a Santa’s hat from his drawer. “See, I’m even prepared.”
Jessica giggled. The idea of this chiseled, handsome man wearing a hat and being Santa amused her. Besides, he seemed to share a certain boyish enthusiasm for the whole thing. “Sorry, but we already have a Santa lined up. Now let’s get to work today.”
Evan agreed. But for the remainder of the day, he seemed to be drilling her for information. She couldn’t tell if he really just wanted to be Santa, or if he was onto her. This was her hugest scam yet – she would walk away with millions. That would more than replace what Gary had stolen from her, and more than avenge what the Davis family had done to her mother. Walking away scared her just as much as staying and getting caught by Evan. Should she bolt or not?
When the workday concluded, Evan asked her if she might like to join him for dinner. She smiled at him demurely, glad that her seductive act was working. “I really shouldn’t,” she told him. “Maybe some other night.”
“Sure. But I’m making a mushroom Alfredo. Vegetarian. I always make too much, so I would love someone to share with for once.”
“No, I really can’t.” The idea of a dinner with Evan, where he could drill her even more, made her nervous. Nevertheless, mushroom Alfredo sounded delicious.
He seemed disappointed, but nodded and smiled. “Okay, I will bring you some for lunch tomorrow. Don’t pack lunch! See you tomorrow.” Then he shook her hand and returned to his private office, where she saw him putting on his coat through his ajar door.
Jessica got in a cab but instructed him to wait until Evan left the building. He ran across the street to a CrossFit gym located in the adjacent building. So maybe he didn’t know anything. At least he wasn’t following her home to check up on her.
Nevertheless, she started to sense that she needed to be very careful around this man. He may be a billionaire riding on his daddy’s coattails, but there was more between his ears than cotton stuffing.