Chapter Eleven
Jessie threw herself face down on her bed and groaned into her pillow. Maude perched on the end of the mattress, filing her nails. She waited until Jessie came up for air before she zinged her with, “I told you so.”
Jessie glared at her. “That’s incredibly unhelpful.”
Maude shrugged. “That’s all I’ve got for you, ducky. I’m not sure what you expected to happen.”
“Well I didn’t expect that I’d…that he’d…that I…”
Maude laughed. “That you’d like him?”
Jessie did another face dive into her pillows. When she flipped onto her back, Maude was still patiently filing her nails and watching her.
“I don’t like him,” Jessie said.
Maude snorted.
“I don’t!”
“Then what is all this about?” Maude asked, waving at Jessie with her nail file. “Women do not act like this over men who mean nothing to them. Mind you, I don’t blame you one bit. He is the absolute cat’s meow. If I’d have seen him first, I’d have abandoned you and The Red Phoenix and hightailed it over to The Corkscrew the first chance I got.”
Jessie ignored her, knowing her friend didn’t mean it. Or only half meant it, anyway. Maude loved handsome men and wasn’t shy about who knew it. And Tony was definitely handsome.
Jessie flung her arm over her eyes. “You know he only wants me in his club so he can get information on the Phoenix.”
Maude shrugged. “You only took the job because you wanted information on him. Fair’s fair, I say.”
Jessie knew she had no right to be mad at Tony for doing what she was doing herself, but still, it stung to think he might only be interested in her for what she knew about the Phoenix.
“What is it?” Maude pressed again.
“I don’t know,” Jessie sighed.
“He’s not Mario, doll. You can’t judge every man by that piece of filth.”
Jessie jerked up at the mention of her ex’s name. “I know that. And I’m not, I swear. But…It’s just…it doesn’t seem like that’s all he wants. I mean, he does ask me about the Phoenix, but sometimes, I swear that…that he…”
“That he might be interested in you for more than who you are in bed with?”
Jessie’s mouth dropped open. “I am not in bed with the Phoenix.” She didn’t even pause to think about how ridiculous that statement was.
Maude cocked an eyebrow. “Oh, stop splitting hairs. What’s the hotsy-totsy Mr. Solomon doing that makes you think he’s more than a little interested in you?”
Jessie plucked at a loose thread on her dress, not meeting her friend’s eyes. “I’m sure I’m just reading things into it.”
Maude abandoned her nail file and lounged against the headboard, tucking her manicured feet under her. “You just let me be the judge of that,” she said, pulling Jessie’s arm off her eyes. “Now, tell me everything.”
Jessie shrugged. “It’s nothing really. Just…the way he looks at me sometimes.”
“Yes…” Maude prompted with a gleam in her eye.
“And the other day, after our little accident, when we were in the cab. He held my face,” she said, her hand mimicking the way Tony’s hand had cradled her cheek, “and he said that he didn’t want me to be in danger.”
“Oh, honey, that man is definitely interested in you.”
“Well, yes, but how do I know if it’s me that he wants or if he’s just…”
“Trying to romance some information out of you?”
“Yes.”
“I guess you’ll just have to trust your instincts.”
Jessie snorted. “Because that worked so well for me before.”
Maude frowned at her. “You aren’t the same person you were back then. And I’ll bet if you are really honest with yourself, you knew something was fishy with Mario. You just ignored your gut. So this time, don’t ignore it.”
Jessie sighed. “Easier said than done. Just when I think I’ve got a handle on everything, something happens that throws me completely off balance.”
“Something happens?” Maude said, perking up. “Like what, exactly?”
Jessie mentally kicked herself for mentioning it.
“Jessica Harlan, you’d better start flappin’ those lips right now and tell me what happened!”
“He kissed me,” she said, and then slapped her hands over her face.
Maude crowed and clapped her hands. “Why didn’t you say so sooner? He kissed you? Oh how delicious, tell me everything!”
“It was nothing.”
Maude snorted. “It was more than nothing, or your cheeks wouldn’t be hot enough to light my ciggy. Just what exactly happened?”
Jessie slapped her hands over her cursed cheeks. “He must think I’m nothing but some two-timin’ floozy.”
“Oh, honey. I’m sure you’re wrong.”
“But he thinks I’m the Phoenix’s girl, but we…I mean I let him…”
“You let him what?” Maude asked, her bright eyes round in anticipation.
Jessie rolled her eyes. “Never you mind. Doesn’t matter anyhow, I guess. It didn’t get too far. I hit the horn and startled some sense into us, and then Jameson came…”
Maude wrinkled her nose and waved off that comment. “Then what?”
“Then nothing.”
“Hmm. Well. How was it?”
“How was what?”
“The kiss. Or whatever else you did,” she said with a wink. “Was it nice? Did you like it?”
“Oh.” Jessie bit her lip to keep from smiling. “It was…you know…”
“Oh, yes, I do know.” Maude sighed and slumped farther down on the pillows.
Jessie just flipped over and buried her face in her pillow.
“That good, huh?” Maude laughed, her low, husky laugh that made men drool at her feet. “I bet it was.”
“Oh, Maude,” Jessie said, slapping her friend’s arm. “What do I do now?”
“If it were me, I’d march right back into that man’s office and kiss him until he couldn’t even look at another woman but me.”
Jessie frowned. She’d love to do that. In fact, every cell in her body fairly screamed to do it. But it was never going to happen.
“But you aren’t me,” Maude said with a sigh. “What do you want to do?”
“I really don’t know. I know I can’t trust him. I know he only wants to seduce me to get information out of me. And I don’t know what his connection to Jameson is yet. They obviously aren’t friends, but they know each other and that is concerning. So to get involved with him would be foolish. Especially since he’s also my competition.”
“So. You have a lot of reasons to stay away from him.”
“Yes.”
“But?”
Jessie shrugged. “There is no but. It’s foolish. It doesn’t matter what I might want—”
“So you do want to be with him! I knew it.”
The ridiculous butterflies that had erupted in her belly at the memory of the kiss faded away with the cold light of reality. “I don’t know what I want.”
“I think you do,” Maude said gently, reaching over to brush Jessie’s hair out of her face. “Now you just need to find out how to go about getting it.”
“It’s not that easy.”
“You are making this too complicated.”
“No, I’m not. It’s plenty complicated without any help from me.”
Maude shook her head. “You are both over thinking this. You want him. He wants you. Nothing else should matter.”
Jessie leaned against her friend’s shoulder, wishing it really was that simple. Unfortunately, other things did matter. Far too much.
…
Tony sat across from Jameson at the diner, his coffee growing cold in front of him, trying his hardest to hold his patience. The man had been quizzing him for more than an hour now while he shoved his breakfast down his throat, and Tony had no more information to pass along than he had when they’d started. Finally, he held up a hand.
Jameson stopped eating and frowned at him. “What?”
“Agent Jameson, I can appreciate your situation. I know you want the Phoenix. I am doing my best to get you the information you need. But I won’t be able to do that from this diner and me being seen with you won’t do anything but blow my cover.”
Jameson waved him off. “The bootleggers would be more suspicious if we weren’t harassing you and pulling you in for questioning every other day. They’d wonder why we were leaving you alone.”
“Be that as it may, I can’t do the job you hired me for in here.”
“Doesn’t seem like you are doing the job you were hired for out there, either.”
Tony glared at him, angry that there was more than a little truth to that. Jameson exhaled and leaned back, crossing his hands over his stomach. “Fine.”
Tony stood to go but Jameson stopped him. “Just a minute. There’s one other matter we need to discuss.”
Tony sat back down and linked his fingers over his chest, waiting for Jameson to get to the point. Jameson pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and tossed it in front of him. Tony glanced at it but didn’t pick it up.
“Care to explain why you spent almost $100 on a bunch of dresses?”
Tony kept his amusement to himself. He’d wondered when Jameson would bring it up. “I thought I was free to use the money at my disposal as I saw fit.”
Jameson’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “To a point. That money is only to be used to maintain your cover, to keep the speakeasy running.”
“I hired a new singer for the club. She needed something to wear.”
Jameson’s eyebrow twitched. “That’s quite a few somethings.”
“If my club is going to be popular enough to rival The Red Phoenix, then we need to step up our game. We’ll never draw the Phoenix out unless we make this look realistic.”
Jameson downed the rest of his coffee, his patience for the subject obviously at an end. Tony stood to go but Jameson’s voice stopped him again.
“Wait. Who is this singer you’ve hired?”
Tony inwardly swore. He’d been hoping he wouldn’t have to divulge Jessie’s identity just yet. He turned around, braced himself for Jameson’s explosion, and said, “Jessica Harlan.”
“Excuse me?”
Tony didn’t repeat himself. Jameson had heard.
Jameson threw a few bills on the table and stood. “Well, that’s one way of keeping her close to you. That’s one hell of a large development and a definite stride in the right direction. You didn’t think it important enough to mention to me?”
Jameson’s voice was low, controlled, but that didn’t fool Tony. The man was probably two seconds away from popping a few holes in him. And understandably so. But Tony had his reasons for wanting to keep Jessie a secret. Reasons he didn’t intend to share with Jameson.
“I didn’t want to say anything until I had something concrete to tell you. She’s only just started and I haven’t been able to gather any information from her yet. I’m not so sure she knows anything at all. She works all day in that butcher shop, and from what I can gather, she rarely ventures out at night. If she’s still the Phoenix’s broad, which I’m beginning to doubt, then they are awfully secretive about meeting.”
Jameson scowled. “Don’t let that sweet little face of hers distract you, Solomon. She knows a lot more than she’s letting on. And if she’s agreed to work for you it can only be so she can spy on you for him. Did that ever occur to you?”
Tony glared at Jameson in disgust. “Of course it did. You might not be happy with my methods at the moment, but I know what I’m doing.”
“Really? And what is it that you are doing, aside from letting the enemy in your front door?”
“We haven’t been able to draw the Phoenix out with the club’s success alone but he should be poking around by now. The Corkscrew is making a nice little dent in his bottom line, but until Jessie agreed to work at my club, there hadn’t been one incident that pointed to the Phoenix caring a whit for me stealing his clientele. Now that I’ve got Jessie, maybe we can draw him out a little faster.”
Jameson studied Tony for a moment, then finally sat back in his chair with a slow smile. “Excellent. Very smart. If he doesn’t care about you stealing his business, or his girlfriend getting romanced out from under him, maybe he’ll care if she leaves his team to work for yours. Well done. Well, far be it from me to get in your way. Carry on, Solomon.”
Tony turned and stalked out, his gut turning at the admiration in Jameson’s voice. He also shoved away the twinge of unease that crept in every time he thought of the information he did know that he wasn’t sharing. Such as the fact that the nights Jessie wasn’t at The Corkscrew were very likely the nights The Red Phoenix was up and running. Really, Jameson should have known enough to ask about that on his own. How the man had made it into the Bureau was beyond Tony. And Tony would tell him…soon.
He blew out a breath and picked up his pace, ignoring his surroundings and the people he brushed past in his hurry. In the beginning, this had all seemed like a good idea. But now…the thought of using her to get to her rum running boyfriend sat like a bad egg in the pit of his stomach. She obviously knew more about the Phoenix’s business than she wanted to let on. She’d be useful, even instrumental, in taking down the Phoenix. But while Tony knew it was the best way, the whole plan still stuck in his craw.
Especially now that things between them had escalated. He’d never intended to lay a hand on her, let alone his lips or…anything else. He might use a little romance to get what he needed every now and then, but he drew the line at seducing a girl. If he had any smarts, he’d get out now before things got worse.
No help for it now, though, and he had no choice. He’d started on this path and he would have to see it through. He just needed to make sure nothing like that little scene in the car ever happened again. Jessie was off-limits, end of story. Tony sucked in a deep breath, trying to ease the sudden tightness in his chest. The thought of never touching Jessie again, of doing his job and walking away forever, bothered him more than it should. What the hell had he gotten himself into?
Maybe a reminder of why he was doing this would make everything more palatable. He doubted it, but it was worth a shot.