Chapter Seventeen
After a few hours of scaring the crap out of Stan, Seth had finally let the grateful man go with a promise that they wouldn’t tell the cops on him if he didn’t tell on Seth for hitting him a few times. Dare called back and was able to affirm before Stan left that what he’d told them – at least about himself – was true. He didn’t have a criminal history and frankly he didn’t look frightening or intimidating in the least.
“What do you think Stan will tell Eric?” Presley asked Seth later that night as they finished their room service dinner and lounged on the bed. It had been an eventful day. “Do you think he’ll tell him about us?”
Seth finished punching in another text to Tanner. He’d been on and off the cell phone almost constantly since Stan’s hasty departure. The private eye had said he was heading back to Montana tonight since there was no more reason for him to be here in Vegas.
“Yes and no. I do think he’ll tell him he saw us but I doubt he’ll tell the person paying him that he was made.” Seth had given poor Stan some career advice this afternoon. Stick with divorces. Stan seemed to agree. “He won’t want to admit that we know why he was here. Assuming he was telling the truth about Harbaugh but I don’t think he was lying about that. He seemed sincere. I think he’ll just tell him that we don’t have the money.”
“Do you think Eric will expect us to show up?”
That had Seth dragging his nose out of his phone and giving her all his attention.
“No, because we’re not going to show up and see him.”
It was obvious that her husband was losing his patience. Since Stan Wallace had told them his story, Seth hadn’t wanted to listen to anything she had to say.
Tough. Unless he left the hotel room, Seth was a captive audience now.
“One,” she said, counting out on her fingers as he groaned and leaned back against the stacked pillows and headboard. She’d shut up about it all over dinner but he didn’t honestly believe that she’d dropped it completely? Didn’t he know her at all? “One, the cartel might believe that you have the money. That’s one good reason to do it.”
“Presley, I do not want to talk about this. Can’t we just enjoy our last night in Las Vegas? Let’s go dancing.”
She wanted to talk and he was stonewalling her. He hated to dance and the only reason he was offering was to distract her. Did he honestly think it was going to work? She wasn’t Ben or Lulu.
“Two,” she went on as if he’d never spoken. “The authorities might believe you have the money and come after you someday.”
“I cannot believe you’re still talking.” Seth scraped a hand down his face before turning toward her. “Listen to me closely, my wife, please. The government does not think I have the money. I have been cleared.”
“That’s what they said,” she argued. “But maybe they’re just waiting for us to buy something lavish. Maybe they’re watching you.”
She was paranoid just thinking about it.
“And who is they?”
“You know…the cops.”
Sighing, he closed his eyes and smacked the phone against his forehead. “I’m the cops, baby. Me. If I was under investigation, I’d know it. It’s been years since that robbery and I’ve heard nothing. Believe me when I say that a police organization cannot keep a secret that long. No one thinks I have the money.”
She couldn’t argue with that logic. Yet.
“I’ll give you that one but that doesn’t mean that the cartel doesn’t believe it.”
Seth had that patient look on his face again. The one he would wear when he was explaining something he didn’t think she’d understand.
She hated that expression.
“The cartel doesn’t care where the money comes from, babe. They don’t care if Eric Harbaugh has to mortgage his house or sell his car or maybe a kidney. They just don’t give a shit. It is not their mode of operation to go after some random person because they might have money, especially when that person is a cop. Whether it’s the bank money or cash from Harbaugh’s mattress they don’t give a shit. Money is money.”
“What if Eric Harbaugh tells the cartel that we have Danny’s money?”
Rubbing his chin, Seth actually looked like he was considering her question. For real this time.
“That is a possibility, I will admit. Although they could think he’s just lying or trying to delay. I also don’t think they’d come after us themselves. They’d make him do it. They don’t want to be seen by a cop as part of all of this. They’re careful like that. That’s how they stay in business.”
Even if Seth and Presley weren’t in danger anymore…Eric Harbaugh was. And from what Dare had found, he was a decent guy trying to make a living. But he’d had the bad luck to have a sibling who was a criminal.
Just like her.
“They’re going to kill him, Seth.”
He shook his head and held up his phone. “They are not going to kill him. I’ve already sent several messages to the guys about this. We can get the poor bastard some protection to keep him alive.”
That sounded fine for awhile but eventually the cartel was going to lose what little patience they had. “How long can you keep him safe? The rest of his life? That doesn’t sound practical.”
“We don’t have to keep him safe forever. Just long enough to put the leaders of the cartel in jail.”
“And just how do you plan to do that? If it were easy I would imagine it would already be done.”
“Tanner has contacted Jason Anderson who used to work for the DEA. He has some buddies that work the Montana area and he’s sure they know about this cartel. We’ll simply give them a hand bringing the head honchos in.”
He made it sound so straightforward. As if putting drug czars in jail happened every single day. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, as Ben would say.
“Once again, I ask how? What’s different today than yesterday when it comes to busting this drug ring?”
It was right then that she knew the answer that Seth wasn’t saying. She wasn’t a stupid person and she should have figured it out before. Damn.
“No,” she said, smacking the newspaper she’d been reading down on the bed. “You can’t.”
Growling in frustration, Seth tossed his phone onto the nightstand. “He has a choice. He doesn’t have to do it.”
Presley shook her head. “He doesn’t have a choice. He’s scared and thinks he’s going to die a grisly and painful death. He won’t be thinking straight.”
She ought to know. In the days following her car explosion logical thought hadn’t come easily.
“The agents will explain it all to him, baby. Both sides. He’ll be completely informed of the risks so he can make the right decision for himself.”
Sometimes Seth was a complete optimist, blind to the hard truths in the world.
“You cannot use Eric Harbaugh as bait to catch a drug cartel, Seth Reilly. He’s some kind of computer geek, not a super spy. He’ll get himself killed.”
“The agents are going to make sure they do everything in their power to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“And if it does?”
Twisting around, Seth took her face in his hands and leaned forward so they were almost nose to nose. She could feel his warm breath on her cheek and smell the tang of his body wash, both scents comforting when she was agitated. She’d once compared his scent to putting on a favorite flannel shirt, toasty and soft and so familiar. Now she simply thought he smelled like home.
“If Eric Harbaugh does nothing, there’s a good chance he’s going to end up dead. As in not alive or breathing. I feel sorry for him that he had such a lousy brother but he’s in a bad spot. If I were his friend and advising him I’d tell him that he’s safer with the Feds than on his own. He can’t handle this by himself. Just like you couldn’t handle Randall and your sister by yourself.”
That was underhanded, bringing up her past. When she was Katie… She barely remembered those days. They seemed so far away, as if they’d happened to another person. In a way, they had.
“And then what happens when he puts the big guys in jail? Won’t he be a marked man?”
Seth’s phone chimed and he picked it up to check the message. “He can go into witness protection and start a whole new life, separate from Danny Harbaugh.”
“What if he doesn’t want to go?”
Chuckling, Seth leaned down and dropped a kiss on her lips. “It didn’t work out so badly for you.”
Her life was much better now than it had been before. Still…
“I feel sorry for him. He didn’t ask for any of this.”
“Neither did you, honey.”
That was true but it didn’t help Eric Harbaugh. There had to be another way.