Chapter Fifteen
After a taut moment of silence, the room exploded with noise. Sedarno started laughing and gestured to his bodyguard to lower his gun. Knoll’s face turned an ugly shade of purple, “Where did you get that briefcase? Where’s Dwayne? Those are my goddamn diamonds!”
“Are they, Maurice?” Sedarno wiped away actual tears of mirth. “Yours? I believe you emancipated them from whatever back world mine they were in, and now these folks have freed them from you.”
Knoll’s purple face darkened as he looked between Sedarno and Adam, but he didn’t seem to know what to do.
Adam ignored Knoll and spoke to Sedarno, his voice smooth and low. “Here’s the deal. Jess and I give you the diamonds. Right here, right now. You let us walk away. There’s no way Jess can implicate you because she herself is now involved in handing off illegally retrieved diamonds to a reputed crime boss. She doesn’t say a word about tonight, and you let her live.”
Jess stayed silent, her eyes locked on Adam’s calm face. He had the diamonds? He could have taken them and run, but he’d stayed. He was giving them up for her. Not only that, he was putting his own life in danger to save hers.
Man, if she lived through this, she had a lot to think about.
Sedarno laughed again, clapped his hands together. “I must say, I like this plan quite a lot. Spunky Nancy Drew lives to play another round of golf, I get my diamonds, and Maurice still owes me another 25 mil. I accept your terms.”
Knoll screeched. “What?”
Sedarno shook his head. “You’ll still owe me 25 mil. You haven’t delivered me the payment you owe. I just happened to make an outside deal with these fine folks.”
He flicked his fingers, now the third person in the room to make Knoll irrelevant.
“Hand over the case,” he said. Adam carefully handed it to him and took a step back, careful to keep between Jess and the bodyguard.
“I trust you used the combination I advised, Maurice?” Sedarno kept chuckling as he worked the lock.
Knoll’s lips curled and his eyes narrowed. He suddenly looked more like a brute than a befuddled businessman.
Even though the tide in the room seemed to be turning in her favor, Jess felt a shiver go up her spine.
Sedarno raised the lid of the case. “Ah. Beautiful.”
Both Adam and the bodyguard leaned forward, unable to keep from taking a peek at the dazzling pile of jewels.
But Jess kept her eyes on Knoll’s changing face. Which is why she saw him grab the bodyguard’s gun from his limp hand.
Which is why, when he screamed, “Those are mine!” she knew what he was going to do.
Knoll raised the gun and pointed it at Adam.
“No!” Just as he pulled the trigger, Jess threw herself in front of Adam.
Something slammed into her upper body with the force of a sledgehammer. Fuck! Ow! Bam! Now, her face smacked into something: hard, stiff, fibrous. Am I on the floor?
In the distance, she could hear Adam roaring her name. No, that couldn’t be Adam. Whoever was shouting sounded terrified.
Warmth pooled over her then. So strange. Her temperature was all over the place. She felt cold, but her shoulder was burning. Tepid liquid was making her dress feel clingy and gross.
Hey, there were sparkly, shiny stones all over the floor and tangled in the curls of her silly wig.
“Pretty,” she mumbled, before the entire world went black.
* * *
Adam would re-live those few minutes in his nightmares for years.
...Sedarno opening the briefcase while Knoll bellowed about the diamonds
...Jess screaming “No” before a strange, blasting-clicking sound
...a startled Sedarno dropping the briefcase, sending the diamonds all over the floor
...Jess flying in front of him, then falling to the floor...blood spreading from her upper chest to the pink carpet.
Before he could do anything other than shout her name, Sedarno’s bodyguard grabbed a clutch piece from his ankle and shot Knoll in the shoulder. Knoll screamed and dropped the gun. He fell backward, bashing his head into the wall and knocking himself unconscious.
“Jesus Christ,” Sedarno said, glaring at his bodyguard. The clutch piece had not had a suppressor attached and the shot was loud. Adam could hear murmurs and cries from the party downstairs.
Not that he cared one fuck about that. He dropped to his knees, still frantically calling her name. “Jess! Oh my God. Jess!”
She’d fallen on her face. Gently, he rolled her onto her back, gasping when he saw the blood on her chest and neck. “No, baby,” he whispered. “Please no.” This couldn’t be happening. He’d come up here to save her. What the fuck was she doing, jumping in front of him like that?
He could feel a pulse in her neck, thank Christ. Her chest was rising with shallow breaths. But for how long? She needed an ambulance. She needed help.
Sedarno knelt next to him. He gripped Jess’s shoulder to pull her closer and examine the wound. “Looks like an in and out,” he said. “She’ll probably be fine.”
Adam cut his eyes to the man’s face. “Really?”
“Doesn’t look like it nicked her lung,” Sedarno said. “Might fuck up her golf swing a little.”
He turned and his eyes shot daggers at his bodyguard. “What the hell are you waiting for? Put the diamonds back in the briefcase. The cops will be here any minute.”
As if on cue, the sounds of sirens echoed in the distance. Adam wondered if they were the cavalry Jess tried to call in earlier or if they were just responding to sounds of shots fired.
He knelt over her again, resting his cheek against hers. “I’m here. Help is on its way.”
Against his cheek, he felt her eyes open, felt the brush of her those thick eyelashes against his skin. It was the best damned thing he’d felt in his entire life.
“Ow,” she said. “Wow. That hurts so much.” She exhaled and a tear ran down her face.
His throat burned; he didn’t trust himself to speak. He just stroked her face again and again, pushing the tears away.
“We’re gone,” Sedarno announced.
Adam forced himself to look up. “Our deal stands?”
Sedarno flicked a disgusted glance at the unconscious Knoll. “Yes.”
“You know Venchetti in Miami?” Adam asked. “He’s ready for what’s in that briefcase if you want to work with him. He’ll move quickly, if you’re worried about Knoll talking to the Feds.”
Sedarno absorbed the statement. “I know Venchetti,” he said, finally. “Thanks. But if Maurice is stupid enough to talk about me, he’ll be in even more trouble than he is now.”
“Let’s go.” Sedarno and his bodyguard disappeared through the door. Adam wondered where their car was parked. He had no doubt they’d manage to escape, but it might be close. The sirens were very loud now. The cars couldn’t be more than a couple of blocks away.
“You need to leave too,” Jess whispered.
He stared at her. “How hard did you hit your head? I’m not leaving you. For God’s sake, you just jumped in front of a bullet for me.” He kissed her lips. Hard. “You took a decade off my life, Blondie.”
“Another one,” she demanded, wincing and smiling at the same time. He took his time with the next kiss, made it softer, sweeter. “More,” she whispered, and he kissed her again and again. He tasted tears on her lips and sent up a prayer of thanks. Christ, she could have died. He could have lost her.”Now you have to leave,” she said. “Don’t argue, Adam. I called about smuggled diamonds. You have a history with jewel theft. Sedarno’s not here. There’s a million different things Knoll could say—he could say you shot him, that you had the diamonds to begin with, anything. Leave, now!”
She looked around wildly. “God, with the shootings, they’ll fingerprint everything. They might get yours. You need to run. Get out of town. Now.”
Adam’s heart flipped over. The woman took a shot intended for him and now she was trying to save him—again. “No. Jess, I’m not leaving you here, lying and bleeding on the floor. Forget it.”
“You saved my life,” she said. “You gave up Tony’s future for me.” She raised a bloody hand to his face. “Leave.” When he didn’t move, she started to cry. “Adam, please.”
He couldn’t take more of her tears. “Jesus, don’t cry,” he begged.
“Then go,” she commanded.
“No,” he said softly. He just...refused. Come what may, he didn’t want to leave. He wanted to go to the hospital with her, laugh with her while she ate Jello. Bring her silly crap from the gift shop. Take her home to her apartment when she felt better.
But she was right. If he stuck around, he needed to be careful. With his record, he was just too damn convenient of a scapegoat for Knoll. Well, careful he could do. He was excellent at careful.
Bottom line? There was no way he was leaving her.
He heard the cops pounding on the door downstairs, heard frantic partygoers mention the gunshots upstairs. He thought quickly, retracing his every movement. “I didn’t touch anything in this room except you, and I didn’t leave prints on the door handle. Knoll isn’t going to make any sort of statement until he’s had medical treatment and consulted a lawyer—and I’ll be out of plain sight by then.”
But right now, he kissed her again. “Adam,” she whispered, her eyes misting with pain. “Are you sure?”
Oh yeah, he was sure. “Relax, sweetheart. I’m just a concerned partygoer who found you in this condition and insisted on riding with you in the ambulance.”
She closed her eyes, and he couldn’t tell if she was still with him or not. He leaned over and put his lips to her ear. “I love you, Jess.”