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“Well, what are the odds that they’re going to show up?”
“I have no idea.”
“Because we can take the reservation. There’s a members-only lounge that I can get us into, and if they decide to join us, we could ditch them and go back home.”
Home. He liked that. Home could be this beach house. This could be her home base in South Beach.
The thought hit him like a splash of cold water. He had just met her. He still didn’t know her last name. And after having mind-altering sex with her for the past few days, he wasn’t sure how to ask her for it now without sounding like an idiot. He needed to reel himself in fast before she hooked him like her mother had hooked Kirk Diamonte.
“I don’t want Jace to ruin another night for us. I’m done babysitting them. At this point, I just want to protect my sister.”
“I had an idea about that. Text me her number. I’ll call her to see if she received the larimar jewelry that Jace sent. While I’m on the phone with her, I’ll see if he’s called her or if she knows what he’s up to. Coming from me, it won’t be suspicious. She won’t expect me to know where Jace is, like she would if you asked.”
“That’s brilliant,” he sighed. “I would really appreciate it.”
“Good. I’ve got to get going. I’ll be incommunicado for a few hours, but don’t worry. I’m not pulling a Jace.”
“I can’t wait to see you tonight,” he said.
“Enjoy flying through the air in a chair above shark-infested waters.”
“Hey, at least I’ve got a parachute attached to it.”
“See you soon.”
Bastien grinned and realized he was as smitten as a high school girl with her first crush.
Mikelina waited for her father to be brought out to her. This was only the second time she had come to see him. It was hard for her to see him in the orange prison jumpsuit and even though he was in a minimum-security prison, he still had cuffs on his arms and shackles on his legs when they walked him through the door.
They weren’t allowed to hug or touch, in case she slipped him contraband, so they sat awkwardly facing each other across the table.
Tanner Presley looked older and bitter. The laugh lines around his eyes weren’t as prominent as the frowning ones across his brow. She tried to see him as the father she remembered and it was getting harder and harder to remember that man. That’s why she needed the beach house. That’s why she couldn’t sell it.
“Do you need anything?” she asked to fill the silence.
“If you can swing a couple of hundred dollars more a month in my account, I’d appreciate it.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” Mikelina couldn’t stop wringing her hands.
“Why are you here? Have you changed your mind about my guilt?”
She looked around and saw that no one seemed to be paying much attention to them, but she lowered her voice anyway. “No. I saw the computer files. I found your backups, and before I turned them in to the FBI, I read them. I know exactly what you did and to whom.”
His mouth twisted. “I can’t believe my own daughter ratted me out.”
“You were already busted. I handed over evidence.”
“There would have been reasonable doubt if you hadn’t.”
She shook her head. “No. You made mistakes. The most important one being deciding to cheat people out of their hard-earned money.”
He glanced around, too, and then leaned forward and spoke in a tone barely above a whisper. “I didn’t take it from people who didn’t have it to lose.”
“Yeah, you did. Remember Mr. Edwards?”
Tanner looked away. “I had bad intel on that. There was a misprint of a couple of zeros.”
“You denied a dying man peace that he had assets to leave to his heirs. But that was just one out of a dozen people you cheated.”
