Accidental Acquisition by Evangeline Anderson
45
“What is this place?” Jillian asked, as they stepped out of the limo in front of a deserted warehouse.
It didn’t look like any “private facility” she’d ever seen. Also, they weren’t in a very good part of town. She’d been expecting to be taken to another hospital or an urgent care center—though honestly it was hard to concentrate on wondering where Brad was when Jimmy Moreno kept talking at her.
The big man had kept up a steady stream of conversation as the long black limo drove them through the streets of Vegas. He’d talked about how The Palms had “gone to the dogs” since she had left and how Vegas was getting too crowded and The Strip wasn’t what it used to be and all manner of small talk that was neither here nor there, though it kept Jillian nodding politely and replying in all the right places. In fact, he hadn’t stopped talking for a minute until they’d pulled up in front of this weird, darkened warehouse.
Almost as though he was trying to distract me from where we were going, Jillian thought now. All through the trip, she’d been consumed with making polite answers to Moreno’s small talk. A holdover, she supposed, from the past when she had been the Executive Chef talking to a VIP. But now she was alone with a man she barely knew in a dark, deserted location. It was about ten pm Earth time and there were no other cars in sight and only a single, lonely streetlamp lighting the road.
“Where are we?” she asked, looking around herself warily. “Where’s Brad?”
“Oh, he’s in here.” Moving faster than should be possible for such a big man, Jimmy suddenly grabbed her by the arm. Hooking his arm through hers in an unbreakable grip, he began escorting her towards the warehouse.
“Hey, stop! I don’t like this, I want to go home!” Jillian tried to put on the brakes, but her earlier assessment of Jimmy as a gorilla in a suit was proving to be correct. He dragged her along easily, as though it was no trouble at all.
“Come on now, honeybee, don’t be like that,” he said coaxingly, though Jillian could hear iron underneath his light tone. “Come and see Brad—he’s been missing you, you know.”
And before she could protest further, Jillian found herself being dragged through the doorway of the dark warehouse.
“Help! Stop!” she shouted. Her voice echoed in the deserted building, but nobody came to her aid. No surprise, since no matter how loud she got, there was apparently nobody around to hear her, she thought dismally.
“That’s enough of that now, honeybee,” Jimmy Moreno crooned in her ear. “No need to shout—I’m just taking you to see Brad.”
“I don’t want—” Jillian began, but just then, Moreno steered her through another doorway in a darkened corner of the warehouse. The doorway led into a small room within the larger structure which was revealed when he flipped a switch.
The single bulb hanging from a ceiling cord made a puddle of brilliance around a figure slumped in a folding chair. After a moment, Jillian realized, with horror, that the figure was her ex.
“Brad?” she whispered, taking a step towards him. “Oh my God, what happened to you?”
For a fact, her ex was looking a lot worse for the wear. His hands were tied behind his back and his brown eyes were red and puffy and nearly swollen shut. There was a huge lump growing on his jaw where someone had apparently punched him and his bottom lip was split and blood had dribbled down his chin onto his rumpled white dress shirt. In short, he looked like someone had really worked him over.
“Jilly-baby? ‘zat you?” he muttered, peering up at her through his puffy, swollen eyes.
“Yup, she came down just like you said she would.” Jimmy Moreno beamed down at Jillian. “Guess she still loves you after all, Braddy-boy.”
“Wait—you tricked me to get me down here?” Jillian stared at him. “What’s going on here? Why would you do that? I haven’t even seen Brad for over two years, since I found him in bed with a Cirque de Soleil performer.”
“Jilly-baby, don’t lie like that,” Brad whispered, giving her a pitiful look from his slitted, swollen eyes. “I know I hurt you real bad, but I swear that girl didn’t mean anything to me—I was just drunk, is all. Please just tell Jimmy where you hid the money so we can both get out of here.”
“Hid the money?” Jillian stared at him blankly. “What money? What are you talking about?”
“He’s talking about the fifty thousand dollars he was holding for us that you ran off with, honeybee.” Jimmy Moreno’s voice was considerably less friendly now, despite the charming little nickname. “You have to understand that my associates and I can’t have that kind of thing going on, no matter how mad you are at your man for cheating.”
Jillian shook her head.
“I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about! I’ve been living up on the Kindred Mother Ship and I haven’t even been down to Earth at all in the past year. Not since I visited my Aunt for Christmas.”
“Baby, please don’t be like that,” Brad whispered hoarsely. “You and I both know you came down to see me last week, right when I was counting the take for the big game.”
“What big game?” Jillian demanded. “What ‘take?’ What are you talking about?”
“It looks to me like you two have an awful lot to discuss,” Moreno remarked, frowning. “I think I’m gonna leave you kids alone and see if Braddy here can get you to fess up, honeybee,” he said to Jillian.
Then he swaggered out of the small room, closing the door with a hollow bang behind him.
“Brad, what in the hell is going on?” Jillian demanded at once, glaring at her ex. “What have you gotten me into?”
“Look, just give me the money and I’ll pay you back later,” Brad said in a low voice. He had perked up now that Jimmy Moreno was out of the room and he was giving Jillian a sly look from his puffy eyes.
“What money?” Jillian demanded. “You think I just happen to have fifty thousand dollars lying around that I can give to you? Are you crazy?”
“Sure, you’ve got it—in that safety deposit box of yours at the bank!” he insisted. “Don’t be stingy, baby—just let me borrow it for a while and I promise I’ll pay it back. With interest, even.”
“My safety deposit box only has two things in it,” Jillian said. She counted them off on her fingers. “One, my mother’s diary that she kept when she was carrying me and when I was little and two, my grandmother’s diamond engagement ring. It’s an antique but the diamond is pretty small—no more than a chip. I doubt you’d get more than a couple hundred for it, even at the most generous pawn shop. I only locked it up because it has sentimental value and there had been some break-ins in my neighborhood.”
“What? You’re lying! You have to be lying!” Brad’s eyes widened—as much as they could with all the swelling, anyway. “You’ve gotta get me that money, Jilly-baby, or we’re both dead! You know what Jimmy Moreno’s nickname is? Jimmy theknife!”
“What do you mean ‘we?’ I had nothing to do with this!” Jillian put her hands on her hips and glared down at her ex. “Let me guess, you were working for Jimmy Moreno—probably in some illegal capacity—and you started skimming off the top. Am I right?”
“Something like that,” Brad muttered sullenly. “It wasn’t that much, though! These guys make so much money, I didn’t even think they’d notice.”
“Brad, you idiot, guys like Jimmy always notice,” Jillian hissed at him. “What is he—an enforcer from the Mob?”
“Something like that,” Brad muttered again, looking down. “Look, if you’ll just stop being a bitch and give me the money—”
“I don’t have any money to give you!” Jillian exclaimed. “You cleaned me out, Brad! Do you understand that? I had to move up to the Kindred Mother Ship and start all over again because I lost my house and my job and you ruined my credit! You—”
“Okay now, kids, have we got things all settled?” Jimmy Moreno walked back into the room, grinning at both of them. “You going to tell us where you hid them money you took, honeybee?” he asked Jillian.
“I didn’t take any—”
“She won’t tell,” Brad cut her off quickly. “She’s still mad at me because she caught me with another woman.” He looked soulfully up at Jillian. “Baby, please believe me—she didn’t mean a thing to me! Not like you do! I love you with all my heart and soul—please just tell Jimmy where you hid that money you stole from me!”
Jillian stared at her ex in disbelief. She could see well enough exactly where this was going. Brad didn’t care if she had the money or not—he just wanted to shift the blame to her shoulders. Basically, he was throwing her under the bus to the tune of fifty thousand dollars, which he had probably blown at a craps table in a single night.
And unfortunately, it seemed to be working.
Jimmy Moreno was giving her a hard stare.
“Now, honeybee,” he said to Jillian. “Let me explain something to you—you didn’t steal that money from Brad, here—you stole it from meandmy associates. And I’m afraid you’re not going to like what we do with thieves, so why don’t you tell me where it is right now?”
Looking at the Mob enforcer’s black, predatory eyes, Jillian felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice cubes into her belly. Oh God, this was bad news—everything to do with Brad was always bad news! Why hadn’t she just refused to come down here in the first place? She should have left her ex to rot—it was clearly what he deserved.
But she was down here in this situation now, and somehow she had to make it out alive.
“Listen to me, Mr. Moreno,” she said, holding her hands up in a “don’t shoot” gesture. “Brad is lying about all of this.”
“How?” the Mob enforcer demanded, glaring at her. “You said yourself that you caught him in bed with another woman!”
“Yes, but that was over two years ago,” Jillian emphasized. “I left him after that and I haven’t seen him since. He’s the reason I lost my house and my car and my job,” she added, glaring at Brad.
Moreno didn’t look convinced.
“You sure your house and your car didn’t just go up your nose, honeybee? That’s what I’ve been hearing from Braddy, here. Says you got a little too interested in a certain white powder and that’s how you lost your job. The head honchos at The Palms didn’t want a coked-up Head Chef running the place.”
“What? Why would you say a thing like that about me?” Jillian demanded, rounding on her ex. “Have you been spreading that lie all over Vegas? Are you trying to ruin my reputation along with my credit and everything else?”
Brad only gave her puppy-dog eyes.
“Jilly-baby, don’t deny it. Addiction is a disease—everybody knows it. If you snorted that fifty thousand, just admit it. Mr. Moreno just wants to know where his money went.”
“It went into your pocket and then out onto a craps table!” Jillian exclaimed. “Or else into some cheap showgirl’s purse or some stripper’s g-string! I have no idea why you wanted to involve me in this mess of yours, but I have nothing to do with it!”
She started to storm past Moreno, only to have one arm caught in a vise-like grip.
“I don’t think so, honeybee,” the Mob enforcer growled in her ear. “See, my associates and I aren’t about to let anyone leave until we get our money.”
“But I don’t have your money! Brad is lying to you—lying like he always does!” Jillian exclaimed.
But it was clear her pleas were falling on deaf ears. Jimmy Moreno yanked her around so that her back was to his broad, beefy chest and looped one arm around her neck.
“Hey! Let go of me!” Jillian started to struggle…and then she felt something cold and sharp pressing against the small of her back.
“Shut up, honeybee,” Moreno growled in her ear, pressing the knife blade threateningly against her spine. “Nobody’s going anywhere until you tell me where the money is!”
