Stitch by Jaime Lewis
Chapter Thirteen
Elijah paced the length of his living room in his penthouse. The heels of his Armani dress shoes clicked against the marble floors with every step he took. He was pissed. Two of his employees had fucked up big time, and because of their stupidity, he had some major covering up to do.
“You okay, boss?”
Elijah whipped his head around to see Claus standing in the doorway. Ignoring his question, he asked, “Did you take care of the situation?”
“It is being done as we speak.”
“Good. I don’t want anything traced back to me. Where are Oscar and Jules?”
“Down at the docks working on installing those new cages on that cargo ship so everything will ready for the shipment scheduled for next week.” Claus walked a little more into the room, and Elijah saw him holding a shopping bag.
“What is that?” He asked.
“The items from the girl that were left at the warehouse. Vargas bagged it up. He is also taking care of the clean-up.”
Claus handed over the bag, and Elijah took a peek inside. It was just a pair of socks, running shoes, and a black zip-up hoodie. A smell tickled his nose. It was a familiar scent. He removed the hoodie from the bag and brought it to his nose, and inhaled again. It was sweet, not too strong, but enticing. It was Mia. The scent from the hoodie was the same perfume that Mia wore, and instantly the vision from the night at the gala fluttered through his mind. He damned himself for telling her to take a few extra days to visit with her brother. She wasn’t due back to the office until Wednesday. With the situation he was currently dealing with, it could turn out to be a good thing since he’d be preoccupied making sure Oscar and Jules’ fuck up was concealed.
“Are Oscar and Jules sure she didn’t get a look at them?”
“No, they said she was blindfolded the entire time. They are aware of how bad they fucked up.”
“They both are lucky they aren’t floating in the Hudson River right now.”
“I can still make that happen.”
“No. We have enough to deal with right now. I don’t need another reason for the cops to start sniffing around. We need to find out who that woman was that escaped and deal with her. Press Oscar and Jules for more information. I want to know where they picked her up from, and have them give you a better description than a ‘hot raven-haired woman with a fuckable body’.”
“I’ll talk with them. I’m supposed to meet up with Vargas later next week to go over plans for the next shipment. He said he knew of a more concealed place outside the city to hold the dogs until they were adopted. Since he was at the warehouse, I’ll see if he can provide any other information. However, he got there just before she escaped.”
Elijah let out a frustrated sigh and sunk down into the chair.
“What are we doing about the Willow situation, now?”
Willow was the woman Oscar and Jules were supposed to nab off the street. Now he was faced with two problems.
“There is no situation with Willow.”
Elijah quirked his eyebrow, and Claus grinned, then looked at his watch. “Willow should be on her way to her new home.”
“New home?”
Claus shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t have an exact location, but Chen Pham was more than willing to take her off your hands. I was surprised at the price he offered for her.” He gloated.
“You sold her to Pham?” Elijah ran his hand through his hair. “Jesus, she probably would have been better off if you just killed her. I’ve heard stories about Pham. Not many women last more than a month with him.”
Claus, again gave a shoulder shrug. “Do you really care?”
“No. As long as she can’t open her mouth around here, I don’t give a fuck what happens to her.”
“She was an easy target. I picked her up this morning as she was out walking in Central Park. Not sure anyone taught the stupid girl not to walk alone in the park while it was dark.”
Claus gathered his coat and car keys. “I have the crew meeting me at the warehouse. I’m concerned with the amount of close calls we’ve had the last few weeks. Ones that could have been prevented if those responsible had been paying attention. I’m going to let them know that if there are any more screw-ups, heads will roll. Literally.”
Elijah nodded his head as Claus showed himself out the door. Elijah grabbed his glass and walked over to the windows overlooking Central Park; it was a magnificent view as the windows pan floor to ceiling. He lifted the glass of whiskey to his lips and took a long sip. In his other hand, he still clutched the jacket belonging to the woman who could potentially bring down his empire. He swallowed hard. Finding her in the city was going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack. His only hope was that she was too out of it to remember where she was.
