STONE had no idea if Wild Cards even took missing-persons cases. “Let me call my bosses. I think this one will take both Martin’s and Pere’s sign-off.” He called the cofounders of the firm, got them on a conference line, and filled them in briefly.
“What’s your gut telling you about this one?” Pere asked him grimly. “Did this guy take a runner with his porn star?”
“That’s my belief, sir.”
“Can you find him?”
“He’s not that smart. I can find him.” He added grimly, “But it’s a hell of a risk for you to take with a new company that’s still trying to establish its reputation.”
“We are aware of that, thank you,” Martin replied wryly. “Pass the phone to the senator’s aide, Mr. Brandeis.”
It took a while, off speakerphone, for Christian to talk the owners of Wild Cards into taking the job. They weren’t happy at the prospect of having to deal with Jack Lacey in any capacity. Eventually, for an exorbitant fee, Stone was back on the job, this time working for Jill Lacey.
“Thank God,” Christian muttered as he disconnected the overseas call. He looked grimly at Stone. “You’re up, Slugger. Find my boss.”
“Here’s the thing. If this is an actual abduction, we’ve got nothing, and the kidnappers have an insurmountable head start. We would have to sit tight and wait for a ransom demand.”
Christian frowned.
“So,” Stone continued, “we’re going to operate on the assumption that Jack was not kidnapped, and that he and Chesty are having a good old time.” He pulled his pistol out of its holster and reversed it in his hand, holding it out butt first to Christian.
“What are you doing?” Christian asked sharply.
“Handing you my weapon.”
“I don’t want it!”
“If I pull a B&E in Chesty’s place while armed, it’s a third-degree felony. If I’m not armed when I do it, it’s only a second-degree misdemeanor. Take the gun.”
“Whoa. Wait. As in breaking and entering?”
“As in taking a look around inside for any leads and not disturbing anything,” Stone replied.
“But it’s a crime!” Christian exclaimed. “I can’t let you do this. I’m an officer of the court.”
“Take a nap. This is what Mrs. Lacey is paying all that money for.”
Christian subsided, but he looked mutinous. It was sexy as all get-out the way he glared at Stone, promising hell to pay later. Not that Stone anticipated having a minute alone with him until the senator was located. Dammit.
As break-ins went, this one was as straightforward as they came. Chesty’s backdoor lock was ridiculously inadequate. He could’ve opened it with a paper clip. He checked the sink: no dirty dishes. He opened the refrigerator: no milk. No fruit or fresh vegetables either. Nothing that would spoil quickly. Either Chesty was an extremely neat person who ate no healthy food, or she’d been planning to be out of town for a while.
A quick look around the house revealed that all the laundry was done and key toiletries missing from the bathroom. She’d definitely buttoned up her house.
A blinking light on her answering machine shed more light on the situation. “Chelsea, it’s Bob. Pick up the damned phone. You missed another audition yesterday. You’ve got to quit doing this. You’re going to get a reputation for being a flake, and you can forget getting decent paying roles once that happens. There are a hundred girls hotter than you, younger than you, and kinkier than you just waiting to take your place in the adult film industry. So get off your ass and call me, or I swear, I’ll dump you as a client.”
Stone guessed that ruled out Chesty being gone on location at a film set. There was no more to see in the house. He headed back outside, locking the door behind himself.
He reported his findings to the other men.
Christian frowned. “So, if she was planning to be out of town for a while already, did she kidnap Jack?”
An interesting theory. He replied, “She would be a rocket scientist among porn stars to plan a kidnapping in advance, manage to catch Jack’s eye at that party among all the other professional talent working the joint, and then to successfully disappear with him.”
Tucker added, “Not to mention Jack left the hotel without a fight. If she was, in fact, abducting him, she tricked him into walking out under his own power.”
Stone shrugged. “You two know your boss better than I do. Is he that gullible and/or that ruled by his dick?”
Both men snorted. Okay, then. Jack Lacey was stupid enough to let a porn star hoodwink him, and he was addicted enough to sex to let it ruin his life. Part of him wanted to let this jerk go down in flames and not get found in time to avoid a scandal. But one look at Christian’s stricken, pale face and Stone cursed under his breath. Fine. He’d find the damned senator.
“Where to now?” Tucker asked.
They had to find a trail. No matter how faint nor how cold. They needed a starting place from which to move forward. “Back to the hotel. If they snuck out, they probably didn’t walk to their final destination. Let’s check out the taxis that worked the hotel last night.”
The next several hours were tedious and frustrating as they combed through what hotel security camera footage did exist. But eventually Christian pointed at the video monitor. “There. That’s him.”
Stone leaned down over his shoulder to peer at the grainy image. “The guy in the baseball cap?”
“I’d know his walk anywhere.”
Stone watched a nondescript sedan pull up at the curb in front of the senator. Chesty stepped into the camera frame briefly before sliding into the backseat of the car. Baseball Cap followed her, never showing his face to the camera. But Christian was convinced the faceless man was Lacey. Stone had to agree that the height and build were right.
“That looks like an Uber ride,” Christian commented.
“Possible. The good news is Jack and Chesty weren’t being herded into the vehicle at gunpoint. I think we can safely say the two of them took off voluntarily.”
“What the hell is he thinking?” Christian burst out.
“Did you get a good look at her? I don’t think thought has much to do with it.” They made brief eye contact, and Christian looked away guiltily. Yeah. Neither one of them was in a position to cast stones at Jack Lacey on that score.
A quick call to Wild Cards, Inc.’s operation center yielded the destination the Uber driver had delivered the senator and his girlfriend to. Stone reported it tersely to Christian. “The South Miami Marina.”
“Oh God. He’s gotten on a party boat with a bunch of women, booze, and drugs,” Christian groaned. “The press will get ahold of this for sure. How soon can you get him back here, Stone?”
“Depends upon where he is. If they’re fucking their way through the Florida Keys, pretty fast. A quick call to the Coast Guard, and they’ll have him on a helicopter back to Miami in a few hours.”
“And if they’re not in the Keys?”
Stone shrugged. “If he’s gone outside of US jurisdiction, it could take longer.”
“He’s got a major appearance at a Latin American Chamber of Commerce event the day after tomorrow. Massive campaign donations will come from it. You’ve got to get him back.”
“I’ll do my best. Let’s head down to the marina and find out what boat he’s on and where it’s headed.”
It turned out not to be that easy, however. Stone had to more or less threaten the marina manager’s life before the name of the yacht—the Wrastle Castle—was forthcoming. As for its intended destination, the beleaguered manager disappeared into a back office to get the navigation plan.
“Do you always bully people into giving you what you want?” Christian muttered.
“Do you want to find your boss or not?” Stone muttered back. “Mrs. Lacey didn’t hire me to be nice. She hired me to get results.”
“Yes, but your tactics are making enemies for my employer.”
“Do you care?”
“In this case, not particularly. Jack created this mess. He can deal with the fallout. But in general, no, I don’t approve of such tactics.” Christian tilted his head, considering Stone. “You don’t stick around long enough after a job to face the consequences of your actions anyway, do you?”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“You cause havoc and then split. You move on and leave behind a mess for other people to clean up.”
“Is this about you and me?” Stone demanded under his breath.
“No.” A pause. “Yes.” Another pause. “Maybe.”
“Take pot shots at me later,” Stone bit out. “Right now we need to find Jack.”
“That wasn’t a—”
The marina manager stepped out of his office.
“Later.”
CHRISTIAN winced. Stone had a point. The first priority was to find Jack Lacey. They could deal with the fact that the senator’s disappearance was their fault after they found Jack.
Not to mention that he wasn’t in the habit of dragging personal crap into the office either. His ambitious family had taught him that lesson at an early age—long before they realized their golden-haired scion was gay and the family name irrevocably disgraced.
“Oh, for the love of God. Check out your boss’s destination,” Stone said grimly.
Christian took the float plan with grave trepidation and glanced through it. “Barbados?” he squawked. “How long will it take to sail down there?”
The marina manager supplied helpfully, “On the Wrastle Castle? Four or five days.”
“Four. Or five,” Christian repeated blankly.
“You okay?” Stone asked.
“Hell to the no, I’m not okay,” he burst out. “Jack Lacey has to make a campaign appearance in two days. Hell, the casino night is in five days! He’ll barely make it back in time.”
Stone commented gently, “You’re assuming that they’ll go directly to Barbados and won’t stop at any other ports of call along the way. Or sail in circles for the hell of it.”
“I’m dead,” Christian announced. “Finished.”
“C’mon. It can’t be that bad,” Stone said sympathetically. “Let’s go back to the hotel. We’ll figure something out.”
“There’s nothing to figure out. Jack has finally managed to destroy his career, and he’s going to take me down with him.”
Stone headed back to the SUV while Christian followed in silence. He ought to be furious, but all he felt was numb. The senator had really gone and done it this time. Not only could Jack kiss reelection good-bye, but the bastard was going to end up in front of the Senate Ethics Committee over this stunt. His wife was going to be forced to divorce him. And the aide who let him slip so badly off the leash would be persona non grata in extremis.
A plan. He had to come up with a plan. There had to be a way out of this crisis. “Can we still send the Coast Guard after him? In a ship or something?”
“The Wrastle Castle is in international waters. The US Coast Guard has no jurisdiction.”
“What about the Navy?”
“It’s not their job to scrape senators off party boats. And it would go public for sure. Naval vessels have big crews and Wi-Fi.”
“Fuck.”
“Cancel the Chamber of Commerce thing.”
“You have no idea how hard I had to work to schedule the appearance in the first place. After last year’s vote on immigration, Jack’s been in the doghouse with every proimmigration group in this hemisphere. He’s giving a speech day after tomorrow to announce his support for the newest round of immigration reform.”
“He’s flip-flopping on the issue?” Stone asked in surprise.
“Not exactly. It’s more like he’s moving ninety degrees. I finally convinced him he’s on the wrong side of the numbers and he has to move off his personal beliefs if he wants to get reelected.”
“It doesn’t look to me like the guy has much interest in keeping his job.”
He sighed. “Jill gets as much or more good work done than he does. She’s pushed him to run for reelection so she can keep doing her charity work.”
“Can’t she do that as the wife of a retired senator?”
“It’s all about power in Washington. She’s got power if Jack’s in office. She’s an afterthought once he loses.”
“Too bad he’s hosing her over too with this little adventure of his,” Stone commented.
Christian slammed both palms down on the vehicle dashboard. A satisfying sting exploded in his hands. “There has to be something I can do!”
Stone parked the SUV in the hotel garage and got out of the car. “Short of coming up with a doppelgänger for Jack, the outcome of this episode is inevitable. Wild Cards, Inc. will do what it can to help you and Mrs. Lacey. You have my word on that.”
“Thanks.”
They climbed into the elevator in heavy silence. “Hell, I might even consider hiring a body double for the bastard if I could find—” He broke off, staring at Stone.
“What?”
He looked up at the camera mounted in the corner of the elevator and muttered without moving his lips, “In the room.”
Obviously alarmed by the sudden cloak-and-dagger turn of conversation, Stone did his full security he-man sweep of the hallway before he would let Christian out. They hustled down the hallway to Lacey’s suite, and Stone spun to face him the minute the door closed. “What the hell’s going on?”
“I need a body double for Jack Lacey, and you bear a freakish resemblance to him.”
“Oh, no. I didn’t sign up to impersonate your boss.”
“But you said it yourself. You do whatever it takes to get the job done.”
“My job is to find Jack Lacey and get his ass back here quietly.”
“You owe me, Stone,” he blurted in desperation. “If we hadn’t been busy making love all night, we could’ve stopped Jack from taking off.”
“Doubtful. No way would he have let us stay in his suite while he screwed Chesty, and he was clear the first day that he didn’t want a guard stationed outside his front door.”
“Then please do this for me because you give a damn about me.” The words were out of his mouth before Christian could stop them. He knew—he knew—that his night with Stone had been a one-time deal. He had no business invoking personal feelings between them, and certainly not in the name of professional arm twisting.
Stone stared at him. The silence that stretched out between them was painful in its damning of him for going to that taboo and forbidden place of feelings.
But then Stone shocked him by mumbling, “I wouldn’t have the slightest idea what to do. I’m not an actor.”
Hope flared like an arc welder in his chest. “I can teach you. Hell, I tell the man what to say all the time anyway. And his clothes are all here. I’m sure they’d fit you. Maybe a little alteration to make room for your biceps….” He continued in a rush, “For the love of God, say yes. I know I have no right to ask this of you. But you’d be saving my life. Everything I’ve worked for. My career. My reputation—” He broke off. His respectability. Proving to his family that he wasn’t a failure. He wasn’t exaggerating. Everything hung in the balance.
Stone let out a long, unhappy sigh. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
Christian threw his arms around Stone and laid a big, grateful kiss on him. Realizing belatedly what he’d done, he stumbled back abruptly. “Jesus. I’m sorry. That was out of line.”
“I dunno. I’m thinking you’re going to owe me some serious sexual favors for this.”
Christian stared. Stone said it straight-faced. He still was interested in a physical relationship? Really? Well, son of a bitch. “Sexual favors later. Right now we’ve got work to do.”