LITMIR.BIZ

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What happened?”

      “You don’t remember?”

      “Not much. I was in Quaid’s hotel suite. He was showing me the necklace that would highlight his showing. I got sick. The rest is confusing.”

      “You must remember something.”

      “There were voices, men I don’t know. And you. You were there. I remember that. You must know what happened.”

      “From what I hear, that necklace must be a nice little bauble. It would make a sweet nest egg, or so I hear.”

      The sarcasm scratched along her raw nerves. She studied Reggie. Unlike her, he was dressed neatly in jeans and a blue sport shirt, hair combed, freshly shaved. He looked like the competent police officer she’d worked with before, but he definitely didn’t sound like that man.

      “What’s going on? Where’s Quaid,” she demanded.

      Reggie smirked as if she’d made a bad joke. “Quaid is gone to a better place and I’m not talking about Barcelona.”

      “Not dead. Tell me you don’t mean he’s dead.”

      “Afraid so.”

      “How? Who killed him?”

      “Doesn’t really matter. You’re the one you should be worried about now.”

      “What do you mean?”

      “Because if you don’t tell me where you and Quaid hid that necklace in the next five minutes, you’ll be joining your phony Spanish jewelry god.”

      Impulsively, her hand flew to her neck. It was bare, as she should have known it would be. “You think I took the necklace?”

      “I know you didn’t take it. You left with me, sweetheart. The necklace is not on your body and it wasn’t on Quaid’s. But it was around your pretty little neck before I arrived on the scene.”

      “Were you spying on Quaid? Was his suite bugged?”

      “Not that I know of.”

      “Then how do you know I tried on the necklace?”

      “You were wearing it when room service delivered Quaid’s champagne.”

      The costly necklace was missing and Reggie had brought her here to search and intimidate her as if she were a common criminal. “Is this how the police work now? Threats? Intimidation? False accusations?”

      “Not threats, Jade. Promises. The clock is ticking. Unless you want to pay your lover Quaid a surprise visit, you’d best start talking.”

      Reality finally seeped through the brain fog. Whatever had happened last night, Reggie was in on it, possibly the mastermind, though there had been others.

      “A dirty cop. You disappoint me, Reggie. I expected so much more of you.”

      “No, like you, I’m just after what I can get in the world, only I don’t have your looks to sleep my way into wealth.”

      Ire rose in her throat. She struggled to keep control. This was no time to go off half-cocked. She had a lot more to worry about now than defending her morals.

      “The last I remember, the necklace was still around my neck. If anyone took it, it had to be you or one of your partners in crime.”

      “Wrong answer.”

      Jade stared into Reggie’s eyes and shuddered at the icy threat she saw reflected in them. The lines of his face were drawn into sharp angles. His muscles clenched.

      He pulled a pistol from his shoulder holster and pointed it at her head. “Either the necklace or a bullet, Jade. Now.”

      Her blood ran cold. He was not merely threatening. He meant to kill her if she didn’t tell him how or where to find the missing jewelry. A location she couldn’t possibly reveal since she had no idea where it was.

      There had to be a way out of this. She just had to find it. Quick. She put her fingers to her temples. “I can’t think clearly. It’s all the drugs you pumped into me. I need time for my mind to clear.”

      “Then I guess you’d better get used to your surroundings. I can’t sit around and make chitchat all day. I have to get back on the job.”

      “Playing the role of good cop?”

      “Yeah. All those years of bit roles in bad TV shows before joining the force are finally paying off. The chief gave me a new assignment this morning—to find the sexy event planner who killed Quaid Vaquero and disappeared with his multimillion-dollar masterpiece.”

      So Reggie had not only killed Quaid but found a way to blame it on her. And once he got his hands on the necklace he’d kill her, too. He was way too smart to leave any loose ends to foul up his scheme.

      Even if she convinced him she didn’t know the whereabouts of the necklace, he’d kill her.

      “If you know I was wearing the necklace, the champagne delivery must have been part of your scheme,” she said, buying time.

      “Absolutely. A nice touch, don’t you think? A little Rohypnol for you and Quaid to make our encounter so much more pleasant for everyone. Also convenient that you were so enthralled with Quaid that you didn’t notice the drug being slipped into your newly uncorked bottle of bubbly.”

      “You cops do think of everything.”

      Which would make outsmarting him difficult. She looked around the room again, this time searching for anything she could use as a weapon or an escape route.

      There was only one door, the one Reggie had entered through and closed behind him so that she couldn’t see past this one room. The two small windows on the other side of the bed were shuttered, no doubt nailed shut from the outside.

      The clutter in the room consisted of piles of old magazines and newspapers, stacks of cardboard boxes that had been secured with heavy tape, several fishing rods, an empty cigarette pack and an open box of shotgun shells. No sign of a shotgun.

      Her black evening handbag was on a marred pine table, its few contents scattered around it, including her wallet. Her stilettos were on the floor. Used just right, they could put an eye out, though she couldn’t imagine them being a match for Reggie’s ready pistol.

      Inches of dust had accumulated on everything. Brown stains spread over the ceiling where water had leaked through.

      “Where are we?” Jade asked.

      “My late father’s fishing camp. It was about all he left me and my brother.”

      “In New York?”

      “Yes, but miles from the city. Feel free to scream for help. No one will hear you.”

      “I suppose your brother, Mack, is in on this, too.”

      “Nope. Mack is a stickler for rules. Doesn’t even get parking tickets. Always was Dad’s favorite. Still is Mom’s.”

      “I wonder why.”

      Mack Lassiter owned and operated the security company that Ruth Stevens, Jade’s boss at Effacy Corporate Event Planning, always insisted they use. At least it was nice to know Mack was honest, even if his moonlighting brother was evil to the core.

      Mack would surely know about the fishing cabin. Only there was no reason he’d come looking for her, no reason for him to suspect his cop brother was involved in Quaid’s murder or in her disappearance.

      For all Jade knew, the other men in the hotel room last night were also cops, possibly even working the security detail with Reggie.

      If she managed to escape, did she dare call the police for protection or would that just guarantee that Reggie would be the first to reach her?

      “What am I supposed to do for a bathroom?” she asked.

      “There’s

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