Guilty Pleasures (19 page)

“It'll be taken care of.”

“Taken care of! We leave day after tomorrow, Jinx. When do you plan to take care of it
”

“I said I'd handle it, and I will.”

Eva jumped up from her seat. “There's a reason why they call you Jinx, John Kelly.” She pointed a finger at him. “You better not screw this up.”

Jake clasped her wrist. “Relax, Eva,” he said softly.

“Relax
How can I relax, Jake, when one wrong blink and we're all going down
Tell me that!”

Eva stormed off in a huff, slamming her bedroom door with such force, the mirror on the dresser shook.

She rubbed her forehead as she paced the bedroom. Why was this freaking her out so
She was a professional. Jake worked out all the details. Everyone was comfortable in their roles. Damnit, she felt like crying. Her eyes burned, and her throat tightened. She sniffed hard.

This was ridiculous. It was like Rita said: they had to trust each other. She just didn't know if she could trust Jinx. Yeah, he'd made a pass at her and he knew perfectly well who she was. But that wasn't the whole of it, and that's what scared her. Jinx had a very bad habit of promising and not delivering. One of his promises landed him in jail, and cost her and Jake fifty thousand dollars.

She and Jake had been working in Arizona. Jinx wanted in on the scam. And Jake, being the “good” brother, agreed. Jinx was the one who was responsible for securing their exit. He swore he had connections with the airlines and could get the packages of heisted goods on board without detection. That never happened, though.

An hour before boarding, he got picked up for using a stolen credit card. The packages remained on the loading dock at the airport with Eva's and Jake's aliases on them.

When they called Jinx on his cell moments before boarding to confirm that everything was a go, but only got his voice mail, they had to nix the whole plan. They drove back to New York from Arizona in a rented car.

Jinx spent three years in jail, and Eva hadn't trusted him since. Everyone seemed to have forgotten that fiasco, but
she
hadn't.

“They're gone. Said to tell you good night.”

Eva turned to the door. Jake stood backlit from the living room lamps.

She nodded but said nothing, went to the closet and pretended to look for something.

“Talk to me, Eva. Please.”

She lowered her head, fought back a rush of tears. “I don't know what to say, Jake.”

“I find that hard to believe. You always have something to say, whether I want to hear it or not.”

She smirked in spite of herself. She turned to him. “I've never felt this uneasy about a job. Never. And with Jinx involved…”

He clasped her shoulders. “Jinx is going to be fine.”

“How can you say that Every time Jinx is involved, something goes wrong. There was the time in Atlanta with the hotel security. Instead of paying attention to the guard, he was in the lounge with some woman. He was supposed to have an in with tickets for the Astrodome in Houston, said we could make a killing in one night, and the second ticket he scalps was to a cop. Not to mention Arizona.”

Jake grimaced, remembering.

“Should I go on
There's a reason he's got that nickname. Baby, this time it isn't the local toy cops or hotel security we're dealing with. This is the FBI. If we go down on this job, we're going away for a very long time.”

Jake sat down on the side of the bed. He stretched out his hand toward her. Eva came and sat beside him.

“Have I ever broken a promise to you in all the years you've known me
”

She shook her head.

“I don't intend to now. No matter what happens, we're going to get out of this clean. I swear to you. I've checked and double-checked everything. And believe me, I'm gonna be on Jinx like white on rice. Don't worry. You just concentrate on your part. I'll take care of the rest.” He paused, took her chin in his palm, and turned her face toward him. “For better or worse.”

She rested her head on his shoulder. “We could do without the ‘worse' part.”

Jake chuckled. “You got that right.” He hugged her close and kissed the top of her head. “Come on, let's get some sleep. I have cars to sell tomorrow, and you have a business to run. It'll be our last night of real sleep for a while.”

*   *   *

They made love for the first time in days. It was slow and gentle, as if they were sealing a pact, reaffirming their commitment to each other.

Afterwards, Eva lay curled in Jake's embrace, wishing she could hold on to the moment, but she knew that it was only temporary. Tomorrow wasn't guaranteed.

Jake listened to Eva's deep and regular breathing. She was sound asleep. Gingerly he eased out of the bed and tiptoed out of the room.

He went into the office where the computer was set up. Eva was right. Jinx was a screwup. But in this instance, he wasn't so much worried about Jinx, but about himself.

He turned on the computer and brought up the grid for the security system. There was still one glitch. If he couldn't crack the code for the ship's safe, they were fucked. Plain and simple. He'd beat it; he had to.

Eva turned onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. If Jake was doing what she thought he was, they had more worries than they were prepared to handle. She squeezed her eyes shut and for the first time in more years than she could count, she prayed.

 

14

JFK Airport was packed, even for five in the morning. Eva and Jake arrived together and went directly to the international check-in. This was the first test.

The counter clerk examined their passports for so long, it made Jake uncomfortable. He traded small talk with Eva as the clerk flipped through the pages, checking his picture against the face on the passport. Finally she handed it back and clicked a few keys on the computer. She gave him his ticket. “Have a safe flight.”

“Thanks.”

Eva was next, but she wasn't subjected to the same scrutiny.

“One down,” Jake said under his breath as they headed toward the second level of security at the departure gate. He put his arm around Eva's waist as they jockeyed around the crowd.

“Have you seen Jinx and Rita
” Eva asked, keeping her focus in front of her.

“They'll be here.”

Eva sighed.

“I spoke to him before we left. He'll be here. He was going to pick up Rita on his way.”

“We should have all come together.”

“No. We don't want to be seen together. We don't want to give anyone cause to make a connection between us.”

His cell phone rang just as they approached the security checkpoint.

It was the phone from Lenora Ingram. He flashed Eva a look and then answered the call. “Yeah.”

“Your flight leaves in one hour.”

“We're going through security now.”

“I know.”

Jake frowned, took a quick look around.

“Don't bother trying to spot me in the crowd, Mr. Kelly. Be sure not to give them any reason to stop you, and everything will be fine.”

He clenched his jaw. “Anything else
We're holding up the line.”