No Escape (22 page)

And frankly, she hated herself for being afraid. Luke had done nothing to deserve the kind of neurotic insecurities that came to the surface whenever she looked at her own feelings. The problem was her and her issues with trust, but he was the one being punished.

The hell of it was she didn’t know how to change. She just knew that she wanted to try.

With that thought, she rolled over. Under his steady gaze, she hesitantly reached up with her good hand and drew Luke’s head down to hers.

“What?” Luke asked softly, knowing that she was thinking something deep by the look in her eyes.

“Just this,” Tessa said, and kissed him.

Luke closed his eyes and let the sweetness of her wash over him. When she began to pull back, he tightened his grip and deepened the kiss. She hummed a quiet sound of pleasure, deep in her throat, and moved against his body.

The kisses went on and on, until her mouth was wet and throbbing, and Luke’s muscles had taken on the tautness of arousal. He finally pulled his mouth away from hers and dragged it down her throat, using his lips and tongue and teeth against the tendons there. He barely refrained from marking her skin, and instead ground his teeth as he rubbed his face this way and that against her scented neck.

She’d kill him if he gave her a hickey before their upcoming series of business meetings.

Instead of carrying out his possessive fantasies, he brought Tessa’s good hand to his mouth and pressed a hot kiss into the palm, then nibbled the sensitive pad of her thumb. When she moaned softly and moved against his body, he realized that her shirt had ridden up during their nap. And his shorts were no longer containing his cock.

From there, it was a simple matter to pull her hand down and press it against the tented front of his boxers. He watched her cheeks flush a glorious shade of pink. She was breathtakingly beautiful in the full light of the California afternoon sun as she hesitantly reached inside the fly front of his shorts and encountered the potent heat of his erection.

To distract her from her shyness, Luke ran both hands up under her T-shirt and squeezed both cheeks of her bottom hard, then released. Then squeezed. She let out a gasping little cry and tightened her grip, making him grunt in pained pleasure. To retaliate, he traced the crease between the globes of her bottom and found an erotic line of soft, smooth, incredibly sensitive skin. Her eyes slid closed as his fingers moved farther forward, down between her legs, and found her wet and ready for him.

She moaned out loud that she needed him, and that was all it took for Luke’s control to snap.

He pulled off her shirt, ditched his boxers, and grabbed for the box of condoms on the nightstand in a jerky series of moves. As he slowly slid the latex sheath onto his cock, she watched in wonder, too aroused to do anything but stare at the throbbing hardness he handled so matter-of-factly.

She wanted to eat him alive. She reached a bold hand out to cup his testicles and finish adjusting the condom. It took long enough to get the perfect fit that she made Luke throw back his head and pant out loud.

“Watch your cast. Here, lie down.” His urgently whispered instructions had Tessa on her left side, facing him, her broken wrist slid safely under the pillows for the moment.
They were face-to-face, breathing heavily, when Luke bent her top leg and raised it to the level of his waist.

Tessa felt his warm hand close over her bottom as he urged her closer, until she could feel him probing her body. She reached down to grab his erection, then hiked her leg higher and thrust forward at the same time, driving him into her. The feel of him sinking to the hilt inside her caused her heartbeat to hesitate, just for a moment, at the glorious shock of being filled.

“It will take a while this way,” Luke whispered as he began a gentle rocking that brought him into contact with her lower body.

Good,
Tessa thought as she savored the luxurious slide and friction of his body against hers.
Good.

She turned her lips to his and followed his lead, rocking against him slowly, so slowly. Every once in a while, her breathing would accelerate and she’d move more urgently against him, but he kept the steady and purposeful rhythm until the lesser peak had passed. And still he moved, his lips to hers, his body against hers—building the feeling again, starting her out higher each time.

Until silent tears ran down her face, and she cried out loud as she moved against him harder, faster, and he rocked them both into ecstasy.

They stayed wrapped around each other, lying in bed until evening.

Until MacBeth called to report that Kelly hadn’t shown up for work at Club Red for the second night in a row. And no one seemed to know where she was.

Santa Monica, California

Monday morning, March 15

C
hantal Francoeur’s first thought on meeting Tessa Jacobi was that she looked like hell. It was more than the bruises and abrasions on her face, more than the left wrist encased in a new cast. The woman had deep shadows in her eyes and a tightness about her that said she was under extreme stress. It made her appear very pale and fragile. The fact that she was just under average height with a figure more suited to an artist’s model than a deputy district attorney probably didn’t help dispel the initial impression of frailty.

That stress was also evident on Luke Novak’s face, but he was harder to read. She could see he was concerned about Tessa, and as she watched him pour her a glass of water from a nearby pitcher, Chantal began to pick up on the undercurrents passing between the two of them. It set off warning bells in the accountant’s head, because it was never a good idea for team members to be involved with each other.

Sex was so distracting, especially when the people involved had other concerns as well.

And apparently this case was worth concern. Chantal had been told by Luke Novak that a veteran police officer was killed in the incident where Tessa was injured. The investigation was dangerous enough that she didn’t like the combination of personal and professional entanglements she was seeing in front of her.

But as Tessa began to describe the case from the beginning, Chantal was finally able to see the steely resolve, the determination in Tessa’s face as she explained what they knew already and why they needed a forensic accountant. The strength in her voice, and her commitment to solving the case came through loud and clear. Having clawed her way out of the slums of Kingston, Jamaica to earn a double master’s degree from Harvard, Chantal could appreciate determination and commitment. She decided to give the deputy D.A. a chance.

Tessa finished her briefing and waited for a response from Chantal. She was beginning to feel like she was the one on trial—the accountant was visibly analyzing Tessa and her summary of the case to date. Looking at Chantal’s power suit, stiletto heels, and the breathtakingly expensive layered haircut, which drew attention to wide-set amber eyes, Tessa was having no trouble at all imagining that the other woman was a top-notch forensic accountant in high demand for her analytical skills.

At the moment, Chantal was undoubtedly weighing everything she’d read in the task force files over the last twenty-four hours versus the case as Tessa had described it. She could almost hear the woman’s brain sorting through the information and finding the parts that interested her.

Finally, Tessa cleared her throat and continued. “So now you can see why we need the help of someone like you. It doesn’t look like we’ll be able to get enough evidence to go to trial on the rape charges anytime soon, and frankly, the other sex crimes are also going to be difficult to prove without a confession. But we can’t let these people get away with
what they’ve done to Kelly and Detective Flynn. So we’re going to need some leverage in order to force the defendants into a plea bargain situation.”

Chantal tilted her head. “This whole scenario is incredible. You started with a high-profile case of date rape, then uncovered a forced prostitution scam, and now we’re looking at racketeering, organized crime, illegal gambling, and money laundering going on in a duly licensed establishment?”

“Exactly,” said Tessa. “And I want to use the leverage of federal charges to get certain people in the criminal organization to testify against the others who were responsible for Kelly’s rape and subsequent kidnapping. Plus anything that’s happened to her since. I don’t want a single person to get off the hook or leave his subordinates to take the fall—I want everybody to pay for their role in the operations of Club Red, Inc. as they pertain to Kelly Maarten.”

“What do you think?” Chantal asked Luke. “It sounds quite ambitious to me.”

Luke stroked his chin and wondered about Chantal. Her melodious voice was low and cultured, holding a hint of the Caribbean. He was intrigued about her background, which obviously included the islands, along with a strong dash of New England. Boston, if he wasn’t mistaken.

When she raised a challenging brow at him, he grinned and returned to the discussion. “It is ambitious,” Luke agreed. “But I think if we apply the right kind of leverage to the weak links in the operation, the whole chain is going to fall apart. The plan is to set these guys up on federal felony charges like racketeering and money laundering, and make it clear that we have an airtight case. Then we give them the choice between two hundred years in federal prison or confessing to their crimes against Kelly in exchange for reduced sentences. They’ll be lining up to plead guilty to the rape charges.”

“We hope to offer these reductions in the federal charges with the agreement that the defendants will do the full time
for state charges regarding the rape and kidnapping of Kelly Maarten,” Tessa continued. “The defendants will still do plenty of time behind bars, but it will be a moral victory for Kelly and other victims like her. We could even establish precedent with respect to these pimps who essentially treat young girls as sex slaves.”

“What about Detective Flynn?” Chantal asked.

Tessa’s mouth flattened. “Whoever set up that hit and carried it out gets a needle in his arm.”

“There’s not much sugar in that offer,” Chantal pointed out.

“It doesn’t matter. We’ll get others to implicate the person who arranged the hit by offering
them
the sweet deal, as you say. We just need corroborated testimony to do that.”

Luke nodded encouragingly, then looked at Chantal again. “We have the knowledge of what’s going on in that club, we just need to prove it so we have some bargaining power. That’s why we asked for your help.”

“Has the FBI agreed to this division of the defendants?” Chantal asked. “Usually they want criminals to face any federal charges first. By the time all is said and done, it’s not worth the time of the state to go after what’s left. Frankly, it’s often not even an option for the state to hold an expensive trial to prove that someone who is serving one hundred years in a federal prison is guilty of a sex crime that carries a sentence of five to eight years.”

“I know,” Tessa said. “That’s why I want to give the Feds several big fish in what we suspect is a racketeering operation and use them to negotiate for the state maintaining control of defendants like Sledge Aiken and Jerry Kravitz.”

“What about Roderick Hedges?” Chantal asked. “Is he not the biggest fish of all, aside from the organized crime family?”

Tessa sighed. “I’d like to have first crack at Ricky, but understand that just might not be realistic. We’ve got to compromise somewhere and offer the Feds a bone. Ricky may be the sacrificial offering, because the evidence to date
hasn’t shown that he was personally involved in what happened to Kelly—but if I find anything to the contrary, then I want him to face state charges first.”

“Well the legal decisions are your call,” Chantal said as she took out a pad of paper for notes. “My job would be to give you the ammunition you need—the leverage, so to speak, to force a deal. Is that correct?”

“Yes,” Tessa nodded. “We understand that you were involved with the early stages of the multiagency task force. That could give us a huge advantage and will cut your learning curve.”

“And you did hear about how I left the previous task force? I guess it’s no secret that Special Agent Peebles and I despise one another. Such a small man, in more ways than one.” Chantal spoke slowly, her faint accent becoming more pronounced.

Tessa gave a feline smile. “The thought that you might have a bone to pick with the new head of the task force never entered my mind.”

Luke laughed quietly and shifted in his seat. He loved it when she got that smug look—it made him want to jump her bones right there on the conference table. Come to think of it, the last time he’d seen that particular expression on her face, she’d been sprawled across his bed.

When individual beads of sweat began to pop out along his forehead, Luke made a visible effort to restrain himself and focus on the conversation.

“So you know that Peebles and I disagreed on what the focus of the investigation should be, yes?” Chantal laughed, unaware of Luke’s internal struggle. “I don’t wish to sound arrogant, but if I’d remained on that team, they wouldn’t need any help from you and Mr. Novak. They would already have enough to charge all of the players involved.”

“What did Special Agent Peebles want to focus on?” Luke asked.

Chantal shrugged her shoulders beneath her elegant Ar-mani
suit. “He had no respect for number crunchers, as he called the consultants with accounting backgrounds. He was enamored of subpoenas for wiretaps, undercover work, and other active surveillance tools. I’m sure he believed that these methods were much sexier than poring over balance sheets and income tax returns. But in doing so, Peebles lost sight of one very important thing.”

“Which is?” Tessa asked.

“The fact that the federal government will overlook many criminal acts, but it simply cannot abide those who cheat it out of tax revenues. Look at all of the organized crime figures who went to prison in the last seventy years—the vast majority were locked up on tax evasion or other financial charges. Accounting might not be sexy, but the tax laws are much more strongly enforced than any other legal codes on the books. That applies to criminals as much as upstanding citizens.”

“So all income is taxable, even illegal income?” Tessa asked.

“Absolutely. It’s not uncommon for drug dealers and others engaged in criminal acts to declare their profits honestly on tax returns out of fear of the IRS. So if the FBI gives you any trouble, you can threaten to talk to the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service. I’m sure they’d be happy to get involved.”

Tessa nodded. “We’ll keep that in mind as a backup plan. For now, I want to give the FBI a chance to play nice. Where do you recommend that we start in terms of the financial information on Club Red, Inc?”

“First of all, we need to prove that money laundering is actually taking place as you suspect. There are certain legal requirements to establishing this, namely that the defendants are attempting to take profits gained from specified unlawful activities and ‘launder’ them so that the funds appear to be legitimate revenue.”

Luke spoke up. “We have a bunch of specific examples.
Take Jerry Kravitz, who last year spent five hundred thousand dollars cash on a house. But when we looked into it, we found he only declares an income of fifty thousand dollars a year on his tax returns, money he earns as a sports announcer.”

“Perfect.” Chantal nodded. “This is a tip-off that the money he spent isn’t from legitimate sources. Maybe he underdeclared his legitimate income, in which case he is guilty of tax evasion. Or he has another source of income that he’s hiding, which would be my guess in this case. But this is an example of an individual engaged in lucrative illegal activities. I think you are more interested in a whole company based on this concept, because the penalties are much harsher. It becomes a conspiracy, punishable by strict sentencing requirements and seizure of assets, with fairly limited burdens of proof on the part of the government.”

Tessa nodded. “So we look at Club Red, Inc. and charge that the entire business is based on illegal gambling, prostitution, drug sales, excise tax evasion for the liquor and cigarette violations, and so on.”

“Yes,” said Chantal. “Club Red, Inc. and all those responsible for managing the corporation engage in illegal acts, which generate high profits. But these profits have the stigma of their illegal origin attached to them, and law enforcement knows exactly how to prove this. So the profits must be laundered. This has to be done so the money can be spent without the government being able to trace where it came from. Without this laundering of funds, the individuals and the criminal organizations can’t use their money, and it doesn’t do them any good.”

“We’ve already identified a list of illegal activities going on at Club Red, now what?” Tessa asked.

“Let me explain the most common steps of money laundering, and that will help us focus here on the best way to proceed,” Chantal said. “Do you have a pen for the whiteboard over there?”

Luke laughed when Tessa immediately opened her bag
and pulled out six different colors of markers to use on the board. “I think you two are going to get along just fine. Tessa’s got a thing for whiteboards and diagrams.”

Chantal smiled and started drawing on the board. “It is very helpful to see things in schematic form, where they are more logical.”

Tessa gave him the Look, modified in this case to signify “So there.”

“There are three steps to money laundering in most traditional criminal organizations—placement, layering, and integration,” Chantal explained. “More specifically, we have
placement
of the illegal funds into the financial system,
layering
of these funds in a series of steps which distance the dirty money from its illegal source, and finally
integration
of the layered funds back into the national or international economy so that it is difficult to distinguish them from legitimately earned money.”

Tessa spoke up. “I’ve been reading up on money laundering, but most of the examples pertain to narcotics and smuggling. I don’t think that’s what we have here, at least not on a large scale. The mechanics of this case are very confusing.”

“Don’t worry, you are meant to be confused. The more complex the process, the easier it is for the criminals to continue undetected. Let me give you what I feel is a realistic example based on my review of Club Red’s books.” Chantal flipped the whiteboard over and began again.

“Thanks. I just want to be sure I know what I’m talking about when I meet with the FBI later.”

“You will. I will keep it simple, as long as you understand that there are as many ways to launder money as there are to earn the illegal funds in the first place. But we will focus on likely activities in this case, so let’s talk about the revenues we believe Ricky Hedges earns from illegal gambling and so forth. Let’s say that in a particular two-week period, Ricky earns five hundred thousand dollars by running card tables
and sports-betting operations, as well as prostituting his women.”