Game of Risk

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER THREE

“If you entrust the launch to us, Mr. Potter, I can assure you your club will be the most popular hotspot in Miami before this week is out,” Layla Jansen said. “Tickets to your opening night will be gold dust in this town.”

“Your firm does come highly recommended.”

The meeting in this cocktail bar on the waterfront was meant to be informal, but the sixty-year-old in his slick Italian suit wasn’t from that part of the world. His choice of apparel betrayed as much.

“We have done a number of very successful nightclub launches,” Layla said, pushing a glossy folder across the metallic table-top toward Potter.

“I was advised to speak directly with your boss.”

“Mandy has assigned your account to me. I am a very trusted member of her team.”

Actually, Mandy couldn’t stand her, and Layla had to beg for the chance to take the meeting. She’d only been working under Mandy for six weeks but could already tell gaining any glimmer of respect would be an uphill climb. The only reason Mandy folded and agreed to let her have this client was because he insisted on a meeting so late in the evening. “In the buzz of Miami” was apparently what Potter had said, but Mandy had a new boyfriend and her recent evenings were reserved for him, meaning Layla caught herself a break.

“I suppose that’s acceptable,” Potter said, his gaze falling to the slope of her breasts displayed in the V-lines of her spaghetti strap sundress.

She reached to the brochure and opened the glossy pages to show him images of clubs launched by her PR firm. “You can read testimonials here from—”

“Layla Jansen!”

Drawing her eyes away from the booklet and up to the man next to their high silver table, she was at a loss. He had to be six five and was built broad under his white vest.

“Do I know you?” she asked, sitting up straight to examine the tan under the stubble on his jaw.

His eyes were hidden under slick wraparound shades, nothing about him was familiar.

“Sure!” he said with an exuberant grin and turned to Potter. “I’m Ruger Warner, Layla and I are old friends.”

“Are we?” Layla asked through her smile without moving her lips. The men shook hands, but Potter was as flummoxed as her. “Remind me.”

“Always a kidder,” Ruger said, dropping a heavy hand onto her newly exfoliated shoulder. “Layla and I go way back. She’s a great girl.”

“And it was great to see you again, Ruger,” Layla said, hoping he’d take the hint and vanish as quickly as he had appeared. She’d never had a one-night stand in her life, but she began to mentally catalogue every creepy guy in a bar who had tried it on recently. “Maybe we’ll see each other again.”

“You don’t mind if I join you, do you?” Ruger asked, rounding the table to seat himself in the vacant spot.

“Actually—” Potter began.

“This is a business meeting,” Layla said. “I can’t catch up right now.”

“Oh,” Ruger said. “How stupid of me. This is the nightclub guy, Potter, sure. You were worried he wouldn’t like your pitch, but smart move with the dress.” Ruger lifted his glasses to ogle her cleavage. “Guy won’t hear a word you say.” He winked and re-seated his glasses.

Trying not to have a heart attack, she pounced out of her seat and snatched Ruger’s wrist. “Would you please excuse us, Mr. Potter?”

Ruger put up no resistance when she yanked him from his seat to drag him to the sidewalk. Behind the potted palm tree which stood at the entrance, she dropped Ruger’s arm and spun on the spot to thrust her fists to her hips.

“An old friend who knows my current calendar?” she demanded.

He grinned. “Weird, isn’t it?”

“I don’t find this funny. At all. What is your problem? Who the hell are you? Stalking laws are strict in this part of the world, you know.”

Layla had no idea about the stalking laws in Miami. She’d been living there less than six months. So far, that information hadn’t been high on her research priority list. It was quickly moving up the ranks.

“You need to come with me,” Ruger said.

“Yeah, right.”

“Seriously,” he said, and his grin disappeared. “I need to take you from here, right now.”

“Not a chance. Do you know how long I’ve waited to have a chance at a meeting like this? If I can c***k this guy, I can have my own accounts and… Wait, why am I explaining myself to you? Go away! If you come near me again, I’ll call the cops.”

She moved half a step to the left intending to return to her meeting.

He grabbed her arm. “I can’t let you do that.”

“Can’t let me what? I’ll call the cops if I want to call the cops.”

“What are they going to arrest me for? Standing in a public place?”

“Menacing, disturbing the peace, something,” she said.

“That will go down really well with your client,” Ruger said. “I’ll just tell them that we’re having a lover’s tiff.”

“A lovers—what the…? Who the hell are you? We’ve never met!”

“Only you and I know that,” he said. “I know a lot about you. One brother, your dad died when you were a kid, and your mom died of cancer the week after you graduated college. You’ve spent the last ten years living all over the country and you’ve never settled down… Your last boyfriend turned out to be a bastard who screwed your best friend… I guess she wasn’t a prize either.”

A complete stranger with information about her past? Those weren’t things she would tell a guy in a bar. Either he was a stalker, or he got the information from someone else. There was only one person in the world who would know all those facts.

Her shock became resigned impatience. “You’re one of my i***t brother’s i***t friends, aren’t you?”

His floppy grin was more charmed than she felt. “i***t brother, yes. i***t friend, no. I’m really smart.”

“I’ll reserve judgment.”

“Hey, I’m giving up my vacation for this,” he said, holding his hands open at his sides. “He’s got himself into some trouble.”

“Drew is always in trouble,” she said, edging closer. “Since my brother has been so kind as to educate you on my history, let me educate you on his. He does this all the time. He gets the sniff of some ridiculous case he’s sure he’ll c***k open. He did it when he was a cop and it’s no different now. He chases it around like a dog chasing his tail and it never comes to anything. If I had a dime for every time he called telling me how he’d pissed off the wrong person…”

“This time it’s different,” Ruger said. “They’re coming after you.”

“My brother and his i***t case are in Jersey. I’ll panic when the hit-men get on a plane.”

She tried to pass him again, but he got in her way. “They got on a plane this afternoon. They’re on their way now, and your brother can’t beat them down here. He’s got Serendipity to worry about up there too. He can’t be in two places at once.”

“My brother cries when he gets a splinter. Does he think he can face down some crooks intent on fighting?”

“That’s why he sent me,” Ruger said, flashing his grin again.

“I’ll take my chances,” she said, patting his arm. “Nice seeing you again, old friend.”

Skirting around him, she muttered to herself about her brother, Drew, and his dramatic flair, then pasted on her smile and returned to the table with Potter. “I’m so terribly sorry about that. Ruger is troubled, very troubled, but I’ve dealt with him now and he won’t bother us again. Where were we?”

Potter’s focus wasn’t on her, it was on something behind her. Without turning around to see what had his attention, Layla knew she’d spoken too soon. Just at that, Ruger materialized at her side again.

“I’m sorry that I have to do this, Mr. Potter,” Ruger said.

Awaiting an apology that never came, Layla was confused when Ruger crouched at her side, though not for long. He took her wrist, gave her a tug, and tossed her over his shoulder. Keeping hold of one wrist, he locked his other arm around the back of her thighs over her dress. Layla screamed and kicked, but he was unmoved.

“What is this?” Potter asked.

“She’s late to take her medication. I didn’t want to say anything before,” Ruger said. “But it’s vitally important she gets it on time, or she becomes an outrageous lush. We can’t have her embarrassing the firm like that again. I’m sure you understand.”

Various patrons gaped at the sight of her being carried out of the bar over the shoulder of this giant. When she saw Potter in the distance, standing at the table wearing a look of shock and disgust, she flopped and stopped screaming.

“I hope you’re happy with yourself for ruining my career,” she said, trying to aim a kick at his groin.

Being upside down and back to front, judging the angle was near impossible.

“You’ll get another one, Layla. You always do, honey.”

He kept on walking, carrying her to the end of the block then turning up another street.

“I can walk, you know.”

“No need,” he said and entered a parking lot to stop at a large gunmetal grey pick-up truck. Its lights blinked and he opened the back door to toss her inside, on her face.

Clambering to sit up, he was in the vehicle, backing out of the space before she had flattened her skirt. “You just kidn*pped me,” she said, launching herself between the seats. “Dozens of people saw you carrying me down that street. Your face will be all over the news by dinner time.”

“People have seen stranger things in these streets,” he said, turning the truck. “This is Miami, honey.”

“You can’t just kidnap a woman off the street! You’ll have cost me my job, my career…” Indignation was exhausting. Slumping back in the seat, she folded her arms. “Oh, just take me home.”

“No need,” Ruger said. “Your things are in the back.”

Whipping around to look out through the small back window, all she saw was the flat bed cover. “My things? You’ve been in my apartment? What are you? Some kind of snoop?”

“Not exactly, no.”

“You picked my lock? That’s breaking and entering, that’s illegal, that’s—”

“Jansen called the super and I gave him a hundred bucks,” Ruger said, referencing her brother by his last name. “No one broke anything.”

The stranger was confident and attractive, but the idea of him foraging through her underwear gave her a chill. “Are you a p*****t?”

“No way… though I am wearing your panties right now. They’re not as comfortable as they looked.”

“They do me just fine,” she grumbled, aware of his not-so-hilarious teasing. “Where’s your cellphone? I want to speak to my brother. I’m going to kill him! Where are we meeting him?”

“Don’t know yet,” Ruger said, retrieving a cellphone from the glove box. “Be quick, I’m out of long-distance minutes.”

She took the phone to dial. “Bet your balls I’ll take as long as I damn well please,” she said and listened to the ring of her brother’s phone.

“Did you get her?” Drew asked when he answered.

“Her? Yes, he got her,” Layla said. “What the hell is going on? You sent a savage to come and steal me off the street?”

“Oh, sis,” Drew said, with audible relief. “Thank God, I was starting to panic.”

“Who do you think you are telling this weirdo about me?”

“Ruger is a good guy,” Drew said. “Honestly, Lay, you can trust him. I’m told that he’s got this overhyped sense of responsibility. He’s going to look after you.”

“I don’t need anyone to look after me,” she said. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“I just found out what they were planning this morning and I’ve been trying to call you. Where’s your cellphone?”

Reluctant to admit the truth, she lowered her chin. “Let’s just say there was an incident in a ladies’ room stall.”

“You’re the worst, you know that? You think you can take care of yourself? You can’t even pee without cutting yourself off from the world.”

Affronted, she straightened again. “You’re the one who thinks the world is tumbling down. This is ridiculous, Drew. You can’t do this. You can’t order your friends to commandeer me just because you want to be dramatic.”

“I know you’re pissed. But you’re my baby sister and I promised Mom I’d look out for you. I’ve got mixed up with some serious sons of bitches, and you’re the only family I’ve got. They want to use you to hurt me.”

“So give up on the case. If it’s going to hurt me, or hurt you, just give up.”

“I can’t do that. I can’t let them get away with the intimidation tactics and—”

“Spare me,” she said on a groan. “So it’s okay for you to trash my career to save yours?”

“Public relations isn’t your career. It was just something you decided to try. You would hate it, trust me. You have to be nice to people all the time, and we both know you’re not capable of keeping that going for long.”

“Such a funny guy,” she said, unwilling to admit her brother was probably right. When it came to her, he usually was. “Okay, so if I’m in such grave, horrible danger, are you going to tell me the plan?”

“Stick with Ruger, he’ll keep you safe. He knows what to do. If you do what he tells you, exactly what he tells you, you’ll be fine.”

“I don’t know Ruger,” she said, noticing he was watching her in the rear-view mirror. “He seems a bit slow to me, you know? Special.”

Ruger’s smile formed and moved back to the windshield.

“Give the guy a break, he’s helping me out. We’re both lucky he was down there to bail you out.”

“I don’t need to be bailed out. You do. Once again, you’ve gotten yourself into trouble. You’re a danger to yourself, do you know that?”

“I do, but this one is worth it. Trust me.”

“And who is looking out for you?” she asked. “You’re up there all by yourself. Is Serendipity there? If we get on a plane—”

“You’re not getting on a plane,” Drew said. “You can’t use any form of public transportation. They’re looking for you and these people have the means to access all kinds of information. Including flight manifests.”

“My God, Drew, what have you gotten yourself into? Who is after you?”

“I can’t say much, but this is big, bigger than anything I’ve ever got into before, and if I break it—”

“Yeah, yeah, you’ll be hot property.” She sighed. “Okay, brother, I’ll do what you’re telling me to do. But look after yourself because as irritating and frustrating as you are, you’re all I’ve got.”

“You won’t get rid of me,” Drew said, and she was pleased to hear the smile in his voice. “You stick with Ruger, and I’ll be in touch soon, okay?”

“Okay. I love you.”

“Back attcha,” he said and the line disconnected.

When getting dressed for the meeting with Potter, Layla had worried her silk dress would crease and that her shoes might pinch her toes. She hadn’t worried about being drawn into her brother’s crazy world.

It was no wonder Drew had such a tight relationship with Serendipity. He had a singular kind of focus which made him the best kind of guy to commit to. At least he would be if he didn’t get himself involved with so many shady characters. He’d take whatever risks were necessary to c***k a case and to protect Serendipity from the peril she was so frequently put in by his work.