Guilty Pleasures (55 page)

Jinx stood on the other side. He took one look at her, and shame filled her.

He brushed by her. “Let's get this over with.” He pushed the service cart into the suite. “Get the suitcase.”

She went to the closet and pulled out the suitcase.

Jinx called Jake on the phone. “We have the case.”

“Good. Hang on.” He brought the impression of the suitcase up on the computer screen. “I'm going to input the combination into your PDA.”

Jinx waited, watching Rita from the corner of his eyes while she sat in stony silence in a chair by the window of the bedroom.

His PDA beeped. He went to the suitcase and put in a series of numbers and letters. He pulled the latch. It didn't open.

“Shit.” A line of perspiration broke out across his forehead.

Xavier groaned.

They both looked at him. Jinx tried again.

This time it opened to a case filled with hundred-dollar bills, but no diamonds.

Rita hurried over to the service cart, removed the bucket of ice, and lifted the linen tablecloth. The counterfeit money that she'd spent weeks in creating sat in even rows.

They quickly made the switch, leaving the top row with the real money and the fake underneath, locked the suitcase, and returned it to the closet.

“You can't very well go to the safe looking like you've just been fucked,” Jinx ground out.

Rita winced, drew herself up. “I'll go back to the suite and change,” she said quietly. “Let's go.”

She crawled beneath the cart onto the bottom tray and curled into a tight ball.

Jinx pulled the sides of the table down and dropped the tablecloth over it. He checked all around to be sure Rita couldn't be seen.

Gritting his teeth, he pushed the heavy load out the door and into the hallway.

 

31

Jinx and Rita returned to the cabin. Eva took one look at her cousin and knew the worst had happened. She didn't even want to know what was going on in Jinx's head.

“I'm going to my room to change,” Rita said softly.

“I'll go with you,” Eva said.

Jake looked up but held his tongue.

*   *   *

The instant they were in Rita's cabin, Eva jumped on her. “Tell me what I think happened didn't.”

Rita kept her back to her cousin.

“Rita … Oh, God. Why
All you were supposed to do was fix his drink.”

“I know. I know.” She turned to Eva. “He's … not what you think.”

“Not what I think! Have you lost your mind
He's a murderer, for godsake. And if I'm not mistaken, he's had Traci disposed of.” She told Rita about what had happened earlier.

Rita's insides sank. She could still see Traci being carted off by those two well-dressed goons.

“You don't know that for sure.”

“Maybe not. But one thing I do know is that you hurt Jinx to no end.”

“Since when did you give a damn about Jinx's feelings
”

“Since I realized that … men have feelings too, Rita. That they hurt too, have wants and needs and secrets too.” She slowly approached Rita, who looked like she wanted to run. “Just like me and you. We've been running and searching for something all of our lives, and it's been right in front of us for a long time. But we've been so busy looking for the next best thing, we couldn't see it.”

Tears filled Rita's eyes. “Jinx can't really want me. He can't really want me, 'cause at the heart of him with all his faults and quirks, he's a good guy—and good guys don't go for women like me.”

“But he has gone for a woman like you.” She reached out and wiped the tears away. “And it's about time you started thinking of yourself as someone worthy of being loved and not used.”

Rita hung her head. “It's probably too late now.”

“One thing I've discovered on this little excursion is that it's never too late.” She paused for a beat. “Now come on. We have some diamonds to lift.”

*   *   *

Rita put the stash of zirconia in her oversize pocketbook. “Sure looks like the real thing,” she muttered as she closed the pocketbook.

Jake handed her the encoded card key for Xavier's box. “This should work.”

“Should
” Rita said.

“It will. Trust me.”

“Get in and out of there as quickly as possible,” Eva said. “I'll be nearby just in case anything goes wrong.”

Rita nodded. She looked at Jinx. He flexed his jaw and turned away.

Eva followed her out.

*   *   *

When Rita arrived at the security desk, she cringed when she realized that the young man she'd flirted with was not on duty.

She turned left and headed toward the noisy casino.

Eva frowned. Moments later, Rita's voice came through her headset.

“You're going to have to cause some kind of diversion,” she whispered into the tiny microphone attached to her bra.

“Why
What's wrong
”

“There's a different guy at the desk. The cameras are going to see that I'm not opening my box.”

“Shit. Okay. I'll think of something. Just go ahead.”

Rita went back to the security desk. “Hi. I need to get into my box.” She smiled. He ignored it.

“ID.”

She went in her bag and pulled out her identification and slid it through the small opening.

He looked it over then at her. “Card key.”

She handed that to him as well. He slid it through a slot next to the computer, and a signature card spit out of the printer. He pushed it through the slot.

“Sign at the
X.
”

She did as instructed. “Busy night, huh
”

He muttered something she couldn't understand.

Her signature approval popped up on the screen. The side door beeped open, and she stepped through.

Rita walked down the narrow walkway, passing the boxes. Xavier's was next. All she could do was pray that whatever Eva had in mind worked.

She took the card key and slid it in. The door to the box popped open without a hitch.

She held her breath, waiting for alarms to go off. She took the metal box out and went into the private room. She pulled the curtain.

Pulling the bag of zirconias from her purse, she made the transfer, leaving enough of the real thing in the box as instructed.

Drawing in a breath, she stuck her stash down in her purse, closed the box, and returned it.

Her heart was beating a mile a minute as she walked back to the door.

She saw Eva through the Plexiglas partition chatting amiably with the surly guard.

She knocked on the glass to get his attention. The door buzzed.

“Thanks and good night.” She gave him a finger wave and walked away.

Her legs felt like spaghetti, and she was sure that at any moment a big grubby hand was going to clamp down on her shoulder and drag her away for eternity.

She collapsed in relief when she finally made it back to the cabin.

Jake was beaming. “Good job.”

“It ain't over yet. We still have to get off this ship,” Jinx said. “How long is loverboy going to be out
”