House of Paine - (A Romantic Suspense - Book 2) (16 page)

“Jackson Paine is missing,” the agent said, “And so is Lucas Kramer. Might they know something about that?”

“They might,” Jake said. “Might your Special agent in charge like to be here so you don’t have to run back and forth like a cheap car salesman?”

Lee laughed again.

*****

H
alf an hour later they had all been moved down to the hall to a conference room where the conversation could be taped and everyone involved could sit around a table comfortably. Lee Barber had brought in his partner, a man named Agent Sterling and his boss, or Special Agent in Charge, a man named Agent Gold. There was also an administrative assistant in the room to record notes. Agent Gold began by saying,

“I’m authorized to grant temporary immunity to the four of you until we’ve heard what you have to say...” Jake stood up and so did Alex. Kevin was next and Damien pulled Paige up to her feet next to him. “Come on...you don’t expect me to grant four people full immunity before I’ve even heard what they have to say...”

“Apparently you don’t understand what you have here in this room. You have the brother of the head of the biggest drug syndicate in New York State. You have both of his sons. You have his step-daughter who is also the sister of an N.Y.P.D. officer who was murdered by the rival family...the Kramer’s, not to mention her brother’s partner who was also murdered as well. If you’re half as smart as your title implies that you are you’ll be able to get just how important what they have to say will be to you. You can clean up half the crime in this city as well as stop a huge influx of drugs and guns from coming in...or, you can offer them temporary immunity and they can walk out.”

Special Agent Gold looked at his two subordinate agents. It was obvious they wanted him to give them the immunity. They seemed to be dying to hear what they have to say. He looked back at Jake and the others and said, “Have a seat. I’ll be right back.” He stood and left the room. Paige couldn’t help but be impressed with Jake and appreciative that they’d gotten lucky enough to know him. Another attorney might not be as determined to help them.

It was almost an excruciating hour later when he came back. He had another young agent with him who was balancing a stack of paperwork in his arms. He sat back down and motioned at the other agent to do the same. He took the first paper off the stack and handed it to Jake. Whatever it said, Jake wasn’t pleased...he handed it right back.

“Come on Jake, it’s a good deal.”

“We want Transactional immunity,” he said.

“It’s not going to happen for all four of them...maybe the lady...” Jake sighed and rolled his eyes.

“You’re wasting our time.” Jake turned to his clients and said, “He is offering what is known as ‘Derivative Use Immunity.’ That means that they cannot use anything you say during your testimony against you...but, they can still use anything they gather during the course of the investigation however they see fit.”

“That’s bullshit,” Alex said. Paige still wasn’t in a place where she wanted to agree with Alex about anything...but on that point, she had to agree.

“Yes it is,” Jake said. “Last chance here Gold. Transactional immunity or nothing.”

“I need the Attorney General’s okay for that.”

“We’ll wait,” Jake told him.

He rolled his eyes but he got up and left, taking his assistant with him. When he was gone Paige said, “What is Transactional immunity?”

“It means “total” or “blanket” immunity,” Jake told her. No charges related to your testimony can be brought against you now or in the future. So if a crime they uncover later on somehow relates back to something you testified in relation to...you’re automatically immune. He knew that was what I wanted when we walked in here. He’s just playing the car salesman...trying to get a better deal.”

Jake and his FBI friend started talking then about old times and people they knew in common. Alex sat smoldering as usual. Kevin struck up a conversation with the other agent and Damien looked at Paige and said, “Are you okay?”

She smiled. “I’m good, how about you?”

“I’m good too.” He squeezed her hand. “Are you ruing the day you heard the Paine name?”

She laughed. “Never,” she said with a wink. That was somewhat of a lie. If she had to do all over again, she would give up Damien for her brother’s life back...but she couldn’t bring Greg back, and at this point she wasn’t going to be willing to give Damien up for anything. When the agent finally came back into the room Paige held her breath until he said,

“The Attorney General has given me permission to grant the Transactional Immunity to all of you...granted you give us something to work with.”

Jake smiled; everyone else breathed a sigh of relief. “Spread those contracts out here,” Jake told him. “They’ve got a lot to say.”

They signed the contracts and then were split up to interview one at a time. Jake sat with each one as they did. He had already gone over with them what to say and what not to. Paige was told absolutely not to mention Caine as there was nothing to keep them from prosecuting her for murder where he was concerned.

Five grueling hours later they were released to go home for the day. They would be expected back the next day and probably multiple ones after that. Then, when they had enough evidence to convene a Grand Jury against the players who were left, they would have to be present for that as well. The F.B.I. raided the warehouse where the bodies of the Kramer’s and some of the Paine’s laid strewn about while the interviews were in progress. They found the bodies of both Lucas Kramer and Jackson Paine. The next phase of their little drama had begun.

––––––––

P
aige and Damien drove Crystal home a few days after they met with the F.B.I. and it seemed the danger to her life had passed. Kelsey was still out there somewhere, but she’d have to be a complete idiot to return now while the heat was on all of them and Paige told Damien that Crystal was aching to be back in her own home. Paige told Damien that she was actually able to see first-hand the way that Jackson operated, and understand a little more why Crystal defended him for so long.

“Yeah,” Damien agreed. “Jackson has always had a way of hiding the monster within and appearing to be the kind of strong family man that all of us that he gathered around him had craved for so long.”

“I liked him...the whole time that Mom was married to him. I even held out for a while when Greg insisted he was a drug lord...I insisted he show me proof before I would believe him. He had all of us fooled.”

After they got Crystal settled, they went to the university because Paige had to register for her fall classes. She was already late for this semester, but she’d obtained permission from the Dean. He’d given her a special pass because of her brother’s death and also because she’d been consistently on the Dean’s list every semester for three years straight. As they walked across campus hand in hand, Damien took in the sights around them. Everyone seemed so happy to be here...so “normal.”

“I always wondered what it would be like to just be a normal college student like these kids around here,” he told her.

Paige laughed. “Kids? You’re not much older than some of them and you’re even younger than others. You don’t have to be eighteen to start school anymore.”

He nodded. “I know. It’s just that I feel so much older...the past ten years aged me a lot. Yet, here I am with no job skills.”

She stopped walking and turned towards him. Planting a light kiss on his lips she said, “You’re so smart and capable. All you need to do is decide what it is you like to do and what you want out of life and then go for it.”

He kissed her back. “When you say it, I believe I can do it.”

“You better believe it,” she said. “Did you want to get lunch or anything?”

“I was kind of thinking about taking you out tonight.”

Her face lit up. “Like a real date? That’s hard to imagine.”

Laughing he said, “Really? I don’t seem like a guy who knows how to show a girl a good time?”

She grinned mischievously and said, “Oh, you’ve shown me quite a few good times. No, I just meant that since we met, things have been so chaotic. It will be really nice to go out on a real date.”

“Good, then we have to drive back to New York and get ready,” he said.

“New York?”

“Yeah, I don’t know Rhode Island. I want to take you out in a city that I know.”

Still smiling she said, “Let’s go.” When they got back to the city Damien took her to his penthouse. While she was showering, he took the cash he’d been saving over the years out of his wall safe. He made a few phone calls then and when she came out, he was ready. “What should I wear?” she asked.

She was dressed in a robe and her long hair was hanging loose and wet across her shoulders and down her back. Damien couldn’t resist. He closed the distance between them and tilted her head up towards him. He looked into her eyes for a few seconds and then he claimed her mouth in a deep, hot kiss. She’s so responsive, he loves that. Her arms go up around his neck and she leans into the kiss, letting her body melt into his. The kiss is a rush of sweetness...and heat. It’s comfortable and edgy and as the heat surged between them it sparked a fire that threatened to rage out of control.

He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her in even closer. She parted her lips and Damien groaned and slid his tongue deeper into her mouth. He loved the way she tasted, like cinnamon and peppermint. Desire pounded in his chest as he savored every second. Paige made him feel as high as any drug ever had or could. She overpowered his senses and made him understand what it might be to completely give up your sanity and abandon all self-control.   But he was determined to have a normal day with her...one normal day...He summoned all the willpower he had and he broke the kiss, gently nudging her back. She smiled at him and she looked as intoxicated as he felt.

“That was...I can’t think of a word for it...I love kissing you.”

He smiled at her. “I love kissing you too...but, I don’t want to get caught up in the kissing and touching until later. I want to take you out and spend the entire day with you, doing crazy fun things like normal people.”

Paige reached up and touched his face. “I want that too, but you didn’t answer me. What should I wear?”

The doorbell rang just then and Damien winked at her and said, “Hold that thought.” A young woman holding several garment bags on her arm was standing at the door.

“Mr. Paine?”

“Yes ma’am.” He handed her a few crisp bills and took the bags out of her hands. “Thank you.” He closed the door and turned around to Paige. “These three are yours. So you have a choice.”

“You bought me clothes?”

“Yeah...we’ve been so busy running around and neither of us have had a chance to dress up. I want to do this right.”

She was beaming. She looked so happy. Damien could hardly believe how happy that made him. “How did you know what size?”

“I’m incredibly intuitive,” he said. She giggled and took the garment bags from his hands.

“Either that, or you looked in my closet.”

“Intuitive sounds hotter,” he said with a grin. She leaned in and kissed him softly and said,

“Yes it does, but you don’t need anything to make you any hotter. I might not be able to take it.”

He pulled back from the kiss and said, “Go...get dressed before I pull that towel off of you and ruin the whole date day.”

A half an hour later Damien was showered and dressed in an expensive, tailored black suit with a gray silk tie. He waited in the living room for Paige and when she came out of the bedroom he really thought he wasn’t going to be able to make it through the night without ripping her clothes off and jumping her. She’d chosen a silver colored dress that fit like a glove and emphasized her curves that he loved so much. Her hair was still loose but dry now and laying in gentle waves down her back. She had on five inch heels and her gorgeous legs were exposed from her upper thigh on down. Damien’s mouth was dry and his cock was already twitching in his pants.

“Jesus,” he finally said.

She smiled. “Thank you. You look good enough to eat yourself.”

“We better get out of here or this date will be over before it started,” he told her, reluctantly. He grabbed her hand and held her to the door. When they got downstairs he had a limousine waiting for them.

“Wow, this is a going all out kind of date,” she said. The driver got out and opened the back door. He took Paige’s hand and helped her into the back. Damien followed. There was a bottle of champagne chilling with two crystal flutes waiting and there was a vase of blood red roses. Paige’s eyes widened. “You thought of everything,” she said with a tremor in her voice.

“Are you crying? Don’t cry baby!”

She smiled but her eyes were glistening with tears. “They’re happy tears. I just can’t believe you did all of this. Thank you.”

“There is a lot more to come,” he told her.

“I can’t wait.”

––––––––

T
he car took them to a club in SoHo. Paige was surprised that there would be a club opened so early in the day. She realized when they walked in that it wasn’t open...for anyone other than them. It was an intimate little club with a tiny dance floor, a bar, and soft music playing in the background. It was the kind of music that you might hear at a wedding...the kind that Paige loved to dance to.

“Do you dance?” she asked.

“Not usually,” Damien said, “But if you want to dance, I’ll make an exception for you.”

“I want to dance with you,” she gushed.

Damien took her hand and led her out onto the dance floor. He put one arm around her waist and held her hand and then he began to glide her across the dance floor.

“You know how to waltz?”

Damien smiled at her surprise as he led her in perfect time. “Are you impressed?” he asked her with a grin.

“I have to admit that I am,” she said.

He pulled her in tighter and he could feel her warm breath against the side of his face. God, she drives him crazy. He spun her out and let her twirl off the tips of his fingers, and then he pulled her back in and relaxed once more to the rhythm of the music. “Wow,” she said, really impressed.   “Who taught you to dance a waltz?”