I throw my arms around him. “You’re the best!”
I start the coffee machine.
“You sure you’re not in over your head?” Chase asks.
“What are you so worried about?” I return as I rummage through the refrigerator for something to snack on.
“You’re going to let a guy you just met kidnap you?”
“What are you worried he’s going to do to me?”
“Maybe he’s secretly a sex trafficker.”
Finding nothing that catches my eye, I decide to toast a slice of sourdough. “A guy as rich as he is?”
“Men of wealth and power do shitty stuff all the time. Don’t you pay attention to the news? I don’t know. Something about this guy feels off.”
I pause to consider Chase’s words. Jack is unlike anyone I’ve ever met before.
“He’s just aloof and a little intense,” I say.
“I’m not talking about his demeanor, though there’s that too. I was just thinking about how I couldn’t get ahold of you that night you went to his club. And I could have sworn one of security guards walking the grounds of his home had an assault rifle.”
“So?”
“That’s a lot of heat for a home security guard.”
I spread butter on the toast. “Maybe he’s paranoid, like Dad.”
“But your dad has reason to be paranoid. What’s Jack’s excuse?”
I shrug my shoulders. I don’t really care if Jack is paranoid. He’s the most amazing BDSM player I’ve ever come across, and I’m not letting this opportunity slip away. Besides, Chase only thinks he saw some assault gun. He’s not sure.
Chase takes his coffee to go so that he can park the car at the Colma BART station, then make it back on time to follow me onto the train. I finish my coffee, then go upstairs to change.
Time tocarpe diem.
Chapter eleven
Kai
“Thebodyguardwentonthe train with her,” one of my men texts to me and Andy.
We’re sitting in his car across from JJ’s Liquors, a business owned by the triad as a front for a lot of activities. It doesn’t have a license to operate past midnight, so it’s closed, though there are a few lights on inside. There are no customers, and the only other vehicle in the parking lot is the cargo van with Antonne, Tao, and Jay.
I turn to Andy. “Take care of the guy.”
Andy responds with only a nod, which is all I need from him. I don’t need the details of how Andy plans to do it because I trust him. Even though he’s only twenty-six, what he lacks in experience, he makes up for in brains. The guy probably could have gotten a PhD from MIT if he hadn’t gotten into the triad.
Our next update is that Casey and her bodyguard have arrived at the Colma BART Station. Casey gets into the taxi we had planted just for her. The triad runs a taxi company too, one of many legitimate businesses that we run to clean our money. Her bodyguard gets into his own car.
“Probably planted it,” Andy tells me, “after Casey told him the plan.”
“Convenient,” I say, glad he isn’t grabbing a cab. The fewer witnesses and collateral victims the better.
Not much later, I see a cab pull in and drop Casey off at the front of the store before departing. She wears a trench coat over what appears to be thigh high boots. I notice her bodyguard pulling into the parking lot. Tao gets out of the van to approach Casey. He asks her a question. She follows him toward the van. When she reaches the back, he pushes her in. Jay is there and throws a hood over her head. I watch the bodyguard stir but remain behind the wheel. Andy screws the suppressor onto his .45 ACP.
“I’ll be back,” he tells me as he gets out of the car and walks toward the bodyguard.