AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Slowly, she shook her head.
He moved in close and lowered his face to within inches of hers. “I’m not going back to prison. So if I’m caught, all bets are off. I’ll blare to the whole frigging world that Foster Speakman couldn’t get it up. He was no longer a man, the marriage was a sham, and, in order to have a kid, he hired me to fuck his wife.” Her face went slack with dismay.
“Yeah,” Griff said, “think about that. I saw the pictures of his funeral, watched the stories about it on TV, saw you posed so pretty at his graveside. I’ve read his obituary and listened to politicians singing his praises. Everybody thought he was bloody wonderful, didn’t they? What do you think their opinion of Foster the great is going to be when I tell them he paid me to play stud for him?
“And don’t forget, to prove it’s true, I’ve got a hundred grand in the bank with his name on the signature card.” He encircled her biceps, forming an unbreakable grip with his strong fingers, and shoved her toward the door. “Now move it.”
“Hey, Thomas?”
Griff pulled up short, and Laura with him. The sound came from the earpiece he’d stuck in his ear after putting on the cop’s uniform. Thomas was being paged by one of his counterparts downstairs. Giving Laura a warning look, Griff clicked on the transmitter clipped to the shoulder seam of the shirt. “Go ahead,” he mumbled.
“Where’s Lane?”
“At the elevator with Mrs. Speakman,” he whispered, as though not wanting to be overheard. “He’s bringing Her Highness down.”
“What for?”
“She wants some carryout.”
“Sick of room service food?”
Griff grunted a noncommittal reply.
“Yeah, she’s got it really tough,” the cop said sarcastically. “Even with Lane tagging along, Rodarte isn’t gonna like it, her going out after dark.”
“Then Rodarte can come babysit her.”
The other cop laughed. “I hear that.” He clicked off.
Griff looked through the peephole, then pulled open the door and checked the hallway. He pulled Laura behind him as he ran toward the service elevator. He’d placed a dolly in the open door to keep it there. When they were inside, he dragged the dolly in and pushed the button for the ground floor.
“Where’s your car?” he asked.
“In the employee parking lot.”
“Once we’re out of the building, where?”
“To the right.”
“How far?”
“Fairly close.” His eyes drilled into hers, demanding more. She said, “Within steps of the entrance. But we’ll never get past the guard at that door.”
“He’s napping.”
The cop was still out cold, right where Griff had left him, behind a Dumpster, out of sight of any hotel employee who happened to use that entrance. Griff had come dressed in a set of navy blue work pants and shirt, carrying a stack of empty boxes. The ruse had worked long enough for him to get close to the cop and knock him out.
The policeman on the top floor, guarding the stairwell and service elevator, had reacted with surprise when the elevator doors opened and Griff stepped off. “Hey, you’re supposed to clear it downstairs before—” Griff had thrust the boxes at him and punched.
Hearing the commotion, the cop guarding Laura’s door had come running. He’d rounded a corner and got clouted on the head with the butt of his buddy’s service pistol. Of the two, he was the larger. Griff had hastily stripped him of his uniform shirt, hat, and gun belt.
He’d handcuffed each of them behind their backs, also linking the pairs of handcuffs together, then put duct tape over their mouths. Even when they regained consciousness, they’d make an awkward, mute, four-legged animal that would have trouble getting out of the stairwell and raising an alarm.
He was guilty of assault on three police officers. That was the least of his worries.
He knew there was another cop posted at the corner of the parking lot. It was just dark enough that Griff hoped from that distance the cop would see only a uniform shirt and hat and would mistake him for Lane. As he and Laura emerged from the service entrance, Griff kept his face averted but raised his arm and waved. The cop waved back.
Laura led him to her BMW. He unlocked the driver’s side. Thinking of the horn, he said, “Remember what I told you upstairs. If you want to uphold your late husband’s reputation, you do not want me to be caught.”
