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“In a bag.” Luca relayed the request to Alfred in a tone that said he was very close to losing all patience. “Call me when you get here.” He ended the call and shifted his attention back to Lisa. “Money is on the way. Where’s the fucking card?”
CHAPTER27
Bait And Switch
Luca
“It’s here in the mansion.” Lisa crossed the room toward me. “I need to see the money first.”
I was officially out of patience with this woman. As it were, I wasn’t sure that there was even a memory card. But I had come too far to leave this one stone unturned. Especially when I was at the end of the line with Ava’s case. Unless someone new came forward with information, I was out of leads.
“You’ll have to trust me. You’ll see the money when it gets here.” I glared at her. “Where is it?”
The growl in my tone made her shuffle back. Her eyes went wide with fear as she stared at me. I had let her yank our chain this long because I was sure she was protecting Uncle Jimmy. I’d hoped she’d have a slip of the tongue. But she didn’t. There was a good chance Ava’s murder had nothing to do with my uncle.
Lisa scanned the room. When she realized she was out of options, she faced me. “There’s a top floor that members don’t know about. Most of the staff knows, but we don’t have access to it. Only the manager does.”
“Okay. So how do we get there?”
“At the end of the hallway, there’s a panel that leads to a corridor. The vault is at the end of it.” She chewed on her lip for a bit. “We call it the vault because that’s where the club keeps their secrets. At least that’s the rumor. I’ve never been inside.”
“Jesus. Then how do you know that’s where the card is?”
“I told you.” She furrowed her brows. “He took the device from the kid and went straight to the vault. Why else would he do that?”
“Why else?” Rex chuckled. “Okay. Let’s assume the Crime Investigating gods are smiling down at Luca tonight and that the SanDisk is indeed inside this vault-slash-office space. How do we get in?”
“A key card and a retinal scan.” She winced.
“In other words, the manager has to let us in.” Enzo sat back in the leather chair. “Can we bribe him?”
“How should I know?” Lisa shrugged. “I mean you can try.”
“Just so we’re clear,” I interjected. “If we don’t get the device, you don’t get paid.”
“I get that.”
“The key card is easy.” Santino sat in one of the chairs. “I can handle that. It’s an easy swipe. I’m not good with eyeballs though.”
“Omigod.” Donata covered her mouth. “Can we all just agree that no one is going to get hurt tonight? It feels counterproductive to kill someone to find a killer.”
“For the record.” Santino raised his hand. “I never said anything about cold-hearted murder.”
“I don’t like that you felt you had to qualify that. What kind of murder did he mean?” Donata turned to me.
Suddenly I got the sense I was the only adult in the room. “Do you do this often? After all the stunts you pulled in high school, I thought you guys were at least well-organized.”
“Donata usually comes up with the plans.” Enzo pointed at her.
“I do.” She beamed at me. “So here’s the plan.”
“Jesus Christ.” I ran a hand through my hair. “There’s a big part of me that knows I will regret this before the night is over.”
“Just listen.” She gestured for me to take a seat. When I refused, she continued, “I’m thinking a simple bait-and-switch scheme.”
“Tell me you’re not the bait.” My voice rumbled in the room. I wasn’t about to use my fiancée to lure a man into a trap. “If he lays a hand on you, I’ll have to kill him. And I thought we were trying to avoid that.”
“I’m not going to throw myself at him.” She pointed at Lisa. “Lisa will go fetch him for us. She’ll tell him there’s a drunk girl up on the secret floor. If he’s like most men, he’ll figure he can handle one little girl himself. He’ll come up and then you guys can grab him. Put him to sleep or something. Gently.”
