Tinsel In A Tangle

After Adam left her apartment earlier in the week, things had happened rather quickly. Since they weren’t on the same team anymore, she hadn’t shared with him her big news, that she’d been able to narrow the “May” window that Knoll mentioned on the golf cart recording. For legal reasons, the University stored the travel details for all the abroad students in the database for the Office of International Programs. It was easy for her to access the database and pull the flight details for Knoll’s couriers. Not legally, of course, but she was well past that.

Two of the courier flights arrived on the evening of May 12th and two flew in on the morning of May 13th. From the recording, she knew that Knoll would consolidate the diamonds almost immediately and then Sedarno would arrive to collect them.

Her next step was to access Knoll’s calendar and see if anything was scheduled for the 13th or 14th. That was a little tricky, but she found a way in after realizing that he’d linked his University email account to his other accounts.

Lo and behold, Knoll was scheduled to attend a black tie fundraiser in Evanston on the 13 th. As a key donor, he was one of the speakers. She’d snorted aloud when she read the description of the gala and learned it was tango-themed. Of course it is. But the excitement really kicked in when she saw the personal notation he’d made on the calendar appointment: AS arrival United 4588.

Arnie Sedarno. United flight 4588 arrived to O’Hare at 10:50 pm. Knoll was programmed to speak during the dinner, which was scheduled for 8:00 pm. It made sense that Knoll would collect the diamonds earlier that day, bring them to the event, and Sedarno would go directly from the airport to the gala to retrieve them.

Which gave a three-to-four-hour window where Knoll had the diamonds in his possession and Sedarno was still in transit. A very nice window in which the authorities could catch him red-handed.

She’d spent hours the day before summarizing the data found on the University’s computers, dummy-proofing it so that even the most inexperienced FBI agent would be able to connect the dots. She added material about diamond smuggling, so that they’d understand what Knoll was bringing in. She enclosed copies of Knoll’s financial records with an explanation of how he borrowed the money from organized crime and needed the diamonds to pay it back. She explained about the bribe to Seymour Davies and enclosed his financial statements as well.

It took only moments to scrub her own electronic fingerprints off the package of information she so carefully put together. The FBI would receive the package from an anonymous source, and there would be no way to trace it back to her.

Only one thing remained to take care of—the diamonds themselves. Knoll was an extremely powerful man with the typical “friends in high places.” Her package of information might be damning, but it was also illegally obtained. He needed to be caught with the diamonds in his possession.

And...that was the problem. He wouldn’t carry 25 million dollars of diamonds on his person, but they needed to be somewhere near the gala. Maybe in his car? Or in a bag somewhere on the estate where the tango event was held?

She couldn’t see any way around it. She would have to go the event herself and snoop around until she knew where the actual diamonds were. Then, she could make her call, email her evidence, and scoot out of there before Sedarno arrived.

Piece of cake, right?

In the mirror, her own eyes reflected skepticism. T

hen she called a cab to take her to Evanston.

Chapter Thirteen

Adam stood against the wall, nodding and smiling at the rich idiots all dressed up in different interpretations of tango-wear. It was almost hard to watch them awkwardly attempt the actual tango moves on the dance floor. Since his contact on Knoll’s staff alerted him to the party at the last minute, he’d opted for a simple black tuxedo. His hair and eyebrows were black tonight, his eyes a muddy brown. A dark mustache was the finishing touch.

Ironic that his first real re-introduction to Knoll had come at the University black-tie event and tonight, the end, was also such an occasion. His jobs weren’t usually so symmetrically bookended. Glancing at his watch, he strolled until he was in good position to see the door. Based on the most recent text from his contact, Knoll was with a group walking through the estate’s gardens and would be arriving to the ballroom soon.

As soon as Knoll was in the house, he needed to act. He wanted to be as far away as possible when Sedarno arrived and they realized the diamonds had disappeared. If all went as planned, he would be out of the state by the time Sedarno got to the party. If it didn’t go perfectly, he’d still be out of the city. He didn’t know what kind of effort Sedarno would put into recovering the diamonds, but he planned to be away from Chicago for quite some time.

Away from Chicago. Like Jess. Jess. When would this godawful pressure on his chest let up? Some moments it felt like he could barely breathe. He couldn’t believe that because of him, she’d needed to flee the city. She deserved so much better. She deserved to get her life and reputation back. She deserved a man she could proudly introduce to her father. Instead, she’d gotten tangled up with him, the man who was about to deny her what she deserved.

The fact that he’d fallen for her didn’t change a damned thing.

Bitterly, he wondered what would have happened if he’d been a better partner while they were in Vegas. What if he’d actually treated her like an equal instead of a novice to be ignored? Maybe then she wouldn’t have gone rogue with her little golf operation and attracted Sedarno’s attention. Maybe they would have found a solution to this mess together.

Ugh, this was all his fault. She was a brilliant woman; he should have taken advantage of that big brain of hers. God knew, it attracted him as much as her beauty. She was so fucking special, she made him dizzy. We could have been partners. In every way. Of course, his own stupid mind chose now to realize this fact. Now, when she was long gone into an existence she didn’t want.

Would he ever live without this ocean-like constancy of guilt? He’d hoped that delivering the diamonds upon Tony’s release might lessen it, but now, he feared he’d just re-focus on how he screwed up Jess’s chance to reclaim her life.

At least she’d be safe from Sedarno, he thought. God only knew what would happen if the mob boss suspected she had something to do with tonight, when the diamonds went missing.

He felt the buzz of an incoming text. Knoll must have arrived. Sure enough, he heard the hostess twitter, “Maurice! Did you enjoy the tour? So looking forward to your speech.” Keeping his face angled away, he saw Knoll’s florid face out of the corner of his eye. Now all he needed to do was wait until Knoll was fully ensconced in the party. Five minutes, tops.

He set a timer on his phone and settled himself in the corner of the ballroom next to the bar. Glancing at the array of liquor bottles, he sighed. Nope. As mopey as the situation with Jess made him feel, he needed to be razor sharp tonight. No bourbon until he and the diamonds were far, far away.

“What can I get you?” the bartender asked a brunette in a red dress.

“Just a club soda with lime please,” the woman answered.

Adam’s heart stopped. He knew it wasn’t physically possible, but that’s what it felt like—that his heart literally paused between beats. No.

He had to be imagining her voice. Jess had agreed to run. She understood the stakes, that her life was in danger. Didn’t she?