Tinsel In A Tangle

With icy dread in his stomach, he turned his face to get a better look. Jesus fucking Christ. It wasn’t her real hair, but Adam would recognize the sleek muscles in her back anywhere in the world. He’d spent an entire day stroking it, licking it, rubbing it. Why in God’s name was her entire back bare? What the hell was she wearing? He took a long, long look at her red dress. She looked...she looked...holy hell.

Abruptly, Adam wasn’t sure what he wanted to do first. Strangle her or fuck her against the nearest hard surface.

Other men in the room were less conflicted. Several openly gaped at her revealing dress, their eyes lingering way too long on her legs. Adam’s hands fisted at his sides.

The timer on his phone went off. Damn it, he should already be moving. He knew where the diamonds were, and Knoll wouldn’t be accessing them until Sedarno showed up. This was the time to go. But he couldn’t, not until he convinced Jess to get out of there.

Jess turned so that her back was pressed against the bar. Sipping from her drink with a small smile on her bright red lips, she reminded him of the first night he’d seen her. She looked like a rich socialite without a care in the world. Silently, Adam approached. There were too many people crowded around the bar for them to have the conversation they needed to have. Fuck, there was no privacy in this entire room.

He waited until she put her drink back on the bar. The second it was down, he grabbed her hand and steered her to the only place it was appropriate for him to talk to her privately—the dance floor.

To her poker face’s credit, she didn’t make a peep when he closed the iron grip over her hand. Her smiling composure didn’t waver, even though he almost yanked her arm out of its socket to get her to the dance floor as quickly as possible.

He faced her on the dance floor, maneuvered her hands and arms in the strict tango posture before smiling down, formally, at her. “Are you trying to get yourself killed, Blondie?”

**Adam. She willed her body to listen to her brain instead of twitching and fizzing and dissolving into a million happy pieces, which is what it wanted to do. On some level, she suspected he’d be here tonight and she’d been waiting for him, breath held. Foolish and silly given that he could only be here for one reason.

She returned his stiff smile, but the part of her that was recklessly thrilled to see him put warmth and humor in her tone. “Nice disguise. You look like a young, villainous, Tom Selleck.”

“Don’t try to make me laugh,” he warned, marching her across the dance floor in a series of five-steps. “I am beyond pissed at you. You lied to me. You should be out of the country by now. I don’t know where that big brain of yours wandered off to, but we don’t even have time to debate it. You need to leave now before Sedarno gets here.”

“I will,” she whispered, holding on to him for dear life and realizing that he was doing a very good approximation of one of the routines they’d watched in Vegas. “You actually know how to tango?”

“You would too,” he said, changing direction and tugging her along, “if you would actually just let me lead for once.”

Poker face slipping, she raised one finger from his shoulder to stroke along his cheek. “I wish I could. But we’re not going the same way.”

He stared down at her and even through the brown contacts, mustache and false eyebrows, he made her heart flutter. “I have Sedarno’s flight information. He won’t be here for hours. But you need to leave now. I just called the FBI and emailed them all the data I have. I was just waiting to make sure they arrived before I left.”

How much the FBI had understood from her frantic explanation, she had no idea. But at least she’d managed to convince them to check their email—it had everything they would need, including an urgent plea for them to arrive as soon as possible before Knoll managed to transition the diamonds to someone else.

“Don’t worry. I didn’t say anything about you. But I don’t know what their procedure will be when they get here, and...” She gave his face one last, soft caress. “I don’t want you to get caught.”

He made a sort of choking sound, pressed his face against the length of her finger. “I won’t. I’ll be long gone with the diamonds before they get here, Jess.”

What? No, that was impossible. How could he even know where the diamonds were? She’d assumed he was just tailing Knoll and had ended up here. But maybe not...maybe he knew, like she did, that—

“The diamonds are in a briefcase that’s handcuffed to his driver,” he said, flatly. “And in one minute, I’ll be relieving him of his burden.”

God damn him. How could he know that? It had taken her an hour of following Knoll around the stupid party. She’d still be in the dark if he hadn’t excused himself from the group at one point to take a call. While he talked, he walked to where the cars were parked. It was extremely difficult tailing him in her three-inch heels, but worth it when she saw him conversing with his driver. The driver who had a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, which to her eager eyes was pretty much the same thing as a neon sign reading “Diamonds Right Here!”

She hadn’t seen much of the driver’s face, but he was a huge guy with a buzz cut and large earring in his left ear. He looked more thug than limo driver.

What was Adam going to do? Fight the guy? What if he took the diamonds before the authorities got there?

What if he got hurt?

Anxiety flooded through her veins and she stumbled on the dance floor. “This is such a mess,” she hissed.

“Jess, what if we—” There was a new note in Adam’s voice. One that made her pulse leap. It was hope.

She looked up, but his eyes had focused across the room. “Something’s up with Knoll,” he said.

She followed his gaze. Sure enough, Knoll’s ear was pressed to his phone as he stared down at the floor and nodded furiously, ignoring everyone around him.

Without another word, Adam released her. “Leave right now,” he demanded.

And then he was gone.