“Be careful, Jackson. Those girls cannot be trusted.”
Just then, Roxanne came out of the bathroom and I knew I couldn’t talk freely anymore. I did think I could trust her, though. She had risked her life with Stephano to come and help us. Even if she was doing it for the money. It was still an awful lot to risk.
“We are good here. Just head on down and we can talk about it. I’m going to put some feelers out. Is there someone local I could get my name in with?”
“Yes, Vict
or. He works out of the port authority office. You’ll need to go down there, alone, and ask for him. Tell him what you’re looking for and give him your burner phone number. He’ll get in touch. Tell him you’re willing to pay top dollar.”
“Thanks, PJ, I’ll see you soon.”
“Remember, Jackson, be careful of Stephano’s people. They know how to switch sides quickly.”
“Will do.”
As I hung up the phone, I felt a new uneasiness around Roxanne. Certainly, she was trustworthy. I had watched her be strangled by Stephano’s man. But PJ had managed to instill a small bit of doubt in Roxanne’s ability to be trusted.
Chapter Twelve
ROXANNE
“Jackson, I just don’t think it’s a good idea to try and buy Ana. Stephano isn’t stupid. He’s going to know something is up.”
“I know, Roxanne. I’m working on something that will help that. Let me shave and get dressed and we can talk about it more.”
I didn’t know what exactly Jackson was up to, but it didn’t feel like he understood just how dangerous Stephano was. Stephano wouldn’t wait to see who Jackson was. He would kill him the second something felt wrong. I needed to call Chase and warn him.
Jackson didn’t understand how Stephano’s world worked. If a new guy wanted to buy a girl, he wasn’t going to automatically trust him and just sell a girl to him. He certainly wouldn’t sell someone like Ana who he already had a buyer for. He would think that Jackson worked for the police and was trying to set him up. He would kill Jackson, and I feared Jackson didn’t understand what he was getting himself into.
“Hey, Jackson. What’s up?” Chase said as I dialed his number.
“It’s Roxanne. Jackson is planning to try and buy Ana. He’s going to get himself killed.”
“Where is he?”
“He’s getting ready. I don’t think I can talk him out of this, Chase. Can you come down here? We are at the Motor Inn across from the Hyatt.”
“Yes, try to stall him for a few hours. I’ll be down by noon.”
Chase hung up the phone and I placed Jackson’s cell right back where it had been. By this time, I was pretty sure that Stephano knew something was up with me. He had his guys follow me to the hotel, where Jackson had beaten them up. Stephano would be on high alert. There was no way in hell he would fall for Jackson showing up and trying to buy Ana.
There had to be a better plan. As much as Stephano liked money, he liked his freedom even more. If he thought for a tiny second that Jackson was a police officer, Stephano would close the deal down at the very least and we would have no more contact or opportunity to get Ana. At the very worst, Stephano would just kill Jackson.
I felt so frustrated as I waited for Jackson to get out of the bathroom. I knew he was the one with the training, but I was the one who knew Stephano.
As Jackson came out of the bathroom, I tried to hide my concern and put on a smile for him. I really hoped Chase got down to Miami quickly and could convince Jackson to stop his ridiculous plan.
“Ready to eat?”
“Yes, I’m starved,” I said as I gathered my jacket. “You know, I’m starting to like this little hotel better than our other one.”
“It’s very comfortable for a side street motel.”
“Oh, I forgot something, just a second,” I said as I went back to the room.
I hadn’t really forgotten a thing; it was the only way I could stall him. If I took a few extra minutes in the room, a few extra minutes ordering, I would hopefully be able to stall until Chase arrived.
When I finished stalling, we finally made our way to the little diner next door to grab some breakfast and hopefully figure out what to do next. I needed to convince Jackson that he couldn’t go into meet Stephano alone. There was too much risk involved in that. Jackson might be trained to kill people with his hands, but Stephano was trained to just shoot people and not wait for the hand-to-hand combat.