Lusted in Las Vegas (6 page)

“Wait, please, give me a second?” he asked.

The officer dropped his grasp and nodded, allowing Jason to spin around.

Stephanie was rooted to the spot in the doorway. In her wildest dreams, she never imagined witnessing a scene as this.

“Stef, like I said earlier, this has all been real for me. I’m in love with you and have been since Miami. Please don’t believe everything you hear about me.”

“Let’s go, Mr. Royce.”

Before Stephanie could respond, Jason was gone.

Chapter 10

Stephanie couldn’t sleep that night and spent the rest of the next day in a fog. She called her clients to explain that she was still in town if they needed her assistance and was relieved to have an excuse to get away from the villa . Nothing was real to her except work and she needed to feel grounded. She concluded her business meetings and returned to the villa to pack. A knock at the door jolted her from her thoughts.

She peeked through the window to see Sam.

“Hello, Miss Thomas. You’ve had quite a couple of days. I assume you’ll be staying here for a few more days?”

“No. I’m leaving tonight. I have a redeye to Boston. Should I call a cab?”

“Of course not. I’ll take you personally.”

“Thanks.” Stephanie smiled and fought back the tears in her eyes.

Sam turned to leave but swiveled back when he heard Jason’s name on the television from the living room.

“Don’t believe everything you hear,” Sam said as he closed the door behind him.

Jason’s arrest was the headline of the evening news. She turned off the television after she heard the charges and incriminating recorded telephone conversation. The local news channels all showed a video recording of Jason passing an envelope to Jessica at La Luna. The newscaster reported that Jason paid off his ex-girlfriend for her silence. He then threatened to kill her, so she came forward with the recording. Jason was charged with paying off government officials to issue certificates of occupancy on units built with substandard material. Two other Salt Lake City builders were charged months ago. Royce Homes was investigated but not charged at the time.

Payoffs? Threats to kill? Who was he?
All she knew was her head hurt, the man she thought she loved was in jail and her life would never be the same.

Sam drove her to the airport for the redeye flight back to Boston. Stephanie turned to Sam while he pulled to the curb at Departures. “What’s going to happen to him?”

Sam shook his head. “I don’t know, but the other builders are serving jail time and lost their businesses. I have a hard time believing Mr. Royce was involved. I watched The Gates construction from the ground up and nothing but the finest materials were used. In fact, the project was delayed because a supply order was delivered wrong and we had to wait for the correct materials. He doesn’t cut corners.”

“But the recording, it doesn’t leave much room for interpretation, does it?”

“No, it doesn’t. It’s very incriminating, almost too incriminating. Good-bye, Miss Thomas.”

“Good-bye and thank you.”

*****

Stephanie fell into a restless sleep on the flight back to Boston. She dreamed about the confrontation with Jessica at the makeup counter. “You like to take things, don’t you?” Then Jason’s recorded voice repeated like a broken record in her dream. She awoke with a start. There was something not quite right about that recording.  Stephanie had been around Jason long enough to know the pace of his speech.  His voice was smooth and slow like poured honey. The recorded voice was choppy and quick. Then she recalled Sam’s last words to her, “…almost too incriminating.”

“Damn you, Jason Royce.” Stephanie muttered under her breath as the plane landed in Boston.

Once off the plane she headed directly to the ticket counter.

“I need a one-way ticket on your next flight to Vegas.”

Chapter 11

Stephanie stepped out of the cab outside of The Gates. A security guard walked toward her and waived, “Miss Thomas, I thought you left.”

“I need to see Sam.”

The guard escorted Stephanie through the guard stand and into the security office where she found Sam at the surveillance desk. He turned to her as she walked in. She noticed the dark circles under his eyes and his rumpled shirt and pants. It appeared that he had been up all night, too.

“You noticed it too, didn’t you? The recording?” she asked him.

Sam nodded his head in the affirmative. “Come, sit down.”

He played back the recording, but it sounded different. He slowed it down and increased the background noise.

“Do you hear that? The background noise changes with each word grouping. This conversation was spliced together. Jessica must’ve tapped his phone while she lived with him. She had this professionally done; it’s a good splice job. The only problem is the rhythm isn’t right. That’s not the way he speaks, but no one other than those close to him would ever catch it.”

“Exactly! What now? We go to the police?”

“I’m afraid they won’t do much. This information is really only useful as evidence during his trial, which could be months from now while he sits in jail. No, we need a confession, Jessica’s confession.”

“She could be anywhere,” Stephanie said and leaned back in her chair.

“But she’s not. She moved herself into Jason’s Seattle house,” Sam said with a smile on his face.

“
His house?
How do you know she’s living there?”

“I handle all of Jason’s security and I watch over his properties when he’s not home. She moved in yesterday.”

“She’s living in his house and you haven’t thrown her out? She caused all of these problems for him and now she’s moved into his house. She’s sleeping in his bed while he’s in jail? She has no right to be there. Call the cops and have them arrest her for breaking and entering.”

Sam raised his eyebrows at Stephanie. “Don’t you see? That’s exactly where we need her. I want her to relax and feel like she got away with something.”

“Okay, so what’s the next step?”

“That’s where you come in. Are you up for a challenge to help Jason?”

“Of course. I’ll do anything to help him.”

*****

Sam made a few calls and secured Jason’s Cessna for the trip to Seattle.

“The man owns a helicopter and an airplane?” Stephanie remarked as they parked alongside the small plane with “ROYCE” lettered below the cockpit window.

“Mr. Royce likes his toys,” Sam said as they boarded the plane.

Within two hours they were in Seattle. Sam arranged for a surveillance van to meet them at the airport. They parked a few blocks away to prepare for the meeting.

“Are you sure you’re up to this? Jason will kill me if anything happens to you. Maybe I should be the one to confront her.”

“We talked about this. She’s more likely to admit what she did to me than you. We already determined that she’s alone in the house and you’ve disabled the alarm system. It’s just Jessica and me. I’m not worried. Let’s do this.”

Sam pulled the van just outside of view from the house and turned off the engine.

“Here’s the key to the front door. If you need me just say so.” Sam said while handing her the suitcase. He wired her so that he could hear everything that went on inside the house. She also had a small microphone inserted in her right ear.

Stephanie slipped out of the van with the suitcase in hand, took a deep breath and strode to the front door. She turned the key easily and walked into the grand foyer. She couldn’t stem her curiosity and took a moment to look around. It was a beautiful home with similar touches and décor as the Vegas villa and Miami penthouse. Stephanie scanned the connecting living room and open kitchen. She could picture Jason building a fire in his massive stone fireplace. A sharp pain stabbed her heart when she pictured him living there with Jessica. Stephanie shook her head.
I need to focus and find Jessica.

She remembered the blueprint Sam showed her of Jason’s home and crept upstairs to his bedroom. Placing the suitcase on the bed, she smoothed her hand over the cotton comforter that covered the king size bed. The bedroom was decorated for a man’s taste with no indications of a female’s touch anywhere to be found. She bet that he got rid of everything in the room and had it completely redesigned after the painful incident of finding Jessica with another man in his bed. Stephanie walked to the edge of the bed and picked up one of the pillows. She held it to her face and inhaled, picking up a trace of Jason’s scent.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Jessica stood in the doorway wearing workout clothes and wiping her face with a towel.

Startled, Stephanie dropped the pillow on the bed. “Oh, you scared me.” She cleared her throat. “I’m moving in with Jason, the question is, what are
you
doing here?”

“Me? I live here. T-this is my house and you need to leave.”

“Your house, huh? Jason threw you out of here along with your personal trainer boyfriend.”

Jessica glanced at Stephanie’s suitcase. “Well…why are you moving here? Jason’s going to jail for a long, long time. You may as well move on unless you’re happy with romantic dates consisting of a glass wall and a telephone receiver. That doesn’t seem to be your style, Stephanie.”

“You really taught him a lesson, didn’t you? You must have known your relationship wouldn’t last. You bugged and recorded his conversations from the time you moved in so you would have something on him, didn’t you?”

“I made sure I had a little insurance. So what. I had to protect myself.”

Stephanie walked around the room while she spoke. “You must’ve accumulated hours and hours of conversation. What a daunting task it must have been to listen to it all. Then how disappointed you must’ve been to come up empty.”

“What do you mean? I-I recorded Jason talking about the payoff. He admitted to it.”

“Yes, you found his conversations talking about the payoff. Of course you did. It was all over the news and he was even questioned about it, but they found him innocent. He never admitted to it, because he never did it.”

“Yes he did. Didn’t you hear it?”

“What I heard on the news was a spliced together recording of Jason’s voice. That recording was compromised; it’s a fake. The FBI is examining it right now. In fact, Jason will be out of jail very soon and I have a feeling you will be in…unless…”

Jessica’s face was as white as a fresh Boston snow. “Unless what?” she said quietly.

“Unless you confess that you falsified the recording.”

Jessica sat on the bed, cradled her face in her hands and began to cry. “I didn’t mean for it to get this far. I made a mistake and I just want things back to where they were, before, before…”

“Before you cheated on him and broke his heart?” Stephanie asked.

Jessica shook her head. “I’m really not a bad person.”

“Prove it then, Jessica. Call the Las Vegas police right now and tell them about the recording. You owe him that.”

Taking her cell phone out of her purse, she pushed the autodial number Sam programmed for her and called the Las Vegas police department number. She waited for it to connect. “I need to speak with a detective, please.”

Stephanie pushed the speaker button. She wasn’t taking any chances that Jessica would disconnect the call. She overheard Jessica’s confession and the detective explaining that he was sending the Seattle police to pick her up to make an official statement at the station.

Jessica sobbed on the bed and Stephanie almost felt sorry for her. Almost.     

Stephanie walked down the stairs and took one last look around before she quietly shut the door behind her. Sam was grinning from ear to ear when Stephanie slid open the van door.

“You did well, really well. Jason will be very proud.”

They waited in the van until the police car got to the house. After they watched Jessica get escorted into the police car, Sam turned to Stephanie and said, “What do you say we go get Mr. Royce out of jail?”

Chapter 12

Sam ensured that Jason hadn’t been extradited to Salt Lake City yet so they flew back to Las Vegas. When they landed, Stephanie listened as Sam received confirmation from Jason’s lawyer that Jessica did in fact confess and all charges were in the process of being dropped. She looked at the limousine parked on the edge of the runway waiting to pick them up.

“You know, he still thinks you went back to Boston. He doesn’t know you had anything to do with this,” Sam said.

Stephanie broke into a broad smile. “Do you remember the last scene of Oceans 11?”

Sam matched her smile. “I live in Vegas. Do you really have to ask?”

*****

Stephanie cracked the window so that she could hear Jason approaching the limousine. Her heart fluttered at the sound of his voice in the distance.

“As usual, you came through for me, Sam. My lawyer said you were instrumental in getting the confession out of Jessica regarding the fraudulent recording. She’s not an easy nut to crack. How did you do it?”

“I had a little help, sir,” Sam said as he opened the back door.

Stephanie smiled and offered a small waive. “Hi.”

She was sure she heard him gasp.

Jason’s hand rested above the door opening, he leaned down and smiled. Stephanie’s breath hitched at the sight of him. His clothes were rumpled, his hair askew and he wore a two-day growth of beard. He’d never looked sexier.

“Hi yourself. You helped Sam?” he asked raising his eyebrows.

“There’s something about the words
‘I’m in love with you’
that makes a girl do crazy things,” Stephanie said and patted the seat.

Jason slid in next to her, slipped his hand around her shoulder and pulled her close. His mouth almost touched her lips. “I did say that, didn’t I?”

“Umm-hmm.” It was all she could manage as she cupped his stubbled cheek in her hand and hungrily stared at his lips with a hooded gaze.