Diamonds (Den of Thieves Book 1) (14 page)

Chapter 9

Sebastian walked into the office and into chaos. Bonnie Blakeman was standing in the middle of the main room again, and she was furious.

“What the hell is going on?” he roared walking right up to her turned back.

She whirled around to face him.

“YOU!” She screeched and reached for him, her fingers curled like claws.

Sebastian took a step back in time to avoid her clawing his eyes but she did manage to catch him on a cheek.

“I am going to kill you!!” She screeched again, reaching for him although he had her at arms length.

Jake and Bo came over and pulled her off Sebastian.

“You need to get a hold of yourself Mrs. Blakeman,” Jake said giving her a shake.

She reminded Sebastian of a hunting dog with its super high prey drive. She was fixated on her prey and wasn’t going to be stopped easily.

“What you are going to sit there and do NOTHING? He gets to fuck my daughter and have no progress on getting me back my necklace and yet you sit there and do NOTHING!”

“Mrs. Blakeman, I don’t know that this is going to work out the way that you want. You have to let us do our thing and figure it out on our own. If you keep storming in here every hour demanding answers to questions that we haven’t got we’ll never accomplish anything”

“If your boy here would keep his dick in his pants long enough to do his job then we wouldn’t in this position. It is his fault because he is not doing his job, and your fault for not fixing the problem and getting someone else in there who could do the fucking job I am paying you to do!” She yanked her arm away from Bo and continued to shoot daggers with her eyes at Sebastian.

Sebastian felt his blood pressure rising. How dare this woman talk about him and Daria this way?! She had no clue about anything and he was just about to give her a piece of his mind when she started back up again.

“You’re fired. All of you. I will get the necklace myself.”  She turned and started walking out when Jake stopped her.

“Listen Mrs. Blakeman, I will personally retrieve the necklace. You are right. Sebastian here has not done his job and as a result he has put the entire assignment at risk.” Jake looked at him when he spoke.

The look said, ‘wait and don’t say anything more’. Sebastian turned and walked back over to his desk.

“How do I know you are going to be any better?” She snarled.

“I don’t have the emotional attachment that Sebastian here does. I will have the ability to be far more clinical than he could be about the situation.

“You think so? Well I hope that you are a whole lot more professional than your playboy here.” She hooked a thumb at him over her shoulder.

Sebastian had to bite his tongue in order to keep from saying anything. Jake was bringing the situation under control and he would not do anything to turn the fire back up on it.

“I know I will be Mrs. Blakeman.” Jake looked at him again.

Sebastian said nothing.

“Well I am going to be keeping a closer eye on all of you. To make sure everything goes as it is supposed to go. I don’t want any more bullshit at all from anyone. I want the job done and I want it done now.”

“Yes, Mrs. Blakeman.”

“And you,” she turned around to face Sebastian, “You are to stay the hell away from my daughter from now on. You go near her again and you are going to regret it. Believe me when I say that.”

Sebastian bit his tongue hard enough to draw blood but stood staring in defiant silence at the woman in front of him.

“Did you hear me?”

“He heard you Mrs. Blakeman,” Jake piped up again drawing the woman’s attention

“Good. Then you will see that is done?”

“Yes.”

She turned and strutted out of the office.

“Seb--” Jake started

“Look Jake, I know I’ve screwed up and gotten emotionally involved with the --”

“Seb, shut up and listen to me,” Jake said as the other gathered around.

“What?” Sebastian looked back and forth between the others.

“The woman is pure trouble, Sebastian,” Paul started.

“What do you mean?”

“Stan got back to me when you were out on your date with Daria, he couldn’t give me anything specific but he did tell me that the best thing for our merry little band was to steer clear of this woman and anything that she has any involvement in.”

“So what does that mean?” Sebastian’s blood pounded in his ears.

“It means that we are pulling out. We are not going to be finishing this job.”

“Wait you just told her--”

“I know what I told her. It was only so I could buy you some time. When she realizes that we are not going to be doing what she wants she is going to go after Daria herself. Of that I have no doubt in my mind. You have to warn her.”

Sebastian said nothing, but pulled his car keys out of his pocket and ran out the door.

He needed to get to Daria before Bonnie Blakeman did.

Sebastian pulled up in front of Daria’s house, praying he wasn’t too late. Not seeing Bonnie’s car in the driveway he figured he still had time.

He ran up the steps and pound on the front door.

Daria came to the door.

“Peter what is it?” She asked her eyes full of confusion.

“I need to talk to you about something.”

“It couldn’t wait until the morning?” she yawned.

“No, it can’t.”

“Well come on in then” She held open the door.
 

“No Daria, I need you to come with me. We need to talk about this somewhere else.” He reached for her hand and pulled her out the door.

“Peter what is going on?” She tried to resist but he pulled her towards the car.

“Peter you’re scaring me!”

“You have to trust me, Daria.”

She looked at him, said nothing more but got into the car.

As Sebastian was pulling off the highway, he noticed a black sedan that seemed to be right behind him, mimicking his every turn. The driver of the car stayed back only enough to not draw attention to him. However, Sebastian had been followed before and knew the signs.

“Where are we going?” Daria’s voice was breathless and sounding scared. “I thought you said you had something you needed to talk to me about.”

“I do, but for the moment I need you to trust me.” He hated that he was doing this to her but he also knew that there wasn’t any other option for him at this moment.

“You keep saying that but I don’t understand why.”

He turned sharply onto a side street from the main road. Driving slowly down the street as if looking for a house, he looked back into his rearview mirror. He drove slowly for a few minutes and no car turned onto the street with him. He was just about to go onto another street and make his way back to the main road when he saw the black car go through the intersection ahead of him. The windows of the car were tinted and he could see the outline of the person behind the wheel, but it was too dark to see if it was a man or a woman driving.

But he had a really good idea of who it was.

“Who is that Peter?” Daria’s questions were making it hard to focus, hard to concentrate.

Sebastian sat at the intersection for a moment longer and then hit the gas. He shot through the intersection, trying to get right behind the car. He had to know who the hell it was. He had an idea - Bonnie Blakman was the only one who made sense - but he had to know for sure. He needed to know what he and Daria were up against.

All the other times he had been followed he hadn’t cared who it was behind the wheel of the car or at least who had hired the person. This time it was different. He had to protect the woman sitting beside him if it was the last thing he did.

He knew he was going to have to find a place for them to lay low for awhile.- one where he would be able to sit and have a long conversation with Daria and explain everything. First he had to figure out what he was going to do about this crazy mother.

At the next intersection he turned right, the same direction the other car had gone; he was lucky that this residential neighborhood had parallel streets. He started to pick up speed, trying to get behind of the other car. The next chance he had to turn down an intersecting street he took it, and without slowing down shot back around and turned sharply onto the street. The black car was gone. There was no sign of it ahead of him. He kept his foot on the gas; aware that he was going too fast for the neighborhood he was in, praying that there were no children out at this time of night.

He glanced in his rearview mirror again. The black car was not behind him. He was running out of road as he raced to the end of the street where it turned off onto another street to avoid the highway. There was still no sign of the black car anywhere.

He made his way back to the main road; keeping a watchful eye on the rearview mirror should the black car try to sneak up on him again. He did not take the shortest route out of the city but slowly made his way there, taking back roads and side streets.

He could feel his follower's presence behind him but could not pick him out in the light, evening traffic. He was about to turn onto the main street out of Lake City when he caught a flash of black a few cars back.

There you are. I thought I could smell you
, Sebastian thought to himself.

He picked up speed as he raced out of the city. The black car was right behind him and gaining speed.