Operation Date With Destiny (31 page)

Destiny arched an eyebrow across at him before turning her attention back onto
the
man before her.
“
Where do we find Rothman?
”

“
I don
’
t know,
”
he answered, and Destiny reached forward and yanked the cuffs on his pudgy wrists until they tightened painfully
.
“
I don
’
t
know
where he is now—but I know where he
will
be.
”

“
Where?
”
she demanded, bending down to retrieve a rather large, ugly looking hunting knife from the duffle bag on the floor. She held the startled gaze of the man on the chair
as she twisted the implement back and for
th
in her hand
and waited for his answer.

“
He
contacted me two days ago and wanted some money. I needed time to get it together.
”

Destiny looked down
a
t his hands and noticed the circulation being
constricted and knew by now that it
’
d be getting painful.
“
When are you meeting with him?
”

“
I haven
’
t gotten back to him yet…I haven
’
t been able to come up with the amount of cash he
’
s demanding without drawing attention from the bank and IRS.
”

“
Call him and set a time,
”
Tate said nodding his head as though reaching some kind of unspoken decision
. “
Make it for tomorrow
night
. Twenty-one hundred hours.
”
He turned to the others,
“
We don
’
t have the luxury of planning this out with too much time in advance.
I
’
m going to call Cartwright and let him know what
’
s going on.
Hopefully
he
’
s got his Fed
’
s lined up ready to roll and will
meet us there.
”

“
But I don
’
t have the money—
”
the attorney spluttered.

“
You
’
re not going to need the money—trust me where you two are going—money will be the least of your problems,
”
Tate snapped.

Tate gave a lift of his chin at Destiny and she quickly sliced the plastic cuffs with the tip of the sharp knife and released
Lemont
’
s
wrists. Tate dug out the man
’
s phone from his pocket they
’
d confiscated back in the car and handed it across to him, then wrote down an address on a piece of paper for the meeting place.
“
Make the call. You tell him the time and the place and that
’
s it—not another word. Short and sweet or I give
her
the
word, to slice and dice you buddy. Got it?
”

He sent a hesitant glance at Destiny
’
s hand holding the knife uncomfortably close to his crotch and swallowed nervously before giving a quick nod in agreement. With fumbling movements he scrolled through his contacts and selected a number.
Johnny
took the phone out of his hand and put the phone on speaker before holding it up in front of the attorney.

A voice answered briskly on the other end and Destiny
’
s eyes narrowed instinctively. A memory of that same voice taunting her mixed with the same voice years earlier, roughly whispering in her ear things he had no right saying to a fifteen year old girl. She had a score to settle with Rothman—one way or another she
’
d make sure this man paid for all the grief he
’
d inflicted upon so many innocent people over the years. If for no other reason—she
’
d do it for Pon.

“
It
’
s me.
”

“
You have the money?
”
Rothman asked.

Tate gave a sharp nod, and the attorney answered.
“
Yes.
”
He quickly gave the time and location and
Johnny
disconnected the call.

“
We can be reasonable about this. I
’
m a wealthy man—name your price. After all I
’
m not involved in any of
Tre
’
ago
’
s
criminal activities—never have been. I simply handle the
paperwork. I never even leave my office. Name your price.
”
The attorney said,
appealing
to Tate
whom he obviously
consider
ed
the
most
reasonable of the group.

“
Yeah, yeah, you
’
re just an innocent bystander in the whole thing—sure pal.
”
Tate scoffed
.

“
I
’
m a business man that
’
s
all.
”

“
You
’
re a criminal and you allow Tre
’
ago to fund his sick power trip and continue to hurt people,
”
Destiny snapped.

“
My dear—for a woman with your world weary experience, I expected to you be a lot less naive about the way the world works.
”

The condescending tone of voice scratched down her frayed nerves and she sent him a disgusted frown
. “
Maybe because I
’
ve seen the
worst
in humanity, I
’
m compelled to stop it whenever I get the chance. You
’
re
even lower than most
—a lot of the people Tre
’
ago has on his books are there because he
’
s blackmailed or terrified them into working for him
. B
ut you
work for him out of sheer greed. You deserve everything you have coming and I
’
ll be there to make sure you get it.
”

****

“
What are we going to do with him?
”
Destiny
asked,
her gaze
resting
on the fat attorney.

“
We
’
ll have to take him with us. He might come in handy. If Rothman somehow smells a rat and doesn
’
t show—that guy
’
s probably the only person who can tell us where to find him. Besides—he
’
s valuable.
We have to get him to Cartwright. He
’
ll get him into a safe house until trial
—we can
’
t afford to lose him. He
’
ll be a key witness.

With the files from
Lemont
’
s computer sent to
Cartwright, the
lawyer
was already on the case.
They couldn
’
t
call the authorities—no one knew for sure just how who or
where Tre
’
ago had
eyes. If they revealed their hand too soon
,
Rothman would be tipped off and they
’
d lose their chance to nab him as well.
Destiny
knew the men would be happy with just pegging the sh
ady
attorney and Tre
’
ago—but Destiny hated a half assed job and she wouldn
’
t rest until Rothman was brought down as well.

“
What happens now?
”

“
Cartwright
will contact us once
h
e
’
s pull
ed
together his own trusted team of agents to be there tonight at the bust. Until we hear back—we just sit tight and wait.
”

“
Great.
Hurry up and wait
.
”

“
Pretty much. Bring back memories?
”
Tate grinned. Through his years in the Marine, as in the Army, he
’
d have experienced the inevitable frustration of hanging around waiting for the go ahead on an operation. There was a lot of sitting around and waiting in the military.

Chapter
Eighteen

Destiny took a room next door, there wasn
’
t any
problem
about the place being booked out—surprisingly, what with the cockroaches
and stale
urine smell that seemed to linger
throughout
the place—hard to imagine why wasn
’
t it booked out months in advance.

With Cartwright
gathering a team of federal agents to be at the meeting when Rothman turned up
, i
t should be a simple arrest—but not one that they were willing to risk by bringing in any of the local police. It was good to have
some political clout—obviously Johnny and his team
had that in bucket loads.

She
let out a long sigh of relief. By tomorrow Rothman would be where he finally belongs and this whole terrible nightmare would finally be behind them.

What then?

The thought was becoming a looming grey cloud that was hovering closer above her each day. She wasn
’
t quite as freaked out by the responsibility of raising her brother now…well, not as much as she
had
been. She still had no idea what she was doing—and the possibility of screwing the kid up by not doing as good of a job as their mother would have done was still completely on the cards—but at least back on the island they
’
d made a dent in that barrier that had kept them both from reaching out. With a lot of work, there was at least hope they could fumble their way through the next few years together.

Destiny stalked around the room impatiently. She knew she should take advantage of the down time to rest up, but her mind was too hyped up to allow that to happen just yet. She needed to go for a run, but one glance out the dirty window and she knew that would be just asking for trouble. One didn
’
t simply go for
a run
around here—except maybe if you were running for your life from a gang of thugs or something, she corrected. There was no point borrowing trouble—they had enough to deal with already.

One thing she knew for sure though was she was could not stand being inside this room for one second longer, and grabbed up her jacket, shrugging it on as she walked out the door.

****

Tupper
sat at the dim lit bar in the foyer of the reception area. Like everything else in this dismal motel it was old, faded and the shell of what it must have been a long time ago.

He felt the same
way
at the moment. It was pure hell being so close to Destiny over the last few days and except for that one kiss back in the motel room earlier—he
’
d been unable to touch her. She
’
d made it pretty clear back on the island she didn
’
t want anything to do with him once this thing was over…he should be happy
, d
amn it!

Of all the women he could have fallen for—he had to go and fall for one who was stubborn, independent and could kick his ass with one hand tied behind her back
.

A movement in his peripheral vision made him glance over and he let out a small, defeated sounding chuckle. Of course he couldn
’
t get away from the woman—there was apparently no end to his purgatory just yet.

He saw her pause a moment before squaring her shoulders and walking across to him. He wasn
’
t sure if he was disappointed that she hadn
’
t actually been looking for him or relieved that once she saw him she hadn
’
t turned around and ran for the door.