CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Quinn had a splitting headache and he was in a foul mood. Putting Ari out of his mind wasn’t as easy as he’d hoped. She popped into his head when Quinn was checking on the restaurants, when he fired a hotel employee for stealing bath soap, and now again while he studied the monitors in Damon’s office.
The one bright spot was that his superiors on this job had just called in with the news—on consecutive Thursdays, the balance of the money from the counting-room tapes didn’t match the books. They had enough evidence to take Damon in and enough to obtain a warrant to search the office and seize its contents. As long as they had Damon in custody first.
Otherwise they feared someone on the inside would tip him off and he’d disappear, something they couldn’t afford. They needed Damon to roll over on the boys whose money he was laundering, the drug dealers whose cash he turned into legitimate dough. Then they’d not only take Damon down but take drugs off the streets and away from kids. Susceptible kids, like Sam. And before Quinn left undercover work behind for good, he wanted to know he’d had a hand in something that big.
He strode into the offices for what he hoped was one of the last times, and a sense of déjà vu hit him hard.
A dark-haired woman was standing by Damon’s desk, confidential info rmation in her hand. Last time it had been casino financials; this time it was info rmation on Zoe. Quinn had pulled the files from the safe earlier. Files chock-full of the info rmation gleaned from whatever digging Damon had done on Ari’s sister. The only reason those pages would be incriminating for Damon was because it showed his interest in a supposedly missing woman, but Quinn had planned to give the papers to the feds in order to protect Zoe’s identity from prying eyes.
Last time it had been Zoe snooping around; this time it was Ari. At least Damon hadn’t discovered her here. Quinn didn’t care how close to finished this case was, she had no right to be in this office when he wasn’t around and no reason to be sticking her pretty nose into his business.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Quinn asked.
Ari turned around fast. Obviously stunned, her eyes opened wide, her cheeks flushed, and her hand flew to her chest. “You startled me.”
“Answer my question. What the hell are you doing in here, with private papers in your hands, no less?” He stepped closer, meaning to scare her.
“I’d like an answer to that as well.”
This time Quinn was startled as Damon walked into the room, his early return taking Quinn off guard.
Ari opened and then closed her mouth, probably unsure which angry man to deal with first. In her eyes, he saw how petrified she was by Damon’s return.
She had every right to be scared, Quinn thought, turning to his boss. “What are you doing back so early? Lover’s quarrel?” he asked.
Damon wasn’t amused and his lips pulled into a thin, narrow line. “I cut my trip short because a smart man trusts no one.”
Though Quinn had heard that line many times before, never had it sounded so ominous. “Trouble in paradise?” Quinn asked, still attempting to keep things light as he figured out the other man’s agenda.
Damon shrugged. “Cynthia wanted to see where I worked.”
“I thought you went with Roxanne?”
“She had a family emergency and had to fly home. Cynthia wanted to see my family jewels.” Damon gestured around the casino but the double entendre was obvious.
“I see,” Quinn said. “And once you got here, you gave her some cash to play with and told her you’d see her later?” he said, using Damon’s standard M.O. He obviously hadn’t given the woman a tour or someone would have info rmed Quinn he was back. Over the weekend, the influx of new guests had included undercover federal agents.
“Exactly. And then I came here to check on you, and what do I find? That one twin is no better than the other.” He shook his head. “You disappoint me, Professor Costas. I thought you were smarter.”
Ari sucked in a loud breath at the realization that Damon probably hadn’t forgotten he’d found her in his private domain.
“You’re wrong, boss. This one’s just a bored professor.” He jerked a thumb toward Ari. “Just look at her pathetic attempt to fit the part of the sexy siren.” He snorted in disgust. “She’s nothing like her twin.”
Quinn struggled not to glance Ari’s way, forcing himself to act like he didn’t care about her feelings or how he was deliberately playing on her insecurities and weaknesses to save her from Damon’s fury. “Hell, she might be a bookworm, but she doesn’t have the street smarts to be a fed.” He shook his head and forced a laugh. “She couldn’t find her way out of a paper bag, let alone get in your way.”
“Oh, really?” Damon asked, raising his eyebrows in disbelief. “Then why did she have private files in her hand?”
“Natural curiosity,” Ari said quickly.
“Stupidity,” Quinn muttered at the same time.
She shot him a scathing glare, proving she wasn’t too frightened to be offended. Once again he admired her grit. She was more like the sister she claimed not to know than she gave herself credit for.
Quinn decided to go for broke and play Damon for all he could. There was no other way to save Ari. “It’s my fault she found the papers. I heard whispers of feds sniffing around and I pulled your file on her sister so I could destroy it,” he lied. “I got called to the casino before I could take care of things and left it on the desk in plain view.”
“She knows too much,” Damon insisted.
It didn’t escape Quinn’s notice that the man showed no shock at the mention of the FBI.
Quinn shook his head. “Actually she doesn’t know a damn thing—unless you tell her now,” he said pointedly. They both knew those files did not indicate what Damon thought had happened to Zoe. Nobody reading it, including Ari, could ever use it as proof that Damon had plotted Zoe’s demise.
Damon narrowed his gaze, clearly contemplating his options. “How long was she in here alone? Better yet, why was she in here alone?”
“Stupidity,” Quinn said again.
“Lipstick,” Ari said in a hoarse voice. “I dropped my purse earlier when I came to see Quinn. You see, I missed him and wanted. . . a quickie.”
Quinn winced at her attempt to explain her actions.
“He told me it had to wait,” Ari rambled on. “But not before I tried to distract him.” Her voice grew more sultry, more confident as she tried to convince Damon she’d attempted to seduce Quinn earlier. “But he said not while he was working.” She forced a pretty pout.