Taking Jana (Paradise South #2) (31 page)

“I’m fine, Jana. And more importantly, you’re fine.”

“But he knows I was in the car. How’d he—”

“He was probably lingering a few minutes before he came up. But, yeah, he was bustin’ my balls that whole time. Doesn’t matter, Jana. We’re not in danger. It’s all okay. It turns out to be really damn good actually.” He picked her up, swung her around and around.

“What are you talking about?” Her arms held on for dear life to his neck, not seeing how any handshake with Jake Demonte could be anything close to good.

He let her feet touch the ground. “Nothing…just trust me.” Then he stopped, pulled her over to the limo, and opened the door to the driver’s seat for her to get in again.

“Are you serious? I can’t stop shaking let alone drive…not for my first time!”

Handing her the car keys, he whispered, “Jana, listen, after tomorrow, we’re done and set.” He squeezed her elbow. “A million. My number. It wipes my debt, leaves us with
five-hundred
grand in cash, not including what I’ve got in my operating account! All I’ve worked for…I’m finally done. No strings, Jana. You and me, and, you know…our future, it’s ready for us.”

She looked at him sweetly, but couldn’t hide the worry from her eyes. “Antonio, it sounds…perfect. But, sometimes perfect is anything but.”

He waved off her comment and kissed her cheek, then her nose, her chin, her lips. “Come on, let’s get going. You gotta get your first driving lesson under your belt. Two weeks from now, we’ll be heading home to Mexico.”

CHAPTER 57

A
half hour later
they got to the Palisades Park exit, which was only a few minutes south of Fort Lee. It was sweet, her excitement, driving up the thruway for the first time.

“Pull off here, princess.”

“Oh no! You’re queasy from my driving. I told you I’d be bad—”

“No, not at all. I showed you this place in the daytime, now I want you to see it at night.” He smiled but held his stomach to mess with her. “And I’d like to throw up in a scenic environment.” He laughed and she punched his arm. She hadn’t looked at him since getting on the road, and now she couldn’t seem to take her eyes off him.

“Left! Left here!” he shouted, helping her with the wheel.

He was glad when she looked back at the road and coasted smoothly, proudly into the park.

*

God, it felt like ages ago, their moment by the river. But it had only been a matter of days. A
high-speed
,
time-surpassing
love, that’s what they had.

As she followed his finger to where she should park, she realized something: a stark, solid feeling throughout her entire being. She was in the driver’s seat and in complete and utter control, control that Antonio had given her. And she didn’t feel the least bit carsick, not the slightest bit nauseated, better even than when she sat shotgun.

She felt absolutely, definitively grounded in herself, but at the same time, flying higher than high. The feeling was similar to a recent dream she half remembered.

“Come on. I want to show you the riv—”

“Wait.” She grabbed his hand. “Wait a minute. You gave me my first driving lesson. But I want another first.” Pure seduction and desire laced her words. “I want to make love to you, Antonio Ruiz. In the backseat of this limo. Right now.”

*

She watched him beam.

“And here I was trying to be a gentleman, biding my time, but yes, let’s stay right here,” he said, his words and tone sweet and so goddamn sexy. “Because I didn’t know how I was going to make it all the way to the river without attacking you on the way. Plus the mosquitoes, poison ivy,” he rambled and snickered as he unbuckled her seatbelt and hoisted her over the divider without hesitation.

*

Before he joined her in the backseat, she watched him reach forward for a button, and the moon roof opened, letting the
star-filled
sky show through. Then he connected his mp3 player, and the fourth track to the hot Latin beats playlist she’d made for him filled the car, and flowed through her body.

A moment later, he tumbled over the partition and landed gently on top of her, and proceeded to slowly and sensually peel off her clothes. “I’ll gladly make love to you, Jana Park. It will be my honor, always.”

He kissed her then, and she kissed him back harder.

But he broke away the next beat.

“What is it?”

“I mean it, Jana. I want ‘always’ with you. Marry me? Be my wife.”

She tilted her head at him, studied his deep, sweet eyes.

“Of course. Yes. I’ll marry you, Antonio José Ruiz. I’ll be your wife. It will be
my
honor.”

CHAPTER 58

I
t was a
crazy, pivotal,
life-changing
kind of day.

By the time they got to the hospital, her father was out of critical condition, and Dr. B’s prognosis was positive.
If.
If
her father changed his habits, like maybe his earlier tears indicated he would.

And when Jana approached her father’s bedside, Antonio’s hand gripped tightly in hers, the smile her father gave made Jana think that somehow he’d remembered their last minutes together.

“Daddy, this is Antonio. Antonio José Ruiz, my future husband.” A flood of warm excitement rushed through her veins as she’d said it.

Her father’s hand moved slowly toward the edge of the bed. The man was actually extending his hand to Antonio, and Antonio took it.

“Sir.” He bowed like he had that day in his Tae Kwon Do class, stepping off the mat to come and see her. “Your daughter is everything to me. I’m honored and blessed that she’s accepted my proposal. And she’ll never want for anything, sir, especially”—he looked into Jana’s eyes—“not for love.”

Her father’s eyes were damp, but they shed no tears. He only pointed and made writing motions with his hand. She handed her dad a pen from her purse and held a pad out for him. He wheezed and groaned a bit as he wrote, then he nodded his head slightly toward Antonio when he was done.

Antonio took the note and tried with squinted eyes to make out the message. Jana smiled, came around to his side to help decipher the scribble.

She cleared her throat, inhaled deeply, then spoke in a light hush. “It reads, ‘
Ja-Na
Sun, my good, beautiful child. Make her happy.’”

*

She buried her face in Antonio’s chest, gasping out tears from the deepest springs of her soul. If it weren’t for Antonio, she felt like she’d float off like ashes on the wind, her father’s wistful words struck her so deep.

And as Antonio held her tight, anchoring her to him, he responded to her father’s note. “I will, sir. I promise you I will make her the happiest woman in the world.”

And of that, she knew. Without a shadow of a doubt.

*

The bitter sweetness of the landmark in time would be branded in her memory always. And this, she knew, would be the last time she’d ever see her father. She was going to start her new life with Antonio. This was a perfect end, now on to her new and wondrous beginning.

CHAPTER 59

H
e caught her
smile as she pulled onto the highway. Then she reached for his hand.

“You’re good, princess, but you’re not
one-hand
-
on-the
-
wheel-good
just yet.” He laughed, returning her hand at the proper two o’clock position, then sliding his hand onto her thigh to fulfill the connection he knew they both craved.

He loved her driving him to his, or rather, their place. At least, it was their place for another two weeks. Then their home would be a spot he’d picked before he’d left Vallarta three years ago…right on the beach.

“Oh, I gave your mother my cell number. You know, since yours is in pieces in the hospital parking lot.”

“God, yes. Thank you for thinking of that. Wow…doesn’t that seem like a year ago, but it was less than
twenty-four
hours ago? Jesus. In a day…all that’s happened….”

No dwelling in his car, not on this high they were riding. “Your mom cracked me up when you told her we were getting married. I thought she was gonna jump into my arms!”

“I know, right? From my birth, she’d been waiting for me to get engaged.”

“But no ring. You know she looked for it on your hand. Like it wasn’t all real without a ring.”

“Please. Like I give a shit about what she thinks?” Jana smiled and looked in his direction. The car floated left, and she jerked the wheel to correct, but with no traffic on the road that late at night––or early in the morning––he just winked at her. He watched her relax back into control of the wheel. “She doesn’t know how big a diamond you
could
buy me if I wanted it. In just a few hours from now… But seriously babe, I don’t want a diamond. I don’t need one. You know I just want—”

“You will have a ring on that finger so everyone knows you’re taken,” he said with mock firmness. Because he knew a ring meant nothing, at least, it hadn’t with Michelle.

But for the symbolism of the love he and Jana shared, he had the perfect token, one worthy of his love, his warrior princess. It was ready and waiting in Vallarta. His mother’s band. Yesinia Ruiz had left it for him. She’d said it was a representation of all the strength and love from above that could be bestowed on two united souls. A perfect description of him and Jana. Such
soul-lifting
,
stupid-love
perfection.

“I’ve got you covered, though. A simple band. Because you won’t want to get the soft white beach sand into a diamond setting.”

“Sounds like heaven, living on the beach.”

“And anyway, a big honking diamond gets in the way all the time, and it could scratch the babies.
Our
babies.” He smiled at her with raised eyebrows, squeezing her leg, unable to get enough of her heat, her glow.

“God, Antonio.
Babies
,” she said and sighed with obvious delight, not despair this time. No more despair for his Jana. “The beach and
our
babies…”

She started crying then, almost uncontrollably.

“No, no, no. You can’t cry and drive, princess. You’re fine. Just…you wanna pull over?”

“I’m fine,” she gasped, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “No, I’m okay, really.” Her sobbing turned into laughter from the depths of her soul. It was an
all-freeing
kind of laughter.

He shook his head and started to laugh too, but he kept his eye on the road for her, and the hand he’d had on her leg was now on the wheel, just in case.

CHAPTER 60

T
he next morning
Antonio had to leave Jana in bed, though he hated to do it. God, he could’ve watched her sleep forever.

But he had to get ready to meet the attorney. The text message from Jake had said ten sharp.

He read the paper over coffee. When he turned the page, a large image of Johnnie Demonte being shoved into a squad car took up half of page two. The Wet Spot sign could be seen in the background. The headline read: TWO INJURED IN SHOOTING, CLUB CLOSED INDEFINITELY. Then a
sub-article
below it showed an image of stacks of clear plastic pouches of cocaine in what seemed to be a basement. It was a real win for the mayor’s war on drugs. Johnnie Demonte was being held for drug trafficking, not to mention two counts of criminal assault charges for Brandon and Erin, who were both so far still alive. But the article stated that things would go downhill fast if either of them died.

Antonio had no trouble picturing that asshole rotting in prison. But what mattered most was that Jana was safe, the prick’s bail had been set at close to five hundred thousand dollars, cash or bond—Jake wouldn’t drop a dime for his disappointing offspring, Antonio was sure.

Antonio looked down to finish the article as he took another sip of his coffee. Then he nearly spat it out. A dancer who’d been taken into custody, only eighteen years old, had told the police that the accused had forced her to use narcotics even though she’d told him she was pregnant. If that was the case, fines doubled. Charges worsened. Antonio shook his head while chills crawled up his arms. This shit was too much.

His eyes shot to the top half of the page, the second column. Defense attorney, Brian Hart, stated on behalf of his client that regarding the shooting, his client was acting in
self-defense
. A perpetrator had entered the club, and his client had missed his target and accidentally hit the young female bartender and the male bouncer. And as for the loads of cocaine or the use on premises, Johnnie Demonte apparently “knew nothing of it.”

Jesus Christ. This was too intense for comfort.

“Morning.” Jana’s melodious voice took his head out of the paper. She was showered and ready, glowing and smelling like his shampoo and some floral scent that reminded him of his family’s vibrant rose garden back home. “When do we leave for your meeting?”

They were engaged now, and of course, she’d want to be a part of this huge happening. She leaned over to kiss him, her soft slender fingers on his neck, sending new chills of her excitement down his back.

“Princess, I think I better go on my own. A lot of boring papers to sign then running to the bank…”

“Babe, those are the best parts, the boring paperwork. And I wanna see your face when you get the check in your hand. All your hard work is culminating today. I want to witness your smile.”

God, he loved her.

But after reading the article, which he hid now by folding the paper back up, he couldn’t risk her being there. It would make him too nervous, and today of all days, he needed to retain his
placid-like
calm.

*

He set her up at his laptop.

“My screen password is ‘
1m-i
-
l-l
-
i-0
-n.’” He winked. “Surf, email, do whatever. I’ll be back before you know it.” He kissed her forehead and walked out. She was irritated, but she wouldn’t argue. She trusted his instinct, she trusted him.

She watched out the window as he got into the car. He was wearing a crisp white shirt and slacks and looking so sleek, and God, so
hers
. She couldn’t wait until he got back home to her
.

Then a movement on his computer screen brought her eyes back to present. It had switched to screensaver mode.
$1,000,000.00
floated across the monitor followed by another and another, each figure a different vibrant color. She laughed out loud and shook her head. His childhood dream was becoming a reality today. She pushed down the disappointment rising in her throat that she wouldn’t get to see it in person, but they’d celebrate later, no doubt.

Then she let her mind drift into a daydream. The freedom they’d have in the paradise he’d drawn for her of Puerto Vallarta! She’d be starting a family there…with him. She felt tears coming again but held them back, not wanting to damage the laptop. She decided to wiggle the mouse at her fingertips, getting busy on her Internet search.

She needed a new phone provided by a US company that was on the same cell network as that of Puerto Vallarta because she was moving there. Holy shit! She was actually moving there. She felt as light as a cloud.

The new phone search led her to beachfront properties in Vallarta, and then hospitals she might apply to, and then schools for her future kids. She was still in a dream state and didn’t want to wake from it. Vallarta was stunning. Antonio was stunning. Life would be stunning.

*

He looked at the number on the screen: Jake Demonte.

“Give me a second, boys,” he said to his dispatch operator and two senior drivers.

Antonio walked away as he hit ‘accept.’ “Hey there, Jake.”

“Tone, listen…Got another small matter. It’s nothing big. You see the paper today?”

“No, Jake,” he lied. “Got in late from the hospital. Just got to the garage so I wouldn’t be late for your lawyer.”

“My lawyer, yeah…we should talk. Now. I’ll come there. See you in five.” And he hung up.

God, please. Don’t let there be anything more. Not another favor. Not a
tag-on
. Nothing to do with Johnnie, for Christ’s sakes. No. Just…goddamn no.

*

“Tone, it’s my damn
ex-wife
,” Jake Demonte said as his wannabe goon checked a different office for bugs. The
six-foot
-something man came out with his thumbs up, and so they went inside to Antonio’s bookkeeper’s office since she was out sick. “She’s freaking out at me about Johnnie. Even though the little prick deserves the drug sentence, he ain’t no premeditated nothin’, even if one or both of ’em die. You and I both know he ain’t even that smart. So, I may need ya to stick around for a few months or so for the kid’s trial. As a witness. Since you was there.”

Since I was there…Jesus.
Sweat trickled down his back. He sat forward, unstuck his shirt from his skin, and threw back his bottle of water. Since he was there?
Fuck!

Jake took a legal pad from the corner of the desk and grabbed a pencil. “You told me you saw a strange erratic guy goin’ into the club before you heard the shots, right?” He then scribbled something on the top sheet of the pad and slid it across to Antonio.
Say “right.” Or I find sweet Jana and I blow her away. Say “right” and you still get the sale and the kickback. Your number, remember?

Heart plummeting, blood draining, Antonio coughed in shock, then swallowed, but his mouth was too dry. Dry as dusty desert bones.

Not in a million years would he have thought Jake would go there. A favor is one thing, but a threat against Jana? Another fucking threat against
his
Jana.

“Right, Jake. Yeah. The guy had his hands in his jacket pockets when he went in, and being summer, I couldn’t help but notice. Too suspicious, you know? But by the time I got out of the car, shots were fired. And with the shock of it all, when the police came, I’d forgotten about the guy. I only cared about getting in and making sure everyone was all right.”

“Did you make out his face? Could you sketch it for the cops?”

“Yeah, sure, Jake.”

“Great. I’ve arranged for a good friend of mine on the force to come by now and do just that. Should be here any minute.”

Antonio nodded. He wanted to write a note back to Jake Demonte on the pad before they got up. Something like, shove your filthy fucking money up your fat ass, along with your insane son’s pistol, and be sure to fire. That would’ve felt so goddamn good, so goddamn right.

But he didn’t. It wasn’t the time. As he put it out of his mind, Jake ripped the page out and took it upon himself to insert it into the shredder under the desk.

“Oh and, Tone, I’m gonna need your girlfriend, Jana, to repeat what she saw in the dressing room. Pregnant and forced to snort that shit, my ass! That needs to be cleared up fast or I’ll lose another half a mil into this bullshit. So bring her down here so my friend can take both your revised statements.”

Antonio clenched his teeth and hid a sigh. “Yeah, okay.”

Jake stood there staring. Waiting. “Now, son. Call her
now
.”

Antonio bit down hard on his bottom lip. This fucker.

He took out his cell, and remembering Jana had no phone of her own, he’d have to call his house line and hope she’d pick up.

Six rings with Jake glaring at him made sweat trickle from his brow.

“Hello?”

“Hey, it’s me. The police need to hear what you saw in the dressing room the other night. The girls and the drugs…I’m going to send a limo for you now.”

“Babe, what’s going on?”

Then Jake grabbed the phone from Antonio’s hand, which was within millimeters of jabbing the man in the jugular.
Control
yourself.

“Hey, doll, it’s Uncle Jake. You gotta give your revised statement down here at the depot. We’ll see ya here in a few.” He handed Antonio back his phone.

“Hey. Be calm. I’m sending—”

“Be calm!” Jana shouted, totally panicked. “What the fuck is going on right now? Be goddamn calm? Is this for real?”

“Yes, it’s real. But I’m okay. And you’re okay. Just be calm. I’m sending Chris Jones to get you now. Check his business card before you get in.” And he hung up the call and radioed Chris, his most trusted driver.

Fuck he hated how scared she sounded. So close, they were so goddamn close to being free.

*

Jake’s dirty cops hadn’t shown yet, but the limo pulled up with Jana in the front seat. She got out in a huff and stormed up to Antonio. She stared at him, completely ignoring Jake Demonte, and pursed her lips, obviously waiting for an explanation.

“Terrific then,” Jake said, ignoring her right back. “Tone, my attorney got held up anyway, so it’ll be perfect timing. The detectives will do their thing once they damn get here, then once they leave, my attorney will come and close the deal,” he summarized so damn succinctly. “Okay, so…I’ll keep you posted on the trial date. You’ll both be called to testify. I got the top defense attorney in the whole
Tri-state
, so Johnnie’s gotta good shot.”

Then Jake held out his hand. Hiding his disgust, Antonio gripped it firmly, as firmly as the fury in his chest gripped his goddamn heart.

*

Jana looked at Antonio’s face in utter disbelief. What the hell had he done?

She’d seen the news online.
Eighteen-year
-old dancer, in custody? Laynie was the only
eighteen-year
-old dancer the club had right now. Pregnant?

And had Antonio just agreed to help Jake Demonte? Had she been
strong-armed
into throwing Laynie under the bus? An
eighteen-year
-old girl? An abused child?

And did her fiancé, her future husband agree to help get that crazy asshole off? Johnnie Demonte might go free? For all that he pulled?

Didn’t that mean that the crazy son of a bitch would probably go after her and after Antonio, in retribution? A pretty boy like Johnnie in jail for a day let alone a week would give the guy plenty to be angry about beyond the current state of things…wouldn’t he try to kill them?

“Antonio…please, God. What is happening?”

He shook his head at her but kept silent. He nodded toward the parking lot, at the Town Car that Jake was in, waiting there.

“Antonio.” She said his name as a quiet directive.

“Jana,” he whispered, “do you trust me?”

Did she? Her life, now their lives, were being derailed because he got into bed with a dirty thug for goddamn money. So did she trust him?

She looked up at him, shaming and damning him with a slow shake of her head. They’d been so close to freedom. She inhaled hard and fast, lifted her hand, and slapped him hard across the face. “I’m not doin’ this. Keep your fucking sewer money. I will not—”

“You will. There is no choice here, Jana.”

How dare he? She glared, nostrils flaring, then she lifted her other hand to slap him again, but he caught it midair. Then he gently released her wrist as his eyes dug deep into hers, a dark gravity in them. “I. Need you. To trust me,” he said in a dead calm tone.

But she didn’t trust him or need to do a damn thing he said. She turned and walked to hail a cab from the busy avenue. One stopped in a matter of moments. She got in and shut the door.

In a flash, she saw Antonio, one hand on the car hood the other motioning to the driver to stay put.

He said nothing as he opened the back door to usher her out, then bent down and whispered in the sweet and calm tenor she was used to, “Princess, five minutes more.” Then he stood up and raged at her. “Get the hell out of the car! Now!”

Confused, she slid out, fuming, degraded, terrified. Shattered.

She wasn’t sure what was happening, but she was certain of one thing: There was no need to replace one unbearable burden for another. When Jake’s dirty cops came, she would not be cooperating. And after the phony police leave, she’d be gone too, because Antonio Ruiz wasn’t the goddamn man she thought he was.

*

Jake was still in his lot, watching, making certain they’d cooperate.

Jana was too, but she looked awfully sick.

God, where were they?

And as Jana vomited on the pavement, he saw the flashing lights of not one of Jake’s friendly
in-his
-pocket cops, but
twenty-five
US Marshals led by Antonio’s student, fifth degree
black-belt
Detective Sean Alexander.

Antonio came behind Jana, grabbed her shoulders, and quickly pulled her into the garage, and proceeded to shut all the bay doors with a push of a button on the wall. Jake Demonte was surrounded, and the evidence had all been picked up by the hidden cameras in Antonio’s offices.