Club Princess - Nicole James Page 0,18
pissed. I’m sure I’m in for it when I get back.”
“Probably.” I sit in the chair, pick up the remote, and flip on the TV. Lola takes the loveseat. I stop on a news channel. A reporter is standing in front of a bank talking about a robbery that occurred this afternoon in Marrero. I frown, because the front of the building looks familiar.
“Oh my God,” Lola whispers so softly I barely hear it.
I glance over and her face is white as a sheet. “Wait, is that the bank you were in today?”
“Oh, bro… what did you do?” she mumbles under her breath, then pulls out her phone and taps out a text.
It dings with a reply.
“Oh my God,” she blurts.
I grab the phone out of her hand and read the texts.
Please tell me that wasn’t you, Trez.
Check your account, Lola. I told you I’d give it all back.
“What the fuck’s going on, babe?”
“Nothing.” She snatches the phone and hurriedly pulls something up on it. I can only imagine she’s doing what he told her to do.
Her eyes get big and I grab her phone again.
She makes a grab, but I stand and hold her off while I look at what she has pulled up. It’s a bank account with a pending deposit of twelve thousand dollars. I cock a brow at her. “What the fuck is going on, Lola?”
“Give me my phone, and I’ll tell you.”
I hand it over. “Spill.”
She picks up her glass and downs the contents. “It’s a long story.”
“Start at the beginning.”
“I was saving up for a car, my dream car, a GTO. Darko, he’s the club VP…”
“I know who he is, babe.”
“Okay. Well, he had one. I had the deal all worked out. I went to the bank to get the down payment I’d saved up, but the money was gone. I found out my brother had forged a check and taken it all.”
“You’re shittin’ me?”
“Nope. That’s why I came down here. Amy spotted him in the Quarter. I was hoping I’d get to him before he blew it all.”
“But you didn’t.”
She shakes her head. “That guy in the suit? Mason Lockwood?”
“Yeah? How does he figure into all this?”
“Apparently Trez met him at Harrah’s where he went to try to make a killing at poker using my money for his stakes. He ended up getting invited to Lockwood’s place for a private game. The guy took him for everything he had.”
“Christ.”
“Yeah, so my brother decided he’d swipe something of value from him.”
“What’d he take?”
“Some expensive Jade figurine.”
“And I take it that’s why Lockwood showed up at that two-bit motel. That’s where your brother was staying, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Does Trez still have the figurine?”
She shakes her head. “He pawned it. We tried to get it back, but they claimed it was gone. I think the owners must have realized its value.”
“Wonder what that is.”
“Twenty thousand. Lockwood told me.”
“Wow.” I jerk my chin to the TV. “And the bank robbery… that was Trez?”
“Yes.”
“And he put the money in your account.”
She nods.
“You realize, if he gets caught, that money transfer implicates you.”
“Oh my God.” She drops her head in her hands. Apparently, she hasn’t thought that far ahead. “Lola?”
She looks up at me. “I’m so screwed.”
“Tell me the truth. Did you have any part in this?”
“No, I swear. I just came down to get my money back. I don’t want anything to do with any of this.”
I pace, wondering if there’s any way the cops are going to tie me to this as well. I was parked kitty corner from the bank this afternoon at the same time Trez’s truck would have been on security camera. If one of them is aimed in a way that takes in the intersection, and I’m betting one is, then they might think I’m involved. They might have even gotten a shot of my license plate.
I think back to that wild chase out of the lot and down the street. That’s going to draw suspicion, but I remember something else, too. Trez’s pickup had his plate obscured with a paper used-car lot tag tapped over it. I’m guessing he must have snagged it somewhere.
Which means he was planning this heist when he drove Lola to the bank earlier in the day. I whirl on her. “Did you know what he was planning? Did he send you in there to case the place?”
“I had no clue. He told me to go in and see if they’d break a hundred dollar bill.”
“Seriously? And you bought