Black Jack (Advantage Play #5) - Kelsie Rae Page 0,8

before she rubs the corner of her mouth with her thumb and cleans up a bit of smudged lipstick from her otherwise perfect complexion.

“You’re going to be fun. I can tell.” She wiggles her fingers at me in a girly wave that says goodbye, and it makes a giant-ass rock on her left-hand glint from the lightbulbs in the ceiling. When she realizes what I’m staring at, her amusement spreads from a smirk to a full-on grin. “Oh. And thanks for the engagement ring, Jacky Boy. I love it.”

Then she turns around and leaves, giving me a perfect view of her swaying ass as her heels click-clack against the concrete floor before Ted takes her place in my line of sight.

Great. Looks like I just bought my skanky fiancée a thirty-thousand-dollar ring. My mouth quirks up on one side before the near smirk disappears just as quickly. Something’s wrong with me. I shouldn’t be amused by that train wreck of a woman, but I’m almost disappointed she’s already gone.

“You uh, you got a little something….” Ted motions to my mouth, and I wipe my hand across it to find her dark red lipstick staining my palm. She freaking marked me.

I shake my head and mutter, “Thanks.”

“She seems…nice,” he offers as I stand to my full height.

I laugh and glance over to the door she disappeared through. “Yeah. She’s…something else.”

4

Jack

With my head in my hands, and my ass on the cardboard mattress in my cell, I wait.

And wait.

And wait.

And all the while, I question my sanity because there’s a giant possibility that Bianca was full of shit when she mentioned Reed’s arrest. She seemed to be having way too much fun toying with me, and maybe this is just another game to her. Maybe she was lying just to mess with me. Maybe Reed hasn’t been arrested yet, and I’m going to rot in prison for the rest of my life for a crime I didn’t commit.

How’s that for irony?

The familiar sound of footsteps against concrete grabs my attention as they creep closer, followed by the jangling of keys.

“Hey, man,” Ted greets me.

I look up with a response on the tip of my tongue but close my mouth when I find a familiar face beside him. A familiar face that belongs to Reed’s and my superior.

Former superior.

It’s a familiar face that I’ve only seen a handful of times, but apparently, he’s decided to grace me with his presence again. The question is, why?

“Hello, Connelly,” Wallace Embry says.

“Hello, sir.”

The bars partially cover his weathered face as he inspects me. After a few seconds, he turns to Ted. “You can unlock the door.”

Fumbling with the keys, Ted does as he’s told while apologizing, “Sorry, sir.”

The hinges creak before Embry clears his throat. “I was wondering if we could have a little chat.”

“Uh, sure thing. Where…?” I look around the small cell that doesn’t exactly offer any privacy. Embry laughs and motions down the hall. “Grab your shit, then follow me.”

He starts walking while I’m left gawking at the unfamiliar situation. Turning to Ted, I ask, “Am I free to go?”

“Depends on Embry. You heard the man. Grab your shit and follow him.”

Again, I look around the bare cell and chuckle under my breath before following Embry to an office on the main floor with empty hands because I don’t have any shit to grab. Ted’s heavy footsteps follow behind mine, but the cold bite of metal doesn’t dig into my wrists, leaving me with more questions than answers.

“Take a seat,” Embry orders.

The brown wooden chair digs into my back as I sit down and wait.

And wait.

And wait some more.

So much fucking waiting.

Scratching his jaw, Embry dives right in. “Reed was arrested yesterday morning.”

I open my mouth to reply before closing it just as quickly, but the bastard can read me like a book.

Brow quirked, Embry asks, “You knew?”

“I suspected,” I answer carefully.

“Care to expand?”

“I had a hunch that Reed set me up to take the fall for his own connections with the mafia.”

“Which is why you ran.”

“Yes.”

“And we can both agree that was a stupid decision on your part?” he adds with a quirked brow.

I laugh. “Yeah. Very stupid.”

“Good. I’m going to be honest with you. Regardless of who takes the fall for this mess, it doesn’t look good for the Bureau. We had a man that went missing after being accused of having a connection to one of the most ruthless men in the United States. Then, by some miracle, the bastard