Grace rolled her eyes and pushed away from the table. “It’s illegal for a reason, Senator. Now help out Simon and keep it in your pants from now on.” She pulled a card from her purse and set it in front of him. “If anything goes wrong, I expect you to call me. Besides that, I hope to never see you again.”
He took the card; she turned away and fished out her phone to look for any sign of Simon trying to contact her.
Nothing.
CHAPTER TWENTY
The moment Simon emerged from the booking area, Grace ran into his arms. He huffed at the impact of her slamming into him, but nonetheless wrapped his arms around her. For a moment, he stood still and appreciated the feel of her in his arms.
“You idiot!” she breathed as she pulled away. “I told you he’d be pissed.”
“He miscalculated.” Simon tucked his suit jacket from Friday night underneath his arm.
“How’s that?” Grace followed him as he made his way out of the station and onto the sunny sidewalk.
“Now I’m pissed.”
Grace pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m so happy your motivation is renewed, but that doesn’t help us. You have a court date! Doesn’t that worry you?”
“No,” he said. “DuFord has friends in high places. That’s how he got the charges to be pressed so fast. They can’t really have enough evidence against me to expect to win a court case.”
“You sound pretty confident for a man who just got out of jail.”
He shrugged. “It was three days. It takes more than that to scare me.” He’d had more time than normal to think over the weekend. It wasn’t his normal crowd, but he was in the minimum security section of the jail, so it hadn’t been all that intimidating. He was still a big guy and commanded a bit of respect.
She raised a brow. “I shudder to think what would be enough to shake the mighty Simon West.”
He smiled over at her. “I’m looking right at one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen.” She scoffed and his smile widened. She did scare the hell out of him, but in a good way. But thinking about the DuFord and Grace situation had taken up most of his thoughts. How protective she’d been of him as he’d been pushed into the police car. How pissed he was at DuFord for putting any of them at risk.
“How did you know when I was getting out?” He leaned against the rail. He could hail a cab, but he was too excited to be outside and breathing in the fresh air.
“Robert Bar told me when your court appearance was scheduled for. I’ve been here for three hours.”
He frowned. “When the hell did you talk to Robert Bar?”
She sighed and crossed her arms. “A lot’s happened while you were in there, you know. Mark came up to me after you were arrested.”
Simon straightened, fists clenched. “What did he say to you? Are you okay?”
She raised a brow. “I’m fine. But he’s got it out for you. For us, I suppose. He was just gloating over his victory. But enough about him winning. Let’s talk about the plan.”
“The plan?”
She grinned up at him. “Please. You’ve been locked away for the entire weekend. I know you thought of something.”
“I thought that you’d be better off far away from me.”
She crossed her arms and tilted her head. “Bullshit. That’s what you thought Friday. But I’m sure you’ve had time to consider the error of your ways.”
He frowned. Every time he convinced himself she’d be safer away from him, he was struck with the utter emptiness of facing a future without her. But his inconvenient emotions didn’t change the facts. “No. As normal, I was right to begin with. DuFord won’t leave you alone if you’re hanging around me.”
“That’s why we’re going to get him. You say the word and we’ll get to work making sure the son of a bitch ends up behind bars.”
He slipped his jacket on and looked for any cabs headed down the street. This conversation needed to end.
Grace slid in front of him. “Come on,” she said. “Look me in the eye and say you don’t have a plan.”
He clenched his jaw as he met her gaze. “I might have a few thoughts.”
“I knew it! Tell me everything.”
He sighed. “Why won’t you let this drop?”
She bit her bottom lip and looked to the ground. “We started this together. Let’s finish it.”
“You didn’t start anything.” He placed a hand on her arm. “I dragged you into this mess. You were in a tight spot and I took advantage. You don’t owe me anything.”
“Damn it, Simon.” Serious blue eyes met his. “I like you. Is that so hard to believe? I don’t want to see you in jail and I don’t want to see that fucking grin on Mark’s face ever again. Now why can’t we be together while destroying him? Why does he have to win anything else? Now stop making me talk about my feelings and tell me your damn plan.”
Simon grabbed her face in her hands and brought his lips to hers. Somehow she always brought him back to earth. How could he ever think he could break up with Grace? She was absolutely right. DuFord needed to lose, and she was ready and willing to take him on.
He pulled away from the kiss and stared down at Grace. “We go at him from a different angle.”
Grace blinked a few times. “Huh?”
“DuFord. I’ve been trying to bring him to justice and get him in prison for his crimes. But he’s not scared of that. He has the connections, power, and smarts to get out of legal trouble.”
“So what do we do?” she asked.
“We take away his power.”
“His money…” breathed Grace. “You’re going to rob him?”
“I talked to my finance guy this weekend. DuFord made a shady deposit into an account he set up under my name and that’s what landed me in trouble.”
Her eyes widened. “Can you prove it wasn’t you?”
“Probably.” He waved his hand. “My lawyers are working on it. But he uses money to control people. He surrounds himself with people willing to take a bribe or look the other direction if they’re getting something out of it. No one in his network is really loyal to him. All we need is one of those pieces on our side.”
He saw the light in her eyes as she realized where he was going. “Karina.”
“We both saw her at DuFord’s party. She was miserable and could barely stand Daton. If she can get us access into the bank’s files, maybe move a few things around, that’s all we need.”
Grace leaned away, but didn’t break free of Simon’s arms around her waist. “What if she gets caught?”
“As long as Daton is her immediate supervisor, she’s in trouble. All we have to do is get her to do us a favor. I can guarantee her a better job with one of my clients, but she’s the key.”
Grace took a deep breath as a smile formed across her face. “Okay. So let’s rob the con man.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Grace answered the call as soon as she saw it was Simon on the caller ID. “Did everything go okay?”