Dax was looking at me like I had five heads, and I suddenly realized everything I’d said, in the open, on a satellite phone with Jada on her unsecure cell that we were ninety-nine percent sure was tapped. We were so screwed. Screwed beyond belief.
I rewound our conversation. Nothing that could be guaranteed as a giveaway. A friend concerned about another friend being forced into a loveless marriage.
“I’ll figure something out,” I told her. “Give me a few minutes. I’ll call you back. Whatever you do, don’t leave the room.”
I hung up and all but threw myself below deck, tearing open the engine compartment and reaching for the cell phone I’d hidden. I powered it up, praying we were close enough to land for it to get a signal. I swallowed with relief when it registered my international carrier.
“You’re still at sea,” Malone answered as a greeting, a reprimand for calling him when I was still on the boat. He was watching my GPS location as well as the rest of the world.
“Someone needs to get Jada.”
“What?”
I repeated the conversation I’d just had with her.
“If we go in, it’s done. We’re over,” he said, anger and frustration clear.
“She’s over, not me.”
“She’s your friend. Unless you do something stupid, like cut off her pinky for them, they’re going to assume you’re on her side. They might even suspect you of encouraging her.”
“I did!”
“Not like this,” he said. Seconds of silence pounded away between us before he said, “There’s got to be a way to salvage it.”
I hated the thought that entered my head. Hated myself for even considering it.
The idea I had meant involving Vi even more than I’d already involved her just by looking in her direction. Just by telling her about me.
No good to the core.
“I can have Violet go pick Jada up. Ramble about a plan to go into business together on Violet’s makeup and skincare line. That could be Jada’s big plan,” I said.
“They’ll never believe it,” he said quietly.
“They think Jada is a wasted socialite who cares about fashion more than anything,” I said. “They might buy it. They don’t put a lot of stock in her intelligence.”
“If they were that sure, they wouldn’t have her marrying Matsuda.”
“Maybe. Or maybe they just want to keep everything in the fucking family.”
I was a bundle of nerves, fighting the plan in my head, sick to my stomach because it meant using Violet—my little genius who was all grown up and already knew too much.
“Can you get Violet on board without giving everything away?” he asked.
“The less she knows the better,” I said.
“Call me back when it’s a go, and I’ll have some men on standby to pull them both out if we need to.”
I hung up and dialed Violet’s number. My secure phone wasn’t one she knew, and I prayed she’d answer it. I prayed the syndicate hadn’t already tapped her phone because of her ties to me. The best thing I could do was make it as vague as possible.
“Hello?” Her voice hit me in my chest. I swallowed hard, hating what I was going to ask her to do.
“Vi, it’s me.”
“Dawson! Did you make it?”
“We’re a few minutes from port.”
