An Offer You Can't Refuse, Sal Bianchi [free ebook reader .TXT] 📗

waiting to see if someone would suddenly come rushing toward me. I wasn’t that high above the water, so in the worst-case scenario, I could just jump overboard to avoid being caught.

I let out a breath of relief when nothing happened, and then quickly rushed inside the room. I had hoped to find a laptop or something that I could snoop through to get information on Ian, but to my disappointment, the small room was mostly bare aside from some fishing equipment.

I left the room and pulled my phone out of my pocket to check the time. There were only a few minutes left until eight. I needed to hurry.

I tried the next door, and to my shock and delight, it swung open easily.

“I should have tried this one first,” I grumbled to myself. The other room hadn’t had anything significant in it, so I’d risked getting caught for no reason. This room looked equally bare aside from a small bed shoved to one corner. There was also a mini-fridge tucked against one wall filled with beer and wine, and a small dresser at the end of the bed.

As I quickly opened the dresser to check for anything important, I wondered if I had any more time to search anywhere else before I had to go find Jase and Ian. My eyes widened with shock as I looked at what was inside the dresser. Several thick packages, tightly wrapped in tape, were nestled snugly into the dresser.

I snatched my phone out of my pocket and snapped several photos before taking a switchblade from my pocket and tearing into one of the packages. A finely milled, stark white powder began to pour out. I took several more photos before standing back up.

So, Ian was involved in drug trafficking. By the looks of it, he had a pretty intense operation going on. To be honest, that was completely unrelated to our case, but it would make for some good blackmail material in case Ian decided he didn’t want to cooperate with us.

I left the room and closed the door behind me before texting the photos to Jase with a message to meet me back on the main floor so that we could find Ian.

His reply came just a few seconds later.

I already found him. He’s at the stern.

Perfect. I tucked my phone back into my pocket and walked toward the rear of the ship. Sure enough, I could see a small group of men gathered at the stern of the yacht. I looked around for Jase. If he knew that Ian was here, he must be close by as well.

“Over here,” I heard a voice call. I looked down over the railing and found Jase on the lower deck looking up at me. There were more people walking around on the decks now, so he didn’t look out of place standing there.

“One second,” I called as I climbed over the railing and jumped down to the lower level.

“Oh my gosh,” one of the random girls standing near Jase gasped as I landed on the lower deck.

“Sorry.” I smiled apologetically. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“All right, flirt later,” Jase sighed. “We have a suspect to talk to, remember. Where did you find all that cocaine?”

“In one of the rooms upstairs,” I replied quietly. “I figure that, worst-case scenario, we can bring him in on drug charges as an excuse to question him.”

“Fine.” Jase nodded. “Let’s go talk to him.”

The deck was noisier now that people were filtering out of the main party room, and it was getting harder to hear over the chatter of the crowd. I quickly analyzed the scene in front of us as we approached Ian. There was a glass bottle in his hand, and I could tell by his unsteady gait and the flush on his face that he was already drunk. There were four other men in the group, all in various states of inebriation. Five versus two weren’t great odds should things take a violent turn, but Jase and I had the advantage of sobriety.

Still, there was always the possibility that one or more of them might be armed. Once again, I found myself mentally calculating the distance between the deck and the surface of the water below, in case we had to make a hasty escape.

“Ian Brooks?” Jase called as we stepped up to the group.

“Yeah?” Ian turned to look at Jase. The other men barely reacted and carried on their raucous conversation.

“I’m Agent Park with the SDCT,” Jase replied seriously. “We need to speak to you about Josie Keller.”

Ian, who had been staring at us with a lazy, alcohol-fueled grin, quickly went white. A few of the men beside him also fell silent as they overheard what Jase said.

“W-what?” Ian stuttered. “How did you get in here?”

“Not important,” I interjected as I took a step forward. Ian was a few inches shorter than me, and he immediately stumbled back, the alcohol in his system nearly causing him to fall over entirely. “I’m more interested in hearing about why you seem to be fine partying just two months after your pregnant girlfriend was murdered.”

“Whoa,” one of the other men slurred as he tried to step between Ian and me. “Hey man, that’s a messed up thing to say. I think you’ve got the wrong guy here.”

“No, I don’t think I do,” I retorted as I shoved the man away before turning to look back at Ian. “Your friends don’t know? Her pictures were all over your social media, so I’m sure they must know who she is.”

“Hey, why don’t we go talk somewhere else?” Ian smiled nervously. He glanced back at his friends as he spoke. Obviously, he didn’t want us to talk where they would overhear.

“Why?” I snapped. “What are you so worried about your friends hearing?”

Ian tried to brush his way past me, but I shoved him back against the railing of the stern. He was breathing heavily, and his eyes were bloodshot.

“What