Page 56 of Romancing the Rumrunner
“Will they find us here?” Maude asked.
“I don’t think so,” Jessie said. “The only way into this tunnel is through the cellar in the shop. And I don’t think they were watching the shop.”
She and Joe exchanged a look. Jessie had no idea whether or not the cellar tunnel was safe. Tony knew where it was. He could easily lead the Feds down. Just like he’d led them to her speakeasy tonight.
A lump formed in her throat, but she tried to swallow past it, trying to ignore the pain lancing through her heart at his betrayal.
“I’m going to check out the cellar. If it’s clear, we can go up the back stairs into my apartment and wait until morning. They can’t arrest us for being in my own home.”
Maude nodded and Jessie crept to the foot of the stairs, listening carefully. She didn’t hear anything so she quietly ascended the stairs and slowly pushed open the trapdoor, just wide enough so she could see out.
The cellar was dark and deserted. “Come on,” she whispered to her friends.
They followed her through the cellar to the back staircase, and up into her apartment. Jessie immediately went to the window. In the distance she could see flashing red lights, heard the distant wail of the sirens. But the majority of them weren’t in the direction of Barker Street. They were over near the Dalton Street area. Where all her patrons had been led.
Jessie put her hand over her mouth, pain rolling through her in waves at the magnitude of his betrayal. He hadn’t just taken her down. He’d taken down everyone in her club. She refused to cry in front of Maude and Joe. But then she looked at the street below her window and had to shove her fist in her mouth to keep from crying out, in pain or fury, she wasn’t sure. She turned her back, shutting out the sight of a lone man, his hands shoved in his pockets, standing across the street watching her window.
She wanted to rush down there, rail at him, hit him, ask him if he’d done this. Ask him why.
Instead, she leaned against the wall, slid to the floor, and let the tears come.
Chapter Eighteen
Jessie didn’t want to look up when the door opened. She knew who it was. “We’re closed,” she said, keeping her back to him. Why hadn’t she locked the door?
“Jessie,” Tony said.
She didn’t answer him. She didn’t need to. Instead, she hefted the tray of meat from under the counter and took it into the back. He followed.
Jessie stopped at the large refrigerator and Tony opened the door before she could do it herself. She paused long enough to glare at him before marching past him into the icebox. She dropped the tray down on a rack and pushed past him on her way out.
“I’ve got nothing to say to you.”
He grabbed her arm, forcing her to turn and look at him. “I did it for your own good.”
“You have got to be kidding me. My own good? Don’t pretend you did what you did for anyone other than yourself.”
“You were getting in too deep and you know it! It was bad enough when it was just the Feds, but if Willie was sending one of his top guys in here, then things were about to go really wrong, fast.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about! Mario came in here because he likes to torture me. I had Willie handled. Another month and he would have been out of my hair.”
“You had Willie handled?” he shouted. “No onehandlesWillie. You were in over your head and you know it! Jameson shutting you down was the best way to get you out of this mess without you having to pick sides. You can get out of the game without Willie thinking you hooked up with the Feds, and Jameson gets his arrests and will have no further reason to harass you. It was the best way!”
Jessie tried to brush him off but Tony wouldn’t let her go. She sucked in several deep breaths, trying to control her rising panic. Part of her wanted nothing more than to throw herself in his arms and let him make everything all right. The other part just wanted to deck him.
“You’re a fool if you believe that. Do you really think Willie will stop sniffing around because my club got raided? Do you think Jameson is just going to let me go? You didn’t help me, you just put the last nail in my coffin!”
Her heart pounded so hard against her ribcage it hurt and she couldn’t blink back the tears that clouded her vision.
“Jessie,” Tony said, pulling her into his arms. “Baby, that’s not true. I know it doesn’t seem like it right now, but this is for the best, I promise you. I can help you.”
She shook her head, letting him hold her for half a second before pushing out of his embrace. “Help me?” She laughed, though it sounded more like a sob. She knew she was on the verge of hysteria and tried desperately to rein herself in. “You can’t help me, Tony. You’ve only made things worse.”
“Jessie…”
“Why don’t you go back to your Fed buddies? Or are they waiting outside? Did you just come in here to lead me out to them? Offer me up on a silver platter so you could get your precious career back?”
Tony’s face paled, his jaw clenched. “They aren’t my friends.”
