Page 51 of Off Limits (Alpha Billionaire)

“He’s rich, he’ll grab for an iPad, or a free car, or…” Ethan hesitated.

“A rare bottle of wine,” I offered. I couldn’t think of any place that was open this time of night where I could get a new iPad, but I knew where I could get a Château Lafite Rothschild Bordeaux.

“Yeah, something like that. Specifically if it’s a bragging point,” Ethan said.

“Sounds good to me. You want to make a hundred bucks tonight?”

“Can I, Mom?” he asked Sarah.

“I don’t see why not,” she said.

“Great. I need to go home and pick up some wine. I’ll be there to pick you up in twenty or thirty minutes,” I said.

“Go change. You want to look like you work for a delivery company,” Sarah was saying to her son as the call ended.

I drove too fast, breaking every speeding law there was. But it was just late enough and this place got quiet at night. There wasn’t much of a night life on the peninsula. I left the car running when I got home, dashing inside and to the wine cellar, which was more of a walk-in closet off the kitchen. I scanned the rows of racked bottles.

“Thank you, Dad!” I shouted when I found what I wanted, alphabetically sorted and then stacked in the rack by date. Igrabbed the bottle, not caring whether I shook it up or otherwise mishandled it, and ran back to the car.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” I asked a few minutes later as Ethan was sliding into the passenger seat. His hair was uncharacteristically tidy, and he wore a button up Polo and khaki slacks. I had only met the kid a few times, but he had always been in cargo shorts and a flannel shirt over a T-shirt.

“No, but it's worth a shot.”

I drove to the pizza place that delivered. Ethan got out of the car and took the bottle of wine with him.

“Should I go with you?” I asked.

“Like that wouldn’t look suspicious?” Ethan looked at me like I was an idiot, and admittedly, at that moment, I probably was.

I fidgeted as I watched him shake his shoulders and walk into the pizza place. There were too many signs on the windows for me to see what was going on. I really hoped that the kid's acting skills were up to the task. It was his job to act like a desperate delivery boy who had a big prize that had to get delivered along with a free pizza. Only, he had lost the winner’s address and needed the pizza place to call to confirm the delivery address.

So, Ethan was inside doing his best to convince the delivery place to call Ryan, tell him they were told he won some kind of prize that included a two-thousand-dollar bottle of wine and a free pizza, but they were only given his name and phone number. Once they made the call and got confirmation, Ethan would leave the bottle of wine with them.

Back in the car with me, we would wait until we saw the delivery driver take the bottle of wine—serving both as the expensivelure for Ryan to divulge his location, and as a marker for us to know which delivery was going out that we needed to follow. We would then follow, and I could confront Ryan and find out where Jessica was.

At least that was the plan.

I sat up when Ethan pushed his way out of the pizza place. He jogged back to the car and slid into the passenger seat.

“Phew, that was awesome!” He had a huge grin on his face.

“Did it work?” I asked.

“Oh, it worked. It more than worked. Turns out Colin from school works here. He knew I wasn’t some schmuck who forgot an address and totally blew a delivery job. I told him what we were trying to do, how we knew the guy was in town somewhere, but there was just no way my mom was going to call five hundred hotels and ask if he was staying there. Colin said he wished he had thought of doing something like this himself. So, yeah. He’s gonna make the delivery. He said to hang out and we can follow him.”

This plan was working.

“Did he say where, how long?”

Ethan shrugged. “About twenty minutes. He has to make the pizza.”

The next twenty minutes were the longest of the entire night. I recognized Colin as soon as he stepped out of the place. He had a pizza box balanced in one hand, and he lifted the wine bottle over his head and waved it around so we could see him.

We followed him into the pull around for the Marriott. I jumped out of the car.

“Thank you. Stay here,” I told Ethan as I handed him all of the cash in my wallet, which was probably more than I said I was going to pay him.

“Wow, thanks. But”—Ethan climbed out of the car—“I’m gonna catch a ride with Colin.”

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