Free Tombstone by Candace Smith

They’re getting ready to open a fifth division overseas.   We design computer chips and software, and we can make the chips cheaper in Asia.   Eventually, I think I’ll be going there, and maybe head it up some day.”
    Annika managed to ooh and aah and stroke his ego, and before he realized it, she had him obligated to dinner.   Within two nights of her doing all-the-work-sex, while ensuring him he was a stud, ‘business economics’ lay unopened in his suitcase and Stanley was having the time of his life.
    As added insurance, Annika introduced the kid to ecstasy after convincing him how it added to the whole sexual performance.   Actually, she needed some to keep from screaming, and to get Stanley to release his trained grip on his wallet.   The kid was loaded, and he carried a no limit unguarded credit card.   When he was soaring on drugs, he had bragged about it and told her it was because he had never caused his father a problem.   Annika believed it.   Stanley Bentley was as boring as his name, until she began getting him high.   Then, the skinny man with the already receding hairline, pegs for legs, and shot glasses for eyewear, was absolutely hysterical.
    Unfortunately, after Annika passed out and Stanley was still buzzing, he decided that if a little ecstasy made him feel good, a lot would make him feel great.   It did not work out that way, and Annika realized her foot was rubbing along a very cool, stiff, thin leg.   When she sat up and stared into his fixed surprised eyes, at first she was pissed off.   “Stanley, you shit-head.”
    She jumped out of bed and methodically stripped her presence out of the room, after lifting three hundred dollars and a credit card from his wallet.   Annika also pulled the thick gold ring off his finger… and that had been her mistake.
    She wore it on a chain around her neck, hidden under her blouse until she could decide the best way to pawn it.   Just the feel of the heavy nugget between her boobs was delicious… and the special tracking chip embedded inside mapped out the location of her swaying orbs.
    Duke figured the two girls’ game quickly and reported back to his boss.   Jonathan Bentley called his good friend Don Strickland, who in turn gave him Tombstone’s number.   “Place an ad,” Tombstone suggested.
    “An ad?”
    “Where they’ll see it.   List a dollar amount for the reward.   The greedy bitches will call with some story about finding it.   Invite her and her friend on an all expenses paid trip to return it.”   Tombstone detailed the rest of the plan.
    Duke opened the paper to the half page reward, turning it out so the enlarged picture of the ring faced the girls.   They were sitting at the table next to his, and he thought he would have to hit Annika over the head with the damn newspaper to get her to shut up and notice it.   Finally.
    “Excuse me?   Can I see your paper when you’re finished with it?”   Annika gave her coyest smile, but the man could see the hungry greed in her eyes.
    “Sure, I’m done with it.”   He rolled it up and handed it to her, and pretended to watch people walking by while he sipped his coffee.
    “We can say we found it on the beach or something,” the brunette suggested.
    “I don’t know.   It was pretty hard to get off him, so I don’t know if he could have just lost it.   Suppose this is some kind of trap?”   Annika slid the ring along the chain in an absentminded stroke.   Damn, she really wanted the reward money.   There was no way she could get that much pawning it.
    “It’s been three weeks, and no one has been searching the clubs or anything,” Sandy pointed out.   “And the newspaper just had some stupid story about him having a stroke while he was on vacation.”
    “We know that was a cover-up, Sandy.”   Annika’s brows furrowed.   The reward was luring her.   “Maybe the ring wasn’t that tight.   He did look like he’d swelled up a little.”   Man, a