Free Taking Jana (Paradise South #2) by Rissa Brahm Page B

wanted to get on the wrong side of.
    And now, being in such close proximity to Jake’s smallest club, The Wet Spot in industrial Newark, Antonio, ever-wary and a skeptic at heart, waited for Jake to call in favors as compensation. The credit for pulling his kid out of a car’s path had to expire sometime, right? He’d worry and plan what he’d say. “Sorry, man, my trunk’s too small for a dead body today.” And he’d laughed it off each time.
    Because Jake never did call for any other reason but to throw him Jake’s own personal business when he had it. And Jake always paid him more than fairly. Antonio was very rarely surprised by people, but the strip club mogul had turned out to be an upstanding guy, one who happened to be in a super shady business.
    And so now, after the sufficiently long hiatus on favor requests, he’d turn to Jake once again to help replace the money stream that was Jocelyn Carlson.
    He took a deep breath then pressed Jake’s personal cell number, really the only way to reach the man. It rang several times before the voicemail greeting came on, Jake’s thick Jersey accent with the always-gruff tone: “Leave a message for Jake Demonte. Beep.” The “ Beep ” was spoken. The message spelled out the man to a ‘T,’ Antonio thought.
    “Hey, Jake, it’s Antonio. Please call my cell when you get this. All is fine…just a quick question. Thanks.” He didn’t want to worry his financier. He didn’t need Jake thinking the call was about him needing to miss a loan payment or anything like that. But he also didn’t want to leave details that he wanted a lesser favor. More business.
    Antonio looked down at his legal pad to add some figures, then he pinched the bridge of his nose. He was so damn close to his number, so close he could taste it. If only Jake would call back today and not next week or the week after that. Jake Demonte always came through, but when was often the question.
    *
    His cell rang, jolting Antonio out of his number-crunching zone.
    “Tony, Jake Demonte. How you doin’, son?”
    Antonio put his pencil down and spun around in his desk chair to stare at his computer monitor with his target number as the screen’s background. Clear your mind. “Jake, thanks for the quick call back. Good, I’m good, thanks. How are you? And the new club on the Island?”
    “Behind fuckin’ schedule, as construction always is. And with my kid on lead, Jesus Christ, don’t get me started…he’s a little blowhard wanting to fill my goddamn shoes after being out of school for only a few fucking months. And after I paid four years of college fucking tuition as high as my dick is long, what does he do?” The man paused for an answer to his rhetorical question.
    But Antonio remained quiet.
    “Well, I’ll tell ya. He spends more of my money, for fuck’s sake, that’s what! On girls, coke, more girls! Says he’s got a plan, an underground money river or some shit. Gonna get me and my clubs in trouble, Tone, that’s what he’s gonna do! Just unnecessary stress.”
    Antonio let Jake simmer a second. “God, Jake…sorry man. Dealing with family’s gotta be tough.”
    “It is, it sure as fuck is. And I’ll tell ya, I’ll always be thankful to you pulling Johnnie to safety that time, Tone, but shit, maybe a nick here or there woulda done him some good. The ego on that kid, you know?” He snickered. “But on second thought, my ex woulda castrated me, so I guess I’m glad you didn’t let him get a scratch.”
    “Yeah, man,” Antonio said, laughing lightly and hoping like hell to end the discussion of the man’s personal life as soon as humanly possible. The less he knew, the safer.
    “But as for the new club, it’ll come together. Just never as fast as you want.”
    “Sure, with anything, right?”
    “With anything good, at least! So what’s up, Tone? How can I help?”
    “Well, I was calling to see if you needed me on anything major? I lost a big client, or more like,