An Offer You Can't Refuse by Sal Bianchi (best beach reads .txt) 📕

bragging about the party he had planned for tonight on his father’s massive yacht.

“Did Stein send us the address for where it’s docked?” I asked as I started to scroll through the email.

“Yeah,” Jase replied.

“Okay,” I nodded. “If we’re going to crash the party, we’re going to need to get there early in case they decide to go on the water.”

“What do you mean crash it?” Jase asked apprehensively.

“What?” I scoffed. “You think they’re going to let a couple of narc-looking guys just waltz in and ruin the party? Our best bet is to sneak in and find Ian. We need to go get changed before we head there.”

Jase was giving me a belabored glare, but I was too excited to pay him any mind. Even if we kept running into walls during the case, the thought of sneaking into a private party gave me a thrill. The fact that I could get away with calling it work just made me more pumped.

22

Nick

There were still a few hours left until the party, so Jase headed back to the office to give Flint a report and wrap up a few things. In the meantime, I headed back home to change.

I parked my car in my usual spot by the entrance and headed inside. The first thing I did was check my email for any new client requests. That came up empty, but I did have one message on my work phone asking for a consultation on a missing person’s case. Even if it was just one case, I still felt happy that my little agency was starting to get more cases. After those fake reviews first spread, there was a period of about two months where I didn’t get any work, and I nearly had to close the business. The only reason I was able to stay afloat was that I ended up getting my first consultation with the SDCT right around that time.

I walked through my apartment and into my bedroom before stripping off my button-down shirt. Any time I was working on a case with the SDCT, I tended to dress a little more professionally. When I was just doing my normal job, however, I dressed as casually and unassumingly as I could. It was important to blend into the crowd when I was tailing someone, so the less I stood out, the better.

For something like a yacht party, something flashier might actually be better. Especially if I was going to be sneaking in, my chances of getting inside were much higher if I looked like I belonged there. With that in mind, I pulled on a tightly fitted shirt and a pair of dark jeans.

Once I finished changing, I moved to the bathroom to fix my hair. It was getting a little too long now. Long enough that it almost covered my eyes if I didn’t brush it back. I’d honestly just been too lazy to go get it cut lately. After a few minutes of wondering what to do with it, I decided to just throw some gel in it and leave it mostly as it was. It would look too formal if I tried to slick it back or something, and leaving it like this made me look younger, which would also increase my chances of sneaking onboard.

Once that was done, I spent the next couple of hours investigating the case I’d put on hold earlier in the week. The client was a young woman who was attempting to find her birth mother. Adoption records tended to be pretty tightly sealed, so it was going to be a difficult case to solve, but I was determined to get a resolution for her.

It surprised me when the alarm I’d set on my phone went off. I’d been so engrossed in my work that I hadn’t realized how quickly time had passed. Now it was finally time to head out of the docks to meet Jase. I shut down my computer and turned out all the lights before heading out. Once I was sure that the doors were locked up tight, I turned around to head to my car.

The Fontainebleu was a fancy resort hotel located in Miami Beach. The hotel itself was so close to the water that wealthy guests could pay for a room that directly overlooked the ocean, and it even had its own private marina and dock. It was unsurprising, considering the kind of wealthy clientele that the hotel must get, that the port where Ian’s boat was docked was filled with dozens of yachts.

Jase and I had agreed to meet in the resort parking lot before heading down to the yacht. Our plan, if we did get stopped, was to claim that we were guests of the resort who had just stumbled upon the party by coincidence.

I spotted the sleek black SDCT car as soon as I pulled into the parking lot and quickly parked my own car in the spot next to it. As I opened the door to get out of the car, I glanced down at my phone. It was a little after seven-thirty, which meant we only had half an hour until the yacht departed.

“Hey, you ready?” Jase asked as he climbed out of his car.

“Bro, you still look like a cop,” I frowned as I looked at him. He was wearing a black, long-sleeve button-down shirt and a pair of light khaki pants.

“What?” He scoffed indignantly. “I look nice.”

“Yeah, if you’re going to church,” I muttered. “Unbutton two more buttons on your shirt and roll up your sleeves.”

He did as I advised, but the result still wasn’t great. It just wasn’t his style, and anyone could tell that from how uncomfortable he looked.

“I look dumb,” he grumbled.

“Yeah, kinda,” I teased. “Just smile and do what you do when you’re talking to girls at the bar.”

He grumbled something under his breath as he turned to head to the yacht, and I snickered at his expense.

I stifled my