“What can I get for you?”
“A Coke would be great.”
“Anything in it? Some Jack Daniels?”
“No. Just the Coke. Don’t want to get started too early, you know?”
He looked doubtful, but made the drink for me anyway. I turned in the stool and looked around. The place was hopping just like the one last night. There were people everywhere, bodies so close together on the dance floor that it seemed impossible they could move. Sardines in a can, that’s what it looked like.
The guy from the other party—Collin—had texted late in the afternoon, reiterating the promise I’d made to go somewhere with a bed. I was beginning to wonder if Max had been right about all that. Maybe I’d made a mistake. But I didn’t know how else to get myself out of there without blowing the whole case wide open or being forced to take a drug that could very well set off all my addiction issues. Again.
This case was going to be the hardest I’d ever taken through Caballo. I’d known that from the beginning, which was why I’d fought Ox over it. But I loved my job. What else was I supposed to do?
The young girl from last night suddenly appeared in front of me, a big smile on her heavily made-up face. She rested her hands on my knees and squealed.
“You came!”
“Collin invited me.”
“I know. He sent me over here to get you.”
“Where is he?”
She gestured somewhere vaguely behind her. “Come on and I’ll take you to him.”
I stood up and grabbed my drink from the makeshift bar top, scraping my hand on a splinter sticking up from the raw edge. I cursed softly, but the girl was already off and I had to pick up speed to catch up to her. I took a sip of my Coke as I followed, suddenly parched. The place was hot and all these bodies moving around were just making it hotter.
“I need a nice cold bath,” I muttered.
“I’m all for that,” came Max’s immediate response.
The renovations seemed to be restricted to the front of the storefronts. At the back, there were still walls separating storage/office areas at the back of each former business. Collin was inside one of these storage areas, the same recliner and round card table set up against a back wall. He smiled widely when he spotted me.
“Ms. Jane!” he cried, coming toward me with open arms.
“Hello, Collin,” I said, feigning a little shyness in the way I refused to look up at him.
“I brought her to you,” the young girl said quite loudly, clearly looking for some sort of accolade.
“Thank you, Bernie,” Collin said, not even bothering with a glance in her direction. “Why don’t you head back out, see if you can help Gerald?”
Collin took my hands and drew me deeper into the small room, practically pushing the other kids who were standing around, looking for a snip at the drug table, out of the way. He fell back into the recliner and pulled me down with him, his hand moving over my hip as he did.
“I’ve been thinking of nothing but you since last night,” he said, his lips close to my ear. He sort of sniffed my neck before moving in for a few nibbles. “You’re so beautiful! You left me aching like I haven’t done in years!”
I gently pushed his face away from my neck, sipping at my Coke to buy myself a moment to think. I wasn’t sure how I was getting out of this, but I’d gotten myself into it—I had to get myself out.
“The night’s early. We should dance.”
“You like to dance, beautiful?”
“Love it. Isn’t that the whole point of these things?”
“There’s lots of reason to have parties like this, darlin’.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
He ran his hand along my thigh, slipping his fingers under the edge of the dress’s narrow hem. “Like meeting beautiful women.”
“You’ve already done that.”
“I have.”
I twisted slightly on his lap, trying to get the full view of his face for the camera. “You run these parties, don’t you? How much money do you make?”
“I have plenty. Don’t worry your pretty little head about that.”
“Enough to furnish that luxurious life you were telling me about?” I forced one of those flirty looks Max had tried to teach me. “I’ve never been on a yacht.”
“Soon. Very soon you’ll be on so many yachts that you’ll start getting seasick.”
“Yeah? You own more than one?”
“I own one. My boss owns one. All my friends own their own.”
“Sounds like an exciting life.”
“You can be a part of it, if you want.”
“Right now, I just want to dance.” I stood and finished my Coke, dropping the cup on the floor as I held a hand out to him. “Come dance with me!”
I moved my hips, swayed a little to the music pounding through the building. Collin smiled, gesturing to one of the guys standing off to one side before he rose and took my hand. As we walked back into the main part of the building, the man he’d gestured to took up a position by the card table.
The music seemed to move through me, invigorating me in a way I hadn’t felt in years! I began swaying to the music for Collin’s sake, but I couldn’t seem to make myself stop. The music flowed through me like lava over a barren landscape. I closed my eyes and moved to the beat, flinging my arms up and laughing from the sheer joy of the movement.
Collin slipped his arms around me and pushed me back until we reached the edge of the dance floor. Then he held me like the tempo was smooth and mellow. It wasn’t. The beat was hard, pounding through my body with a steady rhythm that was almost sexual. It was the hottest thing I’d heard in a very long time. I opened my eyes and smiled up at Collin, welcoming the look in his eye, that look that said I was a steak and he was starving.
I don’t know how long we danced. I lost track of time as I let myself go with the moment. I knew there was something off, but I felt so good I just didn’t care. Collin’s hands were all over me, moving over the back of my dress, over my ass, and back up again, enjoying every inch he could explore. There was one point where I was pretty sure he slipped his hand inside my dress to cup one of my breasts, but I was so lost in the music that I didn’t notice.
“James!” a voice cried in my ear. I ignored it.
Collin turned me away from him and I moved with my ass grinding against his hips, loving the beat of the music. It was like nirvana, like I’d found this peace that I’d been looking for for a very long time. There was a man in a very expensive suit watching us from across the room. He was leaning against a pillar where one of the walls had been torn down, a circle of about six feet all the way around him, like the crowd just knew to stay away from him. There were two large men standing to either side of him, hands behind their backs, clearly security.
I found the sight somewhat amusing. I giggled as I reached back to wrap my hands around Collin’s neck.
“What’s funny, darlin’?”
I studied the man in the suit. “He looks like a caricature of a mob boss.”
“You think so?”
“Definitely. Look at him! Expensive suit. Bodyguards. How effective do they really think they can be standing there like that? Security isn’t about intimidating people; it’s about knowledge. It’s about observation. It’s about knowing your fucking business!”
“How would you know that?”
I shrugged as the voice in my ear hissed, “Careful!”
“I watch TV just like everyone else.”
Collin laughed. “You are something else—you know that, darlin’? Sexy, beautiful, smart. You’re exactly the kind of girl I’ve spent my life looking for.”
“Am I?” I twisted in his arms to face him again. “Isn’t this room filled with girls just like me?”
“Oh, no. You’re a million times more beautiful than any of them.” He ran his hand over the side of my face before gripping my chin and forcing me into him for a kiss. “Everyone is going to want you!”
He pulled back slightly and indicated my body with a movement of his eyes. “Do you really have to ask?”
“I don’t want to be wanted for my body. I have a brain, too, you know!”
“Slow down, James,” that voice whispered.
I brushed a hand over my ear, wishing the voice would go away.
The room began to spin a little. I leaned closer to Collin, which he took as an offer of more touching, more intimacy. His hand slipped under my skirt and cupped my bare ass, his fingers searching for things that weren’t his to touch. I moved a little, trying to put a little space between me and his searching fingers, but I only ended up closer to him. And my head… Damn, the room was spinning! Had I gotten a drink without realizing it? What the hell did that bartender put in my Coke?
I think I blacked out a little because one moment I was on the dance floor with Collin, the next I was back in that little storage room. Only it was a different storage room. The recliner and the card table were gone. The room was concrete—the walls, the floor, the ceiling—and damp. Collin had me pressed against one of those walls and his lips were sliding over my throat as his hands tugged my skirt up over my thighs.
“Wait!”
I pushed at his hands, a part of me realizing I was losing control and I wasn’t going to like what happened next. I didn’t want this man’s hands on me.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered against my ear. “I just want a taste.”
A taste of what? I didn’t understand, but I knew I didn’t want him touching me.
“I’m not feeling well,” I muttered, realizing as I said it that my stomach was beginning to roil, that the Coke I’d drunk earlier wasn’t sitting well.
“It’s just the GHB. It’ll pass.”
“Fuck!” that voice in my ear muttered. “We’ve got to get you out of there!”
Before I could process those words, though, the man in the fancy suit appeared behind Collin. “What have I told you about this, Collin?” he demanded, his voice deep and marked by some sort of accent. “Get back to your table!”
Collin immediately backed away. I tugged at my skirt, quickly pulling it back down to where it belonged.
“Are you okay?” the man asked me.
“I’m not feeling very well.”
“Why don’t you let me get you a taxi?”
The man was pulling me out a back door before I could respond. The cool air of the night touched my face, clearing my head a little. I glanced at him, finding him strikingly handsome now that I could see him close up. He was dark, his hair thick and wavy, his eyes surrounded by thick eyelashes that most women—not me—would envy. He was a little on the short side, but bulky, the kind of guy who built muscle to make up for his lack of height.
“I apologize for Collin,” he said to me as we moved around the far side of the building. “He gets a little eager sometimes. I’ll be sure he doesn’t bother you again.”
I brushed at my cheek, still confused as to what had happened tonight. I stumbled as we reached the sidewalk and he caught me, keeping me on my feet as we moved to the curb to wait for a taxi I never saw him call.
“You should be careful, a girl like you. It can be dangerous coming to one of these parties.”
“I was just looking for a little fun.”
“You’re in school, are you not?” He tilted his head slightly as he studied my face. “I think Collin mentioned you. A college student who just moved to the area.”
There was still a fog in my brain, but the fact that I was working a case had finally come back to me. And the voice in my ear was feeding me my cover story, reminding me of the things I was supposed to be saying.
“My mother died a few months ago. She always insisted that college was more important than anything else I might do with my life, so I took her life insurance and enrolled here at the University of Texas.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.” He adopted a sympathetic gaze that was actually quite touching. “Do you have other family?”
I shook my head, turning from him slightly as a vision of my pops crossed my mental vision. The idea of losing him was one I’d been trying to push aside for a long time, but his failing health was making it harder and harder to ignore. But there’d always been Pops, even when I was at my lowest. I couldn’t imagine my life without him.
“I’m sorry,” this stranger said as he moved close, resting a hand on my shoulder. “I didn’t mean to open a healing sore.”
“You’re very kind,” I said softly, turning toward him. “What’s your name?”
“Zaki.” He gestured to a car coming toward us. “Here is your taxi. Perhaps I will see you again?”
“Perhaps.”
He bowed, smiling as our eyes met again. “Take care of yourself, Ms. Widdowes.”
“You too.”
He helped me into the taxi. I twisted slightly in my seat to watch him disappear out the back window. It didn’t cross my mind until we were almost at the apartment building that I hadn’t told him my name—not even the name I was using for the case. And I definitely hadn’t told him my address!
“He just showed his hand,” I whispered under my breath, making the taxi driver look sharply at me.
This case unnerved me like no other. But now it frightened me.
I didn’t like being frightened.
Chapter 7
Max
“What the fuck were you thinking?” I demanded as I stormed through the hidden door in the back of James’s closet. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
She was in the bathroom, on her knees in front of the toilet when I found her. That red dress… wasn’t so sexy with vomit all down the front.
“Come on.”
I lifted her to her feet and pulled her over to the narrow shower stall. The water was freezing when it came on, cold enough that she gasped and raised her head. The dress was instantly soaked, but so was my shirt. I emptied my pockets, tossing my cell phone and keys on the sink counter, kicked off my shoes, and climbed into the shower behind her. She leaned forward at first, holding on to the wall with one hand. I remembered the earpiece almost as an afterthought, plucking it out of her ear before she let the water run down over the sides of her head. The last thing I wanted to do was to explain to Ox how we’d ruined a couple thousand dollars’ worth of equipment in the shower.
She vomited again, spewing all over the floor of the shower. It took pretty much everything I had to keep from joining her. There was nothing like watching someone vomit—and smelling it—to make someone lose their lunch. The power went out of her legs. I pulled her back against my chest and let her use me as support as the water slowly warmed, bathing us both in a cocoon of heat.
I was aware of the moment she passed out. Her body went limp in my arms, her slender form suddenly a sodden bag of concrete resting against my chest. I was beginning to regret not tossing her into the bathtub instead of the shower.
It was awkward, but I undressed her and washed her up, maneuvering her this way and that, resting her against the wall a few times, struggling to keep her from a lying position. When I was done, I swung her up into my arms and carried her to the bed, drying her off as best as I could do as she lay prone. I thought seriously about just leaving her naked, making it clear to her what I’d done, but my mother’s voice whispered in the back of my head that even the worst people deserved a little human consideration.
I dressed her in a T-shirt and shorts just like what she’d donned in front of me the night before.
When I was sure she wasn’t going to aspirate or have a heart attack or something, I slipped into my own closet and got some dry clothes. Then I grabbed my laptop and settled into a chair beside her bed to finish the night’s work. We had a picture of the guy I was pretty sure was the boss of this particular ring of traffickers. I extracted it from the video footage and forwarded it to Cheryl with his name written in the body of the message. It probably wasn’t his real name, but i
t couldn’t hinder things any.
I worked until late in the night, glancing up at James from time to time. When there was nothing more I could do, and my eyes ached with an exhaustion I hadn’t felt in a long time, I finally set the computer aside and propped my feet up on the edge of the bed. I leaned back, resting my hands behind my head as my eyes lazily moved over James. She hadn’t moved much since I’d laid her down, but she’d occasionally made these little sighing sounds that reassured me that she was still alive and well.
I swore to myself once, years ago, that I would never put myself in this position again. I’d already taken care of one woman—I wouldn’t do it again. How I’d found myself here, I wasn’t sure.
My mom… she was diagnosed with colon cancer when I was fifteen. They found it a little late. She’d passed off symptoms as ordinary bodily functions, and when she finally got concerned and went to the doctor, he’d put it down to hysteria since she was too young to have that kind of cancer. She was only forty. But then she began to bleed so heavily that the emergency-room doctor said if we hadn’t gotten her there when we did, she would have bled out. And so began the cycle of chemo and doctors’ visits and hospital stays that defined my high school career. A year of chemo and it was supposed to be over, but then it spread to her lungs, then her bones and liver. Four years she fought. Four years I cared for her while my father went to work, insisting he had to make a living to pay for her treatments. I wasn’t stupid. I knew he went to work so that he wouldn’t have to see her waste away the way I was forced to do every single day. Alone.
I moved out of my father’s house the day they put her in the ground. Three months later, I was on my way to Camp Pendleton, beginning a ten-year career in the marines.
I wasn’t going to do it again. Watching my mother die was the darkest—but in some ways the most beautiful—time of my life. I learned about courage from her. I learned about love and the will to live from her. And I learned about weakness from my father.
My father lived ten minutes from where I sat, yet I hadn’t seen him in fourteen years. And I had no intention of ever seeing him again. I’d even changed my last name to avoid any connection to him. What kind of man leaves his sixteen-year-old son to drive his dying mother to the hospital, leaves a child to answer her cries in the middle of the night, leaves a child to bathe his own mother and powder her ass like she was now the child and the child the adult before his time?
Caballo Security Box Set Page 67