Chapter 10
James
I watched the numbers move down on the little bar at the top of the elevator door, waiting for the downward movement to stop making my stomach feel like it was in my chest. I was still mildly nauseated from the GHB. Or maybe it was just my body screaming for more. I’d been nauseated for a month after I stopped drinking, long after the other withdrawal symptoms had gone. My body had just wanted that artificial stimulation, my brain desperate to be numbed against the realities of my life.
The door swished open and I stepped clear, crossing the narrow but clean lobby to the glass doors. The world burst in on me when I pushed the door open, heat from the late September day burning away the comfort of the air conditioning, the noise of traffic that passed too fast and too close on the street, the urgency of the passing pedestrians.
Akker had told me to leave the apartment from time to time just in case someone was watching the place. I was supposed to be attending classes at the university, but the wisdom of my supervisors had learned that many of the university’s classes were available online. They’d signed my alter ego—Jane Widdowes—up for three of these classes, an excuse for her to stay in most days. But I hadn’t stepped outside for two days, so it was time to make an appearance.
There was a convenience store on the corner that had pretty good coffee. I walked down there, feeling like an imposter in heels and a simple white shirtwaist dress with big roses crisscrossing the front and wrapping around to the back. It was the least sexual of the clothes Skylar had purchased for me, the one thing that I could stomach putting on after the fiasco of Saturday night.
I hadn’t told Max I was going out. If he wanted to know, he could check out the camera feeds he had on his stupid computer.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the argument we’d had. Was he really angry at me for nearly blowing the case? Or was there something more? Why had he asked Ox to move him off the case? Why hadn’t Ox done it?
A part of me almost wished Ox had gone ahead and moved Max to another case. If he was going to be this angry with me, then maybe it would be better if I had another partner who didn’t have whatever problem it was Max had. Maybe Prescott. He was a good operative—a little unconventional, but reliable. Trustworthy. But he was still recovering from having been kidnapped by the butler for the George family. Ox had given him a month off which, I’d heard, he was using to help Skylar find a house here in San Antonio that they might be able to share with her great-grandmother a few months out of the year. The old woman was determined to remain up in Washington State, but had apparently agreed to spend a few months a year down here, too.
Very domestic. I hoped all this marriage and love and whatever nonsense didn’t make Prescott soft. The last thing an operative wanted to do was get soft.
I pushed my way through the convenience-store doors, strutting to the coffee machines. I was forgetting myself, but I didn’t really care. I wanted off this case and out of these damn shoes. How did women wear these all the time? They were so impractical! How do you chase down some perp in shoes like this? I was okay with the dress. It was long and was kind of cool the way it swished around my legs. But I’d give just about anything to have my boots back.
I filled a cup with steaming coffee and set it on the counter to add cream and sugar. I was seriously thinking about grabbing a pastry too, giving myself a little treat, when a shadow moved over me, the heat of another body making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up a little.
“Fancy running into you here,” a deep voice said.
I glanced behind me. A dark man with heavily fringed eyes was watching me with something of a knowing smile. He was on the short side, but bulky, and still taller than me. And handsome in a dark, exotic sort of way.
“Hello,” I said softly.
“I was driving down the street and just happened to catch sight of you ducking in here, so I thought I’d come say hello, make sure you got home all right the other night.”
“I did, actually. Thank you.”
“Of course. Couldn’t have a woman beautiful as you get hurt at one of my parties.”
“Your parties? You’re behind all these raves?”
“Well, I organize them and provide the booze.”
“Wow! That must cost you a fortune.”
“We make up for it with the entry price.”
I tilted my head slightly. “I’ve never paid to get in.”
“We don’t charge beautiful women.”
I lowered my gaze, trying to look suitably flattered. “Collin let me believe he was behind the parties and everything.”
“Collin is a man with a large ego. I have no idea why I keep him around.” The man moved closer to me, resting a hand just above my elbow. “I apologize for what happened Saturday night. I’ve told Collin to keep his hands to himself so many times that I feel like a broken record. But I promise, if you come to our party on Friday, it will not happen again.”
“I appreciate that.”
“Some men just never really grow up, you know? They don’t know how to treat a woman with respect.”
“But you do?”
“I like to think I do.” He smiled, his eyes moving over me like I was a luscious dessert and he was a man coming off a strict diet. “But I’m sure you’d set me straight if I ever stepped wrong.”
I bit my bottom lip, wishing I’d listened closer to the flirting tips Max had tried to give me. Be natural, he’d said. But my natural personality wanted to tell this guy to quit bothering me. I wasn’t interested. But the operative in me knew this was the next step in catching the attention of these sex traffickers and that I needed to proceed very carefully. I just didn’t know how to be demure and naïve.
“So, there’s another party on Friday?”
“There is. I’ll have Collin text you the address.”
“Will you be there?”
His hand on my elbow slid further up, caressing the bare skin on the back of my arm. “I will be if I know you will be.”
I nodded slightly, not sure what to say. He stepped into me, sliding into my personal space as other customers moved around us, looking for snacks that weren’t evident in other aisles. I glanced at a couple of women who were whispering and giggling together. The one closest to me gestured with a movement of her head toward the front of the store. When I followed her gaze, I found Max.
I stiffened a little, suddenly more self-conscious than I’d been before.
“Will you be there?” this man asked.
I turned my attention back to him, feeling a little claustrophobic from his closeness. I knew I’d met him before, but I couldn’t remember his name, couldn’t remember any conversation we’d had. He was a stranger I was supposed to be flirting with in a manner that did not come naturally to me. I don’t think I’d ever been quite as uncomfortable as I was in that moment.
“Sure,” I said, forcing a smile.
He frowned, studying my face. “Do I make you nervous?”
I rolled my shoulders. “You’re very handsome.”
He smiled, blinking his thickly fringed eyes. “I am flattered.” He brushed the back of his finger over my jaw. “I’d like to spend some time with you. Perhaps after the party on Friday, we could go have breakfast together. Would you like that?”
“I would.”
“Good. I’ll be looking for you on Friday.”
He leaned close and brushed his lips near my mouth. Then he was gone as quickly and silently as he’d arrived.
My hands were shaking as I turned back to the coffee I no longer wanted. I tossed it into the trash and walked out, struggling to stay up on the heels of my shoes.
“What the hell?” Max hissed into my ear as he fell into step beside me. “You’re supposed to tell me before you leave the apartment.”
“You clearly figured it out.”
“That’s not the point! You are not supposed to go off anywhere without me. What if that guy had been intending to kidnap you right th
ere and then?”
“In broad daylight? I doubt it.”
“Don’t put it past them. They’ve done it before.”
I glanced at him. “What reports have you been reading? Their victims disappear from raves and nightclubs, not convenience stores in the middle of the day.”
“If they want something badly enough—”
“You flatter me.”
I picked up my pace, walking ahead of him in an attempt to escape, but his legs were longer than mine and he kept up easily.
“You’re being incredibly reckless on this case, James,” he hissed. “You’re going to get yourself into something you can’t get out of.”
“What’s the matter? Are you afraid I’ll ruin your perfect record?”
He grabbed my arm in nearly the same spot the other guy had touched me, and pushed me into an alley we happened to be passing. A quarter of the way down the dark alley, he pushed me up against the wall of the building towering over us.
“Why is it so hard for you to believe that I might actually care what happens to you out there? It’s my job to keep you safe, but you’re making that so incredibly hard!”
“You were a little angry at me last night. Do you not remember trying to be removed from the case?”
“That was not supposed to get back to you.”
“Well, it did. And it makes me wonder if I can trust you now.”
“I’m not the one walking down a self-destructive path.”
“Neither am I.”
I pushed against him, trying to move around him. He grabbed my arm again, jerking me back against the wall hard enough to knock a little air from my lungs. That inspired me to raise a knee, trying to make contact with his junk, but he turned at the last second, protecting himself with his thigh. But I was already moving, jerking my arm up so that the side of my hand connected with the side of his neck. Not quite the target I was going for, but enough to make him grunt with frustration.
I was going for another chop at his throat when Max fell into me, pinning my body against the wall with the weight of his own. He went for my arms, but I fought him, causing him a great deal of frustration as he sought to control my movements. He eventually got hold of my wrists, forcing my arms up above my head at an almost painful angle.
“Quit fighting me!” he said as I raised my knee again, looking for any target I could get.
“Let me go!”
“Not until you calm down and listen to me.”
“Fuck you, Max!”
“You’d love to, wouldn’t you?”
I spat at him. He spat back. And then he leaned down and wiped the saliva I’d gotten on his cheek onto my cheek. I twisted my head to do the same and, somehow, our lips brushed. It wasn’t intentional at first but became intentional. I don’t know if I did it, or if it was him, but our lips locked, and we began to explore each other with an intensity that was as high, if not higher, than our anger had taken us.
For a moment, he continued to pin me to the wall with his hands on my wrists, his body against mine. I pressed up against him, aware of his wild heartbeat against mine, of the power in every inch of him that was focused on this one thing, this one touch. But then his grip on me loosened, one hand drifting down the length of my arm to the curve of my breast, then further down, sliding over my hip.
I touched the side of his face, cupping his jaw to draw him closer, deepening that kiss into something almost gentle and definitely intimate. The man knew how to kiss! Someone once told me that a woman should be properly kissed at least once in her life. I’d not been sure what she meant by properly until this moment. What Max was offering to me was such a complete exploration that I couldn’t imagine a kiss any more proper than this.
He had to bend his knees a little to reach my mouth, so it wasn’t really a surprise when he wrapped his hand around my thigh and lifted me up. After a moment, he had both his hands under my thighs and was holding me at waist height, my legs wrapping themselves around his hips of their own accord. My arms moved around his neck, my fingers playing in his hair in a way I’d imagined hundreds of times before but never thought I’d experience in reality. But it was the taste of him, the feel of him, that was overwhelming my every sense.
I’d never experienced a kiss that made my whole body come to life the way this one did. I could feel it all the way to my toes, but it was that place low in my belly that really came alive, that ached almost painfully just from the touch of his lips on mine. Or maybe it was the masculinity of him pressed against my body, the power that turned me on. Or maybe it’d just been far too long since the last time a man touched me this way.
I was lost in his touch. I could have stood there all day and explored him and allowed him to explore me. I’d never been so lost in one thing before, never had been able to shut off my mind long enough to allow my unconscious mind to take over. But this… I could see myself getting lost in him for hours. For hours and hours.
But I guess he couldn’t say the same for me.
He slid his lips from my mouth to my chin, down to my throat. And then he rested his head against my shoulder for a long moment, his breath hot and fast against my skin. I ran my hand along the back of his head, cradling him against me. But then he pulled away, carefully setting me on my feet before he stepped back, running his hand over his head.
“That shouldn’t have happened.”
I wanted to argue, but my brain wasn’t quite functioning in that moment. I reached for him, but I’m not sure he even saw my gesture. He walked away, leaving me alone there in that dark alley.
Reality slowly began to seep back in and then it all hit me like a blow to the chest. I doubled over, pain slicing through my body like a knife slicing easily through thin flesh.
“Aaron… I’m sorry…”
Chapter 11
Max
I studied the file Cheryl was building for me, memorizing each face in the photos she’d used to replace the ones I’d taken from the video James had filmed at each of the raves she’d attended. I wanted to make sure I knew who each man was and what his role in the organization was before James walked into yet another party alone.
Her taxi passed beside the SUV where I was set up. I was leaning down in the front passenger seat for this very reason. I wanted to be aware of the moment she arrived.
As she leaned forward to pay the driver and stepped out, I adjusted the focus on the feed coming from the camera on her lapel. She looked absolutely amazing in a blue dress with a shawl-like collar, a soft material that revealed her bare shoulders—completely this time—and clung to the rest of her body, revealing squares of flesh along her sides where small cutouts had been strategically placed. It was a short dress, barely reaching mid-thigh, leaving those beautifully toned legs free to be revealed to anyone who wanted to look.
I was looking, but I wished I was the only one.
She crossed quickly to the front of this place—another abandoned warehouse—and was escorted inside immediately. I moved to the back of the SUV where a small bank of computer monitors showed me not only the feed from her own camera, but the feed from a debunked system that had been left in place. A hack here, a hack there, and Cheryl had been able to give me access to it. I adjusted the angle of the first camera that hung just inside the door James had entered and watched as she was directed to a set of stairs that led to a balcony that overlooked the massive room below.
She was smooth in her movements, more graceful than I’d seen her before. It was almost impossible to believe that this was the same woman whose normal uniform was combat boots and cargo pants. I had known there was beauty under all that black practicality, but had never imagined it was like this.
I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
I shifted from one camera to the next, watching her progress up the stairs. She was approached by that girl, the one from the earlier parties—Bernadette Mendes—who spoke too quickly for me to pick it all up over the noise of the party. Then she grabbed James’s hand a
nd drew her deeper into the corridor along that balcony.
I hated the way that man—Zaki Ahsan—greeted her. He took her hands and pulled her into him, kissing her cheeks lightly like something from an old movie. He probably had learned that move from some old movie, putting on all the moves to make the girls around him think he was suave and debonair. Compared to their lives living in the suburbs with parents who were too busy to pay much attention to them, he probably was. But James should know better.
I hoped she knew better.
I chewed on my bottom lip as I watched him draw her into a quieter space, listened to him flatter her with all these compliments that he probably didn’t mean. He told her three times in the space of just a few minutes how beautiful he thought she was. While she was beautiful, he was laying it on a little thick in my opinion. James blushed and held her head down, making him think she was bashful. I’d never known her to be bashful.
“Don’t lay it on too thick,” I said aloud, speaking into the microphone that would transmit my words to her earpiece. “You’re going to set off alarm bells if you suddenly seem shy.”
“I can’t tell you how pleased I am that you came tonight,” Zaki said to her at almost the exact same time, leaning in close to touch James’s face. “I wasn’t sure you would.”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“You seemed a little distracted the other day, like you weren’t terribly pleased to see me.”
“To be honest,” James told him, looking up with a small smile, “I’m having trouble remembering most of what happened on Saturday.”
“Oh?” He stroked her face again, standing so close that most of the feed from her personal camera showed only the dark fabric of his jacket. “I apologize again for Collin’s actions. He likes to think that he’s in charge around here, but he’s not. I will set him straight.”
Zaki gestured to two men standing with their hands behind their backs a few feet away. One came forward and Zaki whispered to him, too quietly for me to pick it up over the earpiece. The man walked away and Zaki turned his attention back on James.
Caballo Security Box Set Page 69