Risky Temptation

by Hart, Gemma

  I paused, my bottle halfway to my mouth. I stared at the man.

  “What do you mean, ‘that deal thing’?” I said slowly, hearing my pulse crash against my ears.

  Gary looked over at me. “You know, that Juarez deal. Roy went to close it tonight.” Gary dropped the weight. “Apparently, Davidson and Gus and Vic are all worthy of the great honor of driving the Big Boss there but me and Jocko and—”

  “Wait. Wait,” I said, cutting off his pity party. My body hummed with adrenaline as I could feel the action about to start. The inevitable drama. The horrible and sudden showdown.

  “The Juarez deal is happening tonight?” I said, enunciating each word clearly in hopes that Gary had his information wrong.

  But Gary nodded instead, looking at me as if it was obvious. “Yeah. The boss left like an hour ago.” He grinned at me knowingly. “Took that pretty little accountant with him too.”

  “Fuck!” I shouted as I rushed out of the gym. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

  I ran up the stairs towards my room. I needed to change and grab my weapons as quickly as possible.

  I had no idea why the deal was suddenly happening tonight and I had even less idea about why Roy would take Halle. There was no need for her to be there. No accounts manager had ever accompanied Roy or myself to a deal before.

  As I threw off my sweaty clothes and searched for my gun and knives, I suddenly jerked to a stop.

  The deal was tonight.

  My heart pounded.

  That meant this was my chance.

  With the influx of money that would be coming in to various accounts and holdings, this was my chance to pull my share out and leave undetected. And with Roy out of the house for a set number of hours, I could call the private plane I have on standby and head out. I already had a place and a number set up in Germany, which would be my first stop. I needed to make sure it was a clean break before I headed over to England and put Jamie in danger.

  This was it.

  This was the moment I had literally been planning for for years.

  But if I left now, that meant leaving Halle.

  And I wasn't just leaving her. I was leaving her in the clutches of Roy Desmond who had clearly kidnapped her and taken her to possibly the most dangerous place in all of America this night. If any minute thing went wrong tonight, it could be lethal. And Halle would be standing right in the crosshairs.

  “What the fuck!” I shouted as I punched a wall, leaving a sizeable crack.

  Why did he take her? Why would he take an accounts manager to something like this?

  Goddamn the man to fucking hell!

  I realized now that I had to make a choice. Either leave tonight and make my way over to Europe and to potential freedom. Or head out to find Roy and Halle and rescue her from what is certain danger.

  Energy crackled through my body. My muscles twitched from how taut they were with adrenaline.

  Godfuckingdammit!

  Chapter Twenty

  Halle

  I could hardly let myself breathe as we exited the car. We had finally arrived at the meeting zone.

  I had watched carefully as we drove, trying to memorize exactly where we were going in hopes that more information might help calm me. It didn’t. But I had watched us drive for miles out of the city, eastward.

  By the time we reached our destination it, was close to midnight. But even in the darkness of night, I could make out the hangar that stood in the distance. It was one of those smaller hangars meant for recreational planes. It was a little dilapidated and worse for the wear with the lights hanging outside flickering ominously.

  Holy shit, it’s just like in the movies, I thought as I followed Roy and the Desmond men towards the hangar.

  It was exactly like the movies. The dark, abandoned space. The quiet, beefy muscle men. The overhanging moon. The tense environment that followed any situation where multiple guns were present.

  Roy stopped just a few feet from the back entrance. He turned toward Gus who stepped forward. “I’ll do the sweep, boss,” he said before heading towards the door.

  We waited outside.

  I had no idea what we were waiting for. Was Gus sweeping to make sure the Juarez Family wasn’t there yet? Or was he sweeping to make sure they were there?

  I looked around and saw no other vehicles except ours. But of course, we were on one side of the hangar. The other side could be chock full of cars. I had never been on a field mission before. Would the FBI ride in on specially marked cars or would they sneak in carefully on foot after parking miles away?

  God, did they even know the changing of the dates?

  I covertly glanced over at Roy who stood next to me. He had a look of casual impatience as he waited for Gus’s return. Standing next to him, I was reminded again of just how big of a man he was. Not just in girth but also in height. He was over six feet tall and weighed as much as a defensive lineman. He was an intimidating figure.

  When such a man like that tells you to get in the car, it’s hard to say no. So of course, now I was here.

  But why?

  Why would he bring me along to the deal? All this time that I had been working for him, not once did he mention my coming along. In fact, up until just a few hours ago, he had only spoken to me along the terms of what I should be doing back at the office while the deal was happening. He wanted to make sure the money went through immediately.

  “I’ll give you a call when I get the notice that the transfer has happened,” he had explained to me one night. “And then you tell me when you see that it has. I want you to stay at your desk that night until I call. Understand?”

  “Yes,” I said. That had been my responsibility. To check the online accounts of several different banks and holdings to make sure the money went through smoothly and immediately.

  But now that I was out here, there was no way to do any of that. I had been so rushed out of the house, I hadn’t been able to bring my laptop or cellphone.

  Roy looked over his shoulder at the parked car. He looked like he was waiting for someone. Were we maybe meeting the Juarez Family outside? He looked around searchingly before grunting in impatience and turning around.

  Gus finally came back out.

  “It’s all clear, boss,” he reported. “The Family is waiting inside.”

  Roy nodded before turning over his shoulder again. The men behind us looked confused by their boss’s action. They even turned around to see what he might be looking at. But it was just emptiness with one lone road leading out into the darkness.

  Roy gave an irritated sigh before he grabbed my arm again. “Fine then. Let’s go in.”

  We went in through the back door. I was nervous that my pounding heart would echo across the high ceilings. We walked through a narrow hallway before the room opened up into the main hangar.

  With only a few lights still functioning, most of the space was cast still in shadow. And on the opposite end of this shadowy space sat the Juarez Family.

  Or at least the main heads of the Juarez Family.

  The clear leader was a thin man with a thick black mustache who stood in the center of the group but was flanked by several armed men. There were two younger men standing behind the leader who I assumed were either leaders within the Juarez Family or was the leader’s sons. And in the far corner of the group, I saw a shorter man who shifted regularly from one leg to the other. He had on a cool expression but it was clear by his body language that he was antsy, bordering on nervous.

  I carefully studied him. There was something about him that was a little off. I could see his eyes darting around the room as if memorizing the entire space. Could he possibly be the mole agent?

  “A little late, don’t you think?” the man with the mustache said with a bit of an accent. I was actually surprised at how subtle his accent was.

  Roy huffed a laugh. “I got here though, didn’t I? Worried the deal wouldn’t fall through, eh, Bauti?”

  Bauti rubbed his chin medit
atively as he looked over our group. His hawk eyes zeroed in on me. “Who’s the woman?” he asked in a voice that sounded casual but had all the undertones of suspicion.

  “Accountant,” Roy said dismissively, offering no more explanation than that. “And I see you brought your boys.” He gave a little nod towards the two men behind Bauti.

  Bauti made a dismissive wave. “Enough of this,” he snapped, clearly sick of the pleasantries. “Tell me, why did you move the date?”

  So it had been Roy who had changed the date of the deal.

  I saw the Juarez man in the corner twitch a little at the question. I was almost positive he was the mole agent. Pretty impressive for him to have made it high enough into the upper circles to be present at this deal. But then again, wasn’t I here as well?

  “I told you, Bautista,” Roy said calmly. “The quicker we do this, the better. Right now, I can tell somebody is sniffing around us and we can’t waste any more time waiting. There’s danger nearby.”

  I stiffened. I had no idea what the status on Operation Raven was but Roy wasn’t mistaken. I was fairly certain there were two FBI agents in this room alone.

  “That’s really the reason why, Roy?” Bauti pressed, narrowing his eyes. “This isn’t some kind of power play against me?”

  Was the mole agent actually nodding to an earpiece? I watched the man give quick, jerky nods while pressing a finger discreetly to his left ear. Even to the most untrained eye, it looked high suspicious.

  Under the dim lights, I could see the thin sheen of nervous sweat on the man. There was a crackling energy of excitability around him that made me feel on edge. Clearly, he was not completely comfortable being undercover despite having been inside the Juarez Family for months now.

  Then it hit me. Perhaps he was nervous because he knew the raid was about to happen. Maybe he had notified the Feds in time and Operation Raven was still in place.

  I swallowed, trying to keep my face as calm as possible so as not to give anything away.

  “Oh come on, Bauti,” Roy said. “I have just as must to lose if this deal failed as you do. I would never do that to an old friend.”

  Roy Desmond would soon as gut an old friend as he would look at him. And I was sure Bautista Juarez knew that. But for the sake of this deal, I could tell that he was willing to accept Roy at his word. This time.

  Bauti walked forward. “Fine then, old friend. Let’s discuss the—”

  “Alright! Everybody down!”

  I looked up, along with everybody else, to see the mole agent aiming his rifle at us. He was covered in sweat and his body would not stop twitching. I could see him jerking his head awkwardly, as if trying to ignore his earpiece.

  “What do you—” Bauti started before the agent began shooting haphazardly. Everyone immediately threw themselves on the ground.

  Under the steel frame of the building, the echoes of the ricocheting bullets blasted through the air. I saw the Juarez men leaning over Bauti to protect him. Completely prostrate on the ground, I couldn’t turn around to see Roy but I could hear the shuffling of the men as they worked to cover him.

  After what felt like hours but was probably only a few short minutes of firing, I heard the cries of another voice.

  “Down, agent! Down! Cease fire!” a voice came crashing through.

  I jerked up at the voice. Agent Hadfield!

  Dressed completely in tactical wear, he was carefully aiming the rifle into the hangar while motioning for the mole agent to stop firing. Behind Agent Hadfield were at least another dozen agents, all armed and ready.

  I was about to shout or say something, out of sheer panic and shock of seeing them when I felt something hot sear across my arm. I immediately gripped my upper arm and felt the warmth of blood gushing against my fingers. I had been shot.

  Almost immediately, the firing stopped as agents filed into the hangar, quickly disarming the Juarez men. Because of the mole agent’s sudden and rash firing, the Family had not been able to collect themselves before the FBI closed in on them.

  I could hear Bautista Juarez screaming a string of Spanish curses as the FBI took him into custody. Just like that, one of the most powerful men of Mexico had been captured.

  I quickly turned around. Had they caught all of the Desmond men as well?

  But instead of seeing agents surrounding Roy and his men, I saw just emptiness. There was no one there. I was the only remaining person from the Desmond party.

  “What the…” I whispered, slowly rising to my feet. I winced as the movement caused my wound to burn.

  Where were the men? I had heard them behind me. I had heard them during the gunfire. But maybe….maybe instead of trying to cover him, they were leading him back out of the hangar under the cover of chaos.

  “Agent Margot?” a masked FBI agent asked, approaching me.

  I swallowed dryly, too stunned to absorb anything. “Yes,” I finally answered.

  “You’re injured. We need to escort you back. We can take you to be treated before you are debriefed,” the agent said, motioning me out of the hangar.

  “Roy,” I said, my lips turning numb from blood loss and shock. “Roy Desmond was here….”

  “Agent Margot, I need to escort you out of here,” the agent said again, pressing a hand against my back.

  I just nodded dumbly, following him out.

  Outside were a small army of trucks and cars with lights flashing brilliantly against the night sky. I watched as the various Juarez men were being loaded into the cars. I could still here Bauti shouting in Spanish.

  The black Desmond Range Rover was gone, leaving no trace.

  “Agent Margot?”

  I looked up. Although he was still wearing his helmet and protective eyewear, I could tell it was Agent Truman.

  “You’re injured,” he said, staring at my bloody arm.

  He turned around and shouted, “Agent down! Agent down! Need assistance!”

  I turned to the right where two agents were approaching me, ready to help me. But it wasn’t the agents I saw.

  It was the man I saw in the far distance behind them. He was far enough away in the shadows that nobody had yet spotted him.

  Despite the dark night and the blinding lights of the FBI vans, I could make out the face of the man. And worst of all, I could make out his expression. His expression of complete and utter betrayal and anger.

  Marco Desmond watched me as I was carefully ushered into an FBI car. I felt his eyes on me as the agents carefully loaded me in, bloody arm and all. And I felt his rage follow me as we drove away, leaving my heart in the dust.

  Chapter Twenty One

  Halle

  Three Days Later

  I kicked a loose piece of cement as I walked down the sidewalk towards my apartment. It had been three days since the raid and it still felt weird to head home. I had become so used to rooming at the Desmond compound that it felt almost alien to have a whole apartment to myself.

  After the botched raid, we had all been driven to a makeshift headquarters where they could separate the chaotic mess. They gathered up the spitting mad Juarez Family into a separate truck and quickly drove off, most likely to speak with international authorities about having the notorious mob in custody.

  I had been taken to a corner of the room where a temporary medical stand had been erected. The bullet had been a flesh wound. Stitches were all that were required.

  The twitchy agent who had botched the job was named Agent Ryan Moralez, I learned. Agent Truman had thrown off his helmet in disgust as soon as he had alighted from the truck at headquarters.

  I watched from my seat on the medical cot as Agent Moralez sheepishly pulled out his earpiece and undid his Kevlar vest which he had worn under his jacket.

  “What the fuck were you thinking there, Moralez?” Agent Truman demanded. Sweat from his hot gear was glistening off his forehead.

  Moralez looked ashamed and confused. “I know I fucked up,” he said.

  Agent Trum
an made a noise in the back of his throat as if to say, “No shit, Sherlock!”

  Moralez winced at the judgmental sound but he persevered. “But I really was trying my best. I had everything worked out and planned to the minute. But when Desmond changed the date, I—”

  “Then you clearly didn’t have everything planned out, did you?” Agent Truman interrupted, annoyed. “Any agent worth his salt would have a contingency plan in his pocket for situations just like this! You didn’t think that someone as paranoid and twitchy as Desmond would do something like a last minute date change? It’s textbook 101!”