The-Forgetful-Spy-Santiago

by The Forgetful Spy (lit)

  Laurie leaned in and kissed him. Another of his fingers entered her as she licked her tongue between his lips. The sudden stroke of his thumb across her clit forced a shudder so violent she nearly broke the sultry kiss.

  Lost in rapturous sensation, she failed to notice his free hand had moved under her shirt until he pinched a nipple through the lace of her bra. Her focused attention was triply divided between the pleasure of his hands and mouth. She couldn’t catch her breath as a powerful climax engulfed her body.

  Arching backward, their kiss broke. Eyes squeezed shut at the power of the orgasm rushing through her she shrieked.

  “God, you’re sexy.” Colin pulled her shirt up and with it came one breast slipping from underneath the lacy cup of her bra. His mouth fastened to her nipple teasing it with his tongue as waves of aftershock rode over her body.

  His fingers slipped from her saturated core. She slumped over as he brought that hand to his mouth. Her heart slammed in her chest when he licked his fingers and her mouth fell open in surprise. Breathing hard, she tried to get hold of herself.

  “You taste good.”

  “You feel good.” She glanced down at the cracked leather cushion. It was likely that she’d never look at this sofa in exactly the same way again and a smile erupted.

  The sound of Colin’s phone chirping interrupted their intimate moment. It wasn’t a standard phone ring, but she’d yet to identify the song playing.

  He broke away and pulled the cell off his belt.

  Clearing his throat once, he flipped it open. “Riley,” he sighed into the phone.

  After listening for a few moments, he closed his eyes and shook his head. “Got it,” he said after a few more moments.

  Snapping the phone closed without saying good-bye to his caller, he opened his eyes. “Guess what?”

  “Your boss called and needs you to go do something important?”

  He laughed. “Exactly. You must be psychic.”

  “Is this what life as the girlfriend of an FBI agent is like?”

  His eyes narrowed but the smile on his face remained. “Yes. Are you interested in being my girlfriend or are you just teasing me?”

  Laurie leaned closer and kissed him again. “I’m interested, as long as we keep it a secret.”

  “Secrets are my business, darlin’.” He kissed her. “Are you ever going to give me your home phone number?”

  She sent her gaze to the ceiling. “Of course, right after my aunt is put into a nursing home or institutionalized with no memory that she even has a niece.” She stood up, but truly hated to leave the warmth of his embrace.

  Colin chuckled as he rose from the sofa. He pulled a business card from his shirt pocket. “Why don’t I give you my number. You can call me whenever you want. Leave a message if I don’t answer.”

  Plucking the card from his fingers, she held his gaze and tucked it inside her bra. He groaned. “I would have done that for you, darlin’.”

  Laurie let him out the back door to where her car was parked. The small weed-strewn employee parking lot was behind the building. A single street light hovered above them sending down a modest light.

  Colin grabbed her into a tight bear hug after she locked the back door. “I’m not sure when I’ll be back.”

  “I’ll be here.”

  He squeezed her tight and pulled away to capture her lips in a blistering kiss.

  After several lip-licking moments he released her. “Don’t forget, you can call me, if you want.” He patted her breast where the card rested and smiled.

  “Right.” It wasn’t until she stepped away from Colin that she noticed Royce’s car parked at the end of the library’s back alley. By the straightening of Colin’s spine as he walked away, she suspected he’d just noticed Royce watching them too.

  Chapter 11

  “We found a list of where the bodies are buried.” Ken Davenport flipped off the lights in the conference room and began the latest joint task force assignment briefing.

  First to arrive in the room, Colin had been daydreaming about his complicated love life. His eyes strained to adjust in the sudden darkness. He glanced at the large white screen descending from the ceiling and realized that he wasn’t alone any longer.

  Various members of two separate black ops teams had filed into the conference room where he sat and positioned themselves around the large table.

  A sophisticated overhead projection system shot the first grainy, long-distance photo of Salerno onto the screen.

  “Thanks to the members of my team.” Paul’s mutter was not quite under his breath.

  Ken didn’t acknowledge Paul’s comment. He continued without skipping a beat. “The flash drive obtained from Salerno’s suite during the Las Vegas job,” Ken paused and nodded once in Frankie’s direction, “and deciphered very quickly by Miss Frankie Belle, was a virtual plethora of information. Much of it we already knew.

  “It included not only a complete and detailed past history of his dealings dating back more than two decades, but also a listing of several residential and commercial real estate locations across the country. We can only surmise the contents of these properties contain a cache of stolen inventory.”

  Ken clicked the remote and the screen behind him lit up with an old picture of Salerno standing in front of a log cabin nestled in a forest.

  Salerno was dead now. Killed by the family he’d been unable to do business with because of the Vegas robbery Colin and Rachel had successfully pulled off.

  Through various cameras in the hotel’s stairways and hallways, Frankie had pieced together a probable timetable of Salerno’s last night on earth. They’d watched it earlier before this team effort was announced.

  Salerno had raced up to the penthouse ignoring the signal to evacuate the building as the fire alarm shrilled only to find his safe emptied and the flash drive missing.

  Once Salerno returned to the hallway outside his penthouse empty-handed, the thug accompanying the buyer’s family had turned, pierced the camera’s lens with a malicious gaze, lifted his gun and eliminated the wall mounted security camera with one shot.

  After the all clear was given, the fire department found Salerno’s crumpled, bullet-ridden body outside his door.

  Local police had assumed custody of the crime scene. Once they heard about the fake fire alarm and that someone was caught on tape, they wanted to implicate Zack as an accessory in the murder.

  The crappy kitchen surveillance tape was initially difficult to see until a technician cleaned it up. When it was learned Zack was a federal agent in the middle of a sanctioned job, the local police had wanted an internal investigation.

  The allegations were denied by Senator Bremer himself, which infuriated them further. The back channels Colin’s team used to get their jobs done were always authorized by the Senator and his council.

  The local law enforcement complained about misuse of emergency allocations and called Ken on it. Colin knew Ken was only angry because Zack had gotten caught on tape. Once Frankie worked another miracle by destroying the original tape evidence with a virus, Ken relaxed and announced today’s joint team effort to recover Salerno’s goods.

  Colin hoped that Rachel was off the hook for the fire alarm incident.

  Ken clicked to the next slide. “This shows a diagram of the area where we’ll be staging…”

  Colin zoned Ken out. This meeting was for the benefit of the Protocol Agency. In a circus of moves, the flash drive Colin had found and given to Rachel ended up with Paul Kelly. Ken received the device from Paul as an under the table payment for Zack getting caught on tape. However, because Paul arranged for the video to be corrupted, Ken was directed to allow Paul and his team in on the recovery of Salerno’s treasures.

  Ken informed him that Senator Bremer, for reasons unknown, insisted that the two teams work together. Colin suspected it had to do with money.

  In his opinion, joint task operations were often formed because someone looked at a bottom line
somewhere and tried to save a buck. Besides, Senator Bremer was well known for being a tight ass with regard to funding black ops missions. He perhaps thought it would be cheaper to combine two teams into one large task force.

  Secretly, Colin was just glad for the opportunity to work with Rachel. Even if he had to endure the hairy eyeball stares from both Paul and Ken.

  Late the night before, he’d left Laurie and resisted the urge to follow her home again. He’d hopped inside his rental, gunned the engine and cruised towards Royce’s vehicle with the intent of having a stern conversation. The sheriff pulled away as Laurie left the library parking lot before Colin could stop him. The next time he was in Alabama, Colin planned to have a ‘come-to-Jesus’ chat with Royce.

  The other love of his life was currently less than five feet away. It might as well have been five miles. Colin took a deep breath and closed his eyes as the scent of her perfume registered deeply and wrapped around his unsatisfied libido.

  He shifted silently in his chair to relieve the sudden ache in his cock. If he didn’t love his job so much he might have dived across the table, tackled her to the floor and latched his lips to hers before proceeding to do wild and wicked things. He might do it anyway just to see the expression on Paul Kelly’s face.

  Rachel, Frankie and Paul were seated across the table and all poised to take part in the joint task force. Colin couldn’t seem to keep his attention off of Rachel, which earned him several harsh glares from Paul. He didn’t care.

  Rachel kept her head down and doodled on the note pad centered before her. The one time they’d locked gazes across the table it was a wonder the volcanic nature of it hadn’t set off the sprinkler system.

  Switching to covert glances only helped marginally. Colin realized he was totally smitten with Rachel, the lovely spy who’d saved his ass in Columbia. He was also in love with her civilian counterpart, Laurie, the shy librarian who rebelliously disobeyed her aunt just to be with him.

  Watching Rachel this close made him crazy. He’d take the first opportunity to wrap her in his arms and let their unavoidable relationship flourish regardless of their respective chains of command trying to interfere.

  “…we believe this location must have had some sentimental attachment to Salerno as we can’t find any substantial warehouse capability for the property. He’s owned and kept the place up over several years.” Ken’s voice drifted back in to Colin’s brain.

  Seated next to Colin was a replacement agent he and Zack had worked with previously on several jobs. A strapping, fairly tall, redhead, Jake was young, but a very good agent. Colin’s partner, Zack, had been sent on an unnamed mission to be explained later.

  Glancing at Frankie, Colin made a mental note to let Zack know that she was most definitely a babe. She was lean and tall with long, curly light brown hair, highlighted in both blonde and red. Her toothy grin beneath a wide mouth could certainly be considered inspiring. She wasn’t Colin’s type as a rule, but certainly not a mud hen. Zack would be disappointed to learn that he’d missed this briefing since Frankie was present.

  His gaze drifted to the girl he considered his type, Rachel.

  “There is so much information on the flash drive, we hardly know which treasure to dig up and sort through first…”

  Colin tuned out Ken’s voice again so he could study the others in the conference room. He’d purposefully sat towards the back of the room upon entering so he could surreptitiously watch the object of his desire when she arrived.

  Rachel sat on the opposite side of the large black, oval table centered in the conference room. She was positioned between Frankie and Paul so he was able to monitor all three of them without it being completely obvious.

  Frankie was in the first seat closest to the front of the room. She took notes like a student vying for the annual teacher’s pet award. Rachel sat next to her.

  Unlike her partner, she merely watched the screen on the wall. Her spine was locked into the upright position. One hand rested sedately on the table, the other out of sight. He could tell she was on edge from her posture. Perhaps she sensed him watching.

  Before they’d come in to the briefing, Ken had reiterated the hands-off speech from last week with regard to any Protocol spies. To reiterate the point, Paul approached and bestowed another malevolent glare.

  Colin placed a perturbed expression on his face during any and all lectures from either Paul or Ken. If he acted too obliging, Ken would suspect he was up to something. He wasn’t ready to spill about his secret knowledge regarding where Rachel spent her off hours.

  Seated next to Rachel, Paul Kelly maintained a petulant arms-crossed stance, slumped in his chair as if in silent protest of Ken being in charge of this mission. Interesting attitude since he was the one who gave up the flash drive to Ken in the first place.

  “Here’s the oddity,” Ken’s voice penetrated Colin’s tedium. The screen flashed to a non-descript building. It looked like an old apartment building in an aging suburb.

  “This was the only address listed that we didn’t already know about or suspect as belonging to Salerno.” Ken turned to face the occupants of the room. “We have no idea why this property is listed with the others. It’s not even registered to a name we’ve associated with Salerno before.”

  Ken flashed another slide showing the place they were headed to next. The other locations listed on the flash drive were supposedly the mother lode of Salerno’s confiscated materials and stolen goods. Once inventoried, they expected to clear up several pending cases in the open federal files.

  The lights came up and Ken asked, “Any questions?”

  Frankie spoke up. “Which agency will be in charge of the mission?”

  Ken responded smoothly, “Ours. However, Mr. Kelly and your Protocol Agency will be included in all aspects of the assignment as a joint task force.”

  Paul tilted his head and cracked his neck in acknowledgment.

  Ken grabbed a glass of water from a table in the front of the room and asked, “Anything else?” before taking a sip.

  Paul raised his hand like a second-grader wanting permission to go to the little boys’ room. Ken inclined his head and barked, “Speak.”

  “Do you have blueprints for the building?”

  Ken squinted and shrugged his shoulders. “They’re being provided for tactical. Why?”

  “I’d like Rachel to take a look at them before we enter the target building.”

  “Fine. A copy will be supplied to her.

  “If there’s nothing else…” He paused and glanced around the room. “…then prepare to fly to St. Louis this afternoon. Wheels are up in an hour. We’ll give out specific assignments in the air.”

  Rachel didn’t look at him, but Frankie did. She glanced between the two of them several times. Colin thought he saw a hint of a smile and decided she might be a great ally. Paul on the other hand fairly growled each time he caught Colin’s eye or was forced to communicate with him.

  Ken’s voice penetrated his occupied mind. “Colin? A word please.”

  He expected another lecture about Rachel or a reprimand or perhaps both. “Where’s Zack?” Colin asked quickly to throw Ken off.

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. He’s in Columbia.”

  That got his attention. “Columbia? Why?” Surprised he wasn’t being chastised made him unprepared for any other subjects.

  “We got an interesting anonymous tip and I sent Zack to follow up.”

  “What anonymous tip about Columbia?”

  Ken’s distracted expression didn’t focus on his face. He looked past Colin’s shoulder at Paul and his two agents in a huddle at the other side of the room. “Luis Montoya escaped from the Columbian prison he was sent to after his arrest.” Ken looked him in the eye. “My source said he must have had help to get out, but no one has any concrete information on who it was and no one at the prison is admitting anything.”

  Colin narrowed his gaze. “Luis had lots of loyal follow
ers outside of Raoul Ortega’s organization. It could be any one of a dozen guys. I know several places to check.”

  Ken nodded. “Once we check out Salerno’s mystery residence, I’ll send you to meet Zack at a rendezvous location for back up. You’re too hot to show your face in Columbia.

  “If you go back you’ll have to resurrect Tommy Callahan. He’s supposed to be incarcerated. If you’re out you’d need a plausible reason why you haven’t been seen languishing in prison like all the others. It was easier to send Zack.”

  “Right.”

  “And another thing,” Ken leaned in close and smiled. “Stay away from the blonde.”

  * * * *

  Rachel watched Colin at every opportunity during the headquarters briefing and again during the pre-flight meeting prior to getting on the plane. An hour later, both teams were comfortably seated in a chartered Cessna aircraft and headed to the Midwest.

  It hadn’t been fully explained why she was allowed to work with Colin, but she suspected it was not Paul’s idea. He’d given her another lecture and several glares to reiterate his commandment that she leave Colin alone. At the last minute, Paul decided to accompany them on the trip.

  Paul expected her undying cooperation.

  Rachel wasn’t quite ready to give up the fight for a boyfriend quite yet. Colin made her blood boil in desire from across the room. His mere presence brought thoughts and memories that were not at all suited for mission business.

  The times she’d been successful in her surreptitious glances, Colin had been watching her too. The thought made her smile internally, but she knew if there were any ‘challenges’ on this mission, Paul would blame it on the relationship between them. She didn’t want to incur any further lectures or face his wrath so she vowed to be on her best behavior until the task was complete. After that, all bets were off. Her next mission was going to be a manhunt.

  Once they were in the air, Ken briefed further. “We’ll be landing at Lambert International Airport in a couple of hours. From there we’ll rendezvous at a safe house and pick up our gear and vehicles. Our initial mission is to investigate this residence, get inside if we can and collect intelligence as to why it’s on Salerno’s secret flash drive. We’ll have two of you infiltrate the residence, one will remain outside for perimeter control and the other will monitor the com-link.”