Zak kept his features bland and pointed at the envelope. “Want me to drop that off for you?”
Eddie shook his head. “Nah. I’ll take care of it this afternoon.”
Zak backed away, but Eddie added, “Hey, Zak. On Monday you’ll finish that bike Julio was working on first thing, okay?”
“Sure.” Zak wasn’t actually planning on being here Monday. This was one of the things he hated about undercover work. Whether it was a good situation or a bad one, leaving abruptly when the job was done never sat well with him. It was like living only part of a life and then abandoning it before finishing things up. He knew it left some innocent people wondering what the hell had happened to him.
Kaitlin’s face appeared front and center in his mind. Zak blinked away the vision, got back on his bike and rode out of town, past the Devil’s Playground and several miles into the barren landscape of southern Arizona. He needed to clear his head before his meeting with Miles.
Zak drove for a long stretch without passing a single other vehicle. He did a U-turn and gunned the engine heading back the way he’d come to ensure no one had followed him, then turned onto a narrow dirt road. The landscape was dotted with lots of green for this part of the state, giving him even better cover the further he drove away from the main highway.
Four miles of surprisingly smooth terrain later, he took a left at the fork in the road, traversing slightly narrower and bumpier trail. This led to a surprisingly large cabin tucked away behind a long ago landslide that concealed the structure well.
Zak parked his bike out of sight and climbed up the stairs and entered the screened porch. He rapped a knuckle on the sliding glass door leading into a small den with a television going and slid it open.
Miles held up a bottle of water before tossing it in his direction. “You’re late.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Almost.”
“Fuck off.”
Miles laughed and gestured him inside the surprisingly cool house.
“Figured out a plan for tonight yet?” Zak took a long swig of water as he walked to the dining room, where the mission paperwork, pictures, and details had been set up.
“Maybe.” This meant yes.
Zak glanced at his watch, trying to calculate if he’d have enough time to see Kaitlin before the warehouse meeting with Miles, Demarco and Montego this evening.
“Got a date?” Miles asked.
“Nope.”
“Good. Did you break it off with her?”
“No. She broke it off with me.”
That seemed to catch Miles by surprise. “Why?”
Zak blew out a long sigh. “She caught me taking the money out of her shed before dawn this morning. Right after I picked the lock to get into it. Therefore, she wasn’t happy and wanted explanations. When I offered breakfast instead of an explanation, she chose not to join me. So I guess we’re done.”
“Even better. Now you can ride off into the sunset a free man after our meet tonight.”
Zak didn’t feel like the chains of a relationship were breaking away. Instead, he was miserable. He wanted to see her again. One last time. Checking his watch, he recalculated when he’d have to leave here to fit in a stop at her place before the meeting.
If Miles noticed how often he checked the time while they worked, he didn’t remark on it. They mapped out the scenario and a few backup plans if things didn’t go according to script.
“I’ll already be there when you arrive with your money. We’ll show them we have the funds, but insist on inspecting the goods. Nate Salerno is my guy checking the merchandise to ensure it’s what we think it is.”
“Okay. Who’s taking the stuff?”
“Nate will, once we exchange the money and the place is swarmed with cops. We don’t want any wannabe big shots from Demarco’s crew of losers taking off with the goods in the heat of the arrests.”
“Good point.”
“The more I think about it, the better I feel about this meet.”
Zak nodded. His eye landed on a file folder with Julio’s name on it. He picked it up and thumbed through it without really seeing any of the pages.
“Sorry about him, Zak. I wish I knew how he got caught.”
“He wasn’t even an informant. Just a connection we used to get in.” Zak remembered that at least Eddie would give his mother a few dollars. Perhaps he’d also send an anonymous donation to the man’s family. He flipped through the file to locate Julio’s current address.
“I know we’d planned to give him that status if needed,” Miles said. “But he was gone before it even became a topic of discussion.”
“Yeah.”
Zak paused on a summary of Julio’s childhood. An only child, his father had been the founder of the group Demarco now headed. That, Zak knew. He’d gone to prison when Julio was five and died there during a bloody riot between two rival gangs.
He searched for the address again, but saw a notation at the bottom of the page about Julio’s mother taking off for parts unknown before he finished high school. Interesting. So who was he living with if not his mother? Or had she come back into his life? He could have been living with anyone, like a grandmother or an aunt or even a baby mama.
“Eddie said Julio’s mother called to report his death, but his background says she ran off when he was a teenager. Was that us pretending to be his mother tying up a loose end?”
Miles looked over his shoulder at the file. “Don’t know. Maybe she came back and his background was never updated. I can find out and let you know.”
“Good. Thanks.”
Zak didn’t dwell on it. He found the current local address and memorized it for later. The least he could do was pay his respects to Julio’s mother if she was still around.
He checked his watch again. If he left right now, he’d have time to stop by Kaitlin’s house and say goodbye. Well, he wouldn’t say that, but perhaps he could smooth things over at least. He hated the thought of leaving for good while there were bad feelings between them.
Miles huffed. “Take off, already. Go make nice and say goodbye to her, for fuck’s sake.”
“I’m certain I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Whatever. You had a fight with your girl and she broke up with you. Not making nice will roil inside of you forever. You might even be tempted to come back here, going against every rule in our book. So go make your peace. But unless you’re going to make her your wife tonight, say goodbye for good. It’s the best way.”
Married men in The Organization were allowed to share basic knowledge operational status with their wives. Girlfriends? Absolutely not.
Zak grinned at the ludicrous idea of marrying Kaitlin tonight, but was grateful for the chance to see her one last time. “See you at the warehouse.”
“Yes, Mr. Pussy-Whipped, you will.”
“Fuck off,” Zak said, never losing the grin.
“I want your full game face tonight, Zak.”
“No problem. You’ll have it.”
Miles exited the narrow road ahead of Zak until they got to the highway.
Zak let out the throttle on the bike all the way back to town as the sun set in the west revealing a glorious orange and red streaked sky. With the exception of passing Miles driving a black four door sedan a mile out, Zak didn’t see anyone else on the road. He roared into the driveway. The curtain didn’t so much as twitch in Kaitlin’s window. Shit. Maybe she was truly through with him.
He frowned. Her house was completely dark. Perhaps she’d gone out. It was Saturday night. Was she on a date? He ignored the unwelcome feeling in the pit of his stomach that thought generated. He swung a leg over his bike to dismount, looking once more over his shoulder at the window, expecting to find her staring at his ass as usual.
The curtain didn’t move. Zak pushed out a long breath and headed for his front door. Over the fence to her property, he heard a cat meowing like it was caught in a trap or something. Zak veered to ope
n the unlocked gate leading to Kaitlin’s backyard.
The black and white fur ball she’d partially adopted sat on the back porch crying its little cat lungs out. The food bowl she always put out was empty and so was the water dish.
Zak expected the cat to run away as he climbed Kaitlin’s back porch stairs, but it didn’t. The fluffy little feline started winding around his ankles faster and faster, as if the speedier it went the better its chances of being fed.
“I can’t help you, little cat.” The cat meowed demandingly and kept threading between his ankles. Perhaps it smelled Kaitlin on him.
He knocked on her back door. A glance at his watch made him pound harder. He only had about ten minutes before he had to leave.
No lights came on. Expecting it to be locked, he turned the door handle anyway. The door swung open. He blocked the cat with his foot and shooed it away when it tried to rush inside. On the counter by the door was a neatly folded bag of cat food. He grabbed it, dumped a pile of dry food in the bowl outside. The cat stopped trying to get inside, buried its little head in the bowl and chomped the food ravenously.
“Kaitlin!” he called out, not wanting to frighten her. “Your back door is unlocked.”
Silence. Maybe she’d gone out with her stepsister to avoid running into him.
He bent to fill the cat’s water bowl from the spigot by the back door. He’d always enjoyed the view from his bedroom window of her bending over to fill the water dish this way.
Once the orphan cat was fed and watered, Zak walked a few more steps into the kitchen, calling her name over and over in louder increments. Nothing.
Zak locked the back door and pulled it closed. He checked under the flowerpot he’d overheard her tell Brooke about. The spare key was there. Good. She could still get in if she’d forgotten her keys.
He wished he could give her hell about leaving her door unlocked. He didn’t care how small and safe this town was, no woman living alone should be that trusting. Just consider the reason he was here in the first place. If that didn’t say “lock your doors,” he didn’t know what did.
Zak glanced at his watch one last time. He’d end up being a bit early for the meeting. Whatever. Not seeing Kaitlin before he left weighed on him, but he cast it aside in favor of the takedown. He had a job to do.
As Miles had requested, Zak put his game face on, prepared to arrest bad guys. If everything went according to plan, he and Miles would hand over the money, get the product, Nate would test it and then they’d all be arrested along with Demarco and Montego and their respective forces.
But only Miles and Zak had Get Out Of Jail Free cards.
He roared into the parking lot of the abandoned warehouse prepared to kick asses and take names.
Zak grabbed the saddlebags and headed through the door on the building’s north side. Inside, rows of old shelving reaching for the ceiling, empty except for a decade’s worth of dust. He walked down the center aisle between the sagging wood and metal shelves, all standing at attention like a recently retired platoon of soldiers. They were old and dusty, but still capable and serviceable.
Hearing voices coming from the opposite end of the warehouse, he picked up his pace. Just before he stepped into the next room beyond the large warehouse filled with dusty shelves, the peal of a woman’s laughter made him freeze.
Who the fuck would bring a girlfriend here?
Making a decision, Zak hefted the saddlebags higher on his shoulder and strode confidently through the opening into the next room. Demarco, Montego and Brooke were there. So, Montego was the arrogant prick who’d brought along his girlfriend. Figured. That she was Kaitlin’s sister made him a bit uneasy. However, if she ran with dogs, she should expect to get some fleas. She’d go to jail, just like the rest of them.
The back room was not as tall as the warehouse area and it was more cluttered. There were more shelves in either side, but they were smaller and shorter. The group stood in a clearing of sorts surrounded by stacks of wooden pallets that had seen better days and varying levels of boxes. There were a couple tables along the edges of the open space as well.
He didn’t see Miles, but his eyes went to another blonde head. He could barely see her, since Demarco and one of his guards blocked his view of the woman. He counted four goons, two for Demarco and two for Montego. Manageable if he had to take them on, but hopefully they’d surrender without a gunfight.
“Zak,” Demarco called out jovially. “We have a surprise for you.” He snapped his fingers and one of the burly guys behind him shoved the mysterious blonde forward into view.
Mouth trembling and unshed tears welling in her eyes, Kaitlin looked at him with a fear-filled gaze.
Fuck.
Chapter Eighteen
Kaitlin had never been as frightened as she was when Zak joined them in the warehouse. It had been a perilously long day fraught with one indignity after another as she was held against her will.
Demarco had not waited for an invitation, but instead muscled his way into her home. She’d asked him to leave, but he’d declined, telling her to behave or her day could get much worse.
Brooke had descended the stairs with her bags packed and looked on as if nothing of note had transpired. Kaitlin felt a pang of guilt that her stepsister was about to be caught up in whatever was happening, but it vanished when Brooke sidled up to Demarco like he was her long lost sugar daddy. She planted a kiss directly on his mouth.
“Are you packed and ready to go, my sweet?” Demarco asked her politely, a shimmer of her lipstick still coating his lower lip.
“Indeed.” Brooke solicitously wiped the lipstick stain away with her thumb. Too bad. Kaitlin would have loved to see Ernesto’s expression when he discovered Demarco was stepping out with his woman.
“What is going on here?” Kaitlin had backed toward the kitchen with the idea that maybe she could escape through the back door. Had she locked it after her cryfest? It was a foolish thought, given the cozy way her stepsister and the beautiful demon were acting, but she couldn’t help it.
“You’re coming with us, sis,” Brooke said.
“No, thank you.”
Demarco grinned wider. “I’ll have to insist.”
Through all the rest of her day in captivity, her stepsister had been a total mean girl. From all the conversations she’d overheard, it seemed that Demarco and Ernesto were in league with a third bad guy whose name they hadn’t mentioned.
She’d first assumed it was Zak, but then realized they were leading him into some kind of trap. The three conspirators planned to take advantage of him tonight after he paid them. It was likely the same batch of cash that had caused their unfortunate argument this morning.
Did that make Zak a dumb criminal who’d trusted when he shouldn’t have? Was he here to stop them? Or was she painting him as a good guy because that’s what she wanted him to be? Even so, she clung to that unlikely scenario as her day progressed.
They hadn’t tied her up, but had threatened to if she didn’t cooperate. They’d fed her and Brooke an elaborate late lunch in a back room. She’d wanted to steal the steak knife to use as a weapon, but there hadn’t been an opportunity to get away with it. She had no weapon, nor did she really have the knowledge to use one if she did come across one. She felt pretty useless.
Now that Zak was here, waves of relief washed through her with each step closer he came. It didn’t matter that they’d parted on poor terms. He’d take care of her, just like he had at the Devil’s Playground.
Although the closer he got, the angrier he looked. Was he angry because she was encroaching on another meeting with Demarco? Did he know she hadn’t been given a choice?
Lips trembling, not even knowing what to say, Kaitlin started to explain. “Zak. I—”
“Silence!” Demarco barked, giving her a malevolent stare.
She sealed her lips tight, but her gaze stayed on Zak. His expression was almost sinister, but his focus was Demarco, not her. Small relief, given th
e circumstances.
“Why did you bring her here?” he asked.
Demarco grinned. “To ensure your cooperation. I was afraid you’d balk at working with Miles at the last moment. She’s here only to ensure you hold up your part of the bargain.”
Zak snorted. “Too bad we broke up.”
“What’s this? You broke up with her?” Demarco looked unconcerned with the demise of their relationship. “This calls into question your sanity, my friend.” He leered at Kaitlin.
“No. She ended it.” His gaze went to the gun Demarco held on Kaitlin and then drilled into the other man’s face. “Hard to blame her, given how she’s been treated around the people I associate with.”
“That may be true, but regardless of your relationship issues, it doesn’t change the fact that she holds sway over you. I can see in your eyes right now that you care for her. I can’t imagine you’ll let any harm come to her, even if she truly stomped on your heart. Her continued safety still ensures your cooperation, does it not?”
Zak’s lips shaped into a smile, but his eyes were cold, angry and unwavering from Demarco’s. “At this point, I’m hopeful that if I kill you and save her, she’ll take me back. Want to get married later, baby?” he asked her with a wink. Kaitlin almost responded. Her eyes widened at the utter surprise of his sudden proposal. Yes, she wanted to scream. Let’s go right now.
Demarco laughed uproariously. “Big talk for a man not at all in control of this situation.”
Zak sent his gaze skyward for a second, then changed the subject as he lowered his head. “Where’s your boy Miles?” His gaze strayed to Ernesto. “I’d like to finish this deal and get on with my life.”
Demarco also looked briefly at Ernesto. “Patience, my friend. I’m certain he’s on his way. You’re early. If all goes according to my plan, we’ll all be rich tonight.”
Kaitlin hadn’t been too surprised to see Ernesto show up, since Brooke was with her and Demarco. He’d joined them less than half an hour before Zak arrived. Kaitlin would have loved to tell Ernesto about Brooke’s kiss with Demarco, but her stepsister threatened to have Zak killed the moment he stepped into the warehouse if she did.
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