by Dianna Love
I nearly fell off my chair. “What?”
“Her justification as to why you’d be with him last night. I thought it was a very inventive spur of the moment excuse.”
“Yeah, creative points to Dominique.” The woman was working way too hard to discredit me. Was my cover blown? Franco’s voice slid into seriousness. “Don’t let her fool you, sweet cheeks. The woman would make a barracuda seem tame in comparison. And she does not care for you.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“You should be careful with her. Bran can control her to a certain extent, but even he is clueless to how very cunning and very ruthless she is. The woman should have been born with balls. Steel ones. Some say she was.”
“Thanks, I’ll remember that.” As if I wasn’t aware of Dominique’s ruthlessness and ambition every second I’d been on the tour.
“My turn now.” Franco looked so delighted, I expected he’d start clapping his hands any moment. Then I’d have to slap him.
“Fine.” So my tone wasn’t gracious, sue me. “Nothing personal though.”
“Have it your way. Did you sleep with him?”
“What?”
He popped a bite of mango in his mouth. “You heard—”
“That’s damn personal in my book.”
“Then you need a different book. Besides—” He glanced around though the buffet was still deserted. “I have money riding on this.”
“Money riding on what?”
“Whether you did the deed with Bran.” He sighed dramatically. “There’s been a pool going for over a week now. Given how fast he returned last night, the fact his clothes were hardly mussed and the scowl on his face, I’d say I’m still in the running with a resounding no.”
I pushed my chair away from the table. “Get a life.”
“Oh, but darling, why should I when those lives around me are so much messier.”
Little did he know.
I walked away, leaving him waving a fork after me and shouting, “It’s all right. Hold out for as long as you can. I have fifty bucks riding on it.”
His bet and my job.
CHAPTER 43
“Jaylene, is that you? Where’s Kel?” I asked once back in the privacy of my bungalow, feeling as if I’d eaten a boatload of jumping shrimp for breakfast. Nerves? Anger? Frustration? All combined. I wanted answers, enough Ms. Play by the Rules.
“And it’s nice to talk to you, too. Nice to know I’ve been missed. Nice to—”
Sheesh. Everyone had an agenda.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, “too focused on the situation.” And getting Van back alive. My tone said get over it even as I sucked in a deep breath, remembering Stone’s words. Be a team player. I stared from my verandah across the empty bowl of blue ocean and sky and released a sigh as I chewed my lip. A scene as surreal as my earlier conversation with Franco.
“So how’s the hunk who makes dresses?”
Leave it to Jaylene not to tap dance around the exact topic I didn’t want to talk about.
“He’s fine.” Lord, that sounded lame even as I snapped the answer.
“You sleep with him yet?”
What was it with everyone asking about my sex life? Hadn’t anyone ever heard of privacy?
“I’m not here to sleep with him. I’m here to investigate him.”
Jaylene’s throaty laughter rumbled through the line. “Nothing saying you can’t investigate him up close and personal.”
“And compromise the investigation?”
“Whoa, girlfriend. I’m not saying marry the dude. I’m saying have some fun if it presents itself.”
“Well, it won’t.”
“What? Present itself or be fun?”
I rolled my eyes since no one could see me, then cleared a jam in my throat. “Can we move along? Any news on those numbers I called in last night? Or on the murder investigation?”
“Got some news on the killing of your model. Which is why I’m here with Kelly. I just brought her the intel in person.” I curled my fingers around the verandah railing as Jaylene’s tone turned serious. “I don’t have all the scientific lingo, but the bottom line is she was found with a very unusual, synthetic, and previously unknown drug in her system.”
“What kind of drug?”
“Not your street-variety kind that’s for sure. Definitely high-price designer. Seems it’s experimental so the chemist dudes are still trying to put all their geek heads together to pin it down.”
“Is it a poison?”
“Nah. More like a combination date rape meets Prozac kind of thing. This is some serious bad news. A user wouldn’t be aware she’d taken the shit and would have no memory of it later. She’d just feel very, very good with some vague memories that wouldn’t seem real.”
“Like Rohypnol?” I asked, adding up the implications like an accountant at tax season.
“Yeah, only this stuff appears to have an interesting side effect. It makes a person open to suggestion.”
“Like hypnosis?”
“Yup, just like that.”
I whistled. “So if someone was slipped this stuff, you’re saying they could do something against their will and have no knowledge about it?”
“I’m not saying it. The scientists guys are. They think it was designed to be a Prozac knockoff and then someone figured out this side effect. Fassbinder has her own theories that Ling Mai is following up with.”
“Like what?”
“Like it’s been enhanced with a preternatural venom. Regular science dudes are never going to pinpoint that.”
“Is this what Interpol stumbled on to? Someone’s using this drug to force people to steal for them?” I asked, the tumblers clicking at last. This threw the whole investigation a curve ball. This was more than human to human bad stuff, there was clearly a non-human element at work. Which could explain why this mysterious Vaverek might be in the game.
“Interpol or the scientists or anybody know if the victims have all been human?” Not that it’d be an easy thing to find out without sending someone with the agency ring to meet each victim in person.
“No way to find out. Ling Mai is working with Interpol on getting more intel on this drug, but it looks like the drug is driving the thefts.”
“But no clue as to who’s administering it?”
“You got it, girl. All we know is that someone in that traveling circus you’re with is possibly slipping it to select clients. Then the dupes perform the thefts without an idea they were involved.”
Ingenious. And nasty, really nasty. I released another frustrated breath. “So what happened to Sasha? I can’t believe someone would sit there and let their throat get slit without fighting back.”
“They would if they’re under the suggestion that something else is happening, or about to happen. Far as that poor girl knew she was going to get a neck massage or somethin’. She didn’t fight what she didn’t see coming.”
“Holy crud.”
“Ditto.” Jaylene shouted something to Kelly in the background before saying. “So, given the crap you’re dealing with, I’m going to be meeting up with you as soon as I can be inserted. We can get a good cover story down by Miami. Vaughn’s joining us there too, but as a guest.”
Two days away. Unless Bran cancelled the tour. Which he couldn’t be allowed to do. No tour, the trail for the drug could go underground. As well as any intel on Van.
“You still there?” Jaylene asked.
“Yeah, I’m here.” Grappling with all the implications. “Anybody have any idea of what this drug looks like? Pill or liquid form? How long it takes to act? If someone has to have a certain predisposition to it?”
“Whoa, girlfriend. They’re stoked that they got as much info as they have about this. Seems it disappears from the system relatively quickly. They found it in the dead model because Ling Mai had the French cops rush the autopsy.”
“Someone has figured out how to execute the perfect crime.” I shook my head, a
mazed how simple, and how complicated the set up was. The mastermind never was present at the actual crime scenes, so no fingers pointing in their direction. And how did they find who the next potential victim would be? “This is slicker than cow slobber.”
“Whatever. Not how I’d—” Jaylene snorted. “Anyway, this stuff ever gets to the market, no telling where it can lead.”
“So Bran’s tour is a testing ground. Someone’s been using his clients as guinea pigs.”
“Could be your hunk guy himself. I’d say that kind of power could be pretty addictive. Better than sewing dresses.”
How far would a warlock go to make his name?
“He doesn’t sew dresses.” But he did have some issues with his reputation; and being the force behind this new drug could be a heady rush for a guy who valued being acknowledged.
“From theft to murder,” Jaylene said. “I’d say that’s about as cold and calculating as one could get.”
But that didn’t sound like Bran. At least not the Bran I’d gotten to know. Arrogant. Difficult. Complicated. All of those and more but not cold. Not the guy who made sure one of his employees traveled to a family funeral and had it paid for or made sure that another employee stepped away from an abusive relationship.
On the other hand, that could all be smoke and mirrors. Maybe Jaylene was right? I should have sex with the guy and get him out of my system so I could focus on the mission.
But what if he was as addictive as this new drug?
So who else could be administering the drug? That was the million dollar question. Dominique? Oh, yeah, that’d be an easy stretch of the imagination, the woman liked control. Control and power. Plus she had easy access to all the guests. But was she acting alone? And then there were still the unknowns. Franco’s background check still was unclear. Collette with her early years of crime? And who had searched my room last night and why?
Franco was right; some lives were just a mess.
“Any news on Van?” I asked, expecting a no but unable not to ask anyway.
“Other than he was seen in the company of one of those two shifters you described as attacking you on the yacht. There’s a connection Alex, we just can’t put all the pieces together. But we will.”
I nodded as if she could see me, but it was a lackluster movement. Every day with no news made bad news inevitable. “So you’re coming on board the tour?” I repeated, loathe to lose the connection just yet.
“Soon as I can.”
Good news. This was no longer a reconnoiter and report mission. It’d just blown up.
I went back to an earlier thought. “Any info on that phone number I gave Kelly last night?”
“She’s working on it.” Jaylene paused, then added. “Ling Mai’s had all of us stretched pretty thin the last week, but it’s still no excuse to leave you with your ass showing.”
How apt. “I’ve had the operation under control.” Most of it, anyway, but I did appreciate the recognition, especially coming from Jaylene who was more a bitch-slap- some-sense-into-you kind of gal than the warm and friendly pat on the back type.
“The team will be with you as soon as we can,” she said. “Meantime, watch your back.”
“Trust me, that’s on my game plan.” Along with a few other options.
I shivered beneath the strong rays of the tropical sun. I hadn’t survived four brothers and the initial IR training to fall victim to some chemistry.
The team was coming. Good news.
Bad news—someone was playing for keeps, and wouldn’t balk at getting rid of any obstacle—including a hairdresser.
CHAPTER 44
“You look like hell,” Jaylene was standing on the patio of my poolside room at the Brasserie Lounge in Miami’s fabled Delano Hotel, a soft ocean breeze kissing our skins, the pulsing beat of Afro Celtic music pouring out of the nearby lounge. The lounge totally commandeered this evening specifically for Bran’s models and his guests. One of them a killer.
I stepped away from the door jamb I’d been leaning against. “Good, I feel like hell, too.”
Juggling waiting for the team to get on board, my duties as a hairdresser, and the landmine of a difficult warlock would wipe out anyone.
“I can take over this op for you from here on in,” Jaylene kept her voice low, if intense. “You can get some recovery time.”
“Not likely.”
“Girlfriend.” Jaylene pulled herself up to her six-foot height and glared down at me. “So you haven’t found anything concrete yet. So what? No need to beat yourself up.”
I shoved useless hands against my dress. Who wore clothes without pockets anyway. “Sasha’s dead. There are no leads, no concrete anything to nail this bastard. No news about Van. I’d say that’s a big failure in anyone’s book.”
“Ever think you’re looking at this the wrong way?” Jaylene had the street smarts to look away from me when she called me an idiot.
I snorted, in spite of the fact it took effort to do so, energy that was hard to come by.
Jaylene rolled her eyes and stepped closer. “Damn, you’re stubborn. You ever think you’ve rattled someone’s cage? That you’re forcing them into rash actions? That Sasha’s death means someone is running scared?”
“So now my actions led to an innocent woman’s death?”
“She was an operative. You didn’t kill her.”
I shrugged, trying to release some of my tension. “Right now I’m pissed. This is personal, it’s not just about stopping a thief and killer.”
“Ling Mai hears you and you’ll get yanked faster than a bungee jumper’s cord. Personal doesn’t belong on a mission.” Jaylene whistled as she glanced toward the club starting to buzz with nightlife. Half-naked men. Barely there dresses on women. Tanned, taut flesh all around. Beautiful people playing hard. “But then what Ling Mai doesn’t know isn’t going to hurt her. You got a plan or just going to go in and knock some heads around?”
“Sounds good to me.”
“Sounds like the way Montana Alex would approach the problem.”
I shot Jaylene an exasperated frown. “I’m from Idaho, and I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you do. Shoot first and ask questions later. A fight isn’t a good fight unless there’s blood and broken bones. Isn’t that what they taught you on the farm with those brothers of yours?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” I did know, but that wasn’t the point. Finding who wanted me taken out was.
“Living with bruiser brothers isn’t that far from living on the streets.” Jaylene stepped closer. “And I know streets. I also know what it’s like to doubt yourself.”
“Every time I’ve turned around on this op I’ve screwed up.” Bile rose in my throat.
“That’s a bunch of crap.”
“I haven’t found who’s behind the thefts or pushing the drug. Sasha’s dead. Van’s still gone. Reads like screw-up in my book.”
“Honey, you’re sounding like a broken record. We failed, not you.”
That had me cranking up my spine. My op—my responsibility. “No—”
“We’re a team and we weren’t close enough to watch your back, even when all the flags and whistles were going off.”
“I—”
“Shut up and listen, girlfriend. I’m only going to say this once. You came in to a reconnoiter and report mission. That mission changed the minute that model girl died and those shifters came after you. Where were we? Scattered all over the globe. She was killed, right under your nose, and we still couldn’t get close enough to protect you. Sure, mistakes were made, but you can’t claim them all.”
I shook my head, feeling as light and disjointed as my body. I’d resisted this, being part of the IR team, in spite of Stone’s threats to the counter. I didn’t expect anyone to cover my six. I was the one who just about killed us all with the trio of echo-demons, so how could I trust Jaylene’s words? “I should have—”
“Lordy, L
ord, it’s a good thing you’re looking like death warmed over even in that killer dress or I’d have to slap you.” Scowling, Jaylene leaned forward and waved one inch-long acrylic talon in my face. “Now listen. You are one of us, even if you damn near killed Mandy. But you are the one who got rid of those green demons. Then you go right back into battle, all banged up, without a whimper. You make Wonder Woman look like a wimp. So you don’t go telling me you failed. You held on longer than any of us could have and never once asked to be pulled or demanded backup when you should have. Last I checked you’re only human, or mostly.” Jaylene snorted. “Not that you’d admit it. So lighten up.”
I shook my head again, my eyes stinging, my gut wrung dry. Here everything I’d been doing was for Van’s sake and Jaylene was making me sound like some rah-rah IR poster child. If only she knew.
“I so am right, Alex Noziak,” Jaylene said in that no-other-option way of hers. “You’re just not smart enough to realize that fact. I don’t want you going off and doing something stupid before you get your head on straight. Farm, or ranch, or whatever the hell you call it, those rules don’t apply here.”
“I’m not—”
“Oh, yes you are, girlfriend, else you wouldn’t be figuring you had to do this on your own. You could wait for Vaughn to get her skinny ass here and have us go in as a team.”
“But I’m the one with the cover in place.”
“Circumstances have changed. I’m the new model; that should count for something. And it’ll take Vaughn less than five minutes to have this whole crew thinking she’s something special.” Jaylene crossed her arms and wagged her head. “So why don’t you sashay over to that boyfriend of yours and—” She glanced over to where Bran was standing inside the bar.
“He’s not my boyfriend.”
“You are just clueless all over the place.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” I brushed my hair back, wearing it straight again. Killer straight.
Jaylene was right. Emotions could get us all killed. Now was not the time to focus on what wasn’t working but to shift tactics. My team was behind me one hundred percent now. New territory. New rules. Time to play this game my way.