Mitchell watched for a moment, his eyes filled with drunken appreciation. Then he turned to me and hissed, “Not bad, but I prefer that other one. Poppy. Fucking gorgeous girl.”
I nodded, my distaste for this man complete. He was talking about Audra. He was talking about the only woman in this entire building who made this almost worth it. At least, she had, until I realized she’d been lying to me all along.
Liars. If there was one thing I hated more than any other, it was liars.
“My package. Was it delivered, Mitchell?”
The man nodded, clearly distracted. When I didn’t respond, he turned to me with a more serious expression on his puffy face. “Everything is on schedule. He’s been alerted to what’s happening. It’ll go down as planned on Wednesday.”
That’s all I’d wanted to hear.
I made an excuse a moment later, distracting him with one of the other dancers who’d come out to entertain the masses on the floor. I wandered back to the bar, stopping to have a word here and there with other VIPs. Ali was watching me and I knew that meant something was up. I leaned over the bar as he handed me another shot of whiskey.
“The blonde on the end? She’s asking questions about Mercedes.”
Another mess?
Mercedes was gone. She’d begun asking too many questions about her kid. Rahul only heard it once, yet he was annoyed enough that he was already suggesting taking her out himself. Fortunately, he was too distracted with the bust on his crew last night to notice she hadn’t shown to work today.
I wandered to the end of the bar, curious about this petite blonde. She couldn’t have been much over five foot with a bone structure that brought to mind a tiny bird. She was the kind of woman who needed protecting, not the kind you had to be weary of. Yet, she was here the same day I had to make two girls disappear, and, to top it off, she had questions about one of them. That couldn’t be a good sign.
“I understand you’re looking for one of our girls.”
The blonde looked up at me, her big blue eyes almost pouty in the way they moved over me. She looked like a woman with a lot on her mind, but then this wall fell and she just seemed bored. Maybe even a little exasperated.
“She gave me her number a couple of days ago, but she’s not answering my calls. I was just hoping we could reconnect here, but he says that she’s not working tonight.” She pushed out her bottom lip in a little pout as she gestured toward Ali. “She told me she works every weekend.”
“She normally does, but she had a family issue today.”
“What about the other one? The one they call Poppy?”
I stiffened, finding it hard to believe that a customer would randomly come into my club asking after two women whose whereabouts couldn’t be accounted for.
“Who are you?”
She tilted her head slightly. “A friend,” she said, her tone completely different. “I know you are, too, and I know you know where Audra is.” She touched my arm lightly. “Hurting her will only make things worse for you, Xavier.”
I pulled away like I’d inadvertently stuck my hand on a hot stove. “Who the hell are you?” I asked quietly.
She stood, barely reaching the center of my chest. Yet there was a determination about her, a strength that made her appear taller and more dominant. She slipped a card into my hand.
“Call me when you’re ready to let someone help you. Someone other than Mike Spencer.”
She walked away without another word. I couldn’t help but look around, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up on end as I searched the crowd for unwelcome faces. I knew Rahul was likely watching through the one-way mirrors, but I didn’t see anything else that would send off warning bells. Yet… how the hell did she know that name? Who the hell was she?
Why did it feel like this whole thing was tearing apart at the seams?
Chapter 18
Audra
My wrist ached. I’d tried in a hundred different ways to work my wrist out of the handcuff, but couldn’t do anything more than cut my fragile skin, blood dripping down over the dusty tarp. I tried pulling the other end from the ring, tried breaking the rusty ring from the rest of the plow—or whatever the hell it was—to no avail. There was no way I was getting out of here without the key.
I was dozing off, balanced on the edge of the machine at an odd angle, the only angle the cuff allowed, when the lock on the doors clicked. I sat up, relieved to see the door slide open despite everything. I’d worked my way from attraction to affection to anger to hatred for the man walking through that door. But there was also fear, the fear that he wouldn’t come back, that he would just leave me here to waste away and die.
I couldn’t die like this.
He strutted across the room, a plate of food in his hands. He held it out to me when he was close enough. I smacked it away. I didn’t want anything from him.
“You’re going to be here a while. And that’s all you’re going to get to eat until this time tomorrow.”
I refused to respond, though I couldn’t hide the grumbling of my stomach.
He shrugged, unimpressed by my defiance. He turned to walk away, his footsteps heavy on the concrete floor. He was nearly to the door before he turned around and regarded me. “Who do you work for?”
I glared at him. “You really think I’m going to give you answers after what you did? You think you can just fuck me and then walk out like it was nothing, like I’m nothing?”
“Isn’t that what you wanted?”
I jumped to my feet and swung my fist even though he was too far for it to matter. Pain flashed through my shackled wrist, but it was worth it. He flinched and that was reward bigger than any pain he could inflict.
“Who do you work for?” he asked again, a new weariness in his voice.
“Why does it matter? You’re just going to kill me like those other girls.”
“You really think that was me? You met Rahul. You heard what he’s done to those girls. You really think I’m the same as him?”
Again, the weariness was heavy in his voice. And something like disappointment, too.
“Why did you give up your job in New York? Why did you come here?”
He took a few steps toward me, moving into a pale puddle of light so that I could see his eyebrows rise. “You know more about me than you implied.”
“I know everything about you.”
“I doubt that.”
“Try me.”
He cocked his head. “Who’s Joss Matthews?”
That wasn’t the question I anticipated him asking. But the fact that he knew her name had to mean that Joss knew I was missing and she was looking for me. That had to be good, right?
“Someone you don’t want to mess with.”
“Yeah? She can’t be bigger than a twelve year old.”
“She’s small, but she’s strong as all hell. Look her up.”
I didn’t think he was going to do it, but then he tugged his phone out of his hip pocket and began to type with his thumbs. I watched, knew the moment he saw something about her involvement in the death of that Bazarov guy. Or her role in the arrest of Jack Mahoney. Or maybe it was that Avdonin guy he was reading about. Didn’t matter which it was. It was all impressive.
“Gray Wolf? Is that who you work for?”
“Does it matter? All you should care about is that the woman who took down the Bazarovs is after you.”
He met my gaze, something new in his eyes. “You have no idea.”
“Then tell me.”
He snorted, turning to leave again. I knew I had one more chance to do something. I had a theory and I tested it out.
“It seems to me that we either have to trust each other or you’re going to have to kill me.”
That made him freeze, only a few feet from the door. He stood stock still for a long moment before turning to regard me again. “How’s that?”
“You’re not like Rahul. I get that. But you’re working with him, working in the inte
rests of the Mahoneys. There has to be a reason for that.”
“Yeah.”
“And that reason doesn’t necessarily have to be a nefarious one.”
He didn’t respond except to jerk a single shoulder.
“And I’m working with people who want to stop the abuse and murders of the women who work in that club.”
“Why? Who hired you?”
“Doesn’t matter. What matters is I think you want to stop Rahul, too. I think you helped me that night because you’re just as disgusted by him as I am.”
A slow smile touched his lips, a sinister smile that was filled with something beyond weariness. “It couldn’t be as simple as I wanted to fuck you before he used you up?”
His words cut through me, but I knew that was what he wanted. He didn’t want my help, didn’t want me to know the truth. He was pushing me away. I recognized it because it was something I would have done in his place.
“You have kindness in you. You don’t want this any more than I do.”
He crossed his arms over his chest, pushing his tie slightly askew. He looked almost boyish like that, the expression on his face like that of a child caught in a lie. But he wasn’t a child and this wasn’t a trivial matter. This was a life or death situation and we both knew it.
“You didn’t kill me. You could have. You probably should have. But you didn’t.”
“I might still.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”
He sighed softly. “You shouldn’t have gotten involved. It’s almost over, all these months of planning and it’s almost over. If you could have just stayed away another few days…”
“What’s almost over?”
He was wrestling with himself. I could see it in his eyes. When he finally made his decision, he let out a heavy sigh and came toward me, his stride quick and steady.
“She had a lot of balls coming into the club like that. If someone had made her—”
“She was looking for me.”
“She knows I have you. She practically said it.”
I pressed my free hand to his chest when he was close enough, moved into him as his hands rested almost reluctantly on my hips. “Take me to her. She’ll make this right for us both.”
He shook his head. “No one can make this right for me.” But he released the cuff on my wrist, his fingers brushing gingerly over the cuts it’d caused. “But I can let you go.”
I twisted my fingers in his shirt, drew him close to me. “Come with me. We can help you make this right. We can protect you from Rahul.”
He laughed a low, bitter laugh. “Hide behind two beautiful women? Wouldn’t that just be the icing on the damn cake!”
“It’s got to be better than the alternative.”
He studied my face for a long moment, his lips brushing against mine briefly. And then he pulled me close, kissing me roughly as he held me tightly against the length of his body. When he pulled back, he held his phone out to me.
“Call her.”
Chapter 19
Joss
“Agent Spencer,” I sighed into the phone, annoyed with myself for the little trickle of pleasure that rushed down my spine at the sound of his deep voice, “do you have a moment?”
“What can I do for you, Mrs. Matthews?”
I glanced down at my hand, at the blank space where my wedding ring belonged. I’d slipped it off before going into the club and had forgotten to put it back on when I got to the office. It was strange because I’d never forgotten it before.
“I’d like to propose a deal.”
“What kind of deal?”
“A joint operation between your team and mine.”
“I don’t think that’s really in the cards, Mrs. Matthews. But it is an intriguing idea.”
“Yes, well, your asset is here in my office, so maybe you’ll rethink that stance?”
Xavier Damico shifted uncomfortably in his chair, glancing at Audra. She offered him a little nod even as she rubbed her hand over the bandage I’d insisted on placing on her cut wrist. She wouldn’t say how she got the cuts, but it didn’t take much experience to recognize the deep groves a pair of handcuffs can leave on delicate skin. It made me wonder if perhaps I shouldn’t be a little more concerned about the look of affection that passed between the two of them.
“I’ll be there in a few minutes,” Spencer said shortly.
I sat heavily in my chair, tugging the skirt of my dress down over my knees. I’d been on my way home when Audra called, having spent longer than necessary at the club after I observed Damico leaving. I’d wanted to know how many assets the FBI had in the club, suspecting they didn’t have eyes constantly on an asset like Damico. I was pretty sure the bartender was an agent, but I wasn’t sure about anyone else. A dancer or two, maybe. Surely the FBI wasn’t above a little erotic dancing from time to time.
But I couldn’t be sure and I wasn’t going to be sure without Spencer’s help.
“He’s on his way.”
Relief washed over Xavier’s face. I took that as a good sign, a sign that he trusted his FBI contact. If he didn’t, this could be more complicated than it had to be. And it was already going to be very complicated.
Audra stood. “I’m going to go freshen up. I’ll be back.” She touched Xavier’s shoulder as she left the room and he watched after her, again making me wonder if I should be concerned about whatever it was going on between them. We still didn’t know if this man was working willingly with the Mahoneys or not. He could be trouble for her if she wasn’t very careful.
“I appreciate you coming in like this,” I said, at a loss for anything else to say.
“Audra can be very persuasive.”
I tilted my head slightly. “She didn’t say what you were hoping to get out of this.”
He hesitated before he responded, his eyes moving slowly over my face. “I understand you were part of the group of law enforcement that arrested Jack Mahoney last year.”
“I was.”
“And that your husband was somehow involved?”
I paled a little. “It’s complicated.”
“Then you’ll understand that I’d rather not lay out my situation until it’s absolutely necessary.” He smiled tightly. “It is, as you say, complicated.”
I suddenly felt as though no time had passed since that terrible week in Wyoming. We’d gone back recently to celebrate Sutherland’s baby shower. I had this sense of impending doom all weekend despite the fact that I couldn’t have been happier to see Kirkland, to watch him with his new baby girl. It was just a reminder of everything that had gone down that week, of everything Mahoney had done to destroy my life.
“He has this way of infiltrating your life without you realizing it,” I said softly. “He uses things, little clues, to find the big things, to twist them and force you to his will. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”
Xavier knew exactly what I was talking about. “It’s all about the right lies, the right manipulations. He knows how to use people to get what he wants.”
“He used your father against you, didn’t he?”
He inclined his head. “My parents separated when I was a kid, only five or six. Yet, he still found a way to pull me in despite everything my mother did to protect me.”
“But you were engaged to the daughter of one of Mahoney’s lieutenants.”
“I didn’t know who she was.” He reached up to scratch an eyebrow. “He manipulated her into reaching out to me, into meeting me. Neither of them could have guessed how far it would go, but she never told me the truth. It was him, an email from an anonymous sender.”
“I’m sorry.”
“He wanted to know my deepest, darkest secrets, so he sent her to find them. And she did.”
“And he used them to force you to his will.”
“Exactly.”
Audra came back into the room, her dark dress less covered in dust than it had been, her face freshly scrubbed, her thick, cur
ly hair pulled back from her face. She looked more like the woman I’d met the day I gave her this assignment, the newly discharged Army captain, rather than the stripper who danced under the name Poppy.
Xavier glanced at her, surprise in his eyes as he did something of a second take. I wasn’t sure how much he knew about her, about the real her. But I was guessing he’d be learning it soon enough.
A buzzer sounded out in the reception area, alerting me to the fact that Agent Spencer had arrived. I strolled out to the glass doors, smiling warmly when I saw him peering in, his eyes guarded by his cupped hands. When his gaze fell on me, I saw a change in him that caught me a little by surprise. I was used to the way people reacted to me, especially men, but there was something about the look in his eyes that took my breath away for a second.
“Agent Spencer.”
“Mrs. Matthews.”
His eyes moved slowly over the length of me, lingering on all the spots the dress revealed under its sheer material. I blushed, having forgotten for a second what I was wearing.
“It seemed appropriate for a strip club.”
“I would say it’s perfect.”
I gestured with my thumb over my shoulder, trying to ignore the slight tease in his tone. “They’re in my office.”
“They?”
I led the way rather than stopping to explain. There would be time for explanations later. Xavier stood when we came through the door, pulling Audra slightly behind him as though he thought Spencer meant her harm. That simple move worried me a little, made me wonder if Xavier didn’t trust Spencer as much as I’d assumed he did.
“Xavier,” Spencer said, offering the man his hand. Xavier took it, but he still seemed a little wary.
“This Audra Johnson,” I said, not missing the widening of surprise in Xavier’s eyes at hearing her real name for the first time. “She’s an operative for Gray Wolf Security.”
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