Wicked Games

by A. D. Justice

  She had seen Noah and his date, Alexa, looking so happy together, mingling with the world’s elite. Alexa was flawless in this type of setting and she knew it. She had her arm draped over Noah’s arm, keeping him close to her and occasionally splaying her perfectly manicured fingers on Noah’s chest, as she talked to others.

  It tore Brianna’s heart out to see him with someone else. He looked happy with another woman. Not that she expected him to live alone for the rest of his life, but she still didn’t like actually seeing him with someone else.

  A familiar voice caught her attention and pulled her gaze away from Noah. Richard. She was careful to approach him from behind. She tried to eavesdrop on his conversations while keeping her back to him. She overheard him telling another guest where he was staying while in Miami and how he enjoyed the exclusivity of that hotel.

  Then she turned and saw Noah looking directly at her and her heart stopped.

  When a large group moved directly in front of her, blocking Noah’s line of sight, she turned and quickly fled to the kitchen. There were several hallways behind the kitchen for staff use and for deliveries. If she could make it to the hall before Noah found her in the kitchen, she could get away. She walked as fast as she could without drawing attention to herself. She was almost to the door when she heard that familiar deep, male voice call out, “Hey, wait!”

  The kitchen staff was buzzing about, keeping the food and drinks flowing and preparing the main course meal for the hundreds of people in attendance. She glanced over her shoulder to see Noah standing in the doorway at the other end of the massive industrial-sized kitchen, with two large cooks blocking his way, as they tried to exit the kitchen with the first course.

  She snapped her head back around and kept walking through the door. When she was safely in the hallway, she grabbed her belongings and ran as hard as she could in heels. Once out of the building, she slowed to a normal walking pace, hopped in a taxi waiting nearby, and went back to her hotel room.

  That was too close, she thought.

  *********************

  No way. It couldn’t have been. Noah repeated that mantra in his head for the rest of the night. She moved like Brianna. Her hair was the wrong color, but it was her scent. He caught it, as he followed her through the crowd to the kitchen. He could trace that scent anywhere. It stayed with him, torturing his mind and senses, long after Brianna died.

  He couldn’t get in the kitchen to follow her out the back door. The kitchen manager was furious with him for delaying the first course, for even a couple of minutes. He decided to wait for her to come back out to help serve, then he would see her up close, but she never reappeared. His tolerance for this setting was growing thin. His date made it clear she wasn’t happy with his behavior, but damned if he cared. Alexa was the last person on his mind tonight.

  He somehow managed to make it through all four courses and stood outside waiting for his limousine to pull up. Alexa smiled and kissed the air at everyone’s cheek that passed. She said her goodbyes and had a few “let’s do lunch next week” conversations. It took every bit of Noah’s strength to keep from just walking home and leaving her there on the sidewalk, alone.

  Finally. The limousine arrived, and he took Alexa’s elbow and guided her into the back seat. He gave the driver Alexa’s address and rolled up the divider window. Alexa assumed he would spend the night with her. She had often complained they always went to her place and never his, not even once. He couldn’t tell her that he just couldn’t share his bed with her. Not the bed he had shared with Brianna so long ago.

  Alexa turned to him, caressed the side of his face, and moved closer to him. He knew what was on her mind. “Not tonight, Alexa,” he stated with finality.

  She stayed mad the rest of the ride, but Noah didn’t care. He just wanted to go home, alone. His ghosts were back. After dropping Alexa off at her house, he couldn’t get Brianna off his mind. She was never really far from his thoughts, but some days were worse than others. Today was one of those days.

  After she left from the base, he sent her a few postcards when he could, to let her know he was thinking of her. His job at that time didn’t really allow him to have a relationship. Within a year, his time in the military was up and he returned to the States. He knew from Brianna’s letters, passed to him through her father’s connections, that she had left her job in Atlanta and had moved to Miami.

  He had never mentioned his family lived close to Miami. Upon his discharge from the Army, he moved to Miami and started his business. Within a year it was thriving, and he went out to a club with Bull, Rebel and a few of their other friends to celebrate. They were all drinking and having a good time on the packed dance floor. He turned and saw a group of girls dancing, laughing, and having a great time. One was wearing an embarrassingly ugly Happy Birthday hat, but on her, it looked incredibly sexy.

  Brianna.

  He moved up behind her and wrapped his massive arms around her. She jumped and whirled around to face him. She was ready to tear into someone for touching her, and then her eyes and mouth flew open wide with surprise.

  “Noah!” She jumped in his arms, and he lifted her off the floor in a big, bear hug. “Oh, my God! I can’t believe it’s really you!”

  Her friends watched, speechless. They looked from one man to the next with their mouths gaping open.

  Turning to them, Brianna said, “Y’all remember the guy in the Army I told you about, right? Reaper? This is him!” Introductions were made all around, and they moved back to the tables to talk and catch up, since she left the base.

  Noah and Brianna decided to leave the club to go somewhere quieter to talk alone. The sparks were definitely still there between them. They were inseparable as of that night, only spending time apart as their jobs required. She was working for the Miami Herald and frequently traveled for her investigative stories. His security business was booming and occasionally called for him to travel. But they always made time for each other. They would stay up all night, talking for hours on end about everything and anything.

  He fell in love with her in every way. Her love of life and her determination to live each day to the fullest was contagious. She loved to laugh and found humor in most anything. She didn’t let things get her down. She always looked on the bright side. She was naïve to how bad the rest of the world could really be. He had seen the evil first hand, and she helped balance him with the good that was still in the world.

  She got word of a big story that she was both excited and anxious about. She didn’t tell him much about it. She said she needed to verify some information first, but if her sources were right, it would be huge. Huge -- as in Watergate huge. She booked a flight to Dubai to meet with an informant, who wanted the world to know the truth of what was happening in his village.

  Brianna was different when she came back from that trip. Whatever she had found, it rocked her foundation, and things between them started to change. She was more reserved, nervous, and even though she denied it, he was convinced she looked at him differently. He tried to talk to her about it several times, but she only gave vague answers.

  He knew he could push and get the answers he wanted. Hell, he was trained to interrogate terrorists, and he was good at it. But he drew the line at using those tactics on the woman he loved. If she wasn’t ready to talk about it, there was a reason. He knew he needed to give her space.

  After her plane exploded, Noah tried to backtrack the limited information she shared, but came up with dead ends. He went through all her notes that were left behind, trying to find any scribbling that was remotely related to her trip to Dubai, but turned up zilch.

  His current thoughts were interrupted when he felt the limousine slow down, and he realized they were pulling in his driveway. His homecoming was to a dark house. Perfect, he thought, matches my mood.

  Chapter 7

  Darkness fell in Boulder, Colorado. The man sitting in the tree watched as lights flickered on through the windows along
the row of townhouses. All of the houses, that is, except Brianna’s house. He climbed down from his perch and silently made his way across the yards and the street. He walked the wall along the side of her townhouse to the back sliding glass door. Giving it an easy tug, the door slid open.

  “She’s gone. Yeah, I checked the house. She must have gone out the back. Clever little minx, huh? I’m on the next flight to Miami. Be there in a few hours.”

  ************

  After that near heart attack, Brianna was angry with herself for almost getting caught. So stupid!

  Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

  Back at her hotel room, she opened her suitcase and pulled on her black yoga pants and a black tank top. She put a black, long sleeve turtleneck shirt, the black spandex gloves and ski mask in her purse. She couldn’t wear them just yet. Even at night, Miami in May was nowhere near cool enough to wear any of that type of clothing.

  Once she reached his street, she kept to the shadows until just before she reached Noah’s estate. She stopped behind a tree and put on the long sleeve shirt, ski mask, and gloves. She crouched down and moved along the concrete and stucco fence to the backyard. Noah had a walk-through gate on the back of the property that would be much less conspicuous than walking up to the front gate that spanned his entire driveway. The back gate had the same keypad entry as the front one, and she was crossing her fingers that she could figure out which code was currently being used.

  She stayed low to keep out of the view of the cameras positioned strategically around the property. Once she reached the gate, she waited for the camera to start its movement towards the opposite direction. Then she stepped up to the keypad and entered the first set of four numbers. The red light blinked. Two more tries before the alarm is tripped. She took a deep breath and held it while she entered the next set of numbers. She breathed a huge sigh of relief when the green light blinked and the gate popped open.

  She closed the gate behind her and made her way to the back door of the house. She was on the grounds, but still needed to avoid any motion sensor lights, or nosey neighbors watching the front of the house. She pulled the tools to pick the lock out of her bra and quickly had the door unlocked. The alarm was beeping as she rushed to it and keyed in the code to reset it.

  She turned to walk off and suddenly had a second thought. On the off chance any of his men came by the house tonight, they would know someone was there if the alarm wasn’t set.

  A security firm owner with an elite military background who forgot to set his alarm before he left? Umm, no, not happening.

  She quickly reset the alarm and silently made her way to the front of the house, up the curved marble staircase to the second floor. The landing at the top of the stairs overlooked the entryway of the front door. Directly behind the landing was a long hallway with the master bedroom at the end. Brianna moved silently down the hall to one of the guest bedrooms.

  ****************

  Noah’s limo dropped him off at his front door and then drove off. He walked to the front door with his head down, looking at his feet as he walked. After unlocking the door, he moved to the keypad to turn off the house alarm and went straight to his office. He wanted to look at the list of servers again to try to narrow down which one had disappeared. After seeing his ghost, he made it a point to memorize every woman’s nametag. The name of the one who gave him the slip had to be there.

  His office was on the first floor and in the back corner of the house. He wanted it away from the kitchen, entry, and bedrooms to keep the distractions at a minimum, but on the main level for a quick exit strategy. His security system cameras transmitted back to a recorder in his office, and he could watch the cameras in real-time on a flat screen TV mounted on the wall.

  Sitting at his desk, he huffed as he went through the names listed on the list of servers at the banquet hall. One name was missing, but her name and picture showed she was a tall, thin Hispanic woman. Definitely not the woman he saw tonight. They had a security breach on his watch, and he had no idea what that even meant, yet.

  He picked up the remote for the TV and did a double take at what he saw on the internal security camera. There was someone in his house. On the second floor. Right now.

  Not that he needed backup, but with the security breach at an international gathering earlier tonight, he didn’t want to take any chances. He called Bull and relayed what he knew, as he watched the dark figure moving down the hallway towards his bedroom. It then quickly turned right into a guest bedroom.

  Bull said he would call Rebel and would be at his house in three minutes. Noah hung up, took off his tuxedo jacket, and started climbing the curved staircase.

  His Glock .40 was drawn and held down at his leg. He wouldn’t use lethal force in his house unless he was forced. He’d rather take the son of a bitch alive and make sure he paid for breaking into the wrong house. He heard a creak in the wood floor and froze on the landing at the top of the stairs.

  With his back against the wall, he waited to turn the corner of the wall to enter the hallway. Just as he started to turn into the hallway, he heard a noise on the first floor. He had watched the cameras and was positive there was only one person in the house with him. The back stairs!

  He ran back down the stairs, around the corner, and to the den towards the back of the house. Just as he reached the den, he saw a black-cloaked figure crouched down beside his leather sofa. The intruder hadn’t seen him yet. He was trained to move silently in the night, but this person was apparently less adept at it. As the intruder made a move to the back door, Noah rammed into him. He heard ”oomph” as the breath was knocked out of the other guy and he fell to the ground.

  Brianna didn’t hear Noah come in, and she certainly didn’t hear him come up behind her. Damn! Unable to take in a breath, she staggered to her feet, and ran to a row of glass patio doors. The room was full of oversized furniture – the couch, loveseat, end tables, and coffee tables. She had a straight line to the doors, but Noah had to run around his own furniture. As big and quick as he is, he wasn’t fast enough to get to her before she was out the door and running across the yard. It also helped that he was still wearing his tuxedo shoes and he didn’t have good traction in the grass.

  She made it to the wall and used a lawn ornament as a stepping stool to jump on top of the fence and scale over it. She kept running until she reached the main intersection, where she stopped behind a house. She took off the mask, shirt and gloves, and then walked nonchalantly down the sidewalk. When she heard screeching tires behind her, she took off in a sprint.

  Oh, shit!

  *******************

  “Where’d he go? Where is he?” Noah was yelling and severely pissed by this point. Bull had pulled up just as the intruder went over the fence. Noah ran to the gate, punched in the numbers, and impatiently waited for it to open enough for him to get through it. He jumped in the SUV with Bull and yelled, “Go! Go!” Now he only had to find the SOB and secure him until the police got there.

  Bull slowed down when he reached the intersection and they scanned the people milling about for anyone who fit the description. There were very few men on the street and none of them had the right build. Noah kept looking down the street, his eyes taking in each person and mentally calculating if he or she could be the one. Then he saw her, with the short black hair, lean, muscular body, black pants and black tank top. There was something black sticking up out of her bag.

  Bull punched the gas and the tires screeched. She turned and looked in their direction, and Noah immediately recognized her as the woman at the banquet earlier.

  Noah yelled, “Her! Right there in the black! Don’t let her get away!”

  Bull relayed their location and situation to Rebel, who had also called a couple of guys. No way was anyone getting the best of him two times in one night.

  Brianna realized she’d been made. As she turned the corner at the end of the block, she took off running in a dead heat. Her fear and adrenalin was pu
shing her harder and harder. The sound of SUVs closing in on her drove her to a near panic attack.

  She turned a sharp left and ran across a vacant lot. The SUVs had already passed the street, where they could’ve turned and the next street up was a one-way street in the wrong direction. She kept running until she came to a dark parking garage. Needing a break to catch her breath, she ran inside, and hid between two cars. The garage required a key card to enter and had orange and white wooden arms to prevent unauthorized entry.

  The sound of wood splitting and splintering told her the arms were of very little use in this situation. They were too determined to find her. She stayed crouched down and moved between the cars, working her way to the exit. She didn’t know where she would go next, but she knew she was a sitting duck in this garage.

  She stayed down until she didn’t hear the vehicles any longer, and then she made a run for it. As quickly as she darted out from between the cars, the SUVs descended on her from everywhere and boxed her in with the concrete wall behind her.

  Several large men stepped out of the SUVs, guns drawn, yelling at her to put her hands up. She raised her hands above her head and watched as Noah exited the SUV directly in front of her. She knew he didn’t recognize her yet, but she recognized the look on his face. He was smiling, but it wasn’t a friendly smile at all. There was absolutely no humor in his eyes. He was walking slowly towards her and never took his eyes off her. For the first time ever, she was literally scared of him.

  ***************

  Richard was extremely pleased with himself. He had made several new contacts tonight, talked business without anyone even knowing, and made a few new deals. His covert venture would be back in full swing soon. It’s so much easier to be the bad guy when you look and act like the good guy. No one really watches your every move when they view you as part of the world’s elite class.