She ran all the way to the hotel, where her backpack was still waiting for her. The clerk on duty recognized her and gave her a new key card for her room. She quickly showered, dressed, and checked out. She knew Noah or someone from his security team would be coming for her soon, and she planned to be out of sight by then.
She set off down the street and hailed a taxi at the corner. She knew Richard was still in Miami, and Noah mentioned going by his hotel suite to see him. Richard always stayed at one specific hotel in Miami when he visited. He always got “his” suite and the staff there knew him well. He liked that he didn’t have to ask for the amenities he wanted, they were always waiting for him. She gave the information to the driver, “The Villa by Barton G.”
Now, all she had to do was pull off the tricky part. She planned to find out Richard’s plans for the night and confront him. Preferably in public, so he wouldn’t shoot her on sight. She needed to catch him in the act for this to work. She would be spying on a man, who was thoroughly trained and highly skilled in reconnaissance techniques. Oh, and no doubt Noah and his team would be doing the same thing very soon. Yeah, this will go over well.
She stepped out of the taxi, paid the driver, and walked into the hotel lobby. Scanning the room, she didn’t see Richard anywhere, but kept her face turned from the security cameras as much as possible. She used her fake identification and credit card to check into the hotel. She knew her credit card transactions could be traced, and most likely were being traced, if what she suspected about the Marshal was true, but this was the best way she knew to get close to Richard.
She got her room key and left the hotel. If she were to stay here for very long, she would need better clothes. Hers were not nearly elegant enough to blend in very well. She left on foot and went in search of high-end boutiques for a few new items – dresses, pant suits, shoes, makeup, and jewelry. And a wig, an expensive one that looks like real hair.
She spent the afternoon going to different places, using her government issued credit card at her leisure, finding the items she needed and buying them, regardless of the cost. After today, it wouldn’t matter anyway. She was careful to watch for anyone following her from store to store. After a couple of hours shopping, there was one man who had been at more than one store with her, but hadn’t bought anything. She mistakenly turned down the wrong street and quickly found herself away from the crowds.
Brianna quickened her pace, but was too late. A man grabbed her from behind, wrapped his hand around her mouth, and pulled her into an alley. Her heart was pounding, and she struggled against his hold and tried to elbow him in the ribs. He shoved her into the backseat of the idling car, where another man was waiting for her.
Blinking rapidly and trying to catch her breath, she looked hard at the man sitting across from her. The man who grabbed her sat in the front seat.
“Stevens? What the hell are you doing? Why didn’t you just talk to me?”
“Because you are not even supposed to be here. And we shouldn’t be seen together in public.”
“Then why not have your village idiot here,” motioning to the other man, “talk to me instead? He’s followed me for the last two hours!”
Ignoring her sarcasm, Stevens got to the point of the meeting. “Do you have the rest of the evidence for me?”
Feeling completely uneasy after what Rebel said earlier, she lied. “No, I don’t have it. I’m working on it. I have your number.”
“I need you to get it to me as soon as possible. I’ll be waiting.”
Brianna got out of the car and hurried back to the more populated area. There were still a few things she needed to purchase, so she finished shopping. Using the bathroom at a gourmet coffee shop, she transformed into a long, red-haired socialite, even making sure her eyebrows matched her wig color.
She hailed a taxi to get back to the hotel, after the earlier scare. She didn’t want to risk being seen by anyone else. She returned to the hotel, bags in hand, and walked in as though she owned the place. She didn’t feel the confidence she was trying to show. She desperately wanted to be back at Noah’s, safe, and secure.
Chapter 13
“If Richard sees us watching him, he will know we’re onto him. We have to assume he has a team of security agents, just like we do. This is the enemy, men. Don’t forget that.” Noah concluded his recon speech and motioned for everyone to gear up. It wasn’t quite like the 40-pound backpack he carried in the Army, but he was dressed for battle, nonetheless.
Bull, Rebel, and a team of others joined him at his firm, as they looked at the map of the area around Brianna’s hotel. He assigned stations and responsibilities to each man. The search at the hotel had turned up minimal information. She had checked out and left on foot. The clerk pointed in the general direction she walked, but her trail went cold very soon.
The computer techie of the group, Brad, had a search running on local taxis, in the event she used a credit card. The chances were nil, though, since they didn’t know her alias name, and Noah knew she wouldn’t use her real name. Brad was also pulling all the information from the flash drive Brianna gave Noah. Reviewing the data, he whistled, “Girl’s done her research, Reap. This is huge.”
Brad continued with his recount of the evidence Brianna had saved to the flash drive to give them more details than Brianna’s letter had given. “None of these contracts are the standard ones you signed, Reaper. Your signature has been forged and according to her notes, all the escorts you provided were illegal. If anyone had been caught, you would’ve been sent to jail for life…. if anyone let you make it that far. With the names attached to this operation, they would’ve buried you. She was right, this would never hit the press. You’d be dead and the story buried along with you.”
Bull lowered his head and swore under his breath, “That son of a bitch.” Noah nodded and shook his head, thinking of how many escorts he’d provided and how many times it could’ve gone wrong. And what stung the worst was his friend had purposely involved him, and when Brianna found out, Richard had tried to kill her. That very thought made him see red. I will have Richard’s head for this, Noah vowed.
Bull’s phone vibrated, and he looked at the caller ID. Noah looked at him, and Bull said, “I have to take this, Reap,” and stepped out of the room. A moment later, he stepped to the computer and changed the search parameters to find financial transactions for Leslie Solomon. The computer returned several results at several boutiques. “Got a hit,” Bull called out.
They looked at the store locations on the map, and Rebel commented on how close the stores were to Richard’s hotel, just as the computer returned a room charge hold for The Villa by Barton G. She’s at the same fucking hotel! We have to find her before we’re too late! Noah passed out pictures of her to the other men, but with the charges at the wig shop, he advised the men she had changed her looks, again.
With everyone briefed on the mission and dressed for urban warfare – meaning suits, button downs, wireless communication earpieces, gun holsters under their jackets and at their ankles, the security team climbed into the SUVs and headed to the hotel.
Noah decided he would check in as a guest and try to get eyes on both Brianna and Richard. Several pieces of his security equipment would help them keep watch over all the exits. If all went well, they would also have ears in Richard’s suite.
Bull pulled out his cell phone again. He briefed the person on the end on the plans for the night and ended the call. Noah looked at him, waiting for Bull to fill him in on what he was up to. Bull said, “Don’t ask, Reaper. Just trust me.”
Noah stared hard at Bull. “You know I do. But if you’re pulling someone else in, don’t you think we need to know, so we don’t shoot the wrong guy?”
Bulled nodded, but said, “You probably won’t even know he’s there, Reaper.”
Still sensing the tension, Bull added, “Look man, I’ve been too hard on her. Yeah, it sucks that she let us believe she was dead, but she had a damn good reas
on, and I didn’t even give her a fucking chance.” He folded his arms across his chest, as he took a deep breath, “I gave my word I’d always have her back, and I let her down, man. I’m doing my damnedest to fix that.”
Noah gave him a look and a nod that said he knew exactly what Bull meant.
***************
As Brianna entered the hotel lobby, she heard a familiar voice once again from a man a couple of people in front of her. Richard. He continued talking to his companion, as though no one else was around.
“Make reservations for dinner at Prime One Twelve at 8 p.m. I want my table at Mirage by 11 p.m. VIP room, you know that. I want a bottle of Moet chilled and ready. And make sure they have the security camera feed on the plasma this time.” His assistant was taking notes and simply replied, “Got it.”
Well, thank you, Richard. Easier than I ever imagined. Brianna checked her watch, almost 6 p.m. She had plenty of enough time to get ready for Miami’s most exclusive club. She decided since Richard would have the security feed playing live in his VIP room, she shouldn’t have any problems getting in. But, getting out alive would be tricky, and the noise in the club would make the recorder useless. She had to get him to leave the club to pull this off.
Settled in her room with the purchased clothes and accessories prepared for later tonight, along with the hidden recorder, she sat on the bed. She was exhausted. She didn’t get much sleep last night…er, this morning, thanks to Noah. She smiled at the memory. She immediately felt the strong pain of regret and loss at losing him again.
Shaking it off and knowing there was no other way, she ordered room service from her personal butler, compliments of the Villa suite, and retrieved her cell phone from her backpack. She hadn’t even turned it on, but since she knew Richard would be getting ready for dinner, she wanted to research a few things on the internet.
She was deep in thought, taking notes, and researching the area. A light rap on her door startled her at first, but then the butler called to her, and she let him in. The smell of food reminded her how long it had been since she’d last eaten, and she suddenly realized she was starving. She sat down at the table and began to eat, thinking of what was to come. Her stomach seized when she realized this was most likely her last meal, and she was completely alone again.
Unable to eat any more, she decided to rest for a couple of hours before she went to the nightclub. She set the alarm on her phone for 9:30 p.m. She lay down on the bed, and even though she should’ve been too anxious to sleep, her eyes were suddenly very heavy. Her last thoughts before she drifted off were of Noah, just like she had every night before.
Chapter 14
The drive from Noah’s downtown Miami firm to the South Miami Beach hotel seemed to take forever. Noah was anxious to get there and stop her before she could do anything else stupid. Or before Richard found her. He walked up to the counter and requested a suite and a meeting room. The team needed somewhere private they could set up for the night, and it would be too conspicuous for them to all crash his suite.
With only ten suites in the hotel, Noah was lucky to get the last one available. The concierge showed him to the meeting room, and he called the rest of the team waiting outside in the SUVs. They brought all the gear in and began to set up for surveillance. The hotel was once a private mansion, and while definitely large and elegant for a single owner, at only three stories, it was small in comparison to other hotels.
Noah scouted the hotel as discreetly as possible. He noticed the people checking into the suite next to Richard’s had just arrived. A young man in a dark suit with a hotel nametag was carrying their bags into their room. Noah picked up a couple of bags, followed the other man into the suite, and discreetly placed a listening device on the wall shared by Richard’s suite, just behind the wall sconce, so it wouldn’t be seen. He knew they wouldn’t be able to get into Richard’s room, and this point gave them the closest access point that he could get.
The young man thanked Noah for his help with the bags. Noah slapped him on the back and with a smile said, “Anytime kid.” Noah left the suite with no one the wiser. He called Brad to tell him what they had to work with. Brad replied, “I will try to boost the signal to make it more sensitive. It may mean more distortion on our end, but any bit of information is better than none.”
When Noah got back to the command center room, Brad informed him he had just successfully patched into the hotel’s security cameras. Now they had eyes and ears on all floors, elevators, and the front door. Noah breathed a sigh of relief. If Brianna were still in the hotel somewhere, at least they would see when she left. If not, he planned to follow Richard. One way or another, he was determined to find her and stop her.
One of the guys had food catered in for the group. To anyone else, they looked like a group of businessmen getting ready for their meeting the following morning. Their computers all on the tables, and they were engaged in business strategy discussions, using code words only they would decipher. Brad’s computer screen wasn’t visible to anyone else, so he continued monitoring the cameras. When the hotel staff left the room, he switched it so everyone could see it on the projection screen.
***************
Brianna’s phone alarm went off, as she was having the best dream about Noah. She turned the alarm off and sat on the edge of the bed. A sudden wave of dread washed over her, as she knew what was about to happen. The thought of saving Noah kept her going, and she prayed this would be enough to stop Richard once and for all. She rose and looked out her window facing the ocean. She opened the window and listened to the waves lapping on the beach and let the sound calm her frayed nerves.
She showered and got ready to go to the exclusive South Miami Beach nightclub, the Mirage, where Richard would be. She carefully applied her makeup, being sure everything was completely perfect. Then she dried her long hair and styled it with the flat iron, adding curls to the ends to help accentuate her looks.
She had picked out a trendy, tight-fitting dress to help her look like she belonged there. It was glittering blue and stopped above mid-thigh level. The top tied around her neck, leaving her arms and back exposed. In the back, the tight material started again below her waist, teasing at giving a view of her ass. She moved her hand along the front hem of the dress, felt the small recording device, and breathed a sigh of relief that it was secure. She reasoned that it was in the best place to avoid suspicion. She could simply pull on the hem to make sure the dressed covered her, and no one would know what she was really doing.
She put on her silver, open-toe high heels, then her earrings and necklace. Picking up her small matching clutch, she put her license, credit card, and cash inside. She gave herself an once over in the mirror and decided she looked very nice. Too bad all this fuss isn’t for a date night with Noah…
She stepped out and asked the concierge to arrange for a limo to take her to the Mirage. She walked to the front of the hotel to wait for the limo to arrive. Within a minute, a long, black limo arrived, and the driver opened the door to let her slide in. He was barely out of his teens and probably working his way through college. She caught him smiling at her while watching her ass, and when he realized she saw him, the smile quickly faded while his face turned a deep red. She laughed to herself and leaned back against the leather seat, as he pulled the limo away from the hotel.
***************
Steele Security sat in the plush meeting room, watching the security feed change over to different camera views on the overhead projector. When Brianna suddenly appeared in the hotel lobby, Noah yelled for Brad to switch to that camera view only. Noah watched as she walked towards the front door, then he ran out of the room after her. She wasn’t there by the time he reached the lobby, so he continued outside. She wasn’t outside, either. He looked both ways and saw a limo about a block away.
As he ran back inside, Brad was walking to him. “There’s a delay on the feed, man. I’m sorry, I didn’t know they had a delay on the cameras until y
ou ran out of the room.”
“Damn it!”
They walked over to the front desk and asked the clerk about the types of transportation they offered. She confirmed his belief that the limo had just left with one guest and would be back within twenty minutes. Noah asked to be next on the list for the limo, and told the guys to get the SUVs ready. He would talk to the driver and find out where he dropped Brianna off. If this guy refuses to talk to me, I’ll break both his legs.
Twenty minutes my ass! Where the hell is this guy? It’s been forty-five minutes! Noah paced back and forth, getting more and more upset. He still had his wits about him to watch for Richard, and his team still had eyes and ears on him from the SUVs.
“Boss, he’s coming down.” Noah heard Bull in his earpiece and moved out of sight. He watched as Richard left, told one of the teams to follow him, and the other to stay put, for now. He was still waiting for the limo driver to verify where he left Brianna. As he moved back into the lobby, he saw the limo pull up to the front.
By the time the driver put the limo into park, Noah was opening his door and all but dragged him out of the car. “The lady you picked up from here, where is she?”
The driver, obviously young and scared, was speechless. A huge, muscled man just yanked him out of the car. He stammered, trying to form a coherent string of words. “I…uh…she’s…um…”
“Where?”
“Mirage….nightclub…”
The black SUV slid up beside the limo, Noah jumped in, and Bull sped off to the nightclub. No one said a word as they flew through traffic, dodging cars, and running red lights. Noah fisted his hands and released them, repeatedly.
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