by Asia Marquis
"Who do you think it is, baby?"
I can hear the frustration on his side of the line, even as he doesn't say anything. There's not much he can say, is there? I have him just about dead to rights, and that's how it's going to be from now on.
"How did you get this number?"
I can't get this grin off my face. Can't stop myself from feeling a little pleasure at being able to yank his chain.
"You think we'd hold on to your phone for two hours, and we wouldn't even bother to get your phone number? What do you take us for, Beauchamp? Idiots? We got you."
"Fine," he says. I can hear the sound of movement in the background. Someone's there with him, and if that puts him in an uncomfortable situation, I'm all that much happier.
"How's your infiltration going?"
"I've got a plan, but it's not like it's going to get done all in one day. That ain't how this game works, babe."
"You'll call me by my name, or not at all."
"Fine, what's that?"
"Maguire. That's 'Agent Maguire,' to you."
"You don't have a first name?"
"Not one you need to be calling me by."
"Fine, then, 'Agent' Maguire. Why are you fuckin' on my phone?"
"I just thought I should be checking up on you."
There's no reason to get to the real purpose of my call, not too soon or too quickly. Beauchamp still has an important lesson to learn.
The first lesson in dealing with me, especially when I have the full might of the American government behind me, is that I'm not on his time. He's on my time, and if I want him to wait then he waits.
The sooner he learns it, the better. I wait a long time before I continue, driving home my lesson without ever needing to explain it.
"Did you fuckin' need me for something?"
"Yes, Beauchamp. You need to figure out the routine around here. You report in. To me. Directly."
"Fine. Where do you want to meet?"
"That bar of yours was an awfully nice spot. I believe you were just pouring me out a drink when things went so badly for you."
"It's not a mistake I'll make again. No. You can consider the bar off-limits. Too risky to have you there."
"Listen here," I purr. "I'll go where I like, and you'll get the place ready for me. You don't want anyone seeing me there? Get them out. I'll be there in fifteen minutes, and I expect a cold beer to be ready for me."
I hang up the phone before he has a chance to answer, and slip into the car. It's too upscale for the area. I'll stand out. But that never mattered before. I don't care about blowing his cover, not really.
Because he still has plausible deniability, if they draw a connection between him and the cops. He got picked up earlier that day, and now the lead agent is hassling him.
No muss, no fuss, and if he can't figure out how to deal with that, then he's not as useful to me as I thought he could be.
The drive takes two minutes less than I expected. I don't bother taking a lap around, but it wasn't hard to see Hawkins driving away on the hog the government paid for him to buy.
There's another bike as I pull up, one I don't recognize. Not Hawkins's, and definitely not the old thing that Beauchamp rides. I shrug and keep moving. If he didn't get everyone out, then that's his mistake.
It's not mine, and that's all there is to it. Well, he can play it how he wants, for now. I'll do what I have to do to keep my pieces in play, but I'm not going to coddle him.
I push the door open and look around. The place is dimly lit, a handful of tables with chairs upside-down on top. Maybe fifty people could fit in here. It'd be cozy, though.
The only things lighting up the bar are the neon sign—creatively reading "BAR"—and a single overhead light that shines down on Ryan's face. It gives him an appearance that looks like it's carved out of marble.
"You said you wanted to see me?"
"Who's bike is that?"
"Don't you worry about him. He had to catch a cab home. Too much to drink."
I put onmy best bitch face. What's he going to do—call me on it?
"I got a call today, from my guy."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah. We have people up and down your organization." I take a dramatic pause, searching his face for signs of doubt. "And I don't want you going after my guys."
"Well, it's too late. I already found him. That's his bike outside."
It isn't, but I make a face as if I'm buying it. "You wouldn't have—"
"I did."
I don't know what to do, now. He's calling my bluff, and I can't let him see that I'm not upset by it.
"You son of a bitch, you think you can get out of this by getting rid of our guy on the inside? You think that's the limit of what we're able to do?"
"I think you're all talk."
His expression isn't one that shows any doubt. He's got a poker face to beat them all, but even still… no doubt.
I unholster my gun, put it on the counter. "You're in this, now. And there ain't no way out, and if you hurt one hair on his head, I swear to Christ, I will—"
"You should've said something sooner. He's gone."
I swallow hard. Is that a confession? Can I use that?
"You god damned idiot. You fucking moron."
He doesn't respond to my insults. I shouldn't have been making them. It's making me look weak, and I know it, but the way he's looking at me—
"You just signed your own death sentence, you idiot."
"I don't think so, 'Agent' Maguire. I think you need me, or you'd have kept me in that cell."
I grit my teeth. "For now, maybe."
"So cut the tough-guy act. You're all talk, and you've got nothing going for you. Maybe if you stop pulling this bullshit, I'll play by your rules."
"Oh, you'll straighten up—"
Ryan puts his hand on my gun, pushes it away from me a little way down the bar. The easy way he does it is completely natural, completely doubtless. As if he owned me, and there was nothing I could ever have done.
I can feel a little surge of something that might have been arousal. I love it when I've got a fight on my hands.
I swallow hard, look him in the face. I have to do something, have to prove I'm still in control. I wind back and take a wide swing at his face.
He sways back and it swings hard past his nose, and then I can feel his arms grabbing my by my shoulder, pulling me up and over the bar and then he's got control of the situation, and I've got to hope he's not going to use it.
Chapter Ten
RYAN
Every time that I see her, I can't get the thoughts out of my head. Wondering what it must be like. Wondering what it will feel like. I don't have to wonder any more.
She's right there, and all I have to do is reach out and take her.
Maguire pulls her fist back in an exaggerated motion. If she wanted to hit me, she should go straighter. Just bang, pop her hand right out and into me. She doesn't. She arcs wide, and I have no trouble dodging.
I grab her and turn her, pull her over the bar. I can hear her gun clatter to the floor, and with it goes her illusions of control over the situation.
When I have her on her back, her legs dangling over the far edge of the bar, she's flushed. Her breaths are coming in hard, hot bursts. I can feel the effect that her ragged breathing is having on my body.
She wants to tell me to get my hands off her. She wants me to let her go. Not because she doesn't want it, because I can see in her eyes that she does.
She's afraid of not being in control, which is a lucky thing for her. Lucky that I'm here, anyways. Because now she can learn what it's like not to be in control any more.
I don't take my hands off of her. I'm not going to any time soon, but she needs to be more honest first. More ready to tell the truth about what she feels. I can feel her under my hand, pressing against me.
I push her down, just hard enough to let her know that she's not getting out. She stops struggling for a moment. I lean
down over her.
"You're not in control," I tell her softly. "Not here. You can go back to your work in a while, and you can control your bulldog when you get there. Not me."
Her eyes burn with anger. She doesn't like hearing that one bit. That look is how Maguire should always look. Anger suits her. I tell her so and it burns hotter.
"Get off me!"
"Not until you realize that you can't control me."
"Fuck you, I can't."
"You're not going to admit it, are you?"
She will, but not out loud. She's not ready yet. I lean down on her harder and press my lips against hers. For an instant I feel her surrendur as the kiss brushes against her soft mouth, then the denial kicks in again, hard.
I pull back away and push down on her ribs, stopping the rebellion in its tracks.
"You can't lie to me, 'Agent.'"
"Lie to you about what?"
"You know what. You want this, don't you?"
"Fuck you. Get off me."
She didn't deny it, and I noticed. She can't deny it, because she knows I'll hear the lie in her voice. She doesn't trust herself to be able to say the words. That's smart.
"Is that really what you want?"
I let my hand get light on her chest. I let her feel it. Her face is flushed with a mixture of anger and arousal that she can't bring herself to deny.
Her hand comes up from underneath and slaps me. My hand gets heavy again, pressing her down onto the bar. Her breasts pool on her chest deliciously, but I don't touch them. Don't reach for them. I don't even look at them if I can help it.
"That wasn't nice, Agent Maguire."
"Let me go, and we'll see how nice I can be."
"I can't let you go, Maguire. You still haven't learned your lesson."
"What lesson is that?"
I brush my lips across hers again. Her body calls out to mine, tries to deepen the kiss into something more substantial.
"The lesson that you can't control me."
"You're a piss-poor fuckin' scumbag, and I can control you as much as I want."
I move my hand. She lays there a minute, her breaths coming in ragged and short. The flush of arousal still shines in her skin. I can almost see it reflecting off her skin under the neon lights.
"If that's what you think, fine. We'll see who's right."
She rolls off the bar, straightens her shirt. We both know what happened, and we both know I'm right. I proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that she had less leverage than she thought I did.
I watch the cogs in her mind turning, watch her imagining what could have happened. She shivers at the thought. She takes another deep breath and straightens, her face returning to the confident mask that she tries to wear.
"If you ever do that again—"
"You'll what, 'Agent?' Beat me to hell and back?" I lean forward, my elbows propped up on the counter. "I'd like to see that, Maguire."
I can see her flinch at the way I say her name. She doesn't like it. I make a mental note to find out her first name. If it's a secret, then I'll dig it out.
Maguire has plenty of secrets. Anyone could see that. But some things about her aren't secret at all. What she wanted, what her body was reaching out for even as her lack of control drove her insane… I didn't need to wonder about that.
"Is there anything else, Agent Maguire? Or can I get back to cleaning up my bar?"
She grinds her molars together. It gives her an aspect of sexual frustration that start my motor running again.
"You ain't going to offer me a beer?"
"Not tonight, Maguire. Not if you can't be honest with me."
Her jaw tightens. "You've got a big fuckin' ego, you know that?"
I shrug and pour myself another drink, then take a drink in front of her. A little jab that I can't quite resist.
"Maybe, but I'm not wrong."
She leans down to grab the pistol from the ground, where it fell when I pulled her up onto the bar. She slips it into her holster.
No more threats, I think. She must have been shaken up by that. I can't keep the smile off my face at the thought. No more threats from her, and soon, no more lies. Then things will get real interesting. McCallister is big fish, no doubt.
But I can't buy the idea that she's only got plans that go that high. Maguire, whatever her real name is, she's not the kind of person who makes short-term plans. She's not the kind of person to tell me all her plans, either.
She's got other irons in the fire, and I'm very interested to see where this one goes when the iron is finally hot.
Chapter Eleven
MAGUIRE
I don't know who thinks I'm supposed to be awake at 6 in the morning when they call me, but I answer anyways. And given that the number's got a D.C. area code, I make it sound like I'm wide goddamn awake.
3 hours is plenty when it's your boss on the line, and they have control of the purse strings.
"Maguire," I answer, my voice neutral, even awake-sounding as I can make it.
"I didn't wake you, did I? I'm sorry, the time difference—"
"No, sir."
He doesn't care one damn bit about whether or not he woke me, so it doesn't do me any good to be upset about it. Certainly doesn't do me any good to tell him I'm upset, that's not getting anything done at all.
"How's everything going with the Beauchamp investigation? Made any arrests?"
"Ah… yes, sir. We did, we arrested Ryan Beauchamp, but we had to cut him loose. We're putting our work into turning him, for…"
I don't need to see the look on his face, not that I could from all this distance. Without speaking, without making a sound, the tone of the conversation shifts and I let myself go.
My eyes want to droop shut, even as I wait tensely for what he's calling me about. I let them close a little bit, and my eyelids just about manage to touch by the time he responds.
"Turn? Did we tell you to turn him, Agent Maguire?"
"Sir, I thought—"
"You thought, what? That you would give yourself full authority on this matter?"
"Sir," I begin, but I stop myself before I say anything more.
"Do you have anything on Beauchamp, yes or no?"
"We have circumstantial evidence placing one of his guys at a trade, guns for drugs, and we have an informant that puts those instructions in his mouth. He didn't say those exact words, of course—but we've got the conversation on tape."
"Then you need to get him back to Washington, Agent Maguire. If we've got evidence, we need to secure it here."
"I don't think that's wise, sir."
"You don't think it's wise?" His voice is sneering so his face doesn't have to. "I will tell you what's wise, Agent. You don't tell me, if you ever want to see 'Special' Agent. You do as I tell you, and that's that. Am I making myself perfectly clear?"
"Sir, I just—"
"No. I don't want to hear it. You get on the phone with your informant, you send him to Washington, to be debriefed by us. Then you go round up Beauchamp. Is. That. Understood?"
"I hear you, sir." It's about the best I can do right now to tell him that I'm not doing it.
"Don't give me that shit, Maguire. Do you understand my instructions, as they have been given to you—yes, or no?"
I take a deep breath in through my nose. This was my shot at getting past that fucking toad-looking man. I can't just keep going, keep looking at the ground just before my feet.
Eventually, someone has to look up, and they have to realize that there's more to the situation than the next little small fry. Eventually you have to grow the hell up.
"Yes, sir."
"And then get your ass back to D.C., along with the prisoner. We'll debrief you there, but if he's dealing with international drugs, we try him in Federal court."
"I really think—"
He cuts me off again, for the twentieth time. At this point I should just keep my mouth shut. He's not listening, and I'd get to sleep so much faster.
"You're still not listening to me, Maguire. You're still not listening. Bring him in, bring yourself in, both of you, to Washington D.C. No thinking. No, just one more thing. Get here."
"Yes, sir."
He hangs up the phone and I lay my head back down. This could have all been a bad dream. When I wake up in the morning, I'll forget, because when you wake—you forget.
I've had plenty of dreams that felt real in the moment, but when I woke up, they couldn't hurt me any more. They were gone. Just like this will, I assure myself.
I lay my head back down on the pillow, slipping into an uneasy sleep. Tossing and turning doesn't make for restful sleep, but it's the best I can do.
I force myself to keep going back to sleep until finally my alarm wakes me up. I wasn't exactly asleep at the time, but my eyes were closed. So when I sat up, rubbed the tiredness from my eyes, and stripped down to get into the shower, it counted as getting up.
The hot water felt good on my skin. I could feel it washing away the Arizona dust, the grime of dealing with filth all damn day. But it did nothing for my memory.
Donaldsen had called me, hours ago. My task force, what little of it I had, was gone. Out of my hands, out of Arizona. Back to D.C. where all of my assets can be chopped up into nice little bits.
My only asset goes with them, when they leave. Beauchamp is to be arrested and tried for illicit gun sales and for trafficking. They'll get a big success, or so they think.
Typical Donaldsen, can't see the forest for the trees. Can't see the big redwood, because it's blocked by a little sapling. He's going to fuck this up for everyone.
I take a deep breath. I can stop it, though. There's not much I can do, but I can do something. I consider the chances that Donaldsen didn't call anyone else.
The two factors weighing against each other in my head, as the hot water streams down my body, are that on one hand, Donaldsen has no respect for anyone, least of all me.
On the other hand, he has no patience for menial tasks. Things like making a round of phone calls in order to make sure his orders are followed are beneath him.
It could be that he hired someone else to do it. There are plenty of ass-kissers who just joined up with the bureau. They could use the help with their careers.