Once inside his suite, Jake showered and changed into casual wear. People reacted badly to suits in the part of town he planned to visit. He guzzled the breakfast and a twinge of guilt panged him for not appreciating the staff’s efforts more. Shoving it aside, he pulled the hood of the sleeveless sweater over his head, shut the door behind him and drove towards the slums of downtown.
The trailer park radiated neglect and despair. Trash lined the unpaved narrow streets and cats competed with rats in sifting through the debris for leftovers. The stench of decaying garbage cloyed the air and Jake closed the window. In front of one trailer, someone tried to create a garden and yellow marigolds peeked bravely from behind an uncut plot of grass. A rusted chassis of what might have once been a Chevrolet perched precariously on four cement blocks.
He found the campervan at the far end of the park, tucked under a tree with broken wooden swing swaying in the slight breeze. In contrast to the other lots, no trash littered the yard and a couple of stacked plastic chairs leaned against the side of the trailer. A battered and rusted blue sedan sat in front of the trailer. A woman with a cigarette clenched between her lips, rounded the corner and Jake slowly drove on, glad he used a company vehicle.
Two hundred meters further he stopped and checked the copy of the photograph they’d found in the drawer. Yes. She’d aged quite a bit, but it was the same woman. If this was indeed their man, he didn’t flaunt the money he stole. With more than fifty million Rand, he could afford just about any accommodation he pleased, but his address showed a trailer park.
Jake sat in the car for a couple of minutes, but soon he earned himself stares from the other occupants of the neighbourhood. His options were limited. Blending in amongst a predominately Hispanic community was impossible, but he had to give it a try. He alighted from the car, made sure he locked it properly and walked along the narrow gravel street.
Resisting the urge to clamp his hand over his mouth against the stench permeating the air, Jake made his way towards the trailer where he had seen the woman. According to the personnel file, Marvin Sparks, a twenty five year old cleaner, lived with his mother. His intelligence scored off the charts, but due to financial constraints, he ended up being a cleaner at Adams Weaponry where he’d worked for the past six years. He also studied at night and obtained a bachelor’s degree in computer science at the age of twenty two. No minor feat considering where he’d grown up.
As Jake watched, the door to the trailer opened, disgorging a stumbling Marvin. Marvin’s dishevelled hair and unshaven face blended in with the surroundings. Dressed in a nylon vest and shorts, the man radiated incompetence. Jake wasn’t fooled. His gut told him they had their man and his gut was seldom wrong.
Without pausing, Jake walked by the trailer. He couldn’t afford for Marvin to recognise him, not before Jake had time to see what the man was up to. At the end of the block, Jake stood on the pavement and retrieved a packet of cigarettes from his pocket. The cigarette should buy him a couple of minutes without arousing suspicion. He cupped the small flame of the lighter in his hands and drew the fake smoke from the device into his mouth, keeping it in his mouth just long enough to authenticate the process. He cupped the burning end of the device in his palm and waited.
Before the fake cigarette could burn out, the blue sedan pulled out of the yard. Jake stood his ground as Marvin steered the car past him. He waited until Marvin reached the second block from him before he sprinted for his car and followed him into the city.
Despite his instincts telling him they had their man, Jake couldn’t stop his jaw from dropping slightly when Marvin stopped in front of a luxury estate on the other side of town. He inserted a card into the intercom and the cast iron gates swung open. Jake drove past and stopped where he could still watch the sedan disappear along the winding driveway. Marvin Sparks entered a residence less than a mile from his own home.
A quick call to his office confirmed the property belonged to the Sparks Trust with the Marvin being the sole trustee. Jake requested financial details of the trust and settled to wait. He flipped through some notes he made earlier about the cleaner, but they failed to curb his wandering thoughts.
Images of Cassie flashed before his mind and he shifted in the seat. Despite the early hour, the sun heated the interior of the car to uncomfortable levels. By midday, he would resemble a roasted rooster. A horny one, but roasted all the same.
Horny. Was that all he felt for Cassie? He sure as hell hoped so because he couldn’t bear the alternative. He would miss her company and the sex, but that’s all there was to it. The protectiveness he felt towards her stemmed from his job. He liked to keep his charges intact until the company neutralized the threat. After that, the next job would occupy his mind as fully as protecting Cassie did.
He had to admit he admired her for her tenacity. For someone who had a sterile relationship with her parents, she sure took clearing her father’s name seriously. Her intelligence carried her through a process that would faze men with much more experience. No, she was nobody’s fool. He’d do well to remember that.
The roar of an engine zipping past him, shook him out of his musings. He was just in time to see Marvin and his silver Ferrari disappear around the corner. Jake pounded the steering wheel with his fist. That’s what you get when you daydream on the job. Nothing. No license plate and no bloody idea where the man headed.
He stopped to change at his house before he drove to the office with his temper rising along with the temperature outside. He never made mistakes and he never lost his subject. Banging his fist on the steering wheel again only earned him a throbbing pinkie and he grimaced. No use crying over spilled milk. His mind raced to possible locations Marvin could have gone to, but he came up blank. They simply didn’t know enough about the man to venture a guess.
In the cool air-conditioned interior of his office, Jake slouched in his chair while he relayed his morning to Matt. He ached to enquire about Cassie, but swallowed the words trembling on his tongue. Matt would tell him if anything out of the ordinary happened.
“I guess we just have to wait him out.” Matt stopped pacing in front of the window and fixed his eyes on something in the street below. His abrupt silence echoed through the room.
“What’s the matter?”
“What car did you say our boy drove?” Jake shot out of the chair and peered outside.
“I’ll be damned. That’s him.” What was the man doing parked in front of their building and for all intent and purpose seemed poised to enter through the lobby?
“Let’s see what he’s up to.” Matt grinned and walked towards the door. “This could be interesting.”
Jake spent the next hour and a half wearing out the carpet in his office. Only when the engine of the Ferrari fired in the street below, did he fling open his office door and walked smack into a grinning Matt.
Chapter Twelve
Focus Cassie, she admonished herself. It had been a struggle the whole morning to keep her attention veering from the conversation at the conference table to Jake. He intruded her thoughts when they were apart and possessed her body when they were together. Now, however, she had to concentrate on brokering a deal that could pull the company out of the red and into a nice profit for a change.
Joshua stared at her intently, his eyes willing her to get on with it. Cassie fiddled with the documents before her and inhaled deeply. The monotony of the government official’s voice droning on and on threatened to put everyone of the ten people at the table to sleep. Cassie shut the folder with a bang and several people jumped. The speaker lost his momentum for the breath of a second and Cassie took the opportunity to wrap the meeting up.
“Gentlemen,” she inclined her head at the only other woman present, “and lady. I think we’ve resolved the issue to everyone’s satisfaction. I trust the legal department will provide us with mutually satisfying contracts before the end of the week.” She rose from her chair and gathered the files into a neat pile.
“Thank you for your time. I unfortunately have another pressing engagement to attend. Please forward any questions you might still have to Joshua here. Good day.”
Closing the door behind her, Cassie shut out the murmur of voices that erupted at her sudden departure and she breathed a sigh of relief. She hated these meetings where the other party used it as a bargaining platform to broker a better deal, but they were too tactful to state it outright.
She had an hour before her next meeting at one and she made her way to the suite the conference centre allocated to her party. The female guard glanced up from the novel on her lap before chucking it onto the sofa beside her.
“I’ll get you a cup of coffee.”
Cassie managed a grin, took off her jacket and draped it over a chair. “Thanks. You must be bored out of your mind.”
The woman smiled while she busied herself with pouring scalding liquid from the machine. “I’m used to it. From the looks of you though, you need rescue from boredom more than I do.”
Cassie slumped into the folds of the sofa and resisted the urge to tangle her fingers in her hair. “A necessary evil, I’m afraid. At least this time they managed to keep most of the delegates awake with their haggling.”
Laughter rang through the room and Cassie stared intently at the woman. Something was familiar but she couldn’t place it. “Have we met before?”
At the woman’s startled gaze, Cassie coloured slightly and hastened to explain. “You seem familiar, but I can’t figure out why.”
The woman handed her the coffee and took the seat opposite her before answering. “He’ll have my hide for this.”
“Who? What are you talking about?”
“Jake.”
“What does Jake have to do it?”
She smiled. “Jake’s my brother. He called in a favour I owed him and here I am, using my ATF skills to protect his most valued possession. My name is Lea, by the way.”
Cassie’s mouth dropped open. Jake had a sister. She didn’t know anything about the man, but she spent at least half a weekend in his arms with him inside and all over her. Heat gathered in her pussy and Cassie shifted uneasily in the chair. What was wrong with her? She couldn’t think about Jake without turning into a nymphomaniac.
Forcing her thoughts to the woman opposite her, she could see the resemblance. They had the same chocolaty brown eyes and pertinent nose. Lea, however, was small and petite against Jake’s bulk.
“I had no idea he had a sister.” Her voice sounded unconvincing in her own ears. “Why would he call you instead of using one of the other agents?”
“I’m the only he trusts to keep you safe. You must be very special to him. It’s the first time he requested my help.”
Cassie drew in a ragged breath, but a knock on the door interrupted her train of thought. Lea had her hand on the butt of the pistol tucked in the belt of her jeans before opening the door a fraction. She released the chain and Joshua stalked into the room, pulled Cassie from the chair and whirled her in the air.
“They found him. They’re tracking him as we speak and according to Matt, this will be over before the end of the week.”
Cassie giggled at Joshua’s uncharacteristic display of emotion. He needed this wrapped up even more than she did so that he could return to be a proper husband and father. Guilt overwhelmed her and she cupped his face in his hands. “Thanks for sticking with me on this. I’m so sorry I got you involved.”
He gently lowered her and shook his head. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. Besides, you owe me a vacation after this bastard is caught.”
“Hmm.” Someone cleared her throat and Cassie’s head snapped up. “Mind stepping away from my charge, sir?”
Joshua turned his head towards Lea and his hands fell from Cassie like stones as he jumped. “Jesus woman, are you out of your mind?” Lea’s face wore a mask of intent and she only lowered the gun pointed at Joshua’s head when he sagged pale-faced on the sofa.
She shrugged, but didn’t holster the weapon. “Just doing my job.”
“Scared the crap out me, you did.” His voice held an unnatural quiver and Cassie swallowed the laughter threatening to bubble over. Poor Joshua. None of them were made for this cloak-and-dagger stuff.
She waited until he finished squirming before she sipped at her own scalding coffee and cleared her throat. “What happened? How did they find him?”
“According to Matt the guy just walked into their offices and tried to hire them to find his father. According to Matt, it sounded if he thought their company wouldn’t have any success.”
Cassie shook her head. “If he is the thief, why would he go to Matt’s company for help? He would know they protected me and investigated the case.”
“I have no idea, but Matt refused the case and while they were consulting, someone from their offices planted a tracker on his car and some sort of bug on the seat. I don’t understand how it works, but apparently when he sat in the seat, the bug would be transferred to his person.”
“What bug? A listening devise or a virus? Sounds awfully much like they want to infect him with some form of contagious disease.”
Lea’s laughter rang through the room and for a moment Cassie thought Jake had entered unseen. Since she found out they were siblings, she stood amazed at the similarities between the two. They both had an arrogance born from competence, tempered only by their compassion for others. Cassie’s heart ached with longing for Jake’s company. She vowed she would never depend on another human being again and now . . . now she needed Jake like she needed to breathe.
“Earth to Cassie.” Joshua waved a hand in front of her face.
“Huh?”
Joshua fixed a hard stare on her. “When was the last time you had a decent night’s sleep? You look worn out.”
Cassie feigned indignation. “I beg your pardon. Are you telling me I look like a rag? Don’t you know you never tell a woman she doesn’t look good?”
“Nice try, but you need to rest. You will be no help to anyone if you fall apart on your feet.”
“I’m fine. As soon as this ordeal is over, I will take a week off. I promise.”
Joshua regarded her in silence for a while. She knew he didn’t believe a word she said. Except for that one week in Mauritius, Cassie hadn’t taken a holiday since she started working. She never felt the need to let herself go and the one time she did, the object of her wild night walked into her life mere months later.
“I’ll make you keep your promise.”
She nodded and changed the subject to the pending meeting. They discussed a few points to raise until it was time to re-enter the conference centre. The rest of the afternoon sped by and it was after eight when Cassie and Lea closed the door of her apartment behind them.
Lea’s presence didn’t feel like an intrusion on her privacy. She’d expected a repeat of the previous night, but found she liked the way Lea combined her upbeat banter with doing her job. They’d just finished preparing a chicken salad when a knock sounded at the door.
Before Cassie could react, Lea had her weapon drawn and took position next to the lock. She waved at Cassie to attend to the door. Jake quietly identified himself and Cassie opened the door a crack. She would have opened it fully if it wasn’t for Lea’s foot blocking the way. Only when Lea satisfied herself that it was indeed Jake, did she remove her foot and let Jake inside.
“Hey, I thought you needed to keep a low profile.” She nodded in Cassie’s direction.
He sent Lea a withering look and earned himself a grin. She holstered her weapon and slumped against the sofa, the salad temporarily forgotten. “So big brother, you had to see her. I presume you don’t need my services for the night?”
He ignored his sister and gathered Cassie to him in a bear hug. The all male smell of him assaulted her senses, stirring erotic memories and tightening her nipples. When he lifted her chin with his finger and captured her lips in a gentle kiss, she didn’t protest. Emotion and sensation warred th
rough her body and need pooled between her legs. Feeling bereft when he lifted his head and stared into her eyes, Cassie hugged his waist and rested her head against his chest.
“How you’re doing, sweetheart?”
The rumble of his voice resonated through her body and she swallowed at the sudden lump forming in her throat. It felt like coming home. She would miss him terribly when this was over. She loved him.
Clearing her throat, she attempted a reply and hugged him fiercely. “I’m good. Did you manage to find out more about our man?”
Cassie walked to the kitchen to disguise the pain lancing through her at the thought of never seeing him again. Her reaction to his presence emphasized how dependent she’d become of him. And she hated depending on anyone.
Jake followed close behind and his presence tingled through her veins, ticking her senses into overdrive and making it very difficult not to push him against the cabinets and tear his clothes off. She concentrated on taking plates from the cupboard and pulled three wine glasses from the shelf, holding them up in a silent question.
Both Jake and Lea declined the offer with a shake of their heads. The similarity between the two hit her again. She didn’t know how she could have missed it at first. Cassie retrieved the salad from the fridge and carried it to the table. Jake quickly set the table while Lea poured some fruit juice into tall glasses. The silence between them stretched until all sat staring at the food on their plates. Cassie cleared her throat from the lump clogging her airway. The scene was just too domesticated to be comfortable to any of them.
"So, you haven't answered my question yet. What did you manage to find out about Marvin? That is his name?"
Jake nodded. "Yes, we do believe that Marvin is the one terrorizing you and robbing the company. He leads a double life with the one being in a trailer park and the other in a mansion registered to a trust. He came to the office today to request Matt to find his father."
Cassie frowned. "Why would he come to your office when he knows you are the ones protecting me?"
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