“I was..shoving my hair..oh God..out of my face. I touched him in a..frrr..friendly way.”
“That better be all it was. You are mine. This pussy is mine. Do you get that?”
“I thought you didn’t..want to t-touch me?”
“When this case is over…” I leaned forward and captured her mouth in mine as I worked my hand faster over her pussy. Moments later, her legs were squeezing my hand tight as she came. I swallowed her moans as I plunged my tongue deeper into her delicious mouth. When I pulled back, her cheeks were flushed and she was breathing hard.
“Maggie, I got your phone.. Oh shit. Sorry. Uh. Nevermind.”
Cal walked back into the kitchen and Maggie turned about ten shades redder. She looked down as she nervously laughed, but I continued to watch her face, memorizing every detail for my dreams. This woman was a walking fantasy in every way. She had a great body and beautiful, long hair that I wanted to wrap around my fist as I pounded into her from behind. If I didn’t walk away now, I was going to have to run upstairs for a few minutes and we had more important things to do right now. I gave her one last kiss before I pulled back again.
“Mine.”
I turned and walked back into the kitchen where Cal was going over the information he was able to retrieve from Maggie’s cell phone.
“What did you find?”
“Well, she won’t be able to get all her information back, but I was able to retrieve her text messages. I got the number it was sent from and the message itself.”
Maggie walked back into the kitchen looking more composed than she had a few minutes ago. “Were you able to get the message?”
“Yep. The Steel Bar and the bartender’s name is Tom. I think we should head over there first and check it out. If anyone was looking at your phone records, it’s possible they found this number and already talked to the owner of the phone. Who’s your carrier?”
“Verizon.”
“Verizon keeps text message content for three to five days. If they were able to get into your records, they could already have the information.”
“Alright, let’s load up and get over to the bar. Cal, you grab directions. Freckles, back seat.”
“I want to sit up front.”
“No. I need the extra set of eyes up front and you aren’t trained.”
She let out a huff, but did as I said and got into the backseat. When we arrived at the bar, it was just around ten and the place was packed enough that we shouldn’t stand out too much. Maggie and I made our way over to the bar, while Cal watched the door. While the crowd helped us blend, it could also be more difficult to get out with all the people around. It was a crapsshoot. The crowd would either aid in our escape by allowing us to sneak out, or we could get caught in the crowd and potentially put more people in danger. Either way, we needed to find out what Tom the bartender had, if anything.
“Hey, I’m looking for Tom,” I asked the bartender that was currently pouring drinks.
“Who wants to know?”
“Maggie.” Freckles just jumped right in, again. No thought that giving her name could put her in danger or give a heads up to anyone keeping an ear out. The bartender continued to pour drinks, flicking his eyes occasionally to us.
“Not here. Meet me in the alley in ten.”
He handed us two beers and walked away without another word and went to pour more drinks for other patrons. Grabbing Maggie by the arms, I pulled her away from the bar and sat down at an open table with our drinks.
“Pretend to drink your beer, but don’t drink it all. We need clear heads.”
She nodded and pretended to sip her beer.
“Next time, let me do the talking.”
“He’s meeting with us, isn’t he?”
“Did you stop to think that it could be a trap, or that someone could be watching and waiting for you to show? You have to think about these things instead of running full steam ahead all the time.”
“Look, I’m a reporter and I go after stories. Sometimes it’s dangerous, but that’s part of the job.”
“You still don’t get it. That’s why I’m here, to keep you safe. I take my job very seriously and do whatever I can to protect my clients, but if you keep going off and doing your own thing, you’re going to get us killed. We do things my way for a reason.”
We sat in silence for another few minutes before I grabbed her hand and pulled her to the door, walking on the left side of her. Cal took up the right side as we headed out the door.
“We’re meeting in the alley. Grab the SUV and keep close in case we need a quick getaway.”
“Copy that.”
Cal walked away and I continued down toward the alley with Maggie. I kept her as close to the wall as possible and continued on her left side. When we reached the back of the bar, Tom was just stepping outside.
“You’re Maggie, Danielle’s friend?”
“Yes.”
Technically not true. From what Maggie told me, she had only met Danielle when she contacted her about the story.
“Is she okay?”
“I don’t know. How do you know Danielle?” Maggie asked.
“She’s my best friend’s daughter. He passed some years ago and I’ve been looking out for her ever since. She came to me and gave me something to give you. She said…she said that she got herself into something and she thought someone was after her.”
He pulled a small baggie from his back pocket and fingered whatever was inside. “She said this was really important, that it was crucial I get this to you. What happened to her?”
He seemed to say that last part to himself. I wished that I could offer him some consolation, but the most I could think of was telling him that Danielle probably died quickly. That was really only a relief to people who knew all the different ways a person could be killed. Luckily, Maggie stepped in and saved me from making an ass of myself.
“Tom, I don’t know what happened to Danielle. I was supposed to meet her the other night and we were going to protect her, but she never showed. I promise you, we’ll continue to look for her and we won’t stop.”
“But you think she’s dead.”
Maggie tilted her head gently to the side and gave a sad look. “I do. If this is as important as she said, then she was probably killed because of it.”
He nodded his head and sniffed. “Promise me you’ll get the people that got to her.”
“I promise.”
He handed over the little baggie that I could now see held a flash drive. Maggie took it and then placed her hand over his and gave a squeeze. Tom turned and walked back into the building and I started pulling her down the alley. We were just about halfway down the alley when someone started running up behind us. Turning quickly, I shoved Maggie against the wall with one arm while blocking the gun that our assailant was trying to raise with the other. I gave him a hard knee to the gut while I pulled the gun from his hand and pointed it at him. He had fallen to his knees to catch his breath and stayed down now that his own gun was pointed at his head.
“Who sent you?”
“Fuck off.”
“I’ll ask you one more time, who sent you?”
“You shoot me and they’ll just send someone else to kill your pretty, little girlfriend. They’ll do her just like they did the girl in the Mayor’s office.”
While I knew enough not to let this guy bait me, Maggie apparently didn’t. This guy was desperate and would do anything for a chance to live longer. If he let us believe that he had details that would extend his life, he might have a chance of escape. Of course, what really happened was he got a better opportunity when Maggie launched herself at him before I could stop her and attempted to hit him. She stepped right in front of me, effectively blocking any shot I had. As soon as I saw her move, I reached for her, but the asshole was quicker and grabbed her around the waist and pulled her in front of him.
Again, Maggie had created a huge problem, not seeing that the man was goading her into mak
ing a move. By jumping in front of me, it allowed the guy to either grab her or my gun now that she was creating a distraction. I was beginning to hate this woman.
The guy had his hand wrapped around her throat as he pulled her right up against his body, using her as a shield. Maggie’s eyes were blazing with anger as she looked at me.
“Freckles, what the fuck? Do you think you can ever listen to me and do as I say?”
“I could have had him.”
“Right, I can see that based on the fact that you’re now being used as a shield.”
“You could have warned me!”
“Warned you that he was going to use you? How would that have gone? Would you have liked me to stop beating his ass to protect you so that I could warn you first not to do anything stupid?
The guy was slowly slipping his head away from the cover of hers. I just needed him to move a little further so I could get a shot off. Maggie would hate me, but I would deal with that later.
“I wasn’t being stupid! I was just about to lay down an ass whooping when I stumbled on my shoe!”
“You stumbled on your shoe? You do realize that stumbling on your shoe is about to get you killed, right?” I peered around Maggie’s shoulder, looking the guy in the eye the best I could. “Do you see what I have to deal with?”
“Bitches be crazy.”
“I hear ya brother. Maybe I should just give her to you. I’m not sure she’s worth the trouble anymore. I’ve already been paid for some of my services.”
“I’m sure the Mayor would pay quite a lot for you to hand her over. You could make the rest of your fee without the work.”
Now that was interesting. Finally, we got some confirmation that the Mayor was after Maggie. I pretended to think about it for a minute.
“Twenty-five thousand.”
“Hey! I’m worth more than that! You could at least have the decency to ask a little more for me.”
I wasn’t sure if Maggie was playing along or if she was just so pissed at me that she wasn’t able to process the fact that she was being held by a killer.
“Fifteen. You’re not gonna get a penny more for this bitch.”
“The remainder of my contract is twenty. I’m not budging on that.”
“You’re seriously going to hand me over to this asshole?”
“Shut up,” I yelled at the same time as her captor.
“Call him. I want confirmation before I hand her over. You’re going to have him transfer the money while he’s on the phone or the girl leaves with me. You get him to agree to twenty-five and I’ll cut you in for a thousand.”
He pulled out his phone and made the call. “Hey, Johnson, I got something you want, but if you want her, you’re gonna have to pay. Twenty-five thousand. Yeah, he’s right here and those are his demands.”
“Tell him I’ll throw in the flash drive for free.”
“You asshole.” Maggie was glaring daggers at me, but I kept my expression neutral and trained on the man behind her.
“You were supposed to help me! I trusted you. What was all that crap you’ve been spewing at me? That I was yours? You fucking bastard.”
I had to stop her before she kept going or this deal wouldn’t happen. “A better offer came along.”
“I’m gonna destroy you. Somehow, I’m gonna get away from this asshole and I’m gonna bring you and your whole company down!”
She was struggling against the man as he gripped her tighter around the neck and continued to negotiate with whoever was on the phone. I stepped closer, needing to shut her up.
“Do you want a fucking bullet in the head right now?” I yelled in her face. Spit flew from my mouth as I put as much anger into it as possible. I gave a menacing glare and I saw her face shutter as realization hit, which was exactly what I needed.
“You want this deal to go through, I need a bank account.”
I pulled out my phone and dialed Becky. “I need my offshore account information.” I relayed the account number to the thug holding Maggie and waited for confirmation that the money had gone through. Satisfied that I had gotten as much use out of this fucker as possible, I decided to end this charade.
“Give your boss a message for me.”
The dumbass poked his head out from around Maggie, thinking that he was in the clear now. I didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger and nail him right between the eyes. Maggie, standing right next to him, caught some spray from the explosion at the back of his head. His hand slid from her throat as he fell to the ground in a bloody mess. Without a second thought to the body that was now laying on the ground next to her, she whirled on me.
“I can’t believe you asked so little for me. Is that really all you think I’m worth?”
I pulled her into my arms and kissed her like it was my dying breath. She tried to resist me at first, but then she was practically crawling up my body to get more of me. Cal’s honk of the horn sounded from the other end of the alley and I slowly pulled away from her.
“That worked in our favor this time, but don’t ever pull that crap again.”
I pulled her after me before she could argue and deposited her in the back seat. I quickly dialed Becky as Cal drove toward our second location.
“Becky, trace the money. It should lead back to the Mayor. We need a clean up crew at The Steel Bar in the alley.” Ending the call, I turned back to Maggie. “So, if we bring you with us, do you think you can refrain from causing any more trouble?”
“I didn’t cause that trouble. You were the one that wanted to sell me off to that guy.”
“Yes, and I hopefully got a trace on his accounts that will help us with some other money trails. Good job keeping your cool back there, by the way.”
She turned her accusing glare on Cal. “Why didn’t you help out back there? You obviously saw what was going on.”
Cal snorted. “What? With that pipsqueak? There’s no way that Sebastian couldn’t handle that guy. I knew he had a reason for not taking him out from the start.”
“He could have had a knife to my throat for all you knew.”
“He could have, but it still wouldn’t have mattered. Cap would have handled him just fine.”
“When you started arguing with me, it gave me the perfect opportunity to either draw him out from behind you or prove to him that you’re a pain in the ass that’s not worth keeping around.”
“Excuse me?”
“For his benefit, of course. You’re not at all a pain in the ass.”
“Sure, you say that now. What about the next time someone offers you money to hand me over.”
“I’ll be sure to ask for at least thirty next time.”
✯✯✯✯✯
Our next stop was the property in the Strip District. It had once been a shipping company that was now out of business. The office building was a two story brick building that sat at the front of the property and behind were the abandoned shipping containers that sat empty. This company hadn’t been used in over twenty years and it didn’t make sense because it could have been bought up and used by another shipping company, had it been bought years ago.
After Cal and I scoped out the property, we got out and led Maggie to the fence that could barely be considered locked.
“Why aren’t we bringing supplies with us? I thought you guys loaded the SUV with gadgets for when we got to these properties?”
“If we find something, we’ll go back for supplies. We’re not going to walk around the property with shovels and cameras until we know there’s something to go digging for. What we found at the other property could have been a fluke.”
“Not likely.”
“Should we have a repeat of what just happened in the alley? How about we try things my way for once.”
“Fine.”
I took up position on Maggie’s left and Cal took the right after we slipped through the gate. The building had nothing to show for it. There was some office furniture and filing cabinets, but they were covered in a thic
k layer of dust and I highly doubted there was anything here to find. There were no dug up pieces of concrete like there were at the Wilkinsburg address, so we walked out through the shipping containers, again not finding anything. As we walked to the edge of the dock, I looked out on the water, trying to imagine what the Mayor could possibly want with this property.
“I think we need to move on to another property. I’m not seeing anything here that will help us.”
Maggie sighed as she stepped closer to the water. “Yeah. I think you’re right. Damn. I was so sure that one of these properties would lead us to something.”
“Well, we still have a few more properties to check out. Let’s get back to the SUV and see what else we can find.”
Cal and I took up our positions around Maggie once again and headed back to the truck. I really felt that luck was turning our way since we made it through this site with no trouble. I just hoped our luck held.
✯✯✯✯✯
“What is that god awful smell?” Cal asked as we stepped into the brewery.
“It smells like drain cleaner mixed with something.”
I swung the flashlight around the room looking for anything that would hint at what was causing the smell. Maggie started to walk around me, but I put my arm up to block her from passing me.
“Stay behind me.”
She didn’t argue and stayed behind me as I walked around the large space. As we moved further into the brewery, the smell got stronger and stronger. Maggie started gagging beside me.
“I think I’m gonna be sick. That smell is horrible.”
“Put your shirt over your nose and breathe through your mouth.”
“How can you stand the smell?”
“In the military, you learn how to work with smelly conditions. You never know what you’re going to encounter and puking all over the place isn’t really an option when you’re out on a mission.”
We stepped into a large room filled with beer vats. This was where the smell was coming from. It had to be. My eyes started watering the further we moved into the room. Shining the flashlight across the room, I almost missed the large mess on the floor beneath one of the vats.
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