Smoke & Fire - Adult Paranormal Romance Series, Book #1

by Michele Wesley

  “Thanks for the flowers,” She gave each of her brothers playful punches on their shoulders.

  “What flowers?” They both spoke in unison spying at each other first, then Sori.

  Their dumb act wasn’t convincing. She said, “The beautiful roses you guys left at my door.”

  Damon said, “Sis, we didn’t give you any flowers. That’s like giving a wolf a sheep to play with.”

  Everyone laughed, but she replied, “Yeah, okay.”

  She glanced briefly over at Mycale, whose eyes never quite met hers, and asked how he was doing. He nodded curtly and started pecking at his keyboard.

  What’s wrong with him? He is too quiet for my blood.

  Seeing Mycale’s reaction, a thought had just occurred to her. She realized she must have looked like a damned crackhead. She had rolled out of bed, threw on a funky pair of cargo pants, and hadn’t even bothered to brush her hair. Shit, now that she thought about it, she hadn’t even glanced at a mirror. Her hair was short and just starting to grow out, so she probably had hair sticking up all over her head like a Chia Pet. She inconspicuously sniffed at her armpits to make sure she wasn’t trailing an odor.

  Thank the heavens I don’t smell like a shit pit!

  Taking a seat at the last remaining work station, Sori felt anxious. She was bored out of her mind and needed work—badly. Drake and Damon swore they hadn’t given her any flowers, but she ignored them.

  Damon teased, “Sis, has it ever occurred to you that someone besides us thinks enough of you to give you flowers? We are an all-guy team here, everyone has access to this place, and some of the guys—married, in a relationship, or other—are crushing on you big time, whether you realize it or not.”

  She shot back at Damon, “Nope, shit never occurred.”

  Mycale gave her a look that asked, Are you kidding? Shrugging, she glanced toward her brothers, waved them off, and continued to scan her emails.

  Drake was typing at least five-hundred-thousand words a minute, and she wondered how the keyboard hadn’t caught fire yet. She got up and walked over to him. “Twin, you are killing the keyboard, huh?”

  Drake’s forehead was furrowed and instinct made Sori glance over at Damon, who wasn’t looking at the computer but had the same furrowed forehead. She swore they thought through the same brain sometimes.

  Drake kept typing but finally started talking. “Sis, you remember the TC case?”

  Her thoughts ran rampant for a few seconds. How the fuck can I forget? The fucking agency, including you, listened through wires as I repeatedly had sex with a fucking killer, and I am still chasing a got-damn ghost trying to track down that fucking slithering bastard of a leader.

  She snapped out of her thoughts. The TC case was a sore subject for her. It had never taken her this long to track down a target, and the head of the TC had become target number 1 on not only her list, but Top’s.

  Her brother’s question made her bend closer to the monitor. Drake continued, “Well, it looks like the best tracker in the agent world has picked up the trail again.” She knew exactly who her brother was talking about. Known as Kevin or Kay, the agent was literally a human bloodhound. You tell him to track it, and he finds it.

  At this point everyone stood over Drake’s shoulder. Although the brothers had filled him in on the Truleta Cartel, Mycale wondered who the best tracker in the agent world was.

  Damon smiled saying, “Damn, Kevin is no joke. I swear he has a nose like a damn drug dog. He finds people like a hacker cracks code. I don’t know how he finds this shit. I mean, the man’s so good he can literally track air.”

  The comment got a laugh out of the group, but the situation was serious. This Cartel had become the bane of their existence.

  Sori had shared with her brothers the information that Archer Santos a.k.a. Micky Banks had whispered in her ear before he died.

  Archer’s last words were still fresh in Sori’s mind. She and her brothers had put forth a joint effort to try to decode Archer Santos’ last statements. The team wasn’t sure if Santos was trying to say that Padre was his father or if Padre was the Cartel boss. The team, however, was convinced that whoever this Padre or father was, he was likely planning to kill agents or law enforcement. For all they knew, the crazy bastard could have been planning to take down the government. They still didn’t know with a good degree of certainty if Santos had literally meant father as in a priest or father as in dad. Clues on who ran the Cartel were few and far between but they had enough information to suspect that Padre and the TC’s lead man were one and the same. Archer Santos had also mentioned she was like them, like being the key word, and that this Padre was planning to kill them all. Who else could he have been talking about if not agents or the law? Who else would Padre need to be building an army for?

  Sori, along with her brothers and a few other Top agents, had never stopped working the TC case. They never stop trying to find out who Archer Santos really was or where he had come from. The file that Top had on Santos had tracked him to a family in California, his father listed as an FBI agent. Archer Santos had clearly been an alias. The guy’s identity was just as secret as Sori’s was, and she was learning that Santos was a sweetheart compared to this elusive Padre they were trying to track down. Who was this guy? Why was he so damn hard to find? There was so much tied to the Cartel that it was imperative that it be taken apart. Drugs, prostitution, human trafficking, guns, you name it; this Truleta Cartel was a part of it. Research helped agents discover that over 80 percent of the Hard-To-Explain cases were somehow tied to or centered on the TC. This meant they weren’t using typical or normal means to commit crimes.

  A cartel was what the law had labeled it, but Sori started to think that the organization had taken on a life of its own, and they had to find a way to kill it. The Truleta Cartel had deadly tentacles seemingly reaching into every direction, and if they were building an army, this was just the beginning. It was about to rain blood and pour bodies.

  The phone ringing hadn’t pulled the team away from the update about the TC. They were so immersed in the updates that no one turned around until Mycale announced that the president was on the secure line and that he wanted to speak to Sori. It is not a good sign when the leader of the free world makes house calls; some serious shit was about to start flying.

  Sori, a master at projecting what she wanted you to see, didn’t give away anything while on the phone. She had a captive audience as the men all stared at her, unblinking.

  “Thank you, Mr. President.” She walked a few steps, hung up the phone, and spun around. She wanted so badly to laugh at the three expressions she saw, but shit was serious and she had to be an adult right now.

  She started, “The president wants me back on this TC case, just like you told me, Bro. New leads. New targets that can hopefully lead us to Padre.” She pointed at the screen. “We read as much as they could send over secure e-mail, but we are being pulled in for specifics. You all know how that shit works.”

  This meant that the team would get a call and meet at a secret location to get specifics on what the assignment entailed.

  Sori walked back and forth, chewing on her bottom lip until the bitter taste of blood registered. She talked to herself and thought at the same time.

  The brothers both glanced at each other reflecting concern. They knew that this case vexed her like nothing else. Mycale caught the brothers’ look. He had been around them long enough to know something was up. As he watched Sori pace the floor, he swore he heard just about every curse word the English language had to offer. He watched as her face and entire demeanor shifted, her eyes narrowed and Mycale felt a chill go up his spine.

  The brothers knew their sister was in full battle mode, ready to kill something. The sweet and innocent look and act she projected for their benefit was long gone. Mycale glanced at the brothers and back at her, his first time seeing her
like this. The lovely, innocent-faced woman he had seen a minute ago was gone, replaced by someone with ice water running through her veins.

  In a calm voice, Drake said, “Sis, calm down. You just got back from assignment. Relax your mind for a few days before you get kneecap deep into this new lead.”

  Damon added, “This looks like it has at least a two-week shelf life before we can start pursuing targets anyway.”

  She gave a fake smile, but the brothers knew better. Their sister was a killer first, and the hunt was like foreplay. The energy she released at the prospect of hunting and killing someone was almost palpable. The brothers had been trying and failing miserably to get her to find passion in something other than hunting down criminals and killing them.

  The innocent person she projected had jumped back into her body. She said, “Oh, I almost forgot. The president told me MIA is going to be breaking into Senator Rochester’s twenty-million-dollar guarded mansion to retrieve some paperwork the government has been trying to get their hands on for over a year. Apparently, the document contains information about corruption and murder among high-ranking government officials. MIA should be receiving the assignment soon.”

  Logging into her laptop, she studied what little information they had received on the TC case. She wasn’t surprised to see Mycale still working along with her and her brothers. He worked just as much as she did and had taken an interest in the TC case. She filled him in on whatever her brothers hadn’t already.

  Mycale asked, “So you were pretty much living with this… this Santos guy for weeks? Was it all recorded? Does the FBI still have the recordings? Didn’t they find any clues on the tapes?”

  Those tapes are the bane of my fucking existence. She smiled despite her shitty mood. “Yeah, agents have listened to those tapes over and over and over… and over. I have had to listen to them over and over, but I can’t find shit. I requested a copy for myself.”

  Mycale shrugged his shoulders. “I can listen to them if you want me to. Maybe fresh ears can pick up something?”

  She really didn’t need or want another person hearing all that had gone down between her and Archer Santos, but Mycale was right. She shrugged. “Sure. If you have the time, why not? This case is driving me insane. The longer it takes us to find this Padre character, the more time this dubious bastard has to develop a damn army against us.”

  After hours of studying for an assignment she couldn’t officially start, Sori finally dragged herself up to her bedroom. What in the hell was she going to do for two weeks except worry over a case she had no control over?

  She sat in her room and stared at those beautiful roses. She sniffed them one last time and smiled, not sure anymore if she was happy about the flowers or the new lead that would jettison her back on the trail of her most elusive target.

  CHAPTER 10

  Operation FOSM

  The brothers were concerned about their sister. She was so obsessed with the Truleta Cartel case that they were afraid it would consume her. Drake spoke first, “I know how important this case is, I see the havoc this Cartel creates, but in this line of work, we have to live life while we can. She doesn’t live. Sometimes it seems like she pretends for our benefit and lives for the satisfaction of catching and killing criminals. Everywhere the girl goes, people end up dying. You saw how anxious she got after the new updates came through on the case. It seemed like the new lead enticed her like drugs would an addict.”

  Drake and Damon were working on their newest special project called Operation FOSM, also known as Operation Find Our Sister a Man.

  Damon added, “We’ve tried this before. How many blind dates does it take to get to the center of our sister’s chest to find a heartbeat? I really don’t think she wants a man because this job is her man. It is the only thing that seems to get a rise out of her.” Both brothers started laughing.

  Drake thought for a few seconds. “She is slowly coming around, I give her that much. When we first started with the blind dates she was 100 percent against the idea. It took some time and our nagging, but she entertained our requests. She scares the hell out of all her dates, a few we’ve never heard from again, but the most important thing is she’s trying.”

  Damon stated, “You know what? I think Mycale likes her, but he is so much like her, he would never say anything.”

  His gaze confident, Drake drummed his fingers on the desk. “She is blood, so of course she’s going to attract men, but once she gets them and they get to know her, they run away with their tails tucked tight.”

  Damon continued, “She scares them all half to death. I mean, who takes their first date skydiving? Or cliff jumping? Or worse yet, camping in a snake-mosquito-and-alligator-infested wetland?”

  Shaking his head, Drake said, “Poor Dexter hasn’t been right since. Last I heard, the man had moved to Canada.” The brothers laughed so hard they were doubled over the table.

  When they were finally able to breathe, Drake continued, “We have solved much harder puzzles. We have got to find a match for our sister. She doesn’t know it yet, but she would make someone a good woman.”

  Talking through his laughter, Damon said, “You remember we set her up with Jeffery? She convinced him to let her give him a massage and put his ass in a rear-naked-choke. She sat there and watched the man sleep through the entire date while she enjoyed her meal. I was glad they ate here and not in some fancy restaurant. I warned Jeffery beforehand not to shoot his mouth off too much, but he didn’t listen, just had to back-talk the beast.” The brothers both burst into another fit of laughter.

  “We had to go and get the brother off the table after she left him there like some leftover. I’ll admit, we should have listened to her when she told us she wasn’t interested.” Drake was so tickled he couldn’t speak anymore. He was leaning over, holding his stomach and hitting at the desk, struggling to get words out that wouldn’t come.

  Continuing the words his brother couldn’t get out, Damon said, “Jeffery still doesn’t know what happened to him. You didn’t make things any better by telling him he had been roofied and date-raped. I think he has been seeing a shrink ever since.”

  Damon was now leaning in a fit of laughter. Drake laughed so hard he started choking on his own spit. Their sister was a hot mess when it came to dating. They hadn’t found a man yet that could handle her strong personality.

  When the brothers calmed down enough to think, they both looked up at the same time. The little lightbulb that shined bright ideas into their head had appeared. Drake said, “We have a little over a week to come up with something before our sister goes gallivanting all over the country, killing people who, as of right now, think that they have gotten away with something.”

  The brothers were determined to stir up some drama. It was in their nature not to leave well enough alone.

  * * *

  She was a certified workaholic, but even she had to admit that she had been exhausted. This time, before she left her room, she ensured she took a shower and brushed her hair. Today, she would try to impress her brothers and be more normal.

  They were wearing huge devious smiles when she entered the SSR. While Drake tried distracting her, Damon was looking back from his seat, shutting down Operation FOSM before Sori caught them in the act. Drake couldn’t help teasing her, “The dead has risen.”

  She walked up and stood behind her brothers, spying over their shoulders. “What are ya’ll working on?”

  Looking up at her puzzled, Damon asked, “Ya’ll?”

  She shrugged. “I just spent weeks in Louisiana and Texas, so yes, the word ya’ll has officially become a part of my vocabulary.”

  Damon said, “You have a good point. Strange thing is, you sound like a native Southerner.”

  She spoke playfully with a thick Southern accent, her brothers among a very select few to see her display a hint of personality. “I look, I listen
, and I learn quickly, my Boy.” She patted him on the back of the head, like she had seen some of the older southern gentlemen do.

  They quieted the small talk, and the brothers explained some of the legwork they had been doing and about how she was going to break into Senator Harvey Rochester’s twenty-million-dollar guarded mansion to retrieve the document the government wanted.

  The brothers knew how to make her smile. Announcing that she would be completing the assignment had her grinning like a Cheshire cat. MIA had more than enough capable men to do the job, but she felt special that her brothers had chosen her for the case. It provided the perfect distraction she needed to take her mind off the impending cartel case.

  Drake looked over at Damon before eyeing Sori. “We would like you to work with Mycale. Take him along so he can get first-hand knowledge on how to become a first-rate burglar. We don’t expect you to bring him into the mansion, but you can show him how to recon and plan.”

  She shrugged her shoulders. “Okay.”

  The brothers gave each other a look, and this time, Sori caught it. They were up to something; she could feel it.

  * * *

  She and Mycale teamed up the next day and drove out to the Rochester mansion to scout the lay of the land. They found a way to hack into the senator’s executive assistant’s laptop and found that the family was gearing up to leave town in a few days. Things were lining up perfectly as the team studied the house’s floor plans, security devices, and protocols and put together their plan and strategy for extracting the documents.