“I don’t have a boyfriend,” she answered, her voice breathless.
“I find that hard to believe, you being so pretty,” he said before looking over at me. “It’s too bad I’m here on official police business. Maybe I’ll have to come back again for personal reasons.”
“I’m working the next five days straight,” she offered.
“I’ll keep that in mind, sugar,” he purred. “And I have to admit, I’m no longer irritated our anonymous tip came in so early this morning since it means I got to meet you.”
“Anonymous tip?” she repeated.
“According to the caller, the hotel is in possession of a package addressed to our victim, Ms. Delia Sinclair.”
“We are?” She looked over her shoulder at the office door like it was about to explode.
“That’s what we’ve been told,” he confirmed. “Would you mind checking for us? If the caller’s information is correct, that package needs to be logged into evidence. If you find anything, try not to touch it. Just let me know if it’s there and I’ll come back to get it.”
Now she looked scared out of her mind. “Can you come back and look for it with me? I’d hate to accidentally mess anything up for your case.”
“Of course I will,” he agreed, smirking my way as he rounded the counter and followed her into the office. A couple minutes later, they returned. Her face had lost all its color but Brody looked triumphant. For good reason, too.
“You have a spare evidence bag with you?” he asked, holding up an envelope in his gloved hands.
I played along with him. “We’ve got plenty in the car.”
“Thanks for all your help, sugar. We better go bag and tag this to ensure the proper chain of evidence.”
“Okay.” Her voice held none of the warmth from earlier, most likely because this was as close as she’d ever come to violence in her life.
“Don’t you think you laid it on a little thick back there?” I muttered as we walked away.
“It worked, didn’t it?”
I couldn’t disagree with his logic. “That it did.”
The mission was successful. We had a new lead to follow and only two people had seen us enter and exit the hotel. “You going to turn the security cameras back on?”
“As soon as we get back to the suite.”
“Delia was right,” I murmured.
“She sure as shit was. I figured our trip was bound to be a wild goose chase. You could have knocked me over when I found this back there.” Brody waved the envelope around. “You want me to open it?”
“Not yet,” I answered, even though I was beyond curious to know what was inside. “We wouldn’t have found it without Delia’s help. It’s only fair she’s with us when we open it.”
“Whatever you say,” he mumbled. “I guess I’ll just squeeze in some shut eye ‘til we get there.”
****
“Did you find anything?” Delia asked as she jumped up from the couch and ran toward me.
“Shockingly enough, we did,” Brody confirmed.
“Really?” She looked as surprised as I felt when Brody walked out with the envelope. “What is it?”
“Don’t know yet,” Brody grumbled. “Saint said we had to wait until we got back here to open it.”
“You did?” She stretched up on her toes to kiss my cheek.
“I did,” I answered, trapping her against my body so I could repay her kiss with one of my own. Not to her cheek, though. I needed a taste of her plump lips since I hadn’t been able to get one this morning. She had been sound asleep when we’d left and I didn’t want to wake her when she needed the rest. By the time I lifted my lips from her mouth, her eyes were glassy, her lips were swollen, and we were both breathing hard.
“You guys look pretty busy, but I was kind of wondering...are either of you dying to know what’s in the envelope or is it just me?” Brody’s voice drew my attention away from Delia. The smirk on his face told me all I needed to know. I had never been one for public displays of affection, but it wasn’t because I was embarrassed. I hadn’t needed to worry about making any woman happy outside of bed since I never bothered with relationships.
My kissing Delia wasn’t due to concern for her feelings, though. I was driven by my need to lay claim to her, something my best friend had apparently figured out. And based on his expression, he was amused by how differently I was acting with Delia. The craziest part was I didn’t give a damn—not about Brody wanting to laugh his ass off at me or that being around Delia made me act like a completely different guy. I was quickly becoming addicted to the way she made me feel.
“Me,” she whispered, her voice husky with desire.
“I guess we’d better open it. I’d hate to leave you wanting. For anything.” I felt her slight shiver at my words before she stepped away.
Brody whistled lowly under his breath, raising his eyebrows as he shot me a look over Delia’s head. “What?” I asked, trying my best to sound innocent.
“You know what,” he mumbled quietly after Delia moved into the living room.
“Hand it over,” I ordered, holding my hand out for the envelope.
“Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt.” He just couldn’t resist the verbal jab before he gave me the envelope.
“Fuck you, too,” I whispered as I walked past him.
I joined Delia on the couch, sitting close and pulling her into my side. “Let’s see what Serena was hiding in here.”
Sliding my finger under the flap, I tore the envelope open and dumped the contents into my hand. There wasn’t much inside, just a business card with a post-it note wrapped around it.
“That’s it?” Delia’s voice held disappointment.
I peeled the post-it note back and realized the business card wasn’t as ordinary as it appeared. The logo for TAG was innocuous enough, but nothing on the card explained what type of business they were. There was no address listed. No phone number. Just an odd website address with a username and password.
“Something’s off with this,” I said, handing the card over to Brody.
“Off? Delia repeated. “It’s just a business card. What does the note say?”
I glanced down at the post-it and recognized Serena’s handwriting. It was a note she’d written before secreting the business card away. And it was addressed to me.
Blaine – I didn’t get far into this website before Jon called me and told me to run. Not sure how he knew I’d logged on. I’m afraid they’ll find me and I want you to have this just in case. Thanks for coming to my rescue. Don’t blame yourself if you were too late.
“Shit,” I hissed, my jaw clenching as I used all of my training to hold myself still. What I really wanted to do was jump up from the couch and punch a hole in the wall. I knew Brody wouldn’t give a damn and I could easily pay to fix any damage, but Delia was here and I didn’t want to scare her with the depth of my anger at the sight of Serena’s words.
“She’s right, you know,” Delia whispered, her hand running up and down my back. “You can’t blame yourself for what happened to her. If anything, it sounds like her boyfriend is to blame and he’s already paid for his mistakes with his life.”
“Fucking A,” Brody breathed. “Mistake isn’t the right word for the kind of shit he was into.”
When he turned his laptop screen our way, the website for TAG was pulled up. The mystery of what the company’s initials stood for was immediately solved by the header on the screen: The Armory Group.
“Her boyfriend was an arms dealer?” My words came out as a question even though I knew the answer.
“Not the kind who does business with the Department of Defense. This site is on the deep web. If I hadn’t had the URL or login information, even I would have had a hard time finding it and hacking in. I’m surprised they haven’t deactivated the username by now, though.”
“Maybe they kept it open while they were looking for Serena and thought it wasn’t urgent any longer once they killed he
r,” I suggested.
“Could be,” Brody agreed.
“Serena’s note said her boyfriend called when she logged onto the site,” Delia reminded me. “Does that mean they have some way of tracking everyone who gets into the site? Are we in danger?”
“They may know I logged in, but there’s no way for them to trace my location. I’m using a dynamic IP address and bouncing it all over the world,” Brody answered. “Which will piss off their computer guy. It might even be enough to tempt him to leave the access active longer than he should so he can get another crack at me.”
“You’re sure?” I asked.
“Since when do you doubt my computer skills?” Brody’s voice was filled with indignation, and understandably so. I never questioned him when he was behind the keyboard. Our lives had depended on his skills many times in the past and I’d never given it a second thought. Not until Delia’s life also depended on them.
“Sorry, man,” I apologized, my eyes sliding to Delia before I locked gazes with Brody.
His slight nod let me know he understood. “No worries.”
Delia reached out and grabbed my hand. “I don’t understand. He sold guns online? In some kind of black market or something? Wouldn’t that make it easier for him to get caught?”
“It’s more common than you think. Have you ever wondered why the deep web is also called the dark web? It’s because there’s a ton of black market transactions that happen there,” Brody explained.
“Can’t the police or FBI do something about it?”
“They try their best, but the authorities have no way of indexing the sites like they do with the ones stored on the surface web. They’re putting a lot of effort into the fight with their cyber divisions, though.”
“You’d be the one to know, wouldn’t you?” The guy who had arrested him before he joined the Navy eventually went to work for the FBI Cyber Crime division. I knew Brody had kept tabs on the guy, in part due to curiosity, but also out of hurt pride. The guy had managed to catch him when he thought he was untouchable.
“I might sound naïve, but I had no idea stuff like this happened,” Delia whispered. “I mean, I knew there were ways for people to buy guns when they weren’t supposed to. Not from any kind of personal experience, though. Just from watching the news.”
Brody and I had too much personal experience with illegal gun dealers. “There are three types of weapons purchases—the black ones, which are illegal, the white ones with all the paperwork, and the grey ones, which are somewhere in between.”
“What type do you think Serena’s boyfriend did?” Delia asked.
“Based on the level of security on this website, I would have to say black. As illegal as can be with the types of weapons they’re offering,” Brody answered. “I’d love to know how they managed to get their hands on some of this shit. They’ve got Soviet tanks, unmanned aircrafts, and helos on here.”
“With inventory like that, Jonathan had to have been running with a serious crowd. Heavy hitters. He wasn’t your run of the mill gun trader selling from the back of his car.” It was hard to believe Serena had gotten mixed up with a guy like that.
“Serena had the card,” Delia pointed out. “But, from her note, it sounded like she didn’t know what kind of business her boyfriend was in.”
Brody picked up the card and flicked it with his finger. “If she already knew, there wouldn’t have been any reason for her to use the information to log into the website.”
“She could have just asked him about it. Instead, she waited until he was out of town and logged in,” I said, continuing where he left off.
“From work,” Delia added. “You said he called her on her office line. It has to be the call she mentioned in the note. If I knew my boyfriend was doing something illegal, there’s no way I’d ever risk my job by looking into it at work.”
“She might have felt more safe doing it somewhere public, but it would have made more sense to go to a library or something.”
“I think you’re right,” Brody agreed. “Odds are good she was curious about the card. Maybe she felt like something was off with her boyfriend and decided to do a little digging.”
“It makes sense to me. They were in a relationship and he was keeping secrets from her. I might have even done the same thing in her shoes,” Delia mused.
“She had no way of knowing the series of events she was about to trigger.”
“Just enough to know she was in trouble and ask for your help,” Brody added.
“If only I’d made it here in time.”
Delia squeezed my hand again before resting her head on my shoulder. “It doesn’t do any good wallowing on the ‘what ifs’. You got here as quickly as you could and now you’re doing everything you can to try to catch the guys who killed her.”
“I will catch them,” I vowed. I didn’t have any other choice. It didn’t matter if her note told me it wasn’t my fault or how often Delia insisted I wasn’t to blame, I felt guilty for not getting here sooner.
“What’s our next step?”
“Your next step is to go take a nap while Brody and I work on a few things to see how much information we can get about TAG. Brody will do his thing on the computer while I make some calls. We have enough military and ex-military contacts. Someone is bound to have heard of them before.”
“But I want to help, too!” Somehow, she managed to look both adorable and sexy while she pouted up at me.
“You can help me best by giving us some room to work while I know you’re getting more rest.”
“I’m not tired, though,” she insisted.
I trailed my finger underneath one of her eyes before doing the same to the other side. “These tell me a different story. You’ve been through a lot the last couple days. Give your body what it needs to heal. For me,” I added when she looked like she was about to argue again.
My softly spoken words were enough to get her to agree, albeit grudgingly. “Fine, I’ll try to take a nap. But if I’m not asleep in the next hour, I’m coming back out here and you’re going to find a real way for me to help. I’m pretty good with research.”
“You’ve got a deal.”
I was staring at the door after she closed it behind her, worried about the situation I’d brought her in to. If this arms operation was as big as the website indicated, keeping her safe was going to be harder than I thought. Especially since they were probably looking for her already, thinking she was Serena.
Chapter 12
Delia
How was it possible I did it again? I had been so darn certain there was no way I’d fall back asleep. When Blaine agreed to let me help after I laid down for an hour, I was thrilled. I even watched the clock as I lay in bed, counting the minutes until I could walk back out there and prove him wrong. Maybe I shouldn’t have taken another pain pill because sometime after the forty-five-minute mark, I must have fallen asleep. And for a long time, since it was already lunchtime.
I rolled out of bed and sat on the side, letting my legs dangle over the mattress while I tried to get my bearings. My head was fuzzy after sleeping so deeply. I didn’t even think I could call it a nap. It was more like passing out. I even had indentations on my cheek from the pillowcase.
Blaine opened the door slowly and peeked inside. “Hey, sleepyhead.”
I rubbed at my face, hoping to smooth out the creases. Then I realized I probably had a serious case of bedhead. Seeing him stand there, the closest thing to a sex god I’ve ever seen in my life, while I was certain I looked like crap, pretty much sucked. I sifted my fingers through my hair, hoping I could make myself look semi-decent. As he shut the door and moved toward the bed, I fiddled with the shirt I was wearing—his shirt, the same one I’d had on for more than twenty-four hours.
“I need more shirts,” I complained.
His eyes heated as his gaze dropped to my chest. “I’ll run out and buy you some.”
“I’m perfectly capable of buying my own shirts.�
�
He reached out and traced along my collarbone, eventually pushing the shirt to the side. “I’m sure you are, but I like seeing you in mine. If I buy them, they’re my shirts. Otherwise, I’d just call Brody and ask him to grab you some while he’s out.”
“But they won’t smell like you,” I admitted, blushing when I realized how much what I’d said revealed about my feelings for him.
He lifted his shirt over his head and climbed into bed next to me. “That’s easily solved. If you smell like me, then my shirt will carry our scent when you wear it.”
“You’re awfully good at solving problems.”
“I’ve got all sorts of skills you haven’t seen yet.” His voice held a sexual undertone I couldn’t miss. Though, it wasn’t blatantly obvious, which was far more intriguing—especially when I knew firsthand that when he used all of his considerable skills on a woman, she was putty in his hands. It was nearly impossible to be immune to his confident charm. I had already entrusted him with my safety and my body, but if I wasn’t careful, he just might pose a threat to my heart.
“You holding out on me?” I shifted on the mattress, trying to get closer. The heat from his body chased away the cobwebs as my nap-induced fog slowly subsided. My sleepiness had worn off, replaced by my desire. A desire which was well-timed since he just said Brody was gone. Wriggling my legs, my breath caught as I felt his hard cock pressed against my stomach. Knowing he was turned on only fueled my need further.
“If I am, it’s for your own good. But someday soon, you won’t need the pain pills. You’ll be clear-headed enough to know exactly what you’re doing.”
“You feel so good,” I whispered, rubbing against him in an effort to get even closer. I moaned helplessly when I felt his cock slide against my panties, my eyes drifting shut at the incredible feeling.
Blaine rolled me onto my back, moving over me before pressing his body down on mine. I was trapped beneath him. “Hold still, Delia. I can’t take advantage of you like this.”
Identity Crisis Page 11