by Margaret Kay
“Wonderful,” Schmidt said. His hand caressed over her jaw, a lust-filled gaze on his face. Then he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Your lips are tempting but I can see the warning in your eyes.” He cupped her face in both his hands. “You do not wish for me to kiss you yet, do you?”
“No, I don’t,” she confirmed.
“No matter. As I said, I am a patient man. I will ask at a later date and am confident your reply will be different at that time.” He pressed his lips to her forehead again and then released her when there was a rap at the door.
“Mr. Schmidt are you ready for your salads?” A voice called.
“Yes, come,” he replied. After the server placed their salads in front of them, he stared at Madison expectedly. “The text message. Send it now.”
Madison retrieved her phone from her purse and typed out the message. She hit send and then showed Schmidt the screen on her phone.
“Very good,” Schmidt said with a pleased smile.
During the remainder of the meal the conversation was light and floated to many topics, nothing telling of Schmidt’s plans, nothing more that indicated exactly what Ben did to ruin his family. Shortly after the apple strudel was served, Schmidt received a phone call and had to depart. He apologized to Madison, insisting she remain and finish her dessert and wine. She waited until Jackson confirmed he entered his limo and it had pulled away. Only then did she leave the restaurant.
“Is he insane?” Madison asked.
Cooper chuckled. “I think so. There is absolutely nothing we could dig up of what this supposed injustice is that Ben perpetrated on Schmidt’s family.”
“Oh, here,” Madison said, reaching into her purse. “I took the liberty of lifting this.” She pulled out a wine glass wrapped in a cloth napkin. “Prints and DNA.”
“Good job,” Jackson said, taking it from her. He slipped it into an evidence bag. “Control, I need an order filed at the local Federal Lab we can rush this through.”
“Roger that, Jax,” Yvette’s voice sounded through the speaker. “I’m creating the ticket now.” A few seconds later she again broadcast. “Lab ticket number Charlie, Alpha, Foxtrot seven–one–four.” She repeated the number.
“Roger that,” Jackson said. He wrote it on the evidence bag. He repeated the number back to her.
Doc had tailed Schmidt when he left the restaurant. He reported in, his voice also transmitting through an open comm link. “Schmidt went to an adult bookstore. He’s in the back in one of the private rooms.”
Cooper’s eyes went to Jackson. “Go check on the plates. Bring Van Joosten to see if they’ve already been switched. I have a bad feeling.” Jackson slipped from the room. “Hold position Doc. Keep tabs on him.”
“Roger that,” Doc’s voice replied.
Then Cooper’s eyes settled back on Madison. “Did you feel threatened when you were alone with him?”
“No, just creeped out. It’s obvious he has a high opinion of himself. I don’t believe he would ever assault a woman, doesn’t have to. He offered me the world, is rich, relatively attractive, and smooth. I can see a normal woman falling for that.”
Cooper’s trademark smirk settled on his face. “Relatively attractive, huh?”
“Now, don’t be jealous,” she said with a laugh. “You’re prettier.”
Cooper scowled. “Blondie, you sure know how to make a man feel secure.”
Madison laughed. She suddenly realized that she stood closer to him than she intended. She wasn’t sure how that happened. They both fell silent, awkwardly staring into each other’s eyes for several long minutes.
Cooper gazed over Madison’s beautiful features. He wasn’t sure how they came to stand so closely together. All he had to do was lean a matter of inches and his body would make contact with hers. It was like a magnet was drawing them together. He reached out and ran a hand through her sleek, straight hair.
“It must take a lot of work to get it like this.” She didn’t answer. Her eyes just focused on his. He knew she felt it too, the attraction, which he was losing his battle to fight. He let his fingers trace over the soft skin on her face. “Did Schmidt touch you like this?”
Madison was breathless, lost to the sensations Cooper’s touch produced. She knew she should step back, break all contact with him. Her mind was fuzzy, and her thoughts wouldn’t focus. She shook her head as though she could shake the desire for more out of her. “Kind of, but it repulsed me.”
Cooper’s lips tipped into a small grin. He read between the lines. He knew that his touch was creating the opposite effect on her. Off limits, he reminded himself. Yeah, he could tell himself that over and over, but he knew the desire he felt towards her was not going away. Reluctantly, and with great effort, he broke contact with her and took a step back. “You’re going to have to be careful when you’re with him tomorrow to keep him at a distance. He’ll touch you whenever he can.”
“Cooper, we’ve got a problem,” Jackson’s voice filled the room. “You were right. The plates have already been switched. The inventory stickers are on the fakes.”
“How the fuck did that happen?” Cooper growled, only then realizing the comm link remained open after Jackson left. His mind went over the conversation he and Madison just had. Nothing too damning, he assured himself.
“Do you want me to move in closer to see if he’s receiving the plates?” Doc asked.
“Negative, hold position, but report when he is back in your sight and if he has anything that could hold the plates.”
“There is no way anyone breached that vault,” Jackson’s voice again filled the room. “Ben and I are going to poke around. I have a theory.”
Cooper didn’t ask. He was confident Jackson knew what he was doing.
The minutes clicked by, five, ten, fifteen, before Doc’s voice again transmitted an update. “Target in sight. Nothing in his hands.”
“Damn,” Madison cursed. She was sure they had him.
“Target is entering his limo. Shall I continue to follow?”
“Negative,” Cooper ordered. “The deal already went down, I’m sure of it.” Either that or Schmidt got so horny during his dinner with Madison he had to go jack off to his favorite live private peep show. He wouldn’t share that thought aloud.
Thirty minutes later, Doc arrived back at their onsite base of operations. Jackson and Van Joosten came through the door several minutes later.
“We tore the vault apart. There was access from the floor below into the vault. That’s how they did it,” Jackson reported.
Cooper tapped at the keyboard. “Bringing up building security footage. Control, please review street footage on all sides of the building.”
“Roger that,” Yvette’s voice replied.
After an hour of reviewing security footage, nothing jumped out at anyone.
“The perp could still be in the building with the plates,” Jackson suggested. “Knowing there are security cameras I’d wait till morning and get them out when the building has the normal comings and goings of people.”
“Control, we’re going to grab some sleep. Monitor the building’s camera feeds.”
“I will wake you if anyone moves.”
“Jackson, get the glass to the Federal Lab and then sack out in the panel van. I want you outside if Control detects any movement.”
Jackson took the evidence and left. Van Joosten led the others to an office in the same hall. It was set up as a small apartment inside. There was a bedroom with a king-sized bed, and a couch in the small combined living room and kitchen. “Bathroom is through there,” Van Joosten said pointing at the closed door next to the bedroom.
Madison kicked her heels off and stepped towards it. “I get it first. I can’t wait to get out of this skirt.” She had her backpack in her hand.
Five minutes later she emerged wearing a t-shirt and yoga pants. Every trace of makeup was washed from her face.
Cooper’s eyes went between the bedroom and the couch. He knew f
rom the pensive expression on Doc’s face that he was considering the sleeping arrangements too. Madison saw their concentration and found it amusing.
“Okay, who snores?” She asked.
“What?” Ben asked.
“I’m not sleeping in the same room with anyone who snores. If all three of you do you can share the bed and I’ll take the couch.”
The men chuckled. “Doc snores,” Cooper said.
“I do not,” Doc argued.
“Yes, you do,” Cooper declared.
“Ben?” She asked.
“I’ve never been told I do.”
Her eyes settled on Cooper. “Me neither.”
“That settles it. Doc, you get the couch.” Then she went to the bedroom, pulled the covers back and settled herself in the middle of the bed.
“Okay, I guess that was a nonissue,” Cooper remarked.
Romeo
The next morning Madison woke to an empty bed. She joined the men in the main room, helping herself to a cup of coffee. By the looks of it, none of them had been up too long. They recapped the plan for the day.
“Schmidt is operating out of his shipping and receiving office near the airport today. I’ll report there as instructed and nose around,” Madison said.
“Ops will monitor traffic cameras near Schmidt’s office location. I wish we could get eyes in there, but there are no security cameras in the building for us to tap into,” Cooper reported.
“Don’t you find that in itself suspect?” Van Joosten asked. “Who doesn’t have cameras in their place of business these days?”
“Someone who has something to hide,” Cooper replied.
The morning at Schmidt’s shipping and receiving office went quickly and without incident. Madison met the four other women who formed Heinrich Schmidt’s entourage. They were all beautiful, in their early thirties, intelligent, and appeared loyal to Schmidt.
Hannah was tall and willowy, a beautiful redhead. Lila was a petite Asian, just as beautiful with long, black hair. They were Ben’s personal assistants before Schmidt stole them. Tatiana had model-quality facial features, platinum tresses, and an attitude to go with her looks. And Whitney was an African-American Goddess, who knew how beautiful she was. She had an edge though, that Madison recognized. Madison guessed that she could defend herself and was probably carrying a gun in her large, designer bag.
Madison had studied the profiles they had on Hannah and Lila prior to the mission. She tried to cozy up to both of them during her orientation to the office, but neither seemed interested in discussing why they left Van Joosten’s employment. They didn’t want to discuss exactly what they did for Schmidt, either. Which Madison found very odd.
By the afternoon, another disconnect became apparent. Madison could not figure out exactly what job functions any of the women performed in the organization. Despite Schmidt’s offer to Madison of education, no record of any of the women attending any accredited school of higher education was found through the extensive search Ops performed.
What did become apparent, was that all four women had a sexual relationship with Schmidt. A catered-in lunch meeting in his office had him pawing and cozying up to all four women. He actually pressed open-mouth kisses to each woman’s lips as they took their seats at the conference room table, which they all eagerly returned. When he worked his way around the table to Madison, his lips instead lingered on her cheek.
“Maddie, my lovely, did the assistants get you logged into your laptop and get your banking information put into our paycheck system?”
Madison swallowed her bite of veal marsala. “Yes, thank you Heinrich. Whitney got me settled into my office, but I don’t know what work you have for me.”
Schmidt laughed. It was a sound that sent chills up Madison’s spine, scary chills. Something was terribly off with this whole scenario. “That will come. Tatiana, do you have any tasks Maddie can assist you with?”
“I suppose I could turn over the recording of the overseas shipping receipts to her,” Tatiana said.
“She can take over the insurance arrangements on the shipping containers, if she’d like,” Hannah added.
“She’s welcome to the shipping container rental agreements as well,” Lila piped up.
Schmidt waved his hand. “There you go. If you need more, let me know.”
Madison forced a smile. She noticed the scowl Whitney had on her face. It struck her that Whitney did not offer up any tasks. She would be the one Madison would watch.
Shortly after lunch, Madison caught sight of a session of grab-ass in Hannah’s office. Hannah was pressed against her desk, Schmidt’s thigh pressed between her legs, his lips on her neck. When he ran his hand over Hannah’s breast, Madison turned away and silently stepped within her own office.
Several hours later, Madison witnessed something similar. This time Tatiana was the object of Schmidt’s advances. He was a busy guy. She relayed this information to the team via text message.
“Watch yourself,” Cooper messaged back. “We’re listening, just say the word and we’ll be in there.”
“I’ll drop him myself, if need be,” Madison texted back. “Did you dig up any more on Whitney Marks?”
“Negative,” Cooper replied. “But she has been with him the longest. I agree, if any of these women know what he’s really up to, it’s her.”
Just then, Madison caught sight of Whitney leaving the office. Madison followed her out into the large warehouse. She kept her distance but followed Whitney through the maze of shipping containers. She walked as quietly as she could, hearing Whitney’s heels echo with each step. Her heart beat fast in her chest, which she tried to calm with deliberate breaths.
She made her way around the container at the end of the row. The warehouse wall was in front of her. Whitney was nowhere in sight. Around the next corner she heard male voices. She paused and listened. One was Schmidt’s.
“Exquisite,” Schmidt said. “Make sure you package it well. We don’t want it getting broken after the lengths we have gone through to acquire it.”
“Yes, Mr. Schmidt,” the other male voice replied. She didn’t recognize who was speaking.
“Oh, there you are, Whitney,” Schmidt said as the click-click of Whitney’s heels announced her arrival. “Ah, and you have properly attended to the package.”
“Yes, Heinrich. Here are the pieces. They are packaged securely.”
“Good, good. You did well as always. You will be handsomely rewarded, my lovely.”
Madison heard the telltale sound of kissing. Her stomach turned. What did any of these women find attractive about a man who openly mauled them all? Making out with him in the warehouse was the last thing she could ever see herself doing, but it sounded like that was exactly the activity that Whitney and Schmidt engaged in.
One set of footsteps were heard moving away. Madison guessed it was the unknown male. She peered around the corner of the shipping crate and caught sight of the pair in an embrace. Whitney caught sight of her. Her eyes flared in anger. She stepped quickly away from Heinrich Schmidt.
“You, what are you doing here?” Whitney demanded.
“Sorry,” Madison said, stepping into sight. “I didn’t mean to interrupt a moment.” She held up the paperwork in her hand. “I was looking for container four-four-eight-twelve. The manifest is not on the paperwork and I know it should be on the label. I need to enter it into the system to enable the insurance.”
Whitney stripped the papers from her hand. “I’ll take care of that. Someone screwed up by not providing the information. It’s not your job to track it down.” Her voice was curt, her anger palpable.
“Sure,” Madison agreed. “I wasn’t looking to get anyone in trouble.”
Schmidt hurried over. “Of course, you were not. You were being diligent in your duties. I appreciate your attention to detail.”
“You shouldn’t be out here on the warehouse floor,” Whitney snapped. “It could be dangerous.”
“Now,
now Whitney,” Schmidt said. “Let’s not scare her.” He looped his arm around Madison’s shoulders. “I’ll walk you back to the office.” He led her away. “Whitney does tend to be a bit dramatic. The overhead lifts are not operating at the moment. There is no danger. Ignore her.”
His explanation would be believable, if it weren’t for Whitney’s delivery. Madison was pretty sure the danger Whitney spoke of was not accidentally getting crushed by a shipping container. Madison could feel Whitney’s eyes burning through her back as she and Schmidt walked away.