Tempted by Love

by Jennifer Ryan

  “Do you have proof of that now?”

  “Cara’s story about what happened to her confirmed it for me. Her father wanted revenge, plain and simple, and he used me to get it.”

  “Then he blew up the ranch?” Jay didn’t think that made much sense. His prints weren’t on the bomb parts, but someone else could have made the bomb and Iceman used it.

  “Her uncle. Iceman’s brother. Cara made an offhand comment about him spouting off in front of city hall about government intrusion in people’s lives. I didn’t think much of it, except that the old guy who lived in the woods behind her house was an eccentric old coot.”

  “More like Unabomber-in-the-making if he’s our guy.” This new development added another dangerous level to their mission. Not only did they need to take Iceman down, they needed to find a guy willing to obliterate people and property. It also meant Jay needed to call in the ATF. Another complication he didn’t need. Not in the middle of an operation already in progress.

  “He’s got a still on the property where he’s making moonshine. Once this thing with Iceman ended, I planned to shut him down. Now I’m wondering if all his secrecy, homemade alarm systems, and living off the grid means he’s hiding something a lot more dangerous than high-proof hooch.”

  “Judging by the number of threats he’s issued over the years and the escalation to bombing the farm after the DEA seized the property, I’d say we need to consider him armed and dangerous.”

  They needed to get this guy in custody immediately. “I’ll send a team out to pick him up.”

  “No. Not yet.”

  Jay didn’t want to wait and risk lives.

  “Cara’s out there with him tonight. You send a team, he’s liable to take her hostage.”

  That’s the last thing Jay wanted.

  “Let’s finish this with Iceman and Tandy tonight. Once we’ve got them in custody, we’ll make sure Cara is safe, then go in and get her uncle. Right now, all we have is speculation that he’s behind the notes.”

  True, but the evidence spoke of someone not dealing from a full deck. “It makes sense if he wants to keep her away from you, her father, and safe.” No telling how far Cara’s uncle Otis was willing to go to make that happen.

  “Then we want the same thing for her, and I want to do this right. So far all he’s done is threaten people and blow up some empty buildings. I don’t want to push him to do something desperate, especially if Cara is with him.”

  Jay wanted to move on this ASAP, but they were sitting on Tandy waiting for her to make a move. They had no evidence of an immediate threat from Cara’s uncle. If he called in the ATF right now, he’d have to pull resources from this op and potentially put agents at risk without proper backup. The last thing he wanted to do was give Iceman a means to sneak through the trap they’d set tonight. “Agreed.” They’d handle one bad guy at a time. But that meant he wouldn’t get home anytime soon.

  He wouldn’t see Alina’s smile or get to kiss her until he finished this growing assignment. He was used to things changing on the fly, but it took him by surprise to feel the regret and building desire to end it quick so he could go home.

  “Tandy’s on the move.”

  And so it begins. “I’ll alert the team. We’ll make plans for Cara’s uncle later.” He hung up on King and used his com. “Suspect on the move.” Jay adjusted his bulletproof vest, pulled the mask over his head to conceal his identity, and hunkered down next to one of the semis parked at the back of the lot, the driver fast asleep in the cab, none the wiser for the number of agents surrounding him.

  “She crossed the street and approached a blue Ford truck. She’s speaking to the driver. We’ve got an exchange for drugs and money.” Agent Alvarado gave the play-by-play for those agents out of sight of the front of the lot.

  They already knew she was dealing. They wanted to see what else she was doing out here. “Send the truck tag to the local police on standby and have them pick up the driver away from here.” He’d spent over an hour with the local police coordinating this operation. He hoped they stuck to their word and didn’t show up here and bust his case.

  “Suspect’s headed to the parked rigs,” Agent Alvarado announced.

  Tandy sashayed up to the mark King saw her with last night and climbed into the rig like she didn’t have a care in the world.

  Agent Alvarado filled them in on the situation. “We’ve got her for another count of dealing.” The line went silent, probably because Tandy was putting the moves on the driver.

  Was he in on whatever was about to happen? None of them knew for sure. They’d sort it out once they busted Tandy and whoever else showed up tonight. Their best hope was that Iceman showed his face and they took him down once and for all.

  “The suspect and driver are going at it in the front seat.” The boredom in Agent Alvarado’s voice made Jay smile. Some things lost their curiosity over time. When part of your job made you the voyeur in other people’s lives, nothing surprised or affected you after a while.

  “Truck’s coming,” one of the other agents whispered over the com.

  Alvarado chimed in again. “Suspect just pulled the driver into the sleeping compartment. They’re out of sight.”

  So Tandy’s job was to distract the driver. Why?

  The incoming truck maneuvered into position behind the rig with its back end at the roll-up door on the trailer. Four guys jumped out of the extended cab truck. One guy opened the trailer. The others began pulling crates off the back of the truck and loading them into the tractor-trailer.

  He’d bet the guy up front with Tandy didn’t even know what the hell was going on.

  Jay had seen enough. They had them dead to rights. “Ready on three.”

  “Abort,” King said into his com. “Let it play out.”

  They were nearly done loading the truck. If they drove away . . . “They’ll get away,” Jay responded.

  “Second truck approaching,” another agent said.

  King’s original thought that they’d been using the big rigs to distribute the drugs across the state and country turned into an even more complex operation. “Stay back. They’re not done loading the truck. If I’m right, these are the incoming shipments for Iceman’s crew.”

  “You don’t think he’s shipping this stuff out?” Jay asked.

  “Check out the plates on the vehicles that have arrived so far.”

  From Jay’s position, he couldn’t see the truck plates.

  “One California, one Arizona,” Agent Alvarado supplied. A second later, he added, “Texas just showed up.”

  King broke down the complex operation. “Pick up the drugs from Mexico from those states and drive them up here to Montana. Let’s get those plates to highway patrol and get them tracking the vehicles on their return trips and see if we can’t cut off the supply chain from making yet another return run up here. Maybe they’ll lead us to where the drugs are coming into the country in those states.”

  Their little operation just expanded to three more states.

  Jay scrambled to coordinate everything using his phone, issuing orders to another agent to start contacting highway patrol to get on those trucks and notify each state’s police all while still listening to his men on the coms.

  As the guys from the last truck closed up the trailer and took off, King said, “Under twenty-five minutes.”

  Fast. Efficient. The whole thing impressed Jay. If these guys ran a legitimate business, they’d make a killing. Instead they were just killing people with the poison they loaded into that truck. “Any sign of Tandy?”

  “Not yet, but I suspect she’s got the timing down right and will pop her head out any minute.” King had done it: he found another way to take down Iceman that didn’t involve Cara, who they originally suspected of working with her father.

  This had to be a huge relief to King, who seemed reluctant to use Cara but had had no choice.

  King wanted to take Tandy down himself. Tandy wasn’t a signi
ficant enough of a bust. They wanted Iceman. If she agreed to give them information, they’d cut her a deal. Let the little fish go and reel in the shark.

  “Team One, stay on the rig. Don’t let it out of your sight. Let’s see where it leads us next. Team Two, we’re on Tandy.” Jay worked his way around the rigs and met up with Agent Alvarado at the front of the lot.

  Tandy climbed down from the truck, sent one more smile up to the driver, slammed the door, and sauntered back across the lot toward the truck stop diner where Iceman’s guy discreetly stuffed a fat wad of bills into her purse. And just like that, she waved goodbye and walked right out of the diner and headed across the street and back to her place.

  Jay exchanged a “Wow” look with Agent Alvarado about their brazen activities. They didn’t even try to hide what they were doing.

  Why would they? The drivers who stopped here didn’t stay long and kept mostly to themselves. They had a schedule to keep and didn’t want to get involved in something that didn’t involve them.

  Jay got back on the com. “Daryl and Tom, take Iceman’s man on his way out of the diner.” He and Agent Alvarado followed Tandy back to her place and met King at the bottom of Tandy’s stairs.

  King pulled on a DEA jacket, leaving it open in front so Tandy would see his badge. He pulled his gun and held it at his side as he made his way up the stairs. Jay let him take the lead and followed him up, gun in hand, ready to serve the warrant he’d obtained earlier today.

  At the door, King pulled the mask over his face to protect his identity in case they didn’t get Iceman tonight and he needed to remain undercover with Cara. He pounded on the door with the side of his fist and shouted, “DEA, search warrant. Open up!”

  A glass thumped on the floor a few seconds before Tandy opened the door a couple of inches to peek out at them.

  King shoved the door open with his shoulder, planted his hand on Tandy’s chest, and shoved her backward into the small apartment and right into the thin wall separating the living room from her tiny kitchen. She gasped when her head hit the wall with a thunk. He grabbed her shoulder and turned her around to face the wall, then cuffed her.

  “What the hell is going on?”

  “You’re under arrest.” Agent Alvarado held up the wad of cash and ten or so bags of drugs from her purse. “We’ve got you for possession with intent to sell, dealing in the lot across the street, prostitution, and drug trafficking.”

  “No.” Tandy shook her head. “I’m not trafficking. I was just having a bit of fun. Someone must have put that money and drugs in my purse.” Tears streaked down Tandy’s cheeks, no more real or true than the words coming out of her mouth. “This can’t be happening. He’s supposed to watch my back, not set me up.”

  “The guy hanging out in the diner, hitting on the waitress and downing beers like they’re water?” Jay laughed. “The only back he’s watching is hers. He wasn’t watching you, but we were. You’ve got quite the scheme going. I bet that driver has no idea his empty trailer is now full to the brim with crates of drugs.”

  King took Tandy by the arm and led her to the leather sofa. Too nice for someone who lived on tips. Agent Alvarado had upended her designer bag on the coffee table. Little things in the house showed how Tandy was living beyond her means if she wanted anyone to believe she was nothing more than a waitress. The name-brand purses that weren’t knockoffs, the expensive makeup, jewelry, computer on the desk in the corner, and the tablet lying on the back of the sofa showed that Tandy liked nice things.

  King gave her a nudge to get her to sit. “Stop the fake tears, the bullshit, and start talking.”

  She stared up at him, trying to look past the mask and recognize what little she could see of his face. “Do I know you?”

  Jay prayed King hadn’t blown his cover. King purposely dropped his voice an octave when he spoke. He didn’t answer, but went to the open door, put his back to it, kept her pinned in his gaze, and gave Jay the lead.

  He started with the basics. “How long have you been working the truck stop for Iceman and his crew?”

  “I’m not. It’s just a means to supplement my income.”

  “Are you selling in the coffee shop, too?” He needed to be sure Cara wasn’t in on the drug business with her father even if it made King want to throttle him.

  “No. I’m forbidden from selling in the coffee shop. If he found out—” Tandy snapped her mouth shut.

  King broke in. “We know you work for Iceman. His guy comes into the coffee shop, you leave out the back, pick up the drugs for him and the information for which truck to hit. Right?”

  Jay eyed King, silently telling King to let him handle it before he blew his cover and ended his involvement in this case.

  Tandy sighed and spilled her guts about selling sex and drugs to the truckers. How she betrayed Cara by working for Iceman.

  “You’re going to jail for a long time.” Jay leaned down and made sure Tandy understood her choices were limited. “Unless you help us out. Then maybe we can see about helping you out.”

  “He’ll kill me.”

  Jay pressed her again. “Help us put him behind bars and he won’t get the chance.”

  Tandy’s eyes filled with incredulity. “You really think you can get close to him. No way. He’s gotten out of worse and killed others who seemed out of reach.”

  “Do yourself a favor, talk now, or you’ll never see the light of day outside of a cell again,” King pushed. Maybe it would coax her out of her fear of Iceman with her fear of losing what she considered a damn good life here with Cara and her little enterprises.

  Jay tried a different track. “Where is the driver taking those drugs?”

  “How should I know?”

  “Is the driver in on the operation?”

  “No. Teddy doesn’t know anything. Don’t you hurt him. He’s a good man. He’s got a wife and kids to support and he works hard.” Tandy praised the man who paid her to fuck him in the back of his rig all the while telling her about his loving wife and kids.

  It didn’t really surprise Jay, which only confirmed that his life was so far from normal.

  King took up the questioning again. “So you distract the driver, the men load up the truck, then he drives it to where he’s supposed to deliver the empty trailer and pick up a loaded one?”

  “I guess so.” Tandy shrugged. She wasn’t interested in anything more than her small part in things and getting paid.

  Jay took King’s question and played it out. “Once the driver delivers to the warehouse, he’ll take the loaded trailer on his next run, and someone from Iceman’s crew will pick up their loaded trailer and take it to wherever they’re stashing their supply.”

  “That would be my guess. I bet the other team will see the whole exchange and contact us soon with a location.”

  Jay nodded in total agreement. It made sense. They were in for a long night tracking that shipment.

  Tandy leaned forward, a hopeful look in her eyes, despite the fact her hands were handcuffed behind her. “So you’ll let me go. I’m not part of all that.”

  Jay shook his head in dismay that Tandy just didn’t get it. “Agent Alvarado will take you in.” He exchanged a nod with Agent Alvarado who silently acknowledged the order and that he’d take Tandy into custody and process her.

  “What about my deal?”

  Jay laid it out for Tandy. “We know what’s going on based on what we witnessed tonight. Our team will pick up the driver and follow the trailer wherever Iceman’s crew takes it. We’ll get him there. Unless you have information on Iceman or Cara, you’re of no use to us.”

  “Little-miss-do-gooder doesn’t know anything. She’s too busy passing judgment on all of us just trying to get by and get better. She works day in and day out for shit money. Her father could use that place and make her rich, but she turns her back on her own flesh and blood and scorns him when all he wants to do is help her have a better life than selling donuts and coffee to truckers and soccer m
oms with book clubs. She could make a fortune. We all could, but she’s content to wake up at the crack of dawn and break her back and thinks that food on the table and a roof over your head is enough to call it a good life.”

  “It’s an honest life,” King pointed out, respect in his voice for the woman who didn’t let the money and power tempt her. She turned out to be exactly what she appeared to be in the reports, a woman who lived a simple life and found satisfaction helping others by giving them a hand up when they fell on hard times.

  Tandy’s anger came out as reality set in. “It’s a fucked life filled with hard work and nothing to show for it. I’ve got money saved. I’m not going to wither and die here alone like her.”

  King glanced down the stairs and sucked in a surprised breath. Jay stared past him and spotted Cara standing there, stock-still, tears running down her cheeks, recognition in her sad eyes.

  No telling how long she’d been there. Long enough to hear the disdain and disregard for all she’d done to help Tandy and give her a decent life. One Tandy threw in her face.

  King turned to go to her, but she held up a hand to stop him from coming closer, backed down the stairs, the tears falling in a cascade down her too-pale cheeks, made even more sallow by the yellow porch light. “Don’t,” she choked out. “You lied.”

  Jay cursed. She made him even though King still wore the mask. The DEA jacket outed him.

  Cara’s feet hit the pavement; she spun around and ran for the truck idling in the lot.

  King ran down the stairs. Jay followed. They needed to stop Cara before she alerted Iceman the DEA was after him.

  Cara jumped into the passenger seat. A man, Jay presumed her uncle, came out on the other side and pointed a gun right at King’s head. “Stop right there, son.”

  King stopped in his tracks with his hands held out to the sides. Jay stood on the stairs above him with his gun trained on the older man, ready to take him down. “DEA. Drop it.”

  Cara’s uncle shook his head. The gun in his hand never wavered. He never took his gaze away from King. “Stay away from her. You’ve done enough damage. It’s over. After tonight, no one will ever hurt her again.” He slid back into the front seat, slammed the door, and drove off in the blink of an eye.