Wanting (PAVAD)

by Calle J. Brookes

  “And I told you to stay away from her. Carrie’s too good for a loser like you.”

  Lorcan stepped toward Dan, then pulled himself back. Dan approved; he knew what it would look like on the security cameras—especially if Carrie and Lorcan had also put on a show in the few minutes before she returned to the stage.

  It made sense. It would give Carrie and Lorcan an excuse to find secluded parts of the club—provided the band settled in to the life at the club slowly. It wouldn’t work for anyone of them to appear too comfortable too soon. No, they’d need to balance everything they did.

  And Dan wasn’t blind—he’d seen the looks Benito, Jr. had sent Carrie’s way, and he wasn’t too happy about it. Last thing they needed was something getting out of hand between Benito and Carrie.

  The whole operation could blow up in their faces if the band got ‘fired’ because Carrie didn’t give Benito what he wanted.

  And he had to admit it, he liked the idea of Carrie have someone else vested in keeping an eye on her in this dump of a club. Even though she seemed fine so far, this kind of place was dangerous to beautiful, naïve young girls like Carrie.

  Chapter 55

  *****

  Kevin parked his rental car outside the FBI building. He’d wait until his daughter came out for the day and he’d approach her. Out in the open. Where she wouldn’t feel threatened. Where else would be the best place? Her home had been vandalized and he didn’t want to appear as if he was stalking her by talking to her at Smokey’s.

  No. The open courtyard of the FBI building would be the place.

  If he had to wait all day—and it was barely noon, according to the watch his younger daughters had given him for Christmas last year—he would do just that.

  He was not leaving this town until he’d spoken with his daughter.

  She might tell him to go to hell—and that would be her right—but he was going to do it.

  No more being afraid.

  Caroline was his daughter and it was time she knew it.

  Six hours later he finally gave up. Realized what he was doing was ridiculous. She wasn’t coming out of this building any time soon. Perhaps he should go in and just ask to speak with her?

  He climbed out of the car before he thought it through.

  He didn’t know what he’d say to her and his heart rate sped up. It was now or never.

  He flashed his badge and his license to carry at the alert security guard and allowed the man to run the wand over him. When asked he answered truthfully. “I’m here to see my daughter. She works in the PAVAD division.”

  “Sign in here, time and date, and who you’re here to see. Henry will escort you to her floor. You can retrieve your weapon when you sign out.”

  Kevin followed the younger security guard to the bank of elevators.

  “PAVAD takes up the top four floors, plus the lower level. Which team is the agent you’re meeting on?”

  “I’m not really sure. She’s never said.” Kevin lied easily though it left a sour taste in his mouth.

  “Please sign in, and put the name of the agent you are here to see in this box right here.” The guard handed him another clipboard. Kevin understood the need for added security. In this climate, all safety precautions were necessary.

  “Thank you.”

  Kevin waited impatiently for the man to return. He studied the photographs and paintings hanging in the small lobby outside the main bullpen area. Finally the security guard returned. “Sir? I’ve arranged for you to speak with someone in the CCU regarding Agent Sparks.”

  Apprehension filled him. What did the guard mean by that?

  Five minutes later he was ushered into the office of a man about his age. He had silver hair and the coldest brown eyes Kevin had ever seen.

  “Detective Beck, I’m Ed Dennis, Director of the PAVAD directorate. I understand you are here to see Carrie Sparks?”

  “Yes. I’ve come all the way from Houston to do just that.”

  “May I ask why?”

  “May I ask where she is?”

  Chapter 56

  *****

  The last place he wanted to be was in a strip club, with cheap alcohol, cigarette smoke, and the watching eyes of every Benito’s employee trained on him. Most had accusing expressions on their faces. Why? Because even after only three days, most of the club’s employees had an obvious soft spot for Carrie?

  That could potentially help them, but it made his role in the operation a little more difficult.

  Kem, the club manager, seemed especially put out by Sebastian’s presence in the club on a night the ‘band’ wasn’t playing. Sebastian ordered his drink and forced his attention toward the stage. Desperation shown in every dancer’s face in Benito’s. It was where those that couldn’t dance anywhere else ended up. Sad.

  Kem slammed the beer down on the counter in front of Sebastian.

  “What’s eating you?” Sebastian asked, sipping at the beer. Cheap. Disgusting. Like the entire club. “Cockroach up your ass?”

  “Where’s little missy tonight? She know her man is here looking at skin?” Kem wiped the bar with a towel, using exact, angry strokes. Sebastian was glad the man wasn’t close enough to wrap that towel—or his big hands—around Sebastian’s neck. He could easily sense the other man wanted to do just that.

  “She’s good with what I tell her to be good with.” Sebastian deliberately shrugged. “She knows she doesn’t own me. Besides, I’m just looking. Not touching.”

  They couldn’t just limit their time at Benito’s to the three nights a week the band performed. The potential loss of information could hinder the investigation. So he and Hernandez—an agent from his team—were checking out the dancers. Supposedly. Sebastian was hoping for an excuse to slide out to the back offices. Just for a look.

  “She’s a good girl and doesn’t need the likes of you screwing with her. Surprised her daddy hasn’t done away with you yet, the way you look at her.”

  “I look at her. She looks back.”

  “And that’s all you see.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Exactly what I said. She looks at you like a girl who has her heart out for any rat to take it. I’d hate to see her hurt. She reminds me of my own little girl. You understand?”

  Sebastian understood. He’d been warned away from Carrie yet again.

  Was he really that wrong for her? Wrong enough that everyone who even slightly knew them saw it, and felt the need to protect her from him?

  He was getting really damned tired of it. He’d be with Carrie if he wanted—and if she wanted.

  It wasn’t anyone else’s damned business. “You don’t worry about her. Let me handle her anyway I see fit.”

  The glass in the other man’s hand was slammed against the counter. Kem pointed at him. “Just remember, white boy, I’m watching you. You hurt her, and I’ll break you like nothing. Got me?”

  “I’d like to see you try.” Sebastian stood up and tossed a few bills on the counter. He’d hit the restroom, and then do a bit of snooping.

  And then he’d head over to the rental house that was serving as home base for their operation. See Carrie for him—and maybe scrub some of the images of the dancers from his mind.

  ***

  He found nothing that would help them, and that pissed him off. And the call he’d just received from Ed Dennis made him worried, and even angrier, and had him heading straight toward Carrie. He knocked on the rental door, that irritation making his movements jerky.

  Reynolds answered. Sebastian snarled a greeting, following up with the question he wanted the answer to. “Where’s Carrie?”

  “She’s upstairs in the room she’s sharing with Alessandra. Why?”

  “Private business and none of yours.”

  Dan cursed at him as Sebastian started up the stairs toward the two bedrooms he knew were upstairs. “Dammit, Lorcan, you’re not undercover now! Leave the girl alone!”

  “Can’t. I want h
er. Rather, I need to talk to her.”

  He knocked on the door, and then waited impatiently until someone answered. It wasn’t the woman he’d come to see, and he fought impatience. He wasn’t going to feel better until he saw her with his own eyes. Irrational, maybe, but that was how he felt. “Where’s Carrie?”

  “Relax handsome. She’s showering.” Al had that expression that said she was laughing at him. How often did she wear that exact look? The woman had a strange sense of humor, and it was often directed at him. This time Sebastian didn’t care. “Strippers get you hot to trot or something?”

  “Not quite. I need Carrie.”

  “I’m sure you do, big guy. I’m sure you do.” Alessandra laughed again. “Tell you what, I’ll go handle Dan. Give you and Carrie some time alone. Just one thing—”

  “What?”

  She pointed to the bed closest to the window. “That’s Carrie’s bed. Leave mine alone, I just made it.”

  “Go. Get.” He shut the door behind his agent, and then knocked on the bathroom door. “Carrie!”

  ***

  She shut the water off just as someone yelled her name. Carrie grabbed the towel and wrapped it around herself quickly. Had something happened? What? They weren’t scheduled to play the club this evening, and Hell had ordered them to take it easy and relax for a while. The only thing going on with the case right now was Hernandez and Sebastian were going to go watch the strippers to see if anyone they’d not encountered before was hanging around the club.

  Sebastian. It was him calling for her. What had happened?

  She grabbed her robe and slipped into it as fast as she could. Grabbing the door knob she swung the door open and faced him. “What happened?”

  “Do you have a relative named Kevin?”

  “No.” This definitely wasn’t what she had been expecting. “Why?”

  “Because someone claiming to be related to you showed up at PAVAD. Ed Dennis just called.”

  Carrie sank onto the foot of her bed. “I don’t have any relatives. Just Paige.”

  “What happened to your family, baby?”

  Red hair, red blood, her mother’s green dress, all flashed into Carrie’s head in an instant. She whispered, not even realizing she’d spoken until his hands landed on her arms. “Nothing good.”

  “Tell me.”

  “I was in my parents’ room, playing. Someone yelled. My dad, I think. I don’t remember. My mother put me in the closet and told me to count to three thousand and to stay quiet. Not to move.” She shivered, and then began tapping her foot against the carpet. She’d counted, over and over and over that day. “I was so scared I couldn’t do that. Couldn’t count that high. So I counted one-two-three-four over and over again. Until the social worker found me.”

  “What happened to your parents?”

  “Their throats were cut, Sebastian. I don’t know why and I never learned who. But they were dead and I wasn’t. Because I’d done what my mother told me to do and kept quiet. I’d always done what she told me, and she knew I would again.” His hands wrapped around her and he pulled her up off the bed. Carrie let him. The comfort helped. Why had she never been comforted by someone like him before?

  “They never caught the killers?” She felt his lips brush her ear and she shivered. He smelled like beer and stale cigarette smoke. But she didn’t mind. She could also smell him.

  “No. I don’t know. No one ever told me. I was taken to Oklahoma after that. Put into foster care.” And the next six years were dull and dark in her mind. She’d not understood what had happened for the longest time, and it had taken her quite a while to adjust to the new life she’d had. She’d never made trouble for any of the foster families—and there had been quite a few—but she had never connected with any of them. Until Jeremy’s family. But that had ended badly, too. Would her life have been so radically different if her mother and father hadn’t died?

  “You were taken to Oklahoma? Where were you living at the time?”

  “Texas. That doesn’t make sense, does it? Why would they send me out of state?” Had she had relatives in Oklahoma or something? Relatives that had decided they didn’t want her? It was very unusual for a foster child to cross state lines like that. Why had she?

  “I don’t know. But we will have someone find out. I talked to Fin. Ana is taking a few weeks off right now to get her blood pressure back under control. She’s going to do a bit of digging, if you want her to find out.”

  “I do. But who is this guy who showed up at PAVAD? And what did he want?” And was he the one responsible for destroying her loft? Why? What could he possibly want from her?

  “Ed said the guy refused to talk to anyone but you. Even him.”

  “No one refuses Ed Dennis.”

  “I know.”

  Chapter 57

  *****

  Carrie was exhausted after only a week of playing the club. It was harder than she remembered it being nine years ago, but back then she had been free to just focus on the music. Now she had to juggle the demands of being in the band with the relationship between her and Sebastian, studying the patrons of the club and the other employees, and orchestrating times for the two of them to sneak off for what she definitely recognized as increasingly hotter make-out sessions.

  She was starting to have difficulty recognizing where the boundaries of their jobs were and where the personal aspect of their relationship started. Was it just for the sake of Benito, Jr.? Or was there something more?

  Benito, Jr. had been out of town for the last three days and Carrie was beginning to worry that they’d not be able to get a handle on him before Hell and Sebastian had to call it, and try some other way. Five days wasn’t very long for this type of operation, and she knew that. But despite Sebastian’s managing to search nearly every office-like space in the club, he’d found nothing that even hinted at human trafficking.

  Carrie had also spent numerous hours when not at the club searching out everything she could find on club employees and even the regular patrons. Nothing. Sebastian’s team’s computer technician was overseeing the searches while the band was on duty.

  Benito, Jr. was supposed to return later that evening. Carrie’s instincts told her that tonight was the night something would happen. But she didn’t know what. Still, she was never this edgy without reason. Ever. In fact, the last time she felt this way was when Paige had been stabbed when they were seventeen.

  She’d been rummaging for food and had inadvertently stumbled into someone else’s territory. The guy—bigger, stronger, meaner than Paige—had attacked Paige with a switchblade. He’d stabbed her three times before Carrie was able to stop him with a board upside his head. That memory—and the memory of how Paige had nearly died from infection from the dirty knife—had Carrie shivering on stage. It had been so damned close. If she hadn’t bargained with the Devil—a legendary man who had once lived on the streets himself—to get Paige some antibiotics and basic first aid, Paige would have died.

  And Carrie had felt just like this in the few hours before the attack. Just like this.

  ***

  She sat in her chair and forced herself to do the relaxation exercises she’d learned in college while applying her final layer of stage makeup. They didn’t always work, but the routine of the exercises did sooth her most times. Al and Paige were out at the van the team had procured as Dan’s vehicle, bringing in the equipment, along with Dan. Josh was somewhere in the club, supposedly hanging out with some of the bar’s employees. He’d fit in well with the regular patrons, too, blending in much better than Carrie, Paige, or Alessandra. They’d drawn too much attention, and the patrons seemed to be a bit confused as to their roles. It had taken a big altercation between Josh and Dan and a few of the more persistent customers over Alessandra before it became clear that Al, Carrie, and Paige were part of the band and not part of the stripping crew.

  Thankfully, Carrie hadn’t gotten too much attention. At least none that got out of hand. There had b
een a few men approach her, but Sebastian had always been there, playing the overprotective lover routine perfectly. So perfectly that everyone believed it.

  Where was he? He always met her in the dressing room as soon as she arrived. She usually rode in with Dan and Al from the house they’d rented in the neighborhood. Hell and Sebastian had insisted that they keep their appearance as a struggling band authenticate, in case Benito Jr. or someone had them followed.

  Josh and Paige were sharing an apartment near enough to the club that one of them could always legitimately keep an eye on the place during the day hours. They had to catch Benito Jr. or his men in the act of trafficking in order to make anything stick.

  What did it say about her that she was actually looking forward to coming to this dumpy club so that she could see Sebastian every night? He was staying in the apartment with Josh and Paige, and the story was that Paige and her boyfriend were staying with her brother until they found a place of their own. It was believable. And Paige and Sebastian had done a good job setting up a cover as brother and sister.

  Dan had played his part, too. He’d warned both Carrie and Sebastian to stay away from each other, multiple times. Carrie knew everyone believed it.

  Kem, the club’s manager, had even taken it upon himself to protect Carrie from Sebastian whenever Dan couldn’t be around. Carrie liked the man, and really hoped he wasn’t involved in whatever it was that was going on. He’d spoken to her several times about his daughter, Regina. She was high-functioning autistic, and was obviously the most important person in Kem’s world. She was only six, and Kem was a single father. Carrie really hoped he was clean. For Regina and her little brother’s sakes.

  And something was going on. They just hadn’t been able to get any evidence in addition to what Courtney had given them. He’d listed three men from Benito’s who were involved, and despite how closely the CCU had watched those three men—Benito Jr. and two of his friends—they’d found nothing. They were going to have to face the fact that whatever was going on, it wasn’t going on at the club.