Down & Dirty: Romantic Suspense Series (Dirty Deeds Book 3)

by AJ Nuest

  Until she could confirm what, if anything, they were up against, the only two people she was taking into her confidence were Xander and Charlie.

  She trusted them to keep what she said on the down low.

  Everyone else at this point was still up for grabs.

  A frown creased Xander’s brow as she entered Malcolm’s old bedroom. He pushed up from the table and the curled ends of the blueprints sprang back into their original shape.

  Resting her hand on the doorknob, Tanner waited for Charlie to stroll in behind her. A quick glance into the corridor to double-check they were alone, and Tanner pushed the door closed with a soft click. “Where’s Casper?”

  “Not sure, why?” Crossing her arms, Charlie faced the room, a series of paint splotches decorating the yellowed plaster behind her. “He left shortly after you did this morning.”

  Dammit. Lowering her chin, Tanner dug her thumb and index finger into her aching eye sockets. God, she was tired. So damn stressed out, it was all she could do to think through the confusing jumble in her brain. Everything would have been so much easier if Casper had just stayed put inside the manor. Spent the day in full view of Charlie and Xander instead of disappearing right along with Ben.

  Those first few moments after he’d left her in the gun range, the things he’d said had set her teeth on edge. Almost as much as that snotty comment he’d tossed over his shoulder as he’d stalked through the door. God, what was it with the men around this place and their constant need to always have the last word?

  It had taken everything in her not to march the .45 into the hallway and cold-cock him across the back of his head. At the same time, she couldn’t deny, her knee-jerk response had everything to do with how his comments had hit a little too close to home.

  After all, Ben was the one who’d stuck her in the middle of this no-win situation. Saying his silent treatment didn’t have anything to do with what he wanted and then pulling some stupid Harry Houdini. Getting all bent out of shape about her plans for Trey’s case and then refusing to return any of her calls.

  But, for God’s sake. If there was one thing she would’ve bet the few bucks left in her sorry checking account on, it was that the man wasn’t the type to waste the few words he used on a bunch of idle threats.

  No. It didn’t make any sense. She had no alternative but to assume something was wrong.

  Lifting her head, she sighed. “I can’t find Ben.”

  Missing. What she’d meant to say was Ben appeared to be missing. But, apparently, him taking off for parts unknown had her suffering some bizarre brain-mouth disconnect on top of everything else.

  Xander blurted a puff of air and the pencil clattered and bounced along the table. He shot a dark scowl at Charlie before pinning Tanner in place with a cocked a brow. “What do you mean you can’t find him?”

  “Tanner, are you sure?” Stepping forward, Charlie shook her long bangs away from the concern leaking into her eyes.

  No, she wasn’t sure. That was exactly the problem. And so help her God, if he’d been ignoring her all day just so he could go off somewhere and finally have it out with Casper, she was going to strangle the man until his talented, make-her-squirm lips turned blue. “Honestly, you guys, I don’t know. He got upset last night. We had words at the wedding and, ever since, he hasn’t returned any of my calls or texts.”

  Not one since she’d stormed out of the gun range. Not any of the dozen or so messages she’d left on his private cell practically begging him to call her back. And in-between, she’d had nothing to go on but the constant sinking in her gut and that frustrating conversation with Casper.

  Over and over, she’d replayed what he’d said to her. Hoping to pick out any small thread that would indicate he’d been holding back. Forty minutes later, and the bleak realization she’d done nothing but aim at blank stare at her laptop, and she finally slipped into her leathers and hopped onto her bike to see if she could go track down Ben.

  If she had to sit on the guy to make him talk to her, then that’s what she would do.

  “I called the precinct and left a message with the front desk sergeant, but that was useless. I cased the place for over an hour while waiting for him to show up, but he never did.” Dumb. It’d been a complete waste of time and all she’d gotten for her efforts were a set of frostbitten fingers and toes. “I tried his condo, but while I was signing in at the front desk the doorman told me not to bother heading for the elevator because Ben wasn’t home.”

  In response, she’d slipped into a persona she was pretty sure had come off like a bona fide stalker. Wheedling the guy for information, working him over until he’d finally caved and offered her what few details he had. “He said Ben made it home from the wedding last night, only to rush out of there about a half hour later. He’d changed into street clothes, so the doorman assumed Ben had gotten a call to head out on a case.”

  “Maybe that’s it.” Xander propped his hands on his hips. “Ben’s up to his eyeballs in a narcotics bust and just hasn’t had the chance to call you back yet.”

  “And he couldn’t take two seconds to return Tanner’s texts? Uh-uh.” Charlie wagged her finger in the air. “Ben wouldn’t do that. Not after agreeing to run back up on Trey’s case.”

  Thank you. Fumbling around for the zipper pull near her collar, Tanner opened the sides of her leather jacket with a swift jerk. And why in the high holy hell these two goofballs had the heat dialed to the temperature of a plasma flare was beyond her. “Have either of you been in contact with him since he left the reception?”

  “No, but that’s not unusual. Ben doesn’t generally check in every day.” Chewing the inside of his cheek, Xander aimed a narrow-eyed squint at Charlie. “What time did Adder get in this morning?”

  Oh, Jesus. Tanner tossed her hands and they hit the thighs of her leather riding pants with a slap. “Casper never came home last night?”

  “Xander and I left Navy Pier shortly after you did.” Charlie shrugged. “Casper decided to stay a bit longer and take a taxi home. I was just heading to bed when he showed up around three.”

  And how frickin convenient he was MIA yet again. Pivoting on her heel, Tanner pinched her bottom lip, watching her boots as she paced a slow circle around the room. The digital clock on her nightstand had shown almost one when she’d fallen into bed. With Ben taking off from the wedding a good twenty minutes before her, he’d most likely made it home right around twelve-thirty, only so he could exit his building a half hour later.

  That left two unaccounted hours for both men. Enough time, anything could’ve happened. Casper could’ve easily been in contact with Ben.

  But, why? What purpose would that serve? And if something had taken place during that time, why would Casper return to the manor if he knew Ben could…not.

  Shit.

  “Okay, I don’t get where this is headed.” Charlie puffed a breath off her bottom lip and her bangs leapt away from her forehead. “What does one thing have to do with the other? Far as I know, Casper doesn’t have a problem with Ben.”

  “But Ben’s had it out for Casper since day one.” Dropping his arms, Xander turned toward his laptop and rattled the keys. “The thing he hasn’t told any of us is how the two of them are connected.”

  Trading a frown with Charlie, Tanner followed her lead and stepped behind Xander to get a clear shot at the screen. “What are you doing?”

  “Tracking Ben’s phone.” Xander jabbed enter and stood back. “I should have the location in just a few minutes.”

  Well, hell. Having Xander jump on board with her suspicions was almost worse than if he’d brushed her off for being a nervous mother…Ben.

  Spinning away from the laptop, Tanner strode to the wall and back. Dread seized her lungs in its bony fingers, and she fought off a serious case of the sweats.

  Fine. If she set any semblance of sanity aside and considered the likelihood Casper had done something to Ben, the only conclusion left was that Ben had been right a
bout Casper from the beginning.

  The guy couldn’t be trusted. By any of them.

  So, what? He thought the best way to retaliate was to take Ben out of the picture? To prove Ben wrong by doing the very thing that would prove him right?

  No, no, that was just stupid.

  Scrubbing her hand over her forehead, Tanner grimaced and retraced her steps. Her, Xander, Charlie…they’d all known from the onset Ben disliked Casper. Heck, it didn’t take someone with the specialized expertise of Dirty Deeds to pick up on that vibe. For him to suddenly disappear, Casper had to know he’d be the first person they’d look at to blame.

  Raking her fingers through her hair, she followed the same path around the room a second time and fisted the strands at her nape. And what about the timing? The only thing that had changed in the past twenty-four hours was Kelly and Eden leaving town, and for Casper to make his move in the midst of Tanner and Ben working a case made no sense at all. The guy would’ve been better off waving a red flag and shouting Over here! Over here!

  Coming to a stop, she lifted her chin and glanced between Xander and Charlie, both of them seemingly lost in thought, trying to piece everything together the same as her. But there were just too many missing links. Ben had gone out of his way to make sure of that. Never confiding in anyone. Refusing to divulge even the smallest clue about what was going through his head. Setting up the ideal opportunity for serious trouble while leaving the rest of them in the dark.

  God, the man. He couldn’t have put them in a more difficult position if he’d tried.

  A satellite view of the western hemisphere filled Xander’s monitor, a line of computer code processing along the bottom as it shrank to the US, then the Midwest.

  Never, in her entire life, had Tanner met anyone who consistently made her want to choke the living shit out of them while wanting to kiss them at the same time. The only thing Ben had ever openly admitted was that he didn’t trust Casper, as if she wouldn’t have been able to figure that out on her own. And whether or not he’d ever said anything to Xander or Charlie, she didn’t have the first—

  Tanner flinched and jerked her face toward Xander.

  Son of a bitch, that was it.

  “Did Ben ever approach either of you for help?” Her heavy footsteps echoed off the oak floor as she closed the distance. Xander was right. Ben hadn’t told any of them how he and Casper were connected. For him to be that gabby stretched way beyond the limits of his usual MO.

  But that didn’t mean he’d held back on everything. Doling out a small hint to one member of the team here, another there. Only what he had to so he could follow his leads at the same time he kept everyone safe, and leaving a trail of clues they’d never notice unless everyone sat down and rehashed the particulars together. “Did he do anything that seemed off to either of you? Say anything about what he was thinking?”

  “Shit.” Xander snapped his fingers, pausing a beat before spinning back to his keyboard. “That morning Adder showed up. After you left, Ben came back upstairs from the garage and asked if we could talk in private. He wanted to know if there were any pictures of Adder hanging around, so I gave him the one from Malcolm’s old file.” Pulling up a Skype link, Xander scrolled through his contacts list and tapped Molly’s number. “That was the last I’d heard of it, but I’m betting that’s not where the story ends.”

  Yes, yes, finally. Something that filled in a gap.

  If Ben hoped to prove Casper was someone from his past, he would’ve needed a jumping off point. A way to check what Casper looked like before his face had been pieced back together and his appearance had changed.

  The building pitch of a slide whistle came from the speakers and the Skype window opened with a muted pop. “Whoa.” Molly sat back with a wide-eyed blink, the two high ponytails on her head paying homage to a pair of Mickey Mouse ears. “Whatever happened, I swear it wasn’t me.”

  Tanner slumped, and then rolled her eyes right along with Xander and Charlie over how the three of them practically had their noses pressed against the monitor.

  “Molly, did Ben ever show you a picture of a young man, about sixteen?” Xander’s lips twisted to the side. “He was flipping off the camera?”

  “Okay, maybe it was me.” She wrinkled her nose in an apologetic grimace. “He brought it in about a week ago. Asked me to use the Missing Children’s Database to age the face.” A rapid click of the keys as she looked to the right, and Tanner jolted straight as a board as another window popped open.

  Holy shit.

  Charlie gasped and slapped a hand to her chest at the same time Xander muttered a curse.

  Though much older than the one Tanner had smiled at too many times to count, slightly off due to the digitized aging process and how Molly had removed Casper’s hand from in front of his face, the resemblance of that picture to Trey was uncanny.

  “I’m not leaving him alone.” Cheeks pale, Charlie spun and hurried from the room.

  Dammit, had Ben known? Tanner read the confused hesitation in Molly’s hazel gaze. Did Molly? Neither of them had spent that much time with Trey. Whenever he was at the manor, the kid usually kept to himself, tinkering in the garage or off somewhere playing video games.

  Eden and Kelly, on the other hand, wouldn’t have missed the similarities for a second.

  Tanner’s eyes slammed shut.

  One glance at that photo and they would’ve known without a shadow of a doubt that Casper and Trey were related.

  Xander’s laptop binged, and Tanner opened her eyes as he leaned forward to click the previous window, shuffling the order to bring up the triangulated location of Ben’s cell.

  A little red dot hovered northwest of O’Hare Airport, in what appeared to be the middle of an undeveloped forest preserve near Lake Zurich.

  Alarm sharpened her focus as Tanner peeked at Xander out of the corner of her eye. “That area isn’t in Ben’s jurisdiction.”

  “No.” He fisted his hands. “It’s not.”

  Unbelievable. Rage crackled along her nerve-endings with a speed of a brush fire. Point two seconds, and her decision was made. “I’m going after him.” Right now.

  The sides of her jacket swung from her hips as she whirled for the door. So help her God, if Casper had concocted a bunch of false pretenses to lure Ben into some inescapable trap, she was going to make it so that no woman ever looked at him again.

  She reached for the doorknob, and then froze as Xander dropped a firm grip over the twist of her wrist. “You can’t go alone. We have no idea what you might be up against.”

  “Then I suggest you do your best to find out.” If Xander thought the likelihood of some unknown threat was gonna stop her, the guy had better schedule himself for a CAT scan. She’d stared into the dark abyss of death before. Long and hard enough, she and death had become dear, dear friends. “Lock down the manor. Protect Charlie and Trey and be my eyes in the sky as I head in.”

  With Casper still looking to complete whatever objective he had up his sleeve, Xander’s highest priority had to be keeping Charlie and Trey safe. But there was no chance in hell Tanner was about to stand around, twiddling her thumbs, if there was the smallest possibility Ben needed her help.

  “Um, hello?” The tips of Molly’s fingers flashed across the top of Xander’s laptop as she waved her hands. “Someone care to tell me what’s going on? I can’t see anything but a bunch of paint splotches.”

  “Get Molly started on connecting the dots. Find out how Casper and Trey are related.” Removing Xander’s hold with a determined yank, Tanner grasped his fingers and squeezed. “Anything you learn, feed it to me through coms. Send Casper’s picture to my phone and run remote back up from here so I’ll know what’s coming before it hits.”

  He studied her eyes for two tense heartbeats, but if he expected her to back down, his jaw and the knuckles of her right fist were about to be occupying the same space.

  “Okay.” He dipped his chin. “Just remember, if you so much stu
b your toe, Ben will have my ass in a sling.”

  “Understood.” More than she ever had before. Pulling the door open, she raced down the hall toward the stairs. “And if Casper shows up, keep him here but don’t touch him. That asshole is mine.”

  Chapter 10

  “Fifty meters.” Xander’s voice echoed through the wireless com link Tanner had plugged in her ear, and she quickly eased up on the gas and down-shifted into first. “Entrance should be coming up on your right.”

  Tapping the side of her helmet, she activated the visor’s night vision display. The steady wall of falling snow took on a green cast, and she killed the single headlight on the front of her bike.

  There. Just ahead, a curving break in the trees was offset by a wide wooden sign announcing the main drive into the preserve.

  “Got it.” Checking over her shoulder for oncoming traffic, she leaned into the turn and gunned the engine. The bottom of her boot skimmed the ice-slicked gravel as she spun out the back tire in a sharp one-eighty. Cutting the engine, she lifted her foot and coasted into the downy white powder that blanketed the woods.

  Perfect. Her front tire squished to a stop, and she swung her leg over the seat. The fat flakes dusting the air couldn’t hit the ground fast enough, as far as she was concerned. She pushed aside the bottom branches of a wayward pine and a thick layer of white fluff sheeted past her gloves and the arms of her leather jacket. Checking left then right, she ducked inside and backed her Valkyrie toward the sturdy trunk.

  Even though the late January snowstorm had made the ride north a little trickier than she would’ve liked, the natural camouflage would go a long way toward covering her tracks. And hopefully mask her movements enough, she could get a direct line of sight on Ben’s location without setting off any alarms.