“Okay, give me what you’ve got.”
“It’s not much. There’s a guy they’re calling the Chief, he doesn’t get out much. He’s an older guy, no one knows much about him. Just kind of showed up a few years ago. I did find out he owns and runs a small MMA gym and I guess that’s his legitimate business. Although I heard from Huck that a small gym from Miami is attending tonight to discuss some possible matches. He was just rambling and I was listening. I don’t know if it’s the same gym, but you never know.”
I laugh, “Are you sure you don’t want a career in law enforcement? You sound like a cop.”
She shakes her head. “Nope. Lived too many years with one, picked up on too much.”
She reaches and buckles Harm in his seat and I nod. “Okay, I’ll let you go. Thanks. Your name will stay out of this.”
“So Sloan tells me that Roxanne is coming to the fight tonight. Is that going to be okay?”
I shrug. “Yeah, she’s just staying for the fight. She and I have a casual sex relationship anyway, so we just leave out the business part for now.” Roxanne will leave before the guys come in the stands. She doesn’t want to risk Lox and the twins seeing her and this blowing up tonight. Chelsea has no idea about the past with Lox and I’m not telling her.
Once I leave Chelsea’s, I drive toward the arena. Logging all of the information that she just gave me, I wonder if any of that crew will be there tonight. I grab my phone and hit the contact for Roxanne.
“Hey. I’m getting ready.”
“Listen, I got some intel. I’ll talk to you when we get there, but I need you to dress up. There may be someone there tonight who knows about you. Just don’t dress like Zanne, the agent. Dress like Roxanne, the sex goddess.”
I hear her chuckle. “Sex goddess?”
“Shut up and do it. See you soon,” I say before I end the call.
There is a good chance Lowe has given her picture to half of the Florida mobsters association. She’s the last one and I know he doesn’t plan to leave her. He’d be stupid if he did. He sent Mike here for that, but he got greedy. Tonight, we watch everything. I see the intersection coming up for the arena and when I see all of the traffic, I’m glad I’m here early. Now to just get through my sister meeting my fuck buddy.
CHAPTER 12
ROXANNE
To say my nerves are getting the best of me on the way to the arena is a complete understatement. What if one of the twins see me? What if Lox sees me? Hell, that Marco guy could see me and remember me. I’m so stupid for letting him talk me into this. Plus, now I’m dressed like I’m focusing on my inner slut.
As I pull into the crowded parking lot, I run through the scenarios of the night. What could happen? We already have my exit story. We actually have two. He won’t be there when I leave so the first story I give is that I have an early class to teach tomorrow and I’m tired. That’s if everything is fine and I just can’t run into the guys. My second story is if something is off and I need to talk to him. That is, I have an early class and lunch isn’t agreeing with me so I have an upset stomach. That will give him an out to come check on me.
Walking across the parking lot, I think, now I’m going to meet his sister. The girl whose husband I left handcuffed to a hotel bed. No, this isn’t awkward at all.
Handing my ticket to the agent, I smile and make my way in the building. I send him a quick text to let him know I’m here. He lets me know he’ll meet me just inside the main room.
Once I see him, I smile. Something about his moody ass makes me want to fuck him every time I see him. He looks down at me. “You ready to do this?”
I nod. “Yep.”
“The guys are all in the locker room and from the sounds of things, they’ll stay there until after the fight.” He gives me a short rundown of what Chelsea told him as we make our way to our seats.
I see a tall dark-haired girl I’m pretty sure is his sister as I sit down. She jumps up and gives him a big hug. “Hey, big brother.”
“Hey, sweetie.” He turns to me. “Roxanne, this is my sister, Sloan. Sloan, this is Roxanne.”
She gives me a great big smile. “Hey, it’s so nice to finally meet you. I know my brother has been slipping around for a little while now.”
I laugh. “Well, we are both trying to keep it pretty casual so don’t hold him completely accountable.”
A kid comes running up. “Uncle Jacob.”
Jacob spins around and locks onto the kid. “Sage, this is Roxanne. Roxanne, this is Sloan’s son, Sage.” He looks around for a moment. “Where’s Lincoln?”
“Oh, Mom and Dad are at my house with him. Kara’s mom, Eve, has Krista and Selah. Chelsea’s mom, Jenny, came and picked Harm up before the matches got crazy. It’s going to be a packed house tonight. We didn’t want the kids in any danger.”
I see the young boy talking to a little redheaded girl and smiling. I point to them. “Is that his little girlfriend?”
Sloan laughs. “No, they’re just friends. He’s too young for that stuff. He’s only ten.” Ten, he’s freaking ten. How is Jacob not killing Lox for fucking me while being with his sister?
I see Jacob turn his head and laugh. A few seconds later, I’m introduced to Kara (Sly’s wife), Chelsea (Huck’s wife), Liz (Marco’s daughter) and I see Jade again. She’s who I do most of my talking to. I find out she’s doing better, they’ve got her in a walking boot and she’s gotten the cast off of her arm. From the sounds of things, she had several fractured ribs, a broken arm and leg. She’s lucky to be alive. Then again, so am I.
“So I guess you and Jacob are moving on from the fuck buddy stage?” she questions.
I shrug. “He wanted me to come to the fight with him. I like fights so I said yes.”
“Oh, it’s just he never brings a girl around to meet Slick and Sloan.”
She can see the question on my face. “Slick is Sage. The boys gave him that nickname when they first met him. I love that little boy and now he’s given me up for another redhead,” she jokes.
“I asked if that was his girlfriend and Sloan said no.”
“Oh, Sloan won’t see it until it slaps her in the face. She loves that little boy with everything, she doesn’t show any difference between him and Lincoln. But for so long it was just she and Slick. She’ll never see him as anything more than her little boy,” she says, taking a sip of her drink.
“Wait, they were alone? So Lox isn’t his father?”
She shakes her head. “No, you’d never guess it the way Lox treats him though. He’s loved that kid since the day he met him.”
“What happened to Slick’s father?” I think better. “Sorry, I don’t mean to be nosey.”
She shrugs. “Not a big deal, we’re all a little nosey. His father plays in the NFL, but he doesn’t have much to do with him. Didn’t at all until he was five. It was after Lox came into his life.”
“Wow, I’m surprised Jacob didn’t kill him,” I say, really and truly surprised. I mean in our business we can make people disappear, or put them in locations where they wished they were dead.
“He probably would have, but Sloan didn’t want all of that. She just wanted to have a normal life and not deal with Lucas Smith’s shit,” she blurts.
Lucas fucking Smith???!!! Star quarterback for the Jacksonville Panthers?!
She sighs. “After all of the trouble he got in a few years ago, he decided he wanted to make amends with Sage and Sloan. So he has limited communication with Sage, but Lox adopted him after he and Sloan got married. Lucas respects that.”
I nod. “Wow. Just wow.”
I’ve been talking with all of the girls through the earlier fights since we don’t know any of them and I haven’t heard any towns from around Miami called out. Finally, the guys’ fights start. They come later because they’re the money maker fights. I watch them and see how much they’ve improved since all of those years ago. They’re more seasoned. I’ve kept track of them some, especially when I moved here. Really I
didn’t want to risk running into them and now I’m here. Fuck me. They’ve all changed and matured so much in the face, it’s crazy.
Finally, it’s Gibbs’ fight. He’s the last one of the night. I’ve heard from Jade she’s going to answer Gibbs proposal to her tonight. His fight is solid and he’s determined. I guess the news media has been giving him shit since he’s had to cancel some fights because of what happened with Jade and he didn’t want their private business everywhere. They all just came to their own conclusions. Well, tonight he’s showing them and he just knocked the guy out.
Jade screams and holds up her sign. He takes off running into the area we’re in and grabs her in his arms. After all of the commotion, I look down to see Marco and Lox talking by the cage. A familiar man walks up to them and starts talking. I can’t believe my eyes. I take a quick snap of the man with my phone, still in shock.
Jade looks at me and I gather my things. Time to pass along my message. “Hey, where are you going?” she asks, concerned.
“Oh, I told Jacob I need to go. I have a class to teach early and I’m not feeling very well. I shouldn’t have eaten that sandwich from the coffee shop at the college today,” I nervously rattle, trying to hold it together from running to throttle the man I’ve just seen. I can’t go kill him, I have to hold it together. “I’m just going to head out. I had fun tonight. Congratulations.” I’ve really got to go, if he sees me it’s going to end in a blood bath.
She gives me a small smile. “Okay. Well, hope you feel better soon.”
I quickly make my way from the arena, shoot Jacob a text to ask Jade and barrel out of the parking lot. On my way to my house, I smoke at least five cigarettes. I honestly don’t know why. I’m a mixture of angry, hurt, disappointed and homicidal.
Walking into my house, I go straight to my secret cabinet in my closet. Grabbing the files and my notes, I start tearing through them. I’m going to figure this shit out now. How? How did he do it? How did he pull it off?
CHAPTER 13
JACOB
I didn’t expect her to run out as fast as she did. There was a little more time. Something must’ve spooked her, so I ask Jade. “Hey, did Rox leave or something?”
“Yeah, she was acting weird, maybe she was just nervous about meeting all of us. But she said she needed to go, she had an early day tomorrow and she’d had a sandwich from the coffee shop today that wasn’t agreeing with her.” Jade just shrugs it off.
“Okay, well I wanted to say congratulations. I’ll see you guys soon. I’m going to go check on her.”
She smiles. “Okay, thanks. You sure this is still just a fuck buddy thing?”
I chuckle. “Yeah. It’s just, you know, comfortable I guess.”
She shakes her head and turns back to the rest of the group. I shoot my sister a quick text letting her know I’m going to check on Roxanne.
Driving quickly across town to her house, I text her letting her know I’m on my way. Arriving at her house and walking up on the porch, I hear her yelling inside. Drawing my gun, I peer through the window. She’s pacing. I don’t see anyone else so I cautiously tap on the door. Finally, she opens it and looks frazzled. She looks down at the gun, “Put that away.”
“Well I heard you in here yelling, I thought something was up.” I holster my gun as I follow her in. “What’s going on? You lit out of there like your ass was on fire.”
“Did you see the man talking to Marco and Lox?”
“When?”
“Right before I left. He was older, greying hair, about five-foot-nine. Stocky build. Seventies porn mustache.”
I think back, running the night through my head. “Wait, yeah.”
She looks at me with a blank face. “Frank Weeks.”
I shake my head. “Frank Weeks? He’s dead.”
She shakes her head feverishly. “No. It was him. I’ve been looking back through the file from his accident. The car was burnt. They found a body in there, but most of the tests were inconclusive. Everyone just testified they saw him leave the Moose Lodge in the car and a mile away, it crashed and burned.”
I sit down on her couch. “So you’re saying that within that mile he staged the car accident, planted a body in there and set the car on fire? All to stage his death?”
“YES! I know this sounds crazy. Trust me, I kept staring at him trying to figure it out, but it was him. His hair has changed, the mustache is new, I’d put money on it though. It makes sense. Looking back through the case files, he was Popeye. He was the only body not really recognizable. I mean even my sister, Mitch and the girls were identifiable, even with the explosion, so something is up.” She’s pacing again.
“Okay. Let’s look back over the files. Let’s try to make sense of this.”
“I know what the fuck I’m talking about, Jacob! I know who I saw and I know the son of a bitch, who I fucking trusted to have my back, was obviously as dirty as they come.” She collapses on the couch. “Not only that…he killed my fucking family and had the audacity to try and comfort me through it.” I see the angry tears welling up in her eyes.
I nod and pull her into my side. “Okay, let’s look over this stuff again and make a plan.”
Sitting around her table once again, we comb through the files for hours. She won’t stop, she’s obsessed now. Finally, I stop her. “We need a break,” I tell her, pulling her on my lap.
She’s got the adrenaline look on her face, I know she’s basically drugged by this case. “You need to rest; you’ve got to leave it for tonight.”
She looks up at me with a timid look in her eyes now. “I- I can’t. I let them all down years ago. I won’t do it again.”
I pull her face into my palms. “You didn’t let them down. You won’t let them down this time either.” I kiss her on the lips gently, pulling her as tight as she can be against me. I move from her lips to her neck with soft kisses. Feeling her pants against my neck, I let her go. She looks up at me with soft eyes, a certain sadness and loneliness to them. I don’t want her to feel lonely anymore.
Standing up and carrying her with me to her bedroom and slowly remove her clothes along with mine. Climbing on top of her, I take her slow and methodically. For the first time we aren’t having a wild, casual fuck, we’re being intimate.
~*~*~
Lying in bed last night, we came up with a plan for the operation. It’s going to be tricky and it’s going to bust my ass, but it’ll work. Well, I’m hoping it’ll work.
Pulling into the gym parking lot, I’m actually nervous. Nothing makes me nervous normally. I’ve stared gunmen down, I’ve been shot, but this makes me want to run.
Walking into the gym foyer, I see Lox. “Hey, man. Everyone in the conference room?”
He nods. “Yeah, man. This has Sloan worried. What’s going on?”
“I’ll explain in a minute.”
Once we walk in the conference room, I see Marco, Gibbs, Sly, Huck and my sister. She stands up and hugs me. “What’s going on? You are scaring me.”
“Sit down. I need to talk to you guys and I need you to understand how much I need to keep it quiet. But, if you are going to help me with it, you need to know the truth.”
They all nod. “I was in the Army for three years when I was recruited by the CIA.” My sister’s face is full of confusion. “I had a case go bad around the time Sloan called to tell me she was pregnant with Sage. I quit and came home to help her. I have still been working since then as a contract agent, I only take the cases I want. I moved here as a building contractor for a cover. This case was a little too close to my sister and my nephews for me to leave it to someone else. So even though I was very happy to move here, it was somewhat of a sham.”
My sister glares at me. “So you didn’t want to move here at all?”
“Sloan, that’s not it. I hadn’t really thought about it until I was approached with it. Now, I wouldn’t change it for the world,” I tell her calmly.
Gibbs looks to me. “You were here because of
me, weren’t you?”
“No, not to start with. Yes, it had to do with Mike Juarez, but I came here to watch a former ATF agent. She worked undercover in Pensacola and her cover was blown. The op went bad. Her entire family and her team were killed. I tell you all of this not because I want to, but we feel like a man that approached Marco and Lox at the fight last night from Miami was one of her old partners. There was so much deceit in this case its hard to sort out, but we think he staged his death and he was working with a man named Wes Lowe.”
Gibbs’ face looks grim. “I take it you know who I’m talking about, Gibbs?” He nods. “Yes, he was Mike Juarez’s backer and boss.”
Marco looks to me. “What do you need from us?”
“I need you to train me to fight. I need a match with someone from that group in Miami. I have to show a reason as to why I’m hanging out with you guys. I don’t want to draw attention to my family. The guy from the other night met me years ago, but he also knows that I left the agency and wasn’t happy at that time doing contract work so we can play it off as I left. I doubt he’ll draw much attention to himself with me.”
Marco nods. “Okay. I think we can work on that. Huck is going to be over training now, he can take care of it.”
My sister glares at me again. “I feel like you aren’t telling me something. What’s the rest? Do Mom and Dad know?”
I shake my head. “No, they don’t, and I’d prefer to keep it that way for a while. Yes, there is one more part to this story.” I pull a photo of Roxanne out of my folder and turn it face down. “Before I show you this photo, I want you to understand the type of case this agent was working. She was under deep cover and in one night her cover was blown, her car was smashed, she was shot twice and left for dead.”
I spin the picture around and Sloan looks confused. “Roxanne? She’s your girlfriend?”
“Yes and no.” Then I see recognition hit Lox’s face.
“Really? Her? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” He sinks back into the chair, covering his face with his hands.
Jacob (Exposed Marco's MMA Boys #5) Page 6