Secret Maneuvers

by Jessie Lane

  The next thirty minutes were a proverbial comedy about a bunch of drunken rednecks mixed with scantily clad women drinking, shouting, dancing, and a few brave souls trying their hand at the mechanical bull. During that time, I watched Belle pretend to throw back two more shots while acting like she was tipsy. Her movements appeared sluggish, but I knew that it was all an act since her, Declan and Riley had an elaborate game of ‘switch out the glasses’ going. Instead of Belle actually drinking her shots, either Declan or Riley would change them out with an empty shot glass from one of the patrons next to them, giving the impression that Belle was drinking heavily.

  Dozens of people partied hard with the trio and, eventually, Belle staggered sloppily backwards for a few seconds. Turning, she continued a drunken swagger, pushing through the thick mass of bodies towards the back of the bar, but instead of continuing her path, she veered quickly to the right, stumbling through the door at the end, where the suspect had entered not so long ago. Henderson caught sight of where Belle had disappeared to and yelled for her to stop. Ignoring him, she pushed her way through the door. Henderson slid the beer he had in his hand to Declan, and then quickly left the area behind the bar to follow Belle into the back.

  Travis Henderson had just unknowingly allowed the back of his bar to be infiltrated by a highly trained ATF agent. One who would love to do nothing more than hang him high and dry if he was, in fact, cooperating in this ring of black market firearms sales. My body went incredibly taut with tension at the thought of Belle out of sight without any back up.

  Precious seconds ticked by that I spent literally on the edge of my seat. Ready to jump up with the need to do something. Anything. Whatever it took to make sure my girl came back out of that room safe and sound. A few more minutes ticked by and it felt like an invisible hand had reached inside my chest and had a stranglehold on my heart.

  Jesus, I’d never felt anxiety like this on any mission I’d ever gone on. Put me in a room full of crazy terrorists and it would feel like another day at the office, but this, well, this was almost more than I could take. Suddenly, I had the overwhelming desire to put Belle in a padded room somewhere safe just to make sure she never got a boo-boo; much less, let her walk into a dangerous situation like she was in now.

  Just when I was ready to storm the castle, so to speak, the door to the back opened. Henderson firmly held one of Belle’s arms in his grip while escorting her back towards the Sullivan brothers. Declan looked over to the pair with a frown on his face seconds before I noticed his hand briefly touch his watch and then his voice crackled over the comm. link.

  “Hey there, guy. What are you doing man handling my sister like that?”

  Henderson gently pushed Belle into Declan’s direction. “No harm, man. Your sister wandered into the office looking for the bathroom. If she still needs to use it, the ladies room is located at the back of the building and to the left.”

  Belle patted Declan on the shoulder. “Calm down, big brother. The bartender here was just showing a lady around is all. Hey, you still got that pack of cigarettes on you? I need one bad.”

  Sending one last glare to Henderson, Declan wrapped an arm around Belle’s shoulders and headed towards the front door. Riley grabbed his bottle of beer before following them out. A few minutes of silence passed while the group presumably put a safe distance between themselves and any ears that might be listening. Finally, I heard Belle’s sweet, southern voice as she spoke lowly to Declan.

  “I spotted what looked like a couple of crates in a large, empty storage room partially covered with tarps. No way to see what was in the crates, but they looked about the size that could accommodate rifles. Suspect was sitting quietly in the manager’s office with the door open so that he had a view of the hall and the storage room. Closing time is in two hours. I think we should wait till the place is empty, break in and take a look at what they might be hiding.”

  Declan’s low voice followed Belle’s report. “What do you think, Commander?”

  Jaxon’s eyes swept the bar again before he answered, “Sounds like a solid plan. Sullivans, tell Belle you all will stay here while my group will take our SUV to a remote area nearby in the woods to change and load up. We’ll leave you a change of clothes and some toys along with the GPS coordinates of their location when we head back. The two remaining groups will remain in position outside. Wall out.”

  A short chorus of, “Affirmatives,” sounded through the comm. link to let the Commander know that all groups were aware of their current orders.

  As the Sullivan brothers walked back into the bar with a supposedly inebriated Belle in tow, a lively country song started blasting over the speakers. As the fiddle accompanied the guitar, Belle shimmied her way onto the middle of the dance floor. Swaying her hips seductively to the music. Instantly, she gained the attention of every male in the room, with most of the females watching, too; envy, anger or lust shining in their eyes.

  Regardless of all the other bystanders around me, in that moment, I flashed back fifteen years to Belle dancing for me like that in my bedroom while I lay back on the bed watching her. How I would have her strip all of her clothes off for me slowly while she swung her hips in sinful movements to tease me. How she would look when she was down to nothing except pretty, little lace panties. Maybe her boots and her cowboy hat, too. My dick felt like a solid steel pipe pressing into my zipper.

  It took Jaxon slapping me on the back of my head to get me moving towards the exit again before the song and, therefore, the distraction was over. I silently vowed to myself as we left that Belle would be doing that for me again soon. All I had to do was come up with a plan to tame the wild woman who still managed to make my dick go hard in less than eight seconds like some sexual rodeo and my heart squeeze in my chest so hard that I thought I might be having a heart attack.

  Chapter Four

  Annabelle

  I faked a drunken swagger as the Sullivan brothers pretended to half-drag me out to the parking lot. When we were clear of the front door, with nothing except the sounds of bull frogs and crickets surrounding us, Declan leaned in to whisper in my ear.

  “You put on one hell of a show there, honey. Group One has already made it to a secure location to change and arm up. We’ll wait here until they get back in about fifteen minutes.”

  I pulled the gate down on my truck bed. The three of us could sit there like we were shootin’ the shit and wasting time. In other words, a typical, laid back, southern night.

  “Give us a story to pass the time, Annabelle. Tell us something horribly embarrassing about Bobby.” Declan grinned as he leaned back on his elbows against the bottom of the truck bed.

  Raising my eyebrow in amusement, I watched the other man’s lazy demeanor. “I don’t know about that, Declan. Perhaps it would be best if I didn’t talk about Bobby with y’all. I’m a bit biased on the subject of him.”

  The guys chuckled and then Declan quickly grew serious. “Do you mind if I’m brutally honest with you, Annabelle?”

  I let loose an unfeminine snort. “You might as well. I’ve got this funny feeling that you’re the type that would tell me whether I want to hear it or not.”

  “I promise I’m not trying to pry into your business, I just want you to know that I’ve known Bobby for the last three and a half years he’s been on this team. In that time, we’ve grown close. I’d do anything for him; including step into something that is clearly not my business by telling you things that I should leave for him to say, but since you won’t give him the time of day, let me lay it out for you. Bobby’s my boy. Over the years, we’ve had a few drunken nights where he told me all about the mistakes he made over the course of his life. He always said that the biggest mistake he ever made was leaving you. Did you know that just a couple of weeks after he broke it off with you, he had his parents searching that entire county for you since he couldn’t find you by phone? Apparently, you just up and disappeared out of that small town you guys grew up in.”

/>   Shock rolled through my body. Bobby had looked for me? Wow.

  I sure as hell hadn’t seen that one coming.

  How different would my life have been if I hadn’t left town the day after getting Bobby’s letter? A letter that was, by the way, still in my possession. It was something I’d used over the years to help me mourn the heart I’d left buried back in Georgia. So many things had happened in the last fifteen years. As much as I would love to think Bobby genuinely wanted to clear the air between us, as he’d hinted over the past two days, I didn’t think it was possible. If Bobby ever knew what I’d done, what I’d hidden from him, he’d look at me with the kind of burning hate you bestowed on the people you despised with every fiber of your being. I don’t think I could survive knowing that the only man I’d ever loved felt that way about me.

  Turning back to look at Declan, I considered my next words carefully.

  “That comm. link you got in your ear, what’s the range on that sucker?”

  With a knowing smile, Declan answered, “Oh, about two miles. So we’re safe for…” he looked down at his watch, “I’d say about another four or five minutes before they’re in range again.”

  “Good. While they’re out of earshot, I’d just like to say thank you for telling me that. No, I didn’t know Bobby ever looked for me after his ‘I-don’t-think-we-should-see-each-other-anymore’ letter. That being said, I don’t think anything can change between the two of us. My life changed forever after that letter. Things have happened that have made it impossible for Bobby and I to go back to the way things were. Yes, part of me will always be hurt or angry over what happened in the end between the two of us, but I also hope he has a good life. I’m not that much of a bitch to want it otherwise. I wish it could have ended differently, but it’s time for Bobby to move on.”

  Declan hung his head a little and sighed. “I think you still care for him, Annabelle. Otherwise, you wouldn’t still be this pissed off at him. If I’m right, and you do, then I don’t see why the two of you can’t work through whatever happened in the past. I know for a fact that Bobby would move Heaven and earth just to have a second chance with you.” As I was about to say something, he held his hand up to hold me off. “But I understand if you feel like you can’t make that leap. I’d like to ask a favor of you, then. Just talk to him once. Let him say he’s sorry. That way, maybe he can finally move on with his life instead of always looking back to the past he had with you.”

  I sat there, watching the sincerity in Declan’s face as he pleaded Bobby’s case. The man would have made a hell of a lawyer. Thousands of thoughts poured through my stunned brain. Did Bobby honestly think he was still in love with me? Was he genuinely sorry for doing the one thing he’d always promised never to do? Leave me behind? Could I ever trust him after what had happened before? My heart couldn’t handle that kind of rejection again.

  Riley shifted his butt on my other side, inadvertently reminding me that he’d been sitting there the whole time. Looking over to him I asked, “You’re too quiet, Riley Sullivan. What’s your two cents about all of this?”

  Riley shrugged his shoulders, then jerked his head in Declan’s direction. “I agree with him.”

  I laughed. “You don’t talk much do you?”

  Shrugging his broad shoulders, he replied, “Nope.”

  Shaking my head in amusement, I took a moment to look at Declan’s watch. “What have we got, Declan, two or three minutes until they’re in range again?”

  “That sounds about right, beautiful.”

  “Okay. I’ll think about talking to Bobby, but in the meantime, why don’t I tell you about the party at Jason Bueller’s house.” With a wistful smile I added, “You’re not gonna believe this shit…”

  Bobby

  The comm. link crackled in my ear when we came back into range of the bar. In just a few minutes we would be parked and hidden away in various positions in the woods behind the bar. As I checked my pockets on the black combat pants I was wearing again, making sure everything was in its place, I heard the roaring cackle of laughter pour through the link. It damn near blew my ear drum out.

  I barked in annoyance, “What the fuck, Declan! Are you trying to make us go deaf?”

  Declan continued to laugh. Hell, he was laughing so hard he was gasping for air, choking several times in the process. He was such a dumbass. When he finally had some self-control, he said something that stopped me dead in my tracks as I silently moved through the woods behind the Big Bull Bar.

  “Tell me, Bobby, just how much liquor do you have to drink to get chased by a truck through a cornfield? Or have a fist fight with a tree before you decide it would be a brilliant idea to try and piss on an electric fence that nearly zaps your dick off? But wait, that’s not the best part. No, that would be where you passed out underneath a trailer in nothing except your boxers and you cuddled up with a beach ball while your ridiculously hot and totally willing girlfriend was waiting for you inside the trailer! We’ve been promised photographic evidence as proof to this incredible account of your male, teenage idiocy. I think we should submit the pictures to National Geographic’s ongoing study about the effects of alcohol on impressionable young males with low IQs.”

  The line choked up with several amused men’s laughter.

  “SON OF A BITCH! Where’s the loyalty? You tell Belle to stop recapping our ridiculous adolescent adventures before I break out a few about her that I’m sure she’ll wish never saw the light of day again.”

  Declan relayed the message to Belle and then her soft southern drawl came over the line. “Bobby, you telling stories about me would be about as useful as a trap door on a canoe since I don’t have to work with these guys every day and you do.”

  Jaxon cleared his throat to hide his amusement. “Playtime is over, kids. Let’s get back to work. Sullivan team, we’re in place. Mingle with the natives until it’s almost closing time. Then head to our truck to pick up your change of clothes and weapons. Once you’re done, meet up with us behind the bar in the woods.”

  Declan’s, “Roger that,” was immediate. Now it was time to hurry up and wait.

  ***

  Three o’clock in the morning finally rolled around before the target left with Henderson. The bar’s patrons had all been rounded up and kicked out an hour earlier. Thirty minutes after the departure of the two men, Chase went in with Riley covering his back to disarm the security system and let us in without tripping any alarms. Now I stood in the same large storage room Belle had described to us hours earlier. With me were Jaxon, Declan, Riley, Agent Boyd and Belle.

  One wall was lined with metal shelving units filled with large bottles of various liquors. Across the room, three crates sat on the floor covered up with blue, all-weather tarps. The concrete floors were exposed under our feet and the three walls left bare were painted a stark white. The sparseness of the room should have comforted me. There was nothing blocking my view of the area. No cluttered corners that could contain surprises. However, my instincts were screaming at me and I couldn’t help the instinctive reaction of my finger tightening closer to my riffle’s trigger.

  Alert and wary, I continued to scan my surroundings looking for all of the things common sense told me should be there. Like security cameras. Where were the small red lights indicating the room was being monitored? It wasn’t possible that criminals involved with smuggling guns were actually dumb enough to leave their storage area utterly defenseless. Was it? Although, the lack of small glowing lights mocked me until I had a horrible sense of unease in my gut. Getting in and out of this place as fast as possible was starting to sound like a really damn good idea.

  The sound of Riley gently using a crowbar to pry the lid off one of the crates, quickly brought my attention back around. A few seconds later, Jaxon shined a light through the gap of the crate’s lid and its body before letting out a low whistle.

  Jaxon passed the small, high-powered flashlight to Belle while motioning his head for her to take a lo
ok inside. When she shined the light through the good size gap Riley had made, I watched in interest as she pursed her lips and looked at the contents. After a few seconds of perusal, she handed the flashlight back to Jaxon, who then gave the signal to seal the crate back up.

  Riley closed the crate quickly as the remaining members of the room gave one last look around. My feet were itching to haul ass out of there. If only I could locate the source of whatever was putting me on edge, then I could take care of it. Something told me that there was someone watching—someone waiting—which went against the all clear we had initially given the room. I looked back to see Riley putting the finishing touches on the crate, it looked exactly as we had found it. No one should ever be able to tell that the contents had been opened and viewed.

  As Riley gave the hand signal for the group to leave, I couldn’t help silently giving thanks that we were getting the hell out of there. I didn’t know if we’d overlooked something—or if my instincts were all off—but the hairs standing up on the back of my neck told me we were standing in a trap and Belle was in danger. Either way, I heaved a tremendous sigh of relief when we finally cleared the building.

  ***

  Thirty minutes later, weary EX Ops members filed through the door of Jaxon’s hotel room. Belle was the last one through and I took a second to admire how hot she looked in her ATF gear. Wearing black jeans, a long-sleeve, black t-shirt with a bullet proof vest on top, and her badge and gun holstered to her waist. The whole kick-ass outfit she had going on right now was enough to make me sport an erection that felt seriously uncomfortable since I was in a room filled with other men. Including a couple of guys that were like brothers to me, but that hadn’t stopped the boot stomping I’d promised Declan and Riley if they’d been trying to get an eyeful of Belle while she’d been getting dressed into her work clothes earlier. Frankly, I’d never known that it was possible for a woman to change in less than three minutes in a vehicle without showing a peep of skin through the windows the whole time, but Declan had discreetly promised me that neither he, nor Riley, had seen so much as a toe while she was getting ready. Not that my good ol’ buddy Declan had been trying to take advantage of my sweet, vulnerable woman while she was changing clothes. He’d never do anything that despicable. Riiiiight.