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Asset Management Page 13

by Annette Mori


  Char cried out. “Please, go inside.”

  Toni didn’t need to verbalize her veneration at Char’s responsiveness as she continued to lick as she gently inserted one, then two fingers, curling them up into Char’s g-spot.

  As Char’s body moved rhythmically, Toni continued to stroke inside her vagina until she felt the first wave of orgasm. She continued to lick and suck until she felt Char’s body explode and sweet juices lathered her in ecstasy.

  Toni slowly crawled up Char’s body, gently stroking her and feeling her body begin to relax in post-orgasmic bliss.

  “Wow. Just wow. I cannot form any other intelligent thoughts just now. I hope you will forgive me, but those are the only words that come to mind at this moment,” Char exclaimed.

  When her breathing calmed, Char flipped Toni and grinned. “My turn and suddenly I find that I’m starving.”

  A sudden, loud crash sounded from the hallway.

  “Shit, I forgot I put those there.” A voice in the hallway cried out.

  Toni laughed when she heard Dani in the hallway. Char groaned.

  “Dani?” Toni asked.

  “Unfortunately, yes. Little sister or not, I think I might have to kill her,” Char responded.

  “I suppose that knocking is not something she’s inclined to do?” Toni inquired.

  Bang

  “Crap, this damn hallway is hard to navigate. Hey, you two. Time to get dressed. The natives are getting restless,” Dani called out from the hallway.

  “Don’t you dare enter this bedroom. We’ll be out in a minute. Toni hurt her hand with her right hook and I’m just making sure that it’s not broken,” Char responded.

  Toni giggled. “Um, I’m pretty sure I just demonstrated how well it works.”

  “Shhh. If you so much as make one joke in front of Dani, I will retaliate.”

  “Ooh, retaliation. That could be a lot of fun.” Toni smirked.

  “I mean it. She’s like a dog with a bone. She’ll never let me live it down.”

  “All right. What’s it worth to you?” Toni asked.

  “Blackmail? Really? That’s so beneath you. Where did you fling my panties? We need to get dressed.”

  “Well, I still kind of have some clothes on.”

  “Yeah, I noticed and I do believe that at a later date we will need to remedy that. It’s not exactly recommended to leave me unfulfilled and I abhor the fact that I’ve left you dangling.”

  “Oh, no, we can’t let that happen. No worries regarding my state of mind, I’m completely satisfied right now.”

  “Come on. Hurry up, you two. There’s some guy topside that’s making Maggie nervous. I don’t like it when Maggie gets nervous,” Dani called out.

  Chapter 16

  Toni and Char walked into the control room and Toni noticed immediately the level of stress and anxiety that hovered in the air like cheap cigar smoke.

  “What’s all the commotion?” Toni asked.

  Ronda pointed to the security monitor displaying a man peeking in the cabin’s front window. “Seems our little pals here notified the FBI.”

  “Shit, Sophie, why did you call Ted?” Toni inquired.

  “I wasn’t about to go traipsing in the woods after you without some kind of backup. Besides, I trust Ted. He’s one of the few people I opened up to after Natalie.”

  Toni looked at Dani who bent her head and swiped a hand across her eyes.

  Char put a hand on Dani’s shoulder.

  “I suppose now is a good time to fill everyone in on our suspicion,” Maggie said quietly.

  Char was riveted to the monitor.

  “That would be appreciated, because frankly I’m getting a bit tired of this little party,” Sophie declared.

  “Char, I don’t think you need to worry. I don’t believe he will be able to access the tunnels. All he will find is an abandoned cabin. However, I am a little worried that he might bring others to this location and that will put us all at risk. Sophie, I know you were just attempting to protect those you love, but unfortunately, you may have placed us all in grave danger. Let’s wait and see what happens in the next day or two and if we need to move our base of operations, I’ve planned for this contingency.”

  “You have?” Dani lifted her tear-streaked face.

  “Of course. First rule have plan B, C, and D ready to roll at a moment’s notice.” Maggie placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

  “You better tell us the whole story and don’t leave out any details if you have any hope of our cooperation.” Sophie glared.

  “Very well. Let me start from the beginning,” Maggie began.

  “Novel place to start,” Sophie added.

  Kim placed a hand on Sophie’s arm. “Soph, please let her tell the story without interruption. I’d like to hear what she has to say.”

  “Sorry, I’ll try not to be rude. Please, go on.” Sophie looked down.

  Toni laughed to herself, noting how quickly Kim was able to get Sophie to behave.

  “I suppose you could say I have a passion for ridding the world of this ghastly sex slave business. Our organization has had a fair amount of success and we’ve been able to free a number of girls throughout the years, before their innocent lives were ruined. However, for every girl we save, ten more are lost to us. As you are already aware, Dani was working undercover and was instrumental in helping save lives, but two years ago, we experienced a tragedy and had to regroup,” Maggie explained.

  “Natalie,” Sophie whispered.

  “Yes. We did not anticipate what transpired that evening. Later, we learned the reason for the catastrophe was due to a traitor in what we suspect is the FBI. There is a significant amount of evidence that someone from the FBI is feeding the Russian mob information. It has to be someone who knew about the meeting two years ago.”

  “Isn’t it possible that it could be someone from your organization?” Sophie asked.

  “Yes, Sophie, that is possible, but I believe unlikely. Every person who works for our organization has a passion for this work. I don’t believe anything would entice them to betray us. We are like a family. Only a handful of people knew about the meeting that night.”

  “Can I ask who knew about the meeting?” Toni interrupted.

  “Yes, certainly. Well everyone who was present of course, Natalie, Dani, Char, Sophie and you. In addition to those at the meeting, we believe at least one other FBI agent had inside information. Ronda had knowledge, and of course, I was thoroughly briefed. Sophie, I believe you would be the best person to confirm who else in the FBI knew about the meeting.”

  Sophie cringed and quietly revealed. “Ted had knowledge, but I’ve known him for ten years and I trust him with my life. More importantly, I trust him with Kim and Toni’s life. Besides Ted, there were probably two or three other people, including my supervisor.” Sophie narrowed her gaze at both Char and Ronda. “How do I know that your trigger happy agent here isn’t the mole or how about Char? She seems to be skilled at deception.”

  Maggie frowned. “I suppose we cannot be one hundred percent sure of anyone, but I do think it would be prudent to be cautious around Ted. Providing him with additional information could put us all at risk. Has Ted been able to contact you since you left the FBI?”

  Sophie frowned. “No, I haven’t let anyone know where I reside and Toni helped to basically remove all traces of my existence. It would have been very hard for him to track me down. He was surprised to hear from me and he tried to get more details about where he could contact me.”

  “Sophie, I am sorry to have to tell you this, but we know for a fact that the Russian mob has your picture and a picture of Toni. Dani, would you please show them the program we created.”

  Dani rolled her wheelchair in front of a monitor and pointed to the display showing screen shots of various cell phones. “This is the picture that was sent to every one of Viktor’s goons. It’s a very good picture of you, Sophie.”

  Dani scrolled to a new pictur
e. “Sorry, Char, but this is the picture we brought up today that was sent to Viktor’s phone last night. It looks like that goon got a really good picture of both you and Toni. Of course, they already had a picture of Toni. It’s also a really nice shot.” Dani clicked a few times to show a screen shot of the picture of Toni.

  “Do they have Kim’s picture?” Sophie asked.

  “Not that we know of.” Dani rolled to another monitor.

  “I showed this to Toni earlier. This program shows us where every one of Viktor’s goons is located. For the past six months or so, after we learned they had your pictures, we’ve been playing block and tackle for you. That goon last night slipped by our web. As you can see, the red dots are multiplying at an alarming rate. They really want to catch you and word on the street is that there is a million dollar bounty on both your heads. Sorry.” Dani looked down.

  “I’ve come to the conclusion that we will not be able to stop them unless we decimate their financial resources. We’ve been watching, with interest, your success with creative asset management and we believe we can cripple and possibly destroy the Russian mob if we combine forces. We need your expertise and Toni’s technology to pull this off. Will you consider joining forces?” Maggie asked.

  Kim spoke up, “Will you give us a few minutes to talk? I’m trusting you not to listen in on our conversation with whatever fancy equipment you might have. Please give us the respect of privacy and I promise we will give your proposal serious consideration.”

  Maggie nodded. “Of course. Dani, please turn off any of your special devices, including the ones I probably don’t know about.”

  Dani blushed. “Sorry. I did mean to tell you about them. I promise.”

  Maggie smiled and Toni thought she saw genuine affection in it.

  Dani rolled out of the room and beamed at Toni.

  Char winked and followed her sister.

  Ronda glared and walked beside Maggie as they exited the control room.

  †

  Kim always trusted her gut in situations like this, but Toni and Sophie often let other factors sway them. Sophie was always so cautious and frequently let pride get in the way of making good decisions. Kim loved Toni, but she could be a handful and her weakness was beautiful women. Kim had closely watched the interaction between Toni and Char and this time she believed there was more to their chemistry than simple lust.

  Kim suspected that Toni’s brilliance often got in the way of lasting relationships. She’d seen the look of disappointment in Toni’s eyes whenever she tried to move her liaisons beyond the initial physical attraction stage. Some of the women Toni connected with were downright cruel in their appraisal of Toni’s intelligence. Whether it was jealousy or insecurity, she didn’t know. She only knew that their jabs were hurtful to Toni but this time Kim was confident that Toni had met her match.

  She needed both Toni and Sophie to set aside their petty differences and trust their intuition.

  “All right, what does your gut say? Yes or no? I need you both to vote without analyzing everything to death.” Kim gave her two partners in crime a steely gaze.

  “I vote yes. I trust Char.” Toni spoke up first.

  “Figures you’d say that. I suppose this newfound trust came after you slept with her. I say no. My gut says there is something amiss about Ronda. For all we know she’s the mole.” Sophie crossed her arms.

  “I vote yes. I trust Maggie, Char, and Dani. Soph, I think you’re right about Ronda, but maybe not in the same way that you suspect. There is something there. I sense there is more to her story, but I don’t necessarily think she’s a traitor,” Kim expounded.

  Sophie’s eyes softened as she turned to Kim. “Kim, I know I don’t put much weight in intuition, but I trust you and you’ve not steered us wrong in the past. I can go with the majority, but I’m not about to completely let my guard down and I suggest both of you stay alert. There is still a mole out there and I, for one, plan to do everything I can to ferret out this traitor. I must admit that if they really wanted to hurt us, we’d most likely be dead already. This place is about as safe as we can get for the time being.”

  “Listen, Soph, I wasn’t sold on Char at first, but I’ve spent some time with her and she’s opened up about things that weren’t easy for her to talk about. I care about her and I can’t say that’s ever happened to me before. She treats me like more than a sex object and I want what you and Kim have. Maybe I’m making the biggest mistake of my life trusting her and wanting more, but it feels right.” Toni’s gaze was unwavering.

  “What…uh…what Kim and I have?” Sophie sputtered.

  “Yeah, I’m tired of you two dancing around the issue and never telling one another how you feel. Life is too damn short to waste it on your overwhelming need to protect your fragile emotions. I’ve kept my mouth shut for all the wrong reasons. I always feared being odd woman out when you two finally came to your senses. Well, I’m not keeping my mouth shut anymore. Just tell her how you feel, Soph. You too, Kim.”

  “Toni’s right. I should have told you long ago, but I just didn’t want to trounce on Nat’s memory. I know how much you loved her and it just got easy not to say anything as the months went by. I’ve loved you for a long time, long before you met Natalie.” Kim looked away not knowing how Sophie would react to her confession.

  “I…I…never knew that.” Sophie grabbed Kim’s hand and turned her so they were face-to-face. “Kim, please, look at me. I did love Natalie, but she never reciprocated that love. I came to love her in the same way I love Toni and I would do anything for her, but she ended up as my work partner, not my life partner. Shit, I’ve been in love with you since college, but I never thought I had a chance. We are so different and when I joined the FBI, I just thought, well—”

  “Just kiss the girl and then let’s get going. We have some plans to draw out. After hearing Char’s story I want to nail this bastard.” Toni grinned.

  Sophie took Kim into her arms, gently pushed a lock of hair aside, and softly placed a kiss on her lips.

  “For once, I think Toni’s instructions are spot-on, and I reserve the right to continue following those orders, and perhaps add to them at a later time, in a different place.” Sophie placed a soft kiss on Kim’s forehead. “Okay, any ideas on how to get the spy kids back into this room?”

  “I’ll bet if we mosey our way to that door, they’ll reappear.” Toni pointed to the door on the other side of the room where they had exited earlier.

  “By the way, the very first question I’d like to explore is why we don’t have an audio feed in the cabin. With all this fancy technology, it seems like that would be a no-brainer. I just noticed that Ted is in the cabin and just pulled out his cell phone, and I for one would like to hear what he’s saying.” Sophie glanced back at the monitor and narrowed her gaze.

  Toni and Kim started walking toward the door as Sophie watched the monitor.

  †

  The door swung open just before they reached it and Char, Maggie, Dani, and Ronda entered the control room.

  All of this spy stuff was completely out of Kim’s comfort zone so she decided she’d let Sophie and Toni take the lead.

  “Hey, I thought you weren’t monitoring us?” Sophie called over.

  Dani smiled. “We weren’t monitoring the audio feed, but we were looking for a sign that your discussion was over. Don’t worry, none of us are expert lip readers. We do have some agents who possess that particular skill, but that’s not our area of expertise.”

  “Good to know. I think you better turn that audio feed on pronto because Ted is on his cell phone and I’m particularly interested in hearing his conversation,” Sophie advised.

  “No worries, everything is taped. Whatever we don’t hear live we can just run it again,” Dani explained.

  Toni frowned. “So you taped our conversation?”

  Maggie narrowed her gaze at Dani. “I thought you disabled the audio?”

  “I did, I promise. I only turne
d off the control room audio. I didn’t disable the audio in the cabin,” Dani explained quickly.

  Char lifted her eyebrow. “Damn, it sounds like I need to find out more about the conversation. I have a feeling that I may have been mentioned and I’d hate to think you were disparaging me after all we’ve been through.” Char winked at Toni.

  “Can we cease the verbal fornication for right now? I’d really like to hear that audio feed,” Sophie complained.

  Toni mouthed verbal fornication and grinned at Char.

  Kim placed her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing as she caught the nonverbal exchange between Toni and Char.

  “It looks like Ted just finished his call. You better cue up the tape so we can listen in. Is there any way to hear the other end of the conversation besides what Ted is saying?” Sophie asked.

  “Maybe, if we amplify the recording we might be able to isolate the sound coming out of the phone, but it’s a longshot. This guy hasn’t been on our radar, so we didn’t put a tracking device on his phone. If he’s the mole, he’s been very careful not to make contact with Viktor through the normal channels. He certainly doesn’t have one of Viktor’s special cell phones.” Dani’s fingers typed furiously on one of the keyboards. “Done. Okay we can listen to the feed now.”

  “It’s just some empty cabin in the middle of bum fuck Egypt.

  Well, check*****report*****pleased*****

  I’ll send you the coordinates and maybe you and your team can find out more. So far, I haven’t seen anything. The only strange thing is there seems to be multiple fresh car tracks.

  ****follow****

  I’m not equipped to check things out thoroughly and I’m concerned about traps. I think I saw something that looks like a camouflaged trip wire. I’m not about to chance having my balls blown off.

 

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