Lacey got to her feet as she drew closer. She was clad in a gray pantsuit. “Hello, Jasmia. Thanks for meeting me here.”
“I was curious,” she said.
“So, was I,” she said. “I overheard a conversation this morning and did some checking to find out I hadn’t heard wrong.”
She frowned. “What did you hear?”
“I heard the shelter is just a cover for the notorious Five by Five, and some of the kids will be—” a bullet clipped the bench behind them and Lacey let out a startled cry before reaching behind her. “Get down!” She screamed and turned.
“Lacey, what’s going on?” Jasmia demanded and a barrage of bullets pelted the ground and bench.
Lacey moved quickly taking a shooter’s stance and firing off a round. As she did so, Jasmia took cover behind the knotty old tree, heart pounding hard enough for her to hear it.
She contemplated shifting, but wasn’t sure it was a good idea or even necessary. Then, Lacey went down with a grunt and managed to scramble behind a bench.
“Don’t move Jasmia!” she shouted. “There’s at least two of them. Call for help. Tell them there’s an officer down.”
She didn’t argue. Jasmia jerked her cell phone from her purse and punched in three numbers.
“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” The voice was crisp and cool.
“I’m in Virginia Park,” she said shaking. “Someone’s shooting at us and there’s an officer down.” On TV it always got the police there quicker so she hadn’t argued. She figured she’d let Lacey sort it out later.
“Which side of the park are you on, ma’am?”
Shots rang out, and she saw Lacey take two more bullets. Jasmia screamed even as Lacey fired off two rounds. One of them hit its mark and a man in black shorts and a muscle shirt fell backward into a tree.
“Ma’am, where are you?” There was an urgency to the woman’s tone.
“South side near the playground.” She moved from around the tree. “Lacey?” Jasmia took off at a run praying the other woman was still alive. She reached her in a few steps to find her on her back, turning white beneath her tan. Blood bloomed on the front and side of her blouse and slithered to the ground from a wound in her arm.
“Jasmia, get out of here.”
“I can’t just leave you,” she snapped. Lacey was ashen and bleeding so much. She took off her shirt and pressed it to the torn flesh unconcerned about her near nakedness. “We have to put pressure on the wound. Help is coming.”
“Let me help.”
Jasmia looked up to see man striding toward them, gun in hand. He would have been handsome if not for that smirk on his lips and the dangerous chill in his eyes.
“Get up,” he muttered. “Now!” He barked when she didn’t move.
She hissed at him before she could stop herself and he chuckled. “We can’t just leave her,” Jasmia protested.
He moved closer and struck her across the face and Jasmia toppled sideways as pain ricocheted through her face from her cheek.
“This is where you leave us, agent Crandall.” He pointed the gun at Lacey and grinned. “Surely you didn’t think we’d never find out. Five by Five sends its regards.”
“I’ll tell her family.” The voice was winter frost yet familiar.
Jasmia craned her neck to see. The man turned with a grin and aimed. The gun was kicked from his hand, and he was quickly back-handed. He stumbled back hitting the ground.
“Well if it isn’t Ace of Spades, butch assassin.” He got to his feet. “You’re a dead bastard, Ace.”
Assassin?
Her heart stopped and her gaze jerked to Ace. Her face was taut, and her brown eyes were flint hard.
“What are you doing here, Lewis Loser?” Ace asked coldly.
“Working, but it’s too bad you didn’t get here sooner. The DHS agent might still be alive.”
“I had no dog in your fight.”
“Your weakness.” He threw Jasmia a look as his hand went behind his back. “Cute, but a verbal report’s already been sent. They want whatever she knows. Crandall’s just turned her into a target.”
“You called that in?”
“As soon as they made contact,” he said with a smug smile. “Five by Five’s going to be all over her.”
Something silver flashed in the sunlight and something fell to the ground behind him as Lewis Loser gasped, hand going to his throat. The wail of sirens was loud but Ace moved silently as she drove her fist forward. Before the man could pull the silver free, the star was pushed deeper into his throat. Lewis Loser made gurgling noises before sinking to the ground.
Jasmia stared at him, horrified and dumbstruck. Blood trickled through his fingers. His face was already paling as his dark lashes fanned on his tanned cheeks. Ace bent to him and jerked the star from his hand and Jasmia noticed she was wearing gloves.
“Damn it, Mia,” Ace bit out as she ripped her own polo over her head and tossed it to her. “Cover up.” Clad in a black tank with silver kissing her honey skin. Ace knelt next to Lacey. “Is he right? Are you DHS?”
Lacey nodded. “Y-yes.”
Jasmia knelt on Lacey’s other side.
“What the hell possessed you to bring a civilian into your shit?” Ace demanded, pressing the shirt against the stomach wound.”
“N-no choice.” She swallowed tightly.
“Why are they going to move on her? What did you do?” Ace demanded and Jasmia stared at Lacey, riveted. “What the hell does she know?”
“She didn’t tell me anything yet,” Jasmia snapped.
“Encrypted card. I knew I was out of time three hours ago when my boss told me his assistant had been killed. The file is in my pocket. I was going to give it to her.”
“What’s the game?” Ace demanded.
She coughed and a mist of blood sprayed forth. Droplets trickled down her mouth. Her face contorted in pain for a moment before she said, “Five by Five is moving in. Running drugs and prostituting k-ki…” Her words trailed off as the sleep of death stole over her.
Jasmia’s face crumpled. She hardly knew the woman, but a slice of pain cut her deep.
“Get that damned shirt on,” Ace growled. “I don’t want those cops getting a cheap thrill when they should be doing their jobs.” Ace began searching Lacey’s pockets.
Jasmia pulled the shirt on as tears dampened her face and footsteps hurried toward them.
Chapter Eleven
“Say nothing about the file she was just talking about,” Ace ordered as she shoved something into her pants pocket. “Don’t mention Five by Five or DHS. Tell them why you were meeting her and nothing else.”
“I—”
“I mean that, Mia,” she muttered.
Her voice was a whip that caused Jasmia to flinch as a blue clad officer rushed toward them. He immediately dropped to his knees followed by another cop.
“What did she say her name was?” The second cop demanded.
“Lacey Meldon,” Jasmia said as she crossed her arms over her chest. Ace put an arm around her and pulled her against her, giving warmth to her chilled body.
“What happened here?” another officer who’d converged on the scene demanded.
Warm fingers closed around her nape. Firm pressure grabbed her attention and sent tendrils of heat skittering through her along with irritation. Jasmia had no idea what was going on, but she’d heard enough to know she didn’t need to go shooting her mouth off until she got some facts.
Jasmia told them what happened. “Then, my next appointment—Axana Baker, showed up.”
“Next appointment?” the officer asked as his gaze darted to Ace. “What kind of appointment?”
“I’m a reporter as I said,” Jasmia muttered. “I work for Feminine Confidence Magazine. I’m doing two stories and one is on Lowell Grande and the other is on Mojo.”
“Mojo?” he asked with a frown. “What’s a mojo?”
“We’re a security firm,” Ace told him coolly as her th
umb pad stroked Jasmia’s skin lightly. Some of her tension faded. “I was meeting with Jasmia to work on the interview.”
“I’ve never heard of the firm,” he said skeptically.
“We’ve been around for several years,” Ace told him. “If you have any questions about us you’re free to come by and check us out.” She removed her wallet from the back pocket of her pants and pulled a business card free.
He took it. “Did you see anything? Like who killed that guy.” He motioned to Lewis Loser with his chin.
“No.” Ace shook her head.
“Ma’am?” He turned back to Jasmia. “Did you get a description of the guy?”
“No,” she shook her head. “He just came out of nowhere after the first guy was killed by Lacey.”
“I see. We’ll check him for ID,” he said. “I need you two to stick around a little longer. Detectives will want to talk to you.”
Ace urged Jasmia away from the scene to a bench sheltered by a couple of trees. When they got there she jerked free and faced Ace, anger cutting through her.
“No wonder you didn’t want to tell me anything,” she hissed. “You’re an assassin?”
“Lewis was the assassin,” she said evenly. “He and his girlfriend were assigned to take out a client of mine a few years ago. I put two bullets in her and one in him to save the guy. My only regret is, I couldn’t chase the loser down and finish the job.”
She searched Ace’s cool stare. The brown depths gave nothing away and the lavender and musk of her didn’t hold a bite of sweat signaling a change in body temperature and scent.
But she didn’t fully believe her.
“The case is one of the case files I brought you. It’s in the truck,” Ace told her.
“Why didn’t you bring it?” she asked with a frown.
“It was going to be an excuse to get you to have dinner with me,” Ace told her evenly.
Jasmia glared. “Ace,” she said in exasperation.
“We both want to see each other again,” Ace murmured moving a step closer to Jasmia. “You smell so good.”
Jasmia gave her a smile. She knew why, and even humans were a little more drawn to her at this time of the month. Her pheromones were a mix of musk and her own unique scent detectable not only in her skin. She smelled like she was wearing perfume.
Ace would be on her ass for up to two weeks. It took a week for the scent to fade once the heat subsided.
“Not a good idea.”
“I think it’s a fine idea,” Ace contradicted. “I’ll pick you up at seven.”
She did need answers and only Ace could give them to her at the moment. “Why don’t we have dinner at my place?”
Ace pulled her phone from its holster at her hip. “Shoot, and give me your number too, in case I get lost.”
****
After dealing with the police and their myriad of questions, Jasmia needed a stiff drink, but she called her boss deciding to head home. Lacey’s death had shaken her up and left her thoughts a little scrambled. She wouldn’t be able to make heads or tails out of this until she’d relaxed and let all the events sink in.
“Well if it isn’t Ace of Spades, butch assassin.” He got to his feet. Jasmia released her hair from the knot it was in. It couldn’t be, but it had a subtle ring of truth to it that made her blood run cold. If Ace was an assassin that meant Mojo was an agency of assassins, and they wanted to use this story to make them look legit.
“No wonder you didn’t want to tell me anything,” she hissed. “You’re an assassin?”
“Lewis was the assassin,” she said evenly. “He and his girlfriend were assigned to take out a client of mine a few years ago. I put two bullets in her and one in him to save the guy. My only regret is, I couldn’t chase the loser down and finish the job.”
The words haunted her as she paced her bedroom struggling to find some kind of traction. She needed something she could use, a foundation to go from while she did her own research, but she doubted she’d find anything on the internet. She hadn’t found anything on Mojo to start with. It had puzzled her and now it bothered her even more.
“Damn it.” She could talk to her brother. He might know something about Mojo. He was an FBI agent, and he’d dealt with all kinds of organizations. At the least, he might know someone who had heard of them or be able to locate a client of theirs. The list Devin had put together could be fake.
She could wait until she saw the list. Then she’d have something for her brother to work with if she couldn’t find anything. But what about this Five by Five?
“What are you doing here, Lewis Loser?” Ace asked coldly.
“Same as you obviously. Working, but it’s too bad you didn’t get here sooner. The DHS agent might still be alive.”
“I had no dog in your fight.”
Jasmia went to her desk and dropped down in the chair. The cheap chair had no arms but it was comfortable. She lifted the lid on her laptop and powered it up. Maybe there was something out there on them and their drug operation.
****
Ace looked at her phone as she sat perched on the edge of her desk. “What did you say, Alexi?” she demanded carefully. Surely, she hadn’t heard her right. The pleasant afternoon she’d had planned for Mia had taken a turn for the crappy. Ace had already sent the encrypted information out to Jo for decoding now she was just waiting with a bad feeling gnawing in her cut.
“You heard me, Romeo,” Alexi murmured. “Five by Five had Amanda bug your room. They wanted to see if they could get any useful information that would help them infiltrate. Their goal was to figure out what kind of woman would interest you enough to gain your trust so they could find out about Mojo and its operatives.”
“Son of a bitch,” she muttered and pushed to her feet. “By the way, Amanda is dead,” Alexi told her.
She’d figured. “A list is all they want? No blood?”
“They want to wipe Mojo out of existence naturally as I would if we didn’t have an understanding,” Alexi told her.
“Let me know if you hear anything else. I just had a run in with Lewis.”
“I hope you put the loser down like the inept dog he is,” Alexi drawled coldly.
“I did my due diligence.”
“I’ll keep my ears open,” Alexi told her.
“Thanks.” Ace blew out a sigh after disconnecting. Here they were supposed to just be laying low and building a new business profile. Now, she had to do exactly what Devin didn’t want her to do, go after a cartel.
****
Jasmia pulled open the front door at six thirty and her brother stalked in, anger rife in his brown eyes. “Terry, what are you doing here?” Her older brother Terrence was an FBI agent and pretty chummy with the local police. So many of them were people he’d gone to school with.
“Justin called me about this afternoon,” he muttered as Seymour slipped into the house in her brother’s wake and she gave him an irritated glare. “He said he thought you were holding something back.”
“What in the hell happened and who was that woman with you? And for Bast’s sake why didn’t you give a description of the killer?”
“Seymour, shut up,” Terry snapped. “Jasmia, tell me exactly what happened.”
“Terry—”
“The woman that was killed was a DHS agent, Jasmia,” he snapped. “The FBI is involved now and they will want more answers.”
“They can’t get what I don’t have!”
“A description of the killer and that woman, who was she?” Seymour said insistently.
“Seymour let me handle this,” Terry ordered. “Honey, listen to me. Five by Five is a notorious cartel. They run drugs and sometimes guns. The FBI has been trying to catch them for years. The woman killed was an agent who’d finally infiltrated their organization through her job at the home shopping network.”
“Did she tell you anything?” Seymour asked urgently.
“No. I was there to meet her about the fundraiser and why Gr
ande was gung ho to support a gay shelter.”
“That’s it?” Terry asked with a frown.
“Yes. She didn’t get a chance to tell me anything before someone started shooting at us and Axana Baker came along. We were supposed to be meeting for an interview. She works at Mojo, a security firm.”
“You’re kidding!” Both men exclaimed.
“No. She said she’d protect me.”
“They’re under investigation for multiple counts of murder and treason,” Terry told her. “You have to stay away from her. She’s probably working with Five by Five as one of their pet assassins.”
There was that word again. And a shiver ran down her spine.
“Get your things,” Terry ordered. “You can’t stay here.”
“I’m not leaving,” she protested. “Besides, she’ll be here in a few hours to finish the interview.”
“You aren’t safe,” Seymour snapped. “Five by Five will kill you, honey. Let’s get out of here. That magazine isn’t worth your life.”
“No.”
“You can’t trust her,” Terry said gently. “I have to get back to work, so—”
“Then, go,” she told him stubbornly. “I’ll be fine.” Jasmia wasn’t under any illusions, but she wanted to be here when Ace got here. Plus, if Ace was an assassin then the person she’d said would be guarding her, was too.
“Ace wouldn’t hurt me,” she murmured. “She has no reason to.”
“She’ll work for whoever pays her the most money,” Terry told her in a hard tone. “She’s a suspect in the murders of the State’s Attorney and his best friend who was the sheriff.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked with a frown. She’d heard about the sheriff being killed while on vacation, but she hadn’t thought much of it. It wasn’t like she even knew him.
“They were killed in Maine eight months ago,” Seymour told her.
Chills danced down her arms and Jasmia rubbed them. Nine months ago she’d been in Maine and so had Ace. It made sense why she hadn’t wanted to talk about her work.
“The agent had an encrypted file that she meant to give to me,” she murmured as she turned away from her brother. Ace had taken it, but why?
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