“Yes?”
“She had two sisters, a brother, and a fiancé. Her name is Lauren Michael. She likes cheese pizza and can eat more than any of us guys, but she’s a tiny little thing. She reads romance novels, but is still tougher than sin, and handles a gun better than most men. Oh, and her father was killed by a drugged-up dude on the street for the twenty bucks he had in his pocket. Bring her home, Luke.” The line went dead.
Luke held the phone to his forehead. Damn it. Damn it to hell. Think man. Think your way out of this. He cut a sideways look at Julie, an ache in his heart just looking at her. She trusted him to keep her safe and he couldn’t fail.
“Mister?”
Luke looked up to find a kid not more the twelve standing beside him. The kid shoved an envelope at him. Luke accepted it. “Who’s it from.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know him but he gave me a hundred bucks.” He took off for the door.
Luke ripped open the card.
If you want to work with me, you need to know the price of crossing me. I can get to you, or your playmate, or your brothers, or anyone I damn well please, any time, any place. Be at the Staten Island Ferry waiting for pick-up at eight sharp and bring Ms. Harrison.
Luke inhaled deeply, the sound of Julie’s voice as she and her client stood up and shook hands catching his attention. He slid the note into his briefcase and shut his computer.
She walked over to him and sat down, hanging her briefcase on the chair. “Did you hear the news? About the two dead teenagers?”
With grim acceptance of where this was leading, he gave a nod. “I heard.”
“I have to go with you,” she said. “I have to.”
Luke knew he’d been backed into a corner, that he had a choice to make and make quickly. He could kidnap her and hide her away someplace safe. She’d hate him, but she wouldn’t be dead. Or he could do something that might also make her hate him, but would keep her alive, as well.
“I got a call today,” he said. “I’m to be at the Staten Island Ferry at eight tonight, alone. Seems Arel didn’t agree with the judge’s guest list.”
She studied him long and hard, seeing way too much. “You’re trying to protect me, aren’t you?”
Her cell phone rang in her hand and she sighed. “It’s Gina. It might be about my meeting that I pray is cancelled.” She answered the call and listened a moment.
“Okay,” she finally said. “I’ll swing by there. I’m close anyway. Tell the partners I might be a few minutes late to the meeting.” She hung up. “Gina’s purse was stolen. She has a key to my apartment from cat-sitting and thought I should have my locks changed. I’m only two blocks from here. I want to swing by and check on things and tell the doorman.”
***
Luke’s bad feeling got worse when they arrived at Julie’s building to find the power was off, and the doorman had his hands full calming tenants and trying to get answers.
He and Julie walked the stairs and when they got to her floor, he took her key and unlocked the door. He held her back and shoved the door open. Everything she owned had been destroyed. The walls were spray-painted, her couches shredded.
“Oh God,” Julie gasped, holding onto the wall. “Who would do this?”
“Call the police,” Luke said, pulling his gun from his pants and heading inside. “I’ll look around.”
Luke found her bedroom in the same shape as the rest of the place but what really struck him as odd was her clothes had been all cut up.
He headed back to the hallway to find Julie just hanging up with the police. “They’re on their way.”
“Everything you own is shredded,” he said. “Even your clothes.”
She took a deep breath and leaned on the wall. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“I’d say what happened in there was out of hatred, and that Gina is a good suspect, but that seems too obvious.”
“What are you saying?”
“Someone might want that journal,” he said. “And if they know Gina hates you, then she’s a perfect cover.”
“I didn’t even know she hated me,” she argued.
“Which means it has to be someone intimate with Gina. And someone smart enough to cut the power so the cameras wouldn’t be working.”
“The judge, maybe?” Julie asked.
“Maybe.”
“But haven’t you been watching him?”
“We have him under surveillance,” he said. “But we could have missed something before we were fully operational. Calls could be made from disposable phones or lines we don’t have access to. There are three people we know of that would want the journal. The judge, this Dragonfly person, and Arel, if he knows it exists.”
“You think he does?”
“You never underestimate a man like Arel.” Which was why Luke wasn’t taking Julie with him to the party.
“There’s no way out of this, is there?” she asked. “We’re in too deep with too many bad people.”
“Hey now,” he said, wrapping her in his arms. “That’s not true. They want the journal, not you.”
“They tried to kill us by the pizza place, Luke. They think I – we – know what’s in it, and we do.”
“We’ll take down the judge and we’ll get Dragonfly,” he promised.
“You don’t even know who Dragonfly is.”
“No,” he said. “But Arel does and I’ll hand him the journal if that’s what it takes to make sure Dragonfly doesn’t come at us in our sleep.”
“And Arel? He runs a cartel, Luke.”
Luke replayed the note in his head. It had clearly come directly from Arel, not the judge. I can get to you, or your playmate, or your brothers, or anyone I damn well please, any time, any place.
***
Late Friday, Julie sat at Luke’s kitchen table, working on some files while he was downstairs in his office planning out the night’s visit to the cartel’s party. She’d skipped her meeting, or rather missed it, as the police asked a million questions to which Luke had her give generic replies. Any mention of a journal, the judge, or the cartel had been avoided. She was rattled but the scary disaster that was her apartment paled in comparison to her worries over the danger Luke would be in tonight. Her staying behind didn’t make her feel better. In fact, it made her feel like everything was spinning out of control.
She settled her elbows on the table and pressed her fingers to her temples. There was a reality here she had to face. Yes, Luke could deal with the judge and Dragonfly by simply handing them to Arel. But they were in deep with a cartel, and getting out, and taking down Arel, meant Luke had to do something an entire task force had been trying to do and failed.
She googled cartels, and started reading stories about undercover agents, about the murders and the ruined lives, and was halfway through one that gave her some hope, when her computer died. She jiggled her cord and still nothing, and that was when she realized it had an exposed wire.
Pushing to her feet, she knew she needed a new cord, but for now, she’d borrow Luke’s. She was pretty sure she’d seen his computer case in the hallway. Julie headed that way and found it on the entry table. She unzipped it and found the cord, and pulled out a note card with it. It fluttered to the ground and she squatted down to grab it, and then went utterly still as she read the text.
If you want to work with me, you need to know the price of crossing me. I can get to you, or your playmate, or your brothers, or anyone I damn well please, any time, any place. Be at the Staten Island Ferry waiting for pick up at eight sharp and bring Ms. Harrison.
Her lashes lowered and emotions overwhelmed her. He was planning to go alone, knowing the increased danger to himself. She couldn’t let that happen. And wasn’t she just facing the facts? If Arel didn’t go down she was either going into hiding, or dying. Julie pushed to her feet. She wasn’t doing either while Luke put his life on the line. She’d brought him into this. She was going to do everything, even risk her life, to get him out of
this. He’d lied but she knew it was to protect her, and she’d go along with his story. She knew where to be and at what time.
Chapter Twenty
“The task force is already on Staten Island?” Julie asked. She sat on Luke’s bed and he was beside her, inserting some sort of tracking device into the heel of his boot. He wore all black again, and she knew it was to blend into the shadows if he had to escape the cartel. Would it be too obvious if she did as well?”
“And our team,” he said. “Blake left earlier this afternoon. Jesse will be here in a few minutes to stay with you. Do what he says. He’ll protect you.”
So she’d have to get past Jesse. She should have assumed such a problem would exist. “Can you take a weapon?”
He flipped the boot he held around and showed her the switchblade latched inside. “It’s small but it’ll get the job done if I need it.”
“There will be many of them and one of you, Luke,” she worried.
“And I hope it makes them underestimate me.” He flipped the heel to his boot into place and put it on. “And with the tracking device, if I leave the house, my team will know.”
“Just like Arel will know you were a SEAL. He’ll know to be cautious.”
He turned to her and covered her hand with his. “I might not be in the SEALs any longer, sweetheart, but I’m still a SEAL. I’m going to go in there and do what I have to in order to protect the innocent people the cartel is hurting.”
She read between the lines and knew he meant he’d die if he had to. Though she knew she’d see him soon, part of her feared he’d slip away and she’d never see him again. Julie pressed her mouth to his, her fingers curling at his jaw, repeating a version of what she had said to him once years before. “Stay alive. The world needs more good men like you.”
And just like in the past, he tightened his arm around her waist, and asked, “And what do you need?”
“You,” she whispered. “I need you.”
He kissed her, a kiss that ravished her with passion and intensity. When he pulled away, his eyes dark and turbulent, he vowed, “I’ll see you by morning.” Then he was gone.
Julie heard Luke speaking to Jesse in the other room and she knew she had no time to waste if she was going to make it on that ferry. The instant she heard the door and the television come on, she grabbed a robe and pulled it over her sweats before headed to the living room.
“Hey, Jesse,” Julie said, walking into the living room. “I’m just going down to Lauren’s place to get some bubbles for a bath and try on some clothes. I have nothing left and I want to bring a few things back over here.”
He stood up. “I’ll go with you.”
“No, no, please don’t. This place is, as Luke says, like Fort Knox, and...well. A few minutes alone, doing girl stuff would help me right now. I’m frankly trying not to have a meltdown over Luke going to the party.”
“He’s going to be okay,” he assured her.
She hugged herself. “Thanks, but I might have that meltdown if we talk about this. Believe me. A little girl primping will do me good. Then, how would you feel about ordering pizza? I always eat pizza when I’m stressed. Will that be some security breach?”
“Pizza is good,” he said. “Worth risking my life for.”
She laughed. He was a nice guy, and way too good looking for the single female population’s well being. She wasn’t one of them though, not anymore.
“I won’t be long,” she said. “Okay. I might be a bit. When I start with the clothes...well, you know.”
“Yes,” he said. “I have two sisters. I know.”
Julie kept her pace slow as she made her way to the door, but the instant she was in the hallway she took off running for Lauren’s door. She was in a flash and rushing for the bedroom, where she ripped open the closet and grabbed the hot pink dress she’d tried on earlier in the day. As much as black tempted her, she was supposed to be Luke’s ‘playmate’ and that meant arm candy. Besides, she was curvier than Lauren and finding a dress that fit was a struggle. She slid the silk over her hips and grimaced the unavoidable cleavage, she refused to think about. The idea of becoming the playmate of everyone at the party was not something she could consider. This was about Luke, and innocent kids, and it mattered, like he mattered. She was doing this because it was the right thing to do.
She shoved on her black heels she’d worn earlier for work, grabbed her purse she’d left here, and made tracks to the door. Her coat was next door and Lauren’s were too small so she was just going to have to freeze. Pausing, she inhaled and willed her nerves to calm, before slowly exhaling. She had to be quiet. She had to make this happen. She dug out the truck key she’d swiped from Luke’s key ring when she’d heard he was taking a cab, to avoid his truck being tampered with when he was on the island.
She kicked off her heels and picked them up and cautiously, silently, opened the door. And then she took off running, heading down the hall and then the stairs. She exited the garage door and shoved her feet in her shoes, and ran for Luke’s truck. She could barely breathe, and her hand was shaking as she unlocked the doors and inserted the key. She backed up and drove for the exit, using the remote above Luke’s visor and keying in the three digit code she’d seen him use. Once she cleared the doors, she prayed for light traffic. At the first stoplight, she grabbed her cell phone and punched the auto-dial for Jesse. Luke had put it in her phone, along with Blake’s and Kyle’s.
He answered on the first ring. “Anything wrong?”
She sighed. “No. I just didn’t want you to worry. I decided to take a hot bath and it’s a little piece of heaven. Will you starve to death if I linger a bit?”
“No,” he said. “I’ll just raid Luke’s kitchen. You do whatever you have to do to be okay tonight.”
“Thank you, Jesse. I’m really sorry you got babysit the girlfriend duty.”
“Hey,” he said. “I have SportsCenter and a pizza in my future. Life is good.”
Julie ended the call with a little more small talk. You do whatever you to do to be okay. It seemed like a good plan. She was going to be okay and so was Luke. They had to be.
***
Somehow, Julie made it to the ferry by with fifteen minutes to spare. Luke was leaving on the 8:00 ferry and she could only hope there was only one leaving at this hour. She rushed towards the terminals, thankful the ride was free because she wouldn’t have had time to buy a ticket. Bingo. One ferry for the nine o’clock trip but the terminal was packed. She had to be aggressive enough to be one of the people on the boat.
Julie pushed through the crowd, enduring many a shove to find her way to the semi-front of the mass of people, just as the gates opened. She held her breath until she stepped onto the boat and then took off for the back of the vehicle, and an inner cabin where it was warm. She headed to the bathroom, where she could hide so Luke wouldn’t see her until the boat started to move.
A bad thought hit her though as the horn sounded, warning that they were about to depart. What if he wasn’t on the boat? Oh god. She pulled out her cell and dialed his number only to get no signal. Panicked she opened the bathroom door to find Luke standing there, having obviously followed her, and the look on his face said he was furious.
Without a word, he gripped her arm and started pulling her toward the cabin exit, ignoring the people who were watching them.
“Luke, damn it. Stop pulling me.”
“When you’re off this boat, I’ll stop,” he said, not looking at her. “Not a second sooner.”
***
Luke cursed as the gates lowered and Julie was trapped on the boat. He turned to her, so furious he could barely speak.
“I’ve before never in my life wanted to put a woman over my knee and spank her, but you’re testing me.”
“Try it and see where my knee lands.”
“I told you the invitation was for me and me alone.”
She snorted. “That’s not what it said when I found it in your bag.”
>
His cell phone started to ring and he knew who it was even before he flipped it open. “Jesse, you fool,” he growled into the phone. “She’s here on the damn boat with me and I’m going to kick your ass when I get back there. Get someone on the other side waiting on her to take her back.”
She started to walk away. Luke ended the call, grasping her wrist and pulling her close. “You’re not staying.”
“Try to send me away and I swear to you, Luke, that I’ll make such a scene we’ll both end up at the police station.”
“You’d blow this and have me arrested?” he challenged.
“Yes,” she said, the wind lifting her hair as the boat began to move, the engine and the horn drowning out anything else she might say.
Luke pulled her with him inside a car, where he didn’t stop until they were in the back, away from everyone. He urged her down into the seat next to him, and shrugged out of his leather jacket when he realized she was shivering. He wrapped it around her, and holding the lapels, turned her to face him.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“When you asked if I’d get you arrested rather than be sent home, I said yes. And you know why? Because we both know you have a better chance of getting out of this alive with me present. I won’t let you die because I stayed home when you needed me.”
His chest felt like it might explode. “I can’t let you do this.”
“You said never underestimate Arel, so assume he already knows I’m here. I assume he saw us fighting, and think about the image you’ve portrayed of controlling me. Then kiss me into submission.”
Luke took that in and did exactly what she suggested. He kissed her, and he made it look as good as it felt. He kissed her and he slid his hand under her coat and pulled her close. She was right. He had painted a portrait and she’d just given him the way to send her home. She’d disobeyed him and she’d been sent home to wait for her punishment. Arel would buy it, especially if they were being watched. And there was no question that they were.
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