ACER: A Stand Alone, New Adult, Friends To Lovers Romance

by A. Hargrove

  “I, er, wasn’t.”

  “And for the record, I agree with your mom. You’d have to be blind not to see there’s something going on between the two of you.”

  “Thanks, pal. I’ll pass it on.” I’d have to let Isla know about this. I wasn’t sure where she stood as we hadn’t discussed it.

  That night, class was great. We went over the mechanics of a gun and had our first target practice. I never thought I’d enjoy shooting as much as I did. I was good at it too. The instructor praised me for my accuracy.

  “How much experience do you have?” He wanted to know.

  “None. This is my first time.” I didn’t tell him about the time I shot Isla’s weapon in New York.

  “Honestly, you have a knack for this. You may want to shoot competitively.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. The only thing about that is it’s time-consuming.”

  “I’m going back to school this semester, so that probably won’t work.”

  “You can always do it as a hobby later on.”

  “Maybe I will.” When I got home, I was excited to tell Isla.

  After I gave her the rundown, she said, “Wow, I never expected this. I’m super excited for you.”

  Then I dragged her back to the bedroom and relayed the conversation about the two of us that Mom started.

  “Oh, crap. Clark said that?”

  “He sure did.”

  “Great.”

  “What did we expect though when we sleep together?”

  She bit down on her lips. “Do you think the guys have heard us at night?”

  With the way she moaned my name, it was a given, but I didn’t want to tell her that. “I can’t say.”

  Her hands flew to her cheeks and she pressed them there. “Dear, God, why didn’t I think of that earlier?”

  “You were in the throes of ecstasy.”

  She stepped closer to me. “It’s all your fault, Acer.”

  “I’ll gladly take the blame for this.” I grabbed her and kissed her pouty lips.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  ISLA

  Art called me into his office. When I got there, he was pacing and yelling into his phone. “What do you mean? How the hell did you miss that?” Pause. “Right. Bring it up here.”

  He ended the call and stared at his phone.

  “You wanted to see me?” It was as though he forgot I was there.

  “This whole case is one giant fuck up and yeah I wanted to see you. One, I believe there’s something going on that we are not being informed about.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve put out a bunch of feelers and not a single person has any answers, which is highly suspect. No one can tell me a thing about a mob involved in human trafficking and a ship called the China Star.”

  My gut clenched because this spelled something even bigger than just a mob deal.

  “What are you thinking?”

  He dropped his phone on the desk and rolled his shoulders. It must be bad. Art usually did that movement late in the day and it was only nine in the morning.

  “I’m not sure, to be honest. Either this is being investigated by another agency and they’ve been in on it for a while but don’t want to share information like good boys and girls, or it’s something else. I hate to think of that.”

  “When you say something else, can you elaborate?”

  “As you’re aware, mobs don’t usually operate in one area. Maybe this is part of a huge ring that consists of human trafficking, drugs, and who the fuck knows what else?”

  “Guns.”

  “That would be nice. I’m thinking worse.”

  “Worse.”

  “Come on, Isla, do I have to spell it out for you? Military-grade weapons.”

  “Fuck.”

  “Fuck is right. If that’s what’s involved, then we need to get Homeland and the CIA involved. And therein lies the problem. Every call I make lands me back in the land of I know nothing.”

  “One of those agencies must have an agent or agents undercover.”

  “Bingo, which is why they won’t share.”

  “It makes sense.”

  “To a point.” He held out a hand. “If we knew more, we could assist. That’s what I hate about this job. On another note, our analysts missed something huge. There was a chip inside of McCutcheon’s phone. We’re going to have their report momentarily. By the way, nice work.”

  “No, not me. It was Clark who came up with it.”

  “I’m glad you two have been chatting.” His salty reply hit me hard.

  I frowned. “Kinda hard not to. The guys are around all the time and I’m not going to ignore them. Besides, they know the case as much as anyone else.”

  “Maybe you all can have a brainstorming session and solve this without me.”

  This wasn’t like Art at all. Sure, he got pissed, and justifiably so on occasion. But this pissy attitude wasn’t the norm for him.

  “All right. Are you going to tell me what’s got your boxers in a wad or do I have to guess?”

  His lips flattened into a thin line. “That obvious, huh?”

  “Damn right it is.”

  “I’m pissed because I can’t get answers. My boss is telling me to mind my own business. Like this isn’t my fucking business and if that doesn’t piss me off, nothing does.”

  “He actually said that?”

  Art’s icy, pissed off gaze, pinned me. I knew he was telling the truth.

  “Fine. I’m with you, then. If I could bet money on it, I’d say we have someone in deep. Clark even mentioned that. At first, I thought that’s why the guys didn’t give us much on the phone.”

  “I guess we’ll see when that report gets here. If it doesn’t have anything in it, I’m taking that damn phone somewhere else.”

  “Where?”

  “Oh no. I’m not telling a soul. The less you know about it, the better.”

  In other words, he was saving our asses by keeping it to himself.

  There was a knock on his door, and one of the technicians was standing there. Art motioned him in.

  “What’ve you got for us?”

  The guy, whose name was Lyle, was twitchy as he stood there. “Here. There were some recorded conversations, but not much. Pretty inane stuff, really.”

  Art stared at the folder for a second before he dropped it on his desk.

  “Lyle, I need to ask you something. Who gave you the order not to dig deeper on this phone?”

  “Wh-what?”

  Art extended his arm. “Have a seat.”

  Lyle sat and I detected a light sheen on his upper lip. He was hiding something all right.

  Art stood before him so he had to crane his neck to see him. “Lyle, when I gave you the order to process the phone and report back to me, you guys never miss a thing. All I’m asking is who ordered you not to give me the correct information?”

  “I don’t—”

  “Goddammit, Lyle, all I need is a name.”

  “I don’t have one, sir.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Lyle tugged at his collar. “We began the processing, as usual, and a call came in telling us to stop. It was from somebody at Quantico. All he said was he was at the top and we didn’t need to know his name. We weren’t supposed to leak this to anyone, sir.”

  “So you followed the orders of someone without verifying any of it.”

  “Well, the way—”

  “Yes or no, Lyle.”

  “Yes, sir. But he was very demanding.”

  “That could’ve been Joe Blow from down the street filling you with a bunch of crap, yet you followed his orders without thinking to ask for identification verification. Are you nuts?”

  “No, sir. He was official.”

  “And you know that, how?”

  “He sounded like it. He threw the correct lingo like he was from there.”

  “Where?”

  “Quantico, sir.”

&nb
sp; Jesus, Lyle was up a shit creek with no paddle, boat, nothing.

  “Lyle, did it ever occur to you that you can get that kind of information off the internet?”

  Lyle wiped his upper lip and tugged at his collar again. “No, sir.”

  “Why is that?”

  “It was the authoritative way he spoke. His FBI terminology was spot on and he also name-dropped.”

  “Fuck it all. I’m recommending a refresher course for you on phone scammers. This is ridiculous for someone who specializes in technology.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I want a full, honest report on what you found on this phone by this afternoon. I don’t care if McCutcheon was recorded taking a leak, I want it. Am I clear?”

  “Yes, sir, very clear.”

  “Go and do your job. And Lyle, if a nameless director from Quantico ever calls you again, forward the call to me.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He pretty much sprinted out the door.

  “Unbelievable,” Art said, staring at the useless file.

  “I have to agree. But at least we’re getting somewhere.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. I just hope nothing was erased off that damn chip. Judging by the way he acted around me, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit.”

  I hadn’t thought of that. What if Lyle erased some important things? Then where would we turn? And did they leave an imprint? Could we get them back? It wasn’t my forte, so I had no answers.

  I went back to my desk to see if there was something I could find. In the afternoon, Art called me back in when Lyle came up.

  “I’m sorry to say but we didn’t get a whole lot.”

  “How much did you erase?” Art asked.

  “Not too much. There wasn’t a lot to go on though.”

  “Before you erased it, did you at least copy it anywhere.”

  “Yeah, but like I said, there wasn’t a lot.”

  He carried a laptop with him and inserted a flash drive. In a few moments, he was replaying some audio. The man talking I assumed was Paulie McCutcheon.

  The first few calls were with a man with what I assumed was an Irish accent. It was about the pickup for the trailer in Savannah.

  “I can’t make it this time,” Paulie said.

  “Mr. McCutcheon, this is not a choice I’m giving you. You will meet the China Star at the designated time. The instructions will be texted to you. And don’t worry, you will be well compensated.”

  “Listen, like I said last time, I can’t do it. I want out.”

  “And like I told you, there is no out. You are on my payroll, and this is not a temporary matter. You do not have a choice in this.”

  The conversation ended. The timestamp was one in the afternoon. Later that afternoon, a call was made to Acer. It went exactly as he’d said. Paulie asked him if he wanted to make some money. After some persuading on Paulie’s part, Acer agreed. That was it until Acer called him again. Nothing much on this call. But then another call came around midnight. Paulie answered and the man was angry.

  “Where is my shipment, Mr. McCutcheon? You had an easy job to fulfill and you have failed.”

  “No, it should be there.”

  “If that’s the case, why did FBI agents show up at the warehouse and you didn’t? You sold me out, didn’t you?”

  “What?”

  “Do you have a hearing problem?”

  “No, I—”

  In the background, you could hear shouting and then it sounded like a struggle was taking place. That’s when the call faded out. That’s when they must’ve grabbed him.

  Lyle hit the stop button and said, “That’s it. There’s nothing else.”

  “Did you find anything at all hidden in the case.”

  “No, but we’re still looking. Sometimes we miss things the first time around. I’ll come back if we find anything.”

  Lyle closed the door behind him. Then I spoke up. “Now we at least know the two incidents are connected. We assumed, but it’s on here now. I still don’t know why they want me. Yes, we disrupted their little operation, but I’m sure the damn thing is still up and running. We don’t know where to look next.”

  “But they don’t know that and that’s why they want you.”

  “Then we need to find them before they find me.”

  Art tapped my arm. “Isla, they’ve already found you. The problem now is keeping you and Acer safe and alive.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  ACER

  I completed the gun safety class and the instructor asked if I’d like to enroll in a targeting practice course. The idea intrigued me but I was due to begin classes on Monday. Time would be an issue.

  “You can always do it later, if you change your mind. Your accuracy is superb and you’d make an excellent marksman.”

  “Thanks. I’ll let you know if I do.”

  After I got home, I shared this information with Isla. “I’m impressed. This will help when you get to Quantico.”

  Setting my gun on the counter, I turned to her. “You’re so sure I’ll make it. I keep hearing how difficult it is.”

  She put her arms around me and said, “You’re forgetting something.”

  “Oh yeah? Care to share?”

  “You’ll have some great recs coming from Art, me, and whoever else we can gather from the office.”

  “Hmm. What will I owe you for that?”

  Her fingers threaded through my hair as her lips peppered my jaw with kisses. “I’m sure I’ll come up with something.”

  Hooking my fingers into the waistband of her pants, I yanked her closer to me. Then our mouths crashed together. We stumbled backward until we hit the wall and I came to my senses. I heard someone clearing their throat and that’s when I reluctantly released her. Fuck, why couldn’t we have been alone? My need for her was potent.

  “Sorry,” I whispered. “Sort of lost control.”

  “Hey, you two. Get a room.” It was Thomas who was with us tonight. He threw a pillow from the couch at us. Isla’s face burned bright with embarrassment.

  “Shut up,” she said, laughing. It was a ruse because I detected the jitter in it.

  “Hey, is anyone as hungry as I am?” I said, trying to deflect.

  “I am, but for food.” I glanced at Thomas to see him laughing.

  Dumbass me had walked right into that one.

  “Haha, not funny. I’m starving. Skipped lunch today.”

  Isla had wandered into the kitchen and called out, “How about a pizza?”

  “I’m game,” I answered. “Thomas?”

  “Sure. I’m in.”

  We ordered and forty minutes later we were munching down on dinner. Thomas was filling Isla in on a case he’d been active on. It involved a drug ring that was bringing heroin in from Asia.

  “Asia? Do you think this could be related to our case?” I asked.

  Isla frowned. “I don’t know. Thomas?”

  “Anything’s possible. We can track it and find out. Or at least make an attempt. This one has multiple murders associated with it. My gut though is telling me it’s one of the drug cartels.”

  My stomach hit the floor. One thing came to mind. I didn’t want to go there but was compelled to do so. “Paulie.”

  “What?” Isla eyed me curiously.

  “Maybe Paulie was involved with that and it’s why he vanished.”

  “Acer, was Paulie using drugs?” Thomas asked.

  “Not that I’m aware of, though that doesn’t mean much. I’d fallen out of contact with him after I moved and only spoke to him occasionally. Honestly, he could’ve been doing a lot of things and I wouldn’t have known.” The more I thought about it, two things happened. I doubted whether Paulie was still alive and I was pissed at him for getting me involved. Even if he was dead, I was still pissed. Why had he been so stupid and gotten involved in something like this? Surely, he had to have some idea this was going to go bad one day.

  “Why didn’t Paulie call someone else for tha
t damn job? And why was I stupid enough to take it?”

  “Hey, how could you have known?” Isla asked.

  “I should’ve known something was up when he asked. I hadn’t done anything for him in ages and this sounded sketchy from the start.”

  “Stop beating yourself up over it. It’s done. You can’t go back and change it.”

  She was right. I couldn’t but it still angered me.

  Then she said, “I have an idea. How about we go out tonight?”

  “Out? As in where?” This was highly unusual.

  “To a club. I’m in the mood to dance.”

  I could certainly go for that. Seeing Isla dance would have to be amazing. But she was the last person to take a risk like that.

  “Wait. You two can’t go anywhere,” Thomas said. “Have you forgotten there are people trying to kill you? And you know what Art will say if he finds out.”

  “True, but we both need a break from this.”

  Thomas countered with, “If you break from this, someone will break your neck and then you won’t have to worry about it anymore.”

  She frowned and I figured she’d back down, but surprised me by what she countered with, “Then I guess we’ll keep it a secret, won’t we?” This did not sound like Isla. She wasn’t a rule breaker and this bordered on irresponsible. I wonder what made her suggest this. “Besides, we all need a little fun, don’t we?”

  I added my two cents. “As much fun as this sounds, it would be irresponsible of us to go.”

  “Right and you two seem like you’ve been having more than your share of a little fun to me,” Thomas said.

  Isla huffed. “Stop with the innuendos.”

  “No innuendos, lady. Pure facts. I’m an investigator, remember?”

  “And not a comedian. Don’t forget that part. Come on, Thomas, what do you say? We don’t have to stay out long. One drink and a couple of dances is all I’m asking.”

  “I’m going to regret this and Art will have my ass, but okay, as long as you promise to do as I say, and not try anything stupid. We’ll go to a small club of my choosing where I can keep an eye on you two at all times.”