by Dawn Edwards
‘He’s just walking in now,’ Nyall’s voice ran through my ear, and I ran my hand down the right side of my head, indicating that I heard him.
Just as we hoped, I worked as bait.
Christopher took a seat at the bar a few stools over from me as I continued to act as if I was busy on my tablet, pretending that I didn’t notice him. When I finished my glass of wine, the bartender came over, ‘Would you like another one?’
‘I’ve already had enough,’ I smiled at him, knowing full well I’d only had one glass of wine and that would do nothing for me whatsoever. ‘How about soda water with some limes?’
‘Sure thing,’ he took my glass.
‘Can I also get a food menu?’
He nodded and gave me a small menu when he delivered my drink.
‘Their Paninis are good,’ Christopher told me, turning in his seat to look at me.
I looked up at him and plastered a fake flirty smile on my face. ‘Is that right?’
He nodded and looked to the chair next to me as if to ask permission. I moved my things in front of me, even though they weren’t exactly in the way, as he slid into the stool to sit right next to me.
‘Hook, line and sinker,’ I heard Nyall laugh in my ear. ‘You got this, girl.’
I looked down to my menu. ‘Unless you want to try more of a traditional meal, then their tagines are tasty.’ He looked to the bartender and held up his nearly empty wine glass.
When the bartender came over, I ordered a grilled chicken and pesto Panini with a side of salad instead of the fries.
Anything for you, sir?’ the bartender asked Christopher.
‘I’ll take a cheeseburger with fries please.’ The bartender left us alone to place our order. ‘Too bad they don’t have bacon here, I’ve been craving bacon.’
I laughed, it was such a North American thing to say. ‘How long have you been here?’ I asked, taking a sip of my drink and trying to be friendly when all I wanted to do was reach over and claw his eyes out for looking at me the way he was. If it wasn't for the fact that we needed his confession, I’d do more than just that. Perhaps when we were done I’d get a crack at causing him some physical pain.
‘Not that long, just a few days,’ he told me. ‘But I haven't been back home in a while and I miss American bacon.’
‘Whereabouts is home?’ I prompted, trying my best to sound genuinely interested in what he had to say.
‘Montreal, actually, but close enough, right?’ He winked at me. I was surprised he mentioned Montreal. While I knew they had lived there in the past, he had been living in France for the past few years.
‘Yeah, I suppose, I’m from the west coast. I’ve never been to Montreal yet, Vancouver once.’
‘Whereabouts out west?’ He was making small talk with me.
‘I’m from Arizona, but I live and work in San Francisco now.’ I’d made up my own backstory, and those were places I knew they had never been, and to my knowledge, he’d been to LA a few times, but that was about it.
‘Great weather, much like here,’ he said, and I nodded. ‘So what brings you here?’
I held up the folder that was next to me, ‘Work.’
‘Same.’
We ate our dinner together, drank some wine and then things got a bit flirty and personal.
‘I’ve just got to use the restroom,’ I informed him, looking at him a moment too long, totally playing with him. ‘Will you wait?’
He licked his lips and looked me over, nodding. I placed my tablet and my phone in my purse and then tried to shove my folders in but they wouldn't fit as I knew they wouldn’t. ‘Can I just leave these here?’
‘Of course.’
I walked to the restroom in the lobby of the hotel. ‘You are doing wonderful,’ Nyall’s voice buzzed in my ear. ‘He’s looking through the files you left behind, so predictable.’
I rolled my eyes and did my business. I really did need to use the facilities. I washed up, made sure my wig was still on correctly, touched up my makeup and fixed my clothing to maximize the effect.
As I made my way out of the bathroom, I knew that the guys were tracking me on the hotel's security system. ‘You got this,’ Breton’s voice was in my ear and I nodded, running my hand down the side of my head again.
When I walked back into the bar, I took my seat and found a glass of wine. I looked at it uneasily. ‘He hasn’t put anything in it,’ Nyall’s voice told me.
I swirled it and took a sip. ‘Thank you.’ I looked to the bartender, ‘Can I also have a bottle of water, please?’ This would be my third glass of wine, and after this, it would really start to affect me.
When the bartender left us alone, Christopher turned in his chair. ‘I feel bad, I don’t even know your name.’
I laughed, ‘Sarah.’ I extended my hand.
He laughed in return, took my hand in his and kissed it. I fought everything in me to pull it away and punch him in the mouth. He looked so much like his brother. ‘Chris.’
I kept it together, hoping that he didn't see the shock that momentarily crossed my face. ‘I wasn’t expecting him to use his own name,’ I heard Breton in my ear, saying exactly what I was thinking.
‘Do you have a boyfriend, Sarah?’
‘Nope.’
‘You want one?’
‘Not really,’ I told him, not able to let out a laugh.
‘Why not?’
‘Just don’t need one.’ I looked at him in the eyes, trying to see what he was getting at.
‘What do you want?’
‘What do I want?’ I repeated and raised my brow, pausing for a moment. ‘I don’t think you can give me what I want,’ I played, biting my lower lip.
‘Try me, I may surprise you,’ he played back, looking me up and down, his eyes resting a bit too long on my chest.
I leaned back in my chair, eyeing him slowly and then rested my eyes on his middle for a few seconds that I noticed was trying to make an appearance. Figured he’d be as unfortunate as his brother in that area. I shook my head, ‘Don’t think you can give me what I need,’ I said, stressing the word.
‘You haven't told me, that’s hardly fair.’
I leaned in closer to him. ‘You want to know what I need…what I want?’ I said to him in a low sexy, seductive voice.
‘Yeah,’ he said, sounding and looking shy.
‘What I want is a hard dick and what I need is a rough fuck.’ I looked at him and his mouth dropped in shock.
‘Oh, girl,’ he inhaled.
‘But I’m not sure you can deliver,’ I commented, looking unaffected, sitting back in my chair.
‘At least give me the opportunity to try.’
I shrugged my shoulder and drank my wine. I promptly changed the subject and chatted with him a bit longer. When my glass was empty, the bartender asked if I’d like anything else. ‘Just the check, please.’
‘Same,’ Christopher asked too.
I paid with cash, giving the bartender a large tip, then turned to Christopher, looking him over.
‘Ok,’ I said, ‘listen, I don’t want to leave together, that will look obvious. I’ll be in room 903. Follow in half an hour or so.’
‘Half hour?' he asked like I just asked him to wait a year.
‘Good things come to those who wait.’ I gathered my things together. ‘Besides, I need to call my employer and go over my meetings from today, there’s an eight-hour time difference.’
‘Fine, half hour,’ he winked at me.
‘Nine oh three,’ I whispered as I slid off my chair.
CHAPTER 16
JESSA
Our work with the Taggarts was done. Breton and I finally had all the information and confession to finally wrap up everything, putting my return home closer.
It was quite the eventful night, by far the most exciting and exhilarating thing I’ve ever been involved in. During my escape I was too scared and heartbroken to appreciate what was being done.
I opened the door t
o my hotel room to a smirking and smug asshole, who had no idea that the biggest badass out there was in my bathroom just waiting for me to latch the door shut. Needless to say, Christopher was rather shocked that Nyall jumped him from behind and injected him with a needle, dragging him to a chair and tying him up.
When he came to, I was sitting on the side of the bed, changed into a pair of sweat pants, Breton’s bruins t-shirt and my wig was next to me on the bed.
‘Hello,’ I said in the sweetest voice I could muster. ‘Remember me?’
He looked up at me, then to the wig and around the room, taking in Nyall and Breton standing behind the camera.
‘Oh, that’s right, we’ve never actually met, because the story I was told was that Matt…or should I say Justin, had no family.’
Christopher’s eyes darted up to me, realization donning on his features as to just who I was.
‘But you see Christopher, I have a family, and we are fiercely protective of one another.’ I looked up to Breton, ‘That guy right there, he’s my cousin, but more like a brother to me. I had a brother, but you know all about him also. Now you are going to tell us how and why he died.’
‘I have more needles I can stab you with to make you give us the information we want,’ Nyall informed him, holding up a few syringes that had been laying on the desk. ‘I also have some with heroin, I’m not above pumping you with too much if you refuse to cooperate.’
I knew it was going to be an emotional night, but it left me broken and hollow for days. Hearing what had happened to Josh and the stupid reason had me devastated. As if it was happening again all over for the first time.
I knew Breton was feeling it to, and just like the first time around, we leaned on one another and supported each other. I had Drew, but I wasn’t ready to tell him what happened, not yet, it was too raw to talk about. I needed more time to digest it and come up with a plan to tell my parents.
He was forthcoming with pretty much anything and everything that incriminated him, matt and their sister. While the method we were using to obtain the information may never hold up in court, it was out there, and Breton would have all the supporting evidence authorities would need.
I really wanted to fuck this guy up physically, but the guys wouldn’t allow it, I know it would only feel good momentarily and there was nothing I could do that would ever bring Josh back or erase the pain I felt when he died or the emptiness that will be forever in my heart.
After getting Christopher’s confessions, we slipped him a roofie and sent him back to his room, where Nyall had already stashed enough drugs for the authorities to arrest him on trafficking charges—which were pretty serious in that country. And that’s exactly what they did. When he woke up in his room the next day, officers had busted his door down and found large quantities of drugs in his room. I wasn't sure how Nyall got them, and I wasn’t really interested in knowing; the less I knew the better. But it served a purpose, it put Christopher in jail and unable to reach out to his sister, who was now under constant surveillance. Nyall and Breton’s plan to set up Christopher had been almost as perfect as my boat escape.
As I was no longer needed to lure Christopher in to coax his confession out of him, I could finally remove my implants. My parents and Drew both put up a fuss about not being here to take care of me after my surgery, but being around my family was still a bit of a risk. Plus, I knew they were just using it as an excuse to see me. As much as I wanted to see them, I knew I had to hold out just a little bit longer until everything was finalized.
As a consolation, I allowed my family to hire a nurse to take care of me post-surgery with things I didn’t want Breton to do for me and was sure Breton would have been too embarrassed to do. She was hired full-time for the first week, but by the second day, I only needed her about three times a day for personal care, such as changing bandages, showering, dressing and at first, using the toilet. It was mortifying, but in the beginning, I was in so much pain that I didn’t even care.
After a week, I should have been on my own, but I got a pretty serious infection in my right incision and had to go back to the hospital for intravenous antibiotics, then again to see the plastic surgeon.
It added three weeks to my recovery, and just when I was feeling better, I got a nasty stomach bug, likely due to my immune system being non-existent from all the trauma I had just put it through. I looked and felt like shit. Nearly a month post-op and I was only starting to get my energy back.
We were behind in preparing all the documentation to build my case as to why I had to fake my own death. Breton had last-minute missions that took him out of the country and working nearly round the clock one week when he was actually in London.
I was well aware of the half a dozen or so laws I had broken during my time away, however, with the right backstory and the right supporting documents, all of this would be minimized.
But we had to do it in a way that would keep Matt and Christopher in jail, and hopefully land the sister there as well. She was our only big concern at the moment, as she was the last one free. Soon she would realize that Christopher wasn’t reachable and would likely start to panic.
Through all of my recovery Breton was amazing. As macho, and at times self-absorbed, as he was, he really was kind, generous and gentle with me over the past month.
Thanksgiving was upon us, and it would be his first away from his mother. I wanted to make it up to him and say thank you to him for all the support he had given to me. I also wanted to thank his co-workers. They were the real stars, and I would be forever in their debt for all they had done for me. I was thankful this year that I wasn't seriously depressed any longer. That I had direction and a life plan ahead of me that I was actually really excited about.
I had made a semi-traditional meal. Instead of a turkey, I cooked two chickens, but made a bunch of sides and a pumpkin pie.
Breton had invited a few people from work, so it wasn't just the two of us, and they watched football in the evening, due to the time change. It was a fun time and I loved having people over and entertaining. It had been the first time that anyone other than Drew and my nurse had been to the apartment in the entire time I lived here. I wasn’t sure if Breton ever had anyone over before I got here, but to my knowledge, he hadn’t had anyone over since.
By the end of the night, I was thoroughly exhausted and knew it was time to start going back to the gym. I needed it both mentally and physically.
CHAPTER 17
DREW
It was a cold Friday night in December and I was at the bar with a few members of my crew. We were deep in the middle of our slow season, but we still made a habit to get together at least once a week. We were now offering snow removal services for hire and we were fully booked, perhaps a bit too much, as even I had a plow accessory for my truck in the garage if needed.
On top of all that, we had a few renovations to complete before spring on a few interior and exteriors of homes before people moved back out here for the summer.
After our breakup, I stayed away from the bar where Lisa worked all of the spring and most of last summer, even when the crew I had hired wanted to go there after work for a beer. I explained to them early on my history with Lisa, and they got it. But when many of the bars closed soon after Labor Day, as many businesses did, our options for a drink were limited.
The first few times I went into the bar a few months ago, Lisa had someone else serve the table I sat at with the guys. But since then, things have progressively improved, to the point if she’s the only one working, she will actually serve us.
‘What can I get you, boys?’ she asked us. I looked up to her and was surprised to see her smiling down at me.
‘Hiya,’ I greeted her.
‘How have you been?’
I shrugged. ‘Same old, you know, busy,’ I answered her. ‘You?’
‘Not many changes around here,’ she looked back to the bar, and it looked the same as last year, and likely the decade before that.
There wasn’t too much in the way of decor or a theme of the bar. It was pretty basic, but it was close to the water, central to key tourist spots, some hotels, and shopping. They didn’t need a theme or to make it fancy. The tourists came for the dated, beach vibe, and that’s what this place gave off in spades.
‘Can we get a few pitchers of Sam Adams IPA and a few baskets of wings and fries,’ I ordered. Knowing my guys, and their simple taste.
‘Sure thing, sauce on the side?’
I winked at her, ‘You know it.’ She smiled, and I saw that look in her eyes.
Shit.
I really shouldn't have winked at her. The last thing I needed was for her to think I was interested in starting whatever it was we had back up again.
Lisa came back with the pitchers and four glasses when my phone started to vibrate, but as Joe was in the middle of telling us a story, I let it go, not wanting to be rude, even if it was Jessa returning my text. After the phone started up again immediately, I dug it out of my pocket to see that Colleen was calling me.
‘Hello?’ I answered, not sure why she would be calling me at eight in the evening on Friday.
‘Andrew…’ her voice was panicked. ‘I need your help,’ she sounded breathless and her voice cracked.
I stood up and walked a few tables away. ‘What’s wrong?’ I saw Lisa looking up at me from the bar, watching me.
‘It’s Steve,’ she sobbed and my heart sank. ‘He’s had a heart attack. I’m at the hospital, but they are bringing him into surgery now.’
‘Ok,’ I let out a sigh of relief. ‘Ok, I’ll call her...well, Breton...I’m assuming that’s what you need?’