The Smuggler

by Leslie Georgeson

  I hesitated. I didn’t recognize the voice. “Uh, who’s this?”

  “Oh,” the woman giggled. “Sorry. This is Jane from Social Services. I was told to call you, that you would be willing to help.”

  Jane? She must be new.

  It was five-thirty in the morning now. Still dark out. Though it wasn’t unusual for me to get a call from a social worker at odd hours like this. Most of the kids only stayed for a short time before their home situations were ironed out. Now that Camille and Teresa were staying with a different foster family, I had room to take in a new child.

  I couldn’t say no to a little girl in need.

  I glanced at Tony. I had a sexy, gorgeous man in my apartment, a man who’d just thoroughly ravished me moments ago. I wanted to drag him to the bedroom and have another round of hot, passionate sex.

  Heat washed into my face. I jerked my gaze away.

  I had a child who needed me right now. Tony could wait.

  “Yes, I’ll take her. Where did you want me to pick her up at?”

  She spouted off an address in a slummier part of town. “It’s the last house at the end of the block. Both parents were arrested for domestic violence a few minutes ago.”

  Poor child. If I had still been on duty, I would have been the one arresting the parents.

  “Okay. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  I disconnected the call and set my phone on the counter.

  Tony stood several feet away, watching me. Waiting.

  I looked into his eyes. “Want to come with me to pick up a child?”

  He hesitated, glancing away for a moment. Then his gaze came back to mine. Intense. Probing. What did that look mean? What was he searching for? I kept my gaze open and honest. Sincere. I had nothing to hide.

  I fully expected him to turn me down. To make some excuse and leave.

  Instead, he did the exact opposite.

  “Sure. I’ll go with you.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Tony

  We took Grace’s Kia, since my Ferrari only seated two, leaving no place for a child. I wasn’t normally one to sit back and let others take control—except with Nate, whom I trusted implicitly—but I found I didn’t mind being the passenger and letting Grace take control. This thought overwhelmed me with its implications, and as we headed out of the parking lot, I turned my head to stare out the window. I’d never let a woman take control of any part of my life before. Not even during sex.

  Speaking of sex…I’d been the one in control minutes ago on her couch. I’d been completely in charge of the situation just the way I liked it. She’d surrendered to me willingly. She’d wanted it as much as I had. And fuck, she’d been so hot. I hadn’t been gentle with her, but I wasn’t exactly a gentle kind of guy. Grace wasn’t weak by any means. I’d taken her hard and fast. Rough. But she hadn’t complained. The two of us together were combustible. Explosive. And I was already itching for another round.

  Once would never be enough with this woman. I already wanted her again only twenty minutes later. I should have stayed away from her. I shouldn’t have given in to my urge to be with her. But now it was too late. She was slipping under my skin. Burrowing in deep. I’d tried to keep it impersonal. Tried to remain cold and detached so that it was only sex and nothing more.

  But Grace was already getting to me. And that scared the shit out of me. Why had I agreed to come along with her like this? Was I just itching for punishment? Didn’t I know the more I was around her, the more I’d want her, and the more attached to her I would become?

  Idiot!

  Admit it. You’re curious about her. You came along because you want to see her interacting with a child. You want proof that she’s as kind and caring as she seems.

  I couldn’t deny that thought. The fact that Grace took in unwanted children got to me. It had from the very start. As an abandoned child myself, I could relate to those kids. Catching a glimpse of Grace’s kindness and generosity toward children would only endear her to me even more. She was unlike any woman I’d ever met before. I was completely enthralled by her.

  Fuck. Me.

  I needed to stay away from her. I couldn’t do this again. I needed to convince her that it was nothing more than sex, that I could never love her. That should push her away.

  That’s cruel. That will only hurt her.

  Exactly.

  A stubborn woman like Grace would need a good reason to keep me away. Hurting her wasn’t something I wanted to do. I hated hurting people. But it might be the only way to convince her to stay away from me. If I could convince her I was a cold, heartless bastard, then she wouldn’t invite me back.

  “You said you have acute senses.”

  Her words jolted me out of my thoughts, and I turned my head to meet her gaze. “Yeah.”

  “How? Why? What does that mean?”

  I let out a deep sigh. I wasn’t one for sharing. Sharing meant making myself vulnerable. Vulnerability made me weak. And weakness would give my opponent the edge.

  Grace isn’t your opponent. She’s an amazing woman. You need to stop making this into a battle. Don’t be such a chicken shit. If you give her a chance, she could be a lot more to you than she currently is.

  That thought stunned me into temporary silence. Fuck that. I was a dreg. I wasn’t relationship material. I had nothing to offer a woman. Nothing except sex. I would only hurt her.

  Grace would want more than sex. She already wanted more. She wanted mouth-to-mouth kissing. She wanted to be allowed to touch me. As appealing as both those things were, they also scared the fuck out of me. Yeah. Go figure. There wasn’t much in this world I was afraid of. Except for feelings. Emotions scared the living bejesus out of me. If I kissed Grace, if I let her touch me, I would be lost. She would slip under my skin deep. And I would fall for her. Which would be very, very bad. I didn’t have feelings. There was nothing but emptiness inside me. I couldn’t let her break down my walls. I couldn’t let her in.

  “Tony?”

  She’d asked about my acute senses. What should I tell her?

  The truth.

  I turned away from her as I spoke. “From the time I was thirteen until about a year ago when we escaped, I was subjected to experiments, tests, and injected with numerous drugs and different animal DNA. Those experiments and injections gave each of the dregs special talents and abilities. We all have superhuman strength, heightened senses, the ability to adapt to just about any situation, and we are able to endure extreme hardships and relentless torture. We also heal faster than a normal human. We all have animal DNA running through our veins. We’re not all human.”

  A sudden warmth spread over the top of my thigh as she rested her hand there. I flinched slightly, then turned to face her.

  “I didn’t know that,” she murmured. “I’ve only heard the rumors about you guys, and, of course, what Alissa told me.”

  “What did Alissa say?”

  She glanced away from the road to send me a kind smile, then refocused on the road in front of her. “She said you were all good guys and that you’d gotten a bad rap. I can see now that she’s right.”

  I glanced down at her hand over my thigh. Grace was bold. Forward. Not afraid to speak her mind. Not afraid to touch someone.

  I wanted to tell her to remove her hand. But even more, I wanted to slide her hand up and place it over another part of me.

  I shifted uncomfortably.

  She gently squeezed my thigh. “I enjoyed tonight,” she said quietly. “With you, I mean. Back at my place. Will you come back later? We can take it to the bedroom the next time.” She paused and turned to meet my gaze. “Will you…be my lover?”

  Ah fuck. I hadn’t expected an invitation to come back, and certainly not one to be her lover. As tempting as the offer was, I couldn’t accept. I couldn’t allow it to happen again.

  “I don’t want to hurt you, Grace. I appreciate the offer, and as much as I enjoyed it, it was a one-time thing. It can’t happen
again. I did tell you it was only fucking. So don’t make it out to be more than it was.” My words were cruel, but it was the only way to keep her away. To make her hate me. If she hated me, she wouldn’t want me around. And if I wasn’t around her, I couldn’t develop feelings for her.

  Then why the fuck did you agree to come along with her tonight, you moron? You’re just asking for trouble.

  She stiffened and pulled her hand away, placing it back on the steering wheel. I waited tensely for an explosion from her, but none came. Then softly, without looking at me, she said, “It may have been just fucking to you, but it was more than that to me.”

  I drew in a deep breath and turned away. Fuck. She’d made herself vulnerable, and I’d shot her down. Why did hurting her cause a sharp pain in my chest? I didn’t even have feelings! I slowly exhaled, trying to rid myself of the discomfort in my chest.

  You just got what you wanted. You hurt her. Now she’ll never want to see you again.

  Why did that bother me so much? It was what I’d wanted, after all.

  “Here we are.”

  Her soft words jerked me out of my thoughts. I glanced forward as she turned down a street in a rundown part of town. All the houses were dark, no lights on anywhere.

  She pulled up in front of the house at the end of the block. No cop cars in sight. In fact, no one appeared to be there at all.

  Suspicion crept in. “Are you sure this is the right house?”

  She turned the car off and stared at the empty house. “Yes, this is the right place. That’s strange. Where did everyone go?”

  “This smells like a trap,” I whispered, removing my weapon. “Who exactly told you to come here?”

  Her gaze sought mine through the darkness of the car. “A social worker named Jane.”

  “You don’t know her?” I probed.

  She shrugged. “I don’t know a lot of the social workers. There was no reason to suspect her of lying. Except, now that I think about it, she called me ‘Grace’ not ‘Officer Murphy’ which was a little out of the ordinary. Only the ones who know me personally call me by my first name.”

  I jerked my brow up. “And you didn’t find that suspicious?”

  Color spread up her neck and into her face. “Not everyone is as suspicious as you. It wasn’t like I could see her face to gauge her honesty!” Her words were defensive. “This woman said she was with social services, and I had no reason not to believe her.” She let out a huff. “I still don’t have any reason not to believe her. Maybe something happened. Maybe they had to leave and forgot to call me.” She paused, staring out at the dark house, then turned back to me. “I was only thinking about the child who needed help. I can’t help it. Kids are my biggest weakness.”

  I let out a soft snort. “You’re admitting a weakness?”

  She lifted her chin. “Unlike you, I don’t have any secrets. I’m an open book. Everything doesn’t have to be about winning.”

  I glanced away uncomfortably at the obvious barb. She was right. I kept my secrets, while she was open and honest about everything. And I couldn’t stand to lose.

  “If there’s a child hiding here somewhere, a child that needs my help, then I can’t just leave her here,” Grace went on. “I’m going to check it out. You can either help me or wait in the car.” She shoved open her door.

  Goddammit!

  I grabbed her arm, halting her. “I’ll help you. I can go around back. You can cover the front.”

  She pulled her gun free from its holster. “Let’s go.”

  We moved silently across the dark yard toward the house. A team. Grace was cautious. Alert. Ready. She gripped her weapon confidently, pointing it toward the ground. I had no doubt this woman could take care of herself. We reached the row of shrubs lining the front of the house and paused. I motioned that I was heading around the back now. She nodded and crept toward the front door while I went around the side of the house.

  I paused again, letting my senses scan the area for danger.

  And was slammed with evidence of multiple bodies nearby.

  Breaths. Heartbeats. The stench of sweat. Cautious movements. All around. Hiding in the bushes. Behind the fence. Around the back of the house.

  I dived forward, summersaulting across the lawn, as something whizzed past my head and thunked into the side of the house. Making myself invisible, I kept rolling, taking aim with my weapon and firing as men dressed all in black came forward, tossing more weapons at me, some striking my flesh, and one sharp object embedding into the muscle of my upper thigh.

  There was only one gang in Augusta the dregs hadn’t yet encountered. Opponents with fighting skills that likely surpassed our own.

  The Black Dragons.

  Some people believed they were the deadliest gang of all.

  The word on the street was that the Dragons used a lot of the old ninja fighting techniques from hundreds of years ago. If that was true, then they were skilled in not only hand-to-hand combat such as striking, kicking, blocking, grappling, choking, and other close fighting moves, but also in the art of sword-fighting, stick and staff fighting, throwing blades, spear fighting, chain and sickle weapons, firepower, and explosives. In short, these guys were dangerous.

  Grace and I would need a miracle to get out of this alive.

  Or the help of the other dregs.

  But the other dregs were likely underground by now. Unreachable.

  Which meant Grace and I were on our own.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Grace

  I’d seen a lot of things in my five years as a cop, four of which were spent in Augusta before I took the position here at the small town of Eatonton. My job here was a lot less stressful than it had been in the gang-ridden town of Augusta. A lot less eventful. And far safer.

  Until tonight.

  But even in Augusta I had never witnessed anything like I did right now.

  I had reached the front of the house, only to discover the door locked. Instinct told me no child was waiting here, and that I’d been set up. Someone had preyed upon my weakness to help needy children and had lured me here on purpose. But why?

  The urge to find Tony and get the feck out of here hit me like a roaring tidal wave.

  I slipped around the side of the house, only to draw up short.

  One second, I was able to glimpse Tony moving stealthily forward. The next, he catapulted himself through the air, summersaulting forward and rolling away, as something whizzed past him and slammed into the back of the house.

  Then, miraculously, he just disappeared into thin air. True, it was still dark out, so my vision was limited, but one moment he was there, and the next he was gone.

  Gunshots went off, firing out of Tony’s gun that had somehow disappeared along with him.

  Then several dark shapes appeared in my line of vision.

  They looked like ninjas from the big screen, dressed all in black with their faces covered by hoods. They were flinging different types of throwing weapons at Tony. Most of the weapons missed, the sounds of objects striking the house reaching my ears. Could they not see Tony either? Had he genuinely disappeared?

  A throwing star rammed into my gun with a clang, bouncing off to fall to the ground.

  I dropped to a crouch and hunkered near the back porch, holding my gun with my finger hovering over the trigger.

  A dark presence suddenly loomed in front of me.

  I raised my gun, my gaze quickly scanning to make sure it wasn’t Tony, before I fired at the man who lunged at me.

  Drop.

  Down he went.

  I kicked him aside, and readied myself for the next attack.

  Another man launched himself at me.

  Bang!

  Bullet through the neck.

  He too dropped, and I rolled him out of the way.

  More gunshots came from the backyard, but I still couldn’t see Tony.

  Then the sounds of close combat. Grunts. Thwacks. Thuds. Bangs.

  Rap!
Rap! Rap!

  A hiss. A groan. Another thud.

  Then several men rushed me at once. I fired, managing to get one shot off before they knocked the gun from my hands with swift martial arts moves. I fought back hard, using all my police training, and the Krav Maga moves that I’d been required to learn at the police academy. I got one man in an arm bar, but then another guy knocked me back with several hard jabs in my face. I stumbled back with a gasp of pain, blood spurting out of my nose, and my captive burst free.

  Blood oozed from my torn lip and my shattered nose that had been pummeled in the scuffle. I stood my ground as more men surrounded me. I wasn’t going down easily.

  Then they launched another attack. This time, I didn’t stand a chance. There were too many of them. I fought hard, landing a few blows before they took me down in a violent swoop of bodies. They shoved my face into the grass and pulled my arms behind my back, zip-tying my wrists together.

  “You feckin eejits!” I spat, breathing heavily. Who were they? What did they want?

  Someone snickered. They thought this was funny? Bastards! I squirmed and pulled at the zip ties, but my wrists were bound so tightly that the plastic cut into my skin if I struggled even a little bit.

  My face hurt. My nose burned. My lip stung. My arms and legs were sore from numerous hits. But I was more worried about Tony. Where was he? Was he alive?

  The fighting sounds from across the yard suddenly ended.

  A voice spoke rapidly in another language. Chinese? Japanese? I wasn’t sure. I had no idea what he was saying.

  More men stepped forward, surrounding me. Too many to count in the dark. Then they hauled me roughly to my feet and shoved me forward. I stumbled and nearly went down.

  Lifting my gaze, I searched for Tony. All of this commotion had likely woken some of the neighbors. Would my fellow cops soon be on the way?

  If so, by the time they got here, we’d probably be long gone.

  They ushered me into an alley that ran behind two rows of houses. I stumbled forward, my gaze alert, searching for Tony.

  We reached the end of the alley where a big black truck waited. Strong hands hefted me up and tossed me into the bed of the truck. Unable to stop my fall with my hands tied behind my back, I landed on my face and my left shoulder.