“Is everything okay?” Drake asked Mark.
“I don’t know. This doesn’t make sense. Weathers said he’s got agents on Marzban, Zand, and Arshad. Arshad is near the shipping docks, so he’s probably checking out security and making sure that things are going to run smoothly. But Marzban and Zand are right in the city, and in the same hotel that Diane is in.”
“What?” Drake asked, raising his voice as he gripped the seat.
Mark looked up. “There’s no way I’m betting this is coincidence. I’ve got my commander and a team trying to locate Sage and Diane now.”
“Do you think this Marzban guy knows about Diane and you? I thought you were distancing yourself from this case, and that you weren’t really that involved or in the spotlight?” Lucas asked, sounding angry.
“I was careful, but this guy has evaded capture, he took out Cody Jobs and other agents, and he could have Brenda and be going after the agents who tried taking his operation down.”
“What do you mean, Mark? There were others killed before now?” Drake asked.
“I didn’t know about any of this. Neither did Weathers. They think that someone from the inside was working all of us, and giving up secret information.”
“Who?” Lucas asked.
“Brenda. Fuck.” Drake ran his hands through his hair.
Mark stared at him. “I don’t think so.”
“How the fuck can you say that? You don’t know what she’s capable of or what happened to her. This is bullshit, and now our woman could be in danger!” Drake yelled.
“It has to be someone else. Someone who had access to the investigation, the other agents and spies involved and imbedded in the case. I’m going over everything now, and so is Weathers. Something isn’t adding up here.”
“When does this fucking plane land?” Lucas demanded.
“Minutes. We’ll be out of here and with a team of feds in minutes,” Mark said as he typed away on the laptop.
Drake felt his gut clench. “If anything happens to Diane, Mark, I’m holding you responsible.”
Mark looked up and appeared just as fearful and grim. “I won’t let anything happen to her. I promise to figure this thing out. We’ll get to her in time.”
* * * *
Diane excused herself to use the ladies’ room. Mr. Samir was a very charismatic and friendly guy, but he also gave her the creeps. She remembered Drake’s, Mark’s, and Lucas’s words of advice about following her gut instincts. She needed to locate Sage and get the heck out of this party. Just as she came out of the stall and washed her hands, the door pushed open and a tall, tanned man dressed in a tux reached for her. “Come with me now,” he ordered.
She pulled her arm from his grasp. “No. Get the hell away from me. Who are you?”
He pulled her hard against him as he pointed a gun with a tube-like thing at the end of it to her neck. “You are to come with me now, Miss Mercury, or your friend Sage dies.”
She was shaking and filled with fear. Diane had no idea what the hell was happening, and as they walked from the bathroom with the gun wedged against her back, they came to a long hall with an exit sign. He pushed opened the door and they began to head down the stairs. As soon as they rounded the corner, there was a woman there. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Marzban changed the plan. There are federal agents in the building.”
He pointed the gun at the woman. “You’re lying.”
“No. I’m not. Call him if you must.”
The man lowered the gun and reached into his pocket. Diane stared at the woman. She looked familiar, but her hair looked fake. The woman widened her eyes and jerked her head indicating for Diane to bend down. “Marzban, where do you want—”
Two quiet shots rang out as Diane gasped in shock. The woman just killed the man next to her.
“Diane, come with me. That man was going to take you away.”
“Who are you?”
“An old friend of Mark’s. He’s on his way, and the agents are moving in.”
“Brenda?” Diane asked.
The woman stopped. She smiled. “He told you about me?”
Diane nodded.
“He’s a great man. I just had my commander send him everything on Marzban.”
“They said you committed treason.”
“Then I did my job well,” Brenda stated as they came to the next door. “Stay back. If it’s clear I’m going to let you go on your own. Get to the second floor, room 210. Here’s the key card. My commander is there waiting. He’ll keep you safe until Mark and the team arrive.”
“What about Sage?”
“She’s been pulled into safety by agents Mark is working with. Now hurry up.”
Diane was overwhelmed with information. It turned out that Brenda wasn’t working with the bad guys but was deeply undercover. She wasn’t sure how she felt about this, but as she exited the door, she heard the gunshots, and ran like hell down the hallway. Looking over her shoulder, she saw another man with a gun and he was heading toward her. Did Brenda get shot?
As she fumbled with the key after finding room 210, she opened the door, closed it, and leaned against it as she gasped for air. Her eyes widened in shock the moment she saw Mr. Samir.
“Ah, right on time. We need to move quickly, and I expect you to cooperate.” Another guy grabbed her arm, and as she looked to the right she saw a man in a suit and he was talking on the phone.
“We can’t find her, Mark. She must be hiding out somewhere. We’ll search the hotel rooms. Every one of them until we find her.” She heard the man in the suit say. He disconnected the call and looked down at the table. That’s when she noticed the suitcase of money, and the gun and badge.
“Everything is set, Franks?” Mr. Samir asked.
“You’re good to go. Brenda is dead, the feds are raiding the docks, and you have easy access out of the building by the back exit. Just take the private elevator down the hall to the right.”
“Great. Take care of him,” Mr. Samir said to the other man in the room. The man raised a gun and shot the man in the suit twice in the head. Diane screamed and covered her face with her hands.
“Be quiet. We can’t have any loose ends now, can we?”
He opened the door and held her tight as they exited the room and headed toward the elevator.
“What in God’s name is going on? I don’t understand what you want from me.” Tears rolled down her cheeks. She couldn’t stop shaking. She just witnessed two people get shot at point-blank range and it seemed that Brenda was killed, too, and she saved Diane temporarily.
“No need for you to worry. You see, you’re going to come with me and be my little trophy after taking out all these federal agents. Your boyfriend, Agent Santos, is going to live with the fact that I have you, his prized possession, and that he will never see you again.”
“No.” She shook her head and tried to push away from him, but Mr. Samir was a big, strong man. He yanked her close so her face was right next to his.
“You will obey my commands or you will be tied up and beaten until you understand the rules. I have plans for you. You can remain sexy and beautiful, or battered and bloody. Either way, you are mine now.”
Diane closed her eyes and cried. She prayed that Mark and his team of agents knew what was going on and they could save her. But they were in Texas and here she was in New York. How the hell did this happen and what was she going to do to get out of it?
* * * *
“What the fuck is going on now, Mark? What’s happening?” Drake asked as he and Lucas pulled the federal agent jackets up over the bulletproof vests Commander Weathers gave them. They were in the hotel. Agents blocked all the exits.
“Look, they’re bringing her down in the private elevator. We can get them when they exit so there’s more room outside in the alleyway than in that cramped hallway,” Agent Ned Turk told Mark.
“Okay, let’s move. You two need to stay back. You’re not armed and I don’
t need something happening to you as well,” Mark told them.
“She’s our woman, too,” Drake stated.
Lucas grabbed his brother’s shoulder. “This is Mark’s thing. He’s in charge. We’ll stay far behind.” Mark nodded his head and then took off with the group of agents and his commander.
As they exited the building and came around the sides, another group of agents disarmed the driver of the limo and took out three other men working for Marzban. Mark’s adrenaline was pumping as he tried to not let all the details of this operation get to him. His focus was securing Diane, while the other agents took out Marzban and whoever was with him.
The door opened and Marzban walked out with Diane and another guy. They headed toward the car when an agent took out the guy and Marzban placed the gun to Diane’s head.
“I’ll kill her. I’ll fucking kill her. I don’t care.”
“Don’t do it, Marzban. We’ve got you. There’s nowhere for you to go,” Mark yelled to him.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Santos. She’s my ticket out of here.” Diane was crying. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she looked scared. But then she locked gazes with him.
“Just do what he says, Diane.”
“That’s right, Diane, You’re going to do what I say, especially in bed.” Marzban chuckled loudly. It happened so fast, Mark didn’t even know how. Diane struck Marzban with her elbow, causing him to fire the gun. She fell to the ground, and multiple shots rang out, one from the doorway where Brenda stood, bleeding from her stomach.
Marzban fell to the ground and they all moved in quickly with Mark running to Diane and falling to his knees. He pulled her up into his arms and hugged her tight.
“Are you okay, baby? I’m so sorry this happened. So sorry,” he told her, and she cried as she squeezed him tight.
Lucas and Drake came running over next as they heard agents yell “Agent down. We need an ambulance pronto.”
Lucas and Drake kissed Diane next, and Mark looked toward Brenda.
“She wasn’t one of the bad ones, Mark. Brenda tried to save me and got shot,” Diane told him. Mark cupped her cheeks and stared into her eyes.
“I don’t care. All I care about is you. I love you.”
“Then take me home. I just want to go home.”
Sage came running over. She hugged Diane and Diane hugged her tight.
“I thought they took you,” Sage cried.
“We’re okay. My men saved me,” Diane said and Mark shook his head.
“You and I are going to have a long talk about listening to orders. Didn’t I tell you to just do as he said?”
“I figured that move would give someone the opportunity to take him out, and help me. I wasn’t go to let him take me away from you guys. I would die without the three of you in my life.”
Lucas leaned forward and kissed her. “Let’s go home.”
Epilogue
Diane sat on the deck in the front of the house while the party and barbecue took place out back. She pulled the yellow envelope from her bag and stared at the label. Her heart was pounding, her hands shaking as she wondered about the contents that could possibly change her life. She loved Drake, Mark, and Lucas, and after they made love and spent almost the entire week in bed together, she knew that they would support her in any decision she made for her future.
In fact, now that Mark was completely done with the government secret agent stuff, he was compelled to dedicate all his time to her needs, wants, and of course desires. Brenda retired too, after surviving the hours of dangerous surgery she needed to heal, and pulling off the greatest undercover operation of her career.
Diane knew that one day she wanted what her sister Melissa and her husbands had. A growing family, a nice house in Pearl, and to be a part of a community untouched by the horrors and dangers that seemed to occur more frequently in other parts of the country.
But, she also got a taste of the modeling world and actually enjoyed it despite her near-death experience.
“Hey, we were wondering where you went off to,” Lucas said, as he, Drake, and Mark joined her on the front porch. She smiled and then pulled her bottom lip between her teeth.
“What’s that you have?” Mark asked her.
“It’s from Monique. It’s the telltale of whether or not I’m going to continue modeling, do a few shoots here and there, or just get back to working at the boutique, and figuring out what I want to do next.”
“And us?” Drake asked.
“And you’ll be right by my side like you promised. That’s not what I’m worried about.”
Mark covered her hand with his. “Whatever is in that package, it doesn’t reflect what you mean to us, or what we have. We love you, support you, and think you’re the most beautiful woman on the face of this planet.”
She felt the tears reach her eyes. “I appreciate that.”
“Well, open it. If they didn’t place you in the catalogue, then they’re a bunch of stupid morons,” Drake told her.
Lucas took a seat next to her. “Come on, so we can get back to the barbecue and enjoy everything we love about Pearl.”
Diane tore open the large envelope along with a letter. The letter fell to the porch as Drake picked it up, but Diane stared in shock and then screamed.
“What is it?” Mark asked.
She turned the magazine around and there was Diane on the cover of the new fall lingerie catalogue.
The others must have heard her scream as Sage, her men, Wyatt, Anna, and Stacy came around the side of the house.
“What’s going on?” Sage asked, and Diane stood up and turned the cover toward Sage.
“Oh my God, that is awesome. I’m going to be your personal assistant,” she yelled out.
Quaid wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her against his chest. “I think she’ll have three very highly trained bodyguards as her assistants,” he said.
“And by the look of this cover, you three are going to be very busy beating off the unwanted males,” Wyatt teased, as they all passed around the magazine.
Diane pulled her men closer. “My own personal bodyguards. Now I like the sound of that.”
Everyone started laughing until Mark lifted Diane up and threw her over his shoulder then headed toward the inside of the house.
“Excuse us for a little bit, will you? We’ve got some business to discuss with our new boss.” He caressed his hand over her ass for all to see.
“Mark, you put me down.”
“You four go right ahead and take your time. We’ll just be going through this magazine, page by page,” Matt called out and they chuckled.
Diane was so embarrassed, but as soon as Mark had her in the house, he pressed her up against the wall and kissed her deeply. By the time he was finished thoroughly exploring her mouth, her legs felt like spaghetti.
“Baby, I’m so proud of you. Whatever you decide to do, we support you one hundred percent.”
She looked at Drake and Lucas. Both of them leaned forward from the side and kissed her cheeks.
“We love you,” Lucas stated.
“We’ll talk more after the party.”
Mark caressed her ass and gave it a squeeze. “I think there’s going to be a lot less talking after the party and a whole lot of loving our woman.”
“Yeah, we’re going to need some reassurance from you that you belong to us and only us,” Drake stated.
“Oh, I can do that. I’ll show you all the places I need you most.”
“Like where, baby?” Lucas asked then kissed her shoulder.
“Oh, you’ll see. With all of you inside me at once is where I feel most loved, the safest, and complete. That will never change. Besides, I have a little surprise for you that I’ve been saving for this day when the magazine came.”
“What surprise would that be?” Mark asked as they headed through the kitchen and back toward the party.
“I brought home the lingerie I wore for the front of the cover, except, I
think I lost the thong panties.” She wiggled down the steps and back toward her friends. Drake pulled the magazine from Virgo’s hands and went back to the cover. His eyes widened.
“Everyone, our barbecue is going to end early this evening. It seems our woman has a special lingerie show wearing this same special piece that’s on the front cover.”
“You do?” Sage asked. Diane chuckled as Drake smiled wide.
“It’s in our bedroom tonight.”
The hoots and hollers started up and all the high fives, too, and Diane smiled wide, enjoying the excitement in the air. She loved her men dearly, and it seemed despite their fears and concerns about their woman pursuing a modeling career, they were showing off in front of their friends. Which meant she would be showing off tonight in the bedroom.
Her heart soared with love and adoration. Life couldn’t get any better than this. Life was perfect in the Town of Pearl.
THE END
WWW.DIXIELYNNDWYER.COM
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
People seem to be more interested in my name than where I get my ideas for my stories from. So I might as well share the story behind my name with all my readers.
My momma was born and raised in New Orleans. At the age of twenty, she met and fell in love with an Irishman named Patrick Riley Dwyer. Needless to say, the family was a bit taken aback by this as they hoped she would marry a family friend. It was a modern day arranged marriage kind of thing and my momma downright refused.
Being that my momma’s families were descendants of the original English speaking Southerners, they wanted the family blood line to stay pure. They were wealthy and my father’s family was poor.
Despite attempts by my grandpapa to make Patrick leave and destroy the love between them, my parents married. They recently celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary.
I am one of six children born to Patrick and Lynn Dwyer. I am a combination of both Irish and a true Southern belle. With a name like Dixie Lynn Dwyer it’s no wonder why people are curious about my name.
Diane [The Town of Pearl 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 16
