Tall, Dark and Deadly Books 1 - 4

by Lisa Renee Jones

  Blake grimaced and ended the call, dressing and then making his way to the rental in front of the building where Kyle was waiting on him. He was done playing games with Kara. She was going to find that out fast.

  Chapter Five

  Blake stood in the shadows of the building where Tami Wright, the blond waitress who worked for Eduardo, lived, watching her load her car with suitcases, with Kara by her side. What the fuck was she up to? Was she involved in the drug theft along with this Tami chick, and trying to cover it up?

  Once the bags were in the trunk, Kara handed Tami an envelope and then hugged her, stepping back and watching as the other woman climbed into her beat-up Volkswagen and drove away. Blake let Tami go, knowing Kyle would follow her and track her destination.

  Kara eyed a small piece of paper in her hand and started to walk unknowingly toward him and the side of the building where she’d parked the truck, but she hesitated as she neared the dark enclave where he was waiting. Secretary, his ass, he thought for the millionth time. She was trained and trained well, her instincts on high alert. She cut to her left, away from him, and he stepped out from the darkness.

  “Kara.”

  She stilled and turned back to him, her face washed of the shock he sensed in her, her body stiff with discomfort she didn’t hide as well. “Blake.”

  “You didn’t really think you could sneak out that easily, did you?”

  “I can explain.”

  “I’m sure you can.” He motioned the direction where she’d parked. “In my truck.”

  She shook her head. “No. That doesn’t seem like a smart idea, because—”

  “I’m not going to kill you,” he said, grabbing her arm and pulling her with him, irritated he could read her thoughts and that’s where her head was at. “And damn it, I wish you’d stop saying I am. It’s starting to get on my nerves.”

  “I could scream,” she threatened, all but making him drag her.

  “And risk your identity being exposed by the police? I doubt it.” He glared at her. “I told you. I’m not going to kill you. Turn you over my knee and spank your pretty little ass, most likely. That I’d enjoy.”

  She gaped. “You wouldn’t.”

  “Wouldn’t I?” They were at the truck, and he pressed her against the door, trapping her there, his hands by her head. “What are you doing with Eduardo’s employee?”

  “I plead the fifth.”

  He ground his teeth, studying her in the beam of the high moon above. “Why are you here, Kara? Because it looks bad. It looks like you’re involved in the thefts.”

  Her eyes went wide. “No. I’m not. That’s not it. ” She crossed her arms in front of her. “It’s…it’s something completely different.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Tami was in trouble. I was helping her.”

  “What kind of trouble?” he pressed.

  “I couldn’t just stand by and let her be one of the girls they’re selling to the highest bidder. I couldn’t bear to let it happen.” She inhaled and let it out. “I just couldn’t.” She raised her hands. “Whatever that means happens to me, then it happens.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? What girls being sold to the highest bidder? By who?”

  She studied him, looking baffled. “You don’t know?”

  “Fuck no, I don’t know. What girls being sold to whom, Kara?”

  “I’m not completely sure. I just know there have been girls disappearing, and they work at that restaurant. I overheard Eduardo telling Tami that she was going to be sold off if she didn’t deliver this other girl he wanted to him.”

  Blake scrubbed his jaw and cursed under his breath. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You work for Mendez, Blake. I know you say you’re a contractor, but—”

  “I damn sure don’t support selling off woman, Kara. That’s some fucked-up shit.” He lowered his voice. “When I told you that you could trust me, I meant it.”

  “I don’t trust anyone involved with Mendez.”

  “And yet you’re involved with Mendez.”

  “I told you. I have to be or I wouldn’t be.”

  “For the money.”

  “No. Yes. For my family. We can’t do this now. The other woman Eduardo wanted. She has no family and he’s cleared her records in some way and intends to make her disappear. I have to get to her and get her out of town.”

  “You have her address?”

  “Yes.” She held up the piece of paper.

  He took it from her and he glanced down at the address. “Give me my keys.”

  She fished them from her purse and he motioned her inside the truck. Once they were inside, he started the engine. “Where’s Tami going?”

  “The Omni in San Jose. I wanted her across the bridge and in something high end and secure where Eduardo couldn’t get to her easily. It seemed the best option until I could get to her until I could make other arrangements for her.”

  “Other arrangements,” he repeated.

  “Yes.”

  “What arrangements?”

  “I didn’t think that far ahead.”

  Smart answer, but he wasn’t buying it. She knew what she was doing. He called Kyle and gave him the rundown. “I’ll get the other girl and take her with me to pick up Tami,” Kyle said. “We’re going to have to get them into protective custody, Blake. You know that. We have to talk about what that means.”

  In other words, if they let the feds know what was happening; Blake would get pulled out of the cartel and investigated. He scrubbed his jaw, considering the very real possibility he needed to get his brothers involved. They had a soft spot for women. No matter how much they worried about Blake and Alvarez, they wouldn’t blow a chance to break up an operation selling woman off like shoes in a store. “Just keep the two women safe tonight,” Blake said. “We’ll deal with the rest tomorrow.”

  “There’s something else you need to know,” Kyle said, and something in his voice had Blake stiffening.

  A few seconds later, Blake had listened to the news Kyle had to share and his gut was one big knot. He ended the call and didn’t look at Kara. He couldn’t look at her now.

  “Who is that you’re talking to?” she asked. “What’s happening?”

  “That was a trusted friend. He’ll make sure the women are safe.” He put the truck in reverse and didn’t say another word, his mind and emotions racing, that dark place he so often visited threatening to take control.

  Kara must have sensed it because she didn’t speak and barely made a sound, but as soon as they pulled up to her apartment, she was out of the truck, as if she couldn’t escape fast enough. At her door, he pushed it open and she stared up at him, hesitating to go inside.

  His eyes met hers, and he saw her trepidation. She might not know what he’d found out on that phone call, but she sensed something was up. And oh yeah—something was up, all right. “I’ll pick you up and carry you in if I have to,” he promised.

  She inhaled, as if steeling herself for what came next, and headed inside. He pursued her and shut the door, shackling her arm and pressing her into the wall, his legs shackling hers. “I know who you are, Kara.”

  Part 3

  Chapter One

  I know who you are, Kara.

  Kara’s heart raced at Blake’s declaration, his strong, powerful body trapping hers against the entry wall inside her apartment and preventing her escape, his hands pressed to the surface by either side of her head. He was caging her, trying to intimidate her. Trying to get her to admit what he couldn’t know. Reassuring herself she’d covered her tracks well, she searched the hard lines of his handsome face, probing his rich brown eyes, and finding none of the passion and heat they’d held only hours before—just hard steel and anger.

  Memories of what had passed between them before she’d left him sleeping in her bed, of hours of erotic lovemaking, of the connection they’d shared that defied him working for one of the most lethal cartels in the
world, confused her and twisted her in knots. She hadn’t wanted to want him. She hadn’t wanted to leave him. “If this is about me sneaking out—”

  “I know who you are, Kara,” he repeated, and that same hard steel from his eyes was in his voice.

  He couldn’t know, she assured herself. It was impossible. “No matter how many times you insist otherwise, I’m still just me. I’m still Kara Tatum—”

  “Wrong answer,” he said, and there was no time for her rebuttal. In a flash, he’d grabbed her purse, with her gun nestled inside, and tossed it to the ground. Kara jerked to retrieve it at the same moment Blake lifted her and threw her over his shoulder.

  “Blake, damn it,” Kara hissed as he started up the stairs, her long, dark hair falling like a mask over her face. She was all too aware of how he played control games and manhandling her was one of them. She was even more aware of how much he, and them, turned her on, and what dangerous territory she was in with this man.

  “Curse me all you want,” he said, as if it was the exact reaction he wanted, his hand sliding to her backside, “but you’re going to tell me what I want to know.” His fingers splayed wide on one of her cheeks, stirring the memory of his threat less than an hour before. I’m not going to kill you. Turn you over my knee and spank your pretty little ass, most likely. That I’d enjoy.

  “I know what you’re doing,” she accused, certain he was taunting her, trying to jumble her thoughts. “It won’t work.”

  “We’ll see,” was all he said, reminding her that the threat of the spanking had been both erotic and frightening simply because he’d been furious when issuing it. Considering they were already at the top of the stairs, she needed a plan to make sure he didn’t get to act on it. Already, though, Blake was pacing forward, and the living area to her left told her he was headed straight to the bed again. The bed where she’d once dared to think she could seduce and control him. That had been a joke. Convincing herself otherwise as she almost did would be a mistake, one too easily repeated.

  Desperate to get him talking, and keep her clothes on, she blurted, “I had to go help those girls. You have to know that.”

  “This has nothing to do with them,” he half growled, “though you can bet we’re going to talk about you sneaking out and stealing my truck.” His fingers flexed on her backside and he gave it a hard smack.

  Kara jerked in shock, heat racing from her backside through her body at what was a decidedly angry and erotic contact. “Damn you, Blake,” she ground out again, only to find herself planted in a sitting position on the mattress with Blake towering over her. “Stop trying to intimidate me. I told you. It won’t work. It’s just pissing me off.”

  “No?” he challenged, staring down at her, looking every bit the renegade she’d found him to be, his eyes half-veiled, long strands of raven hair falling from the tie at his nape, framing his perfectly carved, handsome face. “Because I’m pretty sure I can find a way to be intimidating if I need to be. Maybe, considering the games you’ve been playing, you should be far more afraid than you appear to be.”

  “I’m not afraid of you, Blake. And I’m not afraid of your spanking me or handcuffing me for that matter.”

  “Maybe you like those things a little too much.”

  “Maybe you just want me to like them.”

  “Maybe,” he said, his voice both a soft caress and a rasp of sandpaper, “I do.”

  Kara’s nipples tightened and the air crackled with sexual tension. Was she seducing him or was he seducing her? Wait. Was she trying to seduce him? No. She wasn’t. That was dangerous, and yet somehow her eyes went to his mouth, that seductive, punishing, pleasing mouth. Dangerous didn’t seem to matter anymore. All she could think about was how much she wanted that mouth on her body, how good it would feel. How good he would feel. She was pretty sure she’d thought these things were all bad ideas a few minutes ago but she couldn’t remember why.

  “There’s a whole lot more than me to fear, Kara.”

  Her gaze jerked to his and reality slammed back into her. If he only knew just how true those words were, and suddenly she was angry with him for his involvement in all of this and for making her actually want to believe he could be saved. “Maybe it’s you who should be afraid of me.”

  His mouth curved in a sardonic smile before he grabbed her vanity chair from beside her changing panel, and sat it and then himself, directly in front of her. “Why don’t you tell me why that would be, Kara? Enlighten me.”

  Her anger deflated instantly. Oh, crap. Something in his tone had her doing a double take. Did he know the truth about her? “Because,” Kara said, driving forward with her intended point, albeit missing the bite of anger she’d been embracing previously, “I see too much. I know there’s more to you than what you’re doing for Mendez. Or maybe there was and there isn’t any longer. How else can you work for a man like Mendez? He’s selling women to the highest bidder and you’re supporting that indirectly.”

  “I’m no more a part of the cartel than you are, sweetheart.”

  “Wrong answer,” she bit out angrily, using his own words. “No one takes the money of these kinds of people without justifying what they’re supporting.”

  “Well, then,” he purred, with a kind of poisoned seductive quality to his voice, “let’s talk about how looks can be deceiving and how you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Ladies first, and I’ll spare you the talking in circles. You say you’re Kara Tatum, a secretary trying to make a living to help your poor, sick mom. I say you’re Kara Michaels, an FBI agent on a vigilante mission.”

  His words blasted through her like a freight train, crushing her chest, and all but flattening her. It was all Kara could do not to flinch. There was no way he could know this unless he had someone inside the feds. “Ex,” she lied in a last-ditch effort to save herself. “I’m ex-FBI.”

  He flattened his hands on the bed on either side of her, his big body crowding hers. “Stop lying to me, Kara. I know you think you have to, but it’s really fucking pissing me off. I can deal with you being FBI. I already suspected it. The lies are another story.”

  “Is that your plea for trust? I’m fucking pissing you off?”

  “I’m done with pleading.” He grabbed her legs and tugged her forward, closing his legs around hers. “Consider this a demand. And just in case you think I don’t know as much as I do… you’re on leave of absence and you’re not on any documented undercover operation.”

  “If you know so much why do I need to tell you anything?”

  “What are you after?” he demanded, ignoring her question.

  “I don’t—”

  “Don’t fucking lie to me again, Kara.”

  “Stop with the fuck fuck fuck!” she exclaimed, grabbing handfuls of his t-shirt. “It’s getting old, Blake, and now you’re pissing me off.”

  A moment of surprise flashed on his too-handsome face that only made her glare harder at him. She didn’t want to desire this man, yet over and over he made her. He glared right back at her. Words were lost to the crackle of electricity between them. Seconds ticked by and with each one she became more aware of him, of how close her actions had brought their bodies, their mouths.

  He cursed softly, and then his hand slid to the back of her head, fingers splaying wide into her hair before his mouth slanted over hers. Kara moaned as his tongue dipped into her mouth, for a fast, hot caress followed by his demand. “You’re going to tell me what I need to know. You know that, right?”

  “You can’t fuck me into telling you,” she replied, trying to sound tough despite the warm tease of his breath against her lips and she failed miserably. Instead, she sounded breathless, and as needy as she felt.

  “I’ll fuck you, sweetheart,” he promised, “because I want to and you want me to. Foreplay is you telling me what you’re after.”

  Heat pooled low in Kara’s belly and rushed through her body, proving this man was dangerously in control of her in ways she should be, not him. He ha
d torn down her mental shields, made her vulnerable in ways she swore she never would be with anyone. “I hate you right now,” she whispered, only she didn’t hate him at all. In fact, she felt more for this man, this dangerously wrong man for her, than she had any before him.

  He laughed low in his throat, a sexy rumble that made her sex clench, a moment before he kissed her again, stroking his tongue against hers in several deep, luxurious caresses. “If that’s how hate tastes,” he murmured against her mouth, “I’m addicted.”

  “I bet you say that to all the FBI agents before you—”

  “Don’t say ‘kill them’ or I might seriously have to—”

  “Spank me?” she challenged, before she could stop herself from her deep need to challenge this man. “You can try but you won’t succeed.”

  Chapter Two

  Kara had barely issued her challenge when she was flat on her back with Blake on top of her and her hands pinned over her head. “Don’t tempt me, Kara,” Blake warned. “That would be a hell of a lot better than killing you, which is what every one of the cartel would do if they heard you were FBI. What the hell were you thinking coming in here alone?”

  Alone was dangerous. Alone made her disappear too easily. “Who says I’m alone?”

  “I know you’re alone. Why, Kara?”

  Kara squeezed her eyes shut and fought her urge to trust Blake, but the fight lasted all of two seconds. She was alone. She was alone and she needed his help. She forced her gaze to his. “I was desperate.”

  “Why would you be desperate?”

  “It isn’t just me on the line here, Blake. You have no idea how much trust I really am putting in you to tell you this.”

  “So you’re not alone?”

  “I am. I’m alone.” More than she ever had been in her life. “It’s…my sister disappeared two months ago. Officials came up clueless and while they promised they were still trying, it wasn’t enough for me.”

  “And your investigation brought you here,” he supplied.