Agent Undone

by Cassidy Reyne

  Their guests were having a good time, and Carter could see other customers eyeing them and staring wide-eyed at the amount of cash that was thrown around. A couple of them even joined their group and Carter was happy to let the word spread about Seattle’s newest playboy. Nate made sure they had some women come join them as well to even things out, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Everyone except Carter and Nate, although they didn’t let it show. Neither of them were club goers and much preferred a few beers with friends in a quiet bar somewhere. This was work, and they would play their roles to perfection until the op was done.

  A few hours in, their guests were more than a little drunk, and a couple of them were still busy keeping the dance floor alive. The others were chatting up some women who’d joined them and knocking back shots of tequila amidst raucous laughter. Both Nate and Carter had had enough and left after settling the bill which had run into a couple of thousand dollars. Carter added another thousand to cover anything else the men they left behind might consume. He told Gary to give anything left over of the cash to the waitresses as tips.

  “You’ve been very generous this evening, Mr Henderson.” Gary remarked as he accepted the money and rang up the register. Carter leaned against the bar, acting as if he’d had plenty to drink, and just waved a hand in the air.

  “Gotta keep the clients happy, you know? And if the girls serving them are happy, my guests will be happy, and if my guests are happy, hopefully the company will be too when they sign the big, fat checks we’re gonna put in front of their noses tomorrow.” He shrugged and shot the barman a wide grin. Gary just shook his head and muttered something about it being better working as a lowly bartender than being a suited shark in a fancy boardroom. Carter laughed and said he was probably right, but at least the money made up for having to wear that suit every day.

  Nate and Carter decided to leave it a week or so before they went back to Overdrive. Nate went to both The Hole and Club 99 instead to check them out and told anyone who asked who he worked for. He spent pockets full of cash buying drinks for everyone he talked, claiming it all came from Marcus Henderson. He was careful to say it was Mr Henderson’s private money and not Titan’s cash that was being thrown around the club. They didn’t want Titan Industries to get a bad reputation before they'd even managed to establish themselves in the region. It was a difficult line to walk, but it had to be done. No one wanted to destroy Titan’s name and ruin their chances in the Pacific Northwest.

  All three of them stuck to their covers for the next few weeks while going out for dinners at Seattle’s trendiest restaurants, attending parties and events held by wealthy clients and acquaintances, before they returned to Overdrive. This time it was to celebrate ‘Tatiana’s’ birthday. Nate had brought one of the girls from the office and the four of them had a fun evening with plenty to drink and even some dancing. Carter took the opportunity to speak with Gary, who was on duty behind the bar, about the possibility of meeting the owner.

  “Hey man. How’s it going? Do you work seven days a week? You’re always on duty whenever I come in here. Your boss must be a real slave driver.” Carter chuckled as he sipped his ice-cold vodka.

  Gary chuckled. “No, I do six days on and two days off for three weeks and then I get five days off in a row. I don’t mind the hours and having almost a whole week off every so often allows me to visit my folks in Vancouver. My brother is there with his family as well.”

  “You’re Canadian? I’d never have guessed.” Carter tried to think if he’d noticed a slight accent in the barman’s speech but didn’t think so.

  “Nah, they moved there a few years ago after my brother married a Canadian girl. Once they had grandchildren, my mom and dad wanted to be closer so they could see them. As I don’t have any kids it kind of made sense, and it’s not that far from here so I can see them as often as I want to.”

  “What’s your boss like? Does he turn up here in the evenings?”

  “Sure, Mr Peeters is usually here at the weekends and most weekday evenings as well. He’s away for a few days right now — buying another club somewhere, I think — or he would have been here tonight.”

  “Do you think you could introduce us? I have a business arrangement I’d like to discuss with him.” Carter tried to sound nonchalant as if he made deals with drug dealing sex traffickers every day. Gary cocked his head and studied him for a minute before nodding and telling him to come back the following Friday. He would make sure Carter got an introduction. Satisfied with the arrangement, Carter returned to their booth and gave Nate and Caroline a slight nod to confirm the meeting was happening.

  As they sat drinking their champagne, laughing and joking, Carter couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like if it had all been real, if he’d had Madison by his side and not a pretend girlfriend. At that thought, his mood plummeted but he tried to shake himself out of it before it affected his behavior. This op was too important to get screwed up by memories of a girl he barely knew, let alone had any feelings for. Because he didn’t have any feelings for Madison, he told himself over and over. Love ‘em and leave ‘em, he repeated in his head.

  They’d now been in Seattle for four months, and Carter was getting impatient and wanted to move the operation forward. A meeting with Konrad Peeters would do exactly that and hopefully afterwards they could plan their takedown of him in more detail.

  They waited impatiently for Friday to arrive and were only mildly distracted by their long days in the offices of Titan Industries, filled as they were with meetings, contract signings, and endless amounts of paperwork.

  Nate and Carter met for a coffee in the afternoon to go over their strategy for the evening.

  “What are we going to do if Peeters doesn’t show or if he won’t play ball?” Nate asked, leaning back in his chair and crossing his legs with an ankle resting on his knee.

  “He will, I have no doubt. Money hungry scumbags like him won’t be able to resist the cash we will be offering. I saw the look on the barman’s face. He will let him know exactly the kind of thing we’re after. Peeters won’t miss an opportunity like this one, I guarantee it.”

  “I guess. I just really want to get this op over and done with. I hate the waiting around, and having to wear a straitjacket every day is not my idea of fun.” Nathan grimaced at the thought of having to put his suit on every day until they had thrown Konrad Peeters in jail and lost the key somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Carter could only agree with him.

  The limo service dropped them off outside the club that evening and, despite the long line of people waiting to get inside, as soon as they stepped foot on the sidewalk, the bouncers immediately removed the velvet rope that blocked the entrance and ushered them in. Nate and Carter glanced at each other in silent understanding. They were clearly expected, so there was no doubt their meeting with Peeters was going ahead. Carter drew a sigh of relief. The mission was grating on his nerves as well, and he just wanted to get away from Seattle. The whole mission was leaving a nasty smell on his skin that he couldn’t scrub off. Although he was only pretending to want to buy underage girls and large amounts of drugs, it left a nasty taste in his mouth. They were shown to a booth along one of the walls where they had a good overview of the whole room. Nearly every table in the VIP lounge was occupied, and the dance floor was heaving with gyrating bodies. The volume was cranked up to an all-time high, and Nate and Carter had to speak close to each other’s ears to make themselves heard.

  A waitress made her way between the tables with a bottle of champagne on ice and several glasses in her hands. It looked an impossible balancing act, but the girl put it all down in front of them without a single glass toppling over. Carter looked at her with an eyebrow raised in question.

  “It’s on the house, Mr Henderson. If you prefer something else, please let me know and I’ll have it brought over to you.” The pretty young woman gave them both a sparkling smile before walking off, hips swinging over legs ending in high stiletto heels. H
er short skirt left little to the imagination, and her blouse had been unbuttoned to show a deep cleavage. Both Nate and Carter made sure to leer after her as she sauntered away, skirting the dance floor as she went, before disappearing through a door marked ‘Office’ in the far corner of the lounge. A moment later, the door opened again and a man of medium height with sharp features stepped out and headed for the bar. Nate and Carter watched him out of the corners of their eyes as he appeared to be engrossed in deep conversation with Gary.

  “Mr Henderson, how nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you in the last few weeks. You seem to have quickly become one of my most loyal guests.” The average looking man stopped by the booth and put out his hand to Carter. “My name is Konrad Peeters, and I am the owner of this nightclub.”

  “Mr Peeters, good to meet you, too.” Carter bit back the revulsion he felt at shaking the man’s limp grip. A person’s handshake could tell a lot about them, and this one said Peeters was weak and cowardly, something he clearly hid very well behind his bully tactics and overly confident manner. Carter already couldn’t stand him and had to force himself to smile. He was glad Nate had gone to the gents’ just before Peeters turned up or he would have squeezed the man’s hand till the bones were nearly breaking. The man had a grip rivaling the Hulk’s.

  “Konrad, please. I don’t stand on formalities.”

  “Of course, Konrad.” Carter deliberately didn’t ask him to use ‘Marcus’ as he wanted to keep the advantage of being superior to this creep.

  “I hear you might be looking for a few of the extra benefits my establishment can provide?” Peeters gave him a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

  “I might be. I have some very discerning clients who sometimes like to enjoy the ‘extra benefits’ as you called them. It all depends on the quality.”

  “Why don’t we schedule a proper meeting and discuss this as business men? I’m not too fond of doing it in the middle of my club.”

  “Certainly, I’ve never conducted any kind of business in a club or other leisure establishment, and I won’t start now. Why don’t you call my office and we can arrange a time and place?” Carter handed Peeters his business card and prepared to leave. He caught a flash of annoyance sweeping over the other man’s face before he reined himself in and nodded in agreement.

  Carter walked out of the club and onto the street where he took a few deep breaths to clear his lungs of the foul stench that surrounded Konrad Peeters. The man was every bit as loathsome as his bio had suggested. He hadn’t said or done anything to confirm the information, but there was an aura about the man that Carter had immediately detested.

  “What a disgusting creep. You can smell the nastiness a mile off. I watched from a booth further along. I didn’t want spook him.” Nathan joined him on the sidewalk.

  “Yeah, he’s a real piece of shit, that one.”

  “I can’t believe we have to deal with this guy. I wish we could just go in, grab the girls, and send him to jail where he belongs. Fuck! I hate these assignments. They make my skin crawl.”

  “The sooner we get things set up, the sooner we can bust this thing wide open and go back home.”

  “Fuck, yes. The sooner the better. The less time I have to spend with a noose around my neck, the happier I’ll be.” Nathan’s preferred attire was a worn t-shirt and equally worn jeans. Unless it was summer and hot, then it was a worn t-shirt and a pair of worn shorts. For him, dressing up meant an open necked shirt and a pair of less worn jeans. His closet was full of different variations on the same theme. Carter sniggered at his buddy’s grousing over having to wear a suit. He didn’t mind so much, but jeans and a shirt was always the more comfortable option. As their driver pulled up to the sidewalk, Carter was glad to jump into the back of the limousine and return to his temporary home. Nathan slid in next to him and immediately closed his eyes. The man could fall asleep at the drop of a hat, and Carter envied him. Just recently, he’d found himself lying awake for far too many hours every night. He sighed deeply as he leaned back against the soft leather seats and thought that he’d never been looking forward to seeing the end of an assignment as much as he did with this one.

  The following Monday afternoon, Carter and Nate finished a meeting with their new Heads of Department before returning to Carter’s office for a coffee and a quick chat about how the projects that Titan had on the books were going. Carter’s PA had left him a stack of messages and one of them was from Peeters. He suggested meeting on Thursday, in three days’ time, at 11 am.

  “What do you think? Should I agree to it, or let him sweat for a bit?” Carter asked. He went and stood by the large windows overlooking Elliot Bay and Puget Sound. It was raining, as usual, and visibility was low due to the gray clouds.

  “Let him wait. We call the shots here and he needs to know it. Where are we going to set up the meet? We can’t really do it here, it’s too risky. Word might get out and questions we don’t want to answer will be asked.” Nate paced back and forth in the spacious office.

  Despite the gloomy weather, the large windows let in enough light to make it feel airy and comfortable. As the CEO, Carter had a corner suite with his own private bathroom and a small bedroom adjoining the office. He had yet to make use of the bedroom, but having his own facilities was a nice luxury he could easily get used to if he ever decided to become a paper pusher. Something that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. He loosened the top button of the crisp dress shirt he was wearing and removed his tie. He flung it on the small sofa and sank down in his high-backed leather chair behind the desk.

  “You’re right. We can’t do it here, but it would look strange if we tried to do it somewhere more public, so I guess it’ll have to be at the club.” He clasped his hands behind his head and looked up at the ceiling. “I hate this op. I just want it to be over. We’ve been here for over four fucking months now. It’s a nice enough city, but I can’t stand the weather. It’s so damned depressive. Does the sun ever shine here?” Carter rubbed his jaw and raked his fingers through his wavy hair, making some strands stand on end before they fell back into place.

  “I have no idea what the sun even looks like anymore. My skin is going pasty white and my clothes always feel a bit damp. I can’t believe so many people live here. I need to go back east and soak up some sunshine. I might even take a trip down to the Keys for a few days. Wanna join me?” Nate looked at Carter who seemed to be a million miles away. “Hey. You still with me?”

  “Yeah, yeah. I’m still here, I think.” Carter blinked a few times before re-focusing and sucking in a deep breath. “Let’s have the meeting in Konrad’s office, even though we said we wouldn’t do it in the club. That’ll put him at ease, and he might be a bit more forthcoming with what he has to offer. I’ll get it set up.”

  Nathan nodded and left Carter’s office to go back to his own and torture himself with more paperwork. Yet another thing to hate about this op. It was just paperwork on top of paperwork, every damned day.

  Carter asked his PA to call Peeters back and tell him he couldn’t do Thursday but was available the following Monday at 2 pm. He was willing to come to Overdrive if it suited Peeters better. It only took five minutes for the return phone call confirming the day and time. Peeters was only too happy to conduct the meeting in his office. Carter let Nate know and they both agreed Konrad Peeters was very eager for this to be successful. He had no idea the only ones who would ultimately be successful were Carter, Nate and the rest of the American people when a drug dealer and sex trafficker was off the streets and rotting in a jail cell for the rest of his life.

  By Monday morning, Nate and Carter had a plan put in place for trapping Peeters with both the girls and drugs in one place. They left for the meeting that afternoon determined to get Peeters to show his hand and tell them exactly what the ‘extra benefits’ were that he could offer. They needed confirmation that it really was what they suspected, and that he was in fact the main supplier in the greater Seattle area. If
possible, they wanted to wrap up the whole Pacific Northwest network if they could establish that he was the head of that as well, or at least connected to it.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Mr Henderson, nice to see you again. Gary didn’t inform me there would be two of you when he told me about your request.” Konrad Peeters pulled himself up to his full height, several inches shorter than both Carter and Nate, to look intimidating.

  “Good afternoon, Konrad. I don’t discuss any potential business deals without my right-hand man present. If Mr Townsend’s being here is cause for concern, we can discontinue this conversation right now. No harm, no foul. I have several other interested parties who are more than willing to provide what I’m looking for.”

  “No, of course not. Mr Townsend is very welcome. I was just a bit surprised, is all.”

  “Thank you, that’s very accommodating of you. I can assure you, we take all our business dealings very seriously.” Carter leaned back in the chair and studied Peeters with a hard stare. The man squirmed slightly under his scrutiny but didn’t back down completely. Carter found this interesting. The man obviously had some balls under that smarmy exterior of his, and Carter couldn’t wait to crush them.

  “So, gentlemen. What exactly are you looking to provide your clients with?” Konrad Peeters looked at them with a gleam in his eye.

  “Why don’t you show us what you’ve got and then we can make a more informed choice.” Carter stared straight at Peeters, challenging him to show his cards. They needed him to make the first move or it might not hold up in court. They were both wearing hidden recording devices that couldn’t be detected by the type of commercial scanners Carter had spotted the security guards using on a previous visit.