Gray Wolf Security: Back Home

by Glenna Sinclair

  I was going to kill that man. If I did nothing else during my time here, I was going to kill Sam Wilson for that.

  Chapter 9

  Kari

  I stumbled blindly out of the hotel, the feel of Sam Wilson’s hand on my ass still warm and solid. I barely made it more than a dozen yards before the light breakfast I’d eaten hours ago made a second appearance, bright red liquid flowing from between my lips. That’s the last time I ate strawberries for a while.

  I turned the corner, aware Shaw and Audra were waiting for me another block down, but needing a moment to myself. My head was spinning the sunlight too bright for me to comprehend. My body hurt and I didn’t want to think about why, didn’t want to remember his hands on me. I stumbled into the wall, threw up again, and sank to my knees. There was so little left in my stomach that it was more dry heaves than anything else.

  Hands touched my shoulders and I cried out, striking out on instinct.

  “Stop, Kari! It’s Audra!”

  I nearly clipped her in the throat before her words sank in. She wrapped a sweater around my shoulders and helped me to my feet, pulling me toward a sedan parked on the street a few blocks away. I don’t know how I made it that far, but I did. I sank in the front passenger seat and pulled into myself, shaking like it was below zero outside rather than a balmy seventy-five.

  “I’m going to take you to a hospital. We’ll file a report—”

  “No!”

  “Kari, he hurt you. We could hear it over the damn mic!”

  I shook my head. “You can’t. It’ll blow the whole case.”

  “I don’t care! He hurt you!”

  “Don’t make all that I went through for nothing.”

  She stared at me, uncertainty written all over her face. “I have to do something.”

  “No, you have to take me to the apartment and let me pull myself together.”

  “Kari—”

  “Please, Audra. Just take me back to the apartment.”

  She hesitated, concern and anger mixed on her face. But then she sighed, burning a little rubber as she pulled out into traffic. She wouldn’t leave me alone once we were at the dingy, depressing little apartment they had rented specifically for this case. She followed me into the bedroom, watched as I stripped and climbed into the shower. She might have gotten into the shower with me if I’d allowed her, but eventually settled on the lid of the toilet, waiting for me to stop scrubbing his scent from my skin and get out.

  How ironic was it that the last time I’d been with Tommy was in the shower? Now I was washing him off me, the pain he’d inflicted still pulsing all over my body.

  She dressed the small cut on my cheek from when he hit me and brushed my hair after I’d dressed in a heavy sweater and long pants that were much too warm for the weather. I chose them for their bulkiness, which comforted me. She slipped me a pill once I was settled on the bed, swearing it was for pain, but the drowsiness that settled on me almost immediately suggested otherwise.

  I slept off and on, aware of her sitting in a chair near the bed at one point, of her pacing at other times, of her voice as she spoke on the phone another. I was pretty sure I heard her say Joss’ name, afraid that she was trying to get me off this case. I pushed back the pain and humiliation of what I’d gone through for a moment, but then the drowsiness of the pill kicked in again.

  When I finally woke, clearheaded, it was dawn. Audra was asleep on the couch in the teeny living room, the sweater she’d draped over me on the street balled up under her head like a pillow. I crossed to the kitchen, taking a water bottle from the fridge. The sight of all the fresh fruit and vegetables that occupied the majority of the fridge’s shelves made my stomach turn. I didn’t think I’d be able to eat again for a while.

  I couldn’t stop replaying that moment over and over in my head, the moment when he turned and I realized it was Tommy standing there in that room. He’d shaved his head and there was an earring he hadn’t had in his nose before that day. And the expression on his face…I almost didn’t know him. I hadn’t known him. He was a different man from the one I knew.

  Why was he there? Was the FBI running an operation on the motel? Was that why those FBI idiots were parked outside?

  That had to be the explanation. I was about to ask when he pressed his hand over my mouth, when he slammed me back against the wall. It wasn’t until he said the word camera that I realized why he was acting the way he was. I should have guessed. Why hadn’t I guessed?

  Because I was so damned shocked to see Tommy there. And relieved all at the same time.

  Tommy wouldn’t hurt me. That was the one thought that paraded around in my mind until he slapped me. But I knew he only did that to stop me from saying something that would give us away. As rough as he was being, the foul trash that was coming out of his mouth, I knew it was an act. But there was this part of me that struggled to believe it.

  Did I really know Tommy that well? Did I really believe he wouldn’t hurt me?

  I wanted to run out of that room, wanted to get as far from him as I could. But I also knew there was a reason, a logical explanation why he was there. Hell, he was probably wondering the same things about me. He knew I worked for Gray Wolf, but he didn’t know the kind of things I did for them. Neither of us could have predicted we’d be working the same case.

  And it was that thought that made things easier to swallow. It was a case. We were both there because our bosses sent us there. We were both playing a role, both walking a thin line in order to take the bad guys down. It might even make it easier to get these guys with Tommy on our side. Two had to be better than one, right?

  It was going to be okay. The hard part was over.

  ***

  “Audra and Shaw are deeply concerned about what happened yesterday afternoon,” Joss said the moment we were alone in her office, her eyes moving over the bruise forming on my cheek. “And, quite frankly, so am I.”

  I stared down at the floor, not sure I could keep it together if I looked her in the eye. “It’s not what everyone seems to think it is.”

  “I listened to the tape, Kari,” Joss said softly. “I don’t think you can call that anything other than rape.”

  I shook my head, glancing up at her. Tears filled my eyes, but I managed to blink them away. “Really, it’s not what you think. There was a camera. He had no choice but to give those people a show.”

  “Why didn’t you use your safe word?”

  “Because I didn’t want to blow my cover! I didn’t want to risk the whole operation.”

  “The operation is not that important. I thought we made that clear to you.”

  Her voice was gentle, but her words were firm. My eyes dropped to the floor again. I didn’t know how to explain it without telling her the truth and I wasn’t sure that was the best thing to do, either. What if she didn’t know Tommy was there? What if she didn’t know what the FBI was up to?

  It looked like she was about to find out. The door burst open then, Mike Spencer rushing over the threshold like he owned the place.

  “We need to talk, Joss!”

  Joss stood to her full height, which was still nearly a full foot shorter than the FBI agent, and stood between he and I like a mother hen protecting her young.

  “Now is not the time, Mike.”

  He glanced over her head at me, his expression tightening when he saw me. “Is that Kari Reyes?”

  He didn’t wait for either Joss or I to answer. “This is the perfect time. This involves her.”

  Joss glanced at me before turning back to him. “Mike—”

  “She lied to your interviewer.”

  That seemed to suck the air out of the room. Mike seemed briefly satisfied with that. And then he held up a photograph of Tommy coming out of my apartment that morning several days ago.

  “This is Thomas Roberts,” he said. “He’s an agent in our office whose been under surveillance for the past six months because of questionable activity involving members
of the Mahoney Cartel. And this,” he said, waving the photograph in my general direction, “is him coming out of her apartment.”

  “Kari?” Joss asked softly.

  “He’s my neighbor. He lives across the courtyard from me.”

  “And they’ve been lovers for more than three weeks.”

  Joss didn’t ask. She just glanced at me, disappointment in her eyes. “Why are you telling us this?” she asked Mike. “We’re in the middle of something.”

  “She lied to your interviewer. She told them she doesn’t have a boyfriend.”

  “I don’t consider him my boyfriend.”

  Joss made a gesture toward Mike, as if saying 'so what?'

  “Thomas Roberts went on vacation three days ago. Our detail outside the Meadow Hills Motel spotted him inside. He’s working with Mahoney’s men.”

  “He’s not working a case?” I couldn’t help but blurt out.

  “No. He’s on his own.”

  I shook my head, the memory of his hand smacking the side of my face flashing through my mind again. “That’s not possible!”

  “He’s gone rogue, Joss,” Mike said, drawing her away from me, but it was such a small room I could still hear everything they said. “And that places this whole thing in jeopardy.”

  “No,” I repeated. “He’s working a case. It might not be sanctioned, but he is!”

  Joss looked at me, her face conflicted. She finally sighed. “I’m pulling you out. I can’t put you in anymore danger.”

  “No!” I jumped to my feet. “We have to finish this case! Those women…we can’t leave them in the clutches of those criminals! And that Michaels guy, you want him found, don’t you? I can do that!”

  “But if this agent—”

  “Tommy’s a good man. If he’s working on his own, he had a good reason.”

  Joss glanced at Mike. He shrugged. “He’s been a good agent in the past, but good agents to go off on their own that way.”

  “He wouldn’t risk his career if he didn’t have a good reason. He loves the FBI.”

  Joss looked from me to Mike, her face a cloud of indecision. “You’ve already been hurt—”

  “It was Tommy.” I brushed a strand of hair that had slipped out of the knot at the back of my head behind my ear, my cheeks aflame. “He was trying not to blow both our covers. He could have blown mine easily, Joss. He knows who I work for, he had to have known I was there on a case. But he didn’t. Doesn’t that say something?”

  “What I heard on that tape—”

  “You had to have heard him tell me about the camera.”

  She hesitated as I struggled to remember if he’d whispered next to the ear with mic in the earring or the other. I knew when I saw recognition on her face which it had been.

  “He did.”

  “Why would he do that if he was working for them? He didn’t need to warn me. And he didn’t have to protect me from that same camera. He kept stepping in front of it, making sure they couldn’t see me. He was trying to keep me safe!”

  “But, Kari, I heard—”

  “Heard what?” Mike demanded, his eyes moving from Joss to me and back again.

  I begged her with a look not to tell him. The fewer people who knew, the better. It was bad enough being aware that that swollen, red-faced clown was watching the whole thing on the video feed from that damn camera. I didn’t need all my coworkers to know, too.

  “Please, Joss,” I said, unashamed of the pleading tone in my voice, “please let me finish this out. Please let me talk to Tommy, find out what’s really going on. I’m telling you, he can be an asset in there!”

  Joss looked at Mike. “I think she’s right,” she told him.

  He shook his head. “And if she’s not? If he realizes we’re watching and takes her out? Who’s responsible for that?”

  “I am.” Joss studied my face for a long moment. “But I trust my operatives. And if she says he’s trustworthy, I say we give him a chance.”

  Mike made a sound that was somewhere between a grunt and a defeated sigh. “He'd better have a goddamn good reason for being in there because he’s facing a hell of a lot of jail time if this goes sideways.”

  “You won’t be sorry,” I assured them both, but I could already see the tension that had settled in Joss’ shoulders.

  “You’ll carry a gun,” she told me. “I don’t care if you have to hide it in your bra, you’ll have a gun on you at all times. I will not have that happen again. And next time there’s a situation of that nature, there won’t be safe words. We’re just going to drag your ass out of there!”

  “Okay.”

  Mike was clearly confused, but there was no confusion between Joss and I. She studied my face a moment longer, then gestured for me to leave.

  “Don’t make me regret this.”

  Those words settled heavy on my soul. I wanted to believe that she wouldn’t—that I wouldn’t—but I wasn’t sure I could make that leap of faith.

  I thought I’d known Tommy, the Tommy who knocked on my door in the middle of the night and turned my world upside down. The Tommy who held me in the shower and touched me with such tenderness that it threatened to break my heart. But that Tommy, the one with the shaved head and the ring in his nose? I didn’t know him at all, yet I’d just risked my career on the hope that I did.

  Please, don’t let me have just made the biggest mistake of my life!

  Chapter 10

  Thomas

  “You should have moved your damn ass, Malcolm,” Sam said, pushing against my shoulder as he watched—for the thousandth time—the video of my encounter with Kari the day before. “Did she have a tight pussy?”

  “The tightest,” I said, swallowing the bile that burned in my throat.

  “I bet.”

  He made a sound that reminded me of the imitation of pedophiles my classmates used to make back in high school. I wanted to sink my fist in his nose, but now wasn’t the time. When the time came, though, I was going to enjoy it more than a decent human being should enjoy that sort of thing.

  I glanced at my watch, aware that if she was going to show up, it would be within the next ten minutes. A part of me hoped she wouldn’t. It was enough what I’d had to put her through yesterday. I’d gone by her place last night, but she wasn’t there. She must have been hiding out somewhere else, a safe house her firm had put her in, maybe.

  Or the hospital.

  Had I hurt her? I kept going over it in my mind, convinced at times that I’d ripped her open in ways a woman should never be hurt, convinced at others that I’d been gentle enough to protect her from such a violation. But I wasn’t really sure which it was.

  I was suddenly no better than the men I’d come here to take down. I’d hurt the one person I wanted less to hurt in order to avenge the only person who ever mattered. When did my life suddenly become this twisted joke?

  “I think this is my favorite part,” Sam said, drawing my attention back to the video on his laptop just as Kari slapped me across the face. He chuckled softly as he watched. “You always let bitches get the better of you, Malcolm?”

  I tilted my head. “Lady had a right.”

  “She knew what was going to happen when she walked into that room. Not your fault she didn’t enjoy herself.” Sam licked his lips like he was looking at a luscious dessert instead of a beautiful woman. “Bet she won’t respond that way when I’m done with her.”

  My fists clutched instantly at my side. “Confident, aren’t you?” I asked between gritted teeth.

  “Redheads are my thing, Malcolm. Besides, these bitches always come running for me eventually. It’s the nature of the beast.” He patted my shoulder lightly. “Don’t worry, you’ll get your share of the action, too, man. These girls…they understand the hand that feeds them.”

  He spoke like we were working in a zoo or something, a place filled with animals rather than human beings. I never wanted to kill him as badly as I did in that moment. But I had to be patient. I had to
have the evidence.

  But, make no mistake about it, I would get him.

  “Gentlemen,” Emma broke into our conversation—if you could call it that—and gestured with a nod toward the doors. Kari, dressed in another short skirt and a white blouse that was transparent enough to allow her dark bra to show from underneath, strutting through the door in a pair of boots with stiletto heels.

  “Well, well,” Sam said, turning to greet her with his hands outstretched, “welcome back, Ms. Summers. I’m thrilled you’ve decided to take the job.”

  “Thank you,” she said with a smile that faltered when she caught sight of the video paused on the laptop. I reached over and slammed the lid down just as the rewound video reached the section in which I demanded she take off her clothes. There was nothing more than the room and my back to be seen, but she recognized it just the same and was clearly not happy to see her humiliation playing out in a public space.

  Our eyes met for a brief second, but then Sam ran his hands along her arms, slipping the backs of his fingers against her breasts as he pretended to be innocently drawing her closer. Kari visibly stiffened, but she didn’t pull away. She forced another smile.

  “You said I would begin my duties today?”

  “Definitely,” I said, reaching for her wrist, tugging her from Sam’s grip. There was a slight tug of war there for a second when Sam shot me a dirty look and refused to let her go, but then he relented.

  “Emma, if you could show Ms. Summers around,” Sam demanded, struggling to keep some semblance of control over the situation. “Explain her duties to her and explain which rooms are currently occupied.”

  “Of course.” Emma came around the desk, shooting a glance at me before gesturing to Kari to follow her. I watched the two of them as they disappeared down the corridor that led to the guest rooms.