Gray Wolf Security: Back Home

by Glenna Sinclair

  “Let’s hope it does.”

  I closed the file to hand it back to him, but he waved me off. “Keep it. I have copies.”

  “Thanks, Mike.”

  He waved a hand, picking up his case and heading toward the door. “Good luck on the stitches tomorrow. Let me know if you need anything.”

  “I will.”

  He glanced at me, his eyes lingering on my face. “I meant what I said, Joss. You have friends.”

  “I know. And I appreciate it. I do.”

  He sighed as he turned and stepped through the door. I thought I heard him say something to Jules that sounded an awful lot like take care of her. I would have resented it if I wasn’t already too exhausted to get worked up about much of anything.

  I turned back to the pile of work on my desk, my gaze falling to the file he’d left behind. I opened and studied the woman’s face once again.

  “Who are you?” I asked softly. “Are you going to screw up my investigation? Are you going to be the reason we don’t get these fools out of our city?”

  She looked like a nice lady. I picked up the file and began reading through the articles, taking note that her murder took place ten years ago, about the time Clint Butler would have been in Florida working undercover with the Mahoneys. I wondered what he knew about this woman.

  Would it be worth his time for me to ask?

  Chapter 13

  Kari

  Audra arrived on my doorstep a little after nine, a smile on her freshly-scrubbed face.

  “You called?”

  I gestured for her to come in, glancing around the small, dingy apartment like it belonged to me and I could control the nastiness of it all. If this was my apartment, it certainly wouldn’t be so dark and the furniture wouldn’t be so broken.

  “I’m sorry to get you out so early, but I wanted to ask a favor that I didn’t think should be requested over the phone.”

  Audra inclined her head, curiosity battling with concern on her expressive face.

  Audra was not part of my group of new recruits who traveled to Wyoming to train for Gray Wolf, but she was here when we got back. We worked a couple of simple cases together, guarding a CEO who was being stalked by her ex-husband and providing security for an actor who brought his family to Santa Monica for a brief vacation. She was easy to talk to, someone I might have been friends with in high school. She was a little on the reserved side at first, but she opened up about her story after a while, telling me all about the first case she took for Gray Wolf, about the man she’d met in the process.

  It was that man I wanted to know more about now.

  “You told me that your boyfriend worked with Sam Wilson and Jorge Martinez before?”

  Audra wrapped her arms around her body, watching me closely. “He did,” she said cautiously.

  “Did Sam ever talk to him about the murders he’s committed?” I tilted my head even as I saw alarm begin to dance across her face. “Sam seems like the kind of guy who would brag.”

  “I’m sure he did, but Xavier isn’t the type to encourage that sort of thing.”

  “But, do you think he heard anything?”

  “Why, Kari?”

  “If I was at home, I’d go on the internet. Or I’d go to the office, but I can’t really do that. I can’t even go to the library!” Frustration burned through my body, making my hands shake. “I need information and I don’t know how else to get it.”

  “What information? For who?”

  Audra was crossing the room toward me, but I backed up, dodging her with a little sidestep.

  “I just need to know about the women Sam killed in his past.”

  “Why?”

  I shook my head. “Please, Audra, could you set up a meeting? Let me talk to him?”

  “I could have him over here in five minutes, but I need to know why.”

  She’d dropped her arms to her sides, looking every bit the former Army soldier she was with her bare arms showing the muscle definition, her stance showing respect, but vibrating with the tension of wariness.

  “I need to know why he’s there. He said—”

  “Who? Roberts?”

  I nodded.

  “Kari,” she said softly, coming toward me again. I let her this time, let her rest a hand lightly on my shoulder. “He’s not your responsibility.”

  “I just need to know.”

  She hesitated as she studied me. “And you think it’s because of Sam Wilson?”

  “He told me.”

  She frowned, the creases in her forehead making her look younger rather than older. “When?”

  “Last night. We met—”

  “Kari! That was a stupid thing to do! Don’t you realize how much trouble you’d be in if someone from that motel saw the two of you together? You could have blown your cover!”

  “But I didn’t.”

  She shook her head, stepping back away from me. “I’ll have to tell Joss about this.”

  “I know.”

  She stared at me for a long moment, the edge of her eyes softening after a moment. “He said it was because of Sam Wilson?”

  “Because of his murder victims. He told me to research them.”

  She nodded slowly. “Xander would know some. I don’t know how much.”

  “Would he be willing to talk to me?”

  “There’s only one way to find out.”

  ***

  Audra was right about how quickly she could get him there. He knocked on the door less than five minutes after her call, so tall and handsome that he made the room seem even smaller and dingier than it’d been before his arrival.

  “Hi, darlin’,” he said sweetly to Audra, brushing his lips heartbreakingly tender over hers. I couldn’t help but watch, my heart breaking as I remembered how that kind of kiss felt.

  “Xander, this is Kari Reyes. She’s a colleague from Gray Wolf.”

  He turned to me, taking me in with a single glance, clearly pleased to meet one of his girlfriend’s coworkers.

  “Nice to finally have a face to put to the name,” he said with a big smile and one of those warm, slightly uncomfortable hugs new acquaintances share.

  Audra tugged his arm and pulled him over to the stained couch. He didn’t even look at it before he settled down, more interested in me.

  “Audra says you need information?”

  “We’re on a case involving Sam Wilson.”

  Xander’s expression darkened. He glanced at Audra. “You didn’t tell me that.”

  “I told you it involved Mahoney’s people. He’s one of them.”

  “But, Audra—”

  I cleared my throat, drawing his attention back to me. “I need to know whatever you can tell me about his past, specifically the crimes he’s committed.”

  Xander frowned, marring that beautiful face. “That would be a long conversation.”

  “I’m most interested in the women he’s murdered.”

  “Still long.” Xander dragged a hand over his head, glancing at Audra again. “How far back did you want to go?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  He took a deep breath, his fingers curling around Audra’s as he thought about what he knew. “Well,” he said slowly, “I can tell you next to Rahul Rush, Sam Wilson was the man who I worried most about when the girls were around. He liked to brag about how many women he’d killed. Fifteen, he told us. But I wouldn’t be surprised to find out if there were more.”

  “What did he say about them?”

  Xander shrugged. “He was a bragger, but he didn’t give many details. And almost never names.” He grew quiet for a moment. “But there was one he gave both, name and details. I think he was particularly impressed with himself when it came to this woman because he’d avenged a wound to his pride. And Rahul back it up. The two of them had worked together for years and they were working this nightclub in Miami when it happened.”

  He dragged his hand over his head again, clearly struggling to bring the stor
y to the forefront of his mind. “She was the night manager when they took over and they hadn’t yet brought in their own manager, I guess. Normally they replace the existing employees with people they can trust. They never wanted to leave anything to chance.” He tilted his head slightly. “I can’t remember what it was they were doing at that particular club, but I remember him telling me that this woman wouldn’t have been there much longer, anyway. Too efficient. Too by-the-book, you know. Too much trouble for a group of criminals.”

  “Was that why…?”

  He shook his head. “No. I guess there was an incident. This waitress, she was a redhead and Sam has this thing for redheads.” He looked at me, sobering a little. “I guess you already know that, though.”

  “I do.”

  “Well, this waitress, she didn’t appreciate his advances, so he thought he’d just take what he wanted. He cornered her in the supply room at the back of the nightclub while the place was busy, at a time when someone was less likely to come to her rescue. And when he was done, he just left her there. I guess the manager found her and spent the night at the hospital with her. The next day, she lets herself into the club, marches up to Sam, and kicks him in the balls. Tells him he’s a rapist pig and if he ever touches another of her girls, she’s going to castrate him. Tough lady.” Xander glanced at Audra. “But, of course, Sam didn’t appreciate it, especially since she did it in front of Rahul and a couple of Mahoney’s other men – men high in the organization who then had cause to wonder if Sam was up to the responsibilities given to him. From the way Rahul put it, Sam had two choices: he could take that woman out, or he could disappear. That’s how bad it was.”

  “He took her out.”

  Xander inclined his head. “That’s what he tells everyone. Took her out to this beachfront cabin a friend of his let him borrow, tortured her a little, and then shot her. At least, that’s how he tells it.” Xander let go of Audra’s hand and slipped his phone out of his pocket, scrolling through it for a few minutes. Then he held it out to me. “I got curious and looked it up once while I was still working The Red Door. I would have loved for it to prove he didn’t do what he said, but found the opposite.”

  I took the phone and studied the webpage he’d pulled up. It was a story about a woman found near a Miami beach a little over two years ago. Her body was badly decomposed, but they had enough to determine that she’d been shot three times, once in the chest, once in the pelvis, and once in the head. It was impossible to tell how far about each wound was inflicted, but I found myself imagining the worst. He would have wanted her to suffer.

  Her name was Lisa Boyles. She was the manager of Colony Nights when she disappeared, a nightclub that had been long closed by the time they found her body. The article then rehashed the search that had taken place after Ms. Boyle’s brother had reported her missing more than a month after she failed to show for work. He was home on leave from the Marines.

  Like me, Tommy had an uncommon childhood. He hadn’t gone into foster care like I had, but his mother was a drug addict who would relapse from time to time. And when she did, things were rough enough for him that he didn’t like to talk about it. He never mentioned siblings, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t had one.

  Could this woman be his sister? Was it too much of a coincidence to disregard?

  There were lots of people serving in the Marines at any given time and, I’m sure, a lot of them originated in Florida. But the timing was right. The association with Sam Wilson was right. He said to look him up, to check out his murder victims. Was this what he’d wanted me to find?

  “Did Sam say anything about her family? About her personal situation?”

  Xander shook his head. “Not really. All he cared about was what he’d done to her.”

  I nodded, not really interested in the details.

  “Kari, this is just one victim. The chances that it means anything…”

  I nodded again, forcing a smile in Audra’s direction. “I know.”

  “As far as Joss is concerned, Thomas Roberts is a rogue agent. He’s—”

  “Thomas Roberts? Is that what this is all about?” Xander suddenly sat forward, reaching for his phone. I handed it to him and watched as he pulled up something else. “Thomas worked my case when I was at The Red Door. I happened to see him confront Rahul and I recorded it, thinking it might be important some time down the road.”

  He held out the phone again, starting a video that was grainy and poorly lit. I could just make out the shape of someone’s head, the light from the end of a cigarette barely enough to expose a crooked nose, the kind of crooked that comes with having had the nose broken on multiple occasions. The man was leaning back against the outside wall of some building, watching someone come toward him, clearly tense despite his casual position.

  “You hang out here a lot,” he said to the approaching figure.

  “Like the girls.”

  “Don’t we all.”

  The other figure came closer. He was tall, muscular, the kind of man who looks like he works out ten hours a day. He paused in front of Rahul, kicking at the stone on the ground with his hands buried deep in his jeans pockets. I knew him immediately, recognized the way his shoulders bowed, the tilted way in which he held his head as he watched his companion.

  “You know that other guy? The fat, balding guy who works here?”

  Rahul’s curiosity seemed to be piqued. His head came up even as the cigarette fell from his fingers. “Sam?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What about him?”

  “He’s a little handsy with the girls, don’t you think?”

  Rahul laughed. “Sam’s just doing his job.”

  “That include killing women who cross him?”

  Rahul’s laughter died and he pushed away from the wall, stepping toward Tommy. “What the fuck does that mean? You accusing him of something?”

  “Not a damn thing he doesn’t deserve to be accused of.”

  “You better back off, friend.”

  “He ever in Florida? Near a club called Colony Nights?”

  Rahul shoved Tommy in the shoulder. “I don’t know who you are, but you’d better back the fuck off!”

  Tommy tilted his head. “You tell Sam that his time is growing short, brother.”

  “I’m not your brother! Get the hell away from my club.”

  Tommy held up his hands, showing he meant no harm. “Just a friendly warning, friend. That’s all it is.”

  I looked up at Xander. “When did this happen?”

  He tilted his head to the side as though it would help him remember. “Three or four nights before Rahul, Case, and some of the others were arrested for the girls at the port. Tommy had come by to pick up some documents I’d copied from the office for the FBI. We had this system where I’d leave documents in a cubby under one of the VIP tables and one of the agents would wander in during the night and pick them up. It worked well. I don’t think Rahul ever noticed.”

  “Stupid of him to confront Rahul,” Audra said. “I’m surprised Sam doesn’t remember him.”

  “Sam spent most of the nights up on the second floor, watching the girls. If someone was on stage dancing, he never would have noticed a guy even if the idiot pulled a gun and shot the place up.”

  “I’m sure Sam gets threats like that all the time, anyway.”

  Audra shrugged, agreeing with me because she’d been listening to him through her surveillance to know I was right.

  “Now we know why, mostly,” I said, handing Xander back his phone. “And we know how far he’ll got to take Sam down. But now I’m wondering if taking him down is all Tommy’s up to.”

  “He’s a good cop,” Xander said. “All the time I was informing on Rahul and the others at The Red Door, I felt there was only a couple of FBI agents I could trust. He was one of them. He never did anything to make me change my mind.”

  “Yes, well, going rogue has a way of changing a lot of people’s minds.”

  Xa
nder’s eyebrows rose at Audra’s declaration. “He’s gone rogue?”

  “He’s after Sam, on his own,” I explained. “And he’ll do anything to get him.”

  Xander nodded. “That I believe. But Tommy going rogue? He must have a damn good reason.”

  “I think Lisa Boyles is the reason. I’m just not sure why.”

  Audra sat up, pulling herself to her feet. “I don’t think the why matters. Tommy is an unknown in an already dangerous operation. He’s in the way, an enemy until he proves himself otherwise. And after what he did to you…” Audra shot me a dark look. “I don’t know why you even care. You should treat him just like Sam and Jorge and anyone else who walks through those doors.”

  “He’s not like them.”

  Audra just shook her head, but Xander grabbed her hand and pulled her back toward the couch.

  “She’s right, babe. Tommy is trustworthy. If he’s there without permission, it’s for a reason.”

  “You don’t go rogue, no matter the reason.”

  “You wouldn’t even do it for me?”

  Xander stood and moved close to her, his hands moving lightly over her arms. The way she looked up at him, it made my heart break with the tenderness I saw there. I got up and left the room, giving them a second alone, my thoughts with Tommy. I didn’t know if I should trust him, didn’t know if I should believe anything he’d told me. I caught him in three lies last night, each one just as bad as the first. He lied to me like he was telling a bedtime story to a child, the words coming so easily to his lips. How was I supposed to tell the difference between his lies and his truth?

  But the thing was, I knew I could. He was different, but deep down he was still the same Tommy I’d known all these months, the same Tommy I’d invited into my bed just weeks ago. He was a good man, I could feel it.

  And I was going to help him take Sam down despite Joss and Audra and Shaw and anyone else who felt the need to tell me I shouldn’t trust him.

  ***

  I walked into the motel a few hours later, expecting to find Tommy on the front desk, but he wasn’t there. Emma was, eyeball-deep in paperwork. Sam was sitting in his usual place, watching the activity already taking place in one of the upstairs rooms. There weren’t any johns allowed in until after three, but that didn’t stop the girls from seeking each other out for a little afternoon delight. Two of the girls were doing just that, clearly performing for the camera everyone knew was installed in each of the rooms.