Gray Wolf Security: Back Home

by Glenna Sinclair

  “Who’s this new friend of hers?”

  Carrington shrugged, adjusting the computer so that I could only see him from the chin down. “We think she’s probably an invisible friend. Mina says it’s not unusual for this sort of stress to cause kids to have such friends.”

  Thanks for the input, Mina.

  “She looks good.”

  “She’s six. She doesn’t understand what the hell is going on.”

  “It won’t be forever, Carrington. I promise.”

  “I have a business to run, Joss. I’ll give you a few more days, but then I’m out of here.”

  I nodded because I didn’t see how I had any choice but to accept his ultimatum. My stomach did a flip as I studied his familiar chin, his familiar profile. It hurt just to look at him.

  “I have to go. Mina needs my help with the girls.”

  “Alright. I’ll talk to you later?”

  He didn’t respond. The screen simply went dark. Pretty soon he wouldn’t take my calls and then where would we be?

  I exited out of the Skype app and stood, my stomach not waiting much longer. I went to the bathroom and lost what little breakfast I’d eaten. They said to eat saltines before getting out of bed, but that little trick had never been helpful to me, so I ate before the nausea began, hoping my body would absorb a little of the nutrients before tossing it back up.

  When I came out of the stall and crossed to the sink to wash my hands, Jules was leaning against the wall.

  “Is it cancer?”

  I glanced at her. “Is what cancer?”

  “This sickness. You’ve vomited every morning for more than a week. Are you dying?”

  I hid a smile in a napkin as I cleaned myself up. “No, I’m not dying.”

  “Well, that’s good. I don’t want your job again.”

  “What makes you think you’d get it?”

  “Because I’d be the only one crazy enough to accept it.”

  I inclined my head slightly. “No worries. I don’t plan on going anywhere any time soon.”

  “If it’s not cancer, then it must be something. No stomach flu would last this long, so that’s not it.”

  “It’s nothing, Jules.”

  “It’s something.” She tapped her finger on her lips as she studied me. “You and Carrington aren’t really getting along, so you can’t be pregnant.”

  I glanced at her in the mirror as she said the word. Her eyes widened almost instantly.

  “You aren’t pregnant, are you?”

  “It’s complicated, Jules.”

  “Oh, my God!” She stared at me like she was in the presence of the Virgin Mary herself. “You’re pregnant?’

  “Shh,” I said, moving toward her. “I haven’t told anyone, including Carrington. I don’t want it getting around here.”

  “I won’t tell a soul.” She cocked her head. “You’re really pregnant?”

  “Yes.”

  She squealed and threw her arms around me. “That’s awesome, Joss! I mean, I know the timing is bad, but it’s so awesome! Carrington will be beyond himself when he finds out!”

  I wasn’t sure about that, but I smiled anyway. Jules threw her arms around me and hugged me so tight I couldn’t breathe. And then she stepped back, touching my belly like it was already swollen big with life.

  “I can’t believe we’re going to have another little one running around! Gray Wolf just keeps growing and growing.”

  “It does.”

  But that could change if Mahoney had his way. It was time to get back to work, time to stop him before he could destroy everything that matter to me.

  “Do we have eyes on Todd Michaels yet?”

  Chapter 18

  Thomas

  I could feel the difference in the air the moment I stepped through the door. I ran my hand over my bare scalp, missing the crew cut I’d gotten so used to having. I hated the nose ring too, but there wasn’t much I could do about it now.

  “It’s about fucking time!” Sam yelled as he spotted me coming into the lobby. “I need you to go upstairs and make sure all the girls put clean linens on their beds like I told them.”

  “We’re cleaning house?”

  “Michaels is coming. I don’t want him walking into a pigpen!”

  Sam seemed nervous. I’d never seen him nervous before. It was kind of fun.

  I went upstairs and checked the rooms before heading back down. Peach was coming up as I was taking the steps two at a time.

  “Hey! Where have you been?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You weren’t in your room last night.”

  I had a room here at the motel, one of the perks of the business renting out the entire place. Sam and Jorge had rooms, too, but Jorge rarely used his and Sam preferred moving from one girls’ room to the next. Mine was on the third floor behind the laundry – a hot, sticky place to have a room. But it was safer than going back to Thomas Roberts’ place every night.

  “You came to see me?”

  “I couldn’t sleep. I thought maybe you could help me out.”

  She moved close, touching my chest in a way that was not dissimilar to how Kari had touched me when we parted ways this morning. I let her because I knew it would be easier to allow her touch than it would be to explain why I didn’t want it. But I backed up a step, hoping she might take a hint from that.

  “You weren’t with one of the other girls, were you?”

  I shook my head. “Not last night.”

  “Are you sure? I know you’ve been eyeing that new hostess.”

  I’d thought I’d kept my feelings well hidden, but maybe I hadn’t.

  “I’m all business, Peach. You know that.”

  “All business makes a boy very dull.”

  She stepped into me, running her hand over my chest again before allowing it to dip low on my abdomen. I stepped back again, grabbing her wrist to yank it away from me. Her eyes narrowed as she glared up at me.

  “That’s what I thought,” she said. “You’re getting busy with someone else, aren’t you?”

  “Is it so hard to believe I’m simply not interested in messing up what I’ve got going here?”

  “Very few men have ever resisted me, and most of them did because they had another woman hidden away somewhere. Who is it? You fucking Strawberry? Or Apricot? You doing that fucking hostess?” Her eyes narrowed. I must have reacted, but I didn’t think I had. “It’s the hostess, ain’t it? Fucking bitch! I told her to stay away from you!”

  “Peach—”

  She turned away, running down the stairs before I could catch her. I watched her go, debating whether I should follow or not. But I knew what following would require and I wasn’t that interested in pursuing that course.

  I turned and went back up, choosing to let her have her tantrum on her own time.

  Chapter 19

  Kari

  I slipped into the van with a tray of coffee. Shaw took one gratefully while Audra settled back from the desk and watched me move around the narrow space.

  “I told you not to come.”

  “I wouldn’t miss seeing you guys grab Michaels for all the tea in China.”

  “It might cost that much.” Audra touched a screen on the desk. “There’s half a dozen FBI agents milling around this block alone. The cost of this operation to the tax payers must be astronomical.”

  “Joss really wants this guy, doesn’t she?”

  Shaw snickered a little. “And what Joss wants, Mike Spencer is more than happy to get for her.”

  It had become pretty obvious around the office that Mike Spencer was in love with Joss. I wasn’t surprised, to be honest. She was tough, she was strong, she was independent, and she was also beautiful. She was the perfect catch for some lonely law enforcement official. The only issue was the fact that she was deeply in love with her husband. Not everyone could see it, but I did. I worked with the team that protected Carrington at the beginning of the month. I saw the concern on her fa
ce when she gave us our instructions. She would be devastated if anything happened to the guy.

  And, I had to admit, I could see why. He was handsome and incredibly charming. We’d had a few interesting conversations before I was shifted off his detail to take a more pressing case for the firm. I might have fallen for him if I hadn’t already been falling into Tommy.

  “We just sit here and wait for him to show up?”

  Audra nodded. “Exactly.”

  “It’s going to be a long day,” Shaw said.

  We settled back and watched the monitors. There was clearly new activity inside the motel as everyone rushed around to clean up. Even Sam was off his ass, a surprise to anyone who knew him even a little. That proved how important this visit was. And then the regular johns began appearing, most of whom I’d already met on more than one occasion. I watched them, feeling the same sort of nausea as I felt when forced to speak to them.

  Damn cheaters!

  Sometimes I wondered about my father. Was he married? Did he have kids at home when he knocked my mom up? Was she working a place like this, or was my conception in an alley or the backseat of someone’s car? Did she even know his name?

  Seeing these johns made me wonder how much they had in common with my biological father.

  I had sympathy for the women. They were here because they’d reached a place in their lives where they felt they had no other choice. These men, however, they had a choice. They were making the wrong choice.

  “What happens when he shows?”

  Shaw leaned forward, her coffee between both her hands. “We wait for him to get inside, to say something to the effect of who he is, what he’s there for, and then we give a signal to the waiting FBI agents. They’ll swarm in and arrest everyone: the girls, Sam, Jorge, and whoever happens to be inside at the time.”

  I nodded, aware of what she was trying not to say. They would arrest Tommy, too, if he was inside at the time. It worried me, to be honest, what they might do to Tommy when all this was done. But I also knew that Tommy knew the risks and he was taking them anyway. What could I do to take away from that?

  We waited. And waited. And waited. I sat close to Audra and studied the face of every man who approached the doors of the motel, but never saw one that I didn’t already know, one that didn’t belong to a regular john. I could feel the anticipation every time I leaned close to get a better look at someone, along with the disappointment that replaced it when I shook my head. They’d waited longer than I for this end, but we were all equally disappointed when it looked like Todd Michaels wasn’t going to show.

  At two o'clock in the morning, Sam locked the doors of the motel while Joss let herself into our van.

  “He didn’t show.” Joss looked around at each of our faces. “You’ve done excellent work. This is not a reflection on what you’ve done on this case. It just means we’ll have to keep working.”

  “Do you want me to go back tomorrow?”

  Joss nodded, a worried frown marring her brow. “Are you up to it?’

  “Definitely. I want to help get this guy.”

  “Then I would be forever grateful if you would resume your work inside. If not for you, we wouldn’t have known he was expected today. Maybe you can find out why he didn’t show up.”

  It always feels good being praised by the boss. But, somehow, it felt bigger being praised by this boss.

  Joss touched my knee, squeezing it gently before she stood and headed for the door. “Keep your heads down and don’t get dead.”

  I watched her go, aware of Audra shutting down the surveillance equipment. I got up and stretched.

  “Can I buy you ladies breakfast?”

  “Malik’s expecting me.”

  “Xander, too.”

  I nodded. “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

  I stepped out of the van and walked down the block, taking a roundabout way back to the apartment. I never walked the same way, aware that any of the people we were surveilling could turn the tables and decide to follow me. I glanced over my shoulder a lot, my keys in my hand with one key between my knuckles to use as a weapon should someone attack. I hadn’t brought the .22 with me because it’d been sunny and warm when I left the apartment in my own clothes. It hadn’t occurred to me to be worried about going home because I’d assumed all the bad guys would be locked up by now.

  I should have known better.

  Despite my paranoia, I made it to my little apartment building unmolested. The building was silent, most of the occupants already fast asleep. I paused outside my door, using my key to unlock the new deadbolt Audra had installed.

  I should have been safe once I stepped inside. But that was where the danger lurked. I smelled him before I saw him. Sam, that bottle bulging in the front pocket of his jacket, shoved me hard against the closed door and pulled a dirty canvas bag over my head.

  “Damn cops! And to think I considered fucking you!”

  Chapter 20

  Thomas

  I was halfway to her apartment when I saw Sam’s flashy gold Cadillac going in the opposite direction. He was smoking like a chimney, the front seat of the car engulfed in smoke. As he passed me, he tossed a cigarette out the window, another one already dangling from his lips. He didn’t see me, or at least he didn’t acknowledge seeing me. But he was driving like the devil himself was on his tail. Instinct told me something was wrong.

  I arrived at the run-down apartment building where Gray Wolf had stashed Kari for the duration. It reminded me of some of the places my mother had moved Lisa and me when we were kids. I took the steps two at a time to her door. It was already open when I got there.

  “What the…?”

  I pushed inside and could smell the combination of cigarette smoke and whiskey that was Sam. I cursed under my breath, rushing down the stairs. I don’t know what I thought I was going to do on foot. But I didn’t have to find out.

  My cell rang. It was Sam.

  “I’ve got a delicate matter that needs dealing with. Can you meet me?”

  “Sure, man.”

  “It’s the warehouse on Bayfront Drive. You know the one?”

  I knew it. He’d had me take a couple of kilos of cocaine there a few weeks ago before offering me the job at the motel. It was a test to see what I was willing to do. I must have passed with flying colors.

  “Yeah.”

  “Be there in twenty minutes.”

  He had Kari. I knew he had Kari. What the fuck was he going to do with her? Why? Had she blown her cover somehow? Or was this just Sam doing what Sam does best?

  Either way, I needed to get there and stop it.

  I ran six blocks to the garage where I’d stashed a car in the name of another alias in case I needed a quick getaway. The car had a full tank of gas, with a packet of money and a new set of identification cards in the glove box. I didn’t bother with those, but drove the car out of the garage at a high rate of speed that probably wasn’t wise that late at night, what with the number of security cameras active at the time. But there was something else this car had that I was sure I was going to need: a large arsenal in the trunk.

  I parked a few blocks from the warehouse, taking a Glock and heading down the street, checking the scene out. I could see Kari handcuffed to a chair, a piece of tape over her mouth. Sam was there, but he wasn’t alone. Jorge and another man—a tall, dark man—were standing against a far wall, talking into a cellphone that they were passing back and forth between them.

  I had no idea what was happening, but I knew I was going to need more firepower than this Glock.

  I retraced my steps and went back to the car, digging through the arsenal for ammunition, trying to decide if I could hide a shotgun in my sleeve. It looked so easy on the movies, but I didn’t think it would be practical in this situation. Instead, I tucked another 9mm in the back of my pants, pulling my t-shirt down over it. I filled my pockets with extra clips, each with fifteen rounds. It was bulky, hard to hide, but I didn’t think there
’d be much time for anyone to figure out what was about to hit them.

  I made my way back to the warehouse. Someone had opened a side door and light was flooding out onto the broken concrete beyond. I stood to one side, aware of the voices floating to me from inside. I supposed they felt they were safe to talk here because the warehouse was pretty far out from the nearest neighbor. Most of the property out here was industrial, either closed for the night or abandoned after the mortgage crash all those years ago. There was no one within miles of this place, as far as they knew.

  “Why do I have to find this shit out from Peach, Sam? Don’t you vet your employees?”

  “We put her through the standard interview process.”

  “Oh, you mean you fucked her?” The first speaker scoffed at the notion. “Now I feel like I should apologize to the poor girl.”

  “Wasn’t me. It was the new guy. Malcolm. It was sort of his interview, too.”

  “The one who then fell for the girl and got her to text him the address of her safe house? Brilliant strategy, Sam.”

  “I didn’t know they were fucking, Todd.”

  Todd?

  “Clearly they were. And poor Peach got jealous. She stole this phone from his room last night.”

  “What else is on it?”

  There was silence for a moment while I tried to remember if there was anything incriminating on my phone. I couldn’t remember anything, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t.”

  “Proof that this fool was sleeping with your hostess isn’t enough?”

  “You said she was with Gray Wolf. How do you know?”

  “Because I know my shit!”

  There was a pause in which I could hear a little scuffling. Sounded like Sam was getting a little bit of his own medicine. I was beginning to like this Todd Michaels.

  “I’m sorry,” Sam said, his voice more submissive than before. “I was just curious.”

  “I was parked outside her place when she left this morning. I recognized her from research I did into Gray Wolf after Case died.”