Deadly Rumors

by Cheris Hodges

  Carver pocketed her broken phone. “Yes, ma’am.” Mission accomplished. After getting the room keys, Carver walked outside and found Zoe pacing like a caged tiger.

  “Here you go,” he said. She snatched the key card from his hand, still glaring at him as if he’d killed her puppy. “Zoe, it’s just a phone.”

  “And you’re just a jackass. Where is the room? I hope we’re on separate floors.”

  “You’re right next door to me. So, don’t invite your little cop friend over for a booty call,” he teased.

  “I really don’t like you.” Zoe sauntered away and Carver was mesmerized by the sway of her shapely hips.

  “Damn,” he muttered, then rushed to catch up with her. “We’re on the third floor.”

  “I see that.” She waved the card in his face. “The number is clearly written on here.”

  “Are you really that mad about your phone?”

  “I will be charging you for it. And I’m talking full retail.” She pressed the up button on the elevator. When the doors opened she stepped on and glared at him. “Take the stairs.” Zoe pressed the button to close the doors and left him standing on the other side.

  Carver didn’t head for the stairs immediately; instead he walked over to the front desk clerk. “Hi. I dropped my key card to room three-sixteen. Can you make me another one, please?”

  The comely clerk smiled at him. “No problem, sir. Are you and your wife going to be okay? Someone said they saw you arguing in the walkway.”

  “It’s nothing a little blue box from Tiffany’s can’t fix.”

  She handed him the key. “Smart man. Good luck.”

  * * *

  Zoe plopped down on the queen-size bed and sighed. She was tired but too keyed up to sleep. Rolling over on her back, she stared at the art deco ceiling. “It is just a phone, and accidents happen.” A beat passed and Zoe was on her feet. The right thing to do was to go next door and apologize to Carver. Phones could be replaced, and if anyone else had dropped her phone, she would’ve just shrugged it off, but it was Carver. Something about him just made her angry and filled with want. She still felt the sting of his betrayal two years ago. Waking up in that bed alone had made her feel cheap. And his note.

  Sorry to leave you like this, but last night was wonderful.

  The next time she’d seen him, he was FBI Agent Carver Banks, not Xavier. And he had the nerve to act as if nothing had happened between them—at least publicly. He’d tried to explain what had happened that night—FBI investigation. Had to take Campos down and keep her out of harm’s way.

  The last thing Zoe needed was protection. She was good with a gun, she could take a man down in hand-to-hand combat, and if push came to shove, she always kept a knife on her. She had grown tired of people thinking she needed someone to look after her—as if she couldn’t do it herself.

  Zach and her father wanted her to get into the family business, and for two months after graduating from college, she tried it. But every time she wanted to show a property or set up a meeting with a client, one of them wanted to be there. She could understand her father’s hovering. She had been brand-new to the business, but Zach! He was just being annoying and using that five-minutes-older mess as an excuse.

  So, she quit and joined the NYPD. She hadn’t given them a heads-up until she’d been in her third week of the police academy.

  Zoe grabbed her room key and headed next door to do something she rarely did. Eat crow. Knocking on his room door, she braced herself for whatever smart-ass comments Carver would lay on her.

  He opened the door, shirtless with a white towel wrapped around his waist. “Zoe. Wasn’t expecting you.”

  She blinked as she drank in the absolute magnificence of his body. And there it was, left shoulder down to his forearm, the Marine tattoo. She was transfixed by the detailed artwork and reached up to run her finger across it. He grabbed her hand. “Really?”

  “Sorry. I came to say that I’m sorry about how I reacted about the phone. Maybe I was just tired and . . .”

  “Come inside. I have some news about those transcripts that we’ve been waiting for.”

  Zoe took a deep breath and followed him into the room. The steam from the shower had filled the room, or maybe she was just that hot for him. She started to sit on the bed, but that would’ve made temptation too damn easy. Instead, Zoe leaned on the edge of the desk and watched him move across the room as if he was fully dressed.

  He knows what he’s doing. “So, what’s the news?”

  “One of the agents in the field office finally sent over the transcripts, and I was reading over them. It seems as if there may be a connection with Jessica and the killer that goes to Vegas. She may not be buried here.”

  Zoe nodded. “That’s what Tony said. He’s getting me some more information on what the local investigation uncovered on the serial killer after he was spotted with her.”

  “Tony, huh? You two got really close in such a short period of time.”

  “Can we be serious for a minute?” Zoe tried to keep her focus on his eyes, but that muscular thigh peeking from underneath that towel made it hard to focus. She rubbed her throat as he turned toward the bathroom.

  “I am being serious,” he said, then closed the bathroom door behind him. “I guess it’s a good thing he was so helpful. Now we know that we don’t have to stick around here much longer.”

  “Do you know that for sure? There may be some clues in the reports that could help us when we head to our next stop.” Zoe’s breath caught in her chest when Carver walked out of the bathroom in nothing but black and silver boxer briefs. Simple boxers, she could’ve handled, but that form-fitting underwear did nothing but highlight every throbbing inch of his tantalizing body. Jesus.

  Carver smirked, seemingly reading her dirty thoughts as if she’d written them on the mirror in bright red lipstick. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “What are you talking about, Carver?”

  “You keep looking at me like I’m a piece of meat. Have you heard anything that I’ve said?”

  “Every word.” She forced herself to look into his eyes. “Are we off to Las Vegas now, or are you going to wait until we get the reports from the police?”

  “We can wait another day, I guess. Then you can kiss your new boyfriend goodbye.”

  “Please stop it. You’re acting like a pure jerk.” Zoe turned her head toward the window, but Carver’s presence filled the room, and no matter how she tried to avoid him, there he was. Sexy. Masculine. Dangerous. She inhaled and her chest was filled with the scent of Carver’s manhood. It was familiar to her; she’d gotten drunk on this smell two years ago when he pretended to be X. Pretended that their passion was real.

  As if he knew what she was thinking, Carver closed the space between them and wrapped his arms around Zoe’s waist.

  “I should go,” she said in a near moan.

  “Stay.”

  “No. Because if I do, we’re going to make the biggest mistake in the world, and I need to call my brother.”

  Carver smiled. “He doesn’t like me much, right?”

  “Hates your guts.”

  “And how does his sister feel?” He pulled her closer, knowing she felt the effect she had on him. She groaned as he pressed his hardness against her thighs.

  Zoe pushed against his chest. “I-I have to go.” She dashed out of the room and promised herself that she was not going to fall for Carver Banks!

  Chapter 10

  Carver watched with a smile as Zoe practically ran out the door. Even though he knew the flirting was wrong, especially if he was going to keep Zoe safe, he couldn’t help himself. He wanted that woman as much as he needed his next breath. But the most important thing was to keep her safe, and he couldn’t do that if he kept focusing on his hard dick.

  Sighing, he thought about his next move and how he was going to keep it secret from the Bureau. Going to Las Vegas wasn’t going to help them find Jessica Dolan’s body, and as much
as he didn’t want to keep doing it, he was going to have to build another lie to keep her in the dark about their cross-country movements. Part of him wanted to tell her the truth, but he knew her reaction wouldn’t be a good one. All he had to do was look at how she went crazy about a broken phone. Shaking his head, Carver knew he had to nix the idea of being honest with her.

  Besides, he had to figure out who he could trust with this assignment. He didn’t even want to get Wendy further involved in this either. Was there a mole in the middle of the investigation against Singletary, and how long was he going to be able to keep Zoe in the dark about her life being in danger?

  He thought about getting rid of his phone as well. Picking up his phone, he took it apart to see if there was any kind of tracking device inside the phone Smallwood had given him. When he didn’t find anything, Carver put the phone back together and tossed it on the bed.

  He dressed quickly and headed to the hotel’s business center. He didn’t want to risk using his tablet and having the signal traced. He’d already messed up when he used his smartphone, which he had turned off and buried in the bottom of his suitcase. Hopping on the computer, he Googled Las Vegas hotels with wedding chapels. The list seemed to be endless, but what did he expect? Besides gambling, people went to Sin City to get married. He decided that he was going to tell Zoe that Dolan and the killer had been seen in Vegas. After booking a room at the Hilton and choosing the option to pay at the location, Carver realized that things had gotten even more serious.

  * * *

  Wendy nestled against Joseph as he slept. She was too wired to sleep. Too excited to close her eyes. Shooting Delvin Smallwood had been the most exciting thing she’d ever done in her career. That idiot shouldn’t have been her superior. She’d worked hard for the Bureau, and all she’d gotten was a pat on the head and a job behind a computer. Wendy wanted to be in the field, she wanted to be in the thick of important terrorism investigations, not trying to save fast-ass girls who wanted to sell their bodies.

  After all, no one told them to talk to strangers online to begin with. Yes, Joe was a criminal, but these girls were hardly victims. And if that bitch Natalie hadn’t gotten caught and been entangled with Zachary Harrington, the FBI wouldn’t give a hot damn about missing black and brown girls. Wendy released a frustrated sigh as she thought about the botched search for her missing sister. No one cared about Amber Covington. She’d been a bright college student who’d gone missing from the University of South Carolina, and even with Wendy being an FBI trainee, she couldn’t get the help she needed to find her sister.

  When the Bureau and the local police actually took the case seriously, Amber’s body was found in a shallow grave outside of Sumter, South Carolina, where an airman from the local Air Force base had buried three other women whom he’d raped and murdered. When she’d found out that Smallwood and Carver had been assigned to her sister’s case, she knew that she would get her revenge one day.

  It had been kismet when she’d been assigned to the field office that Smallwood ran. And then Carver Banks became one of the senior agents there. He never even acknowledged her loss. Cocky bastard. That’s why she’d hoped their first time out in the field would’ve been the end of his life. Instead, he’d made it seem as if she was inept, and she’d gotten the cyber duties.

  It wasn’t hard for her to start working with Singletary. At first, she’d been chatting with one of his pimps on a social media website; then she’d had the chance to meet the man himself.

  Joe wasn’t much to look at: average height, a beer belly and a beard, but he made up for his average looks with his confidence and swagger. Somehow he knew she wasn’t the typical FBI agent and he fed into her anger. He told her that if she’d help him stay ahead of the investigation into his organization that he would reward her greatly. She needed him to make that reward happen soon. She was tired of playing this game, and with Carver having his suspicions, her double life might be coming to an end. But once Joe paid her, Wendy could disappear to Haiti or some other country where no one would think to look.

  With Smallwood out of the way, she could work with Joe without having to look over her shoulder when feeding him information about investigations, keeping him one step ahead of the FBI. All they had to do was get rid of Carver and Zoe. As soon as she found out where they were going after New Mexico, she was going to make that happen.

  Joe stirred as Wendy licked his earlobe. “Wake up. We need to celebrate a little more.”

  Groaning, he opened his eyes and smiled at her. “You’re a freak, and I like that.”

  She mounted his growing erection. “Then go ahead and show me how much you like this.”

  * * *

  Zoe woke up from the most delicious dream. Carver’s face buried between her thighs, licking her wetness as if it were melting ice cream. Her screams woke her and she prayed he didn’t hear it. Zoe figured by the way she called his name, he hadn’t. Otherwise, he’d be at her door right now. And when she opened it, she’d be certain to live out every minute of her erotic dream.

  “Oh my God, I’m insane.” She rose from the bed and headed for the bathroom. An ice-cold shower was in order. Just as she was about to strip out of her clothes, there was a knock at the door. Figuring that it was temptation on the other side, Zoe started to ignore it.

  But the knocking continued and she crossed over to the door. When she looked out of the peephole, she didn’t see Carver, but a man with a cart who looked to be from room service.

  “I didn’t order anything,” she called through the door.

  “Compliments of the hotel.”

  “I’m good.”

  The man didn’t leave, and Zoe couldn’t see what he was doing as he knelt down next to the cart. Backing away from the door, she looked around the room for a weapon and cursed herself for listening to Carver and leaving her gun in New York. She unplugged the heavy lamp from the nightstand and waited to see if the man on the other side of the door was going to try something.

  He knocked again. “Room service.”

  “Go. Away!”

  She heard a bang, as if the man was trying to kick the door in. Zoe wrapped the cord around the base of the lamp and got ready to pounce. Then the banging stopped. Holding the lamp, ready to strike if needed, she opened the door and saw Carver on top of the man and a gun at his side.

  “What in the hell?” Zoe exclaimed. Carver locked eyes with her as he slammed the man’s head into the floor.

  “Go inside and lock the door.”

  “What’s going on, Carver?”

  “Inside!” His order came out like a bark, and Zoe followed his direction. She slammed the door and locked it.

  * * *

  “Who are you?” Carver growled as he held the fake waiter down on the floor.

  “Get off me!”

  “Answer me.” Glancing over his shoulder, Carver saw two security guards and a police officer coming his way. The officer was about to draw his weapon when Carver lifted his free hand. “FBI, I’m on the job.”

  “Fine, but you need to let the man go.” The officer reached for his handcuffs. “What happened here?”

  Carver narrowed his eyes as he let the would-be hit man go. “Can we talk about this at the department?”

  The officer groaned and cuffed the man. “Fine. You guys could’ve given us a heads-up that the FBI was working a case here.”

  Carver held his tongue because he wanted to tell the young cop where he could stick his snotty attitude. The last thing he needed was for Zoe to hear the truth about why they were in New Mexico.

  Arriving at the police department, the officer handcuffed the suspect to a chair and then waved for his sergeant. “Have a seat,” the officer said to Carver.

  “I’ll stand.”

  “Whatever.”

  The sergeant, a tall and shapely woman with fire-red hair, approached Carver with a scowl on her pale face. “Agent, what are you doing in my city?”

  Carver pulled out his
FBI badge and showed it to her. “Can we find a quiet corner where we can talk?”

  “Sure, follow me.” They walked into an empty office and she sat down behind the metal desk. “So, Agent Banks, what’s going on?”

  “I’m investigating a sex trafficking ring. There are no ties to New Mexico, but the woman that man was trying to kill is a key part of the investigation.”

  “Does she live here?”

  “No. We came here together. I need to know everything about that guy. He may be involved in a murder-for-hire plot the FBI is investigating. I’d like to question him.”

  She folded her arms across her chest. “You gave me a lot of surface information and I’m just supposed to turn a suspect over to you because you have those capital letters on your badge? Who is your superior? I want to verify that—”

  “He was shot last night, and I don’t have time to get into a pissing contest with you about a would-be killer. After I question him, he’s yours.”

  “I never said I was going to allow you to question him. I have to clear it with my lieutenant.”

  Carver folded his arms across his massive chest. “Then why don’t you do that?”

  Rising to her feet, she rolled her eyes at Carver and slow-walked to the door. Then she turned around and said, “You can catch a massive amount of flies with honey, but you Feds like to come in here and pretend you know everything about law enforcement and we’re just rejects.”

  “I’m trying to keep someone alive, and you can help or get the fuck out of my way.” The hardness in Carver’s voice must have been the honey she needed to head out the door and get her supervisor. Didn’t take long for a bearded man in a pair of slacks and white button-down shirt to walk into the office.

  “Agent Banks, what brings the FBI to our fair city?”

  “I guess your sergeant didn’t tell you?”

  “Just want to hear it from you. The US Army always taught me to trust but verify.” He extended his hand to Carver. “Lieutenant Dana Shanult.”

  “Nice to meet you.” The men shook hands and Carver felt less combative. “Listen, the woman that man was trying to kill is under my protection. We’re here because of an investigation and the fact that there is a hit on her life. I can’t go into intimate details with you about it.”