Circle of Deception

by Carla Swafford

  “Yes. He loved that DVD you got him, and he begged to take lessons. We’re so lucky to have a dojo in Sand City. It’s amazing how much he’s learned.” Suzie smiled big with pride.

  Abby had sent him a copy of Kung Fu Panda for his birthday last month.

  “He’s smart like his daddy,” her mom said, and started on all the fine qualities of her grandson.

  Abby rolled her eyes, and Suzie giggled. Obviously, her sister-in-law knew the secret to cutting her mom off from creating more drama.

  Thinking of drama, she wondered what Rex and Brody were talking about in private.

  “GO FUCK YOURSELF.” Brody Walker’s good ol’ boy persona slipped a little.

  “I thought it was a reasonable offer.” Rex leaned back on the desk, ankles and arms crossed, giving off the appearance of someone who didn’t give a damn while he centered all his attention on the angry man pacing in front of him.

  A wall full of pictures of Abby’s brother receiving medals for his work with the community dominated the study, while trophies lined up on shelves from former high school and college glory days stood sentinel. How would he feel to hear an illegal arms deal was being negotiated in his study?

  “I need twice that figure to consider the deal.” Brody broke into his thoughts.

  “Hey, you came to me with your cash-flow problem.” He lifted one eyebrow when the man’s face turned red. Though he hated to admit it, his brother’s plan to squeeze Brody by continuing to confiscate his shipments worked. They’d hoped eventually he would need money to cover production for the same order of ammo over and over again. Inferno wouldn’t understand Brody’s bad luck and no way would they provide more funds. Rex doubted they’d even been told what had happened. To tell them that someone was stealing their orders would reveal Brody’s group had been compromised or that their security work was shoddy. Besides, the only reason the Inferno hadn’t killed Brody was that they received one shipment. From what The Circle had learned, it was a small one.

  “I told you after I fill this order, hell, any orders we receive—and there will be hundreds of them—I’ll make sure to double the price and you’ll have your money tripled in six months or less. But I can’t take you to the shop.”

  Rex had hinged the deal on being able to inspect a shipment of goods as they were manufactured. Whether or not Brody sensed a trap, he wasn’t sure. He knew if he pressed too hard, he’d cause him to cut and run or worse. He and Jack had promised Abby that they’d protect her family by not placing them in greater danger than they were already.

  “You want me to hand over a bundle of cash and not inspect your production line? I’d be a poor businessman if I didn’t. How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

  “And I wouldn’t have gone to you if you’d been a poor businessman. I find it refreshing dealing with blunt people. Let’s say you’ll have to learn to trust me.” Like a switch flipped on, Brody’s face lightened up. “Enough of business. Tomorrow I’ll send a car over to pick up you and your wife. She’s so delightful. It will be nice to become reacquainted.” Rex didn’t care for how that sounded, like he would allow him to touch Abby. “I bet she has some stories to tell. Did she ever tell you that she ran away from home, and it wasn’t until last year that her mother even knew she was still alive?”

  He wasn’t about to admit he knew nothing about Abby. He’d thought he knew everything he would ever need to know when they planned to marry years ago, but each day he realized he knew nothing. So he worked at maintaining a bored expression and pressed his lips together.

  “I agree with her mother. Abby’s a closemouthed one. Unlike most women who yak on and on about every little thing until a man wants to put a muzzle on the bitch.” Brody smirked and added, “Some of them look better with one on, if you know what I mean.”

  “Good thing I don’t have to worry about that.” Rex curled his fingers. Tingles shot up his arms as he squeezed, trying his best not to hit him.

  “You’re so right.” Brody chuckled. “I bet she’s a screamer, though. Those quiet ones you have to watch out for. Take for instance the slut I was with the other night. She talks all the time but never says a word when I fuck her. Though with all that flapping of gums, she’s worked up some muscles, and that big mouth of hers is talented. Lordy, Lordy, she can suck a cock like a man.” With his back to Rex, he leaned over to look closer at a picture on the wall.

  Rex’s vision narrowed. So, what, the bastard swung both ways? And more importantly, why did he believe he could talk about Abby like that? How could any person talk about a man’s wife with so little respect and not get hurt? No less talk about any woman in that way. Hell, if not for the mission, he’d be nailing his ass up on the wall next to the photographs.

  “Will five o’clock be okay for the car to be here?” Brody turned around and grinned. “We’ll have a couple days to relax and enjoy each other’s company. We may even learn to trust each other.”

  “I’ll drive my own car.”

  Brody chuckled. “See? We don’t trust. Partners must trust each other.” He slapped Rex on the back as he headed toward the door.

  “Partners are allowed to inspect the goods as they’re made. That would be a good way to show your trust.” He rolled his shoulders. Why did it feel as if he’d been stabbed in the back? He desperately wanted to gut the man. For now, he looked away to keep from revealing the hatred in his eyes.

  “You’re a single-minded man.” Brody opened the study door. “Yes. This weekend will be good for us. We’ll have to see if we can come to an understanding first.”

  With one eyebrow raised, Rex cut his eyes over to Brody.

  That was progress. For the man to even hint of possibly giving in to Rex’s terms was a good sign. Then again, once they arrived on the farm, they would be on his turf, in his control. The guards and dogs holding off outsiders also held people in. He owned a lot of acreage, perfect for hiding a factory and burying curious visitors.

  “WHAT WAS THAT all about?” Abby closed the bedroom door behind her. She’d been frustrated with how her mom and sister-in-law had stuck to her side all afternoon. Without being rude, she couldn’t find a way to get Rex off alone until a couple hours before dinner.

  Rex tossed a switchblade onto the bed as he placed a foot in a nearby overstuffed chair to rip the Velcro apart on his ankle holster.

  “He wanted to borrow some money.” His satisfied grin said a lot, but for the last several hours his body had vibrated with suppressed rage. Twice she’d caught him staring out the window with his hands fisted and knuckles white.

  “So the plan is working. He’s hurting for funds, and we’re invited to his farm for the weekend. Before you came out, I got a text message from Jack. They hired Liam but not Charlie. We’re fortunate one got hired. Nic and the crew are about a mile down a public side road and have part of the road dug up for maintenance,” she said, making quote marks in the air for the last word, “and are setting up the receiver in the van. Once we place the bugs, we should be able to work fast from there.”

  “If nothing goes wrong.” He shucked his pants and picked up a pair of gray sweats from the dresser.

  “Where are you going?” She tried her best not to stare at the way his ass filled out his boxer briefs, perfect to cover with her hands and squeeze. Why was she always in sexual overdrive whenever he was around?

  He stripped off his shirt and pulled a sleeveless jersey on. “I’m going for a jog.”

  “Give me a minute and I’ll come with you.”

  “I’ll go by myself. Need to clear my mind.”

  “Okaaay.” Her forehead wrinkled as she watched him leave. What was that all about? If anyone had problems dealing with the mission, she’d expected it to be her. She was the one endangering her family and not confessing everything to Rex.

  REX HATED LYING to Abby. A couple things needed to be seen to without her around. He slipped into Edward’s study and picked up a picture frame. The day before, he’d stuck a bug on
the back beneath the stand. When he was in the room with Brody earlier, he’d noticed the picture frame was in a new spot across the room. He wanted the mic closer to the desk. A better chance he would catch anything Abby’s brother would say.

  He turned the frame over. The mic was gone. Dammit. Sweeping the area with his gaze, he searched the desk and floor, even kneeling to reach beneath the furniture in case it had rolled off. Nothing.

  Dammit. Not that anyone would track it back to him, as the mic was self-sufficient. The tiny internal memory chip was activated only by voice vibrations and recorded conversations up to eight hours. He just didn’t need anyone hearing what he and Brody had discussed.

  No use getting bent out of shape by it. He had other matters on his mind. For now, he needed to talk with his brother. They had a couple things to iron out. Only two years separated them, but he and Jack had never been close, even while working the same type of job.

  The disconnection came about years before both joined the OS. Their dad was a hard man who wanted to ensure his sons grew up to be real men. One day when Rex was ten, he’d been gathering apples from a small orchard they owned; his mom had promised to bake an apple cobbler if he brought in enough. Earlier, she’d forced him to take a bath, even putting some of the soft powder on his torso that reminded him of her. So to keep from needing another bath, he’d been careful not to get dirty.

  When he entered the kitchen with arms loaded and his cheeks pink in anticipation of helping his mom mix the cobbler, he was surprised to see his dad and brother cramming their mouths full of the cold apple tarts his mom had baked the day before. He’d enjoyed hanging around his mom without his older brother’s and dad’s interference. They had gone into the mountains so his dad could teach Jack how to track wild animals. Dad was a big believer in knowing how to hunt, especially with the ever-present promise of the apocalypse coming. The man was one brick short of a full load. In other words, bat-shit crazy.

  “Well, well, well, lookee at what the cat drug in. What you got there, boy!” Mike Drago stood only a head taller than twelve-year-old Jack. At the time, his father appeared to be a giant, but all of that would change soon since Rex already stood at the same height as his older brother and had never heard of short man syndrome. So his dad resented Rex’s height and in two more years that resentment would turn to hate.

  “Apples for Mommy.” He cringed, knowing what was coming.

  “A big boy like you don’t need to be calling your mother ‘Mommy.’ You’re no baby. Hell, you ’bout tore her apart coming out.”

  Rex tried not to cringe again when his dad pointed to the counter. “Go and put those apples down before you bruise them up.”

  He passed within inches of his dad.

  “Woo-ee! What’s that smell? Are you a girl now?”

  Rex hurried to place the apples next to the sink. He should’ve never let his mom put sweet-smelling powder on him.

  “Hey, Jack. I do believe a strange little girl has entered our house.” His dad crossed his arms and looked down on him. “I’m a real man and real men have boys. Not whiny, stinky girls.”

  His brother stood next to their dad. “I think you’re right. What’s that stinky girl doing here?”

  Afraid to speak, he faced them as he backed into the corner and sat, pulling up his knees and wrapping his arms around them, hoping they would quickly tire of the game.

  “I bet she’s Miss Margie’s.” His dad sneered. “Little girl, you need to go home before Miss Margie comes looking for you. Would hate for you to get a whupping.”

  “Yeah, the old witch. You belong to her.” Jack’s sneer mirrored their dad’s.

  Miss Margie was a neighbor who hated kids, yelling at them if they walked across her lawn, eyeing them with mistrust when they rode their bikes near her house. The mean old woman kept to herself but even stranger was how she lived with her brother. No one, as old as they were, lived with a sibling. Something wasn’t right. All the kids called her a witch and worse, and none of them ever wanted to belong to her. She might eat them like the old woman in Hansel and Gretel.

  Unable to hold back any longer and frightened they would send him to live with old Miss Margie, Rex shouted, “I’m not a little girl and I don’t belong to Old Margie.”

  “You smell like a girl. Boys don’t smell like flowers.” His dad glanced at Jack. “Go call Margie and tell her to come and get her little girl.”

  “No!” Terror of that strange woman gripped at Rex’s chest.

  “Yes, sir. We don’t want Margie’s kid here.” Jack’s obvious enjoyment in baiting his little brother and being on his dad’s side was evident by the wide grin.

  Rex knew with certainty that his dad would send him to live with Margie, especially when tears rolled down his cheeks. Only babies and girls cried.

  “Look at the little girl cry.” Jack pointed and laughed.

  A disgusted look came over his dad’s face. “He’s as dumb as he looks. That’s enough.” His dad’s lips thinned. “I believe Rex understands he needs to stay out of his mom’s powder. We don’t want any fucking fairies in our family.” He took a step away and then looked over his shoulder at Rex. “You should be ashamed of yourself. Get up from there, dry your face, and act like a man.”

  He’d learned a couple lessons that day: Never fully trust his brother to have his back, and his size attracted negative attention.

  No, Rex had never felt close to his brother. They’d always been competitive in everything they did, spurred on by their dad. Now he wondered if Jack was playing some new game.

  “WHAT THE HELL are you doing here?”

  Rex ignored his brother’s rude greeting and slid the van door closed with a loud clack behind him. One of The Circle operatives jumped up from a chair and scooted around him to reach the passenger seat up front.

  “I need to talk with you,” he said, and then glanced at the other operative on the opposite side of Jack. She didn’t look their way, and with the large earphones on, it was unlikely she could hear. He still wasn’t satisfied. “Alone.”

  A couple seconds passed as Jack rubbed his shaved head and grimaced. Dark crescent shadows beneath his light blue eyes gave them an eerie glow. He’d probably been awake checking the tapes from the bugs Liam had planted since being hired on at the farm. Rex would plant more inside the house. “Okay. Let’s step outside and walk a few yards beyond the tree line.”

  They moved far enough into the shadows of the greenery to not be seen from the road. Only the swaying limbs revealed and hid the side of the white van with each gust of wind.

  Jack crossed his arms as he turned to face Rex. “What’s crawled up your ass and died?”

  “I want Abby pulled from the mission.”

  “Really.” Jack spread his feet apart as if prepared to fight.

  “Brody expects me to hand her over, and I’m not about to let that happen.”

  “Except for his little problem of being an exhibitionist, he’s never demanded another man’s woman. Nothing points to that being one of his hang-ups.”

  “You would know.”

  “What the hell do you mean by that?” Jack dropped his arm. The loops piercing his eyebrow and lip glittered in the waning light.

  “You know what I’m talking about.”

  “Do you want to talk about that now? In the middle of a mission?”

  “It’s as good a time as any.” His brother was right, but no matter how hard he told himself to leave it alone, he had enough of pussyfooting around and wanted answers.

  “We thought you were dead,” his brother said as he stared straight into Rex’s eyes.

  “So you hear I’m dead and you two fall into bed.” Bitterness filled his mouth.

  “It wasn’t like that.”

  Rex concentrated on breathing and remaining calm so his brother would continue his explanation. “Quit beating around the bush.”

  “I fell in love with Olivia.”

  “Shit.” Rex suspected that happened
but had wanted it to be rumor only. “What does that have to do with you being with Abby?”

  “I know you hate Olivia, but she had a rough life.”

  “I don’t hate her anymore, especially now that we know she wasn’t involved in Abby’s disappearance. Not that I care for her, but she’s Abby’s best friend and my best friend’s wife. We’ve come to terms.”

  “She’s a lot different when she’s not on the job. We had fun together. She’d picked me up for a one-night stand after an assignment. She had no idea I was an OS operative by then. I wrangled some information from her before she left me that first night and was able to track her down. I worked it out where we met up a couple more times. That’s when I learned love will make a fool of you.” He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. After a deep breath, he continued. “So when Abby disappeared, I contacted Olivia to see if she could help. Before I knew it, I was in The Circle and Abby was in their clinic. She’d been beaten by some street gang, they said, and then news came in that you had died. By then I realized that my fling with Olivia had ended before it even got started. She stayed on the road, and The Circle is so huge, we didn’t see each other again for years.”

  He looked around, never resting his gaze on Rex’s face as he said, “Hell, she didn’t even recognize me later. I guess with my shaved head and piercings, I’d changed. Fuck! She didn’t remember my name.” He rubbed his bare scalp and then cleared his throat. “Anyway, after Abby got out of the clinic, she was having problems coping with your death. We had become friends and I was comforting her. One thing led to another—”

  Rex held up a hand. “I don’t need to hear how you fucked her.”

  “I wouldn’t—”

  Crossing his arms, Rex tilted his head and lifted an eyebrow.

  “Don’t look at me like that. What I was going to say was that one thing led to another, but the next day we agreed it was a mistake. It never happened again. The woman mourned you for all these years. She still loves you.”