“I do not!” she protested.
“No… you don’t use your sexual favors to get your way. But you do make me want to do anything you ask… by just being you.”
“That had damn well better be a compliment, Leo Graves,” she warned sternly, but with a smile he could see in his rearview mirror.
“Oh, trust me, it is. You just make me… shit… we’ve got trouble,” he said as the DEA Tahoe flashed past then braked hard and began to turn around.
Jamie looked over her shoulder. “What do they want? We’re just out riding on your bike.”
“It’s probably Lundergrund out to bust my balls again. But I don’t know why she would be in a DEA vehicle.”
“Lundergrund? Who’s that?”
“ICE. I’ve told you about her.”
“Is she that cop that keeps hitting on you?”
“Not hitting on me… she’s just… slimy,” he said as he coasted to a stop at the side of the road, Will rolling to a stop beside him.
“What’s going on?” Will asked as the SUV pulled up behind them.
“Just let me do the talking, okay?” Leo asked. Will nodded but said nothing as the two officers stepped out of the truck. “Are you carrying?”
“Yeah.”
“Afternoon Officer Lundergrund,” Leo said as Kary Lundergrund stepped up from the passenger side of the SUV. We are armed.”
“Leo…” she cooed, “you know I don’t care about that. Who’s your friends?”
“Jamie, Ellen and Will,” Leo said.
“They have last names?”
“Yes.”
“Look, asshole—” the driver of the SUV began, but Lundergrund held up her hand to quieten the man.
“Leo… why are we always like this? I really don’t think you like me.”
“Whatever gave you that idea?”
“Let’s see some ID,” she said, her voice hardening.
“Get off,” Leo said, and then eased the bike to the side stand after Jamie dismounted. “The women are not armed… just Will and I.”
“I don’t have my ID with me,” Jamie sneered. “I didn’t realize the Gestapo was going to be out busting my ass today.”
“Cute,” Lundergrund said. “What about you two?”
Will pulled his driver’s license from his wallet and handed it over.
Ellen shrugged. “I left mine in my purse at Will’s house.”
“There is no motorcycle endorsement on this license,” Kary said, snapping the card with a finger.
“What do you want, Lundergrund?” Leo interjected. He knew this wasn’t a traffic stop, but this was how she played the game.
“Besides your hot little body? Information.”
“What kind of information?” he asked, trying not to grin as Jamie stared at her with daggers in her eyes.
“It seems that the DEA thinks drugs are flowing through Lima 6 territory. They asked me to help them out since you and I have such a… close… relationship,” she said seductively as she stepped in close and scraped Will’s license under his chin.
Leo snatched the card from Lundergrund’s fingers and handed it back to Will. “I wouldn’t know anything about that. Will and I are just out for a nice ride in the country… with some pleasant companionship.”
“So I see,” Lundergrund said as she gave Jamie an obvious appraising look. “You don’t know anything about drugs? I would feel bad if anything… happened… to your companion because of drug runners. That would be a real shame.”
“I think I can take care of her.”
“Ooooh… of that I have no doubt. You know, Leo, when you were just small time thugs playing cops and robbers, the DEA had bigger fish to fry. But a lot of drugs are coming up 118. A lot more than there used to be, a lot more than can reasonably be explained. If we find out you and your motorcycle pals are muling drugs… I will bust your balls. And that will be a real shame… because then who would take of your friend here? Hmmm?”
“Officer Lundergrund, I have told you before, we are just a group of guys that like to ride motorcycles. I don’t know anything about drugs, or illegals, or any other illegal activity.”
“So you have said.” Lundergrund smiled. “But this is DEA’s gig now. I am just along to make introductions. Congratulations, Leo… you’ve just moved up to the big leagues.”
As she turned, to head back to the SUV, she paused then turned back. “Enjoy him while you can sweetheart,” Lundergrund said to Jamie. “You may not have the chance much longer.” With a nasty smile, she turned back toward the SUV without a second glance.
As the SUV pulled onto the road, Jamie gave it a vicious middle finger. “If you have ever fucked that... bitch... we’re done!”
Leo began to chuckle. “God no. She would eat me alive.”
“I don’t know, I thought she was kind of hot,” Will said then ducked and grinned when Ellen punched him.
“I would like to have ten minutes in a locked room with her. I will kick her fucking ass!” Jamie snarled.
“Just calm down. That is exactly the reaction she wants. If you get pissed off, you might say or do something to help her. Just let it roll off of you.”
She stared down the road after the SUV. “Okay… but I would still like to have ten minutes alone with her.”
“Yeah!” Will agreed with a huge grin. “You two, nude, covered in baby oil, in a caged death match! We’ll sell tickets! We’ll be rich!”
“Is being a pervert a requirement of being in the club?” Jamie asked as they turned to the bikes to mount up.
“No… but it helps,” Leo said as he grinned at Will.
As Jamie settled on the bike behind him, his grin widened as he looked at her in the rearview. “Actually… that sounds pretty hot,” he said just loud enough for her to hear.
Jamie brought her head forward in a sharp motion, hitting him in the back of the head with his helmet.
“Owww! Shit! That hurt!” he cried as he rubbed the back of his head.
“Remember that before I have to kick your ass.”
“Nude… with baby oil?”
“Owww! Damnit!” he cried again when she repeated the head-butt.
“Let’s just go,” she growled, but she was smiling. Getting down and dirty in a cage match with Leo, covered in baby oil, doesn’t sound so bad…
With a laugh he thumbed the bike to life and stomped it into gear.
As he pulled out onto the road, he gave the throttle a firm twist, the Harley bellowing as he banged up through the gears, still grinning at Jamie’s reaction to Lundergrund. As the bike settled into the cruise, his smile faded. I wonder what Lundergrund meant about the flow of drugs being more than can be explained?
CHAPTER EIGHT
Leo didn’t think about the conversation with Lundergrund again until Tuesday afternoon when Fitz called and asked if he could run an intercept. Leo looked at the several thousands of dollars’ worth of landscaping sitting in pots, and demurred. He felt guilty, like he was shirking his share of the load, but they needed to get landscaping in now so they could sod tomorrow.
Later, after washing the clinging Texas dust and sweat off, the decided to ride out to HNH. He smiled as he shrugged into his colors. If Jamie couldn’t be home early to see him, he would just go see her at work.
As he walked into He’s Not Here, he noticed that Ron and a couple of other members of the club were sitting at a table. Jamie must be loving that their clubhouse had burned down. Now there is almost always someone from Lima 6 in her bar. Other than himself of course.
“Hey babe,” Jamie said as she met his lips across the bar in a quick kiss before pulling a mug from the freezer for his regular.
“Since you are working tonight, I thought I would hang out here. Let me go talk to Ron a minute and then I will be right back.” He waited until Jamie handed him his beer then walked to Ron’s table.
“How’d the intercept go this afternoon?” he asked as a greeting.
“We missed them…
or they didn’t show. Why?”
“I was just feeling a little guilty that I couldn’t go.”
“Leo, you ran more intercepts than anyone else. You don’t have to go on everyone. Let some of the other guys have some fun.”
Leo grinned. “Yeah, I know. Sunday, when I was out, Lundergrund pulled me over and…”
“That bitch again? She never quits, does she?” Ron asked.
“No. She’s like a fucking bulldog. Anyway, she was with a DEA agent. She said the DEA has seen a spike in drug traffic up 118.”
“So? Just like today, we can’t catch every one of them.”
“The made it sound like more than just a few missed contacts.”
Ron shrugged. “What do they want us to do? If the DEA would do their damn job, we wouldn’t have to do it for them.”
Leo snickered into his beer. “Amen to that brother. With everything happening around here, I would like to give up my second job.”
“Yeah… I can understand that. Getting up early every morning, then having to get it up late at night, can wear a guy thin.” Leo was still chuckling when Ron pulled his phone from his vest. “Terrill.”
He listened a moment then killed the call and dropped it back into his pocket. “The intercept from this morning is happening now. You want to come?” Ron asked as he looked at Leo.
Leo looked at his barely touched beer. “Sure,” he said as he rose with the other men. “Jamie… I’m going with Ron, but will be back in a few.”
Jamie watched Leo rise. She desperately wanted to ask where he was going, but held her tongue. She still didn’t fully trust Ron and his miraculous transformation, but she didn’t want to put Leo on the spot and force him to defend his club to her either… especially in front of his club. It was part of his life, and she knew and accepted that.
“Just don’t forget to come home,” she said cheerfully.
“Jesus… you are just covered in pussy whip,” Ron teased Leo. “Don’t worry, I will send him home as soon as we are done, safe and sound.”
Even Jamie laughed at that.
***
“Black SUV headed your way,” came Fitz’s voice over the earbud in Leo’s ear.
“Stay sharp everyone,” Ron’s voice said a moment later as the headlights appeared over the ridge. The club’s Suburban pulled across the road and the approaching SUV slowed to a stop. Another of the club’s vehicles, a black Chevy jacked up and on big tires, pulled out a side road and blocked the vehicle in.
Leo crept out of the ditch he had been crouching in, his AR-15 on his shoulder and at the ready as he swiftly crossed the road in a low, smooth moving, combat crouch. The driver locked the doors, but when Leo pointed his weapon at his head, he unlocked the door and let Leo open it.
“What do you want?” the man shouted.
“We just want to take a peek in your truck.”
“Are you the cops?”
“Yeah...we’re the good guys,” Leo said. “Get out of the truck. On your knees,” he said as he took him by the arm and forced him down. “Hands behind your head. Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Looky what we have here,” Copper said from the back of the truck, holding a brick of cocaine where Leo could see it.
“Today just isn’t your lucky day, is it?”
“Just don’t shoot me,” the man begged.
“I’m not going to shoot you,” Leo said. “This time. But if I see you around here again…” He let the sentence dangle, but the press of the gun barrel against the man’s head to made his meaning clear.
“You’re going to let me go? You’re just going to let me drive away?”
“Not drive away… no. We’re keeping the truck and the drugs. You can explain it to your boss when you get back. Get up and start walking,” Leo ordered.
“Thank you! Thank you!” the man nearly sobbed as he stood and started backing away, afraid to turn his back on Leo.
“Faster!” Leo barked and put one bullet in the ground at the man’s feet, starting him running.
The four members of the intercept team watch the man run down the road a moment. “Damn… he should be on the Mexican Olympic Sprint Team,” Copper said then chuckled. “I have to tell you, this beats the hell out of moving dead bodies. Much easier when then move themselves.”
“You got the Explorer?” Ron asked Leo, indicating that he should take the drug car back to his shop.
“Yeah. I got it,” he said as he chucked his weapon into the back seat. “But if the DEA starts crawling up my ass, give me a heads up, okay?”
Ron smiled and slapped Leo on the shoulder. “We got your back.”
***
“So that’s all there was too it?” Jamie asked as they snuggled in bed. She gotten home to find Leo napping in his chair… as usual. She thought it very sweet that he would “wait up” for her.
“That’s it,” he confirmed.
“I guess the word about your badass-ness is getting around,” she teased.
“I guess. I wouldn’t have thought that letting the mules go would work, but it seems to be.”
“I guess having a semi-auto rifle pointed at your head will make you compliant. Not to mention make you not want to have a repeat engagement.”
“Yeah…” Leo said as he yawned.
“Did Ron tell you the check finally arrived for the clubhouse?”
“No. It’s about damn time.”
“He asked me what I thought about the design for the common area. He’s putting a full bar in.”
“What did you think?”
“I think you will hurt my feelings if you start going there instead of my place.”
“Won’t happen,” Leo said with a smile. “HNH has something that no other bar offers.”
“What?” she asked as she warmed with the implied compliment, but she still wanted to hear him say it.
“Do I have to spell it out? You,” he said as he tickled her ass, making her squeak in surprise then giggle.
“Stop it,” she teased as she slapped at the hand he had left in place, tormenting her with anticipation of another tickling stroke.
“I thought you liked it when I made you squirm.”
“Not like that.”
“How then?”
“I think you know.”
“Like this?” he asked as he drew a finger along the back of her leg.
“That’s good,” she said slow and low, her wetness beginning already. Over the past two weeks, Leo had become a force of nature. She had no idea that he could be so... vibrant and alive… and it had shown in his lovemaking. Gone was the broken man, dying from the inside out, replaced by this… this… knight, this man that had walked into a hail of gunfire to save her. He was here, touching her, warming her body and soul like no man before him.
“How about this?” he asked as he lightly dragged his fingernails down her neck, over her breasts, and down into a soft caress of her womanhood.
She twitched and jerked as energy seemed to crackle from his fingertips. “Oh… god yes…” she breathed. She rolled over to face him. “Make love to me like you did after you met with Vanderford. Do you remember?”
“I remember,” he whispered as he covered her with his body, her legs going around his hips as he settled lightly onto her. He stared into her barely discernible face, the darkness of the room heightening the mood. As he lowered his lips to hers she whimpered softly, taking his lips for her own, kissing him with such abandon that his fire began to roar in an insatiable inferno, burning away his doubts and fears. He was with the woman of his dreams… and nothing could hurt him.
As they kissed, she felt a change come over him, some life force explode from him, surrounding her as it took her breath. She pulled him harder into the kiss, drawing him down upon her, needing to feel his weight, the touch of his flesh to hers. This was more than just sex, this was… life… the passing of energy from him to her, the sharing of something much deeper than the pleasures of the body. He broke the kiss, his br
eathing harsh and ragged, his bite of her neck painful, but the nip excited her more still. She dug her fingers into his back, holding him tight as he kissed and licked and bit, her heat, her need rising to a level that she could no longer contain.
“Just fuck me…” she whispered.
She forced her legs to relax, giving him room to move, to find her passage so he could enter her in a single hard thrust, their soft cries of pleasure mingling in the air. He began to move, his hips rocking in a slow hard thrusts as he probed her depths, the heat of his breath on her neck scalding hot from his pants of desire.
Hot Extraction: SEALs, Marines, and Infantry - A Military Romance Boxed Set Page 68
