The guard gave Tanner a skeptical look. “Yeah, Tanner?”
“No, but I’m going to take care of them.” His luscious, sparkling eyes devoured Rayna. “Come on.”
That night Rayna, Marnie, George and Tanner had a great time. The guys took them to Silvano’s, a hole-in-the-wall eatery that served the best home-cooked Italian food Rayna and Marnie ever had. Fresh noodles made just before cooking with tomato sauce created out of tomatoes from the owner’s garden. The “best of the catch” from the Fulton Fish Market, and of course, a prime dry-aged Bistecca Alla Fiorentina, a huge porterhouse cooked over hot coals. The girls were so full they could hardly move, until Rayna said, “I love old R & B.”
George clapped his hands. “I know just the place. Right, Tanner?”
A crowded cab ride and ten minutes later, they were standing in front of Lucille’s, the jazz bar named after B.B. King’s guitar.
And Lucille’s was where Rayna fell in love. When the house band spotted Tanner, they invited him up to sing. For the next half hour, the whole club was treated to Tanner singing the greatest Motown hits: Ain’t Too Proud to Beg; Signed, Sealed and Delivered; I Heard it through the Grapevine.
Looking directly at Rayna, he sang the song that has melted millions upon millions of hearts since 1964, when the Temptations released it: My Girl. As the final chorus began, Tanner came offstage and held Rayna’s hand, bringing her back to the platform with him. After the song ended and the chorus of cheers and clapping faded, Tanner announced to the audience, “Now get a good look at this girl, because on Monday morning, she’s gonna be going on a secret mission to whip the asses of some bad guys in who knows where.”
If there had been a rock handy, Rayna would have crawled under it. Instead, Tanner delivered another shock. “Because she likes to sing, Rayna and I are going to sing for you all. One. Two. One Two Three.”
The band broke into the Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell classic, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” Rayna was one soulful lady and the audience ate it up.
***
“I could have embarrassed myself up there,” said Rayna in a mock scolding voice as she, Marnie and Tanner walked to the girls’ hotel.
“No way. I had actionable intel that you were really good.” Tanner glanced over to Marnie.
“I hear you in the shower and the karaoke nights. You’re good, girl,” shrugged Marnie. “Besides, if you blew it, ain’t nobody going to come and chase us down to chew us out.”
Nothing happened that weekend. A year later when she was on leave, Tanner was still single, and so was Rayna.
***
Three months ago…
Long-distance relationships were hard at best, and Tanner’s and Rayna’s was a bitch. When you only spend a week or so together every year, that’s not good. Especially if your boyfriend is a good-looking actor/singer in New York and you get hit on from generals, visiting dignitaries and every male with a heartbeat wherever you were stationed.
“I’ve been waiting three years, Rayna. Don’t lead me on.”
Rayna sighed into the phone.
“Tanner, music is your dream job. Helping people is mine.”
“So when you coming back? When are you going to stop talking and start acting?”
“I have another year to go in my contract. I can think about the rest of my life then.”
“What if I’m not around in a year?”
“You’re a free man. You can do whatever you like.”
“I want to do whatever I do with you.”
“We can discuss that next time I come back.”
“Except you don’t know when that’s going to be. Even if you did, you couldn’t tell me, could you?”
Rayna rapped the phone against her head. “We have issues, Tanner.”
“There isn’t a relationship in the world that doesn’t have issues.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I’m dealing with it.”
That was not the easiest night in the world. Especially when Rayna lied. She didn’t have another year to go. She only had a few months left. She just came to New York to check out if that time might be best spent with Tanner.
That was useless and confusing. She had no better idea of what to do than before she arrived at the Big Apple.
Present Day
Rayna had been sitting in the bar at Chicago International for two hours. After meeting with the Rogers, she flew there, but hadn’t been able to decide whether to continue on or not. In that short time, three different men and one woman offered to buy her drinks. She politely but firmly refused each one of them, excusing herself by saying, “I’d love to but I… I think I picked something up in Afghanistan.”
None of them knew what kind of exotic diseases one could pick up there, but they weren’t interested in finding out either. It gave Rayna a good chance to drink and think by herself. She looked at her watch. Six o’clock. Just enough time to…
Rayna picked up her cell phone and punched in a number.
A familiar voice answered. “Hey, babe. Good to hear your voice. It’s been awhile.”
“Seventy-six days, fourteen hours and thirty seven minutes.”
“You’re always a lot better at numbers than me. So, uh…”
“I’m in Chicago. I’ll catch the next plane to New York. That is, if you still want me.”
“Do you really need to ask?”
“You’ll be at Lucille’s?”
“I’ll be watching for you.”
“I love you. Bye.”
***
It was one a.m. by the time Rayna arrived at the club. In five hours, she was able to shop for an hour, take a two-hour flight to New York, take a cab ride to Lucille’s and then spend an hour in the lady’s room.
When Rayna stepped out into the club’s lobby… wow! The temperature in the club shot up from hot to sizzling. She sported five-inch white stilettos and a sexy sequin and mesh swirl gown that showed a tantalizing hint of cleavage. When she took a step, the long slit in the dress opened up—the full length of one of Rayna’s heavenly gams was exposed to drool over. Dramatic red lips contrasted her dress and bedroom-sexy smoky eye makeup completed the ensemble. As she was escorted to a front row table by the club’s manager, every eye was on this ravishing Asian beauty.
Tanner was onstage, shaking his head at the exquisite creature who was now his. As he crooned his velvety tones, the seventy-some-odd patrons were on the dance floor or at their tables, undulating their bodies to the sweet soul music.
The sexy, handsome singer spotted Rayna and pointed at her.
Every day, you lift me up
Every day, you fill my cup
Every day, every way, any time, any time of the day
Everything I need to fulfill me
Is only you.
As the audience applauded, the drummer kept drumming and the guitarist kept strumming the final chord. Tanner lifted the sunglasses off his head to reveal the sparkling, twinkling eyes that Rayna fell in love with the first time they met… and a smile that could melt the Rock of Gibraltar. He raised his hand high in the air and slashed it down. The band punctuated a final shot. “That song was for my special lady, Rayna. I love you so much babe and I want to be with you forever. Welcome back to where you belong.”
He turned and shouted out, “She’s a war hero, everyone!”
“No way, Tanner. She’s a goddess,” shouted one of the crowd.
“Ain’t gonna argue with that.” The singer leapt off the stage, walked deliberately up to the former Special Ops member and dropped to his knees. Their eyes locked as he reached into his pocket.
“Marry me, babe.” Tanner pulled out a little burgundy box and handed it to Rayna.
Rayna totally melted—not a touch of the cool reserve left. She flipped open the box, squealed and planted her full luscious lips on his. “Yes, yes and yes!”
Hoots of delirious approval and hands furiously applauded. The band began the opening bars of the cou
ple’s theme song, “My Girl.”
Suddenly, the air was shattered by gunshots.
A torrent of bullets ripped through the club. All were aimed at Tanner. Every one of the lethal missiles hit its target. Bleeding body riddled with bullets, he stumbled backwards.
“No,” screamed Rayna, flipping over the drink table in front of her. With a strength that belied her petite physique, she hurled it at the gunman who adroitly sidestepped the flying object, but not in time to avoid the drink glasses that Rayna also flung at his face.
The glasses shattered, cutting through battle-hardened skin on the face of the assaulter. Crimson flowed, virtually blinding him but not enough to stop him from firing again.
Just before the bullets could make Swiss cheese out of Rayna, Tanner pushed her away.
“Go baby, go!” croaked Tanner. Rayna grabbed at his shirt as he collapsed to the floor. The shirt rips apart, revealing a recent tattoo of a red snake with the word Serpiente underneath on the upper arm.
This moment allowed the bloody gangster to descend on Rayna with full force. He snatched at her dress with one hand while launching a hook with the other.
Rayna dodged the fist, but by pulling back, her dress was ripped, revealing two skin-toned adhesive cups covering her breasts.
A swift kick hit her thigh and Rayna flinched, just long enough for the thug to grab and pull at her hair.
He yanked her up to butt his huge head against hers, but Rayna swiftly threw an uppercut. The powerful punch thrown from her waist landed on her opponent’s jaw.
Rayna’s hand chopped at the gangster’s thick neck, but he was an experienced street fighter.
Fighting through the pain, this time he successfully head butted her. Rayna instinctively pulled back and moved her head to the side, minimizing the impact of the blow.
With two hands clenched together, she came down on the top of her assailant’s head. She lifted a knee and whipped off a shoe. A second later, she planted the stiletto heel three inches into his skull.
She performed a lightning fast evaluation—with no weapons and no backup, she hasn’t a chance if there wasn’t anyone else coming. Rayna kicked off her other shoe, jumped up on the stage and dashed behind the curtain.
Tears filled her eyes as she rocketed out of the stage door into the dark, dank alley. There was no way that Tanner could have survived.
There was no time to mourn. On the other end of the alley, an SUV with its lights out raced right at her.
With no room to get out of the way, Rayna ran towards the speeding vehicle, leaping just before it hit her. Rayna tried to grab one of the metal steps of a fire escape as the car zoomed past, but her grip wasn’t tight enough and she dropped onto the SUV’s roof.
The driver sped and swerved, knocking Rayna off balance. Amazingly, instead of falling to the ground, Rayna was able to grab the rear bumper of the speeding vehicle—almost half a million pushups in the past six years had given her an abnormal strength. Looking like a flying superhero, she was towed, suspended in the air, for a dozen yards before the driver slammed the brakes.
She let go and fell to the ground. Before she could pick herself up, the driver hopped out and pointed a gun, its sights directly aimed at the middle of her forehead.
“Why did you kill him?” shrieked Rayna.
“Tanner was six months late in payments,” growled the gunman.
“I don’t know what you are talking about.”
The hoodlum snorted. “Where do you think he got the money to buy your ring?”
“He’s a singer. He’s got a record deal.”
Raucous, sarcastic laughter came from his mouth. “Is that what he told you? There’s no record deal.”
“He showed me the contract.”
“Anybody with a computer and printer can make a contract. There’s no record deal. Did you ever hear anything?”
“He was going to play it tonight for me,” said Rayna lamely.
“If there was an album, it’s only because he paid for it himself. Listen, girl. How did he afford to take you to all those fancy-shmancy places? How did he afford his apartment in the Village? Are you telling me you didn’t spend any time there or you didn’t know what he was up to? You know that’s not his main expense.”
Rayna inhaled. She did know. That was one of the things she and Tanner argued about. She wanted him to get out of drugs and out of gambling. She tried so hard to break up with him, but like so many others in a relationship they know is not right, rather than dropping it, she went back for more.
“How much does he owe?”
“Four hundred thousand.”
“No way. When I left three months ago, it was only a couple of hundred, if that.”
“He made some bad deals and some bad bets. Just like all those losers do but I tell you what.” The thug grinned lasciviously as he tugged on one of the plastic cups on the top of Rayna’s boobs. “You can work it off. We will provide the clients and you can be out of debt in a year. Or maybe you’ll like it so much you’ll stay.”
“I think I can do that. You want to be my first?” purred Rayna, slinking her curvy bod so it hugged him.
“I don’t pay.”
“I didn’t say you had to. I asked if you wanted to be the first.” Seeing Tanner’s murderer loosening the grip on his gun, she pushed her body even tighter against his and licked his cheek very slowly.
Sensing him relaxing, she drove her knee into the thug’s groin with a lightning move. Three times in a row, each time more painful than the previous.
As he buckled over in pain, Rayna grabbed his head and smashed it against the hood of the car, cracking his skull and breaking his nose.
She raised her hands high in the air. With swift chops downward, she broke his neck. She took his jacket and put it on, covering herself before slipping on his shoes as well.
She looked ridiculous with the oversize leather jacket and shoes, but it was better than being arrested for solicitation, as she undoubtedly would have been, had she chosen to step out of the alley with her dress half ripped off and her body on nearly full display.
Next step was to wipe off all the blood from her hands and body.
Rayna took off the victim’s shirt and found, emblazoned across his chest and on his right arm, the same tattoo Tanner had. A snake with the word Serpiente underneath. While removing the blood, she studied the reptile. Part of her armed forces training was to learn about snakes, should she encounter one in the field. She recognized this as a variant of the venomous South American pit viper, the Urutu. With its mouth open wide, it had two large sharp fangs, protruding down. Its normal tan color had been replaced with crimson, obviously to represent blood.
Finished cleaning, Rayna rummaged through the dead man’s pockets. No ID, but a couple of thousand dollars cash and a burner cell phone. She’d need it, since she left the clutch containing her identity, cash and credit cards at the club. There was no way she was going to risk going back inside.
She tossed the phone and crushed it. Two thoughts hit her as she walked toward the bright lights of Manhattan. First, there is no way Special Forces will take me back even I want to go. The other was: I gotta hide. Fast.
At the end of the lane, Rayna saw a twenty-four hour convenience store open across the street.
A hundred bucks for three burner phones. As she handed the clerk the cash, the balding, obese clerk asked, “Rough night?”
“You could say that.”
“I get off shift in an hour… I’ll give you the phones for free if you want to wait.”
“Go to hell.”
Rayna stepped outside. There was only one person she knew she could talk to. She punched in the familiar numbers.
“Hello, who’s this?”
“Hi, Dad, it’s Rayna. My cell ran out of battery power so I’m borrowing this one.”
“Where are you, Rayna?”
“New York.”
Rayna heard her father groan but he knew better than to say
anything. “You’ll be happy to hear this, but Tanner and I? We’re no longer together. It’s complicated.”
“Glad you finally came to your senses. He was…”
“I don’t need a lecture dad. Trust me, I know I’ve screwed up big time and more than once. Got it?”
“Sorry. Just the father in me. Why don’t you come home and get your bearings straight?”
“No, that’s not a good idea. Not now… I want to go to seminary.”
A stunned moment of silence. “I thought you were a pantheist.”
“I just said that to bug you. I want to go to Hope. Your alma mater.”
“Classes started ten days ago.”
“Yeah, but I know a lot of that stuff anyway. Remember you and mom drilled Family Bible Time into me for fifteen years?”
“You mean ‘all that religious crap I stuffed down your throat’?”
“Come on, Dad. What was I supposed to say? I hated that you always gave me a hard time about Tanner and that was the only thing I could think of to fight back.”
“Rayna, you just buried your good friend and now you’ve broken up with Tanner. Seminary isn’t a place to hide from your problems.”
It’s exactly what I want seminary to do. No one would ever suspect me of being there. I’ll be good for a long while.
“Dad, I’m going to Indianapolis whether you help me or not. I’ll be there tomorrow morning. Are you still on good terms with the dean, Fred Barlow?”
“Of course. We’ve been friends since we were in seminary together.”
“Do you think you can ask him to let me in? Dad, I was an honors student. A war hero. All that crap.”
“I’m sure Fred will make an allowance for you but, Rayna, is this real or are you running away from something?”
“Dad, who the hell goes into seminary if they’re not serious? Besides, it’s about time we had a female pastor in the family.”
Recruited (Rayna Tan Action Thrillers) Page 3
