“Go out? Where?”
“No questions, Brandy. The less you know.”
Alarm bells sounded in her head. “You’re going to work.”
“Yes. Go to sleep, and don’t leave the room. I’ll be back by morning.”
She leaped from bed and grabbed day clothes. She slid into underwear and a bra. “Take me with you.”
He laughed as if she’d proposed something preposterous.
“I’m serious. I was in the military. I could be your backup. You can’t go in without backup.” She found a black shirt and her darkest jeans.
Lukas’ laugh tapered off. “Brandy, no. You can’t go with me.”
“I can. I’ll be good.” Not only did she want to make sure nothing happened to him, but she wanted to keep him out of trouble. He was invaluable to her investigation, but the idea of something happening to him made her panic inside. She’d never, in her whole life, panicked about a man. She’d worried about her team, but that was nothing close to the alarm she felt now, perhaps because she had no control over what Lukas did.
He grasped her upper arms gently and gave her a small shake to snap away the growing fear. “This isn’t open for discussion. I don’t want you anywhere near where I’m going.”
She gaped at him, her mind scrambling between her cover and real identities for a plausible argument. “I know what you do.”
“You don’t know anything.”
She didn’t correct him, but she did argue. “I know you’re a fixer or enforcer. I’ve seen the blood on your clothes, Lukas. I’m not stupid.”
He scrunched up his nose and pinched the space between his eyes. “Like I said, you don’t know anything, and I’m not going to fill in the blanks.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re everything good in my life.” He took her hands in his and kissed the backs of her fingers, his expression vehement with a trace of melancholy. “There was a time when I didn’t think I’d care about anyone or anything, including myself. But you changed all that, Firebrand. You’re the beat of my heart, the single beacon of light in my dark, dreary existence. I can’t change what I am or what I’m doing—it’s too late for that—but I can keep you away from the darkness. I need you to stay as far away from that side of my life as I can keep you.”
His declaration made her heart thunder with heavy feelings, but she couldn’t let him derail her mission. “But what if you don’t come back?”
The whiskey in his eyes darkened to solid brown. “Then you’ll call the police and tell them who you are and where you are. You’ll tell them you were kidnapped. You won’t mention Redemption Center or anything having to do with The Eye because if you do, they’ll find you, and they’ll kill you. But you can tell them everything else—how you were abducted and kept as a slave. How you called the police the first chance you got.”
He brushed a thumb along her cheek, catching a tear.
“I’m coming back, Firebrand. I just have one, small problem to see to. I’ll be back before morning. You get some sleep because I’m going to need you to drive tomorrow while I get some shut-eye.”
Brandy recognized his bargain. He’d give her what she wanted if she let the issue go. She knew she’d lost, for a whole host of reasons. Not only did she need to maintain her cover, but his excursion would undoubtedly provide insight and intel.
She dropped her gaze. “Thank you, Daddy, but I wasn’t angling for that. I just don’t want you to leave me.”
He brushed her hair away from her face and kissed her forehead. “I know, sweetheart. I know.”
Chapter 11
A knock on the door sounded five minutes after he left.
Brandy opened it to find Avery and Jed on the other side. Her shoulders sagged in relief. “Jed. Thank goodness.”
Avery glanced over at Jed, a frown wrinkling her forehead and chin. “You’re not happy to see me?”
Lifting a hand to stop her before she got started—even though Avery was kidding, Brandy wasn’t in the mood—she pulled them into the room and closed the door. “Lukas just left. He’s doing a job, so he’ll be gone most of the night. Where are Jordan and Liam?”
“Tailing him,” Jed supplied. “We’ve been monitoring you closely.”
“I know.” She motioned to Jed. “He noticed you. At the gas station, he said he’d seen you at the hotel. I’m not sure I was successful in doing more than distracting him. He won’t forget your face.”
Jed took it in stride. “It’s because I’m so stunningly handsome. People notice me. Also, I’m sure people were staring at him more than they looked at me. I wore a suit. He was in jeans and a flannel, and he’s a big son of a bitch. Seriously, Brandy—there’s no way you can take him. I’m not sure I could do that without help. He’s even bigger than Jordan.”
She didn’t feel like she’d ever have the need to defend herself against Lukas. “He’s a gentle giant, but that’s not what we need to discuss. Let Liam and Jordan know that Lukas is working tonight. They are not to engage, no matter what happens.”
“Brandy, you said he was an enforcer for The Eye. We can’t just watch while a murder happens.”
Biting her lower lip, she considered the angles. The FBI didn’t care to stand by while crime happened, but sometimes they needed to let a situation play out in order to snag a larger target. “Tell them they are to remain hidden. Don’t let Lukas or anyone else make them.”
Jed tapped out a message on his phone, his tight expression letting her know he understood the greater good but that he wasn’t okay with standing by when he could save a life.
None of them wanted to do that, but it was the right call. She’d put local FBI on notice, except they might jump the gun and ruin months or years of work.
Avery settled into the chair in the corner of the room. “Okay, let’s catch you up on the raid.”
“Yeah. Jed gave me an overview, but he didn’t have specifics.”
“We’ll be sorting through specifics for a while. Techs are working on getting whatever they can from the files, computers, and phones we got in the sweep. We’re preparing charges for leadership, and we may be providing mental health care to deprogram some of the soldiers, especially if we can’t link them to crimes.” She pursed her lips. “Yoseff Guerro and Karter Rowe ran the place. You said that’s who purchased you?”
“Yes. They basically told Lukas that if he didn’t take me, they planned to rape and beat me to death. He wasn’t happy about the situation, but he wasn’t going to leave me in their hands.” She thought about how his behavior and morals didn’t seem in line with what The Eye preached. “Karter also had me publicly flogged for making noise after curfew. Lukas had gone off on a mission, and I tore apart the room to try to find anything I could use to communicate with the outside world. Later, Yoseff threatened to rape me if I didn’t sleep with Lukas. I tried to seduce Lukas, but he said he wouldn’t touch me, even if I wanted, because I wasn’t with him by choice. Then, the next morning, he got a call telling him to move to Arizona.”
Avery arched a brow. “Now you’re with him by choice. How has that changed the dynamics of your relationship?”
Brandy sat cross-legged on the end of the bed. She rubbed a palm over her jeans. Her team knew she was fully undercover, and they knew she played the role of his girlfriend now. But Avery was a psychologist, and she tended to overanalyze everything. It was her greatest asset and her biggest flaw. “Avery, I don’t need a shrink. I’ve been undercover before. I know it’s hard to keep the personal and professional separate. I’m doing okay.”
If by ‘okay,’ it meant she was dangerously close to falling for her unwitting asset, then, yeah—she was peachy.
“I saw your interaction at the gas station. It was very tender.”
“Well, as I said—he’s gentle with me. He’s a Daddy Dom, so he’s attentive and protective.”
“Besides the part about Jed, what was said?”
It looked like Avery was going to analyze the situat
ion or die trying. Brandy knew she was going to have to report the majority of what happened undercover, so she gave her fellow agent the information she sought. “He doesn’t like the way I drive.”
Jed had joined her on the bed, though he stretched out next to her. His rolling laughter rang out in the small room. “That’s priceless.”
“He ordered me to obey the speed limit and stay in the right lanes. He didn’t want to attract attention.”
Avery struggled to suppress her chuckles, but Jed didn’t even try.
Brandy snagged a pillow and dropped it on Jed’s face. “I toned it down a lot so you could follow without losing me.”
“We have a tracker on you,” Avery reminded her. “Liam has your location onscreen at all times. It even told us you were on the fourth floor.”
“Thanks. I’d say I’ll drive normally from here on out, but Lukas is adamant I obey posted speeds. He was not happy that I went faster to pass and drove mostly in the left lane because I was passing other cars so much.”
Jed tucked the pillow under his shoulders and got even more comfortable. “Sounds like you earned a punishment.”
Oh, she had. “Well, you know those Dom types. Always looking for an excuse to punish.”
“We don’t need an excuse,” Jed assured her, and then his tone changed. He sat up, concern drawing his eyebrows together. “Brandy, I don’t know what kind of a person he is, but I’m really uncomfortable with this situation. He can’t be a good Dom if he’s working for The Eye. I’ve met one of their so-called Doms before. He was just an abusive asshole.”
“He’s a good Dom.” She set a hand on his knee, willing him to trust her. “The spanking was for fun. The punishment was orgasm denial.”
“Spanking?” Jed rubbed his palm roughly against his jaw. “I don’t like the idea of him touching you like that. You’re not even into any of the D/s stuff.”
She recognized the protective instinct of a friend who was also a Dom. “Jed, you can’t vet this one.”
“You have no idea how much we all want to get him in a room alone, Brandy.”
“Take it out on Karter and Yoseff,” she advised. “Lukas is a good man.”
Avery sighed. “Careful, Brandy. Don’t buy the cover.”
Brandy returned Avery’s sigh with a healthy dose of attitude. “It’s not the cover. I’ve lived with this guy for six weeks. He’s never once talked about anything related to The Eye. I went to regular meetings to listen to the propaganda. I’ve heard what they’re selling. I identified the coded language, the buzzwords, and the brainwashing techniques. Lukas follows along at the meetings, but in private, he doesn’t mention it. Ever. Even when he’s with other members of The Eye, he doesn’t talk about it.”
She scooted closer to the edge of the bed to set her feet on the floor and lean closer to Avery.
“Avery, something isn’t adding up with him. He talks about his commitment to The Eye as a path he chose that leads to darkness and death. I had to convince him I’ve spent my life making bad choices and I have no one waiting for me back home, or else he wasn’t going to let me come with him. He said choosing to continue with him was definitely evidence of my bad decision-making. Tonight, I asked to go with him, and he said I was the only light in his life, and he needed to keep me as far from the darkness as he could. He even coached me on how to turn myself in if he didn’t return, going so far as to tell me not to mention The Eye or Redemption Center. He said they’d find a way to kill me if I implicated them.”
Avery sat next to Brandy, and she held both of Brandy’s hands. This was her friend speaking, not her co-worker, subordinate, or psychologist. “Brandy—”
“I know what a True Believer looks like, and Lukas isn’t it.” She looked from Avery on one side of her to Jed on the other, taking in their sympathetic expressions. “Fuck, don’t even, you two. I have not lost my objectivity.”
“We’re not saying you have,” Jed said. “Just that you seem especially passionate about defending Xuereb.”
“Jed.” She delivered a stern warning in one word.
“Brandy.” He used his Dom voice, a tactic he’d never successfully employed with her before.
It didn’t work this time, either. Her warning look had him backpedaling—as much as Jed Kinsley backpedaled.
“How about Avery and I tell you what we’ve learned about Lukas Xuereb?”
“Fine.”
“Forty-three, never married, no kids. He served a six-year tour with the Marines in Afghanistan, came back and went to school to become a veterinarian. Up until three years ago, he had a successful practice. No police or criminal record, not even a parking ticket. Then he sold his clinic, his house—everything—and went completely off the grid.”
She knew most of this, though she hadn’t known his specific age. She also knew Avery would have a developed a profile from the facts Jed provided.
But Jed wasn’t done. “His younger brother, Trace Xuereb, was a drug addict. His record starts at the age of thirteen when he was caught selling weed in school. From there, it grows. Petty stuff like breaking and entering, theft, public intoxication. He went in and out of rehab for a few years. Then things took a turn for the worse. DUI. He was picked up for arson and sentenced to more rehab. The next time, he ended up serving three years for plowing his car through the front window of a tattoo parlor. That’s when he hooked up with The Eye. They got him clean. We have him staying at one of the churches they use for recruitment. He went all-in, and then he died of a drug overdose.”
Brandy knew what came next. “Their mother died soon after.”
“Heart attack at the funeral.” Avery spoke softly. “It was the triggering event. After that, Xuereb sold everything and disappeared.”
“He joined The Eye.” Brandy frowned. “I wonder how they got to him?”
“You take someone who’s had their world decimated, who is questioning everything—especially someone who was a rigid rule-follower—and you offer them a way to make sense of the chaos.” Avery hugged Brandy closer. “Hon, I’m speaking as your friend. Don’t make the mistake of romanticizing Lukas Xuereb. He’s out there right now, doing his part to cement The Eye as an international threat.”
Brandy frowned. Most of Avery’s assessment was spot-on. Lukas was a rigid rule-follower. His dislike of her driving style was rooted in more than a desire not to be caught. From the start, he’d been fixated on having rules, and his own life was structured around rules and order.
On the other hand, anyone who worked with animals needed to be ready for anything, and his love of her bratty, unpredictable side also flew in the face of Avery’s profile. She shared her thought with her friend.
Avery sighed. “It’s a working theory, Brandy. Keep digging, and so will we.”
The passage of time found the three of them lying on the bed. They’d discussed plans for probable scenarios for the Ross compound in Arizona, types of evidence to look for, and how to communicate with her team through the microphone pen and the phone she’d hidden in the car.
Brandy patted Jed’s arm. “How is Tru doing?”
“Good. She’s taking a pottery class, and she keeps trying to get Liam and me to re-create the scene from Ghost as a threesome.”
Brandy laughed.
“I think that ends with you and Liam covered in mud and knocking over the wheel,” Avery said. “Tru will send you both to bed without dessert.”
“Nah. We’ve learned to work together quite well.” Jed waved his hand. “She said to give you a hug from her, and she can’t wait to give you one herself.”
Brandy turned to Avery. “What about you? Anything noteworthy happen while I was gone?”
Coughing, Avery sat up to clear her throat. “Fucking hell, Brandy. Since you’ve been missing, we’ve spent every moment searching for you. I don’t think you understand how many people have put their lives on hold to find you. And none of us did.”
“The Eye puts a lot of effort into anonymity.” She p
ressed her front to Avery’s back and hugged her friend. “I know you looked for me. It’s one of the ways I kept a shred of hope as time passed. I knew you’d find me.”
“You told us where you were,” Jed said quietly. He hugged Brandy the same way she hugged Avery, making Brandy the meat in their hug sandwich. “We weren’t even looking in the right place anymore.”
She knew what he wasn’t saying—they’d assumed she was dead, and the manhunt had turned into a search for her body. She reached back and hugged him closer. “I love you all so very much.”
Avery’s phone buzzed, saving them from proceeding to the awkward phase of hugging too long.
“It’s Jordan.” She put it on speaker. “Forsythe. Kinsley and Lockmeyer are here as well. You’re on speaker.”
“Hey, Chief.” Jordan said.
“Hi, Brandy,” Liam added.
She smiled even though they couldn’t see. It was great to hear their voices. “Hey, guys. What’s going on?”
“We followed your boy down to the docks.” Jordan’s voice came through loud and clear. “It looked like an illegal shipment of something, probably arms or drugs. We called in the Houston field office to track where the shipment goes and who touches it. Our boy disappeared onboard for a couple of hours. When he disembarked, a couple members of the crew unloading the shipment copped some kind of attitude with him, which they will not make the mistake of doing again. They’re alive, but worse for the wear. Then he hooked a horse trailer to a truck. We weren’t at an angle to see exactly what was loaded into it, but I know one thing was a horse. We followed him to a closed large animal vet’s office. He’s doing something with the horse.”
“Horses,” Liam corrected. “She’s having an anchor baby. That’s what they’re doing here. Oh, shit. You think they’re into illegal animal importing? That was an international port, and that horse did not go through customs or quarantine. We got them for arms, drugs, gems, and now horses. I’m going to research this, see what else is going on. Hello, telephoto lens. Have I told you how much I love you?”
Re/Deemed (Doms of the FBI Book 8) Page 14
