One Shot [IAD Agency 2] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Laurie Roma

He opened his mouth to speak but stopped as Tara murmured “Not now.”

  * * * *

  Julian felt the annoying heat of jealousy sear through him as he watched Slade and Lucian greet Tara. He understood the familiarity she had with these men since she had worked closely with them. But that didn’t change the fact that he didn’t like when she kissed or touched them. He couldn’t help it and he didn’t understand it. He had never felt this way before, possessive and territorial.

  He really didn’t like it.

  This morning had been an enlightening one. And the burn of jealousy had nothing on the fury he felt about the other things he had discovered.

  Julian had awakened feeling refreshed, looking forward to seeing Tara again. He had thought it over all night and had come up with a plan of how to win her over. She was bold and brash but shied away from tenderness like it was a rabid animal she didn’t want to get bitten by. He knew it made her suspicious…as if she wasn’t used to it and she probably wasn’t.

  Julian wanted to give Tara that tenderness.

  He wanted to see her blossom under the attention he would lavish her with. Due to her occupation and the people she normally worked with, Julian was convinced that she had never had the opportunity to enjoy the finer things in life. He wanted to give her those things, share his world with her. In essence, he planned to seduce her. To make her want what he could give her and win her over slowly until she was ready to trust him.

  All of that had changed when Lucian Steele and Marco Sladerman had arrived.

  Julian forced himself to look away from where Tara and Lucian were talking quietly. He watched Slade put a small black box out down on the table front of him.

  Slade nodded to Lucian and Tara. “We’re a go.”

  “You okay?” Lucian asked Tara, his voice serious and laced with concern.

  “I said not now,” she said flatly.

  They spoke softly but Julian strained to hear every word. The feeling that something was up that he didn’t know about was making him edgy.

  “Goddamn it, yes now. Are you really up to this?”

  Tara’s eyes narrowed in anger. “What the hell is this? Leave it alone, Steele.” Her voice was low, but determined as she glared at Lucian. “We are not talking about this right now. Drop it.”

  Caught up, Lucian exploded. “Jesus, T-rex, I read the debrief on South Africa! What was it, a week ago? You shouldn’t even be back in the fucking field yet!”

  Tara took a step forward and got in his face, her voice dangerously soft. “Are you telling me you think I can’t do the job?”

  “Shit, of course not. I’m just worried about you.” Lucian took a deep breath and reached a large hand out to cup her cheek but Tara stepped back out of his reach. “God, T. I’m sorry. You shouldn’t be going after Sharif after—”

  Rock had gotten up as Tara and Lucian had begun to argue. He moved to stand between them. “Leave it.” Rock growled at Lucian. “Not the time, not the place, Steele.”

  Slade leaned his big frame back casually in his chair. His icy blue eyes were filled with concern but he stayed silent.

  “What the fuck makes you any more capable of handling this shit, Steele? I seem to remember you strung up right next to me,” Tara snarled. “Screw it, I don’t want to talk about this right now.” She turned and her face went pale as she looked over to see Julian watching her.

  Fuck.

  This was just what she needed.

  “I think we should all sit down.”

  Tara hesitated for a moment before moving around the table to sit next to Julian as the others took their seats. She chose that position specifically. This way she wouldn’t have to look at him. Or so she thought. She could feel his eyes boring into her, willing her to turn toward him.

  Questions…He was always filled with fucking questions. Prepared to eviscerate him when he demanded to know what they were talking about, she turned to glare at him.

  “What?” she snapped.

  Julian stared at her, his eyes dark and stormy. “You have a headache.”

  Tara blinked at him in surprise. She wasn’t expecting that.

  “I noticed it when you came in,” he said softly. “You should take something for it.”

  “Jesus. What is with you guys?” Tara rolled her eyes at him. “I’m fine.”

  Julian was silent as he got up from the table. A few seconds later Julian sat back down. Tara glanced over to see him holding out a small bottle of aspirin and a bottle of water. Tara let out an aggravated sigh as she took the bottle of aspirin out of his hand and ripped the cap open. Fuck it. She took four of the small pills in her hand and tossed them into her open mouth. Julian opened the bottle of water and offered it to her. She took it and chased back the pills, slamming the bottle down on the table.

  “Thanks,” Tara said snidely, not sounding the least bit grateful. The concern he had shown her made her insides all fluttery. She didn’t like it…did she?

  He opened his mouth to snap at her but shut it as he looked into those dark, secretive eyes of hers. He was surprised to see pain there that had nothing to do with a headache. It struck a nerve in him. To see that kind of bleakness coming from her was painful.

  It was something he wished he’d never have to see again.

  The telling emotion was shocking to see since she usually kept her emotions so closely contained. He didn’t like it, and damn it to hell, he didn’t like that he didn’t like it.

  Julian wanted to yank Tara out of her seat, away from the other men. In fact he wanted to pick her up and carry her off somewhere far, far away from anyone. He wanted to take her in his arms and fix whatever had put that look in her eyes, but he knew he couldn’t. Not while they were surrounded by her friends.

  It took Tara a moment to realize that the room had gone silent.

  She was seething inside and had to strive to control her temper as she looked around the room. The faces of the men stared at her with a mixture of concern, speculation, and anger. None of it sat well with her, but she had more important matters to deal with first.

  Like busting Lucian’s ass.

  Julian took the opportunity to do a little damage control before an argument broke out. “I apologize for interrupting, but I’m curious. Are you recording this conversation?”

  “No.”

  Julian waited a moment for Slade to expand on that but he didn’t. Impatiently Julian had to ask the question as he nodded toward the small black box sitting on the table. “Then what is that?”

  “It’s a jammer,” Lucian explained. “We’re blocking the conversation so no one outside of the room can hear it. If there are any listening or recording devices in here those will also be jammed. We take security very serious.”

  Ah, that made sense.

  “Now that we’ve got that out of the way,” Tara said snidely. “Where is Adrian?”

  “Downstairs,” Rock said. “He’s taking care of training the security guards while we deal with this shit.”

  Tara nodded then glared at Lucian. “Explain.”

  The command in her voice was a dare to refuse.

  Lucian knew what she was asking. They were too well trained to speak about things in front of civilians but he had brought up the mission to South Africa and Sharif’s name in the last few minutes.

  “Slade and I arrived a few hours ago. We came straight here from our last assignment.” He let out a sigh. “Julian King is a personal friend of mine and has been my CI for the past seven years. He knew I worked for IAD but he didn’t know I was also working for Mac Securities until I showed up today.”

  Well, shit. She hadn’t been expecting that.

  “Mr. King has been read into the situation. Lucian did it before I arrived,” Rock added. His deep voice was filled with anger.

  What the fuck? Tara’s eyes widened in disbelief.

  As a confidential informant, the channels of communication were open, but the fact that Lucian read a civilian into an active op without th
e agents in charge knowing was just plain crazy. He was going to get his ass kicked for that. The look on Rock’s face said that clearly and she couldn’t help but agree.

  Okay, so Julian knew the truth. A small part of her was relieved that she wouldn’t have to lie to him like she normally did, but mostly she mourned the fact that she would never be just a woman to him now. No man saw her that way after they found out what she really did…who she really was.

  Slade held up his hands telling her he had nothing to do with it as she shot a furious glare across the table at him. She swept her gaze over to Lucian and he met her angry stare with one of his own.

  Oh, fuck that.

  Unable to censor herself, the words came spewing out of her mouth.

  “What the hell were you thinking?”

  “I was thinking we have a piece of shit who would sell his soul for the right price and three fucking terrorists to find,” Lucian snapped. “I know you’re pissed. Trust me, Rock made it clear he was, too.” He rubbed at his cheek and Tara noticed the slight bruising on his jaw.

  Rock scratched at his forehead with his middle finger. “That was nothing, son. It’s a love tap compared to what we’re gonna get into later.”

  Lucian let out an aggravated growl. “Jason made it clear that we had clearance to tell Julian everything.”

  “That wasn’t your decision to make,” Tara snarled. “You aren’t primary on this op and you damn well know better.”

  “Give me a break for Christ’s sake, would you? Nothing about this mission is normal,” Lucian argued. “I figured the more help we had the better. Julian has been a very useful source in the past and knew you guys weren’t going to read him in. Goddamn it. I want Sharif as much as you, Tara.”

  A million questions were running through Julian’s head and he had to struggle to control his frustration. He hated to sit there in silence as they talked about him like he wasn’t even there, but he understood the situation enough to know that he wasn’t a necessary part of this conversation.

  That didn’t matter, though.

  When his longtime friend showed up this morning, all the pieces fell into place. Julian had been hearing rumors that something big was going down in Las Vegas soon. He always kept well informed about anything that was going on in his city. But what Lucian had told him had Julian’s blood turning to ice. It was one thing to deal with criminals and thieves.

  Terrorists were a whole different story.

  As he sat back, Julian had a difficult time focusing on the conversation going on around him. He couldn’t stop staring at Tara. Lucian had mentioned that he and Tara had personal history with the terrorist Hassan Sharif, but what was it? And what the hell had happened to her in South Africa? He knew he had to wait to ask the questions he was dying to ask.

  Now wasn’t the time.

  Tara’s cell phone rang. She pulled it out and checked the display. The number calling was one of Mikayla’s burner numbers. Tara raised one finger and the conversation came to a halt. She hit answer and raised the phone to her ear.

  “Hello.”

  The music over the line was loud, the bass making it difficult to hear. “Hey, boo,” Mikayla’s voice purred over the line. “I know you aren’t in town for long and we said we’d have a girl’s night, but I ran into a friend who is having a party tonight. I think we should go.”

  Tara pressed the speaker button on the phone and placed it on the table.

  “Are you alone?” Tara asked.

  “Of course not.”

  “Got it. You’re in town?”

  “Yep. I came in to pick up my paycheck at the Kitty Cat today. I decided to hang with some of the girls for a bit and met a new friend.”

  Tara knew that Mikayla was friends with the infamous Madam LaRue, owner of the Kitty Cat Club off the Vegas Strip. Madam LaRue was actually Linda Rutledge, the former owner of the most successful escort service in Washington DC before she retired and bought the club in Vegas. It was a smart move to try to see if the Madam had any information that could help them.

  A deep voice murmured on the other end of the line. Mikayla giggled, but anyone who knew her could hear the irritation in the tone. Tara smiled at the sound.

  “This have to do with our op?”

  “Oh, yeah. The party is private, but my new friend assures me that he can get both of us in. His boss has a thing for Asian women and I just know he’d love a little China doll like you.”

  Crap. China doll was a code between them. Tara was Japanese and hated to be called a China doll. It wasn’t anything serious, but she hated how assholes didn’t think there was a difference, except, hello, different countries. The code meant that she wasn’t going to like the role she was going to be playing. “Got the message. I’ll be ready.”

  “Good. It’s at The Cave…You know, you said you wanted to go there? They have all those amazing private rooms in the back.”

  Shit.

  Rock leaned forward to speak softly. “Backup?”

  “Not a chance.” The guys wouldn’t be attending.

  “Shadowed eyes and ears?”

  “That’s fine.”

  Slade nodded. “We’ll be there.”

  “Awesome.” Mikayla’s voice said it was anything but that. “We can do our margaritas and Mexican food some other night. Why don’t you meet me in front of The Cave at ten? I’ve got some things to clear up before then.”

  “Will do.”

  “Later, love.”

  The call ended.

  What the hell just happened? Julian was confused by the call. He could tell by the smiles on the men’s faces and the satisfaction gleaming in Tara’s eyes that they were pleased but he didn’t understand why.

  “The China doll is coming out to play tonight?” Slade asked, amusement in his voice.

  “Fuck off.”

  Rock laughed. “We’ll put Adrian in the van outside.”

  “He’s gonna be pissed,” Lucian said. They all knew the twins were too recognizable in situations like this. One of them would have to sit outside in the surveillance van.

  Julian had had enough. “Can someone please explain to me what the call was about?”

  Tara took pity on him. “My friend Mikayla told us that our drug lord is in town and she got us an invite to a private party he is having tonight. It was the Mexican food reference,” she explained before he could ask.

  “And backup and other stuff?”

  “No backup means none of us”—Lucian gestured toward the other men—“will be allowed to go in with Tara and Mikayla. But we’ll be in the club, shadowing them with cameras and comms.”

  Julian’s chest felt tight with unease. He didn’t like that Tara and her friend would be going into a situation with a known drug lord. Ricardo Mendez was a nasty piece of work. Not only did he own one of the largest drug cartels south of the border, he also dabbled in trafficking women as well.

  Something still bothered him. “What does China doll mean?”

  The look on Lucian, Slade, and Rock’s faces worried Julian.

  “Wait and see, my man,” Lucian said with a grin. “Wait and see.”

  Chapter Nine

  Music thumped a steady rhythm like a heartbeat.

  The low throb of a Hayabusa motorcycle cut through the night as the rider pulled up in front of the club. The rider coasted the bike a few feet down past the valet stand, then shut it off with a flick of the wrist. A valet rushed forward, reaching out with a ticket in his hand. His eyes glazed over with anticipation as he looked at the bike. At least until he got a good view of the rider.

  Then he lost his ability to speak.

  Eyes turned from every direction as Tara took off her helmet and shook out her hair. She had on a long black wig, highlighting the China doll look she was going for tonight. Skillfully applied makeup made her look younger than she really was and accentuated her exotic features to a tee. Both the wig and makeup helped hide her real features. The darkness inside the club would also be a p
lus, helping to dissuade anyone from truly recognizing her.

  At least the her she was right now.

  She had dressed to be noticed, wanting people’s attention on the whole package she presented instead of why she was there. Dressed to kill in a tight, black strapless corset with red lace covering that had her boobs busting out of the top, tight black leather pants, and black knee-high boots, Tara was a walking wet dream.

  Tara had spent the afternoon familiarizing herself with Ricardo Mendez and his organization. Not much was known about this up-and-coming drug lord besides he was pissing off his competition left and right. Tara had spoken to a DEA agent earlier who was an old friend. The DEA agent had given her what she hoped was useful information and she had made sure to dress the part. Ricardo Mendez, it seemed, had a taste for young women with a dominant streak…Asian women in particular.

  Well, she’d give him what he wanted.

  Tara purposefully arrived early, wanting to scope out the crowd and watch for Mikayla’s arrival. She hooked her helmet onto the bike then turned to the waiting valet, gifting him with a slow smile. “Could you do me a favor…please?” Tara’s voice purred out in with a hint of a Chinese accent.

  “A…anything,” the valet stuttered out.

  “Would you make sure my bike stays right here? I would worry about him otherwise.”

  “Him?”

  “Hmm…yes, I call my bike a him. I…ride him after all…don’t I?” She traced a finger seductively over the collar of his shirt, making him gulp.

  “Oh yeah,” he whispered reverently. He tried to speak normally, then had to clear his throat before he tried again. “I will watch it…him for you. I will be right here waiting for you when you leave. I mean, it…it will be right here.”

  “Thank you”—her eyes drifted down to his nametag—“Dennis.” She leaned in close to press a kiss to his cheek and heard him sigh as she walked away. Tara made her way back toward the entrance of the club with a slow swing of her hips, her steps confident and controlled. Her team was already in place inside and she was ready for the night to begin.

  A noise chirped in the earpiece she wore and immediately slowed her step. “This is God to T-rex. Can you hear me?”