by Laurie Roma
Tara smiled to herself as she heard Adrian’s voice in her ear. “God? Sugar, even you are stretching that one.”
Tara heard Rock’s amused reply over the comms. “He’s just pissed that he lost the toss for who gets stuck in the van.”
“Fuck you, asshole,” Adrian replied. “Everyone is in place, T-rex. We’re a go.”
Tara saw her friend Mikayla pull up in front of the club in a flashy red sports car. The valet rushed forward to open the passenger door. “Lynx is here,” Tara murmured, knowing her team would hear her.
Mikayla swung long legs out. Taking the valet’s hand, she allowed him to help her out of the car. She had on a tight green dress with thin straps that stopped just this side of decent. Her thick gold bracelets and chain necklace seemed innocent enough, but Tara knew better. She had seen Mikayla use that gold chain around her neck to garrote someone a few months ago and those bracelets were very handy in a fight.
The gold rings on Mikayla’s fingers might look pretty but Tara knew that with a flick of the stone, a tiny needle would pop out of the band, holding a powerful drug that would take down a two-hundred-pound man in less than three seconds. Tara knew because she had a similar one on her own hand. All the women of IAD shopped together for the jewelry.
Both women were walking arsenals and no one would ever know it.
Time to go to work.
Tara took a deep breath and slid seamlessly into the persona of the China doll she had created. “Hi, sweetie!”
Tara ran the short distance to her friend and hugged her hard, easily slipping the earpiece into Mikayla’s hand as she did. One of IAD’s newer toys, their earpieces were the latest technology. Once in place it allowed for the person wearing it to be heard clearly while blocking out all ambient noise. It also allowed the user to hear everything clearly. It was tiny, effective, and essential when working in a group mission.
Amusement sparkled in Mikayla’s eyes as she smiled at Tara. “It’s so good to see you! I’m so glad you came!” She lowered her voice. “Call me Lia,” she whispered.
“Got it.”
A good-looking, large Hispanic man got out of the driver’s side of the car and walked over to wrap his arm tight around Mikayla’s waist in a possessive hold. Mikayla rolled her eyes. “Carlos, this is my friend, Anna. She’s here visiting me from California for a few days. Anna, this is my new friend, Carlos.”
“Hello, Carlos. Thank you for inviting me along tonight.”
“No problem, Anna. I’m happy to have you here.”
Sure you are…dick.
Tara noted that Mikayla slipped the earpiece on as Carlos spoke. He was a handsome man but his veneer hid a rotten core. She could tell by the way he leered at her. Tara wished she could just stab him in the eye as he winked.
“You girls ready to go in?” Carlos asked as he put his other arm around Tara.
“Sure.”
He led them to the entrance, past a long line of waiting people. He reached in his pocket and slid the bouncer several bills. The bouncer barely glanced down before he lifted the rope to allow them in. Tara was grateful that Carlos had to release his hold on her as they followed the sound of the music down a hallway. “Follow me,” he yelled over the music.
They reached a stairway heading down to the main part of the club and descended the stair into madness. Red lights flashed through the darkness, flickering over writhing bodies on the dance floor as Tara, Mikayla, and Carlos entered the main room. The sensual pull of the techno music had Tara’s movement matching the dance beat until she felt the throbbing tempo in her blood. She was here on a job, but listening to the music and watching the crowd of people, she couldn’t help but think about Julian King.
Damn the man, he had gotten into her head.
Tara knew she had to talk to him about what happened that morning, but there had been no time. He had been busy running his world and she had been busy preparing for tonight’s mission.
No. That was a big fat lie.
She was avoiding him, plain and simple. Tara didn’t like wanting Julian and now that he knew exactly who she really was…She didn’t know what to say to him.
Relationship angst was a bitch. Her current situation was exactly why she avoided relationships in the first place. Yeah, so what if they were good together? Relationships were only good when they weren’t making you miserable. Not that they had a relationship. Another lie. She didn’t know what they had now that he knew the truth.
Stop thinking about him, Tara ordered herself. She was itching for a fight and the sexual pull she felt for Julian King made her even more edgy. Edgy, pissed off, and tired made for a really bad night for the bad guys.
Sucked that she wasn’t here to fight. They needed to use Ricardo Mendez for his information about the auction and that meant they needed him alive.
“Got eyes yet…God?” Lucian’s voice sounded over the earpiece.
“God sees all and hears all. Lynx, you reading me?” Adrian asked over the comms.
Mikayla raised an arm above her head like she was dancing and opened and closed her hand twice in code.
Five fingers two times…five by five.
Loud and clear.
“Good. We’ve got you both covered and I’m tapped into the system.” There was a pause, then, “That better be club soda, you little shit,” Adrian said dryly.
Tara looked over to see Lucian standing at the bar with a drink in his hand. He slightly raised his glass in salute and took a sip.
Walking through the crowd Tara’s muscles hummed with anticipation. Although she saw everything, Tara was oblivious to the blatant lustful stares she got as she made her way through the room. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rock mimicking her movements, providing coverage for her and Lynx. Slade was somewhere in the building, but she knew better than to try to find him.
He wouldn’t be seen if he didn’t want you to find him.
“Well, well. Honey, have I told you how much I love that outfit you’re wearing? From this angle I can see a whole hell of a lot. And, Lynx, if that dress was any smaller I think you might get arrested. I must be God, ’cause right now I’m in heaven.” Adrian’s voice soothed Tara’s nerves and made her smile.
“I’m supposed to be a stripper,” Mikayla hissed over the comms.
“And bless you for it.” Adrian laughed as Mikayla’s middle finger shot up in the air just out of Carlos’s line of sight.
“Damn, maybe I should have stayed in the van,” Lucian quipped.
Slade’s voice cut in on the comms. “I got a nice view, too, damn. T-rex, all you need is a whip and you could make all my fantasies come true.”
The men could hear Tara’s low, throaty laughter. “Mmm, have you been a bad boy?”
“Damn.” The men groaned in unison.
Mikayla turned around and shot Tara a laughing glance before nodding her head toward the right. Tara gave a slight nod in return to let her know she understood.
“Almost there,” Tara murmured. The team understood that the friendly chatter was over and that the communication system was only to be used for warnings or to hear what was going on with the women.
Carlos ushered Tara and Mikayla toward a lower level sectioned off from the rest of the club. The women shared a quick speaking glance that said volumes. As they approached, they had both noticed that the majority of people in the lower level were all young, pretty girls. Pretty girls getting plied with free alcohol. Pretty girls that didn’t know they were steps away from disappearing forever.
Carlos hadn’t sought out Mikayla and Tara’s company for the evening because he liked them. He was planning to kidnap and sell them. Mikayla and Tara’s alter egos of Lia and Anna were young, flashy partygoers. Two beautiful young women just ripe for the taking. They would be coveted pieces for any man’s stable and would go for a high price in any auction. Just like the young girls dancing with the young men working for the Mendez cartel.
Tara, Mikayla, and Carlos passed by
a bodyguard guarding the entrance to the private level. He had moved aside as he saw Carlos approach.
Immediately, Tara and Mikayla were handed glasses of champagne. Tara brought the tip up to her lips, careful not to swallow a drop. Mikayla used her own glass as cover to speak as Carlos greeted some of his friends.
“Sorry I couldn’t hook up with you guys sooner. He had me followed after I left LaRue’s place and insisted on taking me to dinner,” Mikayla explained.
“We had a feeling it was something like that,” Tara replied. She looked around the room and felt a sick feeling wash over her. “Look at all these girls…”
Mikayla jerked her head toward the back. “There is a private room at the far end of this section. How much you wanna bet that Mendez is in there?”
“That’s a sucker’s bet,” Rock’s low voice said in their ears.
“There are no cameras in the private rooms,” Adrian warned them.
Tara turned to Mikayla, with a fake smile plastered on her face. “Once we’re in, follow my lead. Don’t break cover until I say. Promise.” She mouthed the words to Mikayla so the team wouldn’t overhear.
Mikayla hesitated for a moment, then nodded in agreement.
“Extraction plan?” Mikayla asked softly.
“We wing it,” Tara answered. “If we have to break a few bones to do it, so be it.” This time a feral grin crossed Mikayla’s stunning face.
A man came up to Tara and asked her to dance. Carlos turned and whispered something to the man and he backed away from the trio with a malicious grin. Oh yeah. She definitely made a mental note to make sure he paid for what she saw in his eyes and Carlos for whatever he had just said.
“Hello ladies, having fun?” Carlos smiled at them then focused his gaze on Tara. “Hey, beautiful, there is someone I want you to meet. Come with me.”
Carlos gave neither woman a choice as he slung an arm around both of their shoulders and led them toward the closed room in the back of the private area.
“The room is next to an exit,” Adrian informed them. “I was pulling the van in closer and surprise, surprise there is a van already waiting. Another around the corner.”
“Son of a bitch,” Lucian whispered in a furious voice. “Want me to come help you take them out?”
“No, I tagged the plates. We’ll let the LEOs take care of them,” Adrian informed them. “If any of these assholes try to leave with the girls, they’ll be taken care of.” The IAD agents were here to get information. The local law enforcement officers could make sure most of these girls got home safely.
“Watch yourselves…” Slade cautioned them as they arrived before the closed door of the private room. “Remember, three minutes for the data transfer, then you get out.”
Let the fun begin…
Carlos whispered something to the guard standing in front of the door. The guard opened the door for them and Carlos pulled the women inside with him.
Tara took in the room at a glance and knew there was going to be trouble. She saw three men and two girls sitting on the large plush booth in the room curled around an open gas fire pit in the center. The one on the right was Ricardo Mendez, in all his fucked-up glory.
Two guards were situated slightly to the side of the booth, where they could watch the room. A young girl sat on either side of Mendez, both of them drinking glasses of champagne. The girls were so drunk they barely noticed they were surrounded by men watching them with hungry, perverted eyes. One of the girls let her head fall back with a giggle as the man next to her shoved a hand beneath her shirt to stroke her breast.
Ricardo Mendez was a bastard of the worst kind.
He collected different women, surrounded himself with them, and then made them disappear into a hell few could imagine. He and his men preyed on the young, drunk, and stupid. Some they drugged, while others they just took by brutal force. Tara guessed that tonight he had chosen drugs to persuade his victims.
Tara watched Mendez’s eyes fill with a sadistic glee as he watched her enter the room. She knew the next few minutes weren’t going to be fun. She needed three minutes with her phone close to Mendez’s in order to successfully complete a data transfer of all the information on his cell. She hadn’t thought there would be other girls there when she had come up with this plan, but things were already in motion.
A lot could happen in three minutes, but there was no going back now.
When the team had been prepping earlier, Tara had left a few small details out of the information she had shared with the team. While their initial intel had told everyone that Ricardo Mendez liked his girls dominant, today she had found out that he liked them that way so he could break them.
She knew they would flip out and she wasn’t giving up the opportunity to get the information they needed from this man. If they didn’t finish this tonight, who knew when Mendez would surface again. Or how much damage he would do in the interim.
The door closed with a click and the music faded to a distant thumping. Tara smiled absently as Ricardo said something to the guards. The guards both stepped forward and the one closest to Tara grabbed her purse to check inside.
“Hey!” Mikayla yelped from a few feet next to her, obviously getting the same treatment.
“What is the meaning of this? Get your hands off me!” Tara commanded in Chinese-accented English as if she had been born and bred overseas. She slapped the man’s hands away as he reached for her.
Ricardo leaned forward and rested his forearms on his knees. “My apologies, ladies,” he said, his voice heavy with an accent, “but I am an important man and my guards have to check you to ensure my safety.”
“Safe from us?” Mikayla exclaimed. “This is crazy! Carlos—”
“Quiet,” Carlos demanded, pulling Mikayla with him over to the bar in the corner of the room.
Ricardo nodded to the guard at Tara’s side. She forced herself not to gag as his hands slid over her, lingering on her assets before he gave her back her purse and motioned for her to enter. She cast her eyes around the room as if nervous while she scanned the room for details.
“Come. Sit,” Mendez ordered softly. He was a man used to being obeyed.
Asshole.
Tara hesitated before she took a tentative seat at the end of the booth next to him. She didn’t like sitting with a guard at her back, but knew Mikayla would be watching out for him.
“My name is Ricardo Mendez. Welcome to our little party.”
“Thank you. My name is Anna. It’s a wonderful party you’re having out there,” Tara said. “Is it a special occasion?”
Ricardo smiled, lust shining in his eyes as his gaze roamed over her body. “Every day is a special occasion.”
It took everything in her not to flick the stone back on her ring and jab the fucker right in the carotid with a lethal dose of poison. Instead Tara’s gaze slid up as one of the guards brought her another glass of champagne since she had left hers in the other room. She smiled gratefully at him, then turned back to the drug lord next to her.
His phone was lying on the stone edge encircling the fire pit, out of her reach. She would have to figure out a way to either switch to his other side or get her purse close enough to start the transfer without him noticing. Neither option appealed to her. It would be so much easier if she could just kill him and then get the data, but no, they wanted him alive…to her disappointment.
Mendez shot a look at the man groping one of the girls. “Paul, I think you should take these two…back to their hotel.”
The man cleared his throat and sat up. “Very good. I think they are ready.”
Vile, loathsome little fuckers.
Tara heard Adrian’s low curse in her ear. “I’ll watch to see if that fucker takes them out the side exit. Someone keep an eye out to see if they leave through the front.”
“I’m on it,” Lucian said through the earpiece.
The man helped the two drunk girls up and practically carried them to the doorway with an arm a
round each of their waists. The door closed behind them with a soft snick of sound.
“I’m not getting a read on the cloning program yet,” Adrian said softly. “You have to move closer.”
Tara sighed. She didn’t want to get any closer to the vile little fucker next to her but she knew she had to if she wanted to clone his phone.
“Drink,” Mendez ordered.
Tara picked up her glass, prepared to fake a sip. Mendez and the other man watched her bring the glass to her lips with greedy eyes. It was definitely drugged. She reached a leg out and shoved her purse closer to Mendez’s phone.
“Transfer initiated,” Adrian’s voice confirmed.
Good.
Ricardo Mendez leaned closed to Tara. “Drink more.”
Tara frowned at the order.
“Carlos, stop…Shouldn’t we join the others?” Mikayla’s voice was loud from the behind them.
Tara started to turn her head only to have Ricardo grab her. Quick as a snake, he reached for her neck and gripped hard, squeezing with his large hand so hard she couldn’t speak.
“You will learn to do what I say when I give you an order,” Ricardo said, his voice low and mean.
Fuck that. Tara let the glass fall to the ground.
“That son of a bitch is choking her!” Mikayla whispered furiously.
“On your knees, whore!”
“Fuck the plan,” Rock growled over the comms. “Take that motherfucker out.”
Tara wanted to kill him as Mendez leaned in, licked her cheek as he used the grip on her neck to force her down onto her knees in front where he was sitting.
Damn it to hell, she didn’t want to blow the op because she couldn’t take a little rough handling but the desire to hurt him was so strong it made her muscles quiver with the need to react. She had to remind herself that they needed the information on his phone and if they didn’t leave him alive then they would have no way to trace back to the sale.
“My nephew can keep your friend occupied. You are mine to play with. I fear that I cannot wait for the drug in your drink to make you more biddable,” Mendez whispered in her ear. “Just as well, I like it when my girls have a bit of fight in them. Diego, hold her still while I tie her up.”
