Trevor couldn’t believe his eyes. “But why Carly? This makes no sense! She has a powerful-ass family, are you kidding me?”
“Nobody’s more powerful than the government,” Hammer said. “Don’t you ever forget that.” Hammer stared at Trevor. “I know what you did for them when they were on your kill list. You prewarned them. You helped them. You’ve gotten yourself too tied-up with that family. Get untied. You still have work to do.”
“But you don’t realize what this means!” Trevor was nearly traumatized, and Hammer was talking about past shit.
“I know what it means,” Hammer said. “You love the girl.” He puffed on his cigarette again. “I know.”
Trevor would have asked how did he know, but that was beside the point now. He knew. Trevor pulled out his cell phone.
“You already have a detail on her, I take it?” Hammer asked.
“Two details. But I want more.” Trevor made his phone call. He ordered his security chief to find out where Carly was currently located and to get more men to back her up. Then he looked at Hammer. “When is the target scheduled to activate?”
“In a few days is what I’m told. But don’t take any chances. Reggie has never played by the rules.”
“Find Carly now,” Trevor said on the phone to his security chief, “and report back to me.” He also phoned Carly’s cell phone as he rose from his seat, with folder in hand. But he got no response.
“Loving a woman is a good thing,” Hammer said to his brother. “Just not for us.”
Trevor looked at him. “Too late for that,” he said, and began hurrying out.
“And little brother,” Hammer yelled.
Trevor looked back.
“You’d better not harm a hair on her head. And you know whose hair and whose head I mean.” Then he looked hard at Trevor. “It’s too late for me, too,” he added.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Regina “Reggie” Dell sat in the backseat of the Lincoln MKS as they tailed the Lexus. She sat in the middle, with her legs crossed and a gun at the ready in her hand. “What was your impression of her?” she asked.
Douglas McCarren drove slowly, careful to keep a respectable distance. His face still bore the fruits of Trevor’s fist. “A smart girl. Cute. Nice body for damn sure. Somebody I was planning to spent several nights with before we had to go there.”
“She’s too young. Why do you want them so young?”
“For the same reason Trevor Reese is fucking her. She’s over twenty-one, and she’s hot. That’s all the criteria I need.”
“Ah!” Reggie said with a wave of her hand. “Stupid man. Fall for sluts and tramps all day long. He’s nothing like his brother.”
Douglas looked through the rearview mirror when Reggie said those words. “You mean Heartless Hammer? Heartless being the operative word?”
Reggie exhaled. “Just drive,” she said.
“I am driving.” He looked away from her and back at the target at hand. “I don’t know why we couldn’t take her this morning in that parking garage. We could have taken both their asses.”
“You touch Trevor Reese and Hammer will hammer you,” Reggie said. “Forget revenge. This is business.”
“Why couldn’t we take her in that garage then? Just her? It would have been over by now.”
“And so would we,” Reggie said. “The security in that space is sophisticated. You don’t want your image on the local newscast tonight. We have to pick it right. That’s how you survive in this game.”
“Fuck the game,” Douglas said. “I just want to get paid.”
“You just want to get laid,” Reggie said.
Douglas laughed. “That too!” he said.
She looked at Douglas. “The question is,” she said, “is Trevor Reese already on to you?”
Douglas frowned. “No! Why would he be?”
“Why would he beat you up so decisively?” Reggie asked.
“I told you why. I squeezed Carly’s ass, and he didn’t like it.”
Reggie smiled and shook her head. “Stupid man.”
“We were hired to do a job,” Douglas said, “and I aim to do it. I thought I’d have time to do more than just the job. I was hoping to do more than just squeeze her ass. But I understand. That encounter I had with Reese hastened the plan. I just want to get it over with now. I just want to get paid.”
“Handle it right,” Reggie said, “and we’ll get paid. She’s pulling over,” Reggie added when the Lexus pulled into a service station.
Reggie quickly pulled out her phone, pressed several keys, and waited. The security information for that location came up. She nodded. “It’s a good spot. No cameras outside. Only one inside, which we can get a hold of for the right price.”
“It’s a go then?” Douglas asked.
“It’s a go,” Reggie said. “Pull in.”
The Lincoln pulled in on the opposite side of Carly’s Lexus and stopped as Carly got out and swiped her card at the pump.
“Go now,” Reggie said. “But remember: bring her in alive. When you have her in your control, I’ll speed up for you to toss her in.”
“Got it,” Douglas said, and got out of the car. Reggie Dell got out of the backseat, sat on the driver side front seat behind the steering wheel, ready to accept their prisoner.
Carly lifted the hose off of the pump and was about to place the nozzle into her gas tank when she saw, walking her way, the man she knew as her former real estate agent. And his creep factor, she thought as he came, was off the charts.
She braced herself.
“Carly!” he said with a smile on his face.
“Hello, Douglas.” She knew not to show her concern.
“How are you? I haven’t heard from you.”
He looked antsy. Something was wrong.
He began moving toward her, and looking around as he did. “What you think about this weather? It’s cold one day, hot the next.” And then he made his move.
He reached for Carly and caught her by her arm. But Carly screamed, snatched away from him, and used what she had. She took the gas hose, turned the nozzle toward Douglas, and sprayed him violently with gas, careful to hit him in his already bruised face first.
He reacted, covering his face and turning away, and Carly didn’t hesitate. She attempted to jump back into her Lexus and take off. But Douglas regrouped quickly enough to knock her down and away from her car door. She jumped back up, she sprang back up, and began running toward the service station store. She ran as fast as her feet could carry her. Douglas was on her tail, and was in danger of overtaking her, as she ran.
For Reggie Dell, it was already out of hand, with too many eyes on the scene as people were getting in their cars and taking off, rather than run to the black woman’s defense. And Douglas was about to leave the scene and follow that bitch into the store? It was time to abort. And Reggie did just that. She drove away. She could hear Carly’s screams for help as she drove.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Trevor Reese shifted into fifth speed as he flew along the Boston road. He was on his car phone with Bobby Winshaw, his detail chief, but the chief was giving him whacked information. And Trevor was livid. “What the fuck you mean you can’t find her?”
“Not one member of her detail is responding to my calls! Not one of those fuckers are responding to me. I’m going crazy here!”
“Did you put a third team on detail?” Trevor asked him.
“I tried to! But they can’t find her either.”
Trevor’s heart was hammering. “What about GPS? What is it showing?”
“Somebody pulled the plug on that too. We don’t have the GPS on her, sir. We got nothing!”
“Bullshit!” Trevor yelled so loud he was lifting up in his seat. He pulled out another cell phone. “If anything happens to her, I swear it’s going to be your ass, you hear me, Bobby? It’s going to be your motherfucking ass!”
He pulled up the GPS coordinates on his phone. It was his backup and
was separate and distinct from anything his security personnel held. He had already initiated a request for data when he first left JazzLight, because it took so damn long for location. He was nearly downtown by the time he got a hit.
She was at a service station on Galahad. He knew the street. He knew the station. He orchestrated a U-turn in the middle of the road, and sped in that direction.
As Trevor made his way to her as fast as was humanly possible, Carly was already in jeopardy. She burst through the doors of the service station store screaming from the top of her lungs. The girl in the store was so frightened when she saw Carly that she ran into the backroom, locking herself in.
Douglas ran in just after Carly, grabbing for her and nearly catching her, as Carly ran around aisle after aisle, trying with all she had to keep away from his grasp. He ran with all he had to catch up with her, nearly grabbing her twice more.
But Carly wasn’t just running. She was searching too. Aisle after aisle she was looking for one. But she didn’t see any! When she did see one, and saw that it was behind the counter, she ran to the counter, jumped over, and slid across. Douglas reached for her as she slid, and caught her by the arm.
She pulled and pulled, but she couldn’t break free. He was about to pull her back over the counter, and do she could only imagine what to her, when she reached for it. But Douglas had her arm, and it was too far way. She extended her entire body trying to get it, but it was just out of her grasp. She wanted Trevor. She needed Trevor! But she knew she couldn’t panic. She would die if she panicked.
She kept reaching, and Douglas kept pulling. Until he adjusted his hold on her in an effort to gain a firmer grip. In that brief moment, during his adjustment, Carly was able to reach the box of matches that sat in a tray on the counter. She grabbed the box, opened it quickly, and struck one.
Douglas, realizing what she had in her hand, and the fact that she had poured gasoline all over his body, released her and began to back away. That match was now a deadly weapon. “I’ll leave,” he said nervously, but calmly, his hands now reached out in front of him as if they were his protection. “I’ll just leave, okay? I was just playing with you. I just wanted you to like me. I’d never hurt you, Carly. You know I wouldn’t. I’ll just leave,” he said again. And he kept backing up.
But he wasn’t about to get away that easily. Carly once heard her Uncle Mick tell her father that you should never let them live to kill you another day. And she wasn’t about to either. He kept pleading. He kept insisting he was just an innocent bystander who was playing with her. But she didn’t buy it. She torched his ass. She tossed that match on the retreating form of Douglas McCarren, and he went up in flames.
Trevor drove up, swerving to a stop, just as Douglas ran out of the store screaming in agony. But he was so covered in flames that it looked like a fireball running out of the store. Trevor jumped out of his sports car. For a second he thought it could be Carly. He was ready to throw his own body on top of hers to save her, even if salvation was unlikely given the flames. He had to try.
But when he began running toward the fireball, he realized those were the screams of a man, and backed off. And began looking around. He saw Carly’s Lexus parked at the pump, with the door wide open. But he didn’t see her. “Carly!” he yelled, turning around and around. “Carly!” he cried.
Inside, Carly heard his cry. She heard Trevor’s voice and ran out of the store. When she saw Douglas’s engulfed form, she stopped in her tracks. But when she saw Trevor, she found her courage again and ran to him. And he ran to her. And they didn’t stop running until they were in each other’s arms.
“Thank God!” Trevor said with anguish in his eyes as he held her. “Thank God!”
But he immediately began looking around. The order for her death didn’t go into effect for a couple days, according to Hammer, but Reggie had already made her move. And he had no doubt it was super-assassin Reggie Dell behind this attack. It had her fingerprints all over it.
Sirens could be heard. The gas station was soon to be overrun with cops and firefighters. But Trevor held Carly even tighter. He still wasn’t taking any chances.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Carly was in the tub at Trevor’s estate while Trevor, on the phone, was searching for answers. He kept glancing in the bathroom, to make sure she was okay, as he continued to pace the floor of his master bedroom and ask his connections at the agency what they knew about this botched hit.
But he was getting nowhere. Nobody knew a thing. Nobody heard anything. Reggie Dell was back? Didn’t Hammer have her grounded? He ended the last call and tossed his phone onto his bed. He was so angry he could barely think.
The intercom buzzed. He went over to his nightstand and pressed the button. “What?”
“Bobby is here, sir. Do you want me to send him in?”
“Hell no!” Trevor said. Then he lowered his voice. “I’m coming out.”
He released the button, glanced in the bathroom one more time to make sure Carly was okay, and then made his way downstairs, outside, and up to his front gate.
Security was tight as the gate opened. As soon as Trevor saw his detail chief standing on the other side of that gate, at the entrance booth, he ran to him, pulled out his gun, and put it between Bobby Winshaw’s eyes. “What the fuck happened, Bobby?” he yelled. “What the fuck happened?!”
“I’m doing everything I can to find out, sir,” Bobby responded. Trevor could see the anguish all over his face. “I’ve never seen anything like it. They all bailed. Every single one of the men on that detail bailed. I don’t know if they were paid off. I don’t know if they were frightened off. I don’t know if they’re even still alive, Boss! I don’t know shit!”
“You’d better know shit, or you’re about to become shit yourself.”
“I’ve been working my ass off, Boss,” Bobby said. “And I have a lead.”
Trevor stared at him. “Who?”
“Dodge Rogers.”
Trevor had the same name in mind too. If Bobby would have gone sideways on him, with some bullshit name he pulled out of his ass, he would have been dead. “Why would you figure he’s involved?”
“My contacts at the agency. I called in favors from everybody. They think Dodge is the one who set up Chief Lepeo. They think Dodge might have set you up too.”
Trevor nodded. “Bring that fucker to me now. If you don’t bring him,” Trevor said, “run for your life.”
Bobby nodded nervously. “Yes, sir.”
“And you’d better find every one of those men on both of those details,” Trevor said as he moved closer, completely violating Bobby’s space. “You’d better take your ass back on those streets and find out why the men you hired to protect my lady didn’t protect her!” Trevor was trembling with anger. “Where the fuck are they? You don’t bring me that I don’t know shit because I don’t wanna hear that shit! She could have been killed!”
He said that last sentence with such force, and with such revelation to all who heard his voice, that he knew he had to calm himself back down. All of his men were staring at him. The cat was out of the bag. Trevor loved Carly. They all knew now. And he didn’t give a shit.
But he did back off of Bobby. “Find Dodge and find the rest of those motherfuckers,” he ordered him. “And bring every one of them to me.”
“I’m on it, Boss. I’m on it!”
“You got enough men?”
“Yes, sir. And I’ll get more. I’ll find them, sir.”
“You’d better. Or I’ll find you,” Trevor said, and walked back into the gate. The gate closed him in, and Bobby Winshaw out.
By the time Trevor made it back inside, and upstairs, Carly was still in the tub, her head leaned back, her eyes closed. Trevor leaned against the bathroom door staring at her. He knew, had she not been entangled with him, she would have never been targeted. He placed her in this danger. He was going to do everything in his power to get her out of it.
He entered the bathro
om, still undetected by Carly, and removed his clothing. She did not realize he was in the room with her until he was touching her shoulder. She opened her eyes and moved her tired body. He got in the tub and sat behind her, with her body sitting between his opened legs and leaned against his chest. He took the sponge from her, and slowly, tenderly, began to bathe her.
He glanced down at her pretty face. She was still distressed. “You okay?” he asked.
“I’m okay,” she said. “Just still a little jittery, that’s all. It was a horrific scene.”
“It was a close call. It should have never been that close.”
“I don’t know why I thought you would have somebody following me. I just assumed---”
“You assumed right,” he said. “They bailed on me.”
“They?” she asked. “There was more than one?”
“There were two teams in all. Both bailed.”
“Both?” Carly turned her face toward his. “What happened?”
“Bobby doesn’t know. He has no clue, he claims. But he’ll find out. Of that I have no doubt.”
“But aren’t you worried about Bobby, too? If the others were pressured to leave their assignment, wouldn’t he be too?”
Trevor looked at her and nodded his approval. “Very good observation. Yes. That’s why I have some of my guys on his ass too. But he gave me intel I already knew, so I’ll keep him around for now. But I’ll get to the bottom of it. Don’t worry.”
Carly turned back around and laid her head back against his chest. He began stroking her breasts with the sponge, and then he moved further down. He soaked her between her legs, and then removed the sponge and began rubbing her with his bare hand.
Carly needed the tension release badly, and she knew Trevor knew it. She leaned back even harder against him as he rubbed. She was leaned so far back that Trevor could see her face. He could see her respond with increasing sensuality with every rub. When one of his fingers began to flick her clit, and then another finger slid inside of her, he could see her eyes become drowsy from the intensity of the stimulation. She began to groan. When her eyes became so hooded with desire that she could barely keep them open, he knew he was achieving his goal.
Trevor Reese: His Secret Love Page 11
