In itself the directive and his assessment made sense. But of course, my heart was unable to comprehend that.
"No," I said, trying to hand the binoculars and walkie-talkie back.
Both items got pushed back into my lap forcefully.
"What did I say, Kate?" Jason growled, one hand already on the door handle to the car, the other holding the items in my lap still, for fear I'd throw them back. Another good assessment.
"I should go with you," I offered, holding his irate glare.
He blinked once, sighed, then said, "OK. In the interest of moving this along as quickly as possible, so we can get our arses out of here before we're seen. How do you think coming with me will improve our chances of getting in and out undetected?"
"Well," I said, then couldn't think of a suitable argument to offer.
He was right of course. Me going with him wasn't strictly necessary to the successful outcome of this venture. But my heart was telling me he shouldn't be alone. What if he had a flashback in there? What if he needed me and I couldn't get inside to help him out?
I couldn't say any of this aloud. First, he'd deny he had any problems. He may even accuse me of being overprotective like Nick and Dom. And secondly, I wasn't entirely sure if he was having flashbacks. If he was, in fact, on the edge of sanity due to his experiences in the armed forces. I was only speculating, trying to understand his need for control and Nick's insistence that Jason was on the verge of something disastrous.
I didn't have an answer and my gut wasn't giving me any clues. I simply didn't know.
What it boiled down to was, did I trust him to get this done, or not?
I looked into his eyes and saw his desire to get this onerous task completed. I saw his concern for me. For my safety, for my hesitation to follow his command. I saw his strength of character, his ability to take charge and effect an outcome with a natural leader's grace. I saw his heart; the part of him that loves me beyond measure. The part of him that would do all of this for a man who had pushed his emotional buttons intentionally and held his job over his head in an effort to make Jason walk away from something he wanted above all else. Who had made Jason's imperfections public knowledge.
"Are you doing this for me?" I asked, trying to work out if that was why he'd risk arrest.
"Of course," he said, without hesitation. And then surprised me by adding, "And because Nick didn't do this. He's being accused of someone else's crime."
And that's all he needed say, to make me realise that Jason Cain was not the product of his broken pieces, he was the sum of all of him. His compassion, his strength, his control, his experiences, his heart. Jason might have a past that threatened something in him, but it didn't necessarily mean it threatened his mind, his sanity. His ability to act appropriately and assess a situation he was trained to handle correctly. His control.
This was what Jason was meant to do. This stealth and infiltration he was about to undertake was as much a part of him as his ability to love me. Jason was not perfect, parts of him were broken. But it was his imperfections that made him perfect to me.
"OK," I said, gathering up the binoculars and walkie-talkie. I placed the walkie-talkie next to me in the centre console, within easy reach, and lifted the binoculars to my eyes to scan the ASI building and see if there were any potential threats. "I'll let you know if I spot anything," I added.
He didn't move. My hand held the binoculars still before me, but I twisted my head to meet his gaze. He was smiling. That smile he only lets out, now and then, and which I think might just be all mine.
"Kate," he said in a low and delicious silky voice. "I love you."
"And I love you," I whispered, tears openly pooling in my eyes. He noticed.
"Don't just watch the building," he said after a short pause, changing the atmosphere in the car to one of business. "Watch the entire street as well. Even behind you. Every three minutes, you do a scan of your environment. Reassess threats. Just because I'm going in there does not mean you are safe."
I nodded, wishing we could skip forward an hour and bypass this adrenaline fuelling next sixty minutes.
"Good," he announced with a nod of his head, and then he was gone. Out the door, striding up the street, blending in with the Newmarket shoppers and almost disappearing from sight, if I hadn't been following his very fine arse so closely.
Twenty minutes later and I had disgustingly chewed several nails down to skin. Jason had confirmed he was inside ASI offices and had top level clearance - thank you Nicky - but had been silent ever since. I wanted to call out to him, but feared I'd distract him, or place him in harm's way for some reason. So I had bitten my nails, scanned my environment and found nothing out of place, and simply waited.
I hadn't realised I was an impatient person. But this angst was debilitating almost. It had me doing unnecessary things, like checking the volume on the walkie-talkie fifty times. I also considered that I could just phone Tremayne. Get in touch with the man to show my concern. Wouldn't he have expected me to call when I found out the showroom had been burgled? Wouldn't it make sense if I contacted him and surreptitiously drilled him for information?
Of course my ability to be surreptitious right now was debatable. Just ask the walkie-talkie. But the longer it took for Jason to provide an update, the closer I came to picking up my cellphone and just dialling Richard Tremayne, demanding to know why the bastard had implicated Nick and myself in this crime.
Instead I dialled Detective Pierce.
One would think, while I was performing look-out duties as my ex-military lover broke into a security firm under current investigation for a crime by the Police, that I wouldn't draw said Police's attention to me. Maybe it wasn't Jason's sanity that should have been in question, but mine.
"Ryan Pierce," came down the line after the ringing tone had sounded three times.
"Detective Pierce, this is Katie Anscombe."
"Katie?" Ryan said, sounding surprised to hear from me. I then heard shuffling of material, indistinct voices and the slamming of a door. Followed by an echoing silence that led me to believe Pierce had vacated an occupied room and was now alone. "How can I help?"
I smiled. Ryan was always so ready to offer a hand, even when he knew he shouldn't.
"Have you located Richard Tremayne yet?" I asked, and heard Pierce suck in a deep breath.
"Yes and no," he finally admitted, but didn't say more.
"Ryan," I said, in my most determined voice, "I don't have time to play guessing games. My brother is being accused of a crime he didn't commit and I've had a shit of a month. So please, what does 'yes and no' actually mean?"
"Shit of a month, huh?" Ryan mumbled. "All right, but Katie, you didn't hear this from me."
"Of course, darling."
"We touched base with him via phone to advise of the theft, he agreed to return to Auckland on the next available flight. We have him boarding in Queenstown and exiting the plane in Auckland, but since then, nothing."
"What time-frame are we talking about, Ryan?"
"The plane landed at ten this morning." I glanced at my watch. It was already two in the afternoon. No wonder I was famished.
I rubbed my empty belly while I contemplated what this news meant. If Tremayne was playing along to continue his cover, then he would have gone directly to the Police. Which he didn't. So, he was either giving up on the charade - but then why return at all? - or something had happened to waylay him.
"You do realise this could all be an insurance scam," I offered.
"It had crossed our minds, but..." he paused, reconsidered whatever he was going to say, then said, "We do know how to investigate a crime, Katie."
I almost rolled my eyes at his imperious tone.
"Of course, darling," I said placatingly. "But Nick didn't do this and you know that, don't you?"
"What I know as a person and what I know as a cop are two entirely different things."
I didn't like the sound of that.
&n
bsp; "Something's happened to Tremayne," I said, admitting my thoughts out loud.
"If it has, we have no evidence of foul play," Ryan offered.
"You think he's intentionally been waylaid?" I asked.
"That's one way of putting it. But our current official position, again you've not heard this from me, is that something mundane has delayed him and he will no doubt appear before close of business today. He was not legally required to come directly to the Police Station upon landing in Auckland," he pointed out.
None of it made sense, though. If Pierce was correct, Tremayne was dealing with something willingly before he approached the Police. A delay could be attributed to any number of plausible legal things, as Ryan had insinuated. But if I'd had six million dollars worth of goods stolen, I would be hounding the Police in person until they found my property and returned it to me. Tremayne was not. So, what was he doing?
Fencing the goods? Dealing with a hitch in his supply chain? Covering his tracks elsewhere before the Police turned their attention on him as a suspect? Creating more false trails to ASI and Nick?
"Do you have anything for me, Katie?" Ryan asked, interrupting my train of thought.
My eyes flicked up the street. It had been more than three minutes since I'd done my last scan and I quickly fumbled with the binoculars to ascertain any threats that may have occurred while I was distracted. Ten heart palpitating guilty seconds later all was still clear.
"No," I said a little breathlessly down the line. "Unfortunately, not as yet."
"You sound like you're under pressure, Katie," Pierce pointed out. I sucked in my breath and held it. Now would not be a good time for him to go all chivalrous on me. Ryan had a tendency to want to rescue damsels in distress. "I think it might be best if we ring off here. Let you concentrate on whatever it is you're doing," he finally suggested.
"Good idea," I said, still not breathing.
"You take care, now. You hear?" he said. I just nodded, which of course he couldn't see. But thankfully he didn't wait for a reply and just disconnected the call.
A rush of air left my lips and had me panting for the next lungful in.
Which segued into a yelp as Jason opened the driver's door and slid into his seat.
He took one look at me and then started the car without a word. Once we were several hundred metres past ASI he murmured, "You look guilty, Kate. What did you do?"
"What did you do?" I returned. "Er, find, rather."
"I asked first," he deadpanned.
"I phoned Detective Pierce," I admitted, reluctantly, and then held my breath again.
"Oh, you did, did you?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, but didn't glance in my direction. We were heading for the motorway, and by the looks of it, the South bound lanes.
"I wanted an update on Tremayne. Whether he'd presented himself to the Police yet."
"And he hasn't," Jason supplied.
"No. He landed at ten this morning in Auckland, but they haven't heard from him since."
Jason frowned. "What's Pierce's take on that?"
"Officially, they're not concerned. They expect him to have a viable excuse and turn up on their doorstep by tonight."
"Unofficially?" Jason asked, flicking his gaze towards me.
"Unofficially is a closed book right now. We're on our own."
Jason huffed out a breath of air as he turned the SUV onto the motorway, indeed heading South.
"Where are we going?" Both our homes were back the other way.
"Manurewa. The only property that Tremayne owns, which flies under any official and legal connections to him or his businesses, is a warehouse in Manurewa."
"You think the art might be there," I surmised.
"Or at least a clue to Tremayne's whereabouts. If we're lucky, even Tremayne himself might be there. Pierce, even outside of the official investigation right now, would have looked into his legally owned properties. He and the art are obviously not at one of those. So, that leaves the property in Manurewa."
"And you got all of this off radar?" I asked, intrigued that an underground network of informants could provide such specific information.
"This warehouse being linked to him, yes. But there's more," he added, flicking me another troubled look.
"What?" I didn't want to speculate. Jason's anxiety could mean any number of things. It wasn't worth the worry to work them all out in my mind.
"Tremayne has business dealings with Declan King."
I sucked in a shocked breath of air. "What does that mean?"
"Well, even legit businesses deal with King from time to time. He has his fingers in many different pies. Not all of them are fronts or laundering opportunities for the man. It could be all above board and there was nothing on radar to suggest otherwise. But any connection, legal or not, to Auckland's crime lord, is cause for unease. Especially where Nick and ASI are concerned."
"You think Tremayne is working with King to frame Nick. A revenge type scenario."
"It's the most obvious conclusion to make," Jason agreed.
We exited the motorway in silence, both of us contemplating what this new piece of information could mean. It finally all made sense. Tremayne was the tool with which King could lash out at my brother. For his interference in recent interests King had. For the rescue of Ben Tamati's woman, Abi Monaghan, from King's clutches.
I'd met Abi at a barbecue at Dominic and Genevieve's, the one that Jason had stood me up at. She was courageous and beautiful, a strength of character contained in a soft shell. She seemed fragile and sweet, but from what I'd heard through Nick, she was capable of so much more than looking pretty. And King had wanted to use her, in his turf war with Roan McLaren; Abi's former mob boss in Wellington, where she grew up.
All of this stemmed back to then. To the lock-down. To the operation Pierce was on in Wellington, using ASI, and in particular Ben and Abi, to arrest that horrible man. But things had settled. Nick had arranged an agreement with King, one that should have avoided this outcome. I mean, ASI was partially responsible for getting Roan McLaren out of the way, freeing up King's interests in Wellington and the whole of the North Island of New Zealand. King should have been pleased with ASI's involvement. Should have been thanking Nick, not framing him for a crime.
But whoever said criminal masterminds were sane. In Declan King's mind this was probably all perfectly justifiable. Payback for a slight. Or a warning not to cross him again.
Just then, Jason pulled the SUV onto the side of the road we were on, behind a high chain-link fence bordered by thick bush. We were concealed from whatever stood on the other side. I was guessing, that it was Tremayne's warehouse.
"What if nothing's here?" I asked, peering futilely out of the side of the car.
"Then we go to plan B," Jason said, pulling his cellphone out of his pocket.
"Plan B?"
"Yeah. Pray to God that the Police are better at this than us."
His phone connected to whoever he was trying to contact, which became apparent on his next words.
"Horse. What have you got for me?"
A long pause, where I couldn't hear a word on the other end of the line.
Then Jason said, before hanging up, "I owe you, man."
The phone got pocketed and a gun replaced it in Jason's hand. He checked the chamber, put the safety on and flicked his eyes back up to me.
"Tremayne's here. Has been since not long after he landed back in Auckland. But he had a visitor half an hour after he arrived."
I could guess.
"Declan King."
"Yeah," Jason spat. "But King left and Tremayne didn't." He held my gaze. "Whatever is in there, may not be pretty."
I knew what was coming next.
"I'll keep a look out," I suggested, and saw immediate relief wash his entire face and frame.
He offered me a small smile, picked up my cellphone from between my legs and handing it to me said, "Phone Pierce. This isn't what we think."
But before
I could ask him what exactly he meant by that, he was out the door and scaling the fence.
Chapter 28
Understand?
Pierce was assembling a team and heading our way. He'd blown a gasket, at the fact Jason had gone in, when the intel from Jason's military contact had indicated possible foul play. He was infinitely relieved to hear I was sitting safely in the SUV outside, hidden from immediate sight.
I wasn't inclined to agree with the detective after he'd pointed all of that out. I'd realised, from Jason's warning of things possibly not being pretty inside the warehouse, that I wouldn't have wanted to witness whatever Jason was uncovering right now. But it hadn't actually occurred to me that he may be in danger. King had left, according to Horse, whom I could only assume had satellite imagery to back up that fact. If King wasn't here, and no one else was seen entering the building, then the only person - or body - inside would be Tremayne's.
But now my mind was racing, making up darker and darker scenarios inside my head, all of which led Jason down a bleak path. I consoled myself with the fact that he was trained for this sort of thing. That although affected by his past, he was not ruled by it. That Jason was more than what most people saw and assumed.
My perfect imperfect man.
There was nothing for me to watch here, no entrance to view through binoculars. The road we were parked on was a side street running parallel to the much larger and well travelled Weymouth Road. There'd been half a dozen cars pass by, but on the whole, the industrial looking area had the feel of slight neglect to it. As though most of the warehouses here were unmanned during the day, or simply abandoned. The economy was not what it used to be.
I started tapping my fingernail, one of the only ones left that I hadn't chewed to the quick, against the handle of the door in an impatient rhythm that matched my elevated heart rate. Jason hadn't made any communication with me through the walkie-talkie since he'd climbed over that fence. Surely, he would have let me know by now if he had found Tremayne or if the warehouse was bare. I had no idea how big the building was from my vantage point inside the car. But I was certain I could get a feel for its size if I stood up and peered through the bushes.
Sweet Seduction Surrender (Sweet Seduction, Book 4) Page 27
