Sikorski and his harem faced in to the table and the bodyguard faced out, observing the bar and patrons. Wise, maybe, but by keeping his back to the room Sikorski made himself an easy target, it wouldn’t take much to take the bodyguard out.
And if Sikorski expected the women to slow Tuck down… usually two petite woman would be easy to ignore. This night was different, one of Sikorski’s entourage would slow him down because he’d have to keep her out of harm’s way and do his job at the same time.
He had his approach practiced, he’d used it enough time in various guises, but for the first time he second guessed himself. Could he trust Kadie not to blow his cover? How would his act and reactions change when she was observing him? Any variables introduced into the equation left it unbalanced, and he’d be a fool to believe he could play his usual act with her beside him. For starters, if she was anywhere near him he’d probably end up with the boner of the century, especially when she was dressed like she was and smiling so innocently. It was hard to keep a straight face when your libido was panting.
Tuck also had to take into consideration what success would mean. If he got in with Sikorski, he might be taken back to the Russian’s lair and end up on the inside. From all immediate appearances that’s where Kadie was. He wouldn’t leave her. Taking her with him, when there was a chance she’d put up resistance, would raise suspicion.
Usually, he did what he came to do and blew out of the joint, with no responsibility to anyone, except the job and the Kindred, who were trained to know what their roles were and how to handle themselves. Kadie wasn’t as experienced in subterfuge. If he was on the inside, he might have to see her, he might have to see her work, or the other men enjoying her. Could he do that without putting a bullet in the brain of any man who looked at her sideways?
Considering how she would change his plans, he took his eyes off the table to sip his drink and regroup. When he lowered it, he saw that Kadie was on her way to the bar, heading in his direction, although she didn’t spare him a glance.
On reaching his side, she ensured no one was in their vicinity before she spoke with static lips. “What are you doing here?” she asked through a glowing, wide, vacant smile. Her eyes trailed to Linc, who was still serving at the other end of the bar.
“Working,” he said. “What’s your excuse?”
Pushing her tongue inside her upper lip, she plumped, and then salved the juicy flesh. “Me too.”
“That’s your client?” Tuck asked, swirling his liquid in the glass, doing his best to be just another patron, one who happened to be beside a beautiful woman who wasn’t talking to him.
She was good at this, better than he’d thought she’d be. How had he never seen this side of her? Her character leaned over the bar, pushing her breasts together in the scrap of fabric that barely covered them, to give Linc a birds-eye view of her voluptuous cleavage. Suckered in, the bartender immediately began to approach.
Still smiling, she managed not to move her glistening lips. “That’s my boss,” she said. His focus was on that delicious mouth he’d sampled just that afternoon. All those times it had tormented his body, he’d taken it for granted. Being so close to it now, and being barred from enjoying it, he learned the true meaning of frustration.
“And my mark,” Tuck muttered just before Linc got to them.
“What can I get you, sweet thing?” Linc asked.
“Champagne,” she said.
Linc laughed, that wasn’t a common request around here. “In this joint?”
“Oh,” she said, blinking in absent ignorance, and paused her fidgeting figure. “Nicky will be disappointed if—”
Linc held up his hands, “Let me have a look.”
She nodded, and widened the smile to a grin. “Thank you,” she purred.
The airhead act worked for her, only in that it amused him because the last thing she could be accused of was being a bimbo. But for some reason, she wanted Linc to think she was, maybe because Sikorski thought she was. It made a lot of sense for her to play down her intelligence and her sass, Sikorski didn’t like to be undermined by anyone, much less a woman. Kadie was playing a part, he just had to figure out why.
Linc disappeared down the bar and kicked open the cellar. He glanced back at Tuck. “Keep an eye on things,” he said.
“Me?” Tuck said, downing the rest of his drink.
“You certainly took care of business last night,” Linc said on a half-smile, then disappeared down into the cellar.
Had Linc noticed that the primped woman at the bar was the same one he’d walked out with last night, and just admitted he had history with? He hoped for all their sakes he hadn’t, but it was unlikely because Linc had the senses of a hawk, even though he liked to downplay them.
“Shit,” Tuck sighed, because this was getting more complicated by the second. So far his earpiece was silent, his colleagues had faith that he could handle the situation and he knew what words to use if he needed back-up. With Sikorski strolling in, Tuck decided to fall back on the Kindred plan and use that as a way to get close to Kadie, which might help him to figure out why she’d been so adamant to stay with Sikorski, rather than split with him from the motel room.
Some of her confidence wavered, though she didn’t let it show on her face. “Sikorski’s your target?” Kadie muttered, spreading manicured fingers across the bar.
“Are you gonna tell him?” If she was going to blow his cover before he made his move, the Kindred would need a new plan.
“He’s dangerous, Tuck,” she whispered, and the glitter of awareness touched her empty eyes when she glanced at him. “You’ll get hurt if you—”
She was worried about him getting in over his head? That seemed unbelievable given her own predicament. “Are you telling me to back-off?”
“I’m telling you that he’s volatile.” The concern she showed now was an improvement over the indifference she’d left him with earlier.
Playing the Kindred mission through would prevent a scene from unfolding between them, and he had to see what she was capable of. If he grabbed her and dragged her out, he’d have Sikorski’s people to deal with and the Kindred would never get the information they needed from the Russian.
She could be worried, he was ok with that, but she couldn’t be a barrier, then he’d have no choice except to cart her out of here now, no matter the cost. “Are you going to get in my way, Toots?”
“I’d never put you in danger,” she said, and he believed her. “Tell me what it is, and I’ll get it.”
That was an unexpected offer. She wanted him to clue her in on the mission he’d been running with his cohorts for months when they only had a few brief seconds together. Then she wanted him to sit here and watch her stroll out of the joint with one of the most dangerous men Tuck had ever heard of. No chance, that wasn’t happening.
“And put you in danger? Not the way I operate.” That was the truth. Putting any innocent person in danger wasn’t his MO and it sure wasn’t the Kindred’s. If he even thought about it, Swallow would be waiting for him with a weapon at the end of the night. Swallow was getting tougher with every mission and as her confidence grew in her ability, so did his. “You can turn around and walk out of here right now.”
“You think you can take on Nicky and his men by yourself?” she asked.
“Who said I’m by myself?” he asked, lifting his forearm off the bar to bring his drink up to his lips. “If you walk out that door right now there will be a woman waiting to take you to safety.”
“A woman?” she asked, and he liked the tinge of jealousy in her voice. “I thought there was no ‘she’.”
If Kadie could still be interested in where he put his dick now, she could be interested in letting him put it in her again. Except he had to dismiss that thought as fast as he’d had it. Kadie still had the ability to turn him on, but that muddied things that were already boggy enough. They had to get out of here clean before he thought about what was next for their re
lationship.
“She doesn’t belong to me,” he said. “I’ve told you that before.”
“Swallow?”
Well at least she’d been paying attention, although he kind of wished that she hadn’t been because knowing what little she did could put her in danger. “What did I tell you about saying those names?”
That question went unanswered. “So I walk out with her and what? Rave and the chief come charging in to back you up and there’s a huge scene that could cause people to get hurt.”
Always worried about what would happen to other people, Kadie was a mother hen, even if she didn’t admit it. Looking after him, his business, and whoever else strayed into their lives, she was always protecting someone, and usually neglecting herself in the process, as this situation reiterated.
Raven would come in to back him up if the need arose. Between them they could clear the room. Both were trained and they’d fought together enough times before to know how the other worked. Training together helped them to learn their weaknesses and how to use their own strengths to offset those vulnerabilities.
One thing was for sure, the chief wouldn’t be coming in. He wouldn’t have back in the day either, not unless things got really grim. Art recognized that his athletic skills were inferior to the younger, fitter members of the team and preferred to direct from afar. That was the irony, during the first field assignment he’d participated in for years, he was killed. No, the chief wouldn’t be coming in to save the day, but Kadie couldn’t know that.
Now wasn’t the time to explain who the chief was or what had happened to him. The last thing he needed to do was remind Kadie of the mortality rate in his chosen line of work. “Raven and I will handle it,” he said.
“I’m surprised you ever came back to me if this is how reckless you are.”
He’d come back to her because she was the light at the end of his tunnel. Some missions depended on him thinking of her and dreaming about their reunion. Any time the situation was touch and go, or he got himself hurt, Kadie was the image he emblazoned in his mind’s eye because he’d promised to go back to her. Once he’d made a promise to Kadie, he stuck to it. She’d put up with enough bullshit from him, she didn’t need to worry about his honesty too.
“I’m not reckless,” he said. “I know how to play this game. I’ve been doing it for a long time.”
Apathy seemed to prevent her from fighting harder, or maybe she was just aware of their audience and was playing the game too, because she accepted his words. “Ok,” she said. “Whatever it is that you have to do, do it quickly.”
So she thought he took orders from her? In bed, sure. Dinner plans? Whatever. When it came to life, death, and Nykiel Sikorski, Tuck called the shots. “When I leave, I’m taking you with me,” he said despite having not consciously made the decision on how to do it.
The Kindred didn’t like to make a scene. They kept their missions low-key and avoided drawing attention to themselves, it was how they’d remained so successful and so mysterious, which contributed to their formidable reputation. The Kindred were a myth, no one had tangible evidence that they existed. Most of what people knew were half-truths and whispered stories.
Still, if Tuck told Raven and Swallow that he wanted to storm in with guns blazing and blow the place to kingdom come, they’d do it without hesitation. Having each other meant Raven and Swallow understood the depth of passion that came with love and as hard as they’d fight for each other, they’d fight for Kadie the same amount.
“I won’t go,” she said. Putting up resistance to his suggestions was always her opening gambit, all he’d have to do was counter until she had no valid argument left. Force she might oppose, logic she couldn’t combat. “I have my own motives for being here.”
“Motives,” Tuck said, glad that she was giving him information, even if it was in a trickle. “Apart from the money?”
The glow of blank happiness on her face was beginning to loosen. “I don’t see the green. I made that up,” she admitted. “We stay at the mansion, and see clients on his property… for now.”
“For now?” Tuck asked, “What does that mean?”
He knew more about the sex trade than he ever wanted to. While he and Raven had never gone after those in the trafficking game as part of their own vendetta, the Kindred had plenty of experience with it through their members. Taking apart that industry, one pervert at a time, was what Falcon and Wren dedicated their time to. It put the Kindred’s two more academic members into harm’s way on several occasions.
Falcon, also known as Zave, was good at talking himself out of trouble. With his superior intelligence, he could argue any angle. Wren, the good doctor, whose real name was Thad, was a more nervous sort and so didn’t maintain a convincing poker face. He’d bailed them out many times and his skills were invaluable to the team. But if Zave needed back up for anything that might get physical, he and Raven were called in.
“It means that he’ll eventually get bored with me,” she said. “When that happens we…”
“What?” he said through gritted teeth. The options were selling her on or killing her. Neither would happen now that he’d found her. But if he hadn’t, she’d have been alone out here. When she needed him more than she ever had, he’d have been oblivious. Finding out what she thought came next would allow him to gauge if she understood how serious this was. “What happens when he’s bored with you?”
“We get shipped out of the country,” she said.
Selling her on, marginally better than killing her, but she was beautiful and her body would fetch a high price. “To what?”
“Stand on street corners,” she said, turning her head toward him, and when their eyes touched a jolt of venom burst in his gut.
His gorgeous, innocent Kadie was in up to her neck. She didn’t deserve this and he couldn’t imagine how she’d gotten herself here. He couldn’t let her go back to Sikorski, to the life she’d stumbled into. To hell with the Kindred and their mission, if Tuck had to do this himself then he would. Kadie might not argue with logic, but for some reason, he couldn’t hold onto it.
Grabbing her and forcing her out of the bar now wouldn’t end well. Acting on impulse would give Raven and Swallow no time to mobilize either.
But that didn’t matter. Sickness and hot rage roiled and burst within him. Kadie couldn’t be here, couldn’t be a part of this existence, she was pure, innocent of the evil he fought to protect her from. Seeing her this way proved to him that he’d failed her and if he was failing her, he didn’t know what he or his life was about anymore.
“I’m taking you with me.”
“No,” she whispered. “He’ll kill you if you interfere. No kidding, Tuck, he won’t hesitate… Of course, he’ll kill me first, let you watch while they gut me—”
“Do you think for a second—”
“I’ve seen it, Hotshot,” she murmured. Stabilizing her vacant grin before she turned to look at the table, Kadie offered a finger wave to one of the men Sikorski was meeting with. While glancing at him, she noticed Linc returning from the cellar. Her next words were hurried, she wanted to get them out before Linc reached them. “We’ll be leaving within five minutes,” she said. “Nicky doesn’t like this place. He won’t stay here long.”
Their time was up, their secret meeting over, Linc was only two paces away. “What’s the meeting about?” Tuck asked, but she had no opportunity to answer, not unless she wanted to clue Linc in on what their conversation had been about.
“Look what I found,” Linc said, dusting off a bottle that had clearly been hidden somewhere deep in the recesses of the cellar.
Kadie didn’t miss a beat and slipped straight back into the bimbo persona. “Aren’t you a peach,” she said, pulling a hundred from her bra and sliding it toward Linc. “Don’t worry about glasses, we’ll drink it in the car from the crystal.”
Taking the bottle, she bobbed her shoulders and was about to turn and leave when Tuck’s hand shot out to gra
b her wrist. “How much?” he growled.
Linc didn’t take the time to look at them, he turned and walked away. “Excuse me?” Kadie drawled.
“How much?” Tuck asked her, no longer hiding his attention.
If she walked away with Sikorski now, the Kindred still wouldn’t have a lead on where he was based. Interrupting Sikorski’s meeting was always part of the plan, Kadie had just given him a prime opportunity to do it by proxy. In spite of that, mission or not, he wouldn’t let her go back over there and saunter out of this disgusting place with that repulsive man, just to get drunk with him in his garish car.
The uneasiness in her eyes told him she wasn’t sure how to handle his outburst. Should she keep going as the dumb slut or was he about to blow her cover after she’d promised to maintain the secret of his?
“We don’t work for money,” she said in a low enough tone that he recognized she was talking to him as herself rather than the character. “We’re traded for favors, you have to have something that he wants.”
Wanting Sikorski’s attention, he gave her body a lurid once over, examining her goods as a stranger, not a former lover. “What about you,” he said. “What if I have something you want?”
The connection was made and her sultry eyes narrowed in feigned innocence. “Are you flirting with me?” she laughed, descending into character. He’d never heard that giggle before so to him it was a dead giveaway, others would buy it though.
“I have something your boss wants.”
“Saffy!” A shrill female voice drew the attention of them both, and they saw that a woman was approaching, the one who Kadie had entered with. Sikorski was on his feet, getting ready to leave the table.
“Saffy?” Tuck muttered, assuming Kadie had her own alias for her own reasons.
“Sapphire,” she replied, looking at her counterpart with eager ignorance. “Because—”
“Your eyes,” he said, needing no further explanation.
“Yes,” she said, glancing back at him, and for a second she was his again.
The actual bimbo interrupted them. “We’re leaving!”
Swift (Kindred Book 4) Page 11
