Bad Boy's Honor: An MMA Bad Boy Romance (61 page)

Eventually, I did drift off to sleep, but never for more than half an hour. Each time I slept, I had the same nightmare. I relived the fight in my mind, but this time, Denton was like a demon. He towered over Perry, even though in reality they’d been roughly the same height, and fire erupted around him as he yelled and screamed.  

Denton laid into Perry, beating him to a bloody pulp until Perry lay dead on the floor. Then Denton turned to look at me. I froze on the spot, unable to move, as Denton came towards me grinning, and licking blood off his lips.  

“You’re next,” he’d say, as his arm reached out to grab me. That’s when I would wake up.

Despite how ridiculous it all sounded, the scene felt completely real in my head and didn’t get any easier the second or third time I experienced it. The sweat coating my body each time I woke from the nightmare was evidence enough of that.

My alarm went off at six-thirty in the morning, but I was already awake. Tired and exhausted, but awake. I had to get up early to report in to Lois. She was an early riser and that meant I had to be as well. Besides, it’s not like I could just call her from the office.

Lois called my cell--my real cell--at precisely seven o’clock. She was calling from the office, so she was already at her desk. In my defense, she hadn’t been in a nightclub until after midnight.

“How was your first day?” Lois asked.  

She sounded like Mom after my first day with the FBI. With Mom, I’d used the excuse that my work was so secretive that I couldn’t talk about it. That wasn’t true--the first day had consisted of basic training--but I always found talking about work to be stressful, even though Mom was just trying to be polite.

Thankfully, Mom had no idea what I was doing now. If she knew I was working undercover to bring down a crime syndicate, she’d sleep even less than I had last night.

“Surprisingly eventful,” I replied. I told Lois what had happened in the nightclub, although I left out the details about me helping with Denton’s wound. I don’t know why, but I didn’t feel comfortable talking about it. Unlike the fight, that had been a moment shared between just the two of us.  

“I’m amazed he let you get up close and personal so quickly,” Lois remarked. “You seem to have gained his trust already. Either that, or he is just extraordinarily reckless.”

“I don’t think he’s reckless,” I replied.

“Well, I reckon our plan to make you look like Kara worked like a charm.”  

It hadn’t been
our
plan, it had been Lois’ plan. I thought it was cruel, but I’d never spoken up. I was the new girl, it wasn’t my place to make those decisions.

“Last night might have been a one-off,” I said. “I’m sure not every day is like that.”

“We’ll find out soon enough. I think it’s time to start stepping up our game here. I’m going to fly in to the Chicago office in a few days. Come in at the weekend and we can get get you kitted out with some surveillance equipment.”

“I think we should hold off on that,” I suggested.

“Really? Why?” Lois sounded surprised. Back in the planning stages, I’d been eager to start gathering evidence on Denton as soon as possible, but now I wanted to delay it. I had an awful idea I knew why.

“I haven’t met his father yet. If I can keep developing my relationship with Denton then I might get to meet his dad.”

“And when you do, we want you to be kitted out with enough recording equipment to film the Super Bowl.”

“I don’t think that’s the right approach. Denton’s father is bound to be security conscious. I doubt I’ll get close to him with any kind of bugs on me.”

Lois considered my comments for a few seconds, but then dismissed them. “Don’t worry about Denton’s father. If we get enough evidence on Denton to convince a grand jury of his guilt, then we will be able to get a warrant so strong he won’t be able to flush the toilet without us examining the contents first.”

This was exactly as we’d always agreed; get Denton and watch his father crumble afterwards. So why did it feel so wrong now? Despite what happened with my father, I found it hard to muster the enthusiasm to send Denton to jail. How had that happened? I’d only spent a day with him.  

How far should I push this? Lois was my boss after all, but she also wanted my opinion. She’d told me countless times that as the person going undercover, my opinion was just as valuable as everyone else’s. I was the one taking the risks. I was the one putting my life on the line. I got to have my say, regardless of my lack of experience.

“This operation is our only chance to bring them down,” I said, trying to sound assertive. “We’ll never be able to do this again.”

“If we get Denton, we won’t have to.”

“I’m not so sure. Denton isn’t the one calling the shots. I’m not convinced he’s as guilty as we first thought.”  

“Chloe, I hope--”

“And I don’t think he’s that close to his father,” I continued. I didn’t want to appear weak in front of Lois, but I had to say it. “What if we blow our only chance and all we get is the second-in-command. It’s Keiran Russell we want, not his son.”

Lois stayed silent on the other end of the phone for so long that I thought she’d put me on mute. Finally she spoke up. “I’ll delay my trip until the following weekend. We can talk about it then.”

“Thanks,” I replied. “I believe it’s for the best.”

“Chloe?”  

“Yes?”  

“Be careful, okay.”

“I’m perfectly safe, Lois. I have my phone with me all the time.”  

My special issue cellphone had a few alterations, one of which being a sort of panic button activated by pressing the camera lens, which would send my location to the local FBI office. If I pressed the lens for a few seconds, enough FBI agents would show up that you’d think the President was in town.

“I didn’t mean your physical safety,” Lois explained. “I meant your mental well-being. This is your first undercover operation. You’re bound to be anxious.”

“I’m handling it okay so far.”

“That’s what I’m worried about.” This time it was my turn to be silent. I didn’t say anything until Lois finally decided to elaborate. “Don’t let yourself get too close to Denton. He has a way of making people trust him--especially young women. You want to appear friendly with him, but always remember that he’s the bad guy. Some of the things he’s done… Just don’t end up like Kara, okay.”

“I won’t,” I said sincerely. Lois’ words hit me hard. I’d let myself forget what I’d read in the FBI’s files on Denton. It didn’t make for pleasant reading. He’d killed people. More than once. He had a temper.

Last night he’d beaten a man bloody, and remained calm the entire time, even after being stabbed. If that’s what he was like when he was in control, I didn’t want to see him when he lost his temper.  

No matter what, I shouldn’t underestimate him. I had to remember that he wasn’t the good guy.  

If only the bad guys didn’t look so damn fine with their shirts off.

-*-

The next couple of days were uneventful. Denton spent most of the time in his office, and he only had me working on mundane chores like setting up meetings with people he wanted to see, and getting him out of meetings with those he didn’t.

I did my best to make a mental note of the names and faces in case Lois asked who he was meeting. They all looked like genuine businessmen and women, but then I suppose sophisticated criminals would hardly go around in burglar outfits carrying bags marked ‘swag.’

Denton never did go to the hospital to get treatment for the stab wound at first. He’d initially lied and told me he had, but the wound kept opening up and bleeding onto his shirt. When the blood appeared during an important meeting, he finally agreed to go and have it looked at. It appeared he did just that, because the wound never came open again.

A few quiet days in the office came as welcome relief after seeing the fight in the nightclub, but I soon became antsy. Denton let me accompany him to almost every meeting except the off-site ones which he insisted on going to alone.

Those were the ones I needed to be a part of. It was in Denton’s interest that I go along. I wanted to get as much information on criminals other than Denton as possible. Anything to distract Lois from arresting him.

I knew there was a chance my judgment was impaired, but I just couldn’t see Denton as a criminal mastermind. He got his hands dirty occasionally, but that should be a job for the police, not the FBI.

Denton was even a good boss. I’d been told that personal assistants often got walked all over and worked into the ground, but Denton was nothing like that. He was courteous and respectful--albeit a little cheeky as well at times--and always brought me back a coffee or sandwich if he’d left the office for lunch.

I just couldn’t reconcile that man with the one in the FBI’s files. Who was right? The twenty-three year old, fresh out of college, or a federal organization with billions of dollars in resources?  

My brain answered the question, but I ignored it. Stupid brain.

“Care to go out for lunch?” Denton asked, suddenly appearing in front of me. I must have been daydreaming. Men Denton’s size shouldn’t be able to sneak up on me that easily.

“Sure,” I replied. “I could do with getting out of the office.”  

Hint, hint, take me with you next time you have a meeting off-site.

We headed out of the office and walked in the direction of a small Italian place that I knew was ludicrously expensive, and yet somehow popular. Denton apparently knew the owner, so we’d have no trouble getting a table.

As we left the office building, I noticed a woman in her mid-twenties standing around by the entrance playing with her phone. I wouldn’t have given her a second thought, but she was wearing a top that my mom had bought me for Christmas. One of the ones that was deemed too nice for me to now wear in my persona as a PA. Much to my disgust, she wore it better than me.

The woman looked up from her phone and stared at us as we walked passed. She could have been an ex-girlfriend--or one night stand--of Denton’s, but I could swear she was looking at me, not him.  

I wouldn’t have given it much thought, but I saw her again when we stopped outside the restaurant while Denton took a phone call.  

Part of the FBI’s basic training included learning how to tail people, even though it seemed like a skill more suited to 1980s Russia than modern day America. With all those cameras around, who needed to physically tail anyone these days? Hell, most people willingly shared their location via Twitter and Instagram. It wasn’t exactly difficult to keep tabs on people.  

This woman could have done with a few lessons in how to be subtle. When we stopped, she stopped, keeping about fifty feet back at all times. She even pretended to use her phone, but held it up in front of her face in a way that made it clear she was taking a picture. Not at all subtle.

She had to be after Denton, but if so, she was playing a dangerous game. She wasn’t working with the authorities, because we’d ordered all agencies to stay the hell out of our way. She might work for a another criminal organization, but she looked a little too clean cut for that. Mind you, so did I, and yet here I was about to go to lunch with a major criminal and alleged murderer.

“Lunch is off,” Denton said, as he hung up the phone, and made me look away from the woman following us.  

“Oh, okay. That’s fine. I brought a packed lunch to the office anyway. Shall we walk back?”

“You walk back. I have something I need to take care of urgently.”  

“Why don’t I come with you? I could do with the walk.”

“No,” Denton replied aggressively. “No, you need to go back to the office. You can’t be with me for this.”

“If you need to make another ‘collection’ then I assure you I can handle it.”

“Chloe, I’m not backing down on this. When you get back to the office, call my driver, Alan, and have him bring the car to the abandoned sugar factory near Twenty-First street as soon as possible.”

“Abandoned factory?” Nothing good ever happened in abandoned factories.  

“Yes. Can I trust you to do that?”  

I nodded and Denton walked away. The factory wasn’t that far, so he should have been able to walk back to the office afterwards. Why did he need the car?  

I needed to know what he was doing. Lois would only accuse me of going soft on him if I didn’t find a way to butt in.  

I called Alan when I got back to the office, but told him to swing by and pick me up first. There was no way I was staying at my desk when Denton was up to something far more interesting.  

I was going to find out what he was up to. Maybe then I would find out what sort of person he really was.