Authors: Moira Callahan
Donald “Donny” Hoffman was head of security for the
scumbag she and the police department were trying to take down. One Gabriel
Moreau, head scumbag in San Francisco for a cartel rumored to be out of Brazil.
Unfortunately, they weren’t exactly the talkative sorts so Rhonda didn’t know
what
was truth
and what was bullshit. All she knew for
sure was they appeared to be buying up legit businesses. She was certain it was
to launder money from their illegal activities. Unfortunately there was no
proof yet what their illegal activities were.
She couldn’t even get them on extortion at the
moment because they were paying fair market values on the businesses and
properties. Hell, in most cases, they were paying above and beyond fair market
value. The owners of the businesses being bought had nothing bad to say either.
They all said that Mr. Moreau asked to purchase their business, offered a very
fair or above fair value, and that was it. No arm twisting, no extortion, no
blackmail. Fucking Moreau was a fucking angel in their eyes.
Which
wasn’t helping her case any.
“Any idea why?”
Vincent asked as she sipped the strong-brewed coffee in her cup. Damn,
the man knew how to make good coffee.
“Nope,” she said shaking her head. “All I know for
sure is that we’re to be dressed business appropriate,” she told him as she
eyed him up. He was a damn fine specimen. Six-feet-six-inches of solid muscle
and sex appeal.
Shaggy, sandy brown hair that constantly fell
into his blue eyes and begged a woman to brush it away.
He was also the
type of man that could get away without shaving every day and look all the
better for it. That and the little cleft in his chin made for one killer
package that sent the ladies wild.
In Moreau’s world business appropriate meant
everyone would be in tailored suits, their shoes shined, and not a hair out of
place.
“Shit,” Vincent muttered, pretty much echoing
her own
thoughts. “I’m betting you have no idea where it’s
going down or when?”
“The where is supposedly a restaurant
downtown,
the when is any time after ten in the morning.
We’re all to be ready to roll by nine-thirty, Donny’s going to be giving us the
rundown and instructions at our meeting then. We were told not to pack any
weapons though,” she said. “
Which likely means either Donny
will be giving us our weapons or we’re actually going in bare.
”
“Damn it, Rhonda. I don’t like this.
At all.”
He glared at her.
She knew he wasn’t actually pissed at her, just the
situation. She was fully on board with that. This fucking gig was seriously
starting to suck ass. “I know,” she said with a sigh. “It’s not like I can
demand answers, Vincent. I’m low man, sorry, woman on the totem pole around
there. I am expected to keep my mouth shut and do whatever they tell me to do.”
She watched his lips twitch before he moved his
coffee cup up to hide his lower face. Not fast enough, though. She saw the
grin. “What?”
“You actually keep your mouth shut?” he asked,
smirking openly at her now.
“Ha, ha, jackass.”
Rhonda had to grin though, too. It went completely against her nature.
She wasn’t one to just keep quiet. “Yes, I keep my mouth shut. I actually learn
quite a bit when I’m pretending to be part of the decor. Not what I want to
learn, but I definitely do hear a lot. They completely ignore those of us in
the security detail. We’re pretty much ornaments unless there’s a threat, then
we’re the wall they hide behind.”
“So what have you learned since last we talked?”
“Sadly, not much.
It’s been pretty fucking quiet of late. It’s mostly been meetings
between Moreau, his lawyers, and some real estate guys. From what I’ve managed
to piece together, he’s buying up some interesting spots.” Digging in her
pocket she pulled out a map. Unfolding it, she pointed to the spots she’d
marked down on it. “He’s got about six lots he’s bought on the waterfront,
here.”
Leaning in, Vincent frowned. “Good place to smuggle
in goods,” he said, shooting her a quick look.
“Yeah, that was my thought too. The properties cover
just enough turf that they could put security here, and here.” She pointed to
the spots on the map.
“Basically cordoning off the area to do
drops or to send shit out without anyone being the wiser.”
Vincent nodded slowly. “You’d never be able to get
surveillance in there either. Not with how the buildings are positioned. You’d
have to set up too far out to get anything worthwhile.”
“He’s looking at this property as well,” she told
him pointing to another spot on the waterfront. “If he gets it, he’s got the
perfect spot for trafficking of all sorts by water.”
“He won’t get it,” Vincent told her.
“You can’t know that,” Rhonda protested.
“Actually I can,” he said with a chuckle. “Shawn
owns all of these lots. C&M is right here,” he said, putting his finger on
the map.
“Oh!” Well, hell, she hadn’t realized that. “Son of
a bitch, you’re right.”
“I usually am,” he said in a smug manner.
That didn’t deserve an answer so she ignored him.
“Moreau is doing this all on the up and up so he won’t be breaking kneecaps or
twisting arms to get it. He’ll put in three offers before backing away.”
Vincent pulled out his phone and made a call,
setting it down between them. “Shawn,” he said when the line was picked up with
a gruff “what?” “It’s Vincent and
Rhonda,
I have you
on speaker, just so you know.”
“Hey, Ro,” Shawn said.
“How’s my girl?” Rhonda asked with a grin.
“She’s doing great, off taking pictures of God only
knows what right now. I’ll let her know you called.”
“Listen, Shawn, this is about Ro’s case she’s on,”
Vincent said.
“You mean the one she conned you into helping her with?”
Shawn’s voice sounded amused. He was getting a kick out of Vincent being her
bitch on this case.
“Yeah.
Have you had any
recent offers to purchase the Worthington property of late?” Vincent asked him.
There was nothing but silence for a moment.
“Yeah, two days ago, why?”
Shawn now sounded extremely
suspicious.
“Because that’s my bad guy,” Rhonda spoke up again.
“He’s looking to get a healthy chunk of the waterfront. He’s already got six
lots right on the water, and is looking to buy two more on each end of that
chunk. One apparently is yours, the other he’s making his first offer on in two
days. I think he’s waiting to see where you go on it,” she told him.
“Well, I’m not fucking selling,” Shawn said. “Ro,
do I need to worry about this guy?” he asked.
“No, he’s doing all the property buys completely on
the up and up. No extortion or threats of any kind. It’s the legit face to
whatever the fuck he’s up to. Shawn,” she said before trailing off. “Don’t let
Tamara do any shoots down there for the next while will you? I’ll have Vincent
send you the addresses of the places he’s already bought to warn her away from.
I doubt there’s anything going on down there yet, but—”
“Better safe than sorry,” Shawn finished for her.
“I’ll warn her off. She’s worried about you, Ro. Wants to know when the fuck
you’re coming to dinner next. Even Mallory’s asking about you, something about
a new chocolate soufflé something or other.”
Rhonda’s mouth began to water. Mallory, engaged to
another C&M employee, Trent, was an amazing chef. She’d recently been
experimenting with more dessert style main course items. They were all so
fucking good.
“Damn,” she muttered. “Tell them both I’ll see them
soon enough. I just have to get this cover set in stone before I can come to
visit. You know I can’t chance it yet, Shawn.”
“I know, but you’re not the one staring into your
best friend’s big blues when she’s pouting,” he said of his wife, Tamara.
Rhonda laughed at that. “Dude, grow some balls,”
she teased.
“You will pay for that comment, Rhonda
Delacour
. You will pay,” he said in a pretty good imitation
of a threatening tone. She knew he was just messing with her though.
“Yeah, yeah, you and your flying monkeys too,
bubba. Shit,” she muttered looking at the clock on the wall. “I have to fly.
Kisses to Tamara for me, big guy.
Hugs to Mallory and I’ll
talk to you all soon.”
“Be safe, Ro. Remember, shoot first, worry about
paperwork later,” Shawn told her.
“Copy that.” She laughed.
Vincent hung up the phone and stood as she got off
her stool to head for the door. “Ro, be safe,” he said as they stood in the
open doorway.
“You know me,” she said, grinning at him.
“Precisely why I’m saying it,” he told her.
Biting her lip she stepped in and gave him a hug,
holding on a moment longer than really necessary. “I’ll be fine. I’ll talk to
you tomorrow.” At his nod, she stepped out of the apartment and headed for her
car.
Chapter Two
Today…
Stepping out of the warehouse door six down from
C&M Security after his meeting, Vincent turned his phone back on. Grimacing
when it started to vibrate and ding at him, full of voice messages and texts,
he headed for his truck.
Phone to his ear as he slid behind the wheel, he
listened to the first message.
One of the C&M staffers
getting back to him with some info.
He saved it and went to the next
one. Rhonda’s tightly controlled voice had his heart jumping into his throat.
“Hey, lover,” her rich voice whispered across the
line. “Listen, I’m not going to be able to make it to dinner tonight. Tell your
mom I’m sorry. I know Verona will be pissed I’m missing out on Cacciatore
night, but I have to work. Love
ya
, talk tomorrow,”
she said before the line went dead.
A cold sweat coated his body as he replayed the
message and listened to the code words she’d dropped into the conversation.
Verona, the city in Italy his mother had grown up in.
Cacciatore,
his favorite food that only his mother made in true, authentic Italian fashion.
Something Mallory was trying to desperately bribe him about to get the recipe.
Those two words in the same sentence meant Rhonda
was in deep, life-threatening shit. Shaking, he punched in the number for
Shawn’s phone. “It’s
me,
I just got a message from Ro.
She’s in trouble Shawn, serious trouble. I need Denise to activate the chip and
let me know where she is, yesterday.”
“Do you want backup?” Shawn asked him.
“Not yet, just get me Ro’s location.”
“I’ll call you back as soon as we have it. She’ll
be okay,
Vin
. She’s smart and trained for this. Take a
deep breath and remember
,
you’re no use to her if you
are a wreck.”
Nodding even though his boss couldn’t see it, he
took a shaky breath. “I’m good, but Shawn, she sounded scared,” he said softly.
Vincent had never once heard Rhonda sound that terrified before. He knew
practically every inflection in her voice. Fear and terror were not two of
them.
“I’m heading down to see Denise now,” Shawn said.
Denise Franklyn, head hacker and Net security expert
for C&M. She could do things with a computer that were amazing, scary and
downright freaky to be honest. The FBI, CIA and a couple other agencies had
tried to hire her years ago. She’d only come to work with C&M because,
unlike the alphabet soup of agencies, Shawn and Robyn, the other boss at
C&M, weren’t usually too concerned with legalities.
As
long as no one ever got caught.
“Call me as soon as you have something,” Vincent
told him. Hanging up, he played the message again and again.
Listening
hard for any extra inflections in her tone.
Any rise and fall on certain
words to give him a clue. But there was nothing. Except for the terror he could
hear, she sounded like she was calling her boyfriend to let him know dinner was
off.
Saving the message, he pressed his forehead to the
trucks steering wheel. “Hold on, Ro, I’m coming.”
Damn it, he needed to find her. All he could rely
on now was the sub-dermal tracker they’d implanted under the skin near her
ankle bone. It was a new version, and in theory wouldn’t set off any sweeps for
bugs. The only trouble with it being as low key as it was, tracking it meant
being within a certain radius of the damn thing.
Unless they
had the C&M system which relied on using the city’s own video surveillance
system to boost the signal.
At least that’s what Denise had more or less
explained.
He had gotten the gist but then she’d gone off the
rails to a point beyond his knowledge, and he had glazed over. He admitted it.
So had everyone else in the room, thankfully.
Denise Franklyn,
hacker extraordinaire, often had that effect. She was damned good at what she
did, but didn’t seem to speak the same language as the rest of them.