Risky Shot (8 page)

She also learned the group of men had a thing for younger women who liked it rough. She had to hide the snorts of laughter that attempted to erupt when the four men talked about all the action they got. All of them were the perfect example of middle aged men. Rounded bellies, thinning hair, and some even had gray hair. If they weren’t paying for their action, she guessed most twenty year olds wouldn’t even notice them.

“Hey Gene, anything going on at the FBI we need to be aware of?” Judge LeMaster asked as he waited for Jarred Felting, the vice Mayor, to finish his putt.

“I have Edwards keeping an eye on the GTH issue for you. I can’t believe the incompetence of Bob’s men. It’s been four months now and all we know is that McKenna Mason is well protected in Kentucky.” Gene Pottinger slashed a blade of grass with his putter. “Chad came into the office the other day to let me know some agents are asking questions about him. He can’t figure out who and asked me to look into it.”

“What’s the game plan now? We’re all going to be up shit creek without a paddle if one of those girls talks,” Jarred said after sinking his shot.

The group turned and walked towards the next hole. Dani had to stop herself from running up to them and demanding to know more. Instead she kept her head down and trudged along behind them.

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t like how Chad is handling this. He needs to stop dicking around and take care of business, if you ask me,” said Brian Voggel, the U.S. Federal Judge. The group murmured their agreement and teed up.

“I think the best plan is to let Bruce’s men handle this. I just don’t know if Chad can take care of those two women. Maybe we need to try something else,” LeMaster whispered.

Dani continued to bob her head and move her lips as if she was listening to music. The men each looked around and relaxed when they saw the caddies seemingly entertained with each other or listening to music. “We’ll talk about this more next week. Maybe Bruce or Chad will have something new to report. God knows Bob won’t.” Jarred shook his head and lined up for his shot.

* * *

Dani sat in the caddie lounge and listened to her iPod. She glanced at the clock on the wall and prayed the caddies currently on the course moved slowly. There were only four of them in the room and any minute now, the Judge’s group would arrive. If they did, she would be guaranteed a job.

The door opened and the head caddie came in. “Okay, I need you four.” She jumped up and then made herself slow down. She pulled the ear plugs out of her ears and slowly walked out of the room with the other three boys. This time, she was assigned Brian Voggel’s bag and made a show of putting in her ear phones and cranking up the volume so everyone could hear it. Every couple of minutes, she would turn down the volume until it was eventually muted. Every time Voggel came to grab a club, she would un-mute it and he would be met with blasting music.

On the thirteenth hole, the men looked around and signaled that they were all clear. There were no golf carts driving by, no teams they were getting close to, and all the caddies were hanging back.

Gene Pottinger rubbed his mostly bald head and wiped his arm across his sweaty brow. “I have news.” Dani stared off toward the lake on the right and bounced her head. “Chad’s gone off the deep end. He thinks he’s being followed and he thinks the FBI is investigating him. I have looked into it all, even the secret missions, and there is nothing. He swears he’s being followed, yet when Edwards trailed him he didn’t pick up a tail of any kind. On top of that, he was supposed to take care of that Mason woman and failed. He’s too damn interested in playing games.”

LeMaster took off his sunglasses and ran a hand down his face. “I don’t like it. Tell Bruce to have his men watch Chad. I also think it’s time to move forward with our plan. Tell the boys it’s a go. I am tired of sitting around waiting for the axe to fall.”

Dani was surprised she could hear them over the beating of her heart. What did moving forward with their plan mean? She wished they would talk more, but instead they quieted down when one of the other caddies come near to take Pottinger’s club.

They finished up the game by talking about the new young things they were all sleeping with and didn’t go back to the subject of Chad or GTH. The tone had been ominous though. The boys were up to something.

That night Dani reclined the seat of her car as far as it would go and stared out the open window. She sat up and pulled out the map. Finding Kentucky, she worked to locate Keeneston. She had gotten an email from Kenna almost six weeks ago telling her where she was living and asking her to come. Kenna’s theory was that they could face everything better together, even if the bastards knew where to look.

Dani didn’t like the idea of letting them know where she was. But she was also getting really sick of living in the car. She was fairly well known at some of the shelters and had decided that living in the car was safer.

She found a tiny dot representing Keeneston outside of Lexington. Maybe Kenna had a point. It was now clear that the boys were going to try to get to Kenna and maybe she could help protect her. Of course, that put her in the line of fire too. But she’d been outwitting these guys for the past four months. She was confident that she could continue to do so, especially on neutral ground.

With her mind made up, she felt for her gun between the seat and the console and closed her eyes. Tomorrow she’d start the trip to Keeneston.

Chapter Seven

Current Day...

Dani’s eyes refocused on the group surrounding her. Cole was scribbling furiously in his notepad and everyone else was staring wide eyed at her.

“You could have been hurt, or killed. Someone such as yourself should never have to live out of your car. I am impressed by your survival skills, but must admit very relieved you are now here,” Mo said with a sigh.

Dani stopped breathing for a second when he placed his hand on her knee and gave it a squeeze. It felt like electricity was crackling between them. By the surprised look on Mo’s face, she was pretty sure he had felt it too.

Cole flipped to a new page and looked up to her. “You’re positive the FBI agent was Mark Edwards? Short, thinning dark blond hair that looks like it’s been styled to within an inch of its life?” When Danielle nodded, Cole glanced around to the group. “I went through the Academy with him. He was also stationed in D.C. with me. Was a real kiss up, but never really got anything done. There was a rumor he had been transferred to New York on special request. I’ll have to do some digging to see where that special request came from. If there was one, it would have to come from pretty high up the ladder.” He focused on Dani again, his silver eyes narrowing, “I won’t ask about your gun, but you may want to see the Sheriff ASAP about getting a permit to carry concealed. Your New York permit won’t transfer.”

“I’ll take her to get it,” Kenna said. “I will talk to Red and see if he can pull some strings and issue it immediately based on your New York one.” Kenna laid her hand on Dani’s shoulder, causing her to smile.

It was nice to have friends around. She was still trying to come to terms with how quickly this town had adopted her. No wonder Kenna liked it here. She leaned forward and looked at the group. “So, the real question is, what do we do now?”

“Well, I will need to read over my notes. I have enough to pass onto my guys in New York. We’ll see if they can track down the bartender and see if he will lead us to Chad.” Cole looked up from his notes, “That actually seems to be going well. I am glad Chad is starting to feel the pressure. We can never seem to find him. We always arrive a minute too late. However, it seems our pressure and your efforts have put him at odds with his bosses. Luckily, my boss agreed to not even put this on the limited book. This investigation is only described on paper, locked in his private vault at the office. That’s why Pottinger can’t find anything on it.” Cole shook his head and rested his chin on his hand. “This is huge. This investigation is going to rock the FBI, Congress, and the judicial system.”

“I think your men need to start taping conversations between the golf buddies Dani told us about. Get some hard evidence to bring them down. It will also make them turn on each other once they know the ship is sinking,” Ahmed said to Cole.

Cole nodded his head in agreement and scribbled some more notes down. “I also think we need to keep a close eye on the girls. I don’t like the sound of whatever this new plan is. I have a feeling things are going to start moving very quickly. Dani, I have your taped statement, but I don’t have Kenna’s.” Turning to Kenna, he continued, “Why don’t we meet tomorrow and I’ll get your official statement as well.”

“Okay. Sounds good.”

“Then I think we need to look at that map of yours, Dani. Try to find the locations you think the men are coming from. We can start tailing them and hopefully they will lead us to Chad. Top priority right now is to draw Chad out so we can arrest him.” Cole stared at Ahmed with narrowed eyes. “Arrest, Ahmed.”

Ahmed gave a barely visible nod of his head in response. What was that about? Dani turned to Kenna and raised an eyebrow.

“Ahmed would prefer to capture Chad and interrogate him,” Kenna explained.

“I don’t see the problem with that.” Danielle looked at Ahmed and received a smile in return. Wow, she’d never seen a person whose face changed so much when he smiled.

“The problem is that when Ahmed finishes with Chad, he would just disappear instead of being turned over to Cole. Thus making any evidence obtained inadmissible in court.”

“Too bad. Maybe after his testimony he can disappear?” She looked at Ahmed and winked. She was rewarded with another smile.

Leaning over to Mo, Ahmed whispered, “I like this one.”

Mo looked her in the eye and she felt butterflies take flight in her stomach. “I do too,” he said, never taking his eyes away from her.

“Well, I hate to break this meeting up, but I am going to run out to see Miles before it gets too late.” Paige stood up and stretched her arms above her head before grabbing her purse.

“Miles?” Cole asked quickly.

Dani noticed everyone turned to stare at him. She was obviously missing something. However, from the way Cole was checking out Paige earlier by the truck, it seemed like there may be something between the two.

Dani saw Paige roll her eyes in response and head for the door. Cole turned and followed her out with a lecture on hanging out with strange men.

As soon as Paige and Cole were out of ear shot, Will, Kenna, Mo and Ahmed broke out into laughter.

“Would someone care to explain what just happened?” Dani asked.

Mo stopped laughing and stood up, a smile still lingering on his lips. “I could tell you all about it if you would allow me to escort you back to Miss Lily’s.”

She looked up to him as he held out his hand to her. Glancing down, she stared at his hands. They were slightly darker than hers and so obviously masculine in their shape and size. She reached out her hand and placed it in his. His hand was strong and warm. The heat spread slowly from her hand to her…ohmygod!

Dani quickly stood up and removed her hand from his. She wasn’t quite sure if she wanted to throw herself at him or run as fast as she could in the other direction. Her body had never responded like that to a simple touch. “Thank you. I would appreciate a lift.” She said goodbye to Will and Kenna and started for the front door when she felt a warm gentle pressure on her lower back. She glanced to her side and saw Mo looking down at her. She couldn’t help the small smile that came to her face as he guided her to the silver Mercedes.

She stood back and allowed him to open the door for her. She slid in and was slightly googly eyed as she took in the interior of the car. She was used to Kenna’s BMW M6 and used to think that was the most amazing car out there. But Mo’s put the BMW to shame. Apparently there was good money in horse farms.

Mo slid into his seat and turned toward her, “Would you like to stop for dinner? I know it’s late and we had some snacks, but I thought you may want something more filling.” Mo’s question triggered a loud rumble in Dani’s stomach. “I’ll take that as a yes. It’s a little out of the way, but there is a great restaurant in Midway, which is about twenty-five minutes away.” He started the car and headed out of town.

“So, tell me about your farm,” Dani probed as she looked out at the winding country road. She saw lots of horses and cows dotting the countryside.

“It’s about five hundred acres. I started it up last year and this is the first year I will have horses I have bred running and training on it. I brought some horses with me from my homeland of Rahmi and then bought a few from Will’s farm. In a couple of years, I hope to have one of the best racing stables in the country.”

“Sounds fascinating. I must admit it’s all new to me. I grew up in Northern Italy around grapes and then moved to the wilderness of Maine when I was thirteen. I went to school in the City, but spent most of my free time back in Maine. Neither place is known for horses. Actually, most animals in Maine were for hunting, not racing. I have never heard of Rahmi, tell me about it.” She laid her head back against the seat and watched Mo confidently drive. He looked like he should be in a Gucci ad or sitting behind a massive desk on Wall Street, not raising horses out in the middle of Kentucky.