Nine

 

JAGGER

 

“You’re what?” We were sitting in Church at our compound. Preacher hadn’t spoken to Kyle yet with all of the shit going on, and now they’d just come up with even more. “No fucking way!”

“Look,” she said, hands on hips and looking like she wanted to rip my head off. “These people are part of this bullshit. All I have to do is go to this gathering, blend in, get info and get out. It’s simple and something that we’ve all done a million times.”

“And what if they recognize you? What if they decide that it’s you they want to send fuck knows where?” it felt like all of the air was leaving the room. I could see Preacher struggling to be okay with this bullshit, too.

“They won’t! These are the small boys of the group, the grunts. I’m also a professional, Jagger. I’ll repeat,” she leaned into my face, “I’ve done this a million times!”

Standing up, my chair tipped over behind me. “I don’t care if you’ve done it a million times. You could get fucking hurt,” I all but roared, hearing some winces and breaths being sucked in from the others in the room.

“Go with her,” Preachers voice broke the silence that followed my outburst.

Both of our heads snapped in his direction as we took in what he’d suggested.

“No fucking way,” Kyle replied shaking her head.

“I’m in!”

I didn’t even give her a chance to argue with me; I just turned around and walked out of the room and in the direction of my own. I hadn’t been in there in ages because I’ve been spending all of my time with Kyle in hers, but right now I needed my own space. Something felt off about this, but Kyle was adamant, so I was going to make sure she got out of it okay.

 

 

My teeth were grinding down to stubs walking toward the building where the gathering was taking place. There were expensive cars all around us and it just screamed that a bunch of assholes up to no good were inside. Duke had got his hands on a Bentley SUV for us so that we fit in and I could see why now.

Kyle walked beside me, holding my hand like she had no cares in the world and was just focused on making sure that her hair was perfect. When she’d walked down with a long brunette wig on and a bright red dress that hugged her all over, none of us had recognized her. She wasn’t kidding when she said she knew what she was doing, I still wasn’t happy with the situation though. I had a goatee glued to my face and Duke had helped me change the color of my hair and had put brown contacts in my eyes. It was freaky as hell when I looked in the mirror.

Walking up to the door, the first proper sign that these were hinky fuckers were the security guards waiting for us. They were built like brick shit houses and were clearly armed. A quick glance around as we walked from the car showed that there were at least six guys up on the roof, too. Kyle told me to park toward the back of the parking lot to give us time to take in the setup and it pained me to admit that it was a smart idea.

“Relax,” she whispered when we were at the bottom of the stairs. I was wearing a dark gray suit with a red tie to match her dress, something I’d never worn in my life. Apparently, if you’re into trafficking shit, you make sure you’re dressed like a lawyer so that you do it in style; hypocritical fucks.

“I’m trying,” I growled, keeping my face blank as we leveled with the guards.

“Invitación,” the monkey demanded with his hand out.

Ever the resourceful little girl scout, Kyle withdrew a piece of card slowly from the top of her dress and handed it over to the guy. His eyes lingered on her cleavage a bit too long for my liking and I was close to the edge when Kyle squeezed my hand. She made a show of flicking her hair over her shoulder and smoothing her dress down as he looked more at her than he did at the card in his hand. Finally, he nodded and held his arm out not saying another word. As we passed him, I didn’t miss him discretely rub his hand over her ass. Motherfucker!

“I’m going to kill him,” I whispered in her ear as we got through the door.

“I’ll leave a piece of him for you, then,” she whispered in my ear as she pressed against me. To anyone watching us, it would look like she was kissing my neck, but instead she said, “You need to stop and focus on why we’re here. Everything else will get dealt with,” she pointed at the huge necklace she was wearing that hid a camera feeding a live feed to Data, Preacher and Duke. Good, I hope they were writing down who did fucking what. “Let’s get a drink.”

We walked across to the bar where there were lines of expensive glasses with expensive champagne in it. I only knew it was expensive because Kyle whistled and said the bottles went for four hundred and fifty dollars each. The amount of money that these fucks had from trading innocent humans, munitions and drugs was disgustingly obvious in this situation and it sickened me.

“Hello there,” a voice came from behind us. Turning around, I recognized the man in front of us, but I didn’t know where from. “I am Cristóbal, and this is Luana,” he gestured to the beautiful girl beside him who looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here. “Y tu?”

Remembering the brief that Duke had given us, I replied as smoothly as I could. “I’m Aaron Jones,” I made a show of holding my hand out to him, even though it was the last thing that I wanted to do.

As he shook it, he tried to intimidate me by tightening his grip and staring at me in the eyes, but I kept my face neutral and didn’t even show that I’d registered the moves. I saw the first flicker of confusion on his face at my reaction and it hit me, this was one of the assholes that ran a brothel in El Salvador. He thought he was a big fish, but he was an amoeba in a huge ocean of the bastards. If I wasn’t mistaken, the Ghosts had run a raid on the place last year and had gotten a six-year-old out before anything could happen; a lot of the other women rescued hadn’t been so lucky, but they’d been put in the right places for therapy and support through it, and from what Duke had said recently, they were doing better.

Then it hit me as his eyes moved to Kyle…what if she had been involved? Another look crossed his face, but she stepped forward into him at that moment and kissed his cheek.

“Daisy,” she said in a husky voice that I was used to hearing in the bedroom. If it wasn’t for our current circumstances, I’d be fighting a hard on hearing the tone, but the fact she was using it on this fuck had a red mist falling over my eyes.

“Daisy…” he repeated as he stared at her tits. “The pleasure is mine.” He made to raise her hand to kiss it like he was some sort of gentleman, but at that moment there was a commotion behind us which drew his attention away from us. In the corner were two men standing nose to nose. One looked Hispanic and the other Middle Eastern, and both wore a ton of gold jewelry like it made them look important. “Ah, they are always so hot headed and eager,” Cristóbal chuckled. “If you’ll excuse me,” his eyes came to me before moving back to Kyle. “Daisy,” he said her name again, looking her up and down.

I gave a quick nod of my chin and reached for Kyle to bring her back against me where she was safer. I didn’t like the looks she was getting, but if she noticed them she didn’t let on.

“What the fuck was that,” I growled in her ear, turning back to the bar and reaching for the glass of champagne we never received the first-time round. I wasn’t going to drink the shit, but it would look weird if we didn’t take one.

“I was part of the bust,” she said over the rim of her glass smiling sweetly like she hadn’t just confirmed my previous worry. “If I’d stayed back, it would have looked suspicious. I’m here to play a part and regardless I have to stick to it.”

Duke had gone through the plan with us and we were to get images of as many players in this place as we could. To fit in, I would be the lead and Kyle would play my flavor of the night. I skimmed the room looking at the other women who were here and saw that most of them were dressed like Kyle was, with the exception of the ones in their underwear with collars on that were attached to leads like dogs. The Middle Eastern guy who had been involved in the issue minutes before, had two kneeling behind him. They had their heads bowed to the floor and their backs were covered in raw red strips like they’d been whipped. I was struggling to stay looking like it wasn’t affecting me.

“Do you think he recognized you?” I brought my attention back to Kyle and pretended to sip some of the champagne.

Her shrug didn’t really reassure me, but we only had to stay here long enough to get what we needed and then I could get her out of here and away from this shit.

Over the next hour, we met with people and stood making small chit-chat. Obviously, they thought they were in a safe environment surrounded by their own filth, because they freely offered up where they were from and some even bragged about their operations. I really hoped that the guys were getting this shit because I couldn’t do this again.

Just as Kyle gave the signal that we could leave, Cristóbal walked back up to us with the Middle Eastern guy from earlier.

“Ah, Aaron and Daisy, this is Arshad Fathizadeh. Arshad, Aaron Jones and Daisy…I didn’t get your last name, sweet Daisy.” Something about the way he said it and how he was looking at her didn’t stand right with me and alarm bells started ringing.

“Trent,” she replied smoothly, not missing a beat as she held her hand out to the newcomer. “Mr. Fathizadeh,” she pretty much purred at him, Cristóbal watching her the whole time.

Every muscle in my body felt like it was ready to jump and I couldn’t help stiffening as Cristóbal reached out and gently moved her hair over her shoulder. He must have seen it because his eyes flicked to me.

“Mr. Jones, Ms. Trent,” Fathizadeh said in a heavily accented voice, holding onto Kyle’s hand and not letting it go.

“We were actually just leaving,” I took a step forward and put my arm around Kyle’s waist. “Daisy had a few…suggestions,” I stressed the word with a smirk making it sound as perverted and suggestive as I could. “So, we must sadly leave early.”

Cristóbal stayed in his position beside Kyle, not taking his eyes off her the whole time, while Fathizadeh smirked and nodded his head.

“Yes, you cannot pass up suggestions from someone as beautiful as Ms. Trent,” he chuckled looking her up and down. I was sick of the fucks here doing that and the way his eyes lingered deliberately on her chest and crotch tested the strength of my teeth as I ground them together.

“It was a pleasure meeting you both tonight,” Kyle continued in her kitten voice. “I really hope I see you again.” The sentence was suggestive as hell and I saw Fathizadeh’s eyes light up.

“Mmm, yes, sweet Daisy. It has been a pleasure meeting you both and I have no doubt that we will meet again soon,” Cristóbal murmured, the wording making me tense again. “Aaron, make sure you keep her close,” there was definitely a threat there this time as his eyes flicked to me and I saw a burning fire in them.

Nodding, I took Kyle’s hand and guided her out of the place. The whole time we walked to the car, trying to look as relaxed and normal as the others milling around the parking lot, I was skimming the area expecting someone to jump out at us. When we got to the car with no interference, I almost got straight in, but Kyle held me back and tapped her necklace. The lights on the Bentley flashed as it unlocked without me and I remembered the procedure they had in place to make sure that the car wasn’t tampered with while we were inside. Fuck, I was so caught up in getting away I didn’t even consider that someone could have placed an explosive under it or tampered with it. The guys had been watching it on their screen, though, and once Kyle had tapped her necklace, they’d used a special device to unlock it, indicating that it was safe.

Once we were in and driving away from the place the anger hit me. “God fucking damn it, Kyle,” I punched the wheel making the vehicle swerve slightly. “He knows who you are!”

I glanced over at her seeing her staring grimly out of the front window. “It appears that way.”

“Appears that way?” I echoed in disbelief.

Before we could discuss it any further the phone rang over the Bluetooth system and the screen on the dash read Preacher calling.

Sighing, Kyle reached over and answered it before I could. “We know,” was all she said.

“Yeah, we figured as much,” he sounded pissed. “You also have three tailing you.”

That was something we also knew. This wasn’t our first rodeo and regardless of how discrete they were trying to be, they were still noticeable.

“Yeah,” was all I could say. We were still in danger and I wouldn’t be able to relax until I had Kyle safe and sound.

“Jagger, I need you to drive like an asshole. Swerve, speed, whatever. At the next gas station, pull over and argue. Kyle, you get behind the wheel after it,” Duke’s voice came through the speakers.

Kyle grinned as she turned to me. “I’ve always wondered what one of these can do!”

My foot pushed down on the accelerator accidentally as I shook my head wondering how she could be excited at a time like this. Normally, I found reactions like this from Kyle adorable as they were few and far between, her serious persona usually leading the way, but right now it was pissing me off. She was in fucking danger and she wanted to play with a car?

Keeping my focus in front of me, I followed Duke’s orders and started driving like an asshole. I sped up and when one of the cars was behind me I slammed the breaks on and jerked the wheel so that we swerved. I could feel the anger building inside me every time they got closer and when a gas station finally came into view, I almost drove past it so that I could stay in control. The fact that Kyle obviously knew what Duke’s plan was without him saying it, was the only thing that made me pull into the court.

Getting out of the vehicle, Kyle rounded the front and started yelling at me. “You’re fucking drunk. I told you I would drive, you asshole, but no. You’re gonna get us fucking killed.” Then shocking the shit out of me, she marched up to one of the cars that had been at the back of our tail and had pulled into the gas station too, knocked on the window and waited for the driver to roll it down. When he did, she bent over through the window, put her hand on his shoulder and said something that got her a nod in return. Then, she walked back making sure to swing her hips. “I’ve said sorry to the poor man behind us,” she snapped loudly as she reached me. “Now give me the damn keys and get your drunk ass on the other side!”

She didn’t give me a chance to reply before she snatched the keys out of my hand, jumped into the car and dropped them in the cup holder before hitting the ignition button. When I got into the passenger seat, she took off and got back onto the highway. Within minutes, all three cars were around ours in the traffic, but Kyle didn’t let on that she was aware of it.

Smiling brightly at me, she gestured with her hand as she outlined her plan. “We’re going to go a little faster and lose our friends.” To anyone watching us, it must have looked like she was excitedly telling me a story as she flicked her hair and continued to move her hands around in excitement.

“Kyle, I’m not sure…” I wasn’t given a chance to continue as she increased her speed, continuing to grin the whole time.

There were two cars on our right and one behind us and they all started to speed up with us. Kyle cut in front of them, narrowly missing the front of one of them.

“Ooopsy,” she sang in a baby voice and held her hand up for the driver to see.

The next five minutes were like something out of a movie or something. She cut through the cars going into all of the lanes narrowly avoiding cars each time. Then she’d speed up and start weaving in and out until she hit a patch where the traffic was lighter and put her foot down on the accelerator.

The cars following us had been caught up behind the cars that Kyle just avoided hitting, whose drivers were now pissed off and driving at a slower pace to keep away from us. Just as I saw them swerve around the final car, we took a bend in the road and Kyle switched all of the lights off and took a sharp right down a side road. She followed it in the dark while I watched in the rear-view mirror for any sign of company.

“Pull over,” I managed to get out five minutes later. I stayed quiet not wanting to distract her and get us killed, but now it was all catching up with me.

“No, we’ll be back at the Compound in thirty minutes,” she mumbled, still driving with no lights on.

“Pull over,” I repeated, my voice sounding even louder in the confined space of the vehicle. I was now an angry mess.

She ignored me and continued driving until I felt like I was going to explode. Just as I opened my mouth to tell her to pull the fuck over, ringing started out of the speakers and Duke’s name flashed up on the screen.

“Motherfucker,” I roared and punched the dash.

“Jagger,” his voice firmer than I’d ever heard it filled the space. “Keep your fucking shit together. You need to get back here ASAP.” I knew then that we were fucked. “Kyle, we’re rerouting the traffic cameras, put your foot down and come straight here.” Then, in pure Duke style, he hung up.

I saw Kyle frown as she followed what he’d said and drove above the speed limit with the lights still off. It was fifteen minutes later when we pulled into the Compound, making it back in half the time.

As we got out of the vehicle, I noticed that my hands were shaking. I’d gone from anger to worry to anger, and now I had both emotions riding me. Looking up, I saw that all of the Ghosts and Knights who were outside of the building were holding their guns ready.

“Get in,” Duke shouted across to us.

Kyle walked at an alarmingly fast pace given the heels on her feet with me following close behind. I kept glancing over my shoulder knowing that we were safe within the walls, but not trusting anyone. It didn’t stand well with me, but I hadn’t forgotten that someone had known that we were coming when we’d gone to retrieve Perry. I’d had quite a few chats with Preacher about it, but so far no one stood out. Then there was that asshole Jared who was still on the compound. Something about him made my ass twitch.

I was relieved when we got into Church and it was just me, Kyle, Preacher, Duke and Data.

What the fuck was going on?

 

KYLE

 

I’d felt his anger all night and it had been one of the reasons that I hadn’t wanted him to come with me. I knew these players and how they acted. What I hadn’t banked on was Cristóbal Santino being there; he was supposed to be in El Salvador, still working on a big drug delivery.

I knew the moment he realized who I was, roughly twenty minutes after he’d left us after meeting us. I’d looked up and had seen him staring at me. His expression had suddenly changed as it hit him, but I never changed my own once and just smiled at him. Now…I didn’t know what to think.

“Santino was tipped off,” Data broke the silence. Jagger stood up and roared as he threw his chair at the wall, hitting the hole that Noah had made before making it bigger.

“Sit down, son,” Duke commanded in his no shit tone.

“Fuck that,” Jagger roared across the room. “You said she’d be safe!” He walked up to Duke and got in his space. I’d never seen anyone go up against Duke and immediately stiffened. Duke was a force to be reckoned with and if Jagger wasn’t careful, he’d meet the side of him that he rarely let out and that men rarely walked away from.

“She would have been,” Duke ground out, sounding as pissed off by the whole thing as Jagger was. I glanced over at Preacher to see him staring at me. His expression was a mixture of anger and worry; it was almost like he gave a shit. “He got a text at twenty-one-hundred hours with a photo of Kyle and her name from an untraceable number. The message only said, ‘this is who you’re looking at’.”

Now that just pissed me off. Who the hell was doing this shit?

“What do we do now?” I asked, trying to make sense of it all.

“I don’t know right now,” Duke snapped at no one in particular. Jagger had backed off and was now standing behind me with his hand on my shoulder. “But as soon as I do, we’re going to fucking end this shit once and for all.”