Asking For Trouble (20 page)

"Hello, darlin'," he said when he finally
pried his lips from hers.

"Hello, yourself..." Sabrina said
breathlessly looking up into his eyes. She rubbed her hand along
Cole's cheek then said, "Want some breakfast, honey?"

"Can't turn down anything you offer me,
baby...load it up," he told her with a chuckle, then slid into the
other side of the booth, but followed her with his eyes as she
walked to the kitchen.

Gabe snorted, then said petulantly, "She
didn't ask
me
if I wanted breakfast."

"Don't worry she knows what you always
order. You're pretty damned predictable these days, Gabe," Cole
told him with a wink.

Gabe groaned and took off his hat and put it
between him and Beau, then ran a hand through his hair. "God, don't
tell me that...I can't do anything to prove you wrong right now
with Karlie pregnant."

"Just wait...you're gonna be even more
predictable once the baby gets here...face it, your wild days are
over, man," Cole told him with a shake of his head.

"Is that so? Then why the hell do I see you
and Bri riding around the lake on that damned motorcycle doing
ninety to nothing. You need to be more careful with my sister."

"She likes it," Cole told him with a
mysterious grin, then asked, "And what the hell are you doing
stalking us?" then he snorted and told Gabe, "Might wanna back off
on that, because you're gonna see something you might not wanna
see, bud."

"I wasn't stalking you, asshole, I was
working a speed trap and ya'll zoomed by me. You're lucky I didn't
pull your ass over," Gabe told him.

"No, you're lucky you didn't pull us
over...I distinctly remember cutting you and Karlie a break in that
damned Lincoln before, remember that?" Cole told him with narrowed
eyes.

Beau knew this could go on for hours if he
didn't step in, so he cleared his throat and said, "I have a
situation I need help with..."

Gabe hooted and then said, "Don't tell me my
squeaky clean little brother has finally gotten himself into a
scrape..."

"Um, no...it's not me...but before this is
over, I might be in a heap of trouble," he said and rolled the edge
of the paper placemat in front of him.

"What's going on?" Cole asked and leaned
forward on his elbows.

"You know Jazzie Ramos? The fiddler in Jess
Sparks band?" he asked looking Cole in the eyes.

"Yeah, the hot Latina? Jess's best friend?
What about her?"

"She's in trouble...big trouble. Someone's
trying to abduct her, maybe kill her and her brother," Beau told
them, then added quietly, "Her brother went to work for Al-Gonon
Biochem in Austin, ever hear of them?"

"No, can't say that I have..." Cole said and
studied him intently.

Beau looked around then leaned closer to
Cole and said, "They've got big brother on their tails, and it's
about to get ugly. They're selling bad ass toys to certain clowns
and the circus is about to get shut down."

"What has that got to do with Jazzie and her
brother?" Cole asked quietly.

"Frankie Ramos knows their tricks and he's
talking to big brother."

"Leverage?" Gabe asked with concern in his
voice.

"Exactly...she's with big brother, but I'm
still worried. The clowns want her bad, and have tried twice
now...and big brother thinks there might be some siblings
inside."

Cole huffed out a breath then said, "What do
you want us to do?"

"It could take big brother years to finish
this, and I can't let them put her into the program...I'd never see
her again," Beau told him in a gravelly voice and swallowed down
the emotion that formed a knot in his throat.

"What did you have in mind?" Gabe asked
him.

"Make them an offer they can't refuse...give
them Frankie and an offer of future protection by insiders from all
agencies."

"A sting?" Cole asked very quietly.

"Yeah, but we want the ringmasters, not just
the clowns," Beau told him, then added, "I need Sabrina to call her
old friend Susan...Glen Baker is afraid of her, so he won't try to
set things up. I need her on board to get cleared with my boss to
help."

"You don't want much do you?" Cole
chuckled.

"I just want to end this so Jazzie and
Frankie are off the hook," he said seriously.

"You and Jazzie involved?" Gabe asked him
curiously.

Beau sighed, because he knew this question
would be coming, and still hadn't figured out how to answer it.
"It's complicated...but I care about her, yeah."

"Figured you did, or you wouldn't be getting
involved in this crap...it's pretty heavy duty. If you just need
Bri to make a call, why are you telling us all this?"

"I need people I can trust on the team, and
I wanted to know if you guys would help. I hate to say it, but I
don't trust big brother all that much, after what you told me
happened with Bri and that insider. Glen is the only one I've told
about my idea...I know you trust him, Gabe."

"Honestly, I don't know him that well. I
worked with him once or twice when I was with the Phoenix P.D., but
that's about it. He never gave me any reason
not
to trust
him."

"I think we should talk about this more
tonight, somewhere private," Cole suggested looking around at the
packed diner. "You guys want to come over for dinner?"

"Yeah, that would be great," Beau grinned,
then told him, "You don't have to twist my arm to eat Bri's
cooking."

Cole snorted then said, "You'll probably
have to settle for leftovers from here, she's usually whooped when
she gets home, and just wants to spend time with Will...and me."
Cole waggled his eyebrows and gave them a wink, and they all
laughed.

Sabrina walked out of the kitchen just then
with her arms loaded with plates, and Cole frowned then got up and
went over there and grabbed two from her, and they walked back to
the table. "I told you not to be carrying that much, darlin',
you're gonna hurt your back!" he said in frustration.

She sat the plates down on the table with a
thud, then turned on him and put her hands on her hips and lifted
one eyebrow. Cole's eyes widened fractionally then he said, "Sorry,
sugar...what I meant to say was your back has been hurting, and
carrying all that probably isn't a good idea."

"Better, sweetheart," she praised him then
tiptoed up to kiss him. "Let's eat, before all this gets cold," she
said with a smile.

Cole sat down, then Sabrina slid in beside
him, and everyone dug into their breakfast. "This is delicious,
babe...you do something different to the skillet fries?"

"Added a little green onion...I had a Cajun
customer come in the other day and they suggested it, so I thought
I'd give it a try," she said and dipped the corner of her toast in
her egg then took a nibble.

"It works," he told her with a
half-smile.

Beau swallowed down a bite of his pancakes,
and took a swig of his milk, then said bluntly, "Bri, I need you to
call Susan Whitmore for me."

With her fork halfway to her mouth, her hand
froze then she sat it back on her plate and looked at him
incredulously. "What could you possibly need from Susan?"

"I need her to help us set up an operation.
We're getting together tonight at your house and I'll explain it
all then, but can you put her on notice that we'll be calling her
tonight? Maybe get her cell number?"

"Okay, I'll call her, but you're gonna have
to come in my office and give me more information, she's not known
for her patience with people who waste her time," Sabrina snorted
then took a sip of her coffee. "I'm only calling her one time, so
we don't need to meet tonight, we need to get this done now. I'm
sure she's busy..."

After breakfast, they all went into
Sabrina's office, and Beau filled her in on what was going on, and
told the guys too in something other than the code he had to use
earlier to avoid prying ears.

Gabe cleared his throat and said, "I don't
want to come off as a coward guys, but I don't think it's a good
idea for me to go with ya'll on this...Karlie would probably freak
out, and who the hell knows I might too. My shrink would probably
have a coronary."

Beau noticed Gabe's face was a little green,
he was grinding his teeth, and small beads of sweat dotted his
forehead. He was seriously having a mini-meltdown of some kind.
"It's okay, bro...if you're not up to it, that's fine...someone
needs to stay here anyway and hold down the fort, if Cole goes to
help."

"If you and Karlie can keep Will, I can go
and help," Sabrina suggested and her eyes lit up with
excitement.

"Hell no!" Cole said and shot up out of the
chair he'd been sitting in and slammed his hands down on her small
desk, then grated, "You are
not
going to get involved in
this!"

Sabrina leaned back in her chair and crossed
her arms under her breasts giving Cole a look that could have
melted steel. "Excuse me? " she said in a low lethal tone, then
screwed a finger into her ear and patted the side of her head. "I
don't think I heard you right, did I?"

Beau stifled a chuckle that his petite, but
fiery, sister always put her hulking alpha husband in his place
when he decided to go caveman on her. He glanced over at Gabe, who
also appeared to be holding back laughter.

Cole cleared his throat, then stood back up
and folded his own arms across his chest. "Not this time,
sugar...you heard me exactly right. Will needs you at home, and so
do I. I can't do this if I have to worry about you too."

Her chin tilted up a little and her eyes
sparkled dangerously, but after a few seconds she nodded and said,
"You're right...this time."

Cole's shoulders visibly relaxed and he
walked around the desk and pulled her out of her chair and into his
arms then he slammed his mouth over hers and gave her a kiss that
embarrassed the hell out of Beau, and that took some doing.
Sabrina's face was flushed and her eyes sparkling for a different
reason when he let her go.

"Thank you, darlin'," Cole said with a grin,
then added, "I promise I'll be careful."

"You damned well better be, or I'll shoot
you," she said with a chuckle.

"Okay, call Susan and let's get this show on
the road," he told her and sat back down by Beau.

CHAPTER NINE

Beau woke up on Saturday morning of the next
week with excitement and anticipation filling him. He was going to
see Jazzie today, and take her to her lessons. Glen had given him
the address where they were holding her, and he was going to
surprise her by taking her to her class. He hadn't been able to
talk to her, since he'd handed her off to Glen six days ago, and he
missed her a helluva lot more than he thought he would. The FBI
still had her phone, and there wasn't a land line at the house, so
he hadn't even been able to call her.

He was also excited, because Sabrina had
wrestled Susan into submission and somehow got her to agree to the
covert operation, he suggested. Susan told Sabrina it would have to
be off the books, because of the multiple agencies involved. To get
official approval through the channels, would be almost impossible,
and would take forever. Susan was even going to participate in the
operation herself, because she didn't want too many people
involved, especially agents, since there were concerns that some of
their agents might have gone bad.

Their team consisted of Beau, Cole, Susan,
her right hand agent, who she called Hanson, one name only, and
Dave Logan. Beau had gotten Dave on the team, because Dave had a
qualified team of his own, and they needed the help he could
provide. Dave's background had even impressed Susan when they'd
gotten him on a three-way call in Sabrina's office.

Everything was in place for them to proceed
with the mission, which they'd start by kidnapping Frankie Ramos
from the FBI agents guarding him tomorrow night. Susan was
compiling a duplicate set of all the evidence they had on Al-Gonon
and the consortium. They'd use both for leverage to entice the
leaders of the consortium to meet with them, and agree to let them
be part of their operation.

Their plan was risky, but Beau felt like,
with Dave's team helping, they could protect Frankie well enough.
At least he hoped so, because if something happened to Jazzie's
brother, she'd never forgive him. He was just glad Jazzie was in
custody, so he didn't have to worry about her, while this went
down. Jazzie's other brothers and her parents were another
story...they were sitting ducks with minimal FBI protection.

After a quick shower, Beau dressed and
grabbed his keys then headed out to his truck. He was staying in
Bowie with Gabe and Karlie, so it was going to take him a good
while to get to the safe house on the outskirts of Dallas. He was
leaving early to make sure he got there in plenty of time, and so
he'd have some extra time to spend with Jazzie. Beau hoped she'd be
as glad to see him, as he would be to see her. By this time,
knowing her and her boundless energy, she was probably climbing the
walls to get out of there.