Forsaken (The Found Book 2) (12 page)

“You better tell me the truth, or you won’t like the consequences.”

“You won’t hit me. If you haven’t hit that skank of a wife, you sure as hell won’t throw a punch at me. What’s more, I can take you.”

Seth waited.

“Yes, she’s in Florida, and no I hadn’t planned on telling you. Unless, of course, circumstances, warranted it.”

Oh he didn’t like the sound of that at all.

“Why would circumstances warrant it? Why is she in Florida? She should be back in California with Nell.”

“On that we agree. I’m not any happier about this than you are.” Gone was the cocky grin he had been met with, instead he could see strain and worry on the woman’s face.

“Sierra, cut the shit and tell me what’s going on. I’m begging you.”

“We weren’t making any headway on Leslie Gordon’s operation, Brice and Nate had…”

“Fuck no!” Seth roared. He crossed the distance between them in two strides and had Sierra held up by the lapels of her jacket. “Tell me Annie is not going undercover with the slavery operation.”

“Let go of me. This is your one and only warning, before I put you on your ass, Natani,” Sierra said in a deadly voice.

“Answer my question.”

“She’s has a modeling audition today. Put me down.” He let go, and she landed on the desk, miraculously, neither of the coffees spilled.

He turned his back and stalked across his office, and punched a hole in the drywall. If there was pain, he didn’t notice. He went to the window, and stared at the downtown Miami skyline. He needed to get his shit together, he knew he did. He was of no use to Annie in this state.

“How’d you know?”

“Don’t talk to me, Mathers.”

The silence went on for long minutes, until the pain in his hand finally registered. He looked down, and made a fist. He was lucky he hadn’t broken any bones. As it was, he was going to have to come up with some sort of bullshit explanation for the wall and hand.

“Why did you let her,” he asked turning around.

“Have you met her?”

“You’re military, she’s surrounded by
found
. She’s the least qualified for something like this. She has Nell to take care of. Why did you let her do this?”

“We have to stop this. We can’t go to your people, there’s nobody we can trust. She still looks like she’s a sophomore in college. You realize you’re a perv, right?” Sierra said, in a gently teasing voice.

Seth remembered how Annie always hated being carded whenever they went out, and rarely ordered a glass of wine because of it. She hated how young she looked, and was always doing her make-up to look older. Seth told her she would be grateful in her later years, but it didn’t seem to get through to her.

“Seth?”

“I’m here. Yes, I realize how young Annie looks. Sierra, you have to pull her out. I know how bad this is. I’ve seen up close and personal the hell these girls are going through. You’ve got to stop this now.” He’d get on his knees and beg if necessary. Sierra must have seen his intent, because she got off the desk and stood right in front him, resting her hand on his chest.

“If there had been any other way, we would have gone for it. As soon as Annie heard about the problem we were having, she immediately volunteered. She knew you would object. She said if you found out, this is what we were supposed to tell you. She said you were to think about your daughter. Imagine the hell you would be going through if your little girl had gone missing. What would you do? Wouldn’t you want someone to go to the ends of the Earth to help bring Nell back?”

He closed his eyes, and he couldn’t get the picture of Nell as a young woman out of his head. He suddenly imagined her face, with a tear rolling down, as she was on display with caviar on her body, Annie always had such a deep well of caring and empathized with those around her. She must have realized the hell these young women, girls, were going through, and she put herself on the line to stop the horror. Of course, his Annie would do nothing else.

“You had no right to keep this from me.”

“We were going to tell you if she ended up getting selected. There was no need to tell you until then.”

“Wrong. What happens if they realize she’s a plant right now? I deserved to know the second she was put in harm’s way. She’s my wife, goddammit!”

Sierra looked at him as if he had grown two heads.

“You have a wife, and she’s a drug-addicted, criminal whore.”

“Annie’s been my wife from the first moment I made love to her. I always intended to marry her. She knew it and I knew it.”

“Is that the reason you got her pregnant, because she was your wife?” Sierra’s voice was filled with derision.

“I’m only going to answer because you’re Annie’s friend. Obviously our birth control failed. There is no way I would have ever put Annie in that position and then taken another assignment. No way would I have done that.” He watched as her hazel eyes considered him. She must have seen something because she finally nodded her head.

“Okay then. I’m still not buying this wife thing, but I definitely believe you love her, how can you not. She’s Annie. I’m supposed to hear something by noon today. I’ll keep you informed every step of the way, what I hear, you’ll hear.”

This was going to be the worst day of his life. No wonder she had been blocking their dream connections. Well this shit would stop now. Not only would Sierra keep him in the loop, so would Annie. He wasn’t going to be left out by anyone from now on.

****

“Why is she still at your office if you figured out the shipping problems?”

Seth watched the plate of eggs drip down the wall of the dining room. Obviously the home drug rehabilitation program was going fabulously.

“Because I said so.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“It’s a perfectly acceptable answer when dealing with a child,” Seth said, in as calm a tone as he could manage.

Tomas laughed into his napkin, but then managed to pull himself together. “I have to agree with Portia in this instance, why is Ms. Pierce still working with you if we have worked out all of the double booking issues?”

“I think we have more issues with Benitez Shipping than the double booking, don’t you Tomas? We have some missing monies Evelyn Pierce is eminently capable of moving into current status instead of showing last year. Then as payments are brought in to cover these outstanding debits, they will match up to current receivables, instead of grossly overdue debts we will be hard-pressed to explain.”

“She sounds like a genius.”

“She is.” She really wasn’t. At least not at manipulating the books. He was handling them, but it was a good cover. He wanted her planted in his office so she could keep him informed of Annie’s progress.

“Well I don’t like it. Make her go away, Daddy.” A salt shaker went winging across the room and shattered a mirror.

“Stefan,” Tomas yelled. Stefan immediately came into the room. Seth figured he had been standing outside the door, waiting to be called in.

“Take Portia to her room. Search it. Obviously she has been getting her hands on coke. Also, call the doctor. Portia, if you’re not very careful, I will send you to rehab, and you know how much you hate that. As it stands now, you are grounded for a week. No shopping, no leaving the grounds.”

“Daddy!” she shrieked, as she picked up the pepper shaker. Stefan’s big hand covered hers, plucking the crystal shaker out of her fist before she could throw it.

“Go with Stefan before I make it two weeks.”

She pushed from the table, and upended her chair before Stefan could catch it. Stefan followed her out of the room. Tomas turned to Seth. “She is such a high spirited girl. I just wish her mother hadn’t died when she was so young, then she wouldn’t be so out of control now.”

Yeah, that was it.

“So do you really think Ms. Pierce can fix the books? I spoke to Vargas two days ago, and he is positive there will be a shipment ready for us in ten to twelve days. All we have to do is have a ship ready to make the pick up when he gives us the signal.”

“That’s all we have to do?” Seth was incredulous.

“Yes, I can’t believe how everything is coming together. I’m going to be out of this mess in less than two weeks. Thank God for Evelyn Pierce and Vargas.”

“Tomas, we can’t have a ship wandering around in international waters for forty-eight hours waiting for a signal to pull into port. That’s going to raise all kind of red flags. Vargas has to give us a specific arrival time, so we can plan.”

“Of course I suggested that, I’m not stupid. I’ve run this company for years without you Carson. Watch your tone. When I told him, he was…well, he was very forceful that this was the way things needed to be done. So naturally I agreed.”

“Naturally.”

“Boy, don’t think I can’t hear your sarcasm, because I can. It’s your job to figure out how to get this done. It’s what I pay you for.”

Seth took two deep breaths. “Let’s get this really clear old man, I married into this circus. I’m not on your payroll. There is nothing you have that holds my loyalty but my sense of honor. I’ll pull your ass out of the fire with Labado because I got sucked into this through my own stupidity, but don’t ever think you own me. Are we clear?” Seth threw down his napkin and stormed out of the dining room.

He briefly considered getting into his Ferrari, but realized he was operating on five hours of sleep in three days, he’d crash for sure. Annie and Nell were depending on him. He went to his room, passing Portia’s bedroom on the way. Stefan was standing outside her door like a sentinel, and nodded at him.

He went into his bedroom, and wished the monitoring devices had been eliminated here as they were at his office, but it couldn’t happen. He was stuck. He had made his bed as soon as he volunteered to take the one last assignment. Why did he do it? He had the world laid out at his feet, and he tossed it away. Sitting on the bed, he thought about taking off his shoes but before he could do anything sleep overcame him and he fell over sideways.

****

“Sierra told you?” Annie was curled up with her knees tucked under her chin, at the end of the crappy couch in the filthy motel room.

“Is this why you’ve been blocking me?”

“Not entirely. You were married. What we were doing was wrong.”

Past tense, she was speaking about his marriage in the past tense.

Seth was on the couch, pulling her legs out, and her feet onto his lap, they were ice cold. The toes were painted a delicate pink. Annie had the prettiest feet.

“You’re so cold. Tell me what happened today. Can you back out? Can you go back to California?” She looked at him through dark lashes.

“I can’t Seth. I feel as strongly about this, as you did when you left and took this assignment. They’re going to offer me a contract overseas, I could see it in their eyes. I’m going to be abducted.”

He clutched her foot, and didn’t realize it until he saw her wince. “I’m sorry baby. Please reconsider this. You can’t possibly know how bad this is.”

“Actually I can. Don’t think I went into this blind. I did a whole hell of a lot of research before I raised my hand. It’s what I do. I might not know what kind of perversions this group of people have up their sleeves, but they’re all evil and they need to be stopped.”

She covered his hands where they held her feet, and they were cold too. She was shivering. How the fuck could she be so cold in this small sweatbox in Miami? He picked her up and cuddled her on his lap.

“God, you feel wonderful.”

“Why are you so cold?” He looked around the sparse room for some sort of blanket or covering but there were only blankets on the bed. “Why are you staying in such a shithole?”

“It’s part of the cover. Nate is around, and he said someone from the modeling agency followed me back to the motel.”

Dammit, that meant they
would
be selecting her. Leslie would love her. “How long have you been here?”

“A week. It took me that long to get the appointment.”

No wonder Nell had been so desolate. Hell they both were. Life without Annie wasn’t worth living. “Why were you referring to my marriage in past tense?”

Annie went still in his arms. She was silent.

“Won’t you tell me?”

“I know you are married. I shouldn’t have said it like that, I wasn’t thinking. I was wrong.”

“You
were
wrong.” She struggled to get out of his arms, but he wouldn’t let her. He used his strength to keep her where he wanted her, which was in his arms, always in his arms.

“Let me go.”

“Stop, let me explain. Portia and I have never really been married. Not in any real meaning of the word. I’ve never once touched her. I couldn’t bear to touch her. In fact, I’ve never once touched a woman after making love to you. I thought I did, but I haven’t.” Finally she quieted, and tilted her head to look at him.

“Explain.”

“Three months before we got married, I was out with Thiago Labado and Tomas Benitez. I’d been out with them many times before, it was part of my job, part of my cover as Carson Runyon. Most times Tomas would have his daughter in tow. Portia loved hanging out with Labado. She knew he dealt in arms and drugs, and her father was in bed with him. She found the whole thing exciting as hell. She encouraged it, and the more I came to know her, the more I realized she had helped to push her father into this business. She longed to be part of this criminal empire. She’d watched too many movies where the daughter of the drug dealers were treated like princesses, and got whatever they wanted.”

“I don’t understand, her father was already rich.”

“Yes, but now she would have power. She could push people around.”

“She already had that ability being the daughter of a shipping magnate.”