Lazar's Intrigue (The Jack Lazar Series) (14 page)

Sarina
also made good on her promise as Jack heard nothing more than her succession of
sudden breaths as he drove into her. Her eyes were closed, and she seemed
totally engrossed in their lovemaking.

Moments
later Sarina opened her eyes, and her expression looked desperate as a big
orgasm was clearly capturing her. It was a look so tantalizing that Jack
symbiotically fell into a climax of his own, the hallway stealth mission now
thrown to the four winds as they carelessly pursued their shared culmination
against the wall. And it was loud.

Jack
froze as the elevator rang, and he looked at Sarina in horror.

“Goddamnit,
Jack! Finish me!”

“But…”

“Do
it!”

Acquiescing
to her command, he pounded her even harder and faster, slamming her repeatedly
against the wall as he heard the elevator doors open and the sounds of people
talking. He knew they would turn the corner at any moment, but Sarina clearly
needed more, and he continued hammering her while he came himself, the sheer
audacity of the situation heightening the power of his release.

The
voices grew even closer, and Jack’s peripheral vision spotted a head of long
blonde hair rounding the corner as he spun around and slammed through the door
of the suite, Sarina locked in his arms, her legs wrapped tightly around his
waist. He was still planted inside her, and he found the first available wall
in the room’s entryway to pick up where they left off, driving hard, and Sarina
laughed deviously as he finished her.

Exhausted,
Jack lowered Sarina to her feet and collapsed on the floor beneath her, trying
to catch his breath as she took her position on top. Her warm lips and tongue
captured his mouth in a slow, sweeping dance while he ran his fingers through
her hair.

“That
was fun,” she said.

“That
was insane.”

Sarina
pulled back and examined the expression on his face. “Yeah, but you’re awfully
proud of yourself, aren’t you?”

“I
don’t know what you mean.”

“I
can tell from the look on your face. So don’t pretend you didn’t like it.”

“Okay,
admittedly, that was outrageous and amazing. Possibly the best orgasm I’ve ever
had. But I don’t ever want to do it again.”

“We’ll
see.” She smiled knowingly.

“Yeah,
that’s what I’m afraid of.”

He
was fully aware she could get him to do anything she wanted, anytime, anywhere.
And if that meant he would never get to stay at The Peninsula in Chicago again,
he would have to live with it.

Putting
the idea of being blacklisted by numerous five-star hotels out of his mind, Jack
folded his arms behind his head and looked up at her with a playful smirk. “I
don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

Sarina
raised an eyebrow. “It’s a good thing I’m not a stickler for cuddling after sex.
Otherwise you’d be in a lot of trouble for talking about food right now. You do
realize you were inside me like a minute ago, right?”

“Yeah,
but I’m not all that concerned about your sensitivities. You’re not exactly a
regular girl, you know.”

She
tilted her head, her expression indicating she was happy to play along. “So
what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well,
you’ve got the body parts and all. And I must admit they’re really
nice
body parts.” Jack lifted her hair out of his face and inspected her unreal
physique.

“Yeah,
I own a mirror. Your point is?”

“My
point is that you act tough enough to be a dude most of the time.”

“So
I’ve been told.”

“Unless,
of course, being feminine is convenient and useful for the situation at hand. But
then all you really have to do is get naked.”

“Is
that so?”

“Hell
yeah. Naked women can get pretty much anything they want. And a naked Sarina? Well,
she could score highly classified secrets from the Kremlin.”

“So
all I have to do is flash my body? I don’t actually need to sleep with anyone?”

“Correctamundo.”

“Well
then, I’ve been doing it all wrong, and it’s a shame I don’t have to sleep with
you
anymore. I was starting to enjoy it.”

“Oh,
you still have to sleep with me.”

“Really?
Why is that?”

“Because
I have the naked game all figured out. If you want something from me, you’ll
have to rock my world first.”

“How
convenient for you.”

“Isn’t
it?”

“But
let’s get back to the subject. How can you be so sure I’m not hurt because you
would rather eat dinner than hold me?”

“I
plan on holding you all night long, love bunny. But not until I’ve had a big
plate of pasta.”

“So
we’re having Italian, huh? Thanks for consulting me about that. And did you
just call me love bunny?”

“Not
your cup of tea?”

“Not
really. Do I look like a love bunny to you?”

“Good
point. How about sweet cheeks?”

“Oh
God. I’d rather be called love bunny.”

Jack
raised his arms in surrender. “Hey, baby, I’m flexible. Just tell me what you
like.”

“Baby
is good. Stick with that. Call me sweet cheeks again and I’ll break your nose.”

“Fair
enough. Baby it is. Now hop off so we can go get some dinner.”

FOURTEEN

Jack
awoke slowly, his arms wrapped around Sarina’s warm body as he held her from
behind. He perked up his head, looked around and noticed the clothes carelessly
strewn all over the room. He vaguely recalled that after returning from a dinner
featuring multiple cocktails and two bottles of wine, they had simply stripped naked
and crawled into bed.

Jack
turned his attention to the woman who slept quietly in his arms as he snuggled
against her naked bottom. He studied the beauty of her bare shoulder and began
to stroke it softly with his hand. He gently pulled back her hair and gazed
upon her face as it lay against the pillow. She was truly exotic and beautiful,
he thought. Was he starting to fall for her, or was this just senseless,
out-of-control infatuation?

Jack
impetuously felt the need to explore her again, to experience the curves of her
lovely form. He ran his hands from her shoulder to her waist, over her hip and
around her bottom, squeezing it gently. He carefully pulled her closer and
wrapped his arms around her waist as he showered her neck with soft kisses.

Sarina
slowly awakened, and she turned her body around to face him. “Good morning.”

“Good
morning. How did you sleep?”

“Mm,
incredible. After last night, who wouldn’t? I’m glad I found you.”

“Me,
too. But how did you know I was here?”

“I
tracked down your flight and hotel through your credit card.”

“Those
government resources come in handy, huh?”

“Yes
they do.” She kissed him. “I was really supposed to go to New York last night. In
fact, Bob and Ben would kill me if they knew I came here instead. I’m going to
have to hop over there pretty soon, though.”

“You’re
not going to run out on me again, are you? I’ll have to stop these clandestine
hotel meetings if you keep abandoning me like you did in Marina Del Rey. I’ll
develop some sort of complex.”

Sarina
poked him in the stomach. “Don’t worry. I’m not planning to leave for a while.”

“So
you’ll actually stick around for breakfast this time?”

“Yes.
You pick.” She rose from the bed and walked to the bathroom while Jack fixated
on her ass—something he couldn’t possibly get tired of.

Jack
shook his head and sighed as he took the room service menu from the nightstand.
He lifted the phone receiver to his ear and pushed the room service button
while he quickly looked through the breakfast choices, knowing he would decide
instantly when it became time to order.

The
food arrived in less than thirty minutes, and the room service waiter neatly
arranged their breakfast selections on the dining table. His last task was to
pour some of The Peninsula’s rich coffee before excusing himself.

Jack
and Sarina munched on the pastries, yogurt and fruit while exchanging some
stories from the past, but the subject finally turned to business at hand.

“So
tell me,” Sarina said. “What are you really doing here in Chicago?”

“Have
you been to the Art Institute? It’s fabulous.”

“I’m
serious.”

He
stared at her pensively. “I’m just doing a little digging around. Not hurting
anyone. Trying to make the most of my time off. That sort of thing.”

“I
could arrest you for interfering with a government investigation, you know.” She
appeared to be only half serious.

“Sounds
fantastic, especially if it includes the use of those handcuffs again.”

“This
is not a joking matter, Jack. You could get yourself killed.”

Jack
stared intently into her eyes and spoke with a tone of complete conviction. “I
don’t really give a shit, Sarina. This is something I need to do, so if you
have a problem with that, then arrest me. But I’m not doing anything illegal.”

She
looked at him as if she was trying to be angry, but she couldn’t help from being
amused by his production. “Geez, you can be intense. Try to lighten up, okay?”

“So
we’re a team?”

“Whoa,
I never said that.”

“But
we can help each other. Please, Sarina.”

“Let’s
talk about this for a minute, okay?”

“Okay.”
He took a deep breath, hoping.

Sarina
seemed to gather her thoughts. “So what have you found out? Anything?”

“Oh
yeah. Plenty. I went to Intercontinental’s new facility near O’Hare and I saw a
lot of…”

“I
told you, that deal is dead. Ben followed up on it again yesterday.”

“Well,
his information is wrong, sweetheart,” Jack asserted with equal contempt. “Not
only did I discover exactly how they’ve arranged to ship drugs from South
America, but I also witnessed a man being shot to death over the whole thing.”

“Shot
to death? How? Where?”

Jack
explained to her how he had watched the Intercontinental warehouse the previous
day and overheard the conversation that led to the pilot’s murder.

“Talk
about being in the right place at the right time.”

Jack
smiled awkwardly. “I suppose that’s one way to look at it. But somehow I didn’t
feel so fortunate to be there.”

“Well,
you got the information you were looking for, didn’t you?”

“I
guess so.”

Sarina
wrinkled her brow. “Ben told me Antonucci dropped the Intercontinental deal
last month and there’s some other company trying to buy it now. It’s an acronym
like BRT or RBT International. Something like that.”

“It’s
probably just a holding company. People use them all the time.”

“You
think?” Her sarcasm was palpable. “Our people did a search on the principals,
and Antonucci didn’t show up anywhere.”

“That
still doesn't mean anything. Besides, I talked to the CFO of Graf & Tate,
and he told me Antonucci’s companies have been consolidating their shipping
operation into Intercontinental’s network for some time now. He also pretty
much confirmed that Antonucci is buying the business.”

“What’s
his name?”

“Levin,
I think. Yeah, Barry Levin.”

Sarina’s
eyes widened. “Really?”

“Why?
Is something wrong?”

“He
was shot to death yesterday. They said it was a mugger.”

“What
the hell?”

“I
saw it on CNN during my flight. Apparently it happened in front of a large
crowd of people. Shook them up pretty badly.”

“Jesus.”

“I
thought it was just a coincidence that he worked for Graf & Tate, and I
assumed it wasn’t related.”

Jack
laughed nervously. “Oh, it was related. Believe you me.”

“Yeah,
it seems pretty obvious now.” She reached into her purse and took out her cell
phone. “I have to call Ben, and I’m putting him on speaker so you can tell him
what you found out.”

“Sounds
good.” Jack felt like participating in her call was a step toward folding him
into the investigation, so he was all for it.

Sarina
wrinkled her brow as she looked at the screen. “That’s weird. I have twelve
missed calls. I silenced my phone last night so we could have some privacy, but
you’d think I would have heard it vibrating in my purse.”

She
shrugged her shoulders and dialed.

“Ben
Sanders office,” the voice said.

“Hi,
Sylvia. This is Sarina. I need to speak to Ben.”

“Oh,
isn’t it awful?” Sylvia sounded depressed.

“What’s
awful?” Sarina replied, crinkling her brow again. “What are you talking about?”

“You…
You don’t know?” Sylvia asked. “They were trying to track you down. I thought
they found you.”

Sarina
seemed angry now. “What happened?”

“You
better talk to Ben. Hold on.”

“Wait!”
Sarina blurted as she was placed on hold.

“What’s
going on?” Jack asked.

“Something
really bad has happened,” she replied as if annoyed by his question. “I can
tell from the tone of Sylvia’s voice.”

“Sarina?”
It was Ben. “Where the hell have you been? We called your cell phone, left a
bunch of messages, and then the hotel in New York said you never checked in. We’ve
been worried that you got hit!”

“I
had some business to take care of in Chicago.”

“Chicago?
Goddamnit, Sarina! Your orders were to…”

“Fuck
my orders! What the hell is going on?”

The
phone was silent for a moment. “Bob’s been killed.”

“What?”
Her mouth gaped open.

“It
happened late yesterday. He and I were doing surveillance on Antonucci’s other
warehouse here in LA when a street person started walking by our car. Knowing
the area I didn’t think much about it, but before I could blink the guy had
pulled a gun, stuck it through the passenger-side window and started shooting. I
got grazed in the arm, but I managed to draw my .38 and shoot the guy dead
before he hit me again. Bob wasn’t so lucky though. He was right there in the
passenger seat and took four bullets to the chest.”

Silent
tears fell from her eyes, and she jolted her head as if trying to gain her
senses. “How did this happen, Ben? Who was the guy? Did you run his prints?”

“It
all happened too fast, Sarina. All I could think of was getting Bob to the
hospital, and by the time we got a team back there, the guy’s body was gone.”

“Do
you have any idea who was behind it? Was it Antonucci?”

“Probably.
I don’t know. But it doesn’t matter. Things with this case have gotten totally
out of hand. It’s like an all-out war has started, and the director wants us to
suspend our activities. He’s called us in for a debriefing this afternoon, and
from what I’ve heard so far, it looks like he’s going to assign a new team.”

“What?
Why?”

“I
think it's obvious we’ve gotten too close, and Antonucci’s people know who we
are.”

“Who
the hell cares? We’re used to that. For God’s sake, Ben, we owe it to Bob to
catch this guy!”

“He’s
worried about that, too. He doesn’t need a bunch of agents running around trying
to settle a vendetta.”

“Son
of a bitch.”

“Look,
Sarina. I don’t make the rules around here, but I certainly follow them better
than you do. Your orders are to get back here on the next plane.”

“At
least let me finish following up on my leads here in Chicago.”

“You
can’t do that either.”

“Why
not?”

He
paused. “I didn’t want to tell you this over the phone, but I guess I have no
choice. You’ve been suspended, pending an investigation.”

“An
investigation for what?” She appeared livid.

“You
were supposed to be in New York last night, but you never showed, and then you
didn’t answer your cell phone.”

“That’s
it? That’s all I’m being suspended for?”

“It’s
just the last straw, Sarina.”

“Well,
how did the director find out? Did you tell him?”

Ben
sighed heavily. “He was directly involved in everything we did last night after
Bob got killed. There was no way to stop him from finding out.”

“Dammit,
Ben, it's not like I killed someone! I just didn’t follow our original plan. I’m
a professional, for chrissake, and I should be able to make decisions on the
fly without all this red-tape bullshit!”

“Look.
You knew this was coming. We work for a government agency, and that means strict
rules and red tape.” Ben cleared his throat. “Let’s face it. You’ve gotten away
with more shit than anyone in the history of the DEA.”

“I
thought you were my friend.”

“Jesus,
Sarina. I’ve been covering your ass for years now. There just comes a point
where it’s more than I can handle.”

“So
you couldn’t handle the fact that I didn’t answer my cell phone for a few
hours? Wow, Ben. That must have been really hard for you.”

“That’s
not the point, and you know it.”

There
was an uncomfortably long period of silence.

“So
what have you discovered?” Ben asked somberly.

“Well,
for starters, the Intercontinental deal isn’t dead. The holding company you
told me about is somehow related to Antonucci because he’s already tying into
Intercontinental’s distribution network and operating part of his drug business
right out of the facility here in Chicago.”

“You’re
kidding.”

“Nope.”

“Well,
that’s a great lead. Good work. I guess my sources aren’t as reliable as they
used to be. Makes you wonder where people’s loyalties are.”

“Sure
does,” Sarina posed accusatorially.

“What’s
that supposed to mean?”

“I
think it’s pretty clear…”