Charity's Secrets (37 page)

"I
didn't, at least not all by myself." Justin replies, trying for modesty.
"The new senator has a bit of a gambling problem and that's good for
us."

"And
you're using that to control him," Garrett assumes.

"Yes.
It's crude but effective." Justin waits to see if Garrett has any
reaction.

He
doesn't.

"We
paid off all his debts and put him on an allowance that keeps him clean,"
I add.

"What
does he do back for you?"

"Whatever
we tell him to," Justin answers.

Garrett
simply nods that he understands. He doesn't have an opinion about it and that's
a good thing in this industry, a very good thing. Don’t waste time on things
that don’t matter.

"The
senator is not our client. We work for a group of people on this one, the kind
of people that like to keep politicians in their pocket. Our loyalty is to them
and in this business loyalty is everything, it's your reputation," Justin
tells him. "If they say help him, we help him. If they say kill him, we
kill him."

"Understood,"
Garrett says. "So what are we doing for him?"

"It's
not for him, it's for the group. Just like we work for them, there are other
groups out there. Sometimes that matters, sometimes it doesn't. This time it
does. Someone, another group of people, wanted Senator Lewis out and their own
candidate in. They started too late and they lost but that isn't stopping
them," Justin explains.

Garrett
is interested. "Isn't that kind of odd, that they didn't stop?"
Justin nods. "Do we know who they are?"

"That's
what we're finding out. We have seven so far, which is probably more than half.
We need them all but there will be one in particular we have to figure
out," Justin says.

Garrett's
knows already, it's in his face. "Your position? You have to know who
their security team is to know what's coming."

Justin
nods slowly.

The
office door swings open and John's round face enters the room. "Holy
Christ!" he shouts. "You two are absolutely nuts. I've seen the
video; I feel lucky to get to meet you because you should be dead." He
shakes Garrett’s hand, "I'm John Fillmore and I'm glad to meet you instead
of reading about you in an obituary."

Garrett
is laughing as John turns to Justin. He throws his arms around him tightly
without asking or hesitating. "You fucking asshole!" he growls.
"Can't you find something safe to do?"

Justin
laughs and hugs him back. "I'm fine, you big, soft jerk."

The
whole thing has me smiling when Lena comes in and catches them. "John, are
you crying again?"

We all
take seats on the couches and get started. Justin uses the remote to turn on
the screen. Several phone lists are already displayed because it's the first
thing we need to discuss. The same number is highlighted on nearly all of the
lists.

"I
want to know who the hell this is and I want to know it now!" Justin
demands without any hint of kindness. "This is either part of the security
team we're looking for, or it’s a mole on our team working for them. Either
way, this number leads us to what we want."

Garrett
leans forward, deeply interested. "Whose lists are these?"

"On
the right, that's Arthur Shea's call list. He's the head of the other group,
huge money—fucking huge. We saw the phone number here first, but it wasn't
until it matched up on that next list that we gave a damn," Lena informs
him. She's sitting back against the cushions, but she looks far from relaxed.

"Whose
is that?" Garrett asks next.

Justin
says angrily, "Nobody important—and that's what makes it important. A
personal issue we took care of, a man that hurt a friend of ours, but on the
night we went to take care of him, that number tipped him off."

"So
they already know who we are," Garrett concludes quickly.

"Yes,"
Lena answers. "The third list on screen is Miguel Warez—from last night.
They tried to tip off our target again. Fucking thing came in right as you guys
went through the door. They know exactly who we are and they know exactly what
we're doing."

Justin
is doing all he can to contain himself. The anger is boiling his blood into a
thick soup.

"What
are the other two lists?" John asks. "That last one doesn't even
appear to have that number on it."

"The
next one is Christopher Wilkins' personal cell phone," Lena says flatly.

John
looks shocked. "WHAT?"

I
fucking agree!

"Isn't
that the senator you got rid of?" Garrett asks excitedly.

"It
is," Lena replies. "I ran it just in case and the number came up
twice, inbound about an hour before and again as an outbound call. Wilkins
called the burner phone about one minute before the burner phone called Miguel
Warez. If you look at Wilkins' call list, you can see he only got one other
call in the last two hours before he called the burner phone and it was only
minutes before he did it."

"Another
thread in the call string," Justin adds, trying to deny his contempt.

My
emotions are tied up with his, and he's full of stress. Tonight, he's going to
need to let it out—we both are.

My
warrior parts twinge at the prospect.

"This
is the call list from the number that called Wilkins. The trail ends
here," Lena tells us. "The burner called Wilkins, obviously to let
him know what we were about to do. Wilkins called it into this last number,
probably for help or instructions. I’m guessing they got Warez’s number and
called Wilkins back with it. Wilkins then called the burner and ordered him to
call Warez."

"Is
this the one we're looking for?" Garrett growls. "Is this it?"

Lena
shakes her head. "No, but it's another one for our list. That number is
Bill Canon's. He owns a political magazine with the largest circulation in
DC."

"At
least that explains how Wilkins is involved," Justin says with a hint of
sarcasm. Lena agrees with her expression.

"Someone
wanna fill us in?" I ask.

"He
was friends with Wilkins," John answers. "If Canon's in the other
group, he could have easily brought Wilkins in, promising him security—from us—as
payment for what he knows."

"How
much does Wilkins know?" Garrett asks.

"Enough
to be a problem," Justin says. "He knew me, John Roberts and most of
the guys from the group. They know who we are, there's no more wondering about
that."

LATER WHEN WE LEAVE
the office, Justin suggests that the three of us,
Garrett included, stop at the Grill for dinner—which really means a damn strong
drink to take the edge off his huge, bulging anger. Trisha is still at the
office even though John had insisted she get out and I had invited her to come
with us. The most I could get was a
maybe
she would meet us.

I
missed this place; the way it smells, the soothing brick walls and dim lights.
"Radioactive" from Imagine Dragons is floating playfully through the
air behind the laughter and voices. Things have been a little crazy and with
Trisha not working here there just didn't seem to be as much reason to come.

A table
opens quickly and we grab it before anyone else in the thick crowd sees it. I
watch JP transform into Justin, sliding his beautiful chest out of his jacket,
removing his tie and sliding it into a pocket. I'm sure he's caught me looking
at him like a starving lioness several times, but he is giving me nothing in
return.

He's
playing with me—and I don't mind being his toy.

There's
no sign of the owner's niece, thank Christ! A cheery redhead bounces over and
takes our order; just drinks at the moment, and fuck the wine, I ordered a
double vodka and Red Bull and a shot of Fireball.

"Nice!"
Garrett breathed. "I'll have the same.”

Everyone
looks at Justin, who laughs at us. "Fuck you guys. I'll take Maker's Mark,
neat please."

"That
sounds like a hard day," the redhead jokes before bouncing off the same
way she came.

"I
remember this place," Garrett says. "I followed you and your friend
here. The same one from PA."

"Yeah,
I know—we saw you every time," I snap.

"We
definitely have to work on your tracking skills," Justin teases. Garrett
laughs at himself easily.

"Okay,"
Justin says loudly, "I'm calling it. No more shop talk tonight; it's time
to relax." Garrett and I both appreciate that very much. Our drinks come
and Justin makes a quiet toast to family that we all agree on happily.

I find
myself lost in Justin's eyes again. When he talks, I watch his lips and long
for them to be on me, to kiss them and taste the hint of bourbon I know is
already soaking into them.

He says
something that makes Garrett laugh and I'm so far gone thinking about his hot,
magical hands that I don't even hear them. I pretend to laugh, but really I'm
counting the minutes until the muscles of his thick, bare arms are pulling me
into him.

I have to
stop. Squeezing my thighs together is not working and I'm getting twinges all
the way up into my stomach.

Justin
checks his phone quickly. I see him type while he asks his brother about the
training he did for his fighting. I didn't know it was me he was texting until
my phone vibrated.

"I
can’t get enough of ur beautiful face 2night. Wait until I have you
alone!"

So it's
not just me. I smile uncontrollably. My lust for him swirls just under the
surface.

Garrett
is deep into explaining how he got into MMA fighting when something steals his
breath completely. I can't see what it is, he's looking behind me toward the
front and it's hard to read him.

"You
okay?" Justin asks. "You look like I did the first time I saw
Charity." I laugh with Justin, but Garrett doesn't even hear us and it
suddenly might not be a joke.

He's
absolutely hypnotized. I don't think he even hears us. I turn around to find
who he's looking at but there's so many people here tonight.

"I'm
sorry," he finally says to us. "I don't know what that was." He's
completely embarrassed, nervously trying to stop himself from taking another
look. Whatever it was, it's way more serious then he's trying to let it be.

"I'm
still trying to see who it was," I blurt out, making his face even redder.

"That's
never happened to me before," Garrett admits. "I couldn't even
breathe."

"It
has to me," Justin tells him as he glances at me.

SWOON!

"Maybe
you should go find her," Justin adds just as a familiar voice cuts through
the noise.

"Hey,
can I join you guys?" Trisha asks as she pushes her way through the bar.

Holy
fuck!

Holy,
holy fuck!

"Absolutely,"
Justin says, standing so she can get by him to the last empty seat at our
table.

My eyes
are on Garrett watching as he's freaking the fuck out. I see it and that's all
I need to know for sure that it was Trisha that took his breath away. Its God
damn wonderful and God damn tragic at the same time. There's things he needs to
know and I’m not sure if I should be the one to tell him.

Justin
picked up on it immediately of course, and he knows how careful we have to be.
He lets Trisha slip by him, and as she fits herself into the empty chair, he
motions for the waitress to come over.

"I'm
sorry to barge in, I know I said no when you asked."

"You're
not barging, babe," I insist. "I'm thrilled you changed your mind. I
was stuck here with all this
man
around me." They both laugh, and I
realize they haven't even met. "Garrett, this is Trisha Gianni, one of my
very best friends that we did finally get working at the office."

That is
code, one Garrett was taught quickly. She's from "the office," which
means she doesn't know about the rest of Panther's work. It clicks—I see his
eyes quickly move to me to make sure, and my face tells him he got it right.

"Trisha,
meet Justin's brother, Garrett Sumpter."

She
flips her beautiful, dark curls with a smile that would kill anyone. Hell, I
think I just fell for her.
Ha!

Garrett
smiles nervously. It's the first time I've see him vulnerable and scared since
we left his mother's house.

What
the hell is it with these boys?

After a
brief moment of awkwardness, he finally remembers to say hello and take her
hand gently as the waitress comes over to get her drink order and then
disappear.

"She's
new," Trisha says.

I see
her steal a furtive glance at Garrett when he's not paying attention. Yeah,
she's noticed him. This is awesome!