Opulent Match [Ménage.com 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (12 page)

“And you couldn’t have done that with a phone call?” Brody breathed a sigh of relief as Cooper walked into the office and took over the conversation. Instead of going to his desk, Cooper used the edge of Brody’s to lean on. “I’m sure we had an agreement about you staying out of our town. We don’t want our names connected with you in any way.”

“I’m well aware of what was originally agreed upon,” Sonny said, picking some lint off of his pants. “But my buyer wanted me to check things out. You know, to make sure you are on the up-and-up. I must say, the storefront is pretty impressive.”

“You knew we were on the up-and-up the minute we made contact with you, Jones.” Cooper crossed his arms. “I’m sure your buyer had us checked out as well. After all, with us having been military, your supplier would want to be extra cautious. But that doesn’t mean this is a one-way deal. As we said, we want to make sure your supplier isn’t working both ends.”

“My buyer is not someone you want to mess around with, Mr. Jackson.”

“And neither are we,” Cooper warned. “You showing your face here is not gaining our trust. As a matter of fact, my brother and I were discussing some things earlier, and we’re starting to feel like you are jerking us around.”

“I’m a businessman,” Sonny said, going on the defensive, “and it is my job to make sure things transfer hands as planned.”

“Let me put it this way, Jones, if things don’t go as we plan, we back out. It’s simple. Your buyer won’t get our guns and we’ll make sure he knows why.”

Sonny held up his hands as if Brody had picked up the gun and pointed it at him. “Is there a reason why you think my buyer isn’t trustworthy? I have never had issues with this—person—holding back any dead presidents, if you get my drift.”

Ah, Brody thought, that’s the reason for this visit. Their questioning of his contact’s reputation was making Sonny nervous. He wanted to know if they had reason to believe his buyer was going to cut and run. Wondering how Cooper was going to handle this situation, Brody leaned back in his chair and observed as things played out.

“We have nothing concrete, if that is what you mean,” Cooper said, leaving anything that he might know out of Sonny’s reach. “But these changes of dates, times, and venues aren’t something that we are used to.”

Sonny switched his sights between the two of them, obviously gauging how far to push them for information he wasn’t even sure they had. Jones sure as hell didn’t want to be the one to cause them to back away, because the buyer would come after him instead of them. Sometimes it sucked to be the straw man.

“It would be a sign of professional courtesy for you to tell me if you are aware of anything potentially dangerous to our business.”

Cooper nodded his head in acknowledgement, but didn’t reply in words. Jones must have realized he wasn’t going to get any information from them that they didn’t want to give, for he stood and straightened out his suit jacket. “The meeting has been moved up to tomorrow night at ten o’clock.”

“I’m sure you can see why we are hesitant,” Cooper said, standing as well. “I take it the venue is the same?”

“Yes, the venue is the same,” Jones replied, turning on his heel and walking to the door. He stopped and then turned around to face them. “I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what will happen if you don’t show with the items we agreed upon.”

Brody and Cooper watched as he left the room, his flunky following behind. Neither said a word until they heard the front door open and close. Brody stayed sitting while Cooper silently walked to the door and looked down the hallway. Seeming satisfied that they had indeed left the building, Cooper turned to Brody.

“Fuck! We need to call Monroe. This wasn’t supposed to interfere with our lives here in Triple.”

“Have him put a guard on Cyn, but make sure they are discreet about it,” Brody instructed, finally standing up and reaching for the gun. He would have chuckled, seeing that the gun wasn’t loaded and that Cyn had bluffed her way through the entire evening, but he was too concerned about her safety. “What the hell was that all about?”

“When we started to ask questions about his buyer, he must have taken that to assume we had heard something we didn’t like. He must not trust his buyer as much as he wants us to believe, or Jones never would have shown his face here.”

“Well, if Monroe is right, it’s one of the drug cartels,” Brody said. “Let’s face it, they aren’t the most trustworthy people.”

“But it makes one wonder if there’s been an issue before with this buyer that has Jones so nervous.” Cooper moved around the desk and picked up the phone. While he was busy dialing, he said, “Go make sure that Cyn is okay. I told her that Jones was a business associate that we’ve been having trouble with. I don’t think she bought it. God knows what kind of trouble she can stir up.”

Brody nodded, walking back to his desk. Opening a drawer, he tucked the gun inside and made a mental note to place it back in the case. “Make sure Monroe has somebody on her until this thing is done. Now I’m wishing we’d told him to go to hell.”

“I hear you, but I was thinking that the minute he walked out of the diner.”

“You realize that we are going to have to tell her the truth, don’t you?” Brody asked, closing his desk drawer.

Cooper rubbed his eyes. “Yeah, and I’m going to have to break that to Monroe, who’s not going to be happy.”

Brody headed for the door. “He’ll just have to deal, now won’t he? I’ll meet you at the house.”

* * * *

Cyn had changed out of her outfit and put on one of her silk nightgowns, along with a matching robe. She’d fallen in love with the baby-blue color, as it gave her a calming feeling. Unfortunately, it wasn’t having that effect on her now. Cooper and Brody were definitely mixed up with something bad. She supposed the good thing about that was that it wasn’t about money. Well, at least she didn’t think it was. She heard the front door open and turned to see Brody walk in the door.

“Does he want money?”

Throwing his keys on the side table, Brody kept walking toward her. She was about to take a step back, because he didn’t seem to be slowing down, when he abruptly pulled her into his arms. He held her for a few moments and she let him. For some reason, she knew on a deeper level that Brody needed to know she was safe.

“No,” Brody murmured against her hair. “Not in the way you mean, at least.”

She extracted herself from his embrace and tilted her head back to look into his green eyes. “Then tell me, Brody. He seems dangerous and not the kind of man that you and Cooper would ever deal with.”

“I’d rather wait until Cooper comes home to explain things to you, Cyn. You know he’s better at that stuff than I am.”

“The truth is the truth no matter who tells it, Brody.” Cyn went over to the fireplace and flipped the switch on the side. She had always been partial to wood-burning fireplaces, but she could definitely see the appeal of a gas one. It came on immediately—no fuss and no mess. Putting her hands in front of the blower, she waited for the heat to warm her up. “Please tell me. It can’t be worse than what my imagination is conjuring up.”

“An agent for the ATF contacted us. With our storefront, we are the perfect location for them.”

“To do what?” Cyn asked, turning around to face him.

Brody was sitting on the arm of the couch, rubbing his head. “There’s been a buyer of illegal weapons that the ATF has been after for quite a while. Unfortunately, they’ve been having problems getting one of their agents in undercover.”

“And they asked you? But you don’t even work for the ATF,” Cyn said, not understanding how a government agency could ask a civilian to do something so dangerous.

“The ATF was able to obtain special clearance for us to work with them on a temporary basis because of our military background,” Brody explained. “Cooper and I can’t tell you a lot of what we did in the service, but we do have capability for this type of mission.”

“But that’s just it, Brody,” Cyn said, wanting her objections to be heard on this subject. “It’s not a mission! You are a civilian now, a legitimate business owner who has no business getting involved with criminals.”

“We’re doing this because we were asked to, Cyn,” Brody stated, more matter-of-factly than she would have liked. “With the case specifics laid out in front of us, even we could see it made perfect sense for us to be the ones to infiltrate the circle. The man you met is the middleman, setting up a meeting with the buyer. He’s what we call a straw man. Once contact is made, Agent Monroe will be there to make the arrests. It should be a slam dunk.”

“That is, if you don’t get killed in the process. And what happens if they want you to work for them full-time? I’m almost positive that our lifestyle doesn’t fit in that field, Brody.”

Cooper chose that moment to walk through the door. She watched as he threw his keys next to Brody’s, shrugging off his lightweight jacket. Taking a second to observe him, she now realized that he seemed tired. The lines around his eyes were more severe, showing the stress he was obviously under. She looked back at Brody, who had placed his hand on the back of his head. They had been dealing with this for over a month and had kept it from her. Her worry and anxiety merged, making anger the product that boiled to the surface. It was history repeating itself.

“You two are complete idiots, you know that?” Cyn snapped, crossing her arms in front of her. She noticed that Brody’s eyes went directly to her cleavage. Good, she thought, let him suffer for a while. They weren’t getting any tonight. For that matter, if they chose this case over her, they would be cut off permanently. “Did you ever think to just tell the ATF no? You are no longer in the military, boys. It is no longer your responsibility to carry the world on your shoulders or to bring the bad guys to justice.”

“I take it you told her?” Cooper asked Brody as he walked deeper into the room.

“Yes, he told me,” Cyn yelled, supplying the answer. “So what are you two going to do now? I asked Brody and didn’t get an answer, so I will ask you. If they want you full-time, are you going to go work for them?”

“We are going to finish what we started,” Brody said, standing up from the arm of the couch. “Then, we are going to deal with us. We won’t walk away from you a second time, if that is what you are worried about.”

“Deal?”

“Now, Cyn,” Cooper said, his palms facing toward her, “that’s not how he meant it to come out.”

“Yeah, it is,” Brody argued.

“No, it isn’t,” Cooper said, grinding the words out between his teeth. Any other time it would have been humorous to see them arguing with each other, but not now—not when it had to do with her. “Cyn, we’ve been patient with you regarding your issue with bringing up our feelings and—”

“Issue? Patient?”

“And you think you can do better than me?” Brody asked Cooper.

“I’ll tell you what,” Cyn said, walking past both of them to grab her keys that were sitting in the pile on the side table, “while you two figure out how to
deal
with me, I’ll be at the B&B. Right now, I don’t want to
deal
with either of you.”

* * * *

“You know, Elise, when I call you to bitch about them, you are supposed to be sympathetic to me,” Cyn complained, holding the phone in her ear as she got out of her car. She shivered as the cold breeze lifted her robe and travelled up her legs. She never should have changed into her nightgown to begin with. “Remember me? Your best friend? The one who tried to tell you that it was a mistake for me to get involved with them again?”

While Elise explained her reasoning as to why she always defended Cooper and Brody, Cyn rolled her eyes and slammed her car door shut. Looking down at her feet, Cyn figured she should be grateful she had on the matching slippers to her robe. The temperature had to have dropped into the forties, if her goose bumps were anything to go by. Walking from the car to the B&B in her bare feet would not have been fun. Glancing back up to see where the sidewalk was, Cyn dropped her phone.

“Shit.”

Cyn could still hear Elise talking through the earpiece as she leaned down to pick up her cell phone. Before she could place her fingers on it, a black boot appeared and stepped on it. Automatically pulling her hand back, danger signals started to blare in Cyn’s head. Afraid to look up, Cyn used those brief few seconds to figure out what the likelihood of her running back to her car was and making it safely inside. The odds weren’t in her favor. Cyn did the only thing she could and screamed, hopefully alerting Elise to the fact that she was in trouble.

“What do you mean nobody is watching her?” Brody yelled into his phone. When Cyn had left their house, he and Cooper thought it best to let her cool down some. Monroe had promised to have someone guarding her, so Brody had taken the time to grab his weapon. In this type of situation, it was always best to be carrying. Everything would have gone as planned had a deer not crossed his path. “I thought you said Monroe would have someone on her ASAP.”

While Brody half listened to Cooper explain how Monroe wasn’t able to pull one of his men in until morning, Brody got back into his car and twisted the dial for more heat. The truck had minimal damage from what he could see in the dark. Holding the phone between his ear and shoulder, Brody rubbed his hands together. The temperature had dropped and he thanked God that it hadn’t been Cyn who had hit that deer tonight. She couldn’t have more than a four-minute lead on him though, so Brody put his shift in gear and started to drive down the road.