Bluegrass Undercover (5 page)

She jammed the meals into the small freezer and dug out her cell phone from the back pocket of her jeans. She scrolled through her emails until she found Special Agent Romero’s phone number.

“
Romero,” her boss barked into the phone.

“
Hi, sir, this is Agent Blake checking in.”

“
About time. Welcome to Kentucky. We need to set up an appointment to meet in person. I think…” Annie about jumped out of the chair when she heard the knock at the door. It must be Father James. She didn’t know anyone else.

“
I’m sorry, sir. Can you hang on?” She waited until he grunted his approval and went to the door. She opened the door and stood staring at a woman dressed perfectly in black trousers, and a pink button-up blouse accessorized with a casserole dish.

“
Hiya! I’m Pam Gilbert, the PTA President,” she said as she smiled at Annie and held out the casserole dish. “I wanted to welcome you to town on behalf of all the parents.” Annie took the dish in her hands and stared at it. Homemade food? She couldn’t remember the last time she had homemade food.

“
Thank you, Pam. It’s nice to meet you.”

“
Well, I won’t keep you, but if you need anything just give me a shout.” Pam gave a little finger wave and went back to her minivan.

“
Blake!” Annie shook her head as she watched the minivan with the Dale Junior sticker on the back window, next to the white stick figures of a dad, mom, and two boys, peel out of the church parking lot.

“
Sorry, sir. Just meeting the locals.” Annie closed the door and headed to put the casserole into the freezer.

“
As I was saying, I was hoping we could meet in person on…” Annie pivoted in the small entryway when the doorbell rang. “Was that the doorbell?”

“
Yeah, sorry. Hold on for just a sec.” Annie balanced the casserole dish on her hip and the phone on her shoulder as she opened the door. She looked out and then down to a trio of white-haired ladies.

“
Hello, dear. We’re the Rose sisters. I’m Lily Rae. This is my sister Daisy Mae.” The leader bobbed her head toward the thin, wiry looking sister with her silver hair pulled back into a tight bun, with a couple pencils poking out of it. Annie realized that she had seen when she had driven past the Café. “And this is Violet Fae.” The small, round woman grabbed her around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug that had the casserole dish teetering and the cell phone coming close to getting lost in Violet’s puffy cleavage.

“
Bless your heart – you are a skinny thing! Thank goodness we brought you some food. You must be starving!” Violet clucked as she looked Annie over.

“
Thank you for the food. Someone named Pam just dropped off a casserole. This is all very nice of you.”

“
Dang it! Pam beat us here. We’ll never hear the end of it.” Daisy shook her head and shifted the large basket hanging at the crook of her arm.

“
But I bet she didn’t stay to give her a proper welcome. She had to pick the boys up from soccer practice,” Lily pronounced. “We won’t run out on you so quickly. Come and sit for a spell and we’ll get know one another.” The sisters pushed past her and into the small kitchen before Annie could stop them.

“
I’m sorry,” she said as she trailed after them. “I do not mean to be rude, but I’m on the phone.” Annie paused at the kitchen and watched as they looked around.

“
That’s okay, dear. Give us that casserole and we’ll just put the food away. I’m sure you want to finish your call with your…boyfriend?” Lily asked as she reached for the casserole.

“
I don’t have a boyfriend.” Three white heads swiveled around and smiles appeared at once.

“
Well, love your heart! It’s lucky we stopped by then. We know plenty of men. Now don’t be rude and keep that person waiting on the phone. Don’t mind us!” Lily put the casserole in the fridge, turned to her sisters and started pulling out covered dishes from the basket. Annie looked down at the phone and cringed.

“
Sorry about that. The welcoming committee is here.”

“
I guessed that. Now about our meeting.” The doorbell went off again and her boss dropped the f word.

“
I got it, dear!” one of the sisters shouted from the kitchen.

“
Go ahead, Romero. But, you may want to make it quick.” Annie looked to the door to see a pretty woman her own age with a handsome man who had Fed written all over him. “Sir, do you have anyone else in town?” she whispered, looking away from the couple.

“
No, why?”

“
A fed just walked in. I would bet my life on it.”

“
Details.”

“
Thirty, dark hair, silver eyes, six feet, no visible tats. He’s with a woman in her mid to late twenties, brown hair.” Annie waited as she heard the keys of Romero’s computer tapping as he ran a search.

“
I think I got it. Cole Parker. He’s the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Lexington Office. I heard through the cop-vine he just got engaged. If you need anything and he’s nearby, you get him to help. He’s the one that just took down that corruption ring out of New York and D.C. Now, before we get interrupted again. Jesus, was that the doorbell again?”

“
Yes, sir.” Annie was sure she heard the whistle of steam coming out of his ears.

“
Meeting, tomorrow, seven in the morning at the office. Got it.”

“
Yes, sir.” The doorbell rang again and Romero hung up while rattling off a string of curse words. They really did have a lot to discuss. Annie tucked away her phone and turned to see her small house filled up and people hanging out on the porch. Who were these people and why where they here?

“
Oh, good, you’re off the phone. Come meet everyone!” Lily took her hand and dragged her over to the FBI agent and his fiancé. “This is Cole Parker and Paige Davies.”

“
It’s so nice to meet you. I heard all about you and I just had to meet you!”

“
Heard about me?” She shot a glance at Cole. Maybe he knew somehow who she was. The look she got back said he didn’t, but he was smart enough to figure it out.

“
Yes! Marshall told me all about you and my brother. It was so funny that I had to meet the woman who didn’t swoon at his feet.”

“
Sorry. Paige forgets that not everyone knows her family tree. The brother to whom she is referring is Cade Davies. He’s the biology teacher and football coach at the high school.”

“
Oh! The guy that needs to learn self-defense. Yeah, I know who you’re talking about. It’s nice to meet you both.”

“
Annie, come meet this young man. He’s single too!” Wow, Lily was sure one for subtlety. “This is Ahmed. He’s not from here either.”

Annie looked at the hard man and cringed. Was everyone here a fed? At least the feds here were hot. Ahmed was shorter than Cole, but was built. His body showed a life dedication to training and she bet she could bounce a quarter off his…well, his everything.

“
So, what do you do for a living?”

“
I am the head of security for Mo,” he said in a heavily accented voice. Middle East somewhere she guessed.

“
Mo?”

“
The Prince of Rahmi. Well, and now also his fiancée Danielle.” He nodded to the couple now talking to Cole and Paige. “So, Miss Lily has put you on the must need to be married list.”

“
It appears so. Never really wanted to be married. My lifestyle doesn’t support it.”

“
Hmm. Guidance counselors have tough schedules.” He gave her a look that said he knew way more than she wanted him too. “If you ever need help…guiding someone, let me know. We single-don’t-want-to-be-married people need to stick together.” With a quick bow of his head, he turned and headed out the door. Who were these people? She needed to hook up her computer as soon as she had her meeting with her boss, get her new login to the database and run a search on the whole town.

Chapter Four

Cade stared at the papers spread out on his desk in disbelief. He had never felt like hurting a kid, but he sure did now. What were they thinking? Drugs... drugs in Keeneston. It didn’t happen. It just didn’t happen. But, the evidence was right there in front of him. Not one, not two, but three of his players had tested positive for S2.

They had had an alright practice on Tuesday, and besides Bonner being an ass, practice today went well too, not good, but not as horribly as Monday’s. Now, though, he was going to have to get rid of three of the team’s best players. The starting wide receiver was out, Bonner was out, and the only offensive lineman with any experience was also out. The team went from a five hundred team to a “we’ll be lucky to win a game or two” team. Worse, he was going to have to tell these kids that their dreams of college ball were over because he was left with no other choice but to kick them all off the team.

Cade shoved his long legs out from the desk and paced around his classroom. What would their parents say? He knew they would all be asking to talk to him. He paused by one of the large rectangular windows and looked out into the almost empty parking lot. Corey Bonner and Lee Faust, the starting senior center who also tested positive for S2, were standing by their cars. Cade watched as Bonner shoved Faust and started waving his hands around angrily.

Faust calmly looked at Bonner and said something that made Bonner freeze. Faust was always the one you had to worry about when he was quiet. Cade watched as Bonner pulled out his cell phone and made a call. As soon as he put it away, Cade pushed up the window and leaned out.

“
Boys, I need to see you a minute. Come on into the room.” Cade didn’t wait for them to acknowledge him before closing the window and heading back to his desk.

Cade picked up the drug test reports and put them in his desk drawer as the door to his room opened. He looked up and into the face of Faust who clearly looked guilty and ashamed. Bonner, on the other hand, looked cockier than ever.

“
What did you want, Coach?” Bonner asked as he leaned his large body against the wall by the door.

“
I wanted to know if you boys had anything to tell me?” Cade folded his arms behind his head and waited. Faust looked like he was about to confess all.

“
Yeah,” Bonner pushed himself off the wall and walked over to Cade’s desk. He put his hands on the top of Cade’s textbooks and stared right into his eyes. It was hard for Cade not to break eye contact. He was just so shocked at Bonner’s appearance. His eyes were bloodshot, his face flushed. Beads of sweat dotted his brow. “You’re not letting me blitz the quarterback enough.”

“
Is that it?” Cade slowly put his arms down and stood up and walked around the desk to face the boys.

“
What kind of question is that? Of course that’s it. If there was more, I would have told you.” Bonner folded his arms across his wide chest and glared at Cade with such anger it rolled off of him and hit Cade in the face.

“
Then, I’m sorry to tell you, you both are off the team for testing positive for S2. Go clean out your lockers immediately.” Faust hung his head and nodded once. Before Cade could say anything more Bonner exploded.

“
You can’t do that! Football is my life. It’s my way out of here. I have scholarship offers to some of the best schools in country!” Bonner yelled. The sweat on his brow was now rolling down his cheeks as his face became redder and redder.

“
What did you expect, Bonner, you were taking illegal drugs? You knew if you were caught you’d be off the team. Why risk it?”

“
You asshole! The drugs were to get me into LSU. I was so close to a scholarship offer and you just ruined it for me!” Bonner took a step toward him and glared pure hatred.

“
There is no reason for me to ruin you. You ruined yourself. Now go clean out your locker.” Cade stared him down. The situation was so volatile he knew Bonner might snap. A flicker of color appeared behind Bonner, and Cade glanced quickly to see if it was a threat.

That split second was all Bonner needed. He pulled back his right arm, curled his hand into a fist and planted it right on Cade’s cheek.

Annie stepped further into Cade’s classroom and sighed. Here we go again. Could he not see that he was about to get…punched? Ow. Annie didn’t wait to see what happened next. She kicked out her leg and hit Bonner in the back of the knee, sending him falling to the floor. She was afraid Cade might collapse to the floor in dramatics, but when she looked up, she saw that he was staring daggers at her instead.

“
You really need to learn self-defense. I can’t always be around to save you.” Annie knew she was being a smartass, but it was fun to see the way his mouth hung open like that.