Bouncer (Bad Boys in Big Trouble Book 2) (22 page)

She shook off her fears and focused on all the many things Pierce had wanted her to remember for tonight’s meeting.

“You know what I’m looking forward to?” Reece asked suddenly.

“What?”

“Make-up sex.”

“Oh?”

“Last time we were together was pretty much the best sex I’ve ever had.”

“Really?” She’d thought it was stupendous too, but convinced herself he was only faking his interest. There were still a few doubts circling her head, but she tried to banish them in the wake of his roadside confession of love. “Why do you think it was so great?”

He cleared his throat. “Because…”

Jessica thought every time with Reece had been amazing. Was it because she’d taken charge? Climbed on top of him in the front seat of his car? Done it in a public place?

“Because I’ve never had sex without a condom before.”
Oh, yeah! How could I forget?

“Oh, that?” She still had more than a week to discover if that spontaneous action would eventually result in that vision she’d had of her parents’ front porch with her brothers lined up holding shotguns. No time to worry about it now. Time to focus on the task at hand.

“Yeah. That. Anything I need to be thinking about?”

“No. You don’t have to worry about anything.”
Not yet at least.

“I see. Well. Good.” He said the word “good” like he was disappointed. Did he want her to be pregnant? Surely not. But still, he loved her. Perhaps she wouldn’t have to make that possible difficult trip to her parents’ porch all alone.

Reece’s phone, resting in one of the cup holders, started buzzing. He picked it up and glanced at the screen. “Interesting.”

“What is it?”

He pushed out an annoyed sigh. “Another text from Arthur. He’s changed the meeting place.”

Jessica tried not to sound alarmed. “Why?”

Reece shook his head. “No telling. Maybe it makes him feel safer. Or perhaps he’s a control freak who likes having others dance to his ever-changing tunes.”

Shit. Shit. Shit.
Jessica had lost track of Gordon and Elsa’s vehicle when Reece pulled to the side of the road to profess his love.

If only Reece hadn’t lost the follow on vehicle, too.

Chapter Fifteen

Reece pretended it was no big deal to change the venue for the meeting, just a minor annoyance. But in fact, it was a huge fucking problem.

His team was in place. Resources had been expended. The higher ups in his chain of command would run their mouths about the cost overruns, as always. Then again, Arthur spent more than two decades as a drug kingpin in the Southwest before getting out of that business so he could go semi-legit as a club owner and part-time money launderer. There was a reason he’d been able to avoid prison all these years. He was a canny bastard.

Given what Bickley had intimated at the Lexicon Club about why they were meeting, Reece expected he was about to be added to Arthur’s huge hidden criminal ledger. The one Reece was here to discover and obtain.

“Where are we going now?” Jessica asked. She was glancing out the back, perhaps looking for that tail he’d lost.

“Not sure.”
I’m exactly sure.
“I need to call him and check something.”
I need to call my team and warn them.

He thumb dialed a number from memory. “Arthur?” he said into the phone, hoping she couldn’t hear the person on the other end of the call. He was very glad he’d disabled the Bluetooth in this car to keep this conversation off the car speakers. “I’m unclear of exactly where this new meeting site is.”

Miles answered with, “The location changed? Are you fucking kidding me? Where are you going now?”

“Well, after I take exit one fifty four off the highway, is it a left or right turn after that first stop sign that goes to the residence on Obsidian Lake?”

“You tell me. I know your FBI girlfriend is listening in,” Miles said in an amused tone.

“Okay. Left and go a quarter mile to the blue house. Thanks.”

“You got that right. Stay sharp. Once Bickley makes his pitch and Arthur records it—wherever he does—we’re moving in. Also, we weren’t able to contact the FBI and warn them off in time. They may show up, but they better not fuck us over. Just a heads up.”

Great. More pressure.

“Got it. I should be there in less than twenty minutes. See you soon.” Reece disconnected the call and slid the phone into his front shirt pocket, feeling like a big, fat liar. But he didn’t want to take a chance on Jessica seeing the text from Arthur that had very explicitly detailed directions for the new meeting location.

“A house on the lake. Too bad it’ll be dark soon. I’ll bet the view is beautiful there.”

Reece glanced at her. “Probably. But the view is definitely beautiful here.”

She grinned. “Have you been to this lake meeting place before?”

“Nope. As I said, this is all new for me.”

She put her hand on his thigh again. He covered it with his free hand. They didn’t speak the rest of the way there. They just held hands. The drive was quicker than expected. He stopped at a gate with a keypad, retrieved his phone to punch in the six-digit number even though he’d memorized it. He did take the time to forward the message to Miles in case they couldn’t otherwise get access to the lake house.

The gates slid open and he followed a paved road to the left and into the woods. Open fields of grass beyond the trees allowed quick glimpses of the lake as they drove the final way.

The sun dropped below the tree line and dusk settled over the wooded area as Reece pulled into the long driveway of the
only
house a quarter of a mile to the left after exiting.

The house was actually a faded blue, and looked in desperate need of some tender loving care. Or it had been made to look distressed like some high-end furniture he’d seen on television recently. People paid exorbitant sums for pieces that had been made to look like they’d gone through a war zone. To each his own.

Reece knew that Obsidian Lake only had a dozen or so houses spread out around its vast perimeter. Rich people lived here. Arthur knew lots of rich folks.

Since no one knew where Arthur lived, this was likely borrowed land from a friend or possibly another client, as was his typical policy during meetings of this nature. Or at least according to something Hector had said once in passing.

Reece opened his door at the same time Jessica opened hers. They walked silently to the front porch, climbed half a dozen steps, and he knocked on the rustic wooden frame.

“Reece,” Dixon said in a flat tone the moment he opened the door.

“Dixon,” Reece replied in kind.

Arthur’s bodyguard gave a curt nod and stepped away from the door so they could enter.

“Right on time,” he heard Arthur say from beyond the hallway. “Join us, won’t you? Your friends are already here.”

Fuck
. Who was already here? Bickley? He wasn’t Reece’s friend.

Dixon gestured for Reece and Jessica to precede him through the entryway on their left. Inside, the two-story log-lined room looked like an expensively faux rustic wood cabin, a far cry from the drab exterior.

Reece saw a stranger tied to a chair. Another man he didn’t know was beside the first, also tied to a chair, but the second guy didn’t look conscious. Was he even still alive?

The more pressing question, though, was who the men worked for. DEA or FBI?

~ ~ ~

Jessica followed Reece with Dixon at her back. Arthur had said their friends were already here, which she didn’t understand because Bickley was not her friend.

She paused, but something hard and cold jabbed into her spine. She looked over her shoulder at Dixon’s very sinister expression. He frowned and jabbed her once more with what felt like a big gun, nodding curtly in a silent order for her to keep moving. If it was a gun, a close-range shot would certainly put her in a world of hurt, assuming she survived it.

She moved forward another step and ran straight into Reece’s unmoving back. Dixon nudged her again, harder. Her hands rose from her sides. She looked over her shoulder again. “Stop jamming that gun into my back. I can’t go through him.”

Reece tensed up against her when she said “gun.” He also lifted his arms away from his sides, half into the air. What was going on? He moved a few steps further into the room and she followed, staying attached to Reece.

Jessica was halfway into the room before she saw the gagged men in the chairs. One struggled against his restraints, obviously panic-stricken. The other was unmoving.

Her arms came down. Tired of being poked in the spine, she leveled a dirty look at Dixon. Surprisingly, he backed off a little.

Arthur stood up across the room, and she saw he also held a gun. “That’s far enough for now.”

Reece asked, “What’s going on here, Arthur?”

“That’s the question I want to ask your girlfriend.”

Her gaze locked for a moment with the struggling man’s before she turned her gaze back to Arthur. Jessica hated this already, but pretended indifference. “I don’t understand what’s going on here either.”

“Why were your friends here waiting at the first meeting site I set up? They were hiding out with scoped rifles, surveillance equipment and FBI badges.”

She shook her head slowly, not feeling nearly as confident as she tried to appear. “I have no idea. I swear to you that I’ve never seen these men before. If they truly are FBI, I don’t know them.”

“Really? I’m not certain I believe you,” Arthur said. He turned to Reece. “Unfortunately, your girlfriend seems to have a different definition of keeping us aware of anyone interested in my business.”

“She told you she doesn’t know who they are.” Reece kept his gaze from her. She pressed even closer to his side.

“And yet two men with FBI credentials were waiting to spy on us.”

Jessica saw Reece looked just as confused as she felt. “I did not betray you!” She took a step closer to Arthur. “Listen, I have never seen them before in my life. If they
are
FBI then they must be undercover and not on the books.” She lifted her hands again in an exaggerated shrug. “I am not all-knowing and all-seeing where the FBI is concerned. No one is.”

Arthur lifted his gun from where it had been resting at his side and placed it against the struggling man’s forehead. “Then you don’t care if I kill him.” The other captive seemed to rouse, moaning and looking around as if only now realizing his predicament. His moans turned to shouts of protest beneath his gag.

Jessica shrugged. “Well, I’d rather wound and not kill people when firing my weapon, even though that’s not typically protocol, but I don’t believe I can stop you.” She looked at both men struggling in earnest. They moaned loudly behind the gags, but any words they said were muffled. “Sorry, you two. I don’t know how you got here. Wrong place, wrong time, I guess.”

Arthur pushed the gun harder into the man’s forehead, his gaze daring her to save them.

Jessica said the only thing she could think of. “Respectfully, sir, I question whether they are truly FBI agents at all, if you were able to apprehend them so easily. We are trained in counter surveillance. Maybe they aren’t who you think they are. Either way, they are strangers to me. Do what you will.”

Arthur lowered his brows and lowered the gun. “Interesting. All right. Maybe you didn’t betray me. I’m sorry to have misjudged you, Jessica.”

He turned to Reece. “What about you?” The gun came back up, this time against the second man’s head. “What if I kill these two and dump them in the lake?”

~ ~ ~

Reece squinted at Arthur, unsure of the man’s sanity. He’d never seen Arthur handle a gun before. “I’d rather not watch two murders, if it’s all the same to you, but I also don’t know these men. I can’t honestly say that I care what you do with them.”

He hoped these were not agents from his own chain of command. They’d been the only ones who had the information in advance. As far as he knew, the FBI didn’t know where the meeting place was since he’d lost the black SUV that was tailing them.

Reece was also a little worried about the FBI credentials of the two men involved in this takedown if they could be picked up so easily. Jessica was right. Training in counter surveillance was a priority in their line of work.

Arthur pushed out a long sigh. “Why were they lurking around the initial meeting place? I only told a very few people about that location.” Arthur started pacing. He suddenly turned and asked, “Do you think the club has been bugged?”

Reece shook his head. “No. I’ve swept that place top to bottom several times. If that’s not enough, Bickley’s men swept the center court last night before even sitting down.”

They were interrupted by a loud knock at the front door. Arthur nodded to Dixon, who put his gun in the back waistband of his pants and went to answer the door.

Bickley and three of his bodyguards, strolled in. “Nice place you got here, Art. Bet it cost you a pretty penny,” he said, looking around the large room.

When he registered the two men tied to the chairs, his attitude changed. “What the fuck, Arthur! What did you do to my guys?”