Circle of Deception (17 page)

“Well, well, well, lookee at what the cat drug in. What you got there, boy!” Mike Drago stood only a head taller than twelve-year-old Jack. At the time, his father appeared to be a giant, but all of that would change soon since Rex already stood at the same height as his older brother and had never heard of short man syndrome. So his dad resented Rex’s height and in two more years that resentment would turn to hate.

“Apples for Mommy.” He cringed, knowing what was coming.

“A big boy like you don’t need to be calling your mother ‘Mommy.’ You’re no baby. Hell, you ’bout tore her apart coming out.”

Rex tried not to cringe again when his dad pointed to the counter. “Go and put those apples down before you bruise them up.”

He passed within inches of his dad.

“Woo-ee! What’s that smell? Are you a girl now?”

Rex hurried to place the apples next to the sink. He should’ve never let his mom put sweet-smelling powder on him.

“Hey, Jack. I do believe a strange little girl has entered our house.” His dad crossed his arms and looked down on him. “I’m a real man and real men have boys. Not whiny, stinky girls.”

His brother stood next to their dad. “I think you’re right. What’s that stinky girl doing here?”

Afraid to speak, he faced them as he backed into the corner and sat, pulling up his knees and wrapping his arms around them, hoping they would quickly tire of the game.

“I bet she’s Miss Margie’s.” His dad sneered. “Little girl, you need to go home before Miss Margie comes looking for you. Would hate for you to get a whupping.”

“Yeah, the old witch. You belong to her.” Jack’s sneer mirrored their dad’s.

Miss Margie was a neighbor who hated kids, yelling at them if they walked across her lawn, eyeing them with mistrust when they rode their bikes near her house. The mean old woman kept to herself but even stranger was how she lived with her brother. No one, as old as they were, lived with a sibling. Something wasn’t right. All the kids called her a witch and worse, and none of them ever wanted to belong to her. She might eat them like the old woman in
Hansel and Gretel
.

Unable to hold back any longer and frightened they would send him to live with old Miss Margie, Rex shouted, “I’m not a little girl and I don’t belong to Old Margie.”

“You smell like a girl. Boys don’t smell like flowers.” His dad glanced at Jack. “Go call Margie and tell her to come and get her little girl.”

“No!” Terror of that strange woman gripped at Rex’s chest.

“Yes, sir. We don’t want Margie’s kid here.” Jack’s obvious enjoyment in baiting his little brother and being on his dad’s side was evident by the wide grin.

Rex knew with certainty that his dad would send him to live with Margie, especially when tears rolled down his cheeks. Only babies and girls cried.

“Look at the little girl cry.” Jack pointed and laughed.

A disgusted look came over his dad’s face. “He’s as dumb as he looks. That’s enough.” His dad’s lips thinned. “I believe Rex understands he needs to stay out of his mom’s powder. We don’t want any fucking fairies in our family.” He took a step away and then looked over his shoulder at Rex. “You should be ashamed of yourself. Get up from there, dry your face, and act like a man.”

He’d learned a couple lessons that day: Never fully trust his brother to have his back, and his size attracted negative attention.

No, Rex had never felt close to his brother. They’d always been competitive in everything they did, spurred on by their dad. Now he wondered if Jack was playing some new game.

“W
HAT THE HELL
are you doing here?”

Rex ignored his brother’s rude greeting and slid the van door closed with a loud clack behind him. One of The Circle operatives jumped up from a chair and scooted around him to reach the passenger seat up front.

“I need to talk with you,” he said, and then glanced at the other operative on the opposite side of Jack. She didn’t look their way, and with the large earphones on, it was unlikely she could hear. He still wasn’t satisfied. “Alone.”

A couple seconds passed as Jack rubbed his shaved head and grimaced. Dark crescent shadows beneath his light blue eyes gave them an eerie glow. He’d probably been awake checking the tapes from the bugs Liam had planted since being hired on at the farm. Rex would plant more inside the house. “Okay. Let’s step outside and walk a few yards beyond the tree line.”

They moved far enough into the shadows of the greenery to not be seen from the road. Only the swaying limbs revealed and hid the side of the white van with each gust of wind.

Jack crossed his arms as he turned to face Rex. “What’s crawled up your ass and died?”

“I want Abby pulled from the mission.”

“Really.” Jack spread his feet apart as if prepared to fight.

“Brody expects me to hand her over, and I’m not about to let that happen.”

“Except for his little problem of being an exhibitionist, he’s never demanded another man’s woman. Nothing points to that being one of his hang-ups.”

“You would know.”

“What the hell do you mean by that?” Jack dropped his arm. The loops piercing his eyebrow and lip glittered in the waning light.

“You know what I’m talking about.”

“Do you want to talk about that now? In the middle of a mission?”

“It’s as good a time as any.” His brother was right, but no matter how hard he told himself to leave it alone, he had enough of pussyfooting around and wanted answers.

“We thought you were dead,” his brother said as he stared straight into Rex’s eyes.

“So you hear I’m dead and you two fall into bed.” Bitterness filled his mouth.

“It wasn’t like that.”

Rex concentrated on breathing and remaining calm so his brother would continue his explanation. “Quit beating around the bush.”

“I fell in love with Olivia.”

“Shit.” Rex suspected that happened but had wanted it to be rumor only. “What does that have to do with you being with Abby?”

“I know you hate Olivia, but she had a rough life.”

“I don’t hate her anymore, especially now that we know she wasn’t involved in Abby’s disappearance. Not that I care for her, but she’s Abby’s best friend and my best friend’s wife. We’ve come to terms.”

“She’s a lot different when she’s not on the job. We had fun together. She’d picked me up for a one-night stand after an assignment. She had no idea I was an OS operative by then. I wrangled some information from her before she left me that first night and was able to track her down. I worked it out where we met up a couple more times. That’s when I learned love will make a fool of you.” He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. After a deep breath, he continued. “So when Abby disappeared, I contacted Olivia to see if she could help. Before I knew it, I was in The Circle and Abby was in their clinic. She’d been beaten by some street gang, they said, and then news came in that you had died. By then I realized that my fling with Olivia had ended before it even got started. She stayed on the road, and The Circle is so huge, we didn’t see each other again for years.”

He looked around, never resting his gaze on Rex’s face as he said, “Hell, she didn’t even recognize me later. I guess with my shaved head and piercings, I’d changed. Fuck! She didn’t remember my name.” He rubbed his bare scalp and then cleared his throat. “Anyway, after Abby got out of the clinic, she was having problems coping with your death. We had become friends and I was comforting her. One thing led to another—”

Rex held up a hand. “I don’t need to hear how you fucked her.”

“I wouldn’t—”

Crossing his arms, Rex tilted his head and lifted an eyebrow.

“Don’t look at me like that. What I was going to say was that one thing led to another, but the next day we agreed it was a mistake. It never happened again. The woman mourned you for all these years. She still loves you.”

“She has a strange way of showing it.” Did his brother even know how to tell the truth?

“What about you and Nic? What do you think she makes of that? Everyone at the OS knows that you two had hooked up.” Jack scratched his chest and waited for a comment.

What could Rex say to that? He hadn’t been open with Abby about his relationship with Nic.

“You understand?” His brother held out his hand and waited.

The cawing of a crow nearby broke the silence.

Rex wanted to argue and hang on to the old wounds, but what good would come of it?

He grabbed the offered hand and pulled his brother close. “If you ever touch her again or betray me again, brother or not, I’ll kill you and spit on your cold, lifeless body.”

Jack returned his solemn stare. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

Chapter Fifteen

A
BBY TAPPED HER
foot and stared out the living room window as she waited for Rex to return from his run. Yeah, run his ass. Most likely meeting with Jack and leaving her out of the plans. If he thought she would stand idly by while they decided how to bring Brody down, he was kidding himself.

“What’s got you wound up tighter than a five-dollar watch?” Edward walked in wearing his dark brown uniform shirt and tan pants. With a badge on his chest and holstered gun at his side, he looked ready for business. Seeing him in his uniform reminded her how she needed to be careful with what she said and did or their cover would be blown. The job The Circle did wasn’t sanctioned by the government and leaned heavily toward vigilantism.

“Rurik went for a run and he’s unfamiliar with the area. Hate for him to be lying in a ditch somewhere.”

“He appears to be smart enough to watch for erratic drivers.” He stopped next to her and lightly touched her shoulder. “I know we’ve never been close, but something has been bothering me that I want to ask.”

Her eyes met his. The compassion in his eyes helped her relax. She needed a distraction.

“Do you love him?”

She hadn’t expected that.

Before she could answer, he continued. “I know it’s not really my business. You’re a grown woman who’s lived on her own for years, but something has come up and I’m concerned about you.”

That wasn’t good.

“The other night at dinner, Rurik mentioned some of the countries he’d been to with his company. Some are very volatile areas, and from what I can tell, there are no direct flights into their cities.”

“You had him checked out.” She’d been afraid he’d do that.

“What had you expected? You never mentioned dating anyone when you came to visit last year and suddenly you show up with a husband. Then within hours of arriving in town, he’s thick with Brody.”

“Mom’s thick with Brody too. Does that mean she’s up to no good?”

“I didn’t say he was up to no good.” A glint in his eyes warned she had taken his bait.

“Quit beating around the bush and tell me what you want to know.”

“Is he DEA?”

“What?” She never expected that. If he’d dug deep enough, he would find information about Rurik being a suspect in several illegal weapon sales. That couldn’t be helped, considering it was the same information they wanted Brody to find. But she never expected her brother to think Rurik might be involved in anything to do with law enforcement.

“CIA? NSA?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“He didn’t tell you that we had a heated discussion about the shooters last night?” Edward moved to a chair and sat back. When she remained quiet, he said, “Two fellows were found tied up and left at a substation’s steps.”

“What makes you think he had anything to do with it?”

He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees and with his hands clasped. “Abby, I’m not stupid. I have eyes in my head and you two don’t act like newlyweds. Suzie and I never could keep our hands off each other, especially the first few months, and you two have been married only a couple days. And what newlywed with money would be interested in spending the night with her brother’s family so soon?”

“Maybe not everyone is like you and Suzie. We’re older and have been around the block a few times. We don’t need wine and roses to realize how we feel about each other.” Well, crap. A by-product of abstaining from sex during their stay, they avoided touching each other too. She wished she could say her mind stayed on the job, but she’d be lying.

He nodded, looking down at the floor. “Okay. Just understand I might be able to help you. Brody has been a concern of my department’s since he bought that farm and placed armed guards on it. We haven’t caught anyone hauling drugs out of or onto his land, but we feel certain something is going on.”

“Don’t be that way. He’s just a good ol’ boy who likes to party. Like what Mom said, he made all his money before the market dropped and he came back home to enjoy life as a young retiree.”

Until now she never understood how much she loved her brother. He tried to be a good man, and she didn’t want him involved. From the moment she met Brody, she had a creepy feeling that he would be bad news. A nagging in the back of her mind had warned her not to involve her family in the undercover operation, and for some reason she’d ignored it and she knew better than to do that.

He slapped his hands on his knees and stood. “Suzie’s waiting for me and tomorrow will be another long day. Some of us have to work for a living.”

There. That was her brother. Poking at her, trying to get her riled up and admitting more than she should.

She stopped him as he reached the door. “Edward.”

“Yeah.”

“I love you, big brother.”

He smiled, like he used to for the camera while playing ball as a teenager. “Love you too, little sis.”

She knew that she would do everything she could to protect him and his family. With certainty, he would dig deeper and that placed them in danger. What did a small county sheriff know about international arms dealers?

A
COUPLE HOURS
later, Abby listened to Rex’s footsteps coming up the stairs. The house was built solid and normally Rex was pretty light on his feet, but tonight he either didn’t care or was too tired to worry.

The lights were off, but the full moon brightened up the room. She watched his solid shadow as he crossed the floor and entered the bathroom, closing the door behind him before turning on the light. Lying there waiting for him was more intimate than having sex. Strange, but she always associated waiting for someone to come to bed as what lovers and wives did. When he returned, she watched his silhouette pull his shirt over his head and kick off his sweatpants.