Hard to Handle (24 page)

“That would be me,” she said with a grin.

“The informant says that a shipment of processed cocaine is on the way here, one of the biggest in several years. It was shipped from the Guajira Peninsula in Colombia to Central America and transshipped by plane to an isolated landing site in rural Mexico. From there it was carried to a warehouse in Mexico City owned by a subsidiary of an oil company here in Houston. It was reboxed with legitimate oil processing equipment manufactured in Europe, in boxes with false bottoms. It was shipped legally to the oil company’s district office in Galveston where it was inspected briefly and passed through customs.”

“The oil company is one that’s never been involved in any illegal activity,” the customs representative said wistfully, “so the agent didn’t look for hidden contraband.”

“To continue,” Alexander said, “it’s going to be shipped into the Houston warehouse via the Houston Ship Canal as domestic inventory from Galveston.”

“Which means, no more customs inspections,” the Texas Ranger said.

“Exactly,” Alexander agreed.

The brunette customs agent shook her head. “A few shipments get by our inspectors, but not many. We have contacts everywhere, too, and one of those tipped us off about the young man who was willing to inform on the perpetrators of an incoming cocaine shipment,” she told the others. “So we saved our bacon.”

“You had the contacts I gave you, don’t forget,” the blond lieutenant of detectives from Houston reminded her with a smile, as she adjusted her collar.

“Do we even have a suspect?” the customs agent asked.

Alexander nodded. “I’ve got someone on the inside at Ritter
Oil, and I’m watching a potential suspect. I don’t have enough evidence yet to make an accusation, but I hope to get it, and soon. I’m doing this undercover, so this information is to be kept in this room. I’ve put it out that we have another company, Thorn Oil, under surveillance, as a cover story. Under no circumstances are any of you to discuss any of this meeting, even with another DEA agent—
especially
with another DEA agent—until further notice. That’s essential.”

The police lieutenant gave him a pointed look. “Can I ask why?”

“Because the oil corporation isn’t the only entity that’s harboring an inside informant,” Alexander replied flatly. “And that’s all I feel comfortable saying.”

“You can count on us,” the Texas Ranger assured him. “We won’t blow your cover. The person you’re watching, can you tell us why you’re watching him?”

“In order to use that warehouse for storage purposes, the drug lord has to have access to it,” Alexander explained. “I’m betting he has some sort of access to the locked gate and that he’s paying the night watchman to look the other way.”

“That would make sense,” the customs agent agreed grimly. “These people know how little law enforcement personnel make. They can easily afford to offer a poorly paid night watchman a six figure ‘donation’ to just turn his head at the appropriate time.”

“That much money would tempt even a law-abiding citizen,” Alexander agreed. “But more than that, very often there’s a need that compromises integrity. A sheriff in another state had a wife dying of cancer and no insurance. He got fifty thousand dollars for not noticing a shipment of drugs coming into his county.”

“They catch him?” the policewoman asked.

“Yes. He wasn’t very good at being a crook. He confessed, before he was even suspected of being involved.”

“How many people in your agency know about this?” the deputy sheriff asked Alexander.

“Nobody, at the moment,” he replied. “It has to stay that way, until we make the bust. I’ll depend on all of you to back me up. The mules working for the new drug lord carry automatic weapons and they’ve killed so many people down in Mexico that they won’t hesitate to waste anyone who gets in their way.”

“Good thing the president of Mexico isn’t intimidated by them,” the customs agent said with a grin. “He’s done more to attack drug trafficking than any president before him.”

“He’s a good egg,” Alexander agreed. “Let’s hope we can shut down this operation before any more kids go down.”

“Amen to that,” the FBI agent said solemnly.

Alexander showed up at Jodie’s office feeling more optimistic than he had for weeks. He was close to an arrest, but the next few days would be critical. After their meeting, the task force had gleaned information from the informant that the drug shipment was coming into Houston the following week. He had to be alert, and he had to spend a lot of time at Jodie’s office so that he didn’t miss anything.

He took her out to lunch, but he was preoccupied.

“You’re onto something,” she guessed.

He nodded, smiling. “Something big. How would you like to be part of a surveillance?”

“Me? Wow. Can I have a gun?”

He glared at her. “No.”

She shrugged. “Okay. But don’t expect me to save your life without one.”

“Not giving you one might save my life,” he said pointedly.

She ignored the jibe. “Surveillance?” she prodded. “Of what?”

“You’ll find out when we go, and not a word to anybody.”

“Okay,” she agreed. “How do you do surveillance?”

“We sit in a parked car and drink coffee and wish we were watching television,” he said honestly. “It gets incredibly boring. Not so much if we have a companion. That’s where you come in,” he added with a grin. “We can sit in the car and neck and nobody will guess we’re spying on them.”

“In a Jaguar,” she murmured. “Sure, nobody will notice us in one of those!”

He gave her a long look. “We’ll be in a law enforcement vehicle, undercover.”

“Right. In a car with government license plates, four antennae and those little round hubcaps…”

“Will you stop?” he groaned.

“Sorry!” She grinned at him over her coffee. “But I like the necking part.”

He pursed his lips and gave her a wicked grin. “So do I.”

She laughed a little self-consciously and finished her lunch.

They were on the way back to his Jaguar when his DEA agent, Kennedy, drove up. He got out of his car and approached them with a big smile.

“Hi, Cobb! How’s it going?” he asked.

“Couldn’t be better,” Alexander told him complacently. “What’s new?”

“Oh, nothing, I’m still working on that smuggling ring.” He glanced at Alexander curiously. “Heard anything about a new drug task force?”

“Just rumors,” Alexander assured him, and noticed a faint reaction from the other man. “Nothing definite. I’ll let you know if I hear anything.”

“Thanks.” Kennedy shrugged. “There are always rumors.”

“Do you have anybody at Thorn Oil, just in case?” Alexander asked him pointedly.

Kennedy cleared his throat and laughed. “Nobody at all. Why?”

“No reason. No reason at all. Enjoy your lunch.”

“Sure. I never see you at staff meetings lately,” he added. “You got something undercover going on?”

Alexander deliberately tugged Jodie close against his side and gave her a look that could have warmed coffee. “Something,” he said, with a smile in Kennedy’s direction. “See you.”

“Yeah. See you!”

Kennedy walked on toward the restaurant, a little distracted.

Jodie waited until they were closed up in Alexander’s car before she spoke. “You didn’t tell him anything truthful,” she remarked.

“Kennedy’s got a loose tongue,” he told her as he cranked the car. “You don’t tell him anything you don’t want repeated. Honest to God, he’s worse than Margie!”

“So that’s it,” she said, laughing. “I just wondered. Isn’t it odd that he seems to show up at places where we eat a lot?”

“Plenty of the guys eat where we do,” he replied lazily. “We know where the good food is.”

“You really do,” she had to admit. “That steak was wonderful!”

“Glad you liked it.”

“I could cook for you, sometime,” she offered, and then flushed at her own boldness.

“After I wind up this case, I’ll let you,” he said, with a warm smile. “Meanwhile, I’ve got a lot of work to do.”

She wondered about that statement after he left her at the office. She was still puzzling over it when she walked right into Brody when she got off the elevator at her floor.

“Oh, sorry!” she exclaimed, only then noticing that Cara was with him. “Hello,” she greeted the woman as she stopped to punch her time card before entering the cubicle area.

Cara wasn’t inclined to be polite. She gave Jodie a cold look and turned back to Brody. “I don’t understand why you can’t do me this one little favor,” she muttered. “It isn’t as if I ask you often for anything.”

“Yes, but dear, it’s an odd place to leave your car. There are garages…”

“My car is very expensive,” she pointed out, her faint accent growing in intensity, like the anger in her black eyes. “All I require is for you to let me in, only that.”

Jodie’s ears perked up. She pretended to have trouble getting her card into the time clock, and hummed deliberately to herself, although not so loudly that she couldn’t hear what the other two people were saying.

“Company rules…” he began.

“Rules, rules! You are to be an executive, are you not? Do you have to ask permission for such a small thing? Or are you not man enough to make such decisions for yourself?” she added cannily.

“Nice to see you both,” Jodie said, and moved away—but not quickly. She fumbled in her purse and walked very slowly as she did. She was curious to know what Cara wanted.

“I suppose I could, just this once,” Brody capitulated. “But you know, dear, a warehouse isn’t as safe as a parking garage, strictly speaking.”

Jodie’s heart leaped.

“Yours certainly is, you have an armed guard, do you not?
Besides, I work for a subsidiary of Ritter Oil. It is not as if I had no right to leave my car there when I go out of town for the company.”

“All right, all right,” Brody said. “Tomorrow night then. What time?”

“At six-thirty,” she told him. “It will be dark, so you must flash your lights twice to let me know it is you.”

They spoke at length, but Jodie was already out of earshot. She’d heard enough of the suspicious conversation to wonder about it. But she was much too cautious to phone Alexander from her work station.

She would have to wait until the end of the day, even if it drove her crazy. Meanwhile she pretended that she’d noticed nothing.

Brody came by her cubicle later that afternoon, just before quitting time, while she was finishing a letter he’d dictated.

“Can I help you?” she asked automatically, and smiled.

He smiled back and looked uncomfortable. “No, not really. I just wondered what you thought about what Cara asked me?”

She gave him a blank look. “What she asked you?” she said. “I’m sorry, I’d just come from having lunch with Alexander.” She smiled and sighed and lowered her eyes demurely. “To tell you the truth, I wasn’t paying attention to anything except the time clock. What did she ask you?” She opened her eyes very wide and looked blank.

“Never mind. She phoned and made a comment about your being there. It’s nothing. Nothing at all.”

She smiled up at him. “Did you enjoy the concert that night?”

“Yes, actually I did, despite the fact that Cara went out to the powder room and didn’t show up again for an hour.” He shook his head. “Honestly, that woman is so mysterious! I never know what she’s thinking.”

“She’s very crisp, isn’t she?” she mused. “I mean, she’s assertive and aggressive. I guess she’s a good marketer.”

“She is,” he sighed. “At least, I guess she is. I haven’t heard much from the big boss about her work. In fact, there was some talk about letting her go a month or two ago, because she lost a contract. Funny, it was one she was supposedly out of town negotiating at the time, but the client said he’d never seen her. Mr. Ritter talked him into staying, but he had words with Cara about the affair.”

“Could that have been when her mother was ill?” she asked.

“Her mother hasn’t ever been ill, as far as I know,” he murmured. “She did move from Peru to Mexico, but you know about that.” He put his hands in his pockets. “She wants me to do something that isn’t quite acceptable, and I’m nervous about it. I’m due for a promotion. I don’t want to get mixed up in anything the least bit suspicious.”

“Why, Brody, what does she want you to do?” she asked innocently.

He glanced at her, started to speak, and then smiled sheepishly. “Well, it’s nothing, really. Just a favor.” He shrugged. “I’m sure I’m making a big deal out of nothing. You never told me that your boyfriend works for the Drug Enforcement Administration.”

“He doesn’t advertise it,” she stammered. “He does a lot of undercover work at night,” she added.

Brody sighed. “I see. Well, I’ll let you finish. You and Cobb seem to get along very well,” he added.

“I’ve known him a long time.”

“So you have. You’ve known me a long time, too, though,” he added with a slow smile.

“Not really. Only three years.”

“Is it? I thought it was longer.” He toyed with his tie. “You and Cobb seem to spend a lot of time together.”

“Not as much as we’d like,” she said, seeing a chance to help Alexander and throw Cara off the track. “And I have a cousin staying with me for a few days, so we spend a lot of time in parked cars necking,” she added.

Brody actually flushed. “Oh.” He glanced at his watch and grimaced. “I’ve got a meeting with our vice president in charge of human resources at four, I’d better get going. See you later.”

“See you, Brody.”

She was very glad that she’d learned to keep what she knew to herself. What Brody’s girlfriend had let slip was potentially explosive information, even if it was only circumstantial. She’d have a lot to tell Alexander when she saw him. Furthermore, she’d already given Alexander some cover by telling Brody about the company car, and the fact that they spent time at night necking in one. He was going to be proud of her, she just knew it!

T
he minute she got to her apartment, Jodie grabbed the phone and called Alexander.

“Can you come by right away?” Jodie asked him quickly.

He hesitated. “To your apartment? Why?”

She didn’t know if her phone might be bugged. She couldn’t risk it. She sighed theatrically. “Because I’m wearing a see-through gown with a row of prophylactics pinned to the hem…!”

“Jodie!” He sounded shocked.

“Listen, I have something to tell you,” she said firmly.

He hesitated again and then he groaned. “I can’t right now…”

“Who’s on the phone, Alex?” came a sultry voice from somewhere in the background.

Jodie didn’t need to ask who the voice belonged to. Her heart began to race with impotent fury. “Sorry I interrupted,” she said flatly. “I’m sure you and Kirry have lots to talk about.”

She hung up and then unplugged the phone. So much for any feeling Alexander had for her. He was already seeing Kirry again, alone and at his apartment. No doubt he was only seeing Jodie to
avert suspicion at Ritter Oil. The sweet talk was to allay any suspicion that he was using her. Why hadn’t she realized that? The Cobbs were always using her, for one reason or another. She was being a fool again. Despite what he’d said, it was obvious now that Alexander had no interest in her except as a pawn.

She fought down tears and went to her computer. She might as well use some of her expertise to check out Miss Cara Dominguez and see if the woman had a rap sheet. With a silent apology to the local law enforcement departments, she hacked into criminal files and checked her out.

What she found was interesting enough to take her mind off Alexander. It seemed that Cara didn’t have a lily-white past at all. In fact, she’d once been arrested for possession with intent to distribute cocaine and had managed to get the charges dropped. Besides that, she had some very odd connections internationally. It was hinted in the records of an international law enforcement agency—whose files gave way to her expertise also—that her uncle was one of the Colombian drug lords. She wondered if Alexander knew that.

Would he care? He was with Kirry. Damn Kirry! She threw a plastic coffee cup at the wall in impotent rage.

Just as it hit, there was a buzz at the intercom. She glowered at it, but the caller was insistent. She pushed the button.

“Yes?” she asked angrily.

“Let me in,” Alexander said tersely.

“Are you alone?” she asked with barely contained sarcasm.

“In more ways than you might realize,” he replied, his voice deep and subdued. “Let me in, Jodie.”

She buzzed him in with helpless reluctance and waited at her opened door for him to come out of the elevator.

He was still in his suit. He looked elegant, expensive, and very irritated. He walked into the apartment ahead of her and went straight to the kitchen.

“I was going to take you out to eat when Kirry showed up, in tears, and begged to talk to me,” he said heavily, examining pots until he found one that contained a nice beef stew. He got a bowl out of the cupboard and proceeded to fill it. “Any corn bread?” he asked wistfully, having sniffed it when he entered the apartment.

“It’s only just getting done,” she said, reaching around him for a pot holder. She opened the oven and produced a pone of corn bread.

“I’m hungry,” he said.

“You’re always hungry,” she accused, but she was feeling better.

He caught her by the shoulders and pulled her against him, tilting her chin up so that he could see into her mutinous eyes. “I don’t want Kirry. I said that, and I meant it.”

“Even if you didn’t, you couldn’t say so,” she muttered. “You need me to help you smoke out your drug smuggler.”

He scowled. “Do you really think I’m that sort of man?” he asked, and sounded wounded. “I’ll admit that Margie and I don’t have a good track record with you, but I’d draw the line at pretending an emotion I didn’t feel, just to catch crooks.”

She shifted restlessly and didn’t speak.

He shook his head. “No ego,” he mused, watching her. “None at all. You can’t see what’s right under your nose.”

“My chin, and no, I can’t see it…”

He chuckled, bending to kiss her briefly, fiercely. “Feed me. Then we might watch television together for a while. I’ll be working most evenings during the week, but Friday night we could go see a movie or something.”

Her heart skipped. “A movie?”

“Or we could go bowling. I used to like it.”

Her mind was spinning. He actually wanted to be with her! But cold reality worked its way between them again. “You haven’t asked why I wanted you to come over,” she began as he started for the table with his bowl of stew.

“No, I haven’t. Why?” he asked, pouring himself a cup of freshly brewed coffee and accepting a dish of corn bread from her.

She put coffee and corn bread at her place at the table and put butter next to it before she sat down and gave Alexander a mischievous smile. “Cara talked Brody into letting her into the warehouse parking lot after hours tomorrow—about six-thirty in the evening. She said she wanted to park her car there, but it sounded thin to me.”

He caught his breath. “Jodie, you’re a wonder.”

“That’s not all,” she added, sipping coffee and adding more cream to it. “She was arrested at the age of seventeen for possession with intent to distribute cocaine, and she got off because the charges were dropped. There’s an unconfirmed suspicion that her uncle is one of the top Colombian drug lords.”

“Where did you get that?”

She flushed. “I can’t tell you. Sorry.”

“You’ve hacked into some poor soul’s protected files, haven’t you?” he asked sternly, but with twinkling eyes.

“I can’t tell you,” she repeated.

“Okay, I give up.” He ate stew and corn bread with obvious enthusiasm. “Then I guess you and I will go on stakeout tomorrow night.”

She smiled smugly. “Yes, in your boss’s borrowed security car, because my cousin is visiting and we can’t neck in the apartment. I told Brody that, and he’ll tell Cara that, so if we’re seen near my office, they won’t think a thing of it.”

“Sheer genius,” he mused, studying her. “Like I said, you’re a natural for law enforcement work. You’ve got to get your expert computer certification and change professions, Jodie. You’re wasted in personnel work.”

“Human resources work,” she reminded him.

“New label, same job.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Maybe so.”

They finished their supper in pleasant silence, and she produced a small loaf of pound cake for dessert, with peaches and whipped cream.

“If I ate here often, I’d get fat,” he murmured.

She laughed. “Not likely. The cake was made with margarine and reduced-fat milk. I make rolls the same way, except with light olive oil in place of margarine. I don’t want clogged arteries before I’m thirty,” she added. “And I especially don’t want to look like I used to.”

He smiled at her warmly. “I like the way you used to look,” he said surprisingly. “I like you any way at all, Jodie,” he continued softly. “That hasn’t changed.”

She didn’t know whether or not to trust him, and it showed in her face.

He sighed. “It’s going to be a long siege,” he said enigmatically.

Later, they curled up together on the couch to watch the evening news. There was a brief allusion to a drug smuggling catch by U.S. Customs in the Gulf of Mexico, showing the helicopters they used to catch the fast little boats used in smuggling.

“Those boats go like the wind,” Jodie remarked.

He yawned. “They do, indeed. The Colombian National Police busted an operation that was building a submarine for drug smuggling a couple of years ago.”

“That’s incredible!”

“Some of the smuggling methods are, too, like the tunnel under the Mexican border that was discovered, and having little children swallow balloons filled with cocaine to get them through customs.”

“That’s barbaric,” she said.

He nodded. “It’s a profitable business. Greed makes animals of men sometimes, and of women, too.”

She cuddled close to him. “It isn’t Brody you were after, is it? It’s his girlfriend.”

He chuckled and wrapped her up in his arms. “You’re too sharp for me.”

“I learned from an expert,” she said, lifting her eyes to his handsome face.

He looked down at her intently for a few seconds before he bent to her mouth and began to kiss her hungrily. Her arms slid up around his neck and she held on for dear life as the kiss devoured her.

Finally he lifted his head and put her away from him, with visible effort. “No more of that tonight,” he said huskily.

“Spoilsport,” she muttered.

“You’re the one with the conscience, honey,” he drawled meaningfully. “I’m willing, but you’d never live it down.”

“I probably wouldn’t,” she confessed, but her eyes were misty and wistful.

He pushed back her hair. “Don’t look like that,” he chided. “It isn’t the end of the world. I like you the way you are, Jodie, hang-ups and all. Okay?”

She smiled. “Okay.”

“And I’m not sleeping with Kirry!”

The smile grew larger.

He kissed the tip of her nose and got up. “I’ve got some preparations to make. I’ll pick you up tomorrow at 6:20 sharp and we’ll
park at the warehouse in the undercover car.” He hesitated. “It might be better if I had a female agent in the car with me…”

“No, you don’t,” she said firmly, getting to her feet. “This is my stakeout. You wouldn’t even know where to go, or when, if it wasn’t for me.”

“True. But it could be very dangerous,” he added grimly.

“I’m not afraid.”

“All right,” he said finally. “But you’ll stay in the car and out of the line of fire.”

“Whatever you say,” she agreed at once.

The warehouse parking lot was deserted. The night watchman was visible in the doorway of the warehouse as he opened the door to look out. He did that twice.

“He’s in on it,” Alexander said coldly, folding Jodie closer in his arms. “He knows they’re coming, and he’s watching for them.”

“No doubt. Ouch.” She reached under her rib cage and touched a small hard object in his coat pocket. “What is that, another gun?”

“Another cell phone,” he said. “I have two. I’m leaving one with you, in case you see something I don’t while I’m inside,” he added, indicating a cell phone he’d placed on the dash.

“You do have backup?” she worried.

“Yes. My whole team. They’re well concealed, but they’re in place.”

“Thank goodness!”

He shifted her in his arms so that he could look to his left at the warehouse while he was apparently kissing her.

“Your heart is going very fast,” she murmured under his cool lips.

“Adrenaline,” he murmured. “I live on rushes of it. I could never settle for a nine-to-five desk job.”

She smiled against his mouth. “I don’t like it much, either.”

He nuzzled her cheek with his just as a car drove past them toward the warehouse. It hesitated for a few seconds and then sped on.

“That’s Brody’s car,” she murmured.

“And that one, following it?” he asked, indicating a small red hardtop convertible of some expensive foreign make.

“Cara.”

“Amazing that she can afford a Ferrari on thirty-five thousand a year,” he mused, “and considering that her mother is poor.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” she murmured. “Kiss me again.”

“No time, honey.” He pulled out a two-way radio and spoke into it. “All units, stand by. Target in motion. Repeat, target in motion. Stand by.”

Several voices took turns asserting their readiness. Alexander watched as Brody’s car suddenly reappeared and he drove away. The gates of the warehouse closed behind his car. He paused near Alexander’s car again, and then drove off down the road.

As soon as he was out of sight, a van came into sight. Cara appeared at the parking lot entrance, inserted a card key into the lock, opened the gate and motioned the van forward. The gate didn’t close again, but remained open.

Alexander gave it time to get to a loading dock and its occupants to exit the cab and begin opening the rear doors before he took out the walkie-talkie again.

“All units, move in. I repeat, all units, move in. We are good to go!”

He took the cell phone from the dash and put it into Jodie’s hands. “You sit right here, with the doors locked, and don’t move until I call you on that phone and tell you it’s safe. Under no circumstances are you to come into the parking lot. Okay?”

She nodded. “Okay. Don’t get shot,” she added.

He kissed her. “I don’t plan to. See you later.”

He got out of the car and went toward a building next door to the warehouse. He was joined by another figure in black. They went down an alley together, out of sight.

Jodie slid down into her seat, so that only her eyes and the top of her head were visible in the concealing darkness, barely lit by a nearby street light. She waited with her heart pounding in her chest for several minutes, until she heard a single gunshot. There was pandemonium in the parking lot. Dark figures ran to and fro. More shots were fired. Her heart jumped into her throat. She gritted her teeth, praying that Alexander wasn’t in the line of fire.

Then, suddenly, she spotted him, with another dark figure. They had two people in custody, a man and a woman. They were standing near another loading dock, apparently conversing with the men, when Jodie spotted a solitary figure outside the gates, on the sidewalk, moving toward the open gate. The figure was slight, and it held what looked like an automatic weapon. She’d seen Alexander with one of those, a rare time when he’d been arming himself for a drug bust.

She had a single button to push to make Alexander’s cell phone ring, but when she pressed in the number, nothing happened. The phone went dead in her hand.

The man with the machine gun was moving closer to where Alexander and the other man stood with their prisoners, their backs to the gate.

The key was in the car. She only saw one way to save Alexander. She got behind the wheel, cranked the car, put it in gear and aimed it right for the armed man, who was now framed in the gate.