Objective: (Bloodlines Book 2) (31 page)

The USB drive measures about one inch long, a half inch wide, and is about the thickness of a penny. “There is no way you’d have ever known it was there,” I breathe. Aster scrambles up, darting to the living room and brings back her laptop. I pop the flash drive into the allotted slot and wait. A text box pops up onto the screen.

“Dammit, it’s password secured,” I grumble.

“Well now what? That’s like the biggest tease I’ve had in years. All the buildup and none of the release!” she crows. I can’t help but chuckle at her. I was feeling the same way.

“There’s only one person I can ask for help with this and I’m not sure we’re on good terms at the moment.” I tell her. Bentley is the only person I can think of who might need this information, one, for his case, but two because he’s already mixed up in this mess and with Cane missing, my options are severely limited.

“Bentley?” she asks curiously. I sigh and nod my head in affirmation. I stand and grab a phone from the appropriate basket and dial Bentley’s number.

“Tell me you’re not at the trailer,” he demands when he picks up.

“I’m not at the trailer,” I answer snidely. “But how soon can you be here?”

“Dammit. It’s not safe there, princess. What the hell were you thinking?”

“I was thinking I could settle this without you, but...I can’t. I was thinking we all needed to know what the hell was in that stupid pack, and my cousin was here, so I needed to be here, too.” My frustration is evident in my voice.

“I’m thirty minutes out. Sit tight,” he sighs.

“What?” I crow.

“It wasn’t hard to figure out what you were doing once I realized you bailed on me.”

Bentley arrived as promised within the hour. I see him on the monitors and for a moment wish I felt more for him. I care for him, more than just a friend but not enough to call it love. I wish I loved him the same way I loved Cane. I wish things had turned out differently. Aster pipes up from beside me, asking who the hunk of man beef is and I laugh at her as I scramble to the door to let him in.

“Aster, Bentley,” I introduce them. All of a sudden my loud boisterous cousin is quiet as she takes him in.

“Hi,” he says in that voice that sounds like sex and sandpaper.

“Wow,” Aster replies. I nudge her and roll my eyes at Bentley as he grins lopsided at her.

“Hey, love birds, flash drive? Cane in danger? Ring any bells?” I squawk. Bentley snaps his gaze to me and smiles. I point to the laptop and the password box and shrug.

“I don’t know it, obviously.”

“
Lemme make some calls,” he grunts, and rounds the corner to the hall, disappearing into the bedroom.

“I really hate you right now,” Aster squeaks at me.

“What?”

“Cane mother fuckin Ash, was the bees fuckin' knees back home and you didn’t even have to
try
to snag him, he pretty much commandeered you the second you were available, and now him?” She thrusts her thumb in the direction of the bedroom. “Alpha Male ATF might actually be hotter than Cane mother fuckin' Ash, and you’ve had him too! Please tell me how you do it?” she wails dramatically. I snicker at her and shake my head.

“I have no idea but let’s be honest here, it’s not looking like either one is going to work out,” I huff. The truth in my statement sends panic rushing through me. I don’t want to be alone
 and I do want a happily ever after but there’s so much that’s happened with both men that it seems preposterous to think I could have that with either. Bentley comes stalking down the hall, phone pressed to his ear, types something into the laptop and hits enter. File folders start downloading at an alarming rate. He unzips each one as they finish and starts sifting through the contents. It looks like random emails, medical records and bank statements. None of it looks badass enough to be worthwhile.

“What the hell?” I say, peering over his shoulder. “It looks like a whole lot of nothing,” I exasperate.

“No. It looks like the goal of a sting operation, run by the Phoenix office of the ATF, to allow straw purchasers to illegally buy weapons in the U.S. so agents could learn the traffickers’ routes into Mexico. The agents were supposed to intervene before the guns were sold to drug cartels. But agents lost track of roughly seventeen hundred weapons. The ATF’s field supervisor on the southwest border sent a series of emails last year to the director of North American Affairs on the National Security Council detailing the agency’s efforts to stop weapons trafficking into Mexico, and there’s mention that a botched sting operation already allowed hundreds of guns to flow to drug cartels. That field supervisor is dead and ballistics put the bullet that killed him on a gun legally registered to Ezra. There are files on here that list wire transfers to the supervisor's bank account as well. He took payment for those missing guns and Ezra supplied them. They were working together. If this information leaks out it puts the credibility of the Phoenix office at risk and ties them to a big scandal, not to mention putting Ezra away for life. How he managed to get this ballistics report is beyond me. There’s got to be a mole. That officer's death was ruled unsolved. This is fucking huge, Magnolia.” He turns to me, smiling triumphantly. “You’ve been sitting on a landmine of evidence for almost two years.” He stands abruptly and circles his arms around me, lifting me up. Aster sighs as she watches him manhandle me.

“Bentley, stop.” He sets me down and looks me over. “Oh no. NO, Magnolia.”

“Yes,” I nod. “I need the leverage to get Cane back alive. Give me contact information for him.”

“NO. This information will be sent to my boss and they will handle this. You’ve had a Goddamned death wish for too long now,” he growls.

“No, Bentley, Cane is in danger, Brock is unconscious and I have the one thing he wants. I have to do this. Copy all the data and put it onto a new USB drive for me to give him, but I’m taking him what he thinks I have. I am going to make this right by everyone. You will get all the evidence you need to put him away, I will get Cane back, and God-willing Brock will pull through this. It’s a win-win for you all.”

“What about you?” he asks, slightly shocked.

“My win is him dead, but I doubt I will get to kill him at this point,” I say bluntly. “Now make the call, Bentley, I need Ezra's number.”

“Damn,” Aster whispers. I forgot she was even in the room with us.

“What?” Bentley and I crow in unison. She throws her hands up in mock surrender.

“I didn’t know how hot it could be watching two
badasses bicker. Plus, Cypr...Magnolia, is like totally amazing now that she’s clearly embraced her inner bitch,” she chirps lightly. Her whole face is lit up with awe and excitement like this is just a rehearsal for a movie instead of reality. People’s lives will be in danger, are in danger. Bentley shakes his head and rolls his eyes at her before swatting my ass hard and pouring himself some bourbon and retiring outside to his usual spot. I squeal with surprise as it happens but a small piece of me almost misses when it was just him and me accepting each other in silence, that is until I remember that he knew me all along and I was the only one in the dark.

“I’ll call in the morning!” Bentley shouts from the stairs.

“Come on Aster,” I call to her after pouring myself a drink and heading to the door.

“Welcome to the world of Bentley and me.” I plop down next to him and let my head rest on the back of the chair and gaze up at the velvety night sky lit up with tiny diamond stars. Aster sits on the ground in front of me, letting her head rest on my knees, and Bentley’s hand finds mine on the armrest and gently holds it.

Chapter 24

“You know that spot?” I asked quietly as we laid in bed.

“This one?” he murmured back before kissing just below my ear.

“
Mmmhmm...” I hummed.

“What about it?” he asked. His fingers moved slowly, but deliberately over my skin softly making my stomach feel like butterflies were taking flight.

“I think you’ve ruined that spot for anyone else. It’ll always be yours,” I babbled.

“It’ll always be mine because you’ll always be mine. Don’t you understand,
Mags? With you I’m someone worth being.”

I wake up disoriented, confused and tearful. One. Two. Three. I open my eyes at ten and blow out the last deep breath. Cane. I wake up every day loving him. I sneak out of the bed so I don't wake Aster and prowl to the kitchen hoping I still have coffee to make. Bentley sits at the table, two to-go coffees sitting near him and one in his hand.

“Couldn't really sleep,” he shrugs.

“Yeah.”

“You don’t have to do this, you know. We could arrange to extract Cane for you,” he offers.

“He’d never give up the location that way. We don’t even know if Cane’s alive.” I shudder at the thought.

“Okay,” he laments, and slides a piece of paper toward me with a number on it and takes a swig of his coffee. I grab a coffee and a phone and move outdoors. My fingers shake as I try to dial the numbers. I hit send and wait. Ten rings and voicemail. I sigh, feeling relieved and let down all at once, and wait for the beep as I mentally rehearse what Bentley instructed before we crashed last night.

“I have the flash drive. Meet me alone at the intersection of Route 31 and 267 at four o’clock today. Bring Cane. No Cane, no flash drive.” I hang up and stuff the phone in my shorts pocket. It’s only seven a.m, I have no idea how I will get through the day.

An ATF SWAT team shows up at the trailer at two p.m. to prepare me for the exchange. I’m wired, bulletproof-vested and equipped with a gun by three p.m. I can’t remember the last time I was manhandled this much. Men chatter on walkie-talkies that buzz and crackle. Everything seems odd, out of place. The neighbors stand on their steps and porches gawking without shame. Aster has been pacing nervously around the trailer for three hours and the motion is grating on my nerves.

“Please stop moving,” I snap at her.

“Why are you doing this?” she retorts angrily. “You really think Cane would want you to do this?”

“Aster, you’re scared. I get it, but please, I’ll be OK. Bentley and a whole team of monkeys who will be with me. Just stay here with the rest of them and be safe.” She trots over to me, tossing her arms tightly around my middle and squeezes. Hard.

“I can’t lose you,” she whispers in my ear before releasing me.

At three-thirty we pile into Bentley’s rental car and pull out, followed by the van full of ATF agents. The twenty minute ride seems like twenty hours. The backup team in the van hangs back, parked in some tree-covering off the side of the road, while Bentley and I pull up to the rest area stop which is really no more than a dirt clearing.

“Do me a favor, when you burn this bridge down, make sure I'm not on it. Those boys will be
comin' in heavy. You might want to hang back and let 'em do their thing,” Bentley grumbles at me as a black sedan pulls up opposite us. I open the car door and stand lifting my hands near my shoulders.

“Ezra,” I bite out. My nerves are shot but just looking at him now fuels my rage and anger.

“Always a pleasure, Cypress,” he sneers, drinking in my body as I inch closer to him. “Do you have what I need?”

“Where’s Cane?” I crane my neck out to see past him into the car but find nothing.

“Give me the USB,” he growls.

“Not until I see Cane. That was the deal.” My voice is hard and sharp.
“The deal, my dear, has changed.” Ezra moves a hand behind him and I reach for my gun. It sounds like the Nile is rushing through my ears. Time slows down and my vision focuses in on his movements. He raises his gun to me as I do to him. Shit, now what?

“At your left,” Bentley growls. He has his gun on Ezra now. I watch, fascinated, as Ezra calculates his move and swings his gun to Bentley.

“Where is Cane?” I ask again calmly. He stays silent. “If I start counting down from ten, I may lose my patience at five. What’s it going to be?” I growl.

“I will reach down your fucking neck and pull your throat out through your mouth,” Bentley says ferociously. “Where is Cane?”

“Fate has a great fondness for moments like these, don't you think? You have a choice. Which one lives and which one dies? Not an easy choice when you care for both men. Whose life is worth saving? You have a chance at redemption with Cane or a relatively clean future with Bentley. Ahh, how the guilt must eat at you right now, Cypress. Two lives hanging in the balance and you playing God.”

“Bentley,” I say, trying to stay focused on my objective. “Put your gun down.”

“Like hell.”

“Do it,” I crow. I hear the gun land in the soft dirt with little noise. I lower my gun to the ground and take a step towards Ezra. “Where is Cane? He’s your nephew. Please just let me save him. Here!” I thrust my hand in my pocket and pull out the flash drive, holding it out towards him. But he doesn’t move towards me.

“Pick up your gun,” he growls. I take a step back and do as I’m told. “Good. Now point it at him.” He motions to Bentley. “You have a choice to make. You can kill him and save Cane, or save him and kill Cane.” I turn to Bentley and raise my gun. My hands shake so much that there is no way I’d be able to make a clear shot. I’d do anything not to kill Cane again, to be able to save him. My soul mate. My first love, my first everything. Ezra’s offer plays on all my emotions. Bentley looks at me with shock as I try to take aim. I love his face. I love that he forced me to come back to the world and live again. I can't pull the trigger. “I’m not like you!” I wail, turning back to Ezra.