Rules of Protection (Tangled in Texas) (Volume 1) (3 page)

From the first time I saw him, my mind clouded over, as if he shut it down and forced me to do things I wouldn’t normally do. He caused my brain to fog, but I didn’t know how or why. It was as if he put a dunce cap on my head, and I took it literally.

Now I had a decision: follow him or go back to the table. The smart thing to do was rejoin my friends, but nobody had ever accused me of doing the smart thing.

I let out a breath and swung through the door. It led to a narrow hallway undergoing some renovations. A ladder, some painting supplies, and a few boxes of new lighting fixtures lined the walls. The corridor was long and quiet with no sign of Jake.

Most of the fluorescent bulbs in the ceiling were broken or not working. One blinked constantly as if it were getting ready to go out. That alone made the passageway eerily dark, but I followed the length of it anyway.

When I got to the end, I wasn’t sure what to do. I could go left or right, but had no way of knowing which way Jake had gone. So I used logic. The bulge in his pants had hugged one side more than the other, suggesting he was a righty. Therefore, I ended up going to the right, and moments later, came to a door labeled
Lounge 3
. I opened it and peered inside. Nothing. Entire room was empty, except a few pieces of furniture covered with thick, clear plastic.

I continued on and stopped at the next room labeled
Lounge 4
. The last door in the hallway. If he wasn’t here, I’d have to try the other hall in the opposite direction. I turned the knob and started to pull it toward me, but stopped when I heard voices. Curious, I cracked the door open without making a sound. I peered in through the two-inch slit and caught a glimpse of more furniture covered with the same thick plastic.

A familiar voice rose as a man walked into view. Even by his profile, I recognized Sergio as he stood in front of the plastic-covered couch against the wall. He spoke to someone out of my eyesight.

“You know it wasn’t me!” Sergio said in a tense voice.

“Take a seat,” the other man said.

Sergio sat, but stayed nervously on the edge of the cushion. “Come on, Boss. You know I wouldn’t lie to you.”

The mystery man finally strolled into view in his navy blue tailored suit. He was a short, heavy-set man with a round, pudgy face, a large, crooked nose, and a mole under his left eye. “It’s a shame, Sergio. I told you to lay low and I’d give you a pass, but instead…”

Two men in sleek suits with short dark hair joined his side. They resembled bodyguards, and both silently stared at Sergio.

Sergio stood, waving his arms frantically. “Wait, Mr. Felts. I’m telling you…”

The other man—the one referred to as Mr. Felts—shook his head and clicked his tongue sarcastically. “We have a problem that needs some attention. My associate on the inside says someone’s been feeding data about my operation to the feds. That’s no good. I can’t afford to lose the respect of my family and friends. I need a scapegoat to correct this problem.”

“Please, Boss, I’m telling you…it wasn’t me.”

“Sit down, Sergio,” Mr. Felts ordered. “And stop carrying on. You’re something all right, but you’re not a damn goat.”

The two big men behind Mr. Felts chuckled. Sergio blew out a huge breath. Relieved, the tension melted from his posture as he sat back, kicking an ankle up over the knee of his other leg.

Sergio looked at Mr. Felts and grinned. “Then what am I, Boss?”

“The sacrificial lamb,” Mr. Felts said, as he reached inside his jacket pocket and pulled out a long silver gun.

I barely recognized what it was until I heard a small noise and looked back at Sergio, who rested his head on the back of the couch as he stared blankly up at the ceiling. Blood and chunks of brain matter dripped down the white wall behind him.

It didn’t register for at least a full three seconds. Something was wrong, but I didn’t know how wrong until it hit me.

Then I gasped. Loudly.

Chapter Two

All three men looked my way.

The sound that came out of my mouth was loud enough for them to hear, but I hoped they wouldn’t notice me through the crack in the door.

“Someone’s out there,” Mr. Felts said. “Take care of it.”

I wasn’t sure how I managed it while wearing stilettos, but I ran the entire length of the hallway. The men burst out the door as I rounded the corner to the next corridor. One shouted from behind me, “It’s a woman, Boss!”

Mr. Felts’s voice rang out, “Bring her to me!”

The second hallway was longer, but I didn’t slow down. The two men chasing me would round the corner before I could get through the door to the main room, and I didn’t doubt they were armed. At any moment, I expected to feel a sharp pain in my back as a hot bullet ripped through me. But it didn’t happen. Surprisingly, I made it into the lobby without any new holes in my body. I don’t know why, but I guessed their guns didn’t have silencers and would draw far more attention than they wanted.

I burst through the lobby doors and dashed through the crowd, weaving and dodging, while watching behind me. Two big men flew out the doors seconds after me, but I ducked, concealing myself behind a wall of people. They spoke to each other briefly, both of them scanning the crowd, and then separated.

It wasn’t much farther to our table—about twenty feet. Gina and Dale were still sitting there. I started to make a mad dash for them, but I had barely taken a step when someone grabbed me from behind, clamping a hard hand over my mouth.

“Don’t scream,” a man whispered into my ear, his voice barely audible over the music. “I want you to walk quietly with me out the exit on your left. If you alert your friends in any way, you’ll only be putting them in danger. Do you understand?”

Frozen with fear, I managed a small nod.

“Good. Now, start moving.” He uncovered my mouth and pushed firmly into my back, prodding me to walk.

He kept one hand on my neck, steering me in the direction of the exit, practically shoving me out the door. It opened to a dark alleyway, but as soon as we were outside, I spun on him. I hit him with everything I had, which unfortunately, wasn’t much.

He lunged at me, knocking both of us to the ground, and gained control of my flailing arms. Gravel bit into my back as he straddled me, using his weight to pin my legs as he held my wrists tightly. I used the only weapon I had left. I bit his arm as hard as I could and held on tight.

“Sonofabitch,” he ground out between his teeth.

He pressed his other arm into my throat, which cut off my oxygen supply and forced me to open my mouth with a gasp. After a quick check of his bite wound, he jumped off me and snatched me up from the pavement.

He pushed me against the brick wall and leaned in close. “Don’t ever do that again,” he growled.

The moonlight was dim, but bright enough to catch a glimpse of his face. “Jake…?”

His eyes met mine and he grinned. “Surprised?”

A rush of heat pulsed through my body, like a volcano building up pressure. I quivered, awaiting the furious eruption raging beneath the surface. Anger and fear are the worst combination of emotions to feel at the same time. It makes a victim irrationally combative.

“Not as surprised as you’re going to be,” I sneered, lifting my knee into his groin.

He crumpled to the ground, and although I briefly considered kicking him in the face, I chose to run instead. I jumped into a taxi parked in front of the nightclub and yelled for the driver to take me to the police station.

Jake stumbled out of the alley as we pulled away from the curb. The look on his face was murderous.

The adrenaline swimming through my veins kept my heart rate up and my breathing rapid. I figured it would slow on the way to the police station, but the cab driver kept watching me in his rearview mirror. It made me paranoid.

“You okay, ma’am?” he finally asked.

His concern came across genuine, but I wasn’t taking any chances. “My car was impounded.”

I’m not sure if he believed me or not, but he didn’t ask any more questions. When we got to the station, I glanced around and realized I didn’t have my purse; it was still at the table with Gina and Dale. No purse. No pockets. No cash.

“I, um…”

The cab driver realized the situation as well. “It’s okay. This ride’s on me.”

I thanked him, exited the cab, and walked numbly through the police station’s sliding glass doors. A heavy-set dispatcher with short brown hair sat behind a bulletproof partition.

She glanced up at me. “Can I help you?”

Though I heard her, I couldn’t bring myself to answer. Thinking of what I needed to tell her made my breath tighten, as if Jake’s arm still pressed against my throat. My heart pounded in my chest, and my blood pulsed rapidly through my body, registering in my ears.

The dispatcher eyed me strangely. “Ma’am…? Is there something I can do for you?”

Shaking from head to toe, I finally managed to say, “He’s d-d-dead.”

At once, the entire scene rushed back to me. The room got darker as my eyes rolled up into the back of my head, and the last thing I heard was the sound of me hitting the floor.

When I woke up, I was sprawled on a gurney, and my head hurt. The paramedic at my side pulled a blood pressure cuff off my arm and pointed a penlight at my pupils to check their dilation. I did as he asked, following his finger with my eyes. Four uniformed deputies in the room watched silently while the he assessed my condition.

The medic glanced back at the officers. “She’s okay, just fainted and bumped her head. She’ll have a bit of a headache, but it’s nothing a little aspirin won’t cure.”

“Miss, we need to ask you a few questions,” one policeman said. “Could you come with us, please?”

I stood slowly, my head hurting from the movement. The cop led me through the double doors and down a hallway until he angled into a small room marked “
Interrogation Unit
.” A small table, three uncomfortable-looking chairs, and a large mirror that consumed most of the far wall adorned the room. After I sat, I spied the small black camera mounted above the door. The red, blinking light flashed to a steady green. It wasn’t hard to figure out they were taping me.

The man who sat across from me was probably close to retirement age. He had a full head of gray hair and a neatly trimmed mustache to match. “I’m Officer Stevens,” he said, flipping open a small notepad. “And this is my partner, Officer Danforth.”

Danforth was in his late thirties with dark hair cropped short. He offered to get me some coffee, but I declined. My hands trembled enough without the extra jolt of caffeine.

“Miss, our dispatcher said you told her a man is dead,” Stevens said bluntly.

“Y-yes. He’s…dead. I saw it. I watched him die.”

“Did you kill him?”

“What? No, I watched him…oh God!” I covered my face with my hands.

“It’s okay, Miss. We’re here to help you,” Danforth said. “Can you start from the beginning and tell us what happened?”

Stevens jotted down notes as I spoke. I told them everything I could remember until I had passed out in the lobby. They both looked at me as if I were loony.

Stevens shifted his gaze to the younger officer and, as if given a silent command, Danforth excused himself, disappearing from the room. I hoped they were sending a unit over to The Jungle Room to check out my story. I imagined it was difficult to believe anyone would be dumb enough to murder someone in a packed nightclub.

Officer Stevens asked me to repeat the entire story and forced me to go slower through the details this time around. When I got to the part about Sergio looking nervous, I completely broke down. Tears rolled steadily down my cheeks. My voice was barely a whisper. I knew how he had felt because I felt the same way when Jake had grabbed me. It’s the fear of the unknown, as much as it’s the fear that you know exactly what might happen.

Sergio was a creep, but he didn’t deserve to die. Hell, what do I know? Maybe he did. He obviously had associations with some very bad men. No matter what, though, I didn’t deserve to have his death forever stamped into my memory.

My face heated as I swayed a little in my chair. I wanted to pass out again, but having another meltdown would only prolong the inevitable. I gained some composure before continuing and tried to keep my voice from cracking while I calmly described the rest of the events that led me to the police station.

Afterward, Stevens led me to another room to search their database. Two long and tedious hours went by before I fingered the three men from the club. The officers were ecstatic, though I had no idea why. Only person I couldn’t find in the system was Jake.

They let me take a break and issued another offer of coffee. I accepted, knowing it might be a while before they asked again. A female officer escorted me to the bathroom, then deposited me back into the interrogation room, along with a cup of strongly brewed glop. I couldn’t bring myself to try it, but the potent smell kept me awake.

Stevens excused himself, saying he needed to check on something, and left me alone. No clock on the wall. No way of telling how long he’d been gone. I knew it had been a lengthy stay when my ass fell asleep. My initial assumption about the chairs was right—they were uncomfortable.

I paced the floor for a while, then stopped to look at myself in the mirror. Holy hell. My curly blond hair resembled a raggedy bird’s nest, my makeup was streaked, and my clothes were dirty and disheveled. Even my boobs looked crooked.

Casually, I glanced behind me and saw the green light shining on the camera in the corner. They were still filming me, but being alone in an interrogation room for hours does something to your mind. Apparently, it made me lose mine. I kept my back to the camera and my body close to the mirror as I reached into my blouse and adjusted my boob.

It was a familiar problem, since one of my breasts was a large B, while the other was a small C. It wasn’t a noticeable difference, and most women have one breast that’s larger than the other. At least, that’s what I’ve heard. No explaining that to men, though. Every time I’ve tried, I always got the same response.
“Un-uh! Prove it! I want to see for myself.”
Even Dale, who had more interest in a man’s hacky sack than a pair of tits, said the same thing.

Men are idiots.

Tired of standing, I sat in the chair and laid my head on the table. I could barely keep my eyes open, but every time I closed them, Sergio’s face stared back at me with a blank look. I thunked my head on the smooth surface, trying to get the image out of my mind. Then the door opened and closed.

“Thank God,” I said, lifting my head. “I want to get this over with—” I stopped breathing, and the room grew eerily still.

Jake stood there looking at me, measuring me up. The butt of a gun peeked out from under the edge of his jacket. The panic that had settled in my bones from earlier resurfaced, as if Jake himself had pushed the big red button.

His lips curled into a disgustingly sarcastic smile. “Rough night?”

Instinctively, I jumped out of my chair and screamed. He hurried to round the table as I ran to the other side near the door. He stopped coming forward when I picked up a chair and held it in a throwing position.

“Don’t you dare,” he said, his face knotting with anger.

Yeah, like I was going to listen. I threw the chair, but he turned at the last second, and it caught him in the shoulder. I tried to run out the door, but didn’t make it before Jake grabbed me.

With warp speed, he shoved me against the wall, pinning me there with his body, making it hard for me to breathe. The intensity in his eyes told me he positively seethed with rage. That’s when the door flung open as Officer Stevens burst into the room. Jake let go of me and backed away slowly with his hands in the air.

“We have the whole thing on camera,” Stevens said. “Do you want to press charges?”

I looked at Stevens stupidly. “Of course I do! Arrest that sonofabitch!”

Jake and Officer Stevens traded puzzled looks before both men burst into hysterics. I’m talking the kind of laughter that can easily make you wet your pants and not care because it’s that damn funny.

“I was talking to
him
,” Stevens said, still chuckling.

“What?”

The officer wiped his watery eyes. “Ma’am, you just assaulted a federal agent. This man here is Special Agent Jacob Ward. He works for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

I glanced over at Jake. “FBI?” He grinned and cocked his eyebrow at me. “Fine. Officer Stevens, I want this
agent
arrested for kidnapping and assault.”

The smile slid from Jake’s face. “I didn’t kidnap or assault anybody.”

“Yes, you did.
Me!
You forced me to leave the club with you, then you assaulted me.”

“Are you insane? That was self-defense. You spun around and attacked me. I was nice enough to hold back and keep myself from hurting you. And I didn’t kidnap you. There was no gun to your head when I asked you to leave with me.”

“Ask? You didn’t ask! You threatened to kill my friends!” I pointed at Stevens. “Add that to the list, as well.”

The officer looked confused. “I’m going to step out for a moment and let you two work this out.”

Jake nodded. “While you’re at it, get the camera turned off and clear the boys out of the viewing room. I need to talk to the witness privately.”

Viewing room? Oh God, don’t tell me I…

The officer hurried out the door as Jake picked up the chair I had thrown. He set it back in place, then motioned for me to sit. Before I did, I watched the green light on the camera change to a red, blinking one. Holy shit! He really was a federal agent.

“Viewing room?” I whispered, biting my lip.

“Yep, we were making arrangements for you when you started fondling yourself. Then most of the men in that room had to make their own arrangements…if you know what I mean.”

“I wasn’t fondling myself.”

“Hey, I can’t help it if that’s what it looked like.”

“Oh God.” I rubbed at my temple, trying to alleviate the headache that came back. “Someone should’ve told me a viewing room sat on the other side of the mirror.”