Sexual Games [The Heroes of Silver Springs 8] (Siren Publishing Classic) (14 page)

“Good morning.” Terri greeted him with a smile and a tone far too bubbly for his current mood.

He forced himself to return the smile. No need to take out his foulness on a woman who had done nothing wrong. “Morning. You two are up early.” He stepped into the kitchen, snagged his keys off the counter where he had left them last night, and pulled a bottle of vitaminwater from the fridge.

“We could say the same about you. I snagged one of those, by the way. I hope you don’t mind.” Thaddeus lifted his own bottle of vitaminwater to his lips and took a swig.

“Of course not. I told you guys to make yourselves at home.” Jackson twisted off the cap and tossed it in the nearby trashcan.

“It looked like you had a later night last night than we did. Is everything okay this morning?”

Jackson considered Thaddeus for a long moment. Had the man been awake when Mallory showed up? He was pretty sure the answer was no. But Thaddeus could’ve waken when Mallory slipped out, at whatever the hell time that had been.

“Got a break in a case we’re working on,” he said, deciding it best not to question. “I’ve got to get to the office.”

“So you’ll be working all day, then. No chance of breaking away to come to the challenge for a while?”

The disappointment Jackson heard in the other man’s tone puzzled him. He hadn’t had much time to talk with Thaddeus and Terri since they’d arrived, but in the few conversations they’d managed, he hadn’t gotten the sense either of them was really counting on him showing up at their firefighter challenge. Not that he wouldn’t like to go. It had been years since he’d watched firefighters in action, even if it was only a staged competition. He had enjoyed the few times he had gotten to tag along on calls with Jason when he had first joined the fire department.

“Sorry, but probably not. You two kick some ass, though.” Jackson started for the front door. “Hopefully before you leave we’ll get a few hours to hang together, and I want to hear all about it.”

“You bet,” Terri said. “Be careful out there, MIB.”

Her spunkiness made Jackson smile as he walked out the door. MIB, man in black. Angelina’s sister, Tess, had called him that before, still did when the occasion arose.

The elevator at the end of the hall slid open and a woman about Mallory’s height and build stepped off. He knew in an instant it wasn’t Mallory. The woman’s hair was long like Mal’s but stark black and didn’t fit with her milky, freckled complexion.

He met her brown-eyed gaze as he headed to the elevator, keeping to one side of the hall to allow her room to pass by him. He didn’t recognize her as one of his neighbors. There were five other apartments on the third floor, each of them occupied by older, married couples except for one. He hadn’t crossed paths with the single redhead who lived two doors down from him in several months.

“Agent Graham.” She gave him a slight nod and averted her gaze as she passed him.

Jackson stopped in his tracks. The voice. He knew that voice.

Son of a bitch. It’s her.

He whirled around and found her stopping at the redhead’s apartment. She stuck a key in the lock of the apartment door and slid a nervous look his way.

“You?” Shock made his eyes wide. Instinct made him start to go for his sidearm beneath his suit jacket, but a gut feeling stopped him.

“Not here,” she said softly, firmly. Her eyes pleaded with him to listen, not to make a move. “You trusted me before. Trust me again.”

Trusted her?
He had thought she was Mallory. “I should take you in.” Protocol demanded it. They had spent countless hours looking for this woman, following up on the information she had provided, wondering what more she knew about Lexie Stratus’s disappearance that she hadn’t yet revealed. She was also a criminal. Hell, she had kidnapped him, for Pete’s sake.

She shook her head. “If I’m seen with you they’ll know I’ve gone to the FBI.”

“They who?” Jackson cast a cursory glance up and down the empty hallway. A security camera hung in the far corner, videotaping their every movement. Did she think someone with access to the building’s security was behind Lexie’s disappearance?

“Whoever took Lexie.” She unlocked the apartment and pushed the door open a half inch. “Give me one hour, Agent Graham. Please. I’ll come to your office and tell you everything I know. You can do what you want from there, take me into custody, whatever you have to do.”

Could he trust her? Her gaze pleaded with him to do this her way. What was it with the women in his life insisting they be in charge lately?

“You aren’t worried someone will see you coming to the bureau?”

She shook her head again. “I know how to make sure I’m not followed.”

“And what if you don’t show?” Did she really think he would walk away from a key witness and offender?

“You wouldn’t know anything if I hadn’t come to you. I want her found, Agent Graham. I also want to keep myself alive. I’ll be there. One hour.” She pushed the door open and walked inside the apartment, closing and locking the door behind her.

* * * *

“You let her go.” Cooper made it more statement than question. Not an ounce of derision or anger sounded in his tone.

Mallory crossed her legs and watched the byplay between her boss and Jackson. Cooper sat behind his desk, a perfect picture of laid-back cool. Jackson paced the floor, hands shoved in the pockets of his slacks, head bowed and eyes on his feet. His posture might have screamed defeat, but she knew better. Jackson didn’t lose. He conquered. Right now, he would be replaying the scene he had told them about in the hallway, plugging in the missing details to the kidnapping two nights ago, and calculating his next move.

Good for him.

It was all she could do to keep her mind from replaying every second of last night when he had been naked beneath her, inside of her. She swore she felt his body heat even though his pacing took him farther away from her. It made it hard to think, much less concentrate on anything beyond a plan to get him right back in bed again.

“I went with my instincts.” Jackson lifted his head and confidently met Cooper’s unwavering gaze. “She’ll show.”

Cooper nodded once. An excellent team leader, he trusted all of them to make their own calls, follow their own guts, and never bashed them for it even if they turned out to be wrong. “She could be our informant from this morning, the one who called in with the tip about the body.”

“If she is, we’ll know in less than an hour. Has the medical examiner identified the body?”

Cooper shook his head. “Nothing yet. You said the woman from this morning, your kidnapper, is named Jennifer Moss. What else do we know about this woman?”

As if on cue, a sharp rap sounded at the partially open door, and Cameron walked in with Marcus Kell at his heels, not waiting for an invitation. “She’s an open book, boss. Twenty-eight years old, bachelor’s in psychology, currently enrolled at Waterston University to turn that into a master’s. She also holds a certificate from a local bartending school, which she is currently utilizing in her job as a bartender at Cinderella’s.”

That bit of information got though the sexual cloud in Mallory’s mind. She sat straighter. “I know her. Not well, but I’ve talked to her a time or ten at Cinderella’s. She’s about my height and build with a head full of fireball red hair and brown eyes. She’s sweet, seems to have a great personality and a quick wit.”

Jackson looked at her, his expression neutral, his eyes focused and intense. “Her hair is black now, but yeah, that’s her.”

She had already been in Cooper’s office when Jackson arrived. He had greeted her as he always did and had gotten straight down to business. She had expected him to be angry, hurt. If he was, he certainly didn’t let it show. All morning, he had been acting as if last night never happened.

Wasn’t that what you wanted?

Yes. She had gone to him last night hoping to exorcise her lust for him once and for all. One night, a few hours in his arms, a few moments with him inside her, and all the sexual tension that had been building between them for so very long would be broken, diminished.

It hadn’t worked. He couldn’t know the willpower it had taken her to crawl out of his bed and leave after he had fallen asleep. She had wanted to stay, wanted to wake in his arms this morning. The mere thought of leaving him had torn through her soul, propelled her out of his bed and out of his apartment.

Out of his life?

No, if anything, her little game last night had backfired to hell. She still wanted him. Dammit, she wanted him even more now than before. Worse, last night had made her acutely aware of things she didn’t want to face, emotions she wasn’t ready to deal with.

“The degree in psychology doesn’t surprise me,” Mallory went on, pushing everything else aside. “She’s empathetic and a great listener.”

“What does she know about you?” Cooper asked.

Mallory instantly saw where he was going with his question. “Not much. Not even my real name. I’ve always used Jacqueline when I’ve introduced myself to anyone in that club.” She had talked to Jennifer about Jackson, though. She hadn’t revealed his name or even a description, nothing that would have clued Jennifer in on the fact that Mallory had been talking about her neighbor.

“She will recognize you,” Jackson pointed out.

Mallory nodded. “Yeah, she will, but she isn’t the one we need to worry about, right? I mean, she’s our informant not our bad guy.”

“I think the jury is still deliberating on that one,” Kell muttered.

“When was the last time you saw her?” Jackson asked. “She obviously wasn’t working two nights ago when you were at the club.”

No, she was too busy kidnapping you.
“It’s been a while, at least a week or more.”

“According to the owner of the club, she hasn’t worked in a couple of weeks.” Cameron moved behind her and rested his hands on the back of her chair. “She told her boss she needed some time to concentrate on her studies. She took a leave of absence shortly after Lexie disappeared and hasn’t been back. He said he’s called her a couple of times to check on her, make sure she didn’t intend to quit, to ask when she might be back, but she hasn’t given him a specific date.”

“She’s lucky he hasn’t fired her,” Kell added. “Most bosses wouldn’t put up with that.”

“He said she’s too good of an employee to lose,” Cameron said.

“Has she still been attending classes?” Cooper asked.

“Every one of them. Her records at the college are exemplary.”

“It would’ve set off an alarm if she dropped from sight completely. She thinks she’s being watched.” Jackson raked a hand through his hair and continued to pace. “That’s why she wanted to come in on her own, why she said coming to us in any normal way would’ve been too risky. She’s afraid for her life.”

“Her brother was Waterston PD. Did you know that?” Cameron asked.

Jackson nodded. “Narcotics detective. We crossed paths a few times. He was killed in a drug bust gone wrong last year.”

“Which would explain how she knows to spot a tail and how to lose one.” Brothers looked out for their little sisters. Mallory knew that from firsthand experience. Cameron had taught her how to defend herself, how to shoot a gun, and how to follow her gut when something didn’t feel right long before she joined the bureau.

“Her apartment is leased under her parents’ names. They lived there with her until her brother’s funeral, moved out, and bought a place in Meridian.”

“Son of a bitch.” Kell let out a disbelieving laugh. “That’s how she got the dealer tag.”

Jackson shot a look Kell’s direction. “Mal is right. Jennifer is a smart woman. She’s being cautious. She’s taken risks—stealing, kidnapping—that have put her own freedom in jeopardy.”

“Obviously something she knows has made her feel the need to break the law to stay safe,” Mallory cut in. “She’s scared. Why and of whom are the questions we still need answered.”

The intercom on Cooper’s desk phone beeped and his administrative assistant’s voice filled the office. “There’s a Jennifer Moss at the front desk asking to see Agent Graham.”

“Have her escorted to interrogation room two, Glenda.” Cooper flicked a look at Jackson and said, “Agent Graham will be with her shortly.”

“Yes, sir.”

Cooper got to his feet, snatched his suit jacket off the back of his chair, and shrugged it on. “Let’s go get those answers.”

* * * *

Jackson smelled her the instant he opened the door to interrogation room two. He recognized the scent as the one she had worn the night she had kidnapped him. He remembered making note of the fragrance and had thought to tell Mallory to wear it more often. That, of course, had been when he had thought Jennifer was Mallory. He fixed his gaze on her as he preceded the rest of the team into the room and took a moment to introduce each one in turn. He sat in the seat across from her. Cameron and Kell stood behind him, leaning against the wall at their backs.

Jennifer stared at Mallory, realization and recognition plain on her face. “I know you. But I thought your name was Jacqueline, not Mallory.”

Mallory took the seat adjacent to Jennifer and smiled warmly. “That’s the name I use sometimes when I’m in clubs. It’s nice to see you again. The new guy they have working your shift at Cinderella’s is kind of cute, but he doesn’t make a vodka and tonic the way you do.”