Solid Muscle (Unseen Enemy Book 5) (4 page)

Chapter Four

“I need to see Dallas, please, if he’s available.”

Cordelia glanced up from the flashcard pictures that Jack had given her to practice identifying emotion. She blinked in surprise at the man standing in front of her and got to her feet almost as a defensive instinct. No way she could keep letting him tower over her like that.

In front of her loomed the most gigantic man that she’d ever seen. She was no stranger to big men, of course, since the personal security and bodyguard fields crawled with the guys. Dallas was huge, so were Mark and Griff. And Hunter was tall
and
solid muscle – she knew this from being pressed under his body one night in the car as they had observed Michael Ferguson. But
this
guy? Holy Lord. He was even bigger than Dallas and that was sure as hell saying something.

She unstuck her voice. “I’ll ask him if he’s free right now. Could I please get your name?”

“Matt Kingston,” the monster-sized guy said. “Thank you.”

“Sit down, Mr. Kingston. I’ll be right back.”

He sat, leaving her to wonder how he managed to fit in a human-sized chair. She walked down the hall to Dallas’ office, tapped on the door.

“Yeah, come in.”

She poked her head in, saw her boss was reading a report. “There’s a man here to see you. He says his name’s Matt Kingston.”

Dallas’ handsome face registered surprise. “King’s here?”

She paused. “Oh.
He’s
King?”

“Yeah.” Dallas shut the report. “Send him in, alright?”

“Sure thing.”

Now that she knew just who the hell was sitting in the lobby, she approached him with real curiosity. King was hands-down one of the most intriguing security figures in the state and his reputation definitely preceded him.

There he was, all dark hair and dark gray eyes and tattooed forearms, totally relaxed in jeans and a t-shirt. If he was aware of the whispering around him, he didn’t give any indication beyond a slight raise to his mouth that showed amusement. Everything about this man screamed sex and confidence and she found herself slightly breathless by both. A man like this was a
man
and no fucking apologies… and
any
straight woman with a pulse would respond to that.

He looked up at her as she came over and he smiled. “He’ll see me, yeah?”

“Yes. Follow me, please.”

A flash of relief went over that hard, handsome face and then it was gone. That was when she was sure that King was there with his hat in hand. He was there asking for something –
either help or a favor
– and she wondered just what a guy like him could possibly need help with. He looked like he ate problems for breakfast while bending steel beams with his pinky fingers just for fun.

She led him back to Dallas’ office and ushered him in. “Did you want some coffee, Mr. Kingston?”

“No, thank you. I’ve hit my coffee quota for the day, trust me.”

She nodded and watched as Dallas came over to greet King. The two men shook hands and did that all-male shoulder clap thing that women never seemed to be able to get away with. Cordelia saw mutual respect between them – lots of it – and she took a few seconds to just enjoy the delicious view. The whole room was bristling with so much testosterone, she wouldn’t be surprised if it imploded on itself. Also? Between the two of them, they’d kicked the hotness factor up to maximum and far, far beyond.

Ummmm. They are damn gorgeous, both of them.

She gave them a final glance and then left, shutting the door behind her.

“Sit, man.” Dallas waved at the chair in front of his desk. “How you doing?”

“Good.” King sat, all rippling muscles and restrained power. “And congrats. I hear you’re getting married soon.”

“I am. In six weeks.” Dallas grinned. “Can you believe it?”

“Since we’re talking about Olivia Jameson, you’re goddamn right I can believe it.” King’s gray eyes were compassionate as he asked the next question. “Is she doing better?”

“She really is. She’s making peace with what happened and she’s finally able to look at her scars and not hate herself.”

King nodded. “I’m glad.”

“Yeah.” Dallas paused. “And I hear you got yourself a serious relationship. I think hell’s now a skating rink, huh?”

King laughed, the sound deep and dark as it rolled out of his broad chest. “Yeah. I’ve heard that before.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

“So.” King stared at Dallas. “Can I get right to it?”

“Shoot, Kingston.”

“OK. A few months ago, me and my team took down a kidnapping ring. You remember all those babies being taken from hospitals all over the state?”

“Sure I do. That was you guys who busted it up?”

“Yep.”

“Good job, man.” Dallas shook his head in open admiration. “I’ll come and buy every one of King’s Men a drink some night soon.”

“And we’ll let you, believe me.”

“I bet y’all will.”

“So King’s Men is obviously out of it now and everything’s in the hands of the cops and D.A. but I’m staying on top of things just out of curiosity, you know. Checking in and following the case. The asshole kidnappers all started singing like canaries the second the cops showed up, and have spent months throwing each other under buses and squealing like stuck pigs. They told anyone who would listen about the bosses and the organizers and the adoption agencies involved.”

“No honor amongst baby kidnappers, I suppose.”

“Damn right there’s not and thank Christ for that.” King leaned forward a bit. “They were all angling for plea bargains in exchange for information, but the D.A.’s been pretty uninterested. I mean, me and my team caught ‘em red-handed and dead-to-rights.”

“So not much leverage to deal,” Dallas commented.

“Not until just now.”

“What happened?”

“One guy started talking about another kidnapping ring… a major one based out-of-state that he keeps referring to as their former ‘competition’. Like they were a restaurant chain or something.”

“Urgh.” Dallas’ blue eyes were hard. “Fucking dickheads.”

“Right? But the thing is, this guy told the D.A. about a place in Kansas that this other ring used to house the kids. The local cops raided it and the tip was damn good.”

“What’d they find?”

“Fifty kids.”

Dallas was thunderstruck, horrified. “
Fifty
?”

“Fifty-three, to be pedantically correct.”

“Fuck. All kidnapped from hospitals?”

“Nope. These fuckers have branched out
way
farther than the group King’s Men took down and they’re equal-opportunity pricks… they’ll kidnap and sell
any
kid, most
any
age, from
anywhere
at all.”

Dallas cursed under his breath.

“The kids ranged from newborns to eight-year-olds. The cops and FBI have tracked them to missing persons reports filed all over the U.S., Canada and Mexico. One kid even went missing from England. Most of them have families somewhere, but some were taken from orphanages or foster homes. It’s a mixed bag, but the point of taking the kids seems to be to sell to adoptive parents.”

“Child sex trafficking rings?” Dallas ground the words out, hating to even say them out loud. “Pedophiles? Pornography?”

“Believe it or not, there’s none of that, or at least none that’s been found yet. The ring exists and operates solely to supply rich couples with kids.”

Dallas shook his head. “And why are you telling me all of this?”

“Because a good friend of mine in the FBI tipped me off about this whole plea bargain and I had two of my people make contact with the ring. They posed as a rich married couple looking for a baby.”

“You what?”

“Yeah. Valentina and Knox started the whole process of infiltrating this new kidnapping and adoption scam.”

“How?” Dallas was confounded. “How did they make contact? They just – what? Picked up the phone? I can’t imagine adoption scams are easy to Google.”

“You’d be surprised what you can find on Craigslist, actually,” King said wryly. “But no, you’re right. These people are
way
more organized than that.”

“Break it down for me.” Dallas grabbed a pen and pulled a notepad closer. “All the details, yeah?”

“Sure thing.” King paused, collecting his thoughts. “So. The way it works is that the ring has people working in adoption agencies – like, legit ones. These people are the ‘front line’ part of the whole fucking thing. They see couples and they know who’s being rejected and why.”

“But you said these assholes cater to rich couples,” Dallas said slowly. “I always thought that the major obstacle to adoption was money.”

“Yeah, that’s true. But adoption agencies also reject people with criminal records and even very rich people have those.”

“Ah.” Dallas leaned back. “I get it.”

“Yeah. So these front line people know that a rich couple can’t get a baby through above-board channels… and they’ll assess just how desperate the couple is. If they decide that they’re crazy-determined to adopt and their moral compasses don’t point north and they even
ask
about other, less-legal channels, then the person who works at the agency will gently suggest that the couple takes a… less above-board road.”

“Uh-huh.”

“The couples are told that the kids have all been removed from abusive foster care situations or that they’re orphans… not true, of course, but I imagine they sell the sob story beautifully. Make it sound like these rich people are saving an abused, unwanted child. Anyway, the couples are told straight-up that the kids are available and all it involves is money. Once they agree, it’s easy. The agency person takes their phone number and passes it on and the next stage kicks in.”

“Someone makes contact.”

“Yep. Lots of back and forth and it’s all e-mail, just to make sure that the couple is serious about doing this and also, to document their involvement. It traps them, of course, so if they get cold feet and pull out, then they’re told not to report anything. If they do, those e-mails hit the press.”

“And since these people are undoubtedly rich enough to have things like businesses and reputations and shareholders, they stay quiet.”

“You got it.” King sighed. “Anyway, once the middle man is satisfied that all is cool, a meeting is arranged. Always in Kansas and the instructions are to bring the money in a briefcase.”

“How much?”

“Half-a-million.”

Dallas whistled. “Holy shit.”

“Oh, that’s only half. It’s fifty percent upfront, fifty percent after they choose and then get the child. The kidnappers drop the kid off, leave with the rest of the payment. It’s all over then.”

“So the going rate for a stolen kid is a cool million.”

“Yeah. That includes papers, too.”

“Birth certificate? Legal adoption stuff?”

“All of it. And it’s fucking top-notch, man, let me tell you.”

“Christ.” Dallas shook his head. “OK. So what happened to make it all go wrong for Valentina and Knox?”

“It hasn’t gone wrong. It’s gone perfectly.
Too
perfectly. That’s why I’m here.”

“What’s that mean?”

“That we were working on a certain time line – all the information we got from the guy negotiating his plea bargain said that a baby buy takes about four months, from beginning to end. But yesterday, Knox got word that he and his wife are to show up at the middle man’s office in seven days with a suitcase of cash.”

“And?”

“And Valentine and Knox are out of the country on assignment.”

“Yank them off.”

“Impossible. Trust me.”

“Ask someone else.”

“Also impossible. Every one of my ten team members are eyeball-deep in undercover work.”

Dallas sighed. “You’ve got no warm bodies on hand.”

“You got it. So I thought of you and your people.”

Dallas stared at him stunned. “Wait. You want me to take this whole op away from you?”

“Yeah. I want you to send in someone to take these assholes down for good. Bust the whole thing wide open. Kick asses and fucking take names, Foreman.”

“Hang on a second.” Dallas shook his head again. “We don’t really do this kind of undercover thing. You know we specialize in bodyguard stuff, stalkers, personal security, surveillance.”

“But you
have
done undercover ops.”

“Sure we have… but nothing
this
deep or serious. These are big fucking fish.”

King shrugged. “Your people are all ex-military, so I know they can handle themselves.”

“Yeah. Yeah, they can. But…”

“Look, let me just cut to the chase, yeah? We have a small window of opportunity here. We’ve literally set everything up for you: we set up the fake identities and the fake lives, we made contact, we arranged the meet. All you guys have to do is walk in, hand over the money, get access to the places where they have the kids. Once you have eyes and hands on the kids, the feds will take it from there.”

“Why don’t
they
send someone in to pose as the married couple?”

“They don’t want to commit fully on the word of a baby kidnapper and show an agent’s face.”

“Goddammit.”

“So you see the problem, yeah?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I do.” Dallas stared at his hands for a few seconds. “Fuck, Matt… you know I can’t say no, don’t you?”

“I know, man. And if it were you asking me, you know I’d do it. Anything to get those kids home to their families, to get them someplace safe.”

Dallas exhaled. “Yeah. I know you would. Just like you knew I’d say yes before you even set foot in this office.”

“I did, yeah.”

The two men stared at each other grimly.

“OK.” Dallas stood up and paced a bit. “What do I need to know right up-front?”

“I’ve got the file right here, but there’s one thing you should know before you choose your team: Knox presented them as a mixed-race couple looking for a mixed-race baby.”

“Any photos exchanged?”

“No. Not yet. At this point, everything’s been sock puppet e-mail accounts and burner phones and fake names. The next step is
real
names so that the kidnappers can check out the couple before meeting them for the payment.”