The Puppeteer (16 page)

“Marmie's here, doing her best to pretend she's not listening. She's not doing a very good job of hiding her laughter though,” he added, not at all contrite. “Oh, and Spanky is here, too. What's that Spanky?” he asked, and Dani could hear her colleague saying something. Ty let out a bark of laughter. “Spanky wants to know if
you're going to come through the phone and emasculate me now, or if you're going to wait until you get back here? Either way, he wants a heads up so he can take bets.”

“Later. Definitely later,” she muttered as she reached the car. The keys were inside and she popped the trunk. The soldier placed her duffel in the back, closed it, and gave her one last look. He was very cute, in an Opie Taylor kind of way.

“Stop smiling at the private, you'll make him blush,” Ty commanded.

“Too late,” Dani answered, as the young man murmured his goodbye, blushed, and walked away.

“You in the car now?” Ty asked, bringing her back to the task at hand.

“Yes, now you can give me the specs.”

And he did. Ty rattled off the name of the hotel they'd reserved for her, the names of local DEA agents she'd be working with for the next few days, and a few pieces of intelligence that had come in during her flight. The only surprise was the fact that Sonny's trip to Miami had been delayed by four days. He'd leave the militia compound the same day Savendra was scheduled to return. Maybe they didn't like too many people to be off the compound at the same time.

“So, what's the plan?” Ty asked when he finished giving her the details.

“I'll go to the regional office, meet the agents, and then scout the area. Savendra doesn't come in until this time tomorrow, so I have plenty of time to check things out.”

“Go to Mamarita's for dinner, if you have a chance,” Ty suggested. “It's the best Mexican in town.”

As far as Dani was concerned, good Mexican food was the best thing Southern California had to offer.

“What's the address?”

“It's in your email already,” he answered. “Marmie told me how much you like Mexican food—figured we'd toss it in the reports we sent.”

“I have high standards, so don't get offended if I don't like it.” She was only partly teasing. After spending a couple of months in
Mexico on three separate occasions, her standards were high. But, outside of Mexico, she was pretty easy to please.

“Well then, when this is all over, I'll take you to a little place near my parents' place in Taos. You'll love it.”

Dani almost drove off the road.

“Ty,” she half-warned.

“Gotta go, Drew's giving me the stink eye. I think I blew my chance to give you any more updates. I'll talk to you later.” Ty ended the call. Dani pulled the phone from her ear, looked at like it might bite her, sighed, and tossed it onto the empty seat.

*   *   *

An hour and a half later, most of which was spent in traffic, Dani was sitting across from Agent Alicia Gordon in the San Diego field office of the DEA. Both women were watching the figure of Agent Jeffery Diamond disappear down the hallway in a huff.

“Whose puppy did you kick to get him for a partner?” Dani asked.

“Just another day on the life of a pregnant DEA agent,” Agent Gordon replied with good-humored resignation—which was more than Dani would have been able to muster.

Dani turned her attention back to the woman sitting at the table. Agent Gordon was a few years older than her, and about six months pregnant. True, Dani wouldn't want her on a high-risk stake out or other physically demanding assignment, but Agent Gordon's attractive face held eyes that were intelligent and sharp. Dani would bet, hands down, that even six months pregnant, Alicia Gordon was the better agent.

“I'm not sure about the wisdom of partnering up a misogynistic SOB with a pregnant woman. What did they think that would accomplish?” Dani asked. Agent Diamond had done nothing but insult her intelligence and ogle her breasts for the past thirty minutes. Well, to be fair, he also ogled her legs. She wished Ty was there. It would be funny to watch Ty do his he-man thing.

“Yeah well, I have to stick to desk work or—” she added with a nod to the Savendra file, “low risk surveillance. Diamond is already skating on thin ice, that's why we're assigned together; they needed to get him off the streets for a while. He has no idea what a bad move it is to go complain to the captain right now.”

As if on cue, Dani and Agent Gordon heard the captain yelling, a short scuffle that sounded like a chair being knocked over, and then a door slamming. Dani cast Alicia a look and they both burst out laughing.

“So what'd he do? Do I need to worry about him?” Dani asked, before Diamond made it back to the room.

“Nah, not like that. He's good at surveillance. He's not a loose cannon or anything like that—he won't go cowboy on you. In fact, it's more like the opposite. He's a bit terrified of guns, so try not to get in his line of fire if it ever comes to that.”

“Did I miss any makeup secrets?” The man in question sneered as he walked into the room. Dani glanced at Alicia who shrugged.

“No, but I have a report I'd like you to run,” Dani replied, off the cuff. She didn't want to spend a second more with this man than she had to.

He looked at her, waiting for her to continue. His eyes drooped with age as his jaw set in furious resignation. Dani had to admit, after a long career in the DEA, he might be entitled to be a bit grumpy.

“What? Did the air suddenly leave that little blonde head of yours?” he barked.

But it did not entitle him to be an asshole.

“Savendra's mother is a real estate agent. I want the addresses of all the houses she's listed as a seller or worked on as the buying agent. I also want a list of the buyers and sellers of all the properties and I want that cross-checked with the names on this list,” she slid a sheet of paper across to him. A list that held the names of a bunch of men in Savendra's uncle's cartel. “Go two degrees deep on all of them for the past three years,” she ordered. Out of the corner of her eye Dani saw Alicia bite her lip to keep from grinning.

“Bullshit,” Diamond exploded.

“There a problem, Dani?” Captain Young stuck his head in. Dani turned and smiled. She'd known Craig ‘Buster’ Young for several
years. He was the only person, outside her team, who knew who her real employer was.

“I don't think so, Buster,” she responded with a nod toward Diamond. “Agent Diamond, is there a problem?”

Diamond opened his mouth to protest, saw the warning look on the captain's face, and closed his mouth. “Nope, no problem at all,” he muttered, pushing away from the table.

“Two more months, Alicia,” Buster said apologetically after Diamond was out of earshot. “Two more months until he retires and I promise you'll get some sort of combat reward.”

Alicia smiled and rolled her eyes. “It's fine, Captain. I appreciate the thought, and wouldn't say no to a bonus, but we're all just doing our jobs.”

Buster looked at the two women again and gave a quick smile. “You two will work well together. I take it you gave Diamond a long and solo assignment?”

“It should take him a few days.” Dani grinned as Buster turned and left.

“You know the captain?” Alicia's eyes were bright with interest.

“We've worked together in the past,” Dani replied. She could see the thoughts bouncing around in the agent's eyes but discretion won out and Alicia let it drop.

“So have you been by the house yet? Done any recon?” Alicia asked.

Dani shook her head. “No, I will in the morning.” It was heading on toward six in the evening and Dani didn't need to keep anyone late when the morning would be fine. “Is it okay for a pregnant woman to ride around in a car? I'd love the company.”

“As long as you don't mind stopping for bathroom breaks, I'd like nothing better than to not have to hear Diamond bitching about everything all day.”

*   *   *

After making plans to pick up Agent Gordon in the morning, Dani checked into her hotel and then headed for Mamarita's. With a little sigh of contentment, she tipped back in her chair on the restaurant's deck and took a sip out of her long-neck bottle, enjoying the taste of the cold, crisp beer and the soothing feel of the setting sun on her face. Judging by the clientele, it was a popular dinner locale—with the military crowd. The place was full of them, both in and out of uniform.

But lost in her own thoughts about the investigation, Dani didn't mind the curious looks pointed in her direction. Taking another bite of her empanada, she stretched out her legs, feeling the night air wash over her bare skin.

“She's gotta belong to someone,” she heard a voice to her right say. He was speaking to a table of four other guys. Dani had noticed the group in her quick survey of the patio when she first sat down. There were two men, probably a couple of years older than her, and three men several years younger. They were definitely from the nearby base, even though not one of them was in uniform—they just had that look.

“Girls like that don't come here without belonging to someone from the base, or hunting for someone from the base,” another one of the young men agreed. Dani had to bite back a grin and stop herself from rolling her eyes at his use of the word ‘girl.’

“She doesn't look like she's hunting anything,” another pointed out.

Dani knew exactly what they were talking about. Other than talking about her, they were talking about the military groupies. Women that looked for men in uniform for the sole purpose of putting another notch in their bedposts with someone they see as
dangerous
. And she never could figure out why some women found killing to be sexy, anyway—even sanctioned killing. Having done her fair share, she could say with complete honesty that there was nothing sexy about it. The men and women in the military who did it, did it for a living and, she was pretty sure, most didn't enjoy it—understood it yes, but enjoyed it, no.

She cocked her ear toward the table of men, wondering what they would say next. For a while they said nothing, so she sat back
and stretched again, propping her feet on the empty plastic chair on the other side of her table. She took another sip of beer and closed her eyes.

“Shit, I'm going to ask,” she heard one of the men mutter and she couldn't help the grin that stole across her face.

“Excuse me, ma'am,” the man said as he came to stand next to her. Dani looked up into his face. It was one of the two older men from the table. He was tall and handsome and hid his eyes behind a pair of sunglasses. His brown hair was military short and his chest was defined under a gray t-shirt. Baggy shorts hid what Dani guessed was a lower half that was a perfect match with his upper half.

“Yes?” Dani said, tilting back her bottle for another sip.

“I was wondering what brings you to town?” he asked. His question was direct, nothing subtle about it, but there was an underlying hesitation that Dani found endearing—like he was trying to be more nonchalant than he was—which was difficult, coming from this six-foot-plus man.

“Work,” she replied, knowing he hoped for more of an answer, but not willing to give one yet. This was probably the most fun she would have in San Diego.

“Uh huh,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “At the base? I mean, I'm just curious. We don't usually see…well, let's just say that you—”

The sound of Dani's phone cut him off. “Excuse me for a minute,” she said, taking out her phone.

“It's me,” came Ty's voice.

“Drew gave you phone privileges again?”

“Yeah, well,” he cleared his throat. “What are you doing?”

“Eating at Mamarita's and chatting with another handsome SEAL,” she replied. The man standing next to her straightened and, behind his glasses, she felt his eyes snap to hers in surprise. And suspicion. “You are a SEAL right? Or used to be?” she asked him.

His brows disappeared behind his sunglasses. “Yes, ma'am.”

“And he's going to ‘ma'am’ me to death even though he's older than me,” she added, speaking back to Ty.

“What's his name?” Ty demanded.

“What's your name?” she repeated the question. For a second it looked like the SEAL might not answer, and then he spoke.

“Dan Fowler. Fawkes,” he answered, adding what she assumed was his handle.

“Like a little, red, furry fox?” she asked.

“No, like Guy Fawkes. I like to blow shit up,” he added.

That didn't surprise Dani; he looked the sort. After repeating what he'd said into the phone, she laughed, then listened to what Ty had to say.

“I'm supposed to tell you that if you even think about trying to pick me up, Ty, who I am supposed to refer to as Folsom Fuller,” she added with a smile, “will make you wish you never even had balls.”

Shock registered on Fawkes's face for a split second, and then he rocked back in laughter. “Ty Fuller?” he laughed.

Dani nodded. “Big guy, scar on his right knee, bullet bite on his butt,” she added for clarification. Fawkes laughed again.

“Hey Roddy,” he called to one of the other men. “She's Folsom's girl, that lucky son of a bitch. I told you she belonged to somebody.” Dani opted to ignore his use of the word ‘girl,’ again, and turned to look at Roddy, who was rising from his seat.