Asking For Trouble (16 page)

"You found Frankie?" Beau asked and hope
sparked inside of him. Jazzie was going to be relieved.

"Yeah, he finally called Jazzie's cell phone
again yesterday, and we had people in place to act quickly to pick
him up. What he has on Al-Gonon could seal the deal on the
takedown, if we can ID all the people involved. His friend Charlie
had information too, but Charlie's dead, and that information
disappeared." Glen's face was blank and impassive.

"So what now?" Beau asked and shoved a hand
through his hair.

"His sister is in a lot more danger now that
we have Frankie...her whole family is," Glen told him. "They're
desperate...that's why they're ramping up their efforts to kidnap
her for leverage to keep Frankie from talking. There's a big deal
going down and they don't want it fucked up. We're going to need to
take Jazzie into protective custody, maybe put her into WITSEC,
until the takedown."

Something tickled at the scruff of Beau's
neck and itched its way down his spine. It was really weird that
Glen was volunteering all this information so easily. Usually
agents were a lot more close lipped, even with other law
enforcement officers...and the way he said them seemed a
little...off. Beau blew off the feeling, and wrote Glen's
forthrightness off to him feeling comfortable with Beau, and Beau's
involvement in the situation.

Since Glen was being so forthcoming, Beau
decided to go for broke. "When's the takedown going to happen?"

Glen huffed out another breath and told him,
"It could take a while...the brass want Al-Gonon, but they want the
consortium more, since they're the middle man selling the weapons
to the terrorists. They're giving Al-Gonon rope for a while to try
and nail the consortium. Multiple agencies are working on this
case, nobody knows who they are, but they think the group is
comprised of some very high level people...even some of our guys
who've gone bad."

"So, Jazzie could be put in WITSEC for a
long time is what you're trying to tell me?" Beau asked with a knot
of foreboding in his gut.

If she was in WITSEC, the feds would cut her
off from everyone not in the program with her. Beau wouldn't be
able to contact her and he'd lose track of her. Her old life would
disappear to protect her. Beau knew Jazzie well enough to know she
was not going to agree to that...and he didn't want her to, because
he couldn't bear the thought of losing her.

Glen ran a hand through his crew cut hair,
then admitted, "Yeah, she could...they're still talking about what
to do with her mother, father and brothers...the whole damned
family should probably be put in the program."

"They're not going to go for that...we're
talking eight people here...a family that has built a life in
Dallas. Her father owns an import mechanic shop, and her brothers
work for him. Carlos owns a gym...Jazzie has the band...it's too
much to ask Glen."

"That's what I said, but we can't keep them
safe otherwise," he told Beau.

"We'll just have to figure out a way to
speed up this process. We can't wait for the slow ass wheels of the
federal government to move...it could take years, especially with
multiple agencies involved," Beau said in frustration.

"What do you have in mind?" Glen asked him
and lifted an eyebrow, then said sarcastically, "Because this
slow ass
federal agent is at his wits end."

"A multi-agency sting operation. We could
set up a few agents from the different agencies as bad cops, then
offer Frankie Ramos and his evidence to the consortium on a silver
platter, as long as we get to meet the head honchos, and talk to
them about getting cut into the operation. What do you think?"

"That sounds like a goat fuck waiting to
happen," Glen said with a snort.

Although Beau hadn't been in the military,
he had been around enough guys who had to know that term meant Glen
thought it was a disaster waiting to happen, something doomed from
the get go...something he shouldn't pursue.

"Goat fuck or not, if it works, we could end
this thing, and keep those weapons out of the wrong hands," Beau
told him. He knew he was way out of line here, in the scheme of
things he was just a peon, but at this point, Beau didn't care. His
boss would probably have not just a bird, but a fucking ostrich, if
he suggested this to him...unless the request for him to
participate came from the feds.

"Glen, I need you to try and set this up on
your end...my boss is not going to go for it, unless it comes from
the
slow ass
federal government," Beau told him with a grin,
then added, "I hear the barracuda are biting right now, try
throwing out a line and see what you catch." His sister, Sabrina,
had told him that was the code name the state FBI agents had for
their Special Agent In Charge of the region, Susan Whitmore, a
tough woman who didn't take crap from anyone.

Glen's face paled and he clarified in a
higher pitched tone, "Susan Whitmore?"

"None other...she tried to hire my sister,
you know? I could get Sabrina to give her a call, if you haven't
got the balls to deal with her," Beau taunted with a chuckle.

One night when he'd had dinner at Cole and
Sabrina's house, they'd told him the whole story about how they met
Susan, and Sabrina's experience with the barracuda at the FBI.

"I have to be honest here Beau, she fucking
scares the living shit out of me...and every male agent who's ever
dealt with her," Glen told him seriously.

"My sister kind of has that effect on men
too," Beau chuckled then told him, "I'll get her to give Susan a
call and see if she can convince her to set it up...just hold them
off on the WITSEC talk right now, until we see what happens. Jazzie
and her family need more protection than they've got though. Can
you see if you can get more agents for them? Make sure they're well
vetted and we know they're clean! No rookies, okay?"

"Yes, sir..." Glen said with a twist of his
lips. "Anything else, sir?"

Beau huffed out a breath then shoved his
hand through his hair and said, "I'm sorry if I'm taking over,
Glen...I appreciate your help. I care about her, which means I
shouldn't be involved in this case, but I can't stay away from
it...she needs me."

Glen put a hand on his shoulder and told
him, "I know man, I'll do what I can to help...just keep me in the
loop...don't go lone ranger on me, okay?"

Beau nodded, then Glen walked off to talk to
his partner, and Beau went back to where Jazzie was just being
loaded onto a stretcher. "How're you doing, sweetheart?" he asked
and dropped a kiss on her forehead.

Beau followed the ambulance to the hospital,
and was pacing the waiting room, while Jazzie was being taken for a
CAT scan to see if her skull was fractured. So far, it didn't look
like she was hurt too badly from the ordeal she'd been through
today, which was a miracle he was thankful for.

If the CAT scan turned out okay, the nurse
said the doctor might release her yet tonight. If it turned out she
had more than a mild concussion, they were probably going to keep
her overnight. He hadn't met with the infamous doctor yet, he'd
been down the hall on the phone with Glen when Jazzie had first
been examined.

Glen, true to his word, had called in three
more agents to protect Jazzie. One was a tough-looking woman who
was sticking to her like flypaper, following her around the
hospital when they took her for tests, and the other two male
agents were stationed outside of the examining room where the staff
put her. Beau had talked to all three and felt comfortable that
they were solid agents.

Carlos walked into the waiting room and told
him, "I went to check on Chase..."

Beau stopped pacing and turned to ask, "How
is he?"

"Stitches for the gunshot, it just grazed
his arm, but it bled pretty good, so they gave him a pint of blood,
and he has a minor concussion. They're going to keep him overnight
for observation," Carlos told him then added with a chuckle, "He's
pissed he wasn't awake to help us with the bad guys...he said to
tell you thank you for saving Jazzie...I want to thank you
too."

Beau felt blood creep up his throat to his
face then said, "I was doing my jo--"

Carlos raised a hand and cut him off. "You
can't tell me you would have gone to the lengths you did to save
Jazzie for any stranger...I won't believe you."

Beau studied him for a minute trying to
figure out why his response was so important to Carlos...he
was
doing his job. Jazzie just happened to be the one he
needed to save. "I do those things on a daily basis, Carlos. I do
go above and beyond, because I'm good at my job."

"So, you didn't do anything extraordinary,
because it was my sister you were saving? You didn't take risks
that you normally wouldn't take?" Carlos asked him bluntly.

Beau shook his head in confusion, then asked
him, "Why is this so important to you?"

"Because it's important to my sister,
evidently," Carlos told him holding his gaze intently, then he
added, "Evidently,
you
are important to her."

"She's important to me too..." Beau told him
and thought back over his actions today. Maybe this had something
to do with what Jazzie said to him earlier about her motivation to
torture him at the lake house. "Well, I certainly wouldn't have
been giving her personal security at the lake house, if she were
just anyone...someone else would probably have been doing that,"
Beau admitted.

"Okay, well at least that's something..."
Carlos said gruffly.

"And I probably wouldn't have almost put my
fist through that guy's face at the top of the hill...that wasn't
good procedure for sure, but I was pissed off that he'd tasered her
and tackled her," Beau told him with a twist of his lips.

"Would you have been that pissed off if he'd
tasered and tackled someone else?" Carlos grilled on.

"Probably not to that degree, no...she's so
small, and that guy wasn't. He could have really hurt her," Beau
said and felt the anger that had subsided reemerge inside of
him.

"And you would've been upset if he'd really
hurt her?" Jazzie's brother interrogated further.

Beau was kind of getting tired of answering
his questions. He should be worrying about Jazzie, checking on her,
not standing here in the spotlight of the Latin inquisition. He
huffed out a breath then said shortly, "Fuck yeah, I'd have been
upset...I'm upset that she was hurt at all...I should've protected
her better."

"Why? If she was only a job, why would you
be so upset?" Carlos asked shortly and pinned him with his intense
dark eyes.

"Because I fucking care about her! She's
not
only a job to me!" Beau shouted and took a step toward
Carlos. This had gone on long enough.

Carlos stepped forward too, so they were
nose to nose, "
That
is what I wanted to hear. Now don't you
ever
tell my sister you were just doing your job again, got
it? It makes her feel like she means nothing to you, like she's
just another day at the office, another victim, and that's not true
is it?"

"Hell no, it's not true!" Beau grated.

Is that what Jazzie thought?
Well, he
was going to make damned sure her thinking was straightened out
right now. He did care about her, more than he wanted to...hell he
was afraid he was falling in love with her, something he swore he'd
never do again. He didn't even know what love was really. His cold
mother had never said the words to him, and his father, although he
showed him he loved him, had never said the words. Just like he
hadn't been able to say them to Jenny, even though he asked her to
marry him, which was probably part of the reason their relationship
had imploded.

The feelings he had for Jazzie though were
ten times stronger than what he had felt for Jenny. That's why he
was so damned scared. Beau knew if he gave in to those feelings,
admitted them, and Jazzie got tired of waiting for him to say the
words, and did something to him like Jenny had done, he wouldn't
just be hurt, he'd be crushed...devastated. With the way she'd been
acting with Chase Rhodes, that made him even more reluctant to
examine or pursue his feelings for her.

"You've done that twice or three times to
her now, and it hurt her. If you wondered why she was acting like
she was at the lake house, now you know," Carlos told him
angrily.

"I've been a cop for a while now, faced some
very hairy situations, and I have to tell you when I saw that guy
had Jazzie on the boat, I was as scared as I've ever been in my
life, Carlos. I had to keep my head and go into cop mode though,
forget that I cared about her, because it was the only way I could
save her."

"Tell her that..." Carlos suggested then
took a step back.

Beau ran a hand through his hair and nodded,
then asked him, "Is she back from the CAT scan yet?"

"Yeah, they just brought her back in, the
doctor should be in there shortly," Carlos told him then added, "I
have to go to the gym and check on things...my business is going to
go down the toilet if I'm not careful. Call me if they release
her."