Obsession: Loving An Alpha Male (29 page)

I made my way to my street and the coast was clear and everything seemed normal. My phone started ringing, but I ignored it. Josh had the knack to know exactly when I was getting in to something I shouldn’t with just the sound of my voice. If I answered the phone he would probably know what I was doing instantly. So I just left my purse in the car, grabbed my keys, and headed to my apartment.

It took the entire ride out to Robinson for Josh to calm down. He was pissed as hell at both Misty and Jacks. They really didn’t need him tonight. They just wanted to get in his shit for being MIA for a few weeks.

Sitting in the front, he turned to Jacks who was driving and said, “So tell me again why you needed me on this adventure of yours?”

Misty spoke up from the back of the truck.

“I’m not sure. I mean, the owner of the company you worked for wanted to talk to you as well as us.”

“Okay, I get that, but why set up the meeting now? Did he say they had more they wanted to share?” Josh asked.

“Actually I think so,” Misty added, and Josh simply nodded, and suddenly a sense of urgency to get this night over with so he could get back to Kenya came over him.

“So how serious is it with you and Sweets?” Misty smiled and leaned up against the front seat of the truck.

Josh remained quiet and continued to stare out the window. He remained quiet, not because he didn’t know, but because he didn’t feel like sharing. What he and Kenya shared seemed sacred to him, and he didn’t want to define anything without talking to her first. One thing he did know though, he was going to make her his wife and the mother of his kids sooner rather than later.

He pulled out his phone and looked at it. He thought about calling her just to make sure she was okay, but they pulled up to the house. The urgency feeling still rode him as they walked up to the door of Mr. Howard, CEO and owner of the Howard and Bradshaw Investment firm.

A woman clothed in a dark blue dress opened the door to greet them. She escorted them to a sitting area and advised Mr. Howard would be with them in a minute. The sitting area seemed very cozy and posh with expensive antique couches and chairs that were probably made to be looked at rather than sat on, and dark wood floors with a plush area rug that sat in front of the couches and chairs enveloped the space underneath them. There was a large fireplace and mantel with crystal figurines and family photos.

“Shit, I feel like I just entered an Ethan Allen catalog. This place is nice don’t you think?” Misty asked as she looked around the room then found a seat.

Jacks didn’t seem too impressed as he responded, “Yeah, if you like this kind of thing.”

Misty shook her head, “What the hell is your problem?”

Jacks sat down next to her on a couch that Josh didn’t think was strong enough to hold one person up, let alone both of them.

“I don’t have a problem… I’m just sick of being around rich spoiled blokes who think the world revolves around their asses.”

“Yeah, so I guess you hate your fucking self then…” Misty rolled her eyes and mumbled, “Rich bastard.”

Josh found a seat of his own and ignored everything around him. The feeling of uneasiness was getting stronger. He didn’t feel right, but he couldn’t pin point why. It was possible he was walking into something here, but he doubted it. No, it was something deeper. Wasting no time or thinking about it further, he took out his phone again and dialed a number from heart. His phone rang three times in his ear before it picked up.

“I thought I was off duty?” the man said on the other end.

“Relax, you are… I just need to ask if you removed those cameras from around Kenya’s apartment yet.”

“Yes, I did it yesterday like you requested. I left the ones facing the front door and back door though. Why? Do you want me to check them?”

Josh thought for a moment then replied, “No, have Junior do it. I need you to go down there and make sure everything is okay. I have this feeling something isn’t right, and I’ll feel better if you’re there tonight.”

Stanley sighed. “All right, Coop. What am I looking for?”

“I don’t know. Just keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. I’m going to call her to see where she is and let you know. I know for a fact she’s out, but I’m not sure where.”

“Do you think she’ll go to the apartment?”

Now that, Josh thought, was the million–dollar question.

“Yeah, I do.”

“All right, when I get there, I’ll call you.”

Josh hung up and quickly called Kenya. When her phone rang and went to voice mail, he hung up and sent her a text: ‘Where are you?’

“It’s not the same…” Jacks began to say, as Josh tuned back into his surroundings, but stopped and blurted. “Holy shit!”

Josh frowned and looked at Jacks. Jacks seemed focus on something that had him looking white as a sheet. He followed his line of sight and found himself unable to move. He wanted to ask how the hell she had gotten here but knew this woman standing before them couldn’t possibly be her.

The woman walked into the room and smiled. “Good evening, I’m Jessica Dowler. My father will be with you guys in a second. I just wanted to check to see if any one of you wanted something to drink; water perhaps.”

The woman looked at Misty, Jacks then Josh and stayed on his face.

Josh couldn’t breathe as he stood to accept her hand. Standing before him was the splitting image of Kenya, right down to the beautiful shaped eyes and smooth caramel skin. The difference was this woman was older and had brown eyes and long hair, contrast to Kenya’s green eyes and short hair.

The next person he saw was the man of the hour and a very beautiful dark skinned older woman, followed by four others both looking similar to Jessica.

Josh’s head started spinning as the realization that he was brought here for more than just a mere case hit him like a freight train. He looked at the stunned faces of both Misty and Jacks and wondered what the fuck was going on.

“Agent Cooper, I’m pleased you could make it.” Mr. Howard stretched his hand out to Josh. Josh moved to accept his hand cautiously, while looking at the others in the room. “I’m sure you’re wondering why you all are here?”

“That’s exactly what I’m wondering.”

“Great! Well, let’s get to it. You’ve met my youngest daughter, Jessica. This is my oldest son and the CFO of the company, Mark, my other son, Moses, and his two kids, Mika and Tessa. And this lovely woman is my wife, Kenya.”

Josh’s eyes went to the dark skinned older woman as she smiled and reached her hand out to him as well.

“It’s lovely to meet you. Thank you for your service. I don’t know what my husband would’ve done if he hadn’t had help from the FBI.”

Josh simply nodded, then completed the formalities by introducing Misty and Jacks before he found his seat.

He looked at Mr. Howard. “Sir, the case has been closed, and your company cleared of any pending charges, so why am I here?”

As everyone found seats and areas to stand in the small room, Mark approached Josh with a folder in his hand.

“Well, since the investigation, we, as a company, wanted to look at every large client that left us to make sure everything was on the up and up when they were here, you know, to go along with your investigation, and we located one that we aren’t too sure of, well two actually. One being one of our long standing clients, a shipping and distribution company, that decided to leave our company just recently. That’s not unheard of actually and wasn’t what caused us to dig deeper. No, what did was the company they left us for. It’s a smaller investment firm that typically wouldn’t have a client as large as this company. They are always in the high millions in revenue, and well…”

Josh was trying to rein in his patience, hoping they would get to the point and fast.

Mark, sensing he was losing his audience, decided to skip the investment lesson he was going to give and said, “Before you came to work for us we were approached by another agency, advising that someone on their radar had an account with us, and they wanted all the information they could on this client of ours. They told us that this company was actually a shell company for a Mexican cartel that was making moves within the United States. They were using the money they made to fund drug trafficking and guns throughout the States and Canada. Naturally we cooperated in any way we could and allowed an agent from their agency to work inside our company while they investigated the Cartel.”

Jessica chimed in. “A couple of weeks ago, the shipping company that left us started trading with this shell company. We thought it very odd and brought it up to the agent. She told us she would look into it, but just recently the shell company got a deposit from some unknown source; a very large amount that isn’t the norm for them.”

She let that hang for a while then Mark picked up. “Well, I didn’t want the same thing happening again that went down with those four you arrested, so I had my dad call in a few favors, and we found out some disturbing news that, well, we thought you should know… considering…”

“Considering what?” Jacks asked, but no one responded.

Josh looked at Mr. Howard and held his gaze. He then moved to Mark’s son and kept his eyes on him for an uncomfortable minute.

Not wavering his gaze from Mika, Josh asked, “First things first, whatever you found or think you have found, have you shared this information with Agent Deonatti?”

“We have,” Mark replied.

Josh looked at him. “Okay, and did she say she would look into it?”

“She did,” Mark added.

“So again, why am I here? She and I aren’t colleagues, and this isn’t my case.” Josh stood. “I don’t think we can help you.”

Mark stood too and continued, “The money was one point two million dollars that was broken up so it could go undetected and shifted through a few banks in the Cayman’s to a few Swiss banks before it landed in the shell company. We found out that the shipping company lost a couple of shipments and were told to pay for the loss; however, they were only able to pay a portion. The shell company is waiting for the rest of their money, and from what we learned, the shipping company is late with their payment.”

Josh folded his arms and narrowed his eyes. “How do you know all this?”

It was Tessa’s turn, and she said, “I overheard Agent Deonatti on the patio speaking in Spanish. I got some of what she was saying. I can’t remember verbatim, but she said something about how some company lost a shipment and is trying to stall with paying it back. The Cartel gave them a couple of days or they would take matters into their own hands. She said something about this Cartel liking to kidnap family members, namely wives and/or kids.”

Tessa looked at her grandfather, and he nodded, so she took a deep breath and looked at Josh. “She mentioned something about maybe using the company’s owner’s girlfriend as bait to catch the Cartel in the act.”

Josh asked, “Did you catch anything else?”

“No, I told my dad about it afterwards and well…” she looked at him nervously, so Mark cleared his throat.

“We had someone look into who the owner of the shipping company was. We knew ownership changed hands recently, and so we looked up the name and found out it was Noah Baxter.”

Josh didn’t move at first. He knew they were getting to something, but he didn’t think or expect it to be that.

“That’s Kenya’s husband,” Jacks revealed, then stood himself. He looked over at Josh, “Now do you believe me?”

Josh ignored him and said to Mark, “When did the first payment get sent?”

“About a week ago.”

“Shit!”

Josh closed his eyes and tried to prevent the anger that was slowly billowing. He thought about everything he was told and even the things he knew on his own. What bothered him about this was how much he was in the dark. How did Junior miss this?

Josh opened his eyes, and they fell on a set of green ones that looked exactly like Kenya’s.

“When was the last time you’ve even spoken to your daughter?” Josh asked, remembering Kenya telling him her mother was estranged from her family, the very family he was surrounded by.

“It’s been years,” Mr. Howard told him.

“So how do you know…?”

Mr. Howard added, “Tessa is our child prodigy in the family.” Josh wanted to tell him she wasn’t the only one. “She can find out any and everything you could ever want to know on the computer. She found out about the new investment company that Baxter’s industries went to. She also found out that Frost and Baxter were becoming business partners. We saw the announcement of the engagement of Noah and Kenya then found the missing persons reports for Kenya.”

“We couldn’t find Kenya after that until recently.”

Before Josh could ask something else, his cell rang.

He pulled it out and answered tersely, “Cooper.”

He heard heavy breathing and cussing before. “Yeah it’s me… when can you get to the apartment? This shit is fucked up, Coop.” There was a pause, then he heard, “She’s gone.”

Josh closed his eyes. “What happened?”

“I pulled up around the corner of the building to check the back, and I saw someone sitting in a van looking restless and edgy. That’s when I heard gunshots coming from the front of the building. I took this guy out in the van, drew my weapon and saw a car scream around the corner toward me. They started shooting at me, and I shot back but only was able to hit the tail light, and I think I got one of the tires…”

“How do you know you were too late?” Josh asked.