Sexual Games [The Heroes of Silver Springs 8] (Siren Publishing Classic) (9 page)

“You and I both know that’s not the case.” Mallory moved to one of the two chairs in front of his desk and perched on the edge.

He flicked his vivid blue eyes her way as she sat. “Of course we do.”

Mallory studied her boss. Dressed as he always did in a well-tailored dark suit, sans the jacket hanging over the back of his chair, with a crisp white shirt, she could easily detect every rigid muscle in his sculpted biceps. Broad shoulders and a well-defined chest strained the material of his shirt. Dark hair and chiseled facial features added to the power of his eyes. No doubt about it, for a man in his midforties, her team leader was yummy to the max. Yet, she’d never seen him with a woman, never even heard gossip about him keeping company with a one.
What is up with that?
She wouldn’t dare ask, so she went with a more relevant question instead.

“She’s been missing for a month and no one reported it?”

“Apparently, there wasn’t anyone to report it, unless you count Graham’s kidnapper last night.”

“What about her family, friends, coworkers?”

“Her coworkers thought she simply quit. We’re assuming Jackson’s kidnapper is someone close to her, but she appears to be the only one. The girl’s father is serving a life sentence in the ADOC—the Alabama Department of Corrections—for killing her mother when she was two years old. She became a ward of the state after that and was bounced around in the foster system until she did a stint in juvy herself. They released her at eighteen and she hit the streets.”

“A prostitute?”

“If she was, she managed to keep it off the books. Her adult record is clean. Employment records put her working at a number of restaurants and bars in Alabama and Mississippi, none of them for very long at a time.”

“Running from something or someone?” If so and they could determine what or who, they may have their first clue as to what happened to the girl.

Cooper shook his head and finally gave Mallory his full attention. “More like trying to find herself would be my guess. She settled in Waterston about a year ago, landed a job here and there at fairly respectable diners and a few clubs, and enrolled in the community college at the start of this term.”

“Enrolled but never attended a class,” Mallory concluded, immediately picking up on the distinction.

“It doesn’t look like she got the chance.”

“You might be right. She seemed to be attempting to get her life together. Always having a legit job, keeping her nose clean, and signing up for college… That leads me to think she was working toward making something decent out of a screwed-up life.”

“The worst strike we’ve turned up against her so far is her job at Stardust.”

“I’m gathering she was a stripper, not a cocktail waitress.”

Cooper nodded, pulled a paper from a file on his desk, and slid it across the desktop.

Mallory leaned forward, her heart aching for the girl who stared back at her in the enlarged driver’s-license photo. The girl wore her blonde hair long and brushed to the left. A few tendrils hung over her left cheek and drew attention to blue eyes that obviously wanted to be happy but still held the haunted secret of a tough past. She had pushed the rest of her long hair behind her left ear for the photo, exposing a thin scar at her temple.

“She’s beautiful.” Mallory eased back and met her boss’s gaze. “I know I don’t have to tell you this, but you realize what we’re likely up against here? A twenty-three-year-old beautiful woman working as a stripper in a seedy club with no family ties, no friends save one, and no one to miss her if she’s suddenly gone.”

Cooper’s expression turned grimmer than she’d ever seen it. “Another part to Operation Water Down. Human trafficking and likely sexual slavery.” He tapped the photo of Lexie Stratus. “Given her history, profession, and appearance.”

Mallory ran her fingers through her hair, thinking. “Our office, along with the WPD, have been keeping tabs on all missing-person cases in the area since we busted the last known ring in Waterston.” A bust in which she’d herself been taken out of a local nightclub by a lowlife looking to break into human trafficking. The guy had been an armature with the intent of auctioning her and a dozen other young women and girls to the highest terrorist bidder and transporting them overseas. “Nothing suspicious has turned up to substantiate our belief that there is another local ring kicking into action.”

“You just said the key word, Stone.
Known
.
Known
ring.
Known
missing-person cases.” Cooper picked up the photo of Lexie Stratus and replaced it in the file. “We didn’t know she was missing until last night. Who knows how many other girls are out there we don’t yet know about.”

“I would say it’s time we find out.” Adrenaline and determination pumped through Mallory’s veins. It had been too long since she’d gotten the chance to sink her teeth into a good assignment. She wouldn’t rest until they found Lexie Stratus and knew everything down to the millisecond of what happened to her in the last month.

“Lexie is not the only Stardust employee to quit suddenly.”

Well, now. That was news to Mallory. She stiffened and sat up straighter.

“Kell is checking out the others now,” Cooper continued. “There have been four in the last six months.”

“Why didn’t we know about this? Waterston PD has had a team frequenting that place for over a year.”

“Quitting a job isn’t against the law, nor is it uncommon in a club like Stardust.”

“But if those four have vanished without a trace as well…”

“Then we have more than a missing Lexie Stratus on our hands and possible substantiation of a trafficking ring,” Cooper finished. His gaze flicked to the uniform she’d hung on his closet door when she’d first entered his office. He lifted both brows. “Those are some clothes. Looks like there’s barely enough material to fit on the hanger.”

Mallory bit back a smile. “I’ve worn less on the job.”

“You’re in, then.”

He made it more statement than question, but she answered anyway. “I start tonight at seven.”

“Cocktail waitress?”

The underlining hope in Cooper’s tone almost made her let the smile come. “The woman who interviewed me, Betty—who coincidentally reminded me a lot of Betty Boop—offered me a stripper position, but I declined. She left the offer on the table, stressing how much more money I would make, and told me if I changed my mind to let her know.”

She chewed her bottom lip and waited a beat. “It might be necessary. If we are uncovering a trafficking ring, the ringleader might be focusing on strippers in the club. If that’s the case, I won’t get far as a cocktail waitress.”

Cooper nodded once. “Let’s hope it doesn’t become necessary.”

Yes, yes, please, let’s hope.
Mallory would do anything for the job, anything to catch bastards who were taking women as hostage, turning them into sex slaves, and auctioning them off to the highest bidder. If it meant taking off her clothes in front of a bar of drooling, disgusting, lowlifes, she’d do it, but she really,
really
hoped she wouldn’t have to.

“I’m sending Tarantino in with you. He’ll be playing the role of a customer. I don’t want you going in there alone. You okay with that?”

“Absolutely,” Mallory answered quickly. She’d worked assignments with Nick Tarantino before. He was a good agent and a valuable stand-in on their team. Tall, impressively built, and blond with olive-hazel eyes and a naturally dark complexion, he ranked quite high on the bureau stud-o-meter. He was also a keen observer. Practically nothing got past the man.

Cooper opened his mouth to go on, shut it again, and frowned when a knock at his office door cut him off. “Enter,” he bellowed curtly.

Mallory shot a glance over her shoulder as the door opened and Jackson walked into the office. Powerful thighs encased in dark slacks carried him closer to the desk, closer to her. Sweaty nights and tangled sheets sprang to her thoughts as her gaze slid up his hard, muscular body. He was raw power and masculinity in one incredible package, and she knew he would be tasty and immensely satisfying if she could ever get him between her legs.

Jackson stopped mere steps away from her and addressed Cooper. “Am I interrupting something, sir?”

Cooper shook his head. “Have a seat, Graham.”

Three long strides brought Jackson to the seat next to her. He put a hand on the armrest of the chair, the muscles in his bicep flexing as he sat.

Heat ignited in Mallory’s core. His biceps and big, strong hands were made to hold a woman as he brought her to orgasm after orgasm.
Christ
, she wanted his hands on her, wanted to feel that power between her legs as he slid his cock in and out of her pussy.

“Are you allowed to accessorize the uniform, or do we need to come up with another option?” Cooper picked up their conversation where he’d left off before Jackson interrupted them.

Mallory tamped down her lusty thoughts about Jackson and looked back at Cooper, realizing his attention was fully focused on her once more. “Jewelry is not a problem. I was told it’s actually encouraged.”

“Good. We’ll use the anklet and earrings.” Cooper glanced at the uniform again. “They should match rather well.”

Toshie—whose real name was something she could rarely pronounce and get it right—was the bureau’s all-around tech guy. He designed gadgets that they found invaluable on the job. He had created a studded-leather anklet for her on a previous assignment that hid a high-tech tracking device along with a signal scrambler and tiny USB tool to use when she needed it. The earrings were a pair of silver oval-shaped studs with silver and black dangling chain tassels. She only had to push firmly on the stud twice to call in the team if an undercover assignment went bad.

Both accessories had already proven to be priceless. She had used them in the last trafficking undercover assignment, leading the team straight to her and the eight other women who’d been taken from local clubs with the intent to be sold at auction.

Beside her, Jackson cleared his throat. “Match what, if you don’t mind my asking, sir.”

“Mallory’s uniform.” Cooper looked at her quizzically. “Or should I say Jacqueline? I assume you used the same alias this time.”

“Yes, sir.” Jacqueline Monroe was safe, solid, an alias with absolutely no strings to her real life. They had created Jacqueline with a concrete background in the club industry and the spotty past of a runaway teen who had sometimes gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd. Jacqueline didn’t have anyone in her life, no parents, no friends to speak of, no one to truly care for her. She was easy bait for slime balls operating a sex-trafficking ring. Mallory had used the name only during her sparse ventures into Cinderella’s and on two previous cases. Neither had blown the cover or stemmed connections to what she would be going into tonight.

“Jacqueline’s uniform, then.” Cooper angled his chin toward the closet, indicating the clothing hanging on the outside. “She’s going undercover as a cocktail waitress at Stardust. Tarantino will be her partner for this assignment.”

Mallory saw a muscle tick in Jackson’s jaw, the only sign that he didn’t like the idea. It wasn’t personal. It wasn’t jealousy or even fear for her safety, though they all felt that bone-chilling fear anytime one of their own went undercover on a potentially dangerous assignment. They all rolled with it, knowing it was part of a job they all did supremely well.

No, that ticking was because he wanted to be the one there with her and he knew damn well he couldn’t be. Someone with some connection to Stardust knew what he looked like and knew he was a federal agent. If he stepped foot inside the place, pretending to be a patron, flags could be raised in bright neon red.

She watched as his gaze moved to the uniform and the ticking turned into a time bomb he skillfully prevented from detonating.
That
was personal. It was jealously. That was the look of a man who felt the effects of the outfit in his cock.

It took a skill of her own not to allow her gaze to drop to his lap, to see if his cock was hardening inside his slacks. She knew she didn’t have to be wearing the uniform for him to see what it would cover and what it wouldn’t. The barely there black spandex skirt fit her snug and stretched to just below crotch level. The blue metallic bustier had a jeweled choker with thin straps connecting to a V bodice that dipped way low between her breasts and stopped just before her belly. The design would expose the swells of her breasts as well as the silver bellybutton ring she always wore beneath her clothes.

Jackson glanced at her, his expression now masterfully guarded and completely unreadable, then settled his focus on Cooper. “The surveillance disc didn’t turn up anything. I’m going to the apartment to talk with the tenants. I honestly don’t believe the woman who kidnapped me last night lives in the building. I’ve been through the list of tenants, my memory of their appearances, and none of them fit my mental profile of her. I’m hoping a voice would trigger more.”

“Do you want to take someone with you?” Cooper asked.

“I was going to take Mallory. This is all females I need to talk to and a few of them have husbands. I thought a female presence with me would help to prevent ruffling any feathers.” He shook his head. “But if Mallory is going undercover, she doesn’t need to be seen with me. Nor does she need to be seen anywhere connected with the assignment outside of Stardust.”