Suspicion At Sea (14 page)

“Why do you think something is wrong? You are not the be all and end all knower of my feelings,” I snap.

“Jeez,” he acts wounded by my words. “Can you just tell me what I did?” I would think he would have removed his hand from my thigh by now. Nope. He holds on strong, staring holes into the side of my head. “Ellie?” his tone stronger.

“Nothing,
friend
, you did nothing wrong.” I turn and stare into those dark eyes. Those fucking expressive eyes, and they soften right in front of me.

“You heard me talking to Suzy.” He takes his hand off my thigh and slides it around the nape of my neck, pulling my face closer to his.

“I'm just a friend, it's okay. It's not like I'm your girlfriend or anything. I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at myself. I don't know why it bothers me so much. I don't even know what I expected you to say, but you could have been a little more excited about it.” I'm rambling now, his face getting closer and closer until he finally shuts me up by placing his lips on mine. His mouth opens and his tongue brushes my bottom lip before forcing my lips apart. Pressing on the back of my neck, he pushes his lips harder on mine until I give in to him. I can't help it, his kisses set me on fire. My tongue darts into his mouth as my hand goes up to his head. My anger is completely gone.

“Do you think that is how I would kiss a friend?” he breaks the kiss, his face still close to mine and our breathing strenuous.

“Apparently so,” I whisper, once I've caught my breath.

“She was so sad. I didn't want to flaunt my happiness in front of her so I down played.” He places another hard kiss on my now tender lips. “Sorry,” he whispers against them. Now I feel like a giant asshole. He was just protecting his sister's feelings and I made a big deal out of nothing.

“Fuck, I'm an idiot,” I say with my forehead pressed against his.

“Hey, nobody talks about my friend that way.” He chuckles and squeezes the nape of my neck lightly.

Chapter 26

Justin

I take her straight to the warehouse. I don't know what she is looking for, but she asked if my sister had a key. So I figured we could go check it out. I knew something was wrong the minute she came out of the kitchen. When my sister asked who Ellie was, I wanted to say she's my future wife. Fuck if that wasn't a bit scary, but it was the first thing that came to mind.

“What are we looking for?” I pull up to the side of the warehouse out of view of the street. It's off the main road, so unless someone is actually coming to the warehouse, no one will see us.

“Not sure yet,” she says, taking out her gun she had put in the glove box. When we left the room she put it in her purse and I’d given her a look that she ignored. I had asked her what she needed her gun for when she had grabbed it from the drawer when we left.

“I'm just used to having it,” she shrugged. I can understand that, I spent the past ten years with a gun on my person at all times, but now on Bailey Island it hardly seems necessary.

Getting out of the Jeep, she lifts her shirt, placing the Glock in the waist of her shorts at her back. Yep, dick hard again. She does this like it's second nature.

She is totally in her element as she scans the surroundings and the building.

“What would a typical fishing company have in their warehouse?” she asks when I've gotten out of the Jeep. I lean against the hood with my arms crossed and watch her scanning the building.

“Freezers, bait traps, lines, and live tanks for lobster are just a few things,” I answer.

“Why would someone spend so much on high tech security then?” She starts pointing out cameras at different points on the building. I would have never noticed them if I wasn't actively looking for them since they are camouflaged. I've never actually been here before, and would never think to look for hidden cameras anyway. “And I don't think we are getting in with the key Suzy gave me.” She nods to the keypad on the door. The side doors that open for loading and unloading are chained and padlocked. “This kind of security isn't cheap, Justin,” she reiterates.

“I've never seen cameras like that.” I point to the one above the door. It looks like an ordinary light, but at closer inspection it is a camera. I never would have noticed if Ellie didn't point it out to me.

“Well one thing's for sure, if we go in there it won't be incognito.” She stands back and starts chewing the inside of her lip.

“What are you thinking?”

“Going in with a key that was given to us by the wife of the owner is one thing, but the keypad...we don't know the combo. The only other option is B&E and I'm thinking that is not a good idea, especially in broad daylight. I don't want to take that chance when I'm not even sure what I'm looking for or who is watching.” She leans up against the Jeep next to me.

“I think now would be a good time to tell me what Cody said.” I turn and face her, wondering what the thought process is here since she is considering breaking and entering a fishing warehouse.

“Not here. Let's go back to the boat.” She gives in rather easily which shocks and worries me at the same time.

Chapter 27

The stranger at the B&B.

I watch the cameras that I placed at the McGill warehouse. It takes longer than I thought for Special Agent Marks to go there. She points out every camera. Everything has been working out as planned. In fact, her hooking up with the SEAL brother-in-law is perfect. Better than I could've imagined.

Keeping the media away has proved challenging, but so far word has not gotten out.
He
wouldn't risk coming if he knew there was media. But knowing Ellie Marks is here, well, that was something
he
could just not resist.

He
won't be happy she is with Justin Bennett, but all the more reason for him to come.

The brothers stole my payday, and if anyone can scare them out of hiding, it is
him
.

Chapter 28

Justin

It doesn't take long for us to get back. I park the Jeep in the parking lot off the docks. Once on the boat I lead her down to the galley, grabbing us both a bottle of water.

“Are you hungry?” I pull out some lunch meat and bread to make a sandwich.

“Not at the moment.” She places her hand over her stomach. “Nervous knots right now.” She takes the bottle of water and takes a large drink.

“You know it doesn't matter what you tell me,” I try to reassure her when I see the fear in her eyes.

“Honestly, Justin, I believe you. And even if it did matter to you, and what I'm about to tell you disgusts you...” She stops to choose her words. “If you can't look at me after I've told you what I've done, it would kill me. But I can't change it, it's part of me now. However, to tell you what might have happened to your brother-in-law I have to tell you the whole story.” She sits at the galley table, twirling her bottle of water in her hands.

“Okay, now I'm not hungry.” I sit opposite her. Words like
disgust
and
Ellie
are two that I would never put together in a million years.

“So I guess I'll start from the beginning.”

Chapter 29

Ellie

“My parents were murdered...” I stop, swallowing to try to get the lump out of my throat. “I had just started with the Bureau; in fact, I had only been there a few months when it happened. At first we thought it was totally random, but then it happened again.”

“How were they killed?” Justin asks softly, reaching over the table putting his hand on mine.

“It was a home invasion. They were tortured and killed,” I have to choke the words out, because it is the first time I've ever spoken them aloud. “Cody knew about it, of course, because he was my partner at the time it happened.

“There were a lot of similarities in the second murder; an interracial couple that were tortured and killed in almost the same way. At first we thought we had a serial killer. We started searching records for other deaths in different states trying to find a pattern or a signature. It consumed me for weeks, I thought of nothing else. There was nothing; no leads, no trail, just absolutely zilch.” Justin squeezes my hand when I stop to take a breath.

“Then, all of a sudden, we had a lead. An anonymous tip that the killings were part of some initiation. A sick, cruel initiation for the Los Diablos Rojos. They were a new biker gang and we didn't know much about them. The DEA had done an investigation for suspected drug running, but they were called off.” I stop for a second as I remember this. At the time we just figured there wasn't anything to their investigation. But knowing what I know now, why were they called off? How had I never thought of this before now?

“Los Diablos Rojos, LDR?” Justin says, interrupting my train of thought. “Your tattoo...” The look I am getting from Justin is the one I feared. I wrap my arms around myself, I can't stand the disgust in eyes so I concentrate on my water bottle and continue.

“We watched them for a while, but we were getting nowhere, so Cody and I went into deep cover infiltrating them. It was easy for me, because I was the leader's type. Chico Alverez, the head of the LDR, took to me instantly. He was a bigoted asshole and I had no choice but to go along with it.” The knots in my belly seem to swell when I meet Justin's eyes.

“Ellie,” Justin whispers, shaking his head, his shoulders slumped. “I can't believe Cody let you do that,” he snaps, slamming his hand on the table. “So you played along as Chico's girlfriend?” Justin's hands are in tight fists, one goes up to his mouth as if he is trying to stop himself from saying any more.

“At first it was just flirting, but the more we were around them the more we learned. Drugs, human trafficking, young girls brought from South America and sold off to creepy old men.” I shiver remembering this. The ones I knew about, I arranged for the FBI to bring someone in undercover to buy them. But I don't know how many I didn't know about that got sold.

“The whole thing had turned into something so much bigger. I was distracted from my parents’ murder as we gained intelligence. I spoke with my Deputy Director, Carl Parson. There was nothing leading us to believe that LDR had anything to do with the murders and they had stopped. There were only my parents and the other couple.”

“What did you have to do?” His words are like ice, sending chills through me.

“I wanted out, I wanted to investigate my parents’ murder. I was going to bring in another agent to take my place. I was ordered to stay, that Chico was starting to trust me and was giving me intel. Enough that we could bring the whole operation down. I had no choice. If I left it would have jeopardized everything.”

“What did you have to do?” Justin repeats his question. He already knows what I had to do, and he is going to make me say it.

“Justin, please,” I whisper. I see judgment in his eyes. “You can judge me, it's fine. I'm used to it. But you don't know what it is like to have your whole world turned upside down. You don't know what they did to my parents before they killed them. They were tortured for hours, my mother was raped repeatedly,” I snap back and can't control the tears streaming down my face. “Carl swore to me that if I stayed with LDR, he would do everything in his power to find my parents’ murderer. The case was cold, and he told me that if I left LDR he would have no choice but to close it.” I sniff, wiping tears from my eyes.

“You were blackmailed into selling your soul to the devil.” His words are chilly. His demeanor toward me completely dry as I feel the distance between us grow miles apart.

“I'm assuming by the tattoo you have in the very private place that you and Chico got pretty close.” There's the look of loathing, the gut wrenching, heart breaking look that I knew I would see.

“Yes,” I whisper. “I was his girl, and I was allowed in all meetings. It didn't take long after for us to have enough to be able to take down Chico and most of his gang. Do you know how many young girls were saved from a life of being bought and sold as sex slaves?” I state, thinking, sacrificing my body to save hundreds of girls, was there any other choice?