Wanting (21 page)

His lips brushed hers and
Carrie closed her eyes. She leaned closer to him. His scent
surrounded her and his heat warmed her skin. “Kiss me.”

“
I am.”

“
Kiss me harder, please. I
like it when you kiss me.”

“
I’m happy to
oblige.”

He kissed her for several
long moments, outside her apartment door. He pulled away first,
trying to catch his breath. Carrie rested her head against his
chest, conscious of him surrounding her. She wanted to cuddle
against him forever.

That thought scared her.
Carrie had never liked cuddling with anyone, not really. Her mother
maybe. Occasionally. Years ago. No one since. What did that mean?
“I think you need to go.”

“
Probably. If I don’t go
now, I’m going to have a damned hard time leaving at all. Lock your
doors.” He pulled away and Carrie wanted to protest.

“
I will...well...good
night.”

Carrie unlocked the door
and stepped inside, closing the door behind her quickly. If she
didn’t, she was afraid of what she would say next.

***

Carrie spent a restless
night, unable to sleep soundly. She didn’t know if it was because
of the burglary and vandalism or because of the way she felt
fidgety and unfulfilled. She’d spent most of the night petting and
talking out with Linux her feelings on a relationship with Lorcan.
The cat hadn’t responded—he rarely did—but it always helped her to
verbalize what she felt in any situation.

By the time she finally
fell asleep she’d worked out a few things, mainly the idea that she
did want to spend more time with him. She wasn’t certain she was
ready for sex with him, although her body certainly seemed to think
so.

But one thing was vitally
clear to her—whatever happened with her and Sebastian Lorcan—it
could not interfere with her ability to do her job. Her job was her
life, and she couldn’t jeopardize that.

***

She reiterated that vow as
she settled in at her desk in the corner of the CCU bullpen early
the next morning. She was usually the first of her team to arrive
and today was no exception. Only Malachi Brockman, Alessandra’s
brother, was in the bank of offices that were directly behind the
bullpen desks. Lorcan’s office was dark and she couldn’t help but
feel a rush of both relief and disappointment.

What was she supposed to
say to him here? She’d seen Hell and Georgia and Fin and Ana
interact with each other numerous times since they’d formed
relationships, but what she had with Lorcan was completely
different.

She wasn’t even sure what
to call it. They’d kissed a few times, that was it. It wasn’t like
he’d proposed or anything like that.

She’d just keep things
professional between them until they were completely alone,
someplace other than work.

With that thought foremost
in her mind, her discomfort slipped away and she was able to focus
on checking her email messages and getting settled into her desk
and back into her routine.

Her plans were ruined when
Hellbrook and Lorcan and the rest of the team entered. She could
tell by looking at the two team leaders that something was about to
happen. She focused her attention entirely on her own team
leader.

“
Lorcan’s team, my
team—conference room A now,” Hell said.

Lorcan put a hand on
Carrie’s shoulder when she walked past him and pulled her aside.
“We’ve pulled the human trafficking case. We’re conferencing
now.”

Carrie grabbed her things.
This was old hat to her; she couldn’t count the number of times
that Hellbrook had said similar. It felt good to be back in the
swing of things. No one looked at her oddly or stared at her and
Lorcan. They were just part of the team, agents on the hunt for the
bad guys.

“
Carrie, I need you to run
every possible path surrounding the club Benito’s in the eastside,”
Hell told her.

Carrie mentally ran over
everything that she would need to do to trace the club Hellbrook
indicated. This was what her software was designed to do, to make
everything easier for members of her team and for the PAVAD
division itself.

“
How did you sleep last
night?” Lorcan asked, his tone soft and intimate.

“
It took a while but Linny
and I were fine.” Carrie kept her words just as low. She hadn’t
missed how both of their teams pretended not to be watching them.
She wasn’t comfortable being the center of attention, and she knew
he knew that.

Still, his body was warm
and comforting beside her. “Why this club?”

“
We’re not entirely sure
yet. Courtney had several credit card receipts to this club over
the past sixty days, at least weekly.”

“
We started running
everything we could on Benito’s, and found several inconsistencies.
I want you to take a look to see if you can find anything
else.”

“
I will.” Carrie imputed
all the information she had on the club into her computer program.
Ten minutes later, it beeped. She studied the results. “Lorcan, are
you sure this club is the link? I’m not finding anything that sets
it off.”

“
No, but it is the only
lead we have. Tonight, we’ll send a team in to take a look around.
Probably just a couple of agents to get a feel for the place. If
you can get us more information before we get there, that will
greatly help.”

Carrie said nothing else,
just continued to search for information on the club while everyone
else discussed possibilities. Either the club was completely
innocent of Courtney’s killings or someone on the other end of
things was very, very careful in what they wrote about the club.
All she found was a single help wanted ad in a free circular. The
ad asked for an experienced band to play in the club Tuesday
through Saturday nights. Tonight was Friday. She turned to the
person sitting closest to her.

“
Lorcan...look at
this.”

She turned her laptop so
that he could see the screen. He studied it for a moment. “It might
just work. If we have enough musically inclined people on these
teams to form an experienced band.”

Carrie took a moment to
study each member of PAVAD at the conference table. Alessandra and
Paige both sang, and danced, and played a variety of instruments.
Dan played guitar and Josh could play the drums, if needed. Carrie,
herself, could play all of those instruments, as well as the piano.
They could form a band, quite easily from the agents present. She,
Al, Paige, Dan, and Josh had all played together before on numerous
occasions at Smokey’s, just for fun. They’d never had cause to use
their talents on an operation before, though. Could they do it? She
knew she and Paige could. They’d earned most of their money
performing as teens. “We can do it. We have enough people that have
played together before right here; with a few hours’ practice time
we can pull it off. That is, if you and Hellbrook say
so.”

Chapter 51

*****

“
I think they can do it,”
Hellbrook said. Sebastian agreed. He’d left his seat by Carrie to
run the plan by the other team leader. “They’ve performed together
dozens of times in the last two years. Including at Bureau fund
raisers for the St. Louis community. And they are damned talented,
too. If we can get them an audition for Monday, they could probably
start Tuesday. That would give them all weekend to
practice.”

“
We’ll need to setup
identities for them all. Back story, of course.” Sebastian’s mine
ran through all the strategies. He wasn’t too happy with the idea
of Carrie being involved in the undercover, but she was not his
agent. She was Hellbrook’s, and he would have to remember that. She
wouldn’t appreciate him trying to protect her from the dangerous
aspects of their job. No matter how much he wanted to. “We let them
handle the rest of the details.”

Hellbrook nodded. “And we
can have a few agents in the crowd or at the bar. That should cover
all angles of things. But first, I think we should have a couple of
agents check it out and get a feel for the place. Perhaps you,
Josh, and Paige? I think you three can blend in down in the
Eastside, don’t you?”

“
I think we can handle it.
In the meantime, you find the instruments and clothing we’ll need.
Also, have someone get a list together of all the key players we’ll
find at Benito’s. We’ll check out the club as soon as we
can.”

An hour after the plan was
finalized Sebastian, Paige, and Josh and changed into club
appropriate clothing. They took a bus to Benito’s.

“
So how are we going to
play this, boss man?” Paige asked, as the three of them walked
toward the club from the bus stop half a mile away.

“
It depends on the look of
things,” Sebastian said. He thought for a moment. What kind of back
story would explain the three of them if they were
questioned?

“
I think Paige here should
be my girl.” Compton wrapped his fingers around Paige’s arm and
pulled her closer. He made teasing leering eyes at her. “We don’t
know what kind of a club we’re going to here; it can be pretty
rough down here and a pretty woman like Paige could potentially
make us a target.”

Sebastian thought for a
moment; it could work. “Beautiful women will always draw attention.
We can use that, within reason. You all will be performers and you
take yourselves seriously. Professional, but struggling. Perhaps
Josh and Carrie are siblings, Dan, their father and manager. You
and Paige, together. That leaves Al. With red streaks added, and
contacts, she can also be Dan’s daughter. So it would be a family
thing. Which would give a slightly added layer of protection to all
of you—women, especially.”

Paige looked at him. “And
you? I have a feeling you’ll be ten feet away from Carrie the whole
time.”

Compton’s face
darkened.

Sebastian had often
wondered if the younger man had feelings for Carrie that weren’t
just platonic. If he did, too bad. Compton had had more than ample
opportunity. “I may not even be in the club. It could be
Hellbrook.”

“
Somehow, I don’t see Mr.
GQ Hellbrook fitting in here.” Paige pointed to the club sign fifty
feet away. When they’d said it could be a rough place, they hadn’t
expected something like what they were looking at. “I think you’ll
have a better time under. Know what I mean?”

Sebastian swore again as
they got closer. The club they were about to enter was rough in
every meaning of the word, despite the fact that someone had
obviously funneled some serious cash into it. Dread filled him;
this...this was probably the most dangerous place he’d ever even
contemplated sending his team.

Half the club’s windows
were boarded up with plywood. The other half had steel bars running
the length of them. Barred windows on a club that was operational?
It didn’t give a good impression. As they got closer to the door,
Sebastian’s experienced gaze had no difficulty identifying the
chinks in the faded brick exterior as bullet holes. Large caliber
bullet holes close enough in succession to be from a semi- or even
automatic weapon. “You all go in armed. Every last one of
you.”

“
Gotcha, boss,” Paige
whispered as the doorman asked her what they wanted there. She
raised her voice as she spoke to the big, bald man at the door. Her
tone changed, hardened. “Hey man, we heard you are in need of an
act for this joint.”

“
You three an act,
chickie?”

“
Me, my man, and the rest
of his family. Who we have to see to get an audition?”

***

Carrie and Al were put in
charge of gathering everything they’d need for an ‘experienced’
band audition. Carrie knew exactly what she would need and she and
Al spent most of the day researching what types of acts had played
at Benito’s and determining what songs they’d have in their
repertoire. The songs would have to be practiced until they could
perform them flawlessly. They had to nail the audition, period.
They had various copies of sheet music spread over the conference
room’s table. Hell had given her and Al their
assignments.

They had to nail the
audition for the rest of the “plan” to work, and she knew how hard
auditions could be. She and Paige had played a few clubs when they
were around seventeen. They’d traded a few favors—mostly Carrie
circumventing a few databases—in exchange for fake IDs that had
made it possible for them to earn a bit more cash in clubs singing.
The money had often meant the difference between a cheap hotel room
and sleeping in alleys for them. They’d learned to nail auditions
pretty quickly.

Carrie would leave the
clothes to someone else, probably Alessandra and Georgia, and hope
they didn’t make her out to look sleazy. Unless it was necessary,
of course. If the case called for it, Carrie would do it. And she
would do it as best she could. By the time she and Al quit working
for lunch they’d decided on twenty various songs just for the
audition alone, including four original songs Paige had written. It
should work; Carrie had found several videos of bands that had
played at Benito’s, and she knew the songs they’d chosen matched
the tone and style of the club.