Page 6 of Play the Game

I slid alongside Tam and held her tight to me. If she made a run for it, it might split Charlie Franklin’s focus, and I needed all his attention on me. He stalked in our direction. To my relief, no one came with him, probably because Franklin wasn’t intimidated enough to consider bringing backup. As soon as he was within a few feet of us, I pressed a button on the second phone I had in my pants pocket.

Now I just had to keep him here long enough to finish bouncing Alder’s new algorithm decoding signal against his phone, looking for the key that would immediately unlock the encryption on the data I’d stolen earlier. If the signal worked, it would save days and possibly lives. But now, five minutes too late, I considered the flip side of that coin. It was a bad habit of mine, pretending coins only had one side. If Alder’s algorithm didn’t work, I would have just put Tam at risk for no good reason.

“You again,” Franklin said. “This can’t be a coincidence.”

“I’m sorry. Have we met?” I smiled politely.

Under the table, Tam gripped my thigh and pressed her fingers into my flesh until I winced.

Franklin nodded. “You ran right into me this afternoon. Now you show up here like you’re fucking following me.”

I willed the phone to silently buzz against my thigh to tell me we had obtained the key we needed, but seconds ticked past, and nothing happened. “This afternoon,” I said slowly, drawing out every syllable. “Oh, right. I was supposed to meet my girlfriend.”

I hugged Tam to me and pressed her hip three times, telling her in an unspoken code to reach into her purse and hit the emergency button programmed into her phone that would dial 911. She followed my instruction as I continued talking.

“I was lost, looking at the map on my phone.” I held up a hand. “Really sorry, man. It was an accident.”

He narrowed his eyes. “And I’m really sorry, man, because I’m not a fucking idiot. What are you doinghere?”

That should have ratcheted up my heart rate to cardiac distress levels, but as he’d saididiot, my phone had buzzed. The algorithm had worked. We’d stolen the last piece of security code we needed. All that was left to do was to get out of the gangster bar alive.

“I heard they had good drinks at a good price. We’re traveling on a budget.” I shot an adoring look at Tam, which was easy to do, even though she was currently death-gripping my leg again. “We’re saving up for a house. But I can see how this would seem weird in such a big city, seeing the same stranger twice in one day. We’ll just go.”

Tam slid out of the booth, and I followed right behind her.

“Trouble here, Charlie?” The bartender stood behind us, a baseball bat clenched in one hand.

Charlie shrugged. “Maybe.”

Sirens blared in the distance. The bartender swore, but Charlie didn’t bat an eye. That worried me.

“Hey, hon,” I said to Tam. “Remember that time in Virginia Beach?”

We’d never been to Virginia Beach. It was another code, this time forcreate a distraction, then run for it. It probably said a lot about my shortcomings as a friend that we needed so many coded messages to get through a night out together.

“I sure do,” Tam said, then turned and swept her foot under the bartender’s legs, sending him tumbling off balance.

In the same instance, I threw my arm across the table and sent the dirty glasses flying in Charlie’s direction. He swore as he ducked sharp shards. Tam’s hand clasped mine and hauled me backward, but before we could run, Charlie grabbed my lapels and threw me onto my back on the floor. He pressed a knee into my gut and cocked back his fist, which, from my vantage point, looked to be the size of a large cantaloupe.

The sirens shrieked right aside. Despite HEAT agents’ natural avoidance of local cops and the red tape they wrought, and my own sketchy history with law enforcement, I sent up a silent thanks to the universe for delivering these particular boys and/or girls in blue to our rescue.

“You don’t want to hit me,” I told Charlie, “because then the cops will have to arrest you for assault.”

He grinned too happily for my taste. “Doesn’t matter to me.” He leaned close and whispered. “They won’t hold me. I have a very good friend on the force.”

Fuck me sideways. He pulled his fist back again, and three thoughts collided in my brain at once. One, if he knocked me unconscious, I’d have no way to protect Tam. Two, wherever he landed that punch, it was going to hurt like hell in the morning. And three, I was back to my original opinion about cops, especially the dirty one who was Charlie’s friend.

PART2

THE F’D UP JOB

CHAPTER 3

Jason

I was pretty damnproud of myself. Sure, Tam was furious with me, but that was nothing compared to what TJ and X were bound to think when they found out two of their best agents were sitting in cuffs at one of the Chicago PD precincts. But the thug masquerading as a legit businessman was now in police custody, which would quickly turn into federal—and that meant HEAT—custody. And Tamela and I would be out of here in no time, probably in the next hour at the latest.

A flat-nosed detective who reeked of cigarette smoke—really, who smokes full-strength cigarettes in this day and age?—and wore his tie loose and the top shirt button undone, joined me in my interview room.

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