Page 62 of Jack of Hearts
He winked. “I know.”
“Arrogant ass.” She threw a pen at him, which he deftly caught, laughing.
Court left with her father’s laptop, and she squeezed her fingernails into her palms to keep from ordering him to give it back, praying her trust in the Gentry brothers wasn’t misplaced.
“Ready to go, Little Snuggle Bear?”
She laughed. “I should have known you’d grab on to that one, the way you like giving me pet names.”
“That’s not all I like giving you.” He tucked her next to him.
“You’re impossible, Biker Boy.” She stuck her fingers into his back pocket as they walked out, leaving the office as they’d found it, minus the laptop in Court’s possession.
Later that night, Madison stared at her window, waiting to hear Alex’s signal even though he’d told her he wouldn’t be coming. It was his night to close the bar, he’d told her, but his eyes had shifted away as he spoke, making her wonder if he was lying. She flipped onto her stomach, punching her fist into her pillow to make an indentation for her face. She’d said she trusted him, so she shut down her suspicions. Questioning his every move wasn’t the kind of woman she wanted to be. Hemingway jumped on the bed and bumped his nose against her head.
“Hey, sweetie. You come to keep me company?” She wished Alex were here, but a warm, purring body was the next best thing.
Alex hated Ramon Alonzo, but maybe he hated Trina more. He hadn’t decided yet. They had no shame, either one of them. At the moment, Trina was humping Ramon’s leg, while her hand was down the man’s unzipped jeans, going at it in Ramon’s billiard room. Alex lined the cue stick up for his next shot, doing his best to ignore their grunting.
Once he had this last name, they would get their arrest warrants, and he couldn’t wait. Supposedly, the deal was a big one. The dealer had called as they were leaving, postponing the meet for an hour, resulting in a bored Ramon and Trina, thus the porno show going on behind him.
All in a day’s work, Heart Man, all in a day’s work.True, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. Give him badass biker gangs and Spider all day long over these two sickos.
“Yes! God, yes!”
Wishing he had earplugs to shut out Trina’s screams, Alex hit the cue ball harder than he’d meant to, and sixteen billiard balls bounced around the table, not one of them falling into a side pocket. He straightened, set down the stick, and walked out of the room. At the end of the hallway, he took out his phone, stabbing Nate’s number with his finger.
“I quit,” he said when his brother answered. He scowled at the phone when Nate laughed. “Not funny, bro. These two morons make my skin crawl.”
“Not much longer and you can have the satisfaction of slapping handcuffs on them. Rand phoned, said you hadn’t left yet. I thought you were supposed to be at the meet right now.”
“Postponed for an hour,” he said, keeping an eye on the door to the billiard room. Rand Stevens and Taylor Collins were sitting in a car down the block from Ramon’s house. Ramon had been secretive about where they were going, and Nate had decided to play it safe and have the two FBI agents tail them to the meet.
“We should be leaving soon. Meanwhile, Trina’s humping Ramon’s leg like a damn dog in heat and has her hand stuck down his pants. When I get home, I’m washing out my eyes with bleach.”
“You just call to whine then?”
“Screw you.” Ramon walked out, and Alex disconnected at the sound of more laughter from his brother.
“Who’re you talking to, man?”
Stuffing his phone into his pocket, Alex headed down the hall toward Ramon. “My brother. He wanted to know what time he could expect me to drop off the money.”
“The dude just called. We can head out.”
“Great. Let’s do this.” Alex followed Ramon and Trina to Ramon’s Hummer.
They pulled up in front of a warehouse surrounded by a chain-link fence. A large man with an AK-47 slung over his shoulder stepped out of the shadows, peered into the car, and opened the gate.
“Not liking being closed in like this. You ever been here before?” Alex said after they entered, the gate closing behind them. Even Trina seemed subdued, and that said something.
“Once.” Ramon met his gaze in the rearview mirror. “Dude’s a little weird, but he’s cool.”
A garage door opened, and another man with an AK-47 motioned for them to drive into the warehouse. “Not liking this at all,” Alex muttered. He wished he were wired, but they’d decided that would be too risky, and the decision turned out to be a wise one.
After getting out of the car, they were ordered to turn around and put their hands on the roof of the car. With a weapon pointed at them by one of the guards, another frisked them. When the man found the gun in his boot, Alex said, “You take that away from me, dude, we’re gonna have a problem.” The big man stood, giving Alex a smirk. Understandable, since Alex’s one handgun was no match for the AK-47 pointed at his chest.
“Long as it stays where it is,dude,we got no problem.” He moved over to Trina, taking twice as long to frisk her, not that she seemed to mind.
