me off guard.
“You- Ah, you were?”
“Yes, of course. The way you drove away from the warehouse made it quite obvious that you had found something worthwhile.”
The words took a while to sink in. “The way I what ? How do you know about that? I only just left!”
“I told you, Miss Maguire, our business is information. And now it appears that you may have something new that we did not have access to before. I would like you to come in and bring whatever you’ve found with you. I’ll message you the address.”
The line went dead, and immediately afterward my phone beeped to indicate a new text message.
The bottle, still glistening with the last few drops of beer, sailed through the air. It struck the wall and the glass splintered, shattering into hundreds of pieces that fell to the floor with a gentle tinkling sound, reminiscent of a light spring rain.
I watched it go, jaw clenched, furious and hoping that a little harmless destruction would alleviate my mood and allow me to think straight.
This is bad. Very bad.
Jackie had been invited into the motorcycle club’s headquarters, and we had enjoyed a truly glorious coupling in the warehouse office. I could still feel the way that she moved underneath me, writhing in pleasure as we took each other over the edge. The way that she had moaned my name, turning it into a sweet promise.
I had been a fool. Sentimental. Overconfident.
Now she had run off with perhaps the most sensitive document I kept in the building, and I couldn’t even be sure who she was working for. There were any number of people who would be intensely interested in the contents of those pages, and I didn’t want them to fall into the hands of any of those enemies.
My knuckles still ached from when I had punched a hole through the office wall when I’d discovered the theft. Blood, darkly red, welled up from the abraded skin, and some of it had already run down to drip onto the carpet.
I can’t afford to waste any time.
Of course I knew where Jackie lived – all of the applicants for the assistant position had been thoroughly checked and vetted before they were even considered for an interview. There were always rival gangs and law enforcement agencies that tried to sneak plants into our operations. Jackie had been so common, so average, that I had been certain she couldn’t possibly have a hidden connection in her past.
If this slip only stood to hurt myself, I wouldn’t have cared so much, but there were so many lives hanging in the balance, so many people whose existence depended on that document remaining hidden…
I pulled out my second phone. The secure one, that was untraceable in every way. It was the phone that the rest of the motorcycle club’s leaders didn’t know about. I rang the special number that went straight to voicemail. There was no message, no notification of who owned the number or why. Just a single beep.
“Marshall, I need you. Please come and see me at the office as soon as you get this.” I went to hang up the phone, but hesitated. “This is concerning the accident victims, we have been compromised.”
It was time to head to Jackie’s apartment. If I was lucky, there would be a confrontation and I would have the chance to recover the documents before it was too late. I would relish the opportunity to get inside of her head and find out why she had betrayed me, who she was working for. If I didn’t get there in time…
Well, some of the people who might have used her would have no qualms with disposing of her now that she’s completed her purpose. It would be cleaner for them that way.
Despite the fact that she had screwed me over, I hoped I would be in time. The taste of her was still faintly on my lips.
I wasn’t sure what I expected when I got to the address I’d been given. Maybe a discreet little meeting place in an alley, or another cafe where
“You- Ah, you were?”
“Yes, of course. The way you drove away from the warehouse made it quite obvious that you had found something worthwhile.”
The words took a while to sink in. “The way I what ? How do you know about that? I only just left!”
“I told you, Miss Maguire, our business is information. And now it appears that you may have something new that we did not have access to before. I would like you to come in and bring whatever you’ve found with you. I’ll message you the address.”
The line went dead, and immediately afterward my phone beeped to indicate a new text message.
The bottle, still glistening with the last few drops of beer, sailed through the air. It struck the wall and the glass splintered, shattering into hundreds of pieces that fell to the floor with a gentle tinkling sound, reminiscent of a light spring rain.
I watched it go, jaw clenched, furious and hoping that a little harmless destruction would alleviate my mood and allow me to think straight.
This is bad. Very bad.
Jackie had been invited into the motorcycle club’s headquarters, and we had enjoyed a truly glorious coupling in the warehouse office. I could still feel the way that she moved underneath me, writhing in pleasure as we took each other over the edge. The way that she had moaned my name, turning it into a sweet promise.
I had been a fool. Sentimental. Overconfident.
Now she had run off with perhaps the most sensitive document I kept in the building, and I couldn’t even be sure who she was working for. There were any number of people who would be intensely interested in the contents of those pages, and I didn’t want them to fall into the hands of any of those enemies.
My knuckles still ached from when I had punched a hole through the office wall when I’d discovered the theft. Blood, darkly red, welled up from the abraded skin, and some of it had already run down to drip onto the carpet.
I can’t afford to waste any time.
Of course I knew where Jackie lived – all of the applicants for the assistant position had been thoroughly checked and vetted before they were even considered for an interview. There were always rival gangs and law enforcement agencies that tried to sneak plants into our operations. Jackie had been so common, so average, that I had been certain she couldn’t possibly have a hidden connection in her past.
If this slip only stood to hurt myself, I wouldn’t have cared so much, but there were so many lives hanging in the balance, so many people whose existence depended on that document remaining hidden…
I pulled out my second phone. The secure one, that was untraceable in every way. It was the phone that the rest of the motorcycle club’s leaders didn’t know about. I rang the special number that went straight to voicemail. There was no message, no notification of who owned the number or why. Just a single beep.
“Marshall, I need you. Please come and see me at the office as soon as you get this.” I went to hang up the phone, but hesitated. “This is concerning the accident victims, we have been compromised.”
It was time to head to Jackie’s apartment. If I was lucky, there would be a confrontation and I would have the chance to recover the documents before it was too late. I would relish the opportunity to get inside of her head and find out why she had betrayed me, who she was working for. If I didn’t get there in time…
Well, some of the people who might have used her would have no qualms with disposing of her now that she’s completed her purpose. It would be cleaner for them that way.
Despite the fact that she had screwed me over, I hoped I would be in time. The taste of her was still faintly on my lips.
I wasn’t sure what I expected when I got to the address I’d been given. Maybe a discreet little meeting place in an alley, or another cafe where
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