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“Thanks, I think?” I said with questionable laughter. I grabbed Adam’s forearm softly. He released his fist and looked down at me. His face softened some.
“That really was impressive. You are lethal,” he said.
“Now that was a compliment, thank you.” I grinned, because I could see the calculating appraisal in his eyes. I could practically see where his thoughts were going: the bedroom. He and Yates weren’t all that different after all.
“Okay, so clearly you are skilled in hand to hand, which is good to know,” Garcia said.
“I’m skilled in a lot of things,” I said with a suggestive wink. “But that’s beside the point. Did you tell them what we discovered while we were in the market?” I asked Christine and Jasmine.
“No, we haven’t had the chance yet,” Jasmine answered.
“We were being watched. I was wondering how the missing people were selected. Was it random, right place at right time? Or are they watched and specially selected—taken when the time is right? Now I think it’s the latter. We were watched for probably thirty minutes before anyone made a move. When they tried to corner us, the locals were whispering that the men couldn’t have me. That I had saved innocent,” I recounted.
“So the locals know a lot more than they originally let on,” Adam commented.
“Yeah, at least some of them do. I think they were ready to have my back, to try to help me discreetly, but that ended up not being necessary.” The shopkeeper that knew the man we helped had been holding her broom handle awfully tight, like she could have swung it as a weapon.
“What did they mean by saving an innocent?” Garcia asked.
“I don’t know. I’m assuming the guy I saved yesterday. Seems that his name is Jeremiah. I’m not sure what referring to him as an innocent means,” I answered.
“Do you think we should try to find him and see what we can learn?” Jones asked.
“He’s our next best lead, assuming he’s alive. Why was he shot in the first place?” Wells added. “It could be related to trafficking, drugs, or some other form of illegal activity. The possibilities are endless.”
“That seems to be our next question and hopefully not a waste of time. Guy, did you locate the HR files?” I asked.
“No, they aren’t digital. For some Godforsaken reason, everything must be paper. I did discover that several of the resorts have the same owner, some shell company,” he answered.
“A shell company sounds like a promising lead. We need to break into the HR office for each nearby resort to find those records.” I paused for a moment, thinking through the options. If we did them one at a time, surely the other two resorts would put tighter security on their records or, even worse, destroy them. We couldn’t take our time with this. “I think we need to break into the offices at the same time. It’s not unheard of for resort workers to work at multiple resorts, right? This resort and its two neighbors have the highest concentration of dots on the map. They should be our focus.”
“I would think not. If we can find someone who works at two or more resorts and is a manager, that person should be a person of interest to us,” Wells said.
“How are we going to do this without tipping anyone off or getting caught?” Adam asked.
“We divide into teams and grab the records at the same time,” I offered.
“A triple heist,” Yates said, his eyes lit up in excitement.Do we have the same favorite TV show?If I saidnine-nine,would he repeat it back to me with a grin?
“Yes, a triple heist,” I said with a laugh.
Things were going to get interesting.
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
adam
“Are you sure you are okay with flirting with the guy?” I asked Abby.
“Of course, I’ve done a lot worse for the sake of a mission. It’s much easier for a pretty girl to keep a male’s attention than a big, intimidating dude, unless we have him pegged wrong and he swings the other way,” she answered with a smirk. I was left with the impression that she was putting on a show for me, and I didn’t like that. I wanted her to be real, honest, even if it meant admitting to fear. I bet even Evel Knievel felt fear before his stunts; it was a natural human emotion. Hell, it was an evolutionary trait designed to keep us alive. Nature’s way of saying,“Fuck around and find out.”
I still hated that Abby had to use her body in unpleasant ways while she was undercover. It didn’t make me think any less of her, and it definitely didn’t make her a slut as she had implied. It drove me mad that someone would have to go to those lengths to bring the perverts to justice—that perverts were smart enough that we had to use elaborate traps to catch them. I wished regular, old-fashioned police work would be enough.
All three women were going to play decoy while we got in and out of the offices with what we needed. There were just some things that women would always be able to do better, like the art of seduction.
“Let’s get into position,” Abby said into her mic.
“Ladies, you have two minutes to find your targets. Go,” Guy ordered into the radio.
