Accounting for Lust (19 page)

Two hundred meters further he stopped and checked the copy of the photograph they’d found in the drawer. Yes. She’d aged quite a bit, but it was the same woman.
If this was indeed their man, he didn’t flaunt the money he stole. With more than
fifty
million
Rand
,
he could afford just about any accommodation he pleased, but his address showed a trailer park.

Jake sat in the car for a couple of minutes, but soon he earned himself stares from the other occupants of the neighbourhood.
His options were limited. Blending in amongst a predominately Hispanic community was impossible, but he had to give it a try.
He alighted from the car, made sure he locked it properly and
walked along
the narrow gravel street.

Resisting the urge to clamp his hand over his mouth against the stench permeating the air, Jake made his way towards the trailer where he had seen the woman.
According to the personnel file, Marvin Sparks, a twenty five year old cleaner, lived with his mother. His intelligence scored off the charts, but due to financial constraints, he ended up being a cleaner at Adams Weaponry where he’d worked for the past six years.
He also studied at night and obtained a bachelor’s degree in computer science at the age of twenty two. No minor feat considering where he’d grown up.

As
Jake watched
,
the door to the trailer open
ed, disgorging
a stumbling
Marvin
.
Marvin’s
dishevelled hair and unshaven face blended in with the surroundings. Dressed in a nylon vest and shorts, the man radiated incompetence. Jake wasn’t fooled. His gut told him they had their man and his gut was seldom wrong.

Without pausing, Jake walked by the trailer
.
He couldn’t afford for Marvin to recognise him, not before Jake had time to see what the man was up to.
At the end of the block, Jake stood on the pavement and retrieved a packet of cigarettes from his pocket. The cigarette should buy him a couple of minutes without arousing suspicion. He cupped
the small flame of the lighter in his hands
and drew the fake smoke from the device into his mouth
,
k
eeping it in his mouth just long enough to authenticate the process. He cupped the burning end of the device in his palm
and waited
.

B
efore the fake cigarette could burn out, the blue sedan pulled out of the yard. Jake stood his ground as Marvin steered the car past him. He waited until Marvin
reached the second block from him
before he sprinted for his car and followed
him
into the city.

Despite his instincts telling him they had their man, Jake couldn’t stop his jaw from dropping slightly when Marvin stopped in front of a luxury estate on the other side of town. He inserted a card into the intercom and the cast iron gates swung open. Jake
drove past and stopped where he could still watch th
e sedan disappear
along the
wi
n
ding
driveway.
Marvin Sparks
entered a residence l
ess than a mile from his own home.

A quick call to his office confirmed the property belonged to the Sparks Trust with the Marvin being the sole trustee. Jake requested financial details of the trust and settled to wait.
He flipped through some notes he made earlier about the cleaner, but they failed to curb his wandering thoughts.

Images of Cassie flashed before his mind and he shifted in the seat. Despite the early hour, the sun heated the interior of the car to uncomfortable levels
.
By midday, he would resemble a roasted rooster. A horny one, but roasted all the same.

Horny. Was that all he felt for Cassie? He sure as hell hoped so because he couldn’t bear the alternative. He would miss her company and the sex, but that’s all there was to it. The protectiveness he felt towards her stemmed from his job.
He liked to keep his charges intact until the company neutralized the threat.
After that, the next job would occupy his mind as fully as protecting Cassie did.

He had to admit he admired her for her tenacity. For someone who had a sterile relationship with her parents, she sure took clearing her father’s name seriously. Her intelligence carried her through a process that would
faze
men with much more experience. No,
she
was nobody’s fool. He’d do well to remember that.

The roar of an engine zipping past him, shook him out of his musings. He was just in time to see Marvin and his
silver
Ferrari disappear around the corner. Jake pounded the steering wheel with his fist. That’s what you get when you daydream on the job. Nothing. No license plate and no bloody idea where the man headed.

He stopped to change at his house before he
drove to the office with his temper rising along with the temperature outside. He never made mistakes and he never lost his subject.
Banging his fist on the steering wheel again only earned him a throbbing pinkie and he grimaced. No use crying over spilled milk. His mind raced to possible locations Marvin could have gone to, but he came up blank. They simply didn’t know enough about the man to venture a guess.

In the cool air-conditioned interior of his office, Jake
slouched
in his chair while he relayed his morning to Matt. He ached to enquire about Cassie, but swallowed the words trembling on his tongue. Matt would tell him if anything out of the ordinary happened.

“I guess we just have to wait him out.” Matt stopped pacing in front of the window and fixed his eyes on something in the street below. His abrupt silence echoed through the room.

“What’s the matter?”

“What car did you say our boy drove?” Jake shot out of the chair and peered outside.

“I’ll be damned. That’s him.” What was the man doing parked in front of their building and for all intent and purpose seemed poised to enter through the lobby?

“Let’s see what he’s up to.” Matt grinned and walked towards the door. “This could be interesting.”

Jake spent the next hour and a half wearing out the carpet in his office. Only when the engine of the Ferrari fired in the street below, did he fling open his office door and walked smack into
a grinning
Matt.

Focus Cassie
, she admonished herself. It had been a struggle the whole morning to keep her attention veering from the conversation
at
the conference table to Jake. He intruded her thoughts when they were apart and possessed her body when they were together. Now, however, she had to concentrate on brokering a deal that could pull the company out of the red and into a nice profit for a change.

Joshua stared at her intently, his eyes willing her to get on with it. Cassie fiddled with the documents before her and inhaled deeply. The monotony of the government official’s voice droning on and on threatened to put everyone of the ten people
at
the table to sleep. Cassie shut the folder with a bang and several people jumped. The speaker lost his momentum for the breath of a second and Cassie took the opportunity to wrap the meeting up.

“Gentlemen,” she inclined her head at the only other woman present, “and lady. I think we’ve resolved the issue to everyone’s satisfaction.
I trust the legal department will provide us with mutually satisfying contracts before the end of the week.” She rose from her chair and gathered the files into a neat pile.

“Thank you for your time. I unfortunately have another pressing engagement to attend. Please forward any questions you might still have to Joshua here. Good day.”

Closing the door behind her, Cassie shut out the murmur of voices that erupted at her sudden departure and she breathed a sigh of relief. She hated these meetings where the other party use
d
it as a bargaining platform to broker a better deal, but they were too tactful to state it outright.

She had an hour before her next meeting at
one
and she made her way to the suite the conference centre allocated to her party. The female guard glanced up from the novel on her lap before chucking it onto the sofa beside her.

“I’ll get you a cup of coffee.”

Cassie managed a grin
,
took off her jacket and draped it over
a
chair. “Thanks. You must be bored out of your mind.”

The woman smiled while she busied herself with pouring scalding liquid from the machine. “I’m used to it. From the looks of you though, you need rescue from boredom more than I do.”

Cassie
slumped
into the folds of the sofa and resisted the urge to tangle her fingers in her hair. “A necessary evil, I’m afraid. At least this time they managed to keep most of the delegates awake with their haggling.”

Laug
ht
er rang through the room and Cassie stared intently at the woman. Something was familiar but she couldn’t place it. “Have we met before?”

At the woman’s startled gaze, Cassie coloured slightly and hastened to explain. “You seem familiar, but I can’t figure out why.”

The woman handed her the coffee and
took the seat
opposite her before answering. “He’ll have my hide for this.”

“Who? What are you talking about?”

“Jake.”

“What does Jake have to do it?”

She smiled
. “Jake’s my brother. He called in a favour I owed him and here I am, using my ATF skills to protect his most valued possession. My name is Lea, by the way.”

Cassie’s mouth dropped open. Jake had a sister. She didn’t know anything about the man, but she spent at least half a weekend in his arms with him inside and all over her. Heat gathered in her pussy and Cassie shifted uneasily in the chair. What was wrong with her?
She couldn’t think about Jake without turning into a nymphomaniac.

Forcing her thoughts to the woman opposite her, she could see the resemblance. They had the same chocolaty brown eyes and pertinent nose. Lea, however, was small and petite against Jake’s bulk.

“I had no idea he had a sister.” Her voice sounded unconvincing in her own ears. “Why would he call you instead of using one of the other agents?”

“I’m the only he trusts to keep you safe. You must be very special to him. It’s the first time he requested my help
.
”

Cassie drew in a ragged breath, but a knock on the door interrupted her train of thought. Lea had her hand on the butt of the pistol
tucked in the belt of her jeans
before opening the door a fraction. She released the chain and Joshua stalked into the room
, pulled Cassie from the chair and whirled her in the air
.

“They found him. They’re tracking him as we speak and according to Matt, this will be over before the end of the week.”

Cassie giggled at Joshua’s uncharacteristic display of emotion. He needed this wrapped up even more than she did so that he could return to be a proper husband and father. Guilt overwhelmed her and she cupped his face in his hands. “Thanks for sticking with me on this. I’m so sorry I got you involved.”

He gently
lowered her
and shook his head. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. Besides, you owe me a vacation after this bastard is caught.”

“Hmm.” Someone cleared her throat and Cassie’s head
snapped up
. “Mind stepping away from my charge, sir
?
”

Joshua turned his head towards Lea and his hands fell from
Cassie like stones as he jumped
. “Jesus woman, are you out of your mind?” Lea’s face wore a mask of intent and she only lowered the gun pointed at Joshua’s head when he
sagged
pale-faced on the sofa. 

She shrugged, but didn’t holster the weapon. “Just doing my job.”

“Scared the crap out me, you did.” His voice held an unnatural quiver and Cassie swallowed the laughter threatening to bubble over. Poor Joshua. None of them were made
for this cloak-and-dagger stuff.

She waited until he finished squirming before she sipped at her own scalding coffee
and cleared her throat
. “
What happened? How did they find him?”

“According to Matt the guy just walked into their offices and tried to hire them to find his father. According to
Matt, it sounded if he thought their company wouldn’t have any success
.”

Cassie shook her head. “
If he is the thief, why would he go to Matt’s company for help? He would know they protected me and investigated the case.
”

“I have no idea, but Matt refused the case and while they were consulting, someone from their offices planted a tracker on his car and some sort of bug on the seat. I don’t understand how it works, but apparently when he sat in the seat, the bug would be transferred to his person.”