Capture (Restless Motorcycle Club Romance) (2 page)

It took another half an hour of convincing before I was able to extricate myself from Jackie’s tender embrace and head back to the clubhouse through the hidden underground passage. It was made much harder by the fact that I didn’t want to go at all.

There was something about that woman, and I just couldn’t resist her at all. Never before had I been involved with someone and willing to give up everything for them.

If I’m not more careful about it, I may very well end up far worse for wear because of it.

It was tough to go about my morning as though I didn’t know there were half a dozen agents out in the street and the neighborhood set up to keep an eye on me. Every time I passed in front of a window the intensity of their regard may as well have been a fire warming my skin.
It’s a good thing that Jackie isn’t here, that would have been the worst-case scenario for both of us.

When I left to get lunch there were a few signs that something was off. A couple shiny new black SUVs were completely out of place in the warehouse district.

Smooth, guys.
The situation itself was laughable. A target aware of the undercover agents watching him, who were in turn cognizant of their poor cover. As silly as it was, however, there were likely another handful of agents who were much more cleverly hidden, using the obvious men as a distraction.

There wasn’t anything I could do about it. I had practically dared McCrown to sic as many men on me as possible. And so he had. They still hadn’t prevented me from going out and saving Jackie the night before, and if they’d had any idea I had been gone then I wouldn’t have made it within five miles of the clubhouse.

There was a car I didn’t recognize in the parking lot when I got back from a hasty fast food lunch. Visitors weren’t exactly unheard of, but they weren’t common. It could be one of the groups with stakes in the information Jackie had given to the FBI.

I dropped into a crouch and slowly made my way upstairs, eyes scanning the reception area and hallway as I went.
Could it be possible that the double agent is here, coming to finish me?
It was really only a matter of time before he tried; as long as I was alive there was the possibility that I would unmask him, and then his subterfuge at the FBI would be over.

The heavy wooden door to my office swung on silent hinges at a touch. There was a figure waiting in my chair.

I relaxed and stood up. “McCrown. You’ve made yourself at home.”

The short man was reclined, feet up on my desk, facing towards the door.

“Well I had to wait for a little while, I figured you’d get back from lunch a long time ago.”

It was a lie, of course. He would be directly wired into the agents outside, and he’d know the second I left the restaurant, any traffic lights I hit on the way here, and the moment that my car’s engine turned off in the parking lot outside.

I decided to ignore the statement. “To what do I owe the pleasure? What could have possibly happened overnight that you felt the need to come and see me? You obviously know that I never left here last night.” It wasn’t uncommon enough of a circumstance that it would have raised suspicion on its own.

Of course, there is a lot more to last night then that, and we both know it.

The look he gave me was shrewd, and calculating. I remained impassive, unwilling to give him any shred of information that he didn’t already have. If he was going to try and pin Jackie’s disappearance from the FBI’s safe house on me, I wasn’t going to do anything to help him.

That didn’t mean I’d be able to resist prodding him a little.

“You’d said that Jackie was in danger when I questioned you yesterday,” McCrown said. “What kind of danger did you mean?”

So you’re going to beat around the bush, are you?

“I think it’s pretty clear,” I said. “You’ve escalated her from just working a job here at our legitimate shipping business to spying on a motorcycle club. I know that she’s blameless, but I can’t tell the other leaders of the club that without revealing some things that neither of us really want them to know.”

McCrown raised his eyebrows. “You expect me to believe that you aren’t a fully-fledged criminal now, Hamilton? If that’s your explanation, then you may as well admit right now that Jackie disappeared because of you.”

“Disappeared? You fucking lost her?” I knew the revelation was coming, and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to feign true surprise. Instead I used anger as my crutch, and let loose some of the feelings I’d kept pent in during my meeting with McCrown the day before. “What the fuck did I say to you, McCrown? I told you the woman was going to be in serious danger, and you let something happen to her
that same day?
”

The FBI agent was caught off guard. “We didn’t
lose
her. Someone killed our man and took her. Whether she’s alive or dead right now I don’t know, but there’s no trace of her at the safe house.”

“And because you lot are so utterly incompetent, you had to turn to the one man who warned you that she was in danger instead of figuring out who actually might have good cause to want her dead, is that right?” Loathing and contempt dripped from my voice, and I only hoped that McCrown wasn’t too dull to recognize it.

Then again, if McCrown isn’t just too stupid to realize how little sense his line of reasoning makes, then there is only one other possible explanation. Maybe he’s the plant put into the FBI by the enemy.

It was a sobering thought. McCrown had a lot of influence inside the agency, and it would explain why my star had dropped so rapidly there and why everyone had been so ready to distrust me.

“Jesus, Shane. It’s not like I hauled you downtown this time, alright? I know you were heree last night and that you didn’t contact anyone. I came out to your office since there was a big development in the case.”

“Yeah, well thank you but get out, I have work to do.” I steamed, waiting to see if he would actually go or whether I’d pushed him just far enough that he would take me into custody out of spite.

After a tense few moments, McCrown got heavily to his feet and walked past me out the door, not saying another word.

Boredom was my enemy.

There was nothing but danger out there for me, so said Shane. Nowhere I could go and find more safety than I already had in the safe house. The way he looked at it, even stepping out the front door could get me killed.

I had to make do within the four walls of the small building, with very little to do. I couldn’t use my cell phone or the internet, since Shane insisted that the government would be watching all of my different accounts and the second that they saw any action on them, agents would be swarming both of us.

It was hard to realize exactly how much I depended on the internet until it was no longer there. No email, no Facebook. No Google. Hell, not even trashy gossip websites. I couldn’t use my Kindle app, or even read Wikipedia in case I forgot and logged in to anything.

Shane brought home a couple of books every day for me to read, but I was getting sick of staring at a page for ten to twelve hours every day.

The only thing that broke up the monotony and lent me some sanity was seeing Shane every night. We had progressed past the point where all we did was have sex, although it was unavoidable that we would jump each other’s bones as soon as we saw each other. After the first bout, however, we talked.

I learned more about Shane and his upbringing. Stories of his time in the marines. He learned more about my parents and the comparatively mild childhood I’d led halfway across the country. It struck me just how full a life he had led; how many different parts of the human condition he had witnessed and lived.

He was an endless treasure trove of wonder. A Hollywood scriptwriter should have written down his life story for a series of blockbusters. I sat enthralled as he told tales of his time over in the Middle East, captivated as he spoke of some of the close calls he had, and some of the good times with friends he had made.

The conversations we had drew us closer together, but it only made the time apart seem that much more desolate and the passage of time more glacial while I waited for him to come home each day.

After a week of solitude, I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Fuck this,” I announced to the perpetually empty house. “I need some fresh air.”

I knew that there was a car in the garage, just waiting to be driven. Shane drove his motorcycle from the clubhouse when he went out during the day; the car was only for when he needed to do something under the radar without alerting the FBI agents that he was out, avoiding the inevitable tail.

It felt good, pulling out onto the street. The sun was shining, and I opened the sunroof to allow the warm breeze and the sunlight into the cabin.

Hell yeah!

The bright natural light and fresh air worked to raise my mood better and faster than anything except for Shane, but even he couldn’t lift my spirits the same way being outside in the happy sunshine was able to. I flipped on the radio and smiled as Katy Perry flooded the cabin through the premium sound system.

You hear my voice, you hear that sound

Like thunder, gonna shake the ground

I drove without thought, letting my hands on the wheel take me where they pleased. Letting my thoughts wander in such pleasant surroundings was a whole other world compared to being hemmed in to the same few rooms for day after day.

Some time later, I was shaken out of my thoughts — pleasant ones of being on a beach with Shane — by my entry into a parking lot. It was one that I was intimately familiar with.

The mall a few blocks over from my apartment was a favored spot for Stacey and myself to go and hang out, or cruise the shops. She worked at a Forever 21 at the east end of the mall, and I had applied at just about every store inside in the hopes of landing something, anything, before I got the interview with Shane.

What harm could there be in just walking around?

As nice as the drive had been, it was just as solitary an activity as sitting at the house had been, and I craved the presence of other humans. I didn’t even need to talk to anyone; just being around others would do.

The decision was made before the rational part of my mind could stop it. That little part of me screamed and ranted about what a terrible idea it was, but I ruthlessly shoved it into a small corner and locked it into a soundproof box.

After so long in isolation, seeing just Shane and him only sporadically, the vibrant tidal wave of humanity inside the mall was a shock. Suddenly, simply watching others going about their day was its own pleasure. A couple in their thirties chased after a runaway child, bags flying as they tried to keep hold of their shopping in their haste.

A smile wreathed my face as an older lady waved at me when we passed each other in the broad concourse. The small interaction was a blessing in how it uplifted me.

Before too long, I realized where I had walked. Just as when I had been driving, I hadn’t been paying attention to where I was going, but the body had its habits and its own memories, and it didn’t need me consciously steering it to where it wanted to go.

The big double doors of the Forever 21 sat wide open, welcoming shoppers to the tastefully arranged tables that held the latest fashion trends. The familiar form of my roommate, Stacey, brought comfort to me before I realized that she was staring straight at me, shock on her face.

“
Jackie?
”