Catch Me If You Can (The Mancini Way) (9 page)

I did a more in-depth search on Ms. Cierra Stone going back deeper into her childhood I’d only glossed over it before in my first investigation but now it was almost as though I needed to know all. Now I looked not with the eyes of a target but with the eyes of a man who was interested in a woman.

She hadn't had it very easy at all as a kid and the more I read the clearer she became; losing her family at such a young age and in such a horrific way must’ve scarred her somewhat I’m sure. The report on her family’s murders didn’t say too much about the young girl who’d been left behind. The fact that the perpetrator had never been caught and her subsequent enrollment into the bureau all these years later spoke volumes.

"You have a bone to pick don't you little girl?"

It was very clichéd but still I understood the drive, the need for vengeance. Maybe after our business has been squared away I'll help her on her hunt. I felt a pang for the little girl who had lost so much so young; what would she say if she knew that my life was about helping others who were just as she’d been? Helpless and alone.

I spent a long time studying her, trying to gauge just what it was about her that drew me. Was it the eyes? No I don’t think so, I’ve seen beautiful eyes before; was it the tilt of her mouth, those wide sensuous lips that just begged to be licked? Whatever it was I was looking forward to exploring, no matter how our business with each other unfolded, one thing was certain; the delectable Ms. Stone was going to be under me one way or the other.

The buzzing of my door intercom on a Saturday morning could only mean one thing family; I watched on the security monitor as my two brothers entered my private elevator. I didn't have to think too hard to find their reasons for being here at this early hour. Adrien was the oldest of the three of us by a scant month and a half, I came next then Jaxxon. We'd met in grade school when some fucker had been bullying Jaxxon who was a puny little thing back then. I'd jumped into the fray after having spent the past week watching the same thing unfold time and time again.

The bully whose name escapes me now would corner Jaxx and torment him until he gave up his lunch money. Then the poor little thing would sit there while everyone else ate just looking lost. Well that day I'd had about all I could stand and I'd jumped in; pretty soon Adrien had cone out of nowhere and had joined in the fracas and between the three of us we'd put a beating on his overgrown ass. From that day to this we've been together through thick and thin; it hadn't been long after that day that my parents had adopted the two boys into the family since their home lives left much to be desired.

Adrien's mother was a drunk who’d only remembered she had a son when she needed him to make a run to the liquor store; sometimes at all hours of the night. My father had put a stop to that shit when he threatened to have the place shut down for serving a minor. Jaxxon's dad thought it was fun to use him as a punching bag and sometimes ashtray; it only took Juliet Mancini one time seeing the telltale signs of the young boy's abuse before he was packed up and moved in. Adrien followed not long after when one of his mother's Johns thought he could take out what she couldn't deliver on Adrien. He'd escaped out of a window and hotfooted it to our house and there he'd stayed.

"What's up guys your wives kick you out or what?"

"Funny bro…so?" Adrien dropped down on the couch while Jaxx went towards the minibar to get some sparkling water. He threw each of us one before settling next to Adrien on the couch.

"So what?" Of course I knew what they were after but I enjoyed busting their chops every chance I got.

"Don't fuck around bro we know you met with the undercover Fed last night how did it go?"

It was always Jaxx's way to let Adrien take the lead, me I'm always the one stirring shit up and making them both crazy.

"What, you didn't hack into the system to get a look at the report?"

"She hasn't sent anything in yet I'm dying to see if she's as good as they say."

“Jaxx you're rather quiet what's on your mind buddy?"

"I hope you know what you're doing bro getting close to this chick; why didn't you just tell her you knew who she was and be done with

it?”

"How do you know I didn't?"

"Our wives got the low down that's why we are here at the ass crack of dawn; Wilson know what the fuck you’re up to?”

"I don't answer to Wilson you know that."

"I know you're a hard headed son of a bitch who's more trouble than he's worth; what game are you playing now?"

"Adrien you worry too much you're worse than a mother hen, Cierra's no threat to me."

I saw Jaxx studying me out the side of my eye and I already knew what he was looking for; If I gave them the slightest hint that I was even remotely interested in this woman they'd be on me in a heartbeat. My brothers were very overprotective of me they were the only ones outside of the organization who knew what it was that I really did, not even my parents have that privilege because I’m afraid it might put mama in an early grave. They knew my life wouldn't be worth shit if word ever got out and they also knew I had no intentions of ever letting that happen.

"I don't know Hank this is very dangerous always before they operated from afar, this time they're right on your doorstep and you're letting them in. If Adrien hadn't gotten a whiff of what was going down you'd be walking blind and from what I hear the sparks were definitely flying between you two last night."

"Scorching hot's what I heard."

"Your wives are nosy as fuck."

"Stop evading brother what the fuck are you doing bro?" Adrien and his impatient ass was like a dog with a bone.

I'm not in the habit of keeping shit from my brothers it's the bro code or at least it's ours but if I let them in now it could open a whole slew of shit that I wasn't quite ready to deal with, still I didn't want to start keeping shit from my boys especially not while pulling the tiger's tail.

"I like her."

You could hear a pin drop as the two of them looked back and forth between each other before turning back to me.

"You like her!"

"Yeah Adrien I like her."

"Like really like her?"

"Yeah Jaxx, really like her."

"Fuck!"

"Yeah Adrien that about sums it up."

“Are we talking Juliet Mancini’s dinner table on a Sunday like? Or your usual two months is the cutoff like?”

That was the question wasn’t it? One I’ve been asking myself which in itself was grounds for fear; I’m a solitary animal by nature, but in my dealings with the fairer sex I’ve always been more aloof, more careful if you will. I didn’t intend to be trapped in anyone’s web and besides my lifestyle did not lend to the whole settling down thing. For some reason when I look into her eyes that all changes.

“I’m not sure bro.”

They did that exchanging of looks thing again before both hanging their heads; it came to mind that they did that a lot when dealing with me, even while we were kids.

“You can never do anything the easy way can you bro? Fuck this is gonna be a shit storm; I better keep my nose to the grindstone so I can keep your ass out of a sling because chances are if you’re gone over this woman you’ll be ass stupid in no time and making fucked up mistakes that might get your ass either killed or in jail.”

“Never happen bro.” I had to laugh at his assessment, what he described just wasn’t me at all.

“Tell him Jaxxon since he thinks he knows it all.”

“It’s true bro, the right woman gets her hooks into you you lose all sense of anything for a while until you have them locked down and you can breathe again, then things start to right themselves. Since you’re at the starting gate it’s going to be a while yet before you exit the danger zone.”

“I never said she was the right woman for me.” And why did the sound of that make me feel…whole? That’s it, the idea that she could be it which should make me run for cover actually made me feel good. Fuck.

“The fact that you said you didn’t know was answer enough bro, we know you; if she was like the others we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. I can’t wait to meet her now, the one woman who’s going to bring the great Mancini to his knees. You better not wait too long to introduce her to mama, that’s a whole other shit storm you do not want to walk through.”

“I think you’ve lost your mind.” I felt, not fear but something, something new and unfamiliar that unfurled in the pit of my stomach. They couldn’t be right, I was attracted to Cierra yes, okay very attracted but there’s no way I was ready to go there. Was I?

“Sure bro keep telling yourself that.”

“We just met, there’s no way I’m going there.” Was that my voice sounding almost desperate, the fuck?

“Sabra and I were married three months after we met, Adrien and Star lasted about four, what makes you think you’re gonna be any different?”

“Uh because I’m not pussy whipped like you two freaks, no woman is going to change my well ordered life, I’ve already got shit mapped out and a wife and kids just aren’t part of the equation, not while I still have work to do.”

“Even superman had a love interest.” Jaxxon smirked at me I know they were enjoying this, though what this was I still wasn’t quite sure. When these two had met and fallen in love with their respective wives I’d given them hell yes, but this was different, this wasn’t the happily ever after that they’d found with their women, this was just a simple case of lust. There that felt better as long as I remembered what was really going on here I was fine. Yes the lust for her was stronger than in the past but that didn’t mean anything. Nothing had changed, I’m still the same Hank Mancini that I’d been before I’d ever heard the name Cierra Stone.

“We’ll see, thanks for looking out bros but I’m good, I’ll leave the pansy ass shit to you two, speaking of which Adrien that wife of yours a pain in the ass.”

“Uh huh, and what would you like me to do about it?”

“Get her off my ass for one, that’ll be a good start.”

“No thanks, if she’s giving you shit that means it’s my week off you’re on your own brother.”

“Gee thanks you’re all heart if you two can’t control your women what makes you think I want that fucking headache?”

“Because what we do control makes it all worthwhile, you’ll see lil brother it wont be long now.” They both thought that shit was funny as they headed for the door. I was already deep in thought before they’d cleared the foyer; they couldn’t be right could they? No way.

I had to put personal matters aside for the rest of the day; this latest operation was a little tricky. The cargo was bigger than my usual haul so the transference was going to take longer not to mention the usual language barrier. I'm fluent in many languages including Mandarin so no problem but some of my crew weren't as proficient in the language; add the obvious fear that these poor young girls will be under after weeks in deplorable conditions and things could get FUBAR quickly. It’s my job to prevent that from happening, to see that everything went off without a hitch and most importantly that there was no lost of innocent lives.

I had no more time left to finalize things this was it, and with this sort of operation every second counts. I couldn’t afford to be distracted now I'll have time enough to think about the beautiful Cierra later. We were meeting for drinks tomorrow night after all.

Chapter 11

Cierra

I got myself together put all my ducks in a row so to speak before contacting the handler for now I’m reporting directly to Durant since this case was top priority. The bureau had already spent numerous man-hours not to mention the funds it cost to keep men on Mancini around the clock for so many years. There were rumblings about pulling back since we kept failing in all our endeavors to trap him but someone somewhere had a hard on for this guy because we still kept going. I was beginning to think this was a fool’s errand, too early to tell for sure but either my instincts were way off which I doubted or we have been after the wrong man for over a decade. There’s no mistake that he’s up to something and what that something is I’ll hopefully find out, but there’s no way the Hank Mancini I met the night before was a child trafficker, I’d bet my shiny new badge on it. I took a deep breath and prepared to give my report as it were. The director answered on the first ring as if he’d been waiting on the call.

“Agent Stone you got something for me?"

"Not exactly sir; the preliminary meeting went well but he didn't go for the bait so we're on to Plan B."

"Well we always knew that might be the way things headed from the get go so no surprises there; so you've met the man, your take?"

I was afraid he was going to ask me that; I didn't really have an answer not one I could share with him anyway but his voice sounded so excited, so sure that I was going to be the one to finally get the results they were hoping for.

"I think I'm going to need a little more time before I can form any type of opinion sir. Mr. Mancini is no fool I didn't think he would be too forthcoming on the first acquaintance but he did express..." I cut myself off I knew what he would say but I couldn't help feeling resentment. Had I been a man this would never have come up but because I'm a female and a passable one at that it was quite alright to expect me to use my body and female charm to lure the suspected criminal into my web.

"He did express what agent Stone?"

I took a fortifying breath before continuing on. "He expressed an interest in me personally."

"That's good, that's very good; we did tell you that that was the best course of action. I think we've always failed before because we were never able to get too close to the guy it's like he has a sixth sense or something but a skirt; now that's a different kettle of fish."

Pig! I resented all of them including Mancini for putting me in this position and I still wasn't sure that he hadn't been playing some type of cat and mouse game with me the night before. I'd gotten the distinct feeling last night that he'd been playing me but why? None of the Intel showed him to be that way with the females he usually took to his bed. He’s reportedly very generous and somewhat attentive for a playboy. I knew his adopted brothers were agents very well noted ones at that but anything to do with Mancini was purposely kept out of their knowing, so there was no way he could know who I was and yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was one step ahead of me somehow.