Jake: The Sinner Saints #3 (15 page)

Verity’s spine stiffened, but she didn’t back down. “You don’t like me, do you, Mr. Tamatoa?”

“No, I don’t, Miss Green,” he said, lifting his chin a notch.

“Just because I’m Roman’s sister?”

“No,” he said, “because I don’t like the way you’re taking advantage of my friend.”

“I am not taking advan—”

“Listen lady, I know you've been through some shit,” Bowie cut her off. “But so has Jake. He’s been knocked down harder than you can imagine, and he’s just now getting back up on his feet. The last thing he needs is some damsel in distress draping herself across him and dragging him right back down again.”

Verity flinched. Her jaw fell open as if she’d been smacked across the face.

A damsel in distress?

Sure, she’d sought out his help, but that was Jake’s job. He protected people. He fought for those that couldn’t do it on their own.

And as for the draping…well, as far as she could remember that was an activity that took
two
people.

Verity’s hands clenched into fists at her side as her indignation started to grow.

“You’re the last person who gets to lecture me on what Jake needs,” she said. “You and the rest of his
friends
.”

“Excuse me?” Bowie's eyes narrowed. Verity had the feeling that nobody talked back to him much. At least, not for very long.

“Where the hell were you when he was blaming himself for his friends getting hurt?” she asked boldly. “Where were you when he was buried underneath all that pain and shame? Where were any of you when he couldn’t take it anymore and ran away?”

“You don't know what you're talking about,” Bowie growled.

Verity didn't care. She took a step closer.

“Do you know where I found him?” she asked. “Alone and trying to drown his pain in some shitty roadside bar in the middle of nowhere. Where the hell were you then? Where were any of his friends?”

Bowie stared daggers down at her. “I’d shut your mouth, if I were you.”

“Of course
you
would,” Verity shot back. “I don’t know what the hell is going on between you and Jake, but it’s obvious that whatever it is you’d rather keep silent and sweep it under the rug than deal with it.”

Bowie didn’t say a word. She didn’t think he could if he wanted to. The line of his mouth was so tight that his lips had practically disappeared. His whole body was vibrating with rage.

Good. The man deserved a little taste of his own medicine.

Not that she wanted to push him too far. She didn’t believe that he’d lash out and actually hurt her, but, on the other hand, she didn’t think it was a good idea to poke a tiger with a stick…not any more than she already had.

Besides, she’d said enough.

Verity started for the door, but swiveled around as her hand wrapped around the knob.

Maybe just one more thing.

“At least you were right about something. Our lives are all kinds of screwed up right now, but Jake’s been the only person willing to stand by my side.” Verity opened the door, letting the warm sunshine pour in. “And so far as I can tell, I’ve been the only one to do the same for him.”

Chapter Ten

Verity rubbed her hands back and forth against each other as she paced the length of her motel room. She’d been treading the same path for the last half hour—from the window to the edge of the carpet near the bathroom, a quick swivel on her heel and back again. Every third or fourth trip she’d flip back the drape, just to make sure she hadn’t somehow missed the sound of Jake's truck pulling into the parking lot.

Of course, she knew he wasn’t going to be there. It had taken the two of them a little over half an hour to drive out to the farmhouse yesterday. It would take the same amount for the return trip. And Verity couldn’t even begin to guess how long
recon
took. Hell, she wasn’t even sure what it entailed. Chances were she couldn’t expect the guys until mid-afternoon…at the very least.

There was no way she was going to make it through all those hours just by wearing holes in the carpet.

But what else could she do?

It was just like Bowie had said. She was useless.

Verity stopped in her tracks.

Sudden anger surged through her at the realization. Not at Roman or Silas for putting her in this situation. Not at Bowie for pointing it out. But at herself for believing it.

From the moment that she’d opened her brother’s letter, Verity had been many things—determined, terrified, embarrassed—but the one thing she’d refused to be was useless.

And she wasn’t about to start now.

She might have blown her career—hell, she may have ruined her whole life—but that didn’t mean she had to give up. So what if she didn’t have any contacts at the DEA or know the first thing about bringing down an intricate drug cartel?

She didn’t come out here to cower in a hovel. She’d come out here to save some art. And that was just what she intended to do.

Just as soon as she figured out a way to do it.

Verity drew in a deep breath as she assessed her situation. She was stuck in a motel room, cut off from the outside world. Hell, she didn’t even have a phone.

No, wait. That wasn’t exactly true. She might not be able to switch on
her
cell
, but there was still the old school phone sitting on the nightstand between the beds. There wasn’t any reason she couldn’t use that one…if only she had someone to call.

Jake had made it clear that she couldn’t call Cheryl or anyone else at the University. Even if their phones weren’t being monitored, she couldn’t trust them not to go straight to the FBI. Besides, everyone she knew was an academic. They might be geniuses when it came to history and authentication, but what she needed right now was a different kind of expertise.

The kind that could track a man like Jake for weeks without him knowing.

Verity spun on her heel and went for her bag. She found the pants she was wearing the day she’d landed in California and dug into the back pocket. Charlie’s card was still there.

She flipped it over and stared down at where the woman had written her private cell number.

Just in case you find yourself in any trouble
, she’d said.

Well, this certainly qualified.

Jake had said that Charlie could do all sorts of amazing things with a computer. It looked like it was time to put that to the test.

Verity went over to the bed and sat down on the edge. Drawing in a deep breath, she picked up the heavy receiver and dialed the numbers.

It rang once on the other end. Twice. Three times. Verity was beginning to fear that it was going to go to voice mail when someone picked up.

“This is Charlie,” a cheery voice said.

“Hey, Charlie. This is Verity Green,” she said, trying not to sputter. It didn’t help that there was a long pause on the other end. “We met a few days ago at your office. You told me where I could find—”

“Yeah, I remember you,” Charlie said in a whisper.

But judging by her hushed tone, not very glad to hear from her.

“You know, I’m sorry,” Verity said in a rush. “Maybe this was a bad idea.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Charlie said without hesitation. “Just give me a second to get into my office and lock the door.”

Verity swallowed hard. Were things really so bad that someone like Charlie was afraid to even be caught talking to her?

Apparently so.

Verity waited and eventually heard the soft click of a door closing on the other end.

“Dang, girl,” Charlie said, her voice back to its usual bubbly tone. “I was beginning to fear that I was never going to hear from you again.”

“Well, I landed in a little bit of trouble.”

“That’s the understatement of the year,” Charlie said with a laugh. “Last time I heard, you had both the FBI and the Norteños gunning for you.”

“Yeah, it’s been a rough couple of days,” Verity said with a sigh. “But, strangely enough, that’s not why I’m calling.”

“Is it Jake?” Charlie asked a little too quickly. “Is he giving you grief?”

A bright blush lit up Verity’s cheeks. Suddenly she was glad that Charlie couldn’t see her face.
Grief
wasn’t exactly how she’d characterize what Jake was giving her.

“No,” Verity said. “But if you could give me any pointers on how to deal with that Bowie guy, I'd appreciate it.”

"Wait," Charlie said her tone becoming serious. “Bowie is there?”

“Yep,” Verity said. “And I get the feeling he
really
doesn’t like me.”

“Well, you can’t take that personally. He doesn’t like anybody.”

Verity pursed her lips together as she nodded. That was actually strangely reassuring.

“But if you aren’t calling me about your many warrants or man problems,” Charlie said, “then why are you calling me?”

“That’s the thing. I’m not entirely sure.” Verity straightened her back as she explained the story behind Roman’s letter and her plan to get to the antiquities before they were sold off. “But now that plan is off the table, the guys are off playing soldier, and I’m stuck here feeling…useless.”

“And you were wondering if there was any way that I could help you to keep fighting the good fight?” Charlie said as if she could read her mind.

“Exactly,” Verity said beginning to feel hopeful.

“Oh, Verity, sweetie. I can help you do a hell of a lot more than that,” Charlie said. “Do you have a laptop?”

“No.” Verity shook her head.

“There should be one in Jake’s bag. I can hook it up to our secure network remotely.”

Verity put down the phone long enough to run over to Jake’s duffel. Sure enough, she found a small laptop nestled at the bottom.

“Now what do we do?” Verity asked as she plopped back down on the edge of the bed.

“Now, Verity,” Charlie said with a laugh, “we screw with some bad guys."

***

It had only been a few hours since Jake had left Verity behind at the motel—well, three hours, twenty-three minutes to be precise—but he still couldn’t keep from pressing on the accelerator as he passed the Augustville city limits sign.

He told himself it wasn’t because he was nervous. She was probably fine. There was no reason to believe otherwise.

Still, he didn’t like being away from Verity this long. Not now. There was no way he was going to be satisfied until he saw with his own eyes that she was safe and sound.

He pushed the pedal down a little farther.

Bowie turned his head Jake’s way but didn’t say a word. Not that Jake would have taken it if he had. Bowie was the last person on earth who was allowed to call another man out for being too protective of a woman.

Fortunately, his friend was too wrapped up with his own concerns to take Jake to task for his. Their recon mission hadn’t been a great success. They’d managed to get on and off of Silas’ property without getting caught but just barely. The place was crawling with men. Neither of them had been able to get close enough to see anything of real value, let alone gather evidence that Bowie’s DEA contact could bring to a judge. Whatever Silas was hiding on the property, he had it well concealed.

“I have to go, Diane,” Bowie said into the phone as Jake turned into the motel parking lot. “Let me know if you have any luck, and I’ll call you if anything changes.”

“Well, that could have gone better,” Jake said, throwing the truck into park.

Bowie cocked a brow. “At least you didn’t waste any time getting us back.”

“You don’t like my driving?” Jake didn’t even glance at his friend as he stepped down on the pavement and headed toward the motel room.

“Didn’t say that.” Bowie’s voice followed him. “Just not used to going that fast outside of one of Carter’s race cars.”

Jake ignored the jibe as he pulled out the key and threw open the door. The hair on the back of his neck stood up when he saw that the room was dark.

Well, that wasn’t completely true. There was some light, a faint, unnatural blue-tinted glow that emanated from deep inside.

Jake’s hand instinctually went to the holster at his side. He checked behind him and found that Bowie was doing the same. All traces of humor fell away as they stepped over the threshold.

Jake let out a breath the moment he saw Verity sitting cross-legged on the far mattress. She was fine. Just fine. The only thing out of place was the laptop that she had balanced on her knees.

His
laptop.

Jake’s back teeth ground together.

“Verity,” he said, not bothering to hide any of the displeasure from his voice. “What’s going on?”

She didn't look up from the screen. Instead, she lifted a single finger. “One sec.”

Jake had to snap his jaw shut.

One sec
? She was putting him off? What the hell was going on?

Jake turned to Bowie, but his friend was no help. He just arched his brows as something that looked suspiciously like a grin started to play at the corner of his lips.

“Okay, so that's done,” Verity said to no one in particular. “I think we've done all the damage we can on these message boards. What's next?”

Jake's brows dipped down as his forehead furrowed. He took a step forward, ready to demand to know what in God's name was going on, but someone spoke before he could.

“Not much more to do,” a familiar feminine voice sounded from the computer’s speakers. “We're coming to the end of the list.”

Charlie.

Oh God. Jake rolled his head back.

Verity had an open laptop in front of her and Charlie on the line. No way in hell this was a good thing.

“Give me the laptop, Verity,” Jake said, moving over to the bed.

“Just a second,” Verity said, still focusing on her typing.

“Time’s up.” Jake was all out of patience. He snatched his computer off Verity’s knees and spun it around.

Several windows were open, and staring up at him from one in the corner was Charlie’s smiling face.

“Hey, stranger,” Charlie said as his face came into view of the webcam.

Jake ignored the cheery greeting.

"What the hell are you doing, Charlie?”

"Good to see you too,” she went on.

Jake drew in a deep breath, trying to wrangle his temper back under control.

“Someone needs to answer me,” he said.

“Or what?” Charlie asked, with a sly smile. “You’ll come back to the office and yell at me in person? Cause, honestly, I’m willing to take that hit if it means that you’re coming home.”

Damn it. Even though he knew Charlie was blatantly manipulating him, Jake couldn’t stop the wave of guilt that crashed over him. He couldn’t bear to look at her another moment. He tossed the open laptop down on the bed, and pierced Verity with a stare.

“Tell me what you were doing,” he demanded.

“Fine,” she said, looking up at him with real anger burning in her eyes. “Charlie was helping me navigate the dark web and plant false information about Silas’ stolen art.”

Jake saw red. “What?”

“Oh, rookie mistake, Verity,” Charlie said with a groan. “You never want to spill the whole truth to these guys. Not all at once, anyway. Isn’t that right, Bowie?”

Jake turned his head long enough to see that the smirk had faded from Bowie’s face. “No idea what you’re talking about,” he said.

“Really?” Charlie said, her voice dripping with attitude. “Because I’m pretty sure you told me you were off to help a client in Hawaii this week.”

Bowie’s gaze slid to the side. His lips became a hard flat line. “And I don’t think that Carter would approve of you combing through illegal online marketplaces.”

Charlie laughed. “If I waited around to get Carter’s permission for even half the things I do around here, I’d never get anything done.”

“If this is what you’re spending your time on, then maybe that’s not such a bad idea,” Bowie said.