Lazar's Intrigue (The Jack Lazar Series) (15 page)

“Don’t
you dare question my integrity, bitch! I’m so goddamn sick and tired of your
insolence that I could…”

“Oh
shut up, Ben. You know I’m just venting my frustration.”

There
was another long period of silence. “Just get back to LA, and we’ll talk about everything
when you get here. I’m sure I can pull some strings and get your suspension
lifted. Of course, you’ll still have to drop the Antonucci case. I can’t
imagine the director will change his mind about that.”

Sarina
laughed. “I’m not coming back, Ben. I’m seeing this through.”

“What
do you mean? Continue with the case? Are you crazy? You can’t do that, Sarina. You’ll
lose your job, you’ll go to jail, and your career will be ruined. Besides,
Antonucci is clearly trying to eliminate our team and has probably put out a
contract on you as well. You can’t afford to be out in the field until we get
this situation under control.”

“Oh
right,” she answered sarcastically. “Like I’m really going to be protected in
one of our safe houses. At least I stand a chance of surviving if I keep moving
around.”

“Sarina,
they’ll cancel your credit cards. You won’t be able to go anywhere or do
anything.”

“I
have other resources.” She looked over to Jack for his agreement and he nodded
resolutely.

“Please
don’t do this!” Ben hollered.

Sarina
pressed the end button on her phone, tore off the back cover and removed both
the battery and SIM card before tossing everything in the trash can next to the
bed. She shook her head in disappointment and turned to Jack, appearing like
she was trying to remain calm.

“Well,
babe. Looks like it’s just the two of us now.”

“That’s
fine with me,” Jack answered, “but I’m really sorry about Bob. He was the older
gentleman at the hospital, right?”

“Yes.”

“Jesus.”
Jack reached over and held her hand tightly. “All this killing is starting to
get to me,” he confessed. “How do you deal with it?”

“I
guess I just try not to think about it.”

“How
can you not think about it?”

She
released his hand and let out a frustrated sigh. “I don’t like for people to
get killed any more than you do. But what can I do to change it? In this
profession it happens around us all the time. If I allowed the magnitude of all
these deaths to actually sink in, I’d probably go crazy. So the only way I can
survive is to keep focused and do my job.”

“Did
you know Bob for a long time?” Jack asked.

“Ever
since I joined the agency seven years ago.”

“Is
that why you’re doing this? For him?”

Sarina
smiled halfheartedly. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t part of the reason. But
it’s mainly because I feel this is the right thing to do. I get so goddamn sick
and tired of bureaucratic bullshit getting in the way of good old-fashioned
justice. It’s like they’ve forgotten our job is to actually stop people like
Antonucci, not run away at the first sign of trouble. I’ve been on this case
for two years, and all I’ve managed to do is run into one road block after
another. I’m beginning to think it’s another one of those no-win scenarios where
someone up the line in the government has no intentions of letting us win. But
even if it means losing my job, it’s time to take this guy down, no matter who
his friends are. And if I get fired, at least I’ll be able to leave my career
with a sense of satisfaction.”

“And
what if it means you end up going to jail?”

“That’s
a chance I’ll have to take.”

Jack
nodded in understanding. “So what’s our plan?”

“Well,”
she said, thinking out loud, “somehow we need to find out where those planes
from Miami are going. That airfield in Kentucky. We need to pinpoint it.”

“Agreed.”

“But,
Jack, we need to be careful from now on. Not only is the government no longer
on our side, but they’re liable to be looking for me. And who knows, maybe Ben
is right. Antonucci’s guys could be looking for me, too.”

“And
me.”

“True.”

“Okay,
so we’ll use my credit cards going forward. Your associates at the DEA don’t
know you’re traveling with me, and Antonucci doesn’t have the resources to
track me down through my accounts. So that should work, right?”

“It
should. At least for a while. But my associates are smart people, and it’s only
a matter of time before they figure out we’re together. Also, it’s not
unthinkable that Antonucci might have friends in the government, possibility
even at the DEA, who might help him track you down. So we still need to be
careful. And if we run into trouble, your credit cards will be just as useless
as mine.”

“What
kind of trouble?”

“Well,
since Antonucci wants to kill us, and Ben will do whatever’s necessary to take
me into custody, we need to keep our eyes open and be ready for anything.”

“Lovely.
So what’s the next step?”

“I
think we should take a noonish flight to Miami tomorrow. Today I’d like to
visit with a friend of mine with the FAA at O’Hare who can help us figure out
Antonucci’s flight scheme.”

“Sounds
good,” Jack said. “Obviously we can’t use your name for the airline ticket
since the DEA will be searching travel records, especially out of Chicago.”

“Yes
they will, but I have a guy in LA who can overnight a new California driver’s
license and a passport to me here at the hotel with any name I want. We’ll use
the same name for my ticket so we can breeze through security at the airport
and avoid raising any red flags. If he sends it priority overnight, we’ll get
it by ten o’clock.”

“Nice.
So who would you like to be?”

“Sarina
Lazar, of course. And we’ll use your address in San Juan Capistrano since we’re
married now.”

Jack
smiled. “I like the sound of that. I’ve never been married before. Should be
fun.”

“What
about your passport? We’re probably going to end up in Colombia at some point.”

“It’s
at home in my dresser. But I suppose I can call my housekeeper and get her to
FedEx it to me. If Antonucci’s guys are actually watching my house, they
wouldn’t do anything to her, would they?”

“I
doubt it. They’re looking for you, after all, and they’re smart enough to know
that she’s just the maid and has no idea where you are.”

Jack
nodded. “Okay, then I’ll call her.”

“We’ll
also need to stop somewhere and buy me a prepaid mobile phone.”

“Of
course. Anything else?”

Sarina
took a breath. “I think that’s it for now.”

“Is
there anything we can do to throw the DEA off our path?”

“Possibly.
I’ll have to think about that. If I can find a way to make Ben’s life more
difficult right now, I’ll do it. I could just strangle him!”

“I’m
sure. It sounded like he was really pissed at you.”

Sarina
shook her head and forced a wicked smile. “He’s just angry because he knows I’m
sleeping with someone else.”

Jack’s
heart skipped a beat, and he looked at her, stunned. “What? You sleep with
him?”

“Oh,
just every now and then. It’s nothing important. At least not to me. He gets
worked up about it, though.”

A
swell of pain traveled through Jack’s stomach. First it was Antonucci, and now Ben.
He was jealous even though he knew he had no justifiable reason to feel that
way. He and Sarina weren’t a couple, hadn’t defined any kind of relationship
yet, and she had every right to have her own sex life. Still, there was
something disturbing in the way she related the whole thing, and the affair
with Ben seemed even more threatening than her past liaison with Antonucci,
perhaps because Jack knew the relationship with Ben may not be over. He had to
know everything.

“Sarina.
Let me get this straight. Are you saying that you
still
sleep with him?”

“Dear
God. Not you, too!”

“And
what about Antonucci?” The words escaped his lips before he even thought about
them. But he was glad the issue was suddenly out there. What the hell, they
were arguing anyway.

“What
are you talking about?” The look on her face was so convincing Jack could
hardly believe it.

“I
know all about your undercover assignment with Antonucci. I even know you got
shot on the beach that night because they discovered you were with the DEA.” It
was sheer speculation, but the odds felt pretty good he was right.

She
looked stunned. “How could you possibly know that?”

Bingo.

“Let’s
just say I have my sources.” The victory of one-upping her gave him a sort of
enraged satisfaction, and he couldn’t resist the cruel smile that crept on his
face.

“Oh,
bullshit! You’re just speculating.” Sarina appeared to be really furious now, probably
because she had momentarily lost the dominant position in the argument.

“Am
I?”

She
stared at him for a moment, and her powers of restraint apparently vanished. “All
right, so I fucked him, too. Are you happy?”

“No.
I don’t particularly care to think about you screwing other guys.”

She
rose up and stood at the foot of the bed, looking at him with a futile look on
her face. “Did we make some sort of commitment here, Jack? Am I missing
something?”

He
searched for the right thing to say. The last thing he wanted to do was appear
weak. But this relationship was unlike anything he had experienced in his life,
and he couldn’t imagine she thought it was an everyday affair either.

“I
thought we had something special,” he offered.

She
laughed. “We do.”

“So
what does that mean to you?”

“I
don’t understand the question.”

He
could sense she was playing with him, and staring at her naked body befuddled
him even more. “Don’t you want to see where this leads?”

“Sure.”
She shrugged and smiled as if torturing him was the best thing ever.

“And
in the meantime?”

“In
the meantime let’s have some fun. Isn’t that what we’re doing?”

“You’re
right. Just forget it.” Jack had been on the opposite side of this conversation
more times than he could count. He was never the one who got serious too early
in a relationship, and he couldn’t understand why it was happening to him now. What
was it about this woman that made things so fantastic and impossible at the
same time?

“I’ll
tell you what,” she said as she crawled up to him from the foot of the bed. “I’ll
stop sleeping with Ben as long as you keep me satisfied.”

Jack
was determined to maintain a strong exterior no matter what she said. “That’s
so generous of you.”

“And
you’ll be happy to know that when I had sex with him yesterday afternoon, I
fantasized about you the whole time. Really, I did.”

The
pain in his stomach was constant now. “You mean that after our incredible night
at the hotel in Marina Del Rey, you jumped immediately into bed with him?”

“Hey,
I live with the guy. What choice do I have?”

“You
live
with him?” Jack was astonished now. “Then why the hell did you go
to bed with me?”

She
laughed again. “Ben and I aren’t married. And when it comes down to it, he and
I only live together because it’s convenient.”

“I
just don’t know what to make of all this,” Jack muttered.

“What
are you getting all worked up about?” Sarina seemed to draw strength from his
weakness. “We’re having a great time. Don’t spoil it!”

“I
guess I just need to evaluate what our relationship is all about.”

She
came up to him again and lifted his chin. “Jack. C’mon. I didn’t really sleep
with Ben yesterday.”

“What?”

“You
heard me. I really didn’t sleep with him.”

Jack
was comforted a little now, but disturbed in a different way. “But you just
said…”

“I
know what I said, but you don’t really think I would do something like that, do
you?”

“I
guess I just don’t know. I mean, that’s what you said. Jesus, do I need to
start questioning everything you say to me? Should I assume that at least part
of everything you say is a lie?”

“No,
of course not, Jack. I’m just having a little fun with you. That’s far from
lying.”

“Why
would you do that? What are you trying to do to me?”

“Oh,
don’t get so worked up! Can’t you take a little joke?”

He
stared into the deep pools of dark brown in her eyes, looking for something to
bring him back to the paradise he felt with her just minutes ago, but there was
no kindness there. In fact, there was nothing at all. Just a sea of emptiness.
Was this a classic case of displaced aggression over Bob’s death and her
suspension from the DEA, or was she really just a stone-cold bitch?