Live Wire (7 page)

“What in Sam hell do you think is going on there?” Zellers tapped on the steering wheel.

The back door of the gym popped open, and two hulking guys hustled to large, dark SUVs. A quick second later, they moved the vehicles closer to the building, and the door opened again. Walking in a line, two men in gym gear plus Bishop and Lexi walked under the watchful eye of two other Russians and were funneled into the waiting vehicles. Bishop and Lexi stuck together, and the other men went into a different car.

Another Russian walked to a third vehicle, and the cars made their own little caravan as they pulled out of the parking lot.

Sugar rubbed her protruding belly. “They’re playing line leader, and everyone wants to go home?”

“Smart-ass.” The cop grimaced. “There goes Tahiti.”

“Parker, what’re you hearing?” Jared asked through the encrypted channel on Sugar’s speakerphone on the center console.

“Nothing on the wires.”

“Zellers?” her husband snapped. “Where are they going?”

“Jeez. Let me just snap up my mob-mind-reader and check.”

“Asshole. Clearly you’re not in control of the situation. Task force is done. Titan is in.”

“Look,” Zellers grumbled. “Titan means red tape. You guys cause your share of problems.”

“Like not reporting a hostage situation to your superiors?” Parker asked, sounding none too thrilled with the direction the conversation was taking.

“Alright,” Sugar interrupted. “Clearly, we’re not all playing nicely—”

“Hang on, I’m hearing something.” Parker paused. “What do you know about…?”

“What?” Jared snapped.

“Give me a second. I’m trying to figure out what the hell they’re talking about.”

“Damn it, Parker.”

“My wife’s in that car,” Parker said. “Chill a second, Boss Man.”

Jared shut his trap.
Score one for Parker.
Sugar waited to see what Parker would find. He worked fine under pressure or when Jared was yacking down his neck. He could handle this situation with Lexi, but still, he worked better when no one screwed with him.

“Zellers…” Parker’s unsteady voice didn’t bode well for whatever he had figured out. “What do you know about a chemical called Chepetsk?”

Zellers’s head dropped. “Goddamn it.”

“What?” Sugar asked.

He rubbed his temples. “If that’s what this is about, we actually do have a problem, and I have to call my new wife and beg for forgiveness. I’m not going anywhere today.”

“
What
is it
?
” Jared jumped in.

“Chepetsk isn’t a chemical. It’s a place. A city. Kirovo-Chepetsk.”

“Yeah. That.” Parker agreed. “What’s the deal?”

“There’s a chemical plant there. It’s on a couple of converging rivers. They make fertilizers. The waste hit the water stream, and the company pays off whoever they need to pay off to make the stuff illegal and profitable. The stuff is poison; the town folks drink it.”

“So why are they in Maryland fighting over it?” Jared asked.

“Searching everything I can find now,” Parker said. “Other than the obvious, fertilizer can be used to make explosives. But why we’re talking about it is another question.”

“They hired a scientist from these parts, basically, and brought him in from wherever—Iowa, Nebraska, I don’t know—against his will. Who knows the whole story—whether the guy thought he signed on for a good job and it turned bad, or a bad job and he got in over his head—but the Feds caught wind.”

“Caught wind how and when?” Jared asked.

Zellers blew out and stretched in the driver’s seat, putting the car in drive and merging into traffic as they followed the caravan from a good-enough distance. “Not sure, exactly. We have a bit of a communication issue.”

“Shocking,” Jared said.

Zellers ignored him. “From what I’ve heard, the Feds grabbed him, got what they needed from him. So now he’s gone, and to the Gornovsky folks, the guy is missing, and they’re turning on each other.”

“
Missing
, as in witness protection?
Or missing
, as in the scientist dude is bled out somewhere for snitching?”

Zellers shrugged. “Missing. What does it matter?”

Jared growled. “They’re fighting over this guy, and you people lost him? He could be in Russia.”

“Not my people.”

“Freaking bureaucracy,” Jared snapped. “Where is he? Is he out of the country? With a Russian faction?”

“Not likely. He’s not Russian—just, ya know, does well with the Russians.”

“Parker,” Jared said, “find everything you can about this guy, the greedy scientist—what’s his name?”

“Render Rossi,” Zellers said.

“On it,” Parker said.

“That’s definitely not a Russian name.” Jared’s knuckles crackled over the airwaves.

Zellers turned to Sugar. “What’s he going to do? Find the guy? End the turf war himself?”

She smirked. “Probably.”
Jackass.
“Whatever he does, Lexi will come home safe, and you’ll likely get some kind of task-force medallion of accomplishment. So shut up, copper, and let my husband save your job.”

“Damn, you’re a handful.”

They kept their eyes on the Suburbans ahead. Bishop was with Lexi, and that set Sugar’s mind somewhat at ease. If and when it was advantageous, he could likely overpower the mobsters. Though a move like that would be dangerous. But her gut said he was a smart kid and would wait to make his move.

“
Holy shit…
” It wasn’t often that Jared sounded equal parts in awe and shocked.

Sugar dropped her gaze to the phone as though she could see what had Jared mumbling in surprise. “What?”

“This greedy scientist?” The words came out slowly, as though he were piecing together a plan he was still unsure about.

“Yeah?” Sugar said.

“He looks a hell of a lot like Parker. Throw a pair of glasses on Parker, hide the fact that he has an extra thirty pounds of muscle, and I’d say you have a chemical-making friend of the Russians.”

“I don’t look like that guy,” Parker said.

“Text me a picture,” Sugar requested, and a hot second later, lo and behold, yeah, the guy looked a hell of a lot like Parker
but with glasses
.

“How well do they know the scientist?” Jared asked.

Zellers shrugged. “The Gornovsky players don’t get into the lab much. I’d say they’re more business-type guys. If they’ve met, it’s been in passing. Maybe seen him across the room. They don’t deal with the hired help, if you know what I mean. Right now, their interests only lie in Rossi because he’s their money maker and is MIA.”

“It’d be risky…” Jared said.

Zellers’s face tightened. “Eh… what’s he talking about?”

“It’ll work.” Sugar could picture Jared popping his knuckles, making notes, and writing the plans, not caring whether Zellers gave a thumbs-up or not.

“Do they communicate in Russian?” Parker asked.

Zellers looked from the phone to Sugar, back to the phone. “Are you guys serious?”

“Get Nicola in your earpiece,” Jared said. “She can translate anything you need to know. And start learning everything else about the Gornovsky crew.”

The plan made perfect sense to Sugar. Hesitation scored Zellers’s face. His eyebrows arched painfully high, but before his mouth could protest, Parker broke in. “We’ve pulled off crazier shit. I’ll do whatever needs to be done to get Lex home.”

Just another reason why Sugar loved Boy Genius. He fuckin’ rocked. “Get the man a pair of glasses.”

CHAPTER NINE

Within fifteen minutes, Parker knew everything he needed to know about Render Rossi. Another twenty minutes, and he was fluent in Gornovsky business relations. Parker could broker a deal long enough for Titan and the Russian task force to show up, bust them all, save Lexi, and call the day a win.

Jared and Zellers had the details worked out for the why and how, and honestly, Parker had listened. But it didn’t matter. His woman was in danger, and even though they played it down and promised that Bishop had hands on her and Sugar had eyes on her, Parker still knew that she wasn’t safe.

His phone buzzed with a text message from Jared.

Jared:
You good to go in 15 min?

Parker:
Yes

Jared:
Winters and Rocco are ready and waiting

All of that he knew. Brock’s Delta team waited nearby. Winters could be counted on to blow the side off a building when need be, and Rocco could drive the hell out of a getaway vehicle if they needed to get Lexi out of there faster than Parker could get his arms around her. Backup plans upon backup plans.

Jared:
Russians got the news, bait’s taken. Render Rossi will be at the Belvoir Hotel.

Parker:
Good. Let’s get Lexi safe.

Titan had agreed to work hand in hand with the task force. Lexi would come home under Titan’s command. The task force needed a live wire to pick up a transaction between the Russians, and then they could scoop up several arrests. Easy. They’d clean the streets of mobsters, and Parker would walk out with Lexi. No gunfire. No burning buildings.

Once the deal was done, assuming all went well, there would be no need for Winters, Rocco, and Delta team—those Delta guys were more trigger-happy than he’d seen on a team in a long time.

Parker inhaled deeply.
Yeah. Okay. Alright.
Lexi in this situation made him nervous. Hell, standing in this part of Titan HQ was unfamiliar to him. He looked around at the room he’d been in only a few times. Mirrors. Wardrobes. Drawers. It was an entire room dedicated to subterfuge.

“What am I doing in here?” he mumbled. Computers and electronics, he knew. This stuff? Parker rubbed his face. Not a clue.

Beth, Roman’s wife and a CIA consultant, was on the fast track to Titan HQ to help him perfect his look.

Give him anything he could hack, and he was good to go. A database that was unbreakable, or a security system that no one could get through? Yeah, he was in there. He’d gone undercover more times than he could count.

Yet this was different. His world was on the line.

So far, he’d donned a pair of khaki pants, a button down, and a jacket. Not too shabby looking, thank you very much. His black hair worked, and he popped in dark-colored contact lenses, making his eyes burn. “These things suck.”

Blinking to stave off the blinding pinch, he tried to get the thing on the right part of his eyeball just as Beth walked in.

“More contact solution.”

“Hey, yeah. Shit. Okay.” He put another squirt in, gave a few more blinks, and it slipped into place. She was right. “Thanks.”

“Alright, let’s see what we’re working with here.” Her gaze started at his eyes, slowly made its way to his shoes, then went back up. “Holy shit, Parker. You made the greedy mad scientist freakin’ hot.”

He blushed and grumbled, futzing with his shirt. “Not the goal, Beth.”

“But still, you nailed it.”

“What now?” He turned for the mirror. Yeah, he looked like Render Rossi. But something was off, and he had no aesthetic expertise to know what was missing.

“Sit down,” Beth ordered. “Like you didn’t know you had good looks.” She grabbed a tube of hair gel, forced him into a chair, and proceeded to muss his hair.

“This isn’t what the picture looked like, Beth.” He watched as she expertly made a disaster out of his hair, yet it looked fine.

“If you show up looking exactly like the picture we have on file, and you’re a hair off, it’s a dead giveaway that you’re a freaking stand-in for the real deal.” She mussed his hair all over again and took a step back to admire her work. “
But
if you’re sporting a new look, it’s fine.” She stepped to him again, moved
one
piece of hair, and stepped back, stared, then wiped her hands on a towel. “Complete. Done. I’m a hair guru.”

“And modest about it too.” But she was right. Beth could do hair. “Roman’s hair could look a lot better if this is the kind of power you possess.”

She laughed, still staring at her work. “You know what, professor?”

“Hmm?” He rolled his eyes.

“I’d do you.” She folded her arms across her chest. “In a purely professional, just-kidding manner.”

He rolled his eyes, again, but harder. “Focus.”

“I am. Jeez. No one ever questions the hot guy. Trust me. That’s a tip from a CIA pro.” She turned for her purse and pulled out a glasses case. “Talk about nerd porn.” Beth snapped the case open and pulled out the glasses. “Put them on now. I have to see.”

He gave her the evil eye. “Only if you behave.”

“Promise.” She made a cross over her heart.

Parker unfolded the glasses and watched her as he put them on. “
Behave, Beth.
”