Operation: Midnight Rendezvous (9 page)

“How does it work?”

“It’s an ugly business. Young women, usually living in impoverished conditions, are promised a better life here in the United States. Sometimes they’re told they can do domestic work to repay the cost of transportation to the United States, which is usually by ship. Of course the organizer charges a fee for taking the risk and putting it all together. Usually the fee is so high these women will never be able to pay it back.”

“Indentured servants.”

“In essence.” Madrid grimaced. “Once they arrive, they’re sold to the highest bidder or sold into prostitution.”

“But why don’t they go to the police?”

“Because they’re illegal immigrants. Most of them don’t know English. They don’t know their way around. They have no friends or family here. They’re lied to from the moment they arrive.” He rolled his shoulder. “A few escape only to wind up on the street. Most don’t.”

“That’s incredibly sad.”

“It is,” he agreed. “Especially for the women who have children.”

Jess looked out the window. Madrid saw her blink rapidly, knew she was thinking about Nicolas. “If the Lighthouse Point PD is involved, we have to expose them.”

“I know.”

The problem was Madrid wasn’t quite sure how to go about it. If he’d been operating alone he’d already have come down on the Lighthouse Point PD so hard and fast they wouldn’t know what had hit them. He would have taken advantage of the myriad resources he had access to through the MIDNIGHT Agency.

But nothing was going right this time. He’d estranged himself from the agency, so he couldn’t call upon them for help. At least, not officially.

More important, he didn’t want to put Jess in danger. He wished he’d been able to convince her to stay back at the mission with his brother. If something happened to her…

“How are we going to get inside the police department?”

He frowned at her, not liking the question, but liking very much what he saw when he looked into her eyes. Damn, he wished she hadn’t come along.

“We create a diversion,” he said.

Her eyes narrowed. “You have something in mind?”

“I always have something in mind.” He slid the photos back into the file and put the file under the seat.

“Perhaps you could enlighten me.”

“Arson,” he said.

“Arson?” She gaped at him. “You mean as in breaking the law? Burning something down? What kind of agent are you?”

“The kind who knows how to get the job done.”

She sighed. “What are we burning down?”

“There’s a new police station and city hall being built on the south side of town. Right now it’s just being framed. Lots of wood.”

“A fire waiting to happen.”

He lifted a shoulder, let it drop. “Part of the roof is up, so it should be partially dry.”

She seemed to think about that for a moment. “What if someone gets hurt?”

“It’s a stand-alone building.”

“How do we go about it?”

“Leave that me,” he said, and started the engine.

J
ESS HAD KNOWN
unraveling the mystery behind Angela’s murder wasn’t going to be easy. But she’d been so intent on bringing the culprits to justice that she hadn’t considered the dangers.

Her heart pounded hard in her chest as Madrid idled
slowly past the skeletal structure of the new Lighthouse Point Police Department. The building was just off the main drag, nestled between a vacant lot and a small park. She’d driven past the place a dozen times and never given it more than a passing glance.

He parked in a narrow alley a block away, out of sight from the street, and shut down the engine. Jess watched as he reached into the backseat and retrieved the small satchel he’d brought from the cottage.

“What’s in that anyway?” she asked.

“It’s just Angela’s bag of tricks.” He opened the satchel. “I added a few of my own.”

Her pulse rate tripled as he began pulling out items she couldn’t begin to identify. A tiny black box with what looked like six inches of cord hanging from it. Another item that looked like a miniature garage-door opener. An odd-looking pistol that appeared to be made of plastic. “A gun?” she asked.

“Dart gun. Nonlethal. It delivers a potent tranquilizer.”

“In case someone shows up?”

“The fire will take care of the officers on duty, keep them busy for a while. But I expect there will be others who remain at the station.” His smile looked as lethal as the gun. “Don’t want to kill any cops.”

Jess pressed her hand to her stomach at the thought of confronting any of the Lighthouse Point cops. She’d never broken the law before, and she didn’t like the feeling. Even if it was for a much greater good.

Madrid reached up and unscrewed the dome light again. “Slide behind the wheel.”

Even though the night was chilly, sweat broke out
on the back of her neck when he got out of the car. Her palms were wet with sweat when she slid across the seat and set her hands on the steering wheel.

“Are you sure you can handle this?” he asked.

She wasn’t. Not by a long shot. But it was too late to turn back now. If she wanted Angela’s killer to be caught, they were going to have to go through with this. “I’m sure.”

He quietly closed the driver’s side door and looked around. “I want you to stay here for exactly ten minutes in the alley.”

She checked the clock on the dash. “Okay.”

“Then I want you to drive over to the new police department building. I’ll be waiting.” He put the items back into the satchel and hooked it on his belt.

“Once you pick me up, things are going to move fast.”

Jess thought things were already moving fast. Too fast, if she wanted to be honest.

“If anything happens…if I get caught…anything, I want you to drive like a bat out of hell back to the coastal highway and head north.” Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a folded piece of paper. “Call this number and someone will pick you up. Tell them everything.”

Her hand shook when she reached for the paper. Madrid noticed it, too, and he frowned. He leaned in close, intensity glinting in his eyes when his gaze met hers. Without speaking he kissed her hard on the mouth. Kissing Mike Madrid was like stepping on a live electrical cord. Jess felt her thoughts scramble and her body heat up despite the fear coursing through her. And somehow she knew everything was going to be okay.

Then, as quickly as he had kissed her, he was gone.

Jess sat with both hands on the wheel, her heart pounding, and watched him sprint to the mouth of the alley. His shoes were silent on the asphalt. He moved with the grace of a big dark cat. A predator on the prowl. He became one with the night. And then he was gone, and she was alone.

The minutes seemed to tick by like hours. Two minutes passed. Four. Seven. Around her the area was like a ghost town. Her heart nearly exploded when a vehicle passed by the mouth of the alley, but a glance told her it was only a street sweeper.

One minute to go. Her hand shook uncontrollably when she started the engine. The motor turning over sounded like a gunshot in the dead silence. Looking both ways, she pulled onto the street. She was thirty yards from the construction site when a yellow flicker caught her attention. She stared, her hands gripping the steering wheel so hard her knuckles hurt.

A soft knock on the passenger window nearly sent her out of her skin. All she could think was that Madrid had been caught and she was busted. Both of them would be carted off to jail—or murdered.

But it was only Madrid. She hit the button to unlock the door and he slid smoothly inside.

“Drive,” he said as he closed the door. “Nice and easy. Don’t speed.”

The urge to floor the accelerator was strong, but Jess resisted. She knew it would be the fastest way to draw attention.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I will be when this is done.” She glanced in the rearview in time to see the construction site burst into flames.

Chapter Seven

In the course of his career with the MIDNIGHT Agency, Madrid had broken the law too many times to count. Usually the infractions were inconsequential; nobody had been hurt. It had always been for a greater good. Maybe even to save a life. Still, he didn’t like what they were doing. He liked even less dragging Jess into it. The problem was he wasn’t sure how to keep her out of it.

“Turn here,” he said, motioning toward a back street that would take them to the coastal highway.

“I thought we were going to go to the police station.”

“We’re taking the long way.”

His nerves went taut when a police cruiser with its lights blaring suddenly loomed behind them.

“Oh, my God.” Jess gaped at the rearview mirror. “Oh, no.”

“It’s okay. He’s going to pass us on his way to the fire.”

Still, the relief that swept through him when the car sped past was palpable. He glanced at Jess. She looked calm on the outside, but he could see her hands
wrapped like vises around the steering wheel, her eyes flicking to the rearview mirror every couple of seconds.

“You’re doing okay,” he said.

“I don’t feel okay,” she replied. “I feel terrified. Like we’re doing something wrong. Like someone might get hurt.”

“None of those things are going to happen. Just try to stay calm. Everything’s going to be all right.”

“Famous last words right before we get busted and dragged off to prison.”

Another cop car, lights and siren blaring, streaked past.

“Okay,” he said, “turn the car around.”

Jess shot him an are-you-out-of-your-mind look. “Madrid…”

“We have to move now.” He glanced at his watch. “We have twenty minutes max to get into the police station and look around.”

A pent-up sigh slid between her lips as she turned into a church driveway, then pulled back onto the highway.

“And the cops at the station?” she asked.

“That’s where our nonlethal weapons come into play.”

“I hate to remind you of this unpleasant little detail, but while we might be using nonlethal weapons, the cops aren’t.”

“We have the element of surprise on our side. I’m a professional.”

“I’m a waitress,” she blurted out. “I don’t know how to do this.”

“You’ll do fine, Jess.” He looked over his shoulder, made sure there was no one following. “Look at you. You’re driving like a pro.”

She shook her head. “I don’t do anything like a pro. The only thing I do well is screw things up.”

He risked a look at her, curiosity nipping at him, and he made a mental note to get to the bottom of that statement later. “Maybe you ought to give yourself a little more credit.” He motioned left. “Turn here.”

They were on a side street that ran parallel to the main drag. The police station was a block ahead. “Park in that lot over there, beneath the tree.”

Jess pulled into the lot and cut the engine and lights. She knew if she took her hands off the steering wheel they would shake uncontrollably, so she didn’t. Madrid’s window was down a few inches and the chorus of crickets and frogs was in full swing. In the near distance she could hear sirens. Dead ahead, the police station was lit up like a football stadium.

“I count four cars.”

She jolted at the sound of Madrid’s voice and jerked her gaze to the parking lot beside the police station. Sure enough, four cars sat beneath the glow of the streetlight.

“I’m hoping that doesn’t mean there are four cops inside,” she said.

“Most cops drive their own car to work, then switch to their city car. More cars than people here, I’d say.”

Jess wished her heart would slow down. She felt shaky and scared and she hated it. “How many inside?”

“At this hour and for a town this size, I’d say there’s a dispatcher and maybe two officers.”

Sick with nerves, she pressed her hand to her stomach. “How are we going to handle that many people?”

“I have a plan.”

“Of course you do.”

He grinned, but for the first time Jess thought she saw the sharp edge of nerves beneath the reckless facade. She watched as he dug into the satchel and pulled out a small packet of what looked like ketchup. “Don’t tell me you have fries to go with that.”

“Just a tall tale.” He tore open the packet with his teeth, then proceeded to smear what looked like blood on his temple.

Understanding dawned in an unpleasant rush. When he made eye contact, Jess could have sworn the blood was real. “Not bad.”

Madrid said, “I’m going to walk in and tell them I was driving on the coastal highway and someone took a shot at my car. I was nicked in the temple. That ought to distract them long enough for me to get the upper hand.”

It was good as far as stories went. A situation the police would surely need to investigate. But there were so many things that could go wrong.

She realized then he hadn’t included her in the story. One look at his face and she knew why. He was concerned for her safety. She knew it was silly, but his concern warmed her in a place that hadn’t been warmed for a very long time.

“Madrid, you can’t do this alone.”

“I don’t think you’re in any shape to—”

“I can do it,” she cut in.

“Jess…” He scraped a hand over his face. “You can’t. They’ll recognize you—they’re looking for you.”

She shook her head. “They’re looking for a woman
with a little boy. I have to take the chance, Madrid. For Angela and Nicolas. For me.”

He stared at her with such intensity that it was difficult to hold his gaze. Then he nodded and his eyes went back to the police station. “Okay. Same story. You’re my wife. All you have to do is help me in. I was driving when some unknown gunman took a potshot at us. Okay?”

There was nothing okay about any of this, but Jess nodded. She wondered if he could see the fear that was surely written all over her face.

When Madrid got out of the car, Jess followed, hating that her legs were weak and shaking. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him smear more of the fake blood on his shirt. She crossed around the front of the car and jolted when he reached for her and applied some of the blood to her hands.

“You sure you can handle this?” he asked.