“How’d it go?”
“What are you doing here?” I said, not bothering to hide any surprise or disgust.
“You think you’re the only one who has to do things to prepare for this?” she said with a playful smirk. “I have to do injections and get other things taken care of. It’s just a coincidence that I’m here.”
There’s no such thing as coincidences. Only incidents that we don’t have the full context to.
“But since you’re here, let me ask you something. How’d you like to get dinner?”
“I don’t do dinner with clients.”
Emily recoiled, but I could tell she kind of forced it, like she knew I was going to say that and was trying to play the part of being surprised.
“I wasn’t asking you on a date,” she said with an awkward laugh, suggesting that was, in fact, exactly what she had hoped would happen. “I just said I wanted dinner. I can bring the parental rights agreement. We can get the rest of the logistics sorted out.”
“And I wasn’t saying anything other than what I said.”
Emily pursed her lips.
“Lunch tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“Why are you being so difficult?”
I sighed. I could get on the plane as soon as tomorrow afternoon. That might work, actually. It would get me out of this.
“Set it up for your lunch break,” I said. “And keep in mind my flight out is at three in the afternoon. So—”
“No worries!” Emily said, and without another word, she walked past me, a smile she couldn’t contain on her face.
I almost felt bad playing hardball with her. She was a sweet girl, a beautiful girl, and one I just jerked off thinking about…
But now I was realizing that what Scott and Liam had done with their women wasn’t just something that happened out of the blue. It wasn’t like they fucked their women on a whim and said, “welp, guess I’m stuck with her!” It had happened as a sort of slippery slope.
I had to be careful. I’d already taken one step on the slope. I hadn’t fallen yet, but I was playing with fire.
At least it was a “hot” fire.
Is there any rule, anyway, about hooking up with clients once the deal is fulfilled? I mean, you shot your load.
No, I couldn’t think like that. And even if there was a loophole, I had four weeks that this process needed to take. I couldn’t do anything more than lunch tomorrow for the next four weeks. This was how Scott and Liam got hooked in.
Get lunch tomorrow. Get on the plane to Connecticut at three. Take some time off and either wait for the next mission or plan for my own—
My phone rang.
I looked down. It was an unidentified number, which told me either a telemarketer had chosen to bug me at the worst possible time, or it was Scott or Liam.
“Hello,” I said.
“We know where he is.”
It was Scott.
And I immediately knew who “he” was.
“I just got intel that there’s another ‘shipment’ en route. It’s in Mexico this time, just left Tlaxcala, and is headed up to the States.”
More sex trafficking. Snake’s getting worse.
“I’m in Maine. Liam is in Colorado. Burke—”
“I’m on the nest flight as soon as I can,” I said. “I’ll get there.”
“Just don’t do anything that would get you killed, don’t be a fucking hero,” Scott warned. “We need to intercept that shipment and save the girls, but we have time. As long as we get there before it gets here T—”
“I can handle my shit, Scott,” I said.
It was nothing personal. I just didn’t like anyone, even fellow members of DOM, getting in my way. And I especially didn’t like Snake still being out on the loose.
That bastard had been a thorn in DOM’s side for the better part of a decade now. For the first while, he was just a nuisance, setting up quick and easy rescues for us that took our time. There was almost an odd sort of respect, though I hesitated to actually say that about someone who committed crimes as heinous as stealing women.
But now, especially after Scott had really screwed Snake over, things had gotten worse. Much worse. Snake was seemingly losing his mind at losing every encounter with us. And if we didn’t stop him now, it would get far too ugly.
“I understand, Burke, but all of us are in this for the kill. This is too big for just one of us.”
“Understood. Send me the files. I’ll head there now, see you there.”
I hung up. Immediately, like a switch had been thrown in my mind, I went into action mode. I turned around, left the building, and made a beeline back for the hotel I was staying at. Within half an hour, I had all my bags packed, a private airplane waiting to take me to Mexico, and no more commitments here. Getting through Miami traffic was something of a pain in the ass, but it got done.
When I got to the plane, I got on board, told the pilot to make haste for Tlaxcala, and took my seat. I closed my eyes, visualizing the ensuing mission. There’d be a lot of bloodshed, death, and violence. There was no way we were going to do this mission without risking death.
But it was our chance to end Snake. He was out in person with the convoy, and that gave us an opportunity. We had to take it.
The plane lifted off.
And only then, only when it was probably a couple thousand feet in the air, did I realize I had never told Emily that I wouldn’t make it to lunch tomorrow. It was kind of a dick move, but it was too late to do anything about it. Besides, we
