Christine Feehan - Street Game

“No, no, babe, Mack’s fine. Everyone’s good. Don’t turn on the lights. Get them off.”

There was a heartbeat of silence and the lights went off again, plunging the first story into darkness. He heard rustling as she sank down at the top of the stairs.

“Javier?”

There was the smallest of quivers in her voice and he felt a reaction in the pit of his stomach. Either of the girls could do that to any of them. Jaimie and Rhianna. The family revolved around the two girls. He didn’t want to think about Rhianna, off doing God knew what undercover in some foreign country.

“For a minute I thought…” She trailed off, sounding very vulnerable.

“I know. He’s fine. Everyone is. Just checking on you. You know how Mack worries.”

“Do I?” Jaimie sounded sad now. “I haven’t heard from him for two years. I don’t think he worries all that much, Javier. But then, I’m all grown up and maybe don’t need it anymore.”

Working fast in the dark, he strung more explosives along the windows, wrapping the warehouse so that anyone trying to get in was going to have a nasty surprise. “Go on upstairs and make us a cup of tea. I’ll be right there,” Javier suggested.

“It’s three in the morning,” she pointed out. “What are you really doing here?”

“I told you. Mack worries.” He kept his eyes moving around the windows, checking constantly to make certain Jaimie couldn’t be seen. The stairs were protected from sight, he noted with a sigh of relief.

“Things went to hell?”

That was Jaimie, straight to the point. “No, we’ve got it handled. Mack’s working his way back here with the rest of the crew. You might want to put on the coffee as well.”

She made a sound somewhere between annoyance and amusement. In the dark it made him smile. She had that effect on everyone but the boss. She had an entirely different effect on him. His smile stretched to a grin.

“I’m not letting everyone move in with me,” she announced.

“You gotta take that up with Mack,” Javier said. “I’m just the scout, testing the waters, clearing out the land mines, you know, leading the way.”

“Couldn’t you have led him off the end of the pier?”

Javier flashed her a grin. “Mack would retaliate, Jaimie. You’re safe enough. We keep an eye on him.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means go upstairs and make a pot a coffee. The boys are going to be cold.”

She sat there watching him. “You’re expecting company.”

He gave a casual shrug. “I always expect company. I’m paranoid. I even sleep with my pretty little gun.”

She laughed. “I believe that.” She started back up the stairs, hesitated, and half turned back toward him. “Javier, you aren’t going to blow up my house, are you? I don’t have insurance for that.”

“Don’t insult me, Jaimie,” he replied. “You know I’m a specialist. My charges go exactly where I want them to go. Your home will be perfectly safe.”

She nodded, tried a smile, and went on up to the third floor.

Javier noted she was as quiet as ever. Jaimie had been recruited out of college and trained as an operative. She certainly hadn’t lost any of her skills. She was amazing in knowing where her enemies were at all times, was maybe the best of them, but she couldn’t kill. There was no pulling the trigger for Jaimie. Javier couldn’t understand why Mack let that bother him. The woman was just wired differently. She always had been. He remembered her as a little girl, all eyes and wild hair and a brain that wouldn’t quit. She’d started high school at eight years of age, Mack and Kane already fifteen and watching over her.

Javier? Mack whispered in his mind. You where you can talk? That’s affirmative.

We’ve removed the bodies. I ran into a couple of suspects, but they backed off her place. I think they’re watching it, though. I’ve got them under surveillance. We’re going to set up shop in a couple of places.

There’s no doubt they were making a grab for her. Whose are they, Top? Not the ones we were looking for. Someone else is in this mix. Kane got the information from Sergeant Major Griffen that Madigan had a heart attack and is in the hospital. That explains the low profile here. They don’t want to tip off Doomsday to where they’re keeping the guns or to the fact that Madigan is indisposed. He probably gave them some story about a delay. We should have a little time to set up here and watch the warehouse and keep Jaimie safe as well. A heart attack? Javier asked.

Yeah, a little convenient.

It could happen, Javier pointed out. Stranger things had. The problem with the address? Jaimie being here? Madigan having a heart attack before he can get the guns into Doomsday’s hands? Those conveniences just keep piling up, Mack said. Watch her and don’t trust anyone . I never do, Javier responded as he made his way up to the second story. If Mack thought they were all being manipulated, the chances were great that they had been. Mack rarely was wrong when he got a strong enough hunch to say it out loud. On the second story, two more boxes were opened that hadn’t been earlier, which meant Jaimie had been upset after they left and had worked rather than gone to bed. He added a few charges to slow down any unwanted guests and made his way to Jaimie’s living quarters. The aroma of coffee hit him immediately.

Javier grinned at her. “I forgot you make the best coffee on the planet.”

The upper story had a few dim night-lights glowing; he didn’t want shadows across the windows giving away their positions, but she hadn’t turned on any bright lights. Jaimie turned around and leaned one hip against her counter. His stomach knotted. Here it came. Damn it. He had hoped Mack would get this, not him.

“I haven’t seen any of you in two years and within minutes of seeing you, I’ve got trouble on my doorstep, haven’t I, Javier?”

He tried an angelic grin. It worked on most women, but she knew him. She didn’t smile back and her eyes flickered. Oh, yeah. She was upset. “I like to think we arrived just in the nick of time to save the damsel in distress.”

She sat on the counter and swung her legs. “Just how much danger is there, Javier?”

He winked. “None now that I’m here. We’ll just stay away from the windows. You do have an escape route up here, right?” He couldn’t imagine a planner like Jaimie not incorporating a secret escape or two.

She nodded curtly. “Don’t be cute with me, Javier.” She narrowed her eyes and looked at him closer. “Come here.”

He took a step back, wary of that expression on her face. He’d seen it before on a woman and it never boded well. “I’m just hanging out with you, Jaimie.”

“Really? Then why is there blood on your sleeve?” She wrinkled her nose. “I smell fresh blood.”

The woman had always had sharp eyes. And an even keener sense of smell. Javier shrugged. “All in the line of duty. You had a couple of rats sniffing around your back door, babe. I just took care of them for you, is all.”

She shook her head, jumped from the counter and turned her back on him to busy herself with the coffee. He noted her hands shook. “I’m not doing this again, Javier. You can’t let Mack drag me back in.” She didn’t add cream or sugar, handing the aromatic liquid to him just the way he liked it. “I can’t go back to that life. This is my home now. I’ve established myself in business here and I have a chance to succeed.”

“Mack would want you to succeed,” Javier pointed out, going straight to the heart of the matter. “He’d never do anything to jeopardize you.”