Hell Bent (14 page)

Anger surged through her and she was very close to giving him the knee in the nuts he deserved for grabbing her, but her phone rang in her hand. 

“Let me go, David,” she growled, pulling away to answer it.

“When are you going to be here, Brat?  Did Logan talk to you?” Cade asked impatiently and her eyes flew to her brother’s.  “Tell him I wired the money to his account.  I need you to get here soon!” Cecelia heard a cacophony of excited female voices in the background—Spanish female voices.

Dave must’ve heard too because he lifted an eyebrow, and she sighed.

At that moment, Cecelia wanted to get
herself
out of there—to an island inhabited only by women so she could live in peace.  Men, it seemed, were the bane of her existence these days and these two had just effectively cornered her.

Slade put me in a bad way financially while I was on my honeymoon
. God why did she care?  After the way he’d treated her, why did she feel obligated to help him? 
Because he was family, and she was raised that way
.

If you throw the hook, give me a call.
  Keegan would never be getting that call, because between Cade’s apology and the fact she just realized he was probably doing this because of what she said to him, that he was giving her the chance she’d been denied by her brother, that hook was probably embedded forever.  It was further embedded by her need to find out exactly why he was angry with her after rocking her world on Saturday night.

I need you to get here
.  She was screwed.

“No, we haven’t finished talking yet.” 
And we won’t unless my brother changes his attitude and makes me an offer I can’t refuse
. “I’ll call you back.”

Cee Cee hung up to eyeball her brother.  “You have thirty seconds to tell me why I should stay here and do this job for either of you,” she said shortly.

“Because we need you?” Dave replied with a hesitant smile.

“Try again and add something
I
need, which isn’t your bullshit.”  She put a hand on her hip, and raised a brow.  “Here’s a hint—
green
is my favorite color.”

Three of his agents, no
four
with her—five with Cade, but he probably wasn’t being paid since this involved his sister and he was doing the hiring—were going to be assigned to this job. 

Since she’d been forced to do the bookkeeping, Cecelia knew what the Deep Six Security hourly agent rates were and her pay was nowhere close. 

According to Dave, they were being
hired
for this job, so he was being paid by someone.  Despite what he said, he wasn’t destitute anyway, the man had a damned helicopter, an expensive downtown office as well as a fortified and very-well-outfitted compound and every com toy known to man.  Liquidating those assets alone would set him up for a very long time, if not life. 

If Cee Cee was going to do this for him, she wasn’t letting him shortchange her because he thought he could.  Although she knew she was in the power position here, she waited to see what Dave would offer her.  That would tell her if he was in the right frame of mind for her to continue working for him.  When he just stood there staring at her grinding his teeth, she lifted her wrist to look at her watch. 

“Fifteen seconds…” she said.

“I’ll give you a fifteen thousand dollar bonus,” he growled, and blew out a breath.

“Twenty,” she countered, lifting her chin as she took a step back.  His face turned bright red, and she didn’t think he was breathing.  She took another step back.  “Five seconds…”

She waited, then turned to walk away and his growl made her smile.

“
Fine
!” he shouted, and Cecelia turned around wearing a wide grin. “God, you really are a brat…”

“Yes, I am—a
smart
and
capable
one.  A woman like your wife—one
not
to be messed with.  Now, acknowledge that and add an apology for acting like an asshole to me since I’ve been back, and I’ll take the job.”

“God, you
are
just like her now and you’re giving me a bigger ulcer than I already have,” he said shoving hand through his hair.

“I’ll take that as a high compliment,” Cecelia replied, crossing her arms over her chest.  “Your time is up, David, so if you intend on hiring me you better get to it.”

“I’m sorry, Cecelia, you
are
smart and capable.”  He blew out a breath, and his lips pinched and released. “And you’ve grown into a woman I’m so damned proud to call my sister.”

Cee Cee gasped as the unexpected words slammed into her dragging emotion up to her throat to choke her.  She spun away from him when her eyes burned worse than they had the other night. 

His hand dropped gently on her shoulder, and he turned her toward him and pulled her against him.  “I love you, Ceese…never doubt that.”  She nodded, and he pushed her back but quickly ended their mid-morning-commuter-crowd reunion when he turned back toward the office. “Now, c’mon let’s get to work.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Cade didn’t know how much more of this he could take when he opened the door of the mansion thinking he’d see the Deep Six crew, but instead found Carlos Ramos and three more obviously terrified Latina women.  Ronnie had answered the call box from upstairs and Cade now knew why.  He had a feeling she had agreed to take these women too.  It was like she was taking in every stray puppy who showed up on their doorstep, stray puppies he was responsible for taking care of and watching out for.

“This has to stop,” he growled, opening the door wider so they could come inside.

“I wish it would, amigo, because I don’t like this any more than you do.  I’m just glad they have somewhere to go once we rescue them,” he replied.

“They
don’t
have anywhere to go, that’s the issue here,” Cade ground out as he slammed the door.  “That makes twenty-one freaking women!  We don’t have enough bedrooms here, and they can’t house that many even at the shelter.”  

When Cade turned he saw the women run to the group of other women who had taken over the sofa and floor of the huge living room to braid hair, put on makeup and chat like magpies.  He shoved a hand through his hair, and knew even with three more men to guard them, and Cecelia, this was never going to work.  Even with the entire Deep Six Team here, it wouldn’t work.  There was just too much chaos…and it was growing by the second.

“You’re going to have to send some agents here to help guard them, at least until we get back from Austin.  Send some FNGs if you have to—trainees or something.  Hell, send your freaking secretary, or the janitor!  I don’t care who you send, but we need help!”

“I know, and I’m working on it.”  Carlos blew out a breath, and shoved a hand through his perfectly combed black hair too.  “I have a call into another agency, DFS, to try and get some counselors over here.  They have regular days they are at the shelter, so maybe they will send them over here on those days instead until we can get the shelter back into shape.”

Cade stepped forward and grabbed the man’s shoulder.  “No, you don’t understand—we don’t need them on their
regularly scheduled days
—we need them
now
!”

A shrill whistle rent the air and Cade flinched as it ran right through his body.  Looking back at the women in the living room, he saw Lou Ellen standing there like his old drill sergeant with her hands on her hips.  The only difference was she was doing the drilling in three-inch heels and a designer business suit.  Cade grinned, because he couldn’t help himself.

“That’s enough makeup and lounging, ladies,” she said—in
Spanish
—and his gut unclenched.  “I need you in three groups because we are going to clean up this mess here before we get started on some English and math lessons.” 

A groan worked through the gaggle of women, but they gathered up their beauty supplies, then stood and split up into three groups.  Like the mother goose, she led them to the base of the stairs and pointed upward to the landing at the top. 

“Go store your things, make your beds then I want one group of you down here in the kitchen, the second on cleaning
all
of the bathrooms in this house, and the third group is going to vacuum the carpets and mop the floors down here.  I’ll have the supplies waiting when you come back down.”

The first woman stepped on the stairs, then the rest followed like ants streaming to the top of the ant pile.  When the last foot hit the first tread, Cade blew out a breath.

“Thank God,” he groaned.

“No, thank Lou Ellen,” she said as she walked to the foyer to meet them.  “I saw you were about to have a breakdown, and Allison isn’t far behind you.  I told you I have this, so stop your damned worrying.”  She pointed a finger at Carlos.  “And you stop adding to the problem, unless you can provide help to go with the women you’re bringing here and funds to feed them.”

“I’m working on that too.  I have a request in for some emergency aid funding for them, but you know the government.  It takes time, and I’m pretty frustrated myself.”

“Screw the government red tape—you’re a big bad FBI agent, just figure out how to make it happen.  You’re the boss, so that’s your job right?” Lou Ellen growled, and Cade bit his inner lip when it twitched.

“Yes, ma’am, it is my job, and I’m liking it less every day,” Carlos replied with a heavy sigh.  “And I’ve got to get back to it.” He turned and walked to the front door, but grabbed the knob and stopped.  “I’m going to put a stop to the raids for now, but that will probably mean starting the investigation over since word will spread through the cartels that we’re doing takedowns of the cantinas.  They’ll move the women and we’ll have to find them again.”

Cade knew exactly how that worked and Carlos was right.  He hated that those women would miss an opportunity to be rescued, but there was no way they could add more to this group right now. 

“I’m sorry, man.  I’d suggest finishing the raids, but maybe putting the women into the system for now.  It’s better than having them continue to be abused.”

“No, it’s not better because I can guarantee they’ll be right back here in another cantina in a month or two, just a lot more traumatized.  The way
the system
works is since they are undocumented, they are deported pretty quickly and it’s a merry-go-round once they get back to Mexico, Columbia, El Salvador or Guatemala without options.”

Right again, Cade thought, his stomach clenching. 

This was a no-win situation for everyone, but at least his sister and Allison were trying to help solve the problem with the shelter.  Cade was damned glad to be here trying to help them, but didn’t have an answer.  And he also didn’t have enough money to throw at the problem to expand the shelter without bankrupting himself.

“I’ve been making calls and have a temporary solution,” Allison announced as she stepped up beside Cade, and Carlos turned around.  “There’s a shelter in Arizona that will take up to twenty women so keep the raids going, Carlos.  I have a staunch supporter in Austin who is setting up a fund-raising ball which we’re disguising as a party to celebrate the bill passing.  With the heavy-hitters Sophie is inviting, I expect we’ll have enough for a substantial expansion to the shelter and services when we get back.”

“What if the bill doesn’t pass?” Ronnie asked, stepping up beside her to close the circle.

“If it doesn’t pass, we’ll have more reason for a fundraising party, so bring a dress,” Allison replied.

“If it passes, you better bring an army,” Lou Ellen said with a sniff.  “Those Sovereign Assholes are going to be pissed.  A party is the last thing you need to have.”  She tossed a thumb over her shoulder at Cade. “Especially a fancy one where having Rambo here with you would cause a stink.  Half of those damned bleeding heart liberals who’d put money into the shelter are the ones wanting to take our guns away.”

“Well, we’ll just have to figure out how to hide all those muscles under a tuxedo and put that gun in a shoulder holster or something, because we are having that party,” Allison said.

Lou Ellen seemed to be the voice of reason here, and that was a scary thing to Cade. 

He agreed, they definitely didn’t need to be going to a party whether the bill passed or not.  Either way, they were still on the radar of the redneck mafia.  But then Lou Ellen squeezed his bicep and he looked down at her.

“It’s gonna take a lot of cloth to cover these guns,” she said with a snicker and Cade frowned.  “And something to keep the women from removing that tuxedo to see what he’s packing.  You know how those airhead trophy-wife wannabees are at those parties when they see a single man.”

“I hope you don’t mind…I buzzed in someone named Cecelia,” Estella said meekly, as she joined the group, and a knock sounded at the door.

Carlos opened the door and heated air rushed in as Cecelia stood in the doorway backlit by the midmorning sun, her short, spiky blonde hair giving her the appearance that she wore a halo in the center of horns.  The vision was definitely appropriate for her. 

Cecelia’s eyes met his, searching for something, Allison and Lou Ellen gasped then looked at each other, and Veronica’s mouth fell open.  “Cecelia—I’m so glad you could come to help!” Ronnie said with excitement and a sly sideways glance at Cade.

Cade groaned, because with this conversation and these women, he knew exactly where this was going—right down the shitter and he was riding the last turd.

“
Not
. Happening,” he growled as he pushed his way between Allison and Veronica to find some breathing room in the open end of the foyer. 

Wheezing room was more like it, because his chest was as tight as it had been since he’d been back in Texas and that was saying something.  He was not putting on a damned tuxedo and stepping back into an arena he swore he’d never go back to after he left his father’s world, and he definitely was not doing it with Cecelia Logan. 

They could think again.

“Oh, c’mon, Cade—” Veronica pleaded, taking his arm. “We need that money and you need to watch out for us.  It’s the perfect solution!”

Cade spun to face her, his fists at his sides. 

“I came back here to protect you, Ronnie, not herd monkeys in a circus where I’m not the ringmaster.” He took two deep breaths and blew them out.  “I will take you to Austin for that vote, but I am absolutely
not
attending that party.  If the vigilantes get to you, it’s because
you
invited them to the party!”

“I’d be dead either way if they get to me,” she said, and her lower lip trembled.   “You came back to make sure that doesn’t happen and I’m thankful.  I’ll get Trace to meet us there to help watch out for me.  You can just have a little fun.”

“
That
is not
my
idea of fun—and you are not taking this seriously enough, Ronnie.”  Cade took her shoulders in a tight grip.  “This is your life we’re talking about here—your baby’s life.  You should just go home and hunker down with your husband until those assholes are caught.”

And let me out of this madhouse to get back to the less crazy place I left
.

“Have you ever in your life known me to
hunker
down?” she asked with an eyeroll.  “Or
cower
down is a more apt description.  These women need me and I won’t do that.  I have faith that you and Trace won’t let anything happen to us.  This means you can leave the three men here to watch out for our additional guests, so we don’t have to worry.”

Easy for her to say
.  Cade had plenty to worry about with watching their backs in Austin, more now with watching Cecelia’s too, and only him and an ex-cop turned rancher, who was probably rustier than Cecelia was with a firearm as a partner. 

God, please don’t let anything go down in Austin, he prayed
. 

“I don’t like this one damned bit,” he said shoving a hand through his hair.  “And for the record, I think you’re making a big mistake.” 

He’d made a bigger one by coming back to Texas in the first place.

“Duly noted,” Veronica said, patting his cheek. “And I have to forewarn you that Phil may be there but I’m sure you can avoid him as well as you always have.”

An electric shock zipped through Cade and blood rushed to his face with the anger that almost blew the top of his head off.  Cade fisted his hands at his sides again to keep from putting them around her long, thin neck.

“You know that’s a deal breaker, Veronica, so you can just
un
invite him!”  Cade shouted, and looked toward the foyer where every eye was on him.

“I haven’t invited him yet, but I’m going to.  I really doubt he’ll show up even if he RSVPs. You know how he is.”  She waved a hand, and laughed.  “I’m just inviting him so he doesn’t get his nose out of joint that I didn’t.  I need him in the right frame of mind to do me a favor—write me another nice big, fat check for the shelter.”

Another check
?  Cade wondered how many he’d written so far and why, and now was the prime opportunity to find out.  He glanced at the group near the door and found Cecelia’s eyes burning a hole in him, while the others talked.  He grabbed Ronnie’s arm, dragged her across the living room and made a left down a wide hallway before he stopped and took her shoulders again.

“Why is he writing you checks at all?  What’s in it for him?  I know Phil wouldn’t be doing it otherwise,” Cade grated, and Ronnie peeled his fingers from her shoulders then stepped back.

“I did him a favor, and he’s showing his gratitude through money like he always has.”

“What favor did you do for him?” Cade demanded, his
something-isn’t-right-here
radar bleeping like a red alert siren in his head.

“A relative of one of his house staff was brought across the border by a coyote.  She was pregnant and needed a place to stay until the baby was born, so he brought her to the shelter and I took her in as a favor.  Now that she’s had the baby and has learned some office skills, I’m going to help her find a job and get a work visa…well, as soon as she learns English a little better.”

There were eight women at that shelter when Cade was there the other day, none had a baby in her arms, and a new mother would have, considering the tense situation.  The only one who was visibly pregnant was the one in labor whose baby
he
had delivered.