Lazar's Intrigue (The Jack Lazar Series) (16 page)

“Sarina,
I just need to know one thing. Are you going to sleep with him again?”

“Unbelievable!”
She rolled her eyes in disgust and walked toward the bathroom, shouting back at
him. “I’m taking a shower now. Feel free to join me if you can get your head
straight.”

The
bathroom door slammed, leaving Jack in a state of confusion. Part of him wanted
to pack up his belongings and leave before she had a chance to reemerge, never
to see her again. But at the same time nothing could draw him away.

“God,
this is miserable,” he said to himself.

Still,
Sarina had a point. They had hardly spent any time together. So how could he already
be getting so serious? All he needed to do was enjoy the present, which was
unquestionably the most incredible time he could remember in his life. The
future would unfold in its own way, and if that meant they were to be together,
then so be it. If not, then not.

He
recalled Tasagi’s advice about not becoming dependent on Sarina’s energy, and
it was clear he had done just that. Her games were robbing him of his power and
leading him to feel sensations of fear and weakness. It was imperative that he reframe
the relationship in his mind, eliminate the disparities between expectation and
reality, and get his emotions back on track.

“Maintain
your connection with nature and everything around you,” Tasagi had said.

Jack
closed his eyes and took several deep breaths, focusing his thoughts, and his
consciousness gradually transcended as he cleared everything from his mind. He
began to visualize the natural energy of the world flowing through him,
connecting with him. He filled his thoughts with acceptance and love, and then
directed them toward Sarina. And within only a few minutes he felt more at
peace, the matter seeming to hold less importance than it had only moments
before.

His
connection stronger, Jack could think more clearly now, and he realized Sarina
had the right to conduct her life in whatever manner she chose. Who was he to
tell her what to do? It was only his expectations of her that caused him to be
upset. And if he wished to continue with this relationship, he would need to
fully accept her just the way she was. It would be unfair and unreasonable to
ask her to change. And even if she did, he knew it would be worthless unless it
truly came from her heart.

Jack
smiled that he had worked out the whole thing in his mind so quickly, and he
rose from the bed to join his woman in the shower. He knew she would let him
in, even if it meant he would have to grovel, but the reward would be worth it.

FIFTEEN

Sarina
called ahead to inform her FAA contact at Chicago O’Hare, Peter Santalauria,
that she and Jack would drop by around lunchtime to examine the flight plans of
several of Antonucci’s freight airliners.

Peter
was so tall and lanky that images of Ichabod Crane flashed through Jack’s mind
as he watched him talk with Sarina. She just called him “Sticks”, and it didn’t
take a rocket scientist to figure out why. But despite his oddities, Sticks was
a reasonably handsome man, and he dressed more fashionably than most of the
other ATC employees in the building. He lost a point in Jack’s assessment for
having already loosened his tie halfway through the day, but knowing how
stressful air traffic control was supposed to be, Jack just assumed the man
never even bothered to pull the thing up to his neck in the first place.

“It’s
funny you should ask about the Antonucci flights,” Sticks said. “We were asked
to put a trace on them a few weeks ago by Bob Lynch in your Los Angeles office just
after they started flying, but we didn’t discover anything unusual. So why the
renewed interest?”

Sarina
smiled at Sticks in a way he obviously appreciated, and Jack wondered if
flirting was her standard modus operandi to get information out of men. She
suggestively leaned toward him with body language that seemed to say, “Hey,
look at all this great stuff I have.” And her clothing just added fuel to the
fire. It wasn’t that she dressed inappropriately, Jack thought, but her outfits
always accentuated her curves, revealed plenty of cleavage, especially when she
leaned over, and always displayed her legs in full glory.

“You
didn’t see anything suspicious at all?” Sarina asked, stretching her leg to the
side and allowing the slit of her skirt to fall open across it.

“Nothing.”
Sticks replied as his eyes glanced downward. “Bob was surprised, too. He was
sure he had figured out what Antonucci was up to. But I guess not.”

She
sighed. “Okay, let me give you a hypothetical situation, and you tell me if it’s
possible.”

“Shoot.”

“Let’s
say a plane coming from Colombia flies over Kentucky on its way to Chicago and
meets up with an identical plane in the air at the same altitude. Then the two
planes switch identities, thereby allowing the one from Colombia to land
undetected at a private airstrip. Later, the plane takes off from the private
airstrip again, meets with another flight from Miami, takes on
its
identity, and then lands in Chicago pretending to be a domestic carrier,
thereby bypassing Customs.”

Sticks
was apparently thinking along with her. “So then they could unload their
illegal cargo right in front of God and country. No questions asked.”

“Precisely,”
she concurred. “Is it possible?”

He
thought for a moment. “I don’t know, Sarina. I can’t think of a plausible way
to do that. As sophisticated as our systems are these days, it doesn’t seem likely.”

“All
right, then prove it to me.”

“Okay,
come over here and I’ll show you.” Sticks led them into a room with rows of
radar monitors and pointed to one with several aircraft on it, each of which
showed up as a blip with ID numbers next to it.

“There
are several problems with your theory,” he explained. “To begin with, every
plane in the air shows up on our radar regardless of whether it has a
transponder or not. See this screen over here with several planes at lower altitudes?
They aren’t sending transponder signals, so you don’t see an ID, altitude and
air speed, but as you can see they still show up. So you couldn’t possibly make
a midair switch without us knowing about it. We would actually see the second
plane, and depending on how close they get to each other, it’s likely the radar
system would generate a short-term conflict alert.”

“Could
they employ some sort of radar-jamming device or stealth technology to make it
happen?”

“Not
likely,” he said, scratching the back of his neck. “They would need access to
some highly classified technology to do that, and then the cost would be
outrageous. I just don’t know, Sarina. Sounds pretty farfetched to me.”

“Believe
me, Sticks. Money is not an issue for these guys. We’re talking about a
multi-billion-dollar business. And on top of that, Antonucci has government
contacts out the ying-yang. There’s just no telling what he can get a hold of.”

“I
understand that. But radar isn’t the easiest thing to fool.”

Jack
stepped forward. “The scenario Sarina’s describing is exactly how I overheard Antonucci’s
men describing it. Maybe they’re not getting close enough to set off your
alarms, or perhaps they’re doing it at a point where the aircraft is handed
over from one airspace control area to the next. I’m not an expert on the
subject, so I can’t speculate on how they’re pulling it off, but somehow they
are.”

Sticks
raised his eyebrows as if Jack simply had
to be mistaken, but he seemed
resigned to cooperate. “Fine. So what do you guys want me to do about it?”

“Nothing,”
Sarina said as she stroked his arm. “Nothing at all. Just keep this under your
hat and start watching those flights again, maybe a little more carefully this
time. But if you see anything suspicious, give me a call directly at this
number.” She pulled a business card from her purse and wrote the number for her
new burner phone on the back. “In fact, don’t discuss this with anyone else at
the DEA including Ben Sanders. I think we have a leak somewhere in the
department, and we don’t need to shake things up right now. I’ll also touch
base with you every couple of days.” She winked at him and smiled.

“Anything
for you, babe,” he replied, eagerly participating in her flirtations. “I always
look forward to hearing from you.”

Sarina
stole a glance at Jack to check his reaction, but aside from raising an eyebrow,
Jack made sure to appear unfeigned, despite the conflict stirring inside him.

Sarina
responded with a simple look of disappointment and turned her attention back to
Sticks. “Why don’t you print out those flight plans and schedules for us,
cutie, and we’ll be on our way.”

“Sure,”
he answered, smirking at the two of them as if fully aware of the game Sarina
was playing with Jack. By that time, everybody knew that everybody knew, and
nothing needed to be said by anyone.

SIXTEEN

After
leaving the airport, Jack took Sarina to the warehouse district so he could show
her what he observed the previous day at the Intercontinental facility. A heavy
rain began to fall along the way, the sky graduating into a dark gray, and the
Cadillac splashed through one puddle after another as they drove around the
back of the empty building.

They
became soaked after walking just the few feet from the car to the door, and the
dampness left a nostalgic aroma that rain-soaked clothing always seems to give
off. They ascended the stairs and walked to the front of the building as Jack
pulled out the binoculars for Sarina. He was curious to find out if she would
draw the same conclusions about how Antonucci was processing his merchandise.

“Despite
all the rain, you can still see everything pretty well from here,” Jack
explained. “Take a little time to watch all of the trucks coming and going and
you’ll see what I was talking about. Here, if you use the binoculars...” He
pulled off the lens covers and held them in front of her face, his arm wrapped
over her shoulder. “You can see what’s going on inside, too. It really just
looks like a bunch of boxes being moved around. You can’t see any drugs
anywhere, I mean.”

Instead
of looking through the lenses, Sarina turned her head around and smiled at him,
apparently surprised he was acting so serious while virtually holding her in
his arms.

“Sarina,”
Jack said impatiently, “if you want to see what I’m talking about, you need to
look through the…”

She
interrupted him with her lips, grabbing hold of his mouth with her teeth,
slipping her tongue inside and graduating into a juicy kiss. She grabbed a
fistful of his hair and pulled his head downward.

Jack
reared back. “Dammit! Would you cooperate, please?”

She
flung her lengthy hair over her shoulder. “What’s wrong with you?”

Jack
silently asked himself the same question. Not since that first advance at his
house in San Juan Capistrano had he resisted her. How could he have helped
himself? So what was happening now? He thought he had successfully moved past
this morning’s emotional roller coaster, but had he?

Searching
a little harder now, he realized he was still angry with her. Furious, in fact.
Despite how hard he had tried to bury his jealousy over her involvement with Ben
and that sordid undercover assignment with Antonucci, her blatant sexual
innuendoes with Sticks just brought it all back.

Sarina
smiled at him diabolically. “Are you angry with me?”

He
evaluated her expression for a moment and decided to be honest. “Yes I am.”

“Why?”

Jack
rolled his eyes. “Oh, please! You know exactly why I’m angry with you!”

She
shook her head in denial, but the expression on her face revealed a look of
pretense, making it obvious this was another one of her games. And just the
knowledge of it made him even more enraged.

“For
chrissake, Sarina, I want you all for myself! Is that too much to ask?”

“You’re
jealous again, aren’t you? I thought we worked that out this morning. When you
joined me in the shower, you said you were okay. But I guess I should have
known better.” She was apparently trying to hide the fact that she was
delighted.

“You’re
damn right I’m jealous! What the hell do you expect when you throw yourself at
other men right in front of me?”

“You
mean Sticks? I was doing nothing of the sort, Jack. That’s just the way I do
business. Deal with it, okay?”

“Look.
Just do me a favor.”

“Anything,
baby.”

“If
you’re going to say or do anything that even
suggests
you might have sex
with another man, just don’t tell me about it. Can you do that? I don’t want to
know.”

“Why?
Because you can’t bear the thought of another man touching my body? Running his
hands up and down my legs? Kissing my lips? Caressing my breasts? Licking my
pussy?”

Jack
shook his head and tried to remain calm. “Good God! What are you trying to do
to me?”

“Show
me how angry you are, Jack. Punish me.”

“I’m
not falling for it this time,” he said, backing away from her with his hands
raised. “Why do you play these games with me? What the hell is wrong with you?”

“I’m
just confused about what I want,” she said in a desperate tone, pursuing him
across the room and taking his arm. “I’m so afraid about the way I want you so
much, Jack. I need to know you feel the same way. Just show me how mad you are.
Show me how strong your passion is for me.” She unfastened her jeans and pulled
them over her hips. “Feel how wet I am, Jack. See how much I need you inside
me.”

Jack
didn’t know why he allowed her to do it, but she took his hand and guided it
down the front of her panties before pressing his middle finger upward, inside
her. He had never felt anything like it before. Even her underwear was soaked. The
rage burned hot inside him, and now she was manipulating him into venting it through
his primal urges. She knew exactly how to use his weaknesses to get what she
wanted, and he both hated it and loved it at the same time.

Sarina
pulled away, her eyes sparkling, her jeans still undone, and she tossed back
that generous head of hair again, provoking Jack’s subconscious desire for everything
female. She smiled at him with hot, erotic cruelty as if knowing she had
unleashed his anger, and in a matter of moments he would lose control and take
her.

“You
bitch!” Jack yelled as he raced forward and slammed her against the wall. He
grabbed the waist of her sweater as she shrieked with delicious terror, and he
wrestled it violently over her head. He destroyed the front clasp of her bra
before ripping it down her arms and throwing it to the floor. He held her
topless body against the wall by her throat as he viciously attacked her
breasts, biting at them like a voracious animal.

Sarina
ran her hands over the arm that restrained her and held her eyes closed as she
cried in delight of his assault. “Make me pay for hurting you, Jack. Use my
body to show me how you really feel.”

“Shut
up!” he retorted, abandoning her breasts and throwing her down to the carpet,
face forward. He whisked off her shoes and threw them across the room before
grabbing her panties and jeans and thrusting them down her legs, the pants
catching at her ankles. Frustrated, he took hold of the pants again and whipped
them back even harder, dragging her naked body across the floor as she screamed
and clutched uselessly at the carpet.

Jack
peeled off his clothes and dropped to his knees before taking his position behind
her.

“Up,
goddamnit! Up!”

She
obeyed him quickly, rising to her hands and knees as she pretended to protest
against his brutality. “No, Jack! Stop!”

“Shut
the fuck up! I’m going to make you pay!” His teeth grinding, Jack grabbed hold
of her hips and shoved into her, colliding with her depths before thrusting as
hard as he could, slamming against her over and over with brutal force. His
erection was so hard it felt like a pillar of concrete attached to his groin, and
the prospect of it being more than she could take gave him sadistic pleasure.

Sarina
began to wail like he was really hurting her, but Jack knew it was what she
wanted, pain or no pain, and her screams only gave him incentive to become more
fierce. He grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled hard, whipping back her
head as she cried out again.

“Say
you need me,” he roared.

“I
need you.”

“Say
my name, goddamnit!”

“Jack!
I need you…Jack.”

“Whose
is the only cock for your pussy?”

“Yours,
Jack. Just yours!”

“That’s
right. This one right here!” He tilted her hips and gave her a few extra power
thrusts, even deeper than before, and he could feel himself stretching her.

“Jack!
Oh my God!” It sounded like she was really crying now.

He
backed off a little, worried he might have gone too far.

“No,
Jack! Don’t stop! I’ve been so bad! So mean! You have to hurt me!”

Am
I a sucker, or what?

A
great idea hit him, and he pulled out as if it were his intention all along.

“What
are you doing!”

“Turn
the hell over! You’re going to watch me fuck you until you scream!”

She
dropped to the carpet and flipped on her back. Fast.

Jack
knew she wanted to appear scared, but the wicked smile on her face was a dead
giveaway. She was absolutely thrilled with this game. And for some reason it
fired up his anger again.

“Pull
your legs apart as far as they’ll go. Now!”

She
did as she was told, and a luscious, pink paradise opened in front of him. It
looked moist, swollen and just a little red from the action.

Oh,
how he loved seeing her like that. Spread eagle. Vulnerable. Ready for him. And
he was damn well going to demonstrate his power, his right to violate her. He
took two fingers and thrust them inside her, hooking them upward to gather her
wetness. He brought them to his mouth to lick them clean while she watched. And
she clearly liked it. Big surprise.

“All
right now. You’re going to keep holding those legs apart, and I want you to
stare into my eyes while I pound you hard and deep. Let me see how much it hurts
when you come for me, Sarina. And don’t you dare look away.”

“Yes,
Jack. I won’t look away.” She was being such a good little sex slave.

He
lowered his head and drew his tongue over her clit as he prowled up her body,
feeling the sensation ripple through her, and he wanted to tantalize her even
more. He stopped at her breasts and sucked a nipple into his mouth, much harder
than he ever would have imagined, and she squealed. Loudly. But she had the
good sense not to protest.

Nice.

Suspending
his body over hers with arms in push-up position, he lowered himself and edged
inside her again, nice and slow, offering her the calm before the storm. He
kept his eyes peeled on hers as he proceeded into attack mode, growing harder
and faster with each thrust while she continued to hold her legs, split wide.
And before long, he was slamming into her like a steam locomotive—powerful,
fast and unstoppable. He could feel the sweat starting to sheath his body, but
there seemed to be no limit to the strength he had for her. To punish her.

Their
eyes stayed locked on each other, and Jack watched the emotion in her deep
brown orbs gradually transition from delight to apprehension to absolute panic
as he hammered her.  And he hoped that meant she was getting close because the moment
was hurling toward him, and there was no going back now. It arrived like a
fiery crash, almost knocking him off balance, and the potency in Sarina’s eyes
said her share was almost more than she could take.

Just
what I wanted to see.

They
screamed together as Jack refused to let up, continuing to ram her hard and
fast as he amplified the intensity for them both. Sarina let go of her legs and
reached for his hips to slow him down, but the effort was useless. The man was
on a mission and wasn’t going to stop until he was damn well good and ready.

A
tear fell from Sarina’s eye as he finally slowed his movements, and her voice
barely succeeded her breath. “I’m sorry, Jack. I’m so sorry.”

Clearly
she was caught up in the moment, but Jack didn’t care. He liked it when she was
sweet to him, no matter what started it. He also felt a swell of conflicting emotions
now, released like a floodgate by this violent, sexual act he just committed. Part
of him was horrified he could be maddened enough to act so brutally even though
he knew it was exactly what she wanted. But another part of him loved the
experience. It was her game, after all, and his anger was simply the fuel to
make it possible.

He
withdrew from her and collapsed to the carpet, pulling her into his arms as a
rumble of thunder vibrated the floor beneath them.

“Sarina,”
he said as they panted together, a deluge of heavy rain serenading them in the
background. “You are such a bitch.”

“I
know.”