Liberty...And Justice for All (11 page)

“I have an idea,” I said.

“What’s that?” John asked. The look on John’s face was wary.

In the past, my ideas had proved a little dangerous. To me.

This…well, this wasn’t all that different.

“What if I can make contact somehow?” I asked. “What if you send me in undercover, to work at the club? I can pretend to like drugs.”
I certainly had plenty of experience with users,
I thought, thinking of my poor mom, and how manipulative and secretive she could be. “Maybe if I meet the contact who’s dealing there, I can get him to bring me to Mia. And then I can save her,” I said.

John was pinching the bridge of his nose. Corey was keeping his mouth shut.

Catherine was looking at me like I had three heads. “Do you remember the last time you pulled that?” She asked. “Remember how that worked out for you?”

“Yeah, I remember,” I said, looking back at her in exasperation. “And now you’re here, proof that I could do it.” I turned back to John. “I can do this, John. I can help save this girl.”

John motioned for the waiter and ordered a glass of red wine. He waited a beat before he spoke.

“Are you trying to give me a heart attack?” He asked.

“No,” I said. “I’m trying to help. And to help this poor woman, who doesn’t sound like she’s ever going to make it back otherwise. I don’t want that on my conscience. Do you?”

“There are lots of things I don’t want on my conscience. Like my wife, stripping, asking for drugs, then getting herself killed. That would be number one.”

“You’re not going to let me get killed,” I said, in an encouraging tone. “We’ll do this together. You and Corey can provide security at the club. Nobody knows who I am. I’ll just be the new girl who loves her drugs and wants to party with the big boys.”

“And how does the new girl who wants to party gain access to Mia? Who’s heavily guarded by multiple thugs with multiple machine guns, out in the Freeman’s desert compound?” John asked.

“The
how
hasn’t ever stopped me before, babe,” I said. “I’ll figure it out.”

John somehow managed to gulp his wine while still pinching the bridge of his nose. He didn’t say another word.

This was going to be an uphill battle.

I
wasn’t letting
it go, and John wasn’t budging. “Babe. There is no way I’m going to let you strip, number one. No. Way. Number two, the drugs coming into the club are going through the S&M room. You almost passed out just catching a glimpse of it. You think I’m going to let my gorgeous young wife work in that room? Half-naked? With men
touching
you?

“Are you out of your mind?”

“No,” I said.
Maybe
, I thought. “If the dealers are rotating new guys in on a regular basis, maybe I can help figure out who it is by being in on the action. I only have to work a couple of shifts—maybe not even that many.”

“How do you think you’re going to work one shift and get the dealer to (a) tell you anything about Mia or (b) take you back to where she is?” John asked. “That’s a little nuts, Liberty.”

“I’ll just offer to give him what he wants,” I said, and bit my lip. John’s eyes flashed with anger. I was a little worried he was going to throw me over his shoulder, carry me upstairs and lock me in our suite forever.

“No.” His voice was final.

“At least think about it,” I said.

“That’s the last thing you want me to do—picture you getting felt up by drug dealers, and having you at their compound, surrounded by the Freeman cartel, which is comprised of murderers and thieves. I don’t think so.”

“I could go with her,” Catherine said, and shrugged. “I could be her second.”

I looked at her, baffled; John practically spit out his wine. “This is fucking ludicrous. Enough. I’m calling Matthew. I’m going to get everyone down here and we’ll just blow up their compound. End of discussion.”

“What about Mia?” I asked. “We don’t want her in there when we attack.”

“We’ll figure it out,” John said, and I could tell he was using every bit of what was left of his patience not to snap at me.

Corey looked at his watch. “Are we still going to the club?” He asked John.

“Yes. Girls, you can either come with us tonight or stay here. We’re going over surveillance tapes.” He took another sip of wine and went quiet for a minute, mulling something over.

“Actually, if the two of you want to get dressed up and do surveillance in the bar…that would be helpful. And then you’d be working,” he said, nodding at Catherine, “but not getting felt up and kidnapped.” He nodded at me.

“Fine,” I said, pouting.

“Cool,” said Catherine. “Surveillance in a high-end bar?
Much
better than Liberty’s stupid necklace case.”

I
had on a tight
, dangerously unbuttoned white shirt and a teeny black miniskirt. “You look…slutty,” Catherine said to me a little later, as we got into the elevator.

Corey disguised his laughter as a cough and John just stood there, fuming. I’d gotten the silent treatment since we’d left the lobby, a fact that I was not happy about.

“So do you,” I said, as though it were a compliment. She was wearing some sort of leather mini-dress, replete with more exposed zippers. The dress literally fit her like a glove—a restrictive, leather one. It didn’t look like she could breathe, but maybe, with all the smoking, she was pretty used to that.

When we stepped off the elevator into the lobby I looked at John again, pleadingly, and he finally sighed. He reached over and buttoned my shirt one button higher.

“Don’t be mad at me,” I said.

He sighed again and pulled me to him, wrapping his arms around me. He buried his face in my hair and I heard Catherine make an
eww
noise behind us, but I didn’t care.

“I’m not mad at you,” he said. “But I don’t want you to be so brave that you’re stupid. I can’t put you in danger for business. I’ll walk away from this before I do that.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I wasn’t thinking about your feelings…I was just thinking about Mia. And her poor baby. I don’t want to make you mad. And I don’t want to get hurt, but I don’t want that poor baby to be left with no mom…

“It’s not just about the business,” I said. “It’s about doing what’s right.”

John kissed me on the forehead and ignored what I’d said. “Let’s stick with the plan tonight, see what we can find out,” he said.

“What is it you want us to do, exactly?” Catherine asked.

“Sit in the bar and look pretty,” Corey said and smiled at her. “You should be good at it.”

Catherine took a stutter step at his compliment but immediately recovered. “I’ll be bored sitting with my step-monster. You’re much better company.” She beamed at him and stuck her chest out. Corey looked thrilled and worried all at the same time.

I grabbed Catherine by the elbow and maneuvered her into the car. “Down girl,” I said menacingly into her ear. “Don’t get Corey in trouble. He’s a good guy.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “I wasn’t doing anything,” she snapped. “Yet.”

“Good. Don’t,” I said.

T
he line
at Fierce was even longer tonight. The same beefy bouncer nodded at us and we circumvented the line and went into the dark club, the music throbbing. John leaned into me and Catherine. “Be careful,” he said, over the music. “Corey and I are going to be in the office, watching the security feed. Do
not
leave the bar. If you need something, text us. And stay together.”

I nodded at him and Catherine just shrugged. I huffed as we walked into the bar together. “I told you—stop being so snotty to him,” I said, as loud as I could.

“What?” Catherine said, innocently. “I can’t hear you. I think it’s gonna be a problem all night.” She gave me a fake smile.

“Enough,” I said, and grabbed her elbow again. Two men made room for us at the bar. Catherine flashed them a high-wattage smile and I just nodded politely. There weren’t a lot of other women in the lounge, besides the strippers, so we were going to have to fend off the other customers. The air was crackling with sexuality, the almost-naked bodies of the dancers undulating on the stage.

I leaned over to Catherine. “Don’t be too friendly,” I said, “to anybody. We’re here to watch. Not interact.”

She looked annoyed until the bartender placed an enormous Grey Goose martini in front of her. She took a bite of olive and watched the room. “This place is pretty wild,” she said. “Was your club like this?”

I shook my head. “Hell no. The Treasure Chest was like
Romper Room
compared to this.” I watched as two girls writhed against each other in a cage. “Actually, I was planning on going there tomorrow, to say hi to the girls and see if anyone has any useful information about this place. You want to come? You can see where it all started…”

“As long as you don’t start talking about John and getting all squishy, sure. I still can’t picture you stripping, though. You’re so vanilla.”

I looked at the girls grinding on each other in the cage. They looked completely lost in the music, in each other’s bodies, oblivious to the hundreds of hungry male eyes turned towards them. I cringed, thinking about being up there.

“Vanilla’s fine by me,” I said.

Just then, I watched as one of the strippers who’d been giving a lap dance leaned down and whispered something to her client. Then she stood, her long, inky hair hung seductively down her back, all the way down to her glittering thong. She moved slowly, and I watched as she casually walked from the room. A minute later, her client stood and headed in the same direction. He looked around carefully before he headed down a hallway at the opposite end of the room, after her.

“Watch my drink and save my seat,” I said to Catherine, sliding off my barstool.

“Wait—where are you going? John said we had to stay together,” she spluttered.

“I’m just checking something out,” I hissed at her. “Order me another drink and wait here.”

I picked my way through the crowd towards the door they’d gone through. I peered through and saw them at the end of a long hall. I watched as the woman tossed her hair over her shoulder, grabbed the man’s tie, and pulled him into a room. There was no one else down there, no security, which I found odd. I wondered briefly about the cameras; if John saw me over here, sneaking around alone in the dark, he was gonna freak.

I hoped he was watching and not watching all at the same time.

Now, this could be nothing more than some regular old one-on-one time. But from what I understood, the rooms on the other side of the club, where Tony’s office was located, were supposed to be used for that. Where there was security. Over here, there was nothing, no one. If I was the woman, I wouldn’t want to be over here, without anybody to help me.

Unless I didn’t want any help.

Something about it rubbed me the wrong way. I followed them down the hall. I wished I had my gun, and then I internally chastised myself for wishing that.
My, how things have changed.
I still didn’t like guns, but at this point, I’d been down enough dark hallways to know that guns sometimes came in handy.

I heard a noise behind me and whirled around.

“Shhh,” Catherine whispered, clicking along down the hall in her spiked booties.

“What the hell are you doing?” I whispered to her fiercely.

“I’m
working
,” she said. “Plus, I thought you might want this.” She handed me my handgun.

“Stay here,” I hiss-whispered at her.

She shook her head,
no.
“John told us to stay together. I’m not going to let his little princess get hurt.”

“You’re his little princess,” I whispered through gritted teeth.

“Just go,” she said.

I turned, silently cursing to myself, and continued down the hall, Catherine close behind. I got to the door and tried it. Locked. I couldn’t hear anything from inside. I went further down the hall and went into the room next door. It was empty, open and dark. I motioned to Catherine to follow me.

She did, and all I could hear was the clicking of our high heels and my heart thudding in my chest. Catherine took out her cell phone and used it as a flashlight; the room looked like it was used for storage. Barstools, banquettes, crates and boxes were stacked in various piles. I took the phone from her and ran it along the wall; there was a door there, leading into the room next door.

“Bingo,” I whispered. “Take this.” I shoved the phone back at her and held up the gun. “This time I mean it—stay here. I’m just going to take a look. If something happens, call your dad.”

I went over to the door. I could hear something on the other side, but I couldn’t make it out. The door was unlocked; I took a deep breath and opened it slowly, just enough so I could peer in.

What I saw almost made me drop the gun.

The man was naked, tied to a chair, his head lolling to the side. The woman had him in her mouth, giving him head, and he was moaning, softly.

This wasn’t what was bothering me.

It was the fact that I could see her injecting him with something, the needle plunging into the top of his foot.

I raised the gun and aimed it at her.

Catherine came up next to me, slowly enough that I didn’t startle, and peered past me. She looked at me and shook her head,
no. Don’t shoot.
She motioned for draw back, and I reluctantly pulled myself away from the scene before me.

“I have to help him,” I whispered. “We can’t just leave him in there.”

“We don’t know what’s really going on,” she said. “Maybe he’s into it. Let’s just watch. At least we know one of the girls who still has drugs.”

I frowned but went back to watch. The man was passed out now, and the woman was no longer bothering to go down on him. She was going through his clothes. She grabbed his wallet and his cell phone. She grabbed another phone from nearby and quickly made a call.

“It’s me,” she said. “I have a pick up for you.”

She hung up and proceeded to untie the man and awkwardly put his clothes back on. Catherine and I watched as she worked, silently. Then she started pacing. A few minutes later, she looked at her phone. She went to the side of the room and opened another door, which must have opened to the outside. In came two men, both wearing black hoodies and baseball caps pulled low over their eyes.

“We’ll take care of him,” one grunted, picking the man up. They started dragging him out of the club. “How many more do you think you can do tonight?”

“It’s early,” she said, and shrugged. “About six? At least we’ll make some money tonight… Where are you going to put him?” she asked, nodding towards the passed-out client.

“In the back parking lot of Target,” he said. “He should come to in a couple hours.”

“You think he’s gonna come back?” she asked.

“They never come back,” the man said. “They cancel their credit cards and cut their losses.

“Speaking of,” she said, and handed him the cards she’d stolen from his wallet. “Here you go.”

The men nodded and headed out. “Keep ‘em coming,” the larger one said.

“Like I have anything else to do,” the woman said. We waited until she’d straightened up the room and left, locking the door behind her.

We waited five full minutes until we thought it was safe to follow her. I grabbed Catherine’s hand and pulled her with me.

She yanked her hand free. “Your hand’s sweating.”

Just then, the door to our room blew open.

I let out a wild, whooping scream. My gun clattered to the ground.

It was John and Corey, guns blazing, followed by three security guards.

“What the hell are you doing?” he yelled at us.

“What the hell are
you
doing?” I yelled back.

John put down his gun and the others immediately followed suit. “Looking for you. I thought something bad happened when I didn’t see you in the bar—I
told
you to stay there.”

“Liberty left me in the bar. I had to follow her.” She turned to me. “I told you he was gonna be pissed.”

“You couldn’t see us over here?” I asked.

“No.” He turned back to one of the security guards. “Are there cameras over here?”

“Yeah. But they go out sometimes.”

I raised an eyebrow at John. “I thought you could see me,” I said. “I’m sorry. I was…looking for something,” I finished, not sure that the guards could be trusted. I tossed my hair over my shoulder. “But we’re good now. So, buy me a drink?” I asked John, trying to seem casual. He nodded at me, putting his gun away and picking up mine from the floor. He handed it to me with a small smile. “You might want to hold onto that for the next time someone armed jumps out at you and it’s not me.”