Scent of Gardenia (Scott Tucker Series) (6 page)

Chapter
13

“Good
morning Ms. Strong.” The receptionist interrupted her thoughts of last night
with Scott.

“Good
morning Sarah. Did you have a nice weekend?”

“Yes I
did, thanks for asking. You look like you’ve got a glow on this morning. Did
you have a nice weekend?”

She
smiled at the thought of not leaving her apartment all weekend. “Yes, as a
matter of fact, it was incredible.” She could feel herself blushing.

“I hope
I’m not out of line here, but I’ve never seen you…well…radiating.”

She was
anxious to get to the privacy of her office. Almost beyond Sarah by now, she
commented, “Keep up that ability to read people and you may have my job.” She
chuckled at the receptionist’s ability to read her body language.

She quickly
unlocked her office door, closing it behind her. She turned on the light, sat
down at her desk, removing the pocket mirror from her purse. She studied her
face. It did look like it had an inner fire.
Oh Scott, I waited so long to
be with you. Thanks for the offer of the Cape, but I like my choice better. I
can’t wait to see you again. Amazing, I never told him about my trip to Bermuda.
He did comment that he liked the hint of a tan…but he liked the parts that
didn’t see the sun better.
I hope I can get some work done today.
There
was a knock on the door. She quickly put her mirror away.

“Come
in.”

Carol, her
secretary, stuck her head in the door. “Good morning, Mercedes. Did you want me
to pick up where we left off last Friday?”

Carol
was standing by her desk now, looking at her intently like she had something
from breakfast on her face. “I have a call to make first. Give me fifteen
minutes, okay?”

“That’s
fine,” she said. However, it looked like she wanted to add something.
“Mercedes, you look like you had a great weekend. Did you?”

She
quickly replied, “Does it show that much. I had a wonderful weekend. Thank you
for asking.”

“Did you
get to go away?” Carol asked.

“Yes, in
a manner of speaking. It was someplace I can’t wait to visit again. Would you
bring me a coffee, and if there’s something to go with it—that too…please.” She
needed to get Carol out of her office before she said too much.

“Well
judging from how you look, if you ever want company please give me a call. I
could use one of those weekends.”

“I’ll
keep that in mind. Would you bring my trip report, I need to check something.
I’ll be on the phone, but you can bring in my coffee. Thanks Carol.”

*.*.*

She
dialed the number she knew by heart. She made her introductions, waiting to be
connected.

“Hello
sweetheart. How are you today?”

“I’m
great. I heard you met with Scott Tucker. How did that go?”

“It was
very productive. He did a marvelous job on the process I asked him to document
along with the proposed methods. He’s quite the young man. I’m so glad you
introduced him to me. He’s certainly going to make a difference.”

“Yes, he
certainly
is.” Her secretary came in with her coffee and a very large
cupcake. She nodded and mouthed thank you. She thought about the words she
uttered as she entered—
yes, he certainly is
.

Her
father responded, “Do I detect something more than a business associate?”

She
thought, maybe too long, before responding. “Well, we had a nice meeting at the
pub the other night.”

“That
was days ago…this sounds like a more recent comment,” her father prodded.

“Keep
this up and you will be one of the investigators here. Dad, I’m glad you
enjoyed his company. Now that I have spent some time with him, he could be more
than a business associate.”

“Good.
I’m glad you’re happy. He made my day the other day,” he commented.

Without
thinking about it she replied, “He made mine too.”

*.*.*

After
she said goodbye to her dad she picked up the trip report and read what she had
written. She realized she had left her thoughts out of the report. Although the
authorities in Bermuda did a thorough investigation on each of the missing men,
they were stumped as to what happened to them. One minute they were enjoying
their vacations and the next they were never seen again.

She
thought about her sister Melanie’s rampage and revenge against several men. One
of them was almost Scott. She had tried to rescue him only to be knocked out
and tied up. Fortunately, Mike Miller had figured things out and had rescued
both of them. Although rare, women have been known to take an offensive role,
kidnapping and torturing men. Her sister and her friends were one example. What
is happening in Bermuda could be the work of another woman, or group of women.
Although she felt that is what is happening in Bermuda, she didn’t want to put
that in the report.

She
decided she would add a line to the report to indicate ‘although not confirmed
by any evidence, it would seem that the men were being held, or are possibly still
being held. Although their financial assets have not been touched, it is
unclear why there are no traces of these missing men.’

After
the weekend with Scott, she was so happy he wasn’t killed. She was reminded of
her sister’s escape and jump into the freezing waters of Boston Harbor. Had she not found him and tried to rescue him, he might have been another statistic.
She and the other authorities have long wondered why her body, or parts of it,
has never been recovered.
There is no way she could have survived that
plunge into the freezing water of Boston Harbor.

The more
experience she gains in this role the more things seem to come to her like a
picture.
She couldn’t get the image of someone like her sister capturing
these men and holding them against their will. Since the authorities in Bermuda have not found any trace of any of the missing men, the image of women playing a
role in their disappearance is becoming easier to accept.
Her profiling
mind started to take over and she was glad she had some food for thought.

That
reminded her about how many meals they skipped over the weekend.
If we keep
that up, we will both lose an incredible amount of weight. Being with Scott is
never going to be the same. Being with Scott for an entire weekend was a dream
come true.
She quickly closed her eyes, giving some thought about how to
make their next time together as memorable.
She thought about a return trip
to the cabin where all of this started. Maybe, I’ll just kidnap him for the
weekend.
She loved how her body reacted to the thoughts of Scott being her
prisoner for the entire weekend.
Oh my God, what is wrong with me…am I
turning into my sister?

Chapter
14

She
studied the man in the first room. She could really pick them. Not only was he
good looking but he had a body of a Greek God. Although he would resist her
promptings, nobody could ultimately successfully resist her. She was too good
and had too much experience now as to what to do, and how to do it. The more
they resisted, the more passion they would demonstrate when the barriers were finally
broken. He even admitted to her the last time that their time together was
incredible.

She
moved so he could see her. She just stood there motionless while he watched
her. He couldn’t hide his body’s reaction. She moved to the bottom of the bed, licking
her lips. Her excitement was plainly visible through the fabric of her sundress.
She smiled, swaying to a beat only she could hear. She slowly removed the
sundress, holding it with both hands over her head so it draped down her back.
She continued the slow erotic dance for him. He showed his restlessness. She
threw the sundress so it covered his lower body. Ever so slowly she uncovered him.
She smiled at how quickly he was ready.

She
shackled his ankles to each bed post and then climbed onto him. Although the
room was not all that hot they were both perspiring. She let her nails dig into
his skin. She loved the control she had over the men. She loved it even more
when they couldn’t resist her any longer.

*.*.*

She cursed
herself for being with him for such a long time. She was going to be late for
work, and wouldn’t have time for Nils now. She unlocked the ankle braces, but
left his wrists tied to the chains coming off the wall. They had made a lot of
noise. She didn’t want to leave, wanting to make love some more. However, Shawn
looked pretty spent and probably couldn’t perform so soon.

She took
her discarded sundress and moved it across his manhood. To her surprise he was
getting excited again. She worked him to the edge again and then planted a kiss
on him and jumped off the bed. She smiled, licked her lips and finally said,
“Now you stay like that until tonight you hear. Hopefully you will miss me and
be hungry for food and some more fun.” She picked up her sundress and walked
over to Nil’s room and waved to him. “Sorry Nils, I’ll see you tonight. Can I
make you anything special to eat tonight?”

He didn’t
answer. “What’s the matter Nils? Has a cat got your tongue? Don’t be upset.
You’ll have your own fun tonight. You better get some rest…you’re going to need
it.” She turned and threw her sundress over her shoulder, blew a kiss to Shawn
and left.

As she
locked the door leading to their area she thought to herself,
what a life, living
in paradise, with an endless amount of love making, plenty of money and no one
to bother me. Can I do this until I’m eighty? This is all practice for my
special someone. I think I need to add one new rich young man to my crew.

She
didn’t want to, but she took a quick shower.
So what if I’m late?
She
put on her flimsiest set of underwear and a bright pink sundress with a low
scooped neckline. She bent over the sink and checked herself in the mirror—
yup,
that ought to make an interesting lure. Maybe I’ll be lucky to snare another
millionaire today.

She had
perfected her process so well. All she had to do was smile and bring them here
to bed. The rest was the easy part. She sprayed her perfume and closed her
eyes. Her chest was heaving and her breathing rushed.
It’s hard to leave you
guys, but someone has to earn a living. You’re earning your own living, but
that only lasts until I get tired of you. You need to remember—shit happens.

Chapter
15

I picked
up the daily paper, scanning through the highlights listed on the first page.
A
man’s decomposed body is found off the Bermuda coast.

I
quickly turned to the article to see if this related to what Mercedes had
mentioned.

Authorities
in Bermuda have identified a body to be that of Roger Elliot, reported missing nearly
eighteen months ago. Although the authorities are withholding many of the
details they did confirm the decomposed body was found over the weekend in a
cage anchored near one of the more popular dive sites about ten miles off the East
coast of Bermuda. Dental records confirmed the body to be that of Roger Elliot.
There are three other reported missing men, and the authorities were previously
hoping the men would be found alive, but now they fear the worst.

It
dawned on me that although we had all weekend to talk about Mercedes’ trip to Bermuda—neither of us brought up the subject. Now I wished I knew something more about what
she had learned. I headed to talk with Mike about this development.

*.*.*

I stuck
my head in Mike’s office waiting for him to acknowledge me.

“Yes
Scott. What do you have there?”

I handed
him the article. “Mike, this is about one of the missing men in Bermuda.”

He
quickly read the article and offered, “This puts a different perspective on the
missing men. Now that one of them has turned up dead, it doesn’t look promising
for the others. What did Mercedes share with you about her trip to Bermuda?”

I
hesitated answering. “You know Mike we didn’t talk about her trip at all.” I
could feel my face flushing.

He
looked up and handed the paper back to me. “Well I guess you had a better
weekend than you told us about.” He smiled, but didn’t look like he was
expecting a response.

“I’ll
have to call Mercedes to see whether she knows about this development, but I
would imagine they would have alerted the FBI.” I turned and headed back to my
office.

My
thoughts went back to our weekend. I knew why we hadn’t talked about her trip.
Maybe this would give me an excuse to see her about this development.
Did I
really need an excuse to see her?
From my perspective, it seemed unlikely
we would ever be distant again.

*.*.*

I dialed
Mercedes’ number and could feel my heart beating faster. The phone rang three
times. I wondered if anyone was going to answer.

“Hello, Agent
Strong.”

“Mercedes,
it’s Scott, good morning.”

“Wow
Scott, I’m impressed. Did two years go by already?” She laughed softly. “That
wasn’t fair. Thanks for calling. What’s up?”

“I saw
the article in the paper
and was wondering if you were aware of what was
discovered in Bermuda?”

“As a
matter of fact, our office was alerted with the details. Thanks for calling to
let me know.” She started laughing. “I’m a little ashamed we never talked about
my trip. It wasn’t like we didn’t have time. Scott…” She paused. “Scott I can’t
describe what the weekend meant to me. Do you want to get together and talk
about the developments from my trip? I also need to give you the details on the
family that would like their own investigation conducted.”

“I would
love to see you…and if you want to discuss the trip and this development that
would be fine.”

“Scott,
I knew once you got your motor going you wouldn’t be able to shut it down,” she
said with a chuckle. “What does your schedule look like? I have several
meetings during the day, but if you’re available we could talk about this over
a beer or two this evening.”

“I can
make tonight, but didn’t you want to cover the details with Paddy and/or Mike
about the family who wants their own investigation?”

“You’re right;
I did want to convey those details. Maybe you can get Mike to join us, and
then…maybe we could spend some time together just the two of us?”

“I would
like that very much. I’ll check with Mike about tonight. Can you hold a minute
while I check with him?”

“I have
five minutes before I need to go upstairs for a meeting with my director.”

“Hold
on, I’ll be right back.”

I rushed
into Mike’s office. “Mike, Mercedes wants to know if you can make a meeting
with her at the pub tonight after work. She wants to talk about the family who
wants their separate investigation.”

“I can
spend a few minutes with her, but I can’t stay too long. How about meeting at
5:30 PM, or closer to five than six?”

I nodded
and rushed back to the phone. “Mercedes.” There was no response. “Mercedes, are
you there?”

“I’m
sorry Scott. I’m here.”

“Mercedes,
Mike can make a meeting, but suggested 5:30 PM or closer to five than six.”

“I can
do that time, but I will try to run earlier than later. I take it he can’t stay
too long?”

“Yes,
that’s right.”

“How
nice
.
Got to go. See
you
tonight. Bye.”