Tragic Desires (33 page)

She
glares at me for a second and then says, “My husband isn’t home right now.”

“I can come back this afternoon.”

“No, come in now. And then maybe I can talk to him. Or you can come back too.”

An hour later, a
teary-eyed Linda Drexel holds my hand as we both shed tears. “Mrs. Drexel, would you like to see your son?”

“W-what?”

“He’s outside. In the car. I can call him inside if you’d like.”

“After everything we said to him, he still wants to see us?”

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

She nods
. I send Drex a text and then go to the front door. He’s walking up the steps when I open it. When he sees my watery smile, he uses both thumbs to wipe my tears away. “She’s in the kitchen.” I remain in the den. It’s a moment mother and son should share alone.

After some time passes, I hear their footsteps and I stand as they both enter the room. Linda thanks me for bringing her son back to
her.

“It was his idea, to come here, Mrs. Drexel. He wanted to.”

We hear the back door open and close, which tells us that Drex’s father is home.

“Honey, come in here. Someone’s here to see us,” Linda calls out.

When Drex’s father walks in, I can see where Drex gets his looks. And I also have a good idea of what he’ll look like in another thirty years. I smile.

“Hi
, Dad.”

“What are you doing here?”

Linda runs interference and explains everything before any other words between father and son can be exchanged. The pain in James Sr.’s eyes is so raw, it breaks my heart.

“Why didn’t they tell me? I had clearance for this kind of thing. Those goddamn assholes let me believe all these years that you were a
…” He collapses in a chair and hangs his head in despair.

“Dad, stop. It’s okay. We’re all okay here.”

“No, it’s not okay, son. They hung you out there. They would’ve let you rot in an Iraqi prison and if you didn’t have such a great team of men behind you, you’d still be there.”

“But I’m not. I’m here. I’m the CEO of
my own company because of it and I don’t need them anymore. It’s all good. We have to put it all behind us. And you have to promise me something. You can’t breathe a word of this to anyone. I don’t trust anyone in the government anymore. Tell me you understand this.”

James looks at Drex and nods. “I do. I know exactly what you’re saying here. And son, I’m so sorry for all those terrible things I said to you.”

The two men hug for a long time. I can’t stop the tears.

Then Drex looks at me and says, “
We have to leave. Everyone thinks that we don’t have a relationship anymore. It wouldn’t surprise me if we’re being watched. There’s still a lot of stuff you don’t know, but I’d like for you to visit us in Denver. I want you to see my company.”

“I think we can arrange that,” James says.

“Good. Now we have to get out of here. But I’ll be in touch soon.” We hug and say goodbye.

Drex and I drive to the airport in Hilton Head where his jet is waiting
. When we board, I ask, “Where to next?”

“Just a short hop over to Kiawah Island. We’re going to the Sanctuary for a few days for some R&R.”

“Sounds great.” I’ve always heard great things about the Sanctuary. “Are you okay?”

He gives me
an incredibly sexy look and raises my hand to his lips, kissing it. “I don’t think I could possibly be any better. Thank you. For everything. I’m not sure how I ever functioned without you. And thank you for being the icebreaker with my mom. That was much more than I could’ve ever hoped for.”

“Whoa!” That’s the
only thing I can say when I get my first sighting of the Sanctuary. Kiawah Island is beautiful but this resort is something else. “I’m not sure I belong here. This is fancy, Drex.”

“Get used to it, Gem.”
A valet opens my door and before he can help me out of the car, our bodyguards are right there, pushing him out of the way.

After we
’re checked in and escorted to our suite, I’m a kid with a giant lollipop. I’m hopping all over the place, checking everything out. A fully stocked refrigerator offers a grand selection of wines and beers and food. The bathroom is amazing, a huge soaker tub sprawled in the corner.

“Hey, ba
be, how ’bout we put that tub to use?” he says.

“Only if you let me add the bubbles.
I promise I won’t add so many this time.”

“
I wasn’t complaining, if you recall.”

“No, you
weren’t.”

“And, as I remember, you were pretty damn clean afterward.”

“Yep, squeaky clean.”

“All slippery inside and out
,” he teases.

His lips are on mine and that’s it for me. I’m all his and he knows it.

“You like me slippery.”

“Oh, yeah, that I do.”

We return to
Denver rested and refreshed, though Drex is preoccupied on the flight back. My attempts at pulling him back to me fail, and I can’t figure out what has him like this. He’s keeping something from me, but refuses to admit it.

After an hour of this, I finally pull him out of his seat. “In the back, now.”

When were in the sleeping quarters, I see the creases between his eyes. My fingers move to massage them away.

“Don’t shut me out like this. It only makes me suspicious.
You made a promise about this type of thing.”

He grabs my hand and kisses it. “I’m sorry. I’m thinking. There’s a leak in the company and I’m running through all the possibilities in my head. I’m usually
dead-on with this shit, but I’ve been through it over and over a dozen or more times and come up empty.”

“
A leak? Tell me.”

“
I’m trying to find out how Aali Imaam knew I was CIA. There’s no way they could’ve found that out unless someone spoonfed them that info. So who was it? Alex Michaels said he didn’t do it. Leo says he knows nothing about it. All my stuff here is encrypted so even if they tapped into the system, they couldn’t figure it out. It had to come from within my organization. But who? I’ve had Huff working on it and he can’t figure it out.”

He’s not going to like this suggestion but I throw it out anyway. “Could it be Huff?”

“No. I’ve already discounted him, Blake, and everyone close to me.”

“It’s Jill.
Or one of the girls. You think that info was released to Aali Imaam when?”

“Most likely right after your accident.”

“When was Jill hired?”

“Right before
…” He looks at me and says, “Aw, fuck. Why didn’t I put two and two together?”

“Because she used that flirty shit to throw you off. And then she did that stuff with me to make it look like she was jealous. She had access to
everything as your admin. She probably tapped your office too. Or maybe just got into your computer.”

“Fuck!”

He calls Huff right away and tells him to have his office swept for bugs.

“If I ever get my hands on that bitch
…”

“What? You
gonna kill her? Forget about her. Besides, who cares? Aali Imaam knows you work for the CIA. Big deal. You hate the CIA anyway. You don’t care what they think of you. You play by your own rules and do things the right way. Maybe now, those guys know you mean business.”

“Yeah, but I can’t fly under the radar anymore.”

I snort. “Drex, since when have you ever flown under the radar?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Look at you. I mean, really. No one ever forgets you once they see you. How can they? Women drool all over you. Men envy the hell out of you.” I laugh. “I can’t imagine how you ever thought you could fly under the radar. Even that time you wore the blond wig and those perfectly nasty brown teeth, you had such a damn presence about you. You can’t hide that kind of thing. You’re completely unforgettable. When I first saw you and didn’t know your name, I dubbed you tall, dark, and mysterious. And even when I had my worst migraine, I fell in love with your sexy-as-hell eyes. You know something? The Special Forces needs women to handpick forgettable men, because if they keep picking ones like you, this country is fucked.”

He laugh
s. “Maybe I should pass this advice on to them.”

“Naw, knowing them, they wouldn’t listen.” I wink at him.

“Babe, I’ve been so remiss. How are your migraines?”

“I’m so much better, all because of you.”

He laughs. “It’s not all me. The drugs are partially responsible.”

“But Drex, you led me to Dr. Griffith. So it really is you. Sex and drugs.” I
giggle. He looks at me with the funniest expression on his face.

Two days later
, Huff lets us know that Drex’s desk, and computer were bugged. No wonder everyone and their brother knew about his supposedly covert activities with the CIA.

He’s so disgusted with himself. “Come on, Drex, it could’ve happened to anyone. Even Huff and Blake missed it.”

“Even so, I told Huff I want her apartment under surveillance … audio and video. I want to know who her connection is and why she’s doing it.”

It
bothers me that he would go to such lengths to uncover this information, especially at this point in the game. “Why? Why go to all this trouble?”

His eyes laser into mine. “Gem, your mom died because of this shit.
Jill is a national security risk. We
have
to know who her connection is and she has to go to prison. This isn’t a vendetta. This is fucking
war
we’re fighting, babe.”

When stated like that, I realize it isn’t just me
—countless lives are at stake in this mess and he’s absolutely right. “Go get her, Drex. Take the bitch down.”

Things have settled
down and Drex and I have begun a search for a new place to live. We’re still staying at the corporate apartment, but we’ve decided it’s time to move on. Drex has tied up all the loose ends to my mom’s case and we are moving around town a bit more freely. We still use our large contingency of bodyguards, but now that I’ve gotten used to them, I don’t mind.

It’s mid-morning and we’re at work, looking at a new case
, when Huff barges into Drex’s office unannounced.

“What is it, man?”

“Jill. She’s neck deep into Aali Imaam. She was sent here as a toddler with her aunt and uncle to become Americanized and to do exactly what she did. What we still haven’t connected yet is how she found you,” Huff says.

Drex rubs his chin thoughtfully
. “Probably my high-profile cases.”

I
t’s time for me to pipe up. “Nope. That’s not it. Aali Imaam isn’t dumb. They were tracking you, Drex, ever since … well, you know. And when you came back to the States, they kept tracking you because they knew you’d end up working in this capacity somehow.”

“Why do you say that?” he asks.

Since Huff is in the room, I don’t want to go into too much depth about his service with the Black Ops, but he gets my drift. “They knew how committed you were to your country. It was no secret … your dad, West Point, your commission, the Special Forces, and then you get here and start DWInvestigations and immediately pick up military contracts. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out your connections if they were tracking you.”

Drex looks at Huff
. “Do you have enough to take her down?”

“More than enough.”

“I’ll call Leo and let him know. We can take her out today. Nice work, Huff. Tell the guys to take some time off.”

“Thanks, Drex. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Oh, and one other thing. I thought you’d want to know this. They caught those guys that were abducting the women in Austin.”

Drex
’s head immediately snaps up. “Go on.”

“Your friend was right. It was human trafficking. They were sending them to Thailand. They’re trying to work with the government over there to get the missing girls back.
Colt said it was the two guys that you suspected.”

My stomach flips because that could’ve been me. “Oh my gosh!”

Huff says, “You were lucky that night, Gemini.”

I nod because I can’t speak.

Drex says, “I wish I had done some damage to those fuckers that night.”

“Well, they’re going to prison now. They have enough evidence on them to keep them there for the rest of their lives,” Huff says. “Our men are on their way home.”

“Thanks for letting us know. I’ll give Colt a call later today,” Drex says.

When Huff is gone, Drex
gives me an intense look. “You okay?”