Leaping out of the truck, Jack flipped down the tailgate and hopped back in to help me down. When my ankle couldn’t support my weight, he scooped me up and carried me to—finally—a vehicle that actually looked like it might belong to the super secret anti-mob organization he claimed to be affiliated with. Seeing this thing I kind of started to believe the whole crazy story he’d told me.
The man supposedly known as Cornwell opened the door of the shiny, black SUV with tinted windows for us. The thing might as well have had a bumper sticker that read “Don’t mess with me, I’m a bad ass government agent” on the rear. I found myself checking to make sure it didn’t, and wishing for my old van, which would have to be less conspicuous as a getaway car than this oversized testosterone-mobile on wheels.
Jack put me inside and slid in next to me as Madam Asia got behind the wheel and Cornwell took shotgun—and I mean that literally. He pulled some sort of automated weapon from beneath the seat and aimed it out the side window.
“Um, Jack?” With my eyes unable to leave the gun, I didn’t have the brainpower to say much else.
“It’s okay. We’re almost safe.”
Remembering the last “safe house” he’d brought me to, that declaration didn’t instill much confidence in me. Call me crazy. But we somehow made it to the highway, and from there, to a tiny airstrip where, lo and behold, a small plane awaited us. Now I really needed some answers before I ended up on some foreign country’s sex slave trade. Though the way my sex life had been going lately…
Jack opened his door and ran around to my side of the vehicle, which is when I braced both arms against the doorframe and shook my head.
“Beth, come on. I put you in danger and until I know you’re totally safe, you’re sticking close to me. I have to get on that plane which means so do you.”
I shook my head again. “No, Jack. I want answers. Now, or I’m not getting on that plane.”
He sighed and shot Cornwell a look. “How much time do we have?”
The man, who could have been the model they used to create the Ken doll, consulted his watch. “Court starts in one hour.”
Court? It was probably traffic court. That wouldn’t have surprised me one bit after being his passenger.
Drawing in a deep breath, Jack braced his own hands against the doorframe and stared me directly in the eyes. I prepared myself for I didn’t know what. A big old lie? A truth that would make me wish for a nice lie? Whatever it would be, I held my breath and waited.
“Okay. Here’s the deal starting at zero hour.”
I raised my hand. “Zero hour?”
Forgive me for not having my secret spy decoder handbook with me.
He smiled indulgently. “The start of the events from today. The wedding.”
Ah yes. His wedding to the mob princess. Good place to start.
“I was about to walk down the aisle with Lorraine when I got a text, a 9-1-1 text, from Cornwell. That meant abandon the plan and get the hell out of there ASAP. At that point, I didn’t know if it was a good thing, that they’d gotten what they needed on DiNardo and didn’t need me to marry Lorraine, or a bad thing, that my cover had been blown and I was heading down the aisle towards a bullet aimed for my brain.”
I knew. Him not marrying Lorraine was definitely a good thing. No bullets in the brain, also a good thing, but I still had another question. I raised my hand again.
“Beth, we’re not in school. You don’t have to raise your hand to ask a question.”
“Sorry.” Embarrassed, I lowered my hand. Behind Jack I saw Cornwell smirk at that. Meanwhile, Madam Asia had disappeared. I’d have to wonder more about that later because I had more pressing questions for Jack. “Who is Cornwell?”
“I told you. He is.” Jack hooked a thumb in his direction.
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, I know that. Nice to meet you, by the way.” He nodded his blond Super Spy Ken head at me and I looked back at Jack. “I mean who and what is he to you that he has the number to your secret sock cell phone.”
That got an actual laugh from Cornwell.
“He’s my contact in the organization. We try to only communicate by phone. Safer if we aren’t seen together.”
“What about the marathon? You said you saw him there last year. That’s how you knew the other fat Cornwell was a fake.”
The real Cornwell spoke up for the first time. “That was an accident. I didn’t know Jackson would be there.”
Jack waited a beat, as if anticipating another question on my part, so I said, “Okay. Go on. We only have an hour.”
He cocked one brow at me unhappily but continued. “Anyway, I had to haul ass out of there but I’d come in the limo with the groomsmen, so that’s why I needed your van. It wasn’t until I got the phone call on my secret sock phone as you call it that Cornwell told me. They’d gotten the evidence they needed against DiNardo. Enough to take him down, but it was contingent that I stay alive and away from the family until he could get me on a plane to DC to attend the hearings against him in case they needed my testimony.”
“And the best place you could think of to stay safe was Spooner’s crack/whore house?”
“I told you, Spooner is a friend but more important than that…”
Madam Asia, emerging from a back room somewhere and dressed as Super Spy Ken’s Special Ops buddy, interrupted Jack. Clad in black from head to toe and wearing enough hardware to arm a small army, he stepped up with a flash of his white teeth. “More importantly, it’s where Jack knew I was. Cornwell may be the brains, Jack may be the beauty, but I’m the muscle on this team.”
I felt my eyes open wide as I took in the muscles bulging out of the man’s body armor. Unable to resist, I asked, “How did you get the transvestite undercover gig? You draw the short straw?”
He smirked. “Actually, I volunteered for it. Don’t ask, don’t tell, honey.”
Okaaaaay.
Another question I’d forgotten to ask before hit my swirling, confused brain—this Q&A might take more than an hour. I hoped they’d hold that court proceeding for Jack. “Who was the fake Cornwell back at Spooner’s?”
Terrance/Asia fielded that question. “He’s an actor friend of mine. I called him in. We needed a distraction so we could get away. Besides, I needed an excuse to get out of Spooner’s for good since my undercover gig was over too, now that they got what they need on DiNardo.”
“Well you scared the hell out of me, Terrance. A little notice next time, okay?”
Terrance grinned, looking like he’d enjoyed scaring them. Jack glanced at Cornwell, who was pointedly consulting his watch. “Are there any more questions, Beth?”
“Yeah.” Just one, but I felt it was a pretty major one. “What now?”
He smiled. “Now I go to Washington in case they need me. DiNardo goes away, hopefully for life, and I get to go on with my own life.”
“How? Won’t he know you were the one that turned evidence against him, or whatever it’s called?”
“No, because with the amount of evidence I suspect the organization has gathered against him that has nothing to do with my involvement, they won’t need me to testify. DiNardo will just believe, as he hopefully already does, that I got cold feet and didn’t want to marry Lorraine.”
“But won’t he want to kill you just for that alone? She’s his baby and you broke her heart,” if she had one, that was. “He could put a hit out on you, even from prison.”
Jack laughed. “You watch a lot of television, don’t you?”
I shrugged. What could I say?
“He won’t because there’s something I know that you don’t.”
Pretty sure he knew tons of things I didn’t, I asked anyway, “What’s that?”
“Lorraine has been sleeping with my best man for months now. She never really wanted to marry me. That was all Daddy’s idea. She’s probably making wedding plans with her true love right now.”
Well that was a twist I hadn’t seen coming. This was better than television. “Really?”
“Yup. Not that I blame her. Once I told her I wanted to wait until marriage for sex, she had to turn somewhere. A woman has needs.” Jack grinned wide and gave me time to absorb that info.
“You mean you weren’t… you and Lorraine never…”
“That’s right.” He took a step closer, putting him between my legs as I sat sideways in the seat. His hands moved to my shoulders and he lowered his voice. “A man has needs too. You know anyone who could maybe, you know, help me out with those?”
I swallowed hard, my mouth suddenly dry. “Yeah, I think I might know just the girl.”
“Good.” He grinned.
I glanced at the plane. “Ever join the mile high club?”
His eyes opened wide in shock. “Not yet. You?”
“Not yet, but I think I’m interested in a membership.”
Still looking at me, Jack raised his voice, “Cornwell. Fire up the plane.”
I smiled. It had been one hell of a day, and apparently, the best was yet to come.
- The End -
Thanks to all the authors and all the readers, I hope you enjoyed! - Terry Kate
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