Wild ties, p.1
Wild Ties, page 1
Wild Ties
Tina Wainscott
Wild Ties
Copyright© 2021 by Tina Wainscott
ISBN: 9781945143939
www.WrittenMusings.com
U.S.A.
Format & Cover Design by WrittenMusings.com
This is a fictional work. All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are solely the concepts and products of the author’s imagination or are used to create a fictitious story and should not be construed as real. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form by any means, without the prior permission in writing, except in the case of brief quotations, reviews, and articles.
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Contents
THE JUSTISS ALLIANCE
DEDICATION
WILD TIES
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
EPILOGUE
SNEAK PEEK - WILD LIES
WILD LIES - PROLOGUE
WILD LIES - CHAPTER 1
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
THE JUSTISS ALLIANCE
Wild Hearts / Wild On You
Wild Ways
Wild Nights
Wild Ties
Wild Lies
DEDICATION
This story is dedicated to Chad Wadsworth, who tragically didn’t get to finish his life story. And also to his parents, my dear friends Susan and Terry, and Chad’s sister, Laura. And to the whole clan with whom we’ve spent some great times in North Carolina. Love you all!
WILD TIES
CHAPTER 1
Knox Logan sat at the Justiss Alliance’s conference table as Chase Justiss told them about the human trafficking trail that had started with Sax’s last mission in the Bahamas. Knox had peripherally been involved, but he wanted a bigger role this time. Needed it. His hand even flexed as though it were gripping his Glock. He needed to make a difference.
His father’s voice echoed in his head: You can stop trying to atone for her death. It wasn’t your fault. Nearly killing yourself in the rodeo, chasing down terrorists in Afghanistan, and now running off to join some firm aiming to get justice outside the bounds of the law … Nothing’s going to bring her back. Especially you dying.
He pushed away the voice — and the pain.
Chase surveyed the J-men at the table. “I’m sending members of my team in two different directions so we can simultaneously nail down whether there’s anything illegal going on. Given what the Bahamian authorities were able to find once they squashed that ring, we tracked a faint trail to a BDSM club in New Orleans. The women who work there as facilitators are Russian, and we think they’re being coerced to pay off the debt to be brought to this country. That’s bad enough; but what kind of work must they do? The authorities say that the company seems to skirt the line of the law, staying just inside. They’ve been unable to serve a warrant or interview anyone for lack of evidence. We’ve been given agency to handle it as we see fit. Infiltrating this club is the first op.”
Sax tilted his head. “One of us is going to have to spank women as part of our job? Seriously?”
Knox had to keep from rolling his eyes. Sheesh. Leave it to Sax to focus on that aspect.
“To be convincing, possibly. As you know, the course of an investigation can lead to some pretty wild turns. But there are deeper aspects to the cover story than whips and cat-o-nine tails.” Chase turned to Knox. “I’m sending you in.”
The blood drained from Knox’s face. He couldn’t find words for a moment. “M-me?” he finally managed, all hoarse like some damned teenaged boy being asked to dance by his secret crush. “Yes, sir,” he added in a deep voice full of conviction, because the hell if he wanted to give his SEAL brothers fodder for teasing him.
His eyes involuntarily went to Vivi, the only female J-man present. Yeah, just as he suspected, the man-hater who never failed to press his buttons had a smirk. She tried to hide it by taking a sip of her coffee.
If Chase picked up on Knox’s discomfort at the prospect of the mission, he didn’t let on. “You and Vivi will pose as a couple trying to save your marriage.”
Vivi spewed coffee across the table and leapt to her feet. “You cannot send me on a mission like that with him. We don’t even get along.”
Chase gave her a bland smile. “That’s precisely why this works so well. The tension and conflict between you will be real. And you won’t be tempted to” — Chase swept a look at Risk and Sax — “fall for the lure of hearts and rainbows.”
She dropped into her seat, her beautiful face a mixture of fury and fear.
Chase was pointedly ignoring the way Sax and Risk were trying to withhold their snorts of laughter. “Vivi, be like the SEALs and just say, ‘yes, sir.’”
Oh, man, that tilted the balance to fury, and Knox bet she was swallowing back some mighty sweet words. Finally she gritted out, “Fine, sir.”
Chase turned to Sax, clearly not pleased by his thinly veiled attempt to bank his glee over Knox’s discomfort. “Don’t laugh too much, Mr. Cole. You’re going to Siberia.”
“Siberia? As in Russia Siberia?”
“Actually, you’ll start in Moscow and follow the trail. I have a contact from a non-governmental trafficking organization who will work with you.”
While Chase outlined the roles Sax and Risk were to play in tracking down the source of the trafficking ring in Russia, Knox watched Vivi process their upcoming assignment. She looked as thrown off as he was, and he was surprised to find that it softened him toward her.
With her long dark-blond hair, fringe of bangs he suspected strategically shielded her eyes, she was an attractive woman. But she was pricklier than a cactus, frequently lamenting at having to work with a bunch of over-testoneroned pretty boys. She hid her curves with loose, professional clothing, and she never joked with or shared a meal with her coworkers. Whenever she was in the gym and they all burst in, she would supposedly be just finishing her workout. Every time. Yet, Knox had caught her watching him more than once with a hint of appreciation.
He understood her reticence to hang with the guys. Chase had asked them to be careful about saying or doing anything that smacked of sexual harassment. Not only out of respect in general. He’d confided that Vivi had been harassed during her tenure as a cop in an all-male city police force in Missouri. Knox hadn’t told anyone, but he’d Googled her name and found the details of the case. They had told her to shut her manpleaser and nicknamed her boobs Thelma and Louise. Her chief had frequently patted his lap and invited her to sit and spin. Reading the actual legal filing had disgusted and enraged him. Was that the cause of her thorny demeanor? That she’d donated the net proceeds of her settlement to abuse shelters touched him. But none of that made it any easier to deal with her.
She was staring at the wall, her mouth in a tight line. She caught him regarding her and shot him a warning look. Hell, the woman was maddening.
Chase dismissed Sax and Risk to prepare for their trip. Chad, Sax’s cousin and J-man in training, stayed on Chase’s invitation. “You may be brought in as well.”
Chad gestured to his wheelchair. “Behind the scenes, you mean?”
“You may be wheels on the ground, depending on accessibility.” Chase gave him a pointed look. “I didn’t bring you on to sit here at a computer, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“I was,” Chad said with a somber dip of his chin. “Did.”
Chase gave him an affirming nod. “Glad we got that straight.” He clicked on his computer until an image of an ornate building appeared on the wall. “Here are the details about Bonds, the club in New Orleans. It’s more than recreational; they offer training and counseling. The key therapist is Svetlana Azarov, a licensed psychologist in Russia.” An attractive blond woman in her forties appeared on the wall. “She came here five years ago when a corporate entity called JSC Inc opened Bonds. Although she’s not licensed here, she seems to use the club to practice under the guise of teaching the lifestyle. Meaning the BDSM lifestyle.
“Back in her homeland, she worked with couples with sexual dysfunction and intimacy issues. Supposedly she’s very good and very dedicated to her work. She left Russia under a cloud, or more precisely, the cloud her husband created by involving himself in illegal activities. The last thing I could find on him is that he’s now missing. We have to assume she’s involved in the trafficking operation if the surrogates are, in fact, slaves, but you will ascertain that. I want you both to learn some rudimentary Russian but only use it when necessary. Mollie is working on your identities.” Chase pressed a button on the conference phone console. “Mollie, we’re ready for you.”
Chase’s personal assistant entered the room a minute later, her demeanor both professional and, Knox swore, a bit sympathetic. She probably had seen the bristling energy between him and Vivi.
She slid into the chair next to Knox and opened a blue plastic folder. “Chase says it
Vivi eyed that envelope before picking it up as though it contained a scorpion.
Mollie patted a camera case. “I’ll need some shots of you two. Chase has several what he calls ghost profiles on Facebook. Someone posts on them from time to time, to create a chronological timeline. Our IT expert can then change out those images. I’m now in charge of choosing pictures and posts, so I’ve been working on the Cuthburts’ profiles. If you’ll follow me, I’ve scouted some locations on the island for photo ops. Vacations, dinners you’ve made together, romantic getaways, that sort of thing. Some will show you in the honeymoon phase, but succeeding pictures will illustrate the growing distance between you.” She was glowing, obviously well suited for this job. Or maybe it was being with Julian that had that perpetual happy sheen on her face.
Hell if three of his SEAL comrades hadn’t found that same sheen after permanently hooking up with their ladies on missions. Knox hadn’t felt that glowing contentment even when he’d been married. Then again, he’d married Courtney under all the wrong circumstances.
Knox and Vivi followed Mollie out to the lush grounds of Chase’s personal island. Manmade, it had been the domain of a crime family until they were arrested and shut down. After sitting abandoned for several years, Chase picked it up for a song. Now it was a sanctuary for him and the agency, its lush nature in opposition to the facility that contained a first-rate gun range and training grounds.
Mollie led them to one of the garden spots and gestured to the cozy arbor. “Sit together. I’m going to tag some of these as being at the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens.”
Knox dropped on to the wooden bench, feeling odd surrounded by the bright pink, papery flowers of a bougainvillea vine. Vivi sat a foot away, posture straight as a board.
Mollie brought her hands together. “Closer. You are married, after all.”
After a moment of hesitation, Vivi scooted five inches closer. She leaned another inch closer.
Mollie frowned. “Ya know, I think we’ll work on the troubled-marriage ones first, ease you in.” She snapped several photos. “Yes, perfect. A couple who is disconnected, forcing smiles they don’t feel. Now, take her hand, Knox. Even a distant couple will put forth the façade, especially if they’re trying to make things work.”
Vivi eyed his hand, then hers as he clasped it in a firm grip. His fingers slid against hers, and damn if her palms weren’t as soft as silk. Which made him wonder what the rest of her felt like.
He stopped those thoughts and gave Mollie the I’m trying smile.
She took several shots and lowered her camera. “Great. Let’s take some individual shots, since there are usually more of those than the ones you ask someone else to take.”
Vivi looked more relaxed posing by the huge banyan tree and swinging on the white swing beneath a large live oak. Her body arched, and she actually smiled as she sailed up into the leaves. Her long hair flew behind her, then came down like a curtain. But it was her smile that snagged him, even if she wasn’t facing the camera. Or maybe because she wasn’t; it was real. And gorgeous.
Knox wanted to watch her longer, but the photographer workhorse rushed them on to another location near a pond where he was the focus. “Stand there and look handsome.”
He almost laughed at the directive. “And how, exactly, do I do that?” All he could imagine was doing silly poses, ala Mr. Universe. Nope, he wasn’t doing that.
“It’s all right if you feel awkward. That’s what pictures are about, right?” Mollie winked. “Especially since you and your wife are having problems. Look somber if that feels more natural.”
Somber. The guys sometimes called him a stick-in-the-mud because joking around didn’t come naturally for him.
Knox picked up one of the flat stones in the planting area and skipped it across the water. He’d done that as a kid on the pond at his family’s ranch. After his sister had drowned, he’d lost all interest in bodies of water. But now he needed something to focus on, so he snagged another rock and tried again. It skipped nicely over the smooth surface. He caught Vivi watching him from the corner of her eye.
“Perfect.” Mollie tucked a strand of her light red hair behind her ear as she perused a checklist on her iPad. “Now, for the happier-times pictures.”
She led them to the pool area, where a lounge chair was positioned next to the pool with the large rock waterfall in the background. She’d even thought to drape a beach towel over the corner of the lounge. “Swimsuits are in the cabanas. Go change, and we’ll assemble a vacation photo album.”
“You really thought of everything,” Knox said, though it didn’t sound totally like a compliment.
She grinned, her green eyes shining. “I sure did. Even two sets, since we’ll be perpetuating two different timelines.”
At least she hadn’t chosen the skimpy swimsuit favored by Europeans. Now, if Vivi had been choosing the outfits for him, she’d have picked something humiliating like that. Or maybe a pair of flowered swim trunks, like she’d tried to foist on Sax for his last op. These were snug, but not tight, the blue trunks going halfway to his knees. He caught himself wondering what Mollie had chosen for Vivi. He’d never seen her in anything that remotely hinted at her figure. He knew she had no problem dressing the part of seduction for a recent undercover role. Risk said she was smoking hot, and Julian had agreed.
Vivi took a few more minutes to emerge, and when she did … Welcome to the Triple Damn Ranch, a cowboy voice intoned in his head. The two-piece was modest by some standards, but it still showcased her full-figured body and long tanned legs.
“You’re staring,” Mollie whispered out of the corner of her mouth as she smiled at Vivi. “You look great. I guessed on the sizing and figured you’d want more coverage.”
Vivi plucked at straps. “Size is perfect. I prefer a little more coverage, but I appreciate the high waistline.” She ran her finger along the top edge of the bottom, straightening a kink.
Knox was still staring. She had incredible boobs, perfectly proportionate to hips that flared nicely, and a small waist. Even in the modest bathing suit, she reminded him of one of those retro pin-up girls. He shifted his gaze elsewhere before Vivi caught him. “Where do you want us?”
Mollie gestured to a spot by the edge of the pool. “Let’s do one of those corny standing-together-in-front-of-the-waterfall shots.” As soon as he and Vivi reached the spot, Mollie ordered, “Knox, pull her into your arms.”
Vivi actually stiffened. Damn, did she dislike him that much? “It’s just a job,” he said, stepping closer. “Make believe I’m a guy you like.”
She swallowed, and for the first time he saw a glimpse of vulnerability before she slid on her hardened mask. “I don’t know one guy that I like.”
Ah, maybe this wasn’t personal at all. “Are you gay? Asexual. Or pansexual? I’m not clear on all the distinctions, I’m afraid.”
“No, I just don’t like men.” Mollie’s uncomfortable silence only added to the tension. Which probably helped prompt Vivi to say, “I’m a little — okay, a lot — prejudiced when it comes to gorgeous, confident guys. And when they come in a group, I’m really triggered.”
Well, she was honest, anyway. “Because of what happened when you were a cop?” Knox asked.
“Yes. That’s it.”
But he sensed it wasn’t only that, with the shadow that crossed her blue-gray eyes. There had been no allegations of assault in her legal complaints. But clearly something really bad had happened.
Not your business.
“Did Chase tell you?” she asked. “About my lawsuit?”
