The Secret Brokers (33 page)

Val watched David hurry to Nicci’s side. “Family can be such a pain in the ass, especially this one.” She turned to Dallas. “You know this means you officially become a member of this group of lunatics, don’t you?”

Dallas placed his hands in his trouser pockets and shrugged. “I thought being a godparent meant you were just considered a good family friend.”

Val waved her hand about the church. “For better or worse, these people are your family, Dallas. We’ll always be your family.”

Dallas’s cell phone began ringing just as Ellen’s let out an ear-piecing scream. Dallas and Val turned toward the front of the church to discover a perplexed Lance holding the howling baby.

“I’d better go and rescue him,” Val said with a hearty chuckle.

“I’ll be over in a minute,” Dallas told her as he pulled the phone from his inner jacket pocket.

Val patted Dallas’s arm, and headed toward the front of the church.

Dallas checked the caller ID on his phone but no number appeared.

“Hello?” He said into the phone as he walked toward the back of the church.

“Hello, Dallas,” Rennie’s sultry voice came over the phone speaker.

Dallas felt his blood turn to ice. “Why are you calling me?”

“I was just checking in.”

“Checking in!” He gazed nervously about the church and lowered his voice. “What do you mean checking in, Lauren?”

“I was in New Orleans on business and heard you were here for the christening. I thought we could get together.”

“What business? And how did you know about the christening?”

“You know what we do, so it shouldn’t be hard for you to figure out how I tracked you down, Dallas.” She sighed into the phone. “I’m calling because I have a business opportunity for you.”

Dallas was silent for a few seconds as he considered her statement. “What kind of business opportunity?” he finally inquired.

“I don’t think it’s safe to go in to too much detail over an open line.” She paused for a moment and then asked, “Is your heart pumping yet? Can you feel your adrenalin kicking in? Admit it, Dallas, you’re intrigued.”

“Where are you?” he growled.

“I’m at Greg’s gallery in the Warehouse District. Come tonight after the festivities. We’ll talk then.” Rennie hung up the phone.

“Hey,” David called out across the church. “Godfather to be. What are you doing?”

Dallas quickly shoved his cell phone back inside his inner jacket pocket.

As Dallas headed down the aisle of the church to the baptismal fountain, his head was swarming with questions. When he stepped up to the sanctuary, David was waiting for him.

“All right,” a long-faced minister draped in a long gold robe announced to their left as he approached the baptismal fountain. “The godparent is here, so we can go ahead and get started,” he announced. He waved for Dallas and David to take their places next to the baptismal fountain.

David leaned over to Dallas as they walked across the aisle. “Any particular reason you’re getting phone calls in the middle of my kid’s christening?”

Dallas casually shrugged, trying to allay David’s concerns. “You know the organization…
.
”

David glowered at him. “I don’t believe you.”

Dallas stared into his friend’s vibrant gray eyes and then turned away. He realized he could no longer involve David in any of his operations. “You’re being suspicious. Everything is fine, David.”

David carefully examined Dallas’s profile. “I know that look. There’s something you’re not telling me.”

“You’re done with that business, remember.” Dallas nodded to Nicci and the baby standing in front of the baptismal fountain. “Worry about your wife and daughter. It’s my job to worry about the organization.”

“One day you need to consider getting out of that business, Dallas
, before
it eats you alive.” David looked ahead to Nicci. “Find a woman you can lose yourself in and then see where life takes you.”

Dallas shook his head. “I’m not like you, David. I’m not looking for happily ever after. I’m just trying to stay alive.”

“Just don’t let the organization end up killing you.”

Dallas grinned as he thought of Rennie. “If that were the case, I’d be dead already,” he mumbled as he remembered the enticing sway of her hips. “Besides, I tried it your way, and it didn’t work out,” Dallas added.

“Maybe you could try again,” David suggested.

Dallas thought of his phone conversation with Rennie and as he pondered the possibilities, he felt that kick of adrenalin hit him.

“I’m not cut out for that kind of life. I think I’m better off where I am,” Dallas insisted. “I don’t know any other way to live, David.”

David patted Dallas on the shoulder as the two men came to a halt before the baptismal fountain. “Find another way, my friend. Let go and embrace the unexpected twists life sometimes offers you.” He smiled at his wife and daughter standing beside him. “You never know where it might lead.”

It was well after dark when Dallas pulled his Honda Accord rental car into the parking lot outside of Greg Caston’s gallery in the heart of the New Orleans Warehouse District. The parking lot appeared empty as he climbed out of the car and gazed up at the three-story building before him. The first two floors of the gallery were dark, but lights could be seen coming from the windows of the penthouse apartment above. He made his way to the sidewalk that led to the rear entrance of Greg Caston’s former home. As Dallas approached the heavy glass door to the building, his body shuddered with a sense of foreboding.

He had spent the past several months struggling to protect David, Lance and Nicci from the events that had transpired in the penthouse apartment above on that fateful night last May. The night Simon La Roy, Greg Caston, and Jenny Ryan had been murdered. He had concealed so much, and now he had an uneasy feeling that all of his efforts were about to be exposed.

Dallas reached the thick glass door at the entrance and tried to pull it open. After a few seconds he heard a loud buzzer and the door popped opened. Eagerly exploring the frame around the entrance, he finally spotted the security camera posted above his head.

Dallas pulled the door open and walked inside. Waiting just beyond the door was an armed security guard. The man was short, wide, and loaded down with more muscles than Dallas thought could have been humanly possible.

“Ms. Davis is waiting for you, Mr. August,” the short man said in a very deep voice.

The security guard waved down a dark corridor to his right that led to a pair of silver elevator doors.

Dallas looked into the square face of the young guard. “Thank you,” he said and then headed down the corridor.

When he reached the elevator doors, they magically opened before him. Dallas entered the car and pressed the “P” button on the console.
As the elevator sped upward to the third floor apartment, Dallas thought of how he would handle seeing Rennie again. Since their last meeting, he had forced all thoughts of Rennie from his mind, convincing himself that he had conquered his weakness for her. But as the elevator ground to a halt, Dallas felt his confidence in his ability to resist her charms rapidly waning.

When the doors opened, Rennie was standing in the center of the expansive apartment, waiting for him. She was dressed in a light blue gown, gathered at her slim waist, with a fitted bodice, and a full skirt. Her blond hair was piled atop her head with several wisps strategically placed around her slender face. The moment he saw her, his breath caught in his throat, and then his anger kicked in.

He stepped from the elevator. “All right, Lauren. I’m here. Now what’s this about?”

Rennie rolled her eyes. “One day I hope you can outgrow that childish habit of yours of always trying to infuriate people.”

“I only try to infuriate you.” His eyes slowly wandered up and down her slim figure. “You look nice. Did you get all dressed up for me?” he playfully asked.

Rennie smirked at him. “We had a small function at the gallery tonight for a few VIPs.” She waved down at the gown. “Impractical for our meeting but necessary since my last guest only left twenty minutes ago.” She looked over his gray suit. “And how was the christening?”

Dallas made his way into the apartment. “The baby cried a lot.”

“Yes, they tend to do that.” She paused. “And how was it, seeing Nicci again?”

He turned from her and walked to the wall of windows that overlooked the Mississippi River. “Do you really want to know the answer to that question?”

“No,” Rennie answered behind him.

Dallas turned and cast his eyes to the kitchen with its stainless appliances, then to the tan Italian leather furniture in the living area, and finally to the same wood and iron stairs ascending to the second floor open loft bedroom that he had seen in Caston’s New York apartment.

“Why did he never want to make each place distinct and different?” Dallas questioned, purposefully keeping his eyes from meeting hers.

Rennie pointed to the bare walls. “He liked having each home appear to be the same as the other. The only thing he made different was the art he selected for the walls. The paintings he chose were meant to represent the city he was in. Here he had portraits of local historic New Orleans landmarks on the walls, but I had them removed after his death.”

“And why did you do that?”

She shrugged. “I sold them. I figured there was no point in having them locked away up here when they could be making me a profit downstairs in the gallery.”

“I take it that means you’re not really into art.”

Rennie moved toward the kitchen. “Greg was the art fanatic. I could care less about the stuff.”

Dallas followed her to the kitchen. “Then why did Greg leave you to run his galleries?”

“Because I ran his organization exceedingly well, and he realized I would take care of his galleries in the same way. A business is a business. Greg knew all I ever cared about was the bottom line.”

“And what else do I need to know about you, Lauren?” He walked up to the kitchen counter and stared into her delicate face.

“I’m thirty-six. I have an older brother who lives in Washington D.C., and works for the Department of Homeland Security. When I was seventeen our parents died in a car accident, leaving us with a broken down farm and a lot of debt, so when I was eighteen I married a man who I thought would make my life better. He didn’t. Six months later I got a divorce, took my alimony, and went to college. After I joined the FBI and saw the world, I vowed never to go back to the small town in Texas I came from. Not long after that, I ended up with Greg.” She sighed. “Anything else you want to know?”

He leaned in closer to her and whispered, “Why am I here?”

Rennie turned from the bar, which separated the kitchen from the rest of the living area, and walked over to a cabinet next to the sink. After pulling out two old-fashioned glasses and picking up the bottle of Stolichnaya Vodka that was sitting on the counter, she returned to Dallas’s side.

Dallas took a seat in one of the iron stools located next to the bar.

Rennie sighed as she placed the glasses down on the counter. “I have a problem and I need your help.” She opened the bottle of vodka.

“My help?” Dallas snickered. ”After the crap you’ve pulled with me, you expect me to help you?”

“Just listen to what I have to say and then you can make up your mind,” she said in an exasperated tone.

Dallas scowled and then gave a curt nod.

Rennie began to pour out a measure of vodka in each glass. “There is a former associate of Greg Caston’s asking me for a favor.
”

“A favor?” Dallas grimaced as he stared at the glasses on the counter. “I’ve heard that before.” He paused and looked up at Rennie. “What does this former associate of Caston’s want?”

“A businessman named Scott Corbin has developed certain profitable alliances with India. This former associate wants those alliances shut down. I’m to send in a specialist for the job. The problem is Mr. Corbin has used Greg’s organization extensively in the past and is familiar with many of my best people,” she replied.

“Why don’t you turn down the job?” he asked warily.

Rennie turned back to the refrigerator behind her and opened the freezer. She grabbed an ice bucket and brought it back to the counter. “The individual asking for the information is threatening to pass along certain information about my organization to the feds if I don’t take the job. And that’s not all.” She added ice to both drinks.

Dallas picked up one of the glasses. “I’m listening.” He took a sip of his drink.

Rennie reached for a glass. “He’s someone in a position to do a lot damage. He knows a great deal about me, Greg, and the organization
.
”
She paused and waited for a moment before she added, “I think we need to work together on this.”

“We? I can’t work with you!”

“You do realize that I need someone from outside of my organization to look into this.”

“Get someone else,” he barked.