[B.S. #1] Tied Up in Knotts Page 18

  Why didn’t they want her with them? After all, they had taken her to the bank and they had made out OK. Well if she didn’t take into consideration the two men following them. But she knew she would be safe with the men. She didn’t know all of them really good, but the ones that she had come to know through working at the office, she trusted. James would only have the best men on his team, men that could be counted on. There had to be something else James was hiding, she wondered to herself.

  James leaned over the table and grasped Avery’s hands in his. “Please believe me, that if this wasn’t dangerous I would take you with me. I wouldn’t let you out of my sight. But with what we found out in the notebook, the stakes are even higher. I can’t tell you everything contained in the books, as Grant is still decoding it. But Angel has a feeling that this trip could be very dangerous. I won’t lie. I can’t have the distraction of having you with me. I would spend all my time making sure that you were safe and not having my head totally on the mission. That might put Clay at risk. So please, just stay here with Angel for me. We will be back as soon as possible, after we check out the place.”

  “Who else is going with you?” She sat back and picked up her coffee, her appetite for her breakfast gone.

  “Just Clay. I trust him completely to have my back and we can move as fast as one man if we have to.”

  “I don’t understand. If it’s that dangerous, why aren’t you taking all the guys? Angel can go, too. I will be OK alone for one day.” Avery was now scared for James’s safety, if he only took Clay with him.

  “I’m only taking Clay because he won’t stay behind. I wanted to go alone. I don’t want anyone down there to notice our movements like the last time. We can also move faster with only the two of us, if needed. Believe me when I say Clay and I know what we’re doing”

  “OK, I won’t argue, but I’m scared. What if something happens to you or Clay? I don’t think I could stand it, if something went wrong.” Avery implored him to understand what she was feeling.

  “Trust me baby, now that I have you, I’ll look after my ass even more so,” James tried to reassure her

  “You better remember I’m very possessive too and the ass of yours belongs to me.” She tried to lighten the situation, as she was now resigned to James going. Nothing she could say would change his mind.

  James got up from the table and wrapped Avery in a tight hug. “It will soon be over.”

  Kissing her lips like it was the last time he would do so, James drank in her taste. God I don’t want her out of my sight for a minute. A knock at the door made James release Avery with a groan. Angel was here, time to go.

  “Angel’s here, I have to go. Do whatever Angel tells you. He has saved our butts too many times to count. So, if he says something, listen. It could mean your life, or his. I’ll be back as soon as I possibly can.” James didn’t want to scare her any more than she was, but she had to take this serious for both of their sakes.

  James walked out of the kitchen and let Angel in the door, clasping Angel on one shoulder as he walked in. “Please look after her.”

  Angel’s coal-black eyes speared James with a glance and, he replied as he closed the door on James retreating form, “I will watch her like she is part of our family. Now she is yours she is a member of our unit. I will guard her with my life. Don’t worry, just hurry back and watch over both of your butts.”

  James left the apartment and took the elevator down to the lower garage. Clay was waiting there beside two motorcycles. He already had his helmet on and was holding James’s out to him.

  Handing the helmet to James, Clay said, “Brad caught sight of some dudes around the front of the building, So we will be going through the service entrance. By the time they notice us, we should be lost in traffic.”

  With that Clay climbed on his cycle, waiting for James to do the same. With a roar they took off, winding their way out of the garage and onto the street heading for the airport.

  The jet was waiting for them on the runway, cleared for takeoff when they arrived and after leaving their bikes in the hangar, they boarded and took off for Florida.

  * * * *

  James and Clay, after landing, climbed into the jeep waiting for them and made it to the property within a couple of hours. They had made sure they were not followed with the convoluted path they had taken through the back roads to reach the property. No one could have followed, they were well trained at eluding the enemy.

  Approaching the property from the back road way along the property line, leaving the jeep and walking through the tall overgrown grass, they came upon an old run-down cottage. Paused as they neared the building and took out their heat-scope glasses and viewed the whole surrounding area. There were no heat signatures except for a few small animals scurrying around, so they knew they were all alone.

  Following Clay up to the cottage, James stopped abruptly. Clay had suddenly crouched down in the grass and was looking at something in front of him in the grass. “What did you find?” James asked looking over Clay’s shoulder.

  “Angel was right, look here.” Clay pointed at a long thin wire running close to the ground.

  James could now make out the steel wire. Following the wire’s path carefully, he ended up at the side of an old shed. The wire went through the side wall and was connected to a hydro box hidden in the back corner. Taking his time, James very carefully disconnected the wires. Walking back out of the shed, James gave Clay the thumbs up.

  Clay, seeing the all-clear sign, took the steps to the cottage two at a time. Pulling out his kit, he swiftly unlocked the door. The cottage was a surprise. While looking run down on the outside, the inside of the cottage told another story. The place was well kept and up to date. It had some cobwebs from lack of use, but that was all. James and Clay split up and checked out the rooms one by one. Meeting back at the small kitchen, they stopped and tried to think, Where would a person hide a stash of two million dollars’ worth of drug? On the surface of their first walk through, there didn’t seem to be any place safe enough in the small cottage to hide it.

  “Well, what do you think?” James turned to Clay “Where would you hide that amount of drugs?” James just knew in his gut, they were in the right spot. Now they just had to think like a drug runners with two million worth of drugs worth hiding.

  “Don’t know, but I’m going to take a look around the outside and see if it has a cellar. It doesn’t look high enough for one, but you never know.” Clay opened the door and stepped outside. “Why don’t you take a good look at the ceilings and see if there is an attic?”

  James made his way to what he assumed was the master bedroom. Old places like this sometimes had the attic door in a closet. Opening the door to the closet, James found a small opening in the roof. Opening it, James was bombarded with dust. He didn’t want to think what else was in the mix falling on him.

  Reaching up with both hands, he grasped the edge and raised his head above the opening. The attic was small, no more than a couple of feet in height, and it looked like it hadn’t been touched since the house had been built. He scanned it thoroughly, but came to the conclusion that nothing had been hid up there.

  Jumping back down, James closed the opening. Lowering his head, he started shaking his black hair, ridding it of some of the dust. Glancing toward the bed, he noticed a small braided rug half hidden under the bed. Walking over, he pulled it out from under the bed. Underneath the rug was a small latched door in the floor. He had to get down on his knees to see it. It was blended into the floor well enough that at a fast glance, no one would have spotted it.

  Clay walked into the bedroom just as James was reaching for the latch, embedded into the floor.

  “Found something? There’s nothing around the edges of the cottage. I don’t think this place was made with a cellar.”

  James raised the trap door, the hole under it was pitch black.

  Clay handed him a flash light. Turning it on, James scanned the opening unde
rneath the floor.

  Noticing a string hanging down attached to a light bulb, he reached down and pulled. The light came on, letting him see the small room underneath.

  Looking up at Clay from on his knees, James grinned. “I think we found it. Let’s move the bed.”

  Getting up off his knees, James and Clay moved the bed from over the trap door.

  Opening the trap door completely, now that the bed wasn’t on top of it, they could see what looked like an old root cellar. But this was no ordinary root cellar, the walls were red brick and James could see on one wall what looked like a large wine rack.

  Grasping both sides of the opening, James lowered himself down through the trap door into the small room. The room, while it had same look of disuse as the cottage, James could also see it was smartly designed. Bottles of pricey wine took up one wall, a table and chair was against another and sitting right out in the open, on the third, was a large safe.

  James walked over and checked out the safe, it was large enough to hold drugs and God knew what else. James asked Clay, who was looking down at him through the hole in the floor.

  “How your safe cracking skills?”

  Clay just grinned down at him. “Always keep in practice, get up here and I’ll go down and see what I can do.”

  James changed places with Clay. Clay kneeled down in front of the safe. This would be a breeze, he thought to himself, not much of a safe, but hidden well. Where it was hidden, Avery’s father probably didn’t think he needed the best. Clay cracked his knuckles.

  “Show off.” James laughed from above. “Just open the damn safe.”

  Clay got down to business and a few minutes later the safe door swung open. Clay gasped, he had seen a lot of drugs in his time, but this truly was a large stash, no wonder Carlos wanted it back so bad. In the safe were large bags of white power. There was also a stack of hundred-dollar bills, Clay thought, at a rough guess maybe $100,000.

  “OK, so now we have it open, are we just leaving the book in here? I think we should take this money back to Avery. I know her father made it through illegal means, but she was left with nothing. When the Feds get their hands on this money, it’s just going into the government coffers. What do you think?” Clay asked James as he fingered the money in the safe.

  “Well we’ve went this far. What’s a little money between friends? Avery can probably put this money to good use. I say grab it and leave the book in exchange.” James agreed with Clay, why shouldn’t Avery have the money, she had to scrape for too many months due to her father and the Feds.

  Clay reached into his pocket and withdrew the notebook. Picking up his black bag he always carried with all his trick of the trade, he began stuffing it with the bills. When he was finished he closed the safe and turned the knob. Getting up, he handed the bag to James and lifted himself back through the hole.

  “You got to give Avery’s father credit, nowadays no one has a root cellar and it can’t be detected from the outside.”

  Clay and James moved the bed back in place and placed the small braided rug back before it. They made sure that anyone coming into the bedroom would be able to see that the place had been disturbed. They wanted to leave a clear path for the Feds.

  James and Clay walked to the kitchen and out the back door, locking the door behind them. Back at the jeep, they gunned it out of the place as fast as they could go. They couldn’t take the chance of someone coming along, and they wanted to leave no trace of their presence. They had wiped down the few surfaces they had touched in the cottage. No fingerprints, but a clear trail right to the bedroom. Nobody could miss it.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  They landed back at the office hours later. They had diverted the plane to Atlantic City and stopped and had supper. When they knew for sure that no one was following them, they continued on to the airport close to the office. Chase was waiting in his stretch limo for them.

  Jumping into the back of the car with Chase, James looked at him. “Don’t you think that you could have picked us up with something else? We are, after all, trying to keep a low profile until this all blows over.”

  Chase just looked at both of them. “Everyone knows that I always use my limo, this is nothing unusual for me. I’m always picking up clients at the airport. If I had taken something else, then that would be out of place.” Chase sniffed at them. “Both of you stink, hope the smell comes out of the upholstery.” James and Clay stared at Chase and just laughed. Some things never changed.

  Arriving back at the office building, James and Clay both noticed two rather large men standing around the outside of the building as they drove up. The men were trying to blend in with others just going on with their daily life.

  But with both of their trained eyes, James and Clay detected the bulges under the men’s coats. Coats that weren’t needed on a warm day like this. James had no problem with them as long as they stayed outside.

  James jumped out of the limo as soon as it stopped. “What’s your hurry?” Clay couldn’t stop from asking. He knew the answer, but just wanted James to admit it.

  James looked back, just grinning at his friend. “You’re just jealous you don’t have anyone waiting for you.” Striding to the front door, he didn’t even wait for Clay or Chase to get out of the car.

  Chase glanced at Clay. “Lucky bugger.”

  Getting out of the limo, they followed James into the building where they found him waiting, holding the elevator door open for them.

  “Could you have walked any slower?” James asked, his anxiousness showing.

  Chase and Clay glanced at each other and slowed their steps more just to bug James.

  Finally they made it to the elevator and James let the door go. “No wonder neither of you have a woman, you walk like old men.”

  * * * *

  Arriving at the penthouse, James opened the door and found an agitated Angel standing in the living room with his gun in hand, grasped loosely at his side. “About time you got back. This babysitting job has been one of the worst jobs that I’ve had in a long time.”

  “I can’t believe Avery made trouble.” James knew damn good and well that Avery could make trouble, but had a hard time believing that she would. She had promised not to. “And where is she, by the way?” James said, looking around.

  “She laid down. I think she got tired of asking questions that I wasn’t going to answer and left in a huff.” Angel sat back down on the couch leaning back into the cushions, relaxing now that they were back.

  “Anyway, how did you make out? I see you’re both back in one piece, so it must have went OK.”

  James and Clay sat down the living room, their chairs facing Angel on the couch. Chase walked past them to the bar and poured them each a drink. He passed each man their glasses of Scotch, as he walked around and took a seat besides Angel.

  “We were successful. And even came back with a present for Avery.” James hastily took a sip of his Scotch, set his glass down on the coffee table and rose to go looking for her.

  He couldn’t wait for her to wake up. He needed her beside him right now. He knew Angel had looked after her, but he wanted to see for himself that she was safe and sound.

  Clay and the others gave him a knowing look as he made his way down the hall to his bedroom.

  Opening the door quietly, he spotted Avery curled around a pillow, sound asleep on the bed. She looked like an angel to James. He didn’t know he could miss someone that much, but all his thoughts had been of her while he had been gone. He would have to do something shortly to bind her to him forever,

  Walking softly to the bed, he sat down on the edge. Avery stirred as the bed moved under his weight. Raising a hand from under the pillow, she covered her mouth and gave a large yawn. Her movements stretched her top tightly over her breasts and James could see her nipples were hard and poking at her top.

  Wonder what she had been dreaming of? James took his eyes away from her breasts and looked up at the sleepy eyes looking ba
ck at him. She seemed to be in limbo, she was so still, looking like she was drinking in his form. Next thing James knew he had a warm and soft bundle launched into his lap.

  “You’re back, I thought I was still dreaming for a minute.” Avery took both her hands and went up and down James arms feeling him, as if she was making sure that he was real and really there with her.

  James finally grabbed both of her hands in one of his, with his other he took the back of her head to hold her still and dropped his lips to hers. Avery gasped, then responded and put her whole heart into the kiss.

  Coming up for air, Avery couldn’t wait to ask. “How did it go? I was so worried and Angel wouldn’t tell me anything. I don’t think anyone could get anything out of Angel when he doesn’t want to talk. He just looks at you with those piercing black eyes of his and you know it’s a useless waste of time to keep asking.”

  James hugged Avery tightly to him. Helping her off the bed, he said, “Let’s go into the living room and we’ll discuss everything. But bugging Angel will get you a spanking, the poor guy looked worn out when we came in.” He gave her a pat on her ass as he gently pushed her out the bedroom door and followed her into the living room.

  They found the others sitting up around the coffee table and looking at a stack of bills, spread out on it. Chase whistled. “Quite the haul you made.”

  Avery looked at the bundle of bills, then at James and Clay. “Where did all this money come from?” Hurrying over to the table, she got on her knees beside it and fingered the piles on the table. She didn’t think she had ever seen that much money in one place before.

  “It’s all yours, Avery, we found it hidden with the drugs. Clay and I both agreed that with everything taken from you, that you deserved this money. After all, it was your father’s, no matter now he earned it.” James now stood behind her leaning down with his hands holding both of her shoulders.

  Avery leaned her head back and looked up at James. “It’s too much and I don’t know if I like keeping money that was made from drug running.”