It’s been two days since I’ve seen Mack or David. But now I’m on my way to meet up with Mack so that we can tail David, making today the first time I’ll see them both since the engagement party. While seeing Mack won’t bother me much, it will be all I can do to control myself around David and not beat the shit out of him again.
I’ve let David know that we plan to surveil as well as plant a listening device on his person so that we know everything that is going on. We have a few guys who will be stationed around the restaurant and others on the street nearby. Additional eyes and back up if we need it.
I pull into the lot where I’m meeting Mack just in time to see him punch the side of the SUV, leaving a dent in the driver’s side door.
“Everything okay?” I ask as I exit my vehicle.
“No.”
I wait for him to continue. One thing I’ve learned from working so long with Mack is that he wants to communicate, it just has to be on his terms. So if he’s pissed and you push him, he’ll clam up. But at the risk of sounding trite for using an idiom, if you give him a little breathing room he’ll sing like a canary.
Sure enough . . .
“Fucking, Daria! She doesn’t listen. And when she doesn’t listen it makes me want to—” He doesn’t finish the thought. Instead growling and raising his hands in the air, palms facing each other, fingers outstretched as though he’s squeezing something together.
“Is that her head?” I ask unnecessarily.
“Yes.” He lowers his arms and takes a deep breath, leaning his forehead against the door frame of the SUV for a second before turning to me. “She’s going to be at the restaurant tonight. And more than likely Quinn will be with her.”
“What? Why?”
He blinks at me. What looks like guilt flashes across his face before he masks it. “Fuck if I know. I think they got a taste of playing cops and robbers at the party and now think they can do it all the time.”
“Mack, this is a federal investigation. They can’t just interfere because they think it will be fun. Daria realizes that, right? I knew you shouldn’t have had her help you the other night. That was a mistake, man. A big one.”
“I know.” Mack runs his palm over his face, looking as frustrated as I feel. One, because the girls could totally fuck everything up and that would compromise our entire investigation. Two, because I don’t want Quinn in danger. Shit, or Daria for that matter. And three, who the fuck do they think they are? “Wait a minute.”
Mack looks up at me.
“How do they know where David is even going to be?”
Now Mack looks openly guilty. It’s all over his face, no way to hide to it.
“You fucking told Daria, didn’t you? What in the hell is the matter with you, Mack? This is straight up just bad police work. Do you want me to report you? You’re the one endangering our investigation, not them. And why in the actual fuck would you tell her? Is this pillow talk for you now? Are the two of you back together? Or, maybe you’re bragging about your accomplishments? Trying to get her on your good side? What is it?” I pace back and forth in the parking space between my car and the SUV. I’m tempted to punch Mack. Though I know if I do, he could take me down with one retaliatory hit to the head. And I’m not in the mood to be knocked out. Not that I ever would be in the mood, I suppose.
When he doesn’t answer, I look up at him. “Well?”
“It just slipped out, man. I don’t know how it happened. No, it wasn’t pillow talk, and no, we aren’t back together. We were just, kind of, strategizing.”
“You were strategizing?”
He nods.
“With a civilian?” I confirm.
He nods again.
I close my eyes and shake my head. “I have no words for this, Mack. No words. None. You’ve left me speechless. This is by far the most stupidly fucked-up thing you’ve ever done.”
He nods for a third time.
“Quit nodding, you look like a bobblehead.” I don’t know what to say. I mean, obviously there are going to be other people at the restaurant, we have no control over that unless we shut the entire place down and put in agents pretending to be diners. But these other people don’t know about our operation or what we’re doing. Quinn and Daria now do.
“Does anyone else know?”
“Know about the operation? Or know that Quinn and Daria will be there?”
“Both,” I snap.
“No.”
The other reason I’m speechless is because it’s so out of character for Mack to do something like this. He’s not green when it comes to special ops. He doesn’t have a tough time keeping details confidential. He’s not some rookie who’s barely got his dick wet trying to impress some chick enough to sleep with him. He’s the opposite of all those things. And what’s worse is he’s never done something like this before.
Now, not only will we have to watch out for the girls while we are there, but I’m going to be distracted by Quinn. Just like I was at the party. And I don’t have the time or the patience to be distracted tonight. Which begs the question, why would she want to be here? David is her ex; it can’t possibly be fun to see him on a date. Unless, of course, it’s because he’s cheating on Laurel and that brings her some sort of girl-logic-satisfaction.
I mean, she knows now what he’s done.
Maybe she wants some sort of revenge as well and being here is her chance to do that. If she does anything to fuck this op up, I’ll spank her. A vision immediately pops in my head of Quinn sprawled across my lap. Her bare ass cheeks reddening the more my hand connects with them. My dick starts to harden at the thought as I imagine her writhing on my lap, enjoying what I dole out.
Okay, not that.
But something that won’t be pleasurable.
For either of us.
Not by a long shot.