Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
I shoved aside Lenox’s demand to see me under the guise of a request, and kept my focus on Lizzy. It surprised me she’d asked Liberty if she missed the Army. That could open the door for conversation. And with someone less astute than Liberty it would’ve. But the former SF soldier knew not to engage in further conversation—she just didn’t know why Liza had closed down. But I did. She was proud of her service, but she wasn’t proud of the circumstances of her enlistment. Therefore she rarely talked about it. It didn’t matter she had nothing to be ashamed of, she still refused to listen to reason.
“How long were you in the Army?” Frank pressed, not picking up on Liza’s obvious desire not to discuss the topic.
What a tool .
“One contract.” Her tight response yet again went over Frank’s head.
“How long’s?—”
“If you don’t mind,” Carter smoothly broke in. “We’re on a clock here and I’d like to discuss the details of the op.”
Frank’s gaze went from his partner to the head of the table where Carter sat with Jason to his right and Nick to his left. The ruddy color once again tinged his cheeks. Another reason he’d never make it undercover—he couldn’t mask his feelings. The color in his cheeks gave him away.
Not that it was in question, but there was no fucking way I was allowing Liza to go undercover with this guy. He’d get them killed.
Without waiting for Frank’s response Carter went on, “Nick has a preliminary work-up on Mackenzie Archer. Keep in mind, this is fluid. A beginning point to work from.”
“What kind of work-up?” Frank asked.
I glanced at Liza. She rolled her eyes at her partner’s stupid question, which meant I was fighting a smile. And the question was only stupid because if the lazy ass would’ve read the company profile that included the backgrounds of the principals, he would know what kind of work-up Nick had prepared.
“Nick Clark is a former profiler with the BAU,” I told Frank, not hiding my irritation he hadn’t read the Triple Canopy bio his boss sent him.
“Oh, yeah, right.” Frank’s attempt to cover his lack of readiness would’ve been laughable if he wasn’t the man who was supposed to have Liza’s back.
As if reading my mind, Liza shook her head. I’d already challenged the guy’s skillset and we weren’t even thirty minutes into the meeting, calling him out a second time was unnecessary. Though I would be having another conversation with Liza about him and what she could do to get assigned another partner.
Deftly, Nick took over the briefing.
“My initial profile and notes have been sent to O’Conner. Like Carter explained, this is a beginning point based off the limited intel we have. I’ve reviewed the promotional material Nu Dawn uses for their seminars. However, they’re soundbites. I need more before I feel confident my profile is accurate.”
“Is it safe to assume your report is primarily based on the general psychology of cults and cult leaders?” Liza asked.
“Yes. In this case, Mackenzie’s manipulation, control, and exploitation of her members seems to be purely about money. She uses social conditioning and isolation but not in the way other cults have. The members are free to move about, vacation, travel, work off-premises. There are even members who don’t live on the compound. That’s not a requirement to belong. The isolation is out of necessity. She needs a safe place to manufacture drugs and presumably guns. She’s hiding in plain sight. Mackenzie has set up the group dynamic, activities, rituals, unity. But it appears Nu Dawn lacks the peer pressure component of that. Unless Allyson is holding back and it is mandatory to participate in activities.”
Liza was clearly following along, and unlike Frank, had done her research.
“What’s interesting,” Liza began. “From what I’ve read, cults typically use fear and shame as a way to manipulate members into conforming. Mackenzie does the opposite. Nu Dawn centers around empowerment.”
Nick smiled and nodded his approval.
“Correct. However, there are many ways to manipulate someone. Fear and shame go hand-in-hand with religious cults. But remember, Mackenzie’s Almighty is the dollar. She’s not pontificating about the afterlife and saving souls. She’s selling a life of abundance in the here and now. Her teachings are just as powerful and impactful. People, women in particular, flock to these seminars in hopes to unlock their financial dreams. Once she has them hooked, she then upsells them the follow-up. Small group retreats. Those are women-centric. It’s a way for her to lull them into thinking it’s a safe space. For women, by a woman. An even more powerful manipulation. Mackenzie Archer shouldn’t be underestimated. She’s highly intelligent. A master manipulator. She’s found a hot topic and found a way to exploit it. She’s making money on two fronts—the legitimate side of Nu Dawn and the illicit, more profitable side.”
“I’d feel better if a man was behind this,” Liza muttered.
“I hear that, sister,” Liberty readily agreed. “She should be strung up by her tit…toes before she’s tarred and feathered with all of the sisterhood present.”
Nick cracked a smile at his cousin’s comment.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think Mackenzie will get the pleasure of a tar-and-feather, but the public humiliation part of that is the goal. That is before she’s locked up. The rest of my report details the fundamental need to belong, which will help you craft your cover. Mackenzie will be looking for specific traits. Not too weak, not too strong.”
“What is this, Goldilocks?” Frank interrupted with what I’m sure he thought was a well-timed joke.
Liza’s head tipped to the side, a look of pure disgust infusing her beautiful face. I knew that look. I’d witnessed her dole out tongue lashings—both figuratively and literally. The literal private tongue lashings were otherworldly. A sight I’ve never been able to get out of my head. The memory of her bathing my cock before she flicked her tongue around the crown was never far from my mind. A vision I’d used more times than I was proud to admit while jerking off. But watching her rightfully put someone in their place came in a close second. And not because I was an asshole who got off on seeing someone humiliated—it was her wit and intelligence that was a turn-on.
“Sure, if Maslow’s Hierarchy needs to be dumbed down to a children’s fairy tale to make it digestible, then yes, Liza will need to present herself as just right . Not too hot, not too cold. Mackenzie will be watching.” Nick beat her to it.
Ouch.
I heard Frank grunt his annoyance at Nick’s dig but kept my attention on Liza. There was a lesson to be learned—Nick Clark did not fuck around while he was delivering a profile. Frank would do well to learn it quick if he didn’t want any further embarrassment.
“That was?—”
“There’s a time and place, Frank. And now’s not the time.” Liza’s eyes once again found mine, and she asked, “I need to talk to Allyson again, preferably somewhere she’s comfortable. Can we arrange a meeting here?”
“I’m sure Jessica would be amicable to meeting at her house. She wants her sister clear of this mess sooner rather than later,” I told her.
“Where are we with the brother and missing friend?” Dylan entered the conversation.
I nodded at Liza to go first.
“Allyson was correct, Beatrice Collins hasn’t had a cellphone in her name in the last seven years. Her LKA was the compound. Internet and electricity in her name was disconnected two months ago. I have people looking into if those disconnection notices were done electronically or if someone called in. She has a Toyota Corolla registered in her name. No tickets. Clean record. I’m gonna need more than a friend’s word she’s missing to get a warrant for her email. I have a phone number for a sister, Mabel. She lives in Northern California. With the time change, I haven’t reached out yet.”
“What about the record deal story?” I asked.
“I didn’t find anything to suggest she’s ever sold a song. No agent, no viral videos on social media, no hashtags for her name, nothing. What’d you get on Tate?”
“Nothing.”
Liza’s head tilted to the side a fraction. “Nothing?”
“Tate Archer doesn’t exist. At least not one who is related to Mackenzie. And that’s not by blood or marriage. I looked through every piece of information I could find online about Nu Dawn. There’s not footage of any men, period. All the promos feature women.”
“What about the social media accounts of the compound residents?” Frank finally joined with something useful.
“That’s on today’s agenda.”
“I can do that,” he offered.
As much as I didn’t like the guy, I had to give him mad respect for stepping up after he’d gotten his dick slapped for being a tool.
“Thanks, that’d be a big help.”
What it would also do was keep him occupied while Liza and I went to see Allyson.
“Dylan,” Carter called out.
“On it.”
Dylan’s answer had one of Liza’s perfectly arched brows lifting in question. An inquiry that was going to go unanswered especially with Frank in the room. Liza wasn’t adverse to coloring outside the lines when necessary as long as it didn’t give a defense attorney ammunition to get her case thrown out. Dylan didn’t see colors or lines, he was more of a ‘by any means necessary’ guy. He didn’t bother with scissors when he cut the red tape—he went straight for the hatchet and would have Beatrice’s emails in a few hours as well as anything else we needed to help find out what happened to the woman.
Tate Archer would be harder. We needed a picture of him to run through facial recognition or DNA.
With Liza’s gaze parked on me, her indecision was easy to read. The time had come. She needed to commit to this operation.
In an effort to get her there, I asked Carter, “Where are we with my cover?”
“Dylan already has a new identity for you. Shannon assured me she’d have Liza’s done by tomorrow.” Carter’s gaze slid to Liza. “When we receive it, Dylan as well Liberty’s mother, Blake McCoy, who’s former CIA, will do a deep dive into the new legend and make sure it checks out. In the meantime we’ll go over the intel that was sent over from your office again as well as the new information Allyson gave. We have a few contacts we can reach out to about the colored bags she mentioned, see if there are any reports of drugs being sold according to color.”
Carter paused. His attention pulled to the doorway and Lauren took advantage of the lull to announce, “Sorry to interrupt. Tucker, Jessica Diamond called. She’s been trying to reach you, she says it’s urgent, someone from Nu Dawn has been in contact with Allyson. She needs you to call her right away.”
“Thanks, Lauren.” I pushed back from the table while explaining, “My phone is in my office.”
Not to be left out, Liza rolled her chair back and stood.
“I’ll come with you. I’d like to hear what she has to say.”
Of course she would. But I knew Liza; she had an ulterior reason for following me—privacy. I recognized the spark or irritation in her gaze. She was not a woman who liked to be backed into a corner and I’d done just that. She’d have something to say about Carter and her boss firmly insinuating me into her case.
As soon as we stepped into the hallway she launched in. I would’ve smiled at her predictably if the metaphoric fire she was breathing wasn’t aimed at me.
“What’s your game, Mitchell?”
“Game?”
“This is my job,” she hissed.
“I’m well aware.”
I hooked a right at the end of the hall, leading to a not-so-new, but not original part of the TC office building. The addition had been built when Carter Lenox and his SEAL team brothers joined the company. Six new offices had been sectioned along with another bathroom, and a break room that was really nothing more than a coffee cubby with a sink and fridge. My office was the smallest at the end of the hall. Not that I cared where it was or the size of the space. I did everything in my power to spend very little time in the room. It was more of a catch-all for paperwork.
“If you’re aware why are you fucking with me?”
I wasn’t fucking with her, at least not yet.
“We have very different definitions of fucking, Lizzy.”
A sexy-as-all-fuck growl slipped past her perfectly kissable lips, reminding me how good it had felt when that same sound had vibrated against my skin when she orgasmed.
Five steps later when she hadn’t commented, I prodded. Like a schoolboy poking at the girl he liked to get a reaction I asked, “What? No comeback?”
“I’m using too much energy controlling my violent urges to stab you to think of an appropriate comeback.”
“Right.” I chuckled.
“Just to warn you, that control is slipping by the second.”
If she thought hers was slipping, mine was getting ready to snap. Last night I’d spent more than a few hours thinking about her. All the what-ifs and what-could’ve-beens if I’d manned up a decade ago. All the time we’d lost. The connection she’d severed with her disappearing act. All things I wished we could have back, none in my power to have. But in the here and now there was still a chance for us. All I needed was for her to drop this bullshit act.
When we got to the door, I stepped aside and waved her to precede me. Once she was in my office I closed the door and asked, “Still want to tell me there’s no us?”
“Tucker—”
“Have you considered that control you’re fighting for is slipping because you’re lying, and if you stop hiding and come clean, we can talk this out and move forward?”
The fire that lit in her eyes said she was considering something. Probably my murder. But in no way was she ready to peek out from behind the walls she’d erected.
“I’m not hiding,” she denied. “I’m on a job. Something you of all people should respect and understand. The past is the past and it needs to be left there.”
I didn’t know how I’d forgotten but I had—there were times when her stubbornness wasn’t cute and it was borderline annoying. More than likely I hadn’t forgotten, I’d blocked it out.
Before I could reply, my cell rang. Liza glanced down at the phone on my desk and a change stole over her. A stiffening in her shoulders she couldn’t hide along with a frown. That meant when she said, “Crystal” it was through pinched lips.
I clenched my jaw to stop myself from calling out her jealousy. I might not have allowed the words to come out of my mouth but I couldn’t stop my brows from lifting.
Liza didn’t miss the gesture or the meaning.
“Well? Are you going to answer it?”
“She knows I’m in a meeting this morning,” I told Liza.
And just like last night when she thought I was married, she looked wounded.
Which pissed me off.
“You’d have the right to look like you do right now if you’d drop the bullshit and talk to me. But since you won’t, you have no call to look at me as if I’ve done you wrong. You wanna know who Crystal is and what she means to me, ask. But you won’t because you’re hellbent on dragging this out for no fucking reason.”
I snatched my phone off the desk, declined the call from Crystal, and found Jessica’s number.
She wanted to be stubborn, I’d double down.