Behind the Lens (Home in Carson Book 1) Read online

  A few minutes later Alexis slipped onto the seat across from him, smiling warmly with a flush of red on her cheeks.

  “Sorry about that.”

  “No need to be sorry,” he told her as he lifted the menu up as if to read, but he already knew what he wanted. Unlike his Connelly friends, he would eat just about anything on the menu. The Connelly’s each had their tried and true menu item, and if the meatloaf special was on the board there was no question what they would be choosing. He had the entire thing memorized.

  “What looks good?” she asked, her eyes darting back and forth across the laminated sheet.

  “I’m going to get a Rueben with homemade fries.”

  “Oh, that sounds good,” she exclaimed, setting her menu back on the table.

  Cliff leaned back in the booth, extending his legs out before him, placing them on either side of her legs.

  “You seem at home here. I can’t remember, but did you grow up in Carson?” she asked as Angie stepped up to their table to get their orders. She immediately returned with their two sweet iced teas.

  “Nope, I found Carson on a map when I left the Army. Though, I’m pretty certain Carson found me,” he joked as he took a sip of the cool drink.

  “I know exactly what you mean. I grew up in a small town, not nearly as small as this, but you know what I’m saying. But once I was dropped off at the orphanage I jumped from house to house until I found one that could tolerate me. I was a bit of a pint-sized bully.”

  “You? I don’t believe it.”

  Laughing Alexis continued, “I had to be, otherwise everyone would take advantage. I was lucky. None of the homes were too bad. Some were overfilled, some really wanted a certain age or gender. It just took finding a good fit. Being older in the system was hard, especially when you can remember your parents and wish for them to come get you every day. Made it hard to form attachments.”

  “I get it. Truthfully, being in the Army was the same way. Never knew when you would get picked up or moved. If you did go home, you never knew for how long. And it wasn’t just the soldier that suffers.” Cliff cast his eyes downward as an image of his ex-wife came to mind.

  Trying to lighten the mood Alexis changed the subject. “So, tell me how you got into tattooing.”

  After lunch Cliff and Alexis walked back to the shop, but as they passed by the abandoned bar with the dumpster out front, Cliff stopped. He peeked through the dirty window, wiping away some grime with his forearm. Surprise gripped him. A man stood in front of a plaster covered column, ramming a sledge hammer against it over and over. The man wore a mask so that only his dust-covered dark hair could be seen. Each swing was meant for more than just demolition, he could sense the pain in the man’s strike. After one more hit, an avalanche of plaster and wood boards came crashing down, leaving a column of old exposed brick.

  “Well, damn,” Cliff murmured, shocked at what was hiding beneath the tattered exterior of the column.

  “What?” Alexis asked from behind him.

  “I think I need to introduce myself to our new neighbor.”

  “Well, maybe you can do that tomorrow. You have an appointment in a few minutes.”

  Smirking, Cliff wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pressed a kiss on the top of her head. He wanted nothing more than to be able to keep her, to make her his. But he had no idea how to give her the kind of life that she would be worthy of.

  ***

  Alexis thought she loved her job. Seriously, it was why she put up with so much and willingly took any case handed to her. But after working at Cliff’s shop for a week, Alexis was beginning to reconsider her stance. The danger, the bullets, the criminals – they all were what made her wake each morning. Working as an office manager and receptionist of sorts wasn’t something she spent all her years at college to put on her resume. Regardless, spending time with a man who was so artistically brilliant, and sexy as all get-out, made her days much more enjoyable.

  There was something about Cliff. She couldn’t place her finger on it or narrow it down, but he shifted something inside her. Something she never knew she needed or craved – affection.

  When he carried her into the shop after she was wounded, he was so caring, so thoughtful to help keep her mind off the pain. Sure, any person with a heart would have done the same, Heath had the entire twenty-four-hour trip, but it was how Cliff did it. It was as if he had been trying to take all her pain into himself.

  Wade walked into the reception area with a frown, though Alexis was beginning to wonder if that was how his face looked most of the time. When he first arrived, he had freaked her out a bit. His over-gelled black hair and black eyes gave him a sinister look. He also kept himself decked out in all black, even with the warm summers approaching. She wondered if it was a stage he just never grew out of.

  “My appointment is running late. I’m going to the store,” he grunted as he stepped out of the shop and turned left down the sidewalk.

  Not a man of many words.

  Moving back toward Cliff’s booth, Alexis stopped at the entrance and watched as he leaned over the woman’s hip. Her skirt, which was already three inches too short, sat low enough on her pelvis that Alexis could make out her shaved lady region. Cliff wiped at the black ink with a towel in his hand and Alexis took a moment to interrupt.

  “Hey,” she whispered and Cliff’s gaze immediately darted up to hers, followed by a smile. “Wade went to the store. I just wanted to give you a heads up.”

  The woman lying on the table grunted at their exchange, obviously upset that Cliff was paying Alexis attention.

  “Thanks, babe,” he replied and Alexis practically beamed from the top of her head to the tips of her sandal-clad feet.

  She watched as he dipped the gun into a small cup of ink and moved back over the client to complete her piece. Alexis loved watching him work, the lines on his face deepened as he concentrated on the small lines.

  She was jarred away from the display as the phone to the studio rang. Rushing toward the front of the store, she answered on the fourth ring.

  “Carson Ink, how can I help you?” Alexis greeted.

  At first, she heard nothing, just silence on the other end, which wasn’t unheard of when people called the shop. The town had older phone lines that sometimes took a few seconds to pick up.

  “Hello? This is Carson Ink; can I help you?”

  “Hello, Alexandra,” the gravelly voice replied.

  Alexis had never felt fear like she did at the sound of the voice on the other line. Sure, when she was out on a mission, fear always ran through her veins, but it was usually mixed with adrenaline that gave her a heightened sense of power. But the terror she felt at this moment shocked her system – she was frozen in place.

  “What. . .what do you want, Father?” Alexis whispered, her throat now as dry as the Sahara Desert.

  “I need to ensure that you’re not going to be a problem. You know too much and that doesn’t sit well with me.”

  “But, I’m your daughter? Why-” she began but was interrupted by his shout on the other end. “You were a goddamned mistake that your mother should have taken care of. All you were to me was a piece of property that had worn out her welcome.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I never wanted you, that was your mother’s wish. I had a business to run and business that your damn existence was ruining. My whore of a daughter allowing a man she barely knows have his wicked way with her body.” Alexis gasped at his description of her. How could someone that cruel be of relation to her?

  “What? You think I didn’t know what you’ve been doing while you’ve been in that Podunk little town? Yeah, they threw me off for a while, but I’m coming for you. I have eyes everywhere. And you will give yourself up willingly; otherwise everyone else will pay for your mistake.”

  “What is wrong with you?” she asked. “Why are you doing this?” Flashes of her teammates falling to the ground during their ambush flickered across her mi
nd and she bit back a cry.

  “Payment is due. I’m coming.” Her father ended the call before Alexis could fathom what just took place.

  He knew everything. Somehow someway, he knew everything.

  Alexis’ entire body shook as the dial tone sounded. She had rehearsed what she would ever say to her father if he contacted her, even practiced with Cliff, but when it actually happened, she froze on the spot. Instead of the strong independent woman she was, she turned into the scared seven-year-old, wondering why her family abandoned her.

  The phone remained firmly gripped in her hand, pressed against her ear as if her father was still on the line. His words ran through her mind on repeat. Mistake. Whore. Payment. How could someone she once loved turn out to be so cruel? But his blood ran through her veins leaving her wondering if she could turn out to be just like her father.

  Alexis didn’t notice as the client sauntered out into the waiting area, she was too lost in her thoughts to speak, let alone ring someone out on the register

  The woman’s words were a garbled mess in Alexis’ ear. “I think your receptionist is having a breakdown.”

  From the corner of Alexis’s blurred vision, she watched Cliff join the client, then drop his black latex gloves to the ground as he rushed to Alexis’ side. He gripped her face in his hands, the phone pressed to her ear fell to the floor with a clang.

  “Alexis,” he cried out, his gaze moved over every inch of her body. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” As if remembering the client standing in the room, Cliff turned to her and told her to leave, letting her no there was no charge for the tattoo. It was not until the woman huffed as the door closed behind her that Cliff turned his attention back to Alexis.

  “What is it, baby? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  Did she? Seen and spoken to a ghost of her memory, only to find out that he was a vicious drug and sex trafficker hell-bent on paying off his debts with Harposia using his daughter as payment.

  “Father,” Alexis whispered and Cliff’s face turned ashen.

  “Fuck. Fuck!” he shouted. “On the phone?” he asked and at her curt nod, he released her face and picked the phone off the ground. Alexis watched as he quickly glanced at the calendar on the desk then back at her. “I’m going to call Preston and Dylan, then we’re going upstairs. I want you to stay there for the rest of the day, not a single person can get in without me. You’ll be safe, I promise.”

  And she trusted him. He would keep her safe at all costs, and she’d do the same for him. Even considered giving herself up to protect him and this town that had welcomed her with open arms.

  Her head was spinning by the time Dylan and Preston marched into the shop. They took one look at her and their expression morphed from carefree to one of anger and rage. Cliff had only told them on the phone that he had some new information. He kept it as vague as possible in case her father and his minions had the town bugged. They couldn’t form any other explanation as to how he was getting information.

  As they walked toward the back of the shop, leaving Wade in charge, Alexis revealed the short conversation almost word for word.

  “Somehow he knew that Cliff and Preston went to Raleigh to throw him off with the locket. How would he have known that without bugs somewhere?” she asked.

  “I think we need to make sure that everyone in town is on the up and up. At least until all of this is over,” Cliff added.

  At the top of the stairs, Dylan rested his hand on Cliff’s arm, garnering her protector's attention. “We may want to start thinking about plan b.”

  Moving until he was a breath away from Dylan, Cliff leaned into his space. “I’m not sending her to witness protection just so some mole in the FBI rats her out. You know as well as I do that the system isn’t foolproof. We’re going to do it my way, or you can get the hell out.”

  Holding up his hands in surrender, Dylan took a step back until his back rested along the railing of the steps. “I know, man. I’m just afraid that you’re getting too close, that your head isn’t in this fully. I want to protect Alexis just as much as you do. She’s been my friend for a long time.”

  Finally speaking up Alexis interrupted the two alpha men. “I’m staying here because it’s where I feel safest. If it gets to the point when I feel innocent people are in danger, I will leave.”

  Cliff shook his head as he opened the door to his studio. “You know that isn’t how it works.”

  “Well, it is going to have to,” she told him as she slipped past and into the open room. “Now, tell me what we’re doing in here.”

  “I need to trace the call and find the bugs in town.”

  The group stared at him, then back down to the six government-issued computers then back to him again. Confusion was clear as day on their faces.

  She watched as Cliff opened a small picture frame and placed his hand against a biometric reader on the wall. Before them, a false wall opened up to reveal a room with monitors across every open surface on the wall and one computer set in the middle. Cliff smiled smugly as he waved a hand in front of the room.

  “I’m so jealous right now,” Preston mumbled as he stepped inside. Dylan nodding his agreement as he followed.

  Alexis stepped up to Cliff and wrapped her arm around his waist. He pulled her close, her face rested against the taut muscles of his chest.

  “I won’t let anything happen to you,” Cliff whispered against her hair.

  In his embrace, Alexis closed her eyes and nodded – she believed him. They stayed like that for a minute just relishing in the safety and warmth of each other before joining the men inside the room. As Cliff entered, he pressed a red button that shut the door behind him.

  “This is pretty swanky,” Alexis told him as she walked around the room, looking closely at the monitors. He had a view into every building and space on Main Street, even the newly constructed retirement center near the outskirts of town. “Why do you have all of this?”

  “Just in case. I don’t come in here unless there is an emergency. It’s not for spying, but you never know,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders.

  Cliff sat in the chair in front of the monitor and as the computer came to life, she could see the program requested a zip code, address, or name.

  “Oh my gosh, you can see everywhere.”

  “For the most part. Like I said, I only use it for emergencies.”

  Alexis couldn’t help but wonder if this was the application he used when he tried to look her up.

  “First,” he began, “I need to track the phone call.” Holding up the phone from the office, Cliff scrolled through the recent calls and cursed when it came up as unknown. Without a word, Cliff brought up another program on the computer and typed in the phone number for the studio. As a list of numbers populated on the screen, Cliff highlighted a select few around the time her father called and requested the system to trace.

  Most of the numbers came from Carson or the adjacent towns and counties. But after ten minutes, a few of the numbers pinged to other areas. Mexico City. Tokyo. Raleigh. Ontario. Phoenix. Chicago.

  “These are the most likely areas associated with the number your father used. It is a cell phone so we could only trace to the area where the signal came from.” Spinning in his chair, he turned to look at Alexis. “So, tell me, which one do you think was your father?”

  Alexis stared at the names. Raleigh would be too obvious. Though that was where they wanted to lead him, he would have been too smart to go there himself. She thought back to areas populated by the cartel they had been chasing and known associates. Mexico City and Chicago were the first to pop into her mind. Something about the windy city burrowed in her brain and stuck. She couldn’t pinpoint it, but somehow she thought that was where her father was located.

  “Chicago. I don’t know why, but something about it is sticking in my head.”

  “All right. Well, let’s see what we get.” Cliff selected Chicago and ran the program to trace the call from th
at area at the time they received it at the shop.

  “While this runs, I want to talk about what we’re going to do moving forward. If we locate Alexis’ father, I want someone in here monitoring his movements twenty-four seven. Anyone and everyone. We need to know when he’s coming. And at this point, I don't care who knows what I have in here. Her safety is a priority.”

  “What is the plan if he goes off of our radar?” Preston asked, just as a ping echoed in the room.

  Cliff looked down at the screen then pressed a key on the keyboard. The monitors flickered then switched to a view of The Institute of Art.

  “We just pray that our instincts are good because I have a feeling this is going to be more difficult than we thought.”

  Alexis gasped as the screens flashed from face to face of the visitors moving in and out of the museum. They stood there for another twenty minutes while the application searched faces and phone connections.

  “There! That’s him!” Alexis shouted, reaching across Cliff to smack a key on the keyboard to freeze the screen.

  The image was blurry, but she could make out the dark hair with graying temples, phone pressed to his ear. Two giant henchmen flanked him on either side. But it was the eyes that did him in, Alexis would recognize them anywhere – they looked just like hers.

  “Good work,” Cliff stated as he zoomed in on the image and brought it on all of the screens. “Now, let’s see what we’re working with.”

  An hour passed as the four of them watched the application track the number across Chicago and adjoining cities.

  “Fuck!” Cliff shouted, breaking everyone away from their monotonous stares.

  “What is it?” Dylan asked.

  “The trace died. Either he killed the phone about ten minutes ago or he has switched out the SIM card.”

  “So, what do we do?” Alexis asked, but she was afraid she already had the answer.

  “We wait.”

  Begrudgingly Cliff left her with Preston, who offered to take the first watch while Cliff went to his next appointment. He kissed her forehead and sealed her and Preston into the apartment, making sure to show them where he kept a mini-fridge and food.