Diane (The Town of Pearl 6)

She felt badly. She would be lying if she said she didn’t and she hated liars. “I’ve thought about you, Mark. Each of you.”

Drake let out a release of breath he seemed to be holding. “Damn, that makes me happy.”

She looked at him, saw the desire in his eyes and she panicked and looked back at Mark. “But you’re in fast-forward, and I don’t know anything about any of you but the rumors I hear, and of course your obsession with fine lingerie.”

“All for you, Diane,” Lucas added softly. He was the most quiet. He was the one people said was still not right after returning from the war. He didn’t have patience.

“So you say,” Diane replied.

“Come out with us? Let us take you to dinner. Anywhere you like. In Pearl, in Croton, or Turbank, it doesn’t matter to us. Hell, we’ll meet you in Dallas if you asked us to,” Mark told her, and she felt her cheeks warm. He was being honest now, and she liked this part of him better than the one trying to act so suave and tough.

“Can I think about it while I’m away?”

“What’s there to think about?” Drake pushed.

“If you need some time, we understand. I have a business trip out of town, too. How about we call you over the weekend, while you’re in Dallas and see if you’ve made up your mind? Then we can set something up for the upcoming week?” Mark suggested.

She took a deep breath and released it.

“I’ll think about it,” she said.

“Then let’s exchange cell numbers. We were untimely interrupted before,” Drake stated. She slowly rambled off her number, and then they rambled off theirs.

She was shocked at the mix of emotions she felt. Was this really the beginning of something? Could these three men be serious, and actually want to get to know her? How many women had they been with, and would she just be another one? Did she even care? She jumped as her cell phone rang.

Glancing down at the caller ID, she saw that it was Elvira.

“I need to take this.” She answered it, and listened as Elvira spoke. “Okay, I’ll be ready. Thank you.” She disconnected the call.

All three men were watching here.

“Everything okay?” Drake asked.

“Fine. The limo is picking me up at 8:00 a.m. I need to get going soon. I have to pack and make some other arrangements.”

“Well, why not enjoy lunch together? We’re going to miss you for the next five days. That’s not a lie,” Mark told her as he held her gaze and she shyly looked down toward her salad, feeling her belly ache. She liked them, and she prayed they were as sincere and honest as she needed them to be.

Chapter 3

“I’ve answered all your fucking questions. I flew out here to assist in the disappearance of Agent Brenda Corn, and you still think I’m involved with this? What the fuck is going on, Weathers?” Mark demanded as he sat in the chair in the interrogation room at a remote facility in Wyoming. His commander, the man who assigned him to these special cases over the last several years, actually believed him to be involved with acts of terrorism. It didn’t help that Brenda’s commander, Franks, was there, too.

“Calm down, Mark. You’ve been around long enough to know the damn procedure when something like this happens,” Weathers stated as he ran his fingers through his hair and looked toward the fake mirror. It pissed Mark off to be on this side of the mirror and not in the back, reading the prisoner’s body language, eye direction, and demeanor. Instead, he was treated like a prisoner, not an investigating agent.

“I said I would take your fucking lie detector test. I did that. I said I would answer any questions in regards to Brenda and that old operation that you were a part of, too. I did that. What more do you want from me? What the hell is really going on?”

Weathers was silent and then he nodded his head toward the mirror. A few seconds later three agents Mark knew walked in.

Cody Jobs, Ray Segar, and Ned Turk. All good agents. All individuals he’s worked with in the past. In fact, the last case they worked on was before the Wyoming one. It was a case involving a man they never caught—Marzban Samir.

Mark could feel himself growing more impatient and especially now that there were four men in the room who obviously had a clue as to what was happening, and he was the only one who didn’t.

Mark sat forward in his seat.

“Well?”

Weathers took a deep breath and then released it.

“Brenda is involved with Marzban Shamir.”