Page 8 of Play Dirty
“So where to next,motek? I’ll hazard a guess that you’ve been eyeing Dean Westheim? A short flight away from here, decent-sized reward, active man who is out and about often and would be easy to pick off from a distance.” Az chuckled when Madigan frowned because hehadbeen considering Westheim. Not that it was a difficult deduction to make. It was a smart one. But it annoyed him that he’d been that transparent to the other man.
“Ahhh, don’t worry, I’m just curious,” Az continued with a smug quirk of his lips. “I have no intention of going after him. I’ve got someone more interesting in mind.”
Madigan had to clench his teeth to keep from asking who, but he managed, and a moment later rose, detaching from the too comfortable warmth of Azrael’s body on the pretense of cleaning up.
* * *
Madigan wokewith a start as the hotel door clicked shut quietly. A glance at the clock showed three a.m. Early, even for Azrael, though they’d rarely seen daylight together in the first place. They were dark corners and unlit stairwells, impersonal hotel rooms and shadowy hallways. Morning light chased the night’s bad judgments away and every trace of them along with it.
Madigan liked it that way.
He had a vague impression of Az’s voice in his ear, breath warm across his cheek as he whispered, but he couldn’t remember enough of what Az had said to translate. Maybe it’d been a dream.
Madi rolled over, burying his head under a pillow that smelled of sex and Azrael and fell back asleep.
In the morning, as he always did, he checked that all of his belongings were still there. There was no sign that Azrael had been there at all until Madi reached under the bed for his shoe and his fingertips brushed over cardstock. He flipped the business card over, studying the name of the company and the Rio address, then picked up his phone, inspecting it for any signs of tampering before punching in Jonah’s number.
Az had given himself a nice head start.
Madigan could fix that, though.
He paused before hitting send.Twice in a row?That was unusual for them. Possibly a bad idea. Definitely a bad idea. Madigan considered the card again, lips pursed, then shrugged inwardly. Fuck it, he was a sucker for bad ideas. He hit send.
“Enjoying your extended honeymoon?” he asked when Jonah answered with his customary grunt.
“I was until you interrupted it.”
“It’s been a month. That’s all the peace you get. Get used to it. You owe me favors. I’m calling one in now.”
The line went silent for a few moments, then Jonah sighed. “Alright, what is it?”
“Ask your boy there who else he knows that’s top notch at hacking shit, since he’s on hiatus. I need a name and a number right now.”
Madigan heard Jonah place his palm over the phone and then muffled conversation before Cas came on the line.
“The guy won’t work for anyone who hasn’t been thoroughly vetted,” Cas said. “He’s got a demanding process. I can’t just hook you up with him.”
“Is he the best?”
“Next to me? Yeah.”
“Then maybe you could get with Jonah and the two of you put whatever remaining brain cells you haven’t fucked out of each other together and figure out how to connect us in the next ten minutes. Jonah owes me. I’ll be waiting. Otherwise, I’ll show up on your doorstep with a housewarming present. Ask Jonah what kind of presents I’ve given him in the past. I’m very thoughtful.” Madigan assumed he must be on speaker since Jonah’s resulting growl came immediately.
He grinned as he disconnected and then packed his things. Eight minutes later, his phone chimed with an encrypted message. Madigan ran the program, got the number, and punched it into his phone. He went through the complex question and answer session before the monotone voice asked him to hold and he was transferred to a line that crackled with static. Cas better not have fucked him over. Madigan wasn’t too proud to fly to Belize and interrupt their lovefest. Hell, he needed a vacation, anyway.
A second later, a different voice came over the line, this one deeper but equally monotone. Madigan hated the cloak and dagger bullshit most hackers insisted on, but he kept his patience as the guy made him perform the same series of questions and answers before finally asking what he needed.
“I have ten aliases I need you to immobilize completely and immediately. As in within the next half hour.”
“Immobilize…” the guy repeated so slowly Madi wondered if he was high.
“Deactivate, freeze assets on, whatever you like to call it. One of these names will be traveling today. I’d like it to be difficult for him.”
Once they agreed on a sum and a method of transfer, Madigan hung up and wired the money over. His next call was to room service, where he ordered a full breakfast to be delivered to the balcony. No need to hurry himself now. He considered a shower, then stretched out in a lounger instead. He’d showered last night. Actually, Azrael had showered, and Madigan had interrupted him by pressing him to the tiled wall and fucking him before collapsing into the bed. Close enough, though, even if no soap was involved.
He idly scraped the corner of his thumbnail over a flake of dried cum and gazed up at the cloudless sky with a lazy smile. Jets came and went in glints of silver and white contrails that streaked the horizon, and somewhere out there, Azrael was about to have a very long day.
3