Still, it made me a little uncomfortable, especially thinking about that kiss I’d given him. Why had I ever done that? For something to do, I rummaged through my purse and pulled out the cans of diet soda. “Do you want one?”
“Sure.” After nearly getting blown up, he could do with something a lot stronger, but the soda would have to do.
“I’m sorry for what I put you through,” I said. “But it wasn’t my fault.”
“I know Shelby. I know.”
He slipped his arm around me, thinking that Cypher was dead and we’d never be bothered by him again.
Letting out a sigh, I rested my head against his shoulder and closed my eyes. Totally exhausted, I relaxed and fell asleep.
Chapter 9
The plane landed at about eight-thirty that night. We were met by the same guy who’d driven us to that small airport just the day before. He had orders to take us back to the parking garage where he’d picked us up. That worked well for me since my car was still there.
After he drove off, Ramos walked me to my car. The parking garage was empty, so I didn’t mind the company.
“Are you okay to drive home?” he asked.
“Yes. I’m good.” I caught his gaze, and profound gratitude washed over me. “Thanks for coming with me, and for…you know…saving my life. You could have died…and I…”
“Stop. You don’t have to keep thanking me…unless…it comes with another kiss?” His brows rose in expectation, and his eyes darkened with desire.
“Uh…no. That was…it was…I don’t know how to explain it…but…”
He chuckled, thinking how much he enjoyed teasing me. And why didn’t I just come out and say it? That he was just so irresistible that I couldn’t help myself, and that kiss was one of the most amazing kisses I’d ever experienced.
I opened my mouth to respond, but he touched my lips with a fingertip. “It’s okay Shelby. You don’t have to say it.”
I inhaled sharply, wishing I had a ready comeback, but I didn’t know what to say, probably because he was right. His eyes crinkled, and his lips turned up in a sexy grin that turned my legs to jelly. “We’ll talk tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll know more about Leo then. Now go home and get some rest.”
I shook my head. How did he do it? “Goodnight Romeo.”
“Uh…goodnight Shelby.” A chuckle escaped his lips, then a sudden burst of laughter nearly doubled him over.
“What?” I unlocked my car door and waited for him to answer, but he just shook his head and smiled.
“Nothing. Get in.”
I sat down, barely pulling my legs inside before Ramos shut the door. He took two steps back to watch me drive away, and his shoulders shook with repressed laughter. As I left the parking space, he laughed so hard he was doubled over. What the freak? I couldn’t figure out what was so funny. What had I said?
On the drive home, I realized that I was totally drained from my ordeal, even with the short nap I’d taken on the plane. And I couldn’t figure out why Ramos had laughed so hard. I didn’t think anything I’d said was remotely funny. I’d have to ask Ramos later, when he wasn’t so tired. That must have been why he was laughing so hard. He was just worn out. Kind of like me.
Luckily, I’d called Chris from the car on the way to Thrasher and told him when I’d be home. I couldn’t wait to see him and the kids again. After what I’d been through, I just needed to hold them close for a while. Driving into the garage, I parked the car, and relief filled my heart. I’d made it home and, more important, I was alive!
Just as I stepped out of the car, the door to the kitchen opened, and Chris and the kids swarmed out to smother me in hugs. I held them close, unable to keep a few tears from running down my cheeks. I smiled and laughed, even as I cried.
“It’s so good to see you all,” I managed to say.
Chris tugged me inside, his arm wrapped around me and holding me tight. In the kitchen, his gaze traveled over my face, looking and finding the strain that hadn’t been there before. His eyes softened with concern. “Here, sit down. Are you hungry?”
I wasn’t hungry, but I knew he wanted to take care of me, so I couldn’t let him down. “I could use a scrambled egg.”
“Great. Have a seat.” I sat down at the table and let out a breath, grateful to be home and surrounded by my family.
“So what happened?” Josh asked, plunking down in the chair beside me. “I know you went to help the feds. Can you talk about it now?”
“You know…they didn’t tell me not to say anything. So maybe. But first, tell me what’s been going on here. Did you call the country club about the lifeguard job?”
“Yes.” He smiled. “I rode my bike over after school and filled out the paperwork. I got the job!”
“You did? That’s great! When do you start?”
“Not until after school’s out, and I’m done with my training. They’ll send me the schedule at the first of June. I’m only going to work four-hour shifts, two or three days a week, so it’s not much, but they pay fifteen bucks an hour.”
He smiled, thinking that with all that money coming in, he could help pay for a car. Hopefully we’d see the benefit of him driving to the places he needed to go instead of having us drive him everywhere, especially since he’d help pay for it.
Yikes! That wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I mean…couldn’t he just borrow my car when he needed it? My expression must have looked pretty bad, because his brows drew together. “Mom, are you all right?”
“Yeah, sure. I was just thinking about my first job. I think I made about six bucks an hour flipping burgers.”
“Oh, that’s awful.”
“Yeah, so you’ve got a good deal going there.”
He smiled with satisfaction.
I glanced at Savannah. “How about you? What’s been going on?”
She rolled her eyes, thinking that I’d only been gone overnight. How much could change in that amount of time? “Not much.” She was more interested in what had happened to me. Did I really help the CIA? That was so cool. “So can you tell us what happened?”
I’d put it off as long as possible, but I still hadn’t figured out what to say. I knew I’d made a promise to tell them the truth, but did I really want to say that some crazy terrorist had strapped a suicide bomb around my chest? Hell no!
“I can tell you some of it, but you have to promise not to tell anyone. Okay? I’ll have to ask the director of the CIA for clearance to tell you everything.”
“Sure,” Savannah agreed, even more intrigued.
“Well, you remember the terrorist in Paris? The one that I helped capture?” At their nods, I continued. “They brought him to the states because he had information about a couple of terrorist cells here. Director Wells knew about me from Agent Beauchaine and wanted my help. So, that’s what I’ve been doing. I did get a couple of impressions, so I think it was a success.”
“Oh…cool,” Savannah said, a little disappointed that it wasn’t more exciting.
Chris brought my scrambled egg over along with a piece of toast. I thanked him and began to eat. “This is great, thanks.” I wasn’t hungry until that first bite, but it tasted so good I gobbled it down.
Pretty soon the kids went off to do their stuff, leaving me and Chris alone. He took my plate to the sink, then returned to the table and pulled me into his arms. Holding him tight, I buried my face against his neck and inhaled his familiar scent.
“I’m glad you didn’t tell the kids everything,” he said. “But you have to tell me. How did Cypher escape? That just doesn’t make sense. Wasn’t he in a secure place? Then you end up with a suicide vest on? How did that happen?” He thought having Blake, Gabriel, Wells, and Ramos to protect me should have been enough, and a helpless rage burned in his chest.
“Cypher had inside help. We don’t know who. And even though Wells wanted me to stay and help them figure it out, I said that I wasn’t staying another minute longer. It surprised me that it worked and he let me
go, but I have to credit Gabriel and Blake since they came to my defense. Wells could see it was a losing battle, so he let me and Ramos leave.”
Chris shook his head, knowing he was going to hate this story. “Let’s go sit on the deck swing, and you can tell me what happened.” Since that was one of my favorite spots, he hoped it would make telling the story a little easier.
Soon, I sat cuddled beside him under a soft blanket to ward off the evening chill. Darkness settled around us, but the strand of little white lights at the top of the patio gave the deck a cheerful glow, and I snuggled into his arms.
“I was there yesterday when Wells and Gabriel interrogated Cypher. As you can imagine, Cypher didn’t like seeing me much. He wasn’t as forthcoming as I would have liked and started doing equations in his head, but I picked up enough to know that he was hiding something, and it scared me. After the interrogation, it was decided that I’d come back the next day for another round, and we went back to our hotel.”
I sat up. “Guess where we stayed.” Chris shrugged, so I continued, “The Watergate Hotel.”
“Oh, I’ll bet that was interesting.” He wondered what else I did last night, so I told him about our dinner and the stroll down the mall.
“Over dinner, I told Gabriel that he needed to take Cypher back to France and never let him leave again, since I knew Cypher had something up his sleeve. We met first thing this morning, and I was going to tell him that, but I never got the chance. That’s when they brought in an informant Cypher told them about, and someone set off a flash grenade.”
I continued my story, telling him everything that had happened, including how Ramos shot and killed Cypher before he could detonate the bomb. “I thought I was safe, but then it started up again.”
The panic I’d felt at that moment resurfaced, sending tremors through my body. Chris tightened his hold around me, and I took deep breaths to get under control.
“I can’t imagine…” Chris said. “Is that why you ran into the river?”
Tears flowed from my eyes, and I found it hard to breathe. “I was terrified. And there was nothing I could do to stop it. Luckily, Ramos had the idea of going into the water to disrupt the signal. There was less than ninety seconds left on the timer when we entered the water. I wasn’t even sure it would work, and neither was he, but it was the only option. Even in the water, it kept ticking, and we had to get further below the surface before it finally stopped. Chris…there were only a few seconds left.”
My heart pounded, just like it was happening all over again, and I found it hard to breathe.
Chris swore in his mind, realizing for the first time how close I’d come to dying. If Ramos hadn’t acted so quickly, I never would have made it. He owed Ramos a great deal, but it never should have happened in the first place. How could the director of the CIA bungle it so badly? And what about Blake and Gabriel?
“At least Cypher’s dead,” I said, calmer now. “I’m glad Ramos killed him.”
“Me too,” Chris agreed. “It’s hard to believe that Cypher got to you, and I’m so furious that something like this happened. You should have been safe. This is… unacceptable.”
He was thinking that he’d like to sue Wells and the government for endangering me. They had no right to take me like that in the first place. I shouldn’t have gone with them. Next time…no…there wouldn’t be a next time. I was never helping them again.
Taking a calming breath, he worked hard to get his control back. He knew I’d heard his thoughts, and he didn’t want me to think that I was to blame for any of this. It was just his anger speaking. None of this was my fault. “I’m sorry honey,” he said, kissing the top of my head. “I just got carried away for a minute. I know it’s not your fault. I don’t blame you.”
“I know,” I said. “I’m sorry too. I guess we should just be grateful that it all worked out.”
“I get that, but…holy hell! I can’t believe I almost lost you. It makes me a little crazy just thinking about it.”
He wondered how he was ever going to let me out of his sight again. Couldn’t I just stay home from now on? This was starting to take a toll on him…and probably me too. Something had to give. I couldn’t keep going on like this. He couldn’t keep going on like this. Next time, I might not be so lucky, and then…he couldn’t even think about how awful that would be. How empty his life would be without me.
“Chris…please. I know this has been terrible, but please don’t worry about the future. Right now, I’m here. We’re together. Just…hold me.”
“You’re right,” he agreed, calming down. “You are here…with me, and I’m the luckiest man alive to have you in my arms right now.” His lips found mine, and he kissed me with such sweet tenderness and love that my eyes filled with tears. He might think he was lucky, but I knew I was the lucky one.
He pulled away and wiped the tears from my cheeks. “Come on. Let’s get you to bed.”
“What about the kids?”
“I’ll tell them we’re all going to bed.” He checked his watch. “It’s nearly ten. Come on. Let me take care of you.”
He pulled me up and walked me inside. After locking the doors and turning out the lights, he led me into our bedroom. “I’ll be back.” Our gazes met, and his dark eyes glowed with love and concern for me and my well-being. It comforted me more than anything else could have, and I marveled at how lucky I was to have him in my life.
I pulled off my clothes and slipped into my silk nightgown, then climbed into bed. At peace for the first time all day, I gave in to exhaustion and closed my eyes. I awoke to strong arms pulling me into a tender embrace. With love filling my heart, I reveled in his kisses and his tender words of love, and I knew that, for now, everything was right with the world.
I woke late the next morning and panicked until I realized it was Sunday. Chris was in the shower, so I quickly dressed and hurried downstairs to get breakfast ready. I got the bacon started and whipped up an omelet, happy to do something nice for my husband and kids.
After checking the news and finding out that there wasn’t any progress on catching Leo, I picked up my phone to call Dimples. With a heavy sigh, I hesitated. Did I really want to talk to him right now? I was still so exhausted from my ordeal that this came close to overwhelming me.
Chris came to my side and wrapped his arms around me. “What are you doing?”
“I thought I should call Dimples.”
Chris took my phone and set it on the counter. “No. You need a break. You can talk to him later if it’s totally necessary, but right now, you’re all mine.” I turned in his arms and gave him a kiss, enjoying how good he smelled.
“Thanks honey.” I kissed him once more, then pulled away to turn the bacon before it burned. The smell of cooking bacon did the job of getting my kids to come down for breakfast, and we enjoyed a nice, leisurely meal.
We spent the rest of the day together doing normal Sunday things. Later, after dinner, we played a few board games out on the deck. It was great to unwind, and I only thought about Leo and the events of the past day a couple of times.
It wasn’t until later that I got a phone call from Uncle Joey. “Hello?”
“Shelby,” he began. “Are you all right?”
“Yes. I’m fine.”
“Ramos told me about your little jaunt to DC. I’m glad you’re back safe and sound, but I’m not happy Blake put you in that situation. Let’s just say I’m going to have a long talk with him, and when I’m done, you won’t ever have to worry about helping him again.”
“Okay…uh…thanks. I appreciate that. How’s New York?”
“Everything’s good here. We found a place for Miguel that’s near the hotel, so he’ll be close to the family.”
“That’s great.”
“He’s also coming home for graduation in a couple of weeks and wanted me to make sure your family knew you were invited to the ceremony and to the house party afterward.”
“Oh…sure. We’d love to c
ome.”
“Good. Jackie’s sending out graduation notices, so you should be getting yours soon. Now…I don’t know if you know, but they haven’t caught Leo Tedesco yet. I can’t stay away much longer, so I was hoping you could talk to your detective friend and see if you can help speed things along.”
“Sure,” I agreed. “I thought I’d call him in the morning. Why don’t I call you back after I’ve talked to him?”
“Sounds good. I’ll talk to you then. And Shelby…stay out of trouble, all right?”
I chuckled. “I’ll do my best.”
The next morning I put a call through to Dimples.
“Hey Shelby…where have you been? I called you Saturday and you never answered.”
“You did? Oh, I guess I missed it. Remember that something that came up?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I was actually out of town, and it was kind of a busy couple of days.” That was an understatement, but I wasn’t about to tell him about it now. “Anyway, I didn’t get home until late that night. That’s why I’m calling you this morning. So, how’s the investigation going? Did you talk to Erika Reva?”
“Just by phone. She’s been out of town and just got back yesterday. She left before Leo’s escape, so it doesn’t look like she’s been helping him, but we’re hoping to talk to her today. Do you want to come in to the precinct?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Good. I’ll set it up with her and let you know the time.”
I agreed and we disconnected. Had she really gone out of town? Was that her alibi that she couldn’t have helped her father because she was gone? Damn! I thought for sure we’d find him through her. At least I’d talk to her, then I’d know for sure what was going on.
I took a quick shower and decided to wear something more summery. I found my dark, denim capris that had rhinestones all over the back pockets, and topped it with a lavender, scoop-neck, knit top that went great with my denim wedge sandals.
Dimples called back, telling me Erika would be there in an hour. That gave me just enough time to put the clothes I’d worn Saturday into the laundry. I’d forgotten to take them out of the plastic bag, so they were still a little damp and didn’t smell too good. I wasn’t sure they’d be salvageable, but I had to try.