Chapter Seven
Jarrett ended up at Scripps Memorial Medical Center being treated for a gash to the head that could have been caused by anything in the chaotic mess of the barn.
What only Jarrett and possibly Adael knew, was that the gash came from a bullet graze along the temple and that it had not been one of the militia or smuggler guys who’d tried to blow his head off.
This had been an entirely different kind of bad guy.
One Jarrett knew.
It had been a man he recognized as a CIA operative he’d met while on assignment in the Middle East.
If the bastard’s aim had been better, Jarrett wouldn’t have been alive to hide it from his best friend and partner.
He felt sick about having to lie to Thayne.
At the same time, Jarrett hadn’t been prepared for two things… the fact that he was nearly taken out by a man with CIA training and combat skills, and the fact that he was rapidly falling in love with his partner.
Whether the assassin knew he was going to be there and planned on killing Jarrett, or whether he just happened to be in the right place at the right time to take a shot at him, was anyone’s guess.
The idea that someone in the CIA, at least this guy, wanted him dead was unfathomable.
Jarrett hadn’t had anything to do with an operation the CIA ran for a very long time, and as far as he knew, he hadn’t burned any bridges back then either.
The one man he could ask about such things was out of Jarrett’s life—at least for the time being.
Jarrett felt terrible for having to keep the truth from Thayne but most of what had happened in the Gulf was still classified.
Jarrett knew he wouldn’t be able to tell Thayne even if he’d wanted to, but the situation was sorely testing Jarrett’s loyalty.
Fortunately, Jarrett wasn’t a treasonous bastard and he would never throw everything away in a fit of anger.
As far as the falling in love with his partner part of the equation, that might be even more frightening than being shot at.
As he waited to get his noggin looked at, he felt more annoyance than anything else.
The emergency room was a madhouse with doctors and nurses scrambling to get much more serious patients stabilized before dressing his minor wound.
All Jarrett wanted to do was find Thayne, get the hell out of there, and go home, even if it meant driving back tonight.
Unfortunately, it didn’t look like that was going to happen.
Don’t that just suck all?
The curtain surrounding the bed he was sitting on was pulled aside and Jarrett flinched, reaching for the weapon he always wore on his body, only to realize that he’d left it behind in the Jeep when they’d been issued their semi-automatic weapons.
Dammit! Expecting a doctor or a nurse, Jarrett was disappointed when Adael popped his head into the curtained-off area and grinned at him.
He’d hoped it would be Thayne.
Adael’s teeth were exceptionally white in his soot-stained face, but goddamn, it made the Israeli even more gorgeous, even with a massive cast on his broken arm.
Jarrett offered him a slight smile and then immediately looked over his shoulder to see if Thayne was following.
“There you are, Jarrett,”
Adael said, sounding relieved.
He gave Jarrett the once-over, raking his body up and down with an appraising gaze.
He frowned.
“You look fine.
Why are you here? Because of this little thing?”
He stepped forward and bent to touch the side of Jarrett’s jaw with his good hand and turn it gently, examining the congealing wound at his temple.
Jarrett closed his eyes for a few seconds, allowing Adael to peruse the bullet graze.
When he reopened them, the Israeli was frowning at him.
“It doesn’t look too bad,”
Adael said.
“Won’t even need a stitch.”
“I know but ironically, if I don’t get cleared, my boss won’t let me go back to work.
Did ya see Thayne out there?”
Jarrett asked with a deep sigh.
Adael shook his head.
“Not yet.
We got separated after they loaded you into the ambulance.
I’m sure he’s coming in with the rest of the FBI who made it out.”
Not knowing where Thayne was made Jarrett nervous as hell.
He wasn’t going to feel okay until he knew his partner was safe.
Virgil’s dying words about someone wanting Jarrett dead seemed to make slightly more sense now; the thing was, he had no idea why someone he used to work with had decided that it was important to kill him.
Fuck.
He needed to get out of the hospital now.
Where the hell is Thayne?
“You ran back in the barn after you knew the FBI called in an airstrike, Jarrett,”
Adael said.
“What I want to know is, why.”
Jarrett looked at him critically.
“Why are you really here, Adael? And don’t give me any bullshit stories; I have a fuckin’ headache.
How’s your arm, by the way?”
Adael shrugged his shoulders.
“Broken but I’ll live.
And in answer to your question, it’s no surprise I hunt terrorists and I wasn’t lying about the man who builds bombs,”
he said with his familiar accent.
“Mossad truly believes there’s a connection with the men out there tonight, perhaps hiding among these Freedom Brigade freaks.
I couldn’t get eyes on him, though.
Either our intelligence was wrong, or he was there and I just couldn’t spot him.
Either way, I failed in my mission.”
Adael grinned again.
“And you, my dear, have become much more adept at steering the conversation away from things you don’t want to talk about.
Well done.”
Jarrett couldn’t help but smirk.
“Thank you and no, I’m not goin’ to tell ya why I ran back in there.
Let’s just say, I saw someone I did some wet work with and he didn’t wanna be noticed.
Whatever the case, he sure wasn’t expecting me to be there tonight or he might have planned better than this.”
He reached up and touched his temple.
“Planned what?”
Adael frowned.
“I think someone’s—tryin’ to kill me and before ya ask, no, I don’t know who.
I have my suspicions.
I’m just not clear yet.
When I saw someone I used to know, I thought we should have a talk.
That’s when he turned and tried to shoot me.”
Adael stood speechless for just a moment.
“And of course you thought a burning barn would be a great place for a discussion, Jarrett.”
He shook his head looking quite disgusted.
“Now you have me worried.
You need to tell the ATF or at the very least, Wolfe.”
“What makes you think Thayne don’t know?”
Jarrett asked.
Adael shook his head and smiled sadly.
“Because I know you, Jarrett.
You don’t listen to anyone and you never do what’s good for you.
You always had more bravado than sense, my darling.”
“I guess you do know me so I can’t argue, Adael.”
He smiled shyly.
“Thayne told me I have you to thank for my life.”
Adael smiled at him.
“I’m glad I was there to save your life and as far as your partner goes, I see the way you look at him, Jarrett.
I know you’re in love with him.
You wear your heart on your sleeve.”
“Ya don’t know nothin’, Dayan,”
he grumbled, breaking his gaze and turning away.
“Really, Jarrett.
You could have fooled me.”
The possibility that Adael had actually figured him and Thane out spelled serious danger for Thayne.
If Adael could see that on Jarrett’s face, he knew it wouldn’t be long before others did too.
And if someone was hunting Jarrett, they might try to get to him though Thayne if they knew he was important to him.
Thayne was completely innocent of the things Jarrett had done in the past.
Jarrett promised himself he would protect him with his life, but he was never going to explain that to anyone, especially a Mossad operative who still fuckin’ telegraphed every emotion he’d ever had.
“You don’t know what you’re talkin’ about, Adael.”
Adael moved very close and reached down with his good hand, cupping Jarrett’s face as he gazed at him softly.
“I know I wanted you to look at me the way you look at him.
I know I’ve thought about you every day for two years, Jarrett.
I know I missed you.”
Jarrett was shocked when Adael suddenly ducked his head and took his lips in a blistering kiss that brought with it a flood of heat and memories.
The urge to break the kiss was strong because in his head, the only person he wanted to kiss was Thayne.
For some damned reason though—one he couldn’t quite fathom—he found himself tentatively returning Adael’s kiss.
Adael yanked his head back when someone suddenly cleared their throat from behind him.
Jarrett looked up to find Thayne’s gorgeous bright eyes staring at them from where he stood ten feet away as Adael dropped his hand and stepped back, glancing over at Thayne.
“I’m sorry it took so long to get here.
I had to wait for one of the FBI guys to drive me in,”
Thayne said.
The words were so matter-of-fact, Jarrett’s belly did a flip-flop.
“You have the keys to the Jeep.
I’m glad to see you’re okay though.”
The expression on Thayne’s face was a mixture of relief and hurt but not the least bit angry and that made Jarrett’s stomach tumble so hard he wanted to be sick.
When the room suddenly spun, he reached out a hand to grab something for balance.
Thankfully, Thayne stepped up to him, grasping it.
“I’m okay, Thayne,”
Jarrett said, relieved as hell that he wasn’t going to make a big thing about catching Adael kissing him, something he hadn’t initiated and had never wanted to begin with.
“Good,”
Thayne said, dropping his hand.
He hesitated as though he wanted to say more but then settled for, “I’ll just wait out there until you’re through here.”
Thayne shot Adael a sideways glance and then ducked his head before hooking a thumb to show the direction he was going.
Before Jarrett could open his mouth and say or do anything else stupid, Thayne was gone and the curtain was fluttering where he’d been standing.
Jarrett’s mouth opened and then closed and he wanted to crawl into the nearest hole and stay there.
The truth was, Jarrett never would have expected a former bedmate to suddenly show up and kiss him. Dammit.
“I’m sorry, lover,”
Adael said.
Jarrett turned to stare at him, sick inside.
He frowned.
“Don’t call me that, Adael.
We ain’t been together for a long time.”
Adael set his good hand on his hip and frowned, looking at the ground.
“If you want me to fight for you, Jarrett, I will.
I know things went bad in Gaza and that’s the reason you didn’t contact me afterward but I still want you.
I never stopped wanting you.”
He glanced back up, looking hopeful.
Jarrett was silent for several beats and then he finally shook his head, blowing out a long slow breath.
When he spoke his words came out with a gravelly voice.
“I don’t want that.
I’m sorry, okay? It sucks the way things turned out in Gaza City.
It really does.
If things would ‘a been different, I might have…”
He paused, not really knowing what he would have done.
Stayed around? Made some sort of commitment to Adael? They’d never had the time to explore their feelings but the fact was, it was two years ago and Jarrett had moved on.
Jarrett hoped Adael had moved on too but apparently not.
He needed to put a nail in that coffin.
“Anyway, it’s too late for all that, Adael.”
Adael didn’t have time to reply as a nurse ripped the curtain aside and bustled in.
“Mr. Evans?”
Jarrett nodded at the petite Filipino woman. “Yes.”
She smiled.
“We have time for your CAT scan now.”
An orderly came up behind her with a wheelchair.
“Please sit.”
She glanced at Adael.
“You can wait for him here.”
“I was just leaving,”
Adael said.
He glanced at Jarrett.
“I would like to talk to you, Jarrett.
Please call me.”
He reached out and handed Jarrett a card in Hebrew.
Jarrett didn’t read Hebrew but he recognized the Israel country code in the phone number printed on it.
“Okay, Adael.”
He still felt sick inside—not because Thayne had caught Adael kissing him—but because he’d stupidly let it happen and then on top of it, kissed him back.
Fuck! Where’s your head.
Fucked-up.
That’s where.
Adael stepped back without another word and Jarrett got off the gurney and plopped down in the wheelchair.
He gave Adael one last glance before the orderly rolled him out of the ER.
He looked for Thayne but he was nowhere to be found.
He closed his eyes and slumped in the chair feeling worse than ever.
His head pounded and he knew he was still bleeding and stunk of smoke but the only thing he could think about was Thayne.
****
Talk about fucked-up timing.
Thayne stood in the waiting room not knowing what to do with himself.
He’d been in a near panic to get to the hospital when Jarrett had passed out a second time after the F-18 took out the barn in a massive fireball but walking in on Jarrett kissing Adael had been the last thing he’d ever expected.
It confirmed that they had been lovers in the past.
Thayne knew Jarrett had strong feelings for him.
He didn’t know whether he loved him or for how long he had been feeling the way he had, but Thayne knew in his heart, when Jarrett held him close at night and woke him with kisses, it was exactly where Jarrett wanted to be.
He showed him in every teasing smile, every gentle caress, and every scorching kiss he gave Thayne.
Jarrett loved him.
So why was love so fucking complicated? This is why Thayne had rarely had boyfriends and God forbid, he even think the word relationship when it came to the hot former Marine and all-around mystery that was Jarrett Evans.
The man made him crazy in every single definition of the word.
Thayne knew practically nothing about Jarrett and that fact made him practically insane.
The one thing Thayne did know was that he would very likely do anything for Jarrett because he too, was falling in love with him.
Well, how fucked-up was that? You’re an idiot, Wolfe… a fucking idiot.
He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked around the waiting room.
The place was filled to capacity with worried families and uniformed men.
Everyone who’d been injured or killed in that raid had been transported to Scripps.
That was a lot of people.
When a familiar face walked into the waiting room, Thayne’s heart began to hurt.
Lincoln Snow was wearing clean sweatpants and a T-shirt stretched across his broad shoulders.
His dark face had been washed and he looked as though he’d just come out of the shower.
The last time he’d seen Snow, he’d been leading a group of men into the barn to arrest the smugglers and Thayne was happy to see him come out of it in one piece.
His partner, Matt Terraciano, had not been as lucky.
The FBI man who’d driven Thayne to the hospital had told him that Terraciano was not expected to survive the burns he’d suffered and that saddened him deeply.
Snow nodded at Thayne as he walked over.
They shook hands.
“Wolfe.
Glad to see you came out of this mess all right.
How’s Evans?”
Thayne clapped him on the shoulder.
“That man has nine lives, I swear.”
He shook his head.
“He shouldn’t be alive but he seems fine.
He’s waiting for a CAT scan to make sure he still has a brain but he’s got such a hard head, I assume it’s still there.”
Snow smiled but it faded quickly.
“I hate to ask but how’s Matt?”
Snow’s eyes shone with unshed tears as he shook his head and glanced down.
“Not good.
They have him on life support and he’s not likely gonna make it.
They’re waiting for his wife to drive down from LA to make a decision as to what she wants to do.”
He looked back up.
“She was visiting Matt’s family when all this happened.
They have two kids who just finished school for the summer break and she drove them to LA to see their grandparents.
Matt was supposed to join them later today.
I feel sick.
They started the day a happy family and now… I think she’ll have to tell the doctors to pull the plug on her husband.
He has third degree burns over sixty percent of his body and a gunshot wound in the abdomen.
They went in and took out the bullet, but he’ll probably succumb to his burns and blood loss.”
Thayne shook his head.
“I’m so sorry, Snow.”
There really wasn’t anything Thayne could say to him that would make him feel any better about his dying partner.
He knew how it felt to lose a partner.
His own partner, Victor, had been killed while in the line of duty during the time Thayne was undercover.
He still regretted not being able to attend Victor’s funeral.
“Yeah, thanks, Wolfe.
I’m glad you two made it out.”
They shook hands and Snow left to grab coffee and then stay by Terraciano’s bedside until his wife arrived.
Thayne sat down and waited for Jarrett, once again recalling the image of the man he was beginning to think he loved kissing the very good-looking Israeli.
He sighed, wondering whether he’d ever know Jarrett well enough to understand all the parts of him.
The fact that there would always be gaps in what Thayne knew about his background bothered Thayne probably more than it should.
He relaxed in his chair, letting his head fall back against the wall behind him, dozing while he waited for Jarrett to be released.
After a while, a nurse came around, passing out wet wipes to anyone in the waiting room who still wore face paint or wanted to clean the soot from their skin.
She handed a couple to Thayne with a compassionate smile and he cleaned his face as best he could, thinking about what he should do while he waited… probably make some calls.
They had a meeting with Suki Chang in the morning but chances were, they were going to have no choice but to reschedule it.
It was too late to drive back to LA.
He leaned back and closed his eyes.
Before long, he’d nodded off.
He woke up with a start when someone laid a hand on his shoulder.
“Hey, sleepyhead,”
Jarrett said as Thayne stood up, wiping the sleep from his eyes as he tried to focus.
“Hey,”
he said.
The word came out graveled and Thayne cleared his sore throat.
He’d breathed in a shitload of smoke in that barn before he and Adael were able to get Jarrett out of there.
“What’s the verdict? You still have a brain?”
He glanced past Jarrett to see if Adael was lurking anywhere nearby.
The man was nowhere to be found.
Jarrett’s face was free of face paint and he wore a bandage over the cut at his temple.
His glorious white hair was gray with soot and dirt but he looked unbelievably handsome to Thayne.
Jarrett grinned at him.
“I still have a brain and guess what? It’s much larger than I even knew.
The doctors want to put me in a medical journal or somethin’ but I told them no, they’re not getting famous because I’m brilliant.”
Thayne couldn’t help but grin like an idiot as he shook his head.
“Knucklehead.
Are you free to go then?”
Jarrett nodded.
“Yep.
I am plum wore out to be honest.
All I want is a shower and a bed, Thayne.
Take me back to the hotel.”
Thayne cocked his head and looked at him before they started walking toward the door.
“You know we checked out of there and we have to go back and get your Jeep.
It’s still parked at the used car lot and you have the keys, Jarrett.
I rode to the hospital with the FBI so we have no transportation or clean clothes.”
Jarrett frowned.
“That’s fucked-up,”
he said as they walked out into the early morning air.
“This hospital is a cancer center so my guess is their out-of-town patients stay in the hotel next door,”
Thayne said.
“I’ll bet they have a cab stand.
Let’s walk over.
If nothing else, the concierge can call one for us.”
“Sounds better than hitchhiking.”
Dawn was approaching and the sky had begun to lighten on the horizon.
The summer morning was going to dawn cool but it felt really good on Thayne’s skin at the moment.
They caught a cab back out to the staging area where the Jeep was parked.
When they got there, several of the FBI guys who’d not been injured were standing around their black SUVs talking.
They were just as dirty as he and Jarrett were and some appeared to have cuts and scrapes.
They all looked as exhausted as they were.
They got out and paid the cabbie, walking toward the practically new olive-green Jeep Wrangler.
Jarrett clicked the door locks when they were about twenty-five feet away and the second they did, the entire truck blew up.
Thayne and Jarrett were tossed back on their asses as a wave of heat crossed over their bodies for the second time in only a matter of hours.
Debris pelted them as Thayne instinctively covered his face and curled into as small a ball as he could.
He couldn’t believe this was happening.
Shouts and the pounding of feet came toward them from all directions as car alarms blared all around them.
In seconds, men were lifting them off the ground and asking them if they were hurt, patting them down.
Thayne’s tac pants were on fire and he hadn’t even realized it.
Fortunately, a burly FBI guy was able to put it out quickly.
Thayne glanced over to Jarrett who was sitting where he’d been thrown back on his ass.
Another Fed was squatting beside him with his hand on Jarrett’s back talking to him but the ringing in Thayne’s ears wouldn’t let him hear much of anything they were saying.
Jarrett looked over toward Thayne and the expression on his face looked frantic until he saw that Thayne seemed to be okay.
He nodded at Thayne and then looked back to the FBI guy and began talking.
Thayne saw the rapid movement of his very pissed-off partner’s lips.
It was clear he was upset that his brand-new Jeep had been blown up and Thayne began to wonder who the hell wanted Jarrett or both of them dead.
Was Mills Lang back?
Jarrett picked himself off the ground with the help of the FBI guy and walked over to Thayne.
“Are you okay?”
Thayne’s ears buzzed and he leaned closer, nodding as he reached up to touch the side of his face and cover his right ear which was throbbing.
When he brought his hand away, his palm was covered with blood.
Motherfucker! He stared at Jarrett and realized that he was talking to him again.
Unfortunately, his voice sounded like it was coming from a tin can.
“What?”
He pointed to his ear.
“I can barely hear you.
Are you okay, Jarrett?”
Thayne looked his partner up and down.
He didn’t appear to be injured but the scrubs the nursing staff had given him to replace his shredded clothes from the barn were covered with dirt and scorch marks.
“I’m fine!”
Jarrett said.
Thayne knew his partner was shouting at him but his fucking head hurt so bad, he wanted to scream.
“We’re gonna have to get you to a doctor,”
Jarrett said.
A second later, an ambulance roared to a stop beside them and paramedics jumped out, going to the back to pull out a stretcher.
One of the FBI guys must have called 911.
“I don’t want to go to the hospital,”
Thayne said, knowing that arguing with the first responders and his partner was going to end up being supremely futile.
Jarrett was shaking his head at him as he motioned for the paramedics to rush that gurney closer to them.
The burley Fed who’d put out the fire in Thayne’s tac pants leaned down to speak in Thayne’s face.
“We gotta get you to the hospital.
It looks like you have a broken eardrum and that bitch is gonna hurt.
On top of it, you have minor burns on your leg that you have to have attended to,”
he said.
At least that’s what Thayne thought he was saying.
Everything echoed like he was sitting inside a fish bowl.
He glanced over at his partner, noting the stubborn set of his handsome jaw and Thayne knew he had no choice but to cooperate.
It wasn’t like they had the Jeep to transport them back to LA now anyway.
He nodded at the FBI guy and glanced sheepishly at Jarrett.
“Fine,”
he said, climbing onto the stretcher and crossing his arms with a huff as the paramedics strapped him to it.
Jarrett hovered over him like a mother hen while the paramedics worked.
Not only was he stubborn but he looked genuinely scared for Thayne, kind of the way Thayne had been feeling only hours before when it had been Jarrett being driven away in an ambulance.
He leaned back and closed his eyes, willing the day to be over.
The sun was just rising as they pushed the rolling stretcher into the ambulance and shut Jarrett away from his view when the doors were closed.
Could this day—night—whatever the fuck it was—get any worse? They were still alive so Thayne figured it probably could.
That prospect was very upsetting.
****
The doctors at Scripps were nearly done checking Thayne over when Jarrett poked his head inside the curtain in an eerily opposite version of where they’d been several hours before.
“You gonna live, Wolfe?”
Jarrett was stressed as hell about several things, not to mention his partner—his lover—was sitting in a hospital bed with injuries because someone had tried to blow him up.
He was pissed that it had taken over an hour and a lot of begging to finally find a sympathetic G-man to drive him to the hospital just to check up on his partner.
Not only that, he’d had to figure out who was trying to kill him and why.
Though Jarrett had recognized the man in the barn as someone who’d been peripherally involved with a wet work assignment Jarrett had participated in, he didn’t know the man’s name.
He remembered thinking the guy was CIA but for all Jarrett knew, he could have been a CIA asset.
The man had looked to be American and not Middle Eastern.
Jarrett hadn’t had any direct interaction with him in the Mideast, but he looked familiar enough that he could definitely place him at that mission and that’s why Jarrett had gone back in the barn.
He’d been shocked as hell when the guy had turned and fired at him.
Jarrett was in a really bad mood when he finally got to the hospital.
“I’m gonna live.
The doctors say my right eardrum isn’t punctured, just bruised, and they gave me some pain medication for it.
It’s not too bad right now.
Just a dull throb but my hearing is slightly affected by it.
The doc says it’ll be a couple weeks before it returns to 100 percent but at least he cleared me to go home.
They gave me these and I wrangled an extra pair for you.”
He pointed to the clean scrubs he was wearing and handed Jarrett a fresh pile to put on.
“Yeah, we need to rent a car and get back to LA but I talked to Stanger and told him the local PD down here wants to interview us about the Jeep first,”
Jarrett growled.
“Let me change and we’ll get out of here, go down to have a talk with Chief Willis, and then if it’s okay with you, we need to get a room because there’s no way I can drive without a few hours of sleep at least.”
He stepped close to Thayne as his lover rose from the bed.
Thayne looked as exhausted as he was.
Jarrett reached out and wrapped his arms around Thayne, pulling him close.
Just being able to stand there and hold him, breathing in the scent of him under all that smoke, calmed him immensely.
“Christ, darlin’… was afraid I lost you,”
he whispered.
Thayne hugged him back, laying his cheek on Jarrett’s shoulder.
“Me too, Marine.”
Thayne pulled back enough to look up into Jarrett’s eyes.
His blue eyes were arresting, the most beautiful things Jarrett had ever seen.
In a matter of seconds, Jarrett closed the distance between their lips and was kissing Thayne, a soft meeting of lips, completely unhurried, just two lovers making absolutely certain they were each okay.
It was like a healing balm to Jarrett’s heart and somehow he just knew that with Thayne in his arms, everything was going to be all right.
They kissed until Thayne finally pulled back again.
“Go on.
Go change and then we’ll get the hell out of here.”
Jarrett smiled and let him go.
“Gimmie just a minute.”
He picked up the scrubs and walked out of the curtained area, finding a bathroom where he was able to change out of the ruined scrubs he’d put on only a few hours before.
He felt naked without his Glock and realized that it, along with their duffels and ATF credentials, had been blown up along with the Jeep.
Motherfucker! Who’s after me? Exhaustion threatened to overwhelm him as he returned to Thayne.
****
It took them nearly two hours to give their report to the SDPD.
Captain Willis personally took the report, wanting to go over the details of what had gone down with the FBI and others.
Jarrett and Thayne had to walk a thin line between what they knew was going to be deemed classified and what wasn’t.
They never mentioned the CIA’s involvement.
Since it took place on US soil, it would no doubt make things sticky if Langley was mentioned.
The last thing they could do was risk putting all the details of a joint government operation into a police report so they continuously had to refer Willis back to the FBI for clarification if he felt it was necessary.
They classified it as a covert op and Willis finally backed off, taking down the details of the Jeep’s explosion and leaving the written report void of any of the other things that had gone down at the Fernandez farm that night.
After shaking the man’s hand, they finally left the station at 11:00 a.m.
and headed to a nearby hotel to get some showers and some desperately needed rest.
Once in their room, they made calls to Suki Chang, apologizing to her for missing their morning appointment, and rescheduling it for the next day.
Next on the list was a call to SAC Stanger.
That call took a lot longer because they thought the man should know exactly what had gone down with the fireworks smugglers and the connection to the Freedom Brigade, the bomb builder hidden among them, and finally the blowing up of Jarrett’s Jeep.
Stanger almost had a cow when he heard that someone had planted a bomb in the Jeep.
He told them to stay in San Diego and get some sleep, grumbling something about having to “authorize more fucking overtime”, and told them to pick up a rental car at the airport when they were ready to drive back since flying wasn’t an option with Thayne’s damaged eardrum.
Stanger was not happy, but by the time Jarrett and Thayne finally disconnected the speakerphone, at least they knew they were going to be going home soon.
First though, a shower and sleep were high on the to-do list.
Their room was nice.
Jarrett had driven them to an oceanfront hotel and checked them into a suite on his own dime after buying a clean change of clothes in the gift shop downstairs.
It was more than the ATF would reimburse them for, but all he could think was that—fuck all, as long as someone was trying to kill them, they were going to go out in style.
At least, they’d be clean and well rested.
Shortly after Jarrett’s shower, there was a knock on the door to the suite and belatedly, he realized he didn’t even have a gun.
Thayne was in the shower, unable to even be there to back him up if someone had come to kill them.
They were completely unarmed and vulnerable and if he had to be honest with himself, he was too tired to die anyway.
He stepped up to the door and looked through the peephole.
Ada Carrillo stood outside, smiling, and Jarrett breathed a sigh of relief as he removed the chain and unlocked the door, pulling it open.
“I come bearing gifts,”
she said, holding up a thick yellow envelope as she walked into the room.
“Come right in,”
Jarrett said.
He realized all he was wearing was a towel and wasn’t that just a little bit awkward.
“Nice digs.
Where’s Thayne?”
she said, giving Jarrett a not-so-covert up and down glance.
“In the shower.
Have a seat.
I think there’s probably a coke or some water or something in the minifridge if you want,” he said.
“No, that’s okay, I won’t stay.
I just came to give you this.”
She handed him the envelope and Jarrett was surprised at how heavy it was.
When he opened it, and dumped the contents on the table, he had to grin with relief.
Two Glocks in shoulder holsters and a fresh set of credentials in wallets for each of them slid out of the envelope.
He peered up at her as he hefted the weapon, checking the clip to note it was loaded.
“A gift from SAC Stanger,”
she said.
“Jesus, Evans what the hell happened out there?”
“Do you have about three hours to hear it all or you want the quick and dirty?”
Jarrett asked, grabbing his gift shop clothes.
“I think I’ll take the quick and dirty,”
she said with a laugh.
Thayne walked out of the bathroom in his new clothes just as she said it.
He grinned.
“I can’t leave you alone for a minute before you’re giving beautiful women the quick and dirty, can I, Jarrett?”
Jarrett laughed and disappeared into the bathroom to put on his clothes.
When he returned, Thayne was sitting on the bed, holding his replacement gun and telling her what had happened out at the farm.
Ada was staring at him and shaking her head.
“I can’t believe it,”
she said when Thayne told her about the Jeep.
“Who do you think did that?”
“Honestly, I have no idea but I ain’t happy about it.
I just got that Wrangler a year ago,”
Jarrett replied with a deep frown.
“Whoever it was, wasn’t foolin’ around with it though.
They planned that explosion to kill and maim.”
“Chief Willis and his department are investigating it,”
Thayne added.
“We’ll have to wait and see.
My guess is one of the militia got pissed that we spoiled their receipt of the fireworks.
The FBI really messed with their plans to hurt a hell of a lot of people so they must be livid.”
“So they just happened to have a car bomb with them?”
Ada asked, frowning.
“That sounds improbable, Thayne.
How would they know the Jeep belonged to an ATF guy?”
She sighed, looking between them.
“I suppose we’ll be called in to look at it.”
Jarrett nodded.
He was even more suspicious than she was.
There were too many things going on out there all at once to even try to piece it all together, especially when they were hurt and exhausted.
“If we were the actual targets.
They might have just picked a vehicle and assumed it was FBI, but I agree it’s unlikely.
Maybe when you have the lab piece the bomb together, you’ll be able to figure it out.”
Ada eyeballed Jarrett critically.
She obviously worried they’d not get much off the bomb fragments.
Putting together a bomb wasn’t an exact science but if a bomb builder had an ego, he often left a signature.
By putting the bomb fragments together, hopefully the ATF would be able to figure out if it was built by this terrorist Mossad was chasing.
If not, maybe someone in their database.
Whatever the case, they weren’t gonna find out today.
Jarrett sighed and rubbed a hand over his eyes.
“Well, I’ll go.
I know you’re tired,” Ada said.
“You’re right, Ada.
Jeez, I really must be tired.
By the way, did you get the final autopsy results on Mason’s body?”
Thayne asked.
“No.
I should have them later today or tomorrow.
I’ll email them to you.
Right now, you guys need to get some sleep.
You both look like you’ve been run through the ringer.
Stanger wanted me to let you know that you’re not expected in LA until tomorrow.
You’ve both been through a hell of a ride down here.
I’m seriously sorry your visit to our neck of the woods ended the way it did,” she said.
“Thanks, Ada,”
Jarrett said.
“Maybe next time we come down, we can go for drinks and have some fun.”
She smiled, reaching out to shake his hand.
“That’s a great idea.”
She shook Thayne’s hand before moving toward the door.
“Have a safe drive back home.”
Thayne showed her to the door and then closed it, locking and chaining it after putting out the do not disturb sign.
He smiled weakly at Jarrett.
“I’m so beat, I don’t know if I can even undress to crawl into that bed.”
Jarrett walked over and pulled him into his arms.
“Come on, darlin’.
I need ya naked and in my arms.
We’ll worry about everything else after a few hours’ sleep.
I wish like hell I had the energy for other things.”
He leaned down and kissed Thayne softly.
They lingered over each other’s lips for several seconds and then Jarrett pulled back, reluctantly breaking their kiss.
“I know you saw Adael kiss me,”
he said suddenly.
“I wanted you to know it wasn’t my idea, Thayne.”
Thayne looked slightly pissed that he’d brought it up but Jarrett figured it was better to get it out now than to let the wound fester.
“I know, Jarrett.
There may be a lot of things you can’t tell me, Jarrett, but I know you and the Israeli have history.”
“And that’s jes what it is, darlin’—history.”
He nuzzled Thayne’s neck with his nose.
“I just wanted you to know, he ain’t nothin’ to me and he weren’t never as important as you.”
“We can talk about this when I’m not so tired, Jarrett?”
“How about we don’t ever talk about him again and let me take you to bed and take advantage of you.”
“Okay,”
Thayne said, smiling at him.
“Once I’ve had a little sleep, I may just take advantage of you too.”
Jarrett smiled.
All he wanted to do was sleep.
Thayne gave him another half smile and took his hand, letting him lead them into the bedroom where they stripped and slid between the thousand-count sheets.
Jarrett barely had the time to pull Thayne against his body before he fell into a deep sleep.
It had been a hell of a day.