Chapter Eleven
“He knows something.”
“What could he possibly know, sir?”
“He’s asking questions about a rogue cell and who’s hunting him.”
“I told you not to worry, sir.
I’ll take care of him when the opportunity presents itself again.
Please, be patient.
I told you I have it handled.”
“Make it look like a damned accident this time.
The last time brought an investigation to our doorstep.
You should have handled it in the barn like I told you to.
It would have been the perfect opportunity to take care of him and no one would have been the wiser.”
“Unfortunately, the bastard has nine lives, sir.
There was too much smoke in the barn to get off a clear shot.
The only reason I took it was that the opportunity was too perfect.”
“Do you think he recognized you?”
The man hesitated.
“No.
I don’t think so.
Like I said, there was way too much going on.
Bodies dropping everywhere, smoke and flames, the whole nine yards.
I just… I wasn’t successful.
I will be the next time.”
“You better well hope so.
He’s the last one who was a part of that operation and the boss wants him dead.
I hope that’s clear.
I wouldn’t want to see your career cut short if you know what I’m saying.”
“You couldn’t be more clear, sir.
Like I said, I’ll get him next time and I know how important it is.
Tell the boss not to worry.
Jarrett Evans may be as slippery as a snake but I’m going to cut the head off it if it’s the last thing I do.”
“Good.
Make it quick.
We don’t think he’s put two and two together yet but when he does, we’re all in big trouble.”
“Noted.”
The line went dead and he pulled the phone away from his ear, replacing it in its cradle.
He looked up from the government-issue desk around the white walls of the government-issue office.
A picture of George W.
Bush hung beside a picture of Barak Obama.
Both of them had flags flying in the background.
He had no doubt Jarrett Evans was the deadliest of opponents and surprise would be the key to getting the job done.
Fortunately, what he was planning wouldn’t only surprise Evans but his erstwhile partner as well.
He hoped by tomorrow they’d both be dead.
They’d better be… if he wanted to keep his skin.
****
Anthony Revilla and Beth Quinn shared an apartment in San Bernardino, about an hours’ drive from the office, so Thayne and Jarrett decided to drive out and talk to them the next morning.
They weren’t sure they were going to get any straight answers from the pair but Jarrett figured it was worth a try.
They wanted to talk to Mary Mason again but that wasn’t possible at the moment.
When Thayne had called her he’d found out that she was still down south, arranging to have her husband’s body sent back up to Los Angeles where their house was.
That interview would have to wait.
Until then, Jarrett hoped they’d be able to squeeze some information out of the two interns.
They walked down to Thayne’s garage and got into the Crown Vic with Thayne behind the wheel.
It was parked beside Jarrett’s Harley, which he’d parked in the space Thayne’s Mustang usually occupied.
The Ford was in the shop getting four new tires and an oil change.
Jarrett smiled fondly at the bike as he climbed into the passenger seat.
Jarrett loved that damn bike.
He’d driven it over after running back to get clean clothes from the room he rented the evening before.
He didn’t know why he kept the place at all since he and Thayne had been spending nearly every night curled up in Thayne’s bed since that first time they’d gotten back together.
Jarrett told himself that he needed a place of his own so he could store his footlocker somewhere.
Half of his wardrobe, including two of the three suits he owned, was hanging in Thayne’s closet but he just couldn’t accept Thayne’s offer of moving into his Studio City flat.
It just didn’t seem right.
The last thing he wanted to do was give up his freedom, and he figured even if he spent every night of the week at Thayne’s, when they got tired of each other, at least he’d have a place where they didn’t have to be in each other’s pockets 24/7.
It hadn’t happened so far, though.
Before they got into the car, they both got onto their hands and knees and checked the undercarriage, a precaution they’d been taking anytime they got into any vehicle since coming back from the border.
Neither one of them felt like getting blown up for real.
As Jarrett settled into the passenger seat, Thayne put the key in the ignition and turned it.
When the engine didn’t start, Jarrett glanced over at him.
“It won’t start?”
He watched as Thayne turned the key again and then once more.
It made a clicking sound but the engine wouldn’t turn over.
Thayne checked to make sure he’d switched off the headlights the night before.
He had.
He glanced over at Jarrett.
“The battery’s dead.”
He got out of the car and walked around to the front of the car as Jarrett joined him.
Thayne lifted the hood and Jarrett peered inside as Thayne fiddled with the connections to the battery.
He looked over at Jarrett.
“Try to turn it over again.
Maybe one of these was loose.
I don’t get it.
The battery looks brand-new.”
Jarrett walked around to the driver’s seat and slid behind the wheel, reaching for the key.
When he turned it, the car made a clicking sound; that was all.
He got out and slammed the door before walking back to Thayne who was looking over the engine.
“Nope. Dead.”
“Shit!”
Thayne said.
He glanced up at Jarrett before looking over at the Harley and then back to Jarrett.
“In a suit? You know I hate ridin’ the Harley in a suit,”
Jarrett growled, knowing exactly what Thayne was thinking.
Thayne smiled.
“Let’s go upstairs and change.
We could wait for AAA but I don’t want to get so late of a start that we get caught up in traffic.”
“Fine.
Let’s do this, then.”
Thayne closed the hood and locked up the car before turning back to Jarrett.
“Come on.
Let’s get changed.
We’ve got an hour drive out to San Bernardino.”
They changed into jeans and T-shirts since the weather had turned a little cooler.
Pulling on leather jackets and gloves, they descended the stairs and walked out to the bike.
Within a couple of minutes, they had their helmets on and were pulling out of Thayne’s subterranean parking garage.
Jarrett hadn’t had Thayne on the back of his bike in nearly a year.
It was amazing how nostalgic he felt with Thayne sitting behind him with his arms wrapped around his waist.
He smiled as he remembered the first time Thayne’s hands had gone roaming over his chest on the drive back from Santa Monica.
It had been one of the single sexiest moments of Jarrett’s life.
One thing was certain when it came to Thayne Wolfe… the man was smokin’ hot and sex personified and he didn’t even realize it.
That just made the man even more desirable.
Jarrett pulled onto the freeway to begin the long trek out to San Bernardino.
Traffic was fairly light and they were able to make pretty good time.
Once they transitioned onto the 10 East, it became more crowded.
There was construction going on.
California seemed to constantly need to fix something on the freeways.
They were always widening lanes, doing earthquake retrofitting of bridges, or something to snarl traffic and inconvenience drivers, generally during rush hour.
Now, Jarrett thought, if they could fill a few potholes, the folks at Caltrans may have a reason for living.
Unfortunately, the bureaucracy and inefficiency of the state legislature was mind boggling.
The 10 Freeway was the largest east/west thoroughfare in the state and was the primary artery for big rig traffic.
Eighteen-wheelers picked up cargo containers down at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and delivered goods to destinations all over the country which just contributed to traffic congestion.
Jarrett remained in the middle lane as traffic slowed to a crawl.
He ended up behind a tractor-trailer as the road began a steady incline.
Before long, the terrain on the right side of the freeway dropped off and became a steep downward hillside with no guard rail between the shoulder of the road and the cliff.
Drivers instinctively slowed down when approaching this stretch of highway, especially those in the far right lane.
Every year, it seemed, several drivers took a plunge over the side when falling asleep.
Jarrett didn’t plan on joining that elite club any time soon so he was almost relieved when traffic remained slow going.
When the truck in front of them continued to belch out foul-smelling exhaust every time it sped up, Jarrett decided he’d had enough.
The fast lane on his left had been made into a carpool lane but it was running just as slow at the moment.
Making up his mind to get out from behind the stinking truck, he was pulling into the far right lane fully intending on passing it, when the driver behind him suddenly sped up and slammed into the back of the Harley.
The bike lurched onto the shoulder when it was hit from behind.
Jarrett struggled with the bike to keep it upright and on course and looked over his shoulder when he felt Thayne’s arms tighten around his waist.
The car that had hit them was a black SUV with windows tinted so dark, he couldn’t see anyone in the driver’s seat.
Surely it had been an accident.
“You okay, Thayne?”
He had to yell to be heard with his helmet on.
“I’m fine, Jarrett.
What the hell is wrong with him?”
Before Jarrett could answer, the SUV swerved onto the shoulder and hit the bike again, pushing the Harley perilously close to the edge of the hillside.
Jarrett struggled again to keep the bike from toppling over as very real fear made him go cold.
“Christ!”
This time, there was no doubt in Jarrett’s mind that the driver had intended on pushing them right over the cliff.
He sped up, staying on the shoulder, passing cars.
In his rearview mirror he could see the SUV closing the distance between them.
It was kicking up a cloud of dust from the shoulder of the road behind him as it followed.
Gotta get back into traffic.
Jarrett steered the bike straight ahead, watching for a space between cars in the heavy traffic where he could swing off the shoulder and back into the far right lane.
He couldn’t find anywhere to go.
The traffic was bumper to bumper and at the speed he was going, he was going to kill them if he tried to swing back into the right lane.
The driver of the SUV suddenly gunned its powerful engine and a moment later, it hit the back of the Harley again.
Jarrett and the bike were forced into a pile of road debris on the shoulder of the road before he could steer around it.
The next thing he knew, Jarrett, Thayne, and the Harley were flying through air.
The ground rushed up at them as the bike landed on solid ground, bouncing as it began its slow roll down the hillside.
There was nothing Jarrett could do but hold on and pray that they’d be able to survive the fall.
Sticks, dirt, and small rocks stung his body.
Even through the thick jacket, he could feel everything as he and Thayne were thrown from the bike.
The momentum pulled Jarrett downward as he and Thayne tumbled down the hillside, rolling over and over, hitting rocks and trees and everything else in their path.
At some point, Jarrett realized that Thayne was no longer holding him and he frantically tried to stop himself.
He knew he must have tumbled for thirty seconds or more before something, most likely a tree stump, rammed into his ribs, stopping his fall.
He felt a sickening crunch and then blinding pain shot through him.
Jarrett gasped for air as the wind was knocked out of him.
Mercifully, he passed out a few seconds later.
When Jarrett came to, a man was leaning over him with a penlight in his hand, shining it in his eyes.
“Sir, can you hear me, sir?”
Jarrett tried to hold his eyelids open but they were so heavy, he let them drop again.
Someone jarred him by shaking his shoulder and he opened them again.
“Sir! You’ve been in an accident.
I saw the whole thing.
My name is Adam and I am a registered nurse.
I was on my way into work but I’ve already called paramedics.
You need to hang on.”
“Thayne?”
Jarrett tried to lift his head but it was pounding so hard, the least little movement was excruciating.
He realized his helmet was gone and wondered if this man had removed it.
“Where’s my partner?”
Jarrett asked frantically.
The man turned his head and then looked back at Jarrett.
The expression on his face was grim as his lips thinned.
“Thayne!”
Jarrett yelled louder.
His broken ribs protested and he gasped in pain.
“Please don’t turn your head until we’re sure you don’t have a spinal injury,”
the man said.
Jarrett realized he must have seen the accident and traversed down the hill to help him.
Gratitude washed through him along with sheer panic as he realized Thayne might be badly hurt.
He tried again to turn his head and the man leaned down, speaking close to him so that Jarrett would have to focus on his face.
“Is Thayne the man who was on the back of your bike?”
the man asked.
Jarrett’s heart beat wildly and he nodded even though it hurt like a bitch to do so.
He nodded.
“My coworker is with him.
He looks like he’s in better shape than you.”
He laid a gentle but firm hand on Jarrett’s shoulder, willing him to calm down and stay immobile until help could arrive.
“Now, relax and stay still until the ambulance arrives.
You may have some broken bones and internal injuries and we may be here a while.
Traffic is really heavy.”
“Who hit us?”
Jarrett gasped out.
He groaned from the pain as he tried to keep his head back.
Clouds obscured the sun from his vision as he stared straight up to the heavens praying that Thayne was okay.
The longer he lay on the ground the more he realized he had other injuries as well.
He had come through IED explosions in Iraq with fewer aches and pains than he had from rolling his beloved Harley down a mountain.
“It was a black SUV with tinted windows.
That’s all I saw.
I was so shocked that he seemed to be trying to hit you, it took my breath away.
I wasn’t watching him… only you.
It’s not every day you watch a motorcycle go over a cliff,”
the man said, warming to his story.
A moment later, another man appeared in his line of sight.
He was wearing scrubs the same as the man who’d been talking to him and he laid his hand on his coworker’s shoulder.
“How is he, Adam?”
The man helping Jarrett looked up.
“I think he’s going to be okay but I want him to lay here and remain still until we can get a C-collar on him.”
“Thayne? How’s my partner? How’s Thayne?”
Jarrett struggled to lift his head again and nearly passed out from the agony that ripped through him.
“Lie back,”
the second man crooned softly as he squatted beside Jarrett.
“Your partner has a few minor lacerations but nothing is broken that I can tell,”
the man said.
“I told him he had to stay on the ground but he’s not going to stay long.
He wants to see you and know you’re all right.”
Warmth spread through Jarrett and he wanted to get off the ground and run to Thayne.
He turned his head and saw him walking toward him.
He was covered with dirt and his clothes were torn.
Thank God they’d both put on their heavy leather jackets.
Thayne’s was ripped at the shoulder but he looked like an angel to Jarrett.
The expression on his lover’s face was one of grave concern as he knelt beside Jarrett and leaned over him.
He had a laceration across his forehead at the hairline.
The gash was bleeding and running down his face but other than that, he looked beautiful.
Jarrett closed his eyes as Thayne leaned down and pressed his face to the side of his.
He whispered to him.
“Thank God,”
he sighed.
“You all here, Jarrett?”
Thayne sat back on his heels and ran his hands over Jarrett’s leather jacket frantically.
“I think so.”
“I thought you were dead, Marine.”
The sob in Thayne’s shaky voice was heartbreaking.
Jarrett reached up and cupped the back of Thayne’s head sinking his fingers into Thayne’s dark hair.
It was filled with twigs and dirt but it felt amazing to Jarrett.
He was so grateful Thayne seemed unhurt except for the cut which would need stitches for sure.
“I’m okay, darlin’.
You doin’ okay?”
Thayne answered him by kissing the side of Jarrett’s head.
“Yes.
Now that I see you’re okay.”
He brushed the palm of his hand over Jarrett’s forehead and hair, probably brushing away twigs and dirt.
“I spoke to the 911 operator.
They’re sending a life flight to lift you out of this canyon.
You might have internal injuries and with the traffic, an ambulance will take too long to get here, Jarrett.”
He leaned down again, kissing his temple.
He let his lips linger on Jarrett’s face.
Jarrett breathed in the scent of Thayne before he sat back on his heels again and stared down into his face.
Thayne’s eyes glistened with unshed tears and it made Jarrett’s stomach do a flip-flop.
Thayne caressed his cheek gently.
“He’s gonna be okay,”
the first nurse said.
His voice was compassionate and Jarrett was so relieved.
He watched the nurse hand Thayne a piece of gauze, telling him to hold it to the cut.
Thayne took the gauze and did as he was told, not moving his other hand which was still on Jarrett’s cheek.
It was as if he was reluctant to break any connection they had with each other.
Jarrett watched Thayne’s face for a moment, leaning into the touch of the palm on his cheek and then let his eyelids close.
In seconds he was unconscious.
****
Thayne didn’t think Jarrett would remember much of the flight that transported him to the hospital.
One minute those gorgeous ice-blue eyes had been staring into Thayne’s and the next minute he’d passed out only to be revived by the unmistakable whoop whoop of helicopter blades approaching.
Pretty soon, a huge life flight helicopter was hovering above them.
Thayne bent and covered Jarrett’s face with his own body so he wouldn’t get pelted with debris being kicked into the air from the helicopter blades.
The rescue team dropped a basket and rappelled on ropes down to where they waited on the hillside.
The rescue team jostled Jarrett into the basket as gently as possible, after strapping him onto a board and putting a large plastic collar on him to stabilize his neck.
For all Thayne knew, Jarrett might have broken his neck or his back and the thought was terrifying.
Thayne stood by quite helpless to do much as the nurses explained what the next step would be as they loaded Jarrett into the basket.
The nurses offered to take Thayne to the hospital where he could be checked over and Thayne was so grateful, he felt the sting of tears prick his eyes.
He watched until Jarrett’s basket had been raised and he was safely in the helicopter before making the long trip back up the hillside with the help of the two nurses who’d come to their aid.
Having them there to help him and Jarrett had truly been a miracle.
Jarrett surely would have injured himself even worse, trying to get to him, if Adam hadn’t insisted he stay put.
The men were guardian angels and Thayne sent up a silent prayer of thanks as they each took one of his arms to help him climb back up the hill.
They’d tumbled a long way, perhaps two or three hundred feet.
It was a miracle he and Jarrett had both come out of that canyon alive.
The Harley lay halfway up from where they’d eventually stopped falling, tangled in a massive Manzanita tree.
It was destroyed and all Thayne could think was how unfair life had been to Jarrett lately.
As far as Thayne was concerned, he never wanted to get back onto a bike again, even one as nice as Jarrett’s had been, regardless of how close he felt to his lover when his arms were wrapped around him as they drove.
When Thayne got to the top of the hill, the two nurses, Adam and John, led them over to their Honda Civic which they’d parked on the shoulder just beyond the area where he and Jarrett had been pushed over.
Traffic was still slow going but it seemed to speed up after they got a couple of miles down the road.
Adam, the driver, told Thayne that they both worked at Loma Linda University Medical Center where the helipad was located.
John explained that the hospital was a major trauma center for the area and it was where Jarrett was headed.
Thayne was just so grateful that these two kind men had been on the scene to help them out, he thanked his lucky stars for them.
“So, you and Jarrett are lovers? You said you were partners.”
Adam asked, pinning Thayne with a look in the rearview mirror.
Thayne was a little thrown for a minute.
No one had ever asked him that before and he didn’t know what to say.
He stared at the reflection of Adam’s eyes in the mirror.
His expression didn’t appear to be judging or the least bit of anything but genuinely curious.
Thayne watched him for a while before nodding.
“Yes, we’re lovers and partners.
We are agents with the ATF.”
“The ATF? Like, alcohol, tobacco, and firearms? That’s so sexy,”
John said, swiveling around in his seat.
“Baby, don’t say something like that,”
Adam chided.
He reached across the front seat’s console and took John’s hand.
“It’s okay,”
Thayne said.
He was slightly surprised that the men were so open with their relationship.
It seemed the men were much more than coworkers.
He wondered if he and Jarrett would ever be able to be open about their relationship and with a pang of regret he realized that was probably never going to happen as long as they were partners at work.
“So, were you on like some big case or something?”
John asked.
“Oh! Do you think someone was trying to kill you?”
Thayne smiled.
John was practically bouncing in his seat and as entertaining as it was, he could only think of Jarrett and how injured he was.
It was scaring the crap out of him and he just wished they’d get to the hospital soon.
“I’m not so sure what happened back there,”
he said.
He’d only gotten a glimpse of the SUV when he’d glanced over his shoulder after being hit the first time.
“I don’t suppose the two of you happened to get a license plate off the SUV that hit us?”
“No,”
Adam said.
“Actually, I was too worried when I saw the bike go over to think of anything but how in the hell the two of you were going to survive that drop to look for the guy’s license plate.
I’m sorry.
Now, I wish I would have tried to write it down.
All I could think of was getting down that hill to see if I could help.”
“That’s because you are a wonderful caregiver and it’s why I love you,”
John said.
He made a kissing moue toward his partner.
“Thank you for what you did back there.
Jarrett’s so stubborn, if you hadn’t been there, he would have probably injured himself even worse trying to get to me.”
“Aww, that’s so sweet,”
John said.
“He must love you very much.
How cool is it that you can work together as partners.”
“Yeah, well, our boss doesn’t know about our relationship, only that we make decent enough partners.
Jarrett has saved my life more than once,”
Thayne said.
Saying the word relationship out loud felt weird.
He didn’t know how Jarrett would take that description of them.
He wondered why he was being so open with these men but they were very easy to talk to and he instinctively knew they wouldn’t let anyone else know about him and Jarrett.
It actually felt wonderful to talk to someone about his man.
He hadn’t been able to confide in anyone.
He probably could have called his mother and talked to her since he was out to her but it wasn’t the same thing as being able to tell another guy about it.
It still felt strange, though.
“Adam and I have to keep our life a secret as well,”
John said.
“I hate it but the hospital has a no fraternization policy among employees.
I mean, it’s bullshit.
A lot of the men and women I know date each other but when it comes to two gay guys…”
“John, you don’t know that,”
Adam chided.
“How many of our coworkers are gay and lesbian? A ton of them.
The hospital was really good about it when Blaine had to take time off to be with his husband when he got sick.”
“Yeah, but Blaine’s husband doesn’t work at the hospital.
It’s easy to follow the rule of the law and grant a guy paid family leave to be with his dying husband,”
John said.
Adam looked into the rearview mirror again.
“I’m sorry.
We’re not fighting.
Not really.
This is the way we make love,”
he said to Thayne.
Thayne smiled.
“It’s okay.”
He looked out the window.
They were finally going the speed limit since traffic had unsnarled.
“He, of all people, must understand,”
John said.
“Have you been together long, Thayne?”
“Not long.
Less than a year,”
Thayne replied after a short hesitation.
He hadn’t really known what to say at first.
They’d been together almost four months before he’d testified against Mills Lang, and then they’d been separated for months when Jarrett had gone off to Georgia for his ATF training.
Now they’d only been back working together for about a month and a half.
“Well, you make a handsome couple,”
John, the much more talkative of the pair, said.
“Thank you.”
Thayne reached up and put his hand over his eyes, resting his head on the window.
The cut had stopped bleeding but his head was still throbbing.
“Look,”
Adam tried whispering, “Your incessant yammering is giving him a worse headache.
Can you stow it for once?”
Thayne felt his lips twitch and he had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing as he kept his eyes covered.
The couple sounded so much like old married folks, he wanted to crack up laughing.
But he kept his own mouth closed and pretended to doze.
He hoped they’d get there soon.
Not only was he worried as hell about Jarrett but he was beginning to think he should have an X-ray of his own.
His ribs were hurting like hell every time he breathed.
****
They made it to the hospital within thirty minutes and Adam pulled up to the emergency room entrance to let Thayne out.
He and John both scampered out of the car and ran inside to get him a wheelchair and get him signed in.
With their help, he was put at the front of the line to be triaged and Thayne was ever so grateful to the kind men who’d literally climbed down a cliff to come to their rescue.
Thayne was desperate to see Jarrett but he was told that he needed to be seen before they’d let him go meet up with his partner wherever he was in the large medical center.
Adam went to punch his time card, telling Thayne that he’d be back later to check on him and as soon as he sat down to have his vitals taken, John rushed out to get some news on Jarrett.
After a few minutes, he returned to tell him that Jarrett was being x-rayed and that the doctor had ordered an MRI.
He hovered around the bed, chatting up the young Filipina nurse with Thayne while she wrote in the chart.
Thayne was thoroughly entertained by the man who bounced when he talked like he had springs in his heels as he told her about the excitement of the day.
When he finally bid Thayne goodbye, telling him he had to go start his shift, it was like all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room.
Thayne’s nurse grinned at him.
“He’s always like that.
I love John and he sure makes the world a brighter place,” she said.
“He has a lot of energy,”
Thayne remarked as she typed on the computer where she was writing in his chart.
“That’s for sure.”
She stood up.
“Okay, the doctor will be in to see you soon.”
Thayne nodded as she bustled out.
A few minutes later, a tall man in a white coat came in and introduced himself as Doctor Steadman.
He ordered some X-rays, palpated Thayne’s abdomen and looked him over pretty thoroughly.
“You went over the side on the 10 Freeway?”
he asked, looking quite incredulous.
“Yes,”
Thayne nodded.
“On a motorcycle?”
“Yes.
My partner was driving.”
“You’re lucky to be alive.
We rarely get anyone in here who’s gone over without severe injuries.”
He seemed to think for a minute.
“Oh, you must be the other man’s partner.”
“Yes.
My partner is Jarrett Evans.
Are you his doctor?”
Thayne was hopeful.
“Yes, I am.
He’s a lucky one too.
He has several cracked ribs but you were both lucky.
I guess you’re anxious to see him.”
“Yes.
The other nurse said he is in X-ray.”
“I sent him for an MRI.
I want to be sure he doesn’t have any internal bleeding.”
The doctor was palpating the back of Thayne’s neck, running his gloved fingers over every vertebra.
“Okay, doc.
Thanks.
I was really worried,”
Thayne said, breathing a sigh of relief.
There was a knock on the door and the doctor called for whoever it was to enter.
When two large Highway Patrol officers peeked inside, the doctor stepped back.
“We’d like to ask your patient some questions when you’re done, Doc,”
the burlier of the two said.
“I’m done,”
he said, patting Thayne’s shoulder.
“I’m going to order a chest X-ray but other than that, I think you’re fine except for a cracked rib or two.
I just want to look at it with an X-ray.
The nurse will be in to put some Steri strips on that laceration.
I really don’t want to put stitches in your forehead.
It should heal just fine but stitches will scar you unnecessarily.”
“Thanks, Doc,”
Thayne said.
The doctor patted Thayne’s shoulder again and then left the room, standing aside as the two Highway Patrol officers stepped into the room.
They were both holding notepads.
“We already talked to Special Agent Evans but we wanted to ask you a couple questions for our report if that’s okay, Special Agent Wolfe,”
the larger of the two men said.
Thayne nodded, happy that Jarrett had already told the majority of the story to save them time.
He didn’t know what he’d have to add anyway.
“What would you like to know?”
“Why don’t you just start at the beginning and tell us everything you saw, Special Agent,”
the man’s partner said.
Or not.
Thayne sighed and launched into his story, giving them a blow by blow detail of everything he remembered about the crash and the black SUV that had hit them.
He wondered how much his memory coincided with Jarrett’s.
The men didn’t seem to give him any indication that Jarrett had a different memory of the crash but when he finished the first officer flipped over the pages in his notes.
“So, you didn’t get a look at the driver?”
“No.
The windows had a limousine tint on them, totally blacked out.”
The officer nodded and scribbled in his pad before looking up.
“Do you remember the license plate of the SUV?”
Thayne thought as hard as he could, closing his eyes and trying desperately to picture the license plate he’d only glimpsed after the car had hit them the first time.
He remembered turning to look over his shoulder and trying to zero in on the plate.
When the license plate flashed in his mind, his eyes sprung open.
“Oh, my God, they were government plates!” he said.
Both officers frowned.
“Government plates?”
the first officer asked, sounding incredulous.
Thayne felt like bouncing on the exam table where he still sat.
“Yes.
US government plates.
I can’t believe I didn’t remember that until just now.”
“Well, it’s a good thing you did, though there’s probably a hundred government-issued black SUVs in California,”
the second officer said.
Thayne watched him scribble in his notepad.
“You’re probably right.
Now, why would one of our own try to run us off the road?”
he said out loud.
He looked at the officers who glanced between each other.
Both had frowns on their faces.
“I have no idea, Special Agent.
But whoever they are, they meant to kill you or at the very least, make sure you were too banged up to talk about it.”
“Son of a bitch,”
Thayne said, low.
He stared at the Highway Patrol officers.
“Now I’m really beyond pissed.”
“That’s just wrong on so many levels, man,”
the second officer said, flipping his pad closed and replacing it into his pocket.
Ain’t that the fucking truth.