Chapter Five #3
Mackey shifted to study the screen closer. Kerry stopped him. “I have this, guys. I’ll start the search through internet muck to find him. It’s gonna take time.”
Quaid sighed. “In the meantime, Frank could give us a hand on Whit.”
Mackey straightened, moving out of Kerry’s space. “He’ll want something in exchange.”
“Yeah, give me a couple hours to sleep. I’ll talk to him.”
“PD is not happy about any of this.”
“Are we?” Quaid snapped, then regretted it.
The Operations door flew open and Elizabeth came through the door at a fast clip.
Her blonde hair was neatly tucked in a roll behind her head and her makeup was flawless as usual.
But instead of an elegant, colorful ensemble per habit, she wore worn blue jeans, a red family ranch t-shirt with Stephenson-Craig Ranch logo on the pocket, and the brown work boots she wore in the barn.
“You get back, finally, and don’t come to see me first?
” Color flushed her cheeks, but her eyes were hard.
Quaid dropped his head. “Fuck. I’m sorry.” He stepped to her and wrapped her in his arms. “I’m okay.”
She held on for a long moment, and Quaid let her. He needed to engage his brain. She always reacted badly to threats.
She eased back to look him in the eye. “Where is Alanna Williams?”
“In the clinic. She’s fine, but has cuts, bruises, and her eardrums are damaged. She needs rest.”
She gripped his arms. “So, in other words, we need Cait.”
Quaid turned to Mackey, but he subtly made a down-low sign of ‘I’m out.’
Quaid kept an arm around his aunt and walked her to the door. “I have to call her and Hunt. It needs to be me.”
“I would think so. Are you hurt?”
In the hallway, he turned Elizabeth towards her office at the end of the hall. He and Mackey both had public offices across from Operations, but Elizabeth had the corner office. She was their financial guru and brain trust.
“No, Harry’s asleep on my sofa.” She turned the knob on his office door, stepped through, and flicked on the lights.
Quaid missed a step, but recovered quickly. “Harry has an office with a sofa.”
“With all the noise of the Operations Center attached. The man’s been here since the assassination attempt. What is going on?”
“As near as we can tell, the man’s after Alanna. We don’t know why yet. She needed rest before she could share the whole story. Drucker has her. Bets took care of her at the ER. There’s nothing for Cait to do, yet.”
“She won’t see it that way.”
Quaid frowned, agreeing. “I spent too long trying to protect everyone around me when I thought it was some mess from my past. Now the parameters are different.”
“We need to help her with whatever it is.”
“We will.”
“You don’t like her.”
Leave it to Elizabeth to be blunt. “We worked through a bit of that. I admit I don’t know her, and she’s defensive and private.” He went to the conversation area and collapsed on his nubby, gray sofa. Elizabeth followed him, choosing the chair across from him.
“We don’t leave our friends to fend for themselves.” That Elizabeth felt she had to spell it out pricked at his conscience.
“We don’t. And we won’t. She had my back the entire time. I’ll have hers, too.”
Niles interrupted a tick before rapping on the door. “Sir, I have the gear.”
“Bring it in here. We’ll separate out what I borrowed from Hunt and get organized.” The man disappeared as quietly as he arrived. God, how did he think he was better off without his family around him? That had been a stupid move. He couldn’t afford to make any more. For Alanna’s sake.
Elizabeth rose. “We have one guest room open on the fifth floor. You could sleep there.”
“Give the space to Alanna.”
“She has a crew quarters assignment already to mitigate the drive to LA FBI headquarters.”
“Yeah, with the bare minimum. Let’s put her in a more comfortable setting until she’s back to full strength.”
“She might not want to.”
“I’ll talk to her. In fact, make the suite her standing room assignment as long as she’s here.”
Elizabeth tipped her head and gave him “the look.” It always loosened his tongue.
“She has no family, Liz. None.”
“Better quarters will take care of that?”
“No, it won’t. But it will tell her we respect her and will take care of her. I may have screwed up with my attitude about her from the beginning, but I’m fixing that.”
Elizabeth raised her hands in surrender. “Whatever you say, but you get to tell her.”
“No problem.” His internal self was rolling on the floor laughing, but he coached himself to ignore. “Tell Donner to make the arrangements. I’ll take care of the rest.”
He couldn’t keep a woman in his life. They all seemed to fall away when they figured out he couldn’t be manipulated for his money. Might also have something to do with all the secrets and how they found out the truth about who he was.
Still, he had women around him who gave a damn.
Elizabeth. Cait.
And now Alanna.
He didn’t make many mistakes. Oh, he had growing up, but he’d considered that a flaw and had worked hard to stop and think, correct his actions, and do the right thing.
He’d messed up with Alanna, and his pride and values demanded he fix it. Maybe he would gain another woman in his circle he could fully trust.