Chapter Thirty-Five #2
Dee stood there staring. “The coffee isn’t working?”
“No. It’s stale anyway.”
“I have an energy packet in my purse. They help me on days after my son has kept me up late. They work really well.”
Alex wasn’t one for energy shots. Not since college. But something had to help. “You wouldn’t mind?” Alex asked.
Dee slowly smiled.
“I insist.”
Alex kicked off her shoes and sat down on the couch. Her next call was after lunch. Even a half an hour would help. Maybe by then, the energy drink would kick in.
Dee returned with a Ziploc bag.
“You poor thing.” She found a glass and a bottle of water and mixed the energy drink.
She returned to Alex’s side and handed her the glass. “It’s a little bitter.”
Alex didn’t care.
She swallowed it in one pull and reached for the bottle of water to chase the bitter down.
“That should help.”
Alex kicked her feet up on the sofa and let her eyes close. “Hold my calls until one.”
“Not a problem . . . Alexandrea.”
Hawk made his way to Alex’s office, hoping he could convince her to go to the deli down the street for lunch.
It was five past twelve, and Dee was still at her desk.
“Is she on a call?” he asked, pointing to the closed office door.
“No. She’s, ah, resting. She asked that I not let anyone disturb her until after lunch.”
“This has been rough on her.”
Dee stared at him. Said nothing.
“I’ll just poke my head in.”
Dee rushed to her feet. “Don’t wake her. Her afternoon is full.”
“It’s okay, Dee. I won’t.”
Like the nervous secretary Dee was, she walked behind him when he quietly opened the door and looked in.
Alex was knocked out. With a small blanket tossed over her.
He backed out of the office and closed the door as quietly as he could.
Dee jumped back and rubbed her hands on her pants. “I’m going to eat lunch at my desk so no one disturbs her.”
“I appreciate that,” Hawk said. “She could use the nap.”
Hawk made his way back to the employee lounge, whispering, “That chick is strange.”
The room spun like a children’s toy on drugs.
There was exhausted, and then there was this.
Alex’s tongue felt larger than her mouth. Her lips tingled with the feeling like a limb that was waking up from a cramped position with new spikes of electricity. Only they hurt.
This wasn’t normal.
Or maybe she was dreaming?
No. She was in her office.
Dee had given her something to help her stay awake.
Then why did Alex have the memory of her assistant sitting on the edge of the coffee table in the room, smiling?
“ That’s it. Go to sleep. Go to sleep. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. ”
Alex rolled to her side, tried to get her legs to work, and fell to the floor for her efforts.
Hawk!
Piper and Chase left the building for lunch and promised to return with food for Hawk and Alex when she woke up.
The employee lounge was relatively empty.
Probably because Agents Baker and Kenna were at a table, eating, and the employees were scared to death of them.
Except Julia, who was reading a book and eating a sandwich.
Hawk took a seat opposite Julia and captured her attention. “Piper says you know all the gossip on the employees here.”
Julia looked over the pages of her book. “I wouldn’t say all.”
“What do you know about Dee? She’s afraid of her own shadow.”
Julia glanced at the open door and lowered her voice. “I don’t really know. To tell the truth, I barely noticed her when Piper was around. She just sat in the background and did her work.”
“Does she socialize with anyone?”
Julia shook her head. “We’ve invited her to happy hour. But eventually gave up.”
Hawk glanced at the FBI agents he knew were listening. “Did you find anything on her? Abusive husband or something?”
Baker and Kenna looked at each other.
“Trauma often causes people to go into their own shell, where it’s safe,” Baker said.
“What kind of trauma?”
Baker shrugged. “The husband drove himself and their son off a cliff.”
Julia’s hand holding her book fell to her lap. “What?”
“Suicide. Apparently, the factory the husband worked in closed down. They were struggling financially. The husband checked out.”
Hawk couldn’t imagine doing that to his family, a wife. “Why kill the son?”
“Who knows? One day she had a husband and a kid, the next day, nothing. That’s bound to shut you down socially.”
“I’ll have to give her more slack ...” Only something wasn’t right.
“Her new husband and child must have helped,” Julia suggested.
“What are you talking about?” Baker asked.
Hawk nodded. “Yeah, she needed to pick up a sick kid from school a couple of weeks ago.”
Julia smiled. “He’s always catching something. The only time off she takes is to care for her kid.”
Kenna dropped the phone he was scrolling onto the table. “There isn’t a new husband and kid. Dee lives in a studio apartment by herself.”
“Then why would she tell everyone she’s married and has a son?”
Hawk’s heart started to pound in his chest.
He looked directly at Baker and Kenna. “This factory that closed down ... did it belong to Stone Enterprises?”
“Ahh, fuck!”
Hawk was out of his seat and running down the hall before Julia asked, “What?”
Baker and Kenna ran from behind.
Nothing worked.
She opened her mouth to yell, but only a squeak came out.
It was as if an electrical charge had eliminated her ability to use any muscle properly.
Dee had given her something.
And every moment that passed threatened to take her deeper into oblivion.
“Someone.” The word came out as a whisper.
Her eyes closed, and she fought to open them.
She lay on the floor where she’d fallen from the sofa when she attempted to stand.
It took what felt like the strength of ten men to scoot her body back six inches. Getting to her desk looked like crossing the Grand Canyon on foot.
And the door . . .
Was Dee on the other side? Was Dee telling everyone she was sleeping, just ticking off the minutes until the drug in her system shut her eyes for good?
Alex had no idea why Dee would do this.
Tick.
Tock.
The stuffed animal, the Play-Doh bomb ... why?
Thinking about that hurt her head.
Alex managed another six inches.
The table to the side of the sofa held a glass lamp. She reached for the cord and pulled.
The lamp swayed to one side.
Alex tugged on the cord again. This time, the lamp fell.
The splintering of glass sounded like a bomb in Alex’s ears.
She heard the door to her office open and close.
Thank God. “Help.”
Shouts from the hall had Alex falling back to the floor in relief.
Hawk’s voice.
Her Viking was coming.
Alex’s eyes opened to see Dee standing over her, a gun in her hand. “Why can’t you just die?”
The door to the office shook with the force of someone’s body being thrown against it.
Dee reached down, grabbed Alex’s arm, and slid her across the room, farther away from the door.
“Get up,” Dee screamed in Alex’s face.
“I can’t.”
Dee pushed the barrel of the gun into Alex’s temple.
“Stand up!”
Alex struggled with her limbs until she managed to get on her knees.
The door to the office flew open and bounced against the wall with a thundering clap.
Hawk was there, gun in his hand, pointing at the both of them.
Alex locked eyes with Hawk.
His nightmare.
She was living his nightmare.
Alex was alive.
Her eyes glossy, her head rolling back and then snapping back to attention.
“I’ll shoot her. One more step and she’s dead.”
“Put the gun down, Dee.”
“We don’t want to hurt you.”
While the agents spoke directly to Dee, Hawk focused on Alex. “We’ll get you out of here, hon. Stay with us, okay,” he said.
“We want to help,” Baker said, his words calm and steady. “Put the gun down and let Alex go.”
“Don’t fall asleep, honey. Eyes open.”
Alex responded. Her chin came up, those eyes ... her beautiful, vibrant eyes dulled with drugs.
“It’s her fault,” Dee cried, yanking Alex back.
A familiar punch to the stomach hit Hawk hard.
The frail office staff member held the woman he loved like a broken doll. The gun in her hand acted as a kickstand to Alex’s limp head.
He’d done it again.
Hawk had underestimated what was the weakest link in the office.
Only Dee wasn’t whimpering now. She wasn’t shyly looking away or averting her eyes so that others couldn’t see into her.
“Put the gun down, Dee.”
“She did this. She killed them.” Dee tugged on Alex’s body each time she said she .
“No, Dee. Alex didn’t close the factory,” Kenna said.
Dee blinked. Stepped back.
Alex was struggling to keep weight on her legs.
Even if Dee didn’t use the gun, Hawk felt Alex slipping away.
“What did you give her?” Hawk yelled.
Dee didn’t answer, she smiled with pure evil behind those dilated eyes. And then started to laugh. Slow and loud.
“Hurting her won’t bring your family back, Dee. Let us help you.”
“You don’t want to help me. You throw people away. She ends lives with a flick of her pen.” Dee used the gun as an extension of her hand by waving it in the air.
Hawk noticed Baker moving slightly to the right as Kenna did the same to the left.
“Alex is trying to keep factories open, Dee. That’s why we’re here. To give jobs back,” Baker told her.
Dee shook her head. “No. As soon as you leave, she’ll do it again. They all do it. Her father did it. Now her.”
“Did you drug Aaron, Dee?”
Dee smiled. “Didn’t get a chance.”
Alex’s head rolled back.
Dee struggled with the weight of her.
“Wake up, Alex! Don’t you dare go to sleep.” Hawk’s breath came in short waves.
“She needs help, Dee. You don’t want her to die,” Kenna said.
Dee rested her face against the top of Alex’s head. “Yes, I do.”
Hawk saw red.
Alex was too close. If any of them attempted a shot, it could be their bullets that took her out.
Panic threatened to take control.
He took a step forward.
The gun came away from Alex’s temple, and Dee waved it in his direction. “Don’t move.”
Hawk froze.
Alex opened her eyes wide and clenched her stomach.
The sound of sirens screamed in the distance.
Dee looked to the window. The gun moved in the direction of Dee’s gaze.
Alex doubled forward and started to vomit.
And a bullet ripped through the silence in the air.
“No!” Hawk screamed and rushed to Alex’s side.
Blood splattered everywhere. And for a brief moment, Hawk wasn’t sure if it was Dee or Alex that had been shot.
His ears vibrated with the effect of the gunshot, and he felt more than he heard Alex’s body shake as she continued to purge.
Hawk held her so that the contents of her stomach fell to the floor and not the blood-splattered suit she wore.
When she stopped, Hawk lifted her in his arms and removed her from the lifeless woman behind her, as Baker and Kenna moved around Dee, assuring there wasn’t any lingering threat.
“We need an ambulance!” Hawk yelled when he reached the hall.
He sat down with her in his arms. Her body limp, barely conscious. “Stay with me, Alex.”
“Hawk?”
His ears still rang.
“It’s me. I’m here. I love you, Alex. Don’t you leave me.”
“Love.”
He could barely hear what she said. Hawk rocked her in his arms. “Stay with me.”
Baker ran out of the room, took one look at the two of them, and started barking commands.