Chapter 2 #4
“It wasn’t your fault, you know. You said you went on the Bureau’s best intelligence and you were ambushed,” she said gently. “Yes, it’s painful! But I’m sure you helped your partner’s widow, Grant. Bad news is better coming from someone who loved or cared about a person, too.”
He nodded. “I guess I … well, Hank was married. He was an experienced agent. I wasn’t.”
“But you’re alive because you’re a good agent.”
“Because I have good aim.” He winced again. “I believe in arresting people. I believe in our judge and jury system. But that day …”
“You defended yourself,” she told him.
He nodded and looked away, and then he looked back at her.
“I promise you,” he told her. “I’ve been on dozens of cases since.
I don’t falter, and I don’t hesitate. I do what is needed, and Jackson believes we need to see Ainsley.
So that’s what we’ll do. I don’t want you to be afraid that I won’t hold up my end—”
“Stop!” she said, smiling. “I believe you’ll have my back. I can see how much that day hurt you, but you defended yourself against four people who were well armed and determined to kill you both, so that bodes well. I know you’ll have my back.”
“I will, you know. I swear it,” he said.
“And trust me, I’ll have yours. I know. You would probably have preferred a male partner, big, buff, and strong. No, I am not big and buff. But I am strong, I’m well trained in the defensive arts, and I can shoot a fly in the sky. I will have your back, too.”
He smiled. “I believe you,” he told her. “Have you been in a situation where …”
She nodded. “But I wasn’t the one who had to give bad news to anyone.
We were working a case out West in a mountainous area.
One of the local policemen who was working with us was shot at the top of a cliff, and he went over.
I was nearby, and when his killer turned his gun on me, I shot him.
And he went over the cliff. I agree; we arrest people when we can.
Our legal system isn’t always perfect, but it may be the best one out there.
And it never feels good to take a human life.
I had to remember he had just killed a hardworking policeman, and he was also the head of a human trafficking group who had brought horrors and misery to dozens of people. ”
He nodded, smiling, lowering his head. “I guess living with a certain amount of guilt is just part of the job.”
“And if we didn’t feel it, we’d be very bad at what we do,” she reminded him. “Still, our fight is for the innocent—and for the victims.”
“The innocent and the victims,” he repeated. As he did so, Jackson emerged from the café, holding the door open for the two of them.
“We’ve got our table,” he told them.
“No Ainsley yet?” Shelly asked.
“Ainsley is here. She’s a pile of tears, naturally, but she is determined. She wants to know the two of you. Her sister is with her, supporting her in this. Come on in, please.”
They did so.
Ainsley wasn’t alone.
As they approached the table, Grant studied the two women who were seated there, evidently waiting for Jackson’s return with the two of them.
Jackson, of course, Grant determined, had suspected that Ainsley was there already, and that she was already at a table as well.
He’d left Grant and Shelly outside on purpose, certain they would talk to one another.
Jackson believed they would become real partners before he had to leave.
And, oddly enough, it was okay. In Grant’s mind at least, it had worked. Strangely, on the street with others around them, just waiting …
They had said things that were important.
Because he had the feeling it was going to be a long and complicated case.
And there might well be many times when it would be important to know they had one another’s backs.
As for now …
“We’re so very sorry, Miss Drake,” he said, as they reached the table and took their seats opposite the two women there.
Ainsley Drake had been crying. Probably for hours. Her eyes were red, her face was blotchy, and she was still an attractive young woman of about thirty, with dark eyes and dark hair that was neatly gathered at her nape. She was slender and petite and appeared fragile in her current state.
It was probably a very good thing that she had the support of her sister, the woman sitting next to her, who was perhaps a few years older but similar in appearance; she had a gentle hand on Ainsley’s shoulder as the agents arrived at the table.
“Yes, we are so very sorry, and grateful for your help,” Shelly said very softly, reaching a hand across the table to touch Ainsley’s.
Ainsley Drake nodded and looked from Shelly to Grant, her eyes tearing again as she did so.
She was truly bereft, hurt.
But she was also furious.
That much was evident when she spoke.
“You must get whoever did this! You must! They didn’t just steal George’s life—they hit all the innocent people he tried so hard to protect! You must … you must kill the monsters responsible for this!” Tears dripped down her face. “If you won’t, I swear, somehow, I’ll find a way to do it!”