Chapter 10
Raven stepped off the plane, exhausted and cranky. She wanted a cup of coffee, but knew if she drank anything with caffeine now, she’d never get any sleep. The thought of texting Tim, asking him to meet her somewhere popped into her head, but glancing at the time, she realized it was nearly midnight.
Her phone pinged several times and she pulled it out of her purse. She gasped when she saw ten text messages from Tim. And five from Brock? That was strange.
Then she remembered the strange note from the weirdo who thought she’d been tracking him. “This is odd,” she whispered to herself.
Stepping out of the flow of pedestrian traffic, Raven ignored the thousands of passengers hurrying to their connecting flight or the luggage carousels – or the parking lot. Everyone was eager to get home or to their next location.
Raven understood, but the number of messages, especially the texts from Brock, were concerning.
She unlocked her cell phone and started reading, her heart speeding up with every message.
“Don’t go home!” was the last one from Tim. Brock had sent equally urgent messages, but none explained what was happening.
Dialing Tim’s phone, she waited, looking around.
“Raven!” Tim’s voice came over the phone. “Where the hell are you?”
She took a long, slow, deep breath, then said, “I’m sorry for running out on you last week.” She looked around, then down at the patterned carpeting. “I was scared.”
“Don’t worry about that. We’ll talk it over later. Just tell me where you are.”
“I’m at the airport. I just got back from a client meeting in San Antonio.”
“Thank goodness!” she heard him sigh, then there was some muttering in the background, as if he were covering the receiver and talking to someone else. When he came back, he said, “Stay where you are. An airport police officer is going to escort you to a secure area.”
An officer? An escort? “Why?” she demanded, nightmares of her years as a behavioral analyst for the FBI coming to the forefront of her mind.
Another pause, then Tim said, “There’s a guy sitting outside of your apartment complex that we think is waiting to…hurt you.”
“Why don’t you pick him up then?” she asked, her whole body trembling. This was the reason she’d had to leave the FBI, Raven thought. She couldn’t handle the stress. She couldn’t handle the risk of becoming the hunted instead of the hunter. And yet, that was her reality right now.
A new voice came over the line and Raven realized that Tim had her on speaker. This time, it was Brock who spoke. “Raven, we need you to stay where you are. We can’t pick up this suspect yet because we don’t have any evidence to arrest him. So far, all he’s done is hang out in your parking lot. We have fingerprints on the letter he sent to you that match the fingerprints at several crime scenes, but that’s not enough,” he explained with his rough voice. “I have an embedded agent. But so far, we don’t have enough evidence to keep him. The fingerprints are only circumstantial.”
She looked up and, sure enough, a police officer was walking directly towards her. Obviously, Brock had gotten into the homeland security system and discovered her flight information. “I think one of the airport officers is here, Tim.”
“Good!” he replied, breathing a sigh of relief. “I’m on my way. Don’t leave until I get there.”
“Are you Ms. Markley?” the officer asked, his hand resting on his weapon.
“Yes,” she replied. “Can you show me some identification?”
The man pulled out his badge, another officer standing behind him. She scanned the badge, then nodded. The small clues that were embedded into the badge were there, indicating that the officer was legitimate.
“Okay, where should I go?”
“This way,” the officer replied, then led the way to a small office within the same gate.
Thirty minutes later, Tim stepped into the secured room. Several other large, imposing men followed, but Raven didn’t have a chance to look at them because Tim pulled her into his arms, his tall body and broad shoulders blocked her view of everyone.
Plus, he felt amazingly good as his arms closed tightly around her.
“Damn it, woman!” he muttered. “You had me so worried!”
She breathed in his masculine scent, burying her face against his chest as he held her close. “I’m sorry I ran,” she whispered to him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “I’m so sorry! I got scared!”
Tim pulled back, but kept his arms around her waist. “We’ll talk about that later,” he promised. “Right now, I need to look at you and feel you, make sure that you’re okay.”
A subtle coughing behind them interrupted this reunion. For a brief moment, Raven wanted to ignore the interruption. But she knew that reality couldn’t be ignored. So instead of snuggling against Tim’s strong, powerful chest, she peered around Tim’s shoulders. Tim turned as well, but he kept his arm around her, keeping her against his side.
“Brock?” she gasped, staring at her former boss. “Dean? What are you guys doing here?”
“We need you to come into the office,” Brock explained, the regret apparent in his eyes.
The serial killer! Inwardly, she cringed, but because Tim was close, she found the inner strength to tamp down the fear. “Why?” she demanded, watching his face carefully. She saw the worry in his eyes and knew something was seriously wrong. “Who’s hurt?”
“We’re trying to keep you from getting hurt,” Dean replied.
By the closed expressions, Raven understood that they weren’t going to say anything more until they were back at the office.
“Fine,” she replied, shifting the heavy tote bag onto her shoulder. Still, she leaned closer to Tim and he tightened his arm around her. “But I need to–”
“Someone else will drive your car back to your apartment. We have an undercover officer who is going to wear a wig and pretend to be you.”
This was very bad, she thought. However, she knew that a trained agent would be better as bait than she would be.
Ignoring the nausea , she nodded. “Okay, let’s do it,” she replied, but felt better with Tim’s arm around her.
Thirty minutes later, they walked into the Philadelphia FBI headquarters. Raven remembered the security measures and the long hallways that held so many secrets. This had been her old life and she didn’t miss it. Not at all! Not even the camaraderie of her fellow team members, all FBI agents, helped her cope with the evil they pursued.
“Okay, tell me what you’ve got,” she demanded as soon as they were in the old team room.
Mike muttered a curse as he watched car after car pull into the parking lot of the apartment complex. None were being driven that stupid bitch!
“I’m hungry!” Brittni whined.
Mike didn’t admonish her, nor did he backhand the bitch. First of all, he was hungry too. They’d spent several hours in this miserable car and he needed a break.
Looking over at the stupid bimbo with the overly done up makeup and bottle blond hair, Mike knew exactly how he planned to unwind after a long day of surveillance.
“Fine. We’ll get something to eat.” He started the car and drove off, knowing exactly which restaurant would suit his needs. He’d seen the restaurant about a mile away.
“Are we going to a place where I can get a burger?’ she asked, bouncing excitedly in the seat. She dropped the nail file back into her purse and grabbed another piece of bubble gum.
When this was over, Mike vowed to shove that bubble gum into a more appropriate place. The thought gave him a great deal of satisfaction. But for now, he pulled into the parking lot of an old-style diner. It looked like a normal place, but Mike knew that he’d find exactly what he needed inside.
“Oh, goody!” Brittni exclaimed, clapping her hands as if she were a toddler.
The itch to slap her face was strong. But he restrained himself. In another few days, he could be back on the road. He just needed to slice and dice the Markley bitch, then he could go about his merry way. The lovely brunette knew too much.
Walking into the restaurant, he noticed at least three attractive men. They were just sitting at the bar, drinking a beer as they waited for their meals. But he knew. They were his type of men. Eye contact confirmed their status as he walked through to a table by the window. Mike could still see the men, but Brittni wouldn’t notice them. Hell, he wondered if she noticed anything other than the stupid games she played on her damn phone!
“I want a burger with extra cheese and lots of pickles,” she announced, picking up the plastic laminated menu to survey the options. Could she even read? It was debatable.
Thankfully, Brittni popped a few bubbles, then folded the annoying gum up in a napkin. “I’m gonna visit the little girls room,” she announced, already standing up. “Will you order me a cheeseburger?” she asked, leaning forward, showing off her boobs. Little did she know, he wasn’t interested. However, he gave her breasts a quick once over, just to appease the twit.
Then Brittni sauntered off to the restrooms, a special twitch to her hips as if she believed that she was going to get laid tonight.
After giving their order of two burgers to the bored waitress, Mike purposely left off the cheese part, then surveyed the men and selected the one he wanted. Not for sex. Well, maybe, he thought. No, the only sex that would be possible here was cheap, meaningless bathroom sex and he wasn’t in the mood to get dirty tonight. He was in the mood to release the tension that had been building inside of him at the thought of Raven Markley finding him.
So he waited until the guy stood up, then Mike followed him into the bathroom. He nearly passed Brittni on the way, but because Mike needed to be stealthy tonight, he slipped into the kitchen hallway, waiting until the nitwit had passed by. Then he followed the guy into the bathroom.
Fifteen minutes later, Mike returned to the table. Their burgers were waiting at the table and, because everything inside of him felt better, Mike devoured his burger and every damn fry on the platter.
“You were hungry,” Brittni commented, twisting a lock of hair around her finger. She’d only eaten half the burger and none of her fries. For a woman who’d been whining that she was hungry for the past hour, she’d barely eaten anything.
“Let’s go. I saw a hotel a couple of blocks back the way we came. We’ll get rooms for the night and be back on our mission tomorrow.”
Brittni bounced up, eager to be back on the road. “I love hotel rooms,” she whispered, doing that toddler clapping again. Mike ignored her, thinking about what he’d need to do tomorrow. He hoped that Raven would be back in town. He wanted to get this over with and be back on the road. He wanted to see Vegas!