Chapter Nine

Dinner was over, the kitchen had been cleaned, and Shannon, having slept earlier, was wide awake.

She sat in the living room, contented and full, watching the movie on television that Pete had so thoughtfully activated closed captioning for. Pete was stretched out in the recliner with eyes closed, and even Leah had turned in for the night, her seemingly boundless energy reserve finally depleted.

As he slept, Shannon had the luxury of studying Pete more closely while she warred within herself about her attraction to him. Pete’s long, lean muscular frame was draped nicely in jeans and a button-down shirt. Thick, coal-black hair swept back from his face and trailed down just past his collar. A hint of five o’clock shadow lingered on his chiseled jawline. Long eyelashes framed what she already knew were the most beautiful blue eyes she’d ever come across.

Suddenly a vision popped into her head of her and Pete tangled together in bed, her legs wrapped around him and his fingers interlaced with hers as he nuzzled her neck and murmured things meant only for her…

And her cheeks flushed as the living room’s temperature seemed to soar.

This is neither the time nor the place to be having romantic thoughts, her inner matron intoned. You’re in danger, and he has a job to do. A distraction could get all three of you killed.

Fine, the part of her brain where attraction resided chimed in. But what about after all this? You’re going to do something about it then, right? Don’t you want to know what being with him would be like? Feeling that fantastic body of his pressed hard against yours? Running your hands through his hair as he kisses his way down to your…

“Enough. Shut up,” Shannon whispered to herself, then jumped when she saw Pete sit upright suddenly.

“I’m sorry, did I wake you?” she asked.

He shook his head and pointed to the cell phone clipped to his belt.

“Oh,” she managed, alarmed at the expression that came over his face while he read whatever he’d been sent.

***

Pete was having one of the best dreams ever.

It was him and Shannon, walking along hand-in-hand on a long, deserted stretch of beach as the sun dipped into the water.

In his dream, he swept her into his arms, then leaned down and kissed her passionately before laying her down on the beach towel and undressing her slowly.

When his lips closed around her right breast, she moaned and arched her back, and when she guided him into her warm and waiting center, he could feel the tingle of their connection surge throughout his body…

Wow, his subconscious exclaimed. I can feel that to my core.

Then he frowned.

That’s weird, why is it starting at my hip?

My phone…

The thought immediately jolted him awake, and he realized that his phone was indeed buzzing with a new message.

He lowered the footrest of the recliner abruptly and stood, noticing that Shannon jerked as he did so.

Note to self – no sudden movements around her if I can help it. She’s still jumpy from the blast.

He plucked the phone from its holster, and his blood turned to ice as he read the message from a number he didn’t recognize.

Hey, baby blue.

He stood, set his jaw, and typed back Gone fishing.

Pete whirled around, looking for Leah’s notebook. He found it on the kitchen table and couldn’t help but smile when he noticed what Leah had written to Shannon about him.

He’s cute AND he can cook? Double bonus for you!

“Little matchmaker’s working both ends,” he murmured, and returned to the living room to communicate with Shannon.

***

She turned beet red when she noticed that he’d written just below Leah’s last message.

Oh, good Lord. There’s no way he didn’t see what she said! she realized, horrified, and the twinkle in his eyes confirmed her supposition.

Then she went stark white when she looked back at the page and focused on his words.

Go wake up Leah and pack up your stuff. We have to get moving. NOW.

“Why? What’s happened?” Shannon asked, her eyes huge with fright.

We’ve been compromised.

She nodded and bolted up the stairs, while Pete hustled out to his truck to retrieve the burner phone that he too had bought for emergencies, then stashed in his glove compartment.

***

Pete turned his burner phone on and sent Sitrep and ETA? back to Larry’s unit.

Larry sent him the intel he had so far, ending with he’s on the flight landing at DFW at one-forty a.m., give or take. No telling if he has help down there. I’ll be at Omega within seven hours, eight at the most. I’m in route now.

Meet you there, Pete replied. I’ll signal when we’re an hour out.

Stay safe, brother, Larry fired back. I’ll turn the porch light on for ya.

***

Meanwhile, a distressed Shannon was shaking Leah awake, then ducking as her best friend came up swinging.

“It’s me. Leah, it’s me,” Shannon told her. “Listen, we have to go.”

Shannon didn’t need a pen and paper to decipher Leah’s what the hell?

“Pete got a message, and told me we’re compromised, and we have to move, quickly,” Shannon relayed. “I’m gonna go pack up my suitcase. Meet you downstairs.”

She moved swiftly to her room, wincing with discomfort as she added a bra to her ensemble, then switched out her yoga pants for jeans and a belt before she put on socks and her sneakers. She made sure the few things she’d scattered around – her brush, toothbrush, and toothpaste – were tucked safely back inside her luggage, then closed and fastened it to haul it back down to the living room.

Leah met her at the top of the stairs, and they walked down together to where Pete waited.

“You guys get everything?” he asked.

Leah said, “All good. Let’s roll.”

By seven minutes past ten, Pete Jenkins was steering his truck down the long gravel driveway leading back to the blacktop farm-to-market road. Instead of turning left to head back into town, he turned right.

“Guess we should have used the bathroom before we left, huh?” Shannon quipped.

“Tell her we’ll stop somewhere in Oklahoma. And after that, you two might as well try to get some sleep,” he instructed Leah. 

***

By two-thirty a.m. Pete’s truck was across the border into Arkansas and continuing east on US-70 for the next leg of the trip. They’d stopped at a twenty-four-hour truck stop in Hugo, Oklahoma for gas and snacks. When they’d climbed back into the truck, Shannon had opted to move to the front passenger seat, and Leah had promptly stretched her tiny frame across the back seat and was sound asleep.

“I can help with the driving, you know,” Shannon told Pete as he turned the ignition key. “I may be temporarily deaf, but I can still operate a vehicle just fine. Besides, I have a feeling you need to be rested for what’s coming next.”

He grinned and gestured for the notebook. Shannon handed it to him, and he wrote his answer.

I’ll take the help. How about we switch out when we get to Little Rock? I will wake you up, I promise.

“Deal,” she said.

***

At around three a.m. a very pissed off Charlie Zavier paced back and forth, back and forth across the front yard of the recently vacated farmhouse north of Decatur.

“They must have gotten tipped off somehow,” his point of contact repeated. “But it’s all good, man. We can track them.”

“And how do you propose we do that?” Charlie snarled. “They could be anywhere right now.”

“Simple,” Duffy answered with a smile. “I put a tracker on Jenkins’ truck.”

Charlie smiled.

“Welcome to the club, kid. I had my doubts about you, being new and all, but you’re all right.”