Crystal Clear (21 page)

His hand felt strong against her arm, and heat rose up in her at his claim that she was his spiraled down to settle deep inside of her body.

The ride to the base was short.  They had landed at LAX, and the base was located not far from there in downtown Los Angeles.  Placed in plain sight, the giant skyscraper mirrored its twin building in New York
. The reflective windows ga
v
e no clue as to what
happen
ed
in the interior of the imposing building.

After making
their way through security, they
g
ot
pass codes and security clearance
, and the team
ushered Cindy to the medical wing. 

Cindy was uneasy, but Jack
still kept a hand at her waist. H
is touch steadied her. 
Montgomery
sat next to her in the waiting area as
Cindy
tapped her foot waiting for her name to be called.

“Do you want me to go in with you?” 
Montgomery
asked.  She was familiar with Cindy’s hatred of the doctor’s office.

“Would you?  It’ll give us a chance to talk.  I’m not sure when we’ll find another moment.” 

Montgomery
smile
d
at Cindy.
“Of course, I
’m here for you.” She
patted Cindy’s leg.

“Agent Cindy Hawke,” a male nurse in a white smock stepped out calling her name. 

Cindy stood. Jack took her hand and pulled her down for a quick kiss lightly brushing his lips over hers.
“I’ll see you soon.” 

Smiling at him, she
turned to follow the nurse,
Montgomery
close behind.  Her friend kept quite until they were in the examination room.  Ignoring the nurse who was busy taking her temp and pulse rate
Montgomery
jumped right in.

“What the hell was that?  And hello, where did he pop up from?  I’ve never seen you act like that with anyone!”  Her astonished eyes stared at Cindy. 

Cindy did her best not to be defensive.  Her friend was only worried.

“Luce, relax.  You know that he’s the one who rescued me when I went over the falls.”  She hedged for a moment.

“Yes, well… That doesn’t explain the touching, not to mention the kisses.  I thought you two were going to go at it right there by the SUV.” 

Cindy blushed a bright red. 

“We have a connection, I don’t know how else to explain it Luce.  It’s been there since we first laid eyes on each other.  Sometimes I feel like I’m going to burn up from the inside if I can’t have him the ache is so deep.  You’re right.  I’ve never felt this way about anyone, and frankly, it scares the crap out of me.”

“I’m just worried Cindy, I don’t want to see you hurt.  What happened with Chase?  I know you two were together.” 

Cindy didn’t want to meet
Montgomery’s
eyes.  She looked everywhere else and focused on a picture of a waterfall on the far wall.  “Yes, well. That may be a problem.  I didn’t get a chance to tell Chase about Jack.  I think he knows, but we didn’t get the opportunity to talk about it.” 

Montgomery
let out a small gasp of surprise.
“When are you going to tell him?  Cause this thing between you and Jack looks pretty serious.” 

Cindy couldn’t agree more.
“Soon, I just have to find the right time.”

“Take it from me Honey. T
here is no right time when it comes to telling your true feel
ings.  Break it to him gently.
I’m sure he’ll get over it in time, but you need to be up front with him.”

“I know.” 

The nurse finished
with her vitals, and interrupted them to get a run down on her symptoms.

Cindy filled him in, trying to be as impersonal as she could.  The electrocution and beating had taken their toll mentally as well as physically, and she didn’t want to let on that she was more shaken up than was apparent.  When she was done the nurse left the room letting them know the doctor would be in soon.

“So, what are you going to do about Jack?” 
Montgomery’s
head tilted to one side as she gave Cindy a contemplative look.

“I think I’ll keep him.”  Cindy smiled at
Montgomery
, “He’s already agreed to join forces with F.I.U.W., so that won’t be an issue.  We just have to get it cleared through the military.  You know, that was one of my worries, getting to like some guy and not being able to be honest about my job.”

“I didn’t realize you thought about that.” 

“Damn straight I did.  Can you imagine being in a relationship based on lies.  It would never work.” 

Montgomery
just shrugged. T
o her lying was second nature. 
Montgomery
worked as an undercover agent most of the time
,
so one more lie was nothing to her. 

“I know you don’t really understand, you’re so good at manipulation, but I just couldn’t pull that off.  I guess that’s why they have me on the tech ops, no lying involved.”

“I suppose you’re right.  I can see your point.  Besides, if Jack lives up to his rep on file, then he’ll be a great asset to the team.” 
Montgomery
acknowledged grudgingly. 

At that point, Cindy knew that her friend had accepted her r
elationship with Jack.  She
worried, due to the fact that Chase was her brother the
ir
relationship might get in the way.  She should’ve known better, once
Montgomery
accepted someone into the fold of F.I.U.W., they were as good as family to her.

“Thanks Luce
.”

“No problem. When’s the damn doctor going to get here?” 

Cindy shrugged. 

They waited for several more minutes and ca
ught up on other things. F
inally
,
the doctor entered the room.  Cindy tried not to tense, but she couldn’t really help it. 

“Well Agent, it looks like they did a number on you.” 

Cindy could only nod and wince as he poked and prodded at several different nasty bruises.  His fingers found the place where Halverson’s foot landed on her ribs.

“Ouch!  Take it easy will ya!  I’ve already been through a torture session.”  Cindy glared at the doctor. 

He stepped back and leaned against the counter.
“Here’s what it looks like.  Your
body is in a bit of shock. N
ot all the bruises and lacerations are registering with you yet, but they will.  I want you to have an x-ray of those ribs.  I don’t think anything is actually broken, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.  You’ll need to take it easy for a few days.”  He held up a hand.

“I know that’s not a popular saying with any of you agents, but as you just said, you’ve been through enough torture.  Give you
rself time to heal.” 

Cindy
fidget
ed
with the edge of he
r medical gown.

“I’m prescribing you some pain killers, take them when needed.  You ladies have a nice day.”  He quickly wrote out a prescription, handed it to Cindy and left the room.

The nurse came back in, “I’ll take you down to x-ray.”

“I can come if you want.” 
Montgomery gave Cindy one of those I’ve-
got-your-back looks. 

“No, I’ll be fine.” Cindy followed the nurse out of the room down to x-ray.  It didn’t take long, and the doc came back into the room to tell her that she was a lucky woman her ribs weren’t broken, just bruised deeply.  She almost laughed
. I
f her ribs didn’t hurt so damn bad she would have.  After she got her clothes back on, Cindy went to meet her teammates in the waiting room.  She did smile when she noticed the grim looks on everyone’s face.

“Well, do
n’t you all look gloomy?”

They looked up as she entered.  Jack immediately got to his feet and crossed to her taking her hands.  She could feel the electric current running between
them and she let him lean in to
kiss h
er.  He
show
ed
a lot more affection than she was used to in most company, so she was a little uncomfortable, but she liked the way his lips felt against hers.  He drew back.

“Are you cleared?”
  Jack’s serious tone indicated
that if she wasn’t he was going to resurrect Halverson and kill him again. 

C
indy grinn
ed.
“Yup.  We can get started anytime.  Although I think that maybe this time I’ll let someone else take the lead and I’ll stick with the background stuff.  The doc told me to lay low for a few days to heal up, and I don’t think we can take that long.  Lead the way to the computers.”  Cindy glanced at
Montgomery
, and her friend smiled back as they made eye contact.

“Sounds good, the Director’s
got
us set up in one of the conference rooms.  There’s a computer wit
h access to the terminals ready
for you.  Let’s
go see what our boy was up to.”

Damn Bitch
!  Brett’s hand gripped the ledge just above him.  If he hadn’t been in that cell when the explosion went off he would have been a goner.  What right did she have to shoot him!  He was the one in charge.  She needed to be shown who was boss.  How to treat a man right!  Luckily, her shot had gone wide and just clipped him on the side. 

Climbing out of the rubble, Brett looked around.  Not much was left of the main compound, but there were still the outbuildings, and several guards left standing.  There a few vehicles
remained parked
around that he could use.  Limping over to a jeep, he climbe
d inside.  He knew just what
to do…

****

“That rat bastard! Luce, look at this.”  Cindy pointed to the computer screen.  “All these personnel files were recently accessed by Halverson with his pass code.  It’s our undercover agent files.  He’s downloaded them.”

“Shit, that’s not good.” 
Montgomery
leaned over her shoulder.

Cindy barely heard her as she read some of the names on the files.  She knew that several of these agents were already missing in action.  She flipped through several more screens of recently viewed files.  Chase’s file came up, and her blood chilled in her body.  Goosebumps rose on her arms.  No wonder they discovered who he was.  Halverson had given him up. 

“That fucking asshole gave up my brother!  He is so dead!” 
Montgomery
pushed off the desk and started to pace the room. 

Cindy turned around to look at her friend.  “Um, Luce, I shot him and you blew up the building around him.  I don’t think he survived that.”  At least, she hoped he hadn’t.

“Did you make sure?  Did you make sure that his rotting corpse would be lying under that pile of rubble for all eternity?” 
Montgomery
looked like she wanted to shoot something. 

Garrett moved over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders.  Cindy looked at her like she had grown two heads.  The man was dead, what more did she want?

“No, I was a little busy trying to save my own ass, but it’s doubtful that he could have survived.”  Cindy began to get an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach,
and
took a deep breath.  He couldn’t have survived an attack like that, could he?  The traitor was dead.  They just needed to do a little clean up to make sure the rest of these agents were safe
,
starting with Chase.  “We need to think of your brother right now.  Is he still at the hospital?”

“Last I knew they hadn’t released him yet.  Director Killroy says that he’s taking too many chances before he’s healed, and he needs to be on rest.  Chase refused to lay still and wait while you were being held captive, so they pumped him full of sedatives to make sure he gets the rest he needs.” 

Cindy nearly groaned.  That meant that Chase cared more for her than she thought.
Crap
, Jack was going to be an exceptionally hard blow.

“Maybe we can go visit him.  Make sure that he’s doing alright, and that he has a guard on his door.  These guys mean business, and they’ve almost gotten him twice.”  Garrett moved to the door and motioned for Lucy to follow. 

Montgomery
nodded. 

“We’ll go in the morning.  Right now,”
Montgomery
tapped the computer screen in the lower right hand corner, “its one thirty in the morning.  We need to get some sleep.  I’ll see you
when we wake up
and we can brainstorm how to handle this new development.” 

She turned to leave. “Oh, and Cindy, the vending machines are on the tenth floor.  I know you must be dying for Snickers.”