Rendezvous with Danger (Reunited Series) (3 page)

His voice broke, but he held his gaze steady, maintaining his usual tough-guy composure, and Alandra’s heart crumbled. She blinked rapidly to keep tears from falling. He had always been so hard, tough, and strong willed. It had been too easy for her to forget he was just a man. She drew in a deep breath as she walked toward him.

“Quinn, I’m sorry, but I lost too. I’ve missed you so much, and staying away was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. So many times I wanted to call you, but I couldn’t. It wasn’t safe.”

He pushed slowly away from the wall and approached her with concern in his eyes. “What do you mean it wasn’t safe?” He reached out to touch her, but dropped his arm.

Disappointment crept in when he took a step back as if she were toxic, as if touching her would somehow weaken him. Alandra swallowed hard and decided it was probably for the best. Had he pulled her into his arms, there was no telling what would happen. Besides, that wasn’t why she had come. Three years ago someone tried to kill her, and now she was determined to find out who and why, but she needed Quinn’s help.

She sighed, anxious about getting him to understand. “Quinn, I’m in the midst of something big and you’re going to blow my cover if you keep coming to the hospi—”

“Are you kidding me?” he yelled. His angry eyes pierced her soul deeper than any knife ever could. “This three year disappearance is connected to some goddamn op?”

She stepped to him and placed her hands on his chest in hopes of calming him down. “No. No, you don’t understand. It’s just that—”

“I can’t believe this shit!” He jerked away from her and raised his fist as if he were going to punch through the wall.

“Let me explain,” Alandra grabbed his arm.

He turned abruptly. “Explain? Hell, you’ve had three damn years to explain.”

“But I couldn’t. I—”

“Yeah, you could have,” he said in a hoarse whisper. He held her face in his large hands, his lips inches from hers. Her pulse quickened. “Lan, baby, there is nothing I wouldn’t have done for you including give my life. I mean absolutely nothing. And you knew that, so don’t tell me you didn’t have a choice.”

He dropped his hands and Alandra immediately missed the warmth on her cheeks. The pain she saw in his eyes burned into her memory. This man had risked his life by showing up in Guerrero, Mexico to save her from Orlando Medina, a ruthless drug lord. A man like Medina wouldn’t have thought twice about killing her had Quinn not shown up when he had. And here she was saying that she couldn’t come to him.

“Q, please let me explain.”

“You’re a professional liar so anything you tell me will probably be bullshit,” he said, a faint tremor in his voice. “Just go.” He walked out of the room without a backwards glance and she followed behind him, prepared to plead her case, but pulled up short when they reached the front door, and he opened it.

“Quinn.”

“Get…out.”

****

Alandra refused to cry. Hurrying to her car, parked half a mile away, she pulled her hat down further over her head and snuggled deeper into her jacket, her shoulders hunched up to her ears. She had never felt so humiliated in all her life. How could Quinn treat her so cold, dismissing her as if she were a beggar on the street looking for a handout? Sure, she understood his shock in her appearing on his doorstep after so much time, but to refuse her an opportunity to explain wasn’t like him.

She finally reached her vehicle and with frozen fingers she fumbled with her keys, dropping them twice before she successfully unlocked the door. She hated Chicago’s weather. It was only October and already temperatures had dropped to the low twenties. At this rate, there was no way she would be able to handle winter in the Midwest. The sooner she found the people she was after, the quicker she could head back west.

Anxious to get out of the cold, she practically dove into the car once she got the door opened and rushed to start the engine. Her teeth clattered, her body shivered and she wondered if she would ever get warm again.

What a waste.
She thought of her intention to get Quinn to stay away from the hospital. Not only had she seen a different side of him, a side she didn’t like, but she also almost froze her butt off in the process. Parking so far away, on the coldest day of the year was an even worse decision than going to see him. He lived out in the middle of nowhere, a densely wooded area with very few lights. She had talked herself into going to him without being sure she was ready to see him face to face, and had parked a distance away in order to sneak away if she chickened out at the last minute.

 
How could I have been so stupid? To think I could just walk in there and ask for his help. What was I thinking?

Seeing Quinn again sparked an untamed desire within her, and memories of the love they once shared had tormented her since the day she saw him in the emergency room. She knew months ago that he lived in Chicago, but hadn’t decided when or if she’d reveal herself, but after the night at the hospital she ached to see him again. It wasn’t just because she needed his help; it was because she knew she was still very much in love with him.

Once on the highway, Alandra dodged in and out of traffic. The heat in her car was on full blast, but she still shivered against the freezing cold. If it weren’t for following a lead on her self-imposed mission to find the person responsible for ruining her life, she would be on the next plane back to Los Angeles.

She pulled into the Jewel Osco’s grocery store parking lot. She had just over an hour to get to work, but after eating fast food for the last three days, she needed something more nutritious.

Alandra stepped out of the car, stopped and glanced around. An eerie sensation of being watched had plagued her for the last couple of days, and tonight was no different. A slow perusal of her surroundings, nearby cars, people walking to and from the store, revealed nothing. Nothing looked out of place, but the creepy tingling on the back of her neck remained.

She shook off the feeling, sure she was being paranoid. Only her sister and now Quinn and his friends knew she was in Chicago, so it was unlikely that she was being watched. She grabbed her bag and locked the car door. Living as a different person for the past few years had made her even more restless than usual. She’d never been one for living in fear, but once someone tries to kill you, you’re never the same. And as an ex-spy for the CIA, she still looked over her shoulder at every turn out of habit, wondering if she would ever be able to shake the annoying practice.

Alandra hurried into the grocery store, seized a hand-held basket and proceeded to the deli counter to place an order for two. Since arriving in Chicago, she and her sister, Natasha Lockham, Chief of Staff at the hospital, often grabbed a quick bite together. Guilt clawed at Alandra when she thought of her sister. When she begged Natasha for a job, she never mentioned the main reason she wanted to work there - her target was a nurse employed at the same hospital. There was a lot her sister didn’t know, and for now Alandra wanted to keep it that way.

Alandra jerked her head around when the prickling sensation on the back of her neck started up again. A quick scan of her surroundings only revealed a man with a thick wool hat and an oversized coat talking to a little boy about peanut butter, an older woman looking through the day-old bread in the bakery, and three women arguing good naturedly about which dinner rolls to purchase. There was no one watching her or at least no one she could see.
Okay, now this is getting weird
.
Maybe I’m just tired
.

“Here you go ma’am. Can I get you anything else?”

Alandra turned to the woman behind the counter. “No, this is good. Thank you.” She took the two sandwiches and proceeded to the check out. If she didn’t get herself together, she would need to start seeing a therapist again. After her near death experience, it had taken over a year of counseling to start sleeping through the night without waking up in a cold sweat every few hours. Those were some dark days and going back to a therapist would be like reliving it all over again. No, whatever this weird sensation was would pass. That was a different time in her life and she had survived.

Twenty minutes later Alandra sat in front of her sister’s desk while she finished a call.
Dr. Natasha Lockham, Chief of Staff.
Alandra stared at the nameplate in her hand, tracing the gold plated letters with her index finger. Throughout her life, her big sister had been her go to person, her rock, and the only one in her family who knew she’d been a spy for the CIA. Just once she would have liked to see her sister, not about a problem or some drama, but with good news. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be tonight.

Alandra glanced at Natasha who was on the telephone. Divorced ten years ago, her sister gave up on love and poured herself into her career, making her one of the youngest Chief of Staff in the city. At thirty-five, with smooth bronze toned skin, she looked more like their Latino father than her or their other sister, and she had his same work ethic – you’re not finished until the job is done perfectly.

“Sorry about that,” Natasha said when she finished her call. “Let’s get back to our discussion. So after all of these months of knowing Quinn was in Chicago, you finally went to see him.” She took a swig from her Diet Coke and unwrapped her roast beef sandwich.

Alandra had left Quinn’s almost an hour ago and still hadn’t gotten over his reaction to her sudden appearance, or her response to being near him again. An involuntary shiver raced down her spine when she remembered the longing she felt when he cupped her face in his hands, his lips close enough to kiss. What made her think she could see him again, and not be affected by his presence? She pressed the nameplate against her forehead with both hands and closed her eyes.
I don’t need this distraction right now.

“You should’ve heard the way he spoke to me,” Alandra said in a grudging tone and slammed the nameplate back on the desk, ignoring her sister’s warning scowl. She lurched out of her seat and paced the length of the office, getting angrier by the minute. “He has never raised his voice at me like he did tonight. And the way he looked at me…God, you would’ve thought I was an ax murderer or something!”

“Girl, are you serious?” Her sister took the last bite of her roast beef sandwich. “Look at it from his point of view. He married a woman he was wildly in love with. A week later, she shocks the hell out of him by showing up at a
covert
op – in a
dangerous
country where women should not travel alone. Then, if that weren’t wild enough, gunfire breaks out; she gets shot in the chest, and dies. Three years later out of nowhere, she drops by his house for a random visit like none of that ever happened. Please, you’re lucky that man didn’t have a heart attack, or worse, shoot you.”

 Alandra’s jaw dropped. “Why do you always make it sound like I’m the one who’s wrong?”

Natasha stood and tossed the wrapper from her sandwich into the trash. “Because you usually are.”

“No I’m not. I just wanted him to stop coming to the hospital asking questions about me.  I’m trying to keep a low profile.”

“And?”

Alandra paused, glanced down at the burgundy carpet and then met her sister’s gaze. “And I wanted to ask for his help, but mainly I wanted him stop coming around here. You have to understand. If he keeps showing up looking as fine as he is, asking other nurses about me, they’re bound to get suspicious.”

Natasha shifted her weight, put her hands on her hips and gave Alandra an “are you kidding me” look.

Alandra ran her hands down her face and groaned. “Okay, I see where you’re coming from. Maybe I didn’t handle things right, but that doesn’t negate the fact that we’re married and were once very much in love. Damn, Tasha…” Alandra fought back tears and a sob that was clogging her throat. “You weren’t there. You didn’t see the look in his eyes. The hurt. The anger.”

Quinn had once promised her he would love her forever. How could he have treated her like that? He had to know there was a good reason for her to stay away, but he didn’t give her a chance to explain, a chance to tell him how much she loved him and would have never stayed away if it weren’t necessary.

Natasha walked from behind the desk. At five-nine with a medium build, she moved with the grace of a dancer. She placed her hands on Alandra’s shoulders. “Sis, I get you’re upset, but how would you feel if the roles were reversed? Had he arrived on your front step when you thought he’d been dead for a few years, you probably would’ve freaked out.”

Alandra relaxed her shoulders. Her sister was right. What was she thinking just showing up? She would have been devastated if she’d believed Quinn had died in her arms and then he suddenly reappeared years later without a good reason for his absence. Shame wrenched in her chest. If only she would’ve handled the situation tonight differently, but what did it matter now? He wanted nothing to do with her.

“So now what?”

“I’m not sure,” Alandra said absently. “She had hoped to solicit Quinn’s help in finding the person who tried to kill her. But since she couldn’t count on him, she’d start tapping into her own connections. Contact those she knew she could trust.

****

For the first time in days, the sun was shining in Arlington, Virginia, but for Vance Anderson, it might as well have been a cold, cloudy day with rain flooding the city. He stepped away from the kitchen window, removed chocolate chip walnut cookies from the oven and placed them on the cooling rack. Where most men took their minds off their problems by watching sports, or hanging out in bars, Vance baked. Today would have been he and his wife’s nineteenth-year wedding anniversary, and like every year, he spent the day remembering her, remembering what they once shared. Two and a half years ago, the day after her thirty-seventh birthday, Jody died from esophageal cancer leaving him and their two children to carry on without her. He would never forget that day because it had been the worst day of his life.

 He grabbed the last two trays laden with peanut butter cookies and placed them on the top rack of the oven. The nursing home, where he volunteered twice a month, would be the beneficiaries of the sweet treats that he would drop off later today.