Trust Me (24 page)

“You look awful.”

 Elise sounded as annoyed as she looked, although
Alaina had no idea why.

“Nice to see you too Elise.
  Why are you so cheerful today?”

If it was possible Elise looked even more annoyed at
Alaina's question.  “Forget about me, do you know what time it is?”

“Well, I know it's after five because my admin told me
a while ago she was going home for the day,” she responded dryly, a bit bemused
at the cause of Elise's irritation. 

“It’s after five all right, it’s eleven-thirty P.M.! 
Don't you think that's a bit late to be working?”

“Hey how did you get in here after business hours
anyway?” Alaina asked, avoiding Elise's question.

“The security guard knows me since I've met you here
so many times after work, so he let me in.  Never mind all that, why are
you at the office so late?”

Alaina appeared a bit perplexed at her question. 
“What's the big deal? Haven't you put in many a late night?”

“Yes we all have to do a bit of overtime on occasion,
but you've been working past midnight for the past two weeks, including
weekends.  Look at you, you look terrible!  I bet you haven't been
eating either.” 

“Okay, so I've been putting in some extra hours, but I
had a great deal to catch up on.”  Alaina defended herself. What was the
matter with Elise anyway?

“You must have caught up by now.  Alaina slow
down. I know this thing with Donovan has been awful, but you've got to stop
working so much and start eating something.”

“This has nothing to do with Donovan.  I missed
over a week of work so I've had a lot of catching up to do. It's as simple as
that.” 

Elise shot her a piercing look.  “Who do you
think you're kidding?  This is me you're talking to and you're full of
it.”

Alaina sighed, running a hand through her hair as she
said, “Really, I'm fine.  You have nothing to worry about.”

“Well maybe I'd have an easier time believing you if
you didn't look like death warmed over.” 

Alaina smiled, Elise certainly never minced words.
“Stop flattering me so much, you'll make my head swell.”

“I have an idea, why don't we go to your house, have a
coffee and we'll talk. How's that sound?”

“I really don't feel like talking about it. 
Maybe we can get together later when I'm more up to it.”

Elise shook her head adamantly.  “No way girl,
I'm
not going to let you wallow in your misery any
longer.  Now come on let's get you home and have a chat. I promise you'll
feel better after we talk about it.”

Alaina knew that Elise wasn't going to give up. It
would just be easier to let her have her way.  “All right, you win, we can
go back to my house and talk, but I can guarantee you it’s not going to make me
feel better.”  She stood up, and grabbing her laptop she said, “Let's go.”

Each taking their separate cars, Alaina and Elise
drove to Alaina's home.  Alaina was the first to arrive and opened the
front door, immediately turning on the light switch as she entered the front
hall.   She stopped, unable to believe what she saw.  Her house
was in shambles.  It had been broken into and torn apart, but it was
immediately evident that whoever had broken in wasn't there just to rob the
place.  Her television and DVD player were still in her family room,
untouched.  Whoever had been here was looking for something
specific. 

Just then Elise entered the house.  “What
the...?  Alaina what happened?”

Alaina realized she was trembling.  Shaking her
head she said, “I have no idea.” She looked at Elise with fear in her eyes.
 “I thought it was all over, I thought I was safe now.”

“What makes you think this is related to the stuff
with your father?  This could just be a robbery, you know.”

“A robbery where they leave
behind my big screen TV?
  I don't think so.”

“Yeah I guess you’re right,” Elise admitted
reluctantly.  “We had better get out of here, it's possible whoever did
this could still be in the house.”

Alaina nodded in agreement. “You're right, let's
go!”  They left the house quickly.

Elise was the first to speak, “Let's get into my car,
we can call the police.”

“I'm not calling the police I'm calling Donovan; the
FBI has to know about this.”  They got into Elise's car and Alaina grabbed
her phone from her purse and called Donovan.

His voice sounded tired as he answered, he had
obviously been sleeping.
“Alaina?”

“Donovan, I need your help.”

Donovan woke instantly at the sound of panic in her
voice.  “What's wrong?” he asked.

“My house has been broken into, and it wasn't a
robbery. I mean it doesn't look like anything was taken.  Everything was
torn apart as if someone was looking for something.”

“You're not in the house are you?” 

“No, I'm in the Elise's car, with the doors locked, in
my driveway.”  She assured him.

“Good.  Do you have any idea what they might have
been looking for?”

“Not a clue.” 

“Think. Was there anything your father left in your
safe keeping?”

“No, he didn't leave me anything.  When he died,
all of his belongings went to his second wife.”  She couldn’t begin to
fathom what someone might think she had.

“Well somebody thinks you’ve got something
important.  In the meantime, you’ve got to get out of there.” 

“Elise and I can just go back to her place.”

“No I don't think that's wise, you could be
followed.  I want you to go to the San Diego Bureau headquarters. 
I'll call ahead so they're expecting you.  First I'm going to go to your
house to make sure it’s clear and then I'll meet you back at the FBI
office.  Do you know where it is?”

“Give me the address and we’ll just plug it into the
GPS.”  Donovan gave her the information and without hesitating she said,
“Thanks, be careful.”

“Baby, don't worry about me, just get the hell out of
there.”  He hung up and then quickly dialed the Bureau office asking for a
back-up agent to help him check Alaina's house for intruders.  After
confirming the arrival of another agent he sprang out of bed quickly pulling on
a pair of jeans, running shoes and a t-shirt, grabbed his gun and left his
apartment.

To say he had been surprised to hear Alaina's voice
was an understatement.  She had been so angry with him he had never
expected she would call him.  The last couple of weeks had been hell but
he had forced himself not to contact her, waiting for her to calm down. 
He knew that until she had an opportunity to let her temper cool they could
never be able to settle anything between them.  The waiting had been
driving him crazy.  A thousand times he had wanted to pick up the phone to
hear her voice, but he knew she wasn't ready.   Now the waiting had
come unexpectedly to an end. She had called him, although it hadn't been out of
forgiveness, it had been out of desperation.  Donovan didn't care. He'd
take any opportunity to get close to her again.

First things first, before he could worry about their
relationship, he had to work on finding out who or what was threatening
her.  He'd had the feeling there was a loose end he had overlooked, and
now there was no doubt.  Unfortunately, he still didn't know exactly what
he’d missed.  Were there other people or perhaps another country that had
been involved?  For the last two weeks he had gone through every bit of
information they had on the OAS and the bombings, but had found nothing. 
In fact, he had almost convinced himself he had been wrong about the case not
being finished, that there was nothing to find.  If he was lucky, Donovan
thought, he might uncover some new evidence at Alaina's house.  He smiled
wryly to himself at the thought that luck really hadn't been on his side
lately.

It was past one in the morning when Alaina and Elise
arrived at FBI headquarters in San Diego.  The building for all intents
and purposes, appeared closed.  Alaina, with Elise following directly
behind her, entered the lobby of the building and were greeted by a security
guard on duty at the front desk.  He looked up as the two women
approached.

“Can I help you ladies?” he asked in a friendly voice.

Alaina responded with no hesitation, anxious to get
inside the protective walls of the FBI.  “Agent Donovan Prentice advised
us to come to the FBI Bureau headquarters.”

No show of surprise crossed the guard's face as he
asked, “Your names?”

“Alaina Simmons and Elise
Vincent.”

The guard looked down at a clipboard lying on his
desk.  After he had finished scanning it he looked up and smiled “Your
names are right here, one moment while I call upstairs.” He picked up his phone
and dialed.  “Ms. Simmons and Ms. Vincent have arrived.”  Hanging up
the phone he returned his attention to Alaina and Elise.  “An agent will
be down momentarily to escort you upstairs”

“Thanks,” Alaina automatically responded while hoping
they wouldn't have to wait long in the lobby.  She felt too vulnerable in
the large open space, completely in plain view and unprotected.  She
noticed Elise appeared as if going to FBI headquarters at one in the morning
was an everyday occurrence. What an amazing woman. 

Pulling her friend away from the security guard's
earshot Alaina took the opportunity to apologize. “I'm really sorry you were
put at risk, I thought all of this mess was over.”

Elise squeezed her hand reassuringly.  “Don't
worry about it, besides this is much more interesting than lying in bed
watching
Housewives of New York
, which was my original plan.”

Alaina laughed in disbelief. “Only you would rather be
running for your life than secure in your own home watching TV.”

Before Elise could respond to Alaina's remark, they
were interrupted by the opening of the elevator doors at the far end of the
lobby.  Alaina immediately recognized Agent Casivetti as he exited the
elevator and walked over to where they were standing.

“Hello Ms. Simmons, it nice to see you again, but I am
sorry about the circumstances which brought you here.” He turned toward Elise
and said, “You must be Ms. Vincent.”

It was obvious Elise found Agent Casivetti's dark good
looks extremely appealing by the way her eyes almost popped out of her head.

Elise responded in a sexy husky voice that Alaina had
never heard before. “Yes, I'm Elise Vincent, and you are?”

Casivetti's somber expression never altered at Elise's
flirtatious tone, although something may have flared in his eyes. “Forgive me,
I’m Agent Dominic Casivetti.”

Elise sent him a sultry look that would have made
Marilyn Monroe proud. “Do you mind if I call you Dominic? I just find
formalities a bit restricting.”

Alaina had to admit she was truly impressed, there
they were at FBI headquarters hiding from possible terrorists and Elise was
flirting outrageously with an agent.  Her friend appeared to be completely
unconcerned about anything except perhaps the agent in front of them.

He cleared his throat. “Sure if it makes you more
comfortable Ms. Vincent, call me Dominic.  Now if you ladies will please
follow me upstairs.” He turned, heading back to the elevators, assuming Alaina
and Elise would follow. 

Alaina had the feeling that Elise would have probably
followed Agent Casivetti even if he hadn't wanted her to. They went up in the
elevator, Alaina blindly following Casivetti not even noticing which floor they
exited.  Surprisingly enough, inside the building the offices looked like
any other.  The area, devoid of people, was designed in an open concept
manner, filled with desks that were separated by low-level dividers, the outer
walls of which appeared to contain private offices.  One noticeable
difference was that all of the desks were clean, instead of being littered with
files or papers.  They continued to follow Agent Casivetti through the
corridor until they reached one of the outer enclosed offices. 

He turned to face them, speaking for the first time
since he had met them in the lobby.

“This is my office. We can wait here until Agent
Prentice arrives.  Please have a seat.” 

The office was spacious, containing a desk, several
chairs, a computer, and several filing cabinets.  However it was
completely devoid of character: there were no plants, no scattered files, or
personal items to indicate a human being worked there.  As both women took
their seat, Agent Casivetti sat down at the chair behind his desk. 

Alaina became aware of how tired she was; it was late
and she was still wearing her skirt, blazer and pumps, not an outfit you wanted
to spend the night in.  Elise wore similar attire, but Alaina noticed she
looked like she was perfectly comfortable. What I wouldn't give for a pair of
yoga pants and a t-shirt right about now, she thought wistfully.  She soon
forgot about her own personal comfort as the minutes ticked by and her concern for
Donovan grew.  Although Alaina had not forgotten her anger at Donovan she
couldn't help herself from worrying about his safety.