Flat Line

by J. M. Madden

  "So, you're smarter and wiser now, right? You will know going into anything with Parker that it's going to end. Right?"

  Andy stared at her hard, obviously amazed that Roz would even consider saying 'maybe'.

  "And if I fall in love again?"

  She wished she could give her a good, solid answer, but Roz could only shrug. "I guess that's a choice only you can decide. You map out your risk and reward and decide which you want more."

  Andy nodded, looking out the window. Did she even realize what she'd done, Roz wondered.

  "This could not happen at a worse time," she whispered.

  "Agreed."

  Roz poured her another glass of wine, then a second one for herself. When Mac entered the room, she poured him a glass as well, then motioned to another kitchen chair.

  "What are we drinking to?" he asked.

  "Old flames," Roz told him.

  Mac lifted his brows in surprise but didn't say anything, just swallowed his wine down. Roz liked how he just sat back and was supportive without saying much at all. He had a calm, steady peace about him that she found surprisingly welcome. "Did I hear Andy say you were a former Green Beret?"

  He blinked, his gray eyes turning cautious. "I was. For almost fifteen years."

  "Wow. That's really something. What made you get out of it?"

  His gaze flickered, and he looked away. "I saw too many things that I didn't like, so I did what I needed to get away from it."

  She could admire that. It was hard to walk away from a career after that long. "And what do you do now?"

  Mac gave her a smile, the whiskers of his beard moving. "Well, I was teaching at Ohio State for a while, and now I'm taking some classes in biology. I don't have a specific path in mind. I just love learning about things."

  Hm. She'd thought about going back to college herself for the same reason.

  His gaze focused in on hers and he leaned forward in his chair, toward her. "And what are you doing all alone on this mountain, Rosalind White?"

  He asked so softly, so coaxingly, that she answered him without thought. "Healing."

  Roz blinked, realizing what she'd said, but Mac didn't push her about it. Instead he nodded and looked out the window.

  "This is a good place to do it, I think."

  And just that easily he accepted the reason for her crazy. When Roz felt the relief flow through her, she could have laughed. Here she was thinking she was all tough and hard and those few words made a knot of tension in her tummy ease. Had she really been that worried about it?

  She glanced at Andy. The younger woman's eyes were wide, and she had a soft smile on her lips.

  Mac poured himself another glass of wine. "People deal with things the way they need to."

  "Yes, they do," she agreed, nodding at her glass. Mac poured her the last of the bottle.

  "I'm going to go get my computer and catch up on some things," Andy murmured.

  They watched as she slipped her shoes on and jogged out to the car. She came back with her messenger bag in hand and went into the living room. Within a few minutes they heard computer keys clacking.

  "How awkward do you think it's going to be staying in the house with those two?" He tipped his bearded chin toward Andy.

  Roz laughed, and it surprised her. A man hadn't made her laugh like that for a long time. "I don't know. We only have a day or two. It can't get too bad."

  Chapter 12

  Andromeda cursed as she read her email. Mike had sent her three.

  The first was that the cop was going to be okay. He'd sustained a head injury, but it wasn't too bad. He would be okay to testify in court.

  The second email was to tell her that he hadn't heard from the defendant's counsel. They had until Monday at noon to decide whether or not they were going to take the plea deal. Otherwise the trial started on Wednesday.

  The third email was what made her curse. The cop recovering from the head injury had been found dead in his hospital room bathroom, apparently the victim of strangulation or poison.

  Tears started in her eyes and she rested her head in her hands for a moment. Officer Tracey had been a good, true blue cop, husband and father with two small daughters. He'd been one of those guys that had gotten into police work for all the right reasons, to help people.

  These terrorists were leaving a trail of destruction in their wake that would be felt for generations, and they just didn't care. Andromeda wanted to believe that everyone had a place in their beautiful country, but when terror groups took advantage and started waging war against their hosts, it was just too much. This group was in her home city and she wanted them gone.

  She put a Skype call through to Mike, hoping he was in his office.

  "What the hell is going on up there?" she demanded. "I thought you had him under protection?"

  Mike scowled, his smoothly shaved face wrinkling. His iron gray hair looked mussed, like he’d been running his fingers through it. "We did. I had two cops on him at all times. He was being discharged and he'd gone into the bathroom to change. We're not sure how long the attacker was in there or even how he got in, we're looking at surveillance tapes now. But he killed Tracey then offed himself. We found a needle at the scene and we're testing it now."

  "We look like jackasses, Mike. I'm down to one witness."

  "I know, Andromeda. I don't want you to come back into town until Wednesday morning, right before court."

  "You don't think he'll take the deal?"

  Mike scrubbed a hand over his face. "I'm not going to hold my breath, I'll tell you that much."

  Yeah, she wasn't either.

  "Is your guy still good to go?"

  "Yes, he is."

  "Still have your SEAL protector with you?"

  "Yes."

  They were silent for a moment.

  "I don't have to tell you to be careful," Mike said eventually. "I know you will be. Take care of that witness."

  She glanced up as Mac walked into the room. "I will do my damnedest."

  They hung up and Andromeda sat back with a sigh.

  "How much did you hear?" she asked Mac.

  "All of it."

  Mac sighed as he sank down beside her on the couch. "This one is going to get hairy, isn't it?"

  She nodded her head, staring into the middle distance as she thought about what she needed to do.

  Parker ran a bucket of soapy water and begged a few rags from Roz, then went out to clean Andy's car. They were going to need it in a couple of days.

  He cleaned for a solid half hour before dropping the final rag in the bloody-watered bucket. He'd known he'd lost a lot of blood, but damn. That had been a lot.

  He left the doors open so that it would air dry and tossed out the water. He rinsed the rags at the outside spigot, but he doubted they would ever come completely clean again.

  Parker went into the house and gave himself a shower next, then headed to the kitchen for leftover pizza. Roz glanced at him as she stood at the counter peeling potatoes. "Dinner will be in a couple hours."

  He gave her a grin. "I know. This is just a snack."

  She shook her head at him.

  "Where did Andy go?"

  Roz gave him a narrow-eyed look. "Not sure. Maybe she needs some alone time."

  Parker sighed. "I just want to talk to her."

  "I think she'd have found you if she was interested."

  He tried not to let her words hurt, but they did.

  "Listen, Parker. You seem like a nice enough guy, but in two or three days you'll be gone again, and I'll be here with a bottle of wine picking up the pieces you leave behind." Her pale eyes flashed. "If I can head that heartache off at the pass I would like to do just that. Do you understand? I've seen the way you look at Andromeda. You would consume her if you could, I see that. And I realize it's not just one sided. But you are going to break her heart when you leave."

  He clenched his jaw and looked out the window, not liking what he was hearing but understanding th
at her friendship wouldn't allow her to sit idly by as her friend walked into a potentially hurtful situation.

  And she was completely right. Andromeda would never leave her job and it would be very hard for him to leave his. He'd just gotten on at Lost and Found within the past two years, and he enjoyed the people there. They all had physical issues so there was an understanding there that he would probably never find anywhere else. Not unless he created his own agency. And hired the same type of people.

  "I know there's probably not much chance of anything happening between us," he told her eventually, "but I need to be sure, Roz. I know she's your friend but this attraction isn't just one-sided."

  She blinked and looked down at the table. "I know, Parker. But you need to do everything in your power not to hurt her."

  He gave her a sad smile. "If things go the way they did last time I'm going to be the one walking away with a hole in my chest."

  Andromeda knew he would come.

  She looked up from her computer screen to see Parker limping down the bank to the bridge. The short dirty blond hair was dark, like he'd just taken a shower, and it looked like he'd changed clothes. He wore a pair of blue jeans today, not the black BDUs from the first day. The jeans looked good on him, though he moved like he was hurting. He wore an olive green t-shirt. Looked like something military. And his weapon was on his hip in a slide holster.

  She didn't even notice the irregularity in his face anymore. She'd gotten used to it. It was just Parker, handsome as always.

  The crazy part was, he moved like he was in pain, but she didn't get the feeling that it was pain from his gunshot wound.

  "Are your legs hurting you?"

  He blinked as he stepped up into the gazebo and sat down on the bench about a foot from her. "Saw the scars, huh?"

  She looked at him askance. "Kind of hard not to. What happened?"

  He clenched his jaw and she knew she shouldn't be asking. Hell, what had happened to him might be classified, but she was damn curious. It looked like someone had just started cutting on him.

  "I was in Yemen on a mission that went bad. I was wounded and got captured. I was a guest of the Taliban for two days before my boys managed to find me and get me out. My interrogator was well known for his knife work, and he'd recently developed a Misery-type hammer fetish." His gray eyes darkened as he scrubbed his hands together. "I don't remember much of that week after they grabbed me and took me home, but I remember waking up when the sedative wore off and they were x-raying my legs. The bones were so broken that they looked twisted on the scans. My ankles looked like bags of marbles."

  She cringed, her stomach clenching with nausea at the thought of how he'd been injured. "I'm so sorry, Parker. My god."

  He shrugged nonchalantly, but she could see the pain in his eyes. "You needed to know. I'm never going to be that cocky bastard that used to carry you everywhere. I can barely carry myself through a doorway."

  He gave her a look, as if considering how much to tell her.

  "What?" She asked.

  "I dreamt of you when I was in there. It was the only beautiful thing I had left. My mind. And the things we did together. The bastard couldn't take that away from me."

  His voice got rough at the end and she could see he was fighting some strong emotion. That made her feel emotional too. She scooted closer and gripped his hand. "What did you think about?"

  He gave a harsh laugh. "Everything. The way you would swing your hair over your shoulder and braid it. The way your skin glistened when you stepped out of the shower and into the towel I held for you. The way you used to ride me. And no matter what I had been out doing, as soon as you saw me you opened your arms to me. Those visions kept me sane."

  "That was so long ago, though. Haven't you had other relationships?"

  Parker immediately shook his head. "I've had hookups not relationships. Those two weeks we had together are the most vivid two weeks of my life. The memories of our time together got me through torture in Yemen, and the pain of recovery, which was almost as bad. I have to thank you for that."

  Lifting her hand, he pressed a kiss to the back of it, then let it rest on his thigh. "I did a lot of things wrong back then, but I want you to know that I loved you with all my heart. Yeah, I know I didn't have the maturity I needed to, but I did have the emotion."

  Andromeda blinked, her eyes suddenly awash in tears. "Thank you for telling me that, Parker. I loved you too, but you scared me. Everything was so carefree and fun, and you made me forget all about the plans for the rest of my life. If you had asked me to run away with you I probably would have."

  He looked at her in surprise. "Really? Wow," he breathed. "What a tempting idea. The government would have been on my ass, though."

  They chuckled together, and she leaned more into his shoulder. "I wish things had turned out differently."

  "I do too, Andy."

  They sat like that for a long time, listening to the water in the stream and the sound of each other's breathing. It was the most relaxed she could remember being for the past two days. No, the past week. Parker had matured over the years and she appreciated that.

  That maturity had come at a price though. She couldn't imagine the torture he'd gone through to receive the scars he had. It had to have been horrendous. What kind of person would do that?

  The same type that would try to kill children at an art fair.

  "What are we going to do?" She asked quietly.

  "Well," he heaved a heavy breath, his shoulder moving against her own. "We're going to get back to Ohio and you will win your court case. Are you sure this guy won't take the plea deal?"

  Andromeda shook her head. "I don't think so. They're so loyal to each other and their cause, I doubt that he's even considered it."

  Parker was quiet for a long time. "What are the details of the plea deal, can I ask?"

  Andromeda gave him an outline of what they were asking for. Mozi had tried to carry out a lone wolf attack and he'd completely screwed it up. She knew he would not name his father as one of the planners of that attack. But the Christmas parade, on the other hand, was a different story and he just might. That had been a successful attack in their opinion and worthy of praise.

  Andromeda thought that Mozi's father was trying to protect him, even though he was only a fourth or fifth son. The direct witnesses at the art fair crime scene, other than Mac, were all dead, but they still had security footage of Mozi in the truck. All of the effort the al Fareq family was going to in order to extinguish the witnesses was in vain.

  Something hit her then. "I wonder… if I let it be known that we have footage of Mozi in the truck, I wonder if his family would back down."

  "That is an excellent thought," Parker told her. "It's not public knowledge?"

  She shook her head. "We released a generic clip of the truck, but not the one of him getting out of the truck with a gun in hand."

  Andromeda tapped a finger to her lips. "I need to call Mike and have him put out a press release."

  Turning to Parker, she leaned up and gave him a kiss on the corner of his mouth. "Thank you for making me talk about this. I think if the family will disavow him, he'll retaliate by taking the plea deal. Oh, this could be good."

  She turned away, then immediately spun back. "Thank you for telling me about Yemen. I know it wasn't easy."

  Pressing another kiss to his cheek, she looked at him for a long moment. Without another word she left the gazebo and jogged up the hill to the cabin.

  Mike was surprised by her call but seemed excited about her plan. "Let me make a few calls and see if I can pull a few strings at the Columbus Dispatch. We might be able to make this work."

  Andromeda waited for a while, then started pacing. When Roz asked her what was going on she explained.

  "Oh, that's a good idea. I hope it works."

  Less than an hour later Mike returned her call. "My contact said she would be more than happy to do up a little article for us and sprinkle in som
e key details. It will be front page in tomorrow's Dispatch and featured on all their social media accounts."

  "No way," Andromeda breathed. "Oh, that makes me very happy. If we play this right his family could completely disavow him. Will his attorney see this article?"

  "Oh, I'm sure. Pete Mancuso gets his coffee and paper every morning at one coffee shop. I know for a fact he'll see it."

  "Did Mozi tell his family they had him on tape?"

  "I seriously doubt it. I don't think they realize how much evidence we have against him. If they did, they wouldn't have tried to get rid of all the witnesses. This is a good plan, Andromeda."

  She laughed lightly. "I had help working this out."

  "Stay near your phone. Hopefully I'll have some good news for you tomorrow."

  "Okay. Later, Mike."

  Parker drowsed on the padded bench for a while before moving to the couch thing. He worried that he would be too big for it, but it actually was very sturdy. And damn comfortable. He felt safe enough that when his lids drifted shut he allowed himself to relax and drift off to sleep.

  "Parker Quinn."

  For a moment he was disoriented, but when he looked up into Andy's smiling face he knew he was okay, wherever he was. She grinned down at him, then leaned down to press a kiss to his lips. Without hesitation he cupped her head in his hands and kept her mouth on his own, tasting her, remembering her. If she had shown the slightest hesitation he would have let her go, but she didn't.

  "Oh, Andy," he whispered. "You feel like home to me."

  Blinking, she looked down at him in surprise. "What?"

  "You taste just so much better than I remember. And I feel like we belong together. This feels right."

  Bracing a hand on the back of the divan, she leaned down to kiss him again, tilting her head to lick at the seam of his lips. Parker cupped her waist, then her ribcage and her shoulders in his hands, rubbing them up and down.

  When she pulled back, he let her go. He didn't want her to feel pressured in any way.

  "Dinner is ready, if you're hungry. If you're comfortable I'll let you sleep but you've been down here for several hours."