Pawn

by Carla Cassidy

  "I don't understand. What are you talking about?" Up close she could see that he had on colored contact lenses. His hair color had been lightened and suddenly she did understand. "The Witness Protection program?"

  He smiled and her heart swelled. There was no way he could disguise the smile that had always melted her heart. "Allow me to introduce myself," he said. He took her hand in his. "My name is Frank…Frank Torrell."

  "Nice to meet you, Frank," she replied. She frowned and studied him. "Oh Nick, what happened that night? Where were you when the warehouse blew up?"

  His smile fell away and he stood as if unable to sit still as he told her what had happened. "I ran outside and realized that we needed the ledger to take Jimmy and his entire operation down. It was sitting under the bomb. I grabbed it with seconds left and almost didn't make it out—and when I did, my supervisor grabbed me and took me away from the scene."

  "But why?"

  "Because Nick Barnes had outlasted his usefulness to the bureau. Because they knew it was time for me to get out, that I wanted out. So, it was a perfect opportunity. The only way I could have a life was to die."

  "Couldn't you have told me? Couldn't you have somehow contacted me?" She stood, too agitated to stay seated. As she thought of the last three weeks she wanted to hit him again. Instead she clenched her fists at her sides and bit her bottom lip.

  "I couldn't. I had to let it all play out." He raked a hand through his hair and held her gaze intently. "I seem to spend a lot of time apologizing to you. And you have every right to be angry. You have every right to hate my guts, but, Lynn, I had to see this through before I could let you know what had happened."

  Her fingers unclenched as she realized she couldn't maintain any real anger toward him. She was too damn glad he was alive to be mad that he wasn't dead.

  He began to pace. "I haven't exactly been on a vacation for the last three weeks. I've been working with the bureau to arrest all the men who were part of the meth operation."

  "And Jimmy?" she asked.

  "Was arrested yesterday in a small town in Kansas and is now behind bars and charged with enough criminal offenses to keep him in prison for the rest of his life. I had to wait until that was done before I could come here."

  He stopped pacing and once again looked at her. "Lynn, when you left me last year I went a little crazy. I threw myself into my work and when they approached me about the marriage, I figured what difference did it make? You were gone and by then we weren't even in contact. If I wasn't married to you, then I didn't care who I was married to."

  It wasn't until that moment when she looked at the expression on his face, when she saw the depth of emotion shining from his eyes, that she realized how deeply she'd hurt him when she'd left.

  "Anyway, I had to finish all that business before I came here," he continued.

  "And why are you here now?" Her heart beat unsteadily.

  He grinned that wonderful smile again. "I brought you presents."

  She laughed. "I hope it's not aerial shots of some shipyard or a radiation scanner."

  "Nah, these presents are better than any I've ever brought you before." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of unopened cigarettes and laid them on the coffee table. "I had three nasty habits when this all went down. This was one of them that I've now quit."

  She frowned. "You came all the way here to tell me you've quit smoking?"

  "That's just the beginning," he replied. "My second nasty habit was that I often broke the rules and didn't do what my supervisor instructed me to do. That's no longer going to be a problem because Frank Torrell doesn't have any supervisors."

  "So, what is it that Frank Torrell does?" she asked with a touch of impatience.

  "I don't know yet, but it's going to be something safe, something normal." He reached into his pocket and a sheet of paper folded in half. He handed it to her.

  "That's your criminal record. Clean. Unfortunately they refused to remove your speeding tickets, but everything else is gone." His gaze was soft, tender. "They can't hold your past over your head ever again, Lynn."

  "Thank you," she murmured. "But, you didn't have to hand deliver this." She looked at him searchingly.

  "Ah, but I did," he replied. He took a step toward her. "I have one other habit and I've tried my best to break it, but I can't." His eyes glittered with an emotion that shot warmth through her limbs.

  "And what habit is that?" she asked. Her mouth felt too dry as he moved so close to her that she could feel his warm breath on her face, smell the wonderful scent of him that had long ago burrowed deeply into her heart.

  He reached out and stroked a strand of her hair, then ran his finger down her cheek. "The crazy, seemingly impossible to break habit I have of loving you."

  He leaned his head down to cover her lips with his and she welcomed the kiss. He gathered her into his arms and once again tears fell from her eyes… tears of joy.

  When the kiss ended he looked at her with an intensity that spoke of his love. "You told me in the elevator before we were kidnapped that you wanted a normal life."

  She nodded, holding her breath. "I want that normal life with you, Lynn. I want a house with a picket fence and kids playing in the yard and the most dangerous thing going on in our lives is drinking coffee in the morning that's too hot."

  She smiled up at him, loving him. "I think I'm going to like you, Frank Torrell. In fact, if you give me just a minute I think I could be head over heels in love with you."

  "I'll do better than give you a minute. I'll give you the rest of my life if you'll have me."

  Fear shone from his eyes, a fear even greater than the one she'd seen on the night they'd nearly died. She realized he was afraid she might not give them a chance.

  "Aren't you afraid that being with me might put you at risk?" she asked.

  "As long as Nick Barnes remains dead, there's no reason for anyone to come looking for me or for you."

  "It's going to take you the rest of your life to make up for what you put me through these last three weeks," she said.

  The fear fled from his gaze as he once again wrapped her in his arms and kissed her. She didn't have the heart to tell him that she thought they were both probably unrealistic fools for thinking their life together could be anything close to normal.

  She was working on decoding files for a secret agency and receiving threatening e-mails from a person known as A. And that didn't even take into account what Frank Torrell might decide to do with his life.

  No, ordinary and normal was probably out of the question for them. It was going to be an adventure and all Lynn knew for certain was that she was going to go along for the ride.