by DJ Erfert
“How—what—what are you going to do?” Junie screamed when the bus hit the curb and bounced out toward them. Lucy swerved and accelerated to move ahead.
“I don’t know yet, but I have to help them.” She pulled in front of the bus and slowed down. When the bus hit the back of the Tahoe, it shattered the rear window with a loud crash and bounced them into the next lane—almost into the cop car.
Junie let out a short screech.
Lucy hit the gas and pulled in front of the bus again. It earned her a swift kick to the shoulder. “Junie, what are you doing?”
“If this is your plan, then you’re going to need eyes out the back.” Junie climbed over the second set of seats and said, “Keep a steady pace and listen up.”
Lucy glanced in the rear view mirror and watched her friend lean over the third set of seats and stare at the grill of a speeding vehicle that encompassed most of her view. For a fleeting moment Lucy felt proud of her friend’s bravery before dread pushed the feeling aside.
“Okay, now back off of the gas, slowly … slowly …”
The bump Lucy felt wasn’t nearly as bad as the last one.
“Now touch the brakes …”
Lucy did as she was told and felt the solid contact.
“Hit the brakes; hit the brakes hard,” Junie yelled.
Using both of her feet she stood on the brake pedal. An acrid smell filled the cab from burning rubber as dark smoke billowed out from underneath. The truck skipped along the street, slowing the huge bus down. Fifty … forty … twenty-five … all the while the fatal intersection grew closer. They were slowing, but not quickly enough.
“We’re not going to make it, Junie,” Lucy said. “Get out of that back seat and brace yourself.”
The police car raced by, and its red and blue lights stopped traffic from entering the intersection. He had a partner who had created the same type of roadblock just before Lucy’s truck was pushed through. At least they wouldn’t be broadsided.
The bus pushed the Chevy up over the curb and onto the grass, and at that point Lucy knew she could do no more. She hit the release on her seatbelt and threw herself prone onto the bench seat.
Sounds of windows being shattered and metal tearing competed with Junie’s terrified screaming, and Lucy’s heart stopped beating at the thought of saving a busload of kids at the cost of her best friend’s life.
Suddenly all was quiet. The short concrete wall the bus had effortlessly rolled over in her window had stopped their truck from plunging down the river embankment. The choking smoke that had filled the cab was being blown away with a good breeze. Three of the doors had popped open upon impact. “Junie? Junie?” Lucy sat up and reached for her friend over the seat.
“I’m okay,” she said with a big smile. “I’m okay.”
“You’re more than okay.” Lucy rubbed her friend’s shoulder and said, “Let’s get out of here before I faint.”
“Oh, yeah—” Junie sat up and touched Lucy’s hand. “Soon?”
The icy roiling of her side effect pulsed in her chest. “Very soon.” Lucy lay on her back, kicked at the partially opened passenger door, widening it enough to scoot out. Junie came up behind her as she fell to her knees and gave in to her temporary side effect.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“She’s okay, just leave her alone—”
Junie’s voice floated in her head, and for a moment Lucy forgot what had happened—but only for a moment. She opened her eyes to find a worried cop kneeling beside her. Lucy sat up and rubbed a small bump on the side of her head. It hurt.
“Are you injured, ma’am?” the officer asked.
“I bumped my head on the arm rest.”
“Lucy, are you hurt badly?”
That was a fair question. With slow deliberate movements, Lucy flexed her neck sideways and rolled it forward, feeling the muscles in her back stretch, then moved her head toward her other shoulder.
“Rescue is on the way, ma’am—”
“Drop the ma’am. My name is Lucy.” She lifted her head up and caught sight of her borrowed truck. She groaned out loud.
“You are hurt,” Junie said with a warbled voice.
“The truck is totaled!”
“I’d say so,” the officer said.
Lucy moved her sight along the crushed back end and saw how the yellow bus barely had dirt on it. Looking into the windows, she saw little faces smiling out at her.
The officer said, “Those kids have no idea what you just did to save them. But I do. I chased you for more than a mile.” He pointed to the woman standing next to the open door. “The bus driver wants to thank you. I told her she’d have to wait until the paramedics looked you over.” He touched Lucy’s shoulder. “Your skin was ice cold when I got to you.”
Lucy grinned. “It’s chilly out here.” He stared at her without blinking for the longest time, and she held his eyes, not backing down from her excuse.
“How did you know?” he asked. “What tipped you off that the bus was in trouble and that she wasn’t just an aggressive driver?”
The bump on Lucy’s head pulsed in pain remembering all the small faces disappearing beneath the dirty water of the river. “I saw the eyes of the driver.” She shook her head a little. “She looked so frightened. I—” Lucy thought of her border patrol agent’s excuse, and said, “acted on a hunch.”
“A hunch, huh?” He nodded. His stare swept over to the woman standing by the bus to the children looking out at them. “I can understand hunches. Too bad you had to destroy your car in the process.”
“It’s not my car,” Lucy said quietly.
“What?”
“I was taking it for a test drive. McGovern’s Chevrolet is going to be very mad at me when they see what gets towed back to them.”
“I don’t know about that, Lucy,” Junie said. “The press is here. When the dealership’s name gets put in the newspaper, the free advertising is going to cover what the insurance won’t.”
~*~
“I don’t know if I should have let those reporters take my picture.”
“It probably won’t matter,” Jim said. He had his arm around Junie’s shoulders like she might disappear if he let go of her. Ever since he’d arrived at the scene of the crash, he hadn’t been farther away from his wife than an arm’s length. Maybe Junie was right. Lucy hadn’t given her heart a real workout since Mac died over two years ago. Then her pulse sped up as Johnny’s handsome face floated in her thoughts. It was a very strong, emotionally charged sensation. He was thinking of Lucy. Or he was very close.
“Just as long as you don’t make a routine of getting caught saving people in public,” Johnny added.
Lucy turned around at the sound of his sensual voice and found him walking up behind her. Actually, his whole crew stood outside engine 51 staring at her with curious faces. Johnny’s thick muscled arms wrapped around her waist.
“I got a medical update from the captain on my way over,” Johnny whispered with his face dropped down to her neck. “He said you had a bump on your head, but otherwise you’re fine.” He lifted his face and ran a hand along her cheek. “But I had to see with my own eyes you weren’t hurt any worse. I know how you are.”
Johnny was the first civilian to go on a mission with her. And if it hadn’t been for him, she would have died. “I really am fine. You want to touch my bump?” The smile that slowly formed on his heart shaped lips sent a rush of adrenaline to Lucy’s heart. He let loose of her body and pushed his hands through her hair, moving his fingertips in gentle circular motions. When he found the small bump, he kissed her forehead.
He pressed his cheek to hers, and asked, “You going to let me see what would have happened to the bus if you hadn’t decided to drive that truck into its path?”
Johnny was touching her, and that’s all it took for them to share a window. Lucy let her mind remember the icy air sweeping across her face, forewarning her of the glimpse into the future, and then she heard him suck in
his breath as her memory of the event embedded into his own. She knew he’d remember every detail as well as she would now. Johnny’s ability to share her windows was the one link that bonded them together. His panic swept through her in a swift, brief wave, and then was gone.
“Whoa,” he said lowly. “That was bad.”
“Yeah,” Lucy whispered. “But it never happened. “See?”
Johnny looked over his shoulder. The small children were climbing onto another school bus. “The driver told me they were on their way to the Scripps Aquarium for a field trip,” Lucy said.
“And now, because of your gift, they’ll get to live another day—”
“Or until they’re very old,” Lucy whispered, staring hard into Johnny’s chocolate brown eyes. She wondered what it would be like to have a child with him. His kindness and sensitivity balanced with his bravery and strong sense of duty made him perfect. Just thinking about him made her heart flutter. When he looked back at her, he must have taken her steady gaze as an invitation for a kiss. He wrapped his strong arms around her waist, pulling her against his body, and pressed his mouth onto her willing lips. Lucy clutched at his shoulders, sinking her fingers into his jacket and gave in to his public seduction.
Shrill whistling took Johnny’s attention away from her much too soon. His fellow crewmembers reminded him that he was still in uniform. He turned and waved at his buddies leaning against the big red fire truck. The replacement school bus had parked in front of it, and the little children were laughing as they slowly climbed up the steps. The whistles and high-pitched laughter weren’t the only sounds Lucy heard. In the background she could hear a helicopter flying overhead.
She’d thought all the press had left already. Squinting upward, she could barely make out the aircraft hanging in the sky, but from what she could see made the tiny hairs on the back of her neck prickle in alarm.
“Jim?”
“What is it, Lucy?”
“Do you have binoculars in the trunk of your car?”
“Sure. Why?”
With her stare on the copter, she said, “I want to check on that.”
Jim, Junie, and Johnny followed her line-of-sight.
“It’s black,” Jim said quietly.
“Yes, it is,” Lucy agreed.
“So what?” Junie asked, craning her neck upward.
“I’ll go get the binoculars.”
“Thanks,” Lucy said. “Junie, Steele Reinforcement’s helicopters are all black.”
“It could be a television news copter,” Johnny said.
“I don’t think so. They don’t like to be so covert.” She nodded up to the sky. “They’re up far enough they wouldn’t think they’d be heard, or seen.”
“But you heard them,” Johnny said,
“Barely,” Lucy whispered. “It’s leaving—no!” She turned and tried to find Jim. “Where did your husband park?”
“I don’t know.” Junie took out her cell phone and hit a button.
“There he is,” Johnny said, nodding his head toward the school bus.
“He doesn’t have the binoculars,” Lucy whispered.
Junie closed her phone. “I’m sorry, Lucy. You don’t think that Cooper Steele had anything to do with the school bus losing its brakes?”
Lucy huffed. “No, of course not. No one could have predicted that I would have been at the drive-thru at that moment.”
Jim walked up beside Junie. “I don’t think even Steele would put fifty-four little third graders in danger like that.” He lowered his voice. “If for some reason he was testing you somehow, I don’t believe he’d do something as outlandish as this.”
“But you think he might be trying to provoke a window?” Johnny looked up again. “We don’t even know that was one of his helicopters.”
“Yes, we do,” Jim said, catching Lucy’s angered gaze. “I used my binoculars when I was standing by my car. I could read the gold lettering on the tail boom.”
“I’m being followed.” Lucy felt her heart start to race as panic set in. “I’m being followed.” Like if she said it again someone would tell her she was jumping to a wrong conclusion—but Jim didn’t tell her that. Nor did Junie, or Johnny.
“And I’m going to have someone follow you—”
“You can’t do that,” Lucy said, raising her voice. “I’ll be discovered.” She pushed out of Johnny’s arms and strode over to the low concrete wall where the Tahoe had come to rest. With a sudden scream, Lucy doubled-up her fists and slammed a huge dent into the already crumpled hood. She lifted her face and yelled up to the sky, “I hope you saw that, Steele. Next time, it will be your face!”
CHAPTER NINE
The ice pack cooled Lucy’s hand, but it did nothing for her temper. “You didn’t need to call my doctor.” Sitting on the back bumper of the fire truck, she had the blue chemical icepack on her hand wrapped with a length of gauze.
“I didn’t call Sunny. Dusty did after your outburst.”
“I went down into the infirmary and checked in with her this morning before I wrote my report. She gave me a physical.” She absentmindedly rubbed the bump on her head. “I’m fine!”
“Lucy—” Johnny said with his shoulder against hers, “you beat up a truck. You might have broken a bone in your hand. You already have a bruise forming. Humor your doctor, and let her fuss over you for a while.” He nudged her and smiled. “Besides, you need time to get over your anger at Cooper Steele before you go over to his office and get in his face.”
“He doesn’t have an office.”
Johnny sat up straighter. “Oh. Well, where does he keep his helicopters?”
Lucy shrugged. “We don’t know for sure.”
“You’re the CIA, and you don’t know where your subcontractors are located?”
“I know. Kind of creepy.” Lucy’s phone vibrated in her pants pocket. “Great, Sunny’s probably calling me to find out when I’m coming in.” She saw only a telephone number in the caller ID. “Hmm.” She pressed the button with the green phone icon and said, “Hello? … Oh, hello, Officer Banks.” Lucy pressed the speaker button and let Johnny listen in on their conversation.
“—an update on your report you requested,” Banks said.
“What have you found out?” Lucy asked. She heard his loud sigh.
“Nothing.”
Lucy must’ve missed something. “What do you mean nothing?”
“Age—Lucy, I accessed the Phoenix police department’s report archive and went back to 1987, but I couldn’t find any report about Sara Kelly James’ murder. In fact, I didn’t find any report about her at all.”
Lucy stared into Johnny’s brown eyes, confused. “I don’t understand, Officer Banks. She was murdered. I saw it happen. How can—” She stopped and held her breath as a horrible suspicion crept up her spine and wormed its way into her mind. “Thank you for trying. I—I must have been mistaken.”
“Lucy, let me look into this a little bit more. I can get our lead homicide detective, Detective Bauer, to help out. He’s been—”
“No, that’s okay. Thank you, Officer Banks.”
“If you change your mind. Please don’t hesitate to call me. My cell phone number should be on your caller ID.”
“I will, thank you.” Lucy hit the red phone icon, ending their call.
“This doesn’t mean your father killed your mother,” Johnny said cautiously.
Putting her phone away, she said, “I need to get to the agency. You better go back to work.”
“Are you going to see Sunny?”
Lucy tore off the gauze from her hand and threw down the ice pack. “I need to use their computers.” She stood up from the bumper and said, “I want to know why my dad didn’t report my mother getting murdered.”
“Lucy, Banks probably didn’t look in the right place.” Johnny moved next to her. “Why not let that Detective Bauer have a crack at it?”
She paused long enough to think it over. Who at the agency would know how
to find information on a twenty-nine-year-old murder? Then her mind flashed on the little twit of an FBI agent, and she groaned. Not a chance.
“I’ll go to the police station,” Lucy said.
“How are you going to get there?”
Sunny’s voice appeared. “I’ll drive her.”
Lucy groaned again, seeing her doctor coming around the fire truck flanked by her husband—a giant of a firefighter. She still had her white doctor’s jacket on. Even on a cold day she refused to be without it. “Sunny, what are you doing here?” Sunny Rhodes married Johnny’s best friend and fellow crewmember two months ago. Love at first sight had a whole new meaning when she exchanged vows with Dusty on a secluded Nassau beach two weeks after they met. It had been the most romantic thing Lucy had ever seen pictures of. She didn’t get to go to the wedding. She had been in a Nassau hospital wounded with shrapnel from an explosion and recovering from pneumonia.
Sunny kissed Johnny’s cheek before she smiled at Lucy. “I knew you wouldn’t come into the infirmary, so I came to get you.”
“I’m not going back to the agency,” Lucy said firmly.
“I told you,” Dusty said softly, his deep voice resonating off the truck.
“Why not?” Sunny asked. “I keep my infirmary immaculately clean.”
“Ha, ha.” Lucy pulled her jacket tighter.
“She doesn’t want to get caught by a certain FBI agent still lurking around the building,” Junie said, stopping next to Sunny.
“I thought Jim took you home,” Lucy said.
“Uh—uh. I told him we weren’t done car shopping.”
Lucy sighed. “Even after—everything?”
Junie turned and looked at the tow truck pulling up behind the school bus. “I had fun.”
“I’m coming, too.”
Lucy turned. Jim’s executive assistant was leaning her shoulder against the back edge of the fire truck smiling at them. She’d never seen her without her dark red hair done in the French twist up-do, slacks, and matching jacket. Thirty-seven-year-old Kate Laurence had to be the best-dressed agent Lucy knew. “What are you doing here?”