by Dale Cadeau
Suddenly the package in her hand exploded. The heat surrounded her and her hands felt like they were on fire. Out of nowhere a man jumped her and took her to the ground, rolling her on the sidewalk. Laura struggled with the man as they rolled around the sidewalk of her house. Finally the man stopped rolling and sat up beside her and was patting her down with both of his hands. She batted at his arms until she hit his directly with one of her hands and the pain almost made her black out. Taking a deep breath, she finally heard the man beside her as he spoke.
“Laura, stop. I’m just trying to put the fire out. I’m a friend of Clay’s.”
Laura just lay still and absorbed the pain as she tried to listen to the man. Still holding onto her with one hand, he grabbed his cell and called 911 and told them what happened. Looking down at her, he asked if she would be OK for a minute. When she nodded, he hurried into her house and came back a minute later with some clean dish towels soaked in water.
Taking the towels, he wrapped her hands in the wet cloths. Holding them on her hands he tried to explain to her again who he was. Laura by this time was in too much of a fog to understand him. The pain was pulling her down into darkness. Sirens were heard faintly in the distance and within minutes an EMS medic was beside her, unwrapping her hands and looking at them. She was sure he was saying something to her, asking her questions, but she passed out as she felt herself being lifted onto the gurney.
The next thing that she became aware of was lying in a hospital bed. Clay was beside her, seated on a chair pulled close to her bed. She didn’t know why she was here, but she was happy that Clay was with her. Maybe she hadn’t blown her only chance with him.
Smiling at him, she put one hand on the bed rail to try to raise herself, but the pain when her hand made contact had her gasping with tears coming to her eyes.
Clay, with concern etched on his face, tried to stop her from rising. He hadn’t seen her wake, his mind was filled with “What ifs.”
Licking her dry lips, she asked him in a low raspy voice, “What happened?”
Clay, after he knew she was settled and not moving, picked up a pitcher of water and poured a glass. Putting a hand behind her head, he raised it a few inches off the pillow and held the glass to her lips.
She took a sip and it felt wonderful on her dry throat. Trying again, her voice louder this time, she asked Clay, “What happened?”
Laying her head gently back on the pillow, Clay put the glass on the bed tray and made sure she was as comfortable as she could be in a hospital bed.
“Hey, baby, just relax and I will tell you what I know.” Clay couldn’t keep the worry out of his voice as he sat back in the chair and laid a protective hand on her stomach over the covers.
“I talked to Brad, who just happened to be around your house at the time. He’s the one that called 911. He told me that he saw someone deliver a package to your door. Before you went into the house, you shook it. It must have had some kind of trigger that shaking it made it explode into flames. You were very lucky that Brad was around and only your hands are burned with the fire. He grabbed you in time to roll you on the grass and smother the fire that had started burning your clothes. He also wrapped your hands in wet cloths right away, so the burns aren’t as bad as they could have been. God, I wish I had been there to help.” Clay took his other hand and placed it on her leg. Touching her made him feel better. “I know that really doesn’t help right now, but the burns could have been a lot worse, or you could have lost your life. I’m kicking myself in the ass, the way I left you unprotected.”
Laura raised her hands and inspected them. “Don’t blame yourself. There was no way of knowing. My hands hurt, but I know you’re right, it could have been worse. I would like to thank Brad for his quick thinking. What was he doing around my place anyway?” she asked Clay.
Clay looked away from her. He didn’t want to tell her that he had Brad watching her place. But he also didn’t want to try and restart their relationship with lies. “I had him watching over you.”
As she started to raise herself up on her elbow to protest, he took his hand from her stomach and grabbed her shoulder, stopping her. “I know. This is what we argued about the last time we were together. You can look after yourself. But I can’t say I’m sorry. If Brad hadn’t been there, you—well, I don’t want to think about it. Just be grateful I didn’t listen to you, and went with my gut.”
“OK, I’m grateful Brad was there and I’ll forget it for now. But I won’t have you interfering with my life or work.”
Clay gave her a look filled with disbelief and told her, “Look what just happened. If it means your safety, I will interfere. Your safety is more important than any job that you do.”
“OK, I get your point. We will just have to agree to disagree until I get out of here. Did they tell you when I can leave? I hate hospitals.” Laura knew she had to back down this time. She didn’t want Clay to be more agitated than he already was. She also knew that this man wasn’t going to see reason right now. Not now that she had been hurt.
Why was she arguing with him anyway? The subject of her safety could be revisited when they had more solid ground between them. After all, the last time they had been together, she had kicked him out of her house. Then hadn’t she been thinking about another chance with him when the package was delivered?
Now she knew that this type of man was a throwback to a different age, when men were men and they protected their women. Ones like this didn’t come along anymore. He might be bossy, but she thought he would be fair. At least she hoped so.
The little bit of conversation between her and Clay had started to wear her out, so she lay back and closed her eyes. Clay assured her that he wouldn’t leave her side, so she felt safe enough to fall asleep.
It was hard to tell how much time had passed when she awoke and became aware of Clay standing in the doorway to her hospital room, talking to two men in black trench coats. They looked like Feds to her. She had seen enough of them in the two years she was under their protection to be able to spot them now.
Shit, they finally caught up with me. Just when I think I’m safe, find Clay, and decide to start living again. She could get depressed, but decided to get pissed off instead. She had tried to do the right thing. In doing so it had wrecked her whole life, while the General walked around scot-free. She knew life wasn’t fair, but damn, she was going to have her way this time. Clay was worth fighting for.
Putting her elbows on the bed beside her hips, she raised herself and asked Clay, “What’s going on?”
Clay turned from the men at the door and hurried to her side, making her lie down again.
“It’s OK. Nothing to worry about. Just some friends of mine popped in.”
Clay tried to reassure her, when his mind was going a mile a minute at what his Fed friend had just told him. Could they really be talking about his Laura?
Clay was lucky that the guys sent to take her back were friends of his. They had only told him a tiny part of her story. It looked like Laura had secrets he couldn’t even imagine. It looked like Laura needed a friend on her side, and he was going to be that friend.
If the Feds couldn’t get the information on the General to stick, he was sure that his team could. They had ways and means that the Feds would never consider. He knew to help her he would have to work with the Feds for a time and find out everything in detail. He needed to talk to them now.
Looking down at Laura, he noticed that she was now paler. A worried look had come over her face after she had spotted the men at the door. He didn’t want to lie to her, but he couldn’t let her know how serious things were becoming with the Feds in town.
“It’s just some business of the firm that I have to talk over with my friends. I’m going to get Brad to sit with you while I do that.”
Laura looked back at him, almost pleading with her eyes for him not to go. “I don’t want you to leave. Can’t you talk to your friends later?”
“I wish I
could, but I’m looking after the firm with James gone, so I can’t put it off. Didn’t you tell me earlier that you wanted to thank Brad? Well, you can do that while I take care of this business.”
Clay didn’t want to leave her side either, but he knew Brad would take care of her. It was important that he get to the bottom of this right away. Leaning down, he kissed her on her forehead and walked to the door and called Brad in. Brad had been at the hospital since Laura had been admitted.
After introducing Brad to her, and making sure she was comfortable with him, Clay left. He found himself wiping his sweaty hands on his pants, as he walked to join his friends. He was dreading the coming talk.
Chapter Twelve
Walking up to them, Clay didn’t mince words. “What the hell kind of story are you telling me?”
Dwayne, one of the Feds, stepped up to Clay. “Keep your voice down. I thought you would have known all about this, as you are seeing ‘Laura’ as she now calls herself. We wouldn’t have sprung it on you if we knew you were in the dark. Let’s go to the cafeteria and grab a coffee. We can discuss this without everyone hearing us.”
Clay looked around the small waiting room. People were paying attention to them, but he didn’t think it was only his outburst. His friends in their black trench coats just reeked of authority. Clay agreed with Dwayne and the three men walked together to the elevators and rode it down a couple of floors to the cafeteria.
After getting coffee, they found a table away from the few people in the place and sat down.
“OK, now we’re alone. What the hell are you trying to pull on me?”
Clay couldn’t believe that the woman he was starting to care for would keep a secret this big, especially when she knew the kind of work Clay did.
Dwayne took a sip of his coffee as he listened to Clay. He liked Clay, always had, but had a hard time believing that he could be seeing a woman and not know that she was hiding something. “I’m going to tell you the story. I shouldn’t, as it’s Feds-only business, but knowing your gang, you could find out anyway. So what I tell you has to be kept under wraps.”
Clay nodded, agreeing.
“Ten years ago, Laura—God, I have a hard time calling her that. We called her Laurie. That’s her real name. Laura is her cover name.”
All the color drained from Clay’s face. “What do you mean cover name?”
“She’s been in witness protection for ten years, Clay. Ever since the day she came to us with a story. She had suspicions that her boss, a general, was involved in illegal activity and said that she had proof. The government takes accusations about military officials quite seriously, so we dug around a bit. What she said made sense, so Laura stayed in our custody while we checked out everything about the General in more detail. We had to follow protocol.”
“If her boss was involved in illegal activities, I don’t know why you didn’t pick up the General right away. After all, she had proof.” Clay was pissed off for Laura having to deal with all the Feds’ red tape.
“It wasn’t that easy, Clay, especially with someone so high ranking. At the time we didn’t think it would take long to build the case but we ran into roadblock after roadblock. We knew that we had one shot to get it right. Finally we got the OK to bring him in. Let me tell you, that was some day. We had the higher ups breathing down our necks every step of the way. We even had to toe the line with our questions. We got the run around from him that day. Before we could call him on it, with more information, we were pulled from the case and it was dropped from the Feds’ files.”
Dwayne sat back in his chair. “Some of our bosses didn’t like it being swept away so fast, so we put Laura in witness protection, thinking we would eventually come up with something. Two years later, we still had nothing. When the small bistro that we got her a job at was firebombed and her new apartment ransacked, she took off. We have been looking for her ever since that night. She’s smart and got very good at hiding. We thought we had her once or twice, but then she would disappear off the radar. This is the first real break we have had at finding her.”
This information was a lot to process. He couldn’t imagine what life must have been like for Laura on the run. No wonder she was so skittish. He should take her over his knee for not confiding this information in him herself. Instead though, he just wanted to wrap her up in his arms and protect her.
Whoever this General was, he must have been involved in some terrible things for the Feds to go to the trouble of putting just a former employee in witness protection for this long.
“What’s his name?” Clay asked. If he was going to keep Laura safe, he needed to know the name of the monster who wanted her dead.
Dwayne and Tim shared a look. Right then Clay knew that it was bad.
He closed his eyes as they said the name he dreaded. It was the name of the one man he truly hated.
“General Brown,” Tim said.
Clay seethed. When he realized that the name of his greatest foe and Laura’s were one and the same, he almost jumped up and swore. He knew the General very well. His unit had all cursed his name many times over the years. Hearing it now attached to Laura just made Clay see red.
Clay schooled his features, giving nothing away. He trusted Dwayne, but he worked for the Feds and Clay didn’t want to strain their friendship with telling him his thoughts.
“So if I believe everything you just told me, I would say that the Feds have done a very shitty job of looking after Laura and an even worse job of digging up evidence.”
Tim, who had been letting Dwayne tell the story, thumped his cup down on the table hard enough to spill the liquid.
“Wait just a minute, Clay. I know we’re friends, but we don’t deserve that. We’ve been working on this, even after the file was closed. We’ve been searching for her. We liked Laura and believed her story. But she’s smart, and you know yourself that if a person doesn’t want to be found, they can disappear easily nowadays. It’s not hard to get a fake social security number or driver’s license, or anything else that a person might need.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I’m jumping to conclusions. Now that you found her, I can just bet that the General with his connections will soon find out, if he doesn’t know already. We never know for sure, but it could have been the General that had the package sent to Laura. If not, you might have just led the General right to her and put her in a lot of danger.”
Clay wasn’t going to back down and just let them take Laura. He liked his friends but they couldn’t protect her before. No, she was safer if he took over from now on.
“I don’t think it was the General. The office doesn’t even know everything yet. We haven’t had time to check in since we saw Laura, so they don’t know if we found the right person or not. But we will have to tell them and get her back in safe custody soon.”
“I know you both have a job to do, but I’m going to take advantage of our friendship and ask that you not inform head office that you found her.”
Dwayne stated to speak up at Clay’s words, but Clay didn’t give him time to break in.
“Listen for a minute. The job is to keep her safe and bring down the general.” At their nods, Clay kept on. “Well, I would like my team to take a crack at it. I know Laura has to be kept safe, but if you put her in a safe house like before, the General will just find out where she is and go after her. So I would like to suggest a compromise. I will put Laura in a safe house that I know of. You report back that it was the wrong person, that it wasn’t Laura, or Laurie as you call her, in the hospital. This will give us time to shake down the General. You know our team, and if there is anything to be found out though legal or illegal means, we will find it. Anything we find we will pass on to you both, so can take down the asshole in the end. What do you think?”
“I don’t know. You’re asking a lot from our friendship. Do you like Laura enough to keep her safe?” Tim piped in.
“Laura is my responsibility now. I will look after her and make
sure that nothing happens on my watch. That lady has become special to me and if you take her in, I’m going in with her. I’m not going to let her leave by herself with you. I trust you guys. It’s the others that I don’t.”
“OK, we’ll play it your way. We won’t tell the head office that it’s her and give your team some time to shake down the General. But you will have to act quickly to get her out of here and to a safe house. I can’t guarantee that someone else won’t be sent to check this place out. Also, if you or your team do anything illegal, we don’t want to hear about it.” Dwayne and Tim stood up. “And keep in touch. Call us on our personal cells, which can’t be traced.”
Clay rose also and shook hands with his friends. He followed them to the elevators. They took one down, and he took two up and to Laura’s room to get her out of here as soon as possible.
Clay knew there was more to this story, but he wanted to hear it from Laura directly. His first priority, though, was keeping her safe. If the Feds had been able to find her here after ten years, the chances were good that the General also knew exactly where to find them.
Chapter Thirteen
Finally arriving at Laura’s floor, Clay hurried to her room, when he found Brad helping her eat her lunch. Her expression told him that she didn’t like it, but she was sucking it up and allowing it.
Clay put an uplifting tone to his voice as he entered the room, he didn’t want her to know how worried he was. “Hey, how is everyone here? Got the business out of the way and now let’s see if we can get you discharged from this place.”
He gave Brad a look, which Brad understood. They had all learned to silently communicate with each other and as a team in the army. Brad put her spoon down on her tray and got up. Silently communicating back to Clay, Brad told him he would see about the discharge, and hurriedly walked out of the room.