Armed Response

by Janie Crouch

  Derek turned to the team, who was mostly lined up across the wall. “Okay, people, you heard the lady, we’re back at the City and County Building. We will be resweeping it from top to bottom. I know it’s nobody’s favorite job, but we’ll be doing it anyway. We’ll be checking every damn nook and cranny until we know it’s secure.”

  Saul was already nodding enthusiastically, like he couldn’t wait to get to it. That would pass. It was something Saul didn’t understand and it might be part of the reason why he’d never been chosen for a permanent part of the team. He wanted action all the time. But a lot of SWAT work was boring. Routine. Knowing how to handle the boredom was just as important as knowing how to handle the action. Maybe even more so because there wasn’t any outlet for the boredom.

  You either figured out how to handle it or got another job.

  And now they had a lot of hours of tedious work in front of them. Made even more difficult since they didn’t know if the mole was someone on the team. It was the other reason why Derek hadn’t pushed harder against Congresswoman Glasneck for a new location for the summit. Because if one of their inner team members was the mole, changing locations wasn’t going to protect them against an attack.

  Nothing would.

  * * *

  LILLIAN STOOD TO join the rest of the team as they began to exit the conference room. Dizziness assailed her and she grabbed the back of a nearby chair to steady herself.

  Jace was immediately next to her. “You okay?” He said it softly enough that no one else could hear and blocked the rest of the room from being able to see her. He was protecting her in the way he knew would mean the most to her.

  Just like he’d trusted her to get the bomb defused earlier. If he hadn’t, if he’d tried to rush in and take over for her, they’d both be dead. Them and that poor sexist bastard who’d been hyperventilating in the elevator.

  Jace was strong enough not to feel threatened by her strength. He also knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t want him fawning over her in this moment. That the best way he could help was by being a human shield to keep others from seeing her in a moment of weakness.

  How could this man still be so perfect for her after so many years?

  Lillian couldn’t help it, she breathed in his scent as he stood so close to her. Sweat. Male.

  Jace.

  They were both still in full tactical gear from the elevator incident, so being too close wasn’t even possible. But he was still the sexiest thing she’d ever seen.

  “Lil?” he asked again when she didn’t answer. “You okay?”

  “Yeah.” She nodded, clearing her voice when the word came out hoarse from the earlier trauma. “Just stood up too fast. Plus, it’s already been a long day and it’s about to get longer.”

  “You need a break?”

  She felt his hand on her elbow.

  “Maybe we shouldn’t have used all your downtime for...other activities this morning.”

  Lillian smiled. She couldn’t help it. She couldn’t even pretend that what had happened in the hotel room between them was anything short of spectacular. “I liked the other activities.”

  Jace winked at her and she felt heat zip through her. “Good. Because I’m hoping to show you some variations on those other activities later.”

  More steady now, she turned with Jace and followed the others out of the room. Derek joined them, shooting off assignments as he went. Denver PD would be sending backup to help with the initial securing of the building, but someone from Omega Sector would be double-checking every floor. And then a different person from the Omega team would check it again.

  To an outsider it would look like diligence, having two separate team members looking for security leaks. And maybe it was diligence. But it was also to try to protect themselves from the mole.

  As they walked back over to the City and County Building from the federal building, the crowds of people were steadily getting bigger. Lillian noticed Philip Carnell was walking alone. Not unusual—most people didn’t want to converse with Carnell unless they had to.

  But Lillian noticed he was walking stiffly, as if he was in pain. A few moments later he moved the material of his long-sleeve shirt—and she saw a bruise on his forearm.

  Right where bruises would’ve been if he’d blocked some kicks and punches in a fight.

  Lillian tried to focus on the details of her fight with the masked man. Could it have been Carnell? She didn’t think Carnell was physically capable of the fighting skill level of the man she’d gone up against.

  But heaven knew Carnell was brilliant enough to have been faking his weaknesses. The guy had a mind like a computer—he could’ve figured out long ago that he needed to appear weak physically to the team to throw suspicion off himself.

  The masked man she’d fought had been roughly the same height. She’d thought he was more muscular than Carnell, but he tended to wear such loose clothing at Omega Sector that Lillian couldn’t say for certain what his actual physique was.

  Was this the bastard who had attacked her, Tasered her, then strung her up in the hallway, leaving her to die?

  “Carnell, wait up.” She marched over to him as they reached the steps to city hall. He slowed slightly, looking at her with irritation.

  “What do you want?”

  The guy really was a jerk.

  “Where’d you get that bruise on your arm?”

  Carnell’s eyes narrowed. “None of your damn business.”

  She grabbed his wrist. “Is it new? It’s pretty purple. Hasn’t turned green, so it must have happened in the last twenty-four hours.”

  Carnell snatched his arm back and pushed down his sleeve. “What do you want, Muir? I’m trying to work out the best way to split up the team to be most effective in securing the building. I don’t have time for your little power play.”

  Before he could move farther away, Lillian had his left wrist in her hand. She twisted it, to bring his arm around his back, and pushed him against the metal banister of the stairway, her other hand reaching up and applying pressure at his throat. “Do I look like I’m playing anything, Carnell? Where the hell did you get the bruise on your forearm and why are you walking so stiffly? Do you have other bruises? Maybe take a kick to the ribs? A punch to the sternum?” All had been blows she’d delivered during her fight.

  “Are you crazy?” Carnell yelled, eyes wide. “Let go of me!”

  “Mind if I get in on the fun?”

  Lillian heard Jace’s voice just over her shoulder.

  “He’s got bruises on his forearm, Jace. Looks a lot like defensive wounds. And he’s walking funny, like he got in a fight recently. Pretty suspicious, don’t you think?”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Carnell spat out.

  “Let him go, Lillian.” This time it was Derek over her other shoulder.

  “Derek—”

  “I understand your concerns,” Derek continued. “But let him go so he can talk.”

  Reluctantly Lillian took her hand from Carnell’s throat and released his wrist. She didn’t lower her guard, ready to move quickly if he went to draw a weapon or run.

  Carnell looked over at Derek. “Did you see that? She attacked me for no reason. She’s emotionally unstable.”

  Derek turned to the rest of the team. “Everyone else inside. You know your initial assignments, so get to them.”

  The rest of the team dispersed, although they looked like they wanted to stay.

  “Where are the bruises from, Philip?” Derek asked once everyone was gone.

  “I don’t have to tell you,” Carnell sputtered. “It’s none of your damn business.”

  Lillian felt the heat of Jace’s body directly behind her shoulder. “It is when it seems like some of your bruises match some of the hits taken by the guy who attacked Lillian late last night.”<
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  “Know anything about that, Carnell?” Lillian asked.

  “What? No. I wouldn’t attack you, Muir. Why the hell would I want to fight you? Everybody knows you could kick my ass. Everybody on the team could kick my ass, that’s why I’m not an official SWAT member, remember?”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “Maybe you’ve just been acting like you couldn’t fight. Throw suspicion off yourself.”

  “Suspicion of what? Me being the mole?”

  “You know anything about that?” Derek asked.

  He rolled his eyes. “You said there was no proof, but we all know there’s a mole somewhere inside Omega. Somebody’s helping Damien Freihof. But it’s not me.”

  “Where’d you get the bruises, Carnell?” Lillian asked again. He certainly had the know-how and the smarts to be the mole. She didn’t like to think that he’d beaten her in a fight, but it was possible.

  “It’s none of your damn business, but if you must know, I got a little roughed up by a couple of guys outside a bar last night.”

  Derek’s eyebrows shot up. “What the hell were you doing at a bar when we’re all on duty?”

  Carnell snorted loudly. “I wasn’t actually at the bar. I don’t need a lot of sleep, so I was walking around town. I passed a bar as a couple of guys were coming out and I may have made a disparaging remark about the team on their sports jerseys. They didn’t like it and I took a few punches.”

  Lillian looked over at Jace and then at Derek—they both wore matching bemused looks. None of them had a problem imagining Carnell getting beat on because he ran his mouth to the wrong people.

  “I blocked one punch,” he continued, “but still took a couple to the midsection. Luckily some other people came out of the bar, and I left while they were distracted.”

  Was he telling the truth? It seemed like it, but Lillian didn’t know the younger man well enough to know. And she had to admit after everything that had happened in the last twelve hours—attacked, almost killed, earth-shattering lovemaking, almost killed again by a bomb this time—she was not at her sharpest.

  “Can anybody vouch for you?” Derek asked. “Your whereabouts?”

  “I’m sure if I could track down the jerks who jumped me they’d be glad to try to finish the job. But no, other than them I wasn’t really socializing. Why the hell do you guys care anyway? I’m sick of being everyone’s punching bag. First strangers and now my so-called teammates. Don’t we have enough bad guys to concentrate on?”

  “Go on in the building and get set up, Philip,” Derek said. “We’ll be inside in just a minute.”

  Carnell was still muttering to himself as he left and walked into the building. Lillian wiped a hand across her face as she turned to look at Jace and Derek.

  “That very well could be our mole,” Jace said, taking a step closer to her. “God knows he’s smart enough to be.”

  “The guy you fought knew what he was doing, right, Lillian?” Derek asked.

  “Yes. If it wasn’t for Carnell’s bruises, I would never have suspected he could’ve been the guy that got the jump on me.”

  Jace shook his head. “It could’ve been a second person. You don’t know.”

  “Following Carnell stealthily, trying to see what he was up to without his knowledge, probably would’ve been the better plan than a hostile confrontation.”

  Derek’s tone was completely neutral, but Lillian knew she’d made a huge tactical error in what she’d just done. “I’m sorry, Derek. I screwed up.”

  “You’re tired, in pain and your judgment is being affected.”

  Again neutral. But Lillian still felt like she might vomit. “I—”

  Derek held out a hand to stop her. “You’ll go back to the hotel and rest for twelve hours before coming back on duty.”

  What? “You need me here. You need every man you can get.”

  “I’ll need you more over the next two days as the summit swings into full gear. So get the downtime you need so you can come back in top shape.” Derek put his hand on her shoulder. “Lillian, if anyone else had been through what you had yesterday and today, you would encourage me to give them the time they needed to regroup. This is not a reflection on your ability. This is about keeping the team running as efficiently as possible.”

  She knew Derek was right, but it still sucked. She felt like she’d let him down. Let the team down.

  “We’re going to be on rotating shifts from now until the summit is completed,” Derek continued. “You’re just taking the first down shift.”

  “Okay.” Damn it.

  Derek looked over at Jace. “You two are on my very short list of people I know I can trust. I’m going to need you firing on all cylinders.” Derek squeezed her shoulder, then turned and walked into city hall.

  She looked at Jace. “I guess I’m grounded and am going to take a nap.”

  He smiled. “I guess I shouldn’t have kept you up this morning.”

  She rubbed her eyes. “Then we can agree that me acting like a complete moron and losing us the upper hand with the potential mole is all your fault.”

  “You reacted. It happens.”

  Lillian rubbed her eyes again. “Derek’s right. I’m tired. My judgment is impaired.”

  He pulled her closer by her tactical vest. “Then do what the man says and get some rest.”

  She grabbed her extra hotel card key out of a Velcro pocket, held it up to Jace and told him her room number. “Join me later if your downtime happens to coincide with mine?”

  She didn’t want to think too hard about the butterflies she got inside her chest when he nodded and smiled. He kissed her on the tip of her nose, turned and jogged into the building. She couldn’t tear her eyes off him.

  She was in so much trouble.

  Chapter Fourteen

  It had been a long-ass day. Jace had worked with the others, helping to confirm the security of the Denver City and County Building. Derek had used Jace mostly to double-check particularly vulnerable places, since he knew Jace couldn’t be the mole. There were definitely no unsecured windows or doors in this building now.

  For the moment. Jace and Derek both knew the mole could come back and change that situation.

  Jace had left a few markers—invisible to anyone but him—in areas he thought would be potential targets for Freihof or the mole. These markers, generally made of pretty innocuous items like tape and string, would let him know if windows or doors had been opened or tampered with when he went back and checked them. Derek was doing the same, trying to keep the LESS Summit secure and catch the mole at the same time.

  They both knew fighting a war on two fronts was the surest way to lose. But right now it was their only option, especially with someone potentially working against them.

  Was it Carnell? The bruises were suspicious. Even in the short time Jace had been around he’d noticed the man was always angry. Always talking about elitist problems in Omega Sector and the lack of pedigree in law enforcement in general. Definitely corresponded with some of the “Manifesto of Change” document Ren McClement had shown Jace back in his office in DC.

  But Lillian had said the man she’d followed in the window had put up a pretty good fight before she’d been Tasered. Jace had difficulty believing she couldn’t drop Carnell in under five seconds flat.

  Hell, she could drop Jace in under ten if he didn’t use every skill he had.

  So neither he nor Derek thought Carnell was the man who’d fought and strung up Lillian last night.

  Speaking of, that damn key card had been burning a hole in his pocket for the past seven hours. Jace had purposely forced himself not to think about Lillian, to focus on the task at hand as he worked. The job required his focus, and Lillian needed time to rest.

  Seeing how upset she’d been with herself over how she’d handled Carnell had been painful
. Derek had been right to give her the first down shift. Everybody had their limits. Lillian’s body and mind had evidently reached hers.

  Jace damn well hoped she’d spent the last few hours sleeping. Now that Derek had told him to break, Jace planned to wake her up in the most pleasurable way possible, then hopefully talk her back into another nap afterward. In his arms. Both of them naked.

  Full-on grin covering his face, Jace found himself all but jogging back to the hotel. It was already dark again. He should be exhausted, but as he peeled away his tactical gear and showered, all he could think about was getting to Lillian.

  She’d given him her room key. And while that wasn’t exactly an engagement ring, Jace recognized it for what it was: a statement of trust.

  Nothing about Lillian then or now suggested she gave her trust easily.

  He used the key to enter her room. It was dark inside except for the light on in the bathroom with the door cracked. Evidently Lillian didn’t like the dark.

  “Lil, you awake?” he said softly, looking at her small form huddled in the bed. She’d kicked part of the blankets off, showing off one leg. She was dressed in just an oversize T-shirt and her underwear.

  It was possibly the sexiest thing Jace had seen in his whole life.

  “Lil?” he said again, moving closer.

  “Hey,” she said sleepily, turning toward him. “What took you so long?”

  It was all the invitation Jace needed. He stripped his shirt over his head, pulled off his sweats and climbed into the bed with her. God, he had been purposely not thinking about this all day, knowing he’d never be able to focus on the task at hand if he did.

  Bracing his elbows on either side of her head, he lowered his weight on her. “Hey, sexy.”

  He brought his lips to hers, easing them open. She shifted beneath him, a soft sigh escaping her. He grabbed her under one of her knees and hooked her leg up over his hips, bringing their bodies closer together. He couldn’t stop the moan that escaped him. Didn’t even try.

  He ran one hand up and down the outer part of her thigh on the leg wrapped around his hip. His other gripped her hair, tilting her head back so he could kiss her more fully. He felt her fingernails grip into his shoulders and groaned again.