Several minutes later, with a room key in hand he slipped back behind the driver's seat and found their assigned room. The motel was small, perhaps fifty ground floor units, all with outside entrances. Theirs was room number twenty-six and just happened to be at the end of the line of rooms.
Jumping from the truck, she quickly made her way to the back, and lowered the tailgate grabbing the duffle bag of clothing and other essentials that he had told her earlier was there, before he had a chance to get to it. To her surprise and concern he didn't insist on getting it himself, but accepted her help and made his way over to unlock the door.
Slamming the tailgate shut she tossed the bag, which easily weighed twenty-five pounds over her shoulder and locked down the lid before following him into the room.
"I'm sorry, Nik, I should have got that. I just..." he wobbled slightly and grabbed the dresser for support before making his way to the bed.
Frowning, she dropped the bag to the floor and rushed over to him, slipping a hand around his waist, and taking care not to touch any of the numerous areas on his back that were injured. "It's okay Grant. Let's get you to bed."
He didn't protest at her helping him to the bed, or her assistance with removing his boots, bloodied jeans and t-shirt. She was further dismayed to see that blood was beginning to seep through some of the bandages.
"Would it make any difference if I told you that I really, really think you need to go to the hospital?"
"I'll be fine, just a couple of hours’ sleep and I'll be fine. In the inside pocket of the bag there are some pills. Would you get me a couple Nik?" He attempted to give her a reassuring smile as he lay on the queen sized bed, positioned on his stomach. Nikki guessed it would be a while before his back would be healed enough for him to lie on it.
"Sure." Rushing over to the bag, she unzipped it, found the inner pocket and retrieved the said bottle of pills. She opened it and dispensed several onto her palm, replaced the cap and put the bottle back where she’d found it. After grabbing the complementary bottle of water from the dresser, she rushed back to him, falling to her knees at the side of the bed as she passed the pills to him.
Seeing her concerned expression, once he finished swallowing the pills, he reached over and ran a hand through her hair, locking gazes with her. "I'll be fine. I've gone through a lot worse. Trust me. Now come and lie down with me; we should be safe until morning."
She took his hand, pressed his palm to her mouth, kissed it tenderly and then gave it a light squeeze before letting it go. "Alright. I trust you."
He managed to smile as he closed his eyes. "Good. Now get some rest, we have a long day tomorrow."
By the time she had gotten to her feet he was already asleep. She leaned over and kissed his temple, before making her way back to his duffle bag. There was a first aid kit inside so she grabbed it and made her way back over to the bed. Sitting down next to him she flipped open the white plastic case and removed what she needed to redress his bandages. She worked slowly and gently, taking care not to disturb him.
Once done she slid into bed next to him, bundled her pillow under her head and lay watching him sleep until the adrenaline of the day's events wore off and her own tiredness overtook her.
****
Nikki awoke the next day, to a bright stream of sunlight filling the room. She didn't open her eyes immediately, but reached over to Grant, only to find him missing. "Grant!" Alarm raced through her, and her eyes flew open.
"It's about time you woke up."
Grant's teasing voice drifted to her from across the room. Sitting up she rubbed her eyes and glanced in the direction of his voice. Grant was dressed in fresh clothing, sitting at the two person table, a laptop open before him, eating some sort of fast food breakfast sandwich and grinning over at her.
Reaching into a brown paper bag beside him he pulled out another breakfast sandwich and waved it at her. "Hungry?"
Nikki looked down at the spot where Grant had virtually passed out the previous night and then back at him. There were a few faint blood stains on the sheets, so she hadn't been imagining the extensiveness of his injuries. She'd never seen such a miraculous recovery.
"How are you feeling?"
Grant chuckled and took another large bite from his sandwich, chewed a few times, winked at her and swallowed. "It takes a lot more than a little beating to take me down for long."
Leaping out of the bed, she rushed to him, throwing her arms around his neck and covered his face with kisses. "Oh-my-God! I thought that maybe... That..."
He fell back into the chair, from the force of her falling into his arms and groaned. "Nikki... honey. I feel better, but my back still hurts like a bitch."
She leapt back, her hand shooting to her mouth and her eyes widening in horror. Had she hurt him again? She silently cursed herself for not thinking.
"No. No... I'm fine. Just... sore." He grabbed the wrapped sandwich once more and thrust it at her. "Here. Eat. We have a long day today. A lot to do."
"So what's going on?" She took a seat across from him in the other wooden table chair, unwrapped the breakfast sandwich and took a bite. The greasy bacon, egg and cheese concoction on a bagel wouldn't have been her first choice, and far from a healthy breakfast but at that moment - and considering that she hadn't eaten in almost twenty-four hours - it tasted as good as any fine cuisine would have.
"Well, I got in contact with the agency and apparently Diana went off the grid a few days ago. They had been suspecting she was playing both sides for some time now, but have never been able to prove it.
"So what are they going to do about it? About us?"
"Nothing."
Nikki was about to take another bite, but froze, her mouth hanging open. "What? Nothing?"
"Sahr has been my assignment for a couple of years now. They want me to finish what I started."
"No," She shook her head violently. "No. You're injured Grant." She dropped the sandwich to the table and glared over at him. "What exactly do they want you to do?"
"Sahr, his associates and Diana are all in Boston, presumably in search of the two of us. I’m putting you into protective custody and taking care of it. But first I have something to show you." He crumpled the wrapper of the first sandwich into a ball and tossed it into the nearby waste can, then proceeded to unwrap another and took a big bite.
"No."
Grant stopped chewing, frowned and swallowed. "What do you mean no? You have to, it's already been arranged."
"I mean no."
Fire reared up in his eyes at her refusal, but she wasn't backing down. There was no way she was leaving him, not while he was injured. End of story.
"Think sensibly. Think about our baby if not yourself."
Leaning on her elbows over the table she caught his angry glare. "The safest place I can be is with you. I will not, sit in some safe house or wherever you plan on taking me and go out of my mind wondering if you’re safe."
Dropping the breakfast sandwich, he leaned over the computer monitor, his face inches from hers. Determined steel grey eyes locked onto equally determined sapphire blue ones. "I'll take you there by force if I have to."
"I'll leave there as soon as you drop me off." she countered.
He smirked at her, "I'll have them sedate you."
"You need me."
"I need you safe."
Both combatants stared hard at each other, both refusing to back down.
Heaving a loud sigh, Grant leaned back into the chair. "We'll discuss this later, after you see what I have to show you. Then maybe you'll understand why I need to take care of this alone."
Satisfied with the compromise of postponing the discussion until later, Nikki went back to finishing her breakfast. However, she knew that the matter was far from settled in his mind.
Chapter 7
Pulling up to the storage unit, Grant glanced over at Nikki in the passenger seat. For the life of him he couldn't figure out why she would want to put herself and the bab
y in harm’s way to go running after the people that had captured them. It made no sense. He was doing it because it was his job, because if he didn't, she'd never be safe. There was no reason why she needed to be with him. He'd been in worse situations before and he was certain he would be again before his career with the CIA was finally over.
The one thing that this whole ordeal did make him see was that he needed to spend more time at home, and less in the field. She and the baby needed to be his main priority from here on in. He may have a duty to his country, but he had an even more important one now and it was to the woman sitting next to him and his unborn child.
As he shifted the truck into park he reached across the seat, took her hand and gave it a light squeeze. "Come on, I have some things to show you."
Her brow furrowed as she looked at the large storage container they were parked in front of. "In there?"
"Yup." Turning off the truck, he insured his gun was holstered under his black leather jacket, opened the door and hopped out, rushing to Nikki's side to assist her out.
"You'd be surprised at what people store in these things." Grant said, walking over to the combination lock and quickly undoing the first lock and then the second. With the locks open he pulled open one of the doors and ushered her inside. Sunlight poured into the twenty foot long container lighting it for them.
Nikki gasped. "Oh-my-god Grant." She brushed past him and walked further into the container.
"Aside from wanting me dead this is part of what Sahr wants from me. There are over a dozen more like it ready to be sent to Sierra Leone. You can understand why I can't let that happen."
The container was filled with various guns and ammunition. Everything from pistols to submachine guns to grenades – there were enough firearms and ammunition to supply a military unit. Enough to kill thousands upon thousands of people.
"Why do you have this... What..." She shook her head as she ran her fingers along the cool steel of one of the UZIs.
"Well, considering you're in the middle of this now, I suppose I can tell you." Crossing his arms over his chest, he leaned against the wall of the container and watched her. "As you may know the illegal arms trade is big business. I don't mean supplying hustlers on the street, I'm talking supplying armies. Well, the man that kidnapped you, Sahr, his brother was the leader of a military group set to overthrow the current government in Sierra Leone."
"Alright." She proceeded deeper into the container, awestricken. The amount of death the contents of the container could bring about made her shutter.
"Well, we don't want that. We're happy with the current president and so I was sent in to intercept the shipment and remove Sahr's brother as leader of the group."
"So when you say 'we're' you mean our government?"
Grant paused. "Yeah."
"I see."
"Well, Sahr's brother had never met the man who was trafficking these arms so I took his place. It was their first business transaction, I suppose you could call it."
She turned to face him. "What happened to the original dealer?"
Grant shrugged. "He's no longer with us..."
"He's no longer..." Nikki's voice trailed off and her eyes widened in surprise. "Oh."
"So I took his place, but something went wrong."
"Wrong?" Nikki echoed as she went back to her examination of the contents of the container.
"Right. He found out who I was and I was captured, which is how I received the scars on my back originally, they were trying to obtain information from me."
Nikki turned back around to face him. "Was it Diana? Did she actually..."
Grant huffed. "Appears that way."
Something - a shadow - rushed past the container catching his attention. "Get to the back of the container Nikki, now!" he whispered, drawing his pistol from the holster.
"Grant, what's..."
Grant placed his index finger to his mouth and jerked his head in the direction of the back of the container as he crept closer to the entrance, cursing himself for bringing her there and not putting her into protective custody as soon as he had gotten a hold of the agency.
He was just three feet from the container door when another shadow rushed by the opening and something was tossed in at him. The canister made a clang as it hit the floor and a soft hiss sounded. Seconds later, the door to the container was closed with them inside, leaving only the beams of sunlight peeking through the cracks in the roof for him to see by. Grant couldn't tell for sure what it was that had been thrown in with them, but knew it wasn't something either of them should be inhaling.
If they made a run for it, and attempted to get out of the container they'd be easy targets for whoever was out there; but if they stayed, they would either be killed or, best case scenario, put into a state of unconsciousness. Again, he cursed himself for taking Nikki there and knew if anything happened to her he'd never forgive himself.
"Stay down," he ordered as he ushered her to the very back of the container. As his mind raced for a solution, his eye caught sight of a crate he'd forgotten about.
Gas masks.
Taking Nikki's hand in his, he led her to the crate and pried it open. Grabbing a couple of the masks, he thrust one at Nikki, showing her how to put it on, before pulling one over his own head. Motioning for her to stay crouched down in the back, he began to stack a number of the largest crates he could find trying to build a barricade so when whoever was outside entered, he and Nikki wouldn't be sitting ducks waiting to be plucked.
Once the barricade was set up with Nikki and himself safely behind it they waited. Twenty minutes passed before the door slowly opened and the man who had abducted Nikki slowly and cautiously entered, scanning the container with each step. Sahr entered moments later and Grant positioned himself, aiming for Sahr first.
As he lined the man in his sights, his enemy spotted him. He pulled the trigger just a split second before his opponent sending Sahr falling backwards. He quickly aimed for Nikki's abductor just as he felt a bullet whiz by his face and embed itself in a crate behind him. Grant fired, and caught the man in the stomach sending him flying backwards and into a stack of crates.
Rushing out from behind the crates, Grant checked first on Sahr, who was already dead. He had managed a hit to the heart, killing him almost instantly. Nikki's abductor on the other was still breathing, screaming out in pain, curled up in a ball, holding his abdomen. Leaning down, Grant grabbed his gun and shoved it into the back of his jeans, then grabbed the man by the lapel of his jacket and landed several hard, sharp jabs to the jaw. The man slumped over, unconscious as Grant released him.
He then pulled his cellular phone from his jacket pocket and quickly dialled the number to the agency, requesting agents to their location to pick up the men. While on the phone he received some of the best news he'd heard in a while - Diana was in custody!
"Grant," Nikki's soft, timid voice sounded from behind him and he sighed a breath of relief as he ended the call.
"They have her in custody." He turned to her and pulled her into a tight embrace, ignoring the renewed throbbing of his back.
"They have her? Diana?"
He stroked her long, dark locks as he placed a kiss on the top of her head. "Yes, Diana. They found her staking out your apartment of all places." It sounded strange to him. She should have known there was no way in hell he would go anywhere near the apartment, but he wasn't going to second guess it. He'd have lots of time to question her tomorrow and get all of the details behind her arrest.
"Isn't that strange? Wouldn't she know you wouldn't go back there?" Nikki asked, pulling back and gazing into his grey eyes, echoing his concerns.
"Don't know, Nikki, I'll find out later. Once the agents get here to pick up these two," he nodded towards the two men, one dead lying in an ever-growing pool of his own blood and one unconscious. "Now that this is all over I have one more place to take you."
****
"What are we doing here?" Nikki whispered over to
Grant as they entered the America National Bank several hours after the incident at the container. The men had been picked up and as far as the CIA was concerned the case now closed with Grant being given credit for a job well done.
"Getting into our safety deposit box," he informed her, giving her arm, which was linked through his, a light squeeze.
Still wearing her 'I Love Boston' t-shirt, shorts and flip flops Nikki found herself feeling grossly underdressed as they approached the reception and were then carted off to the vault containing the boxes.
"What's in the box, Grant?" Nikki leaned over and whispered as they followed the middle aged woman escorting them to the vault containing the boxes, after signing the register and having his identity, Victor Ackles, verified.
Chuckling, Grant gave her a wink. "You'll see."
Several minutes later, she found herself sitting next to Grant in a private sitting room watching Grant in anxious anticipation as he unlocked the small metal box.
The lock sounded as it released and Grant flipped open the cover to reveal the contents - a small black velvet pouch.
"Take it and open it up," he urged with an excited gleam in his eyes.
She gave him one more hesitant look and then glanced back at the bag, gingerly picking it up. It was fairly light and the contents rattled slightly within. Slowly she undid the tie and opened the pouch, shaking the contents onto her outstretched palm.
As she shook out the contents she gasped and her heart stopped beating for a second or two. "My God, Grant! Where did they come from! They’re yours?" The overhead light caught the couple of dozen or so large gleaming diamonds as she rolled them around in her hand. She glanced down at her necklace, the diamond necklace that he had given her for her birthday and made the connection.
"That was the other thing Sahr wanted. Those were payment for a shipment of weapons. While escaping, I managed to grab them on my way out and brought them back home with me."
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