The Widow (Federal Hellions Book 1)

by Gray Gardner

  Her boss turned and smiled. “Coach Thomas?”

  “It’s really a pleasure,” he grinned, shaking her hand and grabbing a hold of George’s jersey as she tried to walk away. “Jane is really a delightful student to have in my class.”

  George rolled her eyes. Don’t strain yourself thinking of a compliment, she thought.

  “Well, I know she can be enthusiastic and a bit of a handful,” Nelson nodded, doing her best to sound motherly. “But, well, that’s our Jane.”

  “That’s our Jane,” he replied, still smiling at Nelson, like he was assessing her or something. “I should tell you that I had to give her another spanking just this morning.”

  George stepped between them and looked up at Dr. Thomas. “Jesuit just got here.”

  “Well, I hope she learned her lesson,” Nelson nodded, looking at her agent and trying not to laugh.

  “Game’s starting,” George interrupted, holding her hands out. She glared up at Nelson as Dr. Thomas excused himself.

  “Shit, what’s your problem?” Nelson mumbled, watching Dr. Thomas run away and biting her lip.

  “What do you mean?”

  “God, I’d let him spank me any day.” She grinned, practically drooling.

  “Go fuck yourself, Nelson.” George sighed, going back to the field.

  With her director present, George had to dial back any moves she’d learned during her training, so she was getting absolutely trampled nearly every play. Then the whistle would blow, Bella and Cricket would pull her to her feet, and the scrimmage would continue.

  It was just a damn practice game. The real season hadn’t even started yet. George wasn’t sure she could last much longer. And what the hell was she doing playing soccer on a Saturday, anyway? And with her boss in the crowd? She was starting to lose perspective on this operation, and she knew exactly who to blame.

  “Get your head into the game, Jane,” Dr. Thomas said, tapping his clipboard on the top of her head during a time-out.

  Her training suddenly kicked back in as she contemplated how to render him unconscious with minimal collateral damage. She felt her teeth grinding as she glared up at him and assessed the number of witnesses.

  The other girls were busy strategizing. Someone grabbed her hand and pulled her back, away from the bench. She was surprised.

  “What are you doing out there?” Nelson whispered, pretending like she was fixing the red ribbon on George’s ponytail. She had a weird look in her eye—almost nostalgic.

  “Uh, playing soccer with kids nearly half my age,” she sarcastically mumbled in reply. She flinched as her boss jerked on her hair.

  “Use what you know and blow them out of the water, damn it,” Nelson loudly whispered, turning her around and looking her in the eye. “It’s just a game. What are they going to do, throw you out? So what? This is embarrassing. You’re getting your ass handed to you by a bunch of sixteen-year-olds.”

  George’s mouth hung open in disbelief as Director Nelson slapped her ass and walked back around to the bleachers. Did she just get the green light for total destruction? She still had a confused look on her face when the whistle blew, so Dr. Thomas grabbed her jersey and tossed her out onto the field.

  “Comin’ at you, Jane!” he shouted, throwing his arms to the left.

  She turned her head and found two Jesuit girls, in all their green jersey glory, barreling towards her with the ball. She glanced over as her teammates raced forward, expecting her to send the ball their way. Good God.

  The two girls swung their shoulders inward as they reached George, expecting to sandwich her into submission. Instead, she knelt down, locked her elbows, and clotheslined both of them, sending them flying backwards to the wet ground. She promptly kicked the ball towards Chris, who had to blink a couple of times before accepting the pass and racing towards the goal. The ref didn’t really see what happened, but he blew the whistle when they scored so the Jesuit team could collect their players from the field.

  The battlefield.

  Next play. Another girl came after George after she passed to Bella, so she twisted to the side and stuck her leg out, tripping the girl and laying her out flat on her stomach. The ref blew his whistle and held up a yellow card as he ran up to her.

  “What’s that?” George asked, a little animated as she held out her arms.

  “A warning,” the ref replied.

  “A what? They have warnings in this game? What about all of those times I got knocked…”

  “Jane, let’s go!” Bella muttered, standing between her and the ref and pushing her back. “Let’s just play!”

  She wanted to argue. She’d been trampled several times by the other team and the refs never threw out cards. She had to just forget about it. Refocus her anger. George managed to knock five other girls on their asses without being seen, and with the score tied, had only minutes to help her team win.

  Dr. Thomas watched from the sidelines, and swore that he’d seen her smile a real smile several times. How could she not be having fun? She was creaming the other team.

  A Jesuit girl raced towards George like a freight train, and when George passed the ball to Chris, the girl didn’t slow her stride. George braced herself as she grabbed the girl’s jersey and shorts and flipped her over her head. There was a crack and a scream, then cheers from the crowd as Chris scored again. The ref blew the whistle and ran over to George and the girl writhing in pain on the ground. He threw up a red card.

  “You’re out for good!” he shouted at George.

  “What?” she yelled, throwing her hands in the air and stepping into the ref’s space.

  Her teammates ran from all corners of the field.

  “It was either me or her who was going to end up on her ass!”

  “You broke her leg!” he argued.

  “She looks fine to me!” George hollered, stepping forward and getting in his face.

  “I can see the bone sticking out!” he replied, throwing the red card on the grass over-dramatically.

  “Oh, what, so you’re a doctor now?” she asked, pushing him back.

  “Get off the field!” he ordered, grabbing a handful of her white jersey.

  She ripped his hand off of her and was about to punch him, but thankfully both sides had flooded down from the bleachers to help. They got the girl on a stretcher, calmed the ref down, and Dr. Thomas had George squirming around in his arms as he walked off the field. She had it in her head that she was going to annihilate that ref.

  Yes, it was adrenaline mixed with a little temporary insanity, but what came next was even more insane.

  Dr. Thomas dropped her on the bench and waved a finger at her as he glanced over his shoulder, the crowd watching from the frenzy on the field. Then he grinned down at her and whispered, “Are you okay?”

  She raised her brow and looked confused. What, no lecture? He wasn’t going to threaten her life or anything? She’d really lost her temper back there. She felt a little calmer and lot more confused.

  “You can’t get away with this kind of behavior,” he loudly said, leaning down and whispering, “That was awesome! The Jesuit girls get away with everything. They beat us every year by cheating! Wait, here comes the ref, look scared.”

  George couldn’t stop looking confused. First her competitive boss had told her to kick ass and now her teacher was congratulating her for it. She’d heard that the world was turning all touchy-feely, but that didn’t really seem to be the case.

  The refs approached and folded their arms across their chests. “She’s suspended for the rest of the year.”

  “It was an accident,” Dr. Thomas replied, shrugging his shoulders.

  “All right then, how about this,” the first ref said. “When that Jesuit girl heals and is back playing soccer, then she can, too.”

  George smiled innocently as Dr. Thomas shook his head and waited for the refs to leave.

  “It’s too bad. You had a real chance at playing college ball.”

 
“Oh whatever,” George laughed, standing up. She felt exhilarated and happy, something she didn’t feel all that often, and high-fived her teammates as they approached. Nothing could bring her down from this kind of high.

  “Dr. Thomas?” Director Nelson said, looking at the grass on the field. “I just got a call from the hospital.”

  His smile left his face as he looked at her. The girls dancing around him faded into the background as he took in her solemn face. He’d known Jane long enough to know that any bad news coming from her aunt would be pretty devastating. And the last thing he ever wanted was to see her cry again.

  “What happened?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder at George. She was smiling that real smile again. So rare.

  “My mom, her grandmother, just died. I… she needs to come with me tonight for the funeral tomorrow.” Nelson sighed, looking down at the cell phone in her hand. “The arrangements have already been made.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry.” He nodded, holding her shoulder. “Does Jane know?”

  George approached, smiling and feeling exceedingly confident, and said, “Do I know what?”

  Dr. Thomas stepped back as Nelson eyed her with one of those serious expressions. “Jane, uh, I have bad news.”

  George stopped smiling and leaned in, wondering what Nelson could possibly reveal with the hundreds of people around them. Bad news from Nelson was bad enough when they weren’t undercover.

  “Grandma died, so we have to go to DC and get everything ready for the funeral tomorrow,” she softly said, holding her hand out.

  George wasn’t sure how to react here. If there was any truth behind Nelson’s eyes, then she knew that someone had died. She suddenly grew frightened as she wondered who it could be. She hesitantly took her boss’s hand and walked away, turning and giving Dr. Thomas a sad look as they left. Whatever Nelson had to take her to DC for was serious. Was the assignment over? Would she ever get to see him again? Her lungs felt deflated as they walked in silence.

  “Okay, what is going on?” George asked, quickly packing a bag in her dorm room as she changed.

  Nelson snapped her phone shut as she walked in circles around the small room. No bars. She paused and looked at George. “We negotiated a trade with the Colombians. Diaz’s body was returned this morning. You have a hearing at four and his funeral is tomorrow.”

  Oh, that was serious. She hated hearings. She hated funerals. But it would be weird if she didn’t, so she dressed in a black suit and jumped into her Tahoe, following Nelson back to their building in DC and nodding as she was given instructions on what to say and how to say it.

  Intelligence hearings in the Hoover building were tricky since authorization for privileged information was atypical. She wasn’t afraid, but she also was aware that the people in attendance would be much higher up on the pay scale than she was.

  The room was filled with agents who had enough clearance to attend, and apparently a lot of them were Diaz’s friends. They all looked really pissed, too.

  She recounted the details of the assignment, and revealed what had gone wrong and explained why she had to leave his body there and be extracted by the SEALs so hastily. His friends looked upset, and she didn’t blame them. She hoped that if her friends ever attended anything like this they would be mad, too.

  They found that, like always, she’d done everything by the book. She nodded at Nelson who shook her hand, then left the building and drove back to her apartment in the darkness of the capital city. She didn’t call Darby or Burton like she usually did when she was in town. She just wanted to be alone. The next day was going to be bad enough without having to listen to them tell her what a coward she was when it came to guys. She knew.

  She also knew that hadn’t always been the case.

  She turned the lights on in the two room Georgetown apartment and sat on her bed, staring across at the picture on her dresser. Her husband smiled proudly at her, or maybe at himself. The picture was taken on the day he got into the Bureau and he was so happy that he packed her up and moved them to DC that very weekend.

  Like her dad, he’d been a cop. Unlike her dad, he’d applied for and was accepted into the FBI. He wanted it more than anything. She was fairly certain he wanted it more than he wanted her.

  He didn’t make it a month. They had only been married for six. It was his excitement and enthusiasm that had attracted her to him. It was also what had gotten him killed. There was an unknown subject, explosives, and a federal bank, and he decided it was his job to try and negotiate face to face.

  His funeral was actually when she decided that crunching numbers was no way to live, so she approached his pack of loyal friends and got herself into meetings with a couple of federal agencies.

  She went into training and to work for the DEA a few months after, working first as a consultant in the finance division. She knew after two seconds that it was where she was supposed to be, but she still gave credit to her late husband. Her life had suddenly flipped around and for the first time she was happy at work and miserable in her personal life. She had simply conceded to the fact that they had to exist in a vacuum.

  The funeral was held Sunday, a sunny, very chilly day in DC. George stood on the sidelines between Nelson and another superior as Diaz’s family wept and mourned him. She knew they were scanning the numerous black suited feds standing around, trying to pick out his partner who’d let him die and then left him in Colombia. They’d never know, though. It was classified.

  “Dr. Gary and Dr. Whitman’s office are having some accounting issues,” Nelson muttered out of the side of her mouth as she held her phone low at her side.

  George glanced over at her as people were silently passing by the grave and dropping roses on the coffin. She took a breath and wiped a stupid tear out of her eye. “Big or small?”

  “In the past four months they can’t account for over a thousand grams of various medications.”

  George smiled but tried not to let anyone grieving see her. “Oh, we got him.”

  “We got the small fish,” Nelson nodded.

  “Now we just need to nail the cartel,” George added, trying to make it sound easy.

  “And then you’re back, free and clear to go scope out all the other villains of the world.”

  They glanced at each other and grinned, then turned back to the funeral. The easy part was over.

  “I’d say you’re getting out of that boarding school very soon,” Nelson muttered, nodding as people slowly walked by.

  For some strange reason, a wave of disappointment came over George.

  Stupid Intelligence

  The following week Dr. Thomas was careful to not disrupt her schedule in any way. Someone had definitely died because there was sadness in Jane’s eyes. He wished he could talk to her about it and see if she was feeling better, but he didn’t want to bring it up. It was killing him to ignore her, but she seemed content.

  George felt bad about ignoring Dr. Thomas. She knew he was compassionate and wanted to see if she was all right after the funeral, but she avoided him that week. She’d had such a feeling of euphoria at the soccer game that she’d nearly forgotten herself and planted a big kiss on him. That just couldn’t happen.

  “Soccer just isn’t as fun without you,” Cricket said, as they ate lunch on Friday.

  “I’m out for the season,” George said, eating a bite of tuna. Thank God.

  “Couldn’t you still come to practice though?” Bella asked, looking hopeful.

  “I’m not allowed on the soccer field.” She grinned, eyeing the two of them. “I’ve been effectively banned from all things soccer until the end of the year.”

  Classes dragged on until the end of the day. Dr. Thomas passed by her desk and paused. She sucked in her breath and knew that she shouldn’t look, but she couldn’t help it. She slowly turned her eyes up to meet his.

  “Would it be okay if you stayed after class today?” he asked, not looking annoyed in the least.

  “U
h, yes sir,” she replied, quickly turning her eyes back down to the problems she was supposed to be working on. She hadn’t even finished one yet. Her head was all over the place.

  The bells rang in the chapel and everyone stood to leave. George brushed her hair behind her ears and slowly walked up to Dr. Thomas’s desk. He was busy talking to a line of flirting girls, so she began erasing the boards.

  “Oh Jane, I didn’t mean you had to stay and do work for me,” he said from behind her, taking the eraser from her hand and leading her over to his desk. His fingertips on her back might as well have been rubbing up and down her legs. It felt awesome and gave her goose bumps.

  She didn’t understand, though. If she wasn’t supposed to be working for him—that was their thing—why was she there, then?

  “I’m just… I have to ask. Are you okay?”

  He had the kindest eyes of anyone she’d ever known. She couldn’t even look at them. It was like looking at the sun. They would just burn a hole right through her. Then he’d know how she felt.

  She looked at the hardwood floor and scratched her head. “Oh, uh, sure. I mean, yes, I’m sad, but when it’s your time then it’s, well, you know.”

  “Doesn’t make it any easier on the people left behind.” He sighed, placing his hand on top of hers as it rested on his desk.

  Her heart raced a thousand miles a minute, so she quickly tried to avert the attention over to him.

  “Did… when you were a medic in Iraq, did you ever lose anyone?” she asked, looking at him long enough to make the question seem more sincere and less like a diversion.

  He gave a look, almost appreciative, like no had ever asked him that before, and answered, “It’s why I left the service.”

  She nodded and slowly pulled her hand out from under his. Touching him for that long was enough to get her practically to the point of orgasm.

  “I understand,” she said, trying not to look at him as she caught her breath. He was so perfect, and she was so frustrated that she couldn’t have him.

  “Are you sure you feel all right?” he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder and accidentally brushing her neck.