American Heroes Series - 01 - Resurrection (17 page)

“I thought you would be,” he said. “Sorry I couldn’t do better with dinner.”

Cydney took a big bite of the loaded burger. “You did just fine,” she said with a full mouth. “Where have you been all day?”

Ethan took a massive bite of his burger. “Where haven’t I been is more the question,” he replied, chewing. “There’s a lot going on and a lot to do.”

Cydney took another bite of her burger, savoring it. Ethan pulled the fries out of the bag and handed her a soda from the two he had brought with him. 

“How’s Stu?” he asked.

“In surgery the last I heard,” Cydney replied, her mouth full. “Anne-Michelle called his mother this morning to let her know what was happening, but I haven’t heard anything else.”

“Anne-Michelle?”

“The curator.”

“Oh.” He sucked down half his soda. “You know, when I asked you out to dinner last night, this really wasn’t what I had in mind. I hope you don’t think I’m a cheap date.”

She grinned at him. “I would never think that.”

He returned her smile, taking a moment to relax and enjoy her. The day had been hellish but somehow, when he looked at her, he felt as if his heart was lighter.

“I guess this is our first date, then,” he said.

She wriggled her eyebrows. “You sure know how to show a girl a good time. Blood, guts, excitement and burgers.”

He laughed. “I’ll try to do better next time.”

She just smiled at him, feeling better than she had in awhile. But thoughts of her daughter weren’t far from her mind and they settled heavily upon her again once again as she thought of the hotel sweep at dawn that failed to produce her child.

“Where do you suppose Olivia is?” she asked softly. “Do you think they’ll release her now that they have the Robe?”

Ethan looked at her, seeing that she had stopped chewing, stopped eating, and was once again verging on tears.  He gently pushed the burger towards her mouth.

“Eat,” he commanded softly. “Then we’ll talk about Olivia.”

She blinked and tears spattered on her cheeks but she dutifully took a bite of the burger, chewing slowly.  Ethan wolfed down the rest of his burger, sitting with her while she slowly finished most of hers. When she couldn’t eat the rest, he took it from her and threw all of the trash away.  Returning to the bench, he sat down very close to her.

“Now,” he began. “As for your daughter, that’s what we’ve been trying to determine for the majority of the day. We’ve got a lot of people looking for her and the guys who did this.  If I could guess as to where Olivia is, I would say that she’s been moved to another safe house somewhere. I’m sure she’s unharmed, fed, and probably bored out of her mind.  I don’t think these people are out to hurt your little girl. They’re just out to use her for leverage and an injured or abused child is not going to get them what they want. It just pisses people off and turns the tide against them. Does that make any sense?”

Cydney nodded, wiping the remainder of her tears away. “It makes a lot of sense,” she looked up at him. “Thank you for putting it into those words. It helps a lot.”

He smiled at her. “Good,” he sighed, studying her fine features in the dim light. “So I think the investigators are done with you for the day. Let me take you home, okay?”

She shook her head. “I would love to let you take me home, but I’ve got an entire gallery I have to assess for damage. I think the Rembrandt case has been hit and the Degas towards the end of the gallery took a few hits as well. God knows what our damages are going to amount to.”

“So you’re going to spend all night here?”

“Probably.  The insurance people are arriving tomorrow and I need to have a report.”

“Has anyone called the museum that you borrowed the Robe from?”

“Anne-Michelle did. I don’t know what the ensuing conversation was like but it couldn’t be good.”

He nodded, looking around the gallery to all of the bullet holes in the beautiful golden walls.  He sighed faintly.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t prevent this,” he said quietly. “We tried. We thought we had everything in place to prevent it.”

She shrugged. “Had you guys not been here, I’m sure it would have been a lot worse.” She gazed at his strong profile. “I’m really sorry about James. Have you known him a long time?”

Ethan nodded faintly, his gaze moving over the wrecked gallery. “Nine years. He was my friend.”

“I’m truly, truly sorry.”

Ethan’s eyes seemed to take on a distant look. “I drove out to his house around noon to tell his wife. I was a groomsman at the wedding two years ago. She didn’t take the news too well. So I spent the afternoon with her and picked up burgers for you and I on the way back.” He turned to look at her. “You wanted to know where I was all day. That’s where I was.”

Cydney’s eyes began to well again; her emotions were very much on the surface for the past couple of days.

“I know what it’s like to bury a husband,” she murmured. “I feel her pain.”

Ethan broke his promise to J.D. for the second time that day. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close, so close that he knew he was crushing her. But she didn’t resist and he didn’t care. It felt so good to have her warm and alive in his arms, the faint scent of her hair filling his nostrils.  After a moment, he began to rock her gently, his cheek against the side of her head, drawing strength from her. After years of loneliness and bitterness, the new-found excitement was consuming him.

They stayed that way for awhile as night settled and the distant voices of cops and agents moving through the galleries filled the air. The thunder of news copters could be heard overhead, but wrapped in each others arms in the midst of the destroyed gallery, it was as if only the two of them existed.  Ethan gave her a final squeeze and released her.

“Let me take you home to at least change your clothes and maybe get a shower,” he said. “I’ll bring you back and you can do what you need to do.”

She still had her head on his chest. “All right,” she murmured. “That sounds good.”

Ethan kissed her forehead, hoping no one was watching. But when she turned her face up to him, he couldn’t resist kissing her lips as well. It was a sweet, gentle, hormone-charged kiss.  He pulled away reluctantly, smiling at her.

“I’ll be in trouble if J.D. sees that,” he said softly.

Her brow furrowed gently. “Why?”

“Because I’m on the job. I told him I wouldn’t touch you during work hours.”

“Then you’re in big trouble, buster.”

Ethan laughed softly.  Just as he stood up and pulled her to her feet, a uniformed officer entered the gallery and headed straight for them.

“Are you Cydney Hetherington?” he was looking at Cydney.

She nodded, slightly apprehensive. “Yes.”

The cop came to a stop and jabbed a thumb in the direction of the entrance. “There’s some guy at the driveway claiming he’s your brother. He says he’s here to pick you up.”

“Name?” Ethan asked.

“Kyle Winter.”

“Let him pass.”

The uniform walked away. Ethan turned to Cydney. “It looks like your brother has come to take you home instead.”

She nodded. “He brought me to work this morning. With everything that’s gone on, I completely forgot to call him.”

They began to walk towards the elevator leading to the lower level. “He seems very protective of you,” Ethan commented. “I spoke with him briefly last night.”

“He is,” she replied. “He’s a good guy. I don’t know what I’d do without him.”

They reached the elevator and Ethan pushed the button. “That’s the way I feel about my brothers. We’d all kill or die for each other.”

“And who are these other Serreaux brothers that you’ve mentioned before?”

“Peyton and Alex.”

“Are they local?”

He nodded. “Peyton is also with the FBI and Alex is a firefighter with the City of Los Angeles. They’re both big and blond, believe it or not. Other than our height, we don’t look too much alike,” he wriggled his eyebrows. “Come to think of it, they look more like your brother than they do me.”

She laughed softly. “So we both have big, blond brothers.”

He grinned. “No joke,” he said, scratching his head. “Believe it or not, they’re bigger than I am.”

“With your size? Are you kidding?”

“No kidding,” he assured her. “I don’t know what my mom fed us as kids, but I’m the shortest at six feet four inches. Peyton is an inch taller and Alex is almost two inches taller. I’m the runt.”

“So am I.”

He snorted. “You’re not a runt,” his eyes were warm on her. “You’re just right.”

She smiled her thanks, thinking of her brother and how close she was to him. “We’re lucky to have families that support each other,” she commented, casting him a warm gaze. “And if you still want to take me home, you can. Kyle doesn’t need to be shuttling me all over the place so far out of his way.”

The elevator doors opened and they stepped in.  As soon as the door closed, Ethan swooped in on her and kissed her deeply. Cydney responded with equal passion and it was a hot, lusty kiss.  But when the elevator jerked to a stop, Ethan quickly released her.  When the doors opened, they were standing about two feet apart and walked out into the corridor as if nothing was amiss.  Together, the proceeded down the corridor and on into the library that contained Cydney’s office.

Kyle was waiting in Cydney’s office. He leapt up from her visitors chair and met her in the doorway.

“Jesus Christ!” he exclaimed, looking his sister up and down. “Are you all right? The museum heist is all over the damn news!”

Cydney patted her brother’s arm. “I’m fine,” she said patiently. “I’m sorry I didn’t call you earlier.”

Kyle wouldn’t be put off so easily. “What in the hell happened?”

Cydney eyed Ethan, now standing beside and slightly behind her brother. “You remember Ethan Serreaux, don’t you?”

Kyle turned to the FBI agent who was about an inch taller than he was. “How are you doing, dude,” he shook Ethan’s hand in a hurried and distracted gesture before turning to his sister again.  “Mom and Dad are having a fit. You’d better call them right now. Where’s your cell phone?”

Cydney’s gaze fixed on Ethan. “The FBI has it,” she said quietly. “It was the last number that Olivia contacted me on so they’re keeping it in case she calls again.”

Kyle understood but he lifted an eyebrow at his sister. “Then you better come up with a good story for Mom and Dad.  They just got back home today from vacationing up north and saw all this stuff about the museum all over the news,” he shook a finger at her. “They keep calling your cell phone and some guy answers and tells them they have the wrong number.”

Cydney nodded wearily. “I’ll do it now,” she told him, heading towards her office. “I don’t need you to take me home, Kyle. Ethan will drive me home.”

Her last sentence trailed off as she entered her office and picked up the phone.  Kyle looked at Ethan, who gazed steadily back at him. He took a second look at the handsome, athletic agent and immediately became suspicious as a good brother would.

“Why are you taking her home?” he wanted to know.

Ethan smiled weakly. “I’m assigned to protect her until this threat is over.”

Kyle nodded although it was apparent he didn’t believe him. “You were at her house last night, too.”

“Yes, I was.”

“My wife thinks you’ve got a thing for my sister.”

Ethan blinked, not sure how to address the blunt statement. Given how Cydney’s brother had reacted last night to everything, he suspected the guy’s sense of protectiveness was working overtime. Not that he blamed him. He further suspected that any truths at the moment would not be well met and it wasn’t his place to tell him anything at all, certainly not this early in the game.

He scratched his head in a nervous gesture that almost gave him away. “My relationship with your sister is purely professional,” he replied steadily. “There was a credible threat against the museum and she falls under the scope of federal protection, especially since Olivia’s abduction.”

Kyle simply grunted, watching Cydney as she talked on the phone with their parents. He could see that she was wiping her eyes and his suspicious posturing left him.  He turned to Ethan on more of a conversational level.

“It’s like I told you last night,” he said. “She can’t take any more tragedy and I need to make sure she doesn’t have to.”

Ethan could see that he genuinely cared for his sister.  “I respect that. But you have to respect the fact that there are certain things beyond your control and this happens to be one of them. I promise that I’ll take care of her and Olivia. I won’t let you down.”

Kyle didn’t have the opportunity to reply.  Cydney came out of her office wiping her eyes. She looked straight at Ethan.

“I want to go see my mom and dad before I go home,” she sniffled. “Can you please drive me over there?”

As Ethan nodded, Kyle stepped in. “I’ll take you.”

Cydney gave her brother a pointed look. “No, thanks,” she said. “You need to go home. You spent all night at my house and I feel bad enough about it.  Go home and hang with your wife and I’ll call you if I need you, okay?”

Kyle wasn’t happy. “Are you sure?”

She stood on her toes and kissed her brother’s cheek. “Yes,” she said. “I love you, Kyle. Thanks for being there for me.”

There wasn’t much more Kyle could say. He backed off and followed Cydney and Ethan out into the parking lot. The night was deepening when they got outside, the warmth of the Southern California day having faded into a balmy night. The mercury vapor lamps were buzzing over head and they were nearly to Ethan’s car when his cell phone rang.

“Serreaux,” he answered.

J.D. was on the other line. “Ethan, where are you?”

“In the lower parking lot getting ready to take Cydney home. Why?”

J.D. was in the FBI command post in the upper parking lot. “Don’t let Cydney know this yet, but we got another call from Olivia on her cell phone.  Bring her up to the command post, okay?”

Ethan reacted coolly as his training had taught him. “We’re on our way.”

He hung up the phone and looked at Cydney. “J.D. has something he wants to discuss. Let’s head up to the command post for a minute.”