The Protector (15 page)

Ted graciously changed the subject again and asked Jack all sorts of questions about Ireland. Stacy listened intently and for that I was grateful. For a moment I almost thought she was afraid to ask Jack anymore questions.  But that changed as Jack took off his sports coat and rolled up the sleeves on his dress shirt, revealing the tattoo.  It was intricate in detail that I had not noticed before.

“Wow,” Stacy said after her third Margarita. “That had to hurt.”  I watched as Jack looked down on the cross on his arm and I thought I saw a wince as he realized that he had just exposed himself to more questions. Questions I wasn’t sure he wanted to answer.

“Military thing.” His words were sharp and if I hadn’t known any better I would have thought he had lost his Irish accent for a moment.  He shook his head and looked at Stacy and finally smiled. “I was drunk. You know us Irish, we like to drink.”  

The answer seemed to satisfy her as she turned back to her Margarita and began to talk excessively about getting one for her fortieth birthday.  I watched my friend intently, but I also watched the man who sat next to her with admiring eyes.  Ted loved Stacy and for the longest time I couldn’t understand that love. She was so
self-centered
and he gave her the world.  I found myself suddenly jealous of the way he looked at her. I wanted someone to look at me like that. I wanted someone to put up with my mood swings and admire me with such eyes. Once again I felt Jack’s hand squeeze mine. I couldn’t bring my gaze up to meet his. I was developing a crush on the guy who was tasked to protect me and it probably wasn’t very wise.

I was happy when lunch ended.  I wanted desperately to go home and take it easy. The next week was going to be crazy and I needed to wrap my head around what might or might not happen. We returned to my condo
midafternoon
and spent the day doing our own things.  Tomorrow I knew would be a challenge as I was scheduled to return to work. Jack would be accompanying me on base. I still wasn’t sure how that would all work out but his eyes told me to trust him and trust him I did.

J

The week seemed to fly by. Alison went back to work the day after Tom’s funeral and I knew once she was inside her actual work building she was safe. So I spent my days finding out as much as I could about Tom. I would take Alison to work and only a few times went into the building under the guise of doing research for a project. The rest of the time was spent investigating Tom. With the passwords Alison had given to us I was able to log into his systems at work, but I usually hit a brick wall. I had finally decided that I was going to have to have Alison copy his hard drive so I could search it.

Evenings were usually spent at her condo watching television or talking about Albuquerque. She managed to avoid most all phone calls from Stacy which I found humorous considering the woman called every hour on the hour to check on Alison.  For some reason the woman was obsessed with our relationship.  She was convinced we were sleeping together and never failed to remind her of the fact she wasn’t that type of woman. I honestly wanted to answer the phone and lay into the woman, but for Sonny I didn’t. I realized that time spent away from her was precious and I wondered often how her husband put up with her.

I had watched Stacy and Ted carefully at the restaurant and I could tell he was madly in love with her. I just couldn’t quite understand why.  She was
self-absorbed
and everything was about her.  But Ted still looked at her with adoring eyes and I could tell he would have gone to the ends of the earth for his wife. I did admire that. It was something I wished I had. But it was something I didn’t think was entirely possible.  I wondered what Sonny thought of their relationship but didn’t ask because it was frankly none of my business.  But this didn’t stop the fact, I found myself wanting to know more and more about Alison, and her friends. I wanted to know her life and what she did in her spare time.  She had managed to avoid visiting her parents, not sure on how to account for me.  And I couldn’t blame her. It would be hard to explain the unknown man staying at her house. 

By the end of the week, I was still no closer to finding out who had killed Tom. I played scenarios over and over in my head, but nothing seemed to make sense.  Conway was convinced I needed to come back to DC with Alison and hand over the processor but my gut told me no. So far there had been no attempts on her life, but whoever it was knew she still had the processor.

Friday started out like all the other days had, but a haze had settled over the city during the night, something Alison said was unusual. I should have taken it as a sign of things but I didn’t.  I should have realized that it was time to leave, but again I didn’t. And that little mistake would almost cost Sonny her life.

I had spent the last few days with her as she went about her life the best that she could under the circumstances.  Unfortunately the only time she spent alone or away from me was when she was sleeping. And even then I would find myself sneaking up the stairs just to check in on her.   I learned a lot about her spending the short amount of time with her. She somewhat enjoyed running and I had gone with her on a few runs.  It was amazing how her asthma didn’t affect her as bad here, as I had seen it affect her in DC.

The other thing I noticed was her need to keep busy. I wasn’t sure if that was for my benefit or if it was just her. She very rarely sat down and she was often times up very early working on one thing or another.  We both had an extreme fondness for coffee, so it was no surprise when she asked if we could stop at a local coffee place on the way into work. She wanted something different than the coffee we had been making at her place.

The coffee place was full of people as she walked out.  For so early in the morning people had flooded it. The lure of the taste of the potent black liquid had even made me an addict.  Alison carried the two cups of coffee in her hands and I almost missed the red dot that appeared on the white coffee cup.  My body seemed to only work in slow motion as I threw the door to the car open.  “Sonny,” I screamed as loud as I could.  She looked up at me in pure horror as she saw me run toward her.  The red dot was no longer on the coffee cup and I could only imagine where they now had the shot aimed. 

“Jack?” As she said my name the heel of her boot caught on the black asphalt and she fell forward, coffee spilling everywhere. I didn’t hear the shot but I saw the glass door behind her shatter and screams erupt from the crowded coffee shop. I didn’t know if the bullet hit anyone, I hadn’t planned on staying long enough to find out either.

I reached Alison just as she sat up and looked behind her.  I didn’t give her a chance to absorb what had happened. The gunman had missed and this gave me time to get her the hell out of the way.  I yanked at Alison as another shot hit the pavement next to her. This time it all registered and fear filled her eyes. Her mouth opened to scream but nothing came out. She stood up and ran with me behind the closest car. I had managed to pull my gun from my holster and pushed her down to the ground on the curb we were now on.  People began to run out of the coffee place in a frenzy.  A group of military men tried to keep as many of the people inside as possible. One looked at me and saw the gun in my hand.

I moved my hand to my eyes and then pointed up to the second story building in which he was in direct fire. He hit the ground as another shot rang out and landed in his general vicinity. He managed to belly crawl quickly to my side. Adrenaline pulsed through my veins as I caught sight of the shooter, a deadly mistake for any assassin.  Clearly he didn’t care if he made a mistake at this point. He wanted Alison dead.  The window shattered above our heads. Alison found her voice and a blood curdling scream escape d her lungs.

“What the hell is going on,” the soldier yelled.  He did not raise his head but put his body in between mine and Alison’s.  Another shot hit the car we were hiding behind. I wasn’t sure what the guy with the gun was trying to do.

“I need to get her away from here.”

The soldier looked around and pointed toward the delivery truck that was two cars away from us. I looked back to where I had last seen the gun man, he was no longer there. I heard sirens in the background, but they were still a few minutes away, I judged.  I handed the soldier the gun, “Get her behind that truck and stay with her,” I ordered. “And if you can get in a few shots shoot.”

I heard Alison scream my name as I ran toward her car. As I reached the open door I grabbed my other gun and the spare clips I had hid under the seat and looked around.  So far no one had been hit, but it was only time before that happened and innocent blood flooded the parking lot.  I ran like hell across the parking lot trying to draw the gunman’s fire.  But the shots continued to hit the car I had run from. I counted six shots by the time I reached the back of the building and climbed the stairs to the roof.

He wasn’t very tall, and from what I could gather he either did not see me running through the parking lot and hear me come up the stairs or he was not concerned with me as much as he was with killing Alison.  He continued to fire and it took me only one shot to kill him cold.

I walked over to where his body now bled out.  I didn’t have to see his body to know my shot had been lethal.  I looked over the scene below and I could see the car where we had hid. It was a lucky pick because from his vantage point he could not tell where we were hiding.   I heard the sirens getting closer and headed toward the stairs as the cops pulled into the parking lot. 

I made it to the front of the building and found all guns pointed at me.  “Federal Agent,” I yelled at the top of my lungs. I slowly laid my handgun on the ground and raised my hands up in the air.  I could see Alison clearly now.  She stood with the man in camouflage out of the line of fire behind the truck.  Officers walked to where they stood and took the gun from the soldier who had stayed with her. I owed that man everything at the moment.  A sergeant slowly approached me and I stood as still as I could.  The last thing I wanted to do was provoke local law enforcement with a reason to shoot me. 

“On the ground,” he yelled as he kicked my hand gun out of the way. Before I knew it, I was handcuffed and being thrown up against one of the police cars.  I watched as the activity swirled around me. Ambulances, fire trucks and television crews soon followed.  Finally, they let Alison and the soldier come over to me, with the sergeant who had handcuffed me earlier.  He reached behind me and undid the cuffs.

“Ok, you’re clear, but I am going to need all of you to stick around for some questions.” I nodded at him.  Before I knew it Alison had thrown her arms around me and had buried her head in my chest.  Sobs came ripping through her body. I wrapped my arms around her tightly and kissed the top of her head. 

“Sonny.”   She didn’t move and I didn’t push her away from me. The soldier stood there, watching us intently. I was in debt to this guy, who showed no fear of the situation and jumped at the chance to help. “Thank you Lieutenant.” I managed to reach out my hand and he took mine in return.  “Thank you for keeping her safe.” 

He looked at me and I could see the shock in his eyes. “This wasn’t a random shooting was it?’ I nodded my head and held Alison even tighter.  “No, but I really can’t discuss it. All I can do is say thank you and I am sorry you got caught in this.”

“This is what they train me for sir, maybe not for combat at the local coffee stop, but hey.  I am just glad there was no blood shed.  You’ll have to get your weapon from the police though. They confiscated it from me.”

“No problem. I’ll get it back.” That I was confident of. I was sure once they figured it out, I would have my weapons back with very few questions.

“Lieutenant Lance Thompson, US Air Force, Security Detail.”

“Jack Bailey,” I managed to spit out not thinking. It was the name I had used all week, except I did not add the Irish accent this time.

Our conversation was interrupted as the paramedics came swiftly to check on us.  I made them take Alison to the ambulance. I was sure an asthma attack would come around eventually and having her close to oxygen would be in her best interest. It almost took both the Lieutenant and the paramedics to wrench her out of my arms and to the ambulance.  I assured her I would be right there.  I wanted to talk to the Lieutenant and find out if he had seen anything I had missed.  He responded to my questions, quick and precise. He related everything he saw to me and more.  There was an intense curiosity in his voice as he looked from me to Alison. 

“You got him didn’t you,” he asked already knowing the answer to his question.  We watched the flurry of activity around us and finally, the Lieutenant spoke again, “This has something to do with the labs doesn’t it?”

His curiosity and perception were both right on. “Why do you ask?” I tried to act like I really didn’t know what was going on but I knew my efforts were in vain.

“She works on base. I work in a pretty secure area and I have seen her there.” He looked back and smiled. “And she comes in here a lot.”

“How often,” I asked in a panic.   I was beating myself up inside as I realized we had not been following her normal patterns this week.  And the one time we followed her normal pattern we were met with a homecoming present.

“A few times a week.” I watched as he said this.  I figured if I pressed him hard enough he would tell me the exact days, times and what she ordered every time she came in.   I could see that he watched her with admiring eyes and I could feel the jealousy build up in me as I realized he had walked out of the coffee place because he had been waiting for her.  “She hadn’t been in the last two weeks, and well,’