by Janice Sims
Jeremy tensed. Lana, who was pressed against him, felt his muscles flex in the direction they eventually moved before he actually did what he was getting ready to do. But she had no way of preventing his actions. He’d snatched the gun out of Hiram’s holster and shoved him to the floor before Hiram had time to react.
The younger security guard pulled his gun. “Drop it, mister!”
Jeremy laughed. “I think not,” he said as he backed toward the exit with Lana. “Let’s try this again, shall we?”
“I’m warning you,” cried the younger security guard, “I’ll shoot if you don’t drop your weapon.”
“No you won’t,” said Jeremy confidently. “You’re only some police-academy dropout who’s so scared you’re about to pee yourself. The old guy had more nerve.”
He was right. The younger security guard was trembling so hard he had difficulty maintaining the stance required to shoot accurately. Lana was praying he wouldn’t shoot just to prove Jeremy wrong because she feared she would be the one getting hit. “Jeremy, please, let me go. I’m just slowing you down.”
“Be quiet, I need to think,” Jeremy hissed.
They were through the door. Looking back into the bank, Lana saw Carrie being helped off the floor by Eduardo who was talking into his cell phone. Lana assumed he was in contact with Ten or Pete.
Jeremy jerked her around so that she was in front of him. “Oh, for God’s sake!” he exclaimed when he saw Ten standing about six feet away, his gun trained on him. “He’s FBI, too?” he asked Lana.
Lana was mute. She had just gotten a good look at the gun in Jeremy’s hand. It was a .38, nothing fancy, but a good solid weapon. She’d used one on a gun range plenty of times. Her dad had given her one for her twenty-first birthday soon after she announced she was moving to California to pursue a career in interior design. “It’s the perfect accessory,” he’d joked. “It goes with anything.”
She wanted to smile, but kept her facial expression neutral. Jeremy obviously didn’t know very much about handguns. The one he was holding still had the safety on. Good old Hiram was a stickler for safety, bless his heart.
“Drop the weapon, Corday,” Ten ordered.
Jeremy ignored him. “You’re dating an FBI man...on purpose?” Jeremy said in Lana’s ear.
“What’s it to you?” she said, trying to provoke him. If she got him angry enough maybe his mind wouldn’t let him add up the blatant coincidences that had led him to this moment.
Lana glanced directly at Ten, but his attention was trained on Jeremy. She willed Ten to look at her. He shifted his gaze to her and she quickly glanced at the gun in Jeremy’s hand and wrinkled her brow as if to say, “Take a good look at the weapon.” Unfortunately she wasn’t as good with telepathy as she thought so Ten wasn’t picking up on her signals.
“I mean, that kiss couldn’t have been a fake, could it?” Jeremy asked. He was talking to himself now.
“Jeremy, stay on track,” Lana said. “Diamonds, escape, Tahiti, or wherever you’re going to spend the rest of your life on the run.”
“You set me up!” he screamed. Enlightenment dawned on him at the most inopportune moment that Lana could imagine.
Ten steeled himself, his stance firm, his aim true. If Corday so much as twitched, he was a dead man.
Pete was to the left of him ready to back him up.
Carrie and Eduardo were behind Corday, off to the side out of the line of fire, their weapons also at the ready. They were visibly battered, and in Eduardo’s case, bloody, but both were steady on their feet and clearheaded.
“I can’t believe you conned me,” Jeremy said incredulously. No one interrupted him. He continued in a more reasonable tone. “In a way, I’m glad he’s only your fake boyfriend. And you didn’t sleep with him.” He paused. He squeezed her tighter and peered into her face. “You didn’t sleep with him, did you?”
Lana thought it best not to answer. He was beginning to scare her. Would he really shoot her if she refused to cooperate with him? She had to make a move soon or he might get wise to the fact that the safety was still on the .38.
“Lana, did you sleep with him?” he demanded.
“Corday, she’s terrified,” Ten said. “Put the weapon down and let her go.”
Jeremy had not been pointing the .38 at anyone but now he aimed at Ten. “I should put a bullet in your head,” he threatened.
With his focus on Ten, Jeremy relaxed his hold on Lana for a moment and she stomped hard on his foot with her heel and simultaneously turned and hit him in the nose with her fist. Free now, she ran behind Ten, yelling, “The safety’s still on!”
Jeremy, figuring he had nothing left to lose, took aim and tried to fire at Ten. Nothing happened. Then what Lana had said must have registered because he attempted to click off the safety. However, in the next split second, Ten was on him, delivering a punch to the side of his head.
Jeremy’s legs went weak under him. He dropped everything he’d been holding on to, both the gun and the briefcase. He wobbled and fell to his knees, then onto his side, hitting the back of his head on the pavement.
Stepping forward, Ten shoved the gun out of the prone man’s reach with his foot. He squatted next to Jeremy and turned his face around so that he could get a good look at him. He was out cold. “Pete,” he said, “Cuff him, and then call the paramedics.”
Eduardo and Carrie rushed out of the bank. Eduardo bent and picked up the gun. Carrie went to Lana. “Are you all right?” she asked concerned.
Lana hugged her whether she wanted to be hugged or not, to hell with FBI protocol. She’d earlier thought Jeremy had fatally injured the poor woman and was relieved to see her on her feet again.
“Am I all right?” Lana cried. “The question is, are you all right?”
“I’m a tough bird,” Carrie said, smiling.
Sirens sounded in the distance. Lana scanned the scene. Pete was cuffing Jeremy, who looked to be regaining consciousness. Eduardo was talking to the two security guards, and Ten had picked up the briefcase, and was walking toward her.
“Excuse me,” said Carrie as Ten approached. She hurried over to help Pete get Jeremy off the ground.
Ten smiled at Lana. “You continue to amaze me. Not many people would’ve recognized the safety was still on. But amazement aside, that was a risky move. It scared me. If anything had happened to you...” He trailed off not wanting to voice what horrors the scenario presented for him.
Lana was incredibly relieved it was finally over. Jeremy was in custody. Ten was safe. No one had gotten irreparably injured. She had to restrain herself from throwing herself into Ten’s arms. He was working. She wouldn’t think of embarrassing him.
“Here we are at the close of the case,” she said in low tones. “You’ve got your man and what I’m guessing is over two hundred million in diamonds. I would call that a job well done, Special Agent Isles. Notice I’m not being too familiar with you.”
“Screw that,” said Ten. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her soundly.
When he let her go, Lana was starry-eyed.
Jeremy had seen them as Pete walked him over to the paramedic’s van. He angrily tossed off, “You cheating whore!”
Lana laughed. “We’re divorced!” she reminded him gleefully.
Ten took her by the hand and escorted her to the surveillance van. Inside, he opened the briefcase and took out the pouch filled with diamonds. “I thought you’d like to see what you just risked your life for,” he said as he poured the diamonds into her cupped hands.
“Wow,” Lana breathed, admiring all the sparkly stones. “I can see why people go nuts over these things.” She hastily poured them back into the bag. “Get them away from me. I can feel wicked Lana trying to break through. She wants a new Ferrari and a vacation house on the Riviera,” she joked.
Ten laughed, and drew the drawstring shut, then put the diamonds back in the briefcase. “The money from the sale of these babies is going to make a lot of retirees happy.”
Chapter 11
“I can’t believe Jeremy didn’t have a clue about the safety,” Aaron said later that evening as they all sat on the deck at his house. After Lana returned from the bank she’d phoned her dad and told him she was safe and Jeremy was in custody. That’s when Aaron suggested a party to celebrate the event. “Invite the whole gang, if they can make it,” he’d said.
Lana had made no promises, then, because quite a few details had to be worked out following the arrest. The local police showed up because a panicked bank employee phoned them. Ten was obliged to explain the actions of the FBI in the local police’s jurisdiction. They were not pleased they weren’t informed about the sting beforehand. Especially since they were going to house Jeremy in their jail until Ten made travel arrangements with the U.S. Marshals for him to go back to San Francisco to face his accusers. Plus, Carrie, Eduardo and herself had to be examined by paramedics. Lana had protested but was told she might be suffering from shock. These things had a way of sneaking up on you when you least expected it. She gave in and let them check her blood pressure and heart rate. She was more worried about Carrie and Eduardo, who were advised to go to the hospital for tests due to receiving head injuries.
Finally, because Jeremy had used her as a human shield she was required to give a statement to the police on the scene, after which Ten pulled her aside, “You should go home now, Lana. I’m going to be a while. First with getting Jeremy situated, then going to the hospital to make sure Jenkins and Como are all right.”
Lana was tired. She was experiencing a strange lethargy, maybe from the result of the waning adrenaline rush. “Only if you promise to call me after you find out how Carrie and Eduardo are.”
“You’ve got it,” Ten agreed, and kissed her cheek. “Go get some rest. You were a rock today.”
Lana hadn’t felt strong and competent today. At times she was terrified with Jeremy breathing down her neck and yelling in her ear like a madman. She gave Ten a wan smile and left.
Outside the street was mercifully clear of news vans. Thank God for small towns. If this were San Francisco she wouldn’t have been able to get to her car.
* * *
Ten sat in the back of the police cruiser with Jeremy as they were driven to the local police station by an officer. Jeremy was cuffed as he stared straight ahead, his expression unreadable. He turned his head to regard Ten. “Isn’t there some rule against an agent getting involved with a suspect’s wife? Because if there isn’t, there should be. What did you have to do to get her to cooperate?”
Ten considered not engaging in conversation with Jeremy. He certainly didn’t owe him an explanation. However he wanted to make it abundantly clear to him that he was responsible for this situation, and no one else.
“You’re caught, Davis. Yes, we know your real name. It’s time you stopped deluding yourself. You committed a criminal act and now you’re going to pay for it. How did I get Lana to cooperate? It’s simple. You pissed her off. I had to rein her in, she was so eager to get even with you. So you have no one to blame but yourself.”
Jeremy smiled coolly. “Do you think she’ll settle for a Boy Scout like you after she’s had me? No, she’ll forgive me and wait for me while I serve my time.”
“Whatever gets you through the night,” Ten said. It was apparent to him that Jeremy Davis was not ready to give up his delusions.
For the remainder of the trip to the police station he explained to Davis that the U.S. Marshals would be escorting him back to San Francisco where he would stand trial.
* * *
“You don’t have to hold our hands,” Carrie told Ten later as they sat in the examination room at the hospital. The doctor had agreed to see Carrie and Eduardo together after he’d been told they were FBI, and had been hurt in the line of duty. There were certain perks that came with the badge.
Eduardo, whose tongue was swollen, wasn’t saying much of anything. When he did the words were incoherent. Pete stood nearby, too. They often said disparaging things to one another while on duty but when a man was down they stuck together.
The doctor had already seen to Eduardo, and was now stitching closed the cut over Carrie’s right eye. “Hopefully you won’t have a scar,” he said. “But if you do it’ll be one of those cool eyebrow scars.”
Carrie smiled at him.
“I suppose when you’re in my line of work scars are inevitable,” she said.
The doctor smiled, “Your husband must worry about you all the time.”
“I’m not married, are you?”
“No,” he said, and blushed.
“Look,” Eduardo mumbled, “if you two want to be alone, we’ll wait outside.”
“I didn’t understand a word you said,” Carrie told him. Then she returned her attention to the dreamy doctor.
Ten could only smile at their exchange. Eduardo had been trying to get Carrie to go out with him for months. Ever since Carrie’s divorce had become final. But Carrie wouldn’t give him the time of day. He knew that Eduardo had been interested in her before the divorce but out of respect for her marriage had not said anything. Now, he had to watch her flirt with another man? It was probably eating him up.
Fraternizing in the Bureau was frowned upon. However many were not sticklers about the rules. Ten knew of several relationships among agents, even some marriages.
“Excuse me,” Ten said to his colleagues, “I promised to phone Lana after I found out if you two were going to live.”
Since the hospital had a rule against the use of cell phones in certain areas, he’d followed the corridors to the first floor lobby, where they were permitted. He’d pulled up her number on his phone. With a press of a button, her phone started ringing.
At her dad’s house, Lana was in the kitchen shucking sweet corn. Her dad and Ellen were adamant about throwing the party whether there were two guests or ten. Aaron had already phoned the local fish market, and had them deliver ten pounds of shrimp for the shrimp boil. He was out on the back deck now firing up the gas boiler. Lana and Ellen were relegated to getting the shrimp ready for the pot, preparing the corn and washing the red potatoes that would go in the pot, too.
She dried her hands, checked the display and quickly answered, “Hi. How is everything?”
“Looking up,” Ten said. “Jenkins and Como have minor injuries. They should be able to fly tomorrow.”
On her end, Lana’s heart skipped a beat. Tomorrow, he’d said. “Oh, you have to leave that soon?”
“I’m afraid so. Arrangements have been made. We have an 11:00-a.m. flight out of Norfolk.”
“Well, what are you doing tonight?” Lana asked. “Because Dad just invited all of you here for a shrimp boil.”
“I’m game,” Ten said without hesitation. “I’ll ask the others and let you know.”
“Okay, bye!”
Ten went back to the examination room with a smile on his face. He met his team as they were leaving the room. “How would you like to go to a party at Aaron Braithwaite’s house?” he said.
“If it involves food, I’m there,” said Carrie, “although Eduardo may not be able to eat much. I’ll eat his share.”
Eduardo mumbled something.
“He’d love to,” Carrie answered for him, laughing.
Pete laughed. “Me, too,” he said. “I love his books and was hoping I’d get the chance to meet him.”
It was settled. Ten phoned Lana back and told her everyone was coming.
* * *
Music and laughter wafted on the air as dusk fell. With the sun setting, the breezes off the Atlantic became cooler and Lana enjoyed the feel of them on her
skin. She and Ten stood talking quietly on the far corner of the deck separated from the others. She was wearing a white cotton dirndl skirt and a sleeveless black blouse. She’d taken off her sandals.
Ten had on jeans and a white short-sleeved shirt. She’d convinced him to take a walk on the beach with her earlier so he was barefoot, too.
“So, what happens now?” she asked softly, her eyes on his.
He could see by the sultry look she gave him that she was referring to the two of them, not the next step in Jeremy’s case. Ten didn’t know what to tell her. He knew how he felt. He wanted her in his life. However, he also knew she’d been through an emotional upheaval. He should be man enough to give her some space, time to figure out what she wanted.
“That’s entirely up to you,” he told her in a tone equally softly.
She tilted her head, looking slightly confused by his response. “Aren’t you in this, too?”
“Yes, and no,” Ten said.
“What do you mean, yes and no?” she asked.
“I only meant that I’ll understand if you need some time alone,” Ten said gently.
Lana turned away in a huff. “You’re confusing me even more. You could have said when we get back to San Francisco you’ll call and we’ll actually go on a date. I’m not asking for the moon. I just want to know that what we have is not something spur of the moment, or solely physical.”
Ten sighed, and grabbed her by the arm, turning her around to face him again. “I think you already know that’s not what this is. I want you. Hell, I can see you in my life forever, but what I want doesn’t count. Emotions are running high right now. You’ve probably not even had time to sort out your feelings about Jeremy. You just got divorced. You need time for you, Lana. I’ll be there when, or if, you’re ready for me.”
“Is that it? Seeing me with Jeremy gave you cold feet about you and me?” Lana asked. “I’m over Jeremy. I’ve had months to come to the realization that he used me for years. What we had was based on lies. I want the truth in my life now.”
