The Spy Who Saved Christmas

by Dana Marton

  “Forty-eight hours or more.” Jason was cross-eyed looking at the barrel, pulling as far back as the equipment allowed. “But it’ll get less potent as time goes on.” His voice was as weak as his knees, which were visibly shaking.

  His undisguised fear didn’t soften Reid. “When is the original pickup scheduled?”

  “Friday. Please, don’t shoot me. Please.”

  Christmas Eve?

  Lara had to think what day it was now. The last couple of days melted into one. Monday. It was Monday. Allen picking her up for their date at her house Saturday night seemed a lifetime ago. She’d never been apart from the twins this long before. She blinked hard, feeling like her heart was breaking in two every time she thought of her little boys.

  “Do you have any more of this?” Reid asked after Jason had put on protective gear to spare his hands, and the vials were transferred, the cooler sealed.

  Reid was the calmest person in the room. Even Jason’s hands shook a little as he moved the virus. She was ready to pass out, frankly. Reid kept up that detached, been here done this before attitude. From what she’d seen so far, she didn’t think much could shake him.

  “Is this all?” he asked Jason again, his voice sharper this time and filled with warning.

  The man’s shoulders shrunk. “I don’t even have the full order. One batch spoiled. Not my fault. I mean, the conditions here—”

  “So what does this thing do exactly?”

  The guy’s face lit up suddenly. “Gradual muscle paralysis. Death by suffocation. Eventually the lungs can’t expand enough to allow the infected test subjects to breathe. Well, theoretically. In rats,” he added. “The virus isn’t viable for long outside the body, but it makes up for that by having a long incubation time. People can pass it on to hundreds of others before they realize that they’re infected.” He actually sounded proud as he said that, his back straightening.

  Then he sobered, his tone urgent as he asked, “What are you going to do with this? I only made it because I had assurance that it would be used over there. The people I made it for are sick of our government always pulling its punches. Take this over and bring our boys home. I’m a patriot.”

  And she could tell from the sudden fire in the man’s eyes that he did believe that. He didn’t resent the government for his wife’s death. He probably thought of his wife as a heroic casualty in a war that wasn’t going too far. So he’d decided to take up the banner.

  Reid looked like he was about to pistol-whip him, but a ring tone interrupted. When he pulled the phone from his pocket, she saw it was Kenny’s, not his.

  Kenny’s phone. Which meant this was a call from whoever had taken Zak and Nate. She stepped closer to Reid. They had to be calling with another time and location for the exchange. And now she and Reid had something real to trade, something important the kidnappers wouldn’t want to mess with.

  Every muscle in her body went rigid as she waited, hoping with all she was that she would get her babies back this time. She didn’t think she could make it without them for another day.

  She and Reid were close now, she told herself. They had the virus. The virus was the key. Reid would make the exchange. All they had to do in the meantime was make sure that nothing bad happened to that cooler and they didn’t end up infecting themselves and half the state.

  Chapter Seven

  “Where the hell were you?”

  “We’ll meet tonight.”

  “No,” Reid said into the phone. “Let’s not drag this out. I’m ready now.”

  Lara gripped his hand and squeezed. After experiencing little but her anger and disapproval for the past two days, the gesture warmed something inside him—even as mad as he was at her for having followed him into the clinic.

  She was looking up at him, her violet eyes full of questions, but hope, too. She trusted him to save their children. Trusted him when she had little reason to, based on their past. He wasn’t going to fail her this time. He wasn’t going to fail his sons.

  “Tonight. Five minutes to midnight. Down by the river at the foot of the old railroad bridge, like I said.” The line went dead with the last word.

  He could have smashed Kenny’s phone against the wall, or against Jason’s head.

  “They’ll kill me for this,” the man muttered, stealing a step back. “You don’t know who you’re messing with. They’ll kill all three of us.”

  “You deserve to die. Me and her?” He glanced at Lara, no longer surprised by the wave of tender, protective feelings running through him. “I’d like to see them try.”

  He strode out of the lab, through the office, nodding to a nurse behind the single occupied workstation. The key was to act as if he belonged here. Everyone else must still be in the lunchroom, having their morning coffee, gossiping, fortifying themselves for the day.

  “What did they say?” Lara wanted to know as soon as they were outside and had a private moment. She was hanging on to his free hand.

  He had to pull away. For one, he didn’t want to give her the false impression that they were now a team. Two, he needed a free hand so he could go for his gun if something unexpected happened.

  She didn’t miss the gesture. Folded her arms in front of herself. “What did they say?”

  He wished he could give her better news. He slowed a little so he could look at her fully. “Handover is at five minutes to midnight.”

  “That’s almost a whole day.” Her lower lip trembled once before she flattened her mouth, visibly gaining control of her emotions.

  She was good at that. Always pulling it together. He supposed she couldn’t afford to fall apart. She was a business owner, a single mother raising twins. All alone. He clenched his jaw.

  “What are they waiting for?” she asked.

  “Could be they need that long to secure the location. Could be they’re messing with us. Or maybe they just want the cover of darkness.” He settled the cooler carefully on the backseat, then got in. And couldn’t not think of the hundred things that could have gone wrong in the last fifteen minutes. He shot her a cold glare. “Next time I say stay in the car, you stay.”

  “You could have needed backup.”

  He didn’t need backup. On principle. “I work alone.” He emphasized the last word.

  She had that offended look on her face. She still wasn’t getting it. As if to prove that, she said, “What if he had a gun?”

  “Exactly.” He pinned her with a sharp look. “What if he had a gun? What if he dropped a vial on purpose? Don’t you want to be around to raise those kids?”

  She went so pale, he almost regretted that last bit. But he had to make her understand. “Next time I say you stay, you stay.”

  She nodded slowly.

  And when they got back on the road, for a long time neither of them spoke.

  “What about Jason?” she asked at last. “Shouldn’t you have apprehended him or whatever it is people like you do?”

  People like him? “I don’t think he would have come with us willingly and quietly. I could have grabbed him and dragged him out of there at gunpoint. Some do-gooder would have called the cops.” They sure didn’t need that. He weighed his next words. “I’m not exactly operating on the books here.”

  She turned to face him, her violet eyes narrowing. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m supposed to have you holed up in a safe place, making sure you’re nice and comfortable while we wait. The powers that be weren’t overjoyed with my personal connection to all this.”

  Her eyes went wide. “They took you off the case?” She blinked. “You’re not even supposed to be here doing this?” She looked like she was trying to decide whether to cry or strangle him to death.

  Since she wasn’t the weepy kind, things didn’t look good for him.

  “Hey. Take it easy. We’re doing pretty good so far, aren’t we? And,” he felt the need to point out, “if I was conducting this as an official operation, I couldn’t be dragging a civilian a
long, could I? You’d be sitting in some safe house, cooling your heels.” Come to think of it, he should have gone for that option. But he’d fallen for those violet eyes and let her tag along despite his better judgment. What the hell was wrong with him?

  Her shoulders relaxed a little. She leaned back in her seat. “Might as well be at the safe house. We’re doing nothing but waiting.”

  She was right, but there was nothing to do about that waiting. The best he could do was make sure that when the time for the handover came, he was ready. He pulled his own phone from his pocket.

  “I need a couple of favors,” he said when the other end was picked up. He was going to catch hell when this was all over. He might as well go all the way.

  “Am I going to have to court-martial you for them?” his superior officer, Colonel Wilson, asked on the other end.

  “Probably.”

  The colonel huffed. “I hear congratulations are in order.”

  “Carly has a big mouth.”

  “She meant well. She gave me the heads-up so I had some inkling in case you needed help. I was calling her for a consult on something else.”

  “I need a pickup for some serious virus. Should be kept in a cryogenic freezer. I need identical vials with tap water. I need someone to pick up Jason Wurst, the guy I got the virus from.” He gave the code of the GPS tracker he’d stuck on Jason’s car when he’d hauled him out of the driver’s seat. “And I need another car. Bulletproof would be good.”

  “I need you to stop engaging in illegal activities that break the chain of command, will get the FBI breathing brimstone and fire down my neck and jeopardize our core mission. Coming in for a complete debriefing would be a good start.”

  “Yes, sir. Soon. I swear.”

  A few seconds of silence passed. “Twin boys, huh?”

  “Zak and Nate.”

  “Let’s hope they look like their mother.”

  “Very funny, sir.” He relaxed a little at the colonel’s lighter tone.

  His relief proved to be premature, however. The next thing the man said was spoken in a hard, crisp voice. “I officially, and in every other capacity, reject your request, soldier. This is an FBI operation. I shouldn’t have to remind you that you’re off the case. As of now, you’re under direct order from me to stop all activities relating to this case and hand over the virus, as well as all information in your possession, to your FBI handler. And if your buddy Cade, who is sitting in my office and heard most everything, gets it in his thick head that he should help you, meeting up with you at some undisclosed location like his hunting cabin to provide you with all you requested, you two will be facing court-martial together. Is that understood?”

  “Yes, sir.” He pulled onto Route 1 as the colonel hung up.

  “Where are we going?”

  “To meet a friend.”

  He was grateful for the colonel’s help, even if the man couldn’t spell it out over the phone. He could only hint at hooking him up with Cade.

  In an hour, they were up by Levitt Hill where Cade Palmer, an old SDDU buddy of his, had bought a hunting camp not long ago. Reid had been at the initiation party during the last hunting season, with some of the others from the team. Since they were all crack shots, and didn’t consider hunting with a gun much of a challenge, they’d gone out with bows and arrows. And still ended up donating a load of venison to homeless shelters all around the area. None of the married guys had been allowed to take Bambi home.

  He glanced at Lara. If they’d been together at the time, not only would she have been happy to see his ten-point buck, she would have gutted, skinned and chopped it all up for him. She was a helluva woman by his standards. Had never known better. Next hunting season, Cade and the rest of the guys could eat their hearts out.

  The realization of what he was thinking brought him up short. She wouldn’t be with him next fall. The thought was a direct hit, ripping a hole in his chest. Dammit.

  Not that he didn’t deserve some pain. Even before the current danger he was dragging her into, he’d hurt her in the past, without meaning to, without realizing how much he’d hurt her.

  “Back in Hopeville, two years ago—” he began, having no idea how he was going to finish. He wasn’t one for sharing his feelings. Hell, he wasn’t one for having feelings. He would have just as soon gone on a minesweeping mission as have a heart-to-heart with a woman. But Lara deserved the truth from him. “I wasn’t just passing time with you. I meant everything.” Okay. There it was. Do with that what you will.

  She gave him a stunned look, then shook her head. “I can’t deal with all that now. Let’s get the twins back first. Then we can talk about the rest.”

  Thank God above. She didn’t want to talk. “Fair enough,” he said quickly before she could change her mind. You never knew with a woman. But when she did talk, she seemed to have a completely different topic on her mind. “How did you learn to bake?” she asked after a few minutes. Probably to distract herself, or maybe because she, too, had been thinking about that brief week they’d spent together two years ago.

  They had time and she needed a distraction, so he decided to tell her, although he couldn’t remember the last time he’d shared anything personal about his past with anyone, not even his SDDU buddies.

  “My grandfather was an old-fashioned English country baker. I was pretty young when he died. To keep his memory alive, my mom and I baked one of his recipes every Sunday. I thought that was the height of indignity for a boy. I would have rather been playing ball with my friends outside. But she was so broken up. I faked it for her at the beginning, then the thing grew on me.

  “In high school, I got a job at the local bakery to save up for college. When I got kicked out of Penn State for fighting and went into the army, I enlisted as a cook. Then I left the army and did other things.” He left that topic alone. “Anyway, when I had to go undercover in Hopeville, we looked at a couple of covers. There was the empty bakery right in the same strip mall where Jimmy had his gun shop. Seemed like a good fit. Perfect to keep an eye on him and whoever was coming and going.”

  “You know that crusty roll recipe you showed me?” she asked quietly.

  He nodded.

  “I still make it.”

  Something turned over in his chest, the same funny feeling he’d had when she’d told him that she still visited his grave. The pull he felt toward her, both physical and emotional, was getting more and more difficult to resist. Good thing he’d made up his mind early on that nothing was going to happen between them this time. What he could give her—precious little—was not what she needed. He’d broken the rules with her once. To break them again would be unforgivably selfish.

  “So tell me about this boyfriend of yours. Allen,” he said, then winced when her eyes grew somber.

  “Do you think he’s okay?” She bit her lower lip. “If anything happens to him… He has nothing to do with anything. I couldn’t forgive myself if—” She swallowed hard and looked away.

  Damn. With everything that was going on, he’d forgotten to tell her the news.

  “He’s fine. I got a call just before I came back to the safe house and found the boys gone and Ben shot. I forgot to tell you. Sorry.” He rolled his shoulders. “So this guy, he matters to you?”

  “He’s okay? Oh, thank God.” She slumped back, squeezing her eyes shut for a second, drawing a deep breath. “He’s nice. We were just getting to know each other.”

  He wasn’t sure how he would have felt if she’d said she was in love with the man. When he tried to picture Allen by her side, as her lover, as stepfather to the twins, the hot rage that flooded through him left him unbalanced.

  “Well, he’s right as rain,” he said. She needed to hear something positive, even if he wasn’t nearly as relieved by the news as she seemed to be.

  She was lost in her thoughts for the rest of the ride, and he let her be, most topics of conversation suddenly seeming a minefield between them. Once they got to the cabin, h
e left her in the car while he walked the cooler over to a waiting Hummer.

  “I appreciate this,” he told Cade as they made the exchange.

  “You better. I don’t risk court-martial for just anyone.”

  “You’re not risking it for me either. You’re retired from the team.”

  “True.” Cade grinned. “Cabin is open. Use it if you need a rest before you move on. There’s a car for you a hundred feet or so up the north trail. Tank filled. Couldn’t get bulletproof on this short notice.”

  “That’s fine. Thanks, man.”

  “Don’t mention it. Seriously. Bailey would skin me if she knew that I’m back dabbling in the business. She still hasn’t forgiven me for the hunting trip. She’s trying to talk me into doing catch-and-release next year.”

  He took a second to sort that out. “Like what? Give first aid to the deer? Catch-and-release only works for fish.”

  “Women. They are a mystery.” Cade rolled his eyes good-naturedly.

  He couldn’t agree more. But although the guys always played the tough macho male in front of each other, Reid could see the undisguised love in his friend’s eyes. A look that said not only would he be willing to give up hunting for the woman he loved, he would gladly give up breathing, laying down his life for her if there was a need.

  “You helping me out doesn’t mean you’re back in the business. It’s a one-time deal,” Reid told him. Theirs was a dangerous occupation, and he had no intention of dragging Cade back into it.

  “Damn straight. Pregnancy hormones are scary. I tell you, that kid cannot come out fast enough.”

  Reid glanced toward his car where Lara sat, her head leaning against the headrest, her eyes closed. He’d missed the whole pregnancy thing with her.

  Well, that was an enormous relief. He didn’t understand where that heavy feeling in his chest had come from.

  “Although, when you consider what a miracle it is, everything else seems like a small price to pay,” Cade added.

  “I’m only personally involved as long as it takes to get the boys back. After that, it’ll be a long-distance thing. I wouldn’t be good for them. The best thing for everyone is if we go our separate ways.”