Live Wire

by Caisey Quinn

  Chase looked surprised that she’d addressed him. “I wasn’t aware the Feds took orders from locals. I figured you and your team would have your own agenda. Isn’t that how you typically operate?”

  She wasn’t sure if he meant her specifically or the FBI as a whole, but she was certain it was an insult either way. She narrowed her gaze on him, temporarily feeling as if they were the only two people in the room. “You know in cases like this the senior EOD tech calls the shots. You’re the one who taught me that.” Dick, she wanted to add.

  Chase arched an eyebrow. “I do know that. I guess I wasn’t sure you were still aware of it. So some rules do still apply to you?”

  “We don’t actually have time for a pissing contest or whatever this is, Officer Fisk,” Agent Davis broke in before Vivien could respond. “I can make a copy of the map if you don’t mind. In the future, feel free to assume that Agent Montgomery and I are a part of your team for as long as this assignment lasts.”

  Chase jerked his chin upward and handed over his copy of the map. “Delighted to have you.” Vivien nearly flinched from the grenade of condescension he’d hurled in her direction. “For as long as this assignment lasts, that is.”

  She was surprised there weren’t slices flayed into her skin from the sharpness of his tone.

  Following him out of the room, she fisted her hands at her sides, opening and closing them, while employing the four by four breathing technique. In for four, hold for four, out for four. Do not strangle him, she told herself. Do not let him see how much his behavior is getting to you.

  “Are you hyperventilating?” Agent Davis asked quietly from beside her.

  Vivien shot him a dirty look. “Shut up. I’m getting centered. So I don’t end up assaulting a police officer today.”

  Six

  Chase watched Vivien and Agent Davis out of the corner of his eye at every location throughout the seemingly endless shift. The man was protective of her and he couldn’t help but wonder if they were more than colleagues.

  Doesn’t matter if they are. She doesn’t belong to you. She’d rather be dead to you.

  Annalise had gotten in his head, though, and now he wanted answers to her questions. Would Vivien still be dead to him if she hadn’t been assigned to this case? Was she ever planning to contact him again? Was she here because she wanted to be or against her will?

  And more important, did she have the slightest damn clue of the agonizing torture he’d been through these past four years without her? Did she know it was like razor blades raking across his soul to see her now, like this? Did she give a flying fuck about him at all?

  Every time he opened his mouth around her, he knew he came off like a complete ass. He just didn’t know how else to deal.

  He needed advice, but that would mean talking about it with someone.

  There was only one person he could do that with.

  After they’d swept all eight zones, and gotten the all clear from the other teams, he pulled out his phone and sent a text.

  Meet me at Sirens?

  It took several minutes before the answer came through.

  See you at the end of watch.

  Chase sighed with relief. And then dread crept into his stomach like food he couldn’t digest.

  Talking about it made it real. Meant he’d have to admit how broken he was, how the only woman who’d ever made him feel whole had blown him to smithereens.

  For years he’d been positive that nothing could be worse than losing her the way he did. But now he was starting to suspect being in close proximity and not being able to have her was its own brand of awful.

  “Intelligence found something,” Officer Chan reported, breaking into his thoughts while half addressing the team and half listening to the radio on her shoulder. “We need to get back to the precinct now for a briefing.”

  Chase swallowed his pride and made his way over to where Vivien and Agent Davis stood on the grassy knoll where outdoor concerts were often held.

  “Intelligence found something and we’re heading back to find out what it is.”

  Vivien gifted him a small smile. “Thank you for letting us know. We’ll be right behind you.”

  He wanted to offer to let them ride with him but he wasn’t that strong yet, wasn’t yet ready to breathe in her signature scent without a buffer between them. He’d thought EOD training had been rough, but this was ten times more difficult.

  “You’re welcome” was all he said before walking away.

  If only she knew how hard it was to turn his back on her, to look away from her for even one second after losing her once already.

  ***

  “So we haven’t found anyone matching the FBI profile just yet,” Annalise Gamble said to the conference room full of uniforms. “What we have done is match a string of upcoming events to the locations marked on the map.”

  The map in question was scaled up and projected onto the whiteboard on the wall across from them.

  Annalise used a marker to point to the first black square. “This is Whiskey Jam. A local bar that features live music. We’ve notified the owners and they’re sending a list of upcoming performers to us as soon as possible.” She pointed to another black box. “This is Mama G’s, a family-owned Italian bakery. We’re still trying to get in touch with them.” She moved to the first blue star on the map. “This is a residence. As is this, this, and this.” All three blue stars were homes then.

  “And the red circles?” someone else prompted, voicing his own thoughts.

  “Nissan Stadium, Bridgestone Arena, the Grand Ole Opry, Ryman Auditorium, Riverfront Park, and Ascend Amphitheater.” She moved her marker with each one.

  “And the symbols,” Vivien chimed in. “Have you made any progress on what the different ones mean?”

  Annalise cut her eyes to the other woman. Chase wondered if he saw animosity there. To his knowledge, Annalise was Team Vivien, judging from the way she’d romanticized what the other woman had done. But the way she looked at her now, he wondered if maybe she wasn’t a little Team Chase after all.

  “We don’t have a definitive conclusion on the differentiation of the symbols, no,” she answered evenly. “Could be he just marked them at different times with whatever he had available. Could be categorical, like all of the residential areas being blue stars. As of right now, we’re treating them all like potential blast sites.”

  Vivien seemed satisfied with that answer and allowed Annalise to continue.

  “You mentioned upcoming events,” another officer added.

  Annalise nodded. “For the red circles. We’re comparing those locations against the FBI’s list. Captain Raeder is going to assign each team a list of artists, managers, and so on, to focus on. If any particular band has a crazed fan, or a musician with an ex with a history of mental illness, we plan to find out.”

  “Needle in a fucking haystack,” Chase muttered under his breath.

  Luke tore his eyes from where Annalise stood to shoot him a questioning glance.

  “All of them will have a loony groupie or two. And who doesn’t have at least one crazy ex?”

  Luke nodded. “It’s a start though. Not a bad one at that.”

  Chase wasn’t sure he agreed. It felt like a lot of time was about to be spent chasing their tails.

  Which meant the case would continue to be a priority on a federal level. Which meant Vivien wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

  He wished he could understand why a part of him considered that a good thing.

  Seven

  Sirens was a no-frills sports bar off the beaten path. A few dartboards, pool tables, and a weathered wooden bar that spanned half the length of the place. A lot of local precinct officers hung out there as did the guys from Fire Station One a few blocks over.

  Retired decorated officer Mickey Dugan owned the place and word
on the street was that the current Fire Chief, Charlie Hutchinson, was about to retire and buy in as co-owner as well. Chase didn’t know if there was any truth to the rumor, but he enjoyed the atmosphere at Sirens. A bunch of guys, blowing off steam after days from hell that most people couldn’t even imagine.

  Sometimes they gave each other shit, the law enforcement officers and the firefighters, but that was part of it. They had a charity boxing match every year, a chili cook-off, and were competitive as hell about whose calendar sold more copies to benefit the local children’s home. The camaraderie, the constant ribbing, and good-natured hell-giving reminded Chase a lot of the military. He missed it. It wasn’t something he openly admitted, but seeing Vivien again reminded him of the sense of belonging he’d had there.

  And he’d risked it all and essentially lost it, in a way, because of her.

  Not that he was bitter about that part. The only part burning him alive was the lie.

  Luke was already sitting at the bar by the time he arrived. A Yuengling waited for him in front of the empty stool beside Luke.

  Without a word, Luke tipped his own bottle toward Chase’s in greeting.

  Chase nearly downed the entire thing before gesturing to Dugan for another.

  He opened with “I’m going out of my mind.”

  Luke took a slow swallow of his own beer and nodded. “I figured. Pretty sure this is the first time since I’ve known you that you’ve actually wanted to talk.”

  “I need some advice.”

  Luke set his beer aside and gave Chase his full attention. “On?”

  “How to keep my fucking sanity, man.” Chase shook his head. “When I see her . . . it’s . . . I’m . . . I’m fucked, Luke. I’m angry. She’s alive. And I’m glad she is, but I’m pissed . . . pissed that she let me think she was dead for four fucking years. Pissed that she stayed away. Pissed over the time we lost. Pissed that she hardly seems to care about any of it. Pissed that I can’t keep my shit together around her.”

  “You’re pissed. I get it.”

  Chase almost laughed. “Yeah, I am. And then, beneath that, I’m something else.”

  “Relieved?” Luke supplied.

  It was like having the wind knocked out of him. A torrent of emotions threatened to pull him under. A knot formed in his throat and his eyes felt strangely moist. “So much. So goddamn much.”

  Luke leaned in closer and lowered his voice. “If it makes you feel any better, I don’t have the first clue how I’d handle what you’re going through. It’s unreal and unfair as fuck.”

  Chase propped his elbows on the bar, clasped his hands in front of him, and fisted them against his mouth to keep his words in for the moment so he didn’t lose control. When he felt more composed, he leveled his friend with an open stare. “I know it’s not exactly the same as your situation—not that I know all the details about you and Annalise, but I have eyes, man. I just want to know how you keep it together. How you see her day in and day out and don’t just explode.”

  “I don’t know what you’re referring to,” Luke said easily, evading any type of admission. “But I asked around,” he continued, sitting up straighter and giving Chase his own personal space. “And the general consensus is she was in danger, had to go into hiding that involved federal protection, then ended up helping the Bureau catch the bad guys. So they hired her on.”

  Chase nodded. She’d said as much to him. Said she didn’t have a choice for two years. But what about the other two?

  “I believe that,” he said. “I just wish she’d found a way to, I don’t know, send me a fucking smoke signal or something, you know?”

  Luke nodded. “She blindsided the hell out of you by coming here. No question about that.”

  “Damn straight she did. And I have all these questions buzzing around in my head. Questions I want to ask but don’t know if I want to hear the answers.”

  Luke cleared his throat. “Well, here’s a question for you. How do you feel about seeing her now?”

  Chase frowned. “That’s what I’ve been saying, man. It’s a giant mind-fuck of a situation, and I can’t get a handle on—”

  “No, I mean right now. As in, she just walked in.”

  Chase looked over his shoulder long enough to see Agent Davis place a guiding hand on the small of her back and lead her to a table.

  His blood reached a dangerous temperature, nearly coming to a boil in his veins. “Of course she did.”

  He turned away from her, fighting the urge to storm over there and rip Agent Davis’s hand from his body.

  Luke watched him with knowing eyes. “I think how you feel about her is pretty obvious. You’re pissed about the deception, and that’s understandable. But let me ask you this . . .”

  Chase braced himself for whatever was coming his way.

  “When we catch the sick bastard hoarding enough explosives to level all of downtown, when this case is sealed shut, are you going to be able to watch her walk away? For good this time?”

  Luke might as well have punched him straight in the chest.

  He turned to his friend, met his probing stare, and shook his head. “I’d rather let you light me on fucking fire.”

  Eight

  “Special Agent Montgomery?” a female voice called out.

  Vivien turned as she was leaving Sirens. She’d needed a drink, had imbibed two, then saw Chase’s back at the bar. His sculpted muscles taut and tense beneath his snug black T-shirt made it clear that her presence was making him uncomfortable, so she’d made an excuse about having a headache and headed out. Or she’d tried to, but just as she hit the door, Annalise Gamble, the Intelligence officer who’d briefed them earlier that evening, stood up and called her name.

  “Yes?”

  “Could we talk? About the case,” she clarified.

  Vivien nodded. “Of course.” The petite brunette had chestnut waves halfway down her back and she possessed delicate features and flawless skin. Vivien felt practically masculine beside her tiny frame as she removed her hand from the door she’d been about to push open. “And, please, call me Vivien. Though I have to tell you, at this point, you probably have a lot more insight to offer than I do.”

  Annalise gestured to a nearby table, and Vivien took a seat. It gave her a perfect view of Chase’s backside. He was having a very intense conversation with Detective Luke Foster. Seeing him with Luke in the bar took her back to the night they’d met. Suddenly she remembered the other roommate’s name had been Aiden Gamble. He’d been at the briefing as well. It was one big reunion apparently.

  “Are you any relation to—”

  “He’s my older brother,” Annalise finished before she could. “And a pain in the ass, but that’s beside the point.”

  Vivien smiled. Never having had any siblings, she couldn’t help but be a little jealous. Despite the pain in the ass comment, there was genuine love and respect in the other woman’s voice.

  Annalise’s eyes darted to where Chase and Luke sat still deep in discussion. Something sparked in her gaze when her eyes landed on Luke but Vivien kept her mouth shut. She wasn’t exactly one of the gang here.

  “So,” Annalise began, “you buy into that stuff about behavioral analysis?” She flagged down a waitress and ordered them each a beer. “Think a computer can predict the demographics that fit our perp?”

  Vivien shrugged. “I was skeptical when I first started out but I’ve seen it hit the nail on the head nine times out of ten. So yeah, I buy into it, I guess.”

  Annalise watched her carefully. “Yeah, I guess I do too in a way. I just don’t let it set parameters that are too strict. I kind of consider it a loose guideline more than anything else. This guy could be a single weirdo living in Grandma’s basement or he could be married with five kids and a wife who have no clue he’s planning anything.”

  “That’s true enough, I
suppose. But the level of planning and meticulous organization wouldn’t have left much time for—”

  “Okay, I lied,” Annalise blurted out as soon as the waitress had set their beers on the table in front of them. “I don’t want to rehash what we’ve all already discussed ten times over. I don’t want to talk about work at all.”

  Vivien’s eyes rounded at her outburst. “Um, okay.”

  Annalise jerked her head toward Chase. “Come on, girl. I’m trying not to want to scratch your eyes out, but for goodness’ sake. You had to be dead to him? You couldn’t have just broken up with him like a regular human being? Tried the whole ‘It’s not you, it’s me’ thing?”

  Vivien took two large consecutive gulps of her beer. Her shoulders slumped, and she set it down. “It wasn’t my first choice. But it wasn’t even up to me how it was handled. Time was of the essence and he was in as much danger as I was if I stayed to explain.”

  This time it was Annalise whose eyes went wide. “Does he know that?”

  Vivien lifted a shoulder in a half-hearted attempt at a shrug. It felt like everything she’d done for the past four years was half-hearted. Probably because she only had half a heart.

  “I’m pretty sure he hates me. We haven’t had an actual conversation since I got here. He hasn’t exactly been receptive to hearing me out.”

  Annalise’s eyes raked over Vivien as if evaluating the authenticity of her pain. Apparently deciding it was genuine, she sighed. “Maybe just give him some time. I’ve only known Chase for a few years. I met him when he and my brother and Luke came home on leave before their deployment about two years before he met you. He was always quiet, solemn like Aiden, aloof or whatever. But . . . after you . . . after Fort Jackson . . . it’s been worse.”

  Vivien sucked in a breath and willed the tears to remain at bay. “I never wanted him to get hurt. They promised he wouldn’t. They moved the location of my final certification to a remote field, but he found us. He was running toward us when they detonated the IED. It was small, but I knew he probably hadn’t escaped without some injuries. They promised me he would be taken care of.”