Jae's Assignment

by Bernice Layton

  * * * * *

  Jae struggled to open her eyes. They felt heavy and gritty. Failing that, she tried to swallow but her mouth felt as dry as a desert. Behind her closed eyes, she could see the desert’s heat waves in the distance and wondered if she and her teammates were on another training out in the Arizona desert.

  Her mind, clouded by pain and shock, drifted back to the weekend following that training, which also happened to be Mike’s birthday. To celebrate both, the team decided to unwind at a local amusement park.

  It was all fun and games until she and Mike got on a Vortex ride together and Mike had managed to squeeze in with her at the last minute. In the stand up ride, his body was pressed against hers and he kissed her deeply, passionately. She’d been shocked, breathless, and mad as hell. He had positioned his body to prevent others from seeing them but it didn’t prevent her from feeling his hardness flush against her stomach. When he pulled back, his eyes communicated his feelings. Jae let her eyes communicate her feelings too—outrage and anger to the hilt. He had broken one of the cardinal rules and he was going to have to pay. Punishment would be severe and painful.

  Planting a fake smile on her face for the benefit of their teammates watching and waiting, Jae delivered a blow to Mike’s solar plexus that left him gagging and doubled over in pain, just as the attendant released the safety bar. Mike bent over and everything he’d eaten spewed from him like lava from a volcano much to the hilarity and clapping of the guys who mistakenly thought it was from the fast-paced ride. Still smiling, Jae stepped daintily around the mess and said over her shoulder, “Guess that ride was more than he could handle.”

  But Jae wasn’t finished with Mike by a long shot. When they’d returned to work two days later, she pulled Mike up in the garage and gave him a piece of her mind. She’d told him that if he ever did that again she would beat him to a pulp. His kiss told her that he harbored some serious feelings for her. She cared for him like a brother, her comrade and friend, nothing more.

  Still, every so often, she would find Mike looking at her. She just hoped that none of the other guys caught on to his feelings. It was another reason why she was ready to move up within the Bureau.

  She also needed stability, a job for which she didn’t have to keep a bag packed and ready with extra clothing and toiletries. She didn’t want to travel so much. She also wanted a position that she could be honest and tell her family about. She hated lying to them in the first place.

  Gradually the murky feelings of disorientation and confusion appeared to lift and her first thought was that she’d overslept and was going to be late for Ronnie’s bridal shower. Then it all came rushing back to her: the man with the dark hair, stunning blue eyes, and nice teeth, her getting shot.

  Then a slew of questions bounced around inside her head. How long had she been asleep? What time was it? Where was she and where in the hell were her clothes?

  On the verge of panic, Jae bolted upright and tried to reach around to the small of her back for her weapon. It wasn’t there but that’s when she felt a sharp jab of red-hot pain in her side. It forced her to cry out and fall back onto the bed, gasping and choking.

  And then he was there, looming over her like some towering giant with serious blue eyes.

  “You’re okay. You’re probably feeling a little woozy and maybe nauseous,” Trevor said, trying to calm her down.

  Jae glanced down at the sheet pulled up to her chest and had a vague memory of him lifting her top off and pressing her down on the bed. “Wh-what d-did you do to-to me?” she croaked through trembling lips. And yes, she was woozy and nauseous as if she’d consumed a bottle of wine. When his hand reached out and pressed against her shoulder, Jae looked around wildly. Spotting a syringe and vial of a drug lying on a towel on the nightstand, she pulled at his arm. “Y-you son of a bi-bitch! Wh-what did you give me?”

  “Relax, JR, and listen up.” Trevor spoke slowly, but firmly. “I couldn’t take you to the ER, but I needed to remove that bullet in your side. I had to sedate you to do that. The bleeding has stopped and you’re going to be fine in a few days. Now, on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the worst, use your fingers to show me your pain level.”

  She held up the middle finger of both hands.

  “Okay, so I take it that your pain level is a two. I’m guessing it’s about an eight, and for the record, I don’t see the AMA putting that particular graphic on the patient pain chart,” he said, then smiled when she scowled up at him.

  “Y-you said it w-wasn’t bad.” Jae swallowed against the nausea.

  “I didn’t actually say that. I told a tiny lie.” Trevor held up his thumb and forefinger to indicate that.

  “You li-lied.”

  “Only because I had to.” He lifted serious eyes to hers. “I need to assess you, so please don’t attack me again.” Trevor first felt her forehead for temperature then taking her pulse. Next, he lifted a stethoscope from the nightstand and listened to her heart, followed by attaching a blood pressure cuff to her upper arm. Her blood pressure was elevated and he told her it was most likely due to the sedative. “I need to check the bandage and possibly change it.” Lowering the sheet, he carefully peeled back the tape and bandage.

  Jae didn’t move during his examination, but her eyes followed his hands. She saw that her right side was red and purple and swollen. She could also see several black sutures but her jaw dropped when he peeled back the thick bandage. “That’s so gr-gross.” She groaned at the swollen and discolored skin. Controlling her features to a calm resolve, Jae met his curious gaze. “You always c-carry su-surgical equipment, Dr. Grant?” She kept quiet to his “uh-huh” answers and was catapulted several weeks back to his office when that had been his usual response to her questions.

  Trevor expertly cleaned her wound and replaced the bandaging. “I need you to sit up and try to cough to clear your airway. It’s probably going to hurt.” After helping her to a seated position, Trevor lifted the stethoscope to show her that he was again going to place it on her chest.

  Jae did as she was instructed and it brought water to her eyes. “You didn’t lie. It-it hurts,” she said, gasping between clenched teeth. “Are you a medical doctor?”

  “Yes, I am and everything sounds clear, which is good. I want to give you some medication to minimize the pain. It won’t sedate you too much, okay?” When she nodded, Trevor pulled a small bottle of painkillers from his backpack and dropped it into her outstretched hand.

  She downed two of the pills with the bottle of water he passed her. When he asked if she knew the man who’d shot her, Jae shook her head no. She guessed the medical assessment was over. “No, I don’t but he was aiming at you. Do you know him?”

  “No, but he could be associated with the men who came to my office before. They claimed to be special agents also. They’d left then returned locked and loaded, and before leaving, they blew my office and lab to smithereens. The next thing I know you show up claiming to be my contact from the FBI, and then minutes later I’m being shot at. So, I don’t know who to trust and what to believe. I need you to tell me right now, what’s your assignment?” Trevor accepted the bottle of pills and glass she passed to him.

  Jae reasoned he had every right to be wary of her. But she was struggling to piece together her conversation with Grainger when he’d first called her because her sixth sense was telling her something wasn’t right. “I-I need to make a call before I can discuss anything with you. Where’s my cell phone?” When he turned and walked over to the dresser, Jae was surprised to see him return with both of her smart phones, her prepaid phone and her agency phone. Sitting up further on the bed, Jae checked both cell phones.

  To her astonishment there were no messages from anybody at the Bureau. On the prepaid phone she had several calls from her sister Ronnie and her mother. She glanced at the time on the screen and closed her eyes. It was eight fifteen in the morn
ing and Grant was supposed to have been delivered to the safe house by 10:30 last night.

  She started scrolling through her agency cell phone again. No messages. None.

  Why hadn’t anyone called, especially Grainger? He’d given her explicit instructions that said he would call her at 23:30 hours. That would have been one hour after dropping Grant off at the safe house.

  Another thing that swirled around Jae’s mind was that Grainger had never failed to call an agent to get a briefing following an assignment. “Wait a minute,” she said, speaking to herself as she tried to sort things out. She suddenly remembered she’d left him a coded message indicating she needed help. That wasn’t a message any agent took lightly. Where were her backups? She scrolled through her call log again.

  She didn’t have any calls or text messages from her team members either. She replayed the first conversation she’d had with Grainger. It was a clear communication that saved her from an interrogation from her mother, sisters, and cousins. Frowning at the recollection, Jae now thought Luke Grainger hadn’t sounded like himself. He was rushing, something that was rare for him. The man was always calm and collected. And yet, in the second call she’d received, he didn’t sound rushed at all. Actually, she thought he might have been mumbling because his words weren’t clear and she’d had to strain to make out what he’d said. She was suddenly chilled and she didn’t think it was from the painkillers she’d ingested.

  Her eyes flew to Grant, who sat in the chair beside the bed, watching her. “Did you answer my cell phones?”

  “No, I didn’t. What’s wrong?” When she struggled to get up from the bed, he was immediately on his feet trying to still her movements. “This isn’t good. You need to rest while those sutures take hold.”

  “I-I need my bag from my car,” Jae said holding on to the nightstand for balance.

  Trevor placed a hand on her shoulder until she sat back down. “I checked the trunk of your car last night. There is no bag.” When her eyes narrowed, Trevor was quick to explain. “Your clothes were blood-soaked, so I checked your car thinking I’d find something for you to wear.” Hesitantly, she told him she had a travel bag beneath the spare in a locked compartment. The key to open it was on her key ring.

  Wait a minute. What if he takes off in my car?

  “If I was going to leave, I wouldn’t be here,” he said as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. Trevor picked up the key ring from the dresser and walked to the door.

  He returned in less than five minutes and placed her bag on the bed. “Again, what was your assignment regarding me?”

  “To escort you to a safe location,” Jae said, rummaging through her bag. Finding her spare ID card, she showed it to him.

  “Where’s my new location?”

  She told him it was classified and he wanted to know why. That same thought caused Jae to stop her movements and meet his serious gaze. She was recalling Grainger giving her a GPS route to take Grant to the safe house. Then minutes later, he’d sent her them to her cell phone. But how could that be when she’d decided to take an alternate route at the last minute when that sedan started following her on I-95? “I don’t know why the location was classified,” she said slowly.

  “Then what do you know that you can tell me, Agent Randall?” Trevor didn’t hide his frustration. “Is that protocol for the FBI concerning a witness in their relocation program? You know nothing. You tell me nothing, not even my new location or my new name?”

  Witness protection program? Jae felt the air stirring. “What…you’re in the witness protection program? Since when? I didn’t know that. None of us did.”

  “If I am your assignment, why are you in the dark?” Trevor paced the floor.

  “I wasn’t given that information.” Jae started checking both of her cell phones again. She scrolled though her agency phone for the message with the alternate GPS coordinates Grainger had sent her. But it wasn’t there. It had been deleted from the GPS tracker, and if she believed that the doctor hadn’t touched her phones, then it had been removed remotely.

  At that point, Jae stood up and grunted over the pain. “We need to leave here. Now.” She had to get them out of there. Looking down at herself, she cared little for her state of undress.

  Somebody set her up and she knew it. There was no other explanation. Trevor watched as she made her way across the room, stopping at the closet door. “Talk to me. What’s going on?” Jae braced her back against the wall for leverage and slid her feet into her sandals. “Who at the FBI would set you up or who would have an interest in seeing me killed in a crowded hotel lounge?”

  Jae couldn’t believe he’d voiced a fleeting and horrifying thought that settled in her head and wouldn’t let up. In fact, the thought grew bigger as the clock on the nightstand ticked on. The fact that the GPS coordinates appeared to have been deleted from her FBI-issued smart phone was proof that it was done for a reason. Her questions now, among many, were why and more importantly who would do that? Walking into the bathroom and pulling the back off of her smart phone, Jae snapped out the network card and battery, dropping both onto the tile floor. To her surprise, Grant stood at the door watching her.

  Moving her aside, and using the heel of his heavy black boots, Trevor stomped the pieces before scooping them up and dropping them into the toilet. One flush sent the pieces away.

  Returning to the bedroom, Jae pressed against the wall and pulled her pants and shirt on. She didn’t bat an eye that he’d been watching her moving about in just her bra and panties.

  “How did you register and pay for this room?” she asked, trying to take the focus off her.

  “It’s registered under B. Rogers and I paid cash.”

  “As in Buck Rogers, I bet.” Jae snorted, snatching up the towels from the nightstand and telling him to wipe his prints from any surface he may have touched.

  Trevor encouraged her to sit down when she started pulling at the bed sheets. “Why’d you guess Buck Rogers?” he asked, stripping the sheets from the bed after he’d gone through the motions of wiping his fingerprints from the dresser and nightstand.

  “Lucky guess, now where’s my car?” He told her it was parked on the side, out of the way of foot traffic. “To the right or left?” When he pointed to the left, Jae walked over to the window and eased back the heavy curtain and as painful as it was to do that, she needed to get her bearings and assess what was outside before they left the room. The Saturday morning sun heated her face and she became lightheaded again. Steadying herself by grasping onto the curtains, she spotted a maid’s cleaning cart a few feet away. Releasing the safety on her weapon she turned to him. “You follow my instructions, deal?”

  “Deal,” he said, pulling a tan baseball cap from his backpack and tugging it low over his forehead.

  He seemed to understand the need to follow her lead. For now, that is.

  * * * * *

  Once outside, Jae instructed Trevor to push the sheets way down in the laundry bin of the cleaning cart. Next, she all but shoved him around the second level platform and then down the steps to her car. But the second she reached her car, her knees buckled and she almost threw up on the hood of her car.

  Trevor steered her to the passenger side then helped her inside. Hurrying around to the driver’s side he put her bag and his backpack, along with a bag of trash, which consisted of bloody gauze, gloves, and towels, into the backseat. “It’s the medication,” he said, patting his pockets until he found a pack of mint gum. Giving her a stick, he instructed her to let it sit on her tongue and to breathe slowly. After backing out of the parking lot, Trevor drove up an alley for several blocks until he spotted a convenience store. After parking on the side of the building he was about to get out of the car, but she stopped him.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Jae asked.

  “Into this store. I’ll be back in a second.” Trevor
got out of the car and tossed the bag of trash into the dumpster before going inside the store.

  Minutes later, he returned to the car with a bottle of ginger ale, an ice pack, and a bottle of water. Instructing her to drink the ginger ale, he went about securing the ice pack to her injured side before he gulped down the bottle of water. Believing the militia he’d been hiding from had found him despite being in the witness protection program, Trevor knew his nightmare had returned and was far from being over. The men who wanted his formula were on to him.

  * * * * *

  Jae was always prepared. She gave Grant directions to an underground garage in downtown Petersburg, Virginia.

  Minutes later, they left the garage in a Honda she owned but kept parked in the garage in the event she needed it for emergencies. Besides, she didn’t want to take the chance of anything happening to her much-loved Mustang. It was bad enough that someone else had been driving it.

  On the way back to Richmond, Trevor suggested they stop for food at a busy roadside diner. They’d already stopped once at a truck stop restroom so that he could check the bandage. It was tender to the touch and bleeding slightly because she’d been moving a lot. Now, he insisted she eat something.

  Finding a phone booth near the diner, Jae left a quick voicemail message for her sister Ronnie, so she wouldn’t be worried. Joining the doctor in a booth in the mostly unoccupied rear of the diner, she was surprised he’d already ordered their breakfast. The seating was perfect as it obscured them from the main door and windows and they could still observe incoming patrons as well as any suspicious vehicles pulling into the parking lot.

  When the food was delivered, Jae’s stomach churned a little at the smell of sausages, eggs, and toast, but after taking a few tentative bites, she did feel a little better.

  “Your color is returning and there doesn’t seem to be any sign of infection but you have to be careful,” Trevor commented while eating his breakfast.