Undercover Jeopardy

by Kathleen Tailer

  She glanced around the bank’s interior and noticed all of the Christmas decorations for the first time. Wreaths were placed under each teller station, and candles with pine cones and ribbon decorated some of the counters. She had been so wrapped up in this robbery that she hadn’t given much thought to the season. Christmas had always been her favorite holiday—that is, until she and Daniel had broken up last year just a few days before the special day had arrived. She stole a look in his direction. He was still as attractive as ever, with dark hair in a short military cut and piercing blue eyes. His features were clearly defined, and he had a strong jaw and firm chin. He took good care of himself, and his athletic build showed it. She wondered if he still ran five miles every morning the way he had back when they were together. He had been on a serious health kick back then and played basketball with his squad on a regular basis. If she had to guess, she’d bet he had probably thrown himself into his exercise routines with gusto after their breakup. That had always been his way of dealing with stress or problems in his life as long as she’d known him.

  She turned, trying to push the memories away. Their relationship was over and had been for over a year. She didn’t need to be wallowing in the past; she needed to be looking forward. She wished he wasn’t here now, forcing these memories to come flooding back in the middle of this operation. Once this undercover assignment was over, she would have her pick of assignments. Maybe it would be better if she moved out of state and started over someplace where there was no possibility of ever running into him again. Yes, that was a good plan. She’d heard Florida was nice this time of year. Or maybe South Carolina near the beach...

  The phone rang again, bringing her out of her reverie. Terrell nodded at her, tacitly giving her permission to answer it. She slung her rifle to her back and walked over to the phone, then picked up the receiver.

  “Hello,” she answered.

  “Your man is doing well,” Sergeant Michaels stated.

  “Good to know,” Bethany answered.

  “Can your boss come to the phone now?”

  Bethany looked toward the back of the bank, but there had been no news from the vault. She assumed the rest of the robbers were still working on opening it. “Nope.”

  “Well, I need to get the rest of those hostages out of there before someone else gets hurt. What can I do to help move this along?”

  “Sit tight and wait,” she replied caustically. “We’ll be out of your hair soon enough.”

  Sergeant Michaels seemed undaunted. “You have eighteen hostages. What would it take to get you to release ten of them?” Bethany’s gut tightened. She wanted the people out of danger, but she worried about moving forward with the negotiations without Jackson’s approval. He was already going to be upset that J.P. was gone. He might get even angrier if she went in the back to talk to him and interrupted his work while he was trying to open the vault. Jackson was usually a benevolent leader, but he was sometimes hard to read, and she never knew what was going to set him off. When he did get angry, his actions were often unexpected and violent. This robbery had already gone down a road they hadn’t expected. She suddenly found herself in an uncomfortable position but didn’t know quite how to get out of it.

  Lost in thought, Bethany didn’t answer, so Sergeant Michaels pushed forward. “Look, Bonnie. You probably realize we have an entry team ready to roll. We also have snipers in place, but we don’t want to use force. We want this to end peacefully. Tell me what I need to do to make that happen.”

  Bethany was stuck. She knew that if she didn’t give Sergeant Michaels something, it was going to push law enforcement into acting sooner than they wanted them to, and Jackson apparently needed more time to work on the vault. Michaels was also right about one thing. If the robbers and the police did have a confrontation, more violence was going to erupt. “Alright. We got in here before we ate lunch, and now you’ve got us freezing because you turned off the heat. Turn the heat back on and send in some pizzas, and I’ll give you five hostages. That’s the deal, and it’s not negotiable.” She hung up, trying to stay in character. Terrell was watching her every move, and the last thing she wanted was to make him suspicious. Too late, she realized Terrell’s eyes had narrowed and his back had stiffened. He was angry once again.

  “You’re giving away hostages? Who put you in charge?” He stood and walked toward her, his stance threatening. Had she blown her cover, or was he just angry about her involving the hostages? A sliver of fear went down her spine as she replayed the words she’d spoken in her mind. Little details mattered in undercover work. One slip and it could mean her life. She knew that a single misstep or, even in some circles, mispronunciation could set off alarm bells, and she couldn’t afford to have even little finger cymbals going off. She needed to be constantly without any suspicion whatsoever.

  “First you give them J.P., and now you’re giving them five more? Why? What’s wrong with you?”

  “Hey,” she answered defensively, staying in character. “You’re the one who told me to answer the phone. I’m just following your instructions and keeping the cops busy while we get into that vault, and I don’t want to go back to the vault and interrupt them in the middle of their work either. If you want to talk to the guy on the phone instead of me, be my guest. They’re threatening to bust in here with an assault team, not to mention taking potshots at us with snipers. Feel free to start negotiating with them instead of me any time you want. I’m just trying to buy the boss enough time to get the job done.”

  Terrell stopped a few steps away from her, his weapon held tightly in his hands. “No one put you in charge,” he said, his tone deceptively soft and threatening. “You shouldn’t be giving those cops anything. Jackson said our job was just to keep the hostages quiet. That’s it. Now, because of you, J.P. has been arrested and you’ve got someone coming in here delivering pizza. Did you order extra cheese?” Now his voice was dripping with sarcasm.

  “The boss didn’t know the police were going to threaten to burst in, or that J.P. was going to get shot. Now he’s alive because of me. Don’t forget that,” she said, straightening and meeting his eye.

  “Yeah, well, I would have just let him die. For all we know, he’s out there singing like a bird, giving them a complete list of our members including birth dates and shoe sizes. You’ve put this job in jeopardy.” He took a step closer. “You put the organization in jeopardy.”

  FIVE

  Bethany’s heart started beating faster as Terrell’s anger consumed him. The pressure had to be getting to him, and the way he was griping the rifle was starting to make her nervous. It wasn’t unheard of for robbers to turn on each other during the middle of a job, and for the second time in only a matter of minutes, she felt like she was in real danger. Terrell had always seemed levelheaded to her in the past, but stress and fear could change that like the flip of a switch. She was walking a thin line on this assignment by participating in a crime of this magnitude. The stakes were already high, and they were getting higher by the minute.

  “Hey, which five are you going to release?” Daniel asked, drawing Terrell’s attention as he stood up and took a few steps toward Terrell. “You should let the women go—”

  “You should shut up,” Terrell said roughly as he once again turned his anger on Daniel. “I’m getting really tired of telling you to keep your mouth shut.”

  Bethany glanced at Daniel’s eyes and understood that he was giving her the perfect opportunity to look tough and convince Terrell that her persona was real. She was instantly both grateful to him and angry with him. She could take care of herself. She didn’t want him to put himself in danger for her sake. Before Terrell could act, she stepped in between them and pushed Daniel back. “Hey, hero, haven’t we told you about a hundred times to sit down and shut up?” She pulled her rifle back and hit him in the gut, then as he bent over, she hit him over the back. Her blows looked good but actually h
ad very little force behind them, so she did little to no damage. Thankfully, Daniel seemed to instantly understand what she was doing and did a good job of acting and responding to her actions. He ended up on the floor, clutching his stomach and rolling as if the force of her blows had severely injured him. When he landed, he hit his nose awkwardly, which caused it to start bleeding. The sight of the blood made the entire scene seem more real, and Terrell bought it all, hook, line and sinker. He reached for Bethany as if to stop her, but she pulled her foot back and gave Daniel several vicious kicks in the abdomen before Terrell actually succeeded in grabbing her shoulders and pulling her back from the victim on the ground.

  “Are you trying to kill him? Good grief, girl. We agreed we weren’t going to kill anyone. Didn’t you just give me a speech about how important it was to save someone’s life? Leave that guy alone!”

  Bethany didn’t want to point out to Terrell that two short minutes ago he had been threatening both her and Daniel with violence. Daniel moaned loudly, and Bethany put her foot on his pelvis and pushed him over on his chest to lessen the noise.

  “You said I was putting the operation in jeopardy,” she spat. “But I’m just as committed to the cause as you are, and if I need to kill this guy to prove it to you, then that’s what I’m going to do.” She tried to pull away from Terrell, but he held her fast and turned her to face him so their eyes met.

  “Back off. I was out of line. Look, why don’t you take this guy back to the bathroom and clean him up. We don’t want to leave anyone in that condition when we clear out of here.”

  “You clean him up,” she said severely as she slung her rifle on to her back. “What do I care what he looks like?”

  Terrell released her and straightened. Apparently, he wasn’t willing to go that far, or he didn’t like her saucy mouth. Either way, he wanted his command obeyed. “I told you to do it, and I meant it. I’ll stay out here and keep an eye on things. You don’t know how to operate the charges on the front door. I do. If something happens, I need to be here.”

  “What about them?” She swung her rifle toward the hostages and a few of them whimpered at her implied threat.

  “I’ll shoot any of them who move a muscle.”

  “Fine.” She shrugged as if the time with Daniel didn’t matter, but she was secretly pleased. She had been trying to figure out a way to talk to him in private anyway, to explain to him what was going on, and this situation had worked out perfectly. She nudged Daniel with her shoe and he moaned in response. “Let’s go, hero.”

  He cringed as if he was afraid of her touch, and Bethany silently thanked him for putting on such a realistic performance. She nudged him again. “I said, let’s go, hero.” She handed Terrell her rifle and then reached down to help Daniel up. He looked at her suspiciously when she offered her arm but eventually reached out and grabbed her right wrist, and she pulled him to his feet. As soon as he was vertical, she put his arm around her shoulders and wedged herself under his arm so she could support him as he walked. They made slow progress without saying a word until they had entered the family bathroom and flipped on the light. Bethany pulled the door closed and let him ease against the sink. Then she pulled her mask up and left it sitting above her head. It felt good to finally get out of the sweaty thing. She leaned against the door frame and watched as Daniel turned on the water and started rinsing the blood from his face.

  “I’m sorry if I hurt you, Daniel.”

  He continued washing his face but eventually grabbed the paper towel she offered and dried his face. “When?”

  She raised her eyebrows. “What do you mean when?”

  “You’re sorry you hurt me just now, or when you disappeared without a trace a year ago?” He tossed the paper towel away, straightened and gave her a small smile.

  Bethany narrowed her eyes. Good grief! He wanted to have this conversation now? “Hey now. The way I remember it, we both decided it was over last year. It was a mutual decision.”

  “No,” he said softly, “we had an argument. We both said things we regretted, and you didn’t give us an opportunity to fix it. Instead, you disappeared.” He paused. “I’ve missed you, you know.”

  Bethany tapped the lid down on her emotions. There was an element of truth to what he said, but she didn’t want to examine it. She didn’t even want to have this discussion—not now, and not ever. The scars had already healed over. She didn’t want to reopen the wounds. “Maybe I didn’t want to fix it,” she said back, her tone derisive. “We were over, Daniel. You just didn’t want to accept it.”

  He looked up quickly. “That’s not how I remember it.”

  His eyes met hers and contained a pain that she hadn’t expected. She looked away first, unable to bear the look in his eyes. “I am sorry, Daniel, both for today and for a year ago. I didn’t want to hurt you. I never meant to do that.”

  He gently grasped her arm, then touched her chin and turned her head to look at him again. His touch sent a shiver down her spine. “I looked for you for months. I watched your apartment. I searched high and low. Why do you say we were over? We were just beginning.”

  He leaned forward as if to kiss her, but she pulled her head away. She did not want to continue this conversation. He was forcing her to feel things she didn’t want to feel. It was safer all around if they left the past in the past. “We can’t talk about this now. Terrell is waiting for us.”

  A wave of frustration swept through Daniel, and he realized he wasn’t going to get the answers he was seeking. At least not today. Bethany’s heart may have closed over, but he had never stopped loving her. How could he help her see that? He had seen fear in her eyes that long ago day, and the fear was back today. What was she afraid of? Had they gotten too serious, too soon? Is that why she had run away? He remembered the day she had driven off and disappeared from his life, the angry words still on both of their tongues. He should have gone after her, but he’d always thought they’d have another opportunity to talk and sort things out, and he thought waiting for them both to cool down was the wiser course. Apparently, he had been very, very wrong. But even so, it wasn’t in him to give up. He might not be able to convince her to return to him, but before he let her go, he at least wanted to understand what had happened and why. He leaned back against the sink. “Then when can we talk? You’re obviously undercover. When does this assignment end? Will you disappear again once they’ve brought you home?”

  He saw the answer in her eyes. She would leave as soon as it was over, and she wasn’t going to contact him. Exasperation and the fear of losing her once again caused a tightening in his chest. “Bethany, please. At least give me an opportunity to talk to you before you take another assignment.”

  “I don’t know when this will end...”

  “But it will, at some point. Please promise me we’ll talk.”

  She said nothing in response, and it was obvious she wasn’t going to say another word on the subject. His face was throbbing and he touched his nose gingerly. “I think I broke my nose.”

  A look of worry crossed her face, and she tore off another paper towel, wet it and handed it to him. “I’m sorry. Here. You’re still bleeding.”

  He took the paper towel from her and put his head back, hoping to staunch the flow. “Can I have my gun back?”

  “Sorry, no, at least not yet. Someone might have seen me take it, and I don’t want to blow my cover. You have my word though that I’ll get it back to you as soon as I can.”

  “So your handler approved a bank robbery?”

  “Yeah, there’s a bigger picture here that we’ve been investigating for about a year.”

  He brought his head back down. “Care to share?”

  She gave him a small laugh. “You know the rules. I can’t do that.”

  “How can you stand to be a part of this? I’ve never done undercover work—I’ll admit it. And I respect those of
you that do. I just don’t think I could get past the crimes going on all around me. I mean, a man got shot out there. That’s got to be tough.”

  She leaned back against the door frame, giving him an expression that showed she was pleased with his interest. Her work had always been very important to her. Sometimes he thought she liked being an FBI agent more than any other aspect of her life. “I look for the gray and stay away from the black and white. There’s usually something good about a person, even if they are a criminal, so I focus on that aspect of their personality. Criminals can tell if I’m scared, and they know if I’m being judgmental about their lifestyle. I have to show them that I see them as a person, not just as someone doing bad things. Take Terrell.” She nodded toward the door.

  “You mean that big bodybuilder guy?”

  “Yeah, that’s the one. He loves dogs. Can you believe it? He saw a stray the other day that almost got hit by a car, and he made us stop, right there in the middle of the road, so he could grab the dog off the street. Then we had to change all of our plans, turn around and head in the opposite direction, just so he could drop the dog off at his sister’s so she could find a good home for it. How crazy is that?”

  Daniel smiled. He was glad she was talking to him, even if she wasn’t willing to discuss their relationship. Something was better than nothing. “I can’t imagine that big guy caring that much.”

  “Neither could I, but since I love dogs myself, it makes it much easier to be around him now that I’ve seen that side of his personality. We’ve found some common ground.” She sighed. “This is a really important assignment. I’ve been thrown into the deep end of one of the region’s most dangerous criminal organizations, and I really want a win so I can put an end to their activities. By the time I’m through with this, I hope to bring down some of the most powerful people in the state. This investigation reaches all the way up to the senator’s office.”