Beyond Duty

by Stanalei Fletcher

  “I’ll have you know I make the most potent pot of coffee this side of the Rockies.” She sounded way too alert.

  “I won’t argue that point.” Although the coffee Chip made earlier wasn’t bad, a cup of Allison’s brew would keep him awake for hours. Right now, a couple of hours’ sleep would serve him better. He switched gears. “We found something for you to look into.”

  He heard Allison shuffling some papers, then she said, “Go.”

  “Senator Pomeroy is on the list of dissenters you sent over.”

  “Right. I remember.”

  “We—Chip—found a picture of Pomeroy’s aide, Dean Weston, on Lorraine’s phone. The two look very cozy. It’s one of those degrees of separation, but suggests an association between Burnsworth and Pomeroy beyond their political association.”

  “Wow. That’s a great lead.” Allison gave a soft whistle. “Could the connection be that straightforward?”

  “What do you mean, straightforward?” Nothing about this assignment felt easy. Maybe it was because of his unsettled feelings about Chip, not the actual investigation itself.

  “All I meant was that we could still be on a wild goose chase. Now we have a place to focus.”

  “I hope you’re right.” The sooner they found the women, the better for everyone.

  “I’ll run Weston and Pomeroy’s names through our system and see if we come up with anything worth pursuing.”

  Riley scrubbed a hand down his face. “Good. What time should I call back?”

  “I’ll leave you a message if I get anything.” He could almost hear Allison calculating the time zone difference. “But if you want to check in…say around seven a.m. your time? I can give you an update.”

  “Talk to you then.” Riley signed off knowing he’d placed a difficult task in capable hands.

  Chip came out of the bathroom as he ended the call.

  “I’ve given the lab a heads-up on Weston and Pomeroy,” he told her.

  “Then I suppose all we can do is wait.” She grabbed a pillow off the bed and a blanket from the closet before heading to the recliner.

  “Right.” As he watched her arrange a makeshift bed, he felt a twinge of guilt at taking over the entire bed. There was plenty of room for both of them.

  Uh. No.

  Making Chip sleep on the recliner was better than acting on the inappropriate thoughts of tangled naked bodies that had been crowding into his brain. He stood and hurried to the bathroom before his body reacted to those thoughts and he couldn’t move.

  ****

  Chip settled onto the recliner and had to admit that it wasn’t as uncomfortable as she thought it might be. It was just big enough for one person to sleep on. A good thing too, since she wasn’t about to share her space with the hunk who’d disappeared behind the bathroom door.

  A couple of minutes later, Riley emerged, and headed toward the bed. He pulled down the covers, and after straightening the remaining pillow, punched it in the center with his fist. Chip had no problem imagining the dent his head would leave on the puffy, white linen. Next, he took off his shirt and tossed it to the foot of the bed.

  He reached for the button on his jeans, but stopped and glanced in her direction. “Enjoying the show?”

  “It’s free.” She gave a tight grin, trying to make light of the situation in spite of the blood racing through her veins.

  Riley reached for the light switch on the wall above the bed, plunging the room into merciful darkness. The rasp of his zipper sounded loud in the silence. She heard the jeans land on the bed, then heard Riley slide between the covers. The exhibition was over. She could breathe once again.

  “How long?” She asked about the hours of sleep they’d get before they needed to be on the move again.

  “Two hours. That’ll make it six a.m. our time. Allison said she’d call when she has something for us. But I want to check in at least by seven o’clock.”

  “Two hours it is, then. Good night.”

  “Night.” The bed creaked under Riley’s weight.

  Chip heard muffled pillow pounding before all was quiet. She closed her eyes only to see images of Riley’s naked torso drift behind her eyelids. After pounding her own pillow, she rolled so her back was to the man in the bed across the room. As if that would be enough to erase the memory of his earlier kiss. It was pretend, she told herself. Just pretend.

  ****

  Riley awoke to the sound of running water and glanced at his watch. He’d only been asleep for an hour and a half. He took a moment to assess his location and situation. He was in New Mexico. The little hacienda cabin at Juniper Creek Resort. Waking up in strange beds was all part of the package on any given Northstar assignment.

  His partner was already up and getting ready for the day. He hadn’t heard an alarm before the running water woke him. Chip’s military training probably conditioned her for power sleeping while on deployment—to Afghanistan, he recalled. For almost a year, he’d been worried about Mary, the teenager, surviving the mean streets of D.C., when in reality she had been in a much worse place.

  He glanced at the recliner and wondered if Chip even slept. Her blanket was neatly folded with the pillow stacked on top of it. He almost wished he’d been awake to watch her start the morning, then berated himself for the thought. He’d best rein in his imagination where his partner was concerned—focus on the objective, and build on the trust they’d established instead of caving in to his attraction. This investigation was too important to be sidetracked by a woman who wasn’t even his type. She wasn’t like any of the women he usually dated, and despite his father’s opinion, she was nothing like his mother.

  Like last night, Chip emerged from the bathroom fully dressed. Only this time she wore light-colored cargo pants and a white long-sleeved blouse. Her hair was pulled back into a braided bun that exposed the slender column of her neck and high cheekbones. Riley wondered if that was how she always wore her hair. Except of course, when she was pretending to be a runaway teenager. Then he wondered why he was curious about that detail when he never gave it a thought with other women.

  “Good, you’re awake.” She tugged on the cuff of her blouse.

  “I am.” Riley shook off the distraction, running a hand over his unshaven jaw. “I won’t be long.” He got out of bed and crossed to the corner where he’d left his luggage.

  Chip gasped and quickly turned her back.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “You’re not dressed.” She waved a hand in his general direction. “Put some clothes on.”

  “Fine.” He returned to his bed where he’d left his jeans and pulled them on. “There. You can turn around now.”

  “Thank you.” She peeked over her shoulder before facing him.

  “Why don’t you order us some breakfast while I shower. We can set up the day’s agenda while we eat.”

  “Please.”

  “What?” With his T-shirt and shaving kit in hand, he straightened and looked at her.

  “You could say, ‘please’.” Chip had an edge in her voice.

  He took a deep breath, wondering what set her off this morning. “I thought you’d be used to requests, being in the military and all.”

  “Requests end with please. Orders are different, and I don’t take them from civilians.” She made civilians sound like a dirty word.

  “Please,” he snapped. “Would you order us some breakfast?” Maybe she wasn’t used to power naps and always woke up in a bad mood. He ducked into the bathroom before he said something he would regret.

  ****

  Chip wondered what was wrong with her. Right out of the gate this morning, she was pushing Riley’s buttons, again. She’d never had such a hard time getting along with anyone before. She nagged him about his manners, but she was the one who’d left hers back in Washington. She chalked it up to being rattled when he climbed out of bed with only his shorts on. She’d seen naked men before—in conditions where modesty wasn’t a premium—but she’d nev
er experienced a reaction to the male form like she had with Riley.

  Shaking the image from her mind, she picked up the telephone receiver to dial room service, and then put it down without placing the call. What did he like to eat? They’d spent an entire day together and had grabbed that one quick meal at the Atlanta terminal. They hadn’t bothered to stop for dinner on the way to the resort. Now that she thought about it, she was starving.

  She picked up the receiver again and ordered scrambled eggs and bacon for two. If he didn’t like breakfast, there was fresh fruit in the courtesy basket. At this point, she didn’t care if he liked her choices or not. Next time, he could order his own meal.

  After placing the order, she moved her pillow and blanket to the bed. Riley must be a heavy sleeper, only half of the bed looked slept in. She turned down the covers on the other side and rumpled them. Arranging her pillow next to his, she found it strange to be unmaking a bed, instead of making it, but from previous undercover assignments, she’d learned that appearances were everything. The bed had to look like they’d both slept in it if housekeeping came by to tidy the cabin.

  With that done, she repacked her clothes into her bag. They’d registered for two nights, but she had no idea how long they planned to stay. With the information they’d discovered in those early hours, they could be on the move again before the day was over.

  Riley stepped out of the bathroom wearing only his jeans just as a knock at the cabin door announced the arrival of breakfast. Chip couldn’t tell which caused her stomach to jump more, the smell of a long awaited meal, or the rush of steam-filled air scented by Riley’s soap wafting through the room. Admonishing her stomach to behave, she announced, “Breakfast is here.”

  “Good. I’m starved. Would you pour me a cup of coffee while I finish shaving?” She shot a look in his direction, unable to keep her gaze from lingering on his bare chest. “Please,” he added.

  Chip refused to comment. She’d made her point earlier.

  After he finished shaving, he pulled a T-shirt over his head, then picked up his phone to check for messages. He frowned, apparently not seeing what he wanted. A moment later, he put the phone away and sat down at the table opposite Chip.

  Riley didn’t comment on breakfast, which meant she’d made the right choice, or he was starving. They ate in silence. When he finished, he pushed his plate away and poured a second cup of coffee for both of them. He lifted his phone and checked messages again. “Nothing from Northstar yet.”

  “You said they may not have anything until after seven.” She glanced at her watch. “It’s barely that. Even the best labs in the country take time to do their work.”

  “Northstar’s lab is one of the best in the country. We’re not hampered by bureaucratic restraints, either. I thought we would’ve heard something by now.”

  “So, we investigate the hard way with good old fashioned legwork. It’s hard to keep details, even private details, off the Internet these days. I’ll start with Senator Pomeroy, if you want to take a look at Dean Weston.”

  Riley shook his head. “We need to be careful of false leads.”

  “I’m not likely to forget whose lives are in the balance.” She forced each word out through gritted teeth.

  “Time-out.” Riley put his cup down and leaned back in his chair. “Where’d all this hostility come from?”

  Chip rubbed a spot on her forehead. She needed to tone it down. “Sorry. I’m not used to waiting around for something to happen. I just feel like I need to do something.” She offered an apologetic smile to take the sting off her words.

  “If it makes you feel any better, I don’t like it either. But I want to be sure we don’t get lost in any rabbit holes.”

  “It won’t hurt to do a little groundwork, would it?”

  “Not as long as we’re careful.”

  “Good.” She snagged the last piece of bacon. “At least the food is better than what I’d have had this week in the mud.”

  ****

  Riley gazed at the woman seated across from him and tried to imagine the disciplined Lieutenant Chip with mud splattered over her tidy hair and freckled cheeks. Instead, the face that invaded his mind was Mary’s. There she was again. Right out of the blue. The woman had left a lasting imprint on him.

  He glanced at her clean plate. “Did you have enough? Should we order more food?”

  She wiped her mouth and gathered the dishes off the table. “I’m good for now.”

  He handed his plate to her. “If you’re still hungry you should eat. I don’t want you fading on me at a critical time.”

  “I’ll be fine. I promised I wouldn’t blow this assignment. And I won’t.”

  He noticed her grip on the tray of dirty dishes was so hard, her knuckles turned white. “You did promise.” Riley wondered why this conversation seemed to upset her. “But we’ve barely started working together, and I’m still learning what you’re capable of. The gang house doesn’t count. I didn’t know you then.”

  “I didn’t blow my cover, if you’ll remember.” Turning her back on him, she put the tray on the step outside and then closed the cabin door with a resounding thud.

  Ouch. “No, you didn’t.”

  Mary had been a mystery—clean fingernails, the mature way she’d handled Lisa—clues that she’d been a ringer right from the start and he’d missed them. Even though the mystery of Mary was solved, the mystery of Chip still had some unraveling to do. Maybe if he learned more about her, he would see her as just another agent, and put this unsettling attraction and pretend marriage business into perspective. “Help me out here. Why don’t you tell me more about yourself?”

  She grabbed a dishcloth from the kitchenette and began wiping down the table. Her movements were so precise, Riley wondered if she was trying to find a way out of his question. She put the cloth away, dried her hands and faced him, that mask firmly in place. “What would you like to know?”

  “How did you end up in the Army? It seems like an unusual career choice.”

  “You mean for a woman?”

  “I didn’t go there.”

  “You didn’t have to. The fact that I’m a woman has bothered you ever since we met.”

  He sighed. So much for getting along. “Forget I said anything. I’ve obviously upset you and I don’t want to start another argument.”

  ****

  Chip hated the way she went on the defensive every time Riley made a personal reference. Usually, she connected well with people, but there was something about the man that kept her constantly off-center. She was being too sensitive. What he said was true, he didn’t know her. Maybe that was part of the turmoil between them, and it was up to her to fix it.

  She crossed to her chair and sat. “You’re right, Riley. It might help if we got to know each other better.” She placed her clasped hands on the table. “You’ve already met my father, General Anderson.”

  “At the briefing, yes.”

  “You hadn’t met him before yesterday?”

  “He’s been in the office a couple of times. Dad introduced us, but that’s all.” Riley picked up his cup and took a sip of coffee. “I know he’s in line for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He and my father have been acquaintances for a long time, which makes it curious that you and I haven’t met before now. With the exception of last year, of course.”

  After discovering that her father and Byron O’Neal knew each other so well, Chip had wondered the same thing. “Deployments have kept me out of the States.”

  “So, maybe it was timing.” He set his cup on the table. “My assignments keep me pretty busy, too.”

  “Right. And the general tends to separate his personal and professional activities. I suspect Byron and Northstar fall into the latter.”

  “My dad does the same thing, which sort of solves the mystery of how we haven’t met until now.” Riley leaned back in his chair and locked his fingers behind his head. “Did you join the Army to please your father?”

  She
nodded as she retrieved Fiona’s laptop from the corner of the table. “Mostly. Although he didn’t want me in the service at first, and tried to talk me out of it.” She shrugged. “The military life is all I’ve ever known. I felt it was important to serve, so I convinced him I wanted to join.”

  “Yet you’re with the reserve instead of full-time.”

  “My mother persuaded me I could have the best of both worlds if I joined the Army Reserve.”

  “Both worlds?”

  “When I’m not on duty, I work with delinquent youth at a correctional facility in D.C.”

  “Right, for the D.C. police, which is why Fiona knew you’d be able to find her runaways.” He gave a quick smile.

  Riley made it sound like a compliment and she felt her face grow warm. “My duties can help with that task, yes.”

  “Why do you refer to your father as the general? Are you not on good terms?”

  She looked at him, surprised at the observation. She’d never realized how unusual her relationship with her father would look to an outsider. “I’m on very good terms with my father. My professional association with General Anderson is what’s relevant, here. He’s a commanding officer in the Army, and while I’m under orders for this assignment, he’s ‘the general’.”

  “Lucky for us you were under orders,” Riley replied.

  She couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not, so she opted not to say anything and booted up the laptop. Then her curiosity got the better of her. “Your turn to share. Have you always done this kind of work?”

  ****

  Riley hesitated before answering. This new amicability felt natural and awkward at the same time. It was fair to share and share alike, but he’d never been comfortable offering up details of his work. Except Chip wasn’t just anyone. She was also Mary, the girl who’d been in his head for almost a year, haunting his dreams and crashing into his thoughts at inopportune moments. Even though he struggled with this unwelcome attraction, instinctively, Riley knew she was like him, someone who cared about making a difference.

  “Growing up, I thought my father was a secret agent.” He shrugged. “He used to work for the CIA, so I suppose he was, sort of. After that, he was always busy on some case. When I was old enough to understand the type of business he and my mother started, I knew this was what I wanted to do. Northstar is all my sister and I have ever known.” He gave her a self-conscious smile.