by Mike Ryan
As eleven o’clock approached, Parker leaned her head down and put her hand on her forehead, closing her eyes. She looked exhausted.
“Why don’t you go home? Get some rest,” Cole said.
“I’m fine. Besides, I had half the day off already.”
“Yeah but I told you to take a full day. You still got the other half of it left.”
“I’m fine. I don’t need anymore time,” she told him. “Thank you though,” she smiled. “Besides, why are you always telling me to get some rest? Why don’t you go relax for a little while?”
“Are you kidding? I live for this stuff. I feel like we’re finally starting to make some headway here. I ain’t going anywhere.”
A few minutes later there was a knock on the door. Cole went over and looked through the peephole and made an unpleasant grunting sound. He took a step back and looked over at Parker.
“It’s everyone’s favorite romeo,” he told her.
Parker rolled her eyes. Cole took a deep sigh before reluctantly opening the door.
“What do you want?” Cole asked.
“Wow. A little chilly reception there, don’t you think?” Turner replied.
“We’re a little busy,” an agitated Cole told him. “What?”
“Just wanted to see how things went tonight at the hotel.”
“Haven’t seen the news, huh?”
“News? No, why? What happened?” Turner wondered.
“Well, we got there and someone tried to blow us up. Three rooms went up in the explosion.”
“What? Are you guys OK?”
“We’re standing here aren’t we?”
“OK. A little heavy on the sarcasm tonight,” Turner said, motioning with his hands. “OK. I get it, not in the best of moods, totally understandable.”
“Besides, don’t you have a date to be on?” Cole asked.
“Oh that? Nah. That’s over,” he said, noticing Parker was being abnormally silent.
“Noticed you had a little nightcap over at your place,” Cole stated.
“Huh?”
“When we got back. Noticed you still had company at your apartment.”
“Nothing to it really. You guys need any help?” he asked.
“We got it.”
“Alex, you OK?”
“Yeah,” she replied.
“You didn’t get hurt tonight, did you?”
“Uh, no. Not where it shows, anyway,” Parker replied.
“You guys need anything?”
“Just time to ourselves would be nice,” Parker answered, somewhat rudely. She realized how it sounded and didn’t want to get into anything. She thought it might be better if she just took Cole up on his offer and went to bed for the night. She then stood up and walked toward the door.
“I think you may be right, Cole. Maybe it’s best if I just call it a night,” she told him, walking past the pair out the door.
Turner looked surprised and stunned, not sure what was going on. It was the first time Parker had been less than friendly towards him. At least without giving her reason to be, he thought. Maybe it was just almost being blown up that was on her mind, he thought. Cole looked at him, eyebrows raised, wondering when Turner was going to leave. It occurred to him that Turner seemed to have a knack for staying a few minutes past when his welcome ended.
“Hmm. Wonder what that was about?” Turner asked, not really expecting a response.
“Still haven’t figured it out yet, huh?”
“Figured what out?”
“You really need me to spell it out for you?”
“I wish you would,” Turner suggested.
“When we got back we noticed you sitting on the porch with your date,” Cole explained.
“Yeah?” Turner said, not getting the hint.
“We noticed a lot of…mutual affection.”
“Oohh.”
“Get it now?”
“Uhh…yeah, no, not really,” he said, shaking his head.
Cole sighed. “I’m not really trained to handle this type of stuff.”
“What stuff?”
“She has feelings for you, numb nuts,” Cole said.
“Feelings.”
Cole gritted his teeth, getting angrier by the second. “Are you really this dumb?! Those type of feelings!”
“Oh. Well,” Turner started to explain.
Cole put his hand up, stopping him. “Don’t tell me. I don’t give a crap one way or the other. If you wanna tell someone and hash out your own feelings,” he sarcastically said. “Then tell her. I‘ll just say this…women like that don‘t come around very often. She especially doesn’t go around opening her heart very often. So when she does, and you go pouncing on it with a sledgehammer, not a pretty scene.”
Turner nodded and left Cole, much to his happiness, walking over to Parker’s apartment. He sighed and licked his lips before knocking, trying to think of what he’d say. He still had no idea but felt like he at least needed to talk to her, if only in the hopes she still wouldn’t be mad at him. He knocked and heard her coming to the door, though it took her a few extra seconds to answer, probably because she was undecided whether she actually wanted to answer or not. Parker opened the door without saying a word, looking at him with rather bad intentions, he thought. It certainly seemed to him that the night air dropped about ten degrees when she opened the door and looked at him.
“OOK,” Turner opened. “Uhh, mind if I come in.”
Parker sighed, not really wanting to talk to him. “Sure,” she relented, throwing her arm up to welcome him inside.
Turner went over to the couch and sat down, wondering how he should start to try and break down the chilly reception.
“Alex, I know what you think you saw with me and Marissa but it’s really not like that,” he said.
“Not like that?” she angrily asked. “I saw you kissing her! I’m pretty sure I saw that!”
“Yeah. But it’s really not the way it seems.”
“Oh really? Sure looked like it to me,” Parker replied, still angry.
“Why are you getting so mad?”
“I’m not mad. I’m far from mad.”
“You’re mad.”
“I don’t have time for this,” she vented. “I’d really like to go to bed if you don’t mind.”
“How are we gonna get this settled if you don’t wanna talk about it?”
“There’s nothing to settle,” she said, still in an angry tone.
“Alex, please stop,” Turner pleaded, standing up, putting his hand on her arm. “I think you know how I feel about you.”
“Do I? How would I know that? You’re kissing another girl on your porch. Obviously, you don’t think that much of me!”
“Oh come on. I’ve told you repeatedly how beautiful you are.”
“Not beautiful enough apparently,” she replied, calming down a little.
“Alex. Please just calm down so we can talk this out.”
“Fine. What do you want to say?” Parker asked, more agitated than angry at this point.
“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. Smart, funny…appealingly dangerous. I love everything about you.”
“Just not enough to want to actually be with me over her,” she stated.
“Alex, I’m not choosing her over you,” Turner sighed.
“No. You’re just rejecting me outright,” she softly said, sitting down.
Turner sat back down next to her, putting his hand on hers. “Listen,” he sighed, deciding to spill out everything he’d been thinking about. “You are everything a guy could ever want. For all the reasons I’ve already said, and more that I can’t even describe.”
Parker began to respond but Turner put his finger out to prevent her from interrupting, “ah, just let me finish. If this was any other situation, I’d be a fool for not pursuing things with you. And if I hadn’t met Marissa, then maybe, maybe I still would be. But at the end of the day…you’re a super…hero…spy…agent p
erson who flies half way around the world at a moments notice. One night you’re breaking into buildings, the next getting blown up, the next getting into a shootout…and me…I’m just a regular guy. A guy who doesn’t really have much to offer someone like you. A guy who doesn’t wanna have to wonder every night when you’re coming home, or if you’re coming home.”
“Ryan, I’m not gonna be an agent forever,” Parker told him, her voice calm.
“But you’re not quitting tomorrow, are you?”
“No,” she replied, her eyes beginning to tear.
“I mean, if you don’t get Heath soon and he leaves, they’re gonna assign you to follow him. Won’t they?”
“Possible.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to be with you. I feel like I’m finally ready to be with someone again and be a regular, normal couple, and do regular, normal couple things. Like when we were at the beach today…it felt so incredible. Like we were a normal couple, holding hands, walking along the beach. If we could just bottle that moment and forget all the other things that are going on, then things could be different. Then later on I realized that could never be us. Not as long as you do what you do,” he explained.
“I understand. I do,” she said, tears falling down her face. “When we held hands, you’re right, it felt so right, so perfect, like there was nothing else in the world except for us. I guess part of me was just hoping that somehow we could make it work.”
“I wish it was possible.”
Parker didn’t tell him she’d already been thinking about quitting. It seemed to her that his mind was already made up. Besides, she couldn’t give him an exact timeline on when she’d be able to leave. She’d have to grease some wheels in order to make it happen since she’d already been rebuffed on the subject once. She couldn’t just put in her two weeks notice, not with Davis still out there, since he was unfinished business she’d have to take care of. But she knew it could still happen if she kept trying. But she also didn’t think it’d be fair to make him wait for her, knowing there was another woman out there who was capable of making him happy. Parker knew he’d been waiting a long time, since his fiancée broke his heart, to find that happiness again. She didn’t want to spoil it for him, no matter how much it hurt her. The anger that she was initially feeling had long since dissipated, now being replaced by sorrow and regret.
Turner was sitting there, in utter disbelief, that the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen was sitting in front of him crying. Crying over him. He wasn’t sure what he did to make her fall for him but he was flattered that she was, though he hated that he was breaking her heart. He was never very good when women cried around him. Crying because of him made him feel like a low life scumbag.
“Besides, in a few months you’ll forget all about me,” Turner said, playfully nudging her with his shoulder. “You’ll find some dashing agent that’ll sweep you off your feet.”
“I doubt that,” she replied, wiping her eyes.
“I mean, look at the beach, within thirty minutes you’d gotten three different guys’ phone numbers.”
“Yeah, and not one worth calling.”
“OK. Well, maybe there’s some work to do in that department,” he teased. “But if you keep looking, there’ll be someone out there. Someone who’s much better than me. Someone who can climb buildings, or shoot a rocket launcher, or drive a tank,” he laughed.
“That’s the thing, I wasn’t really looking. I guess you just hit a nerve with me.”
“I don’t know how I did that. I wasn’t really even trying,” he admitted.
“Maybe that’s what did it. You weren’t trying to win me over. You were just being you,” Parker said. “So are you two exclusive now?”
“Uhh, not yet. It’s only been two dates, but it could be headed that way,” Turner answered. “She wants to go out again tomorrow, so we’ll see.”
“Well, I hope it works out for you. The few minutes I talked to her, she seemed like a really nice girl.”
“She is. We seem to have quite a bit in common.”
“I’m glad,” Parker said, somehow mustering a smile.
“So do you have plans tomorrow?” he wondered.
“Yeah. You know, secret agent stuff.”
“I’m assuming that means you don’t need my help.”
“No. You just go on your date and have a good time.”
“Well, I should be going,” Turner said, standing up. “So are we good?”
“Yeah. We’re good,” she smiled.
“Still be here to protect me?”
“Always.”
Turner reached over and gave Parker a hug. “You know I really care about you, right?”
“I know,” she replied, breaking away from his hug. She could feel her eyes about to swell up with tears again and quickly fought them back. She didn’t want him to see her upset again. “I’ll see you later,” she told him.
Turner walked out the door and Parker was left by herself. She no longer was able to control her emotions or her tears and they began gushing down her cheeks. She just grabbed a pillow and laid on her stomach, crying into the pillow. After a while of crying uncontrollably, something she was very unfamiliar with, she drifted off to sleep.
Parker woke up the following morning with a slight headache. She slowly walked into the kitchen to grab some aspirin. As soon as she swallowed it she heard her phone ringing. She looked at the time just before answering it, surprised that she woke up so late. She was usually up by eight so she felt a little off waking up at ten.
“Hello,” she answered, a little groggy.
“I didn’t wake you up, did I?”
“No. Just have a headache, sorry.”
“Understandable. You do remember you asked me to call you right?” Jenkins asked.
“Yes. Of course. You have anything?”
“Well, we lifted some prints from the hotel room, nothing from across the street. That was pretty clean. The prints were just partials so we can’t get a positive ID from it.”
“Did you get anything else?” Parker wondered.
“We ran the MO through our records and we got a few hits. Six to be precise. Two are dead, one’s in jail, one’s in Europe, one is in North Dakota, which we’re trying to establish right now.”
“And the other?”
“The other is Terry Adams. Did some further digging and he is in Los Angeles right now,” Jenkins revealed.
“He’s our guy.”
“Possibly.”
“Where’s he at?”
“We’ve determined he’s staying in a hotel in west L.A.. We’re about to head over there right now.”
“I’ll meet you there,” Parker said.
“OK. That’s fine. I’ll email you his file if you wanna read it on the way. See you in thirty.”
Parker immediately called Cole and let him know what was happening. They were both ready to leave within five minutes. They felt like they were finally moving in on Davis. The more he put himself out there, the more mistakes he’d make that would lead them to him. Since Cole was driving, Parker was able to look over Adams’ file on the way. She’d never heard of him before or seen his face though he had a lengthy criminal history. He was quite proficient with bombs and had been suspected of carrying out several attacks in the United States, and a couple in Europe. Once they arrived at the hotel Adams was staying at, it looked like the FBI had already made their way into the building. Parker and Cole went into the lobby, and there was already guards along the exits. Jenkins had just come down the stairs and came over to the CIA agents once he noticed them.
“Sorry we couldn’t wait for you. We got here about ten minutes ago. Adams was in his room when we arrived,” Jenkins informed them.
“So what’s going on?” Parker asked.
“Adams is dead,” Jenkins told them. “We breached the door and found him in possession of a hand gun. He threatened that he had explosives planted throughout the room and would detonate them if we d
idn’t leave. I explained to him we weren’t going anywhere. That’s where the conversation ended as he suddenly pulled the gun up to the side of his head and pulled the trigger. Blew his head off.”
Parker sighed, thinking they just lost a major piece of information and possible lead to Davis.
“Are there other explosives up there?” Cole wondered.
“We’re still going through it but it doesn’t appear so. Looks like just an idle threat. Probably why he killed himself. He had no other recourse or leverage once we didn’t respond to his threat. He knew what would happen once he was taken into custody,” Jenkins shrugged. “So that was the only out he had.”
They continued talking for a few more minutes until a member of the bomb unit told them the room had been cleared. They went up to the room and started looking around for anything that’d connect Adams to Davis. It didn’t take long. Jenkins had picked up a book that was on the nightstand beside the bed and started flipping through the pages. He stopped when he noticed a couple of pictures lodged in the middle of the book. He took them out and looked at them and then called Parker and Cole over.
“You might want to see this,” Jenkins said, holding the pictures up.
Parker was a little unnerved as she got closer and looked at a picture of herself. Cole was subject of the other picture.
“So we were the targets,” Parker stated.
“It appears so,” Jenkins said. “Did you look at his file? Any reason he’d be targeting you guys?”
“No. I’ve never crossed paths with him before and he’s never been involved in any missions I’ve been on,” she told him.
“Yeah, don’t know this slug from a hole in the ground,” Cole chimed in.
“Well if that’s so then that’d certainly give your theory about Davis hiring him more weight,” Jenkins said.
“I think it’s pretty obvious by now,” Parker said. “He didn’t know what we looked like. That’s what the pictures were for.”
“That Davis gave him,” Cole said.
“Let’s keep searching. Might be something else in here,” Jenkins said.
“Wait, I think I got something,” Cole said, looking at some papers laid out on a desk.
