I.N.E.T 5

by Brenda Cothern

  Burke refused to give him more information about her assignment in regards to the Sanchez cartel and more specifically, her relationship with Juanita, then he’d already received when he was assigned to protect her. He felt like he was working in the dark. Randy knew it was because he was protecting a CIA agent that he wasn’t given all the details he’d normally receive in a WITSEC file. Still, Randy hated feeling like he was working in the dark. He ensured his displeasure was well-known too, when he checked in after the attack that killed Greene.

  When Randy demanded more Intel on Burke’s case, his boss dodged his inquiry, as only a good bureaucrat could, by changing the subject. His boss not only informed him he’d have a replacement partner to help keep Burke safe, but assured him his new partner was more than competent. The man wouldn’t tell him anything more about his soon to be partner, not even their name, which Randy thought strange, aside from his new partner was to be the lead on Burke’s case. He should have been pissed he was being replaced as the lead agent. He wasn’t. In fact, he was more than happy to let someone else take the weight of responsibility for Burke’s safety.

  Randy caught himself nodding off and jerked his head up. He looked at Agent Burke as he stood and stretched. A groan escaped his lips after his back popped in two places. He needed more coffee and a few splashes of cold water on his face to wake himself up some. So, with that intention, he walked to the kitchen where he could get both.

  ##~~##

  Lita stood outside the nondescript house that matched the address Fish gave him. The house looked like every other one in the neighborhood. It was wood framed and looked to be at least fifty years old if not older. A concrete path led up from the sidewalk and ended in a few stairs which ascended to a small porch and the driveway was comprised of several broken paving stones. A six-foot wooden privacy fence came off the side of the house. Lita could clearly see a pad locked gate in the minimal light provided from the streetlight. The house was almost completely dark inside. The only lights Lita could see through the front and side windows were dim as if they came from further inside the house.

  As he stood on the sidewalk off to the side of the house’s driveway, the front door slowly and quietly opened. The door only opened enough for a small person to slip out. Just as quietly, they closed the door behind themselves. Lita raised a brow and set his duffel bag out of sight on the ground.

  Only two people should be in that house and neither of them should be leaving so stealthily, especially at this time of night. He had no difficulty determining who was attempting to leave the safe house. The figure was way too small to be Marshal Connor and Lita was more than sure the Marshal wouldn’t be sneaking away from his charge.

  So, Agent Burke doesn’t like protective services. Interesting, Lita thought before he wondered where Connor was that allowed Burke to leave in the first place.

  Of course, the petite woman was CIA so there was a possibility she incapacitated or even killed Connor so she could escape WITSEC. Lita hoped she didn’t kill the Marshal and only incapacitated him, because if he was just incompetent, Lita would be pissed. However, Lita didn’t think that was the case based on the Marshal’s file.

  The woman, Agent Burke, walked down the path to the sidewalk as if nothing were amiss. If she hadn’t looked over her shoulder back to the house, she would have pulled off she was just someone leaving their own house.

  Lita smiled and started walking down the sidewalk. He wasn’t trying to hide his presence, so it came as no surprise she had seen him. Her step didn’t falter, but Lita did see a hint of panic flash through her eyes before it quickly disappeared. His appearance on any dark street would cause a flash of panic in anyone. His size alone tended to cause people to be fearful, whether they were male or female. Most people lowered their gaze and hurried in the opposite direction.

  Agent Sarah Burke did neither. If she were just some woman leaving her home, Lita had no doubt she would’ve turned on her heel and returned inside. Instead, Burke’s expression shifted to one of fear and she hurried toward him. Lita was tempted to raise a brow in question, but resisted. He was curious to see what Burke’s plan was after seeing him.

  “Please, help me.” Burke stepped right into his personal space and clutched his T-shirt in her hands. “I need to get away.” Tears started to fall from her eyes and her voice was laced with fear. “Please. Before he knows I’m gone.”

  Burke’s eyes pleaded as convincingly as her tears and words. She was one hell of an actress. CIA agent or not, Burke should be in films.

  “Okay,” Lita wrapped an arm around her. “It’s okay.” Lita was willing to play along.

  “It’s not.” Burke hiccupped. “He’ll kill me. I need to get away. Please.”

  “I’ll take you somewhere safe,” Lita promised. The house was called a ‘safe’ house, after all.

  “Oh, thank you.” Burke sobbed. “Thank you.”

  “Put your hands in the air and don’t fucking move.”

  Lita looked over Burke’s head and saw Connor on the porch with his gun drawn. If Lita hadn’t known about Burke being in WITSEC, her bullshit story would have been validated by Connor’s actions. Lita didn’t remove his arm from where it was wrapped around Burke’s back. The agent was attempting to escape protective custody and he wasn’t going to give her the opportunity to do so, even if he was in the sights of Connor’s 0.9 mil.

  “Oh, my God!” Burke practically wailed. “He will kill us!”

  “It will be okay,” Lita told her without looking away from Connor. “I’ll get you to a house that’s safe.”

  “She is safest with me,” Connor declared. “Don’t make me shoot you because she isn’t going anywhere but back in this house.”

  Lita smiled. He had no doubt Connor would shoot him in order to get Burke back under the secure protection the safe house offered.

  “Do you trust me?” Lita said softly enough for only Burke to hear.

  “Yes,” she whispered back and Lita fought the smirk which threatened to tug at his lips.

  “I’m sure your house is the safest place for her,” Lita said to Connor with a smile.

  “What?” Burke barely got out before Lita lifted her up and tossed her over his shoulder. She weighed next to nothing.

  Connor tensed the moment he moved, but thankfully his comment and its meaning registered before the man shot his ass. Lita smiled at the Marshal as he started up the path to the safe house.

  “Put me down, fucker!” Burke yelled. “He’ll kill me!” She screamed as she hit his back with her fists and tried to use her knees to hit him in the chest.

  “Quit that shit,” Lita told her before he landed a not so gentle smack on her ass.

  For a brief moment, she was stunned silent. That moment didn’t last long enough before she started yelling again. Lita ignored her. His focus was on US Marshal Connor who still leveled his gun at Lita’s chest. His gaze never left Connor’s even after he stopped at the foot of the steps leading to the porch. The Marshal wasn’t a happy man at the moment. Lita wouldn’t have been happy either if someone he was assigned to protect was grabbed by an unknown party. Thankfully, Connor didn’t have a hairpin trigger finger and wasn’t the type to shoot first and ask questions later.

  “Eddie Hypolita.” Lita stuck out his hand and didn’t feel rebuffed when Connor didn’t take it to shake. He just shrugged after lowering his hand. “You have another house?” Lita asked before he landed another hard smack on Burke’s upturned ass to get her to be quiet. “Because she’s made more than enough noise, it’s time to move.”

  Connor lowered his gun to the side, but didn’t place it back in the holster on his hip. “You have ID?”

  “Yeah. It’s in my jacket if you want to dig under her to get it.” Lita gave the Marshal a grin.

  “Help!” Burke screamed at the top of her lungs.

  “Fuck,” Connor cursed. “Through the back door. The car is in the driveway.”

  Lita waited for Connor to step asi
de before he walked in the house. He didn’t pause to take in the details of the safe house. Instead, he walked toward the back of the house.

  “Agent Burke,” Lita said calmly. His tone must have startled her enough to shut up because she stopped screaming. “You can stop yelling or I can stop you from making so much noise. Your choice because I don’t care either way.”

  Burke shut up.

  ##~~##

  Chapter Three

  “Your choice because I don’t care either way.”

  Randy couldn’t help but be surprised the man had threatened to use physical violence to quiet Agent Burke. It worked, but Randy’s surprise wasn’t limited to the tall as hell man getting Burke to stop screaming bloody murder.

  He hadn’t taken his eyes off Burke for long enough to splash cold water on his face after placing a cup of coffee in the microwave. Apparently, that was too long, though. She was gone from the couch when he returned to the living room with his hot mug in hand. He slammed the mug on the coffee table with enough force the hot liquid not only splashed, but the mug cracked. He quickly bee-lined to the front door since Burke would have had to pass him to escape out the back.

  He’d drawn his gun before he even reached the door and threw it open. The last thing he wanted was to be caught empty-handed if he came face-to-face with the cartel again. The cartel wasn’t what he found outside the safe house, but instead a tall as fuck man with his arms wrapped around his charge. Burke was clinging to the guy like a tick attached to a deer.

  The convict-looking guy held her close and seemed to be sympathetic to her bullshit story. Randy wasn’t surprised Burke tried to spin a spousal abuse story to get such an imposing man to protect her until she could get away from him too. What did surprise Randy was that the man hadn’t even flinched when he was on the other end of his gun. He was sure no sane person wouldn’t be fazed when having a gun pointed at them.

  At first, Randy thought the man just had a death wish. It was soon clear that wasn’t the case when the guy met his steady gaze and mentioned taking Burke to a house that was safe. Randy easily deciphered the man’s message, so he was sure this guy was the partner he’d been promised. Still, when the man tossed Burke over his shoulder to return her to the house, Randy couldn’t help but once more be surprised.

  Marshal’s weren’t only tasked with keeping their charges safe from outside threats. Their job also included keeping them safe from themselves or any others they encountered. The thought of manhandling someone in WITSEC was beyond reproach. No one in WITSEC was to be handled by anyone, including Marshals assigned to protect them.

  Randy shook off his shock over his new partner’s behavior and followed the pair into the house. It wasn’t until he was standing in the bedroom assigned to Burke to gather her minimal belongings that he realized he still held his gun in his hand. He holstered his weapon before quickly packing up her shit. Gathering his stuff took even less time since he lived out of his duffel bag. Overall, it took slightly less than five minutes to clear out of the safe house.

  Lita leaned against the nondescript car they would use to transport Agent Burke to a new location. He met Connor’s gaze when the man came out the back door carrying two duffel bags. He was just about to push off the passenger door and offer to take the bags when he heard the lock on the trunk open. He ignored the glare the Marshal gave him as he tossed the bags into the trunk.

  Randy got his first good look at his partner when he walked out the back door of the safe house thanks to the outside light next to the door.

  Holy hell, was his first thought.

  The long blonde-haired agent easily had half a foot over his 6’2 and he didn’t miss the man’s penetrating green-eyed gaze. That gaze was leveled on him and Randy felt like he was being judged for Burke almost escaping his custody. However, his new partner’s grin didn’t come across as condescending or smug. No, the guy just grinned as he watched him throw the bags in the trunk. Randy slammed down the trunk harder than he intended, but he felt unnerved by his new partner.

  He had to say something. “You have stuff?”

  “A bag at the end of the drive,” Lita replied.

  Lita felt several emotions rolling off the Marshal since he’d met the man: Surprise, shock, suspicion, concern, and a trace of embarrassment. Connor didn’t need to feel embarrassed about Burke’s almost successful attempt at escape. Lita also understood the other emotions he detected from Connor. He’d have felt them, as well, if the roles were reversed.

  Randy walked around the car to the driver’s side and he remembered he hadn’t actually verified the man’s ID. He opened the door and met the guy’s steady gaze.

  “ID.” Randy glared at the man he assumed was his new partner.

  Lita allowed himself to smirk. He figured Connor would ask as soon as the Marshal left the house, but instead Connor waited until they were about to leave. It didn’t escape Lita’s notice that Connor leaned on the roof of the car with one hand while the other was out of sight. He had no doubt it rested on the man’s gun.

  “Reaching into my pocket,” Lita informed and did so slowly. He held up his fake Marshal billfold and opened it for Connor to see.

  Randy could see the Marshal issued ID even from across the roof of the car. It could be fake, but he would verify the guy’s ID once he got them to another safe house. Right now, though, he just memorized the man’s name and badge number which he could see clearly.

  “Okay, Eddie,” Randy moved to open the driver’s side door and get in the car.

  “Lita,” Lita corrected Connor because he didn’t want to waste the mental energy he usually reserved for being undercover and needing to use an alias. He wasn’t undercover, not really, but he’d have to take that mindset if he was expected to respond to Eddie instead of Lita. Too many years in INET going by Lita made being addressed as Eddie feel like an alias.

  Randy paused halfway in his motion to sit in the driver’s seat. “What?”

  “Not Eddie. It’s Lita.”

  “Okay,” Randy acknowledged, but was sure he didn’t keep his confusion out of his tone.

  Confused or not, if his new partner wanted to be addressed by a woman’s name that was fine by him. He really didn’t care as long as the man could do his job. Randy got into the driver’s seat and when his new partner opened the door to get in, he spoke.

  “The padlock,” Randy said and held out the key.

  Lita grinned at Connor and took the key as the Marshal started the car. He jogged through the house and out the front door. It only took a second to unlock the padlock and open the gate far enough for Connor to drive out. Lita didn’t bother to remove the key from the lock or relock it before he grabbed his duffel bag and climbed into the car.

  He gave Connor another smile and waved in the direction of the road. Connor replied with a grunt before he turned left to take them away from the latest safe house to be compromised.

  ##~~##

  To his new partner’s credit, the man didn’t ask where the next safe house was located. However, Randy did notice the guy was paying close attention to where they were going. Randy jumped on I-580. His plan was to pick up I-505 and take it to I-5 until they got to Redding. He could have just taken them to Sacramento, but decided Redding was the better option since it was smaller. It would also put them three hours closer to Portland.

  Randy should have taken them east across I-80, but he had no desire to go through Nevada and even less of one to go through Reno. So, it was no surprise an hour and half later when his new partner pointedly looked at the exit for I-80 and raised a brow in question at him when they continued north. Still, his new partner remained silent.

  After catching Agent Burke trying to escape protective custody, Lita decided asking the plethora of questions he had for the Marshal could wait. The less information Connor shared with him in front of Burke the better as far as he was concerned. Lita thought Connor may have decided the same because the Marshal didn’t ask him any questions, either. />
  Lita was more curious than surprised when they passed the exchange for 80 East and kept heading north on I-5. Connor obviously had somewhere further north he was moving them to. Lita had noticed the car had a full tank of gas when they left the safe house, so quick calculations told him they almost had plenty of gas to make the nine-hour trip to Portland. Lita felt he was safe to assume that was their destination.

  Feeling a little better about where Connor was possibly taking them, Lita took in his first good look at the man. Granted, dashboard lights never made anyone look good. Still, they didn’t totally disguise Connor’s ruggedness. His dark hair was cut short. Not a Marine Corps high and tight, but not too far off. It definitely wasn’t long enough to pull if he got into a fight.

  Unlike mine, Lita thought with a mental smirk.

  Lita didn’t mind his hair pulled, but it was beyond rare it ever happened while in a physical fight. His opponents just couldn’t get close enough since Lita easily could keep them out of range with his greater reach.

  Lita continued to observe his new partner. He didn’t attempt to hide his scrutiny of the man and was sure Connor was aware he was being sized up even if the man never took his gaze away from the road. Connor was tense. He sat stiffly and had a white-knuckle grasp on the steering wheel with both hands.

  The first thought to cross Lita’s mind was if this was the Marshal’s reaction to the minimal stress caused from bugging out of the last safe house, he had more to be concerned about than just the CIA Agent they were supposed to protect. However, the longer Lita studied the man the more he didn’t think Connor’s tense posture had anything to do with evacuating from the last safe house unexpectedly. No, the man was tired.