by Jen Talty
“That’s fair enough,” her mother said. “But, if you don’t mind me saying this, you’re different around him.”
“And he’s different around you,” Helen said.
“How can either of you even say that when you’ve seen us together for what? Maybe two hours?”
“Because we know our children,” her mother said. “However, we’ll drop it. For now. But I want to propose something.”
“Oh, dear Lord,” Serenity mumbled. “This can’t be good.”
“I think we should all have dinner again before Cove has to leave on his next deployment.” Her mother glanced between Serenity and Helen.
“That’s an interesting idea,” Helen said. “And if we don’t see what we’re seeing now, we’ll never bring it up again.”
“But.” Her mother held up her index finger. “If we see and feel what’s in the air right now, then we get to say what we’re really thinking.”
“And,” Helen jumped in. “You have to be completely honest about everything.”
“Does that mean you’ll accept the truth?” Serenity asked.
“As long as you do the same,” her mother said. “Because lying to yourself will only bring you a world of hurt.”
6
“Are you sure you’re okay to drive?” Cove asked.
Serenity smiled. “I’ve been drinking water for the last hour,” she said, pulling the keys from her purse and clicking the key fob and unlocking the standard FBI issue Suburban. “Besides, I’d really lose my job if I let you behind the steering wheel.”
Cove chuckled. “I don’t care about driving that hunk of steel. Now if it were a muscle car like maybe a Charger, that would be a different story.” He climbed up into the passenger side and glanced back at his childhood home. His mother and father, along with Serenity’s parents, stood at the front stoop, arm in arm and waved. “Our families are a piece of work.”
“No shit,” she said. “And to think we have to suffer through another dinner with them in three weeks.”
“If I wasn’t so fucking afraid of your father, I might have made a snarky sexual innuendo about kitchens and oral sex.”
“Yeah, that wouldn’t have been a good idea.” She slammed the door closed and tossed the key fob into the cup holder. She dug into her purse and set her phone on the center console. It slipped under the seat. “Fuck.”
“I’ll get it.” He bent over, glancing under the seat. A bright blue wire dangled from a brown putty like brick.
C-fucking-4.
“Shit,” he said, bolting to a sitting position, grabbing her hand. “Don’t turn this vehicle on, and don’t fucking move.”
“Why?” She glared at him with wide eyes.
“There’s a bomb under your seat, and I can see a lever. You get up, the lever releases—”
“I get the damn picture.” She blew out a puff of air. “Can you get my phone?”
“First, let’s see if there is a bomb under my seat.” He did a quick assessment, and once he was satisfied the only bomb in the vehicle was the one under Serenity’s ass, he went looking for her cell phone. Lucky for them, it had landed in a place that he felt he could safely stick his hand and not set off the bomb. It also gave him a chance to get a better look.
“Talk to me, Cove,” Serenity said with a shaky voice. She gripped the steering wheel and looked straight ahead.
“I see one lever, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t more. One of brick C4, but that’s enough to shoot you out of this seat.”
“Hand me my phone. I need to call this in.”
“Put it on speaker,” he said. “I’m going to get into the back seat and see if I can get a better look.”
No sooner did he open the door than his parents came out the front door.
“Is everything okay?” his father called.
“Dad, I need you and Mom to get in the house and stay there.”
“Why?” his mother asked.
“Just do it. I’ll explain later.” Hopefully the bomb wouldn’t explain it for him.
“Son,” Warren said, taking a few steps forward. “I know that look. I’ve had that look.”
Cove let out a long breath. “Sir. I really need everyone to stay in the house.”
“That’s my daughter, and if she’s in—”
“Sir.” Cove quickly closed the gap. He didn’t want to say this too loud because he wasn’t sure how his parents would respond. They weren’t used to this kind of thing, but Warren had seen his fair share of blood during combat, and his wife, being an emergency room nurse and having served in the military as well, certainly hadn’t lived a sheltered life. “I believe there is a bomb—”
“You believe? Or there is,” Warren said.
“There is. Now unless you know about defusing one, please, just get in the house and let me handle this. It is my area of expertise.”
“Don’t you let anything happen to my girl,” Warren said behind a tight jaw.
“I don’t plan on it.” Cove pulled open the back door and lay down on the floor. “How are you holding up?”
“Oh, I’ve been better,” Serenity said while the phone rang in the background. “My dad’s standing at the front door. I need him to get the fuck inside.”
“I told him to, but for now, as long as he stays back, that’s going to have to do.” Cove couldn’t deal with any distractions, so he’d just have to ignore her parents as well as his.
“This is Special Agent in Charge Rachel Pickett.”
“It’s Serenity and don’t interrupt,” Serenity said. “I’m literally sitting on a bomb, much like the one we had at the bank the other day. It was planted under my seat sometime between the time I arrived at Cove’s parents’ house and now. Cove is examining the bomb, but I need a bomb tech team ASAP.”
“I’ve got a lock on your location, and I’m sending a team in now,” Rachel said. “Cove is there with you now?”
“I’m here,” he said.
“How is it that twice on your watch my agent is in danger?” Rachel asked. “I thought you said you’d keep a watchful eye over her.”
“That’s what I’m doing.” Cove let out a long breath. “Can you patch me through to Thor Conley with the NYPD.”
“I can do that. Give me one second,” Rachel said. “I want to dispatch the team first.”
“A watchful eye? You’ve got to be kidding me. I told you in the office yesterday that I don’t need a bodyguard.”
“Imagine if I hadn’t been here,” Cove said.
“If that were the case, I wouldn’t even be here. I would have gone—”
“I get the point,” Cove said. She needed someone to toss her angst and fear at until this was over, and he was more than happy to take it.
“I’ve got Thor on the line and Westchester County Bomb Squad is about fifteen minutes out,” Rachel said. “If you don’t mind, I want to stay on the line.”
“Fine by me,” Serenity said.
Cove continued to study the wires as they looped around the C4.
“Hey, Cove, Thor here. I hear you’ve got another bomb.”
“Yeah. Looks like a single lever trigger. Doesn’t appear to be a timer anywhere. Three wires. Blue, white, and red. My best guess is the red one cuts off the lever.”
“I don’t like guesses.” Rachel’s voice filled the vehicle. “If there is no timer and the risk of it going off is minimal, I want you to wait for the bomb tech.”
“Easy for you to say when it’s not your ass sitting on it,” Serenity mumbled.
“Since the team is on the way, I’m with Rachel and suggest you wait it out,” Thor said. “Even if you could FaceTime me in, if the bomb is under a seat, I might not be able to see everything that is important on a video stream. That said, since it’s a lever, you’ve got to make sure the pressure is even. Don’t go deeper and don’t let up. Hell, don’t even pass gas.”
“Not funny,” Serenity said.
Cove stepped from the vehicle, opening the drive
r’s side door. He curled his fingers over Serenity’s, which were still wrapped around the steering wheel. He held her gaze in silence for the next ten minutes or so while they waited for reinforcements.
It felt like a lifetime.
Sirens bellowed in the distance.
“It’s going to be okay. I’m not going to leave your side.”
“I bet you say that to all the ladies.”
He chuckled. “There’s a big difference between the other night and tonight.”
“Yeah, what’s that?”
“I didn’t know her. I was doing what I was trained to do. Just like you. But this has nothing to do with training. Call me crazy. Maybe I started drinking our parents Kool-Aid, but I care about you.”
“You just like my blow jobs.”
“That too.” He leaned in and kissed her cheek. “I’m going to talk to the bomb tech, and then I’m climbing into the passenger seat. They will have to shoot me to stop me.”
He waited until the bomb squad team’s vehicle rolled to a stop and four men jumped from the truck carrying weapons and gear. Lights flicked on in every house, and people peered out their windows.
“I’m Captain Cove Reddington, and I’m a combat engineer with the Army,” he said to the first officer that approached him. “We’ve got an FBI agent sitting on a bomb with what appears to be one lever tripped by her weight. She was involved two nights ago in a—”
“We’re well aware,” the officer said. “We’ve been briefed by Special Agent in Charge Rachel Pickett.” He pointed to two men climbing into bomb suits. “We’ve also been told you’re a bit of a maverick and that we might want to physically tie you down if you stepped away from the vehicle so you wouldn’t go playing superhero and get in our way.”
“Thanks for the warning.” He turned on his heels and took two long strides.
“Captain Reddington,” the officer yelled. “My name’s Louis Thatcher. Alice Rice is my wife.”
Cove paused midstep and glanced over his shoulder. Alice had been on his team three years ago. They had been deployed on a mission in an undisclosed area when their convoy came under heavy fire. Alice had been in the first Humvee, and she nearly died when it was tossed thirty feet in the air and flipped over five times before landing upside down and catching fire. He’d pulled her from the wreckage, and according to the Army, he deserved a medal for his actions.
He was just doing his job.
“It’s nice to finally meet you, Lou,” Cove said. “How’s Alice?”
“She’s pregnant with our first kid, and she’s due in a couple of weeks.” Lou smiled. “If I didn’t let you sit with your friend, she’d kill me.”
“I’ve always liked Alice,” Cove said. “Please give her my best.”
“And she’s always had the utmost respect for you. Now let’s defuse that bomb so maybe we can all have drinks soon.”
“I’d like that.” Cove nodded before making a beeline for the passenger seat of that Suburban. He rested his hand on Serenity’s neck and massaged gently. “We’re in good hands.”
“And you know this, how?”
“That cop over there is married to a woman I served with.”
“Served with? Or served?”
“Definitely not the latter,” he said. “I’m glad you still have your sense of humor.”
“It’s about all I’ve got left.”
“Hello, ma’am,” a man said with a muffled voice behind a big mask. “My name is Rick; this here is my partner, Moody. We’re going to use this scope to get a good look at what we’re dealing with, and then we’ll go from there, okay?”
“Unfortunately, fellas, this isn’t my first rodeo,” she said.
“Well, the good news is we were given detailed drawings of the inner workings of the bomb from the other night. So, if this is from the same bomber, we should be able to disarm it pretty easily.” Rick knelt.
“Should be is the operative word,” she said.
“Relax, babe.” Cove gently tapped her hand. “Look at me and take slow regulated breaths.”
“My chest hurts my heart is beating so fast.” That might be the case, but the tone of her voice remained calm.
“Can’t say my pulse is remotely close to normal.” He gazed into her almond-colored eyes and inhaled slowly through his nose. He tried to ignore the two men going about working on the bomb. Letting someone else do the work was making him nuts, but he had to trust them. His job was to keep her calm and still.
Rick stood tall by the driver’s side. “The bomb looks very similar to the other one even though it’s a single lever with only one C4 block. I need to look at the diagrams quickly so I can confirm which wire to cut.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Cove said as he continued to breathe with Serenity. “When I told my sister that I was bored on medical leave and I needed some excitement in my life, this isn’t what I had in mind.”
“Funny. When I agreed to go out with you, I reminded Leah of the time you and Tavor almost burned down the fort near the playground when you were in like seventh grade. I told her that if you lit anything on fire, or blew anything up, that all bets were off.”
“Well, I haven’t done either, yet.” He squeezed her hand. “Here he comes.”
“All right,” Rick said. “Here’s what we’re going to do, but I’m going to need your help, Cove.”
“Name it.”
“Once we get this mechanism on the lever, we’re going to need you to help ease Agent Bale out of the vehicle. Now, you’re going to have to do it from that side, and you can’t let any weight come back down on the seat once you start, or the bomb will go off.”
“You can’t shut it down?” Serenity asked.
“No,” Rick said. “The wire I need to cut is in a position we can’t reach without hitting that lever. I can’t risk it, and it’s going to take both me and Moody here to hold things in place while you remove her and yourself so we can disarm the bomb safely.”
“Not a problem.” Cove reached under his seat and pushed it all the way back. “Let me know when you’re ready.”
“This is going to have to be slow and methodical,” Rick said. “Agent Bale, start with taking your hands off the wheel and putting them around Cove’s neck and shoulders.”
“I’ve got you,” Cove said, leaning over her.
“Cove, you’re going to have to lift her slowly,” Rick said. “Start now by putting your hands under her legs.”
Cove did as instructed, trying not to look at the two men working on the bomb, and focused solely on the woman in his arms.
“Easy,” Rick said. “Lift her about an eighth of an inch higher…that’s it. A little higher…more.”
“All her weight is in my arms.” Cove’s muscles shook. His body wasn’t at one hundred percent after his accident. He struggled to her hold her steady.
“Without hitting the seat, get her out of here,” Rick said.
“You don’t have to ask me twice.” Carefully, Cove lifted her over the center console, making sure she didn’t touch any part of the seat.
She pulled her legs in tight and tucked her head into his body.
He let out a long breath as he raced toward the house where both sets of parents stood in the doorway with Lou. Cove set her down about ten feet from everyone and brushed back her hair. “You okay?”
A single tear rolled down her cheek.
Leaning in, he kissed it away. “It’s over.”
“It’s far from fucking over.” She took a step back and swiped at her face. Pulling something off her wrist, she twirled her hair and twisted it up on her head into a messy bun. “Someone wants me dead, and I don’t take too kindly to that.”
“Neither do I.”
Serenity stood in front of Cove’s parents’ house with her arms folded across her chest while the FBI crew loaded the Suburban onto a flatbed to be taken to the FBI forensics lab.
Lou and his team had been fabulous. She wished more local police departments
worked as well with the Feds, but that would be asking too much.
She signed off on all the necessary paperwork and watched as the last of the police pulled away.
“How are you holding up?” Cove asked as he put a protective arm around her waist.
“I could use a stiff drink,” she admitted. “But I doubt that will happen any time soon, especially considering it’s close to midnight and no way in hell will my parents be okay with me taking the Amtrak back into the city tonight.”
“My folks have already asked me to make sure to escort you, if you decide to go home, but they’d prefer if we both stayed in upstate.” He smiled, cocking his head. “They even offered a bed, hinting they’d be okay if we took one room together.”
“My parents didn’t offer the same room, but they did say you were welcome.”
“We can just stay at Leah’s,” he said.
She glanced over her shoulder. The Reddington family home was well lit, and her parents were tucked away inside somewhere, probably peeking out a dark window.
“Or we could get a car service to take us—”
She patted his chest. “As much as a bottle of whiskey and a really good round of angry sex sounds like the best medicine, I think it’s best if you stay here and for me to go anywhere else. I can’t put you or your family, or my parents, in danger. Besides, I won’t be able to sleep or concentrate on anything other than trying to figure out who the fuck wants me dead and why. I’ve got a shit ton of files to go through that our resident genius pulled on potential whack jobs who might fit this bomber’s profile—”
He pressed his index finger over her mouth. “First, slow down and breathe.”
She inhaled sharply, letting it out slowly. Her pulse continued to beat out of control. She didn’t think her heart rate had slowed since she found out there had been a bomb under her seat.
