CHAPTER 8

Thursday 5:21pm

Andrew sat in a chair in Paul’s office, with his eyes glued to the clock. He couldn’t help it. He and Paul had managed to pile every conceivable supply into the car, talk to four other agents to have them prepared to roll, and drunk innumerable cups of coffee and still there hadn’t been a lead.

He hadn’t heard anything else from Monica and was almost afraid to try to talk to her. He didn’t want to try only to get no reply. He was certain that would push him over the edge into complete panic, and he needed to remain strong and steady. As he watched through the open door and saw Paul moving purposefully around the offices he shook his head in admiration. He knew how the situation was tearing the agent apart but aside from a couple of brief outbursts he had been an a rock; unwavering and unstoppable.

Paul caught Andrew’s eye and nodded as he started towards the office, and Andrew stood up. It looked as if the agent finally had some information. He stepped out of the office and was nearly pushed to the ground by a young man on a collision course for Paul. The angel hurried to follow him, sensing that he might need to intervene, but he was still a step behind when the man reached Paul, and in one fluid motion pulled back his arm and punched the agent square in the face. He was surprised by the blow and he stumbled backwards and came close to landing on the floor as the ringing in his ears blocked out other sound.

“You bastard!” he wasn’t shouting but his voice was loud enough to bring several other agents to the scene as Andrew quickly stepped between the two men.

Paul brought a hand up to his aching jaw, feeling to see if it was broken, then looked the other man up and down. The family resemblance was difficult to miss. They had the same eyes.

“Good to meet you, Rob,” he said as he held out his free hand.

Rob stepped forward as if to hit him again but Andrew placed a surprisingly strong hand on his shoulder to stop him. “Rob? Alex’s brother?” he asked, trying to diffuse the situation as Paul waved the other agents away.

“That’s right, and I know exactly why that sick, murdering bastard has my sister, and it’s his fault,” he spat out.

“Rob… I…”

“Don’t even try to deny it. Alex may not have done her homework, but I have.”

It was true. Rob Bennett worked for the Washington Post, and despite his seemingly flighty nature, he was actually extremely protective of his big sister. The day she had been reassigned as Paul’s partner he had sent an intern on a search for anything in the archives that contained the name Paul Gatlin. Yes, he knew everything; from the fact that Paul had lost his fiancé to the maniac who held his sister, to the fact that Alex most likely didn’t even know the reason she had been taken.

“Rob,” Andrew decided to try where Paul had failed, “there’s no sense in placing blame here. We all want to get her back.” He didn’t bother adding that there was someone else he was also desperate to find.

Unfortunately Rob was just as stubborn as his sister and almost as stubborn as Paul. “Yeah… get her back… she wouldn’t even be missing if it wasn’t for you,” he said as his eyes bore into Paul’s. “Did you even tell her he was out? Did you even tell her what he’d done? What he was capable of?”

Paul didn’t lower his gaze although everything in him wanted to turn away. He deserved every word that was flung at him. “No. I didn’t tell her,” he answered, his voice flat and dead.

“That’s what I figured. She would have mentioned something to me, and she damn sure would have been watching her back more carefully. He wouldn’t have gotten within twenty feet of her.”

“We don’t know that,” Andrew again tried to interject calm into the highly charged situation.

“Oh, I know. I know my sister.”

Paul’s shoulders slumped. “He’s right, Andrew. I told you that myself. I should have warned her… damnit, I should have told her something…”

“That’s enough of that!” Tess’ booming voice sounded from ten paces down the hall and she moved steadily closer, never taking her eyes from Paul’s. “There’s no telling what would have happened if you had told her. For all you know that just would have made her too hard to catch and he would have killed her right on the spot.”

“Who are you?” Rob looked at her with a mixture of surprise and contempt and Tess quickly rose to her full height and stepped right in front of him.

“I’m a friend… and I think you had better keep a civil tongue in your head.”

Rob’s eyes flickered and he drew in a breath. There was something about the woman in front of him that demanded his respect.

“Paul, there’s an Agent Hendrix looking for you and he’s waving around a stack of papers. You and Andrew had better get a move on. I’ll keep your new friend here company.”

The tone in Tess’ voice would have brought a stifled chuckle in most circumstances, but Andrew and Paul didn’t really hear anything beyond the words Agent Hendrix. They had their lead.

“Bring them back safe,” Tess called as they rushed off without even saying goodbye.

Andrew turned as they reached the end of the hall, and looked back at the older angel. The angel who had seen so much and had guided them through so many difficult assignments. “We’ll be back soon, Tess… all of us.”

*****

Thursday 5:43pm

The hours passed with unbearable slowness, but when the sun began to set once again fear threatened to suffocate Monica and she wished that time could stop.  He only came after the sunset and she didn’t want to think about what his next visit would bring.  Huddled under the blanket Alex and the Irish angel had finally decided that they needed to sleep to preserve their energy so they had rested in shifts.  One had always remained awake and able to rouse the other if it got dangerously cold.  The brief periods of rest had helped Monica, as in her dreams she had felt close to God and all she loved, but they had not had the same affect on Alex.  Each time she woke she was groggier and more disconnected.  Her strength had finally reached its lowest point.

They were trying to keep themselves alert now, as they knew that he could return at any time.  Alex’s eyes stubbornly refused to open all the way, but she continued talking, answering Monica’s endless questions about work and family.  The angel was still looking for an opportunity to get through to the young agent.  She had no idea what the future held and she couldn’t accept what might happen if Alex refused to at least open her heart to God a tiny bit.

Finally, with a round of questions coming to an end, Alex spoke up with one of her own.  “So, how long have you and Paul been dating?”

As soon as the words left her mouth she wanted to pull them back.  They were the strongest sign that she truly was too exhausted to think clearly.  She was shocked and for an instant wasn’t even sure that they had been uttered aloud, but when she glanced at Monica out of the corner of her eye, her question about that was answered.  The angel looked nearly as shocked as she felt.

Monica, For her part, felt the heat rising to her cheeks for the first time in three days.  She looked at Alex, and was surprised at what she saw there, and even more surprised that she hadn’t noticed it before.  It was a look she had seen once before.  Alex was jealous.

“Oh, no!” she exclaimed, her Irish brogue suddenly getting two shades thicker, “We aren’t dating!  It isn’t like that at all!”

Alex silently rose one eyebrow in disbelief, and Monica took a breath.  Clearly she was going to have to explain.

“Paul was assigned to protect me over a year ago,” she said, reluctant to say anymore.  The last thing she wanted was to relive those days at the moment.

Even in her slightly addled state, Alex noticed the way Monica’s eyes drifted to the ground, and the slight tremor in her voice.  “I’m sorry.  You don’t need to talk about it.”

Monica looked up gratefully.  “Thank you.”

“But, I do have to ask… if you don’t have any intention of getting together, then why did you leave your cats with him?”

Monica gave a little shrug.  “I couldn’t take them where I was going,” she answered simply.

Alex nodded, thinking about her partner.  Yes, he definitely seemed like the type to do anything to help someone else… including taking in a quartet of kittens.  Paul.  Where was he?  Was he any closer to finding them?  Did he know who had them?  She wanted his name herself.  She wanted to be able to call him by it with disgust they way he used hers.  It was a small bit of power, but she wanted it.

“They’re coming,” Monica said, as if reading Alex’s mind.  “They’re coming soon… I know they are.”

Alex sighed.  She didn’t want to dash Monica’s hopes but she was beginning to wonder.  She had tried everything to free herself.  Her hands were cut to ribbons from trying to force them through the stainless steel cuffs, and even after Monica had retrieved the cell phone from her pocket it had, predictably, not had a signal.  She knew that during the lulls in their conversation Monica spent the time praying.  Now she almost wished she could believe just to have a small bit of the comfort that the smaller woman seemed to get from it.

They both flinched and looked up when they heard the horribly familiar sound of the van approaching.  Once again the headlights illuminated the barn and they squinted as he opened the door and swaggered in, looking so content and proud of himself.  It made Alex want to break his neck.

“Another day gone, eh girls?  No sign of your hero though.  I’m sure he got my message,” he laughed, “but I didn’t actually leave a return address.”

Monica lowered her head.  She had been trying not to think about the gruesome present he had prepared for her friend.  She knew that it was a small thing, nothing really, but the loss of her hair… it was so personal and so intimate.  It made her sick, and she could only imagine how Paul and Andrew had reacted.

“I said I’d keep you for a week and it looks like time is nearly half over,” he said as he drew a flat black box from his jacket.

“Why don’t you just leave an anonymous tip and save yourself,” Alex said, beginning to grasp at straws.

Devin shook his head as if amazed by her stupidity.  “You just don’t get it, do you?  You are going to die.  I’ve already killed someone he loved and now I’ve got two more.  I think that will just about make up for the time I spent in prison.”

Monica finally found her voice.  “You put yourself in prison.  Paul had nothing to do with it!”

“Ahhh… the mouse speaks.  I was beginning to think you’d swallowed your tongue,” he said as he stepped closer.  “So… I put myself in prison, did I?  Funny, I don’t remember shooting at myself.  I don’t remember breaking my own arm.  No… I’m pretty sure those are the things your friend Paul did.  See, this is my way of life… and I like it.  Makes me pretty sick I suppose, but there you have it.  I only wish I could be here for every second of the next four days.”

“What the hell are you talking about now?”  Alex asked, feeling a surge of adrenaline.

“Well, I know this stuff is pretty slow acting, but I’m told that there are numerous symptoms before death actually takes hold,” he said, and as he spoke he opened the metal box, revealing it’s velvet lining and the twin syringes it held.  “You’d be surprised the friends you make in the federal pen, and the code of honor among us.  This is top secret stuff… very foreign and very deadly… particularly when I’ll be the only one with the antidote.”

“Please…” Monica had been terrified of needles ever since her brief time in the psych ward during one of her assignments, and the sight of the syringes brought that all back to her.  “You don’t have to do this!”

“You’re right,” he said as he grabbed her arm, taking care to avoid Alex who was now struggling to reach him.  “I don’t have to do it.  I want to.”  He plunged the needle into the thin vein in her arm and she cried out as he pumped half of the contents into her bloodstream and then ripped the needle out.  He turned to Alex and held up the syringe, watching as it caught the light from the van headlamps and scattered it through the barn.  “Now ordinarily you should never use the same needle… but in your case I don’t think it will make much of a difference.”

Before he even went near her with the needle, he backhanded her across the face, sending her reeling back into the wall, stunned and surprised.  He straddled her limp body and pumped the rest of the syringe’s contents into her arm, then quickly stood up before she could regain her senses.

“I’ll see you both tomorrow,” he said with a grin.  “I’m looking forward to seeing how you’re holding up.  I’ll have to remember to bring a camera.  I’m sure Paul will love to see some pictures of you.”

Monica had scrambled over to Alex’s side and was cradling her half in her lap.  She looked up at Devin, and her eyes hardened.  She hadn’t felt such anger since Greg Tate.  “Whatever you do to us, it will never change who Paul is, and he will find you.  You will never be safe.”

Devin smiled down at her.  “I think you’d be surprised little lassie.  Once I’m done with you two I’m sure there are several countries that would be happy to have me.”  He laughed lightly and then, as every evening before, he walked out and was gone.

*****

Thursday 8:42pm

“How much further?” Andrew asked his eyes laden with concern as Paul drove as quickly as was safe through the night. He didn’t even know if getting there was going to solve anything, but he continued to lift up prayer after prayer that it would and that Monica and Alex would be more or less all right.

“Half hour,” The agent’s tone was filled with tension. Their lead had paid off as a cousin of Jackson’s had an old, abandoned farmhouse secluded in the mountains of West Virginia. His hands clenched and unclenched on the steering wheel of the SUV as he glanced in the rear view mirror at the other vehicle of two agents that was closely following them, thankful for having backup. If Devin Jackson was there, the agent knew he would not be able to trust himself, never mind Jackson.

Andrew leaned his head back and closed his eyes briefly. The moment of seeing Monica’s hair in the box had caused barely contained anger to resurface, so he continued to pray for his own restraint as well. If the little angel was hurt, it would be all he could do to keep from inflicting the same pain on the man who had caused it.

“How do you know they were freezing?” Paul finally found the courage to ask the question he had been pondering ever since Andrew had stated it, “Did she tell you that?”

“She said she was cold. Monica isn’t one to complain about winter weather; she tries not to complain about anything. If she hadn’t been freezing the fact that she was cold would not have been one of the only things she let me know.” He knew that to be true, but he didn’t mention how he could have almost felt a chill that went clear down to his bones when she had said those words. No, she had been more than just cold.

“We’ll get there in time,” Paul stated the words and knew they had to be the truth. There were no other options.