Of Dawn and Embers, page 17
part #3 of Of Cinder and Bone Series
"He's out. Sending coordinates for pick up. It's been nice working with you, folks. Looks like you'll be on your own from here on out."
"The pleasure's been all ours, Calloway," Jack said. “Helluva job, man. Sorry it turned out this way."
Calloway glanced over at the dragon curiously pawing the daisies at her feet and smiled.
"It was worth it."
"You were married?"
Winston arched an eyebrow. “Is it really that hard to believe, Blondie?"
"You..." She pointed at him, then herself, then couldn't seem to form words for a second. “You kill people for a living. How the hell were you ever married?"
"I'll have you know I'm quite the romantic. More than she ever was, if I'm being honest." He brushed past her and climbed into the front seat. The old van sputtered to life and pulled into the street. Faye stumbled into the passenger's seat and kept staring at him with her mouth open. “But--you--and the killing--and she--what the hell--"
"Breathe. I can't answer questions if you're not making sense, you know."
Faye finally just pressed her fingertips to her temples and took several deep breaths to clear her thoughts. “How? When? Why?"
Winston heaved a sigh. “I was younger. Met Stella in Atlantic City on an assignment. We were both after the same guy. Double bookings don't happen often, but this one schmuck had pissed off two different outfits and they both wanted him dead to set an example. We made a move on the target and instead found each other. We hit it off. Simple enough."
"So Mr. and Mrs. Smith but without the secrecy?"
"Guess you could say that," Winston said with a chuckle. “We dated. Got married. Then about three years in, Stella said she wanted to put down roots in New York."
"Roots?"
"Like I told you, if you're a career hitter, you never stay in one town. Always stay mobile. It's how you keep from being caught. Stella got an offer to be a personal hitter for the Harlem outfit at the time and she wanted to say yes, but only if I agreed to move to New York with her. I told her no, that it was too dangerous, and there was too much competition in New York. We got a divorce and I agreed not to work New York out of respect for her and she promised not to ever see me again."
"So why break the truce? Why come after this assignment specifically?"
Winston fell silent for a while. Faye noticed an almost imperceptible wince around his eyes. “This would've been our ten year anniversary if we were still married."
Faye shut her eyes for a second. “Son of a bitch. So, instead of getting you something tin or aluminum, she took your assignment just to screw with you. Great. She sounds like a darling woman."
"That she is."
Faye scowled at him. “If I find out we look anything alike, I'm gonna shoot you."
"I'm not looking for a second wife, Blondie, relax. You're not my type."
Faye crossed her arms and sunk down into the old velvet chair, muttering. “I'm everyone's goddamn type" under her breath before buckling her seatbelt. “If she's just doing this to get back at you, what can we do to stop her?"
"Well, she's a diva, for one thing. I know her habits. Instead of guessing what a normal hitter would do, we're going to scratch that and narrow down to what Stella would do."
"But isn't that a double edged sword? She knows that you know that she knows. She'll just do the same thing to you."
"Yeah, and that's where you come in. Stella doesn't know you. She knows me. She won't be looking for you."
"The spotter saw me."
"The spotter saw you in your disguise," he corrected. “We'll ditch this one and get you in another one. Stella might have eyes on us now, but we can lose her. I'll just have to take myself out of the spotlight, so to speak."
They drove in silence for a while before Faye asked the heavy question. “Is she going to try to kill you?"
"We were married, Faye."
The blonde breathed out through her nose, her voice soft. “Dammit."
"Don't get your panties in a bunch," Winston said. “I ain't easy to kill. You'll still get your shot."
"I don't want you dead, you son of a bitch. I want you rotting in a jail cell until Doomsday. So between now and then, tell me everything I need to know about Stella so we can keep you alive."
He offered her a perfunctory smile. “Aw, you really do care about me, Blondie."
"Don't make me shoot you."
"How about another compromise, then? I'll tell you about Stella if you tell me about what went down that got you into this polyamory thing."
Faye leaned her head back and suppressed a groan. “You are so goddamn nosy."
"What can I say? I ship it."
Faye strangled a laugh in her throat. “Fine. What do you want to know?"
"Did you and the beanpole sleep together when you were dating for that month?"
Faye's cheeks flushed. “Not exactly."
"You've gotten better," Jack said, sucking in quick breaths as he ducked under the combination of punches Faye threw at his head. “You're actually a legitimate threat to my person. Well, more than usual, anyway."
"Thanks," she said brightly. “Does that mean you'll let me break your nose?"
Jack batted her punching glove to one side in a parry. “Sorry. I can't pull off the Owen Wilson look."
"Aw, I think you'd look rugged." She tried to catch him with a left hook his time. “Manly, even."
"Kam did say you like tough guys. Didn't know she meant that literally."
Faye's smile wilted at the edges. Jack winced. “Sorry."
"It's okay," she insisted, rolling her shoulders. “Shouldn't keep walking on eggshells about her anyway. Not healthy, from what my therapist says."
Jack lowered his hands. “How's that going so far?"
"I hate it," she admitted. “God, I hate it. Who the hell wants to spend an hour talking about their goddamn feelings?"
"Uh, normal human beings, Ice Queen."
She scowled. “Normal is overrated."
"Maybe so, but recovering after what you went through requires that you occasionally talk about your feelings, you know. The memories can't just sit there burning a hole through your brain and dripping acid down into your heart."
"Visceral, but not inaccurate." Faye stretched her arms. “I think my therapist hates me."
"Male or female?"
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Why does that matter?"
Jack just stared at her pointedly. She hit him in the ribs. “Ow. Low blow, Faye."
"Female, if you must know," she sniffed.
"Well, that means you're out of your comfort zone this time," Jack wheezed. “Most men you can have wrapped around your pinky in about five minutes. Women are harder for you to crack."
"Tell me about it," she grumbled, sinking into her defensive stance. Jack started throwing combination punches for her to dodge, block, or counter. “She says I'm not in denial, but I'm not dealing with what happened either. I'm in Purgatory, so to speak. Neither heaven nor hell."
"What do you plan to do about it?"
"Dunno. Still don't see how spilling my guts to a stranger is going to help."
"It's because you see that as a weakness. It isn't. Think of it this way, when you're throwing these punches at me, you're releasing kinetic energy, right?"
"Yeah."
"That's therapy. Instead of kinetic energy, it's...personal energy. You have all that anger and fear and whatever else you're feeling bottled up inside and therapy helps you release it one session at a time so you don't explode."
Faye eyed him. “I've...never heard anyone explain it that way before."
Jack shrugged. “It's the way that made the most sense to me. Hiding from yourself isn't going to do you any good. Pretending to be alright so you can get through doesn't either. I would know."
"That bad, huh?"
"Worse," he admitted. “Kam told her parents about the baby. She's not letting me in right now. Doesn't want to talk about it. I only see her at work and it's killing me."
Faye hesitated. “Do you...know if you're ready to make a choice yet?"
"No," he whispered. “I'm still pretty torn, to be honest."
"I'm sorry."
He smiled. “Don't be. I like being with you. And that's the truth. I promise."
She smiled back, but he saw something awfully leonine in it this time. “Really?"
Faye hooked her leg behind his ankle and yanked hard. Jack toppled over backwards onto the mat he'd placed in the middle of the den with an oof! Faye pounced and landed on top of him, the feline smile melting into a simmering smirk that made Jack's blood race southward all at once.
"Couldn't tell on my end," she said, nonchalantly unstrapping her gloves as she straddled him. “I mean, we've been hanging out for, what? Almost a month now? Are you going to make a move on me or should I just go join a nunnery?"
Jack adopted a disarming look as he popped off his own boxing gloves. “You do realize it took me over a year to 'make a move' on Kamala, and I'm in love with her. Hell, you had to tell me to do it in the first place."
"Exactly," she said tartly. “You should have learned better by now."
Jack flipped her over easily and pinned her wrists, grinning down at the genuine surprise on her face. “Who says I didn't?"
He kissed her. Faye sighed into his mouth, mumbling something that sounded like. “damn you" and slipped her tongue past his lips. She looped her long legs around his hips and pulled him down to her, swallowing the groan he released upon the contact of their lower bodies. She twisted her hands free and ran them up his back beneath the shirt. She raked her nails over his spine and made a path towards his shorts, but he broke the kiss before she got there.
"Easy," she murmured, noticing how hard and fast he'd started breathing. “Easy, big guy. What's wrong?"
"Sorry," he said. “It's...been a while."
Faye read his expression. “And you still feel like you're cheating on Kam."
Jack winced. “Faye, I...it's not that I don't want to."
She almost smiled then. “Yeah, don't worry; I got that memo."
She snapped the band of his shorts against his narrow hips with one finger and he blushed. “I just...I'm worried sex is going to make it harder to know what I want in the long run. I imagine it had to be that way for you when you and Kam hooked up."
"It didn't get that far," she said. “Second base. We sort of just laughed it off the next morning, but I never got over it. I was too scared to ask her if she felt the same way."
"You should tell her, Faye."
"Things are screwed up enough. I can't. I shouldn't."
"Not knowing is worse than her saying no," he said gently. “I promise you it is. You'll spend the rest of your life wondering what could have been. At least if you tell her, then you can heal from it if she says no. For all you know, she was too scared to tell you if she reciprocated."
"Jack--"
"Faye, she won't abandon you. Neither will I. I'll be there with you if you need me to be."
Her breath caught. “You...would?"
"Of course I would."
Her eyes stung. She hated that. Why the hell was he the only guy she'd ever met who somehow knew what to say at just the right moment?
Faye cleared the lump out of her throat. “Fine, so we're on a sex embargo until I get up the nerve to talk to her. Can we at least compromise on second base?"
Jack pretended to think about it. “A beautiful blonde begging me to feel her up...gee, I just don't know what to say to that."
Faye rolled her eyes as she tugged him back down to her lips. “Jackass."
"Yeah, but I'm your jackass."
She grinned up at him before kissing him again. “I guess you are."
“You told me what went down after she found out,” Winston said. “So what’d you do then?”
“She and I made a date to see if the mutual attraction was still intact.”
“How did that go?”
Faye gave him her best Poker face. “Tit for tat, Winston. I showed you my tat, so show me your tit.”
He rumbled with a short laugh. “Fine. I’ll give the skinny on Stella. She’s a bit old school. Big fan of revolvers, for instance, instead of automatic weapons. She likes to be seen, which you’d think is counterproductive for a hitter, but she uses it avert expectations. Came from a broken home, so she started right out of the gate with a chip on her shoulder. Orphan. Mother died of an overdose at birth, never found out who the daddy was. She’s a survivor first and foremost. Everything comes second to that. After she got passed around in the foster care system, she swore she’d never let anyone control her life again. She didn’t want to become a prostitute, so she made a name for herself taking on contracts. She’s good.”
“Better than you?”
Winston shrugged a shoulder. “Depends on who you ask.”
“I’m asking you,” Faye pressed, narrowing her eyes.
He didn’t say anything for a while as they drove. “Let me say this, our strengths complimented each other when we were still together. I’m tough. Can take a lot of punishment, as you well know, and I can blend in to the point of near invisibility. Stella is creative. She can come at you sideways and you’ll never know what hit you. She’s a wild card. That’s why she’s survived this long.”
Faye mulled over his words, his tone, the vacant expression on his face. “You still love her?”
“Don’t have much of a heart, Blondie. Thought you knew that.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
He still wouldn’t look at her. Finally, he answered. “No.”
Faye examined his slightly weathered features, his posture, the steady way he drove while scanning their surroundings for danger. Everything about him from head to toe confirmed the simple word. And yet, something in Faye’s gut knew there was more to the story. She would never assume that she knew him, but she’d managed to at least peel back one layer of the onion. Plenty more to go.
Winston parked the van inside a parking garage beside a ’67 Impala, gathered their things, wiped the computers clean, and then they switched to the new vehicle. By now, she’d fiddled with the dragon tracker enough to coax it into working, and he’d agreed to let her drop it off to FedEx later to make it seem as if she’d sent it from Clearwater. Winston switched on a receiver that had been planted at the government site and they listened in to get caught up on current events.
“Alright,” he said. “Deadline for the hit is four days. We’re on Day One. If I were Stella, I’d be looking for a stoolie to figure out just what the plan is for their field agents so I could manipulate the odds in my favor to get Dr. Jackson and Dr. Anjali out in the open for the kill.”
“Is it that easy to bribe someone working for Washington?”
“Easier to bribe politicians. Workers, not so much. They’re under a microscope pretty much twenty-four seven, but not all of them. You aim for the people on the lower end of the spectrum janitors, lunch ladies, and administrative staff. People who are disgruntled and largely ignored. Plus, the government doesn’t pay shit, so they’re always needing extra cash.”
“So you think Stella’s already made contact with one of those kinds of people here?”
Winston nodded. “More than likely. We need a man inside.”
“How do we get one?”
Winston offered her the kind of grin she felt a Great White shark would have. “By asking nicely.”
"You're not fired."
Calloway and Libby pushed off from the wall outside of the conference room Agent Shannon had just exited, scowling hard enough to create a maze on his forehead.
"What?" Calloway asked.
"In light of your successful capture of the Highlander dragon, my superiors turned down my recommendation to fire the both of you," he continued, every word dripping with bitter disgruntlement. “consider today, strike one. There will not be a second or third. You do what I say when I say it or I won't give a damn what my superiors tell me, I'll escort you both off the premises. Do you understand me?"
"Loud and clear," Calloway said, though he was unable to keep the grin off his face, Libby high-fived him, as well as Jack and Kamala. Agent Shannon rolled his eyes so hard it was a wonder they didn't eject from his skull.
"In the meantime, you all have work to do. Libby, get back in the lab and sort through the footage. Comb through every single second and see if there's anything that can help us identify, whoever the hell, was in that chopper. Calloway, go write up your field report and have it on my desk in an hour. Dr. Jackson, you and Dr. Anjali will join Larry in the lab to see what you can learn about that Highlander dragon. I want results by lunchtime. Dismissed."
"Where are you going?" Jack asked.
"I have witnesses to interrogate." He turned on his heel and headed down the hallway alone.
"Why do I get the feeling he prefers the Jack Bauer approach to interrogations?" Jack wondered aloud.
"Wouldn't surprise me," Calloway said. “Thanks for your help back there, you guys. We couldn't have done this without you."
"You were outstanding," Kamala said. “It took courage to do what you did. I'm glad it worked out for you."
"For now," Calloway said, glancing in the direction Shannon had gone in. “Don't think he won't find a way to get even since I disobeyed a direct order. Guy can hold a grudge until the end times."
"Let him. You did the right thing. Come down to the lab as soon as you're done with the report. Hopefully, we'll get some good results right off the bat."
"Sounds good to me." He offered Kamala and Jack both a fist bump, gave his little sister a kiss on the cheek, and headed towards his office.
Jack and Kamala made their way towards the lab. “Any idea of what to expect?” Jack asked.
“Brahma knows,” Kamala admitted. “With any luck, the dragon is still sedated.”
