Rory (In the Company of Snipers Book 6) Read online

  Destruction of property. Provide exact details for insurance purposes. Like the first safe house? McCormack’s cute little mother-in-law bungalow? All my clothes?

  She closed the online debriefing form and browsed her email instead. Alex expected too damned much. She’d think about the stupid report later. “Anyone seen Dennison yet?” she asked without looking up.

  “Nope,” Mother replied huffily.

  Be mad. I don’t care. I am so not telling you anything about the op.

  Ember snapped her computer shut and walked away, glancing at Rory’s empty desk as she stalked to the women’s restroom. Mother would come looking for her, but for a few minutes Ember had complete privacy. She hit redial on her cell phone and listened when no one answered on the other end. Rory was still avoiding her.

  Splashing cold water on her face didn’t do much to restore her disposition. When she returned to her desk, she found a bundle of folders and a note from David to come see him. She took the bundle and stalked over to his desk. “What’s this, Tao?”

  “Good morning, Ember. It’s the background investigations into the High Lamas and Kamalya. Mother and I compiled it. We’d like your input before we send it into Alex. Is that a problem?”

  “What could I possibly know about your investigation? I was in another safe house getting my ass shot off, or did you forget?”

  David’s eyes narrowed. He might not be able to read her through her dark glasses, but he got the drift. She was as sure of that as the fact she was making a fool of herself. Well, just damned great. Even Harley watched the drama from his workspace. Taylor Armstrong, one of the newest agents in the office, glanced in her direction before he swiveled his chair around to mind his own business. Junior Agent Steven Oakes, another rookie, did the same. Ember didn’t care. David had undermined Rory and her every step of the way. He needed to back off.

  “Ember. Listen—” He started to say something in his usual calm and extra gentle manner, but she cut him off, right at the knees.

  “No, you listen, Tao. If you’d done a little more of your fancy investigating the first time around, we wouldn’t have gotten our asses kicked at the last safe house, would we? And those old guys, those other monks, they’d still be alive, wouldn’t they? Everything is your fault. You brought a murderer right into Alex and Kelsey’s home because you didn’t do your job. You should’ve known who those guys were, but you didn’t, did you?” She glared down at him, making no attempt to lower her voice or hide her feelings.

  “Ember, there was no way anyone could have known—”

  “And there’s no way I’m touching this, either.” She tossed the folders on his desk. “Do it yourself.”

  His voice conciliatory, he stood and took a step toward her. “Come on, Emb—”

  “Go to hell, Tao.”

  Twenty-Three

  Little by little, the medicines worked. Little by little, Tyler smiled. And little by little, Rory knew everything was going to be okay. He stopped being the obsessive father. He even took a quick walk to the cafeteria and called Ember. Unfortunately, she was away from her desk, but no matter. He’d call her at home later. Calling her cell phone was out. It must’ve gotten damaged in the last firefight like his did.

  “Knock, knock,” Tyler croaked. Still plenty pale with dark circles under his eyes, at least his fever was down.

  “Who’s there?” Rory asked for the tenth or twelfth time.

  “Boo.” Tyler’s brown eyes lit up with delighted anticipation.

  “Boo, who?” He always was a sucker for a good knock-knock joke.

  “Ha! Boo who! Whatcha... crying for... Daddy?” Tyler gasped and giggled. It took him a full minute before he could catch his breath, but soon enough the coughing attack ceased. He was officially off the oxygen mask and ready to go home. Today was the day. After five days in the pediatric ward, they were headed home for a sugar cookie party and a long daddy/son nap.

  Rory bundled his son in an extra warm blanket and strapped him safely into the back seat of his mini-van. He didn’t drive his Mercedes sports car much anymore, and he didn’t care. The short drive home tired the boy out, so the first order of business was naptime. His apartment was not like those exclusive singles set-ups with pools and saunas and clubhouses nearby, but it was clean, fairly new, and the right size for a single father. They both had their own bedrooms, but Tyler was prone to show up in the middle of the night and schmooze his way into Rory’s. He didn’t care. It’s not like anyone else was there.

  He tucked Tyler into his own bed and set his antibiotics and inhaler on the kitchen counter. He made a pitcher of orange juice and checked the freezer for something to defrost for dinner. Mrs. Godfrey had fixed several frozen entrees. Her meatloaf was always good, but he opted for chicken noodle soup instead. Tyler was an easy customer as long as his meal came with noodles.

  Resting the freezer bag of soup in a pan of cold water in the kitchen sink, he checked to see how his son was breathing before he tackled the stack of mail on the counter. Tyler was sound asleep and breathing easy. Rory sighed. So far, so good.

  He delved into the litter of junk mail and bills Mrs. Godfrey had dutifully collected while he was gone. Between the paper shredder and the basket for incoming bills, he made short work of the nuisance mail. And in the monotony of letter sorting, the events at the final safe house flooded back to him. The explosion in the alley should’ve killed him. It was only by the grace of God that he’d come to with nothing more than a good laceration to his forehead and a knot on his head. He was proud of Ember. She’d fought tooth and nail to protect Nima.

  His thoughts drifted. But darn. She’d nearly stopped his heart when she’d traipsed through McCormack’s place in nothing but a black towel that barely hid her curves or her long legs. Catching her in the tub was surprise enough. There weren’t nearly enough bubbles to cover that gorgeous body of hers, but the black towel escapade was another sight altogether.

  He’d lost more than his last shred of common sense when she’d stalked back up the stairs. Of course he’d wanted to strip it off her. Her audaciously free spirit was hard to resist, and he was just a man, a very lonely man now he had time to think of it—of her.

  She was right. For years he’d built a wall of secrecy, while her wall was built of black eyeliner, weird hair colors, and outrageous outfits. Nima’s words flooded his heart. If you hide, no one can find you. Ember and he had both done a darned good job of hiding, but now he’d been found. So had she. It was time to move on and maybe make a move. On her.

  Pictures of her transformation circled back around. She’d changed from the nut job in the local freak show to one of the most beautiful women he’d ever known. He picked up his house phone and dialed her office number.

  Her voice mail message came on instantly. “This is Junior Agent Ember Davis, genius and clairvoyant technician for Mr. Alexander Stewart. Please leave a name, number, and a message. I will call you when I get around to it. Maybe. Thank you!”

  Rory smiled. Yes, that was his girl through and through. He hesitated but hung up, leaving no message. That would be too impersonal. No. He wanted to hear her breath catch when he said, ‘Hi there, beautiful.’ He wanted to sit back and listen to the silly, musical way she laughed. And he wanted to picture the sultry come hither look in her eyes when she whispered so Mother couldn’t overhear their conversation.

  He set the handset back in its charger. Tyler would sleep for a little while, then they’d eat dinner. Maybe once he was down for the night, there would be time to call Ember when he could have her all to himself.

  But Tyler’s first night home came with nightmares that Daddy was gone and a temperature Rory couldn’t force down, not even with a cool bath. By 1 a.m., he was in the emergency room with Dr. Brown, and Tyler was back on oxygen.

  Rory went home exhausted at 6 a.m., another antibiotic in his pocket and a still sick little boy in his arms. Pushing his apartment door open with his shoulder because his hands were full, he
dropped his keys on the coffee table, and settled himself and Tyler on the living room couch.

  And there they stayed for the next two days.

  Alex could be so damned rude.

  Ember re-worked her final debrief for the third freaking time. If he made one single red mark on this one, she was through. And that was another thing. Why couldn’t a man who was smart enough to start a business and run it successfully learn to use the track changes feature on his computer? Why did she have to print every report, waste paper like it grew on trees, and, and....

  “Do you need some help?” Mother asked in her usual solicitous way, hovering over Ember’s shoulder like the patron saint of busybodies.

  “No. Just tweaking it one last time so Alex will sign it,” Ember replied with a restrained edge to her voice.

  It had been a week since she’d come back to work and still no Rory in sight. She’d asked Alex, but he politely replied Rory was on personal leave. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Boss Man. Who the hell didn’t already figured that out? He never divulged personal information, so she went back to her desk and waited and retyped and waited some more. Finally, he stood at her desk again, the same damned debriefing in his hand.

  “What?” Was it good enough or not? Did it pass muster? She didn’t know if she cared anymore.

  “Do you have time to talk with me?” he asked, ignoring her nasty tone. He was difficult to read sometimes. Those icy blue eyes betrayed nothing, the problem with working with covert operators.

  “Yes. I’ll be right there.”

  He waited at his door. As soon as she entered, he shut it. “Please have a seat.”

  The only chairs in his office were the four around his small conference table and the one at the side of his desk, so she sat there. He took his usual chair behind his desk.

  She liked looking at Alex. He was a handsome man for a boss; lean, athletic and extremely intelligent with dark hair and the barest hint of silver showing at his temples. Alex was a proud man and it showed. Today he wore a charcoal suit, with a crisply ironed white shirt and maroon tie.

  Did Kelsey iron his shirts and dress him? Whoever did the actual buying and dressing at the Stewart home, it didn’t matter. He was a fine sight every single day. And while he could be tough as nails, he could also be quite the opposite. She liked Alex as much as she liked anyone at the moment. Not so much.

  “You’re having a tough time with the debriefing report.” He stated the obvious very well.

  So? She waited, not sure what he wanted.

  “I’d like you to talk with someone,” he said gently, setting the report aside.

  “Who? Murphy? Roy? What about?”

  “No one here. I think you need to talk with someone else. I’ve got a couple suggestions, but it’s entirely up to you.”

  She fidgeted in her chair. This might not be about the report at all. Alex was hinting at something else, and she didn’t like the sound of it. He was about to get personal.

  “About what?” she asked, her impatience showing.

  “About the Lobsang op,” he said softly.

  He’d finally spit it out. That wasn’t so hard now, was it?

  Ember fidgeted again. Her temper tantrum knew no bounds. She’d become meaner with each passing day, crying in the women’s rest room at the drop of a hat and snarky with everyone dumb enough to come within range. Harley was the only one still on her good side. She bit her lip, not willing to discuss anything beyond the facts of the operation. Just the facts. Don’t be nice to me and DO NOT mention Nima. Or Rory.

  “You miss her, don’t you?”

  Great! Stab me in the heart, why don’t you? A kind touch was as good as a kick in the gut when you’re already down. And Ember was as down as she’d ever been. She couldn’t answer if she wanted. Plus, her dark glasses were sitting by her computer instead of on her nose.

  “Would you like to know what Nima said that morning at my house?”

  Yeah, she wanted to know, but not now. Maybe when her heart wasn’t so raw. Like never.

  He didn’t wait for an answer. “That sweet little girl of yours laid her head on my chest exactly the way Abby did when she was alive. All she said was, ‘Daddy.’”

  She didn’t have to look at Alex to know he was emotional. When it came to children, and especially little girls, he was ten kinds of creampuffs all rolled into one. “It was exactly like I was holding Abby in my arms. I swear. For a second there, she even looked like Abby. I heard my daughter’s voice again, but do you know what Nima did then?”

  He was teary-eyed, and so was she. “What?” she asked softly, no longer needing to strike out at him. Alex had truly suffered in his life. She couldn’t be mean to him, not anymore.

  “She did this.” Alex came around his desk, took her by the hand and lifted her off the chair. He pulled her close and leaned in to her face. Ember held her breath, afraid he might kiss her. He didn’t. Very gently, he brushed his eyelashes across her cheek. In that instant, Nima’s sweet smile sprang to her mind. She gasped, basking in Nima’s unconditional love again.

  “She gave me butterfly kisses, Ember,” he said hoarsely. “That’s all. It was nothing miraculous or out of the ordinary, but it was exactly what Abby used to do when she’d climb up on my lap after a hard day. She’d give me those kisses and make me believe I was a hero again. For a moment there with Nima, I totally believed I was holding Abby again.”

  Ember fell into those sad blue eyes and it all spilled out. “I miss her, Alex. Is that what you want to hear? I didn’t think I’d ever miss anyone as much as I miss her. I mean,” she coughed and sputtered. “It hurts. It physically hurts! God! It’s like I’ve got a knife sticking through my heart. Every move I make, everything I do, it just goes in deeper and harder and... I miss her, damn it!”

  “I know,” he groaned. “God, I know, Ember. Honest. I really do.” He pulled her into his arms and just held her.

  Oh, freaking just great! This was as bad as Rory helping put her pants on. She couldn’t stop crying so she didn’t fight the kind embrace. Nima’s infectious giggle echoed in her head, so did her bright smile in the bubble bath at McCormack’s place; the cute way she’d wrestled with Rory the last day when he washed her face. And chocolate. Where in the high Himalayas would Nima ever get chocolate again, huh? And where the hell was Rory?

  She cried. Alex gave her tissues. She was tired to her core, the laughing stock of the office and losing her grip. Todd’s death had been hard enough to bounce back from, but this felt worse. Losing Nima ripped everything good out of her life by the deep dark roots. Her life had been one gut-wrenching loss after another. Enough!

  Alex settled on the front edge of his desk composing himself while she mopped her face and tried to recover some semblance of pride. This was so not about the debriefing report.

  “Kelsey would like to take you out for coffee, Ember. She knows what you’re going through. She asked if you’d be interested. It’s no big deal, just two mothers talking over coffee.”

  “I’m not a mother.”

  “Maybe not in the traditional sense, but you’ve lost a child. Kelsey understands.”

  “I can’t. Not yet.” Probably never.

  “Don’t worry. She just thinks you’re one of the sweetest women she’s known in a long time, and she knows you’re hurting. She cares. That’s the only reason she asked. But another person you might like to talk to is a friend of mine, Dr. Payne.”

  Ember about snorted. “Oh, that’s rich. Dr. Payne? What kind of a doctor has a name like that?”

  Alex didn’t get the joke. “He’s a behavioral psychologist and I’m simply offering. He helped Kelsey and me a few years back. I’ve got his number if you’d like someone to talk to.”

  “Why’d you and Kelsey go to him?”

  “Before we got married, we’d both been through some hard times. I’m sure you remember. I had some anger issues. Kelsey’d just lost her boys. She was lost. I was an ass. Dr Payne helped us learn how t
o communicate a little better with each other. He’s a good man. Jed recommended him to me and I’m recommending him to you.”

  “You don’t think I know how to communicate?” she sniffed.

  “I just think you might need someone to talk with. I’ll give you his number and you decide. It’s entirely up to you.”

  She sniffed again. She’d take the number. She could always toss it later.

  “But the real reason I called you in here is to tell you how proud I am of what you did.” He leaned over and placed his hand on her shoulder. Ember looked him in the eye. “You gave that little girl what she needed at the worst possible moment in her life. You went above and beyond the call of duty. You gave Nima safety, a measure of stability, and most important, you gave her love, Ember. She’d just seen her father assassinated, but you risked everything to save her life. You acted precisely like her mother.”

  That did it. Ember covered her face with her hands, leaned onto her knees and sobbed. “And it’s killing me! Damn you, it’s killing me! I’ve got... I’ve got a hole in my heart the size of freaking Texas. I don’t know how you and Kelsey lived through this shit! I hurt every minute of every single day, and Nima wasn’t even mine!”

  “The second you begin to love them, they’re yours,” he said, his hand clamped onto her shoulder. He didn’t let go. She sobbed into her knees and he placed several tissues into her wringing hands. Every part of her hurt until she wanted to throw up if only vomiting would expel the knives slicing her heart to ribbons. This loss felt more like being flayed alive. If only Rory were here, maybe she could cope; maybe he could help her understand. But he wasn’t. He’s gone. Nima’s gone. But I’m still here!

  Alex let her cry until the storm was spent. Nothing could be more embarrassing, but strangely, Alex holding onto her and letting her cry helped. Because he did know. He hurt for his little girl every single day and she got it. She wasn’t alone like she thought she was. And maybe she was stronger than she thought she was, too. She didn’t feel like it, but maybe.