18

 

Lee and Jennifer looked up at the sound of people shouting. All around the three-ring circus, people clapped and voiced their approval—everyone except the cameramen, who were too busy shooting video.

Lee knew he would have questions to answer at his next men’s accountability meeting. He didn’t care. The kiss was worth it.

Thankfully, their position at center ring was short-lived.

A black sedan pulled in front of the Benson’s house and the crowd buzzed when two men in suits emerged. The two walked straight towards Jennifer and him as they stood arm-in-arm on the lawn.

The tall man spoke first. “Hello, I’m Agent Peterson, FBI. This is my assistant, Agent Bastian.”

“I’m Lee Brandt and this is Jennifer Akihara.”

The assistant stepped in front of the main man, Peterson. Not a good thing to do.

“Ms. Akahari, good to meet you.” His gaze, lingered on Jennifer longer than Lee thought appropriate, and then Bastian dismissed her and turned towards him. “Lee, where can we get some privacy?”

Wherever they found this guy…they need to stop looking there.

He stared into the man’s eyes. “Her name is Akihara, Jennifer Akihara. Ms. Akihara has made arrangements with Officer Robbins of the Kerbyville police to use the shop behind the Bensons’ house for us to ‘get some privacy’.”

Peterson scowled. But, for the moment, he seemed to be watching his underling like he was feeding him rope.

Lee squeezed Jennifer’s hand hoping she understood that he wanted to deal with this guy.

She gave Lee a squinting frown then a nod.

Good. Rather than wait for an opportunity he would create one. “Why don’t you show our FBI friends the area you and Officer Robbins set up.”

“We should keep the group down to a minimum—just those who know and those who need to know. So, do we really need Miss Aka—uh…Akihara?” Bastian spoke again.

This guy was continuing just like he started, foot in mouth, brains in neutral.

Lee’s mouth opened, but Jennifer beat him to the verbal punch. One glance at her cool, staring eyes made it clear. She was primed to deliver a knockout blow. He closed his mouth.

You’d better duck, Bastian.

Jennifer’s gaze locked on Bastian’s face. “Mr. Bastian, do you sometimes use data and reports from NSA?”

Bastian hesitated and turned towards Peterson. “Peterson, uh…is it OK for me to answer that?”

Jennifer rolled her eyes.

Even Lee knew the fact that the FBI used intelligence reports from NSA was not classified information.

Peterson nodded to Bastian. Peterson covered his mouth with his hand. Was he struggling to keep a straight face, or yawning?

“Yes we do.” Bastian replied.

Jennifer’s gaze switched to laser mode. “Then you are undoubtedly familiar with my work, if you do read reports and use data provided to you by NSA. My name, again, is Jennifer Akihara.”

A question and a statement from Jennifer and Bastian was already backpedaling. “Oh, that Jennifer Akihara.”

Lee didn’t have a clue whether Bastian had actually read Jennifer’s work. But the name evidently clicked with him.

Peterson sighed and stepped in front of his underling. “Jennifer is needed here for several reasons. And, Bastian, she has a higher clearance than you do. Show us the way, Miss Akihara.”

When they entered the shop the assortment of equipment indicated this was a large woodshop. In an open area several chairs sat configured in a circle. They each picked a chair and sat down.

Jennifer chose a chair beside Lee. That was a good sign. Maybe the kiss did the trick.

He glanced at her face.

Maybe not.

Officer Robbins came in as they were being seated. “Good to see you, Lee—even better to see you still in one piece.”

“Good to see you too, Dan. Jennifer, Dan Robbins is one of the friends on the Kerbyville police force whom I mentioned last night.”

“Lee, we met an hour ago. You’ll never know what a relief it was to meet him.”

“Yeah. He was probably the first person you’d seen with a gun since yesterday evening who wasn’t pointing it at you.”

Jennifer glared at him. Evidently she didn’t appreciate his attempt at humor. Maybe Dan would.

He turned his gaze back to Dan. “We tried to make it to Kerbyville before sunrise, Dan, but I thought spending the day in a cave with Jennifer sounded more romantic.”

“That’s enough, Lee. Climbing a one-hundred foot goo-covered rock wall in the dark is anything but romantic.”

“But you gotta’ admit, Jenn, the view from the top was worth it.” He scanned Jennifer’s face—a face hidden from him until it was lit by the opening at the top of the chimney, the place where Jennifer kissed him.

She shot him a frowning glance. “Very funny.”

Evidently, she didn’t want to be reminded.

Peterson pursed his lips. His face looked like he wanted to pound a gavel and demand for order in the court. He took a calming breath. “Jennifer, just to let you and Lee know, a few minutes ago we received a report from Trooper Brower, who was sent to check out the vehicles.”

Her eyes widened. “Was my car OK?”

Peterson nodded. “Yes, but due to unusual circumstances, Brower was forced to stop the SUV by ramming it. Brower is OK, just needed a couple of stitches.”

Lee leaned forward towards Peterson. “So you got the goons, right?”

Peterson’s eyebrows nearly touched at his question. “We…we got one of them.”

Frowning, Lee slid forward in his chair. “Have you gotten anything out of him?”

“Actually, it was a she. Unfortunately…she was dead at the scene. Not from the collision. From a bullet through her head. Evidently the uh…goons considered her expendable. The funny thing was…a red rash completely covered her body.”

Jennifer’s mouth fell open. “You mean one of the goons was a woman?”

The capture of the goons wasn’t playing out quite like he had planned. He frowned and shook his head. “What about the others?”

“It appears there were two others. One was apparently injured in the crash. We don’t know about the third one. We suspect both are still in the area so we have set up several roadblocks and initiated a large-scale search. We’ve notified the residents in the area to assume these men are armed and dangerous and to keep their doors locked.”

A knock on the door interrupted their conversation.

Peterson answered it.

A hand reached in and gave him a slip of paper. He read it and looked up at his understudy. “Bastian, Agent Stewart from NSA arrived at the Kerbyville police station. I want you to personally escort him here.”

“I’m on my way.”

When Bastian left, Peterson seemed to relax. He sighed and looked at Lee. “Back to the subject at hand. We recovered one assault rifle from the SUV and a Glock from the lady. But, Lee, you said you saw more weapons.”

“Jennifer and I saw at least two automatic weapons when they fired at her car.”

At his comment, her head popped up, “Speak for yourself. Remember who was driving?”

“And driving incredibly,” he said. “It’s a miracle we escaped them on the freeway.” He studied her face, hoping her anger would stop boiling to the surface.

“It was…a miracle.” Her voice had softened.

“About the weapons…I saw three assault rifles shortly before I left the mountain to come down here.” He had finally steered the conversation to the trap.

Jennifer’s head snapped towards him. Her eyes glared. “Lee, you weren’t supposed to see any guns—not supposed to be taking chances. You promised you wouldn’t do that, remember?”

He thought he had steered the conversation in a better direction.

Maybe his best chance to get back into her good graces was simply to tell the truth about his plan and hope for the best. He tried again to introduce the subject of the trap. “You’ll find the unaccounted for weapons in a cave I led them to on this side of the ridge.”

Peterson’s eyebrows raised, and he cleared his throat. “Please tell me, Lee, why you think these terrorists would abandon their weapons in some cave, especially since they needed them to kill you, and then get away.”

On the words “kill you,” Jennifer glared at him.

“It’s a long story, Peterson, but they had literally a million reasons for leaving their guns behind. It was all part of a plan Jennifer and I—”

Jennifer jumped to her feet. “He’s about to tell you the same baloney he told me before he sent me down the mountain and then stayed up there for fun and games.” Her voice grew louder. “You can’t—”

“All right, you two!” Peterson’s gavel came down hard. “I can see there is something festering just under the surface. But if you’ll just stick to communicating the facts for the next few minutes I’ll leave you alone shortly to sort out the…uh…other stuff.”

“Jenn, Agent Peterson, I need to tell you the part of our plan I…well…didn’t fully disclose to Jennifer.”

Jennifer’s entire body jerked at his last words.

He hurried to make his case before Jennifer could interrupt him. “It was a plan to get Jennifer down here safely and it worked. It could have stopped the goons right there on the mountain. It appears it nearly did.”

“I only called it baloney because I can’t think of a single thing you could have done to stop the goons and get away, short of magically turning into some superhero.” Jennifer spoke softly.

“That’s because you didn’t grow up with Colby and me.”

“With whom?”

At least her tone was civil.

“The buddy I mentioned several times while we were on the mountain. That was Colby. You see, Agent Peterson, we experienced something terrifying up there in mid-March right after a La Nina winter much like the one we just came through. We discovered a cave northeast of the spire and about three hundred yards down the south side of the ridge.”

Peterson shuffled his feet and frowned. “Please continue, but spare us the unnecessary details.”

He realized he was speaking half to Jennifer and half to Peterson.

Obviously, the tall FBI agent wasn’t going to tolerate any more of that.

Lee took a deep breath, exhaled, and rewound his story. “OK. We found a cave where some bears hibernate every winter. After a cold winter like we just came through, they seem to stay in the cave until early March. They leave behind an incredible infestation of fleas. After a couple of weeks of multiplying and not having food, the fleas are ravenous and they number into the millions.”

He paused to let the facts sink in. “When my buddy and I walked into the cave in mid-March, about twenty feet in, the fleas all leaped in unison. They completely coated us and nearly ate us alive. When we ran out of the cave we were literally black all over. The pain was unbearable and those little devils just kept penetrating deeper into unbitten territory. We couldn’t stop screaming. We had no choice but to shed our clothes and wash the fleas off our bodies in a snow-fed stream. It takes a while. Then we had to shake the fleas out of our clothes before getting dressed. That whole process can take from thirty minutes to an hour. I figured the goons would be held up long enough for Jennifer to tell the police where the cars were and for the police to catch the goons before they could escape.”

Peterson frowned and cocked his head. “Did you really believe hardened terrorists would stop to get rid of some fleas?”

“Believe me, Peterson, the pain is unbearable and the feeling of defilement, while it’s a psychological thing, is overpowering.”

“I’ll take your word on that. Apparently it did just that.”

“Is that what you meant by intimacy with the mountain?” Jennifer asked.

He nodded.

But was Peterson buying his story?

From his expression Lee couldn’t tell.

Peterson sat rubbing his chin. “Now tell us again how you got them to the cave?”

“OK. When Jennifer was well down the road I made some clear tracks leading up to the mouth of the cave. Then I went back to the spire and waited for the goons…and the gooness, to stop looking for Jennifer and me in the caves. When they came out at the base of the spire I started a small rock slide and I let them see me running away towards the tracks leading to the cave.”

“You gave them a clear shot at you? You promised not to take any chances!” Jennifer’s volume rose.

He desperately needed diminuendo. “I was careful, honest.”

Jennifer still glared at him, unappeased.

He cleared his throat and continued. “Well, by the time the goons climbed up to the spire I had already jumped from the trail and hid in a saddle a quarter mile away. From there I could see the cave, but I still had quick access to the old logging road and a short run down to this place.” He paused and checked Jennifer’s reaction. “The goons took the bait and went into the cave three abreast, each carrying an assault rifle. Within a few seconds there was all kinds of shrieking and screaming coming from the cave. The goons came running out without their guns and without half of their clothes—-they ripped the other half off while they ran from the cave.”

“You mean you actually pulled that off?” Peterson’s brow was furled and his head cocked.

“Lured them into the cave, yes. But they were doing all of the pulling off. That’s when I ran down here.”

Peterson sat still for moment, processing the story. Then he began a belly-shaking laugh—a whole series of belly-shaking guffaws.

Jennifer’s angry look turned to a smile which grew into a giggle.

Soon, the three of them laughed loud and long.

The remaining tension and anxiety of the previous eighteen hours drained from Jennifer and him, while Peterson acquired a story he would probably enjoy sharing with his cohorts for a long time to come.

When their laughter subsided, he caught his breath. “And so, Agent Peterson, do you think those other guns are still in the cave?”

“I’d bet money on it.”

An idea popped into his head. “I noticed that you and Bastian…well…things don’t go smoothly when you two work together, do they?”

“When you have a young partner that comes with the territory,” Peterson managed between chuckles.

“Well, sir, you could send Bastian up to retrieve the guns.” He joked. “But he better wear a hazmat suit.”

Peterson shook his head and continued to chuckle.

Lee caught Jennifer looking at him. Her eyes were something less than hostile.

Carpe diem.

“Please forgive me?” He mouthed the words.

She looked away, but her sulky look appeared contrived.

Still chuckling, Peterson stood. “Well, I think we’ve got enough to go on for now. I’ll leave you two here for a bit. When Joe Morrison gets here we’ll talk about the computer issues you uncovered.”

The moment the door closed behind Peterson, Lee swiveled his chair to face Jennifer. He placed his hand on her cheek and gently turned her face towards him. There was no resistance. He tried to carpe diem again. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you or deceive you. I just wanted to keep you safe and to make sure the goons would be caught.”

Jennifer’s gaze bored into him again. “No. That’s not all you wanted. Don’t lie to me again.”

This was not going well, so he decided to do what any red-blooded male would do when a relationship with someone like Jennifer was on the line. “I’ll do anything you want—anything for you to forgive me. Just tell me—”

“I liked you better as the tough mountain man—my hero, who saved me from the goons. But you’re just…just a…groveling wimp!”

“You know me better than that.” He paused and took a calming breath. “Jenn…you’re right. I wanted something else, too. For what they did to us I wanted revenge. And when the screaming started and their clothes flew off, I got it.”

Forgive me, Lord…

Jennifer stared into his eyes for several seconds, studying them. There were no traces of anger in her eyes or on her face. “Well, at least you finally told me the truth. But if we’re ever in danger again…”

Again? Was she implying there would be an “again” for them?

She sat quietly waiting. “Now that you’re back…as I was saying, in the future you’d better spill your guts up front not after the fact. I won’t be kept in the dark. Is that understood?”

He struggled hard to suppress a strong urge to wrap his arms around her. “Understood. No secret plans—ever.”

Jennifer’s eyes softened farther. “There’s more here than just me demanding honesty. I don’t want to lose anyone I care for again. I’ve gone through that once and I can’t—” She stopped and her mouth closed.

Jennifer said “care for” and placed him in a category with the person she felt closest to, her dad.

“Do you ever again intend to be chased by thugs, shot at, and hide out in caves all night?”

“No, of course not.”

“Neither do I. And I promise you, with all those same intentions, I’ll never endanger—”

“OK, here’s the deal. You break your promise and you have to run the flea cave in your underwear on March 19th.” Though her expression contained a smile, the intense stare from those all-knowing brown eyes told him she would hold his feet to the fire on the issue of honesty. She had actually relented.

Forgiven him.

Relief flooded over Lee’s tense body and mind. He tried to return her smile. “You sure drive a hard bargain when it comes to forgiveness.”

“Am I worth it?” She studied his face.

“Yeah, at least two or three runs through the cave.”

Jennifer stood and he followed her cue. She wrapped her arms around him and pressed her cheek into his chest. Her bear hug reminded him of her arm strength when she yanked him into the crevice on the cavern wall. It was long on bear and a little short on hug, but he reveled in it.

“I forgive you, but don’t do that to me again. Ever. You have two strikes on you now.”

“Jenn, two strikes? Which two?”

“You’re a guy and you deceived me.”

He hadn’t even seen the first pitch and the second was a little outside.

“Howie warned me,” he mumbled.

“Howie? I knew it. Do you realize Howie was playing matchmaker Friday night?”

“Was he successful?”

Her only reply was the enigmatic smile.