Bethany’s heart started beating faster as Terrell’s anger consumed him. The pressure had to be getting to him, and the way he was griping the rifle was starting to make her nervous. It wasn’t unheard of for robbers to turn on each other during the middle of a job, and for the second time in only a matter of minutes, she felt like she was in real danger. Terrell had always seemed levelheaded to her in the past, but stress and fear could change that like the flip of a switch. She was walking a thin line on this assignment by participating in a crime of this magnitude. The stakes were already high, and they were getting higher by the minute.
“Hey, which five are you going to release?” Daniel asked, drawing Terrell’s attention as he stood up and took a few steps toward Terrell. “You should let the women go—”
“You should shut up,” Terrell said roughly as he once again turned his anger on Daniel. “I’m getting really tired of telling you to keep your mouth shut.”
Bethany glanced at Daniel’s eyes and understood that he was giving her the perfect opportunity to look tough and convince Terrell that her persona was real. She was instantly both grateful to him and angry with him. She could take care of herself. She didn’t want him to put himself in danger for her sake. Before Terrell could act, she stepped in between them and pushed Daniel back. “Hey, hero, haven’t we told you about a hundred times to sit down and shut up?” She pulled her rifle back and hit him in the gut, then as he bent over, she hit him over the back. Her blows looked good but actually had very little force behind them, so she did little to no damage. Thankfully, Daniel seemed to instantly understand what she was doing and did a good job of acting and responding to her actions. He ended up on the floor, clutching his stomach and rolling as if the force of her blows had severely injured him. When he landed, he hit his nose awkwardly, which caused it to start bleeding. The sight of the blood made the entire scene seem more real, and Terrell bought it all, hook, line and sinker. He reached for Bethany as if to stop her, but she pulled her foot back and gave Daniel several vicious kicks in the abdomen before Terrell actually succeeded in grabbing her shoulders and pulling her back from the victim on the ground.
“Are you trying to kill him? Good grief, girl. We agreed we weren’t going to kill anyone. Didn’t you just give me a speech about how important it was to save someone’s life? Leave that guy alone!”
Bethany didn’t want to point out to Terrell that two short minutes ago he had been threatening both her and Daniel with violence. Daniel moaned loudly, and Bethany put her foot on his pelvis and pushed him over on his chest to lessen the noise.
“You said I was putting the operation in jeopardy,” she spat. “But I’m just as committed to the cause as you are, and if I need to kill this guy to prove it to you, then that’s what I’m going to do.” She tried to pull away from Terrell, but he held her fast and turned her to face him so their eyes met.
“Back off. I was out of line. Look, why don’t you take this guy back to the bathroom and clean him up. We don’t want to leave anyone in that condition when we clear out of here.”
“You clean him up,” she said severely as she slung her rifle on to her back. “What do I care what he looks like?”
Terrell released her and straightened. Apparently, he wasn’t willing to go that far, or he didn’t like her saucy mouth. Either way, he wanted his command obeyed. “I told you to do it, and I meant it. I’ll stay out here and keep an eye on things. You don’t know how to operate the charges on the front door. I do. If something happens, I need to be here.”
“What about them?” She swung her rifle toward the hostages and a few of them whimpered at her implied threat.
“I’ll shoot any of them who move a muscle.”
“Fine.” She shrugged as if the time with Daniel didn’t matter, but she was secretly pleased. She had been trying to figure out a way to talk to him in private anyway, to explain to him what was going on, and this situation had worked out perfectly. She nudged Daniel with her shoe and he moaned in response. “Let’s go, hero.”
He cringed as if he was afraid of her touch, and Bethany silently thanked him for putting on such a realistic performance. She nudged him again. “I said, let’s go, hero.” She handed Terrell her rifle and then reached down to help Daniel up. He looked at her suspiciously when she offered her arm but eventually reached out and grabbed her right wrist, and she pulled him to his feet. As soon as he was vertical, she put his arm around her shoulders and wedged herself under his arm so she could support him as he walked. They made slow progress without saying a word until they had entered the family bathroom and flipped on the light. Bethany pulled the door closed and let him ease against the sink. Then she pulled her mask up and left it sitting above her head. It felt good to finally get out of the sweaty thing. She leaned against the door frame and watched as Daniel turned on the water and started rinsing the blood from his face.
“I’m sorry if I hurt you, Daniel.”
He continued washing his face but eventually grabbed the paper towel she offered and dried his face. “When?”
She raised her eyebrows. “What do you mean when?”
“You’re sorry you hurt me just now, or when you disappeared without a trace a year ago?” He tossed the paper towel away, straightened and gave her a small smile.
Bethany narrowed her eyes. Good grief! He wanted to have this conversation now? “Hey now. The way I remember it, we both decided it was over last year. It was a mutual decision.”
“No,” he said softly, “we had an argument. We both said things we regretted, and you didn’t give us an opportunity to fix it. Instead, you disappeared.” He paused. “I’ve missed you, you know.”
Bethany tapped the lid down on her emotions. There was an element of truth to what he said, but she didn’t want to examine it. She didn’t even want to have this discussion—not now, and not ever. The scars had already healed over. She didn’t want to reopen the wounds. “Maybe I didn’t want to fix it,” she said back, her tone derisive. “We were over, Daniel. You just didn’t want to accept it.”
He looked up quickly. “That’s not how I remember it.”
His eyes met hers and contained a pain that she hadn’t expected. She looked away first, unable to bear the look in his eyes. “I am sorry, Daniel, both for today and for a year ago. I didn’t want to hurt you. I never meant to do that.”
He gently grasped her arm, then touched her chin and turned her head to look at him again. His touch sent a shiver down her spine. “I looked for you for months. I watched your apartment. I searched high and low. Why do you say we were over? We were just beginning.”
He leaned forward as if to kiss her, but she pulled her head away. She did not want to continue this conversation. He was forcing her to feel things she didn’t want to feel. It was safer all around if they left the past in the past. “We can’t talk about this now. Terrell is waiting for us.”
A wave of frustration swept through Daniel, and he realized he wasn’t going to get the answers he was seeking. At least not today. Bethany’s heart may have closed over, but he had never stopped loving her. How could he help her see that? He had seen fear in her eyes that long ago day, and the fear was back today. What was she afraid of? Had they gotten too serious, too soon? Is that why she had run away? He remembered the day she had driven off and disappeared from his life, the angry words still on both of their tongues. He should have gone after her, but he’d always thought they’d have another opportunity to talk and sort things out, and he thought waiting for them both to cool down was the wiser course. Apparently, he had been very, very wrong. But even so, it wasn’t in him to give up. He might not be able to convince her to return to him, but before he let her go, he at least wanted to understand what had happened and why. He leaned back against the sink. “Then when can we talk? You’re obviously undercover. When does this assignment end? Will you disappear again once they’ve brought you home?”
He saw the answer in her eyes. She would leave as soon as it was over, and she wasn’t going to contact him. Exasperation and the fear of losing her once again caused a tightening in his chest. “Bethany, please. At least give me an opportunity to talk to you before you take another assignment.”
“I don’t know when this will end...”
“But it will, at some point. Please promise me we’ll talk.”
She said nothing in response, and it was obvious she wasn’t going to say another word on the subject. His face was throbbing and he touched his nose gingerly. “I think I broke my nose.”
A look of worry crossed her face, and she tore off another paper towel, wet it and handed it to him. “I’m sorry. Here. You’re still bleeding.”
He took the paper towel from her and put his head back, hoping to staunch the flow. “Can I have my gun back?”
“Sorry, no, at least not yet. Someone might have seen me take it, and I don’t want to blow my cover. You have my word though that I’ll get it back to you as soon as I can.”
“So your handler approved a bank robbery?”
“Yeah, there’s a bigger picture here that we’ve been investigating for about a year.”
He brought his head back down. “Care to share?”
She gave him a small laugh. “You know the rules. I can’t do that.”
“How can you stand to be a part of this? I’ve never done undercover work—I’ll admit it. And I respect those of you that do. I just don’t think I could get past the crimes going on all around me. I mean, a man got shot out there. That’s got to be tough.”
She leaned back against the door frame, giving him an expression that showed she was pleased with his interest. Her work had always been very important to her. Sometimes he thought she liked being an FBI agent more than any other aspect of her life. “I look for the gray and stay away from the black and white. There’s usually something good about a person, even if they are a criminal, so I focus on that aspect of their personality. Criminals can tell if I’m scared, and they know if I’m being judgmental about their lifestyle. I have to show them that I see them as a person, not just as someone doing bad things. Take Terrell.” She nodded toward the door.
“You mean that big bodybuilder guy?”
“Yeah, that’s the one. He loves dogs. Can you believe it? He saw a stray the other day that almost got hit by a car, and he made us stop, right there in the middle of the road, so he could grab the dog off the street. Then we had to change all of our plans, turn around and head in the opposite direction, just so he could drop the dog off at his sister’s so she could find a good home for it. How crazy is that?”
Daniel smiled. He was glad she was talking to him, even if she wasn’t willing to discuss their relationship. Something was better than nothing. “I can’t imagine that big guy caring that much.”
“Neither could I, but since I love dogs myself, it makes it much easier to be around him now that I’ve seen that side of his personality. We’ve found some common ground.” She sighed. “This is a really important assignment. I’ve been thrown into the deep end of one of the region’s most dangerous criminal organizations, and I really want a win so I can put an end to their activities. By the time I’m through with this, I hope to bring down some of the most powerful people in the state. This investigation reaches all the way up to the senator’s office.”
Daniel could hear the passion in her voice, yet the fact that they were committing a crime here today still didn’t sit right with him. “I understand, but is it ethically okay to rob a bank to reach that objective? I know you’re in deep, but isn’t this going too far?”
“This isn’t just an adrenaline-filled journey I’m on, Daniel. I’ll be able to trace the money we steal today and get the final pieces to the puzzle. They’ve been building a war chest for a reason, and we need to know why. They’re planning something big, something that’s going to do a lot more damage than a bank robbery and will hurt a lot more people in the long run. I know it’s dangerous, but my handler and I both thought it was worth the risk.”
Daniel could see that he would never win this argument. And he had to admit, undercover cops were some of the bravest people he had ever worked with. Bethany wasn’t short on guts or determination. She was a dedicated, hardworking FBI agent who got the job done. “Well I just don’t want to see you go native and get caught up in this lifestyle. I would hate to visit you behind bars.”
She smiled, a smile that always made his gut tighten. She was so beautiful, and her beauty was so much more than skin-deep. “No worries. I’m still a cop when I go to bed at night. I’m not switching sides.” She motioned toward the door. “We’d better get back out there before Terrell comes in here looking for us.” She pulled the mask back down to cover her face.
“Do you guys have an exit strategy?”
“You bet. And no one will get hurt. I promise.”
He let her wedge herself under his arm again, and he took a wounded stance so they could return to the bank lobby. He was fine with acting the injured party as long as it helped keep her safe. He just hoped she could keep her promise.