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No rush...
She showered and dressed in PJs and crawled into bed next to him. They lay thigh to thigh, and she sensed he was ready to talk about her day if she wished but wasn't going to push it. Thank you, she thought silently, and squeezed his hand as a gesture of the thought, which she knew he understood. She wondered if he'd heard the argument between her and O'Neil.
She asked, "How's Mags doing?"
"I kept an eye on the Skype session with the Secrets Club gang. Bethany's quite the young lady. I expect to see her as the head of the State Department in a few years. The White House is an option too. I think they were using codes. I couldn't figure them out. Like they've created their own language."
Dance laughed. "If they put half that energy into schoolwork."
"When I was a kid and supposed to take a shower, I spent more time running the water, getting a towel wet and rubbing dirt from the floor on the washcloth, than if I'd just jumped in. Something about getting away with it."
"Did it work?"
"Not once. But I kept trying. Oh, not to worry, I'm over shower-cheating now."
Her mind returned to the argument she'd had with O'Neil. Her gut clenched and she felt a flash of anger. She realized that Boling was saying something else.
"Hmm?"
"Just good night." He kissed her cheek.
"'Night."
Boling rolled over on his side and in a few minutes he was in enviable sleep.
Dance realized she was staring intently at the ceiling. Then she told herself to relax. But how ridiculous an order was that?
She continued to wrestle with the greater implication of O'Neil's words, which he had not spoken to her. That if she had taken a weapon, yes, maybe they would have stopped the Solitude Creek killer today. Maybe she would have been closer to the door and seen him trying to escape.
And if anyone else died in another attack, that would be on her shoulders.
But if she had, and word had gotten back to CBI headquarters that she'd broken protocol, with a pistol, that would be the end of her involvement in that case and, more important, her secret role in the Serrano matter. She wasn't willing to do that. Michael had to understand.
Except, obviously, he didn't.
She too rolled over, back to the man beside her, hoping for prompt sleep.
It was nearly dawn before her addled mind stumbled into nonsensical thought and, finally, dreamless dark.
SUNDAY, APRIL 9
The Secrets Club
Chapter 54
Did you hear from TJ? The lead came through, got a location and we better move on it."
Those words, uttered by Al Stemple, were virtually one sentence, one breath. And not a single grunt. He knew he wasn't known for speedy anything and the fact that he was taking a let's-go attitude with the Guzman Connection task force was meant to convey: Time's a-wasting, boys and girls.
Carol Allerton, Jimmy Gomez and Stephen Lu were in the war room. Lu asked, "Lead?"
Stemple grumbled, looking at his watch, "Yeah, yeah. Lead to Tia Alonzo, Serrano's skirt."
Drawing a glance from Allerton.
Oh, please...
Lu said, "Where?"
