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“He agreed, don’t get me wrong, but he wants me to come by right now and get the paperwork for you to work on it. He procrastinates his piss time until he nearly wets his pants. This isn’t right.” She told him that she’d do it on her own time. “Good. I was hoping that you’d say that. I told him that I had a date tonight and that I’d already picked up my girl. Wanna get some dinner with me? That way, when I have to meet up with him tomorrow, I can honestly say what I had to eat.”
“Sure, but you’re buying this time. I’m still waiting on a couple of checks, and you know that I won’t dip into savings for anyone.” They were both laughing when he got on his bike. “We’ll meet at your house?”
“No.” She stopped getting into her car when he snapped like that. She didn’t know what he was talking about until he fell off his bike. Turning to see what was going on, she had just enough time to drop behind her car door before shots were being fired. “Cassie, come get me.”
She pulled out her weapon, firing at the car when it paused at her brother’s bike. He was trapped beneath it, and it terrified her when she stood up to fire at the car. She wasn’t sure if he’d been hit or not, but she knew that she would give her life to save him.
When the car took off, they fired at her instead of Bradley. She took a deep breath before going to his side. After two tries, she was able to get his bike off him and pulled to her car before she looked at him. There was some blood on his face but nothing that seemed life-threatening. It wasn’t until he pulled open his jacket that she could see that he’d been shot.
“You know what to do.” She nodded, not looking at him. He jerked her face up to hers and told her again. “Make the call, Cassie. They were gunning for me. I need to make sure that you’re safe.”
Going to her car, she pulled up the mat in the back from the floor and opened the safe that was there. The entire time she was doing this, she went over every step they’d been taught since they were children. Make the call. No matter what, make the call. As soon as she was able to press the button without dropping the phone again, it was answered.
“Where are you?” She gave the operator the address where they were. “One or two pickups?”
“Two, same address. One injured.” She was then asked if it was life-threatening. “Yes. GSW to the abdomen. Superficial wounds to face and hands.”
“Five minutes. Code is Harvey the Rabbit.” She laid the phone on the ground after taking out the SIM card and then destroyed it. Going back to her brother, she took his phone too and did the same thing to his and his burner. Things were about to hit the fan, and she didn’t have any idea what was going on right now.
In three minutes, a white van pulled up beside her car. Bradley was loaded in the back of it and was being worked on. She was put in the front seat, and they were tearing away from the scene when she felt the wave of heat when the house she’d been filming simply blew up in flames. Her car, as well as his bike, would be a part of it. The two bodies that had been in the van when it pulled up also would look like she and her brother had been killed in the gas leak.
Dental records would be matched, and for all intents and purposes, Cassandra Blake and Bradley Benson would be dead. And they’d be given a new identity as well as another job and home to live in for a while. Christ, she hated her life. But they were alive, and she supposed that was enough for them.
~*~
Daniel looked over the paperwork again. Caleb Anderson was making too many waves for him to ignore. He was going to have to go and see what the man wanted, and soon, before he took too many more steps into finding him. He had a delicate balance right now and was afraid that someone other than him got hurt. He didn’t want it to be Caleb or the other men that he’d claimed as family.
“Danny, what do you know about a house explosion on Dewy Street?” He said that he hadn’t heard anything. “House and two victims destroyed. The only thing that they do know for sure is that the neighbors, about three miles away, said they smelled gas. Would they be able to smell it from that far?”
“I suppose so.” He put his paperwork back in his drawer and turned to the kid who was supposed to be his assistant. The only thing he’d been able to assist him with was a migraine from hell and annoying the fuck out of him. “Have you sent anyone out there yet? To see if it’s true or not?”
“I should do that, huh?” Daniel didn’t bother telling him that he should have sent someone the moment he heard the rumor. “I’ll send out a crew.”
“You do that, moron.” As he was picking up his paperwork again, putting all his things into his briefcase, Daniel was sort of sad that this was going to be his last day. Doing undercover work for the Bureau was fun most of the time, but he’d learned a great deal about small-town news organizations by being here for the last four months.
Sending off his report, he was putting his things in his car when he saw the firetruck race by him. Must have been true, he thought as it was headed toward the little street that had been mentioned. Pulling out into the little bit of traffic, he was nearly into the street when a full-sized white van pulled in front of him. Putting his hand on his weapon, he waited to see what was going on.
“Doctor Watson, I presume.” The man laughed, and Daniel rolled his eyes. He said that he’d been wanting to say that for months. “I have a male in here that is in need of your help.”
“What sort of help?” He was getting into the van’s back doors when someone got out on the other side and got into his car. A medical team of two was in the van with the man, and he could see that he’d been shot. “Do we have a place to work from?”
“Yeah, we’re headed there now. Hang on.” He did. Knowing this particular driver as being a full on idiot, he watched as the man’s blood pressure was being taken. Then, when they were stopping at what he assumed was a stop light, he had a chance to look at the wound and assess it. “Four minutes.”
In less time than that, he was cutting the man open and removing the bullet. While he was being stitched up by the med team, he gave the man something for infection and pain after ascertaining that he’d not been given either in the few minutes that he’d been in the van. Christ, this kid must be important if—
“Cassie? Cassie? Christ, she’s bleeding too.” They were in front of the house when she was scooped up and taken inside. The man would be taken care of as well, but he needed to see what he could do for the young woman. The bullet had entered her left shoulder and was still in there. Whoever had shot this couple, they had missed the spot twice. Hell was going to be paid. He’d bet anything.
It took him nearly an hour to get the woman to the point where he didn’t think she was going to die. It had been touch and go there for a little bit. She had coded twice. Opening her chest up in a strange house without any precautions was the only thing he could do, as it turned out. The bullet had nicked her aortic artery, and she was bleeding internally. Lucky for her and him, the house had the equipment to keep her alive.
Sitting next to the two people, he didn’t bother asking who they were. If they had wanted him to know, they would have told him by now. Instead, he looked over the paperwork that he’d brought with him when he’d gotten into the van.
“Did you find any misdealing’s there?” His boss, FBI Director Charles Dow, sat down next to him in another chair. “Not that I don’t think it could happen, but the town is just too…I don’t know, Disney-like for there to be foul play there.”
“You’d think that, wouldn’t you. But no, I didn’t find that any of the allegations were true. The newspaper is above reproach, and they have a good community thing going on, too. It’s just like you said, very Disney-like.” Daniel got up and checked on the female. “I down know that you’re going to tell me anything, but these two were from there, right? Her clothing had a real-estate name on them, and he was dressed like you. What gives, if I can ask?”
“She is Cassie, Cassandra Blake. FBI. You might have heard about her when her husband was murdered right in front of her. Then the man is her brother, Bradley Benson. He does work for us, too.” He asked if she was the one who had had the nervous breakdown. “That’s her. She’s been working for us under the guise of video surveillance for the realtor by the name of Alder. I’m not sure how much either of them knows about what happened today, but they were leaving a job when someone opened fire on the two of them. As you were able to figure out, she’d not known that she’d been shot until she was in the van. They’re tight, the two of them.”
“Okay, that explains who they are, but what are they? I’m assuming since everything moved so quickly that they’re important in some way.” He only nodded. “Okay, closed-mouthed. I’m all right with that. It was my last day at the newspaper office anyway. Can you at least tell me where I’m headed next?”
