Chapter Three

- - One Day Ago - -

When Mary's phone began ringing again she nearly dropped her head onto her steering wheel. Instead she settled for a loud groan. It had been one of those days when her phone was constantly ringing. Frantic witnesses, witness requests, Brandi needing help, Brandi calling back to say she didn't need help just advice. Mary had dealt with it all. One more thing was one too many, but a quick glance at the caller ID eased her irritation a bit.

"What, Marshall?"

"Just checking to make sure you're alive."

"Of course I'm alive," Mary growled. "Why the hell would I not be alive?"

Marshall picked up on her irritation and immediately changed tactics.

"Apparently you've had a rough morning, so I'm going to ask a more important question than the first one. Is everyone else alive?"

"Jesus, Marshall. I didn't kill anyone and you know if someone had died you would know about it."

"So what's taken so long then?" Marshall asked hesitantly.

"Just a minor meltdown with a witness. It's fine now."

"Uh huh."

The sound of that meant something more. Mary knew it, and she was going to call him out on it.

"Uh huh, what? Come on, Marshall, I know you're thinking something. Spit it out."

"Is that all you were doing?"

Mary rolled her eyes and immediately tried to sidetrack him. If Marshall found out what else she'd been doing that morning instead of getting right in to work on her massive stack of assignments he would throw a fit. She really wasn't in the mood to deal with that right now. Of course she was probably already busted.

"I had to deal with Brandi too, not that that's too big of a surprise."

"Mmhmm. And you didn't, I don't know, decide to stop to get something? Something like pie maybe?"

"What? I was hungry, and it was on the way back. What's the big deal?"

"The big deal is that you have a mountain of paperwork sitting on your desk which you are trying to avoid. While most of your methods of avoidance are for legitimate business, you're probably still trying to stay out longer in hope that I will take pity on you and do some of your paperwork."

While Mary listened to Marshall's tirade she continued on toward the Sunshine Building. It was only thanks to the fact that she was purposefully tuning Marshall out that she saw him. Mary slammed on her breaks and backed up until she was even with the alley again. She had to be positive of what she had seen. Sure enough, there he was. Cody Parkins. In an alley. Talking to some low life.

"Idiot!"

"What did I do or say to displease you this time?"

"What?" Mary asked as she tried to transition between what she'd just seen and her conversation with Marshall. "Not you, Numbnuts. Cody. He's in an alley talking to someone. I told the idiot I never wanted to hear even a hint of him doing anything vaguely alley related again. Damn it! Your answer to that second question might be changing pretty soon. I have to go."

"Mary, you -"

She hung up when he was mid-sentence and parked her car, not that she needed to hear the rest of it since she knew it would end in "can't kill somebody." After grabbing her gun and tucking it into her waistband just in case, she got out and strode purposefully toward Cody. He was going to really wish he hadn't lied to her.

As Mary got closer she noticed the look on Cody's friend's face darkening. Either he'd spotted her and didn't want to be interrupted or Cody had said something he didn't like. No matter what the real reason was, it wasn't good. Growling to herself, Mary picked up the pace a little bit. Had she believed in anyone or anything of a divine nature she would have been praying right then that Cody wouldn't do something that could get them both killed. When she was only a few feet away she called out to Cody.

"Hey, Cody! Long time. What have you been up to?"

Mary waved and kept a warm smile on her face in hopes of making the sudden meeting seem not so suspicious. Not that she cared what Cody thought. She just didn't want his companion to go off the deep end.

"Mary? What are you doing here?"

"Just happened to see you and figured I would stop by to say hello."

She smiled to the other man and pointed to Cody. When she needed to act a roll to do what needed to be done, she could pull it off easily enough.

"I'm just going to borrow him for a moment, okay?" she asked sweetly.

Without waiting for an answer she dragged Cody out of earshot and whirled on him furiously.

"You freaking moron! Which part of no more discussions in alleys didn't you understand? Seriously, you don't have any idea who you should stay away from."

"Mary, I…"

"No! I don't even want to hear it. We're leaving, now, so say goodbye."

Before either one of them could get a chance to move, Mary caught movement out of the corner of her left eye. Her eyes widened in startled shock at the sight of Cody's alleyway friend coming at them with a metal pipe.

"Shit!"

She reacted immediately to the threat to her witness. After taking a half step in front of Cody she threw her arm up to block the strike. Unfortunately Mary hadn't really thought that through. There hadn't been time. When the pipe impacted with her arm she nearly screamed. It felt like a bomb had exploded, and the pain instantly set fire to her forearm. Soon enough it was shooting all the way up to her shoulder.

"Son of a…"

Mary growled, ignoring the pain, and did what she did best. She caught her attacker's arm and spun him into an arm lock. Apparently Cody really had pissed him off. Arm still pounding, Mary held him tight and growled a warning into his ear. She could be pissed off too.

"You listen to me real close, asswipe. Cody and I are going to walk away and never see you again. You are going to walk away and forget this ever happened. If you don't forget then I don't forget, and trust me, you really don't want that."

He eyed Mary furiously, not intimidated in the least. Mary cocked an eyebrow and shifted a bit after she pulled her gun forward on her hip so it would come into full view. Backing up her threat was something easily done. It seemed to do the trick. Cody's friend disappeared down the alley, more determined to preserve his own life than make Cody's hell. Satisfied that he was gone, Mary whirled on her witness. Her eyes were lit with fury and quite a bit of pain, but Cody didn't need to know that last bit.

"What were you thinking, you rock headed imbecile? He would have killed you! As in dead. In the ground. Not breathing. Are you following my drift here?"

"I wouldn't have -"

"Are you hearing anything I'm saying?" she demanded as she threw her hands up in exasperation.

The motion was a very bad idea since it triggered the pain in her arm all over again. Her face must have gone pure white because Cody's face took on a look of concern. He stepped toward her and reached out.

"Are you okay, Mary?"

Mary growled and slapped his hand away. She didn't need his sympathy. This moron was the reason her arm hurt in the first place. Her head too. Idiots always gave her a headache.

"Shut up and let's go!"

She stormed off toward her car, not waiting to see if Cody was following. If he had any sense of self-preservation he would be. She reached the car and turned to find Cody where he had been still. At first she started to cross her arms in annoyance to send him a message that he better get his ass over here right now. Instantly she changed her mind and went with a hand on her hip so she could keep her left arm still. Cody got the drift and started trudging over. He was in for a very painful discussion when Mary got him back to the office.