Chapter 4

The phone rang, and Raines growled at it. He had his feet up on the desk, enjoying a little of his stash of whiskey, trying not to think about Michael Westen. By now his agents should have found him. All day he received reports of Sam Axe and his lady going about Miami, shopping, of all things. He snorted. No real man let his girlfriend lead him around to one mall after another, but apparently Sam was that kind of guy. And they appeared to be going on a real trip, judging by the things they were purchasing.

Raines sighed and picked up the phone. He was so tired of that jangling. "Raines."

"Sir, it's Agent Baxter. I followed Axe and his woman back to the hotel, and one of the staff came out. They picked her up and now they're driving to Hallandale." Excitement rose in his voice. "Sir, I have a feeling they're getting close to Westen."

"This woman they picked up. Was it Glenanne?"

"If it was, she was in disguise and she dyed her hair, Sir. This woman was a blonde."

"Okay. Keep your eyes open, Baxter. Don't let them play you." Raines never thought much of Sam Axe, but the ex-SEAL proved time and again that he wasn't as dumb as he looked in those goofy Hawaiian shirts. Michael was right. He'd learned enough in his service to the country to be as wiley as Westen.

"They're dropping her off at the corner. Alright, Axe is parking and they're getting out. I'm going to park and watch them, and I'll report back later." Baxter ended the call.

Raines drained his glass and set it on his desk. He leaned back, but he felt anything but relaxed. If he closed his eyes, he could probably envision the scenario. He hoped that Axe was preparing to meet up with Westen, and if he was, they could finally end this. Raines liked Michael. He was the best agent they'd had in a long time, but the government was, plain and simple, afraid of him. As the old adage went, knowledge is power, and Michael had enough to be a danger. The only solution was to kill him. Raines' stomach roiled at the thought, and he poured himself another drink to the rim, hoping the alcohol could numb his feelings.

Sam and Elsa parted from Angela, but before she walked away, he took hold of her elbow and spoke in her ear. "Thanks for helping Mike, Angela."

"It was my pleasure, Mr. Axe. Tell him good luck for me." She smiled at him, truly honored to be able to help Mr. Axe's friend, but also reveling in the fact that the man himself was touching her. She was close enough to smell his cologne, and what a tale that would be the next day in the housekeeping office!

"Good night, Angela." Elsa broke into her runaway imagination.

"Good night, Ms. Darabant. Mr. Axe." With reluctance she broke away from him and walked west to her apartment.

"Nice girl," Sam said to Elsa. "Now, let's put the next phase of this plan into operation. Our tail is over there close to the corner. We'll go into the diner and hang out until Mike shows up." He and Elsa crossed the street and walked up to the diner entrance.

"Are you sure that agent isn't going to try to grab Michael before he gets here," Elsa asked as Sam opened the diner door and let her inside.

"I don't think so." Sam nodded toward a booth tucked in back near the kitchen.

A lone figure sat in the booth, his dark head down. As the bell jingled he glanced at his watch and straightened. Michael smiled, blinked as if he was keeping his emotions from embarrassing him, and he waited for Sam and Elsa to join him before speaking.

"Sam," Michael's voice croaked with emotion, and he stretched his hand across the table. "It's so good to see you."

Sam grasped his hand for a few moments and released it as he replied, "You too, brother. What'd you do that's got the Agency all hot and bothered about knocking you off? I thought you took care of all the dirty guys."

"Yeah, and the Agency can take care of the rest without my help," Michael explained. "They want me dead because I know too much, Sam. Think about it. How many people, former Presidential aides, senators, spies, even SEALs, are writing a book these days about what they did for Uncle Sam?"

Sam nodded and finished Michael's thought. "You're right. If the public knew about what happened in the CIA, it could be not only a national embarrassment, but maybe even create some international incidents."

"Exactly." Michael nodded. "No matter my circumstances, I would never, ever, write about this. I don't think people could handle it for one thing." He sighed, took a sip of his coffee and stared out the window at the encroaching darkness. He turned back to Sam and Elsa and said, "I love my country, and I've spent too much of my life doing things that I'd rather not rehash in a book. But they don't care. The CIA would rather not take the risk that I might."

"Do they do this to all spies," Elsa asked, horror creasing her brow and widening her eyes.

"No. I'm kind of unique," Michael replied with a quirky smile.

Elsa was getting desperate. She asked, "Have you tried talking to this Raines guy? Maybe you can convince him that this chase is all for nothing."

Sam put his arm on the seat back and pulled her closer. "Sweetheart, after everything that happened and how we all went on the run, Raines will be even less likely to let Mikey just fade away. It's not gonna happen, so we need to make it happen ourselves."

"What have you got in mind, Sam?" Michael eyed him, but he stopped talking when the server arrived with their dinners. When she retreated, he asked, "What's the plan?"

"There's an agent out there right now watching this place. No doubt he's already spotted you in here, so he's licking his chops waiting for the right opportunity to nab you," Sam answered. "While we're in here, Fiona is working on disabling his car. I wanted to work out the details with her, but she assured me that she didn't need my help."

A warm but sad smile crossed Michael's face. "That's my Fi." The smile disappeared just as quick as it came, and he gave his meal some attention. "I wonder why she's helping me."

"She loves you."

Elsa's words made him raise his head and look at her. "I wasn't so sure the last time I saw her. I broke Fi's heart, and I didn't want to or mean to, but I did."

"Yes, but this is proof that she still loves you, Michael," Elsa insisted with a smile. Hoping for a happy ending for them, she added, "There's still a chance for you to make things right."

"Not if I'm hidden somewhere for God knows how long." He squinted at Sam. "So where are you taking me, anyway?"

Sam answered with a cocked smile on his lips. "You're better off not knowing until we get there, Mikey. Just know that it's up north, and it gets cold in the winter, but hopefully we won't be there that long."

"If we are, we'll have to hit the Fleet Farm and get some winter gear," Elsa quipped.

"Oh no no no, honey, you're not going to be there that long," Sam protested, his hand wagging in time with his words. "You're along for a week, maybe two. After that, you have to get back to the hotel."

Elsa looked as if Sam had whacked her in the face with a two by four. "I'm not letting you do this again, Sam."

"It's too dangerous."

"I can handle it."

"I don't think you can."

"You'll never know until you try me."

Michael watched the argument between them and sat back in his seat, feeling the tension brewing into a storm. It reminded him of sparring with Fiona, except these two seemed to get so much into so few words, it fascinated him. Their voices were rising, so he decided it was time to end this.

"Hey! Enough!"

Sam and Elsa turned from each other to face Michael with puzzled expressions.

"Sam, Elsa needs to come with us for awhile to convince the Agency that she's on vacation. After a couple of weeks, we'll see how this plays out. She may not have a choice at that point." Michael set his gaze on Elsa's big eyes. "Until then, we'll do what we can to prepare you, in case we have to go deeper into hiding."

"Will Fiona be with us," Elsa asked.

"I don't know," Michael answered. "Probably not."

Elsa seemed disturbed by that, but she nodded in resignation. "Maybe there's some way you can get in touch with her, and she could keep an eye on what's happening here in Miami."

"Most likely once Mike is gone they'll bug out," Sam said. "They'll concentrate on trying to find him."

"Which would leave Fiona free to do whatever she pleased." Elsa said. Her face relaxed and she smiled. "With some encouragement, I think she could be counted on to create a little distraction and throw off the dogs."

"She's already doing that by disabling the agent's car." Michael tilted his head toward the sedan outside.

"I think she'll have something better in mind." Elsa's smile turned into a grin.

"Elsa, you're starting to worry me," Sam said as he looked at her. He noticed her eyes were focused beyond Michael, and he turned his own in that direction. Fiona stood in the kitchen door, signaling that she took care of the car. She held a piece of paper up and shoved it into a gap in the molding around the door way, and she turned and disappeared through a door marked Ladies.

"Sammy, would you mind moving? I need to use the little girls' room," Elsa said as she wriggled closer to Sam.

He got out of the booth to let her pass. "Sure, baby. Just be careful."

"I will." She smiled at him and hurried to the ladies' room.

While Sam took his seat he watched Elsa pull the note from the slot and continue to the restroom. He shook his head. "You know Mike, sometimes I wish Elsa wasn't so inquisitive. She's asked me to teach her all kinds of spy craft and how to handle guns, all under the guise of being able to protect herself." He let out a breath. "I think she got too much information, and now she's dying to use it. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It seems to me that a business woman like her has the cunning to do the job. I guess we'll find out." Michael finished his coffee and stood. "I think I'll take a pit stop too before we leave. We'll want to get as many miles between us and Miami overnight as we can."

"You got it, brother. I'll get the check."

The restroom was small with only two stalls, and while it was clean, it looked as if it had lost its attractiveness a long time ago. The light salmon tiles and light green stalls were garish under yellowish lighting provided by a lone bulb, and the fake rose scent filling the air didn't help matters. Elsa stood inside the door of the restroom and watched Fiona checking the second stall before they came face to face.

"Hi, Fiona," Elsa said, unsure of how to begin the conversation. And she was usually so good at working a crowd, but the ex-IRA, bombing, gun-running girlfriend of Michael Westen was a different kind of person than she was used to encountering. She refused to think of Fiona as Michael's ex, because if she and Sam could come back together after everything he'd been through, she had no doubt that Michael and Fiona could do the same.

"Elsa," Fiona replied. "You picked up the note for Michael?"

"Yes, I did, and you know I'll give it to him." She hesitated as she saw the pain and love in the other woman's eyes. "You'd be better off telling him yourself, unless it's a break up letter, which would be a horrible mistake. No matter what happened last year, Michael adores you, Fiona."

She sniffed and flipped her hair behind her shoulder. "He has a funny way of showing it."

"I know." Elsa approached her and spoke with restraint. Inside, she felt like shaking the younger woman to knock some sense into her. "I could be here all night trying to explain to you why he did what he did, but that's for Michael to say, not me. You should come with us, and then Michael will have all the time in the world to justify himself."

"Where are you going?" Her eyes shone with longing, despite the war that raged within her.

"North. I can't tell you more than that it's a long way," Elsa answered. "And I don't know how long Michael will be gone. I think he'd be a lot more comfortable wherever he winds up if you're with him." She ended with a warm smile and hoped that her words could convince Fiona to join them.

"If I go with you, what's the plan?"

Elsa's smile widened. "We're leaving from here. If you did your job and disabled the agent's car, he'll be stuck. Sam has another vehicle waiting in a safe place for us to switch, and they'll never know where we went. After that, we just keep driving until we get to our destination."

"It sounds so simple." Fiona shook her head. "Could it really be that easy?"

"As long as nobody's wearing a tracker, and we're ditching our cell phones, it should be," Elsa said. She pulled hers and Sam's from her purse, cracked open the backs to remove the SIM cards, and dropped the carcasses in the sink.

Fiona watched in fascination as Elsa turned on the water and doused the phones. She left them soaking while she finished her business in one of the stalls, and without fanfare she picked them out of the water and dumped them into the waste basket.

With a look of amusement on her face, Fiona asked, "Are you sure you don't want to step on them and break them up, just to be on the safe side?"

Elsa laughed. "I thought that might be overkill, but hey, whatever."

"No, I'm kidding." Fiona stopped her from fishing them out of the trash. "They'll be fine."

Fiona followed Elsa's example and destroyed her phone. She let out a huge sigh and said, "Let's go meet the guys."

The smile on Elsa's face was so big, Fiona thought it might crack her face, and in her excitement she grabbed Fiona's arm and pulled her out of the restroom. Michael and Sam waited near the door for them, anticipation on Michael's face.

"I'm going with you," Fiona announced with a soft voice. "Elsa and I ditched the cell phones. Michael, do you have one?"

"No, I took care of mine the minute I started trying to evade the CIA," Michael replied with a voice as soft as Fiona's. He smiled and slipped an arm around her shoulders, then turned to his friend. "Sam, Fi and I will take her car, get it out of here, and we'll meet you at the rendezvous point."

"Mike, are you sure you wanna do that," Sam asked, eyeing them with concern. "If you get caught…."

"We won't. Don't worry. But if we're not there in a half hour, go home and get back to your normal lives, and I'll try to contact you as soon as I can." Michael's eyes locked onto his with a stubbornness that Sam knew well.

"Okay. We'll see you soon, Mikey. Fi, take good care of him."

Fiona's smile was thin and tentative as she pressed herself into Michael's side. "I will."

Sam didn't like this plan, not one bit. After Fiona and Michael got into her car and drove away, Sam hesitated a few seconds to see what the agent would do. As he suspected, the car wouldn't start. Sam looked in the rearview mirror and saw him banging on the steering wheel in frustration.

"Well, that's our cue to leave," Sam said, chuckling, and he pulled out into traffic.

"I see Fi's car up ahead." Elsa pointed with her chin. "You're not seriously going to let them go off by themselves, are you?"

"Are you kidding? They'll take off and we'll never see them again." Sam shook his head and with determination said, "We're not going to let them do this alone. Besides, I'm not sure it's safe to leave Mike and Fi together without backup."

"She loves him. She's not going to kill him."

A mirthless snort came from him. "You haven't seen how she can get when she's mad at Mike. No, we'll hang back and see what happens. If Mikey needs help, I'll be there." He glanced at Elsa. "There's a pair of handcuffs in the glove compartment, just in case."

Elsa laughed, but in the glow from the dash she saw that Sam was serious. Perhaps she underestimated Fiona. As a woman, she sensed Fiona's love for Michael, despite how he'd hurt her, and Elsa was certain that she would never give up on him. She might give him hell for it, but in the end she would still love him. However, Elsa never considered that Fiona might be inclined to inflict some damage on Michael. As they followed the couple out of the city and to the location where Sam hid the SUV, she hoped that Fiona would leave something for them to rescue.

"Okay, this is where the SUV is, and they're pulling in," Sam announced as he watched the little sports car turn in to an abandoned homestead.

The SUV was tucked away in a pine hammock, where in the daylight no one would see it from the road. At night it was virtually invisible. Fiona's headlights flashed on it before she turned left again and parked behind the garage. Sam parked in among the trees near the SUV, turned off the ignition, and he and Elsa transferred everything from the trunk to the SUV. They finished, and still Fiona and Michael did not emerge from her car.

"Do you think we should check on them," Elsa asked. She hugged herself against the slight chill in the air.

"Nah, give 'em a little more time. She's probably ripping Mike a new one, and he's trying to get a word in," Sam replied with an uncomfortable chuckle. After a few minutes, he said, "I should probably check on them."

"No, I'll go. You wait here." Elsa took a step forward and Sam stopped her with a hand gripping her arm.

"Why you?"

"I'm a woman." She pulled away.

Sam only shook his head, not sure where the logic was in that. By the light from a half moon, he watched Elsa tip toe up to the vehicle and with caution she tried to peer through the window. It didn't take long for her to return.

"Well? Are they okay?"

"The windows were fogged up. I wasn't going to bang on one to get their attention." She snorted. "Come on, let's get in the SUV and wait for them." She tugged on Sam's arm when he didn't move. Her laugher was deep and her smile seductive as she suggested, "Maybe we can do a little steaming of our own."

If he wasn't so concerned about their precarious position, Sam might have obliged her. Instead, he got into the driver's seat and fidgeted until Michael and Fiona came around the garage corner and headed for the vehicle. They were holding hands, which was a good sign. Mike wasn't limping or looking like he'd gotten the crap beaten out of him, which was even better.

The couple was half way to the SUV when a pair of headlights shone on them, and a voice barked on a loudspeaker. "Halt. Michael Westen, you're under arrest."

"Aw, crap," Sam blurted, cranked the ignition, and put the SUV in gear. He pulled between the couple and the squad car and yelled out the window. "Get in!"

Michael opened the back door and pushed on Fiona's backside to urge her inside, but she balked. "Fi, come on!"

"No! They'll catch us for sure!" Without warning she turned and ran to her car.

"Mike, get in! We'll pick her up around back." Sam shouted, and to his relief, Michael hopped into the back seat.

Sam gave the vehicle some gas as he turned in the tight space and drove through the tall grass to the back of the garage. As he arrived, Fiona's car moved away and around the building, tore across the front yard, and clipped the back of the squad car as she raced for the road. The trooper turned his car and followed her. By the time Sam came around to the front, both cars were gone, and he pulled onto the road and saw Fiona's taillights leading the cruiser south.

"Mike…."

"Go, Sam. Head north." He could barely speak with the lump in his throat. "She understands."

Sam took a long look at his friend sitting in the shadows in the back seat, noting how his shoulders slumped, defeated. It brought a lump to his own throat, but he swallowed it because he had a job to do. He had to protect his friend and get him to safety. After that was accomplished, they would figure out a way to bring Fi to their hideout. At least this time leaving was her choice, sacrificing her happiness for his safety. Maybe she really did understand after all what it was that Mike did for them.