CHAPTER FOUR
Almost an hour later, Tony let himself back into his apartment, breathing hard. He was soaked to the skin but the run in the rain had helped. The tight knot of anger and grief had loosened a bit as his feet pounded the pavement and the cold but cleansing rain sluiced down over him. But now he needed warmth.
He headed for the shower and pulled up short as he saw Gibbs standing in the kitchen, leaning back against the counter drinking a beer. "You still here?"
No "Boss", Gibbs noted. DiNozzo was still mad. "Yeah, DiNozzo", he growled, "I'm still here. I told you we're not done yet, and I meant it".
Tony used his toes to nudge off the sodden runners that had left a trail of water across the polished wooden floor. "There's not much left to say, is there? And by the way, help yourself to a beer".
Gibbs ignored the sarcasm and looked him over. DiNozzo looked pretty much done in, but Gibbs wasn't about to leave just yet. Tony's abrupt departure hadn't done anything to lessen the anger eating away at his boss, though he wasn't prepared to examine its cause too closely.
"What more do you want me to say?" Tony threw down his keys in exasperation. "Can't it wait till tomorrow?"
"No, it can't. We're going to finish this now, not in front of a bullpen full of flapping ears. I want to know about the op".
"Dammit, Gibbs, you never give up, do you. I should have known better than to think you'd leave".
In the tense silence that followed, Tony's cell phone rang. Still scowling at Gibbs, he flipped it off the waistband of his running shorts and snapped his name into it. Gibbs could hear a woman's voice.
Tony's demeanour changed instantly. "Sally … When? Are you OK? Much damage to the house?" He fired off a series of questions, his face growing steadily grimmer as he listened to the answers. Then he snapped the phone shut.
"That was Sally Fielding", he told Gibbs. "She got home after the funeral and walked in on someone trashing the house. He tried to go for her too but her brother was with her, he scared him off. John's a Marine, a big guy," he added as he put the phone down on the benchtop.
"She OK?" Gibbs asked.
"She's with her parents. No damage done, but she's pretty shaken up".
"And the house?"
"Can be fixed". Tony sighed. "I don't like this, Gibbs", he said slowly, "it's not coincidence, can't be. It's payback. Killing Pete wasn't enough, they want her too. I've seen it before, in Baltimore, with the Baker ring – they got wind of an undercover cop once and took out his whole family. Good publicity, they called it".
Gibbs pulled out his own phone. "What's her parents' address?" Tony told him. A few minutes later, Sally's parents' home had been put under 24-hour guard.
Tony relaxed a bit. "Thanks, Boss".
"Has it occurred to you, DiNozzo, …"
The sudden shattering of glass interrupted Gibbs as a long rake of bullets blew in the windows fronting the street and pitted the walls of the living room. The two men dropped to the floor, guns drawn. Outside, a passing car revved its engine and took the corner with a screech of tyres. They heard the neighbours' shouts of alarm.
"That I'm next?" Tony finished from where he crouched. "Yeah, Boss, you could be right". He grimaced as he looked over the damage.
They stood up and began to pick their way through broken glass to the door, Tony hopping on bare feet. A siren wailed in the distance, growing closer until it stopped outside. Booted feet clattered up the stairs to the apartment and a loud voice shouted commands.
Tony swore as a long shard of glass fell from what remained of a street-side window, gashing his arm. He clapped his hand over the cut to staunch the welling blood.
"You OK?" Gibbs asked over the banging on the door. A man's voice shouted "Anyone inside?"
"I'm fine, Gibbs, just peachy". Tony kept the pressure on his arm as he walked carefully to the door and let in four wary LEOS. This day couldn't get much worse.