One

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One ~ Twenty One

by Adalind

[Emily]

Despite the fading light, the splatters of blood showed up brightly against the fallen snow. I watched with a sort of calm detachedness as my definitely ex-boyfriend emptied the contents of his stomach all over a small snow drift just to my left. One of David's drunken mates was still staring at the terrorist with half of his head missing, like the whole thing wasn't real, and the remaining idiot had passed out cold on the frigid ground.

I slid the Glock away at the small of my back and walked over to what was left of my beloved Land Rover. She'd been hacked to pieces so those bastards could launch the missile. She was certainly going to that great scrap yard in the sky once the government forensic mob finished with her, that was for sure.

And after all our hard work, the missile had launched anyway, and I wondered if it had hit its target. It was difficult to tell in this blizzard, but even now the sound of sirens drifted up from the main road. What a fucking mess. And while standing there in a lay by in a blizzard, I just knew that somehow Winter would blame me for half of this shit. Well he wasn't going to take the blame himself, now was he? Fucker.

My life was as messed up as my car and I had no idea what to do to fix it. I needed to get out of here, to regroup and figure shit out, but problem was that I didn't have an effing car to call my own right now.

Danny walked up beside me and slung an arm around my shoulders. I stiffened at his touch. "Feck off, Turner."

"Spook squad will be here soon to clean up this cluster fuck. I wouldn't count on seeing David for a while if I were you."

I nodded. "Stupid tosser— what was he thinking?"

Danny shrugged. "Fucked if I know, love."

"I'm sorry," I said.

He frowned and shoved his windblown hair away from his face. "What for?"

"For this, for everything, for not getting Winter intel on Ranger and Anthony, for being a lousy fuck… Hell, Danny, I'm sorry for everything."

"Stop it," he hissed as he grabbed me roughly by the wrist and dragged me off behind the Jeep we'd arrived in. "This is not your fault. And don't worry about the intel—that was only for Winter's own personal interest, never the government's. And I wouldn't say that you were a lousy fuck at all."

"Thanks very much," I muttered sarcastically.

Danny looked around furtively and spotted his boss deep in conversation with Sara and Reynolds. Satisfied that no one was watching us, Danny put his hand in his pocket and removed a clutch of items. He pressed the car keys, a large roll of notes and a passport into my hand. "Take them and go, doll."

I looked down cautiously at the items in my hand "I…"

"Go. Now!" he hissed.

"Okay."

He smiled at me and took a step away, then reached out and pulled me to him and I squirmed as he planted a kiss on my mouth. "Sorry," he said with a roguish grin. "Couldn't resist one last kiss. Now get the hell out of here—I'll distract everyone for a few minutes."

"Thanks, Danny."

"Take care, kiddo. Give my regards to Anthony."

"Excuse me?" I spluttered.

The cheeky bastard just grinned. "Please, where else would you be going? You've got it bad, Powers."

I shot him a rude hand gesture and climbed into the rented Jeep. He walked over to the Winter and the others and they all moved away towards the far side of the lay by to look at something. I turned the engine over, slowly pulled back out onto the treacherous road and headed off in the direction of Stromecarron so I could grab a few things from my house. I'd be long gone before they even tried looking for me in this weather. I had to hope that the passport Danny had given me was good, but then knowing him, it would be. I'd always suspected that Winter was never fully aware of what Danny was up to and I was thankful that someone was watching my arse.

tbc

final chapter & epilog soon...