Nowhere To Run
Chapter Sixteen
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Many thanks again to all who have read and continue to follow this story and , of course, special thanks to those that have taken the time to review!! It's very, very, very much appreciated!!!!!!!!!
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Saturday morning -- 5:35AM
Kate was restless as usual. She felt like she was literally going stir crazy. She couldn't remember the last time she had spent so much time cooped up in one place. She couldn't go outside. She couldn't even open the blinds on the windows. And it was driving her nuts. The only entertainment she had was the television, a stereo and a few cheesy romance novels that lined one of the book shelves in the family room. She'd thumbed through most of the books by now, skipping most of the text looking for the juicy parts.
After the first day or so, she'd taken up pacing throughout the house much like a caged tiger that you'd find in the zoo. The only distraction she had was the occasional pone call from Frank and in some ways that made her current situation worse. Just when she would start to come to terms with her captivity, he would call and she would instantaneously be reminded of everything she was missing. And Frank most definitely topped the list of the things that she missed the most.
He'd called late last night. It was almost 11:45 when the phone had rung waking her out of a fitful sleep. Their conversation had been brief. He'd told her that he expected something big to happen soon. He just wasn't sure what or when. Just soon. She'd listened intently, wanting to hear the sound of his voice more than the words. His voice always managed to soothe and calm her while at the same time stirring something deep inside. After hanging up, she'd stayed awake for at least another hour pondering the state of their affair. Was that all it was, she thought to herself? An affair? A fling? Intense sexual attraction that nearly blinded her to the seriousness of her situation?
As these thoughts ran through her head, she began to focus more on how her and Frank were together, and not just sexually. In that respect, they were extremely compatible. She'd never experienced such all-consuming physical pleasure before she'd met him. 'The man was truly gifted', she thought with a wicked grin. No…….she needed to focus on what the other parts of this relationship were like and if they could possibly have a future together. And at that thought, she was stunned. Truly stunned. It had been such an incredibly long time since she had let herself even consider the possibility of some sort of happy future. And to think of Frank sharing that future with her left her nearly breathless. And so with reflections of what could be, she had drifted off into a sounder sleep.
Now here it was nearly six hours later, and she was already awake and had once again resumed her pacing. The sun wasn't even up yet and she felt like she'd already put in a couple of miles, and in the dark to boot. Without being able to turn on the lights, she'd memorized the location of every wall. Every stick of furniture. Every doorway. And so her daily ritual had begun again.
A few minutes after waking, she'd heard a noise outside. At first she ignored it. One of the neighbors to the left obviously worked at a nearby hospital. She'd seen her leave anywhere between 5:15 and 5:40 wearing a nurse's outfit, one of the colorful ones that looked like scrubs topped with a flowery lab coat. Even after the few short days that she'd spent holed up in this house, she would bet that all the neighbors would be shocked to know how much she'd learned about them. So many rituals and so much time to study each one.
Less than a minute after hearing the first noise, she heard something else, but this time it was much closer to the house. She immediately stopped her relentless pacing and scurried to one of the front windows. She carefully pulled back one of the blinds just enough to see a small sliver of the outside. Her heart nearly stopped when she saw a strange car in the driveway. A silver Acura.
As quickly and as silently as she could she flew up the stairs to retrieve her weapon. About the time she had reached the top landing, she heard someone trying to open the door. After grabbing her gun from the bedside table, she noiselessly crept back towards the staircase. Having traversed those same steps nearly a thousand times now, she knew exactly which ones would make noise and she knew how to avoid doing so.
She had descended no more than five steps down when she heard something else. She froze, gluing herself to the wall and holding her breath. She listened intently for several seconds when she heard the noise again, only this time, she figured out exactly what the noise was. She let out her breath in a deep whoosh.
"God damn it Donovan!! You scared me half to death!!" she nearly yelled.
She flew down the remaining stairs and rounded the corner. She found him standing in the doorway to the kitchen holding the container to the coffee maker.
"What? You couldn't get your own coffee maker to work, so you thought you'd drive all the way across town to use this one?" she asked sarcastically.
"Well, good morning to you too!" he returned with a smirk. Then he turned back around and continued with his task. She watched him silently for a few seconds giving herself time to calm her wildly beating heart.
"OK…………don't take this the wrong way, but what the hell are you doing here? And who's car is in the driveway?"
Frank finished with the coffee and turned back toward her. He approached her and reached out to take her in his arms. She willingly obliged him and settled into his embrace weaving her own arms around his strong back. She sighed deeply and melted into him. He held her for several minutes before he finally answered her.
"This……..this is why I'm here."
She pulled back slightly and looked up into his chocolate brown eyes. He brought one hand up and gently tucked a stray hair behind her ear. Then he lowered his lips to hers and gave her a tender kiss. Even a simple kiss like this one never ceased to bring her desire roaring to a full tilt boil.
"I love that you're here," she stated in a near whisper, "but I thought you said that it was too dangerous to risk it."
Frank wasn't paying attention to a thing that she said. Instead he seemed lost in the look of her. The feel of her. The scent of her. He felt like he was drowning and he was savoring every blessed second of it.
"Frank?"
"Hmmm??" he murmured as he leaned forward to nuzzle her hair breathing in a subtle flowery smell mingled with her own scent.
"Are you going to answer my question?"
"Question?" he replied distractedly as he continued down her neck now using his lips and tongue to tease the tender skin he found there.
Kate for her part was rapidly losing whatever coherent thought she had remaining. So she quickly pulled away, intent on getting the answers she sought before completely giving herself over to his gentle ministrations.
"Francis Xavier Donovan. Answer my questions or you don't get a centimeter closer to me!" She now stood an arm's length away from him with her hand firmly planted in the middle of his chest.
Frank looked slightly anguished at the separation, but then quickly realized that he did indeed owe her an explanation for his actions. He had told her over and over for the last two days that he wouldn't be able to see her. Things were getting complicated at work. The warehouse was bugged. Jake was helping the Bureau build a case against him and he wasn't at all convinced that Jake hadn't somehow swayed Alex into helping him. All day Friday, Alex had been avoiding eye contact with him.
He sighed and finally relented. "OK……..you're right. It is dangerous, me being here. Extremely dangerous. But……..I just had to see you, and I have no other explanation. After I talked to you last night, I hung up the phone and wanted nothing more than to jump in the car and come over here so that I could crawl into the bed next to you. The need to see you was overwhelming. And I don't know how to deal with it." And with that he walked over to the kitchen table and sat down heavily into one of the chairs. He looked like a defeated man. Head down. Shoulders slumped.
Kate approached and knelt down on the floor next to him. She looked into his eyes and saw the tug-of-war that was waging inside him. He was torn between his feelings for her and his responsibilities and duties. She reached out her hand and rubbed it along his arm in a comforting gesture.
"Talk to me," she quietly commanded.
Frank looked at her and tried desperately to find the words to explain what he was going through. "For a very, very long time," he began, "I never let anyone get close to me. Sure, I've dated. I've even had one or two semi long-term relationships, but during all that, I was always in control. My feelings for whomever I was with, never got in the way of anything else in my life let alone my job. When I look back on those relationships now, I realize that I'd never let myself become emotionally attached to them. I always knew that I could walk away at any time and hardly bat an eye."
Frank paused and smirked. "I guess I take after my mother. I never really considered it before, but that's pretty much the way she was with everyone. Including me. I always felt like the only one who ever really mattered to her was my father, and after he was gone, it was like the rest of the world mattered little to her. Unfortunately, I was a part of that rest of the world. After my father was killed, I never really had anyone else in my life that I felt connected to."
"Frank……..I'm so sorry," she said sadly. Although she'd had a happier home life than Frank, she could relate to not wanting to get close to anyone. Being the daughter of a military officer, she too had grown leery of emotional attachments. So often as a child, as soon as she would start to make friends, it was time to move on.
"I didn't tell you that to get your sympathy," he began, "I'm just trying to explain why I feel so out-of-sorts about this relationship. I've never jeopardized a case or my career for anyone. I knew I shouldn't come here this morning, but I couldn't concentrate on anything else until I did." He paused briefly and brought his hand up to her face and lightly traced her cheek with one of his fingers. "After I hung up with you, I paced around the Nest for a while and finally decided that I couldn't stay there 24-7 guarding the place. So I left. I went back to my apartment intent on trying to get a sound night's sleep. But when I climbed into bed, I swear I could still smell your scent on the sheets. You were everywhere, completely surrounding me. That's when I knew that it was no use. I had to see you. So I woke my neighbor up out of a dead sleep and made up some story about there being an emergency and that my car wasn't working, so he lent me his car. I knew that I'd been followed back to my apartment and that they'd follow me again if I left to go anywhere, so I took his car and luckily they didn't tail me. And here I am."
"And here you are." She said softly staring into his warm brown eyes. Then she leaned in and gave him a soft kiss. Pulling back slightly she dared to ask what was on her mind. "If we survive this……..what happens then?"
He paused to consider her question before answering with a question of his own. "What happens with us, you mean?" She nodded simply in response. "What do you think will happen? Better yet………what do you want to happen?"
"If I had my way………..in a perfect world, I'd wake up every morning to evergreens and mountains in my backyard. I'd breathe in crisp clean air absent of any city's pollution. Maybe take a walk by a crystal clear lake and watch a family of mallards glide gracefully through the water. And finally, in my world, every night I'd find you waiting for me. We'd make love and fall into a peaceful, restful sleep wrapped up in each other's arms. That's what I want."
He stared back into the piercing green eyes that had held him entranced from the very second that they'd met. "I love you."
Those three simple words……………words that so often were used so carelessly and frequently that they'd lost all meaning…………those words spoken by this man meant more to her than all the treasures in the world. She instinctively knew that he would never have used them unless he meant them and that fact alone left her stunned and breathless. She could do nothing for several minutes but stare back at him wide-eyed. All manner of speech had left her entirely.
Frank tried to read the expression on her face and as each second ticked by his gut began to twist into knots. Did she have any idea how hard it was for him to confess his feelings for her? Did she understand that she had gotten closer to him than practically anyone else in his life ever had and in only one week? And why wouldn't she say anything?
When the tenseness of the moment had reached a crescendo, and Frank had decided that he'd made a huge mistake, she finally found her voice.
"Oh baby……….I love you too," she barely managed to whisper, and at the second the words left her lips, tears began to fall down her cheeks. Never in her wildest imagination could she have imagined Frank telling her that he loved her. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she had held onto a thin thread of hope, but she never truly believed that it would happen.
Frank let out a breath that he hadn't realized that he was holding and tried to calm his racing heart. He wasn't sure if it was beating so rapidly because of the words that she'd said or because she'd paused so long before saying them, but either way he felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders. Whatever came about in the next few days, he knew that they would survive and he'd do anything to make their lives together work.
He reached out and gathered her into his warm embrace. He just held her there for what seemed an eternity and then slowly stood bringing her along with him. And as the faintest light of the approaching dawn began to brighten the horizon, Frank scooped her up into his strong arms and proceeded to carry her to the bedroom upstairs. Once there, the two joined, body, heart and soul.
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7:58AM
Cody arrived at the Nest and was surprised to find a fleet of cars already in the parking lot. He parked his own vehicle and checked out the others before venturing inside. Four black Suburbans, 3 black Crown Victorias, and surprisingly, Jake's Tahoe.
"Oh shit," Cody mumbled to himself. Feds cars. No doubt about it. And he immediately worried about the implications of Jake's involvement. He and Donovan had ended things badly, but would Jake really be working against them?
Before leaving his car, Cody grabbed his cell phone and dialed Frank's number. It rang four times and then his voice mail kicked on. Cody thought twice about leaving a message but left one anyway. He needed to be warned. Things were about to get ugly, fast.
After placing the call, he ventured warily into the building. He hadn't made it three steps into the warehouse when he was confronted by a wall of a man who looked like he could break Cody in two using only his baby finger.
"Uh……..Um……..hello. And you are?" Cody asked timidly.
"Agent Forester. Please join us." Cody looked past the hulking goon and straight at FBI Director Daniel Lindford. "It's nice to see you again."
"Ahhh……….it's nice to see you……..too," Cody answered haltingly. He continued into the briefing area and found at least a dozen agents. Most were obviously hired muscle looking much like the thug that had confronted him at the entrance. All had on the same non-descript black suits and white shirts. And then there was Jake. He sat away from the others at the table and from what Cody could see, he looked more than a little uncomfortable. He barely raised his eyes to acknowledge Cody's presence, which only helped to confirm his suspicions. Jake was in league with these men and more than likely they were here to bring Donovan in. The thought sent chills down Cody's spine.
"Please have a seat Cody," Director Lindford said. "Agent Shaw has been able to enlighten us on the group's activities for the past two months, but we were hoping that maybe you could help fill us in on some of the blanks. Could you do that for us?" Cody glanced quickly in Jake's direction and Jake in turn looked away as quickly as he could. *We are in deep shit,* Cody thought.
Feeling that he had little choice, Cody nodded and said, "I'll tell you what I can." And with that the questions began.
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8:10AM
Frank had just left Kate and was heading back toward his apartment building. He needed to return his neighbor's car and pick up his own. As he drove, he ran the past few hours through his mind once more. He smiled warmly at the memories and for the first time in a really long time he felt hopeful about the future. Of course he knew that they had a long haul ahead of them, but for some reason this morning he was feeling rather hopeful. *Love can do that to you, I guess.* And he almost chuckled at the thought.
As he got closer to his building, all of a sudden an odd thought struck him. *How did she know my middle name?* He knew for certain that he had never told her. He'd spilled his guts on just about every other subject, but he was positive that his full name had never come up in conversation. For some reason it worried him, so he picked up his phone and called her.
"Hello?"
"Hey……..it's me."
She laughed huskily. "You can't have missed me already."
He smiled at her playful tone, but quickly got to the question at hand. "How do you know my middle name?"
"What?" she asked confused, not only by the question but by the timing of it. *What in the world made him think of that?*
"Earlier………you called me by my full name. How did you know my middle name?"
Kate thought about it for a few seconds. "You must have told me."
"I didn't. I know I didn't."
"Well………if you didn't tell me, then I must have seen it in your file," she answered innocently.
"My file? When would you have seen my file?" he questioned trying to remain calm.
"The other day. I was bored so I starting surfing the net and got curious."
Frank almost ran a red light, he was so stunned by her answer. "What computer were you using and how did you access my file when it's coded?" he asked trying to keep the strain out of his voice.
"I just used the terminal here. You know, you really should tell your friends to come up with better passwords. Everyone uses birth dates. And as for how I got to your file, I used my password. I have top secret clearance."
Frank pulled off onto a side street and parked. He closed his eyes and tried to settle down a bit before replying.
When he didn't say anything else, she began to worry. "Frank? Are you still there?"
"I'm here," he stated with steel in his voice. "Do you have any idea what kind of jeopardy you've put yourself in?"
"I don't understand," she answered now feeling a little uneasy.
"You accessed a coded file using the password assigned to a wanted fugitive. And on top of that, you used a PC that can be traced."
"Oh my God…….." she whispered as the blood in her veins ran cold. "I didn't even think about it. I…….was bored……..I just needed something to do………I….."
"When did you do this?" he asked cutting her off.
"Yesterday morning." Frank mulled over her answer and wondered if by some miracle the mistake hadn't been caught. It should have sent up a red flag immediately and he pondered why it hadn't.
"I'll call you back."
"Frank………….I'm sorry."
He sighed and rubbed his eyes suddenly feeling very tired. "I know. I'll call you back." And then he disconnected the phone. When he did so, he noticed that he had a voice mail message. He listened to the message that Cody had left earlier. FBI agents were at the Nest and Jake was with them. *Maybe they had traced Kate's download? But why would they have stopped there first instead of coming straight to the house?* And as he questioned himself about his next course of action, his phone rang. Expecting it to be Kate, he was surprised when he saw Cody's phone number pop up.
"Donovan."
"Thank God!! You answered! I'll make this quick. The agents that I left a message about before just left here and I heard them say something like 'Now we've got them'."
Already putting the car in gear, Frank then asked, "What made them say that?"
"I'm not 100% sure, but after they fooled with my computer for a while, they seemed to get all excited about something they found, but I couldn't see what it was."
"That's when they left?"
"Yeah……..and boss………I hate to tell you this, but……….Jake was the first one out of the parking lot."
Frank sighed and then said, "Thanks Cody. I owe you one." And then he hung up and called Kate back. He didn't even give her a chance to say a word before he was barking orders.
"You've got about ten minutes to get your things together. Gather what you can and leave the house immediately. Don't go directly out the front. Hop the back fence and make your way to the side street to the south of the house. I'll pick you up there."
"Frank?? What happened?" she asked shakily.
"They know where you are and they're coming for you, baby."
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Next chapter: The final showdown
Chapter Sixteen
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Many thanks again to all who have read and continue to follow this story and , of course, special thanks to those that have taken the time to review!! It's very, very, very much appreciated!!!!!!!!!
////////////////////////////////////
Saturday morning -- 5:35AM
Kate was restless as usual. She felt like she was literally going stir crazy. She couldn't remember the last time she had spent so much time cooped up in one place. She couldn't go outside. She couldn't even open the blinds on the windows. And it was driving her nuts. The only entertainment she had was the television, a stereo and a few cheesy romance novels that lined one of the book shelves in the family room. She'd thumbed through most of the books by now, skipping most of the text looking for the juicy parts.
After the first day or so, she'd taken up pacing throughout the house much like a caged tiger that you'd find in the zoo. The only distraction she had was the occasional pone call from Frank and in some ways that made her current situation worse. Just when she would start to come to terms with her captivity, he would call and she would instantaneously be reminded of everything she was missing. And Frank most definitely topped the list of the things that she missed the most.
He'd called late last night. It was almost 11:45 when the phone had rung waking her out of a fitful sleep. Their conversation had been brief. He'd told her that he expected something big to happen soon. He just wasn't sure what or when. Just soon. She'd listened intently, wanting to hear the sound of his voice more than the words. His voice always managed to soothe and calm her while at the same time stirring something deep inside. After hanging up, she'd stayed awake for at least another hour pondering the state of their affair. Was that all it was, she thought to herself? An affair? A fling? Intense sexual attraction that nearly blinded her to the seriousness of her situation?
As these thoughts ran through her head, she began to focus more on how her and Frank were together, and not just sexually. In that respect, they were extremely compatible. She'd never experienced such all-consuming physical pleasure before she'd met him. 'The man was truly gifted', she thought with a wicked grin. No…….she needed to focus on what the other parts of this relationship were like and if they could possibly have a future together. And at that thought, she was stunned. Truly stunned. It had been such an incredibly long time since she had let herself even consider the possibility of some sort of happy future. And to think of Frank sharing that future with her left her nearly breathless. And so with reflections of what could be, she had drifted off into a sounder sleep.
Now here it was nearly six hours later, and she was already awake and had once again resumed her pacing. The sun wasn't even up yet and she felt like she'd already put in a couple of miles, and in the dark to boot. Without being able to turn on the lights, she'd memorized the location of every wall. Every stick of furniture. Every doorway. And so her daily ritual had begun again.
A few minutes after waking, she'd heard a noise outside. At first she ignored it. One of the neighbors to the left obviously worked at a nearby hospital. She'd seen her leave anywhere between 5:15 and 5:40 wearing a nurse's outfit, one of the colorful ones that looked like scrubs topped with a flowery lab coat. Even after the few short days that she'd spent holed up in this house, she would bet that all the neighbors would be shocked to know how much she'd learned about them. So many rituals and so much time to study each one.
Less than a minute after hearing the first noise, she heard something else, but this time it was much closer to the house. She immediately stopped her relentless pacing and scurried to one of the front windows. She carefully pulled back one of the blinds just enough to see a small sliver of the outside. Her heart nearly stopped when she saw a strange car in the driveway. A silver Acura.
As quickly and as silently as she could she flew up the stairs to retrieve her weapon. About the time she had reached the top landing, she heard someone trying to open the door. After grabbing her gun from the bedside table, she noiselessly crept back towards the staircase. Having traversed those same steps nearly a thousand times now, she knew exactly which ones would make noise and she knew how to avoid doing so.
She had descended no more than five steps down when she heard something else. She froze, gluing herself to the wall and holding her breath. She listened intently for several seconds when she heard the noise again, only this time, she figured out exactly what the noise was. She let out her breath in a deep whoosh.
"God damn it Donovan!! You scared me half to death!!" she nearly yelled.
She flew down the remaining stairs and rounded the corner. She found him standing in the doorway to the kitchen holding the container to the coffee maker.
"What? You couldn't get your own coffee maker to work, so you thought you'd drive all the way across town to use this one?" she asked sarcastically.
"Well, good morning to you too!" he returned with a smirk. Then he turned back around and continued with his task. She watched him silently for a few seconds giving herself time to calm her wildly beating heart.
"OK…………don't take this the wrong way, but what the hell are you doing here? And who's car is in the driveway?"
Frank finished with the coffee and turned back toward her. He approached her and reached out to take her in his arms. She willingly obliged him and settled into his embrace weaving her own arms around his strong back. She sighed deeply and melted into him. He held her for several minutes before he finally answered her.
"This……..this is why I'm here."
She pulled back slightly and looked up into his chocolate brown eyes. He brought one hand up and gently tucked a stray hair behind her ear. Then he lowered his lips to hers and gave her a tender kiss. Even a simple kiss like this one never ceased to bring her desire roaring to a full tilt boil.
"I love that you're here," she stated in a near whisper, "but I thought you said that it was too dangerous to risk it."
Frank wasn't paying attention to a thing that she said. Instead he seemed lost in the look of her. The feel of her. The scent of her. He felt like he was drowning and he was savoring every blessed second of it.
"Frank?"
"Hmmm??" he murmured as he leaned forward to nuzzle her hair breathing in a subtle flowery smell mingled with her own scent.
"Are you going to answer my question?"
"Question?" he replied distractedly as he continued down her neck now using his lips and tongue to tease the tender skin he found there.
Kate for her part was rapidly losing whatever coherent thought she had remaining. So she quickly pulled away, intent on getting the answers she sought before completely giving herself over to his gentle ministrations.
"Francis Xavier Donovan. Answer my questions or you don't get a centimeter closer to me!" She now stood an arm's length away from him with her hand firmly planted in the middle of his chest.
Frank looked slightly anguished at the separation, but then quickly realized that he did indeed owe her an explanation for his actions. He had told her over and over for the last two days that he wouldn't be able to see her. Things were getting complicated at work. The warehouse was bugged. Jake was helping the Bureau build a case against him and he wasn't at all convinced that Jake hadn't somehow swayed Alex into helping him. All day Friday, Alex had been avoiding eye contact with him.
He sighed and finally relented. "OK……..you're right. It is dangerous, me being here. Extremely dangerous. But……..I just had to see you, and I have no other explanation. After I talked to you last night, I hung up the phone and wanted nothing more than to jump in the car and come over here so that I could crawl into the bed next to you. The need to see you was overwhelming. And I don't know how to deal with it." And with that he walked over to the kitchen table and sat down heavily into one of the chairs. He looked like a defeated man. Head down. Shoulders slumped.
Kate approached and knelt down on the floor next to him. She looked into his eyes and saw the tug-of-war that was waging inside him. He was torn between his feelings for her and his responsibilities and duties. She reached out her hand and rubbed it along his arm in a comforting gesture.
"Talk to me," she quietly commanded.
Frank looked at her and tried desperately to find the words to explain what he was going through. "For a very, very long time," he began, "I never let anyone get close to me. Sure, I've dated. I've even had one or two semi long-term relationships, but during all that, I was always in control. My feelings for whomever I was with, never got in the way of anything else in my life let alone my job. When I look back on those relationships now, I realize that I'd never let myself become emotionally attached to them. I always knew that I could walk away at any time and hardly bat an eye."
Frank paused and smirked. "I guess I take after my mother. I never really considered it before, but that's pretty much the way she was with everyone. Including me. I always felt like the only one who ever really mattered to her was my father, and after he was gone, it was like the rest of the world mattered little to her. Unfortunately, I was a part of that rest of the world. After my father was killed, I never really had anyone else in my life that I felt connected to."
"Frank……..I'm so sorry," she said sadly. Although she'd had a happier home life than Frank, she could relate to not wanting to get close to anyone. Being the daughter of a military officer, she too had grown leery of emotional attachments. So often as a child, as soon as she would start to make friends, it was time to move on.
"I didn't tell you that to get your sympathy," he began, "I'm just trying to explain why I feel so out-of-sorts about this relationship. I've never jeopardized a case or my career for anyone. I knew I shouldn't come here this morning, but I couldn't concentrate on anything else until I did." He paused briefly and brought his hand up to her face and lightly traced her cheek with one of his fingers. "After I hung up with you, I paced around the Nest for a while and finally decided that I couldn't stay there 24-7 guarding the place. So I left. I went back to my apartment intent on trying to get a sound night's sleep. But when I climbed into bed, I swear I could still smell your scent on the sheets. You were everywhere, completely surrounding me. That's when I knew that it was no use. I had to see you. So I woke my neighbor up out of a dead sleep and made up some story about there being an emergency and that my car wasn't working, so he lent me his car. I knew that I'd been followed back to my apartment and that they'd follow me again if I left to go anywhere, so I took his car and luckily they didn't tail me. And here I am."
"And here you are." She said softly staring into his warm brown eyes. Then she leaned in and gave him a soft kiss. Pulling back slightly she dared to ask what was on her mind. "If we survive this……..what happens then?"
He paused to consider her question before answering with a question of his own. "What happens with us, you mean?" She nodded simply in response. "What do you think will happen? Better yet………what do you want to happen?"
"If I had my way………..in a perfect world, I'd wake up every morning to evergreens and mountains in my backyard. I'd breathe in crisp clean air absent of any city's pollution. Maybe take a walk by a crystal clear lake and watch a family of mallards glide gracefully through the water. And finally, in my world, every night I'd find you waiting for me. We'd make love and fall into a peaceful, restful sleep wrapped up in each other's arms. That's what I want."
He stared back into the piercing green eyes that had held him entranced from the very second that they'd met. "I love you."
Those three simple words……………words that so often were used so carelessly and frequently that they'd lost all meaning…………those words spoken by this man meant more to her than all the treasures in the world. She instinctively knew that he would never have used them unless he meant them and that fact alone left her stunned and breathless. She could do nothing for several minutes but stare back at him wide-eyed. All manner of speech had left her entirely.
Frank tried to read the expression on her face and as each second ticked by his gut began to twist into knots. Did she have any idea how hard it was for him to confess his feelings for her? Did she understand that she had gotten closer to him than practically anyone else in his life ever had and in only one week? And why wouldn't she say anything?
When the tenseness of the moment had reached a crescendo, and Frank had decided that he'd made a huge mistake, she finally found her voice.
"Oh baby……….I love you too," she barely managed to whisper, and at the second the words left her lips, tears began to fall down her cheeks. Never in her wildest imagination could she have imagined Frank telling her that he loved her. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she had held onto a thin thread of hope, but she never truly believed that it would happen.
Frank let out a breath that he hadn't realized that he was holding and tried to calm his racing heart. He wasn't sure if it was beating so rapidly because of the words that she'd said or because she'd paused so long before saying them, but either way he felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders. Whatever came about in the next few days, he knew that they would survive and he'd do anything to make their lives together work.
He reached out and gathered her into his warm embrace. He just held her there for what seemed an eternity and then slowly stood bringing her along with him. And as the faintest light of the approaching dawn began to brighten the horizon, Frank scooped her up into his strong arms and proceeded to carry her to the bedroom upstairs. Once there, the two joined, body, heart and soul.
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7:58AM
Cody arrived at the Nest and was surprised to find a fleet of cars already in the parking lot. He parked his own vehicle and checked out the others before venturing inside. Four black Suburbans, 3 black Crown Victorias, and surprisingly, Jake's Tahoe.
"Oh shit," Cody mumbled to himself. Feds cars. No doubt about it. And he immediately worried about the implications of Jake's involvement. He and Donovan had ended things badly, but would Jake really be working against them?
Before leaving his car, Cody grabbed his cell phone and dialed Frank's number. It rang four times and then his voice mail kicked on. Cody thought twice about leaving a message but left one anyway. He needed to be warned. Things were about to get ugly, fast.
After placing the call, he ventured warily into the building. He hadn't made it three steps into the warehouse when he was confronted by a wall of a man who looked like he could break Cody in two using only his baby finger.
"Uh……..Um……..hello. And you are?" Cody asked timidly.
"Agent Forester. Please join us." Cody looked past the hulking goon and straight at FBI Director Daniel Lindford. "It's nice to see you again."
"Ahhh……….it's nice to see you……..too," Cody answered haltingly. He continued into the briefing area and found at least a dozen agents. Most were obviously hired muscle looking much like the thug that had confronted him at the entrance. All had on the same non-descript black suits and white shirts. And then there was Jake. He sat away from the others at the table and from what Cody could see, he looked more than a little uncomfortable. He barely raised his eyes to acknowledge Cody's presence, which only helped to confirm his suspicions. Jake was in league with these men and more than likely they were here to bring Donovan in. The thought sent chills down Cody's spine.
"Please have a seat Cody," Director Lindford said. "Agent Shaw has been able to enlighten us on the group's activities for the past two months, but we were hoping that maybe you could help fill us in on some of the blanks. Could you do that for us?" Cody glanced quickly in Jake's direction and Jake in turn looked away as quickly as he could. *We are in deep shit,* Cody thought.
Feeling that he had little choice, Cody nodded and said, "I'll tell you what I can." And with that the questions began.
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8:10AM
Frank had just left Kate and was heading back toward his apartment building. He needed to return his neighbor's car and pick up his own. As he drove, he ran the past few hours through his mind once more. He smiled warmly at the memories and for the first time in a really long time he felt hopeful about the future. Of course he knew that they had a long haul ahead of them, but for some reason this morning he was feeling rather hopeful. *Love can do that to you, I guess.* And he almost chuckled at the thought.
As he got closer to his building, all of a sudden an odd thought struck him. *How did she know my middle name?* He knew for certain that he had never told her. He'd spilled his guts on just about every other subject, but he was positive that his full name had never come up in conversation. For some reason it worried him, so he picked up his phone and called her.
"Hello?"
"Hey……..it's me."
She laughed huskily. "You can't have missed me already."
He smiled at her playful tone, but quickly got to the question at hand. "How do you know my middle name?"
"What?" she asked confused, not only by the question but by the timing of it. *What in the world made him think of that?*
"Earlier………you called me by my full name. How did you know my middle name?"
Kate thought about it for a few seconds. "You must have told me."
"I didn't. I know I didn't."
"Well………if you didn't tell me, then I must have seen it in your file," she answered innocently.
"My file? When would you have seen my file?" he questioned trying to remain calm.
"The other day. I was bored so I starting surfing the net and got curious."
Frank almost ran a red light, he was so stunned by her answer. "What computer were you using and how did you access my file when it's coded?" he asked trying to keep the strain out of his voice.
"I just used the terminal here. You know, you really should tell your friends to come up with better passwords. Everyone uses birth dates. And as for how I got to your file, I used my password. I have top secret clearance."
Frank pulled off onto a side street and parked. He closed his eyes and tried to settle down a bit before replying.
When he didn't say anything else, she began to worry. "Frank? Are you still there?"
"I'm here," he stated with steel in his voice. "Do you have any idea what kind of jeopardy you've put yourself in?"
"I don't understand," she answered now feeling a little uneasy.
"You accessed a coded file using the password assigned to a wanted fugitive. And on top of that, you used a PC that can be traced."
"Oh my God…….." she whispered as the blood in her veins ran cold. "I didn't even think about it. I…….was bored……..I just needed something to do………I….."
"When did you do this?" he asked cutting her off.
"Yesterday morning." Frank mulled over her answer and wondered if by some miracle the mistake hadn't been caught. It should have sent up a red flag immediately and he pondered why it hadn't.
"I'll call you back."
"Frank………….I'm sorry."
He sighed and rubbed his eyes suddenly feeling very tired. "I know. I'll call you back." And then he disconnected the phone. When he did so, he noticed that he had a voice mail message. He listened to the message that Cody had left earlier. FBI agents were at the Nest and Jake was with them. *Maybe they had traced Kate's download? But why would they have stopped there first instead of coming straight to the house?* And as he questioned himself about his next course of action, his phone rang. Expecting it to be Kate, he was surprised when he saw Cody's phone number pop up.
"Donovan."
"Thank God!! You answered! I'll make this quick. The agents that I left a message about before just left here and I heard them say something like 'Now we've got them'."
Already putting the car in gear, Frank then asked, "What made them say that?"
"I'm not 100% sure, but after they fooled with my computer for a while, they seemed to get all excited about something they found, but I couldn't see what it was."
"That's when they left?"
"Yeah……..and boss………I hate to tell you this, but……….Jake was the first one out of the parking lot."
Frank sighed and then said, "Thanks Cody. I owe you one." And then he hung up and called Kate back. He didn't even give her a chance to say a word before he was barking orders.
"You've got about ten minutes to get your things together. Gather what you can and leave the house immediately. Don't go directly out the front. Hop the back fence and make your way to the side street to the south of the house. I'll pick you up there."
"Frank?? What happened?" she asked shakily.
"They know where you are and they're coming for you, baby."
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Next chapter: The final showdown