CHAPTER 5—TIME TO FLY
It was a bit past ten at night, and Donovan was still at work. He had sent everyone else home, but he lingered, as he sometimes did on occasion. He stood staring blankly out of the window, a steaming mug of coffee in his hand. It wouldn't be long before he and the team was slated to fly out to Florida, and Loralei was scheduled to join him in a couple of days. Donovan hadn't told the others that Loralei would be following. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he didn't want anyone to know. Somehow, it seemed safer. He still didn't know how he felt about her going along. Of course, he had agreed to it, but he didn't like it. However, it was too late to stop her now. He had relented, and if he backed out, she would probably try to strangle him. Good move, Donovan, he thought. He recalled vowing to never put her in harm's way again, and he was doing exactly what he said he wouldn't. He took a long, thoughtful sip from the mug. His motivation for allowing Loralei to come along was to keep her from Farron's grasp. As he had thought the day before, he didn't doubt that his brother would come back again and again. What are you worried about? What are you really worried about? Donovan shook his head and exhaled a deep breath. What he had with Loralei could never, would never compare with any relationship he had ever had in his life. Of course, he hadn't been completely celibate before he met her, and some of his relationships had become quite serious. Most of them never progressed further than a brief sexual fling.
When Donovan and Farron were younger, Farron often moved in on his relationships. At times, his brother hadn't really liked the girl. It was a challenge to him taking away something that his younger twin loved. It was a competitive/sibling rivalry type thing, but it still hurt. He wasn't necessarily afraid that Farron intended to disrupt his marriage. Loralei loved him enough to marry him, to have his child, for God's sake, and she would never fall for Farron's smarmy advances. She was too smart for that. Yet, it wasn't Loralei whom he doubted. It was Farron. He was almost certain that if left to his own devices, Farron would try something. Plain and simple, it was his way, and he couldn't help it. Donovan's blood boiled at the thought of Farron even glancing at his wife, much less touching her. That very elementary, but yet so horrifying thought was what fueled his tantrum when he discovered that Farron had gone to Loralei. He had held that thought back from her [one more promise broken], because she would have told him exactly what he knew already. She didn't understand the psychology of her brother. She hadn't grown up with him. She just didn't know. It was a harsh thought, but one so true.
He tore his eyes away from the window and turned toward his desk. A small lamp that was more decoration than a light source illuminated it. If he continued to read by it, he was certain to go blind some day. He liked the weak light, though, it seemed to comfort him. There was a sheaf of papers resting in the middle of the desk. It was information about the new case that Cody had dug up. He approached his desk and sat down. The top sheet was a list of names of people that Pablo Dominguez was known to run with. Carlos Vega. Juan Rodriguez. Tomas Cortez. Mateo Luis. The names meant nothing to him. He had never seen nor heard of these men before. Cody had run background checks on each man, and the information had been scant. The 'witness' Mrs. Ramirez saw fit the description of hundreds of men: long dark hair that was tied back, dark eyes, dark complexion, and fluent in both Spanish and English. She had no problem picking out Pablo Dominguez, but she had yet to finger the other shooter. According to the police report somewhere in this pile, she had not found one single person who fit the description in the dozens of mug shots she had thumbed through. It was frustrating. It was as if this witness had fallen off the face of the earth. He stacked the papers neatly and slid them into a manila folder. He would read through this material thoroughly once they were on the plane, but he didn't think he'd find anything.
Suddenly, the phone rang, splitting through the thick silence of the room. He actually didn't feel like picking up the receiver, so he hit the speaker button. "Donovan."
"When will you be home," Loralei's voice asked. "I won't see you for a few days, and I'd sort of like to say goodbye before you fly out."
He smiled a little. "I'm almost on my way. I had to tie up a few loose ends before I leave."
"You don't have me on speaker, do you," she asked suspiciously.
"Yes, my love, I do. But no one else is here," he said.
"Ooooooooh, interesting," she said. "Wanna have phone sex?"
He laughed. "Tempting, but I'd much rather have the real thing."
"Then get your sexy ass home."
"How about thirty minutes?"
She sighed dramatically. "I might be in bed asleep by then, but I suppose you can wake me up. Love you, baby. See ya." She hung up before he could speak.
He shook his head, smiling widely and goofily. "Tease," he said as he hit the speaker button to hang up the phone.
Donovan told Loralei thirty minutes, but he was together and outside in less than fifteen. He was anxious to see her. As he walked to his car, he couldn't help but shake his head and smile a little. Their separation would only span forty-eight hours, but it seemed as if he wouldn't see her for a month. Suddenly, he felt an urgency to get home. He even felt his heart skip a beat in anticipation. This is really crazy, he thought. He unlocked the car door and threw the manila folder inside. Just as he was about to climb in, he noticed a figure standing a few feet away. He recognized the stance, knew instantly who it was. For a moment, he was tempted to simply climb into the car and forget about it. He had a wife waiting for him at home. In the end, he sighed and decided to confront the lone figure.
"What are you doing here," Donovan demanded.
Farron slowly approached him, but stood back a safe distance. "I thought of going to your wife again, but I thought better of it."
"Be fucking glad you did, Farron. Don't approach my wife again. She isn't a part of our fight, and I want to keep her out of it. I don't want to help you; I don't care what you've done. I don't care what your trouble is. All I care about is getting home. Go back to whatever hole you crawled from, Farron. Go back and stay away. If you ever approach my wife again, I'll see to it that you suffer the same fate as I did. Remember that? I still have the scars. What do you have?"
Farron nodded, finally understanding. His twin wasn't exactly angry about his giving Kelly Bartlet his address. He was angry about the shooting. "I was a kid, Frank. We were both kids. I'd give my soul to take it back, but I can't. What more do you ask? What more do you need? If you want me dead, shoot me. We both know you have a gun. Can we not just talk?"
Donovan shook his head and laughed bitterly. "You wouldn't be satisfied with just talking, Farron. Don't you think I know that? Once, we were connected, but then something changed, and for whatever reason exists, our connection ended. I decided a long time ago that I wouldn't clean up after you anymore. How do you think our mother would feel if she knew what you were? How do you think the entire family would feel if they knew what you did? They're oblivious because I wanted it that way. As far as I'm concerned, I don't have a brother. I know you're in trouble, I can feel it. I'm not fixing it this time or ever again. Stay away from me and my wife."
Without another word to Farron, Donovan climbed into his car, revved the engine to life, and sped away. As he sped toward home, Donovan was angered and saddened at the same time. It killed him to deny his brother. Despite the hell, despite the grief, a tiny part of his heart loved his brother, and always would. However, there was no way he would open himself enough to let Farron hurt him again. Regardless of what Farron said, it would happen eventually. His past relationship with Farron began to flash in his mind as he sped down the road. The shooting incident hadn't been what really put the wedge between them, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. It wasn't their mother or father or sisters. Some little something had happened and Farron had simply pulled away from him. How could we be so much alike, and yet be so different, he wondered. Perhaps his family expected too much of Farron, especially since at the beginning of his life, everything came to him so very easily. Still, there was no excuse for what Farron had done to him. No excuse to at all. He groaned as his head begun to ache sickly. If he didn't drive these horrendous thoughts out of his head, he wouldn't be able to do anything but pass out. Tonight, he didn't want that. He wanted to spend the night with his wife, making love to her. Shaking thoughts of Farron out of his mind, he pressed his foot to the accelerator. The faster he got home, the better it would be.
By the time Donovan arrived home, he felt a little better. He wanted to shake off the pain and disappointment before Loralei saw it. He didn't usually try to mask his true feelings, but tonight he did. He was about to be separated from her [for TWO days], and he didn't want to spend his remaining time brooding over his brother. Taking a deep breath, he unlocked the door and entered the apartment. True to her word, Loralei was in bed, but she was far from asleep. During the time he had been at the office, she had stripped the bed of their standard sheets and replaced them with royal blue satin. She sat up, clutching the sheet against her breasts. Her dark auburn hair hung loose and wild. Her peachy skin contrasted beautifully against the blue of the sheets. She looked lovely, absolutely lovely, and thoughts of Farron drifted right out of his mind. He couldn't believe the length she had gone to do this for them. Had she been planning this all day? He tried to remember the last time she had dug out the satin sheets. Was it their wedding night? Yes. He remembered now. It was the wedding night, and they had wanted to experiment a little. Some wise guy [probably Cody] had bought the sheets as a wedding gift. They certainly looked and felt nice, but they had their unpractical side. They had spent half the night giggling like idiots because Loralei kept sliding out of bed. She put on some type of flimsy silk nightgown, and it hadn't meshed well with the satin. She couldn't stay in one place until he stripped her out of the gown. As it turned out, the sheets felt quite wonderful against naked skin.
"What did you do," he asked with a smile.
"I thought I'd cook up something special," she said with a lazy smile. "Take off your clothes and get in this bed with me. You wouldn't phone sex me, so I decided to arrange the real thing for you, just like you asked. You'd better hurry, you have a plane to catch."
He smiled as he unbuttoned his shirt. "Loralei, you never fail to surprise me."
* * *
Loralei's flight wasn't due to leave until early tomorrow morning, but she was busily packing anyway. She wasn't sure how much stuff she needed to take. She decided to pack only what she needed for the next week. She hoped Donovan wouldn't have to stay any longer than that, but she wasn't counting on it. The longest they'd ever been separated was about a week. During that time, the first couple of days were okay, but after that, she had nearly gone nuts. He called regularly enough, but it wasn't as satisfying as actually touching him. She cursed when she realized that she'd have to take a second bag just to carry her books and the laptop she borrowed. She tried to think if there was anything she was forgetting. Ah. The phone. She grabbed it off the charger and slipped it into her carry-on. As soon as she landed, Donovan wanted a phone call. As she zipped up the carry-on, she wondered what had persuaded him to take her along. Was he worried about Farron? He hadn't said as much, but some little push told her it was. This situation with his brother consumed her as much as it did him. She wanted the brothers to reconcile, but she didn't want that at the same time. Stay out of it, Loralei. She sighed and went about the chore of ensuring that she had packed everything she needed.
The doorbell rang suddenly, startling her. Irritated, she left her packing behind and strode toward the door. She peered into the peephole and stepped back. Farron. She thought he had forgotten all about her. Apparently, he hadn't. She wasn't sure if she wanted to open the door or not. Maybe if she didn't open the door, he would eventually leave. She wasn't counting on that either. She didn't know Farron, but she was pretty sure he would have at least some of her husband's persistence. After a few moments, her theory was proven true. He rang the doorbell again and waited patiently. Giving in, she unlocked the door and opened it.
"Is Frank here," he asked.
Somehow, she knew he knew Donovan wasn't home. "No. If he were, you wouldn't be standing here right now," she said.
"I'm sorry. We both know that was bullshit. I came to speak to you."
Loralei had yet to invite him in. She didn't want to, not really. Her mind kept playing back to the night her husband had cried himself to sleep. This man so like her husband, yet so different, had killed something inside Donovan. Again, she caught herself questioning her feelings for her brother in-law. Should she hate him or pity him? "I don't think that's such a great idea, Farron. Frank won't talk to you, and there's nothing I can do or say to change his mind."
He studied her curiously. Something about her demeanor had changed since the last time he had visited her. He knew the look. It was almost identical to Frank's. There was mistrust and apprehension mixed with dull hatred. His brother had certainly found his match in this woman. She mirrored his brother's emotions better than he ever could. "I can see that you know," he said. "I can also see that you don't care for me right now."
She sighed. "I don't know you, Farron. How could I have formulated an opinion? Yes, Frank told me, but it's not my job to judge you." Liar. She felt like a hypocrite. "Would you mind leaving? I have a few things to do, and your presence is interrupting me."
Farron caught just a glimpse of a carry-on bag. She was leaving, but where? Was she going to Frank? He had been watching Frank, just outside the fringe of detection. Frank was sharp, but Farron had learned the fine art of ducking. It was a matter of survival in his old trade. "I'm sorry, Loralei, but I'm here to once again make a plea to my brother and apologize for what I've done in the past and what I've done now. I have lived every day with this horror, and it's not easy."
"How dare you whine," she spat, suddenly furious. "You're so selfish that you can only see your pain. Have you given one thought as to what you've done to your brother? Have you ever wondered if his iciness and roughened exterior may have been caused by you? If you were my brother, I wouldn't have forgiven you. I wanted to help you, and I wish I could. Right now, I don't think it's such a great idea. Since you've been here, he's not the same. Maybe you should go and give him time. He's upset, Farron, and rightfully so."
Oddly, he felt like confessing to her. He didn't know why, but her words hurt more than any denial Frank had ever made. She didn't understand. This wasn't some silly jam he was in. "I must see my brother, I must speak to him. I'm not playing a game, not anymore."
"Farron, please. Frank doesn't want to deal with you. Back off and let it be. Maybe in a few months, he'll be okay enough to see you. Right now, he isn't. You need to go."
I may not have a few months, he thought. He nodded. "Okay." Without further word, he left.
* * *
When Loralei left for the airport, she didn't exactly leave alone. Farron's ability to blend helped him follow closely behind his sister in-law. Once at the terminal, he continued to trail behind her until she found the right gate. His heart began to pound hard in his chest when he saw the destination. Florida. His hunch had been correct. His brother and his team were working the Ramirez case. A few weeks ago, he thought he would never set foot in Florida again. He would follow them. If Dominguez or Ortiz saw Frank, he would die.
* * *
Donovan's cell phone rang. He smiled a little. This cell phone had a number that only a few people knew, and one of them was Loralei. He reached over and grabbed it. "It's almost ten. What took you so long?"
"I can't make the plane fly any faster than it does," she said comically. "I'm at the airport, and I'm headed toward the hotel."
* * *
A young woman who appeared to be pregnant came into the hotel carrying two suitcases and a carry-on. She appeared to be very tired and very ready to check in. It was around eleven at night, and there were few people milling about. She noticed a tall man with dark hair sitting casually in the reception area. He appeared to be waiting for someone. His nose was buried in the paper, and he barely gave the woman a sideways glance. She completely ignored this fellow and continued to make her way toward the check-in desk.
"You look exhausted," the clerk behind the counter said.
"Oh yes. Long flight. I'm so ready to get into bed and sleep twelve hours. Can I check in? Please tell me I can."
The clerk smiled. "Oh yes, ma'am. As long as you have a reservation."
She laughed. "I never go anywhere without making reservations. You'll find it under Dina K. I believe I paid for a week in advance." She stood and watched as the clerk began tapping at the keys on her computer.
"Oh yes. Dina K. Single king size?"
She smiled. "Perfect."
With her card key in hand, Dina K. strolled casually over to the elevator. Just before the doors clicked shut, the tall man from the reception area trotted toward the elevator.
"Hold the elevator, please," he said.
"Oh, of course," she said as he pushed the 'door open' button.
He slipped into the elevator beside her. As soon as the doors closed, he took her arm and pushed her body against the elevator wall. His lips took hers hungrily as his hands roamed her body restlessly. Oh the sweet agony. He broke the kiss just long enough to slam his hand onto the emergency stop button. The alarms were going off like crazy, but it was only a minor distraction. He gazed down into her eyes and couldn't believe it had only been two days. Barely giving himself time to breathe, his mouth claimed hers again, and he slipped his tongue between her wet, inviting lips. As his hands began their restless journey again, thoughts of ripping her out of her clothing came immediately to mind, but he didn't want to handle her too roughly. After all, she was pregnant.
She broke the kiss and drew back just an inch or two. She could feel his warm breath against her lips and could smell the hint of his cologne. How she had missed him. Two days. Two damn days. The irritating alarm kept ringing and ringing, but they hardly noticed. She placed gentle, soft kisses on his luscious mouth, running her tongue along his bottom lip. He couldn't stand it. He wanted her, needed her. In a fevered hurry, she began working on opening his pants. She had to get her hands on him, had to get him inside her, and they had to get to it quickly. It wouldn't take long for a repairman to be summoned.
His breath came in ragged and hard as she finally touched him. He didn't take his eyes off hers once. Not feeling the least bit ladylike, she hiked up her skirt. He ran his tongue over his lips and groaned a little when he realized that she had come prepared. She wore nothing underneath the skirt. Dear God, thank you, he thought. He kissed her again and felt her legs come up around his waist. She broke the kiss and gasped aloud as he entered her slowly, inch by wonderful inch. She wanted all of him, and she wanted it now. However, once he was enveloped in her warmth, there was nothing slow about his lovemaking. He lost himself for a few minutes and drove into her at a frenzied, but delicious pace. She plunged her hands into his hair, and when she met her release, she pulled it and pulled hard. She cried out and he stifled it with his mouth. All they needed was an audience. His mouth moved from hers at the moment of his own release, and he gritted his teeth against the sheer exhausting intensity of it. Two days. Just two damn days. What would he have done if it had been longer?
"I think I got carried away," he said, breathing heavily against her neck. "Not too rough?"
"Uh uh, baby," she sighed. "Never."
"Who the hell is Dina K.," he asked.
She laughed a little as she wrapped her arms around his shuddering body. "You ask the silliest questions at the most awkward moments. It's Kadin switched around, you goofball."
He chuckled. "Sorry. My brain isn't working yet."
"Are you okay? You didn't sprain something did you?"
He laughed shakily. "I don't think so. I just hope they don't get the elevator going until I can move again. I missed you, Loralei."
She smiled. "I think I sort of got that idea."
Two days…just two damn days.