Part Ten

Gunny looked back then turned to fully face Harm. "She was having trouble sleeping," he said with only a trace of challenge in his voice. "So I did what I could to help."

"By telling her bedtime stories?" Harm scoffed.

"Right after I fluffed her pillows." Gunny took a step toward him not backing down.

"It was more like two Marines in a foxhole sharing war stories." I offered helpfully but they both ignored me.

"Sounds cozy." Harm voice was dripping with sarcasm as he took a step toward Gunny.

I'd had enough and moved in between them and put a hand on Harm's chest. "Harm, it's nothing. You know I have trouble sleeping."

"Mac, we need to talk." He grabbed my hand where it rested on his chest.

I pulled my hand from his and patted him soothingly. "No we don't. You need to go. You'll be late for your date."

"Wait up for me." He was using that soft gravelly voice that frequently usurped my free will.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea." Actually it was a great idea- the best idea I'd heard all day, but I dug deep and resisted. I thought maintaining a little distance was necessary. He needed to focus on Frankie- not me. "I'll just see you at the office tomorrow."

Harm looked at me and his expression was a mixture of helplessness and frustration and longing. "Mac-"

"Good night, Harry." Sometimes I needed to remind myself of who he was supposed to be right now.

I retreated to my apartment with Gunny at my heels leaving Harm standing in his doorway staring after us. As soon as we were inside I turned on him and asked impatiently, "Why do you keep doing that?"

He didn't pretend that he didn't know what I was talking about. "I'm making sure he remembers what's most important to him."

"And how would you know what that is?"

"Come on, Mac. I've worked with the two of you for years, and don't forget I was there when he showed up in Paraguay to find you. Even when he's busy saving the world you're always the most important thing to him. Everyone knows that."

"And he's the most important thing to me too," I insisted fiercely. "That's the reason I'm here."

"I know. It's good to see the two of you finally figuring things out." Gunny smiled at me and headed for the kitchen.

"So why are you giving him such a hard time?"

I followed him and watched as he pulled out a big wooden bowl from the cabinet. He got lettuce out of the refrigerator and washed it and then patted it dry on paper towels. "Because he's a real sucker for any damsel in distress, and in this case I think he really wants Frankie Mitchell to be innocent. But the truth is that she may turn out to be guilty as hell, and I just think he needs to keep his eye on the big picture. "

"And what would that be?" I asked.

"He needs to find out if Frankie Mitchell is involved-without getting invested in the outcome-and then he needs to get back to his real life just as fast as he can." He found a clove of garlic and peeled it. "He's not cut out for the ethical compromises this job requires."

I jumped when he whacked the peeled garlic with the flat of a big knife and asked him, "And you are? After what happened in Afghanistan how can you say that? You weren't exactly objective then." I thought of that dead young woman that he had so obviously been in love with.

Gunny looked up from rubbing the garlic around in the wooden bowl and said thoughtfully, "No, I wasn't, so that means I know what I'm talking about. But I don't have anything waiting for me on the outside. If I did it might be different."

That made me sad, and I didn't know how to respond.

He put down the bowl and turned to where I was leaning against the counter. "The Commander may act jealous, but the bottom line is that he knows I'll watch your back and he knows I would never take advantage of you. So even though he may not act like it, he's really glad I'm here. In some weird way it makes it easier for him to do what he has to do."

"So when you flirt with me you're actually bonding with Harm in a convoluted male macho kind of way?"

"You could say that." He tore off a piece of lettuce and popped it in my mouth. "You need to eat more vegetables."

"Did Harm pay you to say that?" I wrinkled my nose as I chewed.

He grinned. "Stop complaining or you won't get any steak. Now get out of here and let me finish cooking."

**

It was Friday. Finally. As my first and only official act as office manager I declared it to be casual Friday and put on a pair of black pants and a plain white button down shirt that I didn't bother to tuck in. I did have orange Mary Janes on my feet and a Harpo Marx blonde curly wig on my head but everything in between was conservative and simple.

The week had dragged by due to a lack of real clients and a lack of progress in the case. Harm hadn't been around much and when he was we had been distant with each other. He was actually in DC this morning meeting with Catherine Gale. They were going to go over her intel and combine it with whatever he had learned about Ben from Frankie-which wasn't much-and reevaluate our plan. I was on my way to talk to Gloria Randall again. So far she had been my best source of information.

I opened the door to the food bank and found two Middle Eastern men in an agitated conversation with Gloria. They looked up as I entered and they quickly excused themselves. She looked upset but she did a decent job of hiding it as she greeted me. "Good morning, Hannah." Her usual cheery smile didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Is everything okay?" I couldn't just assume that these men had anything to do with Sadiq but I couldn't afford to ignore the possibility either.

"Of course-everything's fine. They were just a couple of unsatisfied customers. Donations are down right now." She changed the subject and asked me, "How is that handsome boss of yours?"

"He's out of town this morning, but he'll be back this afternoon." I noticed that her eyes kept darting nervously to the door.

She waved me into a chair and said as she sat down behind her desk. "I guess he's still spending all of his free time with Frankie. I'm surprised she hasn't scratched your eyes out yet."

My eyes widened at that remark. "Well, she doesn't seem to particularly like me."

"No, I imagine she doesn't. The idea of Harry working with a beautiful woman is bound to drive her crazy. When she was with Ben she was very possessive."

"Really? Well, she has nothing to worry about. I already have a boyfriend."

"That wouldn't matter to her. If Ben so much as looked at another woman they would have these loud awful arguments right in front of everyone."

"I can't imagine Harry putting up with that."

"Maybe she learned her lesson. I always thought that her jealousy would have driven him away eventually even if he hadn't been killed and since he's been gone she's thrown herself into her work. It's been her whole life. She even donates her services to the food bank. We couldn't afford a lawyer that puts in the kind of time that she does. I'm really grateful for her help."

"Harry told me that she was involved with lots of different charities. I admire her dedication."

"Me too, and things are finally looking promising for her personally too. I hope for her sake she finally finds the happiness she deserves."

I nodded and smiled bravely. This was going to turn out ugly for someone.

"Hey Hannah, a bunch of us from the building are going to Muscatel's tonight around eight. Why don't you and your boyfriend join us?"

"That sounds like fun. I'll ask him, but I better get back to work before the boss gets back and finds an empty office." I stood up and walked to the door.

"Okay. I'll see you later." She stood also but even before I shut the door she seemed to be a million miles away.

Something was bothering Gloria and it was bothering her a lot. Was it possible that she was involved in this too? Or maybe she was the one using Frankie, and Harm had been right about her innocence all along. I needed to call Gunny and tell him to be on the look out for Sadiq's men. I just had a feeling that something was going to happen and it was going to happen soon.

**

Harm came hurrying through the door around two in the afternoon. I had been going crazy waiting for him to get back to the office. The more I thought about it the more I was convinced that Gloria could very well be involved somehow in this mess.

"Mac, we need to go over these notes I got from Catherine. Come on into my office," he said as he barreled past me.

"I need to talk to you too." He barely glanced at me as he loosened his tie and took off his jacket and threw it on a chair. I followed him in and closed the door behind me.

"You go first," he said as he threw his briefcase down on his desk.

"I think two of Sadiq's men might have been nosing around the food bank this morning and I am beginning to wonder if Gloria Randall is involved in this as well. If they are his men we need to find out what they're doing here. Frankie may have called Sadiq if she was getting nervous about Gunny and the phone calls. Did you find out anything new from Catherine?"

"As a matter of fact I did." He looked up at me, and frowned a little before continuing. "You will find this very interesting. Sadiq had a brother that disappeared a few years ago. The assumption has been that he was killed on a mission that went bad. There is no real way to confirm that though. His name was Amin Ben Faud and he attended the same college as Frankie." He suddenly stopped and just stared at me. "What is that on your head?"

"A wig," I said distractedly. I couldn't believe what he'd just told me. "Oh my gosh. This really is the connection we've been looking for."

"Why are you always wearing wigs?" He stood up and was touching it tentatively, like he thought it might bite him.

I shrugged, "I don't know. Webb picked them out so I'm wearing them."

"Webb picked out your wigs? The man is odd."

"He picked out my entire wardrobe for this operation. Harry," I said to remind him of where we were, "Do you think this means that Frankie is involved?"

He ignored my question. He seemed fascinated by my head. "Webb playing dress up. That explains some of your more 'interesting' looks' I guess. He probably has some fetish about making a woman wear different wigs so he can pretend that she's someone different when they make love." He shook his head and played with one of the curls.

"Do you want me to keep one of the wigs for the first time we make love?" I stopped trying to get him back on the subject. I mean after all we had just come up with our biggest break in the case yet, but if he wanted to talk about wigs, we would talk about wigs.

He studied me for a minute and then walked back and sat behind his desk. "The first time we make love you won't be wearing anything and there will be nothing between us but sweat." His voice was like hot drippy caramel and his eyes impaled me with sharp flaring desire.

My once dependable knees turned wobbly and I sat down suddenly and tried to find my voice. "So, what do you think about Frankie?"

He sighed and dragged a hand over his face. "I've been trying not to think about her. I find myself going back and forth between hoping that she's guilty so I won't have to feel bad about deceiving her and hoping that she's innocent."

I looked down at my hands and asked, "And if she is innocent?"

"What do you mean?" He knew exactly what I meant.

"You're the first person that she's opened up to in years. She trusts you. It's going to break her heart when she finds out the truth. Are you going to be able to just walk away from her?"

"I don't know."

I looked up at his words and my heart scampered across his desk and fell into his hands. Very gently he whispered, "Come here, Mac."

I walked around the desk and stood beside him as he sat in his chair. He grabbed my hand and brought the back of it against his cheek. "She will probably never want to speak to me again, but if she does, I think she might need a friend for just a little while."

"Women aren't interested in just being friends with a man like you."

He kissed the back of my hand, looked up at me and smiled. "Is that right?"

"That's right. I tried it for years." I brushed a strand of hair from his forehead. "It's a bad idea."

"Why is that?" He had turned his chair so I was standing between his legs.

"Because you end up falling in love with them." His hands were on my hips and his face was level with my stomach. My hands were on his shoulders and he had nuzzled my shirt tail open enough to blow little puffs of hot breath on the bare skin at my waist. I was covered in goose bumps and I was two seconds away from jumping into his lap and attacking him when there was a brisk knock on the door. Of course it was Frankie and of course she opened the door before I could move away from Harm.

We were all frozen in place like something out of an old melodrama. Frankie looked shocked and her mouth formed a perfect O as she stared at Harm with his face half buried in my stomach. Gloria's words about my eyes being scratched out came flooding back and since I didn't see any protective goggles within reach I did the next best thing. I started talking as fast as I could and started climbing for high ground.

"Harry, if you will just sit still and boost me up, I can change that light bulb in no time." I clambered up and over him, using his lap and shoulders and even his head like rungs on a ladder until I was standing in the middle of his desk. Grinning triumphantly, I pulled the perfectly good fluorescent tube from its sockets and jabbed it in the air a few times for good measure. "The darn thing wouldn't stop buzzing," I announced to her proudly. I jumped down from the desk without assistance and kept the length of the tube between us as I scurried past her towards the door. "I'll just go see if maintenance has a replacement."

Harm's hair was tousled and his shirt was rumpled as he said indignantly, "I told you to just call them in the first place." Turning to Frankie he said, "I'm beginning to think you were right about her."

"Never mind that, Harry. I need your help." I was lingering right outside the door and she sounded scared.

"What is it, Frankie." His voice was full of concern.

"I think I'm in terrible trouble."

To be continued--