Chapter Two

Carly had knocked on the door when Brenda started screaming. When no one responded she tried the knob. It wasn't locked. Leave it to her and Brenda to not even have thought of it before. She left the room but Brenda was too busy beating up the table to notice. Carly walked out unnoticed, leaving the floor for the elevator, she went to the top floor. She prayed there she would find an escape to the roof.

Exiting the elevator she made her way towards the exit sign which, she hoped, lead to a stairwell. There she climbed up half a flight to a landing. Sitting on one of the first few steps of the next flight she shook. Shock was setting in. She rested her head in trembling hands. She couldn't seem to make her mind move. All she knew is that Sonny hadn't stiffened in the presence of a Fed. He hated Feds. He had a FBI ID.

She couldn't do anything other than sit there and shakily cradle her head in her palms. Her breaths came with the same jerky uncertainty. The longer she sat there the less she thought. Soon her mental capacity was reduced to, i breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe,... /i

Brenda was so confused. Sonny was working with the Feds. He was posing as a Fed. He'd had false ID. It was handed to him by the annoying Fed who'd insulted her. The annoying dude had called Sonny and agent. i What the /i fuck /i was going on? /i Had he sold out to save them from themselves? Had he known what they were up to the whole time? She slammed around the room again. She torn at the chair she'd been sitting in before and let it tumble to the floor. Reducing the room to the state of disorder in her mind she screamed frequently. It didn't dawn on her as she railed at the world for messing with her head and her life that Carly, her partner in crime, had gone out and left the door wide open.

Her rage began to putter to a halt and she kicked a wall for good measure when some one called out from the door.

"Brenda," came Sonny's short cuff, "where the hell is Carly?"

Brenda saw his affronted and slightly scared eyes. It was the first she'd heard of it. She looked around the room and then, as an after thought, under the table. She'd been making quite a raucous, maybe Carly'd hidden?

The space was empty and Brenda looked back to Sonny more than a little chagrined. She gave a weak smile and shrugged. Sonny looked exasperated and turned around hollering and ignoring her cries for clarification as to what the fuck was going on.

Panicking, Sonny whirled on the agents at his mercy. "Where'd she go?" The agents turned to him stunned than looked to their superior to his left. Thompson started giving orders to the men. One group left to check the room surveillance while another set out to do a room-by-room search. Sonny set out to look for her on his own still baring his false ID like the other agents on his pocket.

Thompson told him via his cell that some one had spotted her on the top floor. He was two floors below near the stairwell. Yanking at the door he pounded up the stairs.

He had his hand on the door to the main drag of the floor when he heard a shudder above him. His hand was on his gun and he was poised to defend himself. Moving for the shelter of alcove created by the spiraling stairs he padded slowly towards the sound. Then he saw her. He dropped to his knees keeping his gun in hand. She looked terrible and that worried him. Who had gotten to her, what had they done, were they still close? He looked her over and saw no pressing injuries but her head was in her hands and she was shaking badly.

Scared out of his mind he tentatively touched her head. Brushing the hair back he saw her glazed eyes. With a brief glimpse up and down the stairs to make sure they were safe, he turned to her chin and tilted it so he could see her face. Perhaps she was hurt.

Her features were passive, lax, a waxy putty. Her breath lurched and trembled. "Oh, baby," she sighed. Her appearance ripped at him. He shouldn't have left her. What had happened while he was gone? She should have been safe. He should have made sure she was safe. In a building full of Feds he'd taken for granted that they would protect her from ill for him.

She still hadn't focused on his presence when he took her in his arms and tried to warm her. Wrapping his coat around her and his arms. He held the gun at attention in one hand and his cell in the other. Dialing Thompson he then pressed the phone to his ear. "I found her. Something's happened she's in shock. Were in stairwell E half way to the roof, above the top floor."

Thompson said that he'd alert the rest of the team and secure hall outside the stairs for them. A minute later his phone vibrated but didn't ring signaling that it was safe for them to leave. Putting his gun and cell away he bundled Carly tightly in his arms and carried her down the stairs and out to the waiting agents. Thompson arrived with a medic team for Carly from a nearby elevator. Sonny placed Carly on the gurney and, as the teams worked around her—one taking her pulse and the other charging the stairwell—he looked deep into her eyes.

"I'm here baby, I've got you safe. Don't worry. It's ok now. No one will hurt you." He kissed her forehead as the medics tried to avoid getting in the way.

Looking at Thompson, tensed with several emotions, Sonny straightened and took on a hard look. "Who got inside?"