She kissed him, soft and deep. "Let me think about it," she said onto his mouth.
He just nodded and kissed her again.
Danny silently helped Shelby get ready to meet Orlando Yates for the second time. He gently taped the microphone to her chest and stomach and watched as she slipped into the blouse she would be wearing. After the past day and a half, he didn't like the thought of her risking her life so much anymore. Not that they had come to any conclusions – she just hadn't left his place for two nights and he was way more attached than he'd ever admit.
Shelby couldn't look at him. Her usual thrill of going undercover was nowhere to be found. The adrenaline that usually kicked in right about now was remarkably absent and she had a funny feeling it had everything to do with how comfortable she had got with him. Taking risks like this just wasn't as appealing when you actually had something to lose. Heck, this was one of the reasons she'd stopped letting Ben go undercover.
"You okay?" Danny asked her.
She just nodded. "Yeah. Give me a minute, kay?"
He nodded and left the room, an uncomfortable feeling growing in his gut. It was hard to adjust to her abrupt changes from personal to professional.
Flack met Danny's eye when he came out of the locker room and in that instant, knew his friend had fallen in love with Shelby. He knew that look all too well – it had been on his own face many times before. Maybe now Danny would understand why he'd told him to be careful.
After Danny had left, Shelby took a fewlong, deepbreaths to try to help herself focus. In her head, she was kicking herself. 'Way to go, Winters, you've done it again. You can't do this to someone. You can't ask them to be okay with what you do. It's just not fair.'
She put her hands in her face and tried desperately to push the thoughts away. She started visualizing her pending conversation with Yates and was surprised at how quickly thoughts of Danny vanished. More evidence that this was what she was born to do.
When she came out of the locker room, everyone could tell that she had her game face on. Her eyes were hard and cold and her walk crisp and deliberate. Without a word, Ben handed her a roll of cash and her earpiece. He knew her routine.
Danny started to follow them out to the van, but Shelby stopped him. "Where are you going?" she asked, even her voice had a chilly edge to it.
"With you," he answered.
"No you're not."
"Why not?"
"Because I said," was all she would say, giving him a hard look before turning and walking away.
Flack shrugged at Danny before following Shelby out. "I warned you," he said.
Danny hadn't expected that. Especially not after she had been so vulnerable with him the last few days.
"Hey, you okay?" Aiden asked him.
He furrowed his brow. "I don't know."
"You're falling for her, aren't you?"
Danny turned to look at his friend. "Is it that obvious?"
"Yeah," she grinned.
"It's just weird, you know – how fast she switches like that."
"Undercover is a hard life," she observed.
Danny just nodded. Shelby had hinted many times about what life was really like for her – and how much easier it was to do her job well when she was unattached. The uncomfortable feeling started to grow.
Shelby was fully in her zone, oblivious to everything but her end goal. The van ride to the Bronx was completely silent untilthey pulled to a stop a few blocks away from the old foundry.
"Something's wrong," Shelby said, her blue eyes dark.
"What do you mean?" Ben asked her.
"I don't know. I just feel it in my gut," she answered, carefully affixing her earpiece in her ear and tugging on her wig to make sure it was secure.
Don wanted to tell her not to go, that this could wait. They could find another way to infiltrate the cartel, but he knew it wouldn't be any use. Shelby was as stubborn as they came and there would be no dissuading her, even if she did feel as though something were wrong.
She left the van and started walking, pulling her trendy bomber-length trench coat tightly around her. This was not an unusual operation. She'd done it a million times before. But she'd never felt like this before. Her fight or flight instincts were raging in her body and it took all her effort to try to keep them in check. She cursed Danny under her breath and kept moving towards her target.
"Can you hear me okay?" she asked.
"Loud and clear. Be careful," Ben told her.
She didn't answer him this time, and even Ben started to worry.
Yates and his posse were waiting for her. She fixed a sly smile on her face and strode confidently towards him. She could hear the SWAT team taking their positions through her earpiece.
"You made it," Yates said. "I was starting to think you were gonna leave me hanging." He waved his hand over three large bags full of smaller baggies of cut heroin. "Your merchandise."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "What's going on here?" she asked.
"What is she doing?" Flack asked Ben back in the van. Ben shook his head and motioned for Don to keep quiet.
Yates chuckled. "Just a regular, everyday sale from a distributor to a dealer."
She shook her head. "No. Something's wrong. What is this, some kind of set up?"
Yates was frowning now. "Are you accusing me of something?"
"This is a sting operation, isn't it? You're not a dealer, you're a cop!"
"Shelby! What in god's name are you doing?" Ben demanded.
"You crazy bitch! What the hell is wrong with you?" Yates hissed.
"No. I'm outta here," she said, turning abruptly on her heel and starting to walk away.
"What the..? Fuck that – don't let her leave!" Yates yelled at his crew.
Shelby quickly broke the heels off her shoes and started running. What was she doing? This plan had sort of come out of nowhere. Maybe she should have told someone about it before barreling in like this…
The clamor in her earpiece increased as she raced out of the old building. Suddenly she felt a hot flash of fire in her arm and the distinct urge to drop to the ground. She fought it off and kept running, the chaos of noise in her ear and around her blending into a blur in her head. She was running down the street, her hand tightly squeezing her arm as warm blood flowed through her fingers, dropping to the ground and leaving a sickly trail behind her.
Suddenly, she felt arms grab her around the waist and haul her to the ground. "Stop running," a familiar voice said in her ear. "You'll only make it bleed worse."
Danny was already ripping his shirt apart to make a tourniquet for her. She looked at him as though she was seeing him for the first time. Where was she? He tied the strip tightly around her upper arm and pulled out a small flashlight which he shone in each of her eyes. She didn't blink.
"You're in shock," he told her. Of course she was. She knew that, why was he telling her? "Don, is the ambulance here?"
Don? She knew a Don. Been in love with a Don once. She smiled to herself. Why was her head so loud? She cupped her hand over the offending ear.
"Here," Danny said softly, pulling her hand away and gently taking the earpiece out. That was better.
She looked down at her good hand, which didn't look so good because it was covered in her own blood. She looked up at Danny with a question in her eyes.
"You're okay. Let's get you over to the ambulance," he said, as he and Flack helped her to her feet.
As soon as the paramedics laid her down on the stretcher, the shock wore off. She cried out as pain seared through her entire body.
"Shh, it's okay," Danny told her, gently stroking her hair.
One of the paramedics flicked a syringe to get rid of air bubbles and injected her with a clear fluid. She cried out once more when her arm was jolted as they loaded her into the ambulance and then she passed out. She didn't hear the loud explosion back at the foundry.