Thanks for your patience, peeps, this chapter was on my nerves, and before I could move the plot forward, I needed to rewrite this one....
As Oscar prepared to step out of the car, Russ stopped him with a light hand on his forearm.
"The NSB is taking a wide stance, but the OSI teams have got you under tight surveillance; when it starts to go down, just get out of the way, and we'll move in." He squeezed Goldman's arm. "Oscar, don't do anything heroic. I'd like to still have you as my boss tomorrow morning...."
Oscar nodded, but maintained the tightly controlled silence he'd displayed since leaving the OSI building. Russ felt his stomach twist slightly as Goldman slammed the limo door shut, turned, and disappeared into the front entrance of his building. Oscar couldn't afford for any of them to make a mistake.
Despite the argument ensuing within, the dark car raced through the streets of Washington D.C.
"Jaime, be reasonable--"
"--Be reasonable? Oscar faked a coronary so that he could shoot me up with a sedative; don't tell me to be reasonable. He scared me, Rudy, and it was cruel. My trust in him has always been absolute; but now, I don't know what to think...."
Rudy saw the tears welling up in Jaime's eyes, and his voice softened considerably. "You can trust him, Jaime." She looked at him, unconvinced. "I know he went about it in the wrong way, but my guess is he felt he had no choice, and his need to protect you outweighed everything else." She still said nothing, and Wells took her hand gently in his own, "Come on, Jaime. What does your instinct tell you? Do you honestly believe that Oscar would harm you?"
She shook her head, a few tears washing down her cheeks, "No, but he should have just told me what was going on, instead of scaring me like that...."
Rudy squeezed the hand in his, "I know. But you have to believe that while it was a bad judgment call, Oscar didn't do it to hurt you."
She nodded, her timbre acknowledging the truth, "I do know that, Rudy." She sighed heavily, "But he's going to hear about it."
"Let's just hope we get to him in time for him to hear about it." Jaime looked into his eyes, and Rudy looked away. His voice was filled with dread, "He's alone this time, Jaime. He's alone, and I'm afraid for him."
She rubbed his hand softly, reassuringly.
"Rudy, come on babe, it's going to be okay....."
Wells looked up at her, "I hope so, because the alternative is unthinkable."
Jaime didn't answer him, but her heart skipped a beat. And in an instant, her red-hot anger had turned to ice-cold fear.