Author's Note: I updated yesterday too! Two updates in two days! Thank you to those few that reviewed the latest chapter. I really do appreciate it. I write for stress relief. Hopefully, reading helps with your stress relief.
Chapter 7:
The next morning, Andy was up with the sun as always and found Adrian getting ready to take his own run. "You want to wait for me and we can go together?" she asked wrapping arms around him from behind. She felt him cover her hands with his own and rested her head between his shoulder blades.
"Of course, but hurry up, I have an early meeting in town," he replied pressing a kiss to her knuckles then releasing her, and she went to change.
He waited for her at the bottom of the stairs and they proceeded through the kitchen and out the back of the house that lead to a running path towards the base of the hill the house sat on. As they made the turn onto the public path, she noticed the dark sedan that had been following her.
"Adrian, is that one of yours?" she questioned motioning towards the car. She was curious if he was the one having her followed.
"No, why do you ask?" he questioned looking genuinely surprised by her question. Andy nearly stopped when she realized he wasn't faking the unexpectedness of the question.
"I noticed I was being followed right after you left on Thursday last week. During the field trip to the temple, I noticed he was following my group. I thought you had hired me a security detail and wanted to be introduced to them. You had mentioned it before you left, and I assumed he was your man," Andy explained as they slowed their pace.
"I would never hire someone without telling you first. I wouldn't want to scare you," he replied and came to a stop near their usual spot where the path bent close to the cliffs. "Your body guard was going to start on Friday night. I had hoped to have your input."
Andy's mind was racing as she processed the information. If Adrian wasn't having her followed, then who was the man following her? And why was she being targeted? "Adrian, who's following me then?" she questioned adding just a touch of fear into her voice.
Adrian pulled her into his arms and kissed her forehead. "I don't know, but I will find out. I will have Marcus drive you to school today and pick you up after."
"My brother was going to pick me up on their way to the house, I'll be safe with him," Andy informed him with steady assurance as they started back to the house.
Adam and Preach sat in the car not far from the park bench where Adrian and Andy had stopped. The bug they had planted on the bench picking up the conversation with ease. Jaz, McG, and Amir had been carefully hidden along the footpath keeping an eye out for Andy's tail. Preach and Adam had shared a look when it was revealed the tail wasn't Adrian's man.
"Who is the body guard that was hired?" Adam asked Noah over comms.
"He hasn't made a decision yet." Hannah replied moving easily through the files and connections to the company Adrian used to employ his security detail.
"Any way we can get someone on the inside?" Adam questioned pulling at his lip.
Noah and Hannah looked to Patricia before watching her nod in agreement. "It's going to have to be either Preach or McGuire. Amir has already been put into play."
"Preach?" Adam questioned looking at his old friend.
"I think McGuire would be the better fit." Preach answered honestly, "He fits the rest of the crew Adrian already has around him." Adam nodded, and Noah confirmed they would start building him a deep cover.
Marcus drove Andy to the school as she sent a quick message to her brother that she was anxious to see him that afternoon and to covertly let him know that she was on the move. Adrian had been spooked that morning and she knew that Adam and his team had heard the conversation and were working the problem. It was rare for her to feel so unbalanced by her situation and she felt tense as she climbed out of the car. She slung her bag over her shoulder and walked into the school glancing around cautiously. Her tail was at the end of the block on his cell phone. She was disappointed that Marcus didn't even notice him.
When she arrived in her classroom, she noticed that her star globe had been moved slightly. She approached her desk cautiously, set her bag down and lifted the base. There was a piece of paper taped to the underside.
Earwig and button cam inside desk. Don't argue.
Adam clearly was not letting her be out of communication the rest of the op. She was okay with that, but knowing her classroom was bugged after so carefully checking it for the last six months, made her edgy. She quickly slipped the earwig in and pulled her hair into a low side ponytail that covered her right ear. The button cam was easy to attach to her collar and within minutes, she heard familiar voices in her ear.
"Good morning," she stated quietly while she sipped her coffee and began to ready her classroom for the day's lessons. She turned on the radio low so that the noise of her talking to herself would seem like she might just be singing under her breath.
"The Russians have apparently taken an interest in you Andy," Deputy Director Campbell's voice informed her.
"Not sure why, I've never been to Russia," Andy replied setting out the markers and crayons at each team of desks. She moved with ease around the room, briefly considered leaving the blinds closed, but knew that Adam would have someone up on the room across the way watching her.
"Perhaps it has something to do with your fiancé?" Amir suggested with a slight note of sarcasm. It was barely there, but she heard it and she wondered if anyone on his team noticed. Andy rolled her eyes to herself.
"If that is the case, it would explain why he was genuinely spooked this morning. I wonder if something has gone wrong with the plans for Saturday." Andy rapidly worked her way through the guest list in her head before she heard the voices of the students entering the building.
"Do me a favor today while I'm teaching? Keep the chatter to a minimum. I'm not used to people talking in my head all day," Andy requested with a hint of anxiety.
Jaz looked over at Top with concern. Andy was rock solid in the field according to Amir, mission focused and ready to do her job. "Kids require more focus. Plus, they are innocent lives that she is protecting while she's in that classroom," Preach answered with a shrug from the backseat.
They isolated Andy's feed so that only Hannah spoke to her throughout the day. Everything was as it should be, the kids were well behaved, and recess provided a much-needed break from the confined space of a classroom. She took her students out to the playground to burn off energy after lunch so that they would be able to focus on the spelling lesson she had scheduled for that afternoon. She sat on a picnic table and watched over her students with a grin. This part of her cover she enjoyed. Kids were so innocent and played with such abandon that she found herself able to relax.
She noticed the man against the fence line and bit back a groan of frustration. Why did the bad guys not know boundaries? "Hannah, my ten o'clock," she whispered as she climbed from the picnic table. She moved casually in a circuit around the playground and made sure that they could get a clear shot of the guy following her. "Don't these guys have limits? Stay away from the kids," she mumbled angrily.
"Andy, focus," Adam scolded to himself more than anything because he knew she couldn't hear him.
Jaz kept an eye on the man in the blue windbreaker and watched as he fiddled with his cell phone. It looked like he was taking pictures. "I get the feeling they are not after her because she's CIA. So, what did Dimakos do to piss off the Russians?" she questioned as she itched to reach for her rifle but knew that it was tucked away so that someone walking by wouldn't see it.
"That's what worries me. We need to get a copy of that guest list," Adam stated once again running a hand over his beard.
Jaz could see that he was anxious sitting there in the car with nothing to do. There wasn't a way to make it easier, they just had to wait patiently until the end of the school day. The waiting also gave Jaz time to think about Andy and Amir. Amir rarely shared anything of his past with the team, at least regarding his time with the CIA. She knew he had been recruited and that he had done well enough that he had spent three years working alone, but how had he been before that? Before working alone was his only way of life?
"How did Andy get involved with the CIA?" Jaz questioned looking over at the man she considered her partner. He glanced over at her with that half smile of his that made her wonder what he was thinking.
"Patricia. Andy applied for an internship while I was deployed, right after Andy started college in DC. She found out that Andy was my sister and good with languages, gave her the opportunity. Andy worked as an analyst for a time with the DIA, she helped on one of our missions and impressed Patricia enough that she was encouraged to try for the CIA." Adam thought back to the conversation with Andy the day she completed her training and he had been home one leave.
It was just before she was sent out on her first official op and they came up with the code words for when either one of them were in distress. They told no one in case they were compromised in some way. In fact, they had never used it until now. Thinking back on it, he wondered if she would have used it in Germany.
When his team had been called in for the exfil in Germany, they had not been given any details other than it being a CIA team posed as a couple and the address. Elijah Vallins and McG had recently joined the team, Jimmy had announced he was retiring and Dalton had been in the process of figuring out his replacement. The last thing he had expected when he had approached the door of the small farm house was the bloody handprint on the door frame and drops of blood leading to the alleyway.
"Top," Preach whispered pointing to the smeared handprint. They each reached for their side arms and started sweeping the house. They found a pool of blood in the living room and the handprints of someone having dragged themselves to the door.
"Top, got a body," Jimmy called out from the kitchen. Top entered the kitchen and stared down at the body of a middle-aged man, a single gunshot to the head.
"He's not ours," Patricia stated in his ear. Adam breathed a sigh of relief.
"Top, found a trail," McG had called out from the front of the house. Adam followed him out the front of the house and into the narrow alley that lead to an open field. The wheat was tall as it was late summer and not quite harvest time yet. They followed the blood to a dense patch of crushed wheat. They approached the body of a woman with dark hair lying facedown in the dirt and Adam felt his gut tighten as McG went to check for a pulse. McG nodded indicating he had found a pulse and slowly turned her over.
McG turned the woman over looking for her injury as her entire front was covered in blood. She moaned as she reached to push the hair from her face. He heard Adam draw in a sharp breath. McG looked down at her and recognized the blue eyes staring up at him. "Where are you hurt?" he demanded reaching for her the hem of her shirt. She started rattling in German.
"Andy, where are you hurt?" Adam demanded kneeling next to him. The woman looked up at Top with confused recognition.
"He shot me in the stomach," she answered in English. She sounded exhausted.
"McG, get that bleeding under control," Top ordered reaching for her hand. McG gave him a questioning look. Top wasn't following procedure to confirm her identity, but he clearly knew the woman. "She's my sister," Top answered. "Stay with me Andy," he ordered holding her hand.
McG continued to work on Andy and somehow managed to control the bleeding enough until a chopper landed nearby to take them to Ramstein AFB and the nearest military hospital. He stayed with her as she drifted in and out of consciousness. Her blood pressure was low, and she was still losing blood. The bullet had not exited, and McG was concerned about it rolling around in her gut doing more damaged. They landed, and Andy was loaded onto a gurney on the roof of the hospital and McG followed giving a rundown of what he had done for treatment as Top followed behind.
Hours later, Andy was out of surgery and stable. The rest of the team had cleared the safe house and burned all necessary information, but there was no sign of her partner. They had searched the area but found nothing. The CIA had informed Patricia that it was part of the cover and the information was need to know.
"That's all well and good, but what if she asks where he is?" Adam demanded.
"Tell her that he is alive and that is all that matters. They accomplished their mission," she answered.
"You know that she's not going to accept that answer, don't you?"
"She's going to have to. It's all Langley is giving us," Patricia answered with resignation. Andy could be as stubborn as her brother and Patricia knew that Andy would probably pursue the information she wanted once she was back on her feet again.
McG sat by Andy's bedside while Top was on the phone with DIA and he was there as she opened her eyes for the first time. She blinked in confusion and then he watched as the realization dawned on her. She groaned and attempted to roll over.
"I wouldn't recommend that," he stated simply. She immediately moved her eyes in his direction.
"Joseph McGuire, medic," she stated as if answering an internal question.
"Not fair that you know me, but I don't know you," he laughed standing and moving closer to her bedside.
"Andrea Turner, everyone calls me Andy," she replied trying to find a comfortable position that she could sit up more.
"Top's sister. He didn't mention you were CIA," he finished looking down at her pale face.
"Where's my partner?" she questioned wincing again as a stitch pulled in her side. She also had ignored the CIA comment.
"Patricia says mission accomplished and he's alive. Now who shot you?" Adam demanded re-entering the room.
"Hello to you too, big brother," she answered breathing through the pain. "My partner shot me to keep our cover, clearly it worked, or she wouldn't have said mission accomplished. Now I just have to pray that he stays safe." She closed her eyes briefly and wished she could see Amir in person to know he was okay.
"Why did he have to shoot you to keep his cover?" McG questioned looking on confused.
"It was a test and a way to save my life by not dragging me into the next mission. I wouldn't have been able to follow him, and they would have killed me anyway." She answered the questions, but McG could see it was wearing her out to be interrogated.
"Was the plan to actually kill you? Because that's what he almost did." Adam was pissed that she was taking the whole thing so lightly.
"It wasn't supposed to happen that way," she mumbled closing her eyes.
"Top?" Jaz questioned drawing his attention back to the present.
"She should be done for the day soon," he answered sitting up in the seat to track the Russian following his sister. He watched the guy leave his post by the fence.
"Do we have an I.D. on this Russian?"
"Dimitri Petrov, Russian national, gun for hire," Noah announced in his ear.
"Any idea who hired him this time?"
"Still working on it," Noah answered sounding equally frustrated. Adam ground his teeth to keep from snapping as he and Jaz made sure the car was cleared of any evidence before they moved to circle the block and pick up his sister.
Andy packed up her classroom and swore under her breath when Perro came into her classroom as the last student left. "Mr. Perro, what can I do for you?" she questioned with a smile fixed on her face.
"I was wondering if you had finalized the guest list for this weekend," he stated rubbing his hands together.
"We were going to finalize it this evening because we've had some last-minute updates. Why?" she questioned pulling the strap of her bag over her shoulder. She wondered what he was angling for as they began the walk outside.
"Mr. Fischer has decided to enroll his daughter and I might have mentioned that we were all going to your engagement party this weekend and somehow I invited him to join in." Perro sounded genuinely confounded on how he had been maneuvered into the invite but knowing he had been maneuvered. She bit back a grin knowing that Amir had worked his own brand of magic to get himself inside for the party.
"It's perfectly fine Mr. Perro, the more the merrier," she assured him. "I really must be going though; my brother and his girlfriend are picking me up today." She looked up and spotted Adam and Jaz standing outside their vehicle. She waved over to them and said her goodbyes.
They put on a show of hugging each other and smiling. Adam introduced her to Jaz and she hugged Jaz as though they were old friends. Jaz whispered in her ear that her tail was close by and they should get going. When Andy slid in the backseat, she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Any more news on my Russian tail?" she asked itching to be free of her earwig.
"His name is Dimitri Petrov, professional gun for hire. Our guess is that it has something to do with Adrian. We are going to need a copy of your guest list for Saturday. Hopefully it will help us connect the dots and get this figured out before we go in," Jaz informed her while Adam negotiated traffic.
"I have been running the names discreetly, but Adrian told me last night Peter Semenov is coming, and he had been a solid maybe last week. He is a business rival and old friend of Adrian's. The story is they had a falling out nearly four years ago and they only recently started mending fences. I'm not sure what the falling out was over, but it had something to do with his cousin Irene. I think Adrian stood her up at the altar?"
Andy watched Jaz and Adam exchange a look that made her feel like they were having an entire conversation, and she smothered a grin. It was interesting getting to watch Adam work in person for once. The years of watching from afar had been filled with anxiety until she learned how to manage the risks that came with his job and led her to believe she could also make a difference like he did. The one thing she had not seen though in the thirteen years she had known her brother, the look he gave the woman beside him. It spoke of understanding, faith and trust in his partner. Maybe something more.
She filed away the information as they pulled into the driveway of Adrian's house. Taking a deep breath, she settled back into Andrea Weber, the strong, but soft-spoken school teacher. Marcus opened her car door when they pulled to a stop and she smiled up at him. He nodded, and she turned to introduce her brother.
"Marcus, this is Adam, my brother, and his girlfriend Tasha Bellerose. They will be coming to the engagement party on Saturday," Andy stated as her brother and Jaz shook his hand. Behind his back, Jaz shot her a look that Andy knew meant she didn't like the frilly last name. Andy simply smiled warmly.
Adrian chose that moment to step out on to the front steps, his arms spread wide in greeting. "Welcome!"
Andy walked up and wrapped her arms around him with a smile. "You're home early, I thought you would be working until at least six. I was going to have dinner waiting for you," she said with excitement and confusion.
"I couldn't let you entertain your family without me here. You hardly speak about them and I want to hear all about little Andy with pigtails. I've never seen pictures of you as a child, but I have to imagine Adam has plenty of stories he can share," Adrian boasted reaching out a hand for Adam to shake. Adam took his hand in a firm grip before he turned to Jaz. "And you must be the lovely Tasha. Andrea has been most anxious to meet the woman who has stolen her brother's heart," he had added reaching for Jaz's hand and placing a kiss across her knuckles.
Andy watched Adam's face as a flicker of irritation crossed it. She raised an eyebrow at him with a grin. Andy might have embellished slightly on their relationship, but she enjoyed making her brother squirm. Jaz for her part played Adrian like a fiddle while they all walked inside. Andy looped her arm through Adam's and whispered to him, "Is she going to kill me in my sleep?"
"Nope, she'll get her revenge in other ways," he promised, and she groaned inwardly. Adam laughed as they walked in the house. He gave her a reassuring squeeze and she smiled up at him. He'd missed his sister and despite the circumstances, he was glad to be there.
"Andrea has promised to make her favorite pasta," Adrian informed Jaz as he leads her into the kitchen.
"Yes, because it is the only thing I can make without hours of prep time. I'm going to go upstairs and freshen up really quick. Adrian, love, play nice," she ordered disengaging her arm from Adam.
Andy made her way up the stairs and stashed her gun. She changed into a loose fitting grey sweater and darker grey leggings before slipping on a pair of flats. Tossing the laundry in the corner, she stepped out and found Jaz leaning against the wall. Andy raised an eyebrow at her with a smirk. "I get the ninja reference now," Andy commented crossing her arms.
"You seem to know an awful lot about everyone on our team considering we hardly know you," Jaz commented casually. It was slightly unnerving and reminded her of how Alex Hoffman had known so much about them without having ever met them.
"I know some better than others. I know because Adam tells me and because I like to know who my brother is working with and who has his back. He's the only family I have," Andy replied looking over at the woman beside her. Jaz, she could tell was looking out for her team and her brother. "I called you in, because if he trusts you, then I trust you. Come on, we'll go to my office and get that guest list." Andy led the way down the hall to the small room with a view of the water from the back windows.
"Amir has managed to add himself to the guest list, so we'll have three on the inside and I know he'll be able to get to the entrance to the tunnel in the kitchen without much trouble. I'm assuming you have a plan to get Preach and McG in somehow?" Andy questioned handing over the thumb drive. Jaz nodded, but didn't elaborate. It was easier to keep the plan fluid if the team kept certain aspects to themselves, it allowed Andy to have natural reactions.
"Top said you were a terrible cook," Jaz offered as the descended the stairs. Andy rolled her eyes with a smile.
"He hasn't lived with me in over a decade. I have learned a few things over the years," Andy laughed as they entered the kitchen. Jaz laughed too, and the men looked up as they entered the room.
Jaz moved to stand beside Adam, wrapping an arm around his shoulders, and Andy smiled when she watched his arm snake around her waist. The ease of the affection he showed her is what Andy noticed as she turned to fill a pot of water on the stove. She moved around the kitchen with practiced ease and she could almost pretend that she was in a normal relationship and her brother was there for a visit and she wasn't playing with fire.
Jaz watched as Andy moved around and listened intently to the conversation around them, but she couldn't help feeling distracted by Top's thumb rubbing circles on her lower back. It was always hard to keep the line of CO and subordinate in her mind when they went undercover as a couple, and time away from him during leave had done little to erase that feeling. She moved slightly away from his hand and he must have realized what he was doing, because his hand settled on her hip. Jaz got the impression that he was in someway marking his territory and had to fight to not roll her eyes as she joined back in the discussion.