A/N: Before you rabid CG fans start throwing rotten tomatoes at my computer screen, rest assured our intrepid hero will win the day, I think--the jury seems to still be out. There are just a few obstacles to be overcome. He is a strong enough man with a large enough, um ego, yeah, that's right, that it will all work out, I hope.

Two Lonely Souls

Chapter 16

Charlie and Amita sat with Cole and Isabella for a while, conversation was at a minimum. Everyone was distracted by what was happening elsewhere. Ultimately Cole went to watch TV and Charlie and Amita went upstairs to their room. Isabella sat staring at the clue boards, thinking about what was happening 15 miles away to men she knew and loved, thinking about Colby, thinking about Tommy. Tommy—they had never given themselves a chance. What a mess she had made of her life.

In the silence of the virtually empty Penthouse, she heard the ding of the elevator. There was no way anyone should be back already. Her instinct pushed into high gear. Cole was behind closed doors with the TV on. Isabella walked quickly to the door to the TV room just as someone slipped a card key through the lock. She immediately pulled her weapon as the alarm went off bringing Cole out of the room at lightening speed. An unknown man entered, casually seeing Isabella standing directly in front of him with a loaded weapon aimed at him. The screeching alarm dragged Charlie and Amita out of their room.

"Charlie, panic room NOW! Close the door, NOW, NOW, NOW." Charlie froze but Amita was clearheaded and dragged Charlie into the panic room and sealing the door behind them. Isabella was thrilled that Amita had listened and they were safe.

Cole made a move towards the stranger, and was promptly greeted with a thrown knife into his brachial artery in his shoulder and he went down.

Isabella watched the stranger. He was probably about 30, Middle Eastern, clean cut, and definitely dangerous.

"What do you want?" Her voice was calm and quiet. She would kill him soon, but she needed to at least find out who he was or what he wanted.

"I wanted to see you, my Isolde. The cells are taken down by now, but you are what I seek."

"You sought, and you found. What about the game on Saturday?"

"There is nothing left to do with Saturday. It is over. But you my Isolde, I had to see you. My life is about duty and honor, but yours is about love."

"Actually Haji, my life is about all three, none of which have anything to do with you. You are a terrorist, who broke into my home and have seriously injured my bodyguard. I will toss you some cuffs to put on yourself, or I will kill you. You have five seconds, 5, 4, 3…" The man left the cuffs on the ground where she had tossed them and stalked towards her. Suddenly the congenial man became predatory, and Isabella recognized that body language. He planned to attack her if he got close enough. Not happening… "1." The shot from her gun sent a bullet through his center forehead and he crumpled where he stood. She checked his vitals, and then raced to Cole lying in a puddle of blood. His artery had at the very least been nicked.

She knew the police would already be on their way, so her first call was for an ambulance. She described the injury, gave an address, and hung up. She raced upstairs and released the panic room and immediately told Amita and Charlie to cover the boards with sheets or blankets, quickly before the police got there.

She then turned the alarm off before her brain exploded from the terrifying loudness and sat next to Cole to start a pressure tourniquet on Cole before he lost more blood. She laid her phone on his chest and put it on speaker, calling Don.

"Eppes"

"Don, Haji showed up here after you guys left. He's dead, Cole's hurt bad, the police and ambulance are on their way."

"You? Charlie?!"

"We're good. Good thing Amita can keep her head, your brother froze. They are covering the boards now, I've got a pressure tourniquet on Cole. What is going on there? Did you get them all?"

"Yeah, we are all done. We got all but one, but I guess you got that one. I'm sending Colby and Tommy to you now. The police take nothing, not even the body. This is a Homeland Security issue being handled by the FBI and the Federal Government. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Thanks Don. The police and paramedics just walked in. Gotta go."

The police came in all blustery and "in charge," irritating everyone. Isabella kissed Cole's forehead as the paramedics rushed him to the hospital.

"M'am? You are the owner of this Penthouse? Can you tell me what happened here?"

"Detective Majors, is that right? My name is Isabella Worthington. The dead man is a terrorist whose cell was taken out tonight by the FBI. More than that, you'll have to wait until the SAC shows up. The three of us are not at liberty to share any information before he gets here." Some of the officers were lifting the blankets and sheets and Isabelle stood and removed their hands from the boards.

"This is classified information officers. I assure you, you are not cleared for this information."

"M'am, are you being uncooperative? You have an unarmed dead man lying on your floor, some sort of secret information, and a whole heck of a lot of unregistered arms in that library over there. I am going to arrest you if you don't start talking."

"You can arrest me Det. Majors if you feel compelled to do that. But it would be a disastrous career move."

"Oh, and now you threaten me. Roberts, arrest this woman. Cuff her. Pull those sheets off those boards."

Colby and Gifford walked in the door at exactly the right time.

"Touch those sheets and I will arrest you for terrorism and being a traitor. You have been told that is highly classified information and it is not for you to see. And officer, if you put handcuffs on that woman I will arrest you as well. "Colby was beyond pissed at the police, scared that Isabella could have been hurt or killed, and just generally still pumped on adrenaline. He was still in his full body armor and carrying his assault rifle and guns. He flipped his badge out in front of the detective in charge.

Tommy walked carefully over to Isabella. He was still dressed in his full body armor, including a gas mask hanging from his neck. He was armed with assault rifles, guns, knives, the whole nine yards.

"Are you ok, baby?"

"I'm good. When the guys get back I need one of them to figure out how the hell he got up here. No one sleeps until we find out how security was breached. He came up the elevator, used a key card to get in the door. He never bothered with the alarm, seemed unconcerned with the police call out. He took Cole out right away, then he came after me unconcerned that I was armed. He planned to rape and then kill me, Tommy. I could tell from what he was saying, the predatory walk and the look in his eyes."

Colby and the Detective were getting heated. Tommy touched her shoulder and then left to go help Colby out. Annoyed with the pissing match, Isabella got up to go to the kitchen for a drink. The detective practically had hypoxia with her moving around the room. She picked up her cell phone and called the mayor for some help before it got really bad.

"Hi Charlie. I'm sorry to bother you this late. We have a complicated situation going on here dealing with terrorism. The FBI and the military have been working on this together. Yes, we'll be happy to debrief you tomorrow. But right now, I have a dead body in my living room, a lot of highly classified material, an FBI agent and Lt. Col. who have been on the task force, and while all that is fine, I have also have a prick Det. who tried to arrest me and is dying to uncover the top secret information. The body needs to belong to the FBI. I need you to get rid of these police officers from my home. It's going to fill up shortly with FBI and military, and it could go to hell in a hand basket shortly. Thank you. I'll be sure someone briefs you tomorrow. Here is your Detective Majors. Detective, the mayor on the phone for you." She gave him her coldest smile and handed him her cell phone.

Within five minutes, the Penthouse was empty again and Colby had called the FBI coroner to get the body.

"Thanks for getting rid of them. Things were going to get ugly, and I'm really too tired to deal with him."

"Sure, baby. When everyone gets back, I need you to take me to the hospital for Cole. Or are you too tired? He lost so much blood. He can't die. No more dead body guards."

"I will take you. Tommy might want to go as well. We need to have exceptional security on you in case this is a trap. Don's going to want a statement, and then we can go. I'm going to go shower, Gifford probably wants to as well. Then we'll go to the hospital. We should take his sisters too."

"Good. I'll go get the girls up. Thanks guys." She tiredly pulled herself out of the chair to head to the other side of the hall. The girls were scared, but followed Isabella's directions and got dressed and waited in their apartment. By the time she was back in the Penthouse, everyone was back. She gave David her brief statement and her fired weapon and headed upstairs.

Isabella walked into her room planning to freshen up and was surprised to find both Colby and Tommy in the room together. She slowly closed the door behind her and locked the door.

"What are you doing here?" The surprise showed in her face and in her voice. While she was waiting for an answer, she walked into the bath area, redid her makeup, brushed her hair and changed her clothes into low cut jeans and a tight fitting Special Forces hoodie with an extreme skull and cross bones on it and some Ed Hardy boots with flaming skulls on them. She walked back out into the room since she hadn't heard back from her question.

"We were talking. We have a proposal." Colby answered and lay down on the bed. Tommy joined him there leaving room for Isabella to join them, laying between them. She looked at them skeptically but climbed in between them anyway. "I'm listening." She really had no idea what they were thinking but wanted to hear. She found herself becoming a little excited.

"True or False, Isabella? You are in love with two different men."

She looked at Colby and then over to Tommy, question marks all over her face. "True."

"True or False, Isabella? You are in love with Tommy but the two of you have never even kissed."

"True."

True or False? You are having a hard time choosing between us."

"True."

"Good, thanks for being honest. I proposed to Tommy that the two of you should go away together. Some place close by like the Hotel Coronado, or somewhere farther away like your Tahiti Island. It doesn't matter as long as you spend several days and nights together. Isabella, I love you, and I know I've have been a shit lately, and we can talk about why later. I can deal with the constant lust in this house coming from so many. But you are having second thoughts about you and me, you and Gifford. I think you deserve to KNOW which man you want, with all the information you need to make an informed decision. Neither of us wants you to make a choice without all of the information. We both want nothing more than for you to be happy. What do you think?"

She lay between two men she adored, and smirked sexily at the two amazingly well built, well endowed men. "What do you think of a three-way? Here I am lying between two of the sexiest men I have ever known, imagine the possibilities. It makes me hot, what about you? True or False?"

Both men laughed loudly at her counter proposal, while Colby hauled her off the bed and over his shoulder. "We are not going to answer that you little tease. We are going to go check on your beloved bodyguard. No talk of three ways, or anything else, until you and Tommy have your shot, alone, together."

He slapped her ass hanging so prettily over his shoulder, while Tommy watched entertained from the bed. "Let's go. Tommy get your lazy ass out of bed and move it. Unless you plan to stay there."

"I wouldn't mind being back here, but I'm coming." Tommy moved reluctantly off the bed and followed Colby and Isabella out the door.