No More Games

Chapter Three

Lucy checked her watch for the third time since she'd settled into her the booth. While the rest of the team had already arrived, Jack and Sue were still no-shows. Walking Levi never usually took this long before and she was starting to get worried. However, Jack had been pretty shaken up by Sue's insecurity about taking the job in New York. Perhaps turtle boy had made a move.

Then again.

Sue would have called if the two of them would have decided to go off together someplace where they could just be alone. And she wasn't really the type to run out on her own party, either.

The rotor frowned as she tried to get into the story that Myles was regaling the rest of the team with. Unfortunately, she just couldn't do it.

Maybe she was reading too much into Jack and Sue's absence.

"You okay, Luce?" Bobby asked as he noticed her checking her watch again.

She tried to shrug away her thoughts and just enjoy the evening, but the concern was eating her up inside. "Jack and Sue should have been here by now. I'm getting worried."

Myles decided the rest of his story could wait as he checked his own watch. "I wouldn't worry too much. Maybe they had to make a stop on the way."

"Why don't you try Sue's blackberry?" Tara suggested as she took a sip from her glass of iced tea.

Lucy's fingernails tapped nervously on the tabletop as she glanced down at her cell phone almost willing for it to receive a message. "I already did. She didn't answer."

"Well, that's not really a bad thing," D pointed out. "Both of them have had a very difficult week. They probably just need to clear the air between them."

"Maybe Sparky finally made a move," Bobby offered as he sipped from his glass, which caused interested glances to dance around the table.

"We can only wish," Myles mumbled as he buried his face behind a menu. The rest of the team could only smile as they pushed their concerns away and decided what they wanted for dinner.

"Where is our waitress?" Myles mumbled as he checked his watch and then glanced around the dining room. Cindy—their young waitress—had promised that she would be right with them to take their orders. That had been at least fifteen minutes ago and there hadn't been any sign of her since. In fact, none of the wait staff had been seen for quite some time.

"Where are Jack and Sue?" Lucy countered, her worry officially escalating far beyond concern. Her poor napkin had been tied into a knot after Myles had begged her to stop tapping her fingernails against the tabletop and her leg had begun shaking uncontrollably.

Something was wrong. She could feel it deep down inside. There was a reason why Jack and Sue hadn't shown up and as much as she would like to commiserate with the group's previous musing, she just couldn't.

"Are you still on that, Luce?" Bobby asked with a roll of his eyes.

"Well I'm sorry if you're so willing to brush it off, but it's not like them to just not show up or at least call. I'm starting to get really worried." She gave up twisting her poor napkin into knots and tossed in on the table.

"You know, I'm starting to get worried too," Tara piped up. And it wasn't just because Lucy was going crazy with worry. She didn't know what it was, but she just had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

D checked his watch with a frown. Tara wasn't the only one with a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. "Did you try Jack's phone?"

Lucy nodded as she tried to fight back the sting of tears. "Twice and I only got his voicemail."

Bobby frowned as he leaned forward and folded his arms over the tabletop. "That's not like Jack." Even if Sparky was otherwise occupied, he would always answer his phone.

Myles glanced around the table at his teammates, each of them wore the same expression of concern. "I'm sure it's nothing to worry about," he spoke up as if the whole idea was ludicrous. He laughed half-heartedly though as if even he couldn't believe his own words.

The trill of a cell phone startled the entire group, each reaching for their own to see if it was one of their friends calling. D lifted his cell to his ear, four gazes shifting in his direction. "Gans," he answered. He straightened up just a bit in his chair, his eyes darting toward the worried group. He gave a mere shake of his head to tell them that it was neither Sue nor Jack. "Yes sir?"

"Hurry up, Maggie!" a voice called from the kitchen. A mop of blonde hair tied up in a ponytail poked out of the door as the waitress motioned to her friend eagerly to join her.

A petite brunette quickly excused herself from the couple she was waiting on to hurry back to the kitchen. She didn't want to miss a moment of the situation playing on the news.

Reaching out as she passed, Bobby gently took hold of her arm. "Excuse me?" he asked.

She smiled down at him, but she was eager to get find out what she missed. "Yes, sir?" she asked as she bounced from one foot to the other.

"What's going on?"

Her eyes instantly widened in their sockets. "You haven't heard?"

"Heard what?" Tara asked, unable to ignore the fact that Bobby's hand still rested on the girl's arm. The fact that she was much too young for the Aussie never occurred to her as jealousy suddenly roared to life inside of her.

"There's a guy trying to rob a bank a few blocks away. It's on every news channel."

"What bank?" Lucy asked.

"Washington First National." She seemed to be impressed by the fact.

Bobby's grip instantly slackened as his face blanched. No one seemed to notice, though and for that he was thankful. Clearing his throat, he managed to smile up at the girl. "Thank you." She merely smiled back before she headed off back toward the kitchen.

"Why didn't you ask where our waitress was?" Myles whined as he watched her disappear into the back.

"Sorry, mate. Slipped my mind."

Myles was ready with a rejoinder, but the ending of D's call caught his attention, along with the rest of them.

"We're on it," was the last thing D said before he flipped his phone shut and raised his usually calm brown eyes to the rest of the team. Something had forced the usual sparkle in his eyes to hide and that was something the rest of them didn't like at all. Swallowing thickly, he thought about how he was going to phrase his next statement. "We have a situation."