Suddenly a Spy (26 page)

“I told you that you belonged in the field,”
Sean came from behind the statue as Veronica dropped to the
ground.

“Thanks, Daddy,” she gave in to the impulse
to hug him. She wanted to ask where Rick was but was afraid the
answer might leave her unfit to finish the mission. So she
refrained from the questions, but allowed herself a minute to be
comforted by her daddy’s strong and reassuring arms.

The bullet that hit Jeff in the side took all
three of them by surprise. Veronica watched in horror as her
brother stumbled. Sean reached out to catch him.

“You,” Ronnie recognized Marko’s driver, who
now stood across the room with his gun leveled at her. “What it
your problem?”

“I knew you were trouble. From the moment I
saw you—I told Marko to walk away from you.”

Veronica didn’t care that his gun was aimed
at her. She had no patience for games, and fired her own gun while
diving for cover. A bullet nicked the table in front of her but
missed her. She let off another shot in his general direction, and
her father joined her. She didn’t stop firing until her gun was
empty.

The echoes of bullets died away and silence
descended. Veronica peeked over the table she was hiding behind,
relieved to see the driver slumped over a chair.

“Jeff,” Ronnie turned her attention to her
brother. Sean had ripped off his own shirt to staunch the flow of
blood from the wound.

“It’s a nick,” he promised his daughter. “It
looks worse than it is.”

“Go see if you can help out downstairs,” Jeff
urged.

“Are the girls being kept here?”

“They’re being brought in with the
antiques.”

“So when we were here before…”

“There were girls being smuggled in right
under our noses,” Jeff finished for her.

Veronica nodded, thinking about how many
things she’d failed to see just a few short months ago. “I’ll be
right back.”

Jeff nodded.

“I’ll call in our location,” Sean waved her
on.

“You didn’t arrange for backup before you
busted in? What is it with you guys—always so ill-prepared,”
Veronica chided.

“Don’t judge. We were just here to check
things out when all hell broke loose in the kitchen. Sounded like
someone turned a bull loose in a china closet. So we decided to go
in.”

Veronica didn’t comment. That would have been
Marko’s firecrackers. She felt like she should mourn his death, but
it was hard to think of much besides Rick. She still didn’t know
what had happened to him in Chicago, and she was afraid to ask.
Instead, she jogged downstairs.

She entered the dimly lit basement and
instinctively wrinkled her nose at the smell. Slave hygiene
obviously hadn’t been a huge priority for the Kulenovićs. The girls
needed to shower; their bedding desperately needed to be washed in
hot water. There was one bathroom in the corner for more than
thirty women to share.

The room was currently a scene of chaos.
Several different languages flowed at once as girls from Bulgaria,
Italy, Nigeria and beyond all converged on a central figure in the
room, seeking reassurance that the gunshots above did not signal
their end.

The man replied in French, Italian and then
in Bulgarian. Her heart tripped a funny beat. Regardless the
language being spoken, she recognized the accent behind it. She
took a step forward to get a better look at him and had the wind
momentarily knocked out of her.

He was there. He was okay. Rick glanced up
and gave her a grin. She gulped in some stale air and looked away.
She was in serious danger of falling into his arms as a sobbing,
gelatinous mess.

“Il va bien. Nous sommes là pour vous aider.
Rassemblez vos affaires et venir avec nous,” Veronica stepped
forward to help out in the one language she could. The Nigerian
woman turned to assess her and quickly decided Veronica was their
best option. They moved to do as she said, gathering what little
was theirs and lining up to follow her.

If Rick was confused by her refusal to
acknowledge him, he didn’t comment.

“Anche voi. Ти също,” he told the others to
do the same in their respective languages.

Careful not to actually look at Rick,
Veronica led the girls out of their dungeon with him at her side.
Every time he’d call out reassurances to their charges, his voice
would reach out and stroke her soul. She had to resist the urge to
lean into it.

The world they emerged to was different than
the one she’d left a few short minutes ago. Paramedics and federal
agents were beginning to descend on the place.

“Who is here to advocate for the girls?”
Veronica panicked for a moment before realizing it would be her.
She took a deep breath and pointed to the paramedic nearest her.
“You… come here.”

“Yes, ma’am?”

“You’re not going to expect me to start
answering like that, are you?” Rick leaned over to brush a kiss
against her temple. She stiffened. She wasn’t ready to feel his
touch. Not yet. He straightened, his eyes trying to read her before
finally giving up and striding off.

She closed hers briefly, trying to refocus
her brain before turning her attention back to the paramedic.
“Please see to these women. Do not let anyone take them anywhere
without my permission. Even if it’s a federal agent, do you
understand?”

She didn’t want the women shipped over to INS
in the confusion. It would be a nightmare trying to keep them from
being deported then. The last thing she wanted was for them to wind
up in the hands of a new set of slave traders.

“Yes, ma’am,” the kid couldn’t have been more
than nineteen, but he agreed with a solemnity that assured Veronica
he knew the seriousness of her request.

She went in search of Rick. If anyone had
thought to arrange for the care of the women, it would have been
him. She hadn’t meant to chase him off.

Veronica came to the stairs and paused.
Marko’s body would still be up there. She took a step up, only to
be called back by her father.

“Ronnie, have you been looked at yet?”

“Not yet, Daddy. I’m fine.”

“Get over here and let this young woman take
a look at you.”

No matter how old she got, there would never
be a day when Veronica would defy him when his voice took that
particular tone. She grudgingly walked back to Sean and the
paramedic he’d recruited to look her over.

Maybe it wasn’t patiently, but Veronica did
submit to the paramedic’s care and did answer the woman’s
questions.

“Your shoulder needs to be set, and that’s a
pretty nasty bump,” she poked at the back of Veronica’s head.

“It’s fine,” Ronnie winced.

“You probably have a concussion.”

“I’m fine.”

“Signs to watch for would be mood swings,
confusion, slurred speech, nausea…
“Got it. I’ll keep an eye out,” Veronica promised as she broke
away. Two men were coming down the stairs with a body on a
stretcher.

“Miss, we’re not done,” the paramedic called
out.

Veronica waved her off, her attention focused
on the stretcher coming down the stairs.

“Hey guys… can you give me a minute?”
Veronica looked down, gingerly pulling the sheet back. Maybe it was
wrong, but she couldn’t help the tears that trickled down her
cheeks. She’d set out to bring down a monster; she hadn’t expected
to come to know the man underneath. She remembered the dance they’d
shared, the day on the boat, that last night in the kitchen.

“You were an unlikely knight. Thank you for
coming back for me,” Veronica stroked his cheek, offering him one
last smile before replacing the sheet. She turned abruptly and
headed for the door, calling over her shoulder, “You can take
him.”

Veronica sucked in the fresh air and leaned
against the building. She was nearing the end of her endurance.

“So ah… do I want to know what that was?”
Rick came to lean against the building beside her.

“Marko was rescuing me. When Jeff shot
him.”

“Oh.”

“I don’t plan to tell Jeff.”

“Should it make a difference? He was still
one of the bad guys, Ron.”

“If he had walked away, he’d still be alive.
He died because he came back to save me.”

“He died because he was a crime boss and they
have notoriously short life spans.”

“You know, I got the impression from Petrov
that he’d always been the true boss. He let Marko think he was in
charge to serve his own purposes, but Petrov pulled the
strings.”

“That’s rather incidental now, don’t you
think?”

Veronica gave a slight nod of
acknowledgement.

“You know you’ve barely said hello to me.
Actually, you haven’t said hello. Or looked me in the eye.”

“Because I’m hanging on by a very thin
thread. I’m trying to be a good spy, here.”

“Ah,” he seemed to truly understand. His lip
twitched a little.

“I’d actually really like to go now.”

“Come on. The others can wrap up here. I need
to get you to a hospital.”

“No, that’s okay. I can stay and see this
through. I don’t want you cutting me slack because I’m a woman or a
newbie. I can do this.”

“I’m cutting you slack because you were a
captive. And because if I don’t get you alone soon, so I can see
for myself that you really are okay, then I just might go a little
crazy.”

“If you insist then,” she shoved herself off
the wall and waited for him to lead the way.

Rick’s phone chirped and he paused to answer
it. Veronica could tell that the conversation amused him by the
look on his face.

“Looks like we have to go clear a few things
up inside. Apparently some kid won’t let your dad come anywhere
near the girls. He’s waiting for you to come back.”

“Shoot. I forgot him,” Veronica smacked her
forehead. “What are we going to do with the girls?”

“Actually your brother helped out with that
one. I guess he had a fling with a journalist a while back. He gave
her a call and she made the arrangements. For exclusive rights to
the story, of course.”

“Rachel Cooper,” Veronica smiled, remembering
the brief romance between her brother and the sassy reporter. “I
liked her. I was so sad when Jeff screwed that one up. I remember
being jealous of her because she was smarter, prettier, and always
had interns at her disposal.”

“I doubt anyone could be smarter or prettier,
but I can understand the intern jealousy.”

“Flatterer.”

Veronica was happy the awkwardness passed
without circumstance. It was good to slide into their easy banter
again. She found the paramedic and thanked him for guarding the
girls, making a mental note of his name so she could follow up with
his supervisor later. Rick extracted her from the chaos again
before she could get sucked back in. He seemed to know she was at
the end of her endurance. But then, he always seemed to know what
was going through her brain.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

After several hours in the emergency room for
her shoulder to be set and cracked ribs to be taped, Rick drove
them to a white and maroon Super 8 in Long Island. It made her
smile that even in the face of a crisis, he’d stuck to their
newfound tradition.

“I splurged and got the Jacuzzi suite,” he
told her as he opened the door to their room.

“Fancy,” she took in the tiny maroon square
that was supposed to be the Jacuzzi.

“Nothing but the best, baby.”

“Hey, Rick?”

“Yes, love?”

She finally gave into the urge and launched
herself at him. He caught her, stroking her hair and whispering
words of comfort in his thick Scottish brogue. She finally got the
good, cleansing sob she so desperately needed.

“I was so scared. In Chicago, Marko said you
were heading into a trap. Then when I didn’t see you anywhere in
New York, I was so afraid I’d lost you.”

“I’m the only one that speaks Bulgarian. I
was sent to take care of the girls. Jeff went up to find you. I
wanted to be the one. I haven’t slept since I got back to the hotel
in Chicago to find you gone. I called Taylor and they said you’d
been dropped off….”

“I don’t know why Marko forgave me after
everything I did to him in Chicago. I stepped on his neck, Rick. I
blew up a building with him in it. Why did he save me?”

“Are you ever going to be able to let him
go?” a hint of sadness tinged his voice.

Veronica pulled back and looked up into his
eyes a moment before nodding. “There will never be another in this
marriage. It’s just you and me. You’re the one.”

He scooped her into his arms with a growl and
kissed her.

“What do you say we try to wedge two people
into that Jacuzzi?” he asked.

“Absolutely,” Veronica would have followed
him anywhere at that particular moment. “Just be gentle with the
shoulder.”

They didn’t actually make it as far as the
Jacuzzi until quite a bit later. When they did, Veronica lay on his
chest, listening to his heart beat out a reassuring rhythm. Rick
absentmindedly stroked her back, singing softly to her.

“Let’s just stay here, like this,
forever.”

“We might eventually prune.”

“Hopeless romantic,” she accused.

“And I’m actually kind of hungry.”

“Why do I even try?”

“You know your dad and brother are going to
head this way soon, too.”

“Forget I said anything,” she sat back and
scowled at him.

“Ah now, don’t get all fired up. I was only
teasing.”

She settled back against him, her eyelids
sinking closed.

“Except for the thing about your dad and
brother. They really are probably on their way now that your
brother’s been sprung from the hospital.”

“Fine,” she stood, only half pretending to
pout.

“You have to let them see for themselves
you’re okay,” he reasoned. “We were all worried.”