The Housewife Assassin's Deadly Dossier (25 page)

She frowned. “At two in the morning?”
 

“I’m leaving town. You were my last stop.” He knew better than to lie to her, even without the bat in her hand. “You’re right, I guess I could have left it on the front stoop, or in the mailbox or something, but I was worried that it was too important to just leave anywhere.” He reached out with it.

She took it with one hand. The other took his hand and squeezed it. “I want to thank you for finding my niece. I guess you know she was the heir apparent after all! In fact, she got the first check just yesterday. It couldn’t have come at a better time for the poor thing. You see, her husband left her—just took off out of the blue—and she’s been paralyzed with grief.” She shook her head angrily. “Maybe having a little financial independence will give her the gumption to admit it to herself and get on with her life.”

Jack patted her on the back. “Well, then, I’m glad to hear that they moved on the paperwork as quickly as they did. I guess I should let you get some shut-eye. Good night, Ms. Lindholm.”

She held onto his hand and murmured coquettishly, “You know, my original offer still stands.”

“You mean…” Aw heck, he thought, is she coming onto me? If I insult her, I’ve got to duck fast. She’s still holding that bat—

“Yes, silly! Of course I do!” Seeing his shocked face, she added, “You know—introduce you formally, to my niece.”

As much as he’d love that more than anything in the world, he knew he couldn’t.

There would come a time.

Hopefully, sooner rather than later.

“I get it,” she said with a giggle. “You like playing hard to get. That’s okay,” She looked at her watch. “Before you take off, you can at least come in for a piece of pie. In fact”—she winked slyly—“Donna made it herself.”

He thought about it for a moment. What the heck? He’d never see this woman again.
 

For that matter, he’d probably never see Donna again, either.

He had nothing to lose. And yes, he was hungry. If spending an hour with her aunt was as close as he was going to get to her at this point in their lives, then so be it.
 

“Do you know what goes great with pie?” Phyllis asked. When he shook his head, she sighed rhapsodically. “Martinis! I’ll whip up a batch of those as well…Young man, it’s not polite to laugh at a woman my age. In an hour you’ll soon find out I’m a lot funnier after I have a drink or two in me. Hey, if you play your cards right, you might get another story or two out of me, about Donna—not that I’m trying to set you two up or anything…”
 

Jack’s head felt as if he’d been KO’ed with a sledgehammer. He opened one eye, and found himself staring at the ceiling.
 

It wasn’t the ceiling of his Venice Beach apartment, either.

Moving his neck was just too damn painful so he focused on the pattern of the ceiling tiles until he realized he had somehow made it back to Acme headquarters.

He breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn’t in Phyllis Lindholm’s house either. He didn’t know how he’d let her talk him into all those dirty martinis. During Donna’s vetting, had he known how many war stories Phyllis had about her niece, he would have just come over with a bottle of Grey Goose, some vermouth, and a jar of pimento-stuffed olives, then hit the record app on his iPhone and let her chatter on. It would have saved Emma at least a week of research.

Even now, one story in particular—about some boy who’d gotten fresh with Donna while she was a freshman in high school, and how she’d dealt with him—seemed so fresh in his memory, so real to him, that he could actually hear Donna’s voice in his head.

But then he realized he wasn’t imagining it.
 

She was there, in the room with him.
 

He lifted his head to discover he was sprawled out on one of Acme’s conference room tables. He was alone, and the door was shut. So, why was he hearing Donna’s voice?

Then he saw her—with Ryan, through a two-way mirror. They were sitting across the table from each other in the conference room on the other side of the wall.

What the hell was she doing there?

“I want in.” This time, there was no hesitation in her voice.

“Hmmm. Well…” Ryan’s words trailed off, and he blinked. Twice. Then he frowned.

Jack breathed a sigh of relief. Good, he sees it as a sign that she’s fickle, and he’s not going to give in.

Donna must have realized this too. Arching a brow, she muttered, “Don’t tell me you’re having second thoughts about the offer! What, have you filled your mommy quota for the month or something?”

“Part of your charm has always been your sense of humor. No, Donna, we are always on the lookout for good field ops. And quite frankly, I can’t think of a better candidate for what we need. Your ‘mommy’ status is the perfect cover. And the fact that you already know how to shoot is a bonus, but–” He stopped abruptly. “Tell me, Donna, have you ever killed anyone?”

Her eyes flashed angrily, but she kept her cool and forced a shrug. “No. Why do you ask?”

“Because once you make the decision to join Acme, there’s no looking back,” Ryan warned her. “I just want you to be perfectly sure that you won’t regret the choice you’re about to make.”

She didn’t speak. She didn’t have to. The little telltale signs Jack knew so well were all there. When the pupils of her eyes darkened a shade, she had dredged up a past hurt. The tip of her tongue through her lips was her shorthand for determination. Whenever she pushed the hair behind her right ear, she signaled she was ready to move on, with no regrets.

As these three signs played out before him, he realized that no matter how badly he wanted to protect her, he couldn’t stop her from what she had to do:

Take down Carl’s killers.

To do that, she’d need Acme.

And yes, Acme needed her, too. The way she handled herself with the killer in the yard was proof enough of that.

Affiliating with Acme will keep her from being the last thing she wants to be—a victim, Jack thought.
 

He could understand that perfectly.

He realized, right then and there, that he had no right to stand in her way; that no matter how badly he wanted to protect her from others, he couldn’t protect her from herself.

“My bottom line is this, Ryan—I’m not spending the rest of my life as a victim. All I'm asking is that you give me a chance. It's the least you can do.” Donna said it in the same tone she used on her children when she wanted to make it clear to them, in no uncertain terms, that they weren’t going to get their way.

Then she rose and started for the door.

Donna had almost reached the threshold when she felt Ryan’s hand on her arm. “Okay, tell you what. Come back tomorrow, say, around ten. I’ll put you on the shooting range to see if you’re as good as Carl claimed. Then we’ll take it from there.”

She was wearing that take-no-prisoners smile Jack had come to know and love. “That will work. Trisha is at her nursery school until two.”

She shook his hand. Then, impulsively, she gave him a kiss on the cheek too.

Ryan blushed bright red.
 

Jack laughed out loud.
 

She certainly knows how to play him, Jack thought. I would have made her work a little harder for it.

Almost as if he’d heard Jack, Ryan tapped his side of the mirror then motioned for Jack to join him.

So, he knows I’m in here, Jack thought. That’s just…great.

He rolled off the conference room table and onto his feet. Time to face the music.

He walked in to find Ryan staring out the window. Without turning around to look at Jack, he said, “Grab a seat. Sorry we woke you.”

“It was worth it.” Jack puckered up and made a kissing sound.

Ryan shrugged. “You’re jealous.”

“You’re right. And you’re going to regret the decision to hire her.” He reached in his pocket for his wallet and took out the one-hundred dollar bill Ryan had handed him just the other day.
 

Ryan held it up. “Want to go double or nothing on that?”

Jack smiled. “You’re on.” Jack pocketed the bill. “I’ll need it to cover expenses tonight, in San Diego.”

Ryan snorted. “From what I’ve heard about the girls in that club, you’ll need more than that. See my assistant about petty cash.”
 

As Jack hit the threshold, Ryan added, “Jack, remember—if Donna makes it all the way, it’s because she wants it that badly.”

Jack nodded, but he didn’t look back.

By the time Jack made it back up to Los Angeles, Ryan had Donna’s shooting range targets hanging in his office. Beside all the perfect bulls eyes to the heart, there were a couple where the groin area had been blown to smithereens.

That gave Jack a reason to smile.

Ryan didn’t say a word as he watched Jack’s eyes take this in, but the smirk on his face said it all: upping the ante had paid off.

Ryan was just as proud about her perfect physical, clean-as-a-whistle background check, and her passing the psych evaluation.

Jack shook his head in disgust. Out of the corner of his mouth, he muttered to Emma, “Looks like teacher’s got a new pet.”

“Frankly, I’ll be ecstatic if she’s able to go all the way at the Farm,” Emma declared. “What happened to Carl was sad. And the way she found out was awful! I can understand her wanting to be in on whatever it is we have to do to take the Quorum down.” Emma stopped, as if she’d just thought of something. “Hey, if she does, I’ll finally get to meet her, face-to-face. And you will, too.”

He shrugged. If Donna ever knew the role he played in Carl’s murder, he’d be the last person she’d ever want to meet.

The only way to make it up to her was to take down the Quorum.

He had a lot of work in front of him.

Chapter 20
SERE

SERE stands for survival, evasion, resistance, and escape. It is the acronym for a US military program in which military personnel, private military contractors and Department of Defense employees are trained in survival skills as well as evading capture. Most of those who take this course are either military aircrew or special ops personnel who are deemed a high risk for capture.

SERE is not a weekend at Bernie’s. Nor is it a gal pal getaway. There are no bromances involved, and certainly no sex on the beach.

Although, if you’re in the middle of the woods and it’s pouring rain and the temperature drops below forty degrees, you won’t object to snuggling in the fetal position with two of your teammates. In fact, for once in your life you may insist on being the ham in a sandwich threesome.

Jack hadn’t planned on stopping by the US Navy's Training Site in Warner Springs, California but as it happened, he discovered that one of its officers, Dan Forthye, recently had a run-in with Pinky Ring.
 

He was told to report first to the base commander, Captain Raymond Nichols, who was watching an extreme interrogation exercise. He’d never met Captain Nichols, but knew his reputation as an exceptional covert-ops instructor, especially in SERE skills.
 

Jack was led to a cinder block building on the outskirts of the base.