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“Not necessarily, at least not within our division,” Steve responded. “But perhaps amongst the people we’ve been reporting to every day.”
“The government committee?” Derek asked.
“Actually, I was thinking about that very fact last night, after Congressman Hougland was giving you a hard time,” Jon said. Derek wasn’t surprised to hear his friend doing what he did best as a behavioral analyst: piecing everything together.
“What did you come up with?” Steve asked.
“Like we’ve already talked about—obviously there was critical information at the location yesterday, based on the lengths the suspects were willing to go to try and keep us from getting it.”
Both Derek and Steve nodded.
“This lead was also unique because we weren’t here at Omega when you got the info, Derek. We were in the air following up on something else and switched our focus to the new lead.”
They’d been on one of the small Omega jets traveling back to Colorado from a lead in Chicago.
“Yeah, that’s true. We moved quicker on this lead than we have some of the others,” Derek agreed.
“We also didn’t follow exact protocol since we were already out. We hadn’t called in our exact location, just decided to go to Philly, and then the building, immediately, since the option was available.”
Derek was beginning to see the pattern Jon was suggesting. “Unlike every other lead we’ve investigated for the last two weeks. Where we’ve followed protocol pretty much to the letter. And all have led to nothing.”
Steve grimaced. “You’re thinking sabotage.” It wasn’t a question.
Jon shrugged. “It’s hard to believe that every single lead we’ve followed has been completely dead. Although I guess that’s possible.”
“No, I agree with Jon,” Derek told Steve. “Sometimes it felt like the people we were after were one step ahead of us. Almost ready for us.”
They’d had the normal factions attempt to take credit for the bombing, both international and domestic groups. All had been investigated and all had come to naught. Then all other aspects of the investigation—the bomb site, witnesses, the type of explosions—had also led nowhere.
Maybe everything had led nowhere because someone was deliberately running interference on the perpetrators’ behalf.
There were very few people who could have done that effectively. A dirty agent inside the Critical Response Division could, but having one there was unlikely.
And since Derek and this investigation had been under such close scrutiny by high-ranking government officials, any one of them could be responsible, too. Which was uglier, but made more sense in a lot of ways.
“Gentlemen,” Steve said. “It looks like there’s every possibility that we’ve got some high-ranking US official who is tied in with the Chicago terrorist attack.”
Jon pointed at the now-destroyed lab. “And we’re looking at the third extreme example of what that person, or people, might be willing to do to keep us from making any progress on the case.”
“Whoever it is has also put us back at square one in terms of evidence.” Derek could feel his teeth grinding, knowing they’d been so close to a real breakthrough only to lose it. “Nothing in the lab survived that explosion. It was definitely important, but now it’s gone.”
All three men looked at the smoke still rising from the building. The fire was out, but the smoke would linger for a while.
“Well, they may have successfully destroyed whatever evidence we’d gotten yesterday, but they also tipped their hand a little too far,” Jon said. “They’ve given us an edge they don’t know we have by revealing they have inside knowledge. We should use that to our advantage.”
The director nodded at both men. “I agree. I’m going to start keeping much more careful track of what information is going to which offices. The committee we report to every day hasn’t been the only ones requesting information. I’ll see what I can narrow down. And I damn sure won’t be sharing actual pertinent info about the case any longer.”
Steve turned away from the lab. “Go home, get some rest,” he continued. “Tomorrow you guys head back out to the house in West Philly, see if anything there can be salvaged. Track down where the lead came from and see if you can get any further info.”
Derek nodded. He needed to get Molly home, let her rest. But then he’d be coming right back, or at least working out of his house. Sleep could wait for him. He glanced over at Jon and knew the other man felt the same way.
“I’ll let you know when the building is open,” Steve said. “This fire is meant not only to destroy evidence, but to misdirect us. Give us a lot of other stuff to be worrying about. We’re not going to let that happen.”
“Damn right we’re not,” Jon said.
Some of the firefighters were beginning to pack up their equipment.
“I’ve got to go sign off on all this,” Drackett said, shaking his head. “I’ll see you later.”
He began walking toward the fire trucks, but then turned back. “And boys, watch your backs. If this goes as high up as I’m afraid it might, we all have targets on us.”
Derek nodded. He could feel it, too.
He got back into the car and looked over at Molly. She was sitting in the exact position as when he had left, staring straight out the windshield.
“You doing okay?”
“Yeah.” She finally nodded. “I’m just trying to go over in my mind if anything we had out in the lab could’ve caused this.”
He wasn’t sure if he should tell her that it might have been a deliberate attack. “Molly, we’re looking into a lot of possibilities for what happened. But believe me, no one is assuming you’re at fault. You run a pretty tight ship in that lab.”
She seemed to relax just a little bit. “Everyone’s safety is always my first priority.”
“I know that. Everyone knows that.”
She seemed tiny inside his blazer, huddled in the seat as he drove out of the Omega parking lot and toward her house.
“You know where I live, right?” she said in a small voice.
Did he know where she lived? Was she kidding? He was guilty of driving by her condo sometimes even when it was almost the opposite direction of the way he needed to go.
And every single time he wanted to stop and knock on her door like that one night three years ago.
Knowing she wouldn’t slam the door in his face, wouldn’t tell him to go to hell, was the only thing that kept him from doing so. She was too gentle, too kind, too soft to send him away.
And he wasn’t so much of a bastard that he was willing to drag her down into the dark world he lived in. He didn’t want her touched by the ugliness of the sordid things he’d seen and done.
But damned if that wasn’t the hardest thing he’d ever done.
“Yeah, I know where you live.”
He could almost see the flush move up her cheeks.
“I just mean... The one time you were there you were...not your normal self. A-and I just wondered.”
“Hey.” He reached over and grabbed her hand. “You’ve gone the entire evening without being nervous around me.”
“That’s because I was upset.”
“Then stay upset, at me if you need to. No need to go back to nervous.”
She shrugged. He knew he made her nervous, made her uncomfortable.
Just like he knew the way she looked at him when she thought he couldn’t see. And he cherished it even as he tried to keep himself distant from it.
Her condo wasn’t far from Omega Headquarters and soon he pulled up and into her parking space. She was already opening her door when he came around to help her.
“I’m okay,” she said, and although her voice was soft, it wasn’t shaky. “Thanks for the ride. My purse was in the lab with my keys in it. Let me get the spare.”
He watched as she hunted around her bushes, and saw her pull it out from where she had used electrical tape to attach it to the main branch. Much better than just slipping it under a front doormat.
“Found it!” The small victory had evidently thrilled her.
“May I?” He took the key when she offered it and opened the door for her. “Do you have another set inside?”
“Yes. This is just for true emergencies.”
“Okay, I’ll put it back out for you.” He slipped it into his pocket.
She stood there in the doorway swamped in his jacket, plaster in her hair, smelling like smoke, smiling her slightly awkward smile that always seemed to be uniquely for him.
She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
All the lecturing he’d given himself on the drive here about not dragging her down into his darkness completely vanished.
Molly was alive and he had to taste her.
He slipped one arm around her small waist under his jacket and threaded his other hand through the hair at her scalp underneath her long brown braid. He backed her up against the door frame and brought his lips down to hers.
He heard her soft gasp of surprise and took advantage of it to slip his tongue into her mouth. A knot of need twisted inside him as he drew her closer. He felt her arms wrap around his neck as her tongue dueled with his.
His jacket falling from her shoulders and pooling at their feet brought some sense of reality back to Derek.
This could not happen. As much as he wanted it to.
He dropped both hands to her waist and took a step back. “Molly...”
She blinked up at him, arms still around his neck.
“Molly, this isn’t a good idea.”
“Why?” She leaned forward again.
Hell if he could remember why in this moment. Her lips were almost to his. If he kissed her again he wasn’t sure he would have the strength to stop. “You have plaster in your hair.”
“What?”
“Plaster. It’s all in your hair.”
Her face that had just been so flushed and soft from his kisses became shuttered. Her arms dropped to her sides, before one came up to her head to find the plaster he had mentioned. Why the hell had he said that? He didn’t care about anything being in her hair. He’d just meant that she had been through a trauma and that they shouldn’t do anything she might regret.
Or he might regret. Like break her heart.
“Oh. Yeah. I—I probably need a shower pretty badly.”
The thought of Molly in the shower had everything in Derek’s body tightening, but the slight stutter wasn’t lost on him. He hated that he’d made her uncomfortable around him again. And her eyes were wounded.
Damn it. He had to get out of here just to stop the damage he was inflicting.
“I’ll pick you up tomorrow at nine, okay?” He glanced down at his watch. “Actually, that’s only about four hours from now, so let’s make it ten. You’ll need to give an official report.”
Molly nodded and stepped inside her door. She picked up his jacket and held it out to him, wary, as if she didn’t know what to expect.
Derek didn’t blame her. He couldn’t run more hot and cold if he tried.
He took the blazer from her. “Just get some rest. It’s been a crazy day for all of us.”
He waited until she closed the door—without a word—then turned and walked back to his car.
Damn it.
Chapter Six (#ulink_50e8b207-0642-5cdb-ad5f-fce0b9c99729)
It’s been a crazy day for all of us.
Molly turned on the shower water to let it warm up. She slipped her lab coat off as well as her other clothes, all of which smelled like smoke, and just threw them in the bathtub so they wouldn’t contaminate her clothes in the hamper.
She glanced briefly in the mirror before stepping into her walk-in shower. Yeah, she did have some plaster in her hair.
But let’s face it, Derek could’ve had giant pieces of cement or paint or a dozen more building substances covering his entire head and Molly would’ve kept kissing him.
That was the difference between them.
Derek Waterman was out of her league and she needed to remember that. He was glad she was alive and had kissed her. But tomorrow they’d be back to their same old routine: him acting as if nothing had ever happened between them and her acting like a complete nincompoop around him.
As Molly washed the mess from the explosion off her body and out of her hair, she decided it was time to stop the silly way she’d been acting around him all this time. She was a strong, intelligent woman. She needed to act that way.
She completely ignored that she had made that promise to herself multiple times before. This time she was going to do it.
Plus, she had other things to worry about besides Derek Waterman and his kisses. She got out of the shower and dried off, slipping on a pair of yoga pants and a T-shirt, rebraiding her hair.
The explosion in the lab. She rubbed a hand over her face as she walked downstairs to get something to eat. Even if the explosion wasn’t her fault, the workload resulting from it would be enormous. Sorting through which evidence was completely destroyed, or whether any of it could be salvaged, would be a daunting task.
Without a doubt many Omega cases would be ruined because of what had happened tonight. Crimes would go unsolved, some criminals unpunished. It was frustrating to consider.
Molly made herself a sandwich, poured herself a glass of milk and forced herself to finish both even though she didn’t want to. She was going to need her strength for tomorrow and a full stomach would help her get rest now.
All of the findings for past cases had been backed up on a server in a different building, just in case of a situation like what had happened tonight. But current cases... They would have to be sorted through individually. And almost all findings would now be ineligible in court because they had been contaminated.
