J. Ellison - Judas Kiss

“Hey,” she said, the challenging tone gone. “You can tell me. It’s okay.”

He smiled at her. “You may not think so when I finish. We let them go. We track their moves, predict where they will strike, hell, even send them assignments to satisfy their desire to kill. All in the name of national security. If we were to arrest them, it would have a lasting effect on whatever political shit is going down. These people do bad things for us, and for other governments. I try not to get too far into the details, I have a hard enough time with it already. It goes against everything that I am.”

Honesty. She knew she could always count on him to tell the truth, whether she wanted it or not. Better late than never, she supposed.

“I can see that. How in the world did you get involved?”

“Garrett. He runs our side of the program. He set me up with a cut-out agent that I’ve worked with for over ten years. Sometimes they ship me overseas to have me track these guys down. Multiple countries, all over the world. We’ve always had a standing deal, though. If one of them comes here, I’m alerted immediately.”

“This is how you got involved with Aiden?”

“Exactly. He’s always had a hard-on for me, but I’ve never been vulnerable until now. Killing me wasn’t what he wanted. He needed to take everything from me, like he thought I did to him.” He squeezed her hand. “At least, that’s what I’m thinking. I told you we’re assuming he saw us in Italy, the timing is right. He killed his tracker and hightailed it over here. Just so you know that Aiden was capable of anything to get what he wanted. That’s why I had to go to Quantico, to try and track him down. If they’d told me the truth from the start, that he’d murdered the tracker in Florence, I would have never left your side. I’ve seen what he can do.”

“So have I.” The image of the dead security guards stood out in stark clarity as if they were right there in the car with them. She shook the thought off, then another crossed her mind.

“Your Italian is perfect. Is that where you learned, watching some Italian psycho?”

He grimaced. “My Italian, and other languages. It was part of why they wanted me.”

“Other languages? What, like German and French?”

He was getting visibly uncomfortable.

“More than those three?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Jeez, Baldwin, how many languages do you speak?”

“Thirteen.”

She caught her jaw before it hit her chest. She thought back a few moments. Honesty. Omissions weren’t lies, were they? Creative lies, white lies that were meant to protect, those didn’t count, right? She shoved that thought away. He was telling her now. Lord knows she’d held a few things back about her past.

“Garrett’s heart?”

“Fine.” He looked like he expected her to fly off the handle. She didn’t like that he’d been forced to lie to her, but that’s how she saw it. He wouldn’t have done it voluntarily.

She grinned. “Okay. Prove it.”

“Prove it?”

“Tell me you love me. In…Polish.”

Now he was smiling with her. “It’s not one of my best, but okay. Kocham ciebie, Taylor. With all my heart.” He kissed her, leaving her breathless. When they stopped, her fingers were entwined in his hair and her ponytail had come down. Shit, the top button of her jeans was even undone. Making out in public, just so classy.

Setting herself to rights, she said, “I see we’re going to have a lot of fun with this little talent of yours.”

“You’re not mad?”

“About the OA? I’m not thrilled, but I know you. If you think it’s the right thing to do, I’ll stand by you. Just don’t be dragging any more of these wackos home with you, okay? I have enough to deal with.”

The thought sobered them up. “You realize that the Pretender is following your moves now. He’s calling himself an admirer, but he’s more of a danger to you now than ever.”

“Yeah, I gathered that. There’s nothing I can do about it at the moment. Fitz will work the case. We just have to see if there’s any evidence that can help us put a face to his little pseudonym.”

“We haven’t heard the last of him.” He turned the car on, put it in gear.

“No, we haven’t. But we’ve got bad guys aplenty to deal with this afternoon. Let’s go solve the Wolff case.”

They were quiet, following West End into Broadway, passing a rollicking crowd of tourists at Tootsie’s. When they got back to the CJC, she saw Baldwin scoping the parking lot before pulling in. The threat from Aiden may have been past, but the realization that he dealt with more people of the same ilk made her uneasy, regardless of the assurances she gave him.

Marcus and Lincoln had evidently heard the news, because they were both wide-eyed when she walked back into the homicide office. Captain Price was sitting with them, a bushy red eyebrow raised in expectation.

She covered the basics as quickly and as vaguely as she could. Baldwin came in and sat down, handed her a Diet Coke and let her tell the story.

“The Pretender seems to be back in Nashville. I don’t know what this means, but he’s just killed someone from the FBI’s wanted list. The man’s name was Aiden. Baldwin worked a case that involved him, and Aiden was seeking retribution. He was responsible for the killings at my house. But he’s dead now, and we’ve got bigger issues.”

She showed them the Polaroid she’d borrowed from Fitz. Lincoln passed it to Marcus, and they both got stern looks on their faces.

“So the Pretender thinks he’s your personal bodyguard now?” Lincoln asked. “What the hell?”

“Aiden was looking to hurt me. He went after Taylor, and the Pretender seems to have a sense of chivalry,” Baldwin said.

Price listened, then got up. “That’s it. There’s entirely too much bullshit flying around. I’m having a private security detail put on you, Taylor.”

“I’ve already done that,” Baldwin said. “I’ve had them on Taylor since yesterday. We’ll just keep up with the watchers, let them know what we know about the Pretender. They’re a good team, I trust them.”

So he wasn’t calling off the dogs while they were at the Parthenon, he was adding more.

“And how long are we planning to keep this up?” Taylor was shaking her head. “No. I don’t want them.”

“You’re going to have to live with it, sugar.” Baldwin’s stance told her arguing was fruitless.

“I agree. We can’t afford anything happening to you, LT. Lincoln and I will start looking for more clues with the Pretender case. We’ll find the bastard. In the meantime, we need to keep you off his radar,” Marcus said.

“I can take care of myself,” she grumbled, but when faced with four glowering men, all intent on keeping her out of harm’s way, she decided discretion was the better part of valor and acquiesced. For the time being.

“Can we at least get back to work?”

Price patted her on the head and she narrowed her eyes at him. “I’ve got a meeting. Fill her in. You should be proud of your boys. And be careful, wildcat.”

“Yes, Dad,” she said.

“I’m going to join the captain for a moment. Be right back.” Baldwin left the room with Price, their conversation quickly moving out of earshot.

Taylor rolled her eyes, then turned to Marcus and Lincoln. “Good grief. This has been a day. Let me have it. What’s the news on the Wolff case?”

Lincoln waved his hand to Marcus. “You go,” he said.

“Okay. To start with, we checked on the underage actresses. They’ve both split town, ostensibly for California. They had auditions today at Vivid Video, and we’ve got a call in to their ‘agent’ to get them to call us immediately when they get finished.”