Debra Webb - Agent Cowboy

She’d barely made it.

The seeking glow of flashlights moved about. Low voices murmured but she couldn’t make out the words. She eased as far into the long metal tunnel as she dared, putting as much distance between her and the opening as possible.

The heating unit kicked on and air from the corridor rushed over her, the roar of the unit drowning out all other sound. She made herself as small as possible and waited for the temperature in the office to reach the necessary point so that the thermostat would turn off the flow of air.

The irritating roar came three more times before the endless waiting was over. Between the blasts of climate-controlling activity, she heard the intruders rummaging through every filing cabinet, desk and supply cabinet in the entire suite that made up the financial consulting and investment firm of Raymond Jarvis. Tears stung her eyes. Ray was dead. She pushed the horror away and focused on figuring out what these awful people could be looking for. It didn’t make sense. They didn’t keep money here. No negotiable stocks or bonds. She simply had no idea. The whole thing was crazy. Unless…it simply was the disk in her pocket.

Had Ray done business with the wrong kind of people? She couldn’t believe that. She had access to his accounts and files. If there was anything under-handed going on it was definitely well hidden. She might not have any prior experience but she knew the signs to look for. Ray was clean, she was certain of it.

She thought of the disk he’d given her and his insistence that she take it home with her.

Had he suspected something like this might happen?

The grill on the return duct suddenly opened.

Kelly’s heart stuttered to a stop. Her breath evaporated in her lungs.

The filter poked inward and a pair of gloved hands felt along the surrounding walls. She pressed her face against her arms and held her breath.

“There’s nothing here.”

She didn’t dare lift her head until she heard footsteps retreating in the corridor. The grill door stood open, the filter bent and sticking haphazardly to one side, affording her scarcely any protection from view. But the inside of the duct was dark and so were her clothes. It wasn’t likely anyone would see her unless they stuck their head in and shined a light directly on her.

Keeping her face shielded with her arms, she listened as the men, four she decided, set the office to rights. Two of them didn’t like it, but one had ordered that they were to leave things as they found them. She heard the killer’s voice once or twice more. It made her want to run like hell, but she couldn’t move…could scarcely afford to draw a breath.

What felt like an eternity later, the intruders left by the front entrance.

For a very long time Kelly huddled there in the silence, afraid to move.

Then she started to cry.

The tears came in long, choking sobs.

When she’d regained control of her emotions, she eased out of the long, dusty tunnel. She sat on the corridor floor for a while before she tried to stand. Still emotional, Kelly felt her way along the corridor. Since the lights were still out and she didn’t trust instinct to keep her from banging into something. When she reached her desk, careful to access it from the front, she snatched up the telephone and punched in 9-1-1.

Dear God.

How could this have happened?

Who were those men?

She hadn’t seen their faces and couldn’t identify them.

The killer’s voice echoed inside her head. She did know his voice. But that’s all she knew about him.

But he knew her.

He’d come here to kill her.

Thought he had.

What would he do when he learned she was still alive?

“9-1-1, what’s the nature of your emergency?”

Kelly hung up the phone without saying a word.

Chicago, Illinois

Saturday, 2:00 p.m.

Victoria smiled as she viewed the lovely thank-you cards embossed with hers and Lucas’s name.

Lucas Camp and Victoria Colby-Camp

It didn’t seem possible, but her dream of sharing her life with Lucas had finally come true. She fingered the raised lettering, her heart warming at the memory of her wedding day.

The chapel had been filled to overflowing. Her loyal staff from the agency as well as numerous members of Lucas’s unit of specialists had attended. Dear friends from the community here in Chicago as well as in Washington, D.C., had come to witness the moment so long in the making.

Leberman had failed. He’d tried for years to destroy her. Had been successful in murdering her husband and stealing her son. But Victoria had not given up. With Lucas’s strong, loving support, she had fought Leberman and won. Her chest constricted when she thought of all that her son had endured at the evil bastard’s hand. He’d abused Jim endlessly, brainwashed him and turned him into a killing machine. But, in the end, Leberman’s plan had failed. For as soon as Jim realized the truth, something long-buried inside him had pushed to the surface, ultimately saving Victoria’s life as well as his own. He had not been able to complete the mission for which he had been trained for most of his life: killing his own mother. That was behind them now. They had to look to the future.

Victoria had her son back, she was now married to the man she loved, and Errol Leberman was rotting in hell. Life was just as it should be.

The ceremony had been every bit as beautiful as she had dreamed it would be. She and Lucas had pledged their lives to one another. Had publicly taken the vows that their hearts had taken long ago. They’d been in love with each other for years. And somehow, as the ceremony had concluded with the minister pronouncing them husband and wife, Victoria had known that James, her first true love, had been watching. She felt his love even now, and his blessing. He would want her to be happy. He would want their son to be safe and happy.

Her son grew stronger each day. The road to recovery after such a thorough brainwashing and such horrendous abuse would be long and arduous, but James Colby, Jr., was a strong man. Plus, he had a woman who loved him at his side. Tasha North, the undercover agent who had gotten close to him before his true identity was known, had fallen deeply in love with him. Victoria suspected that the next wedding she attended would be her son’s. But he had a ways to go yet. The nightmares were still an ever present part of his life and he still suffered memory lapses.

Time was all he needed.

Victoria pushed away from her desk and strolled toward the kitchen of her new home. She and Lucas had decided that a new home was in order. Her son had asked her to keep the lake house, though she wasn’t quite sure why he felt the need to go there from time to time. Whatever it took to make him happy was all that mattered. She’d sold her small home in the gated community where she’d lived since her first husband’s death. That home had been a place of slow healing, of coming to terms with the cruel fate she’d been dealt. She wanted her life with Lucas to begin in a new place where memories would be made, not relived.

The lovely home, only thirty minutes from her office, was not only large and sunny, it was also in the midst of a quiet neighborhood where security gates and guards weren’t necessary. She no longer felt the need for such extreme measures. The devil she had feared so long was no more.

The only thing that wasn’t as it should be just now was work. She’d returned to the office for a few weeks, but Lucas wasn’t quite ready to share her so completely. He’d promised to take another month off after their wedding if she would. How could she turn down an offer like that? Lucas Camp taking a month off from work in addition to the time he’d already taken for their wedding? That might not happen again in this lifetime. In truth, she could use some more time with her son. They’d lost a great deal of that precious commodity, she wanted to make up for every minute and then some. She had a competent staff who could take care of things a while longer.