Page 68 of Long Past Deadly

“Pass this along, too. I love you.”

“I love you, too. Go talk this out with your girl.”

Dealing with Alanna professionally as an FBI agent, his partner, an equal – piece of cake. Dealing with her personally and emotionally – minefield. He had to proceed very carefully with steps he wasn’t even sure about. Fragile wrapped in toughness was a challenge. Thank God he hadn’t overreacted to her suggestion. It would not be a way to open the door to making her his.

&&&&&&&&&&

QM International Flash Alert: 09:00:00 PST 12/20 – San Diego HQ. All divisions elevate to Security Level 4. Facility identification required for entry. Restrict access to authorized personnel. Ϙ

Quaid left home after a stern lecture from Niles and an exasperated exchange with Braun. He kept his gun handy, watched carefully for tails, and knew damn well he was alone without cover. He drove a QM SUV, and the tracking on the vehicle would mean Mackey would be calling shortly with a what-the-fuck comment. He went anyway.

Alanna was summoned to the San Diego FBI Field Office to meet with Ryker, and Quaid assigned both Conners and Tane to take her. She couldn’t contain her exasperation after their short, fierce argument about it, but he was playing the odds Mercer wouldn’t come at him on the freeway. Alanna was another story so needed more cover. Wait until she got to her headquarters and found another team there, too.

On his end, Hunt and Cait were home. If you wanted to attack him with a Navy SEAL in the house, you’d be dead in the time it took to have the thought. Hunt put up with no threats in his home space. He expected when he told his friend what Alanna guessed, he would want a one-on-one explanation of what they suspected about Mercer’s movements, and it wasn’t a conversation for text messages. Hunt would want all the threat details personally, and, as much as he loved Elizabeth, he needed advice from Cait. She, with her wartime injury, would be honest with him about panic triggers, hyper-vigilance, fear of stability – all things Alanna fought and didn’t talk about. If Alanna even suspected he’d figured those out, she’d withdraw.

They were waiting on the porch. Hunt held Cait’s hand, a common sight. Both had coffee mugs. Relationship goals right there. Hunt was in jeans and a gray t-shirt, the casual clothes again raised flags. Cait was still in blue scrubs, but her shoes were off with her legs stretched out on the steps.

He got out of the SUV and kept a slow pace to the steps. No hurry translated to not urgent. Right?

“We already got the security upgrade notice from Operations. Are you here to tell us why?” The friendly tilt of Cait’s head delivered what he knew to be false assurance. Quaid eyed her face, saw a flash in her eyes, and silently swore. Threats were her nemesis. Afghanistan had not been friendly to any of them. Hunt killed terrorists on seven continents for a living. His face was impassive and harder to read.

He sat on a step beneath them. The smell of roses and lavender should have been comforting, along with the rolling green grass, shrubs, and quiet neighborhood with Christmas lights blinking, but he was past easy solutions to his stress. “In-depth conversation with Alanna this morning. Ever talk specifics with a profiler?”

Cait raised a brow. “Can’t say I have.”

Hunt stayed quiet.

“So here it is. Keep in mind we have no proof, but he may have followed us right to your doorstep, knew where we were the whole time, the Uber, the Coronado Patton, and continued tracking us all the way to the LA Patton. We never saw him. But the threat was active, and it may not be probable, but it’s possible.”

Hunt rose to his feet. “Lucky for you I already upgraded the security here. But why upgrade QM’s now?”

“It costs us nothing, gains some time for us to execute what Alanna wants to do next.”

“Which is? Bait?” Hunt thinking two steps ahead didn’t surprise him.

“Yes.” He answered simply because emotion clogged his throat. He despised this plan but didn’t want to not support her ideas. Not just because of their relationship, but the fact she only talked to her boss in a field office full of people told him a lot about her work environment, and he hated that for her. He couldn’t move without one of six or seven people checking on him. Case in point? His ringing phone. Mackey. He opted out of the call and sent a quick text message.

Hunt helped Cait to her feet. “Let’s go inside.”

He followed them, stopping at the door to study the street.

“Nothing there,” Hunt advised. “All the cameras are on the monitors in the kitchen, and we have close to 360-degree coverage. All the entrances are secured. Alarms are green and weapons are loaded and in drawers at each door. Cait’s car is in the garage, and my truck is at Doog’s.” Hunt’s XO lived a six minute drive away.

“Frank home, too?” Quaid intended that as sarcasm, but it came out terse and expectant.

“Not at the moment, but he’ll tell me when he arrives.”

Quaid followed Cait to the kitchen and didn’t say anything when she started making sandwiches. She fed people in her kitchen. No excuses.

“He’s devolving, which meant nothing to me until Alanna explained it. Your people followed his assassinations. He has one method there, but I checked the dates. He hasn’t been credited with a killing for close to eighteen months. We’re still searching for victims from the serial side, but we have two we’re sure of, and Frank is searching police reports for more. Alanna’s pretty sure these searches will hit a deep pocket of kills.”

Cait set a sandwich in front of him, then one in front of Hunt. Hunt dug in. He never said no to food. “How’s Alanna?”

He forced a bite, intrigued by the ham, cheese, and jalapeno combination. He waited to answer, chewing while he assessed how to say what he wanted. “Ear still bothering her, but she’s not complaining. She’s mind deep into the information and writing things on her whiteboard that mean nothing to me. It’s leading her, though. Where? Don’t know. But her nights are chaotic with dreams.” Or the one she’d slept with him had been.

Cait gazed at Hunt. “I’ve experienced those dreams. Sleeping with Hunt helped mine, but alone was another story.”

“This is what we’re planning. I don’t want Safe Harbor or either of you to be collateral damage. I’m sorry I ever came here in the first place.”