Page 95 of His Wall

I put my wine down on the coffee table. I turned around in his lap. I kissed him. Long and slow. It made leaving harder.

I made myself leave.

He caught my hand at the door. He pulled me back. One more kiss.

"Lock the door behind me."

"Yes, Agent Calder."

The corner of my mouth moved. Almost.

I drove home. I pulled into the garage. I came up to the apartment. I put my shoes by the door. I crossed to the bedroom.

I pulled on his shirt. I took it from the safehouse. I had been wearing it at his apartment. I got into bed. I called him on the secure line.

We talked for another hour.

I fell asleep with the phone on the pillow beside me.

So did he.

Two people in separate apartments breathing into the same silence.

The phone rang at 1:40 a.m.

Different ringtone. The Bureau channel.

I sat up. The other phone was still on the pillow. The line was already dead sometime during the night.

I picked up the Bureau phone.

"Harlow."

"Calder. The passport flag was a decoy. I have just had analysts confirm. Someone used Conrad's known passport at the airfield this morning to trigger our surveillance. Conrad did not board the plane. He was never on the flight. He has been in the city the entire time."

I was already on my feet.

"Bureau surveillance just picked up activity at a shell company address six blocks from Cross's apartment. We are mobilizing a field team."

"ETA."

"Forty-five minutes to assemble and deploy."

I had my jeans on. I was pulling a sweater over the T-shirt. I had shoes on my feet.

"Harlow."

"Forty-five minutes, Calder. We do this right. Bureau protocol. We are not going to lose him to a botched insertion."

I was at the door.

I had my keys in my hand. The other phone was on the bed with Julian's breathing still on the line.

Forty-five minutes of Bureau protocol while Conrad sat in a building six blocks from Julian's apartment.

I had followed the protocol.

I had not called.