Glass Ceilings (24 page)

He made “good agent
”
sound like dirty words. My eyes remained glued to his, ignoring the movement behind him.

“And Gortez? How long do you think it will be before he offs you?” David spoke for the first time.

“Who?” he asked with a cynical laugh.

“You killed Gortez?”

“No. There was no need to. He fucked Pucci, and deserved what he got. He's probably being buried in a shallow grave somewhere in the Pine Barrens as we speak. Without him, without you two, I'll walk away with a Medal of Valor for this shakedown. Once I knew you were heading here, Nick, I let the dominos fall as planned. The Feds are moving in on all the Pucci and Delarro bosses and soldiers later today on my command. It'll be all over the news tomorrow. Deputy Director Rupert busts the largest gun-trafficking ring in New York City history. Unfortunately, the department lost a good agent in the process.”

“You fucking thought of everything. Congrats, Rupert. Great plan, but too bad it won't work.”

“Well I guess you'll never know,” he said just as he reached behind him with his foot to slam the apartment door closed. The door's refusal to budge caused Rupert to twist around with his gun drawn to see Ben and his partner, Rob, with their guns pointed at him. They'd been there for the last few minutes, and had heard every word he said.

In a matter of seconds, Rupert fired a shot into Ben's chest. Rob's bullet hit Rupert in the arm at the exact same moment that David knifed him in the back.

Rupert's great plan crumpled to the ground right before our eyes.

“Fuck, Stone!” I flew over to where Ben lay flat on his back. His partner, Rob, didn't look too concerned, walking a few steps away to immediately call for backup. David restrained Rupert as he thrashed around on the ground.

Ben's groan and the gaping hole in his shirt revealing a Kevlar vest confirmed he was alive.

“What the fuck, Ben?” My heart continued to slam in my chest, not having caught up to reality yet. “I told you I'd handle it.” I was more angry at the son of a bitch for making me think he was dead, than for having shown up when I told him not to.

“Good…thing…I ignored you,” he croaked out in between his gasps of breath.

“You could have gotten yourself killed.” I worked off the vest, so very thankful that he wore it, and that Rupert didn't aim higher.

“And…you?” Every word out of his mouth forced a wince to alter his expression.

“You're a crazy bastard.”

Through his discomfort, he managed to quirk up a brow and mutter, “You're…welcome.”

His response humbled me immediately. Thank fuck he had shown. “Thank you for saving us.” Slowly it was all hitting me, the reality of what could have happened here today making me feel disjointed. I'd never been on the receiving end of a murder attempt. Nor had I ever been the one needing to be saved.

Ben nodded with his eyes still closed, but the grimace now replaced with a smirk. “We're…even.”

“I never saved your life, Stone.”

“You did…” He opened his eyes to stare directly into mine. “By saving…Ella.”

Sirens blared outside making it hard to hear what he said next.

“What?” I lowered my ear until it nearly touched his lips.

“Your wife called…was already on our way…here. Call her, she's worried…”

“I will. I'll call Ella, too.”

Lifting a hand slowly, he flashed me a thumbs-up before quickly lowering it to rub his chest. “Fuck…he probably…broke a rib.” Just getting the words out made him completely winded.

“Better than killing you. Stop talking.”

Choosing not to argue, he stared at the ceiling while still rubbing his chest and dragging in one deep breath after another.

Rob briefed the other cops that filed in to the already cramped apartment. Occasionally, they asked us questions.

Paramedics were next to arrive, and minutes later Ben was on his way to medical attention. I knew he'd be fine, but the feeling of appreciation toward him overwhelmed me.

Of course I would have done the same if the roles were reversed, ignoring his request to stay away. Our stubbornness could have caused an entirely different situation to unfold here today. So many scenarios could have occurred, and all of them out of my control.

That was the hardest part to digest—the lack of control that consumed me. If Rupert had aimed higher, or if Ben and Rob hadn't shown up at all, the happy phone calls we made to our wives could have been replaced by death messengers.

There was a day when Ben relied on me to be levelheaded because his thoughts were consumed by Ella and nothing else. I got it now and understood completely what probably drove him when we first met. We had a lot to lose every time we stepped outside our doors. We had plenty of the bad guys to fight against, and shouldn't have to question what side of the law said bad guys were on.

The sight of Rupert being handcuffed and removed on a gurney boiled my blood. It was so much better than he deserved. He should have been removed in a body bag. Infuriated by how close I just came to losing everything at the hand of that fucker, my shock quickly turned into rage.

Our eyes met on his way out. His eyes cold as ice, void of any emotion, made him unrecognizable from the man I knew so well. My returning glare was no different.

As I stood in a daze, David came to stand beside me. I felt his eyes on me, watching as I pulled in one deep breath after another.

“You okay?”

“No, not really. You?”

“I'm numb to shit that threatens my life.” I glanced his way to see the same blank expression his face had worn since the moment I walked in here earlier. From the outside it looked like nothing fazed him in the least, but I knew his type. And I knew beneath the surface a storm was raging, needing to be let out.

“Did you have a plan, Cavello?” I asked, only half kidding.

“Nope.”

“Great.”

“Hey, it worked out, though.” An exhausted laugh escaped me. His tone more appropriately suited if our plans to see a movie together had fallen through, than surviving being held at gunpoint by my boss.

I looked away, but his gaze stayed on my face. “I wish you'd killed him,” I admitted unapologetically. Slowly, I met his stare after an awkward silence stretched between us.

“Yeah, I'm beginning to regret letting him live.” David nodded, quickly becoming lost in his own thoughts. It'd been a long morning, and all I wanted to do was see my wife and son.

“Your sister's probably frantic. I better call her. Afterward, are you ready to come home?”

“Yeah. I'm fucking ready. I just need to grab my stuff.”

“I'll be outside.”

Just as I was about to leave, George walked in with Parks and another agent. “Jesus Christ, Nick.” His fair complexion looked grayer than normal, practically matching the color of his hair. “I can't believe this. Director Pagan is on his way up from Washington. He wants to see you.”

“Not today.” With a firm grip on his shoulder, I looked him square in the eye and pointed to Rob. “Withers will fill you in. Take care of it, George.”

A simple nod was all I got, but I knew he understood what I needed today.

I hadn't realized how stifling it was in that apartment until I got out on the street. The cool damp air immediately soothed my pounding head and helped me to gain some sense of the control I lacked upstairs.

There were cops everywhere, both uniformed and plainclothes. I flashed my badge and walked around the activity to escape the noise. With my phone in my hand, I opened a picture of Angela holding Nicholas. I came dangerously close to breaking my promise to her today. My chest tightened at the thought of disappointing her in any way, or causing her any pain. The pain intensified at the thought of my son growing up without me.

Needing to hear her voice, I dialed and waited anxiously for her to answer.

“Nick.”

“I'm okay, baby. I'm fine.”

“Oh my God, Nick. I've been terrified.” Her words of relief, combined with her sobs, made my insides ache. I wished I were there to hold her through them.

Not wanting to waste one more second being apart from her, I said, “I'm coming home, Angela…with David.”

Her crying prevented her from forming coherent words. The lump in my throat prevented me from the same.

The moment I hung up with Angela, I called Ella as promised to let her know Ben was fine and where they'd taken him. It felt like an eternity passed from the time I hung up with her to the time I parked my car near the apartment. A few agents and cops all needed to confirm some facts with us before we left the scene.

The entire time I felt robotic, detached, until I got home almost an hour later.

From a block away, David and I saw her waiting for us in front of our apartment building. She wore one of my hoodies, trying to hide from the misty cold rain that had begun to fall. The way it swallowed her perfect body and hid her curves only made her that much sexier.

She hadn't seen us yet, her anxiety evident in the way she nervously shook her hands while pacing back and forth. I watched her unguarded gorgeousness from afar. The moments when she had no idea I was watching her were when she looked the most beautiful.

As if she felt my gaze, her head turned our way and a smile spread over her face. Not wanting to wait the extra twenty seconds it would have taken for me to reach her, instead she ran toward us causing me to laugh at her enthusiasm.

I caught her midair, lifting her in a bone-crushing embrace. I felt every bit of the stress literally leave my body from just holding her in my arms. Desire quickly replaced my angst when I crushed my lips to hers.

“Do you two want me to get lost for a while?” David's voice interrupted our moment. She pulled away, embarrassed that she'd forgotten he was standing beside us. I released her and she immediately flew into his arms.

“David, don't you ever do that to us again!”

I'd just spent hours with the man and never saw him show any sort of emotion. Yet when his sister threw her arms around his neck, a genuine smile spread across his lips. Our eyes met as he looked at me over her shoulder. “Sorry, sis. Didn't mean to scare you.”

“Well, you did. You're lucky that I love you!”

“No, you don't.” He gripped her arms, peeling them away from his neck. “What you do is annoy me.”

Through her tears, she fought the grin that lifted the corners of her mouth. Smacking his chest before throwing her arms around his neck once again, they held each other tightly for a few long minutes.

I waited for their reunion to settle before asking, “Where's Nicholas?”

She hooked an arm through each of ours, walking us toward our building. “He's still in daycare. I was useless as a mother this morning.”

“Okay.” I tried to hide my disappointment, just as I ached to see her, to hold her, I also ached for him.

She looked at me understanding the meaning behind my single word response. “Just give me some time to enjoy you two, then we'll go get him.”

The three of us held our conversation until we were in the apartment. Once the door slammed shut behind us, she demanded that we tell her every detail of what we faced together.

“Feed me first,” David said as he plopped down on the couch.

“I'm sorry, you guys must be starving.” Angela eyed him suspiciously. “You've lost weight.”

“You'd think the food at the five-star hotel I stayed at would have been better.”

Shaking her head, she fixed us a sandwich all while drilling David on his whereabouts for the past few weeks. He joked for her benefit, lying that he felt guilty living in such luxury. I let David do most of the talking, the mental exhaustion making it hard for me to participate.

She sat beside me while we ate, intermittently asking questions during our recap. All the color drained from her face at hearing Rupert's involvement. Her hand shook when she reached for mine.

“Nick, you trusted him. He could have killed you both today.”

“I know, baby, but he didn't.”

That was the hardest part. Rupert completely fooled me, and the insecurities I felt because of it were hard to ignore. I've always depended on my judgment, on my ability to read people. I worried how this case would affect my job performance going forward. Too many factors altered the person I used to be…correction, the FBI agent I used to be.

My personal life and professional lives had changed so completely that I no longer knew who Nick Farley really was. At the moment, the old me was hard to channel. For the first time in my adult life I felt disconnected from that man. The man who'd go into a case and within minutes be able to pick out suspicious players or envision probable scenarios without feeling any emotion whatsoever.

Having said that, I still wouldn't have changed any of what happened to me up until then, except for maybe my career choice. That should've terrified me, yet it didn't.

I was lost in my own thoughts as David and Angela caught up, him sharing details of his life while hiding, and her sharing details of what Nicholas had been up to lately.

When conversation became redundant, David stood and stretched.

“You want to lie down?” Angela asked with a concerned look. She glanced my way and ran her hand through my hair. “You both look exhausted.”

“Nah, I'm going to pay a visit to Mom and Dad.”

“You sure you don't want to nap before that?” Her tone of voice teased, but her face clearly showed her worry.

“No. I gotta get this over with, maybe stay with them a few days until I decide what to do with myself.”

“What were you doing? Before you went into hiding?”

David cut his eyes to mine. “A little of this, a little of that.”

“Was this and that legal?”

“There's a fine line between legal and illegal.”

“Humor me.”

“Then legal, of course.”

“Ugh.” Angela shook her head, before adding, “Go, before I have Nick arrest you to be sure you're safe and sound.”

“Ah, come on, sis. You know a few iron bars can't contain me.” He came over to kiss her cheek. “Kiss the monkey for me. I'll see him soon.”

His eyes found mine, and he extended his hand. “Welcome to the family, bro.”

I shook his hand with a nod. “Thank you for everything.”

“All I did was protect what I loved.” His eyes moved to Angela before turning back to mine.

“Stay reachable. We will need you.”

He pulled his hand away to offer me a formal salute. “Yes, sir.”

Without another word, he grabbed his bag and left.