Strong Reflection: Book 2 of the Dark Series Trilogy (4 page)

Ashley nodded and then took the stairs swiftly, soundlessly.
 At the top, the landing split into 3 directions, left, right and straight ahead.  Ashley took the right, hearing a slight noise.  The mission chatter played softly through her earpiece.  She heard that the other agents had found rooms that were obviously used for filming their illicit movies.  Another agent found a room with children in it, leashed like animals.  She heard more backup called in to help, an ambulance and Child Services.  The chatter fell into the background of her consciousness when she reached the first door.  Instinctively, she squatted, readied her weapon and tried the door knob.

The explosion rocked Ashley’s world.
 With a ringing in her ears, she threw herself flat against the ground, firing blindly through the thin veil of smoke into the room.  The smoke cleared enough for Ashley to see the room was a decoy, with a 12-guage shotgun rigged to blow away the top half of the flimsy door and anyone standing on the other side of it, the flimsy door yet another clue that should have alerted her.

Further down the hall a door was thrown open.
 Ashley flung herself into the empty decoy room just as shots rang out.  There were shouts of “Federal Agent!” and “FBI freeze!”

While still on the floor, Ashley peeked outside the room.
 Several agents were handcuffing suspects.  Sensing something in her peripheral, Ashley turned her attention in the opposite direction.  Her eyes connected with an unarmed man who seemed to be stuck in a trance. Recognizing the man as the ring leader from his Wanted-Sheet for crimes against children, adrenaline pumped through Ashley’s system.  

Suddenly she and the man moved at the same time.
 Rising swiftly to her feet, Ashley gave chase. She followed the man down a long corridor.  Shouting, she identified herself, demanding he stop. The man ignored her and continued his mad dash down the corridor that got narrow and the walls disappeared on either side, becoming a catwalk.  

Ashley was faster.
 She was an excellent sprinter.  However, long distance running was not her thing.  Keeping her weak point in mind, she quickly closed the gap between them and then took a flying jump at him.  She caught him directly behind the knees, bringing him down hard.  In that instance Ashley realized the structure they were on wasn’t that sturdy and it shifted slightly beneath them.  The man recovered fast enough to knock her gun from her hand by kicking. Ashley grabbed his other foot, tried to twist it but the man kicked her in the face.  Tasting blood from biting her tongue, she stood and faced off.  

Ashley went in fast and hard.
 A one-two strike, first to the throat and then to his face, another three blows in rapid succession to his jaw, right forward, right back fisted and then left.  Ashley’s skin across her knuckles opened up, stinging.  

The man blocked the first of her next round of hits, shouting “bitch” and grabbed her by her inner thigh and the back of her neck and lifted.
 Ashley was in the air above his head as she rain down punches to his head and arms, trying to dislodge his hold.  Undeterred, he swung Ashley high over the railing and let go.

Instinct and her gymnastics training immediately took over.
 His throw had enough inertia for Ashley to perform a stylized front aerial and as she was coming out of it, one of her hands grabbed the second rung of the railing and the other grabbed a handful of the man’s shirt and pulled.  His center of gravity was interrupted and he pitched forward and over fast.

In seconds the man was dangling below Ashley with a death grip around her legs.
 Ashley was losing her own grip on the railing.  Breathing heavy she shouted to the man, “Us my body to pull yourself up.”

The imbecile just screamed some more, calling profane names and swinging his feet. “Don’t kick you idiot!
 I can’t hold this railing forever and in very short seconds I am going to kick you off my legs!”  Ashley tightened her grip on the rail.

“You crazy black bitch!”
  His yell echoed.  He kicked hard and Ashley’s fingers slipped in slow motion. 

Ashley felt the second she completely lost her grip.
 And in a fraction of the next second her wrist was gripped by a very strong hand.  She looked up into Kyle’s burning, bright blue gaze. His other hand leant strength too, pulling her up until he was able to grip her under her armpits. Other agents were leaning over the top rung and reaching between rungs to grab hold of the suspect that still clutched Ashley’s legs.

Kyle pulled her free of the man, pulling her protectively into his arms.
 He didn’t set her on her feet until after the perpetrator was subdued, searched, cuffed and Miranda-ed.  Kyle was silent but his eyes spoke volumes.   They drilled into her with censure.

Ashley was on tenterhooks, waiting for Kyle’s reaction.
 She had never so blatantly disregarded his orders before.  But, she had been angry and was feeling used after their kiss in his office. Ashley knew she never would have done it if not for that kiss.  

Oh, hell, who was she kidding?
 She would have defied his order anyway, just not so disrespectfully.  Because, let’s face it, her career was littered with reprimands from the currently silent man for disobeying his orders.  

It was only after several long seconds of Kyle’s silent observation of the mission progress that she realized he was not going to discipline her in front of the other agents.
 Or maybe he was waiting until they were alone so there would be no witnesses to her murder.

An agent pulled the ring leader to his feet as he raged.
 “That nigger knocked out my tooth!  I want to make a complaint.  I want that nigger bitch arrested.”  He spit blood to the floor.

Kyle stepped forward forcibly gripping the man’s arm, subtly Kyle’s foot went in front of the man’s feet and the man hit the floor hard.
 “Oops, so clumsy, here let me help you up.”  Kyle’s form of help was to ‘accidently’ bang the guy’s head even harder on the railing on the way to his feet.  For good measure Kyle swung the man around so swiftly that he lost his balance and went down yet again.  With his hands cuffed behind him, his fall was broken by the only thing available, his face.

Kyle lifted the man easily to his feet.
 The man had a good hundred pounds on Ashley, and yet Kyle had lifted him with the same ease in which he handled her.  

His voice stark with threat, Kyle explained.
 “Now, you are going to shut your disgusting mouth and move your ass quietly to the car or I can get even clumsier, all the way down this hall, down the flight of stairs and across the first floor to the door and way across the parking lot.”  Kyle pulled the guy within an inch of his face by his shirtfront.  “What’s it going to be?”

Showing why he was the ring leader, the man nodded his consent.
 The agent that took ring-leader’s arm and started to lead him away, laughed, “Smart choice.”

Sanchez approached with a big smile, handing Ashley her gun.
 “Oh, man, Mack!  That was some crazy, other-level shit you did.”  He raised his hand for a high-five.  Ashley smiled too and smacked Sanchez’s hand.  “When he threw you over that rail my freaking heart stopped and I thought; oh my God, Mack is headed back to the hospital!  But then I saw you do that super insane flip in mid-air!  I was like, whaaaat!  My girl got mad skillz!”

“Just your basic front aerial,” Ashley said facetiously.

“Dude, there was nothing basic about that move.”  Sanchez slapped her back again. “Glad you’re ok.”

****
   

Kyle tried to keep his temper in check as Sanchez treated Ashley as though she were a man. Then as they walked to the parking lot other agents supported the craziness by giving her pats on the back and
 atta-boys!  Kyle wanted to shout: 
‘Are you all nuts? She’s a woman!  A beautiful, sexy woman!  My woman!  I almost lost her!’
  At this sobering thought, his steps slowed.  Fuck, he almost lost her before he had a chance to make her his in the first place.

Well, no more.
 He had taken care of his last loose end.  His talk with Bunny didn’t go as smoothly as he had thought it would.  But, it was done.  Bunny was officially his history.

Bunny had put up many objections.
 Kyle had been surprised because they had actually been on a break.  A few weeks ago he had asked Bunny for some space to re-think their relationship, to see if it was going in the direction they both wanted.  At the time, Bunny had agreed that they both needed space and time.  But, today in his office she had reacted to his wanting to part permanently with shock and dismay.

At first there was surprise, then tears, pleading and then finally anger.
 Kyle didn’t pretend to understand Bunny’s thinking, but whatever she had been expecting from their break, it had been miles apart from Kyle’s thoughts.  She had slapped him across the face and accused him of wasting her time and life. Kyle felt he deserved the slap for allowing their relationship to go any longer than the day after he first kissed Ashley.  That was his error. He was fixing it now.

He agreed about waiting too long to break things off, but disagreed about Bunny wasting time with him. He had been good to her and for her.
 He had cared for her, had true feelings for her. And, with the exception of a few wet dreams about and kisses shared at life and death times with, Ashley, he hadn’t cheated on Bunny.  He still cared for her and cared what happened to her.  It wasn’t the fervid, thrilling feelings he had for Ashley but he did care.

For Bunny to dismiss their time together as a waste of her time was a blow to his male ego.
 

Oh, well, he’d get over it.
 Part of him getting over Bunny’s contempt had a lot to do with the woman currently softly speaking to 3 little girls in an ambulance.  He watched the animation in Ashley’s face.  Her compassion and sympathy were there for all to see.  His little tornado wore her heart on her sleeve.  It’s a wonder she was so good at undercover work.  Her beautiful, deeply penetrating brown eyes were very expressive.

Kyle watched her speak to each child individually.
 Their jaded eyes watched Ashley’s every move and had something in them that had probably been missing for a long time.  It was trust. The children actually trusted her.  She was beautiful inside and out and smart.  She had stripped her tactical gear so she’d appear less threatening to the girls.

“Director Strong, sir, did you want to take over?”
 Agent Sanchez was watching him watch Ashley.

“No, Agent Sanchez, I am not here for that reason.”
 Kyle never took his eyes off Ashley.

Agent Sanchez looked from Director Strong to Mack and back again.
 “She didn’t have your permission to be here did she?”

Kyle did look at Sanchez then, he didn’t like how close Sanchez and Ashley had gotten since S.S.A.
 Lyte left the bureau.  He didn’t like any man being closer with Ashley than him.  He also knew that Sanchez had asked Ashley out on a date several times.  To his satisfaction, Ashley turned him down every time.  He understood Sanchez wanting to date Ashley he just didn’t like it at all.  “Sanchez, she sought my permission to come on this mission.”

Sanchez took in the director’s steady glare and knew that Mack hadn’t had his permission.
 But, his respect went up several notches for the director when he didn’t contradict Mack.  He was covering for her.  “Ok, sir, I was just checking.”

Kyle nodded and then walked away towards the ambulance and Ashley.

Sanchez smiled.  Mack was in for it he was sure.

****

Ashley gently spoke to the children.  All 3 were girls. 2 black girls and a Japanese girl.  She explained that although she knew they were scared their ordeal at this gruesome place was coming to an end.  Although they didn’t put up a fuss for the paramedics; most likely due to the fact they were punished if they didn’t submit to adults, Ashley still asked if it was ok for the paramedic to take a look at them, a first step in giving them back their freedom of choice.

Ashley was suddenly aware of a presence behind her.
 The girls looked pass her with wide frightened eyes.  She turned and saw Kyle frowning at her.  She hopped down from the back of the ambulance and took Kyle’s hand, pulling him away from the vicinity of the kids.

Kyle didn’t object when she took his hand, he followed, allowing her to lead him off to the side next to one of the empty SUVs.

“Director Strong you’re scowling at children who were most likely being abused by people who probably look like you.”  When Kyle’s frown deepened and he shook his head in confusion, Ashley added, “White males.”

He nodded his understanding.
 “I wasn’t actually scowling at 
them
.”

“I know that, but, they didn’t.”
 Ashley realized she was still holding his hand.  She quickly dropped it as though it were on fire.

Sanchez walked up to them just as Kyle was about to speak.
 “Hey, I know you wanted to get out of here early and start your vacation.  Washington is leaving now.  Want to ride back with her so you can get your paperwork done?  I see you already checked your weapon with command.”