Page 31 of Very Special Forces

"Youdidn't scare me. You surprised me."

"Inoticed."

"Ineeded three baths and two showers," I told him. "My car needsdetailing."

"I willpay for it."

"Sowhat's up at the black site that I don't know about?" I asked. Icouldn't help it. Tell me that I'm not supposed to know somethingand the first thing I want to know is everything aboutit.

"Thereisn't any black site," said Maddox predictably.

"Huh," Isnorted. "Are you torturing people?"

"No! TheFBI doesn't do that!"

"Youknow I'll find out."

"There'snothing to find out. Really, Lexi. There's no storyhere."

"Yeah,"I said skeptically, "I believe you."

"Okay,fine, it has to do with work. It's an operations and storagefacility for the project I'm working on. That's as much as I'mtelling you and I'm only telling you that because I don't want youdigging in your heels and getting into more trouble, the kind Ican't bail you out of. My boss isn't keen on nosy visitors. Can weleave it at that?"

"Youwould tell me if you were in trouble, wouldn't you?" I asked,growing worried now.

"Yes,but I'm a professional and I can get myself out of trouble. Youknow that."

"Ido."

"Andthere's no way I'd put you in harm's way. I told Solomon thattoo."

Ipaused. "When did you see Solomon?"

"He leftmy place five minutes ago?"

Ifrowned hard. "What was he doing at your place?"

"He waswaiting for me when I got home. Just sitting on my couch like hebelonged there. He even opened a beer. Then he read me the riot actand left."

"Wow." Iwasn't sure what to say. Solomon hadn't looked that pissed when heannounced he was going to make dinner.

"I don'tappreciate him breaking into my apartment but I think he understoodyou weren't in any danger."

"I willreiterate that to him," I said, not eager to determine the rightsand wrongs of what Solomon had just done. Solomon and Maddox didn'thave the easiest relationship, and a large part of that was owingto me, but usually, they had a grudging respect for eachother.

"There'sone more thing. I asked around about a tank and there was a verylarge vehicle that passed through the area in the early hours threedays ago. It didn't stop at any warehouse in the industrial parkthat we're aware of. I hope that helps."

"Thanks," I said. "That does help."

"Talksoon," said Maddox and we hung up. I dropped the cell phone back onthe console and returned to the kitchen to check on the stewSolomon left cooking while he undertook his mission to menace myex. A few minutes later, my fiancé walked in the door and strodeinto the kitchen.

"You'redry," he said, approaching me from behind. He wrapped his armsaround me, dropped a small bag onto the counter, and kissed myneck. "Are you hungry?"

"Wherehave you been?" I asked.

"We wereout of butter," he said, pointing to the bag. "I wanted to turnthat baguette into garlic bread."

"Did youbreak into Maddox's apartment and threaten him?" I asked, cuttingdirectly to the question I wanted to ask.

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