Page 18 of S.O.S. Mizzay

“Stop,” Cobble ordered. “If it weren’t for you, I’d be dead already. I just… I want you to find the head of this mother-fucking snake and all the other slimy assholes involved. I miss my life. I miss my family.” Cobble stopped, before he got too maudlin. He should consider himself lucky that he had people to help; i.e. Chuck and Andy.

“On that front, Missy has a bit of good news for you, but I’m not saying anything over the phone. We’ll solve this, Sawyer. I promise,” Chuck told him. “In the meantime, watch your back and wait for Missy. I’ll be careful not to leave any electronic footprint when I contact her, and she already knows your current burner number. Once she’s local, she’ll call and arrange to pick you up.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Cobble told him. “Listen. I’ve gotta go. My bus is pulling in.”

“Okay, man. Stay safe.”

“You too.”

The bus ride to the mall was uneventful, and once inside the large, sprawling structure, Cobble relaxed a bit. The place was busy. That was good. He could lose himself in a sea of humanity while he waited. But what would he do to keep himself occupied? He hated shopping.

Cobble glanced at his watch and scowled. It was going to be a long five hours.

****

Eventually, after doing lap after lap around the mall, it grew late and the crowds dwindled. Cobble found a bench by a fountain that was partially obscured by greenery.

Perfect.He sat down because, damn, he was tired.

He’d worked a ten-hour day at the construction site, never even getting a chance to change out of his dusty jeans and muddy boots. He also lamented that today of all days he’d left his tool belt at the job. A fucking shame. He’d amassed a nice bunch of tools, and now—wherever Andy brought him to start over—he’d have to buy all new ones. That sucked. It also burned his balls that he hadn’t had the chance to say goodbye to a couple guys with whom he’d become friends. He’d add them to his every-growing list of people he needed to contact eventually to apologize. At least he’d had the presence of mind to give the money he’d accumulated in paychecks, to Chuck, last time he’d seen him. Sometimes Cobble had a years’ worth of wages in cash, stuck in suitcases in his closet, and it would have pissed him off to leave all that behind. As it was, whoever was lying in wait for him tossing the place would only find two months of wages. If they didn’t find it, maybe the team of agents Chuck was sending in would recover it and hand it over to Chuck.

Cobble must have dozed off on his hidden bench, because the buzzing of the phone in his pocket startled him awake.

“H’lo?” he mumbled.

“Cobble?”

Andy’s voice over the phone cleared his head, immediately.

“Yeah. It’s me. Where are you?” he asked.

“Parked outside the west entrance of the mall. I’m in a white sedan.”

Cobble was already on his feet. “Headed your way.”

He hung up, and his gaze swept right and left as he egressed from his hidey-hole. Nobody was watching him. As a matter of fact, the only people around this time of night were a couple groups of teenagers, out for a night of mischief, no doubt.

Still, Cobble kept to the edges of the vast aisles, walking quickly, but not so quickly that he called attention to himself.

His excitement grew with every step he took.

In a few short minutes he’d be seeing Andy again.

He wondered what had changed in her life in the two years since he’d last seen her? He knew she was still with the DOJ where she had just started before his previous move, but was she married? Did she have a significant other? Those questions in particular flitted through Cobble’s mind, because when he’d last said goodbye to Andy, he’d given in to his feelings and on impulse, had wrapped her in something a little more than a friendly hug. He’d felt the embrace right down to his core.

From the way Andy had startled before returning the squeeze, he’d say that she’d felt it, too. There’d been a kind of electricity that had flowed between them; enough so that Cobble regretted that she’d had to leave before they’d been able to speak about it.

He wondered if the sparks would still be there this time?

Pushing out of the mall doors, he spotted her car, immediately. There was very little traffic this time of night, so it was also easy to see that no one suspicious was anywhere nearby. Of course, he needn’t worry too much. Andy was more than capable of taking care of things. She’d probably already called in the tags on the few cars thatdidremain in the lot.

Cobble strode over and opened the passenger door, wasting no time, but folding himself into the tiny sub-compact.

He drank Andy in; silky dark hair pulled back in a bun, huge coke-bottle glasses. He wanted nothing more than to lean over and capture her pretty lips in a soul-searing kiss, but instead, he laughed to cover up his still-buzzing attraction. “Forget how big I am, did you?” he asked in way of greeting as he knocked a hand on the headliner of the tiny ride, but seeing her again, he couldn’t keep the huge grin off his face.

“No, doll, I didn’t,” she snorted. “But you have to understand. If I rented anything larger than this, I’d have to shove pillows under my ass to locate the road in front of me.”

Cobble chuckled, every nerve in his body pinging. “It’s good to see you again, Andy.”

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