Page 12 of Special Agent Jennie

Chapter Nine

Kane figured to stick around after leaving Jennie and watch for when Lisa might appear. While he waited in the ramshackle black RAM that DHS had authorized for him, he checked his messages and saw a few notices from his boss. Pushing the special button under the steering wheel that started a recording of whatever he said into the Bluetooth speaker – like an Alexa on wheels – he replied to the various emails and gave the order to send. They would livestream to the office so there would be no chance of anything getting erased.

He’d already used it numerous times when he’d been driving the idiots who’d gotten pissed at the bar and needed rides. It’s amazing what secrets a drunken, babbling fool revealed when they felt safe. Using a queasy stomach and a very real bullet wound in an area that forbid overindulgence, they turned to him more and more often as their designated driver.

Piling a bunch of drunken idiots into his front and back seats and then often having to clean up their messes, seemed little enough to pay when he got the kind of evidence they willingly shared while believing they were safe.

When it came to a trial, any good lawyer might be able to throw out that kind of circumstantial BS. But just having the information, and using it against most criminals as extortion… in exchange for the truth, would be invaluable.

While waiting, Kane thought about the steps that had brought him to this place. Pondering how he could get out of this vicious triangle with no one the wiser, he rubbed at the old bullet wound in his side that tended to flare up during moments of stress.

His allegiance had always been first to Dave Wardlow, and then to those he worked with in the NCTC where he’d been an operations officer for the last few years. But now, seeing Jennie and finding out he had a full-grown daughter changed things.

In his youth, he’d mainly worked overseas assignments, but with Dave’s recurring cancer scare, seeing his health beginning to fail this year, he’d taken the job offer to stay in DC and work for Deputy Director James Bull. They’d known each other while both men worked their way up the ladder and had formed a close bond.

It would be that relationship that had enabled him to follow up on the mess he’d stumbled into at the bar where he’d been celebrating that Dave, his old mentor, and best friend, had fought off yet another bout with cancer, this time in his breast of all places. It had been touch-and-go for a few months, but the tough fighter had pulled through again when his latest test showed negative for any cancerous cells.

He’d gotten the call while visiting with an old FBI buddy who’d pulled out of a slump with booze and drugs and who lived in a rather rundown section of the city. Staying only long enough to share the good news, he’d walked across the street before heading home, stopping at the local bar to celebrate with a beer. While there, letting go of the stressful worry and thanking every God he’d called on to watch over his old friend, he’d eavesdropped on annoying loud voices, overhearing the most disgusting garbage that had changed his life.

Now, waiting in his truck, he watched the house where Jennie lived, and his heart finally slowed to its proper rhythm rather than thumping away like an old motorboat. How he’d managed to stand there and talk with the gorgeous woman the way he’d done earlier, he’d never know. After all, hadn’t she haunted his dreams for years? Been a poster child for any other female he’d been with since.

Oh, maybe not in looks, since he’d known the younger version, but in the personality of a girl who loved life, trusted in the good of others, and most important of all… absolutely worshipped him.

Him… a boy who’d fought to remember an aunt who’d believed in him. After she’d died, he’d had to accept another truth, that he didn’t matter at all. Once he’d met Jennie, she’d showered him with affection, listened admiringly to everything he had to say, and watched him with adoring eyes always filled with stars.

In his heart, he’d kept the vision of the young Jennie, the adorable sixteen-year-old who’d looked up to him in a way that made him feel ten feet tall. In those days, she’d been full of joy, a girl who dreamed of the future where they would be together, with a family, both working at jobs they loved, and growing old together.

He rubbed harder at his side. Bloody thing hurt like the devil. Admitting that his father and brother had effectively ended any possibility of that future had torn him to pieces. Over the years, closing a steel door on those beautiful memories, he’d effectively shut them away… and moved on.

God help him, tonight that door had been unexpectedly ripped wide open. He’d seen the woman she’d become, and his heart raced again at the memory. Now her breasts were larger, her hips rounder, and yet the slenderness he’d always remembered as being one of her best features had been obvious.

He’d seen through the bulky clothes to a woman who worked out, who’d kept her shape, and he had no doubt that being an agent for the FBI, would be somewhat responsible.

Before coming here, Kane had read her file and knew she held a position of some respect by the people she worked with. Heading up the special task force on the mounting trouble with the Chinese being targeted, Jennie’s team looked into various cases of harassment and even physical altercations.

He didn’t envy her having to deal with the bigoted ideas of some folks who believed the Chinese were responsible for many hardships now facing the world. Personally, he knew many families that had lived in America well before his own family immigrated from Ireland. They were citizens who deserved to be respected, and the new attacking behavior that had recently sprung up sickened him.

Suddenly, the woman who’d been on his mind appeared. She headed for her car, started it up, and began to drive in the direction he’d come from. Turning his truck around as quickly as he could, he followed her at a safe distance.

Wondering where she’d be going at this time of the night, his heart began to race, and his conscience kicked in. He had no right doing this, but he didn’t pull over or drive away. Rather, he continued to keep her lights in his vision until he realized her direction.

Son of a bitch!The woman had pulled in across the street from the very house he’d left earlier – the pigsty where he’d been living undercover. Remembering the mess of beer cans, dirty food containers, and filthy ashtrays full of drug crap and whatever else the guys hauled in earlier, self-disgust made him cringe. How could he let her see what he hated looking at himself?

If he could only have brought her to his real apartment, the place where he took pride… in his expensive, comfortable furnishings and carefully chosen artwork. Then she’d see the real Kane Lambert. The man who’d crawled out of the gutter and made something of his life. The man she’d always believed he’d be one day. Someone she could live her life with.

Instead, he’d have no choice but to stay in character and pray she didn’t force her way into his place. Staying in the truck, he watched her movements as she stepped out of her car, went to his door, and knocked loudly.

He saw as she went to the darkened windows and finally sat on the stoop to wait.

Shit, now what was he to do? He could wait her out, stay inside his truck and pray she’d give up. It seemed to be the best choice. Until he saw her wipe away her tears.

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