Page 20 of Special Agent Isabella

“Okay. If I behave can I have an orange sucker? My real doctor used to give me one.”

Laughing now, Bella finished digging out the fragments and then took the sopping wet facecloth, wrung it out, and again placed it over the bloody area.

Tanner sucked in his breath, complaining, “You could have made it warm. Fucker’s ice cold.”

“Christ, you really are a big baby, aren’t you?”

“Just saying. If you cared, you’d have thought about it.”

Happy now, she agreed. “Yeah. You’re right. If I cared. Stop messing around.” She slapped his hand away. “I’m going to put a pressure bandage over the area to stop the bleeding. We can change it later.”

“You mean, you can change it. I can’t get to it.”

“Or Stacy can fix it for you.”

Serious now, Tanner turned her way and spoke without any sign of his previous joking. “Did you hear what went down at her office?”

Leaning back against the sink, Bella nodded. “I heard about the bomb and that other than some damage to the place, no one was severely injured.”

“Right. No doubt because of all the confusion, a shooter had somehow gotten past the guards. And on our way out of the building, he and his AK15 were waiting for us to leave.”

“Jesus. Poor Stacy can’t catch a break. Obviously, since you’re both here, you weren’t hurt. Was anyone else injured?”

“Ahh… hel-lo? I was severely wounded by a mass of flying glass and could have been killed.”

Glee returned to Bella’s eyes as she moved close to tease. “Aww, it must have been the ultimate terror-filled moment for you to deal with. And you… a big, strong FBI man.”

Loving her reaction, he reached his hands under her long hair to encircle her face. “And meanwhile, you my pretty little feminine FBI undercover cop let our Abbie brush your hair. For that you deserve a medal… or a kiss.” So saying, he leaned over to place his lips against her forehead, but she yanked back. When their gazes met, he stopped.

They stared into each other’s eyes, neither looking away. Time stopped. His heart stopped. Bella’s retreat stopped. Then he saw her look at his lips and a strange yearning fill her glance before she dropped her lids to hide her feelings.

Her fresh-flowered scent surrounded them, and he wondered why he’d never gotten such a strong whiff in the past. Probably because she’d never let him get that close.

Before he could stop himself, he put his lips softly on hers and with the slightest of movements, the gentlest of pressure, he nuzzled her mouth. “Thank you.”

As if cemented in place, stiffly holding herself, she answered so softly he could barely make out her words. “My next move is reaching for my weapon.”

This time, he did move away and took her words as a joke. “Right. Got carried away. Loss of blood does that to a fellow.”

“Understandably. I won’t hold it against you. This time.”

“So there’ll be a next time?”

“Don’t be a smartass.” Her warning came to him with a slight shake of her head, but she hid a smile. Immediately, he understood the subject was closed.

She slapped a bandage on his wounds none too gently and wiped away the rest of the blood. “By the way, what happened to the shooter?”

Realizing they were back to the business at hand, he explained about the promise Stacy made.

“So they’re holding him in detention. Any reason to question him about the earlier threats?”

“I’ll follow up later, but I doubt he had anything to do with those personally. My gut instinct says he’s just another lonely guy getting worked up about the conspiracy theories online. Using either booze or some other form of a crutch to build up his nerve, he decided to take things to the next level.”

“Or he’s involved in a terrorist group and wanted to make them take notice.”

“That idea did go through my mind. We’ll search his background thoroughly.”

Nodding in agreement, Bella began to clean up the mess in the sink. “What about the bomb? Any leads back to the Governor? Notes or other sorts of messages?”

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