One
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Dani asked as she peered through the raindrops covering the windshield of the car to the white brick building in the near distance.
“No,” Xander said quietly and honestly. He looked over Dani’s shoulder, out the passenger window, and eyed a man getting out of a dark sedan parked a few spots away.
He watched as the man exited the car and opened a large, black umbrella as soon as his head was clear of the car’s roof. He slammed the door closed and hurried around the front of the car and stood next to the passenger’s door while he waited for a woman to join him under the umbrella. The two of them huddled close together as they hurried through the parking lot, avoiding puddles as they went, and emerged relatively dry under the building’s canvas canopy.
Xander wasn’t sure if he watched the couple because something about the man’s behavior triggered something inside him that twenty years of experience in the FBI had molded to almost perfection, or if he was stalling. He was probably stalling. He didn’t want to go inside but knew he had to.
The building the couple entered was a moderately fancy Italian restaurant. It was a relatively new addition to the Portland dining scene. Dani had looked up the restaurant on the internet to see what was offered on their menu for them to eat and to see if Xander was supposed to wear a tie. Xander hated wearing ties.
The website described the restaurant as moderately fancy, which meant that no jacket and tie were required, but it also meant that no jeans and T-shirt were allowed.
Xander flexed his shoulders and felt the holster for his gun under the lightweight dress jacket Dani had insisted that he wear. His gun reassured him more than the security cameras strategically placed on wooden light poles around the parking lot did. The area the restaurant was in was not particularly unsavory, so the cameras were a surprise to him. But better to be safe than sorry, he supposed.
“Then let’s turn around and go home,” Dani said as she watched the way Xander clenched and unclenched his jaws and held a firm, white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel. Even though the car was stopped and in park, Xander had not shut off the engine.
The emotional side of his brain liked Dani’s idea. Just put the car in drive and head back to Bethany. You can call tomorrow with some excuse of why you didn’t make it.
His logical side chimed in. You’re not here for a casual dinner, Bruinski.
Zane might understand. He’s been good about giving you space.
Not likely, his logical mind retorted. The invitation wasn’t exactly voluntary.
Somewhere inside the restaurant, most likely off in a corner, was his boss, Raymond Zane, Assistant Director of the Pacific-Northwest Branch of the Criminal Investigative Division of the FBI, and he was not there for a social visit.
Zane had been the one to bring Xander into the FBI over twenty years ago and had been Xander’s mentor all during his time in the academy and afterward when Xander had graduated and went to work for him. Xander never understood why Zane was harder on him than all the other agents and just a little protective of Xander’s safety. But now he knew. Four months ago, Xander found out that the man he’d grown to respect as a boss was actually his uncle. A fact that Zane had said he’d kept a secret as a favor to his brother-in-law, Everett Bruinski, Xander’s late father.
The little bit of information about his boss’s relation to him had not been obtained easily. Xander had to literally beat it out of his former FBI partner, Carl Mitchell, and then he’d only heard part of the story. More came from Zane himself when he’d come to Portland to visit Xander in the hospital while Xander recovered from his injuries sustained on his last case. It was one of the many cases that Xander will never be able to get out of his head.
As much as he wanted to, Xander knew he couldn’t leave. He had too many questions for his uncle, and he knew there was more to the invitation than just dinner and a gift for Dani’s birthday. His gut told him there was. And his curiosity got the better of him as it always did. He really wished sometimes that he could just let a question stay unanswered, but the fact that he couldn’t, made him very good at his job.
He sighed and forced his fingers to release the steering wheel. They ached from gripping it so tightly for so long. He reached down to shut off the engine. Shoving the keys in his jacket pocket, he looked in the backseat for an umbrella. He wanted to be chivalrous like the man in the car next to him since Dani had dressed up in a new outfit that she and Melanie, Carl’s wife and Dani’s employee at her store, had found when they’d gone out shopping yesterday.
Xander looked at her as his gaze left the empty backseat, and his breath caught in his throat. She was beautiful. He still found it hard sometimes to believe that he and Dani had found each other, or more appropriately, that she was tolerant enough to put up with him. He’d lived with himself for over forty years, and he was the first to admit that he was not the easiest person to live with.
His first wife, Carrie, had told him that very thing as she waved divorce papers in his face and told him to get out. His and Carrie’s relationship had been doomed from the start. She was a sweet, grade-school art teacher, with grandiose views of the world and of Xander. He’d been a cynical, grumpy, dedicated-to-his-job man. He’d always been more married to his job than he had been to her. Carrie had been murdered five months ago. The killer had made her death look like a suicide. That was the reason that Xander had been in the area where he’d met Dani, so in a way, he owed his ex-wife a big thank you. Not that he’d ever be able to tell her so.
Dani watched Xander. He was acting more peculiar than normal. She knew he was skeptical about coming to dinner tonight, but she also knew it was exactly what he needed. Even if he was unwilling to admit it to himself, she knew he needed to go back to work, even though she didn’t like it.
In a romantic way, she thought that he was putting it off so he could spend more time with her. She knew that once he went back to investigating cases, he’d be off to who-knows-where getting into who-knows-what kind of trouble. She could understand what Carrie had meant when she’d said that she feared for Xander’s safety. He didn’t always take the safest route in solving his cases. He took the route that got the case solved.
Dani lifted her hand to rest it on Xander’s cheek and scratched softly through the thick hair covering his face to the skin below. His gaze locked onto hers and his lips rose in an almost embarrassed half smile.
“I don’t have an umbrella in here,” he mumbled quietly.
Dani continued to scratch his face, causing his jaw to tingle deep down in his bones. “Let’s go home,” she said softly.
Xander reached up and took her small hand from his cheek and brought it over to his lips. Inhaling her beautiful exotic ylang-ylang scent, he gently kissed her knuckles and looked into her brilliant green eyes. “As much as I want to, love, you know we have to go in there.”
Dani sighed. “I know, but I also know you don’t want to.”
“No,” he admitted, “I don’t.”
“Why? Are you worried about going back to work?”
Xander looked back at the white brick building and watched a family of four leave the restaurant and hurry through the rain to a red minivan parked on the side of the building.
“I just have a feeling,” he mumbled, trying to ignore the humming in his gut that was his early warning detector for trouble. Carl always called it his trouble magnet, but it had saved their hides more times than either of them could count. He tore his gaze away from the family and back to Dani. Sitting here wasn’t going to make the problem go away. “Are you ready?”
She nodded. Xander got out and hurried around the car to open her door. He lifted the side of his loose-fitting suit jacket for her to slip under. It should keep most of the rain off her and her pretty, new dress.
They hurried across the smooth, even parking lot and once under the canopy, Dani went to step away from him, but Xander grabbed her around the waist and pulled her closer against him. “Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?” he murmured, his lips mere inches from hers.
Dani looked up at him and smiled. “Only a dozen times, but you can tell me again.”
“You look beautiful, love,” he said as he closed the gap and gently pressed his lips against hers. He had to fight the urge to bury his hands in her thick mane of flame red curls and pull her hair out of the neat little up-do she had it in. “I’m going to enjoy getting your hair out of this when we get home,” he murmured when they parted for air.
Dani struggled to keep her breath even and to stop herself from molesting him against the side of the building. No matter how many times they kissed, Xander’s kisses always had the same effect on her as the very first kiss they’d shared. They left her breathless and heated from the inside out.
“And I’m going to enjoy watching you get me out of this dress when we get home,” she said in what she hoped was a seductive voice.
Dani had never been good with people, mainly because of her special talent for hearing voices from people who were no longer alive. The folks in town dubbed her Crazy Dani, and, as a result, her love life had suffered a major deficiency.
Until Xander had come along, Dani had all but convinced herself that she was going to wind up spending her life with a bunch of disembodied voices that only she could hear. She wasn’t low in self-esteem as a result, she just ignored people and most days their ribbing didn’t affect her. What she did lack, however, was experience in the bedroom.
Four months ago, Dani would swear she didn’t own a sexy voice, but with Xander, all rules changed, and she was a lot bolder inside and outside of the bedroom than she ever thought possible.
Xander pressed her against him, and she could feel just how excited he was about the idea of getting her out of her dress. “I’m going to hold you to that, love,” he said in his playful voice.
“I’m counting on it,” she shot back and discretely stepped away from him as the doors opened and an elderly couple emerged from the restaurant lobby.
The elderly man held the door for the woman, and Xander quickly hurried over to take the door from him so the man could help the woman with the umbrella. Xander held out his hand to Dani and followed her inside.
A low buzz settled in the air inside the restaurant as people conversed before, during, and after dinner. The wonderful aroma of tomato and oregano filled the air, and just about everyone sitting in the lobby looked hungry enough to gnaw a limb off.
They all held in their hands a small device that would light up and vibrate when there was a table ready for them. Almost everyone who held the small device looked down at it every few seconds to see if maybe it had gone off and he or she hadn’t noticed.
Xander looked around the room in a casual way and quickly examined every person in the lobby. It was a habit he’d been unable to break. Even though there was probably no threat of danger from any of the patrons waiting to be seated and eat their dinner, Xander couldn’t resist the impulse to identify each person and put their features into his short-term memory. Just in case.
“I don’t think anyone here is a murderer or an otherwise dangerous person, so you can relax,” Dani urged him quietly coming up behind him. Dani knew him well enough after the few months that they’d been together that, even on medical leave, Xander never stopped being an investigative agent.
“Well, who’d of thought a fifty-year-old cop of thirty years would turn out to be a serial killer?” Xander retorted as he rested his hand on the small of her back to usher her up to the maître de.
The man behind the small counter looked to be about sixty with hair that was once thick and jet black but was now thinning and more salt than pepper, leaving a patch of shiny skin on the top of his head. He was round and the black suit he wore looked slightly too small. He looked as if he enjoyed the food at the restaurant regularly.
He glanced up when they approached, and a warm, friendly smile filled his face. His skin was the darker hue of his Italian ancestors, and his eyes were a deep, dark brown. He had a thick, graying moustache that sat like a caterpillar on his upper lip.
“Buona sera, how can I be of help tonight?” His voice was a deep tenor and held a slight Italian accent.
“Do you have a reservation for a Raymond Zane?”
The man’s eyes lit up. “Yes, he has already arrived.”
The man turned to snap his fingers at a younger man who was flirting with one of the waitresses. The young man, who looked to be about twenty-five with reddish hair and disinterested brown eyes, hurried over, straightening his vest as he did so. He looked expectantly at the older man.
“Table six,” the Italian man said to the younger man and turned to give Xander a smile.
Something about the older man’s mannerisms tweaked at Xander’s suspicion. As Xander looked closer at the man, his features gave the appearance of a man in his sixties, but his hands were that of a much younger person. His eyes, too, now that Xander looked closer, were not the sad, worn-out eyes of an elderly man, but the observant eyes of a trained agent. When the man bent over to retrieve something from under the counter, Xander caught the unmistakable bulge of a gun tucked into the back waistband of the man’s pants.
“I hope you at least get a meal out of this,” Xander said quietly to the agent dressed like the elderly Italian greeter.
The man smiled and gave Xander a nod as the younger man led them through the crowded restaurant.
As they passed through a stone archway, the noise level decreased substantially as the auxiliary dining room was empty except for the table along the far wall.
Sitting at the table, watching them as they headed toward him was Raymond Zane.
As they approached the table, Dani felt Xander’s grip on her hand tighten slightly, but he gave no other outward signs of apprehension.
Zane rose and smiled at them.
“I was about to send one of the waiters out to the parking lot to make sure everything was all right.” Zane’s tone was friendly and scolding at the same time.
Xander forced a smile. “Did you bring half the office with you?”
Zane raised an eyebrow. “How many did you count?”
“Well, there was the greeter, the young red-headed kid who brought us in here, there was the couple who came in right before us, and by my count four along the way seated at various locations in the dining room, the waiter who remains to show himself from behind the swinging door off to our left, and you have Ethan down in your car, which is most likely parked in the alley behind the building. That makes ten, twelve if you include you and me.”
Dani looked up at Xander. “Those were all FBI agents?” She turned to glance back at the crowded dining room, looking around to see if she could tell which patrons Xander had noticed. She could only see a few tables, but the folks at them just looked like regular people to her.
Xander didn’t answer, he looked at Zane. “Did I miss any?”
Zane’s lip quirked in a smile. “One. I have a second agent down in the car with Ethan.”
“That’s a big budget for dinner. Are you expecting trouble?”
“I always expect trouble,” Zane said truthfully and unapologetically.
Xander couldn’t really comment because he had the same mindset. It was good to know that it was just Zane’s over-cautiousness bringing the extra agents with him, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to it than Zane was letting on. “Well, I sure hope that at least the food is good here,” Xander muttered as he pulled out the chair in front of him and motioned for Dani to take a seat.
Dani hesitated a moment but moved to sit on the chair as Xander pushed it in towards the table.
Xander took a seat next to her, across from Zane, and Zane returned to his seat.
Zane looked over to Dani. “You look lovely, Dani.”
“Thank you, Mr. Zane,” she said politely. “It was nice of you to invite us to dinner.”
Zane smiled at her, and Dani could see the sincerity of it. “We are, after all, family. And families don’t let a birthday go by uncelebrated, do they Xander?” Zane looked over at Xander, who narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him.
Zane reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small, gift-wrapped box. The wrapping was silver and the small bow on top was bright green. Zane set the box on the table next to Dani and looked at her expectantly.
“You didn’t need to bring a gift, Mr. Zane,” she said as she eyed the small gift with some trepidation.
“Please, either call me Raymond or Zane, I haven’t been called a mister in many years. It makes me feel old,” he said in a teasing tone.
Dani looked at the thick gray hair covering his head and the way his eyes wrinkled when he smiled.
“You are old,” Xander said before Dani could think of a more tactful way of putting that same sentiment.
“I like to think that I’m a seasoned veteran,” Zane said defensively.
“Well, I’d like to think I’m going to get a raise, but you don’t always get what you want,” Xander said to Zane as he watched Dani examine the small box.
Dani’s thirty-third birthday was technically tomorrow. Xander had a special gift for her and planned to make her favorite meal, eggplant parmesan, for dinner, unless she ordered it tonight. If she did, he’d have to improvise.
When the phone call came from Zane two nights ago inviting them to dinner in Portland, they’d both been in the garden arguing on whether to let the ivy grow or cut it back.
Xander wanted to keep it trimmed and within the confines of its container. Dani wanted to let it creep over the sides and down to the bin below it. As usual, Xander gave in and let her have things the way she wanted them.
When they’d listened to the message later that evening, Dani looked at Xander and had asked him if he thought that his boss was going to try to get him to come back to work.
That was Xander’s first thought, but something about the tone in Zane’s voice peaked his investigative mind. Zane didn’t just want him to come back to work. He wanted him to come back to work for a specific reason. Hopefully, tonight they would find out that reason.
Dani slowly untied the green bow and lifted the lid off the professionally wrapped silver box. She gasped. Inside were two jade earrings easily the size of a pea. “Raymond, these are lovely,” she said as she pulled the jewelry out of the box. She showed them to Xander, and he just nodded, his eyes narrowed at Zane again. She was going to have to have the conversation with him again about looking intimidating when they were in public.
She stood, prompting both men to also stand. “I’ll be right back.”
“Where are you going?” Xander asked as he looked around the empty room. He examined the doorway for threats.
“I’m going to put Raymond’s wonderful gift on and do what a person normally does when they visit the bathroom. Is that okay with you, Special Agent Bruinski?” Dani asked him, sarcasm and annoyance making her tone sharp.
Xander winced. He recognized that tone. He held up his hands in surrender. “Sorry, Zane’s paranoia must be rubbing off on me.”
Dani leaned down and whispered in his ear. “I’ll forgive you, millions wouldn’t,” she said as she hurried by him and out into the crowded, noisy dining room.
Zane and Xander watched her leave. Once she was out of the room, Zane turned to Xander and smiled at him. They both took their seats.
“Nothing says welcome to the family like GPS,” Xander said accusingly as he took a drink of his water, hoping to calm his nerves.
“You should be thanking me. You never know when you might need some way to keep track of someone you care about when you’re not together.”
Xander eyed him “Something you want to share with me?”
Zane gave him a polite but knowing smile. “All in good time, Xander. All in good time.”
Xander wondered if Zane had, somehow, found out about Bethany. There was no way anyone could have found out that he had a house in Hood River. He’d made sure of it.
Just after his divorce from Carrie, Xander took a hiatus from the bureau. He got on his motorcycle and just drove with no destination in mind. He wasn’t sure what made him turn down a stretch of road that looked overgrown and wild. At the end of the road was a small wooden house, still well cared for with a “For Sale by Owner” sign in the window where no one, besides him, would probably ever see it.
Xander called the number and talked to an elderly man named Amos Huckleberry, who agreed to sell him the house. Knowing full well that Zane, and anyone else looking for him, for either good or bad reasons, could find him if he purchased the property outright, Xander got Amos to agree to accept ninety-five percent of the sale price with a verbal agreement that Xander would pay the taxes and insurance on the place to Amos twice a year. Amos agreed to leave the property in his name and over the past four years has taken to checking up on Xander from time to time.
There was no way that Zane could have found out about Bethany, and Xander relaxed a little. “If you say so,” Xander forced out. He knew that Zane was up to something. Xander’s gut told him that Zane was. But Xander didn’t know what it was, and the not knowing irked him.
While on medical leave these last several months, Xander had given serious thought to retiring. He was not a young agent anymore. He would be forty-one years old in a few months, and the aches in his body from his many years of abuse took their toll on him almost every damp morning.
There was also the part of him that didn’t want to leave Dani. He’d been on medical leave since the conclusion of the last case and had enjoyed spending the days and nights with her. He’d finally found someone to share his life with, and he selfishly wanted to enjoy every minute of it. He had plenty in investments, and he’d checked out with an acquaintance in the bureau that he did, indeed, have a pension that he could draw on as soon as he retired from service.
Then Zane’s call came and with it, reality.
“The Myers case is officially closed. The board reviewed the case and determined that you acted in a way befitting the agency and have absolved you of any wrongdoing.”
Xander knew better than to take offense to his case being reviewed by the ethics board, but it bothered him every time. Yes, he sometimes used unconventional methods to solve cases, but he always solved them. Didn’t the ends justify the means?
“The bad guy is no longer a harm to society. Why do they keep reviewing my cases, Zane?” Xander eyed him suspiciously.
Zane held a hand up trying to calm Xander. “It’s policy when the subject dies during the investigation for the ethics board to review the case, you know that. And the subject in question was a police officer. It’s a check and balance to make sure our agents don’t get unnecessarily carried away.”
“I’m not a vigilante, Zane.”
“I know that, and they know that. It’s bureau policy to keep Washington happy,” Zane said patiently. “That’s all.”
Xander grumbled and folded his muscular arms across his chest. He flexed his shoulders as the cotton material of his button-down shirt pulled against his back. The dress shirt didn’t give the same way his beloved T-shirts did, and he felt suddenly confined. He had to take several deep breaths after he unfolded his arms to get himself back to where he could think straight.
He blinked and saw Zane watching him, but before Zane could say anything, Xander saw Dani step into the room. Xander held his breath as their eyes met and locked. She was so beautiful. The dress she wore was cream colored and showed more of her skin than she usually dared to show. Xander smiled as he looked at how well she filled out the dress.
Xander loved to cook and, as it turns out, Dani loved to eat. Once Xander found out that she really didn’t like to cook, he figured the best way to put some weight on her was to cook her foods that she liked eating. It had done the trick.
In the four months that he’d been on medical leave, she had probably added five to seven pounds to her willowy figure. She now had the definite curves of rounded hips and, much to his delight, she’d increased her bust size. Dani complained often about having to buy new clothes, but Xander would willingly pay for a whole new wardrobe. She looked healthier now, and he loved being able to feel the softness of her rounded backside. He liked to hold her and know that she won’t break.
Zane turned to look what had captured Xander’s attention and smiled as Dani sashayed through the empty room and back over to the table, the light dancing off the green gemstones in her ears.
“They’re lovely, thank you, Raymond” she said and bent to give Zane a kiss on the cheek.
“You’re welcome,” Zane replied in a friendly and affectionate tone that Xander hadn’t remembered ever hearing before. “I should warn you, though, I’ve always loved buying women jewelry, call it a quirk in my nature, and, since you’re the only woman I have to buy gifts for, I hope Xander, here, can make you a jewelry chest to hold it all.”
The two men stood up as Dani went to take her seat.
Xander scowled at Zane as Dani’s eyes lit up.
They all resumed their seats, and the elusive “waiter” arrived at the table with a bottle of wine and three glasses.
Xander narrowed his eyes and scrutinized him. The agent dressed as the waiter was not Italian, if his pale skin and blond hair were genuine. He was a younger man, maybe early thirties, with blue eyes. His hands shook a little when he poured the wine. He set three menus down on the table and hurried away.
“First assignment out in the field?” Xander surmised.
Zane nodded with a somewhat disapproving look. “They just don’t make them like you anymore.”
“So why is it you don’t have a woman in your life to buy jewelry for, Raymond?” Dani asked, trying to change the subject.
She knew full well that they were going to talk about work, and, in her heart, she knew it was what Xander needed, but she wasn’t ready for him to leave. She wasn’t ready to have him gone for weeks or months on end. He’d told her that sometimes he wouldn’t be able to call for days, but, since his face was too recognizable for any undercover work, he wouldn’t have to go off the radar like he had at the start of his career.
“Well, life as an agent is not an easy one,” Zane began. “Ask Xander. It’s not always easy sharing your life with someone when you can’t tell her anything about your work.”
Dani had an idea of what he was talking about. As much as she asked about Xander’s other cases, he’d only give her generalities. He could never go into detail, saying she didn’t have proper clearance for him to divulge the classified information. He always told her enough to satisfy her curiosity, though, and she figured other agents did the same with their significant others, but maybe Xander told her more than he was supposed to.
“I suppose that’s true,” she said quickly, not wanting to hint that she’d been told anything classified to get Xander in trouble. The man was his uncle, but Zane was still his boss. “But surely, agents manage to find companions to spend their time with. It’s not like you’re all members of the clergy.”
Both Xander and Zane let out a small chuckle.
“It sure feels like it most days,” Zane said quietly, and Dani picked up on a hint of sadness in his voice but figured this was neither the time nor the place to discuss it.
The conversation fell into a lull, and they all decided to open the menu and look over the selections.
“Xander tells me that you’re a vegetarian, so I made sure there were plenty of options for you,” Zane said to her.
Dani looked over at Xander, who was conveniently looking down at the menu. He obviously hadn’t told his boss about his dietary inclinations.
Since they’d been living together at his house, they’d eaten strictly vegetarian fare. Xander only luxuriated on his beloved salmon when they went to the small diner outside Portland every other Tuesday, when the salmon was the special. Xander said he liked the way they cooked the fish there, but Dani always had a suspicion he just didn’t want to give up eating it.
“That was very thoughtful,” she said as a response to both of them.
She scanned the selections and spied eggplant parmesan. She gave serious thought of ordering it, but she knew Xander was planning to make it for her tomorrow for her actual birthday. He hadn’t said as much, but when he picked the two eggplants and hid them in the potato drawer, well, she didn’t need to be an FBI agent to figure out his plans.
As much as she loved the dish, she didn’t want to ruin Xander’s thoughtful plans to cook her meal, and she did so love his cooking, so much so that she had to move into the next size up in clothes.
Instead, she spied a cheese-filled manicotti with marinara sauce. As if in preparation of the rich and delicious meal, her stomach gave a rumble of pleasure at the thought of being filled, and she silently willed it to remain quiet. Closing the menu, she looked over and saw Xander watching her.
“See something you like?” he asked, his slight smile revealing the double meaning of his quietly spoken words.
Choosing to ignore his innuendo for now, she smiled at him innocently. “I’m going to order the cheese manicotti.”
Xander quietly chuckled at her innocent act and looked over her shoulder at the approaching waiter. “I’ll order the salmon pasta,” he told the waiter, who entered the information into his smart phone, rather than writing it down on a traditional pad of paper.
Xander saw the action and sighed. Almost against his will, he found himself thinking of Todd Myers and his comments about how technology was supposed to enhance life, not replace it.
“The cheese manicotti for the lady,” Zane told him. “And I’ll have the sausage Carbonara.” Zane closed his menu and handed it to the waiter. Xander and Dani did the same, and, once the man had left, the room again fell into silence. “So how are you feeling, Xander?” Zane asked after a few tense and awkward moments.
“I’m not one hundred percent, but I’m probably as close as I’m going to get,” Xander admitted honestly.
Zane eyed him suspiciously then folded his hands in front of him. “I have a case that I need you to investigate. Are you ready to come back?”
Xander took a deep breath and held it for an instant before slowly releasing it through tight lips. He glanced over at Dani, who was watching him with the same question in her verdant eyes.
Was he ready to go back?
At his hesitation, Zane spoke up. “Before you give me an answer, I have a proposition for you,” Zane said with a tone that was somewhat uncertain.
Xander raised his eyebrow imploring his boss to continue.
Zane gave a brief glance to Dani before continuing. “Do you recall on the phone when you first told me about Dani, that I told you that the CIA was not the only branch of the government exploring unconventional investigative methods for solving cases?”
Xander nodded.
Dani looked from Xander to Zane. Xander had not shared that tidbit of information with her. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to excuse herself so the two FBI agents could talk in private, but this was her birthday dinner, and she would be damned if she was going to be the one to leave. If they were going to talk work at her dinner, then they were just going to have to do it in front of her.
“Well, off the record, I’ve been appointed to head up a SID.”
Dani creased her brows. “What’s a SID?”
Zane smiled patiently at her. “SID stands for Special Investigative Division.”
“Special, meaning …” Dani asked, letting her voice trail off as the way of asking her question.
Xander narrowed his eyes at Zane.
If this was off the record, it meant that the whole operation was classified, and, unless he woke up in a parallel universe, Dani didn’t have clearance to be privy to classified government information. His boss was up to something. His trouble magnet began humming louder in his gut.
Zane gave Xander a steady stare before turning his attention to Dani. “Special is a technical term for any case that otherwise would be unsolvable by using conventional methods.”
“What like X-files?” Dani asked as she took a sip of wine.
Zane smiled and let out a soft chuckle. “Not exactly, but when there’s a case that no one seems to be able to figure out, it’ll come to the SID, and we’ll use … unique investigative methods to get the case solved.”
Dani looked over at Xander. “Sounds like what you’ve been doing for years now.”
“Yeah,” Xander agreed, his hard gaze never leaving Zane’s. “Have I been your guinea pig the entire time?”
“No,” Zane said not at all surprised that Xander had correctly discovered his role. “I was approached three years ago about the idea. Your results have been monitored, and, because of your unique skills, the funding was approved just four months ago.”
“I don’t believe you,” Xander said with barely controlled anger.
Dani looked from Zane to Xander and saw the anger on Xander’s face. She felt as though she’d missed the punch line of the joke.
“What’s going on?” she asked Xander.
Xander’s jaw ticked several times before he tore his fierce gaze from Zane and over to her. The instant his eyes found hers, his expression softened, but she could still see the anger and hurt in his dark brown eyes.
“What’s going on is that my boss has used me for the past three years, without my knowledge, and had me and my cases studied and picked through to get authorization to start his new pet project.”
“A project that will benefit a lot of people who otherwise might have their cases go cold,” Zane interjected. “It’ll get cases solved, Xander. I’ve encouraged you to use your gift, not just to get this division approved, but also to make a difference in the world. You won’t need to do anything differently, except now you won’t have to keep your methods of investigation out of the case notes.”
“What exactly are you saying?” Xander asked.
Zane took a deep breath. “I’m offering you the opportunity to head up the department.”
“I’m not a desk man, Zane, you know that.”
Zane held up his hands and gave Xander a motion to calm down. “I’m not asking you to be a desk man. Lord knows you would drive everyone in an office crazy. No. Your place is investigating out in the field. I understand that as well as you do.”
“Then what would I be doing?”
“Exactly what you’ve been doing,” Zane said again.
Xander raised an eyebrow. “What? The division is going to consist of me? There ain’t no “I” in team, Zane. Ever hear that?”
“All right,” Zane said exasperated. “You’d be doing exactly what you’ve been doing, with the slight exception of being in charge of a select team of individuals who would make up the division.”
“What individuals?” Xander asked suspiciously.
Zane shrugged. “Well, frankly, anyone you wanted. You would be heading up the division. It would be up to you to put together a team to get the work done.”
Zane’s eyes slid over to Dani, who was looking from Zane to Xander in silent confusion.
“Oh, hell no,” Xander barked, causing Dani to jump slightly in her seat.
“What?” Dani asked Xander.
Xander didn’t look at her and seemed to not hear her question. He was looking at Zane with the same warning look he gave her when she pushed him too far during one of their many arguments.
“A good investigator utilizes all valuable resources, Xander, I know I taught you that,” Zane replied, unaffected by the death glare Xander was shooting at him across the table.
Dani had the distinct impression that she was the topic of their conversation, and she’d had just about enough of being left out of the conversation.
“What the hell is going on?” she said firmly to Xander.
Xander flared his nostrils once then turned to look at her.
“So, Dani,” Zane began before Xander could open his mouth to reply. “How did you like being a Special Advisor to the FBI during the last case?”
“Zane,” Xander warned.
Dani gave a glance at Xander before turning back to Zane. Xander was glaring at his boss with murder in his eyes. She’d not seen him this angry in while, and she didn’t fully understand what was going on.
“I think, under the circumstances, I was able to help with the investigation, and I enjoyed being a part of what Xander does,” Dani said honestly, glancing uneasily back at Xander.
“As head of the SID, Xander would have the authority to grant you that title on a permanent basis.”
Xander practically growled but held his comment inside as the waiter arrived with their salad and bread.
The young man set chilled bowls filled with salad in front of them and set the steaming basket of fresh bread in the center of the table. He then spun on his heels and headed out.
“I’ll think about it,” Xander said before either Zane or Dani could get another word out. He knew that was about the only thing he could say to effectively end the conversation that he did not want to have right now.
Zane nodded to him then turned back to Dani.
“So how is business at your store?” Zane asked her as if the last ten minutes of conversation hadn’t taken place.
Dani took a bite of salad and rolled her eyes at the wonderful tangy taste of the dressing. Her mind was still on the thought that she and Xander could work together on cases. He wouldn’t have to leave her behind.
“Business is going very well,” she answered,
“Carl Mitchell’s wife is working out well, then?”
The question of how the heck Zane knew that Melanie was working for her was on the tip of her tongue, but then she remembered who she was talking to. Xander had told her that it was uncanny how well informed his boss was about everything.
“Melanie is doing a wonderful job,” she replied, trying to pretend she wasn’t unnerved by his knowledge. “She’s reorganized the store and is a quick study. I think she runs the store better than I ever did,” Dani joked. “She could run the place without me.”
“Is that so?” Zane asked.
Dani nodded and resumed eating her salad.
When Xander had told her where they were going for dinner, she decided to eat very sparingly during the day, so she could save room for a big dinner. She loved Italian food, and she’d heard the food here was especially good. As a result, however, she was practically starving, and, if she thought she could get away with it, she’d shove the entire loaf of bread in her mouth and have a salad chaser. But she was conscious of her manners, even if Xander was being rude by scowling at the man paying for their dinner.
“Have you had any visions lately?” Zane asked.
Dani creased her brows. “Actually, I haven’t. I had one when I first got back from New York, but nothing since then.”
Dani’s heart clenched as she fought to keep thoughts of Iago out of her mind. She missed him like she missed Cassandra. She took a deep breath and pushed the thoughts away for now. She could bring him to the front of her mind when she was in the privacy of Bethany.
“Why do you suppose that is?” Zane asked.
Dani looked over at Xander, who was looking out the window. He was deep in thought, she knew. It was one of his more annoying habits that she’d gotten used to. When his brain was processing information, it was like he went off into his own little world to think.
She turned her attention back to Zane. “I suppose it’s because my link to the spirit world was severed when …” She swallowed down the emotions and continued. “… with the disappearance of my spirit guide.”
Dani pushed the empty salad bowl aside and looked down at the bread on her plate. She was not going to break down in the middle of dinner. She was strong and she could have a conversation about Iago without curling up in the fetal position and wailing over her loss.
“I imagine you miss your guide very much,” Zane surmised.
Dani looked at the sincerity in his eyes and smiled, blinking rapidly to disburse the unshed tears so they didn’t fall down her face and ruin the eye make-up she spontaneously decided to wear. “I do. Iago had been with me since I was five years old. It’s like losing one of my parents.”
Zane looked thoughtful. “Losing someone close to you feels like a part of you died with them. I understand and am very sorry for your loss.”
The waiter came by to clear the salad plates and to say their dinner was going to be out shortly.
“Meaning no disrespect, but have you thought about getting another spirit guide?” Zane asked.
Dani shrugged. “I don’t know who could take Iago’s place.”
She felt a warm hand cover hers and looked over to see Xander watching her. He must have concluded whatever thought process he was working on and had returned to the land of the conscious.
“No one has to replace your old guide, just think of it as adding another employee to the store. You were getting along just fine on your own, but now that you have someone else to help, you wonder how you ever got along without her,” Zane said casually.
“I suppose. I haven’t given it much thought, but …” she began but let the sentence trail off as she fought to control the sadness inside.
She didn’t want another spirit guide. She wanted Iago back.
“You don’t have to think about that right now, love. Let’s just change the subject, so you can enjoy your birthday dinner,” Xander said glaring at Zane.
She looked over at him and felt the tears well up despite her attempts to keep them down. She quickly wiped the tears away and sniffled back the rest of the tears in time for the waiter to appear with their meals.
“So you can answer me now: are you ready to come back to work, Xander?” Zane asked after the waiter had left. He took a bite of his meal and chewed thoughtfully as he watched Xander.
“You said you had a case you needed me to work on,” Xander said deflecting the subject.
Zane cast a quick glance at Dani, but she was studying the manicotti on her plate. “Before I can discuss any details, you’ll need to pass your evals and get re-instated into active duty. I can bypass most rules, Xander, but not all.”
Xander sighed and took a bite of his pasta. The thick garlicky sauce coated his tongue, and the salmon practically melted in his mouth. Dani had pressured him to give up the delicacy and go strictly vegetarian, but he couldn’t give up salmon. He might as well chop off his left arm.
“I’ll come back and work on the case,” Xander said finally.
Zane smiled and reached into his pocket to pull out an envelope. He slid it across the table to Xander.
Xander opened it and scowled at his boss. “You don’t waste any time,” he said accusingly.
“What is it?” Dani asked.
“Two plane tickets to Washington DC for tomorrow afternoon,” Xander said flatly to her.
Zane smiled and resumed eating his pasta.
“How did you know Xander was going to say he was ready to come back to work?” Dani asked Zane.
Zane winked at her. “We are related.”
Xander grumbled the rest of the way through dinner and both Xander and Dani refused the offer of dessert and coffee.
“We should be leaving,” Xander said as Zane’s coffee arrived.
“Of course,” Zane said and stood as Xander and Dani did. “Happy birthday, Dani,” Zane said as he bent to kiss her on the cheek.
“Thank you for the earrings and for dinner. I look forward to getting to know you better,” Dani said politely and stepped back from him into Xander’s awaiting arms.
Zane smiled at her then looked over her shoulder at Xander. “I’ll see you on Tuesday morning. Don’t fail your evals. I can’t fix the psych eval like I did the last time.”
Xander grunted and urged Dani into motion.
“What does he mean that he can’t fix it like the last time?” She asked him quietly as they wandered through the now quieter and less populated restaurant.
Xander waited until they were outside under the canvas canopy to answer her. “When Zane brought me on the last case, he brought me off medical leave earlier than planned. I’d found out about Carrie’s death the day before my psychological evaluation. I wasn’t exactly emotionally prepared to deal with things and didn’t do so well on the test. But Zane needed me on the case, for reasons you now know, and rigged it so the test results looked better than they really were.”
“He can do that?”
“He can do just about anything he wants.”
“He fixed it to make it look like you were psychologically stable?”
Xander nodded.
“So that’s why you were so grumpy when you met me,” she said as they made their way to the car.
The rain had stopped but left the warm July evening slightly humid. The ground was still damp, and they avoided the puddles as they walked. “No. I was grumpy when I met you because you smacked me in the face.”
“That was the second time I met you,” Dani corrected him. “The first time you thought I was crazy and bitched about taking me to the hospital after Todd practically amputated my arm with his knife.”
Xander opened the car door for her and choked. “You needed six stitches. Believe me, I’ve seen limbs amputated. It takes more than six stitches to fix it.”
“I said practically amputated,” she shouted as he slammed the door after she slid into the passenger’s seat.
Xander walked around to the other side and went to open the door but stopped when he heard loud footfalls behind him. Xander reached for his gun and turned, aiming it at the source of the rapidly approaching noise.
The young redheaded man who’d seated them earlier in the evening squeaked and covered his head with his hands, ducking down slightly as he did so. “Don’t shoot,” he said, his voice cracking slightly.
Xander sighed and relaxed his grip. He lowered his arm and returned the gun to the holster. “That’s a great way to get yourself shot, kid,” Xander mumbled.
“Apology accepted. Geez,” he grumbled and thrust a large paper-sized envelope at him. “Here.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” Xander replied and took the envelope from the young man’s shaking hands. “What’s this?”
He shrugged. “I dunno. Assistant Director Zane asked me to bring it out to you before you left. He didn’t tell me what was in it.”
Xander sighed and watched the young man turn and run back toward the restaurant. With a sigh, Xander opened the door and slid inside the car.
“No,” Xander said quietly and honestly. He looked over Dani’s shoulder, out the passenger window, and eyed a man getting out of a dark sedan parked a few spots away.
He watched as the man exited the car and opened a large, black umbrella as soon as his head was clear of the car’s roof. He slammed the door closed and hurried around the front of the car and stood next to the passenger’s door while he waited for a woman to join him under the umbrella. The two of them huddled close together as they hurried through the parking lot, avoiding puddles as they went, and emerged relatively dry under the building’s canvas canopy.
Xander wasn’t sure if he watched the couple because something about the man’s behavior triggered something inside him that twenty years of experience in the FBI had molded to almost perfection, or if he was stalling. He was probably stalling. He didn’t want to go inside but knew he had to.
The building the couple entered was a moderately fancy Italian restaurant. It was a relatively new addition to the Portland dining scene. Dani had looked up the restaurant on the internet to see what was offered on their menu for them to eat and to see if Xander was supposed to wear a tie. Xander hated wearing ties.
The website described the restaurant as moderately fancy, which meant that no jacket and tie were required, but it also meant that no jeans and T-shirt were allowed.
Xander flexed his shoulders and felt the holster for his gun under the lightweight dress jacket Dani had insisted that he wear. His gun reassured him more than the security cameras strategically placed on wooden light poles around the parking lot did. The area the restaurant was in was not particularly unsavory, so the cameras were a surprise to him. But better to be safe than sorry, he supposed.
“Then let’s turn around and go home,” Dani said as she watched the way Xander clenched and unclenched his jaws and held a firm, white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel. Even though the car was stopped and in park, Xander had not shut off the engine.
The emotional side of his brain liked Dani’s idea. Just put the car in drive and head back to Bethany. You can call tomorrow with some excuse of why you didn’t make it.
His logical side chimed in. You’re not here for a casual dinner, Bruinski.
Zane might understand. He’s been good about giving you space.
Not likely, his logical mind retorted. The invitation wasn’t exactly voluntary.
Somewhere inside the restaurant, most likely off in a corner, was his boss, Raymond Zane, Assistant Director of the Pacific-Northwest Branch of the Criminal Investigative Division of the FBI, and he was not there for a social visit.
Zane had been the one to bring Xander into the FBI over twenty years ago and had been Xander’s mentor all during his time in the academy and afterward when Xander had graduated and went to work for him. Xander never understood why Zane was harder on him than all the other agents and just a little protective of Xander’s safety. But now he knew. Four months ago, Xander found out that the man he’d grown to respect as a boss was actually his uncle. A fact that Zane had said he’d kept a secret as a favor to his brother-in-law, Everett Bruinski, Xander’s late father.
The little bit of information about his boss’s relation to him had not been obtained easily. Xander had to literally beat it out of his former FBI partner, Carl Mitchell, and then he’d only heard part of the story. More came from Zane himself when he’d come to Portland to visit Xander in the hospital while Xander recovered from his injuries sustained on his last case. It was one of the many cases that Xander will never be able to get out of his head.
As much as he wanted to, Xander knew he couldn’t leave. He had too many questions for his uncle, and he knew there was more to the invitation than just dinner and a gift for Dani’s birthday. His gut told him there was. And his curiosity got the better of him as it always did. He really wished sometimes that he could just let a question stay unanswered, but the fact that he couldn’t, made him very good at his job.
He sighed and forced his fingers to release the steering wheel. They ached from gripping it so tightly for so long. He reached down to shut off the engine. Shoving the keys in his jacket pocket, he looked in the backseat for an umbrella. He wanted to be chivalrous like the man in the car next to him since Dani had dressed up in a new outfit that she and Melanie, Carl’s wife and Dani’s employee at her store, had found when they’d gone out shopping yesterday.
Xander looked at her as his gaze left the empty backseat, and his breath caught in his throat. She was beautiful. He still found it hard sometimes to believe that he and Dani had found each other, or more appropriately, that she was tolerant enough to put up with him. He’d lived with himself for over forty years, and he was the first to admit that he was not the easiest person to live with.
His first wife, Carrie, had told him that very thing as she waved divorce papers in his face and told him to get out. His and Carrie’s relationship had been doomed from the start. She was a sweet, grade-school art teacher, with grandiose views of the world and of Xander. He’d been a cynical, grumpy, dedicated-to-his-job man. He’d always been more married to his job than he had been to her. Carrie had been murdered five months ago. The killer had made her death look like a suicide. That was the reason that Xander had been in the area where he’d met Dani, so in a way, he owed his ex-wife a big thank you. Not that he’d ever be able to tell her so.
Dani watched Xander. He was acting more peculiar than normal. She knew he was skeptical about coming to dinner tonight, but she also knew it was exactly what he needed. Even if he was unwilling to admit it to himself, she knew he needed to go back to work, even though she didn’t like it.
In a romantic way, she thought that he was putting it off so he could spend more time with her. She knew that once he went back to investigating cases, he’d be off to who-knows-where getting into who-knows-what kind of trouble. She could understand what Carrie had meant when she’d said that she feared for Xander’s safety. He didn’t always take the safest route in solving his cases. He took the route that got the case solved.
Dani lifted her hand to rest it on Xander’s cheek and scratched softly through the thick hair covering his face to the skin below. His gaze locked onto hers and his lips rose in an almost embarrassed half smile.
“I don’t have an umbrella in here,” he mumbled quietly.
Dani continued to scratch his face, causing his jaw to tingle deep down in his bones. “Let’s go home,” she said softly.
Xander reached up and took her small hand from his cheek and brought it over to his lips. Inhaling her beautiful exotic ylang-ylang scent, he gently kissed her knuckles and looked into her brilliant green eyes. “As much as I want to, love, you know we have to go in there.”
Dani sighed. “I know, but I also know you don’t want to.”
“No,” he admitted, “I don’t.”
“Why? Are you worried about going back to work?”
Xander looked back at the white brick building and watched a family of four leave the restaurant and hurry through the rain to a red minivan parked on the side of the building.
“I just have a feeling,” he mumbled, trying to ignore the humming in his gut that was his early warning detector for trouble. Carl always called it his trouble magnet, but it had saved their hides more times than either of them could count. He tore his gaze away from the family and back to Dani. Sitting here wasn’t going to make the problem go away. “Are you ready?”
She nodded. Xander got out and hurried around the car to open her door. He lifted the side of his loose-fitting suit jacket for her to slip under. It should keep most of the rain off her and her pretty, new dress.
They hurried across the smooth, even parking lot and once under the canopy, Dani went to step away from him, but Xander grabbed her around the waist and pulled her closer against him. “Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?” he murmured, his lips mere inches from hers.
Dani looked up at him and smiled. “Only a dozen times, but you can tell me again.”
“You look beautiful, love,” he said as he closed the gap and gently pressed his lips against hers. He had to fight the urge to bury his hands in her thick mane of flame red curls and pull her hair out of the neat little up-do she had it in. “I’m going to enjoy getting your hair out of this when we get home,” he murmured when they parted for air.
Dani struggled to keep her breath even and to stop herself from molesting him against the side of the building. No matter how many times they kissed, Xander’s kisses always had the same effect on her as the very first kiss they’d shared. They left her breathless and heated from the inside out.
“And I’m going to enjoy watching you get me out of this dress when we get home,” she said in what she hoped was a seductive voice.
Dani had never been good with people, mainly because of her special talent for hearing voices from people who were no longer alive. The folks in town dubbed her Crazy Dani, and, as a result, her love life had suffered a major deficiency.
Until Xander had come along, Dani had all but convinced herself that she was going to wind up spending her life with a bunch of disembodied voices that only she could hear. She wasn’t low in self-esteem as a result, she just ignored people and most days their ribbing didn’t affect her. What she did lack, however, was experience in the bedroom.
Four months ago, Dani would swear she didn’t own a sexy voice, but with Xander, all rules changed, and she was a lot bolder inside and outside of the bedroom than she ever thought possible.
Xander pressed her against him, and she could feel just how excited he was about the idea of getting her out of her dress. “I’m going to hold you to that, love,” he said in his playful voice.
“I’m counting on it,” she shot back and discretely stepped away from him as the doors opened and an elderly couple emerged from the restaurant lobby.
The elderly man held the door for the woman, and Xander quickly hurried over to take the door from him so the man could help the woman with the umbrella. Xander held out his hand to Dani and followed her inside.
A low buzz settled in the air inside the restaurant as people conversed before, during, and after dinner. The wonderful aroma of tomato and oregano filled the air, and just about everyone sitting in the lobby looked hungry enough to gnaw a limb off.
They all held in their hands a small device that would light up and vibrate when there was a table ready for them. Almost everyone who held the small device looked down at it every few seconds to see if maybe it had gone off and he or she hadn’t noticed.
Xander looked around the room in a casual way and quickly examined every person in the lobby. It was a habit he’d been unable to break. Even though there was probably no threat of danger from any of the patrons waiting to be seated and eat their dinner, Xander couldn’t resist the impulse to identify each person and put their features into his short-term memory. Just in case.
“I don’t think anyone here is a murderer or an otherwise dangerous person, so you can relax,” Dani urged him quietly coming up behind him. Dani knew him well enough after the few months that they’d been together that, even on medical leave, Xander never stopped being an investigative agent.
“Well, who’d of thought a fifty-year-old cop of thirty years would turn out to be a serial killer?” Xander retorted as he rested his hand on the small of her back to usher her up to the maître de.
The man behind the small counter looked to be about sixty with hair that was once thick and jet black but was now thinning and more salt than pepper, leaving a patch of shiny skin on the top of his head. He was round and the black suit he wore looked slightly too small. He looked as if he enjoyed the food at the restaurant regularly.
He glanced up when they approached, and a warm, friendly smile filled his face. His skin was the darker hue of his Italian ancestors, and his eyes were a deep, dark brown. He had a thick, graying moustache that sat like a caterpillar on his upper lip.
“Buona sera, how can I be of help tonight?” His voice was a deep tenor and held a slight Italian accent.
“Do you have a reservation for a Raymond Zane?”
The man’s eyes lit up. “Yes, he has already arrived.”
The man turned to snap his fingers at a younger man who was flirting with one of the waitresses. The young man, who looked to be about twenty-five with reddish hair and disinterested brown eyes, hurried over, straightening his vest as he did so. He looked expectantly at the older man.
“Table six,” the Italian man said to the younger man and turned to give Xander a smile.
Something about the older man’s mannerisms tweaked at Xander’s suspicion. As Xander looked closer at the man, his features gave the appearance of a man in his sixties, but his hands were that of a much younger person. His eyes, too, now that Xander looked closer, were not the sad, worn-out eyes of an elderly man, but the observant eyes of a trained agent. When the man bent over to retrieve something from under the counter, Xander caught the unmistakable bulge of a gun tucked into the back waistband of the man’s pants.
“I hope you at least get a meal out of this,” Xander said quietly to the agent dressed like the elderly Italian greeter.
The man smiled and gave Xander a nod as the younger man led them through the crowded restaurant.
As they passed through a stone archway, the noise level decreased substantially as the auxiliary dining room was empty except for the table along the far wall.
Sitting at the table, watching them as they headed toward him was Raymond Zane.
As they approached the table, Dani felt Xander’s grip on her hand tighten slightly, but he gave no other outward signs of apprehension.
Zane rose and smiled at them.
“I was about to send one of the waiters out to the parking lot to make sure everything was all right.” Zane’s tone was friendly and scolding at the same time.
Xander forced a smile. “Did you bring half the office with you?”
Zane raised an eyebrow. “How many did you count?”
“Well, there was the greeter, the young red-headed kid who brought us in here, there was the couple who came in right before us, and by my count four along the way seated at various locations in the dining room, the waiter who remains to show himself from behind the swinging door off to our left, and you have Ethan down in your car, which is most likely parked in the alley behind the building. That makes ten, twelve if you include you and me.”
Dani looked up at Xander. “Those were all FBI agents?” She turned to glance back at the crowded dining room, looking around to see if she could tell which patrons Xander had noticed. She could only see a few tables, but the folks at them just looked like regular people to her.
Xander didn’t answer, he looked at Zane. “Did I miss any?”
Zane’s lip quirked in a smile. “One. I have a second agent down in the car with Ethan.”
“That’s a big budget for dinner. Are you expecting trouble?”
“I always expect trouble,” Zane said truthfully and unapologetically.
Xander couldn’t really comment because he had the same mindset. It was good to know that it was just Zane’s over-cautiousness bringing the extra agents with him, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to it than Zane was letting on. “Well, I sure hope that at least the food is good here,” Xander muttered as he pulled out the chair in front of him and motioned for Dani to take a seat.
Dani hesitated a moment but moved to sit on the chair as Xander pushed it in towards the table.
Xander took a seat next to her, across from Zane, and Zane returned to his seat.
Zane looked over to Dani. “You look lovely, Dani.”
“Thank you, Mr. Zane,” she said politely. “It was nice of you to invite us to dinner.”
Zane smiled at her, and Dani could see the sincerity of it. “We are, after all, family. And families don’t let a birthday go by uncelebrated, do they Xander?” Zane looked over at Xander, who narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him.
Zane reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small, gift-wrapped box. The wrapping was silver and the small bow on top was bright green. Zane set the box on the table next to Dani and looked at her expectantly.
“You didn’t need to bring a gift, Mr. Zane,” she said as she eyed the small gift with some trepidation.
“Please, either call me Raymond or Zane, I haven’t been called a mister in many years. It makes me feel old,” he said in a teasing tone.
Dani looked at the thick gray hair covering his head and the way his eyes wrinkled when he smiled.
“You are old,” Xander said before Dani could think of a more tactful way of putting that same sentiment.
“I like to think that I’m a seasoned veteran,” Zane said defensively.
“Well, I’d like to think I’m going to get a raise, but you don’t always get what you want,” Xander said to Zane as he watched Dani examine the small box.
Dani’s thirty-third birthday was technically tomorrow. Xander had a special gift for her and planned to make her favorite meal, eggplant parmesan, for dinner, unless she ordered it tonight. If she did, he’d have to improvise.
When the phone call came from Zane two nights ago inviting them to dinner in Portland, they’d both been in the garden arguing on whether to let the ivy grow or cut it back.
Xander wanted to keep it trimmed and within the confines of its container. Dani wanted to let it creep over the sides and down to the bin below it. As usual, Xander gave in and let her have things the way she wanted them.
When they’d listened to the message later that evening, Dani looked at Xander and had asked him if he thought that his boss was going to try to get him to come back to work.
That was Xander’s first thought, but something about the tone in Zane’s voice peaked his investigative mind. Zane didn’t just want him to come back to work. He wanted him to come back to work for a specific reason. Hopefully, tonight they would find out that reason.
Dani slowly untied the green bow and lifted the lid off the professionally wrapped silver box. She gasped. Inside were two jade earrings easily the size of a pea. “Raymond, these are lovely,” she said as she pulled the jewelry out of the box. She showed them to Xander, and he just nodded, his eyes narrowed at Zane again. She was going to have to have the conversation with him again about looking intimidating when they were in public.
She stood, prompting both men to also stand. “I’ll be right back.”
“Where are you going?” Xander asked as he looked around the empty room. He examined the doorway for threats.
“I’m going to put Raymond’s wonderful gift on and do what a person normally does when they visit the bathroom. Is that okay with you, Special Agent Bruinski?” Dani asked him, sarcasm and annoyance making her tone sharp.
Xander winced. He recognized that tone. He held up his hands in surrender. “Sorry, Zane’s paranoia must be rubbing off on me.”
Dani leaned down and whispered in his ear. “I’ll forgive you, millions wouldn’t,” she said as she hurried by him and out into the crowded, noisy dining room.
Zane and Xander watched her leave. Once she was out of the room, Zane turned to Xander and smiled at him. They both took their seats.
“Nothing says welcome to the family like GPS,” Xander said accusingly as he took a drink of his water, hoping to calm his nerves.
“You should be thanking me. You never know when you might need some way to keep track of someone you care about when you’re not together.”
Xander eyed him “Something you want to share with me?”
Zane gave him a polite but knowing smile. “All in good time, Xander. All in good time.”
Xander wondered if Zane had, somehow, found out about Bethany. There was no way anyone could have found out that he had a house in Hood River. He’d made sure of it.
Just after his divorce from Carrie, Xander took a hiatus from the bureau. He got on his motorcycle and just drove with no destination in mind. He wasn’t sure what made him turn down a stretch of road that looked overgrown and wild. At the end of the road was a small wooden house, still well cared for with a “For Sale by Owner” sign in the window where no one, besides him, would probably ever see it.
Xander called the number and talked to an elderly man named Amos Huckleberry, who agreed to sell him the house. Knowing full well that Zane, and anyone else looking for him, for either good or bad reasons, could find him if he purchased the property outright, Xander got Amos to agree to accept ninety-five percent of the sale price with a verbal agreement that Xander would pay the taxes and insurance on the place to Amos twice a year. Amos agreed to leave the property in his name and over the past four years has taken to checking up on Xander from time to time.
There was no way that Zane could have found out about Bethany, and Xander relaxed a little. “If you say so,” Xander forced out. He knew that Zane was up to something. Xander’s gut told him that Zane was. But Xander didn’t know what it was, and the not knowing irked him.
While on medical leave these last several months, Xander had given serious thought to retiring. He was not a young agent anymore. He would be forty-one years old in a few months, and the aches in his body from his many years of abuse took their toll on him almost every damp morning.
There was also the part of him that didn’t want to leave Dani. He’d been on medical leave since the conclusion of the last case and had enjoyed spending the days and nights with her. He’d finally found someone to share his life with, and he selfishly wanted to enjoy every minute of it. He had plenty in investments, and he’d checked out with an acquaintance in the bureau that he did, indeed, have a pension that he could draw on as soon as he retired from service.
Then Zane’s call came and with it, reality.
“The Myers case is officially closed. The board reviewed the case and determined that you acted in a way befitting the agency and have absolved you of any wrongdoing.”
Xander knew better than to take offense to his case being reviewed by the ethics board, but it bothered him every time. Yes, he sometimes used unconventional methods to solve cases, but he always solved them. Didn’t the ends justify the means?
“The bad guy is no longer a harm to society. Why do they keep reviewing my cases, Zane?” Xander eyed him suspiciously.
Zane held a hand up trying to calm Xander. “It’s policy when the subject dies during the investigation for the ethics board to review the case, you know that. And the subject in question was a police officer. It’s a check and balance to make sure our agents don’t get unnecessarily carried away.”
“I’m not a vigilante, Zane.”
“I know that, and they know that. It’s bureau policy to keep Washington happy,” Zane said patiently. “That’s all.”
Xander grumbled and folded his muscular arms across his chest. He flexed his shoulders as the cotton material of his button-down shirt pulled against his back. The dress shirt didn’t give the same way his beloved T-shirts did, and he felt suddenly confined. He had to take several deep breaths after he unfolded his arms to get himself back to where he could think straight.
He blinked and saw Zane watching him, but before Zane could say anything, Xander saw Dani step into the room. Xander held his breath as their eyes met and locked. She was so beautiful. The dress she wore was cream colored and showed more of her skin than she usually dared to show. Xander smiled as he looked at how well she filled out the dress.
Xander loved to cook and, as it turns out, Dani loved to eat. Once Xander found out that she really didn’t like to cook, he figured the best way to put some weight on her was to cook her foods that she liked eating. It had done the trick.
In the four months that he’d been on medical leave, she had probably added five to seven pounds to her willowy figure. She now had the definite curves of rounded hips and, much to his delight, she’d increased her bust size. Dani complained often about having to buy new clothes, but Xander would willingly pay for a whole new wardrobe. She looked healthier now, and he loved being able to feel the softness of her rounded backside. He liked to hold her and know that she won’t break.
Zane turned to look what had captured Xander’s attention and smiled as Dani sashayed through the empty room and back over to the table, the light dancing off the green gemstones in her ears.
“They’re lovely, thank you, Raymond” she said and bent to give Zane a kiss on the cheek.
“You’re welcome,” Zane replied in a friendly and affectionate tone that Xander hadn’t remembered ever hearing before. “I should warn you, though, I’ve always loved buying women jewelry, call it a quirk in my nature, and, since you’re the only woman I have to buy gifts for, I hope Xander, here, can make you a jewelry chest to hold it all.”
The two men stood up as Dani went to take her seat.
Xander scowled at Zane as Dani’s eyes lit up.
They all resumed their seats, and the elusive “waiter” arrived at the table with a bottle of wine and three glasses.
Xander narrowed his eyes and scrutinized him. The agent dressed as the waiter was not Italian, if his pale skin and blond hair were genuine. He was a younger man, maybe early thirties, with blue eyes. His hands shook a little when he poured the wine. He set three menus down on the table and hurried away.
“First assignment out in the field?” Xander surmised.
Zane nodded with a somewhat disapproving look. “They just don’t make them like you anymore.”
“So why is it you don’t have a woman in your life to buy jewelry for, Raymond?” Dani asked, trying to change the subject.
She knew full well that they were going to talk about work, and, in her heart, she knew it was what Xander needed, but she wasn’t ready for him to leave. She wasn’t ready to have him gone for weeks or months on end. He’d told her that sometimes he wouldn’t be able to call for days, but, since his face was too recognizable for any undercover work, he wouldn’t have to go off the radar like he had at the start of his career.
“Well, life as an agent is not an easy one,” Zane began. “Ask Xander. It’s not always easy sharing your life with someone when you can’t tell her anything about your work.”
Dani had an idea of what he was talking about. As much as she asked about Xander’s other cases, he’d only give her generalities. He could never go into detail, saying she didn’t have proper clearance for him to divulge the classified information. He always told her enough to satisfy her curiosity, though, and she figured other agents did the same with their significant others, but maybe Xander told her more than he was supposed to.
“I suppose that’s true,” she said quickly, not wanting to hint that she’d been told anything classified to get Xander in trouble. The man was his uncle, but Zane was still his boss. “But surely, agents manage to find companions to spend their time with. It’s not like you’re all members of the clergy.”
Both Xander and Zane let out a small chuckle.
“It sure feels like it most days,” Zane said quietly, and Dani picked up on a hint of sadness in his voice but figured this was neither the time nor the place to discuss it.
The conversation fell into a lull, and they all decided to open the menu and look over the selections.
“Xander tells me that you’re a vegetarian, so I made sure there were plenty of options for you,” Zane said to her.
Dani looked over at Xander, who was conveniently looking down at the menu. He obviously hadn’t told his boss about his dietary inclinations.
Since they’d been living together at his house, they’d eaten strictly vegetarian fare. Xander only luxuriated on his beloved salmon when they went to the small diner outside Portland every other Tuesday, when the salmon was the special. Xander said he liked the way they cooked the fish there, but Dani always had a suspicion he just didn’t want to give up eating it.
“That was very thoughtful,” she said as a response to both of them.
She scanned the selections and spied eggplant parmesan. She gave serious thought of ordering it, but she knew Xander was planning to make it for her tomorrow for her actual birthday. He hadn’t said as much, but when he picked the two eggplants and hid them in the potato drawer, well, she didn’t need to be an FBI agent to figure out his plans.
As much as she loved the dish, she didn’t want to ruin Xander’s thoughtful plans to cook her meal, and she did so love his cooking, so much so that she had to move into the next size up in clothes.
Instead, she spied a cheese-filled manicotti with marinara sauce. As if in preparation of the rich and delicious meal, her stomach gave a rumble of pleasure at the thought of being filled, and she silently willed it to remain quiet. Closing the menu, she looked over and saw Xander watching her.
“See something you like?” he asked, his slight smile revealing the double meaning of his quietly spoken words.
Choosing to ignore his innuendo for now, she smiled at him innocently. “I’m going to order the cheese manicotti.”
Xander quietly chuckled at her innocent act and looked over her shoulder at the approaching waiter. “I’ll order the salmon pasta,” he told the waiter, who entered the information into his smart phone, rather than writing it down on a traditional pad of paper.
Xander saw the action and sighed. Almost against his will, he found himself thinking of Todd Myers and his comments about how technology was supposed to enhance life, not replace it.
“The cheese manicotti for the lady,” Zane told him. “And I’ll have the sausage Carbonara.” Zane closed his menu and handed it to the waiter. Xander and Dani did the same, and, once the man had left, the room again fell into silence. “So how are you feeling, Xander?” Zane asked after a few tense and awkward moments.
“I’m not one hundred percent, but I’m probably as close as I’m going to get,” Xander admitted honestly.
Zane eyed him suspiciously then folded his hands in front of him. “I have a case that I need you to investigate. Are you ready to come back?”
Xander took a deep breath and held it for an instant before slowly releasing it through tight lips. He glanced over at Dani, who was watching him with the same question in her verdant eyes.
Was he ready to go back?
At his hesitation, Zane spoke up. “Before you give me an answer, I have a proposition for you,” Zane said with a tone that was somewhat uncertain.
Xander raised his eyebrow imploring his boss to continue.
Zane gave a brief glance to Dani before continuing. “Do you recall on the phone when you first told me about Dani, that I told you that the CIA was not the only branch of the government exploring unconventional investigative methods for solving cases?”
Xander nodded.
Dani looked from Xander to Zane. Xander had not shared that tidbit of information with her. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to excuse herself so the two FBI agents could talk in private, but this was her birthday dinner, and she would be damned if she was going to be the one to leave. If they were going to talk work at her dinner, then they were just going to have to do it in front of her.
“Well, off the record, I’ve been appointed to head up a SID.”
Dani creased her brows. “What’s a SID?”
Zane smiled patiently at her. “SID stands for Special Investigative Division.”
“Special, meaning …” Dani asked, letting her voice trail off as the way of asking her question.
Xander narrowed his eyes at Zane.
If this was off the record, it meant that the whole operation was classified, and, unless he woke up in a parallel universe, Dani didn’t have clearance to be privy to classified government information. His boss was up to something. His trouble magnet began humming louder in his gut.
Zane gave Xander a steady stare before turning his attention to Dani. “Special is a technical term for any case that otherwise would be unsolvable by using conventional methods.”
“What like X-files?” Dani asked as she took a sip of wine.
Zane smiled and let out a soft chuckle. “Not exactly, but when there’s a case that no one seems to be able to figure out, it’ll come to the SID, and we’ll use … unique investigative methods to get the case solved.”
Dani looked over at Xander. “Sounds like what you’ve been doing for years now.”
“Yeah,” Xander agreed, his hard gaze never leaving Zane’s. “Have I been your guinea pig the entire time?”
“No,” Zane said not at all surprised that Xander had correctly discovered his role. “I was approached three years ago about the idea. Your results have been monitored, and, because of your unique skills, the funding was approved just four months ago.”
“I don’t believe you,” Xander said with barely controlled anger.
Dani looked from Zane to Xander and saw the anger on Xander’s face. She felt as though she’d missed the punch line of the joke.
“What’s going on?” she asked Xander.
Xander’s jaw ticked several times before he tore his fierce gaze from Zane and over to her. The instant his eyes found hers, his expression softened, but she could still see the anger and hurt in his dark brown eyes.
“What’s going on is that my boss has used me for the past three years, without my knowledge, and had me and my cases studied and picked through to get authorization to start his new pet project.”
“A project that will benefit a lot of people who otherwise might have their cases go cold,” Zane interjected. “It’ll get cases solved, Xander. I’ve encouraged you to use your gift, not just to get this division approved, but also to make a difference in the world. You won’t need to do anything differently, except now you won’t have to keep your methods of investigation out of the case notes.”
“What exactly are you saying?” Xander asked.
Zane took a deep breath. “I’m offering you the opportunity to head up the department.”
“I’m not a desk man, Zane, you know that.”
Zane held up his hands and gave Xander a motion to calm down. “I’m not asking you to be a desk man. Lord knows you would drive everyone in an office crazy. No. Your place is investigating out in the field. I understand that as well as you do.”
“Then what would I be doing?”
“Exactly what you’ve been doing,” Zane said again.
Xander raised an eyebrow. “What? The division is going to consist of me? There ain’t no “I” in team, Zane. Ever hear that?”
“All right,” Zane said exasperated. “You’d be doing exactly what you’ve been doing, with the slight exception of being in charge of a select team of individuals who would make up the division.”
“What individuals?” Xander asked suspiciously.
Zane shrugged. “Well, frankly, anyone you wanted. You would be heading up the division. It would be up to you to put together a team to get the work done.”
Zane’s eyes slid over to Dani, who was looking from Zane to Xander in silent confusion.
“Oh, hell no,” Xander barked, causing Dani to jump slightly in her seat.
“What?” Dani asked Xander.
Xander didn’t look at her and seemed to not hear her question. He was looking at Zane with the same warning look he gave her when she pushed him too far during one of their many arguments.
“A good investigator utilizes all valuable resources, Xander, I know I taught you that,” Zane replied, unaffected by the death glare Xander was shooting at him across the table.
Dani had the distinct impression that she was the topic of their conversation, and she’d had just about enough of being left out of the conversation.
“What the hell is going on?” she said firmly to Xander.
Xander flared his nostrils once then turned to look at her.
“So, Dani,” Zane began before Xander could open his mouth to reply. “How did you like being a Special Advisor to the FBI during the last case?”
“Zane,” Xander warned.
Dani gave a glance at Xander before turning back to Zane. Xander was glaring at his boss with murder in his eyes. She’d not seen him this angry in while, and she didn’t fully understand what was going on.
“I think, under the circumstances, I was able to help with the investigation, and I enjoyed being a part of what Xander does,” Dani said honestly, glancing uneasily back at Xander.
“As head of the SID, Xander would have the authority to grant you that title on a permanent basis.”
Xander practically growled but held his comment inside as the waiter arrived with their salad and bread.
The young man set chilled bowls filled with salad in front of them and set the steaming basket of fresh bread in the center of the table. He then spun on his heels and headed out.
“I’ll think about it,” Xander said before either Zane or Dani could get another word out. He knew that was about the only thing he could say to effectively end the conversation that he did not want to have right now.
Zane nodded to him then turned back to Dani.
“So how is business at your store?” Zane asked her as if the last ten minutes of conversation hadn’t taken place.
Dani took a bite of salad and rolled her eyes at the wonderful tangy taste of the dressing. Her mind was still on the thought that she and Xander could work together on cases. He wouldn’t have to leave her behind.
“Business is going very well,” she answered,
“Carl Mitchell’s wife is working out well, then?”
The question of how the heck Zane knew that Melanie was working for her was on the tip of her tongue, but then she remembered who she was talking to. Xander had told her that it was uncanny how well informed his boss was about everything.
“Melanie is doing a wonderful job,” she replied, trying to pretend she wasn’t unnerved by his knowledge. “She’s reorganized the store and is a quick study. I think she runs the store better than I ever did,” Dani joked. “She could run the place without me.”
“Is that so?” Zane asked.
Dani nodded and resumed eating her salad.
When Xander had told her where they were going for dinner, she decided to eat very sparingly during the day, so she could save room for a big dinner. She loved Italian food, and she’d heard the food here was especially good. As a result, however, she was practically starving, and, if she thought she could get away with it, she’d shove the entire loaf of bread in her mouth and have a salad chaser. But she was conscious of her manners, even if Xander was being rude by scowling at the man paying for their dinner.
“Have you had any visions lately?” Zane asked.
Dani creased her brows. “Actually, I haven’t. I had one when I first got back from New York, but nothing since then.”
Dani’s heart clenched as she fought to keep thoughts of Iago out of her mind. She missed him like she missed Cassandra. She took a deep breath and pushed the thoughts away for now. She could bring him to the front of her mind when she was in the privacy of Bethany.
“Why do you suppose that is?” Zane asked.
Dani looked over at Xander, who was looking out the window. He was deep in thought, she knew. It was one of his more annoying habits that she’d gotten used to. When his brain was processing information, it was like he went off into his own little world to think.
She turned her attention back to Zane. “I suppose it’s because my link to the spirit world was severed when …” She swallowed down the emotions and continued. “… with the disappearance of my spirit guide.”
Dani pushed the empty salad bowl aside and looked down at the bread on her plate. She was not going to break down in the middle of dinner. She was strong and she could have a conversation about Iago without curling up in the fetal position and wailing over her loss.
“I imagine you miss your guide very much,” Zane surmised.
Dani looked at the sincerity in his eyes and smiled, blinking rapidly to disburse the unshed tears so they didn’t fall down her face and ruin the eye make-up she spontaneously decided to wear. “I do. Iago had been with me since I was five years old. It’s like losing one of my parents.”
Zane looked thoughtful. “Losing someone close to you feels like a part of you died with them. I understand and am very sorry for your loss.”
The waiter came by to clear the salad plates and to say their dinner was going to be out shortly.
“Meaning no disrespect, but have you thought about getting another spirit guide?” Zane asked.
Dani shrugged. “I don’t know who could take Iago’s place.”
She felt a warm hand cover hers and looked over to see Xander watching her. He must have concluded whatever thought process he was working on and had returned to the land of the conscious.
“No one has to replace your old guide, just think of it as adding another employee to the store. You were getting along just fine on your own, but now that you have someone else to help, you wonder how you ever got along without her,” Zane said casually.
“I suppose. I haven’t given it much thought, but …” she began but let the sentence trail off as she fought to control the sadness inside.
She didn’t want another spirit guide. She wanted Iago back.
“You don’t have to think about that right now, love. Let’s just change the subject, so you can enjoy your birthday dinner,” Xander said glaring at Zane.
She looked over at him and felt the tears well up despite her attempts to keep them down. She quickly wiped the tears away and sniffled back the rest of the tears in time for the waiter to appear with their meals.
“So you can answer me now: are you ready to come back to work, Xander?” Zane asked after the waiter had left. He took a bite of his meal and chewed thoughtfully as he watched Xander.
“You said you had a case you needed me to work on,” Xander said deflecting the subject.
Zane cast a quick glance at Dani, but she was studying the manicotti on her plate. “Before I can discuss any details, you’ll need to pass your evals and get re-instated into active duty. I can bypass most rules, Xander, but not all.”
Xander sighed and took a bite of his pasta. The thick garlicky sauce coated his tongue, and the salmon practically melted in his mouth. Dani had pressured him to give up the delicacy and go strictly vegetarian, but he couldn’t give up salmon. He might as well chop off his left arm.
“I’ll come back and work on the case,” Xander said finally.
Zane smiled and reached into his pocket to pull out an envelope. He slid it across the table to Xander.
Xander opened it and scowled at his boss. “You don’t waste any time,” he said accusingly.
“What is it?” Dani asked.
“Two plane tickets to Washington DC for tomorrow afternoon,” Xander said flatly to her.
Zane smiled and resumed eating his pasta.
“How did you know Xander was going to say he was ready to come back to work?” Dani asked Zane.
Zane winked at her. “We are related.”
Xander grumbled the rest of the way through dinner and both Xander and Dani refused the offer of dessert and coffee.
“We should be leaving,” Xander said as Zane’s coffee arrived.
“Of course,” Zane said and stood as Xander and Dani did. “Happy birthday, Dani,” Zane said as he bent to kiss her on the cheek.
“Thank you for the earrings and for dinner. I look forward to getting to know you better,” Dani said politely and stepped back from him into Xander’s awaiting arms.
Zane smiled at her then looked over her shoulder at Xander. “I’ll see you on Tuesday morning. Don’t fail your evals. I can’t fix the psych eval like I did the last time.”
Xander grunted and urged Dani into motion.
“What does he mean that he can’t fix it like the last time?” She asked him quietly as they wandered through the now quieter and less populated restaurant.
Xander waited until they were outside under the canvas canopy to answer her. “When Zane brought me on the last case, he brought me off medical leave earlier than planned. I’d found out about Carrie’s death the day before my psychological evaluation. I wasn’t exactly emotionally prepared to deal with things and didn’t do so well on the test. But Zane needed me on the case, for reasons you now know, and rigged it so the test results looked better than they really were.”
“He can do that?”
“He can do just about anything he wants.”
“He fixed it to make it look like you were psychologically stable?”
Xander nodded.
“So that’s why you were so grumpy when you met me,” she said as they made their way to the car.
The rain had stopped but left the warm July evening slightly humid. The ground was still damp, and they avoided the puddles as they walked. “No. I was grumpy when I met you because you smacked me in the face.”
“That was the second time I met you,” Dani corrected him. “The first time you thought I was crazy and bitched about taking me to the hospital after Todd practically amputated my arm with his knife.”
Xander opened the car door for her and choked. “You needed six stitches. Believe me, I’ve seen limbs amputated. It takes more than six stitches to fix it.”
“I said practically amputated,” she shouted as he slammed the door after she slid into the passenger’s seat.
Xander walked around to the other side and went to open the door but stopped when he heard loud footfalls behind him. Xander reached for his gun and turned, aiming it at the source of the rapidly approaching noise.
The young redheaded man who’d seated them earlier in the evening squeaked and covered his head with his hands, ducking down slightly as he did so. “Don’t shoot,” he said, his voice cracking slightly.
Xander sighed and relaxed his grip. He lowered his arm and returned the gun to the holster. “That’s a great way to get yourself shot, kid,” Xander mumbled.
“Apology accepted. Geez,” he grumbled and thrust a large paper-sized envelope at him. “Here.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” Xander replied and took the envelope from the young man’s shaking hands. “What’s this?”
He shrugged. “I dunno. Assistant Director Zane asked me to bring it out to you before you left. He didn’t tell me what was in it.”
Xander sighed and watched the young man turn and run back toward the restaurant. With a sigh, Xander opened the door and slid inside the car.
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