Walker (Bowen Boys, #1)(40)



She let him pull her up off the floor and they moved toward the door. “Will Warren be able to hear us speaking? I mean as a group?”

“No. He’s something entirely different than us. He will be able to hear other tigers so long as they’re Bengals.”

They hit the last stair and she turned to him. “You have to trust me.”

He nodded.

“I mean it. No matter what, you have to trust me that I know what I’m doing. I’m trained in this. Promise me.”

He kissed her and then nodded again. “I promise to trust you in all things that you do concerning your work and job. But the rest…we’ll have to work on that one. Is that enough?”

It was and she told him so. Pulling away from him, she entered the large living room and accounted for everyone in the room. The only person who wasn’t present was Khan, but she didn’t really care at the moment.

~~~

Warren stood when she entered. She was as beautiful as ever. Before he could tell her how happy he was to see her she stopped, turned slightly, and came around in a roundhouse punch that took him to the floor and a few feet away. Marshall stood up and, before he could move, she had a gun plastered to his forehead.

“Move and I will blow what little brains you have in that thick skull of yours all over the nice books behind you.”

He wasn’t sure if she was talking to him or Marshall, but neither of them moved.

“Now, we’re going to have a little talk about truth and lies. Like the one you told me before I started working for you when Melvin was murdered.”

“I never actually lied to you, Lynne. I simply didn’t disclose everything.” She pulled out a second gun and pointed at him as he continued. “Okay, maybe that was lying to you, but I didn’t want you to be…”

“Be what? Afraid? Turn away from you? You moron, you should have told me. You should have trusted me as I did you.” She glanced to her right when one of the people on the couch moved. “He’ll be dead before you get to me. Sit down.”

Warren looked over at the young man he’d been introduced to as Reed. The boy looked pissed and he didn’t blame him, but Warren knew that she would shoot him if someone interceded on his part. She was very hot tempered when she wanted to be. “Lynne, this is getting us no closer to getting this family safe. Can’t we just sit down and talk this over? I swear to you that I will never lie to you, neither by omission nor by lies.” She looked at Marshall who looked ready to attack her. He reached out for the man and begged him not to let her kill him. The quick glance his way made him think that Marshall was going to make him pay for this.

“Right now, we’re on a short fuse. You f*ck me over and I will murder you both. I’m f*cking sick of all this bullshit and you both are well aware of what I’ve done to keep you both safe.” He nodded and stood up. Marshall didn’t move when she took the gun off him and when she put out her hand to him, he was sure the man wasn’t going to take it.

“I’m pissed at you.”

She nodded at Marshall’s bald statement.

“You could have hurt him. Hurting him is not an option.”

“I’m well aware of what I did. And I’m well aware of the consequences of my actions.” She stepped closer to him and lowered her voice. “I’m not your average agent.”

Walker burst out laughing. Warren hadn’t realized that the man hadn’t moved when she was handling them. He looked back at Lynne, then the young man. They were a couple. But he decided that congratulating them now might still get him shot. Before anyone could sit down and begin again a cell phone sounded and Mrs. Bowen answered. He knew immediately that something was wrong.

She paled and looked at Lynne. Before the elderly woman could stand, Lynne was kneeling in front of her taking the phone. She looked over at him and nodded. Christ, it was bad when she looked like that.

He watched her move. She was water in motion when she was working, and he put his hand in front of Marshall when he looked to be going to help her. Her end of the conversation was full of humor, smart-assed replies. It was what she was doing that had him wishing he had a camera to show others what a real agent was supposed to do.

The laptop was on the small table in front of her. She continued speaking and hooking the phone up to it. When the cursor started zooming across the screen and clicking on icons he had no idea what she was doing. When Reed leaned over to him, the man explained.

“She’s tracking the number. He doesn’t think she can because it’s not her phone. She showed us that gizmo a couple of days ago. She said that she can track a phone on that program that most big leaguers can’t.” He listened to her for a few seconds before grinning. “She does have a colorful way of putting things, doesn’t she?”

Warren nodded. He wasn’t altogether sure about some of the names she was calling the person on the other end, but he was reasonably sure it was keeping him on the line to insult her back. It seemed to be working and when the computer beeped once and pulled up a map, Warren watched as it flashed up an address. She had him.

When she handed the phone back to Mrs. Bowen, she held her hand. “I will get him back for you. I swear to you I will.

“Get who back from whom? And if you think you’re leaving this house without me, then you can rethink that right f*cking now.” Walker reached for her and pulled her into his arms. “Tell me. Tell me what’s going on before I have a shit fit.”

Kathi S. Barton's Books