Chapter 15

“How are you felling?” Spencer asks when he walks into the hospital room.

“Surprisingly good,” she replies. “Are those for me?”

“Yeah,” he says, setting the bundle of clothes down in the bed and giving her a quick kiss.

“Are they letting me go soon?” she asks as he remains close to her. “I’m tired of just lying around here.”

“I spoke to the nurse on my way in,” he answers with a smile. “It’ll be about another fifteen minutes before the paperwork is done.”

Samantha smiles up at him. “Fifteen minutes is more than enough time.”

“I know where you’re going, but we really don’t have time,” Spencer says, quelling the sudden stirring in his pants.

Sam frowns, but it is only brief. She quickly changes the subject. “You know, this is the second time we’ve come close to losing each other.”

“It seems we’re making a habit of it,” he agrees, his tone playful.

“I’m serious, Spence,” Sam says with an edge to her voice. “We’ve had close, but never like this. This ramping up they’re doing is going to lead us down a road we won’t be able to turn back from.”

“You’re sounding a little prophetic there, Sam,” he says.

Sam laughs. “Yeah it does sound that way, doesn’t it,” she admits. “But I don’t know. It just feels that way.”

“Well, whatever they throw at us we’ll get through it,” Spencer promises. “Nothing will be able to keep us separated.”

“Thank you, Spence,” she says, pulling him in close for another kiss.

The kiss seems desperate and doesn’t go unnoticed. “What’s that for?”

“What?”

“The desperation behind the kiss,” he says.

“I guess I’m scared,” she admits.

“You’re tough,” he says. “You always have been.”

“I know, but I just ... let’s just forget about it,” she waves, waving her hands at him. She grabs him again and kisses him passionately, leaving all her desperation out of it. “So what has happened since I’ve been out?”

“I tried to break Erika Kravets last night,” he informs her. “I wasn’t able to get anything out of her.”

“What about any of Yonovich’s men?” she asks. “Have any of them talked?”

“Every one of them were willing to talk since their boss is dead,” he says with a shrug. “The lawyers, I guess, are distancing themselves. They’re providing plenty of information on Yonovich’s contacts, buyers and sellers, but nothing that has helped us so far.”

“Either they were kept out of the loop or they are too scared to talk,” Sam concludes.

“Exactly, though I’m going with being kept out of the loop,” Spencer reasons. “If they were facing death, they wouldn’t be talking now. There are plenty of bad guys out there willing to do whatever to takes to kill a rat.”

“Yeah, but they don’t use long bouts of torture before killing someone,” she reminds him.

At that moment Spencer’s phone rings. “Reeds.”

“We got a break,” Roger says on the other side. “Ms. Kravets is going to talk. The FBI offered her a deal that she seems to not have been to resist. She’s going to be transferred today and I need you two here ASAP.”

“Understood,” Spencer says. “We’ll be leaving here as soon as Sam’s dressed.”

“Good,” he confirms. “Make it fast.”

Spencer hangs up the phone, shoving it back in his pocket. Sam is already out of the bed, putting on the clothes he brought her. She doesn’t need to hear what was said, she knows it’s urgent. “I’ll go let the nurses know we’re leaving,” he says heading out the door.

As soon as he steps into the hall a sudden overwhelming feeling comes over him. There is no one in sight. The only sound he hears is the standard noises of running medical equipment. There is none of the talking her heard on the way in, no whispers, no shuffling of feet, wheelchairs of papers, no clicking of fingers on keyboards.

He pulls his gun from its holster and peaks back into the room. “Something’s wrong, Sam.” Above them there is a gut wrenching noise from the floor above and then another. “Get ready.”

Mathsen is occupying a roof top five hundred feet away from the FBI building. The decoy escort has already left, now he is waiting for the real one. For the entire morning, the sniper spent looking for a good setup. Out of the three he initially selected, this is the one he chose. It just felt right.

He doesn’t get any kind of thrill from this job. But he knows that in order to get the revenge he seeks he has to do this and probably several more. He has thought of just botching the mission a few times since setting up. It would be better to go out on his terms, but ultimately he shoved the idea out of his head. He has a mission to do and he is going to complete it to the best of his ability.

The real escort finally pulls out. Mathsen sets up his aim. He pulls in a breath and holds it. Time seems to go slow, just like it always has when he is ready to kill someone. Slowly the third SUV pulls out of the underground garage. Through his scope he can see the target clearly. He slowly lets his breath out and squeezes the trigger. Before his breath fully escapes, the bullet strike the target. The whole convoy comes to a screeching halt. FBI agents pour out of the vehicles and building, guns out and looking for his whereabouts.

Mathsen sits still for a few minutes watching the agents scrambling around and assessing the situation like a hill of ant investigating why the colony has suddenly collapsed. He chuckles. If he wasn’t a profession, he would have already been pulling the trigger on them all. Quickly, he breaks down his rifle, placing it back in the custom case and slips down the fire escape.