Devil’s in the Details (66 page)

I sighed, "The Russians and the others, the drug dealers and traffickers?" I could clearly see the scum I had killed against my own moral compass, killing shit to help shit.

Maggie nodded, "Yes, it's coming back to bite us in the ass." She turned towards the staircase door, hearing footsteps, "I’m going to discuss this with Dani in a moment, I have a side project in the works that may benefit you, I just needed to know if you wanted out of this organization to finally live like you should have long before the Colonel and the old lady chose the life they did for you." She turned back to me, removing a small envelope from the files in her hand, "I have heard there is a Detective Scarlett bothering you?"

I knew my wide look betrayed any lie I could make up. Maggie smirked, "You've forgotten that I know everything, I just don't always speak about the things I know." She held up the envelope, "You might find this interesting and it might inspire you to take me up on a future offer I will have for you." She caught my weary look, "Victoria, I would never hurt you, you're too valuable and important to this world."

I slowly took the envelope, folding it in half and jamming it into my pocket, "Why are you doing this? It could get us both killed, Voltaire…"

"I know. Voltaire doesn't play well with the secret sharing." She patted my shoulder, "I helped create this organization with the old CIA liaison before Arthur made a deal with the devil and took that seat. Victoria, I hold the keys to the front door of this place, I can burn it down in a second if I so choose." Maggie turned to the door, her hand falling on the handle. "Alex is safe, she will always be safe, Victoria." She looked in my eyes, "I promise you, not one hair on her head will ever be harmed." The way she said it, I easily felt the genuine promise that Alex would be safe under Maggie's watch. For the ten years I worked for the woman, she never betrayed a promise made. Arthur on the other hand, could not be trusted.

She opened the door a crack, "Maggie, why are you doing this?" I asked again, feeling tears well up as my stomach turned with anger, rage and hatred that this was my life and Alex was very much a part of it.

I watched her tilt her head down, "You will learn, soon, that I have things I need to amend for and the only way I can is by letting go." She smiled tightly without looking at me. "Have a good afternoon, Victoria. I will send Dani to meet you in the lobby." And with that, she walked out the doorway, leaving me in the cool concrete staircase to read between the lines of everything she had just said and offered me.

My mind went blank for a lengthy amount of time, my feet moved on their own as I ran down the last few flights of stairs and out the lobby. I hailed a cab as I ran to the curb and half startled the poor driver as I barked out the hospital address, texting Dani that I didn't need a ride and that we would talk later about our conversations with Maggie.

I had to sit on shaking hands and fight tears as I rode to the hospital, I couldn't think, I couldn't focus on anything that was thrown my way. Things that were confusing, dangerous and frightening how Maggie seemed to literally know everything that had happened over the last few weeks.

All I knew, all I wanted, was to see Alex. Wrap her up in my arms and hold her until the world stopped spinning and I could make sense of it.

Chapter 21

"Please, I'm begging you, never leave me with new nurses ever again, Alex." Stacy had snatched me up in a crushing embrace the moment she came back to the nurses’ station and saw me digging through the day's charts. "If I had a quarter for every IV had I to reset after watching the little blonde one dig in arms like she was a miner, I'd be able to retire to the Bahamas tomorrow."

I laughed, patting her back, "I was only gone a week and a half." I shook my head, stepping out of the aggressive hug, had it only been a week and a half? So much had changed in such a short period of time. It felt like months, or years living in the bliss of my new relationship with Victoria. It had been quite the rollercoaster.

"I know, that's why I had to take a long weekend. Get away from this place before I lost my mind and went back to hairdressing." Stacy sighed dramatically, moving to her spot on the desk and picking up her jug of coffee. "So, how was your vacation? How's the lady friend? You two do anything?" She smirked, wiggling her eyebrows in a deviant way.

Rolling my eyes, I started pulling charts, "We had dinner at my mom's house, did some shopping and went to this fancy formal for the Naval Academy." I smiled to myself, looking at Victoria's class ring on my finger, "Nothing exciting. It was a staycation."

Stacy hummed out a mmhmm, "I bet. Stayed in bed all day and all night, learning the ins and outs of one mysterious lady in white?" She winked at me, "What's it like? She looks like she knows her way around a ship let alone a hot body like yours." Stacy sipped at her coffee, looking up at the tiled ceiling, "I mean I have an idea. I had a crazy moment back in my punk rocker days. There was this girl drummer from this one band. Damn, could she do things with her hands."

I shook my head, letting Stacy ramble on as I flipped through the day's patients when I heard, "What is that on your finger?! Is that, a promise ring? A be my girl ring?" She slid off the desk and hopped over to me, grabbing my right hand and sucking in a dramatic breath, "Oh my god, she gave you her class ring! You two are so going to get married." She grinned at me as I blushed, "We should go on a double date, have dinner and drinks at your apartment. I can bring my boyfriend."

I gently removed my hand, "We can do dinner and drinks, but not at my apartment. I, uh, moved in with Victoria on Monday." I bent my head down, scribbling notes in a chart.

Stacy's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates, "What!? You moved in? You two are shacking up?" She bent her head down to catch my eyes, "Shut up Alex Ivers, you never doing anything on a whim."

I sighed, looking at my friend, "We've been friends for almost two years and it made sense when she asked me." I leaned against the side of the desk, "It hasn't been all roses and butterflies, it's been a hard road that I think is finally smoothing out." I bit my lip, "There are some things about Victoria I'm still learning about, but overall, I am stupidly in love with her and I think we both want this. This relationship." I twisted the ring on my finger, "I'm happy."

"But? There's a but hanging in the air at the end of that statement." Stacy placed a hand on my arm, "What is it Alex?"

I shrugged, picking up the charts, "Walk with me? I want to get a jump start on rounds. Victoria might be stopping by after her meeting for lunch."

Stacy and I did rounds while I filled her on everything, the fights, the makeups, the trip to my mom's house, the nights we made love sans explicit details, and then finally, the strange things about Victoria that bothered me. The weirdness, the way she seemed to move in the shadows, and the few things she spilled at the formal.

"Basically your girlfriend might be an international woman of mystery? Working for the government." Stacy held rolls of gauze as I changed a sleeping patient's leg bandage. "Aside from that, she sounds pretty damn perfect. Why are you focusing on the little things that to me, seem not to be such a big deal? She works for the Navy, and judging by her history with them, they'd be dumb to let her go off into the sunset and retire without tapping into her here and there to help." Stacy handed me scissors, "Maybe it is leftover PTSD. Sounds like she survived hell and there might always be those pockets of darkness that won't shake away. I heard one vet say, once you let the darkness in, it never leaves."

Stacy suddenly let out a groan as she looked out the open door to the room “Fuck. It’s that creeper EMT. Diablo. She’s been really annoying the week you’ve been gone. I think she has a serious boner for you, always asking where you are, if you’re single and if I’ve ever seen the person you’re dating. She’s super creepy. I caught her digging in your locker the other night. She played it off as a mistake, but I swear I saw her pocket a picture of you and the hot professor.” Stacy glared at the woman who gave me a smirk with a wink and disappeared around the corner. I shivered slightly when she looked at me, but shrugged it off.

I sighed, tugging on the stethoscope around my neck. “I’ll head down to security later. Report her to them and leave it. She’s just a typical EMT with a god complex.” I glanced up to see Diablo walking out of view.

Stacy rolled her eyes, “You mean a stalker complex. I’m telling you Alex, she’s a creeper king.” She shook her head, “Maybe Victoria can have a chat with her during lunch. And by lunch, I mean punch her face in.”

I laughed, shaking my head, “Victoria isn’t one for violence, if anything she would give her a hearty lecture.” I frowned a little. Victoria and violence didn’t really go together but there was that mysterious air about her. I sucked in a slow breath and returned to what Stacy and I had been discussing in regards to my girlfriend. "I don't know. There are these weird bits and pieces about Victoria that keep my gut tugging at my heart to listen and pay more attention."

I held out my hand for tape, frowning at the analogy Stacy used in describing letting the darkness in. I knew she was possibly right about the darkness lingering from Victoria's incident in the war. "Then I see how much she loves me and I forget the world and my name. She's incredible, Stacy. I've never been with anyone like her before." I finished the bandage and stood up, peeling of my gloves, "But there's that but. There's something she's hiding from me and I’m scared to find out what it is."

"So what if she is still doing intelligence work? It’s kind of hot in my opinion." Stacy cleaned up the trash, grabbed the chart and walked back with me to the station. "You should ask her to dress up in a tuxedo one night and make you martini's."

I rolled my eyes, "There's something in her eyes that goes beyond boring intelligence work. It's something darker and it's like she shifts into a whole different person." I sighed, "I don't know, maybe I'm making a big deal out of nothing." I slid the chart in a slot. "Everything is so perfect. I have everything I've ever wanted or dreamt of. She is the knight in shining armor I always dreamt of. I should focus on that, not digging in the dusty corners hoping to find things I really don't want to find."

"If it bothers you so much, Alex, why don't you ask her upfront one night after blowing her mind in bed. That's usually how I get my boyfriend to agree to going to chick flicks with me." Stacy giggled when I slapped her arm, her eyes drifting up to the elevator door dinging open. "Speaking of your knight in an over starched khaki uniform." Stacy poked my shoulder, drawing my attention to Victoria walking out of the elevator with grease spotted brown bags, "Looks like lunch is served."

The grin was uncontrollable like always when I saw her, she grinned back, looking at the floor to hide the blush. I could feel my heart race the closer she got, and for a moment I wondered if it would always be like this. A few weeks or a few years down the road, would she always make my heart thunder in my chest like a speeding train?

"You two are so disgusting, go back to whatever cheesy romantic movie you fell out of." Stacy rolled her eyes with a smile on her face, then leaned closer to me, "But she is stupid hot in that uniform."

I nudged her in the side with an elbow, "Shut it and behave." I turned back to Victoria setting the bags on the high edge of the station.

"I stopped at Monument Meats on the way, picked up the Reagan club and the Washington cherry chicken salad." She focused on digging around the bags with a serious look on her face, "Stacy, I grabbed you the Clinton fried chicken with sweet potato fries."