Noble Intentions: Season Three (30 page)

Mia’s head rested against her arm.
The gentle swaying of the ferry had put the girl to sleep moments after they
departed. Hannah and Erin sat close by, but inside, protected from the elements
by walls and windows.

They’d left the car behind. It
wasn’t registered in any of their names and it would have drawn unwanted
attention to them. The quarter-mile they had to walk had been difficult for
Erin. The woman had pushed hard and made it, though. Clarissa glanced back at
her, saw her resting her head against the window, eyes closed.

At the rate land approached,
Clarissa estimated another ten minutes before they docked. Speculation, of
course. She had no real way of knowing.

Laughter from a few seats down woke
Mia. The little girl sat up straight, stretched her arms and legs. “Are we
there?”

Clarissa shook her head. “Not yet,
honey.” She extended her arm toward shore. “We’re close though.”

Mia reached out, grabbed the
railing, leaned forward. “It looks pretty. Like a painting.”

“Yes, it does.”

Five minutes later they were close
enough for Clarissa to make out the individual cherry trees that lined the
bank. Most trees had half their blooms remaining. Others had considerably
fewer. She wondered if the shore would be lined with the fallen blooms, or had
they floated into the channel and drifted off to sea?

The ship’s loud horn blared. Erin
and Hannah met Clarissa and Mia outside. They joined the pedestrian crowd and
moved toward the front of the boat. The group molded and conformed to the
confines of the bow like an amoeba.

Leon greeted them at the end of the
pier. Mia ran to him, hugged him. Hannah hugged him as well. He tried to offer
his hand to Erin, but she shook her head, continued on with her crutches.

Leon watched her go, then he turned
to Clarissa. “You must be the mystery woman?”

“That’s me. Clarissa Abbott.”

“Thank you for saving our girls.”

“It’s what I’m trained to do.”

“Well, we’re indebted to you. Come
on, follow me. It’s going to be a cramped ride, but we had better get going.”

The older woman had remained in the
car. She nodded at Clarissa, but did not introduce herself. It left Clarissa
feeling uncomfortable.

She took a seat in the back of the
vehicle, behind the woman. The doors shut and Leon started the car.

Clarissa had a vague idea of where
they were. When Leon picked up the M2 in Faversham, she knew they were headed
to London. A series of exits and merges led them to the M25 and soon they were
on the southwest side of the city.

They exited the highway and
traveled through a few residential areas before turning onto a driveway and
stopping in front of a house. The car hid from the street behind high hedges.
Clarissa waited a minute, then exited. The older woman stood before her.

“You are about to enter my house,
Clarissa. So help me, if you harm a hair on any of my girls, I’ll kill you
myself.”

“If I were going to do that, I
would have done it in Belgium. You’d think the fact that I got them this far
would earn a little trust.”

“I don’t trust anyone.” The woman’s
eyes batted between Clarissa’s. She stood there for a moment, said nothing
else. She turned and went to the front door.

“Wait, Dottie,” Leon said. He
rushed to her side. “Let me check it out first.”

Dottie stepped to the side and he
entered. A minute later he appeared in the open doorway and said it was safe to
enter. Clarissa followed Dottie inside. The woman turned to the left and
disappeared into her study. She shut the doors behind her.

Clarissa felt a hand on her elbow.

“We’ve got a room for you
upstairs,” Leon said.

She followed him up the stairs and
into a spare bedroom. It was small, which was fine with her. She didn’t need
much more than a bed anyway.

“You can stay as long as you need
to,” he said. “If you’re hungry, follow me to the kitchen.”

They left the room and went back
down the stairs. Before she had entered the kitchen, she noticed that someone
had already started a pot of coffee. The rich aroma comforted her for a moment.
For the first time, she realized that she had a headache due to caffeine
withdrawal. It amused her, the things she had learned to ignore.

Hannah smiled at Clarissa as she
entered the kitchen. “Care for a cup?”

“Please.” Clarissa took a seat at
the table next to Mia.

The girl smiled through a mouthful
of bread and ham.

“I want to stay and help,” Clarissa
said. “For a while, at least.”

“I’ve got a team en route. Old
friends and the kind of guys who can take out three times as many men. We’ll
have enough help.”

“I want to watch over the girl.
You’ve got enough on your hands protecting Dottie and making sure no more harm
comes to Erin. Allow me to watch over Mia.”

Leon set his fork down. He
stretched his fingers out, wiggled them. “How can I trust you?”

“You trusted Jack.”

“And that turned out to be a
mistake. Erin got shot and the girl’s traumatized now. Not to mention a man’s
dead.”

“If they hadn’t been with Spiers,
they might all be dead. You might be dead. Those men were coming one way or
another. I don’t know how they knew, but they knew.”

Leon nodded. “Been wondering that
myself. Only answer I can come up with is that man was crooked.”

“Then why’d he end up dead?”

“Collateral damage? I dunno, Miss.
Perhaps he knew too much, so they killed him. How do I know it wasn’t you that
called for them?”

“If that’s so, why would I kill one
of them?”

“To trick us. You wanted to get
close. Hell, you can’t get any closer than this, now can you?”

Clarissa shook her head. “It’s not
like that. You know it. Hell, I could say that maybe you had a hand in it. You
sent them off, didn’t you?”

Leon slapped the table and rose and
kicked his chair into the wall. He hovered over Clarissa. “Don’t you ever
question my loyalty to this family!”

She stood and went toe to toe, eye
to eye, with the man. “Then don’t you question mine. I owe Jack my life. I’d do
anything to protect those he cares for.”

Neither backed down. Their stares
remained locked in combat. The anger in Leon’s eyes subsided. He reached back
and found his chair and reset it.

“I’m sorry. It’s just… Erin getting
shot. I…”

Clarissa saw the look in his eyes
and knew that while Leon’s loyalty was to the family, his heart was dedicated
to Erin.

“Say no more,” she said. “You watch
over her. I’ll take care of Mia and Hannah. Your team can watch over the house
and Dottie and provide whatever other support is needed.”

Leon nodded. Said nothing.

“Here’s that coffee.” Hannah set
the mug down in front of Clarissa, smiled and then looked away.

Poor kid,
Clarissa thought.
Caught
up in this mess.

Then she heard a scream from the
other room. It sounded like Erin. A crash followed.

“Leon,” Dottie called. “Come
quickly.”

Clarissa and Leon raced to the
room. Erin lay on the floor. The bandage that wrapped her leg had turned
crimson. Blood ran down her leg, pooled on the floor.

“Something’s wrong,” Erin said
through her cries.

Leon said, “Help me, Clarissa.
We’ve got to get her to the hospital.”

“We can’t risk it. It won’t be safe
there,” Dottie said.

“If we don’t, she’ll die,” Clarissa
said.

Dottie glared at her and said
nothing.

Leon said, “I’ll split my team
between here and there. Call in more. Whatever. But there’s no way I’m letting
her bleed out on the floor. So get the hell out of our way, Dottie.”

Dottie backed up to the wall.
Hannah pulled Mia close to her, wrapped an arm over the girl’s chest.

And together, Clarissa and Leon
carried Erin to the car and raced toward the hospital.

Jack placed one hand on the Prime
Minister’s back and the other on Sasha’s. He urged them toward the door. Bear
scooped up Mandy and headed that way, too. Jon and Jack were the last to exit.
Outside, Jack noticed that the woman who ran the shop had fallen to the ground.
Blood trickled from a gash on her forehead and she lay on her stomach,
unconscious. He picked her up and placed her in a fireman’s carry.

The reporters and their cameramen
had fled the area. The only thing standing between the group and the Prime
Minister’s car was rubble. They ran, disregarding their safety at times.

The first explosion occurred as
Jack stepped over the weighed down tape. The street shook beneath his feet. The
concussive blast wave nearly caused him to topple over. The roar of the
explosion left his ears ringing. The others had crouched, covered their heads.
A few moments later, after the shock had passed, they resumed their escape.

Jon opened the driver’s door of
Alex’s Rolls and started the engine. Bear put Mandy in the back seat, waited
for Sasha to get in, then he followed.

Alex slipped in the backseat from
the other side. He grabbed the open door and pulled himself up. “Jack, come
on.”

Jack spotted an ambulance and
yelled for the medics. Two rushed toward him. They took the woman from his arms
and carried her toward a gurney. Jack saw them lift it into the ambulance and
shut the doors. He then ran to the Rolls, opened the passenger door and jumped
in.

“Go,” Alex shouted from the back
seat.

Jon put the car in reverse and
backed out. He whipped the wheel around. The rear of the vehicle nearly crashed
into a news truck. He raced to the end of the street. The road had been blocked
off, so there was no traffic to contend with. That luck was about to end. The
streets of London were packed most hours of the day, and this hour was no
exception. And they had no police escort. Jon pulled out his phone and called
for one. With the number of cops that had been assigned to protect the attack
site, Jack figured it wouldn’t take long for a few cars to come to their aide.

Behind them, another explosion
ripped through the street. Jack turned his head and saw a fireball rise into
the sky. It turned red to orange to black. Panicked people ran along the
sidewalks. Horns blared on the main street. People got out of their cars,
shielded their eyes, looked toward the explosion.

He presumed they feared it was
another terrorist attack.

“Alex, you need to get someone on
the phone so that the truth gets out there before the stories start up and take
hold. We don’t need the city in a panic over another attack.”

Alex nodded and told Sasha to make
the call. The woman pulled out her cell. She and Jon tried to talk above each
other, and it didn’t take long for their voices to rise to shouts. Mandy
covered both ears with her hands. Bear pulled her close. Sasha and Jon ended
their conversations and the car fell silent.

“They really keep the road noise
out in these,” Bear said.

Alex let out a single laugh, then
the serious look returned to his face.

“Where to?” Jon said.

“Let’s go back to Number 10,” Alex
said. “You good with that Agent Kirby?”

Sasha nodded. “Fine, sir.”

“What about us?” Jack said.

“You’re coming too.”

The police escort arrived a couple
minutes later. The cars with their sirens and strobe lights separated the
traffic like an adder slithering through a crowd. When they arrived at the
Prime Minister’s residence, a security team stood outside. They lined up in two
rows, faced each other. The team created a human wall that cut through the
walkway.

Jon exited the car first. He rushed
to Alex’s door. The two men hurried to the front entrance. The rest followed.
Jack went last. He looked past the security team, studied the faces in the
crowd. His eyes quickly dismissed the homogeneous blend. He searched for the
person that stood out. Then it occurred to him that if this was an inside job,
it might be someone who does blend in with the rest that he had to be worried
about.

“Jack, get in here,” Sasha said.

He hurried to the door, stepped
inside.

“Follow me,” she said.

Sasha led him up a flight of
stairs, down a hall, and up another flight of stairs. They came to a room with
a long rectangular wooden table. Lines and nicks in the rich wood told Jack
that many a tense moment had been spent in the room.

Bear sat alone at the far end of
the table.

“Where’s Mandy?” Jack said.

“They brought her downstairs,” Bear
said.

“There’s a bug out room down
there,” Sasha said. “Safest place for her.”

“We should get Mia and Erin here,
then.”

Sasha looked at him, said nothing.

“I’ll explain when we’re all in
here together.”

She nodded. “Go ahead and take a
seat.” She started toward the door.

“Where are you going?”

“I need to make some calls.”

“You’re not bailing on us, are
you?”

“You’re tasked with protecting the
Prime Minister, as am I, Jack. We’re working together. Don’t worry. I’ll be
back in a minute.”

Sasha left Jack and Bear to
themselves. The men sat across from each other. Neither spoke for a few
minutes. Jack looked around the room. In the corner he saw a wet bar. He rose
and walked over to it. Found an opened bottle of Glenfiddich single malt
whiskey. He picked up the bottle with his left hand, grabbed two glasses with
his right, went back to the table. He set a glass in front of Bear and placed
the bottle in the middle of the table.

Bear lifted an eyebrow. “That’s the
good stuff.”

“Over two thousand dollars a
bottle.”

Bear grabbed it, filled his glass.
He picked it up and admired the liquor in the light. “What do you think, maybe
four hundred dollars’ worth right there?”