Operation London (20 page)

Ava rushed over to her cell phone
. There was a message on it, but she had left it in her purse on the side of the gym. "Hey, Ava, I was down by the lake and there are some fish in here that I would never have expected. Stop by. Bring your fishing pole and lots of lures!"  Magdalene's voice quipped excitedly. Something told Ava that she'd taken time off of her assigned computer processing duties to check up on one of the phone taps. Why hadn't Cormac bothered to let her know?

Glancing up, Ava saw that every eye in the room was on her
. That might have been one good reason that Cormac didn't rush over to drag her along with him.

"Okay, let's finish up by reviewing what you've learned tonight then dancing one cha cha straight through!" Ava called, and all attention was directed back on the series of steps the various couples were trying to master
.

Miguel pulled her close.

"I'm going to ask you this once, Ava, and I expect an honest answer. What is going on?"  Each word was accentuated and Ava felt every one like a dagger in her chest.

"You know that Cormac and Magdalene and I are working on a case
. It involves Marie Deltore and her stepfather. Today we bugged his office building. I don't know what happened after that because I didn't pick up my phone when Magdalene called to let me know she overheard something that might be important."  She said it like she had rehearsed it for a week, but she managed to look right into his eyes the whole time. He looked grim, but he seemed to decide that she wasn't lying.

"So are we calling tonight off?" he asked with a frown.

"Not on your life. You might have to wait......." she said slowly, running her hand along the small of his back.

"Waiting isn't the problem, as long as I can be sure you'll come home in one piece," he said into her ear, pressing her body to his possessively.

Ava jerked away unsteadily, deciding to go give last minute advice and encouragement before she called an end to class and went to see what was happening at Conway's. From the corner of her eye she watched Miguel as she tried to suppress her conscience. She hadn't lied to him, she had merely put the truth into terms that wouldn't create a problem. But she had the distinct feeling she was heading for trouble no matter what.

Magdalene was stationed very close to Cormac, waiting for Angel Espino's car to pull up. He would probably send a henchman in front of him to deliver some incriminating evidence that would help seal Conway's deal with Domingo Espino. Magdalene and Cormac were going to try to make sure that the packages disappeared before it ever landed in the hands of the conniving men.

To make the entire situation more complicated, Cormac seemed to be doing everything within his power to tease and torture his partner.

"You're squashing my arm," Magdalene hissed, trying in vain to push Cormac's muscled bicep off of her own toned forearm.

"Well, I can't make my damn arm melt away, love
. Now try to be a brave girl and deal with some discomfort. For the team," he said calmly, his voice dripping with aggravated sarcasm.

"Don't give me that bullshit!"  Her voice came out louder than either of them had expected, and he turned to give her a warning look
. "Listen, what's your problem with me anyway?  Is it so hard to be friends with someone you used to date?"

"'Used to date' is a little mild for what our relationship consisted of, wouldn't you say, Maggie love?" he asked bitterly, his old pet name for her slipping out before he could squelch it.

"Cormac, it wasn't anything else. It was dating that went wrong. And we have to act like adults about it."

"Oh, so it was a mistake for you
. Brilliant. Now that that's all clear, can we settle down and pay attention to the situation at hand."  There was a set to his mouth that Magdalene recognized as impenetrable, and with a huff she settled back to looking through her binoculars.

With one arm annoyingly lower than the other.

Several minutes later, Cormac was regretting that Maggie's golden curls smelled so deliciously and familiarly like coconuts and oranges. Was it really necessary to make your hair smell like some kind of wonderful tropical dessert every day?  He knew he was being entirely irrational, but that woman could burrow under his skin and make his life a hell at the slightest provocation!  This internal argument was abruptly interrupted by a slight jab from the evil witch.

"There," she whispered, and Cormac followed her ivory finger's direction until a black Ferrari came into plain sight
. Good Lord, the man could have picked something a little less obvious to be a criminal in, Cormac thought to himself. Some people were just gluttons for attention.

"I thought he'd send someone ahead," Magdalene said, her forehead creased with worry
.

"I'm not sure what's going on yet," he answered quietly, hating to admit that all he wanted to do was ease her uncertainty, tell her that everything would be alright
. They were professionals, coworkers and nothing more.

A tall man with a slight limp stepped out of the car and checked the surrounding area with a nervous jerk of his head before he started into the building
.

It wasn't Angel.

They waited as the man crossed the parking lot, crossed the street and approached the portico, but Angel did not appear. Thinking fast, Cormac directed Magdalene.

"Follow him through the air vents
. I'll wait for Angel," he said. It made him sick to watch her small back inch toward the vent panel carefully. Call it chauvinism, he wasn't about to let Angel get his claws in her.

Magdalene was crouched over, her back hunched painfully as she watched the man walk along the corridors and followed with tiny, strained steps
. She wished she had made time to rig the hallways with cameras so she could have had a clear view, but her lack of foresight left her with the good old-fashioned method of peeking through joints and cracks. The building had all but closed down more than two hours before, giving all occupants inside an opportunity to leave long before Conway's private meeting. This made it easier to track the man who was keeping a brisk pace that almost made Magdalene lose her head on the beam vents more than once. Finally he came to a standstill, pushing the button for the elevator with complete annoyance.

Magdalene felt her air rush in and out of her lungs
. She had one chance to make sure the items the man held did not make their way into the hands of Conway or Espino. She silently moved a panel from the ceiling above where the man was standing and slipped down and to the floor noiselessly, taking a gun out from her back holster and pointing at the man's neck.

The dart hit and the needle poured a serious chemical compound into the man's body
. He sank to his knees, falling over sideways and dropping the leather folder as he went. Magdalene grabbed what she needed and turned to the rope dangling from the vent. Cormac had followed her, as planned, and was waiting to pull her back up. It was all accomplished before the swoosh of the elevator doors sounded in the silent hallway.

Her excitement faded when she looked at Cormac's face
.

"Something's wrong," he said simply.

Ava had raced to Conway's building, ducking into side streets and maneuvering around cars all over the road. If she made it without getting pulled over, she could consider herself lucky. She parked down the road from the building, pulled on her tight black pants, black shirt and sneakers. It was all very villain clichéd, but it was also very practical. She needed to figure out where Cormac and Magdalene would be and make herself useful.

Ava surveyed her perimeter quickly, and marched on toward a side window where she intended to enter
. She had eased her body up to the sill when she heard a low whistle. She was chilled through, completely stiff with fear. That whistle did not come from Magdalene or Cormac. It was a signal of lust. She felt like she had as a child, playing a game of hide and seek, at the moment where the seeker chided, 'I see you.'  After all of her worry, she should have been prepared for the voice, but it still came as a shock to her.

"Hey, why you going in the window, baby
. Don't you know the door's wide open?" Angel's voice slinked into her ears, buried itself in her brain. Her heart thumped in her chest as she looked down at him.

"I thought it was all closed," she said shakily, peering down at his black eyes, glowing with peculiar intensity as he focused in on her.

"Well you're wrong. Come down and we'll go in. Did you leave something at your desk?" he asked, extending his hands to her.

She recoiled, scouring her mind for a course of action
. Finally she slipped her hand into her pocket and hit the pre-placed button to call Magdalene.

She raised her voice a little the next time they spoke, praying that Magdalene and
Cormac would hear her.

"You want to walk me inside Angel?"

"Yeah, mama. I'd walk you anywhere. I have a very important meeting I have to attend," he laughed easily, a laugh that might have been nice if it wasn't riddled with hatred. "My daddy's got some big deal going on with Conway. You work for him?"

"No, I work on the second floor," she lied
. "I left some important documents on my desk and I have to go and get them."  Her voice sounded loud and tinny, but Angel seemed unfazed and unsuspicious.

"Well, I'll walk you up and make sure you get out alright, beautiful," he said, extending his hand with more intensity
. His attention was taken away from her for a moment as he checked his cell phone. "I told him I'd be there around seven!" he muttered, his irritation making some of the poison inside of him show on the surface.

Ava stared at the hand extended to her for a few long moments before she decided to grab it
. She was almost shocked that it didn't feel smooth and cool, like the coil of a snake. It reassured her somehow, to know she was dealing with a flesh and blood man. He pulled at her soft fingers and caught hold of her around the waist as she jumped down, anchoring her body next to his as he held her a moment longer than was acceptable.

"You got some pretty eyes, mama
. They look like silver," he said, trying to turn her face towards him with one rough finger. She tried to turn away, but he kept at it, refusing to let her make up her own mind. With a chill, she realized that that was what made her the most uncomfortable. He was not a man who respected anyone's wishes but his own. That was dangerous.

"Please," she said softly, taking his hand and pushing it away
. He seemed stunned, but eventually a smile cracked his face, showing off his sharp white teeth.

"OK, I didn't mean any harm
. Let me walk you in," he offered. She felt his slight limp as he pulled her close to his side and made his way to the door.

Miguel cursed under his breath, gripping the steering wheel roughly
. Ava was with Angel, walking into Conway's building with him. He had watched as she climbed elegantly onto the sill and prepared to break and enter. He had been so busy focusing on her that he hadn't noticed Angel pull up, hadn't seen what danger was approaching until it was too late. His brown eyes glistened with hatred for the man he had learned to loath. Ava promised him that she would be fine, that she wouldn't get in above her head. It took every molecule of self-restraint to keep himself from going in after her. The only thing he could do now was wait and make sure she came back out of the building unharmed.

Magdalene sat nervously at a desk on the second floor, reorganizing the unkempt computer files of a Ms. Lori Walker
. She was waiting for Ava and Angel to get off of that elevator so she could hand Ava the folder and walk out with her. Cormac was pulling the body of Angel's henchman into a cubicle as she sat. Glancing nervously at the digital time display, she wondered how close they were to being caught.

Cormac was trying to keep his breath even, but lugging a full-grown man across an office building in seconds hadn't been easy
. He sat behind a gray cubicle wall, the man's balding, sweaty head resting on his legs. Under normal circumstances Cormac would have been disgusted, but right now he was just happy to be hidden. He wasn't comfortable leaving Ava and Magdalene to the likes of Angel Espino. The guy needed a swift kick in the ass and a sound lesson in manners around ladies. Cormac had heard more than one story about his abusive behavior with young women. But he knew Ava and Magdalene were strong, intelligent people who wouldn't try anything dangerous. The more he tried to run that thought through his head to comfort himself, the more he felt dread gnawing at his guts. He hoped to hell those two would watch their tempers and lay low. Keeping low, he made his way to the back exit where he would wait in the van for the girls.

"Hey you!" Magdalene cried, pretending to be very surprised to see Ava come off the elevator
. "You didn't tell me you had a hot date tonight!"  Ava saw Magdalene's jade green eyes darting towards a large manila envelope on the desk.

"Oh
. I don't. I just forgot something. Important," Ava stuttered, trying to smile but failing miserably.