Walker (Bowen Boys) (23 page)

“I’m going to go to DC with the president.
He and Marshall are supposed to leave within the hour. I don’t know when I’ll
be returning, but we can talk more if you want when I get back.”

“No.”

She looked at him, hurt that he didn’t
want to at least discuss this, and pulled her shirt over her head.

“I’ve said this to you before. Where you
go, I go. I don’t care if it’s only for a week or ten years. If you go to DC,
then I’m going as well.”

“I don’t think you understand. The president
wants me to run—”

“I understood you. I heard every word
out of your pretty little mouth. But I also remembered you saying that he had a
job for me as well if we decided to live in DC through the week and come back
here on weekends.”

She moved to the bathroom, trying to not
snap at him.

“Look at me, Caitlynne. Please?”

Without turning from the door, she
poured her heart out to him. “I’ve already come between you and Khan. I won’t
come between you and your patients. They need you more than I do.”

He came to her then, wrapped his arms
around her, and held her. “But I need you more than they need me. I can’t live
without you, baby. I don’t want to, not any longer. I love you very much and I
can tell that you want this job. I want you to have it. And can you imagine how
great it will be on my resume that I was the president’s own personal doctor? Damn,
I’ll be able to write my own ticket.”

She laughed and turned in his arms. “Are
you going with me now? I have to do something that I’ve been looking forward to
for a long time. I get to tell Jerry that he’s fucked and I’m going to take him
down.”

“Oh yeah, I’m going. And you’re going to
take me to your house there so I can tell you what we need to do to make it
livable.” She started to protest when he kissed her. “I might not have been in
the house you had here but once, but you have the decorating skills of no one
I’ve ever met. Have you ever heard of a house plant or even a photo? You had
the most naked walls I’d ever seen.”

She looked around his bedroom and could
see what he meant. This room, like the rest of the house, was warm, inviting.
There was family here in the pictures and things all about the rooms. Shells
from a walk on the beach, pine cones from somewhere in the woods they’d just
been in. There were pictures of all the men when they’d been boys. Pictures of
the elder Bowens at their wedding. She nodded at him.

“Okay, I could use a picture or two
there as well.”

He snorted.

“Okay, then you are on your own. But the
house in DC…it’s not what you might be used to. I don’t know when the last time
it was decorated, but it had to have been at least fifteen years ago.”

“Good. While you’re kicking some ass
I’ll look around and see what we need. I don’t suppose it’s been dusted in
awhile, has it?”

She stuck her tongue out at him before
answering. “As a matter of fact, there is live-in help. The house was my
parents’. And for the record, there are a few things there that the staff
cleans daily. Not a great deal, but a little. I got rid of most of it after I
got into the Bureau. I was always afraid of becoming…becoming someone I’m not.”

She kissed him quickly and turned on the
shower. She had to threaten him three times when he tried to join her. They
would never make it on time if he did and they both knew it. She was just
finished getting dressed when the doorbell rang. She went to answer it when
Walker stepped out of his own shower.

The limo driver tipped his hat at her
and nodded. “Hello, Miss McCray. The jet is ready to go and the things you
asked to be brought here are just there. Would you like for me to have them
brought in?”

She nodded and when Walker came down the
stairs, three more people were there besides the driver. She introduced him to
his new staff. “The week before I blew my house, they were living with me. But
things had gone from bad to oh hell in a short amount of time and I sent them
home. They’ve been waiting for me to call them back from DC for a week now. And
I think that Dotty there took what little plants I’d let her keep in the
house.” He nodded. “I told you I came from money. I thought we’d have a little
house built for them behind your house.”

Soon, they were in the car riding to the
airport. Walker hadn’t said much until they got in the limo. He wanted to know
how he was going to house them all, and what did they think they were going to
do all day? She told him that they always did things for her and she loved not
having to worry about the daily crap. He looked out the window as he continued.

“Anything else I should know before we
get to the house in DC?”

She nodded as they entered the airport.

“Like what? Do you live in a mansion?”

“Yes. It had too many bedrooms and a
bigger staff than the president has. Plus.” She pointed to the plane. “That
belongs to us as well.” She knew if she lived to be a thousand years old she’d
never forget the look on his face when he saw the jet. She was handed out and
then him. As they walked up the steps and he stepped inside he looked at her.

“How long do we have before we get there,
and does this thing have a bed in it?”

Chapter Eighteen

Jerry put his cell phone back in the
mattress when he heard someone approach. He had been having problems with it
for several hours now and was waiting to hear from Jackson again. The man was
supposed to call him over five hours ago.

The cell door opened and he looked up. Before
now someone had simply shoved his tray of food under the door and left. The
door opening this time startled him. He didn’t bother standing when he saw who
it was.

“Hello, Jerry. Long time no see.”

Warren Russo did not deserve his respect
and he wasn’t going to acknowledge it by answering him.

“I’m just going to have a…ah, there we
go.” A chair was brought for him and by none other than Caitlynne McCray, the
biggest pain in his ass since just before he’d killed off his own mother. She
leaned against the open cell door and smiled at him. Jerry decided that when
this was over he was going to cut her mouth from her face and piss on it.

“What the fuck are you doing still
alive?” He didn’t mean to say that out loud and was pissed when she laughed at
him. He was going to have to learn to control his mouth. It had gotten him into
more than a little trouble lately.

“Some days, I wonder the same thing. But
I am alive and kicking, no thanks to you and Garrett.” She stretched her arms
over her head and he saw her badge and gun. The fucking cunt was pissing him
off more.

“Get her out of here. If you want to
talk, that’s fine. Waste your breath, but I won’t have her here mocking me.” He
glanced over at the phone when one went off. He knew his was on vibrate, but
the sound had caught him off guard.

“The service has been cut off to yours.”

He looked up at her when she spoke.

“We did that when your buddy Nestor told
us he’d slipped one in here to you. He said to tell you ‘hi,’ by the way. He’s
been extremely helpful to us.”

Nestor. He had wondered what had
happened to the man. Garrett had told him once that the little man had more
dirt on people than he had sense. Jerry looked away, thinking of all the
information the shit had on him. The man had better not give up… He looked at
her again when she spoke. He asked her what she’d said.

“I said we have Jackson too. He isn’t
singing as much as Nestor did, but then we have enough on him to do what we
want. He and you have been working together for a long while and we now have
all the notes that Nestor took to do yours and Garrett’s bidding. It was very
good of Nestor to do that, don’t you think? By the way, his money with yours
and the others will go a long way to helping a great many people.”

If she had Jackson then she knew a great
deal more than he’d been put in here for. He was not just going to be in prison
for a long time now, but he was going to be put before a firing squad right
along with Jackson and a great many other people. Jerry tried to wrap his mind
around what was happening and only looked up at her when Warren stepped back
into the cell. He’d stepped out to answer the phone.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.
And I certainly don’t know any Marine named Jackson. You have me confused with
someone else.” When she threw back her head and laughed he tried to think what
he’d said that had been that fucking funny.

“Oh Jerry, my boy, you are such a liar. That’s
really too bad too. If you had even tried to tell the truth, things might have
gone a bit different.” She kneeled down in front of him. “I never said he was a
Marine.”

He saw red. Nothing else at that moment
mattered to him but to kill her. And he would too. Reaching for her, he felt
his fingers move around her throat and he squeezed tightly. She was going to
die and he was going to enjoy it.

But something moved…shifted, under his
hands. Before he could let go he was holding onto nothing and she was… Jerry
couldn’t move.

The large black panther had its jaws
wrapped around his own throat and he was terrified. His bladder let go and he
could smell the hot urine that was pooling under his hips. Something trickled
down his neck and he knew it was his blood. Still, he didn’t move anything but
his eyes. He looked at Warren, who didn’t seem the least bit surprised by any
of this.

“You might want to be very still, Jerry.
Caitlynne hasn’t been a cat for very long and I’m afraid she isn’t used to her
extra strength just yet.”

Jerry looked at the cat who held him. Her
eyes were as blue as the sea.

“I know what you’re thinking. Caitlynne?
No way. But I assure you, it’s her. Isn’t she beautiful? I don’t think even the
Bengals that I run with are as beautiful.”

Jerry stared at him.

“Oh, did I forget to mention that? I’m a
tiger. A rare white Bengal. My parents were very pleased when I was born.”

Jerry felt her mouth tighten and he was
sure she was laughing. He looked at her again and decided that he was dreaming.
This would all be gone as soon as he woke up. He started to shift on the floor
when the pain in his groin nearly had him jerk from her tight mouth.

“Careful there, honey. You don’t want to
claw his dick off. Though it might be preferable to what he has in store for
him later.” Warren stood up and scratched the cat behind the ear. “I’d ask her
to shift, but when you tried to kill her instinct took over and she shifted. Her
clothes, sadly, were not as lucky as you were in that she has some control over
her cat. Clothing seems to be the least of your problems now, doesn’t it? What
do you say we have a little talk while Caitlynne here holds you until her
husband shows up?”

Warren reached over and took the cell
phone and then looked to his left, beyond where Jerry could see. Suddenly the
phone rang and Jerry just caught himself from reaching for it. Warren had
turned it on to speaker after pushing a few buttons. It was Jackson.

“You mother fucking prick. When I get
out of here, I’m going to hunt you down and cut your fucking head off. Do you
have any idea how much money I’m losing by sitting here in this fucking jail
cell? Millions. And you want to know something else? You’re going to pay it all
back to me.” The phone went dead again.

“That was from earlier. It was a
voicemail that we intercepted before his own phone was taken from him. He isn’t
any happier now than he was when he left this for you.” He handed the phone to
someone and sat back down. “Caitlynne, dear, your husband is here with your
extra clothes. Why don’t you go and change so that we can continue our
conversation with Jerry? He will behave from now on, I’m positive of that.”

The jaws released him and he still
didn’t take a deep breath. She stood over him, just watching him with her blue
eyes. When her massive head leaned toward him again, he whimpered and flinched.
Then she was gone.

“She’ll be right back. So why don’t you
tell me what you know about the arms deal that you and Jackson had planned? We
have some of the details, but not all.”

He stared at Warren as if he’d never
seen him before. Which, from what he’d just learned, he hadn’t, not really. He
turned his head to the left and looked at the panther sitting there licking his
lips. This one was nearly twice the size as Caitlynne had been. Jerry looked
back at Warren.

“That would be Caitlynne’s husband. Mate,
really. But it doesn’t matter. He’s going to be staying here helping with
controlling you until we finish.” Warren leaned forward slightly. “And he does
have control over his cat and will not only rip your throat out if you so much
as raise your voice to her, he will eat you for his dinner. I believe he would
enjoy that, too, for all the problems you’ve caused his mate.”

Jerry believed him. The cat yawned then
settled down on his belly when Caitlynne walked in. She was wearing a pair of
lounge pants and an oversized sweat shirt. He glanced over at the panther on
the floor to assure himself that this hadn’t been a dream.