The Secret Brokers (23 page)

Gwen snickered as her fingers ran over the contours of his injured shoulder. “It was a lucky shot, Dallas. Don’t read more into it than there is.”

He reached for her hands and held them in front of him. “You can toss me around your kitchen like you’ve had extensive close combat training, handle a gun like a field agent, and kill a man without batting an eyelash.” He paused as his eyes examined her face. “Who in the hell are you?”

She pulled her hands away from him. “You’ve met my father and have seen what kind of man he is. Is it any wonder I turned out to be the way I am?” She sat down on the bed next to him. “I’m not a shrinking violet afraid of confrontation or in need of a man to help take care of me. All of my life I have been trained to be self-sufficient and be able to protect myself in any situation. What you saw in there was years of what my father called ‘prep work
’
. He claimed he was getting me ready for all that life would throw at me.”
She looked down at her hands. “But there were things my father neglected to teach me about. Like how to get along with people or have a relationship with another person.” She shook her head. “Who am I?” Gwen laughed and tossed back her head. “Hell, sometimes I don’t even know the answer to that question.”

Dallas could understand her dilemma. He had been struggling with the same question for as long as he could remember.

He patted her thigh. “In case I forget to say this latter, thank you for saving my ass.”

Gwen nudged him with her shoulder. “Well, I’m a sucker for a fine ass.”

Dallas leaned in closer to her ear. “Me too. I hope I’ll get to see more of yours later this evening.”

Gwen stood from the bed. “I think you’re in no condition for any more exertion.”

The loud chimes of the doorbell could be heard coming from downstairs.

Dallas let out an exasperated sigh. “That was fast. Dan must have had a team close by.”
He carefully pulled his shirt over his left shoulder. “Let me do the talking.”

“And what if they want to talk to me? After all, I shot him?”

Dallas slowly stood from the bed. “These people won’t ask, Gwen. They’re not interested in who shot him. They only want to make sure that he’s dead.”

“There won’t be an investigation?”

Dallas walked over to the door. “Brewster will be ruled a self-inflicted gunshot wound and Crawford will be reported as killed in the line of duty.”

“How do you know that?” she questioned, following behind him.

Dallas stopped in the doorway. “It’s what they always do when they find a leak. It sends a message to the people who were paying him. Every leak, every mole, every double agent when killed is labeled a suicide. It’s the ultimate badge of disgrace and the ultimate act of revenge.”

“Revenge? I don’t understand.”

“When I started at the FBI, I was taught that the ancient Romans compared the suicide of a soldier to desertion. There can be no greater humiliation than for a soldier to desert his post.
In
so doing, he disgraces his family and his name. His existence is wiped clean from the records and his life is basically voided from every archive, like he never existed.”

Gwen placed her hand on his arm and gazed into his wintry eyes. “So is that what you do? Wipe everyone from your life, like they never existed.”

The doorbell rang again.

“Come on,” Dallas said as he headed into the hall. “We can’t keep the feds waiting.”

***

It took almost two hours for the team of four men, dressed in nondescript dark suits, to clean up the scene. Brewster’s body and his gun were bagged, and the bloodstains on Dallas’s bedroom carpet were cleaned away. Crawford’s body was carefully removed under cover of darkness from the black Ford Crown Victoria parked in front of the house. Then the car was discretely hauled away by a tow truck. After the house had been wiped down, and Gwen’s gun had been completely cleaned, reloaded, and returned to her, the quiet crew of men walked out the front door.

As Dallas punched the security code into the keypad, he felt Gwen’s hand on his shoulder.

“Come on
,
we
’d
better see to your bruises,” she whispered against his cheek.

Despite the ache of his body, Dallas felt his desire for her surge inside of him. He turned to her and placed his right hand under her chin. “I’ll be all right, Gwen.”

Gwen abruptly pushed him away “Tomorrow you will feel a hell of a lot worse unless we take care of you tonight.”

Dallas frowned, looking a bit confused. “What did you have in mind?”

“Come on, I’ll show you.” Gwen took his hand and slo
wly led him toward the stairs.

Once in her room, she walked into the bathroom, and returned a few seconds later, carrying a long white towel in her hand. “Take off you
r
clothes and put this on,” she instructed, handing him the towel.

Dallas took the towel from her. “I get the take off your clothes part, but why do I need this?” he questioned, nodding to the towel.

“For once do as I say, Dallas. Trust me, you’ll enjoy this.”

She unbuttoned his shirt and gently eased the fabric from around his shoulders.

Dallas winced as he flexed his left shoulder back.

Gwen noted his discomfort. “Admit it. You’re in no condition to hold a woman in your arms.”

“I could try,” he insisted.

Gwen reached for the fly on his jeans. “I think we would both want it to happen when we’re ready. And you
’
re definitely not ready.”

After helping
him
out of his jeans and leaving him in his white briefs, Gwen wrapped the towel about his waist. She seated him on the edge of her bed and picked up a white jar from the nightstand next to her. Gwen applied a small amount of sweet smelling cream from the jar on to Dallas’s left shoulder.

“Christ, that hurts,” he complained
as she began working the cream into his bruised flesh.

“I know, but it will help you.”

“What is that?” He picked up the white jar she had placed on the bed beside him.

“Yam cream,” she replied. She leaned over his left shoulder and rubbed the cream down along his tender ribs. “Best stuff in the world for bruises. It also has some feverfew and white willow bark in it for inflammation and pain.”

He could feel the cream warming on his skin. “Where did you learn about this?”

“When you ride horses you tend to get knocked about a bit. I’ve used this for years. It’s better than a shot of Stoli and two aspirin.”

“And who do you get to rub the cream on you?”

Gwen shook her head. “Never had the desire for anyone to do that for me,” she said as she took a step away from him.

Dallas wrapped his right arm about her waist and pulled her back to him “Why not? You deserve someone who can make you happy.”

“Do I? I’ve been wondering lately what exactly it is I deserve. Maybe this whole Robertson fiasco has made me realize that there are things I need to change in my life.”

“What things?”

She ran her hands down his back, working the cream into his muscles. “You told me yesterday that I shouldn’t keep secrets buried away inside of me. You kept asking me what I was hiding.” She paused and removed her hands from his back. “And I want you to know that you were right about me, Dallas. I am hiding something.”

Dallas’s pulse quickened. He waited a few moments before he spoke, hoping to find the right words to encourage her to open up to him. “I want to help you, Gwen,” he began in a soothing tone of voice. “No matter what it is, I will promise to help you.” He paused as he gazed into her bright eyes.
“
What are you hiding?”

“A promise I made to someone; someone who died,” she revealed.

Dallas searched her face as he thought of how best to approach this. “Gwen, perhaps it’s time to let go of this promise. If it’s eating at you, maybe it’s best to relieve yourself of the burden.”

“I know.” She nodded her head and took a seat on the bed next to him. “About two months ago, I was asked by a friend to help take care of someone. He was an older gentleman, dying of bone cancer. This man was in so much pain, and no one ever came to visit him in the hospital. He asked me to do something for him, and up until now I have been reluctant to even try. But I was thinking…I was hoping maybe this would be one of those secrets I carry around that I could unload on you.”

Dallas put his good right arm about her shoulders. “I will do whatever you need me to do, Gwen.”

Gwen abruptly stood from the bed and walked over to her brown leather purse, which was sitting on the mahogany dresser. She pulled something from her purse and when she came back to Dallas, Gwen placed a small gold key in his hand.

“He gave me this. I know it’s a safe deposit box key, but I have no idea where it is located.”

Dallas examined the key. “Do you know what’s in it?”

She shook her head. “He never told me. He made me promise to give it
to his family. It’s just that…
I don’t know how to find them.”

“What was this man’s name?”

She took the key from Dallas
.
“Earl Yeager,” she answered.

Gwen quickly returned the key to her purse.

Dallas noticed Gwen slipping the gold key back into a corner pocket of her purse. He slowly stood from the bed and walked up behind her

“I can try to find his family for you,” he told her. “When this is finished, I can try and track them down. All right?”

“Thank you,” she said, turning to him. “Thank you for helping me.”

Dallas ran his right hand up from her shoulder to her face. He traced the outline of her jaw with his finger and moved his body closer to hers. “I think that cream of yours is already working.”

“Told you. That stuff is wonderful.” She gently pushed him away. “But I think you shouldn’t over do it.” She eyed her king-sized bed. “Why don’t you take my bed for the night
?
I doubt you’ll want to sleep in your room after everything that happened, and I can sleep on the floor next to the bed.”

Dallas shook his head. “No, I can find another room to sleep in.”

Gwen sighed and rubbed her hands together. “I wish you would stay in here with me. I don’t want to…be alone tonight,” she whispered.

Dallas nodded, comprehending her anxiety. He had seen it before during his days with the Bureau. There had been agents who would put on a brave face after a kill, only to be haunted by the events of the day when they settled into bed. Some people just took longer to register shock, but eventually Dallas knew it caught up with everyone.

He looked to the bed. “It’s a big bed. We can share it, and I promise I will be a complete gentleman.”

Gwen gave him a skeptical side-glance. “Have you ever been a complete gentleman?”

Dallas shrugged. “I’ve had my moments.”

“All right, Dallas. I guess we can give it a try.” Gwen gathered up her nightshirt from under her pillow and walked toward the bathroom door.

“Hey, what about the rest of my bruises?”

Gwen turned in the bathroom doorway to face him. “I think you can handle the rest without me.” She quietly closed the door.

Dallas sat on the edge of the bed as the sweet smell of yams encircled him. He eyed her brown leather purse sitting on the dresser and toyed with the idea of taking the safety deposit box key. Dallas silently berated his impatience.

“There’ll be time enough to disappoint her later,” he murmured.

Dallas was suddenly tired
…
tired of all of the lies, manipulation, and intrigue. It seemed impossible to him that just eight months ago he had been living with Nicci in Connecticut and building boats with his Uncle Elliot. But then he had walked away from that life and had chosen to return to this world of deception, because he had missed the thrill of it all. At that moment, he wondered what thrill he could have been thinking of. Dallas had forgotten about this part
: the
lying. As a specialist you were only supposed to think about the job
; the
job was all that mattered. From this point on he had to think only of the job, and forget about the person he was about to destroy.

***

The next morning, Dallas awoke to discover he was alone in the bed. He threw off the covers and when he stood on the cold floor, he immediately bent over in pain. His right jaw and cheek throbbed
,
his back and left hip ached,
and
his left shoulder was sending shockwaves of sharp pains down his arm and into his neck. While he was hunched over and debating about lying back down in the bed, he heard the shower running in the bathroom. Slowly, Dallas shuffled toward the bathroom door.

He stepped into the bathroom and immediately spotted Gwen. Covered in a fluffy, white robe, she was standing in front of the shower stall and testing the water with her hand.

“Nice robe,” he commented, rubbing his left shoulder.