Page 70 of The Fixer and the Fugitive

“This one,” she pointed to the oaf, “grabbed me and made threats. This one,” she thumbed toward Jed, “stepped up and tried to offer protection. I don’t know if he meant to shoot him or it was an accident. Either way I’m safe.” She glanced down at Jed who stared up at her in wonder. “Thanks. They’ll probably take it easier on you, knowing that you tried to defend me like that.” He blinked a vacant calf blink and licked his lips.

Elliot studied him. “Anything to add?”

“It’s like she said,” Jed agreed.

“Huh, I see,” Elliot drawled again. “This is all very conveniently packaged and wrapped up for me.”

“Merry Christmas,” Celeste returned, and he laughed.

“I need to call the state for a transport, in case anyone needed to practice their assigned script some more before they get here,” Elliot said. Jed nodded obligingly while Celeste remained stoic and silent. “Is Sam okay?”

Her glance slid toward the house. “It’s been a big morning, lots of information. I take it he called you.”

“Yes. He sounded fairly frantic on the phone, mostly about the fire.” Elliot scowled at the ruined orchard. “I’m sorry, Celeste.”

“It’s all right,” she said, but she didn’t believe it. She was only starting to get to know the trees, had recently taken steps to fertilize them. Only three days ago she pruned her first four, tentatively and with lots of back and forth communication with Esther’s father. And now half of them were gone, wiped away in an instant by the irrational hatred of the man at her feet.

“I don’t know why people are so ugly sometimes,” Elliot mused. “But there’s good, too.” By the smile on his face, Celeste knew he was thinking of his wife, Missy, whose kindness and good cheer must go a long way to counteract the things Elliot had to deal with.

Celeste turned away from that, too. She was happy for Elliot, glad he’d found some goodness in the world. She thought maybe she had, too, but what if she hadn’t?

When she realized she was now staring at the house—the silent, empty house where Sam made no appearance, she turned away from that, making a circle of all the places she didn’t want to look. In the end she turned her eyes skyward and reached for her phone. “Excuse me, I have to make a call.”

Elliot chuckled softly. “I bet you do.”

She wandered a few steps away as The Colonel picked up before the first ring.

Chapter 31

“Situation contained,” Celeste said, in lieu of hello.

“What exactly was the situation, Sergeant Major? Because it’s not one of ours,” The Colonel said.

“A local, unhappy with the shade of Sam’s skin.”

The Colonel grunted. “All the idiocy in the world we have to deal with, and that’s the frosting on the cake.”

It was all hate, something Celeste had realized long ago. Whether the tribalism took place in Afghanistan or Palestine or the United States, it always boiled down to hate, at its core.

“How many pieces do I need to pick up?” The Colonel asked.

“He’s still intact for now. Not sure he’s going to make it,” Celeste said.

“And the package?” The Colonel asked.

“Still safe,” Celeste said. Sam was safe, but then what? There was no time to think about that now.

“It’s too late to scramble the team. They’re already wheels up and will be there within the hour.”

“I apologize, sir,” she said.

“Don’t, Sergeant Major. When we got your call, we took a peek at Komeni and it worked to flush him out. We managed theextraction and he’s in custody. The team that’s coming to you will do the wrap up. After that, your package is a free agent.”

She swallowed hard. What would Sam do with that freedom? “Yes, sir. Thank you.”

“And what about you, Sergeant Major? Is retirement everything you thought it would be?”

Celeste read the coded message.Do you want to come back?“It’s…different than I expected, but…” She didn’t know how to tell The Colonel she was still trying to heal. They didn’t have the sort of gooey heart to heart conversations that took place on television.

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