Page 69 of Operation: Valiant Angel

“I’ve been with women just to be with them. I haven’t had an actual relationship in more years than I can remember. Work gets in the way of relationships. And that’s what I want with you Rae, a relationship, not just incredible nights in bed, which there is no doubt in my mind they will be incredible nights.”

She returned his erotic grin. She also had no doubt they’d be incredible.

“There are things about me and my job you need to know if you’re going to be in my life and it wouldn’t be fair to you for you not to know what you’re getting into. That’s a discussion for another time. And you’ve been through a lot the last few days. You need to heal from that first.”

“Yeah,” she agreed.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he offered.

“No, I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to think about it. I want to forget every second of it, but I know I won’t ever be able to.” She couldn’t and didn’t want to vocalize the despair she’d felt, truly believing she was going to die in that hole. And even though Jimmy had found her, and she was safe now, she was still so worried about Lilly. Was she okay? And how afraid was she? Did she know that man had left her out there to die? Little girls shouldn’t have to have that knowledge ever.

“Maybe in a few days you’ll be ready to talk about it,” he said. “And when you are, if you don’t want to talk to me, I’ll get you an appointment with our team shrink. He’s a trauma counselor and a damn good one.”

“Yeah, we’ll see,” she said.

He kissed her forehead again and then laid his head back on the pillow. “Have you warmed up?”

She flashed him a coy grin. “If I say yes, are you going to get up?”

Wilson chuckled. “No, I’m staying right here with you until you get up.”

“In that case, I might not ever,” she said.

He laughed and then turned more serious. “Really, have you warmed up?”

“Yes, thank you for sharing your body, I mean, um, your body heat.”

The towel had loosened on her head and several wet strands of hair had escaped. He brushed them back from her face. “Sloan isn’t going to be very happy you got your head wet.”

“The hot water pouring over my head felt so good,” she said. “Hopefully, I didn’t fuck up the wound too badly.”

“I’m sure you didn’t. He’ll want to get more antibiotic ointment on it.”

She shrugged. “That’s fine. I really do feel better and am tired of being anyone’s patient.”

“I vaguely remember that same attitude after the gunshot to your shoulder,” he said. “I remember thinking this is one tough chick.”

“And you were there with me on the plane after that, too. I think we need to change the dynamics of our relationship. I can’tkeep getting injured around you and your team,” she said with a laugh. “No matter how much I like being with you.”

“Are you saying you don’t want to see me or have a relationship?” he asked, not understanding her statement. She hadn’t said anything about how she felt about him in return after he’d told her.

“Oh, God, no, that’s not what I meant. I meant that I have to stop getting injured when I’m around you, that’s all. And around you is where I want to be.” She paused for a moment and gazed into his eyes. “Jimmy, I’m not good at relationships and I’m even worse at saying how I feel. That’s what you need to know about me. I’ll try. That’s all I can promise.”

He pressed another soft kiss on her lips. “I’ll hold you to it, trying, that is.”

Uniform

Lambchop got Ops on the line as the team, minus Wilson, neared the location of the beige Volvo that the Digital Team had tracked to a neighborhood in an older section of Des Moines. Then he said his short pre-mission prayer. The two cars circled through the dark, residential streets and easily found the target car. It was parked in front of a small one-bedroom ranch home. It was zero two-thirty, and it had just begun to snow. All the other homes on the street were dark. The target house had lights on in the front room that flooded out into the night through the gaps in the curtains.

The team separated into two groups. Lambchop and Mother approached the front with a gooseneck surveillance camera. They’d use it to look through the gaps to see who if anyone was in the front room. Jackson circled around the house to the left, Sloan and Sherman to the right. They had two more of the small camera-head surveillance cameras. They’d try to get a look into any windows and locate the people in the house.

“If we can get eyes on the child sleeping alone in a bedroom, we get her out before we take down Adams and Henning,” Lambchop said as he laid his hand on the hood of the Volvo. It was cold.

“Roger that,” Jackson replied. “Preferably, we can move her without her waking.” As he was the father of two, he was quite adept at doing this.

“Yeah, she’s been kept locked in a room alone for a few days. She’s going to be traumatized enough. We don’t need to add to it,” Sherman agreed.

At the front window, the tip of the camera was lifted to just over the window frame at the gap in the middle of the curtains. Lambchop slowly rotated it, sweeping the view from right to left. Nearby, Mother manned the small monitor that showed him the interior of the house.

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