Cody Walker's Woman

“No more,” he said when he finally raised his head. Keira knew he was fighting himself...and she knew why. He wasn’t going to make love to her again until they addressed the birth control issue, and she resolved to make an appointment with her doctor tomorrow. In the meantime, there was a drugstore just down the street....

* * *

Cody whistled tunelessly to himself as he rode down in the elevator. He couldn’t help but feel good about his life, despite Keira’s revelations earlier that day about the connection between the New World Militia and the Russian Brotherhood. The agency had a long, tough job ahead of it putting together a prosecutable case. And the ever-present threat of danger to anyone who had been involved in bringing down the militia six years ago still lurked.

But somehow those things didn’t matter right now. All he cared about in this instant was Keira. Life couldn’t be anything but good for a man when Keira loved him.

He exited Keira’s building, his eyes automatically sweeping the street, alert for danger even though part of him dismissed the possibility. He saw nothing to worry about, but when he walked to where his truck was parked, he stopped dead in his tracks even before he clicked the electronic unlock button on the key fob. Something wasn’t right.

He couldn’t have said what it was at first. A cursory inspection under the streetlights indicated his truck didn’t appear to have been tampered with. But then he realized it was too clean. The thin film of dust that should have been on the hood...wasn’t.

He slid his hand inside his jacket for his gun, drew it and backed away, hoping whatever explosive device had been wired inside his truck was ignition or accelerator detonated, and not remotely detonated by someone watching nearby. But nothing happened, and he breathed a small sigh of relief. When he reached the entrance to Keira’s building, he buzzed her condo, his mind racing.

Someone had followed him here.

Someone had followed him, waited for him to enter the building, and rigged his truck with explosives. Someone who had known they’d have enough time to finish the job. Someone who had followed him before...and had seen him with Keira.

“Cody?” Keira’s voice came through the intercom. “What’s wrong?”

He realized then that the building’s entrance was wired for video as well as sound. He glanced up, and sure enough, there was a camera in one corner. “Buzz me in,” he said.

When the buzzer went off, he opened the door and headed for the elevator, holstering his gun at the same time. Then he changed his mind and took the stairs. Elevators can be death traps, he reminded himself as he opened the door to the stairwell.

If they’d followed him to Keira’s, she might very well be in danger even though the building seemed to have decent security. But he knew any security could he breached, and his face hardened as he jogged up the eight flights to Keira’s floor. He rang her doorbell, only slightly winded, and when she opened the door to him he hustled her inside and locked the door behind them.

“What is it?” she asked, her eyes wide.

But she wasn’t frightened, Cody saw. Just alert. And her Glock was in her right hand. A thrill of pride shot through him as he remembered his one-time wish for a woman who would kill to protect him, just as he’d kill to protect her. He smiled and kissed her fiercely before moving to the phone in the living room.

His voice was grim. “Somebody tampered with my truck.” He picked up her phone and dialed the agency. It only took a couple of minutes to arrange for an explosives team to come check out his truck, and he gave them his cell phone number to contact him, not wanting to give out Keira’s number.

When he hung up she asked him, “How do you know?”

Cody laughed without humor. “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you.” He looked at her, still clad in nothing but her Semper Fi T-shirt; but her hair was damp, so he knew she’d taken a shower after he left. He said, “You’d better get dressed. I’m going to call Baker Street.” He dialed a number from memory he’d already used once this month, and watched as Keira headed for the bedroom.

The phone rang only a few times before it was answered. “D’Arcy.”