Part 18 (2/2)

”Rainey, I hate to inform you, but you are a famous lesbian around here. You're not only a famous lesbian; you're a hot FBI agent with a gun. You are the quintessential lesbian icon.”

They both laughed for a moment and then a hush fell over them.

Rainey spoke first. ”I will not be alone in there, Katie. There will be five other armed women in the bar with me, and a dozen cops outside. Sat.u.r.day night, Feme Sole will be the safest place in Durham.”

”How will you recognize him?”

”A lot of it has to do with body language, eye contact, things like that. The team will look for people watching me. How they watch me is more important than the fact that they are.”

”What about afterwards, when you go home?”

Rainey suspected, if they didn't locate the UNSUB at the bar, Danny would not allow her to go home alone. He was giving her rope, but he wouldn't let her hang herself. ”I'll be covered then, too. Danny will make sure of that.”

”I still think this is crazy.” Katie would not let up.

Rainey made a fatal mistake. She responded without thinking, ”That's because your hormone levels are jacked up and you can't be rational.”

There was a deadly silence on the line, followed by, ”Your call has ended. If you would like me to reconnect your call, say, 'Yes,' or press the call b.u.t.ton to hang up.”

Chapter fourteen.

Rainey managed to make it through the rest of the morning without making anyone else mad or telling them off. She could feel herself near the edge of a roaring tempest. If one more person dropped a load on her, Rainey was going to show everyone just how hot the ice in her veins could run. n.o.body really knew Rainey's thoughts and desires. No one knew the weight she carried. They were all about to find out, because Rainey Bell had reached her limit. G.o.d help the person that tipped the scale.

Rainey leaned with her back against the wall of the conference room, arms crossed over her chest. Her body language said, ”Stay away.” She eyed Danny from across the room, still sweltering beneath the surface because he shot his mouth off to Katie. They had been with the team all morning, planning and re-checking the evidence. The opportunity to confront Danny had not presented itself. When it did, he was going to get an earful.

”Rainey, I need to put this video camera on your jacket.”

It was James. Rainey had been so engrossed in her thoughts of kicking Danny's a.s.s, she did not feel James approach. She stood up straight and turned to the shorter man, presenting the lapel of her jacket.

James talked while he pinned on the b.u.t.ton size camera. ”This is real simple. See, it has a clasp, just like a tiepin. Tomorrow night, wear black if you can. It won't show up, especially if you put it in place of a b.u.t.ton, or something like that. It has a built in microphone, but I want to add an extra one for backup, and you'll have an earwig so we can talk to you. ” He stepped back. ”Great. You don't notice it at all on that jacket. Now, we can see and hear everything you do.” He moved back toward his computer on the table. ”You just wear that around for a few minutes, so I can check the feed.”

Rainey looked down at the small black camera. ”How far away can you be?”

”About 1000 feet, clearly. I'm going over to the bar this afternoon to check for interference possibilities. The jail is very near there, so I don't want to get mixed up in their bandwidth. I think we'll be okay, unless they all start talking at once. If we need to, one of the other officers can wear a transmitter to receive and boost your signal.”

”I'm going over there this afternoon. You can test it then.”

”Great, just let me know when you're ready to leave. I'll get the van ready.”

James went back to work on his computer. The rest of the team was making plans for lunch. There was nothing left to do, except Rainey and Detective Robertson's visit to Feme Sole. When the others began moving toward the door, Danny walked over to Rainey.

Keeping his voice low, he said, ”Your body language suggests that your mood soured since I left you this morning. I a.s.sume Katie called you.”

Rainey glared at Danny. Between gritted teeth she responded, ”It was not your place to tell her.”

”She had a right to know, Rainey.”

Rainey raised her voice slightly, the anger apparent in her tone. ”That may be true, but she should have heard it from me, not you. You don't know what she's like, how wound up she can get. You scared her.”

Danny lowered his voice more, apparently trying to get Rainey to do the same. ”I think we should continue this conversation in private.” He turned to the others, who had stopped at the door to watch the fight. ”Could you give us a moment, please?”

The room cleared. Danny sat down on the edge of the table. He lowered his shoulders and smiled calmly. Rainey recognized the non-confrontational technique they used on agitated suspects. It did nothing to quell her anger.

As soon as the door closed behind the last gawker, she said, ”What you did was far outside the bounds of our personal and professional relations.h.i.+p. I've stood by and watched you screw up one relations.h.i.+p after another and not once did I stick my nose in your business.”

”Maybe you should have,” Danny answered, candidly. ”Be mad at me if you want, I did what I thought needed to be done. Lying to her, about the danger you are putting yourself in, is not going to fix your relations.h.i.+p.”

Rainey's anger flared. ”I did not lie to her!”

Danny's calmness was in stark contrast to Rainey's temper. ”It's a lie of omission. I know you don't want to hear this, but that's the root of all your problems with Katie.”

”Now you're going to profile my relations.h.i.+p? That'll be the f.u.c.king day...”

”The f.u.c.king day, what, Rainey? The f.u.c.king day you listen to someone other than yourself. Since your father died and then the a.s.sault, you quit listening to anybody. You stopped trusting people. You became excessively cautious, constantly vigilant, and overly protective of the people you care about. That's cla.s.sic post traumatic stress.”

”What, now you're going to tell me I need a shrink? I did my Bureau required time on the couch, thank you.”

”A few more sessions couldn't hurt. Maybe you and Katie should go together. You might learn what is really behind her concerns. You haven't told her what you're really afraid of and the not knowing is terrorizing her.”

Rainey continued to scowl at Danny. ”She doesn't need to know the details.”

”It's not your job, Rainey, this one or the bail business. I don't think you give her enough credit. Katie knows she fell in love with a cop. She knows what dangers are out there, but she sees your fear, and it doesn't have a name. Katie can't process it and deal with it until she knows.”

Rainey took a step closer to him. ”Back off, Danny.”

Danny stood up. Non-confrontational strategies went right out the window. ”Why not tell her what really lurks out there, the thing that drives the fears of Rainey Bell?”

Rainey seethed. Her hands were clinched in fists, her jaw muscles contracted.

Danny stared into her eyes, calculating his chances of getting away with what he was about to say.

He softened his tone, and said, ”You're not scared of someone coming after you. You are more than prepared for that. You're afraid of losing someone else. You're terrified of being left behind, broken hearted, and alone.”

”You don't have a f.u.c.king clue what I'm afraid of,” Rainey spat.

”You're the one pus.h.i.+ng Katie away, not your job, not the boogey-men out there. You're obsessed with protecting her and in so doing you are smothering her. You're going to lose her, because of it.”

Rainey turned on her heels and stormed out the door. She pa.s.sed the rest of the team in the hall, staring at the open laptop James held up for them. Rainey realized they had been watching the fight on screen. From the looks on their faces, she could tell the lapel camera caught it all. Rainey unpinned the camera from her jacket and handed it to James.

”Here, take this. It's obvious that it works,” Rainey snapped.

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