Cold & Deadly (Cold Justice: Crossfire #1)(9)
Dominic opened his mouth to argue but then closed it again. Savage was right. The Crisis Negotiation Unit was highly specialized and perpetually overstretched. There were never enough agents. Never enough time.
“I understand if you need to take some personal days…” Savage let the statement hang even though he’d just made it impossible to ask for time off.
“I’m fine.” Dominic would have been more fine if some asshole hadn’t just shot dead one of his friends at his mentor’s funeral.
“Hey.” Charlotte Blood poked her head around Savage’s door, her expression a mass of sympathy. “I heard you’ve had a terrible day. You need anything?”
Dominic shook his head, knowing questions and concern were inevitable, but not ready to talk about what had happened or how he felt about it. He’d go see the Bureau shrink and do the mandatory hot wash and talk about his feelings. He’d tell the doc what she wanted to hear and get the all-clear. God knew, he’d visited a lot of shrinks growing up. He knew the drill.
“A bunch of us are going to grab a beer and dinner after work. You guys wanna join us? It might help to be around friends.” Charlotte was the bleeding heart of the unit, one who could bring stone-cold killers to their knees with a bit of active listening and emotional labeling. She’d honed empathy to the sharpness of a 14th Century Samurai blade and wielded it ruthlessly.
Quentin smiled at Charlotte, and she smiled back. She was somehow impossible to resist. If Dominic was ever in a tight corner that required a negotiator, he’d want Charlotte doing the talking. He pitied the guy she fell for because he wouldn’t stand a chance. For some inexplicable reason, his mind flashed to the image of Ava Kanas on that rooftop looking so isolated and aloof—the opposite of Charlotte’s all-encompassing warmth. He pushed the image aside. The inexperienced rookie was her own worst enemy.
“Unfortunately, I have to write my keynote for that conference in Indonesia next week,” Quentin grimaced. For all he was considered one of the best in the field of negotiation tactics, he did not enjoy the spotlight.
“What about you, Dominic?” Charlotte asked again.
“Not tonight, Char,” he told her. “I have some case files to catch up on.”
Quentin frowned at him. Charlotte’s smile dimmed.
“We’ll be there for a while. It’s Eban’s birthday. Join us if you get hungry or want company.” She sent him a worried look before she left which made him feel warm and guilty all at the same time.
Yup, the woman knew how to twist the heartstrings. And the fact she genuinely cared was why she got away with it, even with the most hardened criminals and hard-assed FBI personnel.
Dominic stood to leave.
“Where are we on the Alexander case?” Savage asked quickly.
The Alexanders were a retired couple whose dreams of sailing round the world had been shattered when they’d been kidnapped in the South China Sea five months ago.
It reminded Dominic he wasn’t the only person in the world having a bad day. “No new updates as of last night. The negotiator we have in the embassy in Jakarta has another week before his rotation ends.”
“See if he can hold off on his return for another week and meet me in Jakarta. I’ll get an onsite brief then. Then call State and see if there has been any update in the security situation in the region.”
“Gotcha.” Dominic was aware what his boss was doing. Keeping him busy. Not letting him dwell on the awful events of today.
He headed to his office two doors down, which he shared with another negotiator who’d just returned from secondment at SIOC at HQ.
Time was always the friend of the negotiator, wearing down kidnappers, stretching their resources, lowering their expectations. But for the hostages and their friends and family, every second of every hour had to be torturous, not knowing if their loved ones were alive and suffering, or already dead.
Dominic got on the phone to the State Department before everyone went home for the day. As he waited to be connected, he thought again about Ava Kanas, the way she’d flinched away from him when he’d gone to touch the injury on her cheek.
At some point someone had hit her hard enough to scar her. Was it an old injury from her childhood or something more recent? It made him furious, but she didn’t seem like the sort of woman who would want his sympathy or his pity.
He clasped the back of his neck as State put him on hold. There was definitely something about her that intrigued him. Maybe it was seeing that vulnerability combined with her bravery…not only when going after the shooter but in voicing her opinion in front of the director. That took balls.
Did she have a Charlotte in her life to make her feel better? Would her boss make sure she didn’t suffer any ill-effects from the shooting? Make her visit the Bureau shrink?
Van would’ve.
Would Aldrich?
Dominic tossed down his pen and rubbed his eyes as he was passed from person to person in Washington. There was probably a boyfriend on the scene to hold Kanas’s hand if she needed comfort. The idea sat sourly. Which was stupid. It wasn’t like he’d see her again and even if he did, he never dated agents and that went double for younger agents.
He laughed at his own ego. Who the hell said she’d look at him twice? She was a beautiful woman and might not even be into guys.
He pushed her out of his mind as he finished with State and then called Savage with an update. Then his cell rang and Dominic looked at the caller ID.