“That’s probably it,” Kendra said gently. “I can see it. I’m feeling the same way. But don’t use my relationship with Lynch to do it. Whatever is between us is a very delicate balance, and I don’t know where the hell it’s going. Probably nowhere.” She made a face. “But I should mention that even if I wanted to have fireworks, it would be extremely difficult when half of the equation is saving the world on a snowy mountain in Tibet.”
Jessie laughed. “All the more reason to bring in a pinch hitter. Though I’ve seen Lynch perform harder tasks if he set his mind to it. So have you.”
“But I don’t want to be another project he has to set his mind to accomplishing. Talk about distraction.” She kept her tone light. “Governments could fall. Revolutions erupt around the world. Bombs fly. I don’t want the responsibility. So could we drop this discussion about him?”
“Sure.” She shrugged. “I’ve forgotten him already. Now all you’ve got to do is convince him to forget about you…”
“That’s no issue at the moment.” She was looking back at the door of Katy’s place and frowning. “The only thing I’m worrying about right now is that I have a nagging feeling there’s something that I missed back there with Adrian’s girlfriend.” She rubbed her temple. “And I’m just too tired to know what it is.”
“It will come back to you. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
“But I want to know now.” She saw Jessie shaking her head and sighed. “Right. Okay, rest and then see what happens…”
Jessie nodded. “Now you’ve got it.”
* * *
Her phone was ringing…
Kendra drowsily reached out to the bedside table. It seemed as if she’d just gotten to sleep, but the light streaming in the guest room window was twilight-dim. She must have been even more tired than she’d thought…She glanced blearily at the face of the phone. No ID and she was tempted not to answer, but she couldn’t risk that it might be Kelland or one of his men with information. “Kendra Michaels.”
“You sound delightfully sleepy,” Lynch said softly. “I’ve always loved to hear that froggy hoarseness in your voice when you first wake up. It reminds me of Kermit. But since it’s only seven in the evening your time and you’re always too alert for naps, I’m suddenly very curious.”
She sat up straight in bed. She could almost see Lynch there before her, the piercing blue eyes, those movie-star good looks, that mischievous sense of humor. “I don’t sound froggy. And it took you long enough to be curious about anything concerning me, Lynch.”
“No more Kermit.” He sighed. “I startled you out of it. How pissed off are you with me?”
“Not at all. I have no right to be upset. You don’t owe me anything…except courtesy.”
“Very upset. The mission was top secret, and I did the best I could to make contact when I sent Chodan Ki with your gift. Did you like it?”
“It was completely unique. But it caused problems that you went through Griffin. And I’m sure it cost a fortune, and then I got busy and forgot to put it in a bank vault.”
“Really? That’s not like you.”
“I was busy,” she repeated.
“Doing what?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Silence. Then a gentle nudge. “Kendra.”
She changed the subject. “If it’s so top secret, why are you calling now?”
“I’ve managed to ease the pressure a bit. I’m going into the final phase, and I thought I’d call and see if Chodan Ki was right about everything being as peaceful with you as he made it out to be. He’s sharp, but he doesn’t know you and might have trouble recognizing the signs of trouble on your horizon. Plus I thought he was a little too eager to give me what he thought I wanted. He wants this mess here cleared up. How are you?”
“Fine. I’m sure that envoy was honest with you. There was no trouble when he showed up to make Griffin’s life difficult.” She added impatiently, “And if there had been, what could you do? You’re thousands of miles away. You couldn’t help if you wanted to.”
“Not fair. You know I’ll always want to be there for you.” He paused. “You didn’t answer me. Why are you napping at seven in the evening?”
He wasn’t going to give up. Lynch was nothing if not persistent, and he knew her too well not to be able to read her. Just this small change of her routine had set off alarm bells. “I was helping Jessie and I didn’t get much sleep. I’m staying at her place for the time being.” She added quickly to stave off the next question, “Look, I appreciate the concern, but I don’t need you. I admit there’s a problem, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. And I have plenty of help. As a matter of fact, I thought it was an FBI agent just now when I answered the phone. So you go on with whatever you’re doing in Tibet and let me take care of my own business. It’s not as if you have to hold my hand.”
“What if I like to hold your hand?”
“The Justice Department might not understand the concept.”
“Screw Justice.”
“I’m going to hang up now. I’m sorry if I was curt. I had no right to be.” She tried to laugh. “It must have been that crack about Kermit. Not what a woman wants to wake up hearing.”
“You should. I’m nuts about Kermit.”
“Because you’re weird. Bye, Lynch. Take care of yourself.”
She cut the connection.
She drew a deep breath before she swung her feet to the floor and got out of bed. The discussion hadn’t gone as well as she’d hoped, but she’d held her own and, if Lynch was as busy as he seemed, he might not be able to follow up and interfere as he usually did. All she needed was to have to play phone tag with a black ops expert who was trying to balance his mission with Dee’s life-and-death problems.
“Lynch?” Jessie stuck her head in the door. “I was about to come in and wake you when I heard you on the phone. Is he done with Tibet?”
“Yes, it was Lynch. You must have been sending him vibes by talking about him earlier. And no, he’s still in Tibet. But it’s winding down. He just had to make certain that he still had control of everything in his world.”
“Particularly you,” she murmured. “Too bad. I would have liked to have a little Lynch razzle-dazzle on the scene. I’ll take all the help I can get at this point.”
There had been many moments since this nightmare had started when Kendra had felt the same way. She was sick with worry when she thought about Dee. So don’t think about her until they could do something productive to free her. Until then they could only count on themselves.
“Not available. We’re on our own. And having Lynch trying to tell us what to do might be unbearable in spite of any advantages.”
“You’ve never had problems with him that you couldn’t handle.”
“Situations change. So do people.” She shrugged. “And Lynch can make ebony black look white as the driven snow.” She changed the subject. “Now tell me that you made coffee when you were being so diplomatic about not disturbing us.”