Page 88 of Smoke and Shadows
“Uh, aren’t you getting ahead of yourself, Allison? We’ve only been together for what? Four weeks?”
“You’re right. But your man is so intense.”
“How would you know?” Marissa retorted.
“You pulled your disappearing act, remember? Did you know he threw a chair against the wall in Yeager's office when our director wouldn’t tell him where you were?’
“He did WHAT?” Marissa exclaimed, mortified.
“Yes. Yeager warned me not to tell you. Men.” Allison rolled her eyes. “But you know, being in the sisterhood and all, I felt it was my duty to let you know how crazy your man is about you.”
“Oh, my God.” Marissa buried her face in her hands. Hewasintense. Did she expect anything different? With how hard Viktor had fucked her when he found her, she was thankful he had let out some steam beforehand. Otherwise, he would have made good on his promise of her not being able to sit or walk afterward.
“You know, if I had not seen how calm and collected he was on other occasions, I would say your man has anger management issues. Yeager still thinks Baran’s the shit, and his volatile nature only applies to matters concerning you.”
Marissa didn’t know how to feel about that statement. Or that her boss and analyst seemed to be gossiping about her private life.
“Are we chatting like a couple of girlfriends now?” Marissa laughed.
“Can you blame me? We’ve dealt with nothing but destruction, terrorists, death, and nerve gas. I don’t know how to have a normal conversation anymore.”
“Do you want to work in the field? Meet normal people?”
Allison’s eyes widened in horror. “God. No. I can’t do what you do, Marissa.”
Marissa didn’t tell her about her near rape. She didn’t think that would add anything to the report. It was enough that she got strung up like a pig and almost gutted.
“Well, if you want the shift, let me know,” Marissa offered, standing up and stretching. She was ready to go home.
Marissa letherself into her Victorian row house a little before 11:00 p.m. She’d have come home a couple of hours earlier, but Brian had been insistent that she have dinner over at his place. He’d made his famous pasta with meat sauce—one of her favorites. After that, it hadn’t been hard to convince her. For some reason, she didn’t want to be on her own tonight and relished the company.
Throwing her keys on the console, she checked the voice mailbox on her landline, and as she expected, it was full. She went through the messages. Most of them were from her mom and a couple from Trent. Her mom was planning a dinner party to welcome her brother home from his deployment next Tuesday. Marissa quickly scanned the time and date of the message to make sure it had not passed. She was relieved to find that it was this coming week. She missed her brother.
She’d forgotten her cell phone in her purse, and when she finally retrieved it, she noticed a couple of missed calls from Viktor.
Shit.
Should she call him back? He didn’t leave any message.
Before she could make up her mind, her landline rang.
“Hello?”
“Damn, sis! You’re a hard person to track down.”
“I sure hope so.”
Trent burst out laughing. “Yeah, good one. I’m in your neck of the woods.”
“I thought you weren’t getting in until tomorrow.”
“Took an earlier flight. Can’t wait to see my sister.”
Marissa knew her brother very well. “What do you need?”
Her brother harrumphed. “It’s true you know, all these recent attacks make me worry about you.”
“You guys are fighting the war over there.”