Free Intersection by Nancy Ann Healy Page A

the door and carefully removed the photo, placing it in the bag. She reached for her cell phone, pressed a number and waited. “Toles?” The voice asked.
    “Fallon… listen things are progressing faster than we hoped…. I don’t want to get into the details now. Is the congressman all right?”
    “Yeah…why?” He asked in confusion.
    “Okay. Do me a favor. Check the perimeter of the apartment.”
    “Now?” He responded.
    “Yes…now.”
    “Okay I’ll…”
    Alex interrupted her partner in frustration. “No, while I am on the phone.”
    Fallon complied and the phone was silent for a few moments, “What am I looking for, Toles?”
    “I don’t know… it’s just a feeling.”
    “Another ‘feeling’? Christ, Toles…. wait…..wait…shit….”
    “What is it?”
    “What the hell is this?” Fallon began.
    “What?”
    “Christ, Toles….. There’s a photo on the back door….”
    “Of what?” She asked.
    “Me…. Me and the congressman.”
    Alex huffed. “Jigs up, Fallon… someone knows who we are.”
    “What?”
    “Same thing here…. Anything written on yours?”
    “No…”
    “All right…. Bag it.” She paused and looked up the stairs, her thoughts suddenly turning to the woman she had left there moments ago. “Fallon?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Will you call Tate?”
    “Sure….you don’t…”
    “I have to finish some things here,” Alex explained.
    Brian Fallon pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at it. There was something in his partner’s voice that he had never heard before. Alex was always focused. He knew when she thought there was danger by the tone in her voice, but this was different. She was worried, maybe even afraid. “You okay, Toles?”
    “Yeah…just…”
    He finished her thought, “a feeling….I know….all right. I’ve got Tate covered. I’ll call you when I get back to D.C.”
    “Okay.” She stood at the bottom of the stairs for a moment and swallowed hard. She felt sick and she had to face Cassidy now. For the first time in the agent’s career she was truly afraid, not that there was imminent danger in the moment, but that one look at the woman who waited up the stairs and all of her secrets would be instantly revealed. She tried to force herself forward, her thoughts racing. Days didn’t matter, facts, places; none of it mattered. Alex felt something for this woman and she wasn’t certain she’d change that even if she could. When Alex reached Dylan’s room Cassidy was standing over his bed, stroking his hair while he slept. The agent couldn’t separate one emotion from another. “Cassidy?” The teacher turned to look at the agent who was moving toward her now. Cassidy’s eyes silently confessed her fears and Alexheld her gaze, attempting to convey her own understanding. When Alex finally reached the woman across the room, Cassidy’s feelings completely consumed her. Her tears began to fall and her knees gave way. Alex grabbed hold of her and pulled her close, holding her while Cassidy wept. “It’s okay,” Alex said gently. “It’s going to be okay.” The agent looked over the woman’s shoulder at the sleeping boy and closed her eyes, feeling Cassidy in her arms and wanting only to take her pain away.
    Cassidy tried to calm herself, but feeling Alex’s arms around her brought on a whole new flood of sensations and emotions. She didn’t want the agent to let her go. It was such a wonderful sensation and it terrified her almost as much as what had just transpired. Alex held her tightly and spoke softly, trying to tame her own heartbeat. “Cassidy…I promise you…..I promise…I am not going to let anyone hurt you or Dylan.” Without thinking she kissed the top of Cassidy’s head. When she realized her own action she felt a burst of fear expecting Cassidy to pull away, but instead Cassidy instinctively clasped the agent’s waist and held on.
    “I know you won’t.” Alex closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She had no idea