that I’m just a lowly music therapist. You don’t wear your uniform there, which is probably a good idea. I think it’s good you go there, relax, and blow off steam. What’s your average?”
He was staring at her indignantly. “Excuse me?”
“You enjoy bowling.” She let the words rattle out swiftly, accurately. “And fishing. I think you probably have your own boat back home, maybe on Lake Huron? You fish, but you also do some diving.”
Kotcheff’s jaw dropped.
“You grew up in the South but later moved to Michigan. Your family is still there. You saw them recently, in the past few weeks. They must miss you. It’s lucky they don’t realize what an asshole you are when it suits you. They’d be shocked and disappointed. But you’re also diabetic, so I hope you’re taking good care of yourself here.”
Kotcheff was now glaring at her in horror, struggling to speak.
Should Kendra go for it? Hell, yes. “Oh, and one more thing.” She was smiling recklessly as she took another step closer to him. “You’re a by-the-book kind of guy, so I’m surprised and impressed you’re rebellious in one aspect of your miserable, boring existence: You’re wearing bright red underwear.”
Kotcheff immediately looked down at his crotch in alarm.
“Don’t worry, General. Your fly isn’t open.”
Kendra bounded up the stairs to the plane’s forward door, which immediately closed behind her.
* * *
“What the hell?” The general was staring after her, stunned. “How could she know all that?” He turned indignantly to Jessie, who was bent double, tears of laughter running down her cheeks. “Stop laughing, damn you.”
“I tried to tell you. I could see it coming.” Jessie was trying to stop laughing, but she couldn’t do it. “But you deserved it. Good for you, Kendra.” She caught another glimpse of the general’s baffled expression and broke down again. “Dear God, your face…” She took a deep breath. “How could she know it? Kendra was blind until she was twenty, and by then, like all blind people, she’d trained her other senses to be ultrasharp to compensate. When she underwent a stem cell operation that gave her sight, she became the complete package. She takes nothing she sees for granted. She notices everything. Do you wonder why the FBI considers her irreplaceable?” She started to laugh helplessly again. “And do you still think your Private Dalrymple here is more qualified than her? I really must get his input on that bright red underwear!”
* * *
She shouldn’t have mentioned the red underwear, Kendra thought as the C-130 took off. It had probably been the crowning blow as far as Kotcheff was concerned. She’d held on as long as she could, but he’d been so damn obnoxious. She’d be lucky if that pompous asshole didn’t scramble some F-18s to shoot down the plane. Yet she hadn’t been able to resist that last parting shot. She had been so angry and frustrated…and hurt.
Face it: Not about the smirking general, about what Lynch had done to her.
Yes, she had tried to smother it, but there had also been hurt mixed up in all those other emotions she had felt toward Adam Lynch today. How could there not be after these years when they had been friends and partners, solved cases, laughed, gone through terror, watched each other’s backs, while constantly growing closer and closer?
Until only recently when that inevitable sexual explosion had almost torn her apart.
Don’t think about it. She had been right to try to take an immediate step back after that mistake. She had a career, friends, and a mother, all of which filled and enriched her life. She had no need of Lynch and he clearly had no need of her if he could betray her as he’d done today.
Her satellite phone was ringing. She glanced down at the ID.
Adam Lynch.
She let her voicemail pick it up.
Four minutes later her phone rang again.
Lynch.
Screw him.
She turned her phone off.
She leaned back and closed her eyes. Concentrate. She couldn’t let Lynch do this to her. Try to think of a way to pull enough strings to get her visa reinstated so that she could go back to Kabul…
“Dr. Michaels, you have a telephone call.” She opened her eyes fifteen minutes later to see a very irate copilot glaring down at her. He thrust his phone at her. “I have orders from General Kotcheff that you’re to take this call. I’d appreciate you doing it immediately so that I can have my phone back.” He added sarcastically, “There just might