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okay.  I just don’t know what to do about what happened. ”  
    She slid her hand back to join the other one wrapped around the coffee cup.  “Luka, I don’t know the asshole ’s name, but I think it was one of the two men on Berenstein’s list.  You know, the one that my C.I. gave us.  While we’ve been watching his shipments, he’s been watching us.  He knew things about me that no one around here knows other than you and Bev.  Hell, more than you guys know.”
    She closed her eyes, shook her head, then looked Luka in the eyes, all humor gone.  “And I think he’s killed somebody to make his point.  I think it was Cynthia.”
    “Fuck,” Luka said softly.   “I’ll call in and check, Mal.  We got to go after this man, right now, then, today.  We’ll get him.”
    “That’s not all, Luk.  He’s promised to destroy everyone I love if I don’t stop.  He’s promised that, no matter how careful I am, he’ll kill you first.  I can’t risk that.  Then he’ll kill my father, and anyone else he thinks I care about.  Luka, he can do it, I know it.  My gut tells me that this one, he’s everything he’s presenting himself to be.  Brutal and willing, capable, of everything he told me.  I can’t…what the hell am I going to do?  I can’t let him get away with murder, and God knows what else!  How the hell do we neutralize someone this big?”
    “First, you don’t worry about me .  I’m a big boy, Mal.”
    She snorted.  “So the girls tell you.”
    He grinned.  “You want proof?  Anyway, yeah, it’s fucked that he’s threatened you, but together, we got this.  It’s going to be all right.”
    “You didn’t see his eyes.  I swear he’s just on the edge of proclaiming himself king of the world.  He thinks he owns us, Luk.”
    “You know he doesn’t. ”
    “Yeah, well, he wouldn’t agree. And I do worry about you, every day.  He knew exactly where to hurt me.  You and my father are the only family I have.  He knows me, Luka, like no one should.  I can’t decide how to proceed from here.”
    “Let’s talk to the captain.”
    “No, not yet. Not until I figure some things out. Please don’t go to him, Luka.  Give me time to investigate this guy.”
    “We have to let the department know what happened to you.”
    “We will.  Just follow my lead.  After we’re finished, you can take me to the station and we’ll check in with the captain.”
    Luka shook his head.  “Okay, you can drive this thing, but if I suspect that you’re pulling all of this just to protect me, I’m going to speak up.  I have to protect you as much as you feel you have to protect me. Let me call in and see if I can find out anything about your girl.”
    “Damn, I hope I’m wrong. ”  Mal looked out of the window at the burgeoning traffic as people headed to work.  It all seemed so normal.  Looking back into Luka’s eyes, she sighed.  “But I don’t think I am.”
    Mal took a long sip from her second cup of coffee, hot and steaming, as she watched Luka.  His face was stern through the entire conversation on his cell phone, his expression unchanging as he thanked someone, then turned it off and laid it on the tabletop.
    “Fuck,” he swore softly.
    Shaking her head, Mal dropped her eyes and stared at the bubbles on top of the slick black liquid.
    “How?”
    “Hit and run.  Two nights ago.  No one saw the vehicle.  God, Mal, I’m sorry.  She was just trying to do the right thing.”
    Mal stood, downed her coffee and dropped her cup back onto the table with a bang.  “We both know that usually doesn’t turn out right.  I’m ready, Luka, take me in.  And just back me up.  You don’t know any details anyway, so you’ll be in compliance.  You didn’t see who hit you, did you?”
    “No. One minute I was chomping on that hot dog, and the next thing I knew , you were gone and I was freaking out.  I was worried to death, Mal, that I’d lost you.  I gotta say that