After the time that he spent with Eve, Javí attempted to bury himself in work to try and stop thinking about her. That strategy had always worked for him before, but this time he wasn't as successful. It didn't help that for the first time in his professional life, Javíer wasn't even sure if he should be going after the bad guys in the first place.

The Rodriguez brothers were technically still up for grabs, but Javí wasn't sure if he wanted to risk his job going after them. He couldn't really fault the Colombian politicians that didn't want another bloody war in their streets and chose a more diplomatic solution. Javier had lived through the bloody days of Escobar, as well, and wasn't exactly in a hurry for that to happen either.

But Javí just couldn't walk away. The Cali cartel had backed Los Pepes. So taking down the Rodriguez brothers was a loose end that needed to be dealt with if he stood any chance of making up for working with them. He just hoped that he could find a way to take the godfathers down without it turning into another bloodbath.

Eve claimed to be fine when she left his apartment that morning, but that hadn't stop his mind from traveling to her for hours afterwards. He had shared so much with her, but still didn't know that much about her past. He resisted the urge to snoop and investigate. He had connections in Washington that he could easily phone for information on her and her family. But he respected her too much to go behind her back. Besides, something told him that it would be more meaningful if he was patient and let her open up to him in her own time.

But it didn't help that he could hear her all morning puttering around in her apartment, listening to music and playing the odd sad tune on her piano. Javí found himself longing to have her back in his apartment. That homey feeling that he had enjoyed earlier, left when she did.

Javíer was getting carried away and hated that his feelings for Eve were probably misplaced. What right did he have hoping that he could have something normal with a woman like her. With anyone for that matter. In a moment of weakness, Javí left his apartment to buy a pack of cigarettes. He was tired of warring with himself and caved into at least one of his cravings. He lied to himself and promised that he'd find a better time to quit smoking - not when he was pining for a woman like a love struck teenager.

When he got back to his apartment, Javí heard his phone ringing and rushed to answer it. He foolishly hoped it was Eve. But it wasn't as though she had ever called him on the telephone before. If anything, she'd knock on their adjoining wall to speak to him like the adorable person that she was.

But Javíer was horrified to hear the contact he had at the local police station inform him that the man who had attacked Eve on the street had been discharged from the hospital and wouldn't be facing any charges. Apparently her attacker was a mid level sicario working for the Cali cartel inside of Bogotá. There was nothing that Javí's source could do; corruption within the police force was pretty much commonplace in Colombia and the asshole was already long gone.

Javí slammed the phone down and nearly threw the whole thing across his living room. He didn't know how he was going to break the news to Eve. The injustice of the situation was infuriating. He would do anything to spare that woman any more pain. He considered not telling her, and letting her believe that justice had been served. But in the end, Javí found himself knocking on her apartment door moments later. If he wanted something real, he couldn't start by lying and keeping things from her.

"Hey, neighbour!" Eve beamed as she swung open her door and found Javí standing there looking just as delicious as she had left him that morning. "I was just thinking about you." She purred as she kissed the corner of his mouth as if she had been greeting him with a kiss for ages.

But Eve frowned when Javí's serious face refused to warm towards her. This thing between them felt so fragile. Maybe she shouldn't act so familiar with him, Eve reconsidered.

"Can I come in?" Javí formally asked with his hands on his hips.

A ghost of a smile pulled on his lips when he realized that Eve was still wearing his red plaid flannel shirt that he had lent her to sleep in that night. But now the sleeves had been rolled up and it was being worn unbuttoned over a plain white tank top, paired with a pair of heavily distressed jeans. She was makeup free with her hair loose and wavy. Javí couldn't help but think that he was possibly getting a glimpse at the real her. She looked so relaxed and at peace. Not to mention, happy to see him. Javí hated that he was about to take that feeling away from her after all that she had been through the night before.

"Of course, Javí." Eve sweetly smiled as she opened the door wider to let him inside. "I guess you've never been in here before, huh? Did you want some coffee?"

"Sure." Javí nodded as he looked around as she went to prepare a fresh pot. Eve's apartment mirrored his own. An open concept with the living room and kitchen separated by a long kitchen island. Her furniture was a lot nicer than his and the whole apartment had a woman's touch that his place had always sorely lacked. It also smelled amazing with a scented candle burning on her coffee table that made the whole place smell like freshly baked cookies.

His eyes landed on a watercolour painting hanging above her couch. It was a painting of a ballerina's feet standing on her toes. One foot was wearing the traditional silk ballerina slipper in pristine condition, and the other foot was wearing an old beat up red converse sneaker. It was beautifully painted and he couldn't help but smile as he admired it now that he knew Eve a little bit better. She definitely had more than one side to her, Javí mused to himself.

"My older brother, Ben." Eve explained from the kitchen with a sense of pride in her voice when she caught him looking at it from the corner of her eye. "He made that for me when I was 14. I've brought it with me everywhere. Other than my mugshot, it's the only thing I really care about."

"Your mugshot?" Javí whipped his head around to clarify what she had just said. This was news to him.

"Protesting for gay rights when I was in my early twenties." Eve simply stated as if everyone had a similar story. "My parents made the disorderly charge go away, of course." She added with an eye roll as she poured the hot water into her french press. "But I saved my mugshot. It's framed in my bedroom. My younger brother got arrested for being drunk and disorderly when he was in college. Luke went swimming in a fountain singing Bohemian Rhapsody at the top of his lungs." Eve giggled to herself. "I saved his mugshot, too, just to mess with him and remind him that it actually happened and he's not as perfect as he pretends to be."

"That's a sibling's job, I guess."

"It's my favorite picture of him, actually." Eve confessed with a chuckle.

"He's a really talented painter." Javí praised with a sly crooked smile. He couldn't help but be a little proud of her and her "criminal" past and how disgusted she was with her parents cleaning up after her and her brother. "Ben, is it?"

"He was. Ben was a very talented fighter pilot slash painter. He died when I was 16." Eve confessed in a small voice, without looking at him.

"I'm sorry. I had no idea."

"Ben knew me better than anyone." Eve claimed with confidence as she walked over and handed Javí a coffee mug. She tried not to smirk too much when Javí noticed he was about to drink out of one of her many silly cartoon mugs. "Everyone has that one person, right? That one person that just gets you."

"I'll take your word for it." Javí answered before he took a sip. Maybe that one person for Javí had been Murphy. But even then, Javí wasn't convinced that his old partner was that one person that Eve spoke of. He'd always believed 'that one special person' was never in the cards for him.

But thanks to work, Eve knew exactly how he liked his coffee and Javí couldn't help but hum when the warm liquid hit his tongue. Her coffee was ten times better than the crap they served at the office. "Look, there's something that you need to know."

"Uh oh." Eve playfully teased as she took a seat on her couch and curled her legs underneath her.

Javí took another sip of his coffee before he joined her and placed his mug on the coffee table in front of them.

"I got a call from the police station..."

"Shit." Eve interrupted him with panic threatening to take over her voice. "I can't get involved, Javí. I know I should've pressed charges last night, but..."

"It won't get that far, princesa." Javí shook his head as he reached over and squeezed her knee to comfort her. "Turns out the scumbag was a low level sicario. The Cali Cartel had him out of the hospital and out of Bogotá before we even woke up this morning."

"Really?" Eve gulped as she let the news sink in. "So he's just...just, out there?"

Javí firmly set his jaw as he watched Eve accept the truth. There was nothing that he could do and he regretted not killing the bastard when he had the chance. The fear in her beautiful blue eyes was too much for him to stand.

"My sources say that he's not in the city." Javí tried to reassure her. "You're safe here in the embassy."

"But what about the next woman that he meets on the street?" Eve blurted out with anger in her voice. "I should've let you kill the son of a bitch - fuck! I didn't mean that." She quickly reconsidered as soon as the words left her lips and she felt Javí's grip tighten on her leg. "I really didn't mean that. I'm so sorry. None of this is your fault, Javí. You did everything right. I'm just not used to being so freaked out, you know."

"It's okay. There's no reason to believe that he knows who you are." Javí explained as he leaned back against the couch cushions and let out a deep sigh as he smoothed out his moustache. "You were just a pretty white woman walking alone. He never got your purse or your ID. He can't find you even if he came back."

"I guess the Cali Cartel is used to getting away with everything, aren't they?" Eve huffed. "Why should one of their hitmen be any different?" She was just as displeased with the surrender deal as Javíer was and he was impressed by how in sync they were. Her attacker getting away just added insult to injury as far as they were both concerned.

"I wish there was more that I could do...." Javí shook his head, speaking more to himself than to Eve.

"You've already done more than enough, Javí. I mean it." Eve couldn't help but smile sweetly at him. He was such a good man. Far better than what she deserved. "I just hate feeling helpless. I hate it more than anything." Eve sighed as she took another sip of coffee and curled up against him. He wrapped his arm around her and when she rested her head on his chest she smelled the tell tale whiff of cigarette smoke mixed in with his usual alluring Javí scent. "You started smoking again. Did you run out of gum?"

"No, my secretary keeps me well stocked." Javí puffed out a small laugh as he started to play with her hair. Eve smelled so good; like a mixture of vanilla and coconuts and a floral scent that was hard for him to identify. What he wouldn't give for more moments like this. Peace felt just a shadow away when he was with Eve. Before Javíer met her, true happiness had never felt as attainable before.

They sat there together for a few peaceful moments until the news came on with an emergency bulletin informing them that a serious accident had happened in a town just north of Cali.

Javí's whole demeanour changed as he listened to the news report. Eve could feel his body tense as the news broadcast captured is complete attention. The peaceful relaxed look on his face that she had been enjoying, quickly vanished and was replaced with a familiar look of stress and worry.

Eve had no idea what was happening. But Javíer's brows furrowed and he became more and more troubled the longer he listened to the news anchor explain that, even though details were still coming in, there had been some kind of public poisoning affecting the population, with many women and children currently in the hospital.

"What are they saying?" Eve asked when Javí stopped cuddling with her and leaned forward, with his jaw tightening. He was suddenly in work mode and Eve knew that something serious must have happened.

"I dunno, something about some kind of gas poisoning, they think." Javí explained without taking his eyes off the screen. "They're not sure yet where it came from. Those poor kids were just sleeping. They think it might have came through the sewer system."

 "Jesus. How does something like that even happen?" Eve asked as reporters aired some footage from the scene. The children looked so small in the adult sized stretchers as they were being transported into ambulances. "Wait...no."

"What?"

"It can't be." Eve murmured to herself as she leaned forward and matched Javí's serious stance as she leaned forward on the couch, as well. "I'm just seeing monsters around every corner now."

"What do you mean?"

"Cali." Eve shrugged. "They have so many shell companies in that area, don't they? I wouldn't be surprised if it was them. Some of the chemicals that they pretend to sell can be pretty nasty. But, of course, there's no proof that this was them. And even if there was, I'm sure it'll be covered up so they can still get their precious fucking surrender deal. I told you that I hated feeling helpless, it's making me paranoid."

"It could be them." Javí considered. "You're a pretty quick study. I didn't even catch the neighbourhood it happened in."

"Just add this to the list of atrocities that they'll get away with." Eve groaned. "Gotta keep that shiny veneer of respectability, right?"

"Come on, Capshaw. Grab your things. I'm taking you somewhere." Javí hated that she might be right. But maybe, just maybe, if Cali was behind this, then the politicians in charge might get a wakeup call and throw the Cali surrender deal in the trash, where it belonged.

——————-

"You said you hated feeling helpless." Javí stated matter of factly as he opened the door to the big empty gun range and flipped on all of the lights. "This might help."

"So, would this be considered our first date?" Eve asked with a laugh as Javí outfitted her with a big yellow pair of noise cancelling headphones. Eve wasn't sure what she was expecting when Javí told her that he was taking her somewhere. But the embassy gun range wasn't exactly the romantic location that she had in mind.

"I told you that I wasn't good at being the boyfriend type." Javí quipped back with a carefree laugh. Eve was starting to love that sound more than anything and couldn't help but smirk back at him. "Now remember your stance, okay. Stand like this." Javí demonstrated for her. "And just breathe and relax your shoulder."

"What do I get if I hit the target?" Eve sassed as she took his handgun in her hand and got a feel for the weight of it. Eve had always hated guns. But after the events of the previous night, she was willing to do just about anything to take her mind off what had happened and possibly gain back a feeling of security.

"What do you want, princesa?" Javí hummed in amusement. "Name the terms."

"Dinner." Eve answered with a playfully raised eyebrow that made Javí bite his lip and smile as she turned around and raised the gun towards her target. "I hit the target and you take me to your favorite place in the city."

"What if I want to take you there regardless?" Javí disclosed with his rich deep voice dripping with a dark playfulness. He stepped behind her and let his lips brush up against the side of her neck to mess with her. He loved that she let out a small content hum. Eve was always so responsive to him, it was just too easy.

"You have no faith in me." Eve giggled as she tried to brush off how weak in the knees he had just made her. "How hard can this be, anyway?"

Javí was entertained with her spunk and repeated all of the advice that he had already given her. Snickering to himself when she forgot to take the safety off before she took her first shot.

"Laugh it up, Peña." Eve sang out in a silly voice. "You're not gunna be laughing when you gotta wine and dine me."

"You act like it's a punishment, princesa." Javí smirked. "A woman like you, deserves all of the finer things in life."

"Ha! Truth is, gimme a half decent burger and fries, maybe throw in a milkshake, and I'll be on cloud nine." Eve touted.

"Duly noted." Javí nodded, completely slayed by her humbleness. "More my speed anyway."

Javíer showed Eve how to take the safety off and stood back and corrected her stance a little bit. But it was impossible not to grin when she emptied her clip without a single bullet hitting the target.

"Well, I guess I suck." Eve pouted as she handed him back his weapon. "I knew there was a reason that I hated guns."

"You'll get better." Javí insisted while he reloaded his gun. "You just need some practice. Don't worry, I'll teach you."

Eve licked her lips while she watched Javí expertly handle himself as he took his turn in front of her; effortlessly hitting the center of her target multiple times. A few bullets even hit what was meant to be the target's head. Eve was very impressed, and a little turned on if she was being honest with herself. Eve licked her lips as she made a mental note of the serious look on Javíer's face as he shot his weapon; it was dark, dangerous and sexy as hell.

Javí set his gun down on the counter and caught the look in her eyes as she gazed up at him through her eyelashes. Their eyes met and suddenly it felt as though all of the air in the room changed. Within seconds Javí found himself pulling her against him and crushing his lips against hers. It was as if he had no control over the matter; the pull between them was just that strong, he didn't even hesitate.

Eve followed his lead and groaned into his mouth while she kissed him back. His skillful lips were soft and knew exactly how to make her wet. Her hands found their way into his hair while he squeezed her ass and softly licked at her bottom lip until she granted him access to her mouth.

"Fuck." They both sighed in unison as they pressed their foreheads together and tried to catch their breath. Pushing their big bulky headphones off and letting them both fall to the floor. They were both trying in their own ways not to get too attached to each other, and they were both failing miserably.

There wasn't anyone else at the gun range that Sunday and they both were trying to gauge whether or not they could indulge in their need for each other without getting caught. The way that they could practically read each other's minds in that moment made them both realize just how perfect they were for each other.

Eve