Countermeasure (Countermeasure Series)

by Cecilia Aubrey

  Purposefully, Cassandra directed her thoughts to Paris and hoped Bauer’s plane would arrive on schedule. She had no details regarding the hotel he’d booked, other than that it was in the ballpark of her price range. She would be miffed if his flight was late and she had to camp out in the airport, waiting on him.

  Cassandra remembered her embarrassment when she had asked him to pick something a little on the economical side. She didn’t disclose that she would be bankrolling the trip on her own and needed to be as frugal as possible while in Paris. Paris. She had never been there before and a tiny part of her looked forward to the change in scenery. The other part, the bigger part, was giving her a stomachache. She was worried about the reason for Bauer’s request—more like demand—to join her, and speculated on how their close proximity would affect them during their time in France.

  It didn’t help matters that Nathan had put thoughts in her head. In Nathan’s eyes, Bauer was an opportunist, only interested in getting in her pants, and she was stupid to be taken in by him. The conversation they’d had the night before played over in her mind.

  “Hey, Nathan,” she’d greeted him casually.

  “Cass! What the hell took you so long to call me back? You’ve been home for days.”

  “Sorry. I was caught up in some work.” She had avoided going into detail.

  “So, did you get my message?” Nathan had asked, followed by an eager, “When are you free to come out? You can stay at my place when you get here.”

  With a sigh, Cassandra had chosen her words carefully. “Nathan. I’m not coming. Something has come up, a lead on the case. I am heading to Paris to see if I can track Allison down.”

  “Paris? What the hell, Cass?! You are no longer on the case. You told me your dad sent you home for a few weeks. Let it go. Come visit me.” Nathan had paused. “Hold on a second.” After a second pause, he had asked in a low, controlled voice, “How do you know she’s in Paris?”

  Cassandra had grown quiet, searching for the words she wanted to use.

  “Cass?” Nathan had pushed; “How do you know?”

  “Just hear me out, okay?” Cassandra had pleaded. “I went back and talked to Bauer. I explained everything to him and he agreed to help me. He was able to trace a call Allison made to…”

  Before she had been able to finish, Nathan spoke over her, “What the hell do you mean you went back?! We were at the airport! You saw me off!”

  Cassandra had tried to keep her cool. “I know. I was boarding when the idea hit me, so I left the airport and caught up with him at his house.”

  “Shit! His house?! His house??!” Nathan had yelled in her ear; “Cass, I already told you, damn it! He wants to get close to you for obvious reasons. Why else would he help you? Hell! Did he hit on you? I hope you didn’t buy into his bullshit!” He had added snidely, “What did you offer in exchange for his help, Cass?”

  “Hold up a second! You are so off base! That was beneath you. What I do, who I talk to, is not for you to decide. For the record, not that it’s any of your damn business, he was a gentleman, no loss of pants occurred.”

  “Cass! You better listen to me…”

  Cassandra had fumed at Nathan’s insinuations that neither she nor Bauer had any integrity and that he thought so little of her. She had ended the call with a curt, “No, I don’t need to.”

  They hadn’t spoken since. The phone in her pocket rang, startling her out of her thoughts. She pulled it out and frowned when she saw Nathan’s number on the display. Speak of the devil. It was almost as if she had channeled him with her recollection. With a touch, she ignored the call and shoved it back in her pocket.

  The attendant’s voice came over the intercom, alerting that Business Class boarding would take place in a few minutes. At the mention of Business Class, Cassandra had a vision of Bauer snug in his roomy seat, sipping champagne and eating cookies. Bastard.

  “Damn,” she sighed. I love cookies. She wished she could have done the same, but the pinch to her wallet would have been more painful than the price of coach had already been.

  ****

  Trevor found a seat to wait for the final announcement to board. When his section was called, he made his way, walking between the rows of chairs, toward the end of the line. As he maneuvered himself through the seating area, avoiding luggage and knees, he searched one last time for Cassandra among the many passengers.

  Damn, it’s packed. I’ll never find her. Distracted with his search, he missed a passenger’s sudden downward movement in front of him and his knee connected with something hard. At the impact, he glanced down in surprise.

  Cassandra waited patiently for her turn to board. The Business Class line was moving along quite quickly, so she knew her time was getting closer. She bent over to reach in her bag for her boarding pass and passport. As she straightened, a knee connected with her temple.

  “Dude!” she grumbled, rubbing the side of her head and looking up. “What are you? A bull in a freaking…” Cassandra’s words froze in her throat when she locked eyes with the indigo-blue ones looking down at her in concern.

  “Shite! Sorry! I had no clue you were going to bend down! Are you okay?” he asked, reaching out to touch the red blotch on her temple.

  Cassandra sat back to avoid his touch. She rubbed at the spot herself, trying to make the pain subside. Realizing she had dropped her passport on the floor in the confusion of the moment, she bent down again to get it, but Bauer had beaten her to it and handed it back to her. “Here you go.”

  She snatched it from his hand and frowned. “What the hell are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be over the Antarctic or Atlantic Ocean by now?”

  “You told me to be there close to the same time as you. I’m just following your instructions.” There was that grin again. “I managed to get a seat on the same flight. Now we’re perfectly synchronized. Not only will I be there close to your arrival time, I’ll be there at the exact same time. Admit it,” he wiggled his eyebrows; “I’m a genius.”

  He, like her, observed the boarding line getting shorter by the second. “You sure you don’t want to join me? I can upgrade you quickly,” he offered a second time, but she shook her head stubbornly.

  “No, thanks.”

  Trevor hesitated, but must have seen from her face that she wasn’t budging. “I’ll see you in Paris then,” he said, and continued down the aisle.

  “Whatever.” She narrowed her eyes and cursed under her breath as he walked away. It didn’t escape her notice that the other women in her row followed him with their eyes. She was filled with a strange urge to deck the one who tapped on her arm to ask shamelessly, “Can you introduce me?”

  Cassandra could only stare dumbfounded at the woman who quickly let go of her arm, realizing from the glint in Cassandra’s eyes that the introduction was not going to take place.

  Cassandra returned her gaze to Bauer and watched as he stepped into the Business Class lane with its silly red carpet. He flashed a boyish grin as he said something to the attendant taking his boarding pass, and Cassandra ground her teeth when the attendant joined him in laughter. Suddenly he looked up and caught her eye. He held her gaze for a moment and then smiled widely, waving his boarding pass at her as he walked through the door to the jetway.

  “Great. Just freaking great,” Cassandra mumbled as she grabbed her bags and moved through to join the line. Sliding her laptop bag into a more comfortable position on her shoulder, she held her duffel in front of her as she entered the plane. “Damn it,” she whispered under her breath when she realized the passengers had to walk through Business Class to get to the coach section.

  Cassandra adjusted her grip on her bags to be sure that the one on her shoulder was tight against her side and the duffel was front and center to keep from knocking some poor sucker in the head. Approaching the row where Bauer was sitting, Cassandra avoided his glance, praying that the people in front of her would move along quickly so she could pass without being noticed
. As she pulled even with Bauer’s row, the person in front of her stopped abruptly and stepped back to stuff his personal items in the overhead bin. As she stumbled back to avoid being stepped on, her bag slipped off her shoulder and accidentally bumped Bauer on the side of his head.

  “Bloody hell!” Bauer exclaimed as the beverage he was about to take a sip from spilled down his front and he pushed her bag away from him.

  “Oh my god! I’m so sorry, Bauer,” Cassandra gasped. She grabbed the cocktail napkin from his tray and dabbed at the drops on his chin and the wet spot on his shirt.

  Trevor grabbed her wrist. “Stop. I have it handled.”

  Suddenly realizing where she had been rubbing, Cassandra snatched her hand back. “Sorry.”

  “Miss, you need to move on. You’re holding the line.” The attendant shooed her with a deep frown, which turned to one of concern when she saw Bauer’s shirt. “Sir! What happened?”

  “Hurricane Cassandra, haven’t you heard?” Cassandra caught the small smile that quirked at his lips. Mortified, she kept moving.

  Geez, talk about a good impression, she thought, inching herself down the aisle, keeping an eye out for her seat. Every time they got near each other something always went awry.

  Cassandra was resigned to the fact that she would be surrounded by strangers on all sides when she found her seat. She had been stuck with one in the middle of the row because of the last-minute reservation. Not the best start for a trip to a beautiful city for sure, she thought as she stowed her duffel in the overhead compartment.

  She slid into her seat and noticed the little baby asleep in his mother’s arm in the row behind her. Both parents looked stressed and glanced at the little guy every now and then as if they were expecting him to grow a third head any moment. Poor suckers. She sat and hoped that the little one would not scream for the entire seven-hour flight, but knew it was probably inevitable.

  Cassandra got comfortable, slipped her bag under the seat in front of her, and buckled in. As she leaned back against the headrest, her eyes were caught by the retracted curtain that would separate Bauer’s section from hers, and rolled her eyes before concentrating on the passengers still boarding.

  Watching them pass one by one, she started trying to guess who would be her companions for the trip. She was hoping for someone quiet. Oh lord, she thought, as she watched a thirty-something man with slicked-back hair, a button-down shirt with the first four buttons undone, and several gold chains around his neck ogle every woman he passed.

  “Please keep going. Please keep going,” Cassandra muttered over and over again, hoping he’d pass her by. She breathed a sigh of relief as he continued on past her row, especially when his cologne wafted back to her and her nose automatically wrinkled, offended by the overpowering scent. Sadly, it didn’t dissipate and she realized he was now standing next to her row without his bag. Damn it to hell, Cassandra thought as he plopped himself in the seat next to hers. He swung his head toward her and she tried to hide her gag reflex caused by the mixed stench of cologne and extra pomade glossing his hair. Damn, she thought again. I hope the attendants are prepared. One match and this guy will go up in flames.

  The man leaned on the arm rest and stuck his hand out in front of her. “Hey, and who might you be pretty lady? I’m Sam. I can’t tell you how happy I am that we found each other.”

  Cassandra took his hand and just as quickly released his sweaty palm to discreetly wipe hers along her jeans before she replied with a polite “hi” and ignored his request for her name. The thought of it crossing his slimy lips made her slightly ill, until a flash of how her name sounded with an Irish lilt gave her pause. Where did that come from?

  Busy with her attempts to keep Sam out of her personal space, she was startled by a commotion on her other side. Glancing up, she saw a woman trying to shove her bag up in the bin.

  “’Scuse me,” she said when her bag slipped back out and she needed help to shove it back in again. “So sorry,” the woman apologized when she turned too quickly and her gigantic purse hit the person in the row across from them.

  This is getting worse by the minute, Cassandra thought as the disaster sagged into the empty seat on her left and started talking to her like they were old friends. “Hi, I’m Kathy. Are you going to Paris? I love Paris. Have you been there before? If not, I can show you everywhere you need to go.”

  Her questions and comments shot out of her mouth a mile a minute, and Cassandra was happy to hear the attendant over the loudspeaker telling everyone to take their seat so that they could close the doors. This quieted Kathy for a bit and allowed Cassandra time to close her eyes to collect her thoughts. The flight had the makings of being the flight from hell: Chatty Kathy to the left and Lounge Lizard to the right.

  The chair in front of her bumped against her knees and startled her. She opened her eyes in time to see a man the size of a football player sit in front of her. Great, she thought, could this get any worse? She was being punished for her stubbornness. She could have been sitting comfortably in Business Class beside Bauer talking shop. Instead, she was surrounded by every flight cliché there was. What the hell? Glancing at the curtain, she thought about Bauer and how relaxed he would be in his extra-wide, quiet seat.

  ****

  Trevor sat on his plush, comfortable seat in Business Class, now separated from the coach section by a closed curtain, and wondered about the stubborn woman sitting somewhere behind him. If she had accepted his offer she could be sitting there beside him. They could be talking about their plan of attack once in Paris, or simply making casual conversation. Either way, he would have been learning more about her. As it was, they were wasting precious time.

  Once the seatbelt light turned off, he got up to check on her, give her company. He peeked into the coach section and scanned the poor souls packed like sardines. He immediately spotted Cassandra smack in the middle of a center row, surrounded by chaos.

  The woman beside her appeared to be bending her ear. Cassandra was crammed in her chair trying to avoid being squeezed by the linebacker sitting in front of her, whose seat was now reclined on her lap. At the same time, she was trying to avoid the ogling from the slimy guy sitting beside her. His heart went out to her, but at the same time found the whole situation ridiculously funny: her row was the only one active in an otherwise quiet cabin.

  He considered asking again if she wanted to be upgraded. He was sure he could get her moved to the empty seat across the aisle from his, but going by her reaction to his two previous offers, he’d get nowhere with the third and become more of a pest in her eyes. He decided to chill and sat back in his chair. About halfway through the flight, though, after dinner was served, he had had enough of his solitude and decided to walk over to her. He wrapped a couple of the freshly baked cookies from his plate in a napkin to bribe his way into a conversation. He hoped to soothe her pain with the offering.

  The cabin was dark, only the glow from reading lights illuminated it. He approached Cassandra’s row and saw the woman on her left had fallen asleep. As he drew closer, he noticed the man next to Cassandra lean quickly away from her and rub his ribs, as if elbowed to keep his distance. Trevor’s eyes narrowed and a mild twinge of anger took root at the thought of that stranger touching Cassandra’s skin. He then considered how quickly and efficiently she had taken care of the man’s unwanted advances and relaxed; the woman was more than capable of taking care of herself. As he got closer, he heard a baby sob and saw her head bow in defeat.

  Cassandra was so distracted by the chaos that she didn’t notice him standing in the aisle by her row. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes as if seeking escape to withstand the rest of the flight.

  “Cassandra,” he whispered softly to get her attention.

  Completely oblivious, Cassandra didn’t hear him at first.

  “Cassandra!” he whispered louder. Suddenly her eyes snapped open and she looked around. Turning her head his way, her beautiful brown eyes locked with
his.

  Raising her eyebrows, she questioned him in a tired tone, “What are you doing here?”

  “Just bringing you some treats. I thought you might not get any in coach,” he handed her the cookies.

  Cassandra looked at the cloth napkin he had extended in her direction and saw the shortcake cookies she adored peeking through. Double damn it! And then he has to go and do something nice like this. Her disgruntled attitude toward him softened.

  She didn’t want to create any further animosity between them. She sighed, accepting the bundle he handed her. When their fingers brushed lightly, she felt a kick to her stomach. He didn’t seem affected by their slight touch and simply smiled softly, nodding his head to her, and left her to her own thoughts.

  ****

  Cassandra didn’t get any shuteye during the entire flight. When they finally landed in beautiful Paris she was in a foul mood again—the memory of Trevor’s cookie gesture swallowed by grumpiness. She exited the plane and found Bauer waiting for her at the end of the ramp. Disgruntled at how refreshed and alert he looked while she felt grungy and starving, she ignored his hello and offer to carry her bag. She passed him by and headed in the direction of the exit.

  She fumed even more at his chuckle, “You could have had a nice comfy seat next to me, lass.”

  She knew he was right. She accepted the notion halfway through the flight as chaos reigned around her. Damn her pride. It had been a stupid move not to accept his offer, but now it was water under the bridge. She just needed to move on and try to make the best of their new “work arrangements.”

  Cassandra was unable to let his comment go by without a response. She scratched her back with her middle finger as she continued in the direction of the exit.

  Trevor, who was following close behind her, burst out laughing. “Looks like someone needs a time-out,” he chuckled as he opened the cab door for her.