Again, I looked over the area and started to think I was looking at this from the wrong direction. If I were in the cabin and I knew there was someone outside watching me, where would I look for him? I pictured myself coming out of the door and of course I looked right to where I was hidden. It was the most likely place, almost a straight line from the front door. What an idiot I am, I thought. Okay, if the bad guy weren’t in this tree or on the ground in this area, where would I look next?
Over the next half an hour or so I systematically went through all the hiding places I could imagine. I decided that one of the better places of concealment would be off to one side of the cabin so I would still be able to see the front area and I would be able to see the back as well.
I turned slightly in the tree to see if I could see the area I wanted to spend the following day at. It was a risky spot because it was on the way to the lake, but if I stayed far enough from the path I thought I would have a good chance of going unnoticed. I could see the area and it actually looked inviting. I was about to descend the tree when I noticed a small movement in the area I was about to travel to.
I stood still and held my breath. The area was far enough away that my breath would not have been heard but I couldn’t help myself. When I finally dared to take a breath I had convinced myself that it must have been my eyes playing tricks on me, well, almost convinced myself. I climbed down the tree quietly and started to make my way to where I saw the movement. I took the long way around in hopes that whatever it was would be facing a different direction. When I got as close as I cared to gamble I stopped and brought out my binoculars. This time I saw the movement and was sure about it. It must have been Blue laying in wait in his Ghillie suit.
The movement was subtle but my adrenaline was flowing overtime and I was overly sensitive to everything. I knew it was risky but I came to the decision to try to make it to the place I had decided to hide. This was perfect if Blue didn’t catch me because the rest of the guys would probably be less likely to look in this direction, knowing where Blue was.
As luck would have it, the spot I had chosen was a comfortable distance from Blue and somewhat behind him. It took me some time to get there, but I didn’t dare make any noise. He was better at this than I was and I was sure he would hear any out of place noise.
I lay down without a sound and began my surveillance again. I had timed it just about right. The sun started to bring life to the world including Mr. Brown on the deck. He got up and went into the cabin and didn’t reappear for over twenty minutes. When he returned to his post he had a steaming cup of coffee with him. It looked so appealing I could almost smell it.
I watched for Blue to make another move but he didn’t and the sun rose slowly in the sky. It was midmorning before there was any further action on the deck. Green came out and spoke with Brown for a time. When the conversation ended Brown went back inside leaving Green on the deck alone. Shortly after that men started appearing here and there doing various things. Black went to the woodpile and chopped wood and Red came out to the deck and sat until White came out. The two of them started to walk in my direction and I felt panicky. Please don’t see me; please don’t see me I chanted over and over in my head as they came closer. My luck held and they didn’t notice me, but I did see them look directly at Blue lying a fair distance from me and there was a slight movement from him as if in acknowledgement. It was tense for some time because I was close enough to hear that they were talking about the weather and how it would be nice to jump in the lake after their run because it was supposed to get warmer today.
From my position I could easily see the cabin, but the lake was a different story. I hoped I had done a good enough job on the suit in the dark that they wouldn’t be able to see me from their vantage point.
The men went about their business but there was an uneasy feeling in the air. I could tell by their stance that they all had their eyes open for the intruder, me. Red came back from the lake alone. I heard him coming long before I was able to see him. I could hear my own heart beat and made a point to take shallow breaths but he walked right on past. I lay there hardly breathing until White came up the path many minutes later. I didn’t hear him coming until he was almost past me. He was taking his time and obviously searching for something. I wasn’t satisfied that he hadn’t found me out. He was making a little too much of his searching act and his walk was too confident. After he went into the cabin I expected to see him come back out with the rest of the men behind him to come root me out.
Eventually he did come back out, but he took over the watch from Green. The entire day was stressful. This had started with a game-like feeling but now it felt deadly serious. The sun rose higher and higher and it got warmer and warmer. The suit was stifling and I didn’t dare reach for my canteen of water. I was seriously beginning to wonder if I would get dehydrated and die, or get sick at the least. I remembered Blue and told myself if he could go without, I could too.
The day wore on and everyone went about his business until the sun started to dip slowly in the sky. I only had to wait a couple of hours after it set before I could make my way back to the rendezvous area.
Sometime during the day I had reached a point of numbness. I didn’t even notice the feeling until I saw Green come out the front door and Blue stand from his place of concealment. I knew then that it must be time for me to make my way back to the designated GPS location.
A wave of relief washed over me as Blue walked into the cabin. Black was on watch and I waited for him to get up and go in as well, but he didn’t make a move. If anything, he was more vigilant than he had been before. My sense of relief dropped away quickly and I knew I had to get out of here before Green made it to where I was supposed to be already.
I rose slowly and quietly made my way away from the cabin until I was sure that I wouldn’t be heard by anyone there if I walked normally. I then hurried to the appointed meeting spot.
Green was walking up to the location from a different direction just as I got there.
“Ms. Grey,” he greeted me. “Let’s get this done.” He pulled out a small tape recorder.
“Okay.”
He pressed some buttons and said, “Start from the beginning. I want to know what time it was you left this area last night, when you reached your designated target, when exactly you made it back here and everything in between.”
On the whole, I thought I did very well remembering all the little details, taking into consideration how tired I was. I remembered every event, however I didn’t remember all the separate times. I was able to give an approximate time for each event if I couldn’t recall the exact time, however. To me the important thing was that I remembered it all in order.
Green and I reached the cabin half an hour later and the men were all gathered in the meeting room. I’m sure they were aching to use it for something and this was as good as anything else right now.
Green set the tape recorder in the middle of the table, motioned for me to take a seat and pressed play. I heard my voice rattling off the list that I had kept in my head. I hadn’t left anything out. I had started with the first time out and getting caught. Blue grinned at that point. I went on to tell of Brown appearing to be napping on the job.
“I was not asleep,” he objected.
“I saw it too, and it sure looked like you were napping as Ms. Grey so nicely put it.” Blue smiled again.
Black had a disapproving glance to give Brown and the remaining men were unreadable, still listening intently to the tape. My voice went on to talk about each moment that I had noted, up to seeing movement from my perch in the tree. I investigated and found it to be Blue, or assumed it to be Blue. I had explained the location well enough that they all knew I had found Blue’s hiding spot. Black grinned this time and gave me his characteristic nod of approval.
The tape continued and repeated what I had told it about taking a nice hiding spot near Blue.
Blue stood up and pressed the stop button.
“You did what?” Blue had a look of disbelief but everyone one else looked delighted.
“Sorry.” His look made me feel guilty and somewhat ashamed that I would do that to him. He shook his head and pressed play once again.
It went on with the list and finally went quiet.
Green stood and spoke as he pushed the stop button.
“Ms. Grey, you did reasonably well for your first time out. There were things that you missed and you were spotted.” I was not surprised to hear this.
“We gave you a break however because we all knew you were out there and the odds were against you. An agreement was made that if three out of the six found out your location we would come and get you. You were lucky because you were seen by only one person.”
I looked to White. “It was you when you were coming back from the lake, wasn’t it?”
He gave me a devious smile. “I saw you on the way to the lake and snuck up on you just to make sure when I came back. You really should cover the bottoms of your shoes too when you’re trying to hide in the leaves.”
“That would make sense, I suppose.” I smiled sheepishly.
“Well, all that said and done, let’s get back to our vacation.” Red spoke up. “Ms. Grey, I hope you will continue your study. I believe Green has more for you to do, but I think you are deserving of some rest and maybe some entertainment first.”
“Here, here!” Brown shook his fist in the air to punctuate his words.
*****
Chapter Twelve
I took Red’s words to heart and slept in the next morning. Though I had slept in longer than normal I was still up before everyone, except of course, Black.
We sat together at the kitchen table drinking coffee in silence. It brought back memories of when I had first come up here. Black and I didn’t do much sitting around and drinking coffee then, but the comfortable silence had been there. Eventually White joined us.
“Good morning.” He seemed to be in a good mood.
“Morning,” I replied and Black lifted his coffee cup for his hello.
“What’s on the agenda for the day for you two?”
I looked at Black and waited for him to answer but he didn’t.
“I don’t know. I suppose I better do some studying at some point today.”
“How about you?” White directed it at Black.
“I think I might go camping.” White got a smile and started to open his mouth but Black cut him off. “Alone,” he added.
White raised his eyebrows, shrugged his shoulders and said, “Okay.” Then he looked to me again. “I could help you study if you want. What Green and I bring to the company somewhat overlap. In other words, I’m an expert in identifying the security system and he’s the expert at getting past them.”
“I suppose I could use some help.” My reluctance came across in my voice.
“We don’t have to start right away if you had other plans for this morning.”
“I thought about going for a run, actually.” What was he up to?
“I’ll go with you.”
“Okay.” I wasn’t too happy about it, but this time I didn’t let it come out in my voice. I didn’t really want to be alone with White right now, but I didn’t want to make a scene and let everyone else know that fact.
“So, you’re going camping?” I changed the subject.
“Thought about it,” Black replied. “Not sure.”
I could tell by the hint of glee at the corner of Black’s eyes that he hadn’t even thought about camping until White asked what he had planned. He was going to make me face my fears head on, and alone. There’s no point in prolonging it, I guess.
“Well, you ready for your run?” I asked White.
“Whenever you are.”
I looked at Black and gave him a thanks a lot smile and led White out of the cabin. We walked quietly to the shore of the lake.
White and I had been playing a pretty elaborate game since I first came to work for the company and I was getting tired of it.
“So, what’s up?” I opened the door for whatever he wanted to talk about.
“What do you mean?” He gave me an innocent look.
“What?” I crinkled my forehead at him and resisted the urge to put my hands on my hips.
“I don’t know, I’m about to go for a run, what’s up with you?”
“I can’t believe this,” I said and took off at a hard jog.
He kept his distance but I could hear his foot falls behind me. I picked up the pace and so did he. I slowed and so did he. Finally I stopped and turned to confront him again but he ran on past me. I stood there dumbfounded for a millisecond. He had made a fool of me. I had an impulse to yell a profanity after him but I refused to give him the satisfaction. I turned and walked back toward the cabin.
When I reached the main beach the rest of the men were there with their scuba gear. Black asked if I would like to go along, they would wait for me. I politely declined but told them that White might like to go with them. They said they would wait for him to make his lap. I started my walk back to the cabin, hoping that he would go with them.
I stopped and turned back to Black.
“You going to the cave?” Under the calm waters of the lake was an entrance to a cave. I had been there once and it was a marvelous place. Black had given me a cursory tour. I didn’t know exactly how large the cave was but I knew it was large enough. There were ropes leading here and there after you entered the opening. We had followed the top-most rope that went in at a horizontal direction. Some of the ropes led down from ours but they were lost in the dark far below me. It was a wondrous place and vastly overwhelming. A place I would like to visit again, but White had me all worked up.
“Yeah. You sure you don’t want to come along. We’re going in further than when you and I went.”
“Nah, I better do some studying. Have fun.” It was hard to turn him down but I turned and walked back to the cabin.
I took a shower and half expected to see White waiting for me when I came out, but he wasn’t there. If he went with them I’m going to be so mad, I thought. I caught myself looking for him and made myself think about what I was doing. I was the one who told the rest of the men to wait for White and truly hoped that he would go with them. But, I also told myself, he had promised to help me study. Oooooh, that’s it! I’m going upstairs to study and forget him. If he went with them I hope he has a great time.
I stepped into the library and there was White.
“You took your sweet time in the shower.” He stood and walked toward me. I took a step backward into the doorframe. “You go ahead and get started without me. I don’t take as long to shower.” I stepped aside and let him pass.
How the heck am I supposed to study? He’s downstairs in the shower and there’s no one else around. All my anger from earlier was gone. He hadn’t gone with the other men; he was here to help me study like he said he would. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t really wanted him to help me to begin with; he was here.
The possibilities of what could happen with him and me alone in the cabin began to race through my mind. It didn’t take me long to remind myself that fantasy was much different than reality and just in time. He was back.
“Ready to get started?”
“Uh, yeah.” I felt flushed.
He tutored me for more than an hour before my thoughts changed from fantasy mode back to reality. In reality he hadn’t made any kind of move since my apartment. I thought maybe because we hadn’t been alone since then and now we were alone and he didn’t even bring it up, not to mention his feigned innocence at the lake. Maybe he was over me already. I thought about going to my room to cry. I thought about sucking it up and ignoring it. Finally, I could stand no more of his abuse.
“Are we going to talk about it or did it never happen?” I was tremendously hurt by his lack of communication.
“Nothing happened. Remember? Black came a knocking.”
“Well, something al
most happened? Was it that fleeting?” I was feeling used.
“You tell me?”
“No, you tell me. I won’t be played with like this anymore. I’m not one of your girls you can just call when you want to relieve some tension.” I had opened my mouth too far and repeated part of his private conversation with Red.
“Who the hell have you been talking to? Red?” He was angry.
“No, but I’ve just heard that you’re a lady’s man. You rarely date a girl more than once.”
“That’s true, but I’ve always known I would know the right woman when I met her and now I’m prepared to wait.”
I was speechless. What do you say to something like that… Uh, let’s get married right now is what some women might say, but I did NOT want to get married at this point in time. My voice found it’s way back and I said,
“So, what is going on?”
“I don’t know, you tell me. I’d marry you tomorrow if that’s what you want. But I got to thinking, we hardly know each other.”
I felt sick to my stomach and I think it showed on my face because he said, “Are you alright?”
“No. I DO NOT want to get married.”
“Ever?”
“Maybe.”
It was quiet as we stared at each other. I broke the silence.
“I’m sorry. I can’t do this right now. I don’t know about a relationship with you.”
“How about we build a friendship and when we become best friends we can take it from there.”
I had been an avid reader since I was a child but I had never gotten past the first few paragraphs of a romance novel in my life, yet I suspected that I would have found that exact line in one, somewhere. Not that I thought White couldn’t come up with that on his own, just that if it wasn’t in a romance novel somewhere, it should be.
“I’m not so sure I’m ready to give up bachelor life yet anyway.” Well, couldn’t be perfect, I guess.
“I suppose not.” I wasn’t quite sure how the conversation had ended. Were we still going to consider becoming a couple eventually or were we just going to be friends? Whatever, I’m done playing around. If someday I think I might be ready I’ll just kiss him and see what happens. I’m sick of wondering and worrying. Besides, what would happen to my fantasies if I had the real thing?
Shades of Grey: Book Two of the Alexis Stanton Chronicles Page 11