by Nico Rosso
April swanned out of the small waiting room and made a pointed glance between James and where she suspected the server room to be.
He maintained his smug, irritated expression. “Try not to spend any money on the way.”
She fired back, “Try not to lose any bets on how long it’ll take me.”
The receptionist cleared her throat to suppress a laugh. The cold outside did little to relieve April’s rising nerves. The fake argument with James still had barbs, and she didn’t like interacting with anyone that way. He and she had had their differences and hurdles since meeting, but they’d never been mean with each other. From the way he talked about it, nothing was going according to plan, but he hadn’t taken it out on her at any point. Not that he’d been a teddy bear either. The man hid something. Whenever she came close, his steel gates would close.
She found the bathroom she didn’t really need, took advantage of a few moments of privacy, washed up and prepared herself for more of the act. When she returned, James sat on the loveseat, flipping aggressively through a tennis magazine. He didn’t move his legs for her to pass on the way to finding her own magazine. She selected a heavy fashion rag and forced her way on to the small sofa. He grumbled as he had to take up less space. She used the thick spine of the magazine to edge into him further. It clunked on the pistol under his jacket. James didn’t react, but she immediately looked to see if the receptionist had noticed. The other woman worked her computer, surely trying to duck the bad vibes coming from the couple in her lobby.
After a couple of minutes, the woman left her desk and walked somewhere deeper in the offices. James kept flipping through the magazine and asked, “Did you make the server?”
“Separate room.” She considered diving through the reception window so she could check it out.
He nodded and kept his voice low. “Once we get in to an office, storm out.”
She had to muster energy just to be herself in public; now he asked her to do more acting. But the servers were close, and if that meant getting her life out of the hands of the hackers, she’d completely reinvent herself. Fuck, she already had.
“What is it?” James didn’t turn toward her, but concern thickened his voice.
“What?” Her worry rose.
“You said ‘fuck,’ like something’s wrong.” His body tensed, ready, next to her.
“I did?” Had she spoken?
“Most definitely.” They were still alone in the lobby. He turned and looked into her eyes. “You alright?”
“Yeah.” Her long breath vented out some nerves. “I’m doing it.”
“You certainly are.” His look softened. They were close on the couch. Barely more than twenty-four hours had thrown them together. He’d taken her on as a partner and treated her as such. Never disrespected her or questioned her abilities. He’d been fighting a battle for her before that, and she hadn’t known. And was there something beneath that? In the silence, when he looked at her like he understood her. Did he know all of what she was? The desire she fought. The guilt. The need to find out who she was when she quieted the voices in her mind. His gaze on her revealed keen insight. He saw past the first layers she’d constructed against the world. Being this intimate with him on the couch, shoulder to shoulder, was a test of their connection. Kissing him would tell her so much.
April shattered the web of thoughts and urges that built in her and moved her focus back to her magazine when the receptionist returned to the window. James let out a long, frustrated sigh. Was it because of the broken possibility between them? Or just part of the act? Hell, she didn’t know if he’d even been on the same planet as her just then. What if she’d done something idiotic like try and kiss this soldier while he was on a mission? It was her mission, too. She wouldn’t ruin the chances of catching those bastard hackers.
She stood and walked off the tension in her legs, pacing across the cramped lobby. No more fantasies. She was a soldier now, too. Like her father. Like Mark. She’d seen how Mark had compartmentalized his life. There was deployment, and home. She wasn’t at home anymore.
The receptionist stood from her desk. “Ms. Bell can talk to you now. But she has another client coming in for a scheduled appointment, so she only has a few minutes.” A buffer the receptionist built in so the accountant wouldn’t have to be trapped in an office too long with the terrible couple. “I’ll let you in, right around here.” The woman disappeared, then the door to the offices opened.
The hallway was equally dated. Worn carpeting. Fading desert photography on the walls. The receptionist motioned April and James to the left, away from where April thought the server room might be. They passed one closed office door. A few steps farther, and a woman in her sixties poked her head out into the hallway.
“Hello.” She greeted them cautiously. “I’m Gwen Bell. I hope I can help you today.” The receptionist dropped April and James off with the blonde in the rose-colored suit and retreated back to her alcove. Gwen took a step back, giving passage to James and April.
Hot tears welled in April’s eyes. Part of the act. Part of her past. The heavy oak furniture in Gwen’s office was the same as the bereavement counselors April had met. Just like the smell of stacks of old papers, complete lives transformed into data for easy filing. The unexpected jump through time couldn’t be stopped once it started. She didn’t want to visit that pain, but was already thrown back in that point of her life. Heart ripped out. Lost, without direction.
Gwen closed the heavy door behind them and clasped her hands together. “So what is it you’d like to discuss?” She motioned April and James toward the guest chairs.
Neither sat. James straightened his back and announced, “We need to discuss what happens to our money when we get divorced.”
“I see.” Gwen walked to her side of the desk. “Let’s start with some basic information.”
April let the tears flow. It was easy. Since the hack, she’d been wound tight. The fear and frustration of the last day had nearly pushed her over the edge. Now, being in this office, thrown back into the past, with James using such final words, the emotion took over.
“Son of a bitch.” She spoke between quick sobs.
Gwen flinched at the language.
April continued, wiping at her eyes. “I can’t. I need a minute. I need a fucking minute.” She hadn’t planned on swearing that much, or crying that much, but the locks had been broken and she needed the release.
James placed a hand on her arm. It seemed like it was to comfort her, which only made the emotions run higher. She couldn’t take solace from him, as much as she wanted. He was just a soldier assigned to protect her. She pulled from his arm, opened the office door and hurried into the hall.
She really did want escape and fought the urge to slam out of the lobby and into the day. But real freedom meant stopping the hackers. That was when she got her life back, so she stalked up the hall toward where she hoped the servers were, crying, arms wrapped around her chest.
James and Gwen spoke quickly in the office behind her, then their voices came out into the hall. The receptionist turned in her chair to follow the activity. April was almost at the doorway she wanted.
“Wait. Wait.” James spoke in more careful tones to Gwen. “Give us a minute, will you?”
April took the last few steps up the hall and looked into the computer room. A box fan sat on the floor, blowing on a rudimentary and out-of-date server setup. She tried to see what kinds of cables were leading into the two beige boxes, but James arrived and blocked the view.
Pain drew his eyebrows together as he gazed at her. More acting? He put his hands on her shoulders. “You cry and it breaks me, my little jaguar.” He pulled her into an embrace, which allowed her to fully inspect the room while clutched to his chest.
She wanted to cry harder from frustration. The servers weren’t ri
ght for the hackers. They were too small and there were no Ethernet cables out of place and nothing additional had been done to modify the setup.
“We can’t keep doing this.” James squeezed her arm and leaned slightly in the direction of the server room.
She understood his question and shook her head. “No. We can’t. It isn’t right.”
“Can we go?” He still held her close.
She nodded, and only then really felt him against her. The lean strength of his body was solid as a rock. Even through his leather jacket, the muscles of his arms were hard and defined. Her pulse responded with quick kicks. Visceral. Carnal. They’d been close on the couch and now they were wrapped up together. Hot blood rushed up her legs and into her chest, stealing her breath.
“Dry your tears.” James shifted them so he had an arm around her shoulder. “We’re leaving now and we’ll make this work.”
She steadied her legs and walked with him back up the hall, sensing his potency next to her and trying to tamp down her body’s reaction. The hard bump of his hidden weapons against her shoulder and hip helped chill her back to reality.
The receptionist and Gwen stood and watched from opposite sides of the hallway as James and April exited into the lobby, then left the offices. April wanted to laugh and cry in release, but knew she couldn’t break character yet. Still locked to James’s hip, she walked down the exterior stairs to the first level, then toward the parking lot.
But James veered them off to a shaded and secluded part of the building. Had he been affected as she was by their proximity? Was this part of the act? She’d have to tell him no. She couldn’t let herself go as far as even kissing him, despite her heart pounding for it.
James released his hold on her when they approached an unmarked steel door. He dropped his high-class accent. “The servers were a bust?”
The shock of hot to cold could shatter her. She cursed at herself for letting the physical fantasy take too much of her attention. She wanted to kick herself. What if she’d told him she couldn’t kiss him while he was only thinking about the operation? She tried to tamp down her embarrassment and focused on what she’d learned in the offices upstairs. “Nothing out of place. The hackers must’ve gotten in via the internet and are just using them as a mirror site to bounce content and throw off anyone trying to follow them.”
James pulled a small wallet from the front pocket of his leather jacket. “Watch my six.”
She turned her back to him, catching a glimpse of lock-picking tools in his hands, before scanning the building paths and walkways for any trouble. “What are we doing?”
Metal scraped against metal, barely louder than her rushing breath. Then the door opened. James’s voice echoed into the room. “Electrical panel for the building. I hope everyone’s backed up their data.” Heavy switches flipped, and the usual hum of city life died to absolute silence. James closed the door and gave her a quick pat on the back to get them moving again. They hurried to the car and he didn’t speak again until they were rolling out of the exit. “Now the hackers can’t use those servers for a bit. Might make them slip up as they scramble.”
“Nice.” Any opportunity to reach out and fuck with the anonymous men was welcome.
Albuquerque streets sped by. April imagined Gwen and the receptionist gawking at each other about James and April’s behavior right until the lights went out. The highs and lows of the experience still slammed through her. She might cry again, but instead laughed. “Jaguar?”
“Seemed appropriate.” He glanced at her with a gleam in his eye as he drove. “They’re fierce loners.”
Her laugh deepened with welcome release. “How do you do this, the truth and the lies, and stay sane?”
“Who said I was sane, luv?” He winked at her and returned his attention to the road. His hidden shadows flashed across his face. “One trick is to keep the truth and the lies close. That way, the false front feels real to anyone looking.”
She stared at the passing city and tried to justify her impulses to bring herself closer to him as part of the mission’s lies.
“You’ve already done it, I think,” he continued. “When you were crying in the office.” He chose his words carefully. “That was real, wasn’t it?”
She wiped at her eyes. “I was thinking about Mark.”
“I’m sorry.” His voice carried real emotion. “You did well. Mission was a success.”
“We didn’t find them.” Victory seemed very far off. Or impossible.
“That’s how recon goes.” His energy continued. “We’re hunting leads, collecting intel.” He pulled an earbud from inside his jacket and hooked himself up. “One sec.” He clicked a button on the cord and listened.
His face grew grim, lip curled. The car sped faster. He changed lanes quickly to head toward a wider street. Her stomach flipped with nerves, knowing something was wrong. She held the handle above the door for a trace of stability. But they were heading toward something bad. Or trouble was about to catch up to them.
He pulled out his earbud. “Get us to the highway.”
She retrieved her phone and brought up a map. “What’s going on?”
“We can’t go back to El Paso.” He glanced at her, eyes deadly serious. “We have to get out of Albuquerque.”
The map finally updated on her phone. “Right turn at the next light. That’ll take us to the highway.”
His gaze didn’t rest on the street. She checked the rearview mirror instinctually but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary there. Finally, James explained, “The two men who attacked you were released on bail this morning. An hour later, they were found dead.”
Chapter Six
Blood was spilled. Once death started, it would come again. James had to keep April alive. She rode in the passenger seat, face white, yet still navigating on the phone she held in shaking hands.
“One more block. Then the on-ramp.” Her voice was small.
“I see the signs now.” He wanted to floor the accelerator but couldn’t risk drawing unwanted attention. “Keep an eye out for police. We don’t know if the blokes in the parking lot said anything about us, or your friend from the market.”
“Theresa?” She put her phone down, closed her eyes and furrowed her brow. “I don’t think she’d say anything bad.”
“But she saw me with you and if the police start asking her questions, she’ll remember that detail and give them whatever she has to help you.” The on-ramp was thankfully close and after less than a minute they were off the streets and heading east.
April continued to process. “We haven’t done anything wrong, have we?”
He considered the events of the past day and a half. “The worst was breaking into the utility room and killing the power in the building, but I didn’t leave a trace and they don’t have any physical evidence to tie us to that.”
“So if they stop us...”
“We lose time, and we show up on the hackers’ radar.” He drove through deep shadows where storm clouds blocked the sun. “We have to do this on our terms.”
“How?” Her frustration drew color into her cheeks. “We had one lead, we followed it to a dead end and now we know these guys don’t just want to rough me up, they’re willing to kill.”
“I won’t let them touch you.” Be it with bullets, knives or his hands.
She stared at him, stared into him. A struggle crossed her face, like she was searching. Finally, she said, “I don’t know what to do next.”
He fell back on tactics. “They made their move, showed their hand about how important this is to them. We broke their mirror. Now we lay low and see how good they are at keeping their heads.” He tapped the phone on her thigh. “Find us a small motel in a small town.”
She didn’t hesitate and started searching. Her resilience shouldn�
��t have surprised him anymore, but every time she bounced back from all these blows life was laying on her, he was newly amazed.
Without looking up, she asked, “Who killed them?”
“Professionals.” Like he’d been.
“The next wave? The escalation?”
“Exactly. The men in the parking lot were just day labor.” He catalogued his meager load out of weapons. Would it be enough? Raker had told him on the phone that the men had been taken out execution style. A single bullet each. “There are killers on the hunt now.”
She watched the landscape transition from city to desert. “Too late for the safe house.”
“Backtracking will only make us more visible.”
A long, ragged breath didn’t settle her much. “About an hour east of this mountain range is a cluster of motels where we intersect a small highway.”
“Perfect.” At least they wouldn’t be in the car too long. “I’m still using Simon’s credit card.” He shifted her focus away from the deadly danger lurking out there. “We haven’t picked your name.”
She loosened up enough to crack a smile. “Something worthy of a giant bird foot sculptor...” Her hands came alive, tapping on her legs as she thought. “My parents had a hard time deciding on a name. I could’ve been Ji-eun or Elizabeth.”
He recalled a detail from her file. “So they compromised and went with your birth month.”
Her little sardonic laugh didn’t brighten her eyes. “Of course you know my birthday.” She faced him. “What’s yours?”
Instinct told him to lie. Reveal nothing during an interrogation. Reveal nothing of himself to anyone who could reach inside. “Six November.” The truth.
“And how did your folks settle on James?” she pressed.