Hunter's Hope

by M. J. O'Shea

  “Jerk,” Alo said. He found that he didn’t really mean it. Jack must’ve known that, because he smiled.

  “Probably.” Then he leaned over and kissed Alo’s nose. “Shit. Sorry. That was just an instinct. You’re like a kitten or something.”

  “It’s okay if you kiss me. You have nice lips too.” It came out before Alo could even think that it might not be the best thing to say. His eyes flew open, and he stared at Jack.

  “Okay, so I think I’m going to head out to my own room now. I’ll come wake you up in the morning, okay?”

  “’Kay.”

  Alo lay on the bed and let his head spin for a little while. The alcohol was wearing off finally, but he still couldn’t keep the ceiling fan from spinning even though he was sure it wasn’t on. Even drunk as he was, Alo felt in his pocket. There was the key to his suitcase, safe and sound, and the suitcase was where it belonged—hidden under his bed with the painting. It wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t near good enough to protect what Alo now knew for sure it was protecting. But it would have to be for the moment. He couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer anyway. It was time for a nap.

  Or to pass out.

  Chapter Six

  Jack had a hell of a headache. He hadn’t been drunk the night before, other than maybe off of victory and pure, unrelenting adrenaline, but he felt like he’d been on a bender of epic proportions—complete with bleary eyes, sore muscles, and yes, the headache.

  He stumbled out of the shower, which hadn’t helped one bit, and grabbed a few ibuprofen to hopefully numb the pain. He got dressed before he stumbled back into the main room of the suite and sank down onto a couch. Brad had turned in their rented van the night before. All that was left to do was check out and they’d be on the way to the next location. Everyone else would be up and moving in a couple of minutes. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the silence.

  Jack decided when he was done with this whole thing, a raging night out probably had to happen. He was already paying the price for it. Might as well have a little fun too.

  Once everyone else was up, dressed, and in the lobby, Jack let Brad take care of checking them out while he secured train tickets to Munich on his phone. The ride would take a while, at least half a day, so they wouldn’t get there until early evening. It would already be dark, so the best they could do would be to check into their hotel and get some dinner.

  Jack was both relieved to have some downtime, and nervous to be stuck with his thoughts—and worries—for so long. They’d gotten away with a hell of a lot in Berlin. He hoped none of it came back to bite him in the ass. Jack reminded himself to go over the film with Brad. They had to make sure there wasn’t a single moment where you could clearly tell where they’d been. A shot of the bottom of a desk drawer wouldn’t hurt. Anything else would probably get them in more trouble than it was worth.

  Alo was the last to meet them in the lobby. He looked nervous, and rightfully so. With potentially millions of dollars already stored in his suitcase.

  He looked a bit bashful as well, maybe as though he was remembering what he’d said to Jack the night before. Jack tried to give him a reassuring smile. Poor kid didn’t need to be worried about a little harmless flirtation in the middle of all that stress and worry. It was good to decompress, and what better way, right? Plus, it had been Jack who’d started it. He thought, at least. Either way, he certainly hadn’t minded. If Alo had been a lot more sober, Jack might have let it go further.

  “We’re all checked out and ready to go,” Brad said when he got back to the group. “There’s a shuttle getting here in about ten minutes that stops at the.... Berlin Hauptbahnhof.” Brad shrugged like he wasn’t sure he’d said it right. Jack didn’t have a damn clue either. Alo was too preoccupied to correct them like he usually did. “That’s where we need to go, isn’t it?”

  Jack checked the ticket confirmation on his phone. The word looked about right. “Yup. That’s where we need to go.”

  “Great. The concierge said the shuttle station was right out front. I figured this would be a better way than announcing our arrival in some big shiny town car.”

  Jack couldn’t agree more.

  “Jack, I swear I’m seeing things,” Alo said quietly. They were on the way to the train station in the shuttle with a couple of other travelers from their hotel.

  “What do you mean?”

  “When Brad was checking out, right before he came and told us about the shuttle, I saw a guy and he looked familiar, right? I just couldn’t place him.”

  “You just did now?”

  Alo nodded. “Yeah. It just took me a while because I’ve only seen him once. At this cocktail party the history department threw a few days before I met you.”

  “Wait, you’re telling me it’s the same guy, he followed us from New York?”

  “No. Well yes, but no. If it’s the same guy, he not only followed us from New York, he was at that party with Jonathan Harrington Watson.”

  “The rich guy?”

  “The scary rich guy.”

  Kendra glanced over at them but then returned her gaze to her phone. Jack wasn’t sure what she’d heard. He didn’t want her or Brad to get freaked out.

  Jack reached over without thinking and cupped his hand around Alo’s thigh. “I guess just keep an eye out for now,” he said quietly, aware of their surroundings. “If you see him again, tell me.”

  Alo nodded. “You think it could be a coincidence?” he asked.

  “If it was really him? Not a chance in the world it was a coincidence that he’s here.”

  “You’re right.” Alo rolled his eyes at himself. “That was a dumb question. I was just hoping we could get through this without being followed.”

  “Maybe we still are. Let’s just hold out the panic until we know for sure, okay?”

  He squeezed Alo’s leg and thought about how Alo had asked for a kiss the night before. Sort of.

  Jack had wanted to do more than brush a kiss across his nose. He’d wanted to do a hell of a lot more.

  Every day he noticed more about Alo, the slight flip at the tips of his sandy hair when he tucked it behind his ear, the long, pale line of his neck, his broad shoulders, blue eyes, the way he grinned when he got really excited. How if someone was patient enough to get under his prissy little shell to the good stuff, Alo was actually a cool guy—interesting, sarcastic, and somehow sexy as hell in an understated way.

  Jack figured he should probably stop noticing that at any moment. It hadn’t happened yet.

  The Berlin Hauptbahnhof, or main station, was enormous. Even Alo, who’d grown up in New York surrounded by imposing buildings stuffed full of people couldn’t help but stare at the ceiling. It was high above them, arched and glass, crisscrossed by walkways on different levels heading out to all the terminals.

  They didn’t have very much time before their train left, which was fine with Alo. He didn’t want to wait around to see who was going to show up looking for them next.

  Other than his lingering hangover, he couldn’t seem to shake the memory of a woman in the lobby of the hotel the night before. He could’ve sworn she’d been staring — or at least pretending very hard not to stare. And then there was Watson’s assistant. Which might have been a lot freakier. Alo decided it was better not to freak out about something he didn’t know had happened for sure.

  “Where are we going?” he asked.

  Jack looked at their tickets. “This says Platform Two, right Alo?” Alo nodded. “We only have about fifteen minutes.”

  They’d rented two first-class compartments. They had the money, and none of them felt safe in the main open seating area.

  When they got to the platform, they weaved through the teeming crowd toward the section of the train closest to where their compartment was. Alo breathed a sigh of relief when he and Jack were in one compartment safely, and Kendra and Brad were in the compartment three doors down.

  Alo put his case right next to him on the seat. He wasn�
�t about to put it overhead where he couldn’t get to it quickly, even if Jack was the only other person in the compartment. It was really best right where he could touch it. He watched Jack stow his own bags and sag into the seat across from Alo. Alo was still tired and headachy from the night before, even if he’d passed out the moment his head hit the pillow. He put his arms on the table between him and Jack and laid his head on them.

  The room was small, and if Jack leaned over he’d practically be able to kiss Alo, but it was quiet. And they had a long, long haul in the quiet. Alo thought it would probably be nice.

  “I’m glad we got out of Berlin,” he finally said, once the train was speeding out of the city and into the countryside.

  “Why?” Jack asked.

  Alo rolled his eyes. “I don’t know. Maybe because I thought I saw Watson’s assistant.”

  “Fair point.”

  Alo remembered something from the fuzziness of the night before. “And there was this woman in the lobby last night too when I went to the bathroom. You ever feel like someone’s staring at you?”

  “All the time,” Jack said with a grin. “Not as often here. We’re not very popular with the European market, but people stare at me a lot. She probably just thought you were adorable.” Jack reached out and pinched Alo’s cheek.

  “Shut up.” Jack chuckled. “It wasn’t that kind of staring anyway,” Alo said. “There... I didn’t think to tell anyone last night. Especially with... how I was. But this woman, she was sitting right outside the pub. Like she was waiting for us or something. I got this weird vibe from her and the way she stared. I don’t know. It didn’t feel right.”

  “She was probably looking at you because you were drunk.” Jack chuckled. “You weren’t exactly being quiet last night.”

  “Do you really want to brush it off like that?”

  Jack shrugged. “Well, let’s put her in the same category as Watson’s assistant. If you see her again, then obviously we won’t brush it off. Other than that, I’d chalk it up to your performance after three glasses of German beer.”

  Alo sank down into the cushioned bench. “Great. I was a total moron last night, wasn’t I?”

  “It was fine. Cute.” Jack looked down like he hadn’t quite planned to say that. “Really. Nobody minded, and you probably really needed to let loose.”

  “Did I do anything very stupid?” After the lobby and a third beer, his memories got a bit blurry. He just remembered Jack putting him to bed.

  Jack was silent for a long time.

  Apparently that’s a yes. Fantastic.

  Alo’s stomach dropped. “Oh, Jesus. Did I kiss you?” Alo asked.

  “Did you want to?” Jack countered quietly.

  “Yes.” Might as well nail himself right in the coffin he’d crawled into. He’d probably made himself very obvious the night before anyway.

  Awkward, awkward, awkward.

  “Really? Why?”

  Alo couldn’t believe Jack was dragging it out. “Um, because you’re gorgeous. And you’ve saved my life. And... I’m obviously a loser, and you know what? I’m going to go out to the dining car and order some food and a drink. Now. Do you want anything?”

  Alo stood and started rooting around in his pockets for his wallet.

  Jack apparently had decided to let him go without too much comment because all he said was “Whatever you’re getting.”

  Alo couldn’t tell if Jack looked amused, hurt, or something completely different. Alo nodded and turned for the hallway, feeling in his pocket for his suitcase key like he had about fifty times a minute since they’d locked up the letters back in New York.

  He was relieved to escape into the hallway. The tension in their compartment was thick, to say the least, after his little confession. Alo felt like a number one asshole for even hinting to Jack that he was attracted to him. They had to spend days together. Hopefully days that went as smoothly and quickly as Berlin so he could get out of there and go home in time for classes to resume and people to stop following him.

  Go home so he could get back to his nice little orderly life.

  But still. There were days until they were anywhere near done with Ira’s letters. And he’d just managed to screw up the whole thing.

  The dining car was thankfully empty. It was too late for breakfast, but not lunchtime just yet—other than for people who’d been too hungover to eat when they first got up.

  Alo looked at the menu and ordered something that sounded familiar. He grabbed some waters and two bottles of juice as well and decided to wait for their food instead of having them bring it to the cabin. The less people in our stuff, the better, he thought.

  He had the sandwiches in his hand along with their drinks and was about to return to Jack when he saw her—the woman from the hotel lobby. She still had on all black, and she still watched him, calculating and quiet. She didn’t pretend to look away. She just stared.

  Alo froze, chilled. He didn’t know if he should pretend he didn’t notice her; he sure as hell wasn’t leading her back to their cabin. He decided to turn for the main seating area of the train instead. He hoped there would be an empty seat where he could hide until she gave up and disappeared.

  Alo wound through the crowded aisles, heart thumping in his chest until he saw an empty area to sit. He slid into the seat and tried to look like he belonged there. The woman walked past him, and into the next car through a door. Alo waited until she had been gone over a minute before he slid out of the seat and walked as quickly as he could without being too obvious back into the dining car and then to the first- class cabins.

  His heart pounded the whole time. Alo wanted to look back, to see if she was behind him, but he didn’t dare. He almost dropped their food more than once in his haste to get back to their cabin and hidden before she returned. Finally, when he was about to turn in to their cabin, Alo dared to glance. The woman was gone. Still. Alo waited for a moment, and then ducked into their cabin as fast as he could.

  Jack looked up, surprised, when Alo walked through the door. “That took forever. Where have you been?”

  Alo could barely breathe, let alone talk. He stood there against the door, panting. Finally he locked the door, walked forward, dumped the lunch that he’d lost all interest in on the table, and slouched into his seat across from Jack.

  “The woman. The one from the hotel last night. She’s on the train,” Alo forced out. His heart was still pounding in his chest. He wondered how long it would take for that to go away. “She’s here.”

  “Okay, then. This is when we stop brushing her off.” Jack’s face had gone from worried to more worried. “It could be a huge coincidence, but it would be stupid to assume that. What does she look like?”

  “Dark hair, chin length and straight with bangs. She’s really pale, wears a lot of black. I didn’t get close enough to see her eyes for sure, but they looked light.”

  “Height and build?”

  “Both pretty average. Maybe like Kendra. A little more curvy and less athletic.” Alo shrugged but he doubted that Jack would buy the nonchalance. He was freaked out and there wasn’t much he could do to hide it.

  Jack nodded. “Well, there’s not much she can do on the train. Let’s stay in here unless we have to get out, and then we’ll lose her in the train station. If she finds our hotel again....” Jack trailed off.

  Alo imagined Jack didn’t know what he’d do then. He didn’t have any brilliant plans either.

  “Yeah. We’ll just have to see what happens, then.”

  The cab ride from the train station to the hotel was quiet. Jack hadn’t decided if he wanted to tell Kendra and Brad about the woman before they knew for sure it wasn’t a coincidence.

  In a way, they deserved to know. On the other hand, he didn’t want to make his team panic. He and Alo were already halfway there. It was still creepy, and it had Jack on edge. Alo, well, he was a lot more than on edge. Jack wondered if it was best to get him drunk again and put him to bed. It was p
robably the only way he wouldn’t vibrate off the walls all night.

  Jack had gotten them two rooms in the Westin Grand a few hours into the train ride. The place was enormous, there were bound to be a ton of people coming in and out of it, and it would be easy for them to blend in. At least that was the hope. He’d second-guessed himself a million times. Maybe a boutique hotel off the beaten path would be a better idea. It was too late anyway.

  The cab pulled up under the hotel’s huge portico and slowed to a stop.

  “I’m just going to go check us in,” he said. “You guys wait here with Alo.”

  He gave Kendra a long look to make sure she got that she needed to stay with their young charge and not wander off. She returned the look with curiosity, but he made a small gesture. Later.

  “Jack needs you to babysit me because we think someone’s following us,” Alo told her. Jack wanted to strangle him. At least he’d said it quietly.

  “For someone with a genius IQ...,” Jack grumbled. He stalked off toward the expansive check-in desk before he decided to strangle Alo.

  Although he’d sat in a train all day, Jack was strangely ready to grab some dinner, stretch a little, and then hit the sack. He was exhausted, mentally if nothing else. And it seemed like everyone else was too. He finished the check-in process, which went smoothly but somehow seemed to take forever, then grabbed both sets of keys and shuffled back to his crew.

  “’Kay, guys. Let’s go hang out for an hour or so, grab a shower if you want, and then maybe go get some dinner?”

  “We need to talk, Jack,” Kendra said.

  Brad gave him a long look as well.

  “I know. At dinner, okay? I need to decompress for a few minutes.”

  Kendra looked at him like perhaps she didn’t believe a single word out of his mouth, but then she grunted and grabbed her and Brad’s set of keys, turned on her heels, and headed off to the bank of elevators, dragging her case along with her.

  “Hey, Alo,” Jack said when they were settled into their room. They planned to meet Brad and Kendra in an hour to go find dinner. Other than that, the time was theirs.