Then Norbert came along.
Another sign in a laundry list of signs I had received over the last few months. I had to let go, let go of Callum, let go of Montreal and let someone in. Then my fear of repeating history trumped the penguins. I was in love with Claire and begged for her to force me to talk about it after I almost ripped that dirty Texans fingers off.
I stood back by the cocktail bar, sipping on an ice-cold ginger ale slushy made by a bored bartender. Claire was close, I could see it in her eyes at the tail end of me telling her I could never handle seeing anyone but me touch her. I knew the tempest that was Claire Avondale was about to strike.
Claire moved and milled through the group of rich politicians and rich entrepreneurs who loved to influence politics. I had opted to keep my distance to avoid recognition from a few of the Congress members present. I knew most politicians rarely memorized or paid attention to the paid help, Secret Service Agents included, but I wanted to do everything I could to avoid awkward moments, I had created plenty of my own today.
Claire was graceful as the Senator, making eye contact and listening intently to the praise falling from her supporter’s mouths. Senator Avondale was graceful, elegant, kind, and warm, but I disliked Senator Avondale now. I had experienced Claire and that was the only side of the woman I wanted to see every day. Senator Avondale was her alter ego that kept everyone at an arm's length and I hated it when it came my way.
Watching her laugh, say goodbye and hug the rich supporters happy to see her, I made the decision to fight through my crap and give Claire every reason to continue to be herself around me. I wanted to put Senator Avondale away like a superhero cape. I wanted the Clark Kent to her superman, but I would in turn have to stop being the asshole Lex Luthor and give her the Lois Lane she saw in me.
I giggled at my own stupid superhero reference, but it all made sense. We both were hiding behind the alter egos we felt we needed to maintain to keep ourselves safe.
I stood a few steps ahead of Claire outside the main reception hall, waiting for the valet to bring the car back. She was saying goodbye to Fields and I felt it best to keep my distance. I knew he wouldn’t say or try something that would result in me actually breaking his fingers clean off his hand. When I looked over my shoulder to check on his behavior, I found him staring at me, keeping at least a foot between himself and Claire.
I turned away to laugh, I had done my job and if anything, Claire would never have a sweaty Texan groping her at any future events. I smiled at the valet as he pulled the Cadillac up, giving him a healthy tip, I turned back to Claire, "Senator Avondale, if you are ready."
Claire turned, nodding in acknowledgment before returning to the last few words she had for Fields, the look on her face made me curious and I made note to ask about it later.
I sat in the passenger seat, waiting, slowly building the courage to speak to Claire. I reached over turning the radio on as she opened the driver's side door and sat down. The air was still thick and tense even though Johnny Cash did his best to croon away, filling the air with sassy lyrics and strong beats.
Folsom Prison Blues poured from the car speakers and I watched it tug at the corners of Claire's mouth, almost getting her to smile. I could tell she was tired and worn down from having to be the Senator and talk to silly, vapid people for hours on end.
I watched the blonde for a second. The way she tilted her head to the left and swayed with the strokes of the guitar. It was her subtle way of enjoying the music without outwardly showing how much she loved the old twangy country sound.
I sat my phone and sunglasses in the cup holder, "Thank you, again for the clothes. They fit perfectly even though they aren't quite the usual for me." I absently ran a hand down the front of the pale pink material, "I never thought pink to be my color."
"Pink brings out the lighter highlights in your eyes Kit." Claire turned slightly, looking at me through her aviators, "The color suits you well, Kit, and you are welcome. The zoo exhibit was last-minute, I should apologize for springing it on you."
Even though it was a compliment, it was a compliment issued from the Senator. I sighed, I had made this hard on myself and I was close to making it impossible for my heart to bear. "It's part of the job right? Last minute things." I smiled hard, "Don't apologize Claire. I think it was good for us to leave the house for a few hours." I moved in the seat, angling my body away from the blonde, "Before patience completely runs out." I spoke softly, hinting at her earlier comment from the gun range. I wanted to try to break the tension, but was at a loss as to how.
The strong strings of Ring of Fire flooded the car, flooding me with memories of easier days on my grandpa's farm. For once in my life I didn't think before speaking, I just opened my mouth and let go, "My grandpa was hooked on Johnny Cash from the moment the first song hit the radio back in the fifties. The summers I spent on his farm in Amish country carried a soundtrack full of Johnny’s greatest hits." I laughed at the sudden flash of my grandpa's rough voice poorly singing along. "He had this ancient radio he bought while he was in the Army, tying it to the front of the old green tractor as he taught me how to drive and plow the fields." I glanced at Claire, her smile was the same, but when she would look over at me, I could see she was still listening.
"Grandpa was my inspiration for this career path. He was an MP and did some foreign dignitary work right before he was discharged. Grandpa told me his proudest day was when he stood guard over Reagan's first inauguration and met the new president. Saying his greatest moment in the career was knowing he kept the man who would change so much safe."
I picked at the stitching on the leather clad door interior, this was a story I never told anyone, "He taught me how to fight like a boy, how to read people and pick up their behavior patterns. I was going to join the Army like he did when I was a senior in high school, but he guided me to cleaner work. Telling me one day as he handed me the Secret Service brochure mixed in with U.S. Marshals and even FBI brochures that I was too smart to hump the dirt in the army. I chose the Secret Service because I wanted to protect the people who were changing the world, my grandpa's words sticking in my head forever. I wanted to one day stand next to the president and make my grandpa proud."
I smiled painfully, "He passed away two days after I graduated from the agency's academy. My last memory of him was dancing with him at the BBQ my parents held for me. Ring of Fire came on the stereo and he lit up as we danced around the backyard."
I took a slow breath, biting my lip to hold back tears, "Every time I hear Cash, it's like I feel my grandpa sitting next to me, rooting me on and telling me the same thing he always told me, Kit, people knock you down in life. The good ones knock you down and then pick you back up."
My hand moved from the stitching I had been nervously picking at, settling on the top of Claire's hand where it sat on the gear shifter. "You're one of the good ones, Claire." I swallowed the nerves filling my throat, threatening to stop my voice, "I know that I test your patience every day, my fear speaking and thinking for me." Squeezing her hand I kept on before all courage was lost, "I am fearful that when I tell you about Montreal, you will change the way you think and feel about me, that I will lose you." I looked up as we pulled into the gravel driveway of the Malibu house, her hard stare penetrating through the sunglasses, "You've already changed so much of my life and for all the times you knocked me down, you've picked me up and I am better for it."
I moved my hand from hers, reaching up to pull her sunglasses slowly from her face. I wanted to look in the blue green eyes that would set my heart free. "The biggest mistake I can make is losing you from my ignorance, Claire. I want to tell you about Montreal." I paused watching her almost teal colored eyes shift back to the woman I was in love with, "You make me jealous, you take my breath away, and no one has ever done that." I whispered the last few words, the look in her eyes sucked away all of my breath and courage, my body moving closer to her on its own.
Claire leaned forward, he
r hand moving to the edge of my cheek. The immediate effect her touch had on my heart was evident to her as she looked down at my lips and to the vein in my neck pounding with my heart, "Listen to the penguins Kit." She leaned closer, removing the last few centimeters between us. I met her halfway, our lips connecting quickly, but gently.
I kissed her deeply, my hand finding purchase on her cheek to hold her against me. Our lips moved in unison, both of us seemed to pouring out the tension we carried for the last few hours.
When I ran my tongue across her bottom lip, she opened her lips more, the tip of her tongue meeting mine. I pulled Claire closer into the kiss, feeling her moan move around our connected lips. I squeezed my eyes shut, when I felt her hand move into my hair, pulling me even closer. It was my turn to moan against her mouth, this woman was giving me her everything and asking me to take it. Three times now we kissed, three kisses that were incredible and made me feel things I had never felt before. I had never been kissed like Claire kissed me and I knew no one would ever come close. Why was I so afraid to feel what I was for her?
I slowly broke the kiss off, not to end it, but to readjust, moving my hands to both sides of her face, silently asking Claire to look up at me instead of doing the usual of looking down and blushing. I smiled, whispering, "Look at me, Claire." I wanted her to look in my eyes and memorize the way she made me feel when she looked in them.
When she tilted her head up to look at me shyly, something out of the corner of my eye forced me to look away and out the front windshield.
In the middle of the driveway sat the standard boring black sedan all Secret Service agents drove while on administrative detail. A large man in a boring black suit, boring haircut, crisply shaven and black sunglasses was leaning against the trunk of the sedan. He was smoking a cigarette, looking off to the side of the house where it led down to the ocean.
I moved away from Claire when I recognized the large man, more so recognized the arrogant way he smoked and leaned against the car. I felt my jaw clench on its own, so tightly I was certain I heard the bone threaten to snap. I dropped my hand from Claire, she caught it before it completely left her.
"Kit, what's wrong?" The sound in her voice begged me not to shut her out again.
I looked at her hand wrapped around mine, "Carlton is here."
Claire slowly turned to look out the front windshield, "He's early."
I leaned back in the seat, still holding her hand, "That's because he is an asshole." I licked my lips, momentarily enjoying the lingering taste of Claire's lip gloss and warmth from our kiss. "When he finds out I am working for you." I paused, "He's going to be brutal."
Claire tugged on my hand to get my attention, "Then I will have to threaten to break his fingers off." She smiled, slowly pulling the car forward into its spot next to my Lincoln. Never letting go of my hand until she shut the car off to look at me, "Give me the word and I will have him leave."
I shook my head, "No, let's just get this over with. You're safety is more important than me ignoring a former co-worker." I squeezed her hand before letting it go. I plucked my phone from the cup holder and slid on my sunglasses, pushing the door open, "But be warned I might break his fingers out of spite if given the chance."
Shoving open the door I stood up, making unfortunate direct eye contact with Carlton, watching his slick smile fade into a smirk of recognition.
Carlton recognized Kit immediately and the way the smirk filled his face, I quickly wanted to break his fingers and maybe his jaw. I shut the car door, inspecting the man "You must be Agent Carlton." I took quick steps over to him, taking noticed that he looked like the pure definition of a stereotypical agent, boring and clean-shaven.
Carlton still held his smirk as he ripped his eyes away from Kit, "I am, nice to finally meet you Senator Avondale." He offered his hand to me in greeting.
I waved him off, "It's okay, I fed some penguins earlier today and my hands are still fishy smelling." I motioned to the house, "If you would like, we can do this in the sitting room." I took an exaggerated look at the watch on my left wrist, "I only have twenty minutes before I have a dinner to attend to on the other side of town." I looked back up at Carlton, "Hope that isn't a bother?"
Carlton shrugged through his apparent irritation, I knew a debriefing like the one he had to present to me, would take at least close to an hour. At the same time I also knew I could just have Davidek pull a few strings and give me the full debrief at a later time. "That is fine, Senator Avondale."
I peered up at Kit moving quickly to the house, catching the muscles in her jaw strain tightly against the skin surrounding it. This man had an effect on her and as much as I wanted to know why, I was driven to getting him out of the house and away from her quickly. Kit opened the front door waiting for me and Carlton to follow.
I waved a casual hand towards Carlton, "This way Agent Carlton."
Inside the house, Kit disappeared into the kitchen while I escorted Carlton to the sitting room. I offered him the couch while I took the side chair across from him. "Would you like anything to drink Agent? Water or tea?"
When he sat down I could smell the thick stale cigarette scent fall from his suit coat as he took it off, forcing a disgusted cringe to cover my face. I scanned over him thoroughly, nitpicking the agent.
The yellowed fingers on his right hand told me he was an excessive smoker, close to three packs a day. The dark circles under his eyes meant he was a late night owl that fed his inability to sleep alone with drinking cheap gin to numb his body and emotions. His cloudy green eyes showed that glaucoma was on the verge of shoving him into an unwanted early retirement with just his two golden retrievers he managed to keep from the divorce. The stray yellow dog hairs on his pant legs and the fading tan line on his left ring finger clued me in on those tiny tidbits that might prove useful if he continued to push my buttons.
In the two minutes he sat down, fiddling with a briefcase and papers, I had deduced that Agent John Carlton was a newly divorced man, heavily addicted to the vices that numbed his senses and found joy and reprieve from his own sad life by making others miserable with the uncanny ability to seek out pressure points and press them deeply for information.
Carlton smirked again, setting the small briefcase he brought in down next to the coffee table, placing a small stack of files messily on top of a book on Scottish photography, "Water please."
I smiled tightly, this man was irritating me more than Fields or any jackass I had encountered ever had. The immense amount of arrogance and pretentiousness oozing from him made me sick. I stood up with a fake smile firmly in place, "I will be back in a second."
"Let your assistant get it for us Senator." The bite in his words told me that he knew Kit was said assistant.
I shook my head, "I have two good arms and two good legs, Agent." I walked into the kitchen when I heard Carlton mumble, "Stick with Witmer for too long and you won't."
I almost spun on my heels to charge back at the man when Kit grabbed my elbow, "Don't do it. He feeds off reactions." Her hazel eyes scanned mine, "Trust me. I know from personal experience."
I covered her hand with mine, "I can ask him to leave." I turned, looking over my shoulder at Carlton fidgeting with papers and checking out my designer furniture, "I already think he needs a punch in the balls."
Kit chuckled, "He deserves many."
I patted her hand, "Let me take care of him. You can stay in the kitchen and eavesdrop if you wish." I moved to the cabinet, filling two glasses with water, "Twenty minutes and he is out of the house." I pointed at the drawer full of take out brochures, "Find something you would like for dinner or we can take a late night drive up to Paco's"
I left Kit in the kitchen, a little more at ease than she had been the second she ended the third kiss and spotted Carlton in the driveway.
Handing Carlton a glass of water, I sat down, tucking my legs under me, "So what has the Secret Service come up with?"
Carlton took a greedy sip of
water, setting the glass down with a hard clunk on the coffee table, He was hung over and dehydrated from the way he chugged the water, "Well Senator Avondale, we have done our research. The two men who attacked you the other day at the residence in San Diego are connected to a fringe religious group out of the hills of Tennessee." Carlton flipped pages, "Run by a self-proclaimed Reverend Alistair Montgomery, their main agenda in life is to pursue and persecute the world of science anyway they can." He tossed one page towards me. "We are still building a file on Reverend Montgomery, he is a bit of a ghost in the hills."
Carlton reached for his half empty glass, "You aren't the only one they have targeted. They have attacked DNA testing facilities on the east coast and even sperm donor banks, citing in vitro births go against the laws of nature." Carlton drank again from the glass, licking his lips in a filthy way when the glass was empty. I read over the file sheet he threw at me as he continued to look around my home and eyeball my very full glass of water.
Reverend Alistair Montgomery was the head of the New Church of the Rising Son. A new church that had been on the rise in the last year or so, popping up on the radar of all the intelligence agencies for domestic terrorism plots and attacks on me and the other victims listed on the sheet I held.
"Basically, Senator Avondale, they are dead set on ruining your day because of your support for everything scientific." He handed me another sheet, "During the one gentleman's interview after his arrest, he threw claims that you were growing humans at the facilities you sponsor." Carlton chuckled, "Some real science fiction bullshit in my opinion. He rattled on for hours about the CIA knowing what you were doing and the two of you working together to grow super soldiers that would wipe the world out."
Redemptio Animae Page 27