Fragments of Grey [Book Five of The Alexis Stanton Chronicles]

by Phelps, J. C.

  The sun started to peek over the trees. I’d done my time. Now it was time to get back to the city and get some sleep before I called Colin.

  At the counter I found someone other than Matt with a much more relaxed attitude.

  “Ms. Grey. You’re up early. How can I help you?” His nametag read: Chris.

  “Time to check out, Chris.” I placed my keycard on the counter.

  “As you wish. One moment please. I’ll get your paperwork ready.” He spent a minute or two on the computer and walked back toward the printer to retrieve the paperwork. But he picked up the phone before returning to the counter. Unfortunately he spoke into the phone with his back to me. “Forgive me, Ms. Grey. There seems to be an issue with your bill. I’ve called my supervisor and he’ll be right down to clear this up for us.”

  “An issue?”

  “Yes. Please, my supervisor will be down soon. Could you take a seat?” He motioned to the waiting area.

  “I’m paying cash. There should be no issue.” I insisted.

  “He’ll be here shortly.”

  He wouldn’t budge.

  Great. All I wanted to do was shoot some guns and get out of the city for a while.

  Jake came through the doors a few minutes later.

  “You’re up early. Leaving us so soon?” He joined me on the couch.

  “Yes, I have business in the city. What’s wrong with my bill? I’m paying cash so there should be no issues.”

  “Nothing bad. We’ve decided to comp all expenses if you’ll give me a phone number where I can reach you. If you’re truly no longer working with White and Associates we could find a use for your skills.”

  “Is this a job offer?”

  “Possibly.”

  I sat there for a few seconds, not knowing what to say.

  “So, you going to give me your number?” He smiled at me.

  “You think you’re charming, don’t you?” I couldn’t help but smile back at him.

  “I try.” He wagged his eyebrows.

  “For a possible job, right?” I brought the tone back to the serious side.

  “Possibly.”

  “How about you give me your number. I’ll call you if I have some free time.”

  “Works for me.”

  He walked back to the counter and brought back a business card.

  “I wrote my personal number on the back of this card. But if you lose this card you can usually get to me through the number here. If I’m not here, they’ll know how to get in contact with me. We’ll set up your interview.”

  “Interview?”

  “Well, of sorts. It’ll be more of a test. We’ll want to know where your strengths and weaknesses are so we can stick you on the right jobs.”

  “I see.” I narrowed my eyes. “I’ll keep you in mind.”

  “Please do.”

  I felt his eyes on me as I left the building.

  Chapter Five

  Jake Jensen was on my mind the entire trip back to the city and invaded my dreams as I slept the day away.

  As soon as I rolled out of bed I dialed Colin’s number.

  “Alex?”

  “I’m in the city. How about we meet in an hour.”

  “Sounds good.” He chose the restaurant and said he’d make the reservation.

  I used the hour to shower and try to fix my new hairdo. I still didn’t know how to make myself look presentable and regretted not going with a pixie cut.

  I made it to the restaurant before Colin did and was led to our table. I ordered a glass of wine and some shrimp hors d’oeuvres. I hadn’t eaten anything since I had that apple at Mesa Security.

  My appetizer showed before Colin and I didn’t wait for him before I started eating. But he showed up before I could finish off the plate.

  The look of shock on his face was unmistakable.

  “You cut your hair.”

  “Good to see you, too.” I touched my hair. “Yes. I needed a change.”

  “It looks good on you, but I’m going to miss your braids.” He made a pulling motion.

  He took his seat across from me.

  “Alex, you’re going to be pretty pissed off with me.”

  “Why?”

  Colin didn’t have to explain because I saw my father strolling across the room to our table.

  “You promised it would be just you and me,” I hissed at him.

  “You know your dad. He insisted I include him. If I wouldn’t have given in he would have just followed me.”

  I took in a deep breath and redistributed my anger. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see my dad, I just didn’t want to explain myself to him.

  “Dad. How’s Mom?” I greeted him when he reached the table.

  “Good. How have you been?”

  “Good. Care for any shrimp?” I offered up my appetizer to the two men in front of me.

  They both took me up on my offer. Our waiter showed up, took their drink orders and our dinner orders. We made small talk until the meal showed up.

  “I suppose we can get down to business now,” my dad said as he cut a strip from his steak.

  “We’re prepared to offer you a job as an outside set of eyes for White and Associates. They just landed a transport job for one of our ambassadors. They’ll need a sharp pair of eyes to scout ahead. You’ll leap-frog with a few other men to make sure the road is clear for their convoy.”

  “No thanks.” I shook my head.

  “Why not?” Colin asked.

  “You’re trying to get me back in with White and Associates and I don’t want to be there. It’s not going to happen.”

  “Then you need to tell us why,” my dad said.

  “Nope. That’s not going to happen, either. If you two can’t take my word for it that it was really no big deal and I said a few things I won’t take back, then I guess—” I let it hang.

  “Your choice,” the Admiral said.

  The three of us ate in silence for several minutes before I asked, “So? This is it?”

  “Looks that way,” the Admiral said over a mouthful of food.

  Colin wore a sick look but kept shoveling in his own dinner.

  “What about—” I didn’t want to say Penumbra aloud.

  “What about her? You’ve ditched your handler and Colin doesn’t have time to police you or do your research. He screwed up your last job. Did you know that Vasile was high on the list of the Romanian government? Higher than those that paid your contract? I really hope you covered your tracks very well. The government won’t be covering that one up, they’ll be searching for you.”

  “What?” I glared at Colin.

  “Don’t be mad at him, Alex. It was your fault. If you hadn’t allowed him to do all your research this probably wouldn’t have happened. Hell, White would never have even offered you that job.”

  My stomach churned. “Do they have any leads?”

  “No. It seems you’ve done a good job of covering your tracks. This time. But, if you’re going to be this negligent, I can’t justify putting you out on any more jobs. I set this up the way I did for a good reason, Alex. Colin has too much on his plate to be your handler, simple as that. White wants to be your handler but because you kissed and he told, you’ve cut ties.”

  “That’s not what happened.” I remembered my father’s tactics too late.

  “So, what was the real reason for cutting ties?”

  “Red pissed me off. White stood up for him, which pissed me off. I said some things I can’t take back that pissed White off, and I refuse to work with Red.” I put my guard back up and repeated what I’d already told Colin.

  “That makes sense as to why you’d cut ties with White and Associates as a whole, but not White. He didn’t take Red’s side about Penumbra, did he?”

  “No.” I should have rehearsed this dinner. I was so sure it would be just me and Colin. Had I known my dad was going to show and interrogate me, I would never have come. My track record of trying to deceive my father was
zero, and how many times I’d tried to get away with something—in his favor.

  “Uh-huh. Alex. Does Red know about Penumbra?”

  “No. I told you, I’m not going into any detail about this. It’s a personal matter and nothing you two need to concern yourselves with.”

  “Were you and Red an item?” Colin’s look of incredulousness almost made me laugh, but I played it straight. To let them think this was better than giving them a reason to believe Red knew something he shouldn’t. I took a second to internally thank Colin for coming up with this for me.

  “No.” I should have taken acting lessons. I wanted to sound unconvincing without them knowing I was trying to redirect their thoughts.

  “Alex and Red have never been an item, Colin.” My father’s eyes narrowed. “I have my answers. You can charge this as a business dinner.” He threw his napkin over his unfinished food, stood, and came to my side. “Sweetie, I love you.” He put his hands on my shoulders and bent down to speak quietly. “But we can’t offer any more jobs to you until you return to White and Associates and Colin cannot be your handler any longer. You’ll have to work through your problem with White and I would be more than happy to take care of your problem with Red.”

  “Red is not a problem.”

  “I’ll be the judge of that. Call your mother.” He left me sitting there scared to death. My father had always awed me, but he’d never frightened me until now. Colin was pale and a little perspiration stood out on his forehead.

  “What are you going to do?” He pushed his plate away.

  “Nothing, it seems.” I also pushed my plate away. I wasn’t able to even look at my food any more.

  “Do me a favor, Colin?”

  “I’ll try.”

  “Don’t let my dad do anything to Red? He really doesn’t know anything.” I lied, probably my most convincing lie ever.

  “Then why won’t you tell me what’s going on? That is the only thing I can think of that would cause all of this.”

  “Use your imagination, Colin. I’m sure there are other reasons you can come up with. Any of them are fine by me. Just don’t let my dad hurt my partners.”

  I left him sitting alone at the table.

  Back in my hotel room I sat on the edge of my bed turning White’s prepaid cell in my hands. I had to call him. I had to let him know and the sooner, the better.

  My mouth was dry as I waited for him to pick up.

  “Where are you?” White’s voice came to me for the first time in five months.

  “I’m close. Listen. I just had a meeting with my dad and Colin.”

  “You told them?”

  “No, but my dad knows. You’re going to have to warn Red. The Admiral offered to take care of my problem with Red.”

  “What the hell were you thinking, Alex? Red has kept his mouth shut. He might still be pissed off because he was left out of the loop, but he’d never do anything to jeopardize you.”

  “Are you sure of that?”

  “Absolutely.”

  We were quiet for a full thirty seconds.

  “Are you coming back?” he finally asked.

  “I can’t. I want to, but I can’t. No one trusts me and Red will do everything he can to stop the guys from ever trusting me again. But I would be willing to do more outside jobs if you’d be my handler again.”

  “I don’t know, Alex.”

  “It could keep my dad off Red’s back if we restarted this part of the relationship. We don’t have to do much. I need to lay low for a while, anyway.”

  “I know you do. How could you have taken that job?”

  “The guy was a human trafficker.”

  “No he wasn’t, Alex.”

  “What?”

  “You stopped doing your own research, didn’t you.” I could picture him shaking his head in disgust.

  I had no response.

  “I’m more worried about you than Red, now. Alex, please come back. We can protect you.”

  “What was his crime?” I asked, ignoring his plea for me to come home.

  “He was the son of a controversial diplomat. That was his crime.”

  I hung up the phone and found myself hovering over the toilet for an hour while my phone rang every few minutes. When I’d purged my stomach of everything I’d ever eaten, I went back to the phone and turned it to vibrate.

  I’d killed an innocent man and all because I couldn’t be bothered with doing the research myself any more. I’d trusted Colin more than I’d ever trusted White, and I shouldn’t have. I knew Colin was trustworthy, but being my handler had never been his job before. As the Admiral said, he wasn’t meant to be my handler.

  I went back to the bathroom and spent the night over the toilet.

  Chapter Six

  Several hours over the toilet did nothing for my mood. I dragged myself to the bed and decided to look up the man I’d killed. How many lives had I ruined by not doing my due diligence? I was supposed to save lives, but I hadn’t saved any lives, just ruined them.

  The laptop waited expectantly, but I couldn’t bear to open it. Instead, I curled up on the bed with the computer and White’s phone next to me. The phone vibrated every half an hour or so, reminding me I could never make up for this. I wanted it all to stop, just stop being me.

  I don’t know how long I stayed on the bed in that position. I remembered telling housekeeping to leave me alone more than once. I finally gave in and made my way back to the bathroom.

  I glanced in the mirror. I didn’t recognize the person staring back at me. She looked pathetic and sickly. Dark circles under her eyes, pale, and thin. Not the way a trained killer should look. Maybe the way a serial killer would look. I sneered at myself in the mirror and stripped down. The shower helped wash away some of the pain, but I still couldn’t cry.

  When I exited the shower, I noticed White’s phone had vibrated off the sink counter and onto the floor. The back of the phone had come off and the battery was underneath the toilet. I put it back together after I dried off and dressed. It vibrated in my hands immediately. I didn’t answer it. Instead I shoved it into the back pocket of the jeans I’d found on the floor when looking for some clothes to wear.

  Something stopped the phone from sliding in easily as it had always done before. I pulled out Jake’s business card and turned it over. After a full minute of contemplation, I dialed his number.

  He answered on the first ring. “Hello?”

  “Jake?”

  “Yes?”

  “This is Alex Grey. I was wondering if your offer was still good.”

  “Of course it is. When do you want to meet?”

  “Now?”

  “Okay. I’m at the gym on the corner of 1st and Grand. Can you meet me there?”

  “That’s Helix’s gym.”

  “You know Helix?”

  “A little.” I double-checked the time. Black should have been there and gone several hours ago. “Okay. I can be there in a few minutes.”

  I packed up what I wanted to keep and checked out of the hotel. I had no intentions of staying in the city after my meeting with Jake, regardless of what he may or may not offer me.

  I took a taxi to the gym and carried my duffle bag in with me.

  “Hey, beautiful.” Helix’s booming voice greeted me from across the building. “Where the hell have you been? Black’s been in every morning without you for months. Plus, he gets downright pissed when I ask him where you’re at.” He lifted me for a tight hug. I could see Jake coming our way over Helix’s shoulder.

  “I left White and Associates.” I managed to squeak out.

  Helix stopped hugging me and stepped back quickly. “You’re shittin’ me, girl.”

  “Nope. It was time for me to get out on my own.”

  “No wonder Black’s been foul lately.” He turned to see Jake joining us. “Hey. My man, Jake. I’d like you to meet Ms. Grey.”

  “We’ve met.” His smug smile irritated me for some reason. “Ready to show me what
you’ve got?”

  “You ain’t going to work for Jake, are you?” Helix asked me.

  “I don’t know yet. Why? Do you recommend I steer clear?”

  Helix looked at Jake and then back to me. “It’s just a switch from White and Associates. A different take on the same job.” He grinned at Jake who winked in return.

  “Shall we?” Jake invited me to a mat with a wave of his hand.

  “Boy. She’s going to kick your ass,” Helix said.

  “Doubt that, big boy,” Jake threw to Helix.

  Now I had something to prove and plenty of anger to vent.

  Jake lunged for me before I had my bearings, and I fell back on my butt as I tried to dodge. He gave me that same smug grin that irritated me earlier. I jumped back up and resumed my relaxed stance. This time he didn’t come right for me and we stalked each other around the mat a few times. Eventually, he gave in and came at me again. I was ready and met him head on with a sharp jab to his gut. I managed to double him over, but he recovered almost immediately and grabbed me by the waist as I tried to sidestep.

  He pulled me in for a bear hug from behind. My hands were free, so I used his forearms around my stomach to lift myself as high as I could. I threw my head back and made contact with his face. I heard the crunch of his nose as I wrapped my legs backwards around his knees. His grip didn’t loosen, but he fell forward. I was able to break our fall somewhat with my outstretched hands and my knees. Jake’s weight crushed me to the mat. I felt his face hit the back of my head again. The force caused me to do a face-plant into the mat.

  Jake was still as his body pinned me to the mat. My head hurt like hell and I couldn’t see through the tears. I tasted blood and knew my nose was broken.

  “Holy shit!” Helix was at my side in an instant and lifted Jake off me. “I’ve never seen you play dirty before. You’re good at it. Someone bring over the smelling salts,” he ordered.

  Within seconds, Jake was reviving. I kneeled next to him, dripping blood from my nose.

  “Hey!” Helix yelled again. “Someone get my girl a towel and an ice pack.”