EasterSpice

  I grunted. “It’s always an outsider who’s the upstart.” The car stopped and I opened the door myself. “I’m at my destination. I’ll check in later, at the designated time.” There was no use in calling attention to myself by having the driver act like a chauffeur. Being Reed meant that I was the back office for both Seria and Desiree. I was here to support them and not be seen while keeping them on the right track. I was Charlie and they were the Angels, except I had a special relationship with one of them.

  I didn’t think about Reed again as I headed to the safe house. Instead, all I could think about was Dez, far away from me. I missed her more and more lately, at night when we were in different places. They could have put me in the Taj Mahal and it would have been no different.

  Of course, Dez needed to play the part of a visiting executive, so she was in a pretty swanky place. Good for her. Her contacts would expect her to stay where all the other visiting folks stayed. No one would be expecting anything of me. I didn’t exist.

  My accommodations were not as plush as I knew hers were and located midway between the hotel and the company where Elisheba worked. There was no greeter and no one even looked up as I walked down the narrow, trash-strewn alleyway that led to the door of my walk-up apartment, the place that would be my home away from home for the next few weeks, or until we solved the case, whichever came first. An emaciated dog wandered by. After the throngs of people in the airport and the crazy traffic, the deserted alley felt as if I’d fallen off the world. A woman leaned out of a third-story window and dumped a bucket of water into the alley, narrowly missing me. I glared at her and she nodded apologetically. Last thing I needed was a few drops of Indian sewage in my mouth. I knew better than to even think of ingesting the water or any other liquid out of a glass, including ice. Hard alcohol would be my best friend on this trip. Hopefully, that would be enough to kill anything. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, even though it was probably useless. This trip was going to be lovely.

  Chapter Seven

  Desiree

  The best place to start was with the family. I had one task, and that was to find out what had really happened to the dead woman. According to the information that had been left for me, I had to hunt down a white man named Rick with one green and one brown eye. An Englishman. He wasn’t exactly family, but he’d been seen dating the dead woman.

  I’d memorized his picture and tucked it away in the back of my head, planning to keep it with me as I started my day. It shouldn’t be too hard to spot a white man in this sea of brown. He’d stand out like a sore thumb, just like me. I’d stopped counting the stares as I waited in the hotel lobby for my car. I was used to being the only one; I often was back home in Austin, but at least there, people were more discreet with their stares.

  I’d been instructed to dress conservatively, and I had, but that didn’t stop people from blatantly staring at me as they passed. I would have felt out of place in the Indian clothing Seria wore in the pictures, but I was sticking out anyway. My face felt hot from all the scrutiny but I couldn’t let it bother me.

  Sam’s voice popped into my head. “People will stare at you in India, Desiree,” he’d said. “You might be the first foreigner they’ve seen and certainly the first black woman. Many business travelers are usually men, so don’t take it personally. It’s what they do.” When he’d told me that, I couldn’t imagine. I glanced at my watch, wishing that the driver of my car was faster in getting to the door. After a while, I tried to amuse myself with a crazy stare-back game to see who would look away first. I was losing.

  No one drove themselves in India. Technically, I had a rental car, but rentals came complete with a uniformed driver here. There was a madhouse outside the gates of the hotel. Cars, carts, animals, and motorcycles careened past each other so close together that I wondered why there weren’t more accidents. Normally, I was the independent type, but after what I’d witnessed on the way from the airport, there was no way in hell I would be getting behind the wheel of a car.

  By the time my driver came, I’d started to sweat. That would make a great impression on my first day at “work”. The driver scurried from the car with an apologetic look on his face, then pressed his hands together in that prayer yoga pose thing they did. “Namashkar,” he said. “Traffic, ma’am.” He threw in a head wobble for good measure.

  I didn’t answer as I wondered if he was a real rental car driver, or if perhaps, he too worked for the agency.

  “Have a nice day, madame,” the hotel doorman said to me, opening my car door while the driver grabbed my small briefcase. I nodded, then slid into the backseat of the small rental car. If they hadn’t given me that information, I wasn’t supposed to know. I didn’t want to get too comfortable or overeager. This was my first real assignment, and since protocol was such a big part of what we did, I wanted to be sure to follow it to the letter. I might be inexperienced, but I was still a perfectionist.

  As the car edged its way through the crowded streets, the driver didn’t try to make conversation. I did catch him checking me out in the rearview mirror once or twice, but for the most part, our trip was uneventful. The streets of the city were as crowded as they had been yesterday. For the life of me, I couldn’t understand why there weren’t more road fatalities. And what in the world was up with the women riding motorcycles sideways? They were mostly dressed in their traditional clothes, and they clung to the man riding the bike, sometimes with children wedged in between them. Most of the time, the man was the only one with a helmet. I shook my head. This was a new meaning for ride or die.

  They were expecting me at the office. The building was dimmer and more worn down than I imagined its US counterpart would be. The security guard took one look at me and then stopped me from signing in at the desk. He handed me a badge and just waved me through. “Third floor,” he said. He bobbled his head and smiled, showing his brownish teeth. I nodded, then looked away. He didn’t even make eye contact long.

  I followed the crowd to the elevator. When the doors swished open on the third floor, I was in the middle of the work area, just as I’d expected. I’d memorized and rememorized the layout of the office so I knew exactly where I was supposed to go. I made my way to my cube and smiled as I took in the familiar feeling. It was easy for a data processing person to pretend they were a data processing person. My title might be different, but my other life was very recent, so I felt right at home, or at least more at home than I did in the halls of ACOI.

  The small cube wasn’t too much different than the setup I’d had at my previous job, before I’d joined up with the agency, except I wasn’t sharing my space with anyone. If it weren’t for the gray felt wall in front of my desk, I’d expect to see Seria swivel her chair around any minute to tell me the latest gossip, just like old times.

  My phone buzzed before I even had a chance to sit in my chair. I jumped and snatched up the handset, not quite sure how to answer. “This is Desiree.” My words tumbled out of my mouth as if they’d been pushed over a cliff.

  I could barely understand the clipped voice on the other end, although I knew he was speaking English. “I will be right there to see you,” a man said. He enunciated each word as if speaking them was a chore.

  Before I could figure out who or what it was, there was a brown-skinned man at the door of my cube. His handlebar mustache had arrived almost a full five minutes before he did. He didn’t wait for me to great him.

  “Follow me,” he said.

  There was no time to ask questions and he certainly didn’t act as if I had the privilege or the right. He didn’t even look at me and had barely broken his stride when he got to my desk. He took off across the office, maneuvering his way through the rows of workspaces. No one even looked up. I followed as fast as I could. We went out into the hallway, passing a sea of ID badged people. They all gawked, but I was just about used to it by now. At the end of the hall, he stopped and opened a door. “In here. Wait, please.”

  “Wait
—” He damn near stuffed me through the door and slammed it behind me. He was already gone.

  The office didn’t seem much different than what I’d seen around the rest of the building. Industrial carpet. Dim lighting. Metal desk. There wasn’t even a window. I didn’t know if I should sit in the chair or stand where I was. I clenched and opened my fists. My palms were covered by a light sweat. I rubbed them on my clothes, ready to throw a punch if necessary. I didn’t have to wonder too long.

  I looked at my watch and suddenly the paneling in the rear of the office swung outward. My heartbeat pounded in my ears. Had there been a door there all along? This was some TV movie mess. There was only one other escape route. Before my heart attack could set in, Sam stepped through the door. It closed behind him.

  “Really?” I said. “You almost made me pee my pants.”

  A hint of a smile flitted across his face, but he quickly composed himself, crossing his arms across his chest. “I have some information for you.”

  “I don’t get a hello or anything? Where are you staying?” Thousands of questions ran through my head.

  “C’mon, Desiree. You know you’ll only be told what you need to know.”

  My mouth dropped open and I closed it quickly. If this is how things were going to be, I could handle it, but I needed some warning. I could be just as stoic as he could. He might be my man, but above anything else, I was a professional. “All right. Tell me.”

  “Elisheba has already made contact with your person. Last night. He gives these parties and you need to be on the list.”

  I’d come all the way to India and I still had to figure out how to cross the velvet rope. “How do I do that? Get on this list?”

  “The agency will handle that. You just show up. To this address.” He handed me a slip of paper. “Things will work themselves out.”

  My heartbeat grew loud inside my head. This was it. I wanted to ask a thousand questions. “What kind of parties are these?”

  “Stay focused, Desiree. There’s more.”

  This was where the familiarity was going to annoy me. “I have been nothing but—”

  “I’m not saying you’re not. I’m just worried for you.”

  I wanted to be angry at Sam, but couldn’t. The concern on his face pushed all the anger out of me. Just when I was ready to give him a good cussing out, the Sam I loved peeked through. He wasn’t thinking of this like Sam, the guy who was watching out for me on a dangerous assignment, but as Sam, my lover. I stepped toward him.

  “Desiree, don’t.” Sam stepped back toward the door. And the concern left, just like that. I knew where he was coming from, but my feelings were still a little hurt. It was impossible to feel any other way. His rejection had the same effect as him pushing me away for any other reason. Sam was back to being Sam, my colleague and nothing else. This was going to be more confusing than I’d thought.

  “Be friendly with your office mates. We think one or more of them are involved too. This party is apparently the hot ticket in this town. If anything is to be uncovered, you’ll do it there.”

  I nodded.

  Sam smiled. “Good, then. Listen, the dead woman was reported missing right before she was found. And there are others.” He turned around and pushed on the paneling. I suddenly wanted to go with him. As if he could read my mind, Sam shook his head. “We can’t. Soon though.”

  Soon? How soon? I felt a sudden absence. What would happen if this assignment took months? Did that mean I would have to put up with Sam as my colleague only for all that time? He’d been spoiling me. I wasn’t sure I could make it. I’d have to figure this shit out. Fast. For my personal reasons.

  I knew what we were supposed to do, but my body wanted otherwise. It didn’t want to obey. I closed the short distance between us and Sam reacted. My body pressed into his and our lips locked as we moved backward at the same time. Before I knew it, we were on the other side of the paneling, inside the wall. Most of the dim light escaped me as Sam kissed me back. I ached for him. It had only been a day or so since we’d been together, but it felt like an eternity.

  He moaned. I’d thought working together on assignment would be good, but this was hard, much harder than training had been. In training, we could be near each other. I didn’t even know where he was staying and I was in a strange country, feeling more alone than I had in a while.

  Sam’s hands found their way past the drawstring top of my pants. “I’m worried for you,” he whispered. “Be aware of everything around you.”

  I exhaled. How could I be anything else? His penis was rock hard and I welcomed it as it pressed into my belly. I needed him inside me. I was so confused about how to handle everything.

  We didn’t have much time. In one motion, Sam turned me around, then pulled my bottoms down to mid-thigh. He pushed inside me and we were suddenly hip to ass. I shivered as he filled me up, pressing my hips back to meet him. He placed one hand in the small of my back and the other on my shoulder as we started to move, slowly at first, and then faster.

  I rose up onto my tiptoes and bit my bottom lip as I tried to avoid noise.

  Sam grunted with each move, burying himself inside me up to the hilt. His balls met my clit with every forward motion. I braced myself against the wall, savoring the sensation. Excitement built inside me with each motion. I tried to hold back, but couldn’t. “Fuck me, Sam!” All my ladylike demeanor went out of the window. I wanted to release some of the tension that had built up since I’d set foot in India. Perspiration popped onto my forehead.

  “Thin walls,” he grunted. Sam was getting close. He put one hand around front of me, running his index finger over my button.

  I bent forward so I could savor his finger and his thrust at the same time, then everything went white as we exploded together. My muscles tensed and Sam pulled me into him, holding me in position. I felt the pulsing of his explosion. As our breathing slowly returned to normal, our muscles relaxed. I stood up and Sam pulled away, but not before he kissed me gently on the neck.

  “This will be over before you know it,” he whispered. “We’ll go somewhere special after this. I promise. Away from the agency and all this madness.”

  I shivered. His gravelly voice massaged my ears as he sounded more serious than I’d heard him in a while. I wanted to be away, too, somewhere that we could just be Dez and Sam.

  “Dez,” he said, “You might have to do things you don’t expect.” He choked. “Things we won’t like. Just remember, it’s for the best.”

  I wasn’t sure what he meant. “Okay…” I searched his face.

  “Just remember, I love you.”

  Why had he said it like that? “I know.”

  I put myself back together as best I could. When Sam closed the wall, it was almost as if the door hadn’t been there at all. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed that any of it had just happened, but I guessed that was the point. What good was a hidden passageway if it weren’t hidden?

  It took me a moment to compose myself. I took a few deep breaths and then tried to find my way back to the desk. There were throngs of people in the hallway, and all the while, my heart continued the loud drumbeat in my brain. Sam was gone, but the memory of his scent lingered in my mind. There was something about the all-business Sam that was damn sexy. The more he’d tried to be professional and distant, the more turned-on I’d become. My mind was all confused by the simultaneous push and pull, but my body was responding quite clearly. My face was flushed, and the body heat that Sam had stirred up was wreaking havoc on my composure. If I weren’t walking, I’d have to press my knees together hard to contain my swelling clit. Sam had given me lady wood. I’d have to deal with it later though, when I got back to the hotel. There was a party to get to.

  It took me longer than I expected to find my way back to my desk. My excitement quickly turned to annoyance. It was obvious I was lost but not one soul offered to help me. The floor was a lot bigger than I thought and obviously much
more like a maze than I’d planned on. Even though I’d memorized the layout of the floor, I felt as if I was lost inside the Longleat Hedge Maze. Part of the problem was that everything was exactly alike. Just when I was about to scream, I knew I was back in the right place.

  I squinted. Was I seeing right? Not two desks from where I had started out, I was seeing a ghost. Seria—I mean, Elisheba—was sitting four desks away from mine. I knew she was here, in India, but I didn’t expect to see her in the same department nor this close to me, and certainly not so quickly. Reed had left out that part. I thought I had more time to work up to facing her.

  I slowed down and approached my desk more slowly. What should I be feeling? I wasn’t sure how to feel after seeing, for the first time in months, the woman who used to be my best friend, but who had lied to me about my then-boyfriend’s criminal activities. She’d ended up in the middle of all of his mess, helping him embezzle money and even participating in his sex crimes, earning a criminal record of her own. She’d claimed that she’d done what she’d done to protect me, but hell, I was a big girl and could talk care of myself. I had and was taking care of myself now. What, exactly, did you say to someone who had done those things to you? I slowed my steps as I got closer.

  Just as I got to my desk, she swung her chair around and our eyes locked. It all clicked now. The office looked as it had from the bindi recording. I wasn’t sure if should speak to her, and it didn’t matter because my voice caught in my throat.

  Just then, another woman approached her. She was very attractive, in a Bollywood sort of way. She was fair-skinned and striking, reminding me of the actress Aishwarya Rai. Like Elisheba, a bindi jewel straddled her slightly toasted, golden-hued forehead. She seemed to be very fit and wore a tunic top and jeans like many of the other women in the office. There was something about her top that was mesmerizingly beautiful. Just like Elisheba had been.

  I didn’t want to eavesdrop, except I did. The woman hadn’t been in my file, but Elisheba called her Bala. Surprise remained all over Elisheba’s face. Bala had a friend who wanted to meet her. I sat at my desk and put my chin in my hands as if I wasn’t listening. Really? A hook-up? I listened harder. No, it was a party invitation. That was odd. Hadn’t she just been to one?