Shit… what point number was she on? She'd lost track of the issues. Jewell opened a note on her PC and started typing her thoughts. The soft buzz and click of her office door alerted her to Zane's presence. She pretended not to notice when Zane resumed his station just inside her peripheral vision. He'd left her alone to meet with Jason. That was an anomaly. When he was guarding her before, he'd stuck to her like a smothering coat of industrial strength glue. The inconsistency today baffled her. Her bare foot pushed her chair around to focus on him.
"What can I help you with?" Zane didn't look up from his tablet. What in the world did he read while she worked? His device wasn't connected to the internet; it couldn't be in her secured area. Whatever it was, it had to be good. He was always reading. Didn't he get bored? She bet he was a mystery or thriller reader. Maybe he….
"Jewell? Did you need something?"
His voice stopped her thoughts. She mentally backtracked. Did she need something… oh! "When you had your meeting with Jason, you didn't make me go with you, and you didn't have someone else babysit me. Why?"
"I believe you've internalized the seriousness of the threat against you. I don't think you would risk your life to prove a point to me. Besides, now that we are actually talking to each other instead of you dictating the way things will be, I trust you to do what you say you will do."
"I wasn't that bad." She wasn't, was she?
"Before, you'd leave the second my back was turned." Zane's calm voice irked her, although she didn't have a clue why.
"I wouldn't!"
"The Coffee Pot." He tossed the words to her.
Jewell stopped and blinked, remembering the first week he'd been assigned to her. "Oh, that's bullshit. I didn't leave you on purpose. I forgot you were supposed to be my shadow."
"Fine, I'll give you that one. What about the picnic at your brother Jason's house?" His eyebrow rose, and he cocked his head as he waited for her response.
Her lip curled up slightly. Oh. Yeah, that was funny. She had ditched him. He'd been distracted, and she'd made it all the way to her apartment before he'd found her. But the man still didn't lose his calm, cool demeanor. He was insufferable that way.
"Let's not forget about dinner with your staff. The mass distraction was a good attempt, but I'd learned your modus operandi by then."
Jewell placed her hands on her knees and drew a long breath. "They were supposed to distract you long enough so I could go to the Gaming Den. Nothing nefarious would have happened around a bunch of geeks."
"You don't know that. Besides, one of the world's biggest geeks is now a legitimate threat. " He pointed to the screen where Vista's words sat for everyone to see. She narrowed her eyes at him because anything she said now would confirm the man was right. Not that Zane being right was a bad thing. Well, not anymore. Jewell spun back to her monitors. She kinda liked being on the same side as this guy.
"Jason said I have to take some time off." She peered at him, and he nodded, not lifting his eyes from the tablet. "I want to go to the Gaming Den."
Zane lifted his gaze to her. "I'll check the blueprints, see what we need to do to make it safe."
"I promise, no tricks. I just want to go and lose myself in a game. It is one of the only ways I can relax." She picked a pencil out of her hair and stuck the eraser end into her mouth.
"I'll do my best, but I will be there with you."
"Cool. Can we go Friday night?" There was an Onyx Death tournament starting at five. If she got there by four, maybe she could pair up with someone halfway decent and totally rule the platform.
"The Onyx Death MMORPG tournament?"
"Yeah… wait… how did you know?" Jewell twisted in her chair. "You play Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games? Black Onyx?"
He laughed and turned off his tablet. "I do."
"Shut the fuck up! You do not!" She jumped out of her chair and clapped her hands. "Tell me you're good."
Zane leaned back and looked at his fingernails, huffed on them and brushed them against his suit jacket. "Level two hundred seventy-five, golden robe."
"Oh my God! No way!" She laughed and spun around. Zane's graveled laughter washed over her. She stopped spinning and hopped over to him, too happy to simply walk. "You have got to be my partner. We will kick ass!"
"I don't know. Are you any good?"
Jewell smacked his arm. "I'm better than good. Level three-twenty, Platinum caster!"
"Alright, I'll be your partner, but I'll be distracted, that means I'll need some back-up. I better start that process now." He stood up, bringing him within a fraction of an inch of her. Jewell reached up and kissed him on the cheek. He smiled and winked at her again as he headed out of her office. The delicious smell of his aftershave wasn't lost on her, but right here, right now, she was happy for the first time in… Jewell considered that thought. She couldn't recall the last time she was excited about going out.
Jewell slapped her head and spoke out loud, "Oh shit. I'm going out on Friday, with Nicolas and with Zane." She dropped her head back and groaned. What would her sister Jade do? Jewell snorted, she'd do both men, but that wasn't an option for Jewell. She plopped back into her seat. Simple answer, cancel one of the activities. She'd feel like a heel if she canceled on Nicolas, but she really wanted to play in that tournament.
She called up then interoffice memo and typed in Nicolas's name before she dashed off a quick note:
Nic, I have to cancel our dinner on Friday. I forgot I had a prior commitment. Will have to reschedule at a later time. ~ Jewell.
There, that was finished. She opened her fridge and reached for an energy drink. Her hand swiped thin air. Jewel bent down only to find her stash had been cleared out. There was bottled water, orange juice, cranberry juice and fresh apples. Two cases of Dragon's Blood gone. Jewell groaned and slammed the door shut. She stood up and headed to the break room. If she didn't get caffeine soon, she'd have a bitch of a headache. This called for coffee, in mass quantities. God help the fool that got in her way.
Chapter Seven
Zane sat down with the Domestic Operations scheduler and the district manager for Washington D.C. He was using the weight of Jason and Jared King to set up the outing for Jewell. Pulling resources two days before an event was more than enough notice, especially when the primary was Arch Angel's sister.
"Where is she going?" Kannon Starling, the D.C. district manager, asked as he slid his tablet closer.
"The Gaming Den."
Kannon nodded as he typed. The man's fingers flew across the board before he hit the return key just a little too hard. "Okay, I've sent a request for the blueprints of the area and also any monitoring devices we can have her section tap into while she is in the area."
"We have enough assets between assignments that we can cover the outing without pulling people in from their mandatory down time." The area's scheduler, Willa, had been there as long as anyone could remember and she was a whiz with making sure her people had down time while covering every operation in the D.C. area. She glanced over at Zane and made a tsking sound before she pointed at him. "Unlike you. You were on mandatory break. You got what, five days?"
Zane shook his head. "Three days and almost three nights."
Willa groaned or rather growled, and sat back in her chair. "Did you happen to mention to Mr. King that you were on MB?"
"That topic didn't come up, and quite honestly I wasn't going to mention it."
Kannon turned on the video screen on the wall. He laughed, gathering both Zane and Willa's attention. He shrugged. "About the only thing you didn't mention to him that night if the scuttlebutt is correct."
Willa chuckled and added, "True."
"Seriously?" Zane could only imagine how the story of that night had morphed as it filtered through the different sections.
"Yep. Heard you demanded a raise for working with
his sister." Kannon couldn't keep his shoulders from moving despite his best effort to suppress his laughter.
"And a transfer to the West Coast," Willa added.
"Plus three weeks extra vacation time." Kannon's words were nearly indistinguishable between his rolls of laughter. He slapped his leg drew and a long breath before he started laughing again. Kannon held up his arms in a massive circle. "Balls the size of Texas!"
Willa pursed her lips at the comment and wrinkled her nose. "The ladies down in HR said none of those requests came through, so I don't believe it. But, from what I've heard, you did get in the boss' personal space, and you were rather loud when you did it. Although I don't doubt you did make some demands, the exact demands you made have become speculative and rather legendary." She nodded her head toward Kannon who was still laughing as if he'd escaped a mental institution.
Zane shook his head and nodded toward the screen. "Are we doing this or are we going to sit here all night while you amuse yourself?"
Kannon threw him a middle finger salute and punched up a file, but the man was still laughing. The blueprints for the Gaming Den showed the facility was two stories tall, had five mini theaters and three lounges, restrooms on both levels and an office and supply area at the back. There were four entrances and six additional fire escape doors with plate glass windows at the front of the building but no other windows except in the bathrooms and the office areas. The gamers liked it dark, and the lack of windows accommodated the desires of the business' customers.
"Can you pull up the street view?" Zane asked as he studied the layout of the facility. The screen split, and a front and rear view of the club in addition to a map overlay appeared.
"We can put a man here and here." Zane motioned to the front and rear of the club. "I'll need one person inside with us. I'm going to be distracted, so I need someone on our six."
Kannon crossed his arms and looked at the visuals on the screen. He shook his head. "No, I want two men inside with you. I don't doubt your abilities, but one on your six and one floating is sound without being overkill. The primary is too damn important to this organization, not to mention her brothers would skin us alive if something went wrong. So that's four. Willa, do we have any teams available?"
"Yes, we have Romeo and Echo teams back. Romeo has just started debriefing, so they are out. Echo is on standby for an operation, but the seventy-two-hour alert hasn't been given to them. They can be used."
Zane acknowledged the questioning look Kannon gave him. "I know Quinn." He'd been in the same area as one of Echo team's operations. They needed his unique skill set to silence a fucking monster. His handlers had sanctioned the hit, and Zane had done his job, loudly and with prejudice, just as the team had requested. The resulting chaos had allowed the team to get in and get out without being detected. He and Quinn had exchanged a look across a densely populated room full of panicked, screaming people. So, maybe he didn't know Quinn, but it was about as close as Zane ever got to knowing another operative—at least as close as he'd ever gotten until he cross-trained into the personal security officer career field.
"Good, then it's set. What time Friday?" Kannon was typing up the ops orders as Willa was working the schedule. "She'll want to be there in time to sign up. Brief at 15:00, deploy at 15:30. Primary on site no earlier than 16:15."
"Duration?" Kannon was calling out the blanks on the form.
"TBD. If she's winning, it could be all night." Zane sure as hell hoped she'd win. The woman needed some down time.
"Roger that. Known hostiles in the area?" Kannon asked.
"The threat on the primary is a computer genius. Unknown identity."
Kannon sat back and blinked as he looked at Zane. "You think it's a good thing to put her in a building full of computer geniuses?"
Zane stroked his chin with his thumb and forefinger. He considered the question carefully before he answered. "We can't let this guy steal her life. From what I've discovered, the last time she's gone anywhere other than her office and her apartment was when we flew to Thailand to support the Bravata mission. She worked the entire trip there and back, plus all hours in between. If the lady wants to go play in a video game tournament, Guardian can sure as hell protect her while she's doing it. She's given enough to us. I think it is time to start repaying that debt."
Kannon blinked a couple times before he nodded. "Yeah, since you put it that way, I concur. You let me know anytime she wants to get out and about. We'll make it happen, right Willa?"
He looked over at his scheduler who was nodding in agreement. "We've got your back, Zane."
"I'm glad to hear it." Nicolas's voice rang out from behind Zane. He stood and turned around.
"Did you need to see me?" Zane's professional cloak slipped over him as did Kannon and Willa's. Nicolas was the Chief Operating Officer and technically their boss even though there were several layers of management between them.
"No, no… I was just curious as to what you were planning. I noticed on Jewell's calendar Friday is coded as out of office, and I know she has plans, so what exactly are you organizing?" Nicolas sat down and looked at Kannon who was the ranking individual in the room.
"Ms. King is going to the Gaming Den Friday night," Zane spoke for Kannon.
"No, she isn't." Nicolas's brows drew together. Confusion flashed across his face.
"Sir, she is. She asked me to arrange the details. Ms. King seemed very excited about the opportunity to be involved in a tournament." Zane wasn't going to add anything about being her gaming partner. He wasn't insane, nor did he want his boss to consider him a rival, but if he saw a glimmer of a chance that Jewell could be interested in him, he'd take it and run with it.
"She said Friday night? You're sure?"
"Yes, sir. There is a Black Onyx tournament. She's an avid gamer." Zane answered Nicolas's question truthfully.
"She's a… what? She plays computer games?"
"Yes, sir. MMORPG." Zane ripped off the acronym that he didn't know existed before he met Jewell.
"Say what?" Nicolas looked at him like he had three heads.
"Massively multiplayer online role-playing games, sir. They're huge in the online gaming world."
Nicolas's eyes narrowed as he studied Zane. "Do you play these games?"
Zane shrugged his shoulders. "Yes, sir, but I'm nowhere as good as she is. She's elite." He didn't add that he'd read everything on the game and spent just about every free hour he had building his character and learning how to compete with electronic foes. That would make him… Hell, he didn't even want to know what that would make him. Enamored. His mind whispered. He gave a mental shrug. He couldn't deny he wanted the woman. She was damn near perfect. Until you factored in the fact that she didn't want him around. He gave himself a mental fist bump because she'd admitted today she didn't hate him. He'd consider that a win.
"Alright then. I'm assuming you have the resources you need?" Nicolas's question was once again directed at Kannon.
"Yes, sir. We are utilizing Echo team from the overseas division since the avenues of approach and egress and the need for inside support would require a minimum of four personnel. They are on stand-by and not on alert as of this time." Kannon was damn good at his job.
Nicolas nodded and stood. "Alright. I'll let you get on with your business." He sauntered out the door, and Kannon swung his head toward Zane. Zane gave him a slight shake of his head.
"Willa, would you go make sure Echo team gets their orders? I need to talk to Zane about his last mission."
Willa snorted. "Bullshit. His last mission was overseas and nowhere near your area of responsibility. But, I can take a hint." She gathered her tablet and stood. The woman glanced at Zane before she leveled a glare at Kannon. "It is a damn good thing you aren't in the field. Take a lesson or twenty from this one." She motioned toward Zane.
Zane winked at
the woman. She blushed and left the room.
"So, what the fuck was that? Did Nicolas just try to piss on your leg? Please tell me he has no clue you are in love with this woman."
Zane shot a shocked look at Kannon. "I'm not in love with her."
"Well, you're in fucking heat or rut then. Hell, Spock, we can call it Pon Farr. I don't care what the label is. Whatever, you can't deny you have it bad for this woman."
Zane looked at one of the few people who had known him for years. He and Kannon met while they were on their first tours of duty. Kannon was an officer; Zane was enlisted. He shrugged and admitted, "Well I learned today she doesn't hate me, which is a plus, but you and I both know having feelings for her is dangerous. Relationships can fuck with rational thinking, and it could affect my decisions."
"Zane, your life has sucked at an atomic level for years. You deserve the right to have a life. If this woman is who you want to have that life with, I'll do everything in my power to make it happen. If you need me, professionally or as a friend, I'm here for you. But a word of warning. Don't run against that man. He'll dissect you and use you for bait. He's powerful, and he's connected. If he finds out you are competition, you could be reassigned to Thule, Greenland."
The reference to the Air Force base brought a smile to his face. He and Kannon had been stranded along with their respective squads at the air base for a week. They discovered even at remote assignments, the Air Force lived far better than the Marine Corps. Hell, they'd stopped into the mess tent, or dining facility, as the Air Force called it, and been served steak, baked potatoes and had a chocolate buffet for dessert. Allegedly it was the monthly birthday celebration, but the next night the chow was just as fucking good.
"At least I'd eat well." Zane stood and clapped his friend on the shoulder. "I'll ask if I need help. I have no idea where this assignment will lead, but I can guarantee you I will be careful."
Jewell (The Kings of Guardian Book 8) Page 5