It was difficult not to feel slightly embarrassed, as young and as undiscussed as their love was. Especially after having been in a situation where all caution had been thrown to the wind and, as a result, they knew each other physically in every way they wished to be possible.
It was Aubrey who broke the silence. She wanted to know that Jesse was comfortable with the strange revelation that they had been flirting online at the same time as falling for each other; that it was not too weird for his liking—and that all the complications of her work were not a put-off.
“So I guess you didn’t have to send me that message after all,” she began.
“I guess not,” he said, smiling. “Though it’s lucky I did.”
“How do you mean? What difference does it make?”
“It was the most difficult text I’ve ever sent,” he said. “But if I hadn’t…then you might not have thought I was genuine. I didn’t realize I was actually telling you how I felt; you can’t lie when you’re being overheard.”
“I guess not. Well, I’m flattered.”
“Why’s that?” he said with a laugh.
“You chose me in the flesh over your imaginary woman, Jesse. Now that’s a compliment.”
“Even more so if you knew my imagination…” he replied with a mischievous grin.
Chapter 14
To the end of the day, Claire’s vehicle took them on a road both clear and ominous.
Regardless of how well-prepared they were, or how much some of the odds might have turned in their favor since Claire had saved them, the fact was they were driving towards a showdown; one that was crucial for saving the lives of many innocent shifters. All pathways were set to diverge upon an unavoidable date with destiny and all of them felt the fear of failure. Steely determination was there in spades also, but it did not seem unusual that, once under way, they spoke very little except when some query came to mind about the task in hand. They had all become very good friends in such a short period, but there would be another time for fun and light-heartedness. Instead the atmosphere was heavy, enhanced by the fading light and the silence of a new landscape.
As they crossed the border into New Mexico, neither Jesse nor Claire were immune to the chill of being in another’s territory. Both of them longed for the woods and mountains of home where they felt safeguarded, rather than the flat open desert where their fates awaited. Territory was a factor felt more keenly by shifters and Jesse knew that he was very stereotypical in this regard. A desperation to blend into wider society and the life of a city had never found him, as it had to more insecure shifters who wanted to combat marginalization.
In a way, an adventure he’d been planning earlier had come true, however. The mission to seek Yerbua, wherever in the States she might be, was one he’d been gearing up to accept. In a strange way that had now come true, only the route had been far more complex than he had understood. Winning her heart had not just been a case of turning up at her door and sweeping her off her feet. His wish to find out who she was had been answered, but her life was in danger and he had to make sure that threat was extinguished. Conversely, he would also die if anything awful happened to Aubrey, though he preferred to tell himself this would be because of a broken heart, rather than because of the disease he knew was still in his system. Strangely, the more it threatened to overpower him, the less bothered he seemed to be by its existence.
As for Aubrey, the silence that descended on the car was not lost on her either. The mission meant her friends were being led into an environment that only she understood. Effectively, the role of guide and client had been reversed. She’d have to look out for their well-being, and any call she made would have to be right on the money. Jesse and Claire couldn’t be expected to be the brains in unfamiliar surroundings, so all those qualifications of hers had better be worth the paper they were printed on.
As the destination approached, as well as navigating Claire upon roads she had never been, Aubrey also looked to calm their nerves by going over the security measures they would have to overcome once outside the lab. Getting in would take teamwork, but once inside her wits alone would have to do all the damage—with Jesse by her side as extra protection in case they came across Marshall.
“Getting into the parking lot will be fine,” Aubrey told them. “My staff badge should get us through the gate, unless he’s been stupid enough to have my ID denied before anyone even knows I’m supposed to be at death’s door.”
“It would be nice if he turned out to be that stupid,” Jesse agreed.
“Once we’re outside the building, that’s when we’ll need your help, Claire,” she carried on explaining. “There’s a side gate we’ll need to get through to access the lab. They won’t let me bring guests in so we’ll need a distraction, but there’s only the lone security guard so it should be possible.”
“Is he nice looking? You want me to flirt with him as a distraction?”
“If Jabba the Hut look-a-likes with false teeth are your thing, go for it. Otherwise I’d suggest playing the dumb blonde and asking for directions. If you tell him you can’t find the main entrance he might be inclined to walk you to the corner of the building and point. That will give us time to slip in.”
“No worries,” Claire replied. “If there’s one thing you can depend on me for it’s my gift of the gab. I’ll probably keep him for ten minutes just for fun.”
“Probably be the most interesting thing to happen to him all year,” Jesse added. “I can’t think of any job duller than being a security guard at a lab.”
“Once you’re inside, what are you gonna do?” Claire asked.
“It should be relatively easy to access my files once inside…if they’re still there. Oh, by the way, Jesse,” Aubrey said, turning to look at him. “We might want to walk as if we’re not together. Just follow a casual distance away.”
“Sure thing,” he replied. He did not let on but the dangerous element of the whole business was causing his adrenaline to rush. This was useful in combating the effects of the Cripple—and his general nervousness—but the thought of following Aubrey’s sweet curves into an untypical environment just made him think about sex. An overactive imagination was both a curse and a blessing and he would have to resist trying to talk Aubrey into making love on her desk when they got there. As tantalizing as the idea was, there was too much hanging on their mission to risk enjoying themselves like that.
“If someone challenges you,” Aubrey continued, oblivious to what his imagination was doing to her. “They’ll probably just say “you shouldn’t be in this part of the building”. If so, just tell them you’re lost looking for a patient and let them direct you back to the right department. I’ll then backtrack to come and get you and we’ll zigzag whatever route we need to take to my laboratory.”
“Got it,” he replied – although he’d barely been listening at all. Would Aubrey prefer it bending over the desk or on her back, creasing all the work papers? he was thinking. Probably both, was his satisfying conclusion.
***
At last the offices of Lampack Research loomed into view, appearing of a size and prestige that Jesse and Claire were not quite prepared for. Aubrey had told them a little bit about her career choice and how there had been richer and grander companies she neglected to pursue in order to work on rare shifter diseases. All this made them think that healthcare research was clearly something more of a corporate monster than either of them had realized, if this building represented the more humble side of the sector.
For Aubrey this was an everyday sight, however, and they took comfort in the confidence she showed, especially once the task in hand was almost within her grasp. She was right about the parking lot. Access was easy by just showing her badge; it was not untypical for staff to be driven to work or for employees to undertake a quick stop to pick up files they had forgotten. No questions were asked as to who Jesse and Claire were, but it would not be the same when attempting to access the building. Staff w
ere expected to wear passes, while patients and visitors had their designated parts of the building.
The time had finally come, and it was Claire’s task to get matters under way. A clustering of vehicles in the spaces around the entrance itself meant that they had to walk a distance to reach the side gate Aubrey had described, but this was useful in ensuring the security guard could not see them approach or tell that they were together. Also, Jesse and Aubrey were able to hide conveniently behind a large van just several places from the gate, meaning that if Claire was as good at distracting the guard as they thought she’d be, then they would only have to be discreet for a very short distance before accessing the building. Hiking boots had not let them down so far, but this would be a very different kind of test.
First up was Claire, though.
“Hey there, are visitor hours over?” they heard her ask.
“No, this is for employees only,” the security guard replied, with his mouth half full of donut.
“Oh, is this not the main entrance?”
“No. You want to head round on your right over there.”
“Feels like I’ve been round this place twice already,” Claire replied with a dramatic sigh. “Can’t you tell them they should put some signs up or something?”
“Erm…it’s right round there,” the guard insisted. “The white double doors.”
“You sure?”
“I’ve only worked here eleven years; you can’t miss it.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
After this exchange they heard the sound of Claire’s heels walking off in the direction the guard had shown her. Soon she was visible to them, standing at the corner of the building.
“What’s she doing?” Aubrey asked.
“Don’t worry, give her a chance,” Jesse replied.
Then they heard Claire calling back to the guard.
“You mean that blue door down the stairs?”
“No,” the guard called back. “The white double doors.”
“The what?”
“The white double doors.”
“I can’t see them, but never mind.”
“No, look…”
The ruse worked and, although slow and lumbered, with one movement at a time the guard climbed out of his booth and began to walk after Claire, shouting along the way, “The white double doors, they’re right there.”
“She’s done it,” Jesse said. “Let’s go.”
The two of them quickly emerged from hiding and light-stepped over to the empty booth. In reality they could have crawled and would still have had enough time. Something about the trick made Jesse feel the need to showboat, especially because he knew that Claire could see him from where she was still pulling confused faces at the security guard. Looking to test her composure, he decided to break out into a kind of impromptu dance there and then, to some funky tune that might have had a name but at that time was only being played in his head.
“Jesse,” Aubrey called under her breath, having opened the door only to find out that her lover was not there. At the sound of her voice the silly dance was cut short and the pair of them were inside. The last thing Jesse heard before the door closed was Claire saying, “Oh, those double doors! Silly me. I thought that was the laundry.”
Once inside it was serious-face time again. Jesse had never known so many featureless corridors; in the woods he took pride over a highly-tuned sense of direction, but he thought he would never find his way back to the same exit without Aubrey and would have to jump out of a window instead. No wonder she had missed hiking so much, stuck in such drab and characterless surroundings. He could not decide whether to try and like the place or not. Aubrey might use such an environment to find a cure for rare shifter diseases, but he also knew that his disease had come from the same place.
Jesse counted three different flights of stairs but had no idea where in the building they were relative to their starting out point. Aubrey had most likely led him on the most discreet route, avoiding any cafeterias or meeting places, and it seemed to have worked. He had seen plenty of people, but they were mostly working within laboratories or offices, through windows or within whole different sections that branched off. If anyone wondered who he was, their curiosity was not overpowering enough to cause a chase, and they passed no one in too close a proximity to make ignoring them difficult.
Eventually, just as Jesse thought he was going dizzy, Aubrey announced, “These are my labs,” before opening a pair of double doors into something that reminded him of a fancy version of one of his old high school’s chemistry classes.
“This is where you practice your art, babe?” he spoke, for the first time since entering the building. “I’m impressed, I can see you take pride in your work.”
“Why, thank-you.”
“Also, this is the first place in here I’m almost semi-comfortable. It has your scent so I can live with that.”
“If there’s one way to make a girl paranoid it’s by talking about her “scent”, Jesse.”
“Sorry! At least I’m not a wolf; I hear they can smell what you ate for breakfast last Tuesday.”
“Lovely. That’s my office over there,” she said, pointing. “Marshall’s lab is right next to it. He might not be in, but we should be quiet just in case.”
The thought of the man who had left them for dead served to sharpen Jesse’s senses and peeled his eyes for any of the routes by which someone could enter the lab. His descent into humor had partly been to distract his mind from the growing achiness in his limbs, which had increased throughout the journey. It was as if a great weight was telling him to curl up and lie down.
While Aubrey shuffled through her office drawers, Jesse stood on guard.
“Bingo!” he then heard her exclaim.
“You got them?”
“Right here,” she said, emerging by his side with a bundle of papers. “He’s obviously been in there but wasn’t thorough enough. He didn’t know this, but anything I’m currently working on I put in a tray under my desk. This is enough to put him away, as soon as I match it with whatever toxin he has in his backpack… err…what’s wrong?”
“Huh?”
Jesse had been looking longingly at Aubrey’s desk, picturing her naked and lying across it.
“Erm… nothing. Nice one, Aubrey.”
Another male voice sounded just after his. “Yes, well done, dear.”
Simultaneously they turned to see him standing several paces away. The files might have been in Aubrey’s hand, but a gun was in Marshall’s, and he had been onto them from the moment they stepped into the building. Jesse cursed the luck that led them into such a predicament once again. His distorted senses were taking so much comfort from Aubrey’s adorable scent that he had completely missed picking up on the fact that someone else was already in the room. Keeping an eye on the entrances had done no good whatsoever, after all.
On this occasion Marshall was well presented; shirt tucked in and tie exquisitely in place. He would have made a perfect assassin and Jesse could see exactly why Aubrey had never seen him coming. Without the gun in his hand, he was not a man to raise suspicion, although there was gloating in his voice through knowing he had them once again.
“You might have the files, Aubrey,” he said. “But no one will make head or tails of them, even if I do let them be found. See, no one’s going to continue your hard work, I’m afraid. Sometimes life is a losing game and you made all the wrong choices, girl. Should have taken one of those big jobs in California; sunny beaches and all that. Your dad was dead; no point trying to save someone you can’t—a losing game in the end.”
“We all have our own life choices to make, Marshall,” Aubrey replied. Jesse couldn’t hear any fear in her voice. Because this was her workplace, maybe Aubrey felt all the authority was now hers. Certainly Marshall had lost his, but none of this affected their plight.
He was the one with the gun, after all.
“Go on,” Marshall urged, not in any rush to
finish the showdown.
Some twisted form of professional courtesy still existed between them.
“You’re a man of medicine,” Aubrey went on. “But rather than dedicating your days to cures you put them towards pursuing bitter personal vendettas. You could dedicate your life to great good but instead you want to decide who you share the world with; play God like so many awful bastards that have come and gone before you.”
“Isn’t that what we all do with medicine, Aubrey? Play God?”
“To save lives, not to kill. What for, Marshall? You avoid shifters on a daily basis as much as you like, why go about creating sick diseases to kill them? Just because your grandmother was chased off a cliff by some wolf or something?”
“Nice try, Aubrey. But I have my reasons.”
“What reasons are there?” Jesse butted in. “Aubrey’s right, you’re like so many that have come before and there’s nothing mysterious or interesting about any of you. You can’t live without deciding to hate something. Someone out there must represent the bad guys that have made you feel so sad and lonely, so who do you choose? Always the ones you understand the least; why not the shifters? They’ll do.”
“Hmm! This shifter talks well, doesn’t it?’ Marshall responded, not taking his eyes from Aubrey to acknowledge Jesse. “Probably even thinks its thoughts are its own.”
“How did you know we escaped?” Aubrey asked.
Was she buying time for something? Jesse couldn’t tell and decided he would have to be the one to think on what move to make. He thought he had a chance of saving Aubrey; it was just a matter of waiting for the right moment.
“It looked like a sure thing at the time,” Marshall replied, raising his voice again, “But we’ve got scientific minds, Aubrey. Not like this hound. We don’t leave any stone unturned and it was just playing on my mind, you know.”
Roar For More (Online Shifter Dating Agency Romance) Page 12