by M. C. Cerny
“Come on, Jacob. It’s me. Nick, your buddy. I want to be able to trust you. I need to be able to trust you.” He stressed the last bit and waited for Jacob to respond.
“I was protecting her, watching out for her, from a distance, of course.” Jacob sighed heavily and Nick popped open a bottle of water.
“Of course. They’re going to take you out of mission operations if you keep breaking protocol, unless that’s what you’re hoping for. Eli could just send you out to Kabul and then a new CEO will be leading your Dad’s company.”
“One of the men standing there next to her has been staying in her apartment. Did you know that?” Jacob looked towards the cemetery plot, ignoring Nick’s words.
“Jacob… maybe he’s her brother? Look, the CIA doesn’t appreciate being disobeyed any more than Eli does. We’re supposed to be finding a link between Cosovo, some South American drug lord and the Afghans, and his weird unknown shipments.” Nick took a sip of bottled water.
“Nick, when are you and Lulu going to just fuck like bunnies and get it over with?” Jacob said, changing the subject entirely. He had no problem going low, if needed.
Trying not to choke on his water, Nick warily eyed him. “Excuse me?”
“Gonna swear on a stack of bibles over it?” Jacob prodded Nick, but he chose to ignore him, looking out the window. “Exactly. I don’t tell you how to run your life; don’t tell me how to run mine.” Then Jacob saw his anomaly. He picked up his own high-powered binoculars to get a better look. A dark car pulled up on the other side of the cemetery. A blonde-haired woman exited the car and went over to the funeral procession. There was something strangely foreign about her and she stayed on the periphery of the mourners, standing alone. Jacob tapped the windshield with his finger. “Bingo, we need to find out who that woman is, Nick. She’s our anomaly. Get the plate on that car and see if something comes up through the DMV, please.” Nick seemed unsure as Jacob took out a camera, complete with a new telephoto lens, and snapped the necessary pictures. Then he put the car in reverse and drove away from the cemetery.
After Michael Tully had been laid to rest, many of the mourners stopped by Tully’s ex-wife’s home. Family and friends sat on couches in the living room, sharing condolences. Many brought covered dishes to share with the family, and coffee was passed around liberally.
Katie, Sam, and Trevor drove over together, and listened to stories of Tully’s wilder days. Many patted Katie’s hand and hugged her because she had been the last to see Tully alive. She felt awful and seeing how kind Mrs. Tully was being made her stomach tighten up. Tully’s son sat with his cousins playing video games and chasing the younger ones around the house. Her heart hurt for the family of the man she thought she knew. It didn’t seem fair that others would be comforting her. After an hour, she pleaded another headache and Trevor drove them back to her apartment.
The next morning, Sam was getting ready to leave the city. He had offered to stay longer, but Katie assured him that she could get along without him hovering. She told him that getting back to a routine would be best for her. He decided to stay until she got back from work that day. They could have dinner and then he would head back to Baltimore. Katie was getting ready to have a meeting with Jeff at the station so she dressed conservatively and pulled her hair back loosely, carefully clipping it and avoiding the stitches. She had no idea what to expect today.
She managed to get on the F train and get to her office. She felt off during the entire commute, like someone was hanging over her. Trevor texted her “Good luck”, which made her feel somewhat better. She stopped at a Starbucks near her office and fortified herself with a cup of coffee.
She got to the station and sat down in her station manager’s office, taking the brunt of his anger. He was disappointed that she missed the dinner and got sloshed before the event. Hanging out with Michael Tully was a poor choice, and Jeff made it clear that she was to only work on approved news assignments until her probation was over; the time was undetermined. Jeff handed her the award from the dinner, and Katie clutched it in a painful grip. He let her know that Lindsey would be temporarily taking her spot, and that if it wasn’t for her viewer appeal and the ratings, she’d probably be fired. Her manager awkwardly ended his lecture by saying how glad he was that she was alive and okay because he saw a lot of promise in her. Katie wasn’t sure he meant it, but she had been dismissed. She went to her desk.
The award looked back at her, stirring feelings that she didn’t want to think about as she booted up her computer. The icing on her cake that morning was having a computer virus wipe out her files. She left a message for their IT person to have a look at it, and made small talk with her co-workers. She had Thursday and Friday off to collect herself, then she was expected back in the office the following week. By the time she got home, she was physically and emotionally beat.
Before Sam left, he dug up some of the hospital papers on her kitchen counter so he could lovingly pester his sister. “Kit-Kat, before I go, I was wondering if you might need someone to talk to about what happened. I found this card and wondered if it might be helpful since I won’t be here as much as I would like to be.” He urged her to see Dr. Lane and talk about things if she didn’t want to call Mom, Trevor, or him. She hugged and kissed him goodbye, thanking him before watching him get into his car and drive away.
Katie thought constantly about Sam’s words and waited a torturous month after the nightmares started before she called Dr. Lane.
Nearly a year later…
IT WAS ANOTHER TYPICAL DAY in the office. Katie had arrived early that morning after briefly covering an exposé story on mismanaged funds for a charity event. Nothing disgusted her more than when innocent people were being cheated out of something that was supposed to make their lives better. She had interviewed the director of the agency, who tearfully told her that the money was supposed to help homeless families who were recently displaced by a fire in a crowded housing district of the city. Katie was not thrilled to be doing these kind of stories but, since she was technically still on probation with her boss for trying to interview, without his approval, a city council member last week, she was probably lucky she didn’t lose her job at this point. She was skating on very thin ice. She tried to concentrate on her notes for the evening news report, but she was feeling the distinctive caffeine low. If she hurried, she could make it to the Starbucks and get back to her office before anyone realized that she skipped out on the cafeteria’s low budget Java. Katie recalled the last time she had coffee from the cafeteria and sipped up coffee grinds. Yuck, the bitter, gritty reminder made her decision that much easier.
She grabbed her mauve leather Coach purse, which Trevor had reminded her was all the rage this season, and made her way outside. After being inside at her newsroom cubicle, the sunshine felt good. She looked up at the sky and admired the puffy cumulous clouds. Don would surely mention them in his weather report later today. Waiting for the light to change, she made her way across the busy street with a throng of caffeine-starved people also headed into the popular Starbucks location. Following the drones of people, she stepped inside the store. A café Americano with soy milk would do the trick and pep her up for her news report. She paid for her drink and stepped outside, savoring its bold aroma and sharp taste. As Katie was about to take her second coveted sip, she was trying to put her wallet back in when she fumbled her purse. As she adjusted the shoulder strap, she was violently bumped from the right. The force caused her to drop her coffee, spilling it on the sidewalk where it hotly splashed her ankle and covered her legs. Simultaneously, her purse was being grabbed from her shoulder, almost jerking her body into oncoming traffic. Stunned for a second, Katie realized she’d just been mugged. So much for a typical day.
Going into fight mode, Katie pushed her way through the crowd, yelling at her mugger. “Hey, you! Thief! That kid just stole my purse! Stop him!”
Katie took off, following the youth who, even on a warm day, was wearing a
hooded sweatshirt and pants low on his hips. Luckily for her, his ridiculous pants also slowed him down slightly. Katie pushed herself hard, the hem of her skirt drifting up towards her thighs as her stride lengthened. She didn’t run laps in Central Park for nothing and, soon, she felt herself gaining on the kid. He turned back once and saw her following him. She would be lucky if she didn’t trip in her heels and break her ankle chasing this hoodlum. He dashed ahead, sprinting through a green light. Katie followed, narrowly missing being clipped by a taxi as the light turned yellow. The man leaned his head out to yell something that Katie didn’t understand, but she only yelled back, waving a broken apology and kept running. The kid continued until he turned down an alley and Katie finally caught up to him.
At a swanky café across the street, Jacob Reed was having lunch. He was finally home after another several weeks’ long mission in Afghanistan, and tech detail in Mexico. It was a good thing he could run his full-time company through video conferences and web chat when he was away. He watched the people on the sidewalk and thought how much he liked this restaurant because it overlooked Katie Wilson’s office at Channel 10 news. If his team members knew how much interest he still had in the news reporter after last year’s debacle, they would probably send him off to Bellevue Hospital in a strait jacket. Some might even consider his focused behavior bordering on stalking. He wasn’t really stalking Katie, certainly not in the perverted, creepy sense. He just liked to watch over her when he was in town. He felt guilty after their initial meeting, leaving her at the hospital emergency room. He didn’t even really know her but, with her memory of the events skewed, he had to leave her to face the reality of her friend’s death alone, comforted by the people who knew her. He wasn’t actively pursuing her and he wasn’t dissuading other men’s interest in her, much to his disappointment. He just lucked out because Katie hadn’t shown any active interest in anyone since their meeting. He had yet to be tested by a potential suitor interested in her, but he couldn’t deny that he wouldn’t deliberately do something to impede the dating process, either. Jacob probably wouldn’t get away so easily doing this if he had to rationalize his watchful eye to Eli and the rest of the team, but what his brother didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. He just simply felt responsible for her, and no one was going to convince him otherwise.
While he was away on his own missions that took him out of town for extended periods of time, smartass Lulu was kind enough to send him daily clips of Katie reporting on the 6 o’clock news. Her probation had apparently been short-lived and she was back to work. Jacob certainly wasn’t going to dissuade Lulu from sending him video. He felt an incredible obligation for the young woman whose life had been transformed by a night of pure circumstance, the details of which never really emerged. However, just in case her dead friend was right about them coming after her, he had to be careful. Even a year later and he couldn’t find the mysterious woman named Petra or get enough shit on Cosovo to bring his sex trafficking operation down.
He was about to order lunch. His ruse was that he was dressed like a businessman but, while he did have business holdings in New York, it wasn’t exactly his purpose today. As a billionaire software company owner, he had the luxury of making his own schedule, as well as following more covert pursuits with the team as more of an operational leader. He and Eli still had to work out some kinks in their relationship, mainly who was really in charge because he certainly wasn’t going to be able to quit working for Eli anytime soon. As the waiter came over to take his order, he happened to see Katie slip out of her office building and head across the street to Starbucks. Happy that he would get this uncanny glimpse of her, he absentmindedly waved him off and asked him to come back shortly. She was so beautiful to him and unaware of her natural sense. She wore a fitted, knee-length skirt in a dark purple color, which only women could name. On someone else, it would normally have appeared very conservative, but she had paired it with a creamy silk blouse that bowed under her chin. Strappy purple shoes, which no one would have seen under her news desk, supported her petite limbs. Oddly, he liked her choice of shoes. They were sexy and seemed like her little feminine secret, given that most of New York would never see them on the TV screen.
He had noticed that she preferred the coffee outside of her building lately, but perhaps that was always her habit. He watched her enter and come out a few minutes later, holding a medium coffee. Even on a warm day, she liked real coffee and not one of those icy creations he assumed most people would order as soon as the temperature went up. Even from across the street, he could see her look of pure joy after the initial sip. He smiled and wondered what he could ever do, if anything, that would make her smile that way.
It was getting damn hard to stay away from her. He’d had a close encounter a few months ago when he was getting his paper and almost bumped into her at the newsstand he frequented. It was a drizzly, cool day the first week of November. She politely excused herself and rushed away, obviously engrossed in something. As she walked away down the street, it was all he could do not to stare at her in a bright red trench coach, neatly tied around her slim waist, and knee-high black fitted rain boots. She had never even looked up from her notebook. He couldn’t get that red coat out of his mind, fantasizing about her wearing that and nothing else. His building was close by, maybe a block or two. What would have happened if they actually made eye contact? Would she have remembered anything? Would there be that zing of natural attraction between them? So far, it was all unfairly one-sided. All he needed was some excuse to meet her, and maybe they would have a chance to find out if there was some real connection between them. He would be able to finally put his dangerous curiosity to rest.
Sometimes the mysterious universe opens up and presents exactly just that, the moment to be seized. Jacob watched Katie adjust her purse and saw her get bumped by a passerby, her coffee falling to the sidewalk in a splatter, the cup rolling into oncoming traffic. She righted herself quickly and, yelling, took off after the thief. Jacob couldn’t believe what was happening. He immediately stood up, jarring the small café table, ready to follow pursuit. He took note of in which direction they took off. Silly woman! The waiter had just come back and he bumped into him in his haste letting him know that he wasn’t ordering, practically running him down, spilling someone else’s drink order. He followed after Katie, barely missing being hit by a taxi, which was coming through the red light. The driver yelled at him in Farsi, which he promptly yelled back. The startled driver took off, flipping him the universal American bird.
Jacob was surprised at how fast she was pursuing and catching up to the kid. Even Jacob, from his distance behind them, was having trouble reaching the pair in the crowded city. He rounded the corner of the alley in time to see Katie struggling with her mugger, both having grabbed hold of her purse. The kid looked up and saw Jacob draw his gun from the holster he wore under his jacket. The kid pushed at Katie, who fell hard on the pavement, and took off running. Jacob could hear her fall to the ground, the thump of limbs and the snick of her head hitting pavement. The sound sickened him, as it wasn’t the first time he’d seen this happen to her. Gut clenched, he holstered his gun and ran to her side, ignoring the kid who was running away. He would deal with him later.
He rushed over to Katie. He checked her pulse and looked for major injuries before gingerly adjusting her limbs, untangling her body. Nothing seemed broken, but he could feel a lump on the back of her head already forming near a familiar thin, raised scar. Luckily, no skin had been broken. Head wounds could bleed profusely. He felt the old scar tissue on the back of her skull, and guilt flushed through him. He debated taking her to a nearby hospital to get checked out, but figured his apartment would probably be easier because it was only a block away. He could always call for an ambulance or backup, if needed. They had yet to finish the medical lab being built at the Tower so that was out of the question. He took off his jacket, wrapped Katie up, and picked her up. A few people gave him cursory glances but, in
New York City, most people just thought that he was taking his drunken girlfriend or secretary home after lunch. Not much surprised the city populous here where anything was possible. A few even gave him a wink, which he ignored.
Jacob knew he was going to have to call in some backup regarding this. He wasn’t ready to tell Eli that he just saved the one woman who could possibly blow their cover, but Nick was always there for him and could give him rational advice on the situation, at least. He might be able to provide some assistance, even though he was on the West Coast on a separate mission right now. Once he got to his building, Jacob held Katie in his arms and took the private elevator up to his apartment. Her body felt like a dead weight and her breathing was shallow. It was not a good sign that she was still unconscious. He opened his door and Hauk greeted him with a woof, wagging his tail. He jumped up and down, sniffing Katie’s legs, which dangled over Jacob’s arms.
“Easy boy, let me put her down. I know you recognize her scent.” Hauk continued to bark and jumped up on the bed, ran in a circle, then jumped back down again. Leaving the lights off, Jacob laid her down on the soft king-sized bed. He gently pushed Hauk away and gave him the command to lie down. He listened obediently, but continued to thump his long tail, waiting.
He touched her forehead, which was cool. Her blouse was dirty, and dirty scuff marks marred her pale, skinned legs. The once neatly tied bow on her blouse had come undone, her skirt rode high on her legs, and one of her neatly trimmed nails had been chipped. He checked her over a second time and Hauk licked her hand, which hung limply over the side of the bed. He went into his bathroom and grabbed the first aid kit that he kept there. It was a bit more outfitted than most first aid kits given in his Ranger days. He riffled through it, looking for antiseptic pads and ointment. Sitting down on the bed next to her, he pulled out his phone and dialed Nick. While he was waiting, he gently tugged her skirt down and draped the bed’s coverlet over her.