by David Horne
“You’ll get a medal for it.”
“I won’t even get unemployment.”
“Can we just get drunk tonight and forget about it until tomorrow.”
“I need to take a shower.”
“I’ll order a pizza for us, and we can watch cheesy movies.”
“That sounds good.” He put down the glass and stood. “I hope the rabbits don’t come back tonight.”
“You might not like hearing them fucking through the bedroom wall.” Marjorie gulped her drink. “But personally, it’s got to be better than what I’ve had these last few months. Porn on the internet is so predictable.”
“Well, take it easy, she-devil. I’m going to shower. You order the food.” From the top of the stairs, he gazed down on Marjorie looking through her purse for the cell phone. “While you’re in there, make sure you leave the car keys on the table.”
“I’m not going anywhere, hero. And if they get back here before you get out of the shower, I’ll have a few words with Angelica to cough up money for rent.”
“Please don’t start with her.”
“That skinny bitch needs to pay you. It’s the least she can do since you’re forced to hear her moaning every night.”
“It’s more like panting and screaming around the time of climax.”
Marjorie waved her hand in the air as if flitting away from the image Alex put in her head. “Please, that implies either Gary knows what he’s doing, or she’s a great actor.”
“We’ll leave out their sexual semantics.” And Alex wandered into his bedroom and closed the door.
***
The headache wasn’t as heavy as Alex anticipated the following morning. Marjorie snored lightly from her side of the bed. Gary and Angelica remained missing for the night, and the pizza box at the foot of the bed still had four slices left.
They’d finished the whiskey and another two liters of soda. Alex woke up when the cell phone on the nightstand rattled against the glass tabletop.
“Hello?” he asked. Voice raspy with sleep and raw alcohol, he cleared his throat and repeated it.
“Alex Harper, you are a living legend. How soon can you get down here?”
“Who is this?” The caller ID said it was Logistique Security, but the last time Alex spoke to Ruby, her voice was a few octaves higher.
“It’s Jim,” he said, the voice had a hint of annoyance. “Your boss, you know, Jim Parrish.”
“Oh, right,” Alex rubbed his face with a free hand and nudged Marjorie. Her snoring increased in volume. “What can I do for you, Jim?”
“Are you kidding me? The press is here. It’s after eight, and you’re not at work.”
“That was Ruby’s choice, not mine.”
It took a moment before Jim responded. “Look, Alex, we both know she can be a little intense. But what happened yesterday put us on the map. I don’t know how you got away from the bank without the press attacking you. But they were all here this morning waiting to interview you. Did you know more of our online applications were downloaded, from last night to this morning, than ever have before?” It was supposed to mean something to Alex, but he didn’t care. He pressed his bare foot against Marjorie’s thigh under the covers, but she didn’t stir. “You’re the talk of the town today.”
He glanced out the window to the front of the house. The street was normal. There were no media vans or lurking reporters in his yard. They all assembled at the office, and he was glad of it. Alex wasn’t interested in publicity. He liked the privacy without the noise. “I think Ruby gave me a few weeks off without pay, Jim.”
“I had a conversation with her about it. I took care of it.” Jim was the owner of the franchise. Ruby was his henchman and had a cut-throat mentality. She’d removed anyone who threatened her position. She found ways of eliminating anyone in the company that she saw as a menace. Alex was at the top of her list. He knew it. Jim knew it. And Ruby knew how to bide her time. Now, this happened and put her in the perfect position to hand out the third and likely final reprimand that would put Alex out of her hair altogether. “What do you want me to say?” he asked. There was desperation in his voice. “I’ll get rid of the incident report. I want you here.”
Alex felt there was a bargaining point on the table with a man he only saw a handful of times during his career with Logistique. Many of the employees treated Jim with reverence. Everyone feared Ruby’s wrath. But Alex understood they were just people. They all wiped their asses with their hands, and he hoped they washed those hands afterward.
“There’s a Mr. Connor Haynes who’s called here a few times this morning.”
Eye closed, Alex pictured the handsome stranger. His intense eyes were looking up at Alex from the floor, Haynes was a man who’d likely never experienced real danger in his life. Like Marjorie’s coworkers, it was their one moment of life-changing experience, and Haynes just wanted to use the opportunity to shake Alex’s hand and maybe get a little more publicity from riding on the incident. It was the same way Jim wanted to use Alex to promote the company. But the man wasn’t offering anything that interested Alex. And despite all that happened at home, the mounting bills and lack of income, Alex turned down his flippant boss.
“I’m going to take Ruby’s punishment, Jim. She’s running your company and if I just came back immediately following her reprimand, what kind of a message would that send to the other security team?” He yawned loudly into the phone. He didn’t have to mention Ruby’s attitude toward insubordination. “I can use a few weeks off.” And he ended the call.
“Who was that?” a scratchy voice groaned into his spare pillow from the other side of the bed. Marjorie spent the night and crawled into the available space in Alex’s bed. It wasn’t used, and she reasoned why let it go to waste.
“That was the owner of the company trying to whore out my services for his benefit.”
“Make sure you wear a condom,” Marjorie added.
They lay side by side in bed for another twenty minutes before Alex finally got up. He wore pajama pants to bed but went shirtless. Marjorie managed to remove her pants but left on the top she’d donned the night before.
When the cell phone rang again, Alex expected Jim to make another attempt to sway him. “No means no,” he said as soon as he answered.
“Excuse me?” the voice responded. “Is this Alexander Harper?”
“Yes,” he said and made a face at Marjorie for the mistaken call. “Who’s this?” He glanced at the caller ID and saw it was a blocked number.
“I don’t know if you remember me. Your boss at Logistique Security, James Parrish, gave me your phone number. I hope you don’t mind.” It was a lot of fodder to get to the details. Someone who made a lot of noise had nothing to say. “My name’s Connor Haynes.”
“Connor Haynes,” Alex repeated out loud because Marjorie was making a face that suggested she’d start making obscene noises if he didn’t let her in on the call. “I remember you.” Like a shotgun blast, he thought. “What can I do for you?”
“Well, this isn’t something I normally do, of course, but I felt it was imperative that I have a conversation with you.”
Alex felt that shotgun blast subside. He remembered that regal chin, the hazel eyes with gold flecks. The man was slightly taller than Alex. He remembered before the incident that forced him to the floor. He was fit, and now that he’d made an unsolicited phone call, Alex felt Connor lived a life of entitlement.
“I appreciate the call, Mr. Haynes. But I’m not interested in public appearances or accolades.”
“I can appreciate that, and please call me, Connor. What I have to offer will take a little time to explain. And I don’t want to do it over the phone. I hope you can understand. There is a sense of urgency.”
Something inside Alex loosened. He had mandatory time off from work. Here was a man who didn’t know how to take ‘no,’ and Alex figured since he had an open calendar, what harm would it do to listen to the man?
�
��Well, Connor, you’ve piqued my interest.”
Chapter Five
Eggs and toast fed the hangover. The cheap coffee was best with cream and sugar to help the body heal after a night of misguided self-pity. These little nuggets of wisdom Alex culled from a lifetime with his best friend, Marjorie. She’d once lived vicariously through Alex, seemingly unable to hold down lovers. Eventually, she’d made a radical announcement where she’d renounced men altogether. Alex didn’t count because she relied on him and he wasn’t available sexually, just emotionally.
Alex knew it was her being overweight that lowered her self-esteem. He was glad it hadn’t diminished her standards when it came to men. She’d had a lover who got physical with her, and Alex sorted him out. It was the least he could do. Getting involved with Marjorie’s love life stopped just outside the bedroom door. Unless, like last night, she was too drunk to drive, then it was occupied space with no chance of scoring.
He arrived at the address at the attended hour. There was one thing about the houses of Fawn Lake in Locust Grove; the security was only as good as the guards watching the gates. A community heavily driven by HOA money, the gated entrances into the four thousand acres didn’t have security fences, only wrought iron gates that covered the paved roads.
Once inside, after supplying his ID, Alex drove the sprawling streets that wound around the high-end houses until he reached the destination on Google maps. Connor lived in an extravagant rambling mansion with three garage doors, wide stone steps that spilled out on a wrap-around veranda.
Alex checked his watch before he got out of the car. He was a little early but considering the obscurity of the request, what was fifteen minutes?
He checked his tie before the door opened. Massive double doors at the front of the house, one door came open enough to show a wrinkled face of an old woman.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“I have an appointment with Mr. Haynes.”
“Mr. Haynes is at the office at this time of day.” She didn’t give an inch to Alex. “He takes appointments there. Contact his office manager.”
When the door closed, the deadbolt turned, Alex felt like a damned fool standing on the tongue and groove wood floor. Instead of ringing the buzzer again, Alex turned on his heel and moved off the porch.
By the time he opened the car door, someone had called to him from the porch.
“Mr. Harper,” Connor shouted. “Sorry about that.” He came off the veranda in great strides and hurried to the driver side of the car. Alex stood with the door agape, ready to climb inside.
“I really have to apologize about Jeanette. She’s rather protective.” He put his hand on the top of the door. “Please come inside.”
There was no wedding band on the ring finger. Connor wore a pullover cotton shirt that accented his tapered chest. He was physically fit with a trim waist. He wore sandals with socks, Alex noticed, and thought some people had no self-worth.
“That was a little strange,” he admitted.
“I know. But you have to understand, Jeanette means well.” He pushed at the car door as Alex stepped out of the path. “After you hear what I have to say, I think you’ll understand why she acted like that.”
“Okay,” he said and followed Connor.
***
Gourmet coffee was better than anything Alex bought for himself. They had the steaming beverage brought to them while Alex wandered around the expansive home office, looking at the bookshelf that occupied the whole wall. There was a glass face across sections of the bookshelf. Protected from the elements, Alex saw hardcover first editions that were hundreds of years old. There was a humidor on a side table. The faint scent of hand-rolled tobacco leaf cigar smoke lingered. The smell was nostalgic to Alex because he had an uncle who smoked cigars. The stogies helped his uncle to an early grave.
Jeanette arrived with the aromatic coffee a few minutes after Alex went into the office. She gave him an educated look and appeared to disapprove of him immediately. But Connor had the coffee brewed before he got there and Alex wasn’t someone interested in wasting good coffee.
“Please have a seat, Mr. Harper.”
“It’s Alex, Connor.” He sat, crossed his legs, and waited for his host to explain why they were meeting in the privacy of his home on a weekday afternoon.
“Thank you, Alex.” Connor poured two cups of coffee and topped off each mug with cream and sugar. “Hope you don’t mind,” he said of the additives. “I forgot to ask how you wanted your coffee.”
“This is perfect,” he replied and took a sip.
“I want to get to the point.” He settled in the leather chair on the other side of the desk. “I want to hire you.”
“I have a job.”
“You do, I know. But after that little business at the bank, I did some research.”
Suddenly it came clear. Alex’s past caught up to him, and while it didn’t take a lot for someone to get information from the internet, Connor seemed to be the type of person who paid people to dig deeper into background checks. He nodded and sipped at the coffee.
“You’re a decorated soldier. You were part of the secret service.”
Things he already knew. It made Alex uncomfortable when people brought up his past. He wasn’t ashamed of it. He didn’t leave in disgrace. It was just something that happened to him, and he moved on.
“You lost your husband five years ago.” The tone was somber, Connor appeared genuinely sympathetic.
“I did,” he said quietly.
“I understand why you took a step back from what you were doing.”
“You’re the only one that does then.”
“I’ve been through a few things myself. I understand changing how we wake up every day hoping it will make things a little easier.”
“It did.” Alex wasn’t going to lie about it. He’d lost Phillip in the blink of a day. They had breakfast, when Alex got home, Phillip never came back again. He was the only fatality for the traffic accident on 95. And Alex had to redirect his life. He knew he was compromised. His supervisor required him a psychological evaluation before he returned to service. He got the evaluation. He didn’t learn anything about himself. He grieved Phillip and went on with his life.
Alex would have taken a bullet for his husband. But a twenty-year-old girl busy texting and driving took the man he loved away from him.
“I want to offer you a security job. Please, just hear me out,” Connor added quickly when Alex opened his mouth to speak. “I have an offer in this envelope.” It transferred from Connor’s fingertips to Alex over the desktop. “I want you to consider it. But I want to explain what’s happened.” Connor took a moment before he continued. Whatever weighed on him, it took a toll, and Alex saw that. “I feel like an ass for saying this because it sounds so damned cliché. But I think someone’s trying to kill me.”
Chapter Six
Riveted by the description Alex narrated, Marjorie leaned forward so much over the dining room table, she almost lost her balance. They had a dinner date that night. A follow up to too much alcohol, and neither had work the following day. Alex didn’t exercise for two days, and he felt as if he betrayed his body. It didn’t help that Marjorie made pasta for dinner and no one counted calories in her home. It wasn’t allowed.
“Well, you’re taking the job.”
“Why? Because he’s lonely and handsome, and rich?” Alex asked
“Let me think, um, yes, yes, and yes.” Three fingers showing, Marjorie didn’t have an argument against switching jobs. “You need this.”
“It’s a temporary assignment at best.”
“So what,” she said, throwing another helping of pasta in the bowl in front of her. “Take a sabbatical from the security company.”
“I’m pretty sure you can’t just take a furlough from work.”
“Sure you can,” she spouted, tearing off another slice of garlic bread. “You used to work for the government. They take sabbaticals or furloughs, w
hatever.” She gave him a long look. “How much did he want to pay you?”
“I don’t know; I didn’t open the envelope.”
“What the hell, Alex.” She stood up and went to where he’d thrown his jacket. She checked the coat pockets. “Where is it?”
Neatly folded, Alex removed it from his pants pocket. She plucked it from his fingers and opened it.
“Holy shit, you’re taking that job.”
“I don’t think it’s as bad as Connor thinks it is.” She turned the offer around to face him. He raised his eyebrows at the amount. “I feel bad taking his money.”
“So, feel bad. But you’ll pay your bills.” She dropped the offer on the table between them. “You’re not going to get ahead if you don’t do something. I’ll have to move out of my apartment and move into your house if you’re going to save it. I still think you can rent out a room.”
Alex looked at the face of the printed letter. Connor’s company logo embossed the top of the sheet. Alex knew about the company from various media broadcasts. It wasn’t that the man was stinking rich. Alex had been to his house. It was obnoxious. But it wasn’t outlandish. The man had a story, and Alex listened. But in his professional opinion, there wasn’t anything dangerous going on in Connor’s life. He had no evidence, only speculation.
“I think you need this more than you know.” Marjorie’s words echoed what Alex told himself the whole way home. She grew still, less animated, a tactic Alex knew was her way of being serious when she had something to important to tell. “You saved my life the other day. There are a lot of grateful people because of you. Whether you’re looking for the accolades or not, he found you. Or you found him. Somehow it just feels as if it was meant to be.”
Alex didn’t see an argument against Marjorie’s logic. “I’ll call Jim tomorrow.”
“Oh man, Ruby will be so pissed.”
“I think she’ll like the fact that I’m not around to steal her job anymore.”