by Marie Astor
***
Ally put on Jake’s T-shirt and wrapped her arms around her. The euphoria she felt while they made love had evaporated and was replaced by a sense of alarm. Something was on Jake’s mind and it worried her. Obviously it had something to do with the Orion assignment, but she sensed that it ran deeper than that. It wasn’t like Jake to stall things. Why wouldn’t he just come out with it? Unless the news was really bad?
The bathroom door opened and Ally nearly jumped up from the sound of the creaking door breaking the somber silence. With his head lowered, Jake took a seat on the couch. One look at him was enough for her to join him there.
“All right, you have to tell me what’s going on,” she said, looking at him.
His eyes were focused on the floor, avoiding her gaze. “We need to talk, Ally.”
“I already gathered that. What is it we need to talk about?”
“About us,” his voice cracked as he said it. He looked up to face her and the pained expression on his face made her wince.
“What is it about us that’s troubling you, Jake?” She felt a sudden hollowness grow in her stomach.
“Ally, this assignment, it’s too dangerous,” he paused, as if to gather strength for what he was going to say next. “We can’t see each other. It poses too many risks. We can’t be together anymore.”
She couldn’t believe the cool, concise way he’d put it. “Poses too many risks?” she repeated. Her world had just turned upside down.
He reached for her hand, but she drew it away. “Ally, please don’t make it more difficult than it already is. Do you think I want to do this?”
“You don’t?” she asked, hope springing up inside her. “Then why are you saying it?”
“Because I have no choice.”
She frowned. “Did the agency pressure you? Did Marion say something?” From his silence Ally guessed she’d hit the nail on the head. She exhaled with relief. Marion she could deal with, the agency she could deal with. “Tell me exactly what Marion said. Did she tell you to stop seeing me?”
Jake shook his head. “She didn’t have to be that obvious, Ally. She simply said that she counted on me to do the right thing.”
“And you think you’re doing the right thing? Giving me up? Giving us up?”
Jake rubbed his forehead. “Jesus, Ally, you really know how to make a guy feel low. Do you think I want to do this? Do you think I want to give you up? What we have together is more precious to me than—” life itself, he wanted to say, but broke off.
“Then why?” she gasped, tears in her eyes. “Because of the agency? Are you telling me this job is more important to you than us?”
“Do you realize how dangerous this job is? Tian Wang is not someone to be trifled with. The agency sent me in because now there’s concrete intel that there’s a leak in Orion and that Tian Wang is behind it. Wang’s planning something, something big, and he’ll stop at nothing to get it done.”
“I wasn’t aware of the additional intel,” Ally stammered. She was stunned to learn that
Marion would keep such vital information from her. Did Marion think her too junior to be briefed? Or maybe the big boss simply didn’t think her trustworthy enough?
“I was supposed to brief you upon arrival, Ally. Marion’s got nothing to do with this,” Jake explained, seeing right through Ally’s expression. “I’m sure Marion expected me to speak with you as soon as I got into Newport, but I was the one putting things off . . .”
“Because you didn’t want to tell me what you just told me? Because you didn’t want to break it off between us?” Ally ventured, her voice full of hope. By the pleading look in Jake’s eyes she knew that she’d guessed right and that was all she needed to know. Marion, Tian Wang, and the agency seemed mere trifles to her as long as she had Jake.
“Ally, can’t you see,” he said, his voice begging, “that your safety is more important to me than this damn job, than the agency, than Tian Wang—than all of them put together? If anything happened to you I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. I couldn’t go through that again—”
“Again?” she asked, instantly reminded of the demons from his past that she thought had been put to rest. He told her all about the woman who he thought died because of him, but Ally had done her own research and knew that Jake’s name had been cleared. Jake had told her he had been intimate with that woman and used her as a source, but he had never told her their relationship had meant much to him. And now he was comparing it to what he and Ally had together?
“I meant that this time the guilt would kill me,” he said, turning so pale that she couldn’t help but reach out for his hand.
“Jake, I trust you. I trust you with my life, and I know that we’ll find a way to make this work.”
“How?”
“We’ll just have to be more careful, that’s all.”
“We can't see each other while we’re on this job.” He got up from the couch and paced the floor. “There’s no way around it. We can’t be together.”
“All right, so we won’t see each other,” she assured him. “While we’re on this job,” she clarified. “But that doesn’t mean we have to completely give up what we have.”
He stopped and looked at her, his expression tormented. “Ally, don’t you see that as long as we’re doing this job there’ll always be a danger of us being pulled apart at a moment’s notice? Being—” He halted, hesitant to qualify their relationship. “Involved,” he stammered out the innocuous term as if what they shared could be summed up in this lukewarm word, “makes us vulnerable. It makes the risk of our covers being compromised that much higher. We deal with dangerous, powerful people in this job. The kind of people who’ll be hungry for revenge if someone crosses their path. The thought of you being in danger because someone has it in for me makes me scared. It’s not worth the risk. I’ve taken advantage of you, of your inexperience, and for that I apologize. I should’ve seen this coming—I should’ve stopped this sooner. As the senior agent, I am making this decision for us and you have to accept it whether you like it or not.”
Jake did his best to appear resolute, but Ally could tell that he was trembling like a leaf underneath. He didn’t want this any more than she did, and she wasn’t going to let him go. She got up from the couch and walked up close to him. “Then you should’ve thought of it before getting involved with me, Agent Morrissey. I’m not that easy to get rid of.”
He pressed his palms around her face and gently titled it upwards. “Do you really think I want to get rid of you, Ally? For crying out loud, I—”
“That’s what it sounds like, and I’m warning you, it won’t be easy.”
He groaned. “I’m such a hypocrite. Just look at me saying one thing and doing another. I should’ve never brought you here. I should’ve just sent you a message instead of us meeting here and—”
“Falling in bed?” she teased him.
He shook his head. “You’re impossible. What am I going to do with you?”
She put her arms around his neck. “You’re going to make love to me right now and erase any reminder of this nasty conversation we just had. And then we’re going to put our heads together and figure out a way out of this. We’re going to be very, very discreet. And even though I’m only a lowly junior agent, I assure you, Agent Morrissey, that I will protect our identities with utmost diligence,” she whispered seductively as her hand traveled down his torso to his waist and then past it. “Oh, my Agent Morrissey, it appears that you were being dishonest.”
“What on earth do you mean?” he groaned.
“There you were telling me that you wanted nothing to do with me, but your body is telling a whole different story.”
“Ally, stop, you're torturing me. I can’t resist you like this—”
“I don't want you to resist me,” she whispered, pressing herself against him and biting his ear. “I want you inside me.”
***
Ally kept her eyes on the road, c
lutching the wheel tightly as she drove. It was five a.m. and to say that she was bleary-eyed would’ve been an understatement. She hardly got a wink of sleep as she’d spent the night having wild, passionate sex with Jake. Now every part of her body ached with delicious fatigue and she had no idea how she was going to keep her eyes open for the rest of the day, but she wouldn’t trade this night for anything.
Unless a miracle happened and they somehow managed to finish their job at Orion in the next few days, she and Jake would have to content themselves with memories of their lovemaking and forego the real thing until their assignment was over. She’d tried to persuade him otherwise, but Jake wouldn’t budge. He said that it’d be too dangerous for them to continue seeing each other. And although it would’ve been fun and exciting to sneak around, she had to admit that Jake was right. So they stayed up all night, eager to make up for future weeks or maybe months of being without each other. Of course it would never be enough. Already she was starting to miss him. The prospect of not being able to see him made her want him so much more. Where’s your sense of responsibility, Allyson Roberts, she mentally chastised herself. The truth of the matter was that at the moment she couldn’t care less about her job or the assignment.
If it was up to her, she’d chuck it all in exchange for getting away with Jake. But did he want the same thing? She hoped that he did. It had seemed to her that several times he’d come close to saying it out loud, but he didn’t and she resolved not to ask. She’d already gone out on a limb and refused to let him give up on them. If Jake wanted more, he’d just have to spit out those words that seemed lodged deep inside his chest.
***
Jake Morrissey kept his eyes fixed on the road as he steered his car onto the highway leading to Orion’s headquarters. He worried about Ally driving by herself. She’d hardly gotten any sleep and he was to blame for it. So much for his good intentions of acting responsibly. The fact of the matter was that he simply couldn’t give her up. Still, if it hadn’t been for Ally’s standing up to him, he would’ve gone through with his charade. He would’ve endured countless hours of loss and heartbreak afterwards, but he would’ve gone through with it.
He’d almost managed to convince himself that he could break it off with her and now he was scared to think about how close he’d come to jumping off the cliff. Last night had made it obvious to him that life without Ally was impossible, which made him that much more protective of her and that much more scared of losing her. The next few weeks were going to be hell. He prayed that this case would be over soon.
Chapter 13
Brad Weiss closed his office door, took a seat behind his desk, and steepled his fingers. He had come to a decision and now he had to find a way to implement it. He was no Boy Scout, but becoming Tian Wang’s accomplice went against his conscience and his self-preservation instincts. What if their scheme unraveled? Tian Wang seemed like an unsinkable ship, but Brad had seen mightier vessels go down. No, he had to find a different way out of this mess. Going to the authorities was out of the question. Tian Wang had too much dirt on him, but what if the tables were reversed? What if Brad had incriminating information on Wang? The kind of information that would make the creepy megalomaniac leave him alone once and for all? The knowledge of Wang’s plan was pretty heavy stuff in itself, and for a brief moment Brad considered the idea of whistleblowing, but then rejected it. He had no proof whatsoever and for all he knew the authorities might deem him guilty. The best deal they would probably offer him would be to wear a wire and be their puppet for as long as they deemed necessary with some vague promise of protection down the road. If Wang got wind of him snitching he’d be done for. No, he needed to get iron-clad evidence, the kind of evidence that would have Wang pinned like a bug under those glass displays he remembered from biology classes as a kid.
Brad twirled his fingers. As part of Wang’s “team” he was supposed to have unrestricted access to Wang’s plan. But he’d learned from the surprise encounters at the Oleander Hotel this weekend that Wang liked to reveal parts of his plan by piecemeal. Although Wang had assured him that from now on there’d be no more surprises, Brad didn’t believe him. He wanted to have an eye on Wang’s team at all times and that meant keeping an eye on Steven Wright, Irene Zong, and those creepy consultants from McKeenly. He couldn’t very well be in two places at the same time. He needed someone to be his eyes. Someone who would report the information to him without them fully realizing the value of the information they were relaying. Someone clueless enough, but at the same time, someone who had a basic understanding of the Orion plant’s operating and engineering processes. Someone who was young and eager, someone who’d be impressed by getting a task from the company COO, but also someone who wasn’t a permanent employee. Brad picked up the phone and dialed Katherine McGee’s extension.
***
“Yes, Mr. Weiss, I’ll be right there.” Delilah hung up the phone.
Ally caught her friend’s stunned gaze. “Was that Brad Weiss?” she whispered.
Delilah nodded and Ally scooted over to Delilah’s cubicle. “Did he say what he wanted?”
“Nope. He just asked me to stop by his office, right now. So I guess I’d better get going.”
“Did he ask me to come?”
Delilah shook her head. “Nope.”
“Just be careful. If he gets fresh or something, scream at the top of your lungs.”
Delilah rolled her eyes. “I doubt that Brad needs to assault company interns to satisfy his sexual urges.”
“Oh, it’s Brad now, huh? In that case sexual assault might be welcome,” Ally teased.
“I meant Mr. Weiss,” Delilah said primly as she gathered her notebook and pen.
“Relax, I was only kidding.”
“Well, I don’t think it’s funny.” Delilah pouted. “This is a big assignment and I intend to contribute. I’m tired of being thought as some brainless bimbo whose only asset is being a guy magnet.”
“That’s a pretty significant asset.” The scorching look of Delilah’s eyes made Ally apologize immediately, “You know I’m only kidding, right? I think you’re one of the best agents out there. I’m glad we’re partners on this case.”
“Me too,” Delilah softened. “All right, partner, I’ve got to get going. I’ll give you a report once I come back.”
Delilah did her best to be as calm as possible as she walked down the hallway leading to Weiss’s office, but it was proving to be a very difficult task. Why was it that Weiss wanted to see her? Inside she was a tangle of anticipation, excitement, curiosity, and something else—a feeling that had no place at a work assignment and that she didn’t particularly care to admit.
When Delilah reached Brad Weiss’s door she was seized with a momentary impulse to run away. What if she just turned around and walked away? She doubted Weiss would press the matter—something in his tone when he’d called her had told her that he wanted to keep this visit private, that it wasn’t exactly official. Could it be he was just like the rest of the men and just wanted to get under her skirt? That was always a possibility, not that she’d let him, even though under other circumstances she might not mind. Yes, that was probably all he wanted—she could remember the side glances he’d cast at her breasts and legs before when the collar of her blouse happened to open a bit too wide or her skirt had hiked up her thigh. She felt a sudden wave of indignation. She couldn’t help wondering if that was the reason Marion had put her on the assignment in the first place. Did her boss think that Delilah would sleep her way to the information the agency was after? They could forget it—she wasn’t doing it. Delilah was about to turn on her heels and walk away when she heard footsteps on the other side of the door. Before she could make a single move the office door opened, revealing Brad Weiss on the threshold.
“Katherine, I’m so glad you’re here. Have you been standing out here for a while?” Weiss asked, looking to the door’s left and right.”
“Oh, no. I just got here. I was abo
ut to knock on the door when you opened it.” She smiled to reassure him.
“Excellent timing.” He flashed a pearly white grin. “Come on in.” She did as she was told and he closed the door behind her.
“Please, have a seat.” Weiss motioned at the chair facing his desk.
Delilah cautiously lowered herself into the seat and waited for Weiss to speak.
“So how did you find your visit to our plant? Have any suggestions for us so far?”
“Not yet, but we’re working on it,” Delilah replied confidently. She couldn’t tell whether Weiss was serious or making fun of her, but she’d be damned if she showed her unease.
“Good. I like the sound of that. I’m looking forward to your conclusions.” Weiss beamed at her reassuringly. “You’re probably wondering why I called you in here,” he continued, his eyes burrowing into her.
She nodded. “I must admit I was a little surprised, and if I may add, flattered.”
He raised an eyebrow, as though demanding further explanation.
“I can only imagine how busy your calendar must be and the fact you found the time to speak to an intern speaks volumes about Orion’s culture and about you,” she added, giving her voice just the right amount of shyness.
“Why thank you, Ms. McGee, but I must ask you not to refer to yourself in such dismissive terms. Today’s interns are tomorrow’s executives. Regardless what company you choose to join a year from now, I hope you will find your experience here at Orion worth your while.”
“Thank you, Mr. Weiss. I most certainly will. Already I have learned so much in the short time that I’ve been here.”