Rule 53

by Elaine Nolan

  “True, but it’s more natural, as you know.”

  “You don’t do this sub thing very well, do you?”

  She shook her head. “I was clean for two years, with my college grades consistently high, in the top 1%, and my, ah… natural tendencies starting to show themselves.”

  “Because you’re not a natural submissive.”

  “No. So he started training me as a Domme.”

  “I don’t imagine you needed much positive reinforcement for that training.”

  She smirked again.

  “But you never took it up as a lifestyle. Why?”

  “The purpose of a lifestyle sub is to serve and please their Master, the purpose of the Master is to care for and protect their sub. Serving is the sub’s source of happiness and pleasure, and I… just… didn’t want that responsibility, or have that control over anyone. It’s why I never asked you to wear a collar.”

  “You didn’t want me to be happy?”

  “I didn’t want you to feel trapped.” That hit a nerve with him, a throwback to his own history with an abusive father.

  “But you’d no problems just letting me go.”

  Her reaction was physical, the most she’d struggled with the restraints, and she glared at him.

  “You left me, remember, on a bullshit excuse.” He stroked the leather strap, but it had no effect at returning her to a submissive demeanour. “Why did you really leave?” He took another swig of beer, stalling on answering, but even restrained the control she exerted as a Domme gave her a powerful aura. He slipped back into their natural roles and found it hard to refuse to answer.

  “I didn’t feel like I was measuring up,” he admitted.

  “To what?”

  “You. Your expectations.”

  “Did I ever put expectations on you? Have I ever asked you to compromise your values?

  “No.”

  “Then stop blaming me for your own misguided sense of… inadequacies.”

  “Yes, Mistress.” It was out before he realised it, and she smirked.

  “So… are you going to use that strap, or not?” she challenged him.

  He reached out, but the bed beside him was cold. She was long gone, and no sign of the collar, but a glance in the mirror as he passed it in the bathroom and he found it around his own neck. How the hell had she managed it without waking him? It felt comfortable, but Swayne wouldn’t approve, and he removed it before getting dressed.

  He arrived at Leigh’s place later, as soon as he’d finished up a report for Swayne, and leaving before the Senator could ask about his plans. He didn’t think she’d appreciate knowing the details.

  “Last night was a one-time deal,” Leigh warned.

  “Oh, I know, but you never left me alone to go through an emotional endorphin crash, I’ve no intentions of abandoning you to yours.” He held his hand out, holding the collar, and she looked at him with a mix of curiosity and expectation.

  “I accept,” he said.

  He awoke with her arm wrapped around his waist as she spooned him.

  “Don’t you have work?” she asked.

  “It’s Sunday, Swayne’s in church. I’d prefer to be here and give her something to pray for.” She rolled him over and kissed him.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  CHAPTER 28

  Jake found it hard to concentrate. Swayne closeted Nathan Rainey in her office for hours. Jake was tempted to play host and bring in coffee, just to find out what the hell was going on. Nathan’s smug grin as he passed Jake’s desk put the agent on edge, and he didn’t like it. Maybe Leigh was right, and he was worth looking into, and perhaps find something they’d missed the first time. She had a knack for sensing when something was off.

  The call from Metro PD distracted him. They’d completed the autopsy on Karl with nothing new to tell; Karl had been beaten before being shot, a double tap to the chest and one to the head, execution style.

  The autopsy showed no drugs in his system. It might be a consolation to Leigh. And they were releasing his body to her. He wasn’t sure how she was going fare. She grew up with this man, the big brother Nathan should’ve been.

  Was that what Lee did? Replace his actual son with a pseudo one? Was Nathan behind his murder, he wondered, glancing back to the glass wall of Swayne’s office, the shutters closed, cutting off any external interference.

  He texted Leigh instead with the scant details of the autopsy, but with no returning text he figured she was busy on her own official stuff. His innate curiosity wanted to know what that was, but knew better than to ask. He walked that fine line between national security and an allegation of espionage. He was doing his damnedest to keep her out of his official life, as much as she tried to keep him out of hers. The rules had become too complicated to keep playing this game. Was that why he didn’t want her in this world?

  Now he had Nathan Rainey in the mix. If he’d been another lover of hers, Jake reckoned he could’ve dealt with it. The sibling relationship to Leigh felt odd and wrong, but the DNA results proved too conclusive to question. Nathan trying to drug Leigh also raised his anger. Was he reacting like a jealous lover, or a protective one? If he started to question it, it could lead him to dark places he didn’t want to go.

  Leigh Harte, he mused. She was more than just a lover, more than a confidant, more than the intelligence agent he wished she wasn’t. She had looked deeper into his soul, had plunged its depths greater than he’d allowed anyone else, and with her he’d felt alive, more than he had in years.

  He’d been hypocritical with her, demanding she stay out of this world, of his world, of intrigue, of secrets, of danger, and he understood why. He was afraid. Of her. She would be better at this than him. She was that rare agent who had insights, had an intuition that proved right. While she outshone her father as an agent, Jake hoped she outshone him in compassion and humanity. So far, she’d not let Jake down in his hope and belief. While she never spoke of it, she aspired to be as good an agent as her father. What Jake longed to tell her, was she surpassed Lee, in ways that were far more important. Sure, she had her IT skills and was more than capable in the bedroom, but she had humanity and discernment. Leigh Harte was a more refined blade than Lee, even if she didn’t think it.

  And in return, Jake had seen into the depths of her, of everything that made her who she was. The conversation about Jürgen was the last gate for him to enter, the last gate she’d allowed him to enter. She’d surrendered to him, not out of a desperate need, but because she wanted to, and in his own insecurity, he still questioned why. Fear? He doubted it. Mutual respect? Perhaps. A true and deep connection? He wished it were so.

  He checked his phone again but the screen remained blank and he returned to his computer, finding this desk work frustrating, and wished he was back out in the field, or at least doing something more constructive.

  Working with Swayne proved tedious, and boring, but in the aftermath of social disorder, spying and intelligence work didn’t take priority. He was jealous of Leigh and her current position, knowing in his heart and soul she was engaged in intelligence work and information gathering, even if she claimed to be only here to find Karl and update the computer systems.

  His phone beeped as the door to Swayne’s office opened, and both occupants exited, Swayne even smiling with Rainey. A first Jake thought, wondering what could make Swayne warm to a business man she disliked. Rainey’s smug grin disconcerted Jake as he left.

  Jake remembered his phone and checked it as Rainey left, and found a reply from Leigh, as terse as expected and saying thanks. He used the phone as an excuse to follow Rainey out, making it look like he was texting and not wanting to be caught at his desk, but while he kept his focus on the device in his hands, he glanced at Rainey, making sure the other man didn’t see him.

  Rainey paused at the building entrance, took a moment to check behind him, making sure he was alone, missing Jake as the agent backtracked and used the last corner to hide. Rainey took
his phone out and made a call. Jake edged closer to the corner and gave a quick look around, seeing Rainey’s back to him and phone to his ear, his other hand in his trouser pocket, a relaxed stance.

  “Mark, tell the old man it’s done,” Rainey said, disconnecting and pocketing the phone in his inside jacket pocket. With another quick glance around, he stepped out into the street and out of Jake’s view.

  What the hell, Jake wondered.

  CHAPTER 29

  “Come in,” Donal answered to her knock. He wasn’t alone when she entered, finding the army Commandant also present, dressed in his field combat fatigues. “Adam Blake, meet our newest Communications and IT Specialist, Leigh Harte.” Adam stood to shake her hand.

  “So you’re our newest resident in the Crow’s Nest,” he said, referring to her communications closet in the attic.

  “For my sins,” she answered.

  “I saw the new tech you ordered. That’s some upgrade.”

  “Part of the reason they sent me.”

  “The techie stuff isn’t the reason I asked you here,” Donal interjected. “We need to talk.”

  “You’re not breaking up with me, are you?” she shot back. Adam laughed and sat, indicating the seat beside him to her.

  “I am if you continue to see other men behind my back,” Donal answered, handing her a file. She opened it as she sat. It contained surveillance photos of her and Jake together.

  “Ah,” was all she could say.

  “Please tell me you haven’t divulged anything to him.”

  “Of course not, but Jake and I had a relationship before, in Ireland. We lived together for a while. And for the record, I’ve never asked him to divulge anything from his side either. If you’re pissed at this, I’m going to make your world and your day a lot worse.”

  “Oh God, one problem at a time. Your Senator friend sent these over so I’m guessing you pissed her off.”

  “Nothing recent, that I know of,” she answered in her defence. “But she never liked me, anyway.”

  “So I don’t need to investigate you for potential espionage?”

  “Absolutely not, and if you suspected that you and I would be having a entirely different conversation right now. And under the disciplinary code, you’d have to advise me in advance.”

  Beside her, Adam smirked. “She’s good,” he said to Donal, who didn’t share his assessment.

  “The only thing I shared was intel on Karl Gouderhoff, and my dad,” she admitted, and Donal’s eyes narrowed. “But he was already involved with Karl, had been helping him. And you did say I was a conduit for intelligence sharing.”

  “So this was to do with your other assignment? Because with Gouderhoff now dead, you shouldn’t have to answer to the Brits anymore.”

  “Emm…” she hedged.

  “That doesn’t sound good,” Adam commented.

  “No, it doesn’t,” Donal agreed. “What aren’t you telling me?

  “It’s the other thing that’s about to fuck up your day,” she answered.

  “Which is?”

  “Nathan Rainey.”

  “The Northern Irish fella?” Adam asked.

  “The very one,” she confirmed.

  “What about him?” Donal asked.

  “He’s my half-brother, and somehow connected to Huntington.”

  Donal gave her a perplexed expression, as he tried processing this new information. To help him get to grips with it, she pulled the DNA test results from her pocket and dropped it in front of him on his desk.

  “Where…? How?” he struggled with it.

  “Jake used his contacts to get swabs tested,” she answered.

  “But… How?”

  “Well, my daddy met his mammy before he met mine. Do I need to tell you how babies are made?”

  Donal glared at her while Adam chuckled to himself.

  “You can cut out the sarcasm,” Donal said.

  “But it’s one of my most awesome skills, and you’re all about the skill set,” she countered.

  “Damn it, Harte.”

  “What do you want to know? Will it compromise my position here? No. Do I think he’s a sanctimonious prick? Absolutely. He’s already made a pre-emptive strike against me, I don’t think he’ll try again. I don’t think he’d dare.”

  “Has this to do with your last minute invitation to Swayne’s party?” he asked instead.

  “She invited you?” Adam asked, and she nodded.

  “Or did Rainey have something to do with it?” Donal asked.

  “Don’t know, but Swayne called me, used her private number to my phone. You can check her outgoing calls to verify it. I have her unlisted number,” she offered.

  “I don’t want to know how you got that, but if you’re that cocky, I’m inclined to believe you,” Donal said.

  “Gee, thanks.” It was dripping in sarcasm.

  “This will make things interesting,” Adam said.

  “More than the soap-opera it already is?” she asked.

  Donal put the sheet with the test results into a file, and she guessed it was the one he had on her.

  “You explain it,” he told Adam.

  “Someone submitted a proposal to the European Commission, with the bright idea of a joint response involving nations with embassies in Washington, in the event of another embassy bombing similar to the Canadian Embassy.”

  “What does joint response entail?” she asked.

  “The ability to provide a rapid response to any attack on another embassy, and if it’s ours, they defend and protect us.”

  “Isn’t the US military supposed to give protection, seeing as it’s on their turf?”

  “Between their deployment abroad to protect US citizens in Europe, and providing support to deal with their geological and climatic catastrophes in California and the southern states, their resources are a bit stretched. Throw in Swayne’s heated negotiations with the EU on taking in American refugees, and the EU Commission is inclined to listen to her on this ‘let’s all work together’ project.”

  “Desperate times require desperate measures,” she quoted JFK.

  “Something like that. They’re organising manoeuvres, a military exercise on the streets of Washington.”

  “And a bunch of European army units, running around a US city, won’t scare the shit out of the population?”

  “They’re supposed to get advance notice and warning of this little invasion, with an appeal to assist and play nice with us foreigners.”

  “This doesn’t feel right,” she admitted, and Adam nodded. “What about our neutrality?”

  “You and I are on the same page on that, but as it’s just an exercise, it doesn’t affect our neutrality, and our orders are to take part, until we shouldn’t.”

  “And you want me on the team? Why?”

  “You’re our Communications and IT Specialist, you’re army trained, with longer training than the average boot camp, including training with the Rangers, and that is some tough shit. I want someone like you on my team.”

  “Like me? I’ve sure my file mentioned I’m not a team player.”

  “Yeah, it mentioned something on that. Devious was the word they used for you. You’re a creative problem solver, but you can follow rules, when you have to, when you want to. Something doesn’t feel right to me either, so it’s good to have an extra set of eyes and ears, someone who knows what to look for, especially when we don’t know what to look for.”

  A knock sounded on the door, and Donal called out.

  “I could not have timed that better,” Adam said, as the Sergeant entered.

  “Just arrived with the diplomatic pouch, Sir,” she said, bringing in a suit bag and an army regulation duffle bag.

  “I’m afraid to ask,” Leigh said, as Adam took the suit bag and opened it, revealing a dress uniform.

  “You’ll need these,” he said to Leigh. “Fatigues in the duffle?” he asked of the Sergeant.

  “Yes, Sir, in her size. Dress s
hoes in the duffle,” she answered.

  “Thank you Sergeant, that’ll be all.”

  Leigh took the moss-green uniform.

  “You’re making me a Commandant?” she asked them, after checking the insignia on the shoulder panel.

  “It’s the army equivalent of your general service rank, and again, you’re army trained so that makes you one of us. Get dressed. Today is an official announcement and launch of this insane plan. We’ve an appointment with your Senator bestie, and other US officials. We leave for this official shindig in one hour.”

  CHAPTER 30

  Leigh and Adam removed their peaked caps, part of their formal dress uniform, and tucked them under their left arm as they entered the US Diplomacy Centre, a 15 minute drive from the Irish Embassy. Swayne reigned in her displeasure at seeing Leigh as the party arrived at the Diplomatic Reception. Jake’s reaction differed from the Senator’s, aroused at seeing Leigh in uniform. Seeing other military personnel saluting her, and her returning salute felt disconcerting, and he remembered her mention of army boot camp. Was it more than just basic training? He made his way to her, close enough to speak with her without Swayne catching him.

  “Can you wear that the next time we…?” He sounded breathless.

  “Absolutely not,” she answered, catching Adam giving her a knowing glance. “I won’t sully the uniform.” She pulled him aside. “We need to… take a break.”

  “Why? What’s happened?” he glanced around, looking for anyone focusing on them.

  “Swayne sent photographs of us to the Embassy.”

  “What? How…? Why?”

  “Most likely to do this. Either we need to be more careful, or…”

  “Or what?”

  “Or we do the sensible thing for a while.” He heard regret in her voice, but agreed with her. He nodded, spotting Rainey watching them.