Die Again To Save Tomorrow (Die Again to Save the World Book 2)

by Ramy Vance

  Marshall’s eyes grew wide. “The end of the month? In two weeks?”

  “Yeah. She’s getting transferred to Sri Lanka.” It shocked Rueben how easily the lies rolled off his tongue. “And we couldn’t wait any longer.”

  “You’re going with her, then?”

  “Maybe. We’re not sure if we can get me a transfer.”

  Rueben let the news sink in. Marshall shifted in his chair, and Rueben picked up a sentiment he never thought he’d get from Marshall.

  Would Marshall miss him?

  “Well, it would be good to get some peace and quiet around here.”

  “Yeah. I know you want that.”

  Marshall searched Rueben’s eyes, and Rueben caught a hint of something in them. Fear? Was Marshall afraid of being alone? “Maybe I’ll turn your room into a TV room. I’ve always wanted one.”

  Rueben’s heart sank a little. This was as close as he would ever get to an emotional moment with Marshall, and it was all based on a lie. He gulped back his guilt.

  Marshall’s eyes narrowed. “What was that?”

  “What?”

  “You always do that with your throat like that when you feel bad about something. What’s going on?”

  “Nothing, Dad. It’s an emotional thing, is all.”

  “What’s to be emotional about? So you’re getting married. You’re not still hung up on that old Rebecca or…”

  “Rachel.”

  “Yeah, her.”

  “That’s not why I came in here.”

  “Damn it, son. I’m tired, and it’s late. Why don’t you get to your point already?”

  “I want you to come cake shopping with us.”

  “Cake shopping? That’s for the girl and her mom and her little bridesmaids.”

  “Look, Aki really wants you to like her. She wants to spend time with you. She’s heard what a great influence you’ve been on Martha and wants to get to know you better.”

  Martha was the keyword, and Marshall’s face softened. “Okay. Just let me know when.”

  “Now.”

  “Right now?” Marshall glanced around the room. “Son, I’m getting ready for bed.”

  “I know. But we’re going to the venue tomorrow, and they want us to have a cake at least. It’s important.”

  “No, Rueben. I’m tired. This kind of thing isn’t for me in the first place. If you want to get married, go ahead. It’s your life.”

  “You also get to sample the wine.”

  Marshall stopped.

  “You don’t want me to have to pick the wedding bar by myself, do you?”

  “What do you know about bars? All you drink is cheap shit beer.”

  “I know. And if you want your opinion on the bar menu, then you’d better come.”

  Marshall sighed. “Fine. If it means that much to you that you’d use that lame line, then I’ll come. But really, you’ve got to get better at your persuasiveness.”

  Rueben clasped his hands together and bowed them in a motion of gratitude, then left the room while his father rooted around in his dresser.

  Aki was in the living room and finally off the phone. “Is he coming?”

  “He’s coming.”

  “Great. The sting is in place. The agency is hacking into the security cameras for surveillance, and we’re switching out the staff for agents as we speak.”

  “That was fast.”

  She winked. “Welcome to being an agent. All we need is the subject.”

  “Right. Um…” Rueben shuffled on his feet as he considered Aki’s choice of word, ‘subject.’ So sterile sounding, and she’d called him a subject at Buzz’s mansion earlier. Was that all he was to Aki? A subject? No chance of a romantic connection?

  Rueben suddenly realized Aki was standing before him with her hands on her waist. “Well, where is he then?”

  Rueben shook his head to clear it as an idea flashed into his head. “He’s uh, getting dressed. FYI…we’re getting married this fast because you’re transferring to Sri Lanka. I want to join you, but we’re still working on the transfer.”

  “Got it.”

  A few minutes later, Marshall shuffled out of the bedroom.

  Aki smiled at him. “Thank you so much for doing this. We wanted to get this done fast before I leave, and we need all the extra help we can get.”

  “Yeah, Rueben tells me you’re going to Sri Lanka?”

  “Yep. It wasn’t my decision. When you work for the government like this, you learn to move fast.”

  Marshall frowned and didn’t say much more about that. They all left the apartment, and Aki clicked the remote on her Porsche. Marshall raised an eyebrow at his son, and Rueben shrugged and got into the passenger seat.

  Aki smiled at him, and Marshall clicked the remote on his blue Toyota. As soon as she and Rueben were safely in the Porsche, Rueben remarked, “I think he likes you already.”

  “Well, the objective is to keep him safe.”

  As the two vehicles pulled away from the curb, so did a third one behind them. Rueben eyed the headlights. “Who is that?”

  “That’s Jake, remember? The guy who drove the limo.”

  “Right. Jake the agent.”

  “He’s following us to the pastry shop to make sure nothing happens on the way.” She pulled out her phone and switched to a walkie-talkie app. “You there, Jake?”

  “Yeah, I got you.”

  “Is that his real name, ‘Jake?’”

  “No. I don’t know his real name.”

  “You’re sure Pete is moving in on Marshall?”

  “Yes. Tech pinged Pete’s general location. They can’t pinpoint it exactly, but it’s closing in on the apartment right now.”

  Rueben set his jaw. So much for not putting Marshall at risk. “Okay. So what is this bakery?”

  “It’s open a little later; that’s why we chose it. It’s called Laura’s Pastries. They do wedding cakes, and they’re setting some samples up for us now. But…”

  “We have our agents in there now.”

  “Exactly. Everyone’s ready to make a move.”

  “Let’s make sure there’s plenty of booze for him to sample, too. That’s what sold him.”

  Aki laughed. “Why am I not surprised.”

  Rueben pulled up the number on his phone. The receptionist answered with a trembling voice. “Laura’s Pastries?”

  “Hi, this Rueben Peet. I’m the groom in the wedding we’re coming in for tonight.”

  The receptionist halted. “Hold on, just one moment.”

  “Thank you.” He was on hold for several minutes.

  “This is Laura. How can I help you?”

  “Laura, this is Rueben Peet. I’m—”

  “I know who you are. What can I do for you?”

  Her tone confused Rueben. He wasn’t sure if she was annoyed or ready to help with the sting. “My father is coming in to sample cakes.”

  “I’m aware of that. We have the samples ready, Mr. Peet. When can we expect you?”

  “We’re minutes away. But if we could have some different samples of bar items, that would be helpful, too.”

  Laura hesitated. “All I knew about was cake. My staff is gone, and all I’ve got are—”

  There was a muffled sound in the background, and Rueben knew an agent had overheard and was telling her someone might’ve tapped his line.

  “I’m sorry,” she continued. “I meant most of my staff is gone for the night. We don’t get this much business this late, so we’re not equipped to handle full wedding packages.”

  “I understand.”

  They would not be getting much more help from Laura. They arrived at the pastry shop, and Aki parked in full view of the cameras. Before they got out of the car, she pointed them out. “There’s one here, here, and…here. Great, that should give us a good view of Pete once he shows up.”

  Aki and Rueben exited the car, and Marshall was right behind them. Jake stayed in his car for the moment. Rueben had never been on a
sting like this before, so he could hardly sit still with the rush of adrenaline.

  Laura’s Pastries was a beautiful little silver-and-white shop with bridal cakes on display in the large bay windows, draped with tulle and satin. It was the perfect ruse for what they needed to do.

  Laura greeted them with a large, tense smile. She was a tall, well-dressed blond woman in an elegant cream pantsuit, and her makeup was way too put-together for this hour. It was obvious the agents had called her into work for this operation. “You must be the happy couple.”

  Rueben draped his arm around Aki’s shoulder and pulled her close. “Yes, we are.” It felt so awkward that he let it drop and moved to wrap his arm around her waist. Even that was a quick jerky movement, and Aki nearly tripped as he pulled her closer.

  Laura pretended not to notice any of that. “Oh, so young and in love. We’re excited that you chose us.”

  Rueben could see right through the shop owner’s plastic smile.

  Marshall shuffled around the shop as Laura launched into her rehearsed sales speech. “As you might have read in our marketing material, we donate one percent of all of our profits to charity. This month, all of our donations go to the One World campaign. You’ve heard of that, right?”

  Rueben nodded, and Marshall groaned. “You’re into that socialist, one-world government crap?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “It’s all about equalizing the world’s economies so we can live in a one-world communist Russia, while the rich elite sit fat and happy on their asses with all the wealth in the world.”

  “Dad, please. Can we talk about my wedding right now?”

  Marshall looked at Rueben and Aki as Laura’s jaw practically sat on the floor. “Fine. I’ll behave.”

  Laura fake-laughed and looked like steam was about to come out of her ears. Rueben could tell she couldn’t concentrate.

  There were also too many staff members for the number of customers in the store. There must have been six or seven waitstaff in the shop, and they all did things like wipe down clean tables and dust blinds. A few were behind the counter.

  “So, as I was saying, when is the date?”

  Rueben answered quickly. “We’re looking at the end of the month.”

  “The end of the month? Well, that doesn’t give you much time.” Laura didn’t seem fazed by this, mainly because she wouldn’t be doing anything.

  The store was way too quiet. Usually, if a store were this slow, the staff would be busy chatting amongst themselves, not mindlessly performing repetitive chores on an already spotless interior.

  Marshall looked around at the shop. “Good place here. Never seen this store before.”

  “Yes, we’ve been open a few years.”

  “You ever have any trouble? This neighborhood has a lot of crime in it.”

  “We’ve had a few scrapes here and there, but...”

  Laura tried to keep her composure. Rueben could tell she was already scared—now Marshall was just making it worse.

  “Forgive my dad. He’s a retired cop. This is the way he thinks.”

  Laura laughed weakly. “Oh. So you’re going to be the proud papa-in-law, right?”

  Marshall shoved his hands into his jean pockets. “That’s what they tell me, anyway.”

  Laura glanced out the window and seemed to be stalling for time. “Okay, well, let’s talk about the big day, shall we?”

  Aki squealed, and Rueben finally got the bravery to fake-kiss her. Only she wasn’t expecting it, and he accidentally smashed her nose with his chin.

  He rubbed his chin and mumbled, “Sorry.”

  She winced and tried to keep her smile in place. Fortunately, Marshall—the only one not in on the ruse—didn’t see it.

  Laura grabbed some pamphlets off a counter, her hand trembling a little. “So, shall we sit and go over the packages?”

  Aki squealed. “I can’t wait.”

  Rueben scratched the back of his head, wondering if Aki might be overdoing it with the squeals. “Yeah, let’s go over the packages.”

  Laura led them to a small pink table in the back of the room. “So, we have the gold package. This is our most exclusive.” Her voice faltered, but she continued and pointed at a photo of an elaborate cake.

  Rueben whistled. If he ever did get married, he was sure he couldn’t afford that one.

  Marshall didn’t pay much attention to any of it.

  Laura rambled on and on about the cake packages, quickly losing Rueben’s attention. “Let me go get you guys some samples.”

  She disappeared into the back, and that’s when Marshall started in. “This place is a pussy-ass bunch of social justice warrior crap. There’s probably not a gun in this place. You know how many times this street has had robberies?”

  Rueben sighed and glanced at Aki, who shook her head.

  Marshall pointed outside toward a building across the street. “You see the black mark on that building?”

  Rueben peered through the window but didn’t exactly see what his father was talking about. However, it was dark out, and the street lights did seem awfully dim.

  Marshall didn’t wait for an answer. “That’s a bullet mark. I arrested scumbags for armed robberies three times on this street and got called out here for multiple more. Yet they’re all about this liberal pussyfoot bullshit, with Yolanda Martinez’s One World campaign. It’s all socialism.”

  Aki groaned and pulled out a makeup compact.

  Rueben turned to Marshall. “Would you please try, and I mean try really hard, to be happy for me?”

  “Try? Son, I’m in a goddamned bakery with fluffy wedding cakes sitting in a pink chair. This is as low as it gets. I might as well cut off my balls right here and hand them to the feminazis that run this country now, turning the whole nation into a bunch of special snowflake liberals and their ‘safe spaces.’”

  Rueben rubbed his face and half-wondered if he should have let Pete blow him up.

  Marshall sighed. “Yeah, I’m happy for you. I’m here, aren’t I?”

  “Are you, though?”

  “Don’t get smart with me. I swear, if my old buddies on the force were here right now, what they’d say to me…I don’t even want to know.”

  “Okay, Dad.”

  Aki squealed as a large fly flew into her compact. She swatted at it. “Gross.”

  Marshall took a moment to pontificate. “See, this is what happens. When you start on this scale toward socialism, there’s no money to maintain the buildings that there used to be, and our quality of living goes down. And we’ve got flies.”

  “Dad, Yolanda Martinez is not to blame for flies.”

  Laura returned with a tray of cake samples. “Okay, are we ready to try some cake?”

  Aki put the compact away, and her smile had a little more edge than it did earlier. “Let’s try some cake.”

  Laura expectantly put the samples in front of the trio. “This is our plain vanilla. Many people like this for the bridal cake because it’s not so noisy and can accommodate a wide variety of preferences of wedding guests. One of the concerns we always have to be aware of is dietary needs, like peanut allergies and chocolate allergies.”

  Marshall scoffed around his cake. “Made-up bullshit. Meant to turn an entire generation into pussyfoot whiners. In my day, there weren’t these bullshit allergies every which way. People ate their food, and they lived with it.”

  Laura chortled. “Oh, I’m sorry you feel that way. Let me…step back into the back, and I’ll get some more flavors out for you. You…take your time with that vanilla and really taste those flavors.”

  Rueben swore he saw Laura close her eyes and take slow, deep breaths as she walked toward the back. If this hadn’t been a prearranged operation, she would’ve thrown Marshall out of the store.

  “Dad, you’re going to get us thrown out. You have to watch what you say.”

  He slammed his plastic fork down. “No, I don’t. This is America. Land of free speech. I should be
able to say what I want to say.”

  Rueben sighed long and deep. “Yeah, but free speech doesn’t mean you don’t have to be polite.”

  “I’m polite enough, and don’t you dare try to teach me manners. I’m your father, for Christ’s sake.”

  The three sat in tense silence as a fly buzzed about the room.

  Laura came back with another tray. “Okay, well, I’ve got you guys some punch to wash that down with. This is our classic wedding punch. We have multiple flavors, and we’ll get you to sample those, too. And I have some coconut creme cake samples and some chocolate.”

  Each plate had a piece of cake with white coconut flakes peeking out, covered with white icing, and then a piece of chocolate cake with half a strawberry with glaze dripping off it.

  Aki grabbed a plate. “Now, this looks good.”

  Laura smiled. “Doesn’t it?”

  The bell above the door clanged, and a young teenage boy entered.

  Laura jumped up. “No, no, go, go.”

  “But I want to buy a cupcake.”

  “No, no, go. We’re closed. Get out.”

  His friend came in after him, and the two boys stood in the doorway.

  Laura shouted. “Go. I said go.”

  The two boys shrugged and left the store on their bikes.

  Laura clasped her hand over her heart. “Excuse me. I—yeah, excuse me.” She left the main floor and went into the back.

  Rueben caught Aki’s eye and made a questioning gesture toward her. Where was Pete? She shook her head and checked her phone.

  Marshall continued to rant. “See, that’s liberal hypocrisy right there. They want to say all are equal, but those two boys come in, and because they look like they don’t have any money, what does she do? She runs them off. They’re not worth her time. But oh, she wants to donate to the poor economy when it’s the American tax dollars.”

  Aki dropped her fork and gave Rueben a look. “Tell you what, Marshall. You do us a favor. You taste this stuff and tell us what you think when you’re finished. In the meantime, Rueben and I are going to fuck in the bathroom.”

  Marshall nearly choked on his cake, and Rueben’s eyes widened. He had to remind himself it was all fake. It was all fake. She doesn’t mean it. She doesn’t mean it.

  Aki stood and tapped her fingernails on the table, showing off her ring. “While we’re gone, try not to piss anyone off. Oh, and pick chocolate. None of the snowflake vanilla shit, either.” She crooked her finger toward Rueben, and he followed her.