Vortex: A Tempest Novel

by Julie Cross

  That was exactly when reality smacked me right in the face. Holly’s entire body stiffened. Her eyes darted awkwardly around the room, like she needed someone to come rescue her.

  From me.

  The final notes of the song played and I dropped my arms, absorbing the icy air that blew right between us. She didn’t back up at first, so I stuttered out an apology: “Um … sorry … that was … Never mind,” I said finally, and then turned my back on her before it got any worse. From the corner of my eye, I saw Senator Healy move toward her and whisper something.

  Probably apologizing or explaining my obvious insanity.

  My chest felt so tight, but I wasn’t sure if it was grief or a panic attack on the rise. Either way, I had to get out of there, fast.

  I darted around people left and right until I could push through the exit door and lean against the wall in the hotel lobby.

  Oh, God, this is bad. Very bad. All those witnesses seeing me and Holly together. The Tempest and Eyewall agents … Senator Healy. I closed my eyes and tried to breathe and think of an explanation. A cover, maybe?

  “Dude, who’s the blond chick?” Mason asked.

  I opened my eyes. He was right beside me, leaning against the wall. “Um … no one. It was just some stupid drawing and I got roped into it.”

  Mason’s eyes moved around the room, scanning, inspecting, like the agent he truly was. “Stewart kinda freaked about it. You think she’s jealous?”

  I barely had a second to roll my eyes before he snorted loudly and then explained. “The girl is gifted. She just said ‘fuck you’ in four different languages.”

  He wiggled his ear, and I had to assume Stewart must have been shouting into her communications unit.

  “It’s not like that with Stewart. Not for either of us,” I told him, hoping he’d believe me, but guessing he wouldn’t.

  He pressed his finger over the tiny piece of metal under his shirt collar and whispered, “But you … you know … hooked up with her, right?”

  I rubbed my hands over my face and sighed. “Can we talk about this later?”

  He shrugged. “No big deal.”

  Mason started to walk away, but I stopped him and grinned, attempting to look sane and unaffected by tonight’s drama. “How’d it go with that girl the other day?”

  The other day, I had helped Mason talk to this girl we met doing surveillance outside the hotel. He ended up asking her out and I hadn’t heard the outcome of his date yet.

  His face broke into a grin. “Not bad. Not bad at all.” He pulled a tiny bottle of Jack Daniel’s out of his jacket pocket and tossed it to me. “I swiped this from a minibar on the fifth floor. You look like you could use a drink.”

  I stared down at the bottle of liquid courage. I should have started drinking the second I saw Holly. Everyone expected me to play the part of “party guest” tonight. Could I help it if that included alcohol consumption? It wasn’t like they were giving me anything important to do, other than waltz around with my hidden cameras and recording devices for someone to review later on. “Thanks, man.”

  “No problem. I owed you one.”

  The ballroom doors opened and music flooded into the lobby. Mason disappeared within seconds and I quickly drank the whiskey in two large gulps. Senator Healy strode through the doors, eyes moving around until they rested on mine. He pointed silently into the ballroom. When I walked past him, he muttered under his breath, “What the hell is wrong with you? We’ve got a room full of potential Eyewall agents and international terrorists and you’re out here playing around.”

  My fists balled up, but I forced them open again and pressed the empty bottle into his palm. “Throw this away for me, would you?”

  Kendrick was all the way across the room, sitting alone at the bar. I slid into a seat next to her and ordered another drink. “Tell me the truth, okay? I looked like an asshole, didn’t I?”

  She wrapped both her fingers around the glass of wine in front of her and kept her eyes focused on the counter. “You know how everyone likes to joke about you being the average guy turned secret agent?”

  “Yep,” I said, gulping my drink quickly and enjoying the burn of alcohol running down my throat.

  “Well … I’m one of the few who didn’t know of you before you became … this.” She gestured at me as if I had Secret Agent written across my forehead. “But I did guess something about you.”

  “What’s that?”

  She stared at me. “There’s only one thing that would make someone go from your life to this life.”

  “Stock market crash?”

  She dropped her eyes again. “Revenge.”

  That was when I remembered the dark look that had crossed her face when she told me her family had lived in Chicago … and the other day, when she said her parents and younger brother were dead. “Like you, right?”

  She nodded. “But it doesn’t work. Not for long, anyway. Eventually all that sad stuff turns to anger and then you just don’t feel much of anything.”

  It was like she took every fear and worry from the back of my mind and waved them in front of my face, and I didn’t want to hear it. Not now. I polished off my drink and started to get up. “I’m gonna go … look around.”

  Kendrick shook her head and waved to the bartender to bring me another drink. “I’m done with my lecture, so you can quit squirming. I just wanted you to know … it was Michael who brought me back to life. I didn’t want to feel that way, either. Didn’t want to give in. But I’m a better agent this way. He can’t be wrong for me. Not when being with him makes me better at saving other people … doing all this crazy shit we do.”

  I relaxed into my seat and drank in silence for a few minutes and then she started laughing. “What’s so funny?”

  “I totally went all Oprah on you, didn’t I?”

  I smiled a little. “More like Dr. Phil … except much prettier.”

  She held out her arms. “So sweet. Do I get a hug?”

  I glanced around the room with mock embarrassment. “Not in public. I’ve got a rep to protect.”

  She gave me a devious grin and leaned over and kissed my cheek. I could feel the lipstick that lingered on my skin. “Now you’re wearing pink like you were supposed to.”

  I spun around on my stool so I could keep an eye on the room. “You think a little lipstick will help me pick up a hot chick tonight?”

  “Assuming you don’t chase them away,” she teased, nodding toward Holly, who was now chatting with Brian and the doctor who was supposed to fix his shoulder.

  “Believe it or not, I have a history of striking out at very important moments,” I admitted.

  I looked at my watch and groaned, realizing only an hour and a half had passed. Still four more to go. It felt like an eternity. I couldn’t wait to get back on that plane to France or wherever we had to go next. New York wasn’t my favorite city anymore. Not when being here caused insanity.

  The view from my barstool allowed me to see everything at once and gave me a good excuse to stay put and drink more. Kendrick shuffled around the room engaging in charming conversation, while I sat on my ass and got a little drunk. Okay, more than a little drunk. I started out doing a good job of scanning every small detail throughout the room. Calculating. Memorizing. All while trying to make sense of Kendrick’s mini-psych session. It reminded me of the time 007 Adam pointed out that I didn’t really act like I was serious about Holly.

  Now it was just the opposite. Being without her out of guilt.

  But after a few more drinks I stopped thinking about what Kendrick said and slacked a little on watching the so-called potential international terrorists because Holly was dancing with Brian and I had the perfect view of her back. I rested my elbows on the bar countertop and let my gaze fall on Holly and her sexy swaying hips. It was actually nice to just be a typical guy again, staring at a girl’s ass and not really thinking about anything else. None of that life-or-death shit.

  “Which one hav
e you got your eye on?” the bartender asked from over my shoulder.

  I pointed the end of my beer bottle at Holly. “The blonde in the middle, the short one with five-inch heels.”

  The bartender chuckled and clasped my shoulder with his hand. “No wonder you’re all the way over here. Her boyfriend looks like he could crush you with one hand.”

  I snorted into my beer. “I can take him.”

  “Keep dreaming, kid, keep dreaming,” he said, shaking his head.

  Unfortunately, I was drunk enough to consider proving him wrong. Just for fun. But after a couple minutes of watching Kendrick chatting with the Russian dude, hoping she’d wrap it up soon enough so I could get her opinion, someone slid right beside me and spoke to the bartender. “What do you have on tap?”

  I spun around in my seat again and saw Holly standing there, glancing hopefully at the bartender, who crossed his arms and said, “For you, Coke or water.”

  Even in my drunken state, I was ready for her to start twisting her hands nervously or scoot away from me after our awkward almost-kiss. Her eyes fell on mine for a second and she smiled (without blushing). “I thought you left.”

  I returned the smile and then glanced at the bartender again. “She’s a special guest of Senator Healy. I’m sure he won’t mind.”

  “Bud Light?” Holly asked with a little more confidence.

  “Of course,” he said, and left to retrieve her drink.

  I was still waiting for nervous Holly to emerge, but she sat right next to me and even turned to face me. “Pretty smooth. You’ve done this before? The intimidation factor … name-dropping?”

  The alcohol, mixed with Holly’s familiar scent and the images of her dancing just seconds ago, didn’t leave any room for worry or apprehension. Or logical thought. I hoped an Eyewall agent wouldn’t choose this moment to come out of nowhere and assassinate me.

  “What do you think?” I asked as the bartender slid the drink in front of her.

  She took a long sip before answering. “I’ll guess that you’ve been to a fair share of fancy parties.”

  “You guessed right,” I admitted, and then added, “But tonight was my first fifty-thousand-dollar dance.”

  She laughed and had the smallest hint of nerves in her voice, but she kept her eyes on mine. “You sure know how to invade a girl’s personal space.”

  Not wanting to look at her, I tilted my empty bottle and watched a few drops of beer fall onto the counter. “Yeah … sorry about that.”

  She shrugged. “You’re forgiven.”

  Her eyes were so confidently staying on mine that I started to shift uncomfortably under the weight of her gaze. She was too calm. Too sure of herself. Or maybe I was comparing her to 007 Holly, because that was the last time I had to meet her for the first time … again. This was 009 Holly. The nearly nineteen-year-old girl. Suddenly I had this intense desire to start all over again. The blissful memories that I had with this girl when we first met … the way I kept catching my thoughts drifting to her … finding a way to end up in the same place at the same time.

  So this could be part of my cover tonight? Blending in, chatting up girls. It was what the son of CEO Kevin Meyer would do. I’d be conducting an investigation. Holly could be a teenage terrorist, for all they knew. Someone had to get close enough to find out.

  I’ll take one for the team.

  “So, where are you from, Holly Flynn?” I asked, because it sounded like the thing to say to spark conversation.

  “New Jersey.”

  “I went to a party in New Jersey once … a while back.” I nodded toward the crystal chandelier. “A little different from this place, but overall a great night.”

  Her eyebrows arched up. “You went to a party in Jersey? Why?”

  I scooted my stool a little closer to her, making room for someone to slide behind me. “Mostly I went to hang out with a girl I liked. It was outside, in the woods, we had a bonfire and everything.”

  “Beer kegs?” she asked, and then continued after I nodded. “I’ve been to a few of those. How’d it work out for you … with the girl you liked?”

  I thought about it for a second and then smiled. “It was nice. Very nice … Of course, I’d been hoping for wild sex on a bed of leaves in the woods, but that was more of a poison ivy issue than me striking out. Plus, she had a boyfriend. Big ugly hairy dude.”

  “Oh, I bet.” She scanned the room for a second and her eyes stopped on Kendrick, now chatting with Brian. “You’ve been sitting here for an hour. Don’t you think your date might be a little bored … or lonely?”

  “She’s just my partner … I mean, lab partner … for med school.”

  She smiled, and this time it was laced with intentions. “Good to know.”

  I immediately leaned back, away from her, shocked by the way she was flirting with me. Definitely something I hadn’t seen from Holly before. Not quite that forward. “What about your boyfriend? Is he okay with you flirting with strangers?”

  She leaned closer to me and her hair brushed against my arm. “Brian flirts better than he plays football. Besides, he can’t hear me.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “I’ll prove it,” she said, then raised her voice. “Ohio State is awesome!”

  “Go, Buckeyes!” I added, then we both turned our eyes in Brian’s direction. He didn’t falter in his charismatic conversation with Kendrick, and she winked at me from over his shoulder. “Okay, I believe you.”

  “Good,” she said, then hopped down from the barstool. “I think you should dance with me.”

  Now, that shocked the hell out me, but I was drunkenly happy and well trained at concealing almost everything. I knew this was a very bad idea, and yet … so appealing. Dancing with Holly, for me, had always been this amazingly hot vertical foreplay.

  I started to reach for her hand and then hesitated. Something about her behavior was off. Her attitude. Even with the beer swimming through my veins, I wondered if this was some very elaborate practical joke. Like an evil Stewart kind of joke. Except … if Stewart knew why this would be worthy of an evil prank, we’d have a completely different problem right now. If she knew what I really am.

  “Are you coming or not?” she asked me, with eyes that were a little too innocent. “It’s a great song.”

  My suspicion doubled, but there was no logic behind it except the fact that there wasn’t any possible way this Holly was just going to give me exactly what I wanted from her without me even asking. Instead of answering, I kept my eyes on hers and she pulled me by the hand toward the dance floor. Just as we reached the center, I had the most crazy, irrational, drunken thought ever. Actually, it was just one word floating around in my head like an annoying bug in a glass of water.

  Clones.

  I shook the idea from my head, but it didn’t disappear completely. I’d know if this wasn’t really her, wouldn’t I?

  The song filled my head and her hands slipped inside my jacket and all I could think was, This looks like Holly. Smells like her. Feels like her. I wrapped my arms around her waist and yanked her closer until she was pressed against me. I smiled with satisfaction when I felt her suck in a breath, like I had caught her off guard, finally.

  Senator Healy’s eyes were on the back of my head. I could feel them. So I leaned closer and whispered, “I’m pretty drunk, so you’re gonna have to tell me if I’m … invading your personal space.”

  Her shoulders tensed a little but she smiled. “Well … at least there’s no poison ivy around.”

  I laughed really hard and then loosened my hold on her, allowing a little breathing room. I tried desperately to keep my mind here, in the moment, observing this slightly bolder Holly, but the song blaring through the room had quite a history with us. One that involved a very drunk girl who, not so wisely, had decided to do shots with my idiot roommates because I was late and she was bored and pissed off at me.

  Then, as a punishment, I got to sit on the end of my dorm room
bed and watch her dance to this same Journey song while tossing her clothes to various corners of the room. Not a bad way to end an argument.

  I focused on her every move while keeping myself in the game. She’d come closer and then stiffen a little and then force herself to relax, then she’d do something with her hands, like touching the back of my hair or resting on my chest. It was all very calculated. Planned. And that was driving me nuts. In a bad way. This was my one impulsive moment. I wanted to do something that would blow her mind. Make her want nothing more than to follow me home and throw her clothes around my borrowed CIA apartment.

  Not that I’d actually let that happen.

  I spun her around so her back pressed up against me and lifted her arms around my neck again. My fingers rested on her stomach and I barely brushed my nose along the side of her face and then down her neck. This only lasted a couple seconds before I started kissing her neck. My focus flew right out of the room and I could feel her heart pounding, her breath quickening as my mouth sank more firmly into her skin.

  “You smell like vanilla,” I mumbled against her ear.

  She rested the back of her head on my shoulder and closed her eyes. “You said that already,” she whispered.

  “When?” I asked, lifting my head from her neck.

  She spun around again, looking dazed. “I don’t know … earlier.” Her arms dropped to my waist and she pulled until nothing was left between us except our clothes. Blood literally dropped from my head toward my feet. And then my hands were drifting below her waist, trying to wander where they shouldn’t, but she let me. For a second, at least.

  The song suddenly ended and Holly’s eyes focused on mine again and she took a deep breath and stepped back. “I think … I need another drink.”

  “Sure,” I said, confused by the quick shift in gears. The heat that radiated off of us didn’t help my focus at all.

  “That was…” Holly said as she sat down. “A good song.”

  I laughed. “Yep, a very good song.”

  The bartender brought me another beer and offered one to Holly, but she asked for water instead, which made me laugh again.