“But other than that, it’s a generic, nondescript manual transmission. The kind of car you see everywhere so you never see it at all,” he finally replied.
Tara wanted to shake her head at the man’s paranoia, but couldn’t. They had been attacked by people with enough money and clout to hire a helicopter to fly over federal land.
“And since no one has a car like that sitting around,” Tara finished almost as though Nick hadn’t spoken, “it had to be custom made, which takes time.” Tara barely kept a lid on her frustrated anger at all the man’s secrets.
Nick nodded.
“So how in the heck are you managing all this, Nick? What are you into that you got these kinds of enemies? And that you’re able to pull off this kind of…thing? Are you a hit man? A runway mafia husband? The son of a boss? Did you kill the wrong guy? Fuck the wrong woman?”
He shook his head, the smile on his face a little forced.
“None of those things. Really. Can’t we just agree that some people’s lives put them in situations that they are not responsible for?”
Tara thought long and hard about that one. Eventually…grudgingly…she nodded.
“But that doesn’t explain how you can live out in the woods for months at a time, or kill armed men with your bare hands like other people change a flat tire.”
His face darkened and she wished she could take back her last words.
“I was in the military, Tara.”
“I’ve met plenty of army guys on my photo shoots, Nick. They’re nice enough but...”
He held up a hand to silence her.
“I was specially trained for long range recon.”
“The survivalist training,” she said quietly.
He nodded and put down his mug. He gave it a look like the coffee had somehow suddenly gone bad.
“After my tours, I couldn’t go back to my old life. Too many things happened. Too many things changed. I couldn’t see that life again. So I, uh, hired out for a few years.”
It took Tara a moment to translate.
“You were a mercenary?!”
He nodded. “Not my best decision, but it kept me away from home. It allowed me to save up some money. My skill-set, even among those guys, commanded top dollar.”
“Skill-set?”
The serious, bushy-faced man rattled off a series of sentences in various languages, only one of which was familiar to Tara. She looked at him askew.
“One of those was French, right?”
He nodded, a very slight smile touching his generally grim countenance.
“What were the others?”
“The first was German, the third was Arabic and the last was Croatian.”
“You speak four languages?”
“No.”
“So just some phrases in each?”
“No, I speak nine.”
Tara was flabbergasted. Nick shrugged and sipped his coffee.
“I was always a bit of a mimic as a kid; it grew from that. I’m a polyglot. It’s a term for someone with a natural gift for languages. “
She was quiet.
“That’s how you were able to tell where those guys were from? You’ve got an ear?”
He smiled a bit more. “As you can imagine, a guy that can do recon, surveillance, and can handle himself well and speaks nine languages is a pretty valuable asset.”
She nodded.
“I learned a lot of other things during those years. Not things I thought I’d ever need to use again.”
She nodded again.
“So why the hermit thing?”
His face went dark. He tossed down the coffee with a vengeance, then shot to his feet.
“The point is, I can take care of you if you trust me. I owe you that at the very least. Let me do this, Tara. Don’t fight me on it. Let me get you home safe.” The sudden anger that had overtaken him seemed to evaporate as he turned his eyes towards her shocked face. “Please.”
Tara fought back a wave of conflicting emotions, then stood herself. She wanted the playful Nick back. She stepped over to him, put her arms around his neck and bent low to capture his tortured gaze.
“I will, if you tell me what the other little phrases in those other languages were. I took French in high school. I know what you said.”
Nick fought his way to a smile, whispered the translations in her ear and five minutes later they were doing them to each other.
CHAPTER 21
Louie waved his hands and shook his head when Nick pulled the envelope out of his jacket and pressed to towards the dapper Belgian.
“I could not…I would not..not even think of if,” he said puffing up indignantly.
“You put yourself in a little danger, possibly, even driving us out here to the rendezvous point,” Nick said, still holding the envelope out. “If not hazard pay, then gas money. You used your own car.”
“It was an honor and a pleasure. A concierge at the finest hotel in all the of Warrenton rarely has the opportunity for danger. Unless navigating icy streets at 3 a.m. to get Pep-to Bis-mo for a guest is considered dangerous.”
Nick gave up. He re-pocketed the envelope. Tara could not imagine it held anything but cash, but also knew that Nick shouldn’t have any. The mountain man, now dressed in tan chinos, a cream colored linen dress shirt and fur-lined long coat, stuck his hand out and Louie took it with a sincere smile. The men shook.
“I hope you will come back again soon, Boss, and tell all of us how this story ended.” The Gaul's smile was bright and sincere. He pinched his mustache, checked his hair and looked around. The empty windswept road on the outskirts of Warrenton was desolate. Winter weather had arrived with the specialty car and the people of Warrenton were hiding out for the first cold morning of the season.
Louie stepped over to Tara, bowed, took her hand and kissed it.
“It was a pleasure, Mademoiselle. I hope the Fates will smile upon us and we cross paths again.”
Already in shock Tara had to stifle a giggle at the very French parting. She thought perhaps he was hamming it up, but didn’t want to offend him commenting.
Nick clasped the man on the shoulder and they shook again, then he waved Tara to the car.
“Ahem!”
Nick turned back. The concierge was scowling at the mountain man. He pointedly looked towards the car, then back at Tara.
“Oh.” Nick scurried past Tara, who was already halfway to the car, opened the door for her and helped her in. He gave Louis a look. The concierge smiled, ducked into his vehicle and was off.
Once they were alone in the warm and spacious vehicle, Tara finally spoke.
“Boss?” She drew out the single word.
Nick put the car in gear and they started off. In the gray, cold predawn hours the single lane highway seemed to stretch on to the far side of Infinity.
“A term of endearment,” he muttered from the side of his mouth. “I’d bet he calls a lot of the male patrons that use his services that.”
“And does he refuse tips from them as well? Because I’ve heard that’s how they make most of their money.”
She saw Nick clench his jaw and press his lips in a tight line.
“You are good at a lot of things, Nick, but lying…not so much.” She stroked his face. “I think I like that about you.”
The silence that followed stretched on long enough that by the time Nick spoke again, the mountains that had seemed impossibly distant were beginning to show signs of texture.
“It’ll be short days driving. The more time that passes with us out in the wind, the better. We’re gonna keep to the speed limit. I’ll have you home in three days,” he said as Tara reached around to the back seat and got her camera out.
She was nothing short of amazed when he didn’t resist as she snapped off a few shots of his profile.
“Short days mean long nights,” she said, taking his hand.
She thought he almost smiled.
CHAPTER 22
“Fullmi
le Photography. Greta Fuller speaking.”
Her childhood friend’s voice was tight and huffy when she finally picked up the phone.
“Hi Greta, it’s Tara. I was getting worried. You didn’t pick up at home or on your cell.”
The pause was so long Tara began to wonder if they’d lost the connection. She was, after all, in an actual phone booth, the kind she hadn’t seen in almost twenty years.
“Tara! Good…Good to hear from you. I, uh, my god, I guess you are back from your trip?”
Tara tightened her grip on the phone.
“It got complicated,” she finally said, “and, well, I didn’t get any shots of Candlelight 101. We can try next season. There are a few others in the series we can do though, once we have the money saved up. Are the first ones in the series still doing okay?”
Another long pause.
“Uh, yeah. There has been a lot of interest. Especially in the one outside of Three-Mile. You know the one?”
Tara had to fight through her annoyance at her friend’s scatter-brained behavior to figure out what she meant. Finally, it came to her. It was an odd way to reference the shoot.
“Yeah, the one where I had to wait for those guys to get out of the foreground.”
“Yeah…yeah.”
“Great,” Tara said, not meaning it at all.
“So, uh, Tare, where are you?”
Tara did as much of a turn as the small space and short phone cord allowed.
“Uh, on a long flat road next to a tired diner that uses grease for everything, except salads because they don’t have any. But it gave me an idea for another series.”
“No, I mean, where exactly?” Greta cut in.
“Honestly, I don’t know. We left Wichita about three hours ago, heading...” A sixth sense clipped Tara’s explanation “…east, uh, for now.”
“Great, great. So you’re safe and…you are on your way here?”
Tara wanted to scream, but was not sure over what.
“I guess. We’re gonna spend the night in a town another four hours out.”
“We?” her friend echoed.
“Long story,” Tara said, cupping her hand over the mouth piece so she could even talk in conspiratorial quietness. “But I met a guy. A helluva a guy. We’re having breakfast. He went to the john so I popped out here to call you real quick. Are you okay?”
“Yeah. So, headed east for a few hours and you’ll spend the night somewhere.”
“Yeah.” Tara was so eager to tell her childhood friend about Nick that it killed her that the woman wasn’t asking.
“Oh, okay, well, be safe. I guess I’ll see you in a day or two.”
The little joy Tara was getting from talking to her friend went flat.
“Yeah. Listen, he’s coming out of the john. I gotta go.”
“Okay,” Greta said. “Love you, Tara.”
“You, too,” the now not-only-shivering-but-very-disappointed woman said and hung up the phone. She crossed the broken asphalt parking lot, leaning into a blustery wind, and got back to their table just before Nick emerged from the bathroom.
CHAPTER 23
“It’s not the Warrenton, but it should do.”
Tara was speechless. Nick stood in the doorway behind her, a duffle bag in each hand, as Tara entered the five-star hotel’s penthouse.
“I…” She looked around. From the glass chandeliers to the Italian-cut marble counter tops to sleek modern furniture with automatic fold out computer terminals, the whole place screamed opulence.
Then she went to the window.
“Oh my god,” she sighed, looking down at the view of the sparkling city. Some businesses had started putting up Christmas lights, adding to the already magical carpet of diamonds that were lighting up the gathering dusk. They were up so high that if it was still light out, Tara was sure she would be able to see all the way to the Ohio state border.
She turned back to Nick who, unlike at the Warrenton, did not bother checking the window sights. They were to high up to see anything or be seen.
“I won’t ask because I don’t want to ruin it, but promise me, Nick, that someday you will tell me how all this is possible.”
His smile was slight, but sincere.
“Fair enough,” he said, dropping the bags and kicking the door closed. He came up behind her, put his hands on her shoulders and was silent--for once seeming to appreciate their luxurious surroundings.
Tara lingered at the window with Nick, savoring the moment, then left him standing there to familiarize herself with the rest of the suite. It was upon exploration of the master bedroom that she found the hot tub-sized bath with multiple water jets.
“Nick! Nick!” she called running back to the living room where the mountain man was examining the locks and hinges of the double doors that led into the suite. Too excited to explain, she simply dragged him along into the master bathroom and pointed.
“Looks unnecessary…” he said flatly. Tara was deflated. Then he continued, “…if we are already clean. Maybe we need to get dirty so we’ll need a bath.”
Tara’s giggle turned into laughter and she encircled his neck with her arms and pulled him down for a kiss.
“And afterward,” he mumbled through the lip-lock, “maybe we can go out somewhere nice to eat.”
She released him in shock and stared at him in wide-eyed awe.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he said. “If we were being followed I’d know by now. No one knows we are here. Hell, we didn't know we were going to be here this morning. It’s safe enough to go out for one nice meal.”
The photographer barely heard any of his words. All she could think was that they were doing everything in reverse--mind-blowing sex, then actual dating. She fought back tears of joy as something she hadn't allowed herself to even consider started to manifest.
CHAPTER 24
“So now I know you like Chinese food, another of your languages is Mandarin, and I still don’t know your last name,” Tara said after the waiter left with their order.
“I think the first two things say a lot more about me than a last name would, don’t you agree?” Nick picked up a glass of red wine that he and the waiter had had a long discussion about--in Mandarin, of course. With unconscious familiarity of the ritual, Nick held the glass from the bottom, letting his body heat warm it just a little, then brought it to his nose. The sniff was so soft it was almost inaudible. Tara had been to wine tastings before, but had never seen someone be so thorough and artless at the same time.
She sipped hers without bothering to match his connoisseur-like expertise.
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