Sleeper Cells

by Sandra Y. Desjardins

  “There was a car accident right before second grade started. It killed his entire family,” he took the card and looked at it for a moment before returning it to its place. “I remember I spent all morning looking for him and when the class left for lunch, I snuck back and asked the teacher if he was sick. When she admitted what happened, I ran to the bathroom and locked myself in a stall and cried. And I remember thinking to myself that life without him was gonna suck, since he was the only person that ever made me laugh.” He slid the wood plank over the picture and postcard.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “Me too,” he kissed the top of her head. “But it made me realize that I was different. And it made me a little more careful around other Hybrids, and helped me keep my cool when I finally met you.” He guided her toward the bed.

  “Finally? Did you always know I was your lifemate?”

  “Not always,” he pulled her onto the bed.

  “Oh, do tell.” She giggled when he kissed her neck.

  “I went through my dad’s office…a lot.” He chuckled. “I’ve always hated surprises. You know how much it sucks when they pulled a fast one on you and you have to force yourself to act right.”

  “So that’s how you made it through our unity ceremony seeming fine—”

  “So did you, and you didn’t know.” He countered.

  “I was so thrilled that it was with you, that the only thing I had to contain was how happy I was.”

  “You sure know what to say to put a smile on my face.”

  “I can show you too,” she smiled mischievously as she pulled him toward her.

  “Are you thinking naughty thoughts?” He teased.

  She nodded and pulled him down the rest of the way, but just as soon as he kissed her, the doorbell rang. She asked him to ignore it, and he had just started to kiss her again when it rang again. They went to ignore the third chime, but stopped short when they heard the alarm sound indicating the door had opened.

  “Why did you give her a key?” He sighed.

  “I don’t know,” she said begrudgingly.

  “Kit Kat!” Vanessa called. “Kit Kat!”

  “Hey, Vanessa, we’re up here!” Kat called. “Ow!” She rubbed her rear where he had playfully smacked her, then giggled when she looked at him. “What was that for?”

  “For spoiling our afternoon—”

  “I didn’t do anything.” She laughed.

  “You gave her a key, so now little Ms. Drama Queen is going to take up the little amount of time we could have had together,” he teased as he pulled her against him.

  “We have the rest of our lives,” she smiled and kissed him.

  “He’s cheating on me!” Vanessa cried as she pushed through the door and threw herself onto their bed. “I knew it was too good to be true. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted him.”

  “What happened?” Kat poked Jason when he rolled his eyes in obvious disgust.

  “My teacher was absent, so I decided to leave early, and when I got to his job to surprise him, he acted weird and forced me to stay outside, he wouldn’t even let me in!”

  “You did say he was at work? Maybe his boss was there,” Jason suggested.

  “No!” Vanessa sat upright. “That’s what he said, but you had to see the way he was acting. It was like he was hiding something.”

  “Sweetie,” Kat made her way to the bed. “Start from the beginning. What happened when you got there?”

  “You know his office is never unlocked, so when I got there I kicked with my foot because I stopped for coffee,” she sobbed dramatically. “So he pulls open the door and he asks me what the hell I’m doing there! I’m telling you, Kat, he was shocked to see me—”

  “You should have been at school—”

  “No, Kat! I’ve snuck over there during the day before and he’s never acted like that!”

  “Sweetie, if he said his boss was there then maybe he got in trouble for you showing up. Vanessa, honey, take a deep breath.” Kat hugged her and glared at Jason when he shook his head and rolled his eyes again.

  “Oh, goody,” Jason said dryly when the doorbell chimed. “That’s probably him.”

  “Tell him I’m not here!” Vanessa stormed out of the room and headed for the stairs.

  “Right, sure,” he mumbled. “Right after she has a screaming match with him on the porch.”

  “Can you be a little sympathetic?” Kat ran past him.

  “No.” He grabbed her arm when she was halfway down the stairs, “Because she’s ridiculous—”

  “Jason, it’s really not for much longer, please,” she begged as they made it to the first floor.

  “Don’t give me those big, green puppy dog eyes,” he groaned.

  “I knew it!” Vanessa grabbed Kat and ripped her from his grasp and pulled her toward the front door. “It’s him. Tell him I’m not here!”

  “Right…” Jason stepped past them and grabbed the doorknob, “Because at your current decibel he couldn’t have possibly heard you in here.”

  “Jason,” Kat begged as she watched Vanessa run up the stairs. She disappeared from sight, and then Kat heard a door slam.

  “Hey, Jeremy,” Jason pulled the door open. “Vanessa’s not here. Don’t think that just because you heard her clear as day a second ago, or that because her car is parked in our driveway she’s here, because she’s not.”

  “Right, mind if I come in?” He laughed.

  “No, not at all,” Jason said as he stepped out of Jeremy’s way. “Why would I mind that my wife and I had two seconds of quiet time, and it was once again ruined by her overly-dramatic younger sister?”

  “Jason!” Kat snapped from across the room. “Hey, Jeremy. Vanessa is a little upset…” She looked at Jason when he snorted. “I’m sure it’s not as bad as she thinks.”

  “I wasn’t expecting her, and I was kinda in the middle of doing something for her,” he pulled a red ring box out of his pocket. “It’s for Valentine’s Day, and I guess I acted strange...”

  “I see,” Kat eyed the box, then looked at Jason curiously as he went to the window and pulled back the curtain and blinds. “Well, I know you probably wanted to surprise her with that, but she can sometimes be a little—”

  “Insecure?” He laughed. “Yeah, I know. That’s why I came over; I figured if I let her stew, she would work herself into all kinds of hysterics.” To which Jason snorted again.

  “I’ll go see if I can get her—”

  “If you don’t mind,” he interrupted. “I’d like to get her, or I can leave if you think that’s best?”

  “Yeah, leave, and don’t look back. Just run—”

  “Jason!”

  “No,” Jeremy chuckled. “It’s okay. Girls like Vanessa can be a bit much for some people, so I take no offense.”

  “Help yourself.” Jason pointed toward the stairs. “She’s barricaded in one of the rooms upstairs.”

  “Thanks, I’ll try to be quick.”

  “Just tell her this time I’m gonna bill her for whatever she breaks.”

  “Jason!”

  “Will do,” Jeremy laughed. He disappeared up the stairs.

  “Dammit, babe, is it so much to ask—”

  “Did your dad buy her a new car?” He interrupted.

  “What?” Kat asked.

  “Whose car is that?” He nodded as he pulled the curtains back.

  “Oh, I don’t know.” She studied the BMW, “Maybe her friend Victoria’s? Why?”

  “No reason.” He shrugged, “Just curious.”

  “You really weren’t very nice.” She pouted.

  “I was nice the first time,” he walked toward the kitchen. “I was even nice the second and third time. Now I’m annoyed and tired of replacing the things she breaks. And I’m especially tired of having to listen to her whine, and having to see you follow behind her trying to clean up all her messes.” He disappeared into the pantry and came out with a sleeve of crackers. “And she walks around here lik
e she owns the damn place! She just drops onto our bed or uses my clothes! Last weekend she came downstairs in a pair of my pajamas!”

  “Babe—”

  “Oh, don’t babe me,” he mimicked as he shoved crackers into his mouth. “She is beyond ridiculous and feels like she’s so entitled.”

  “She’s just a little—”

  “Kat, seriously, don’t defend her behavior. Last week she was in here with two of her friends. She didn’t even ask, just said your parents had guests and she didn’t want to bother them, but she and her little friends just had to catch up on her soaps! And she didn’t even clean up when they left!”

  “Are you done?” She laughed when he dropped into a chair and took a swig of his lemonade.

  “No,” he shouted.

  “Okay…” She said when he didn’t provide anything further.

  “I know you love her…I don’t know why you love her, but I know you do,” he sighed. “But I gotta tell you, if the plan was to stay here forever, we would have to do something about that one because she drives me nuts.”

  “And it shows,” she smiled and reached for his hand when he glared at her. “Honey, she’s a pretty typical teenager—”

  “Kat,” he glared at her.

  “Okay, okay, okay,” she slid onto his lap. “She’s not typical, and we’re not staying, so can you do me a favor and just humor her until we go? I just want to spend as much time with her as I can since I won’t ever be able to see her once we leave.”

  He studied her for a moment. “I’m sorry,” he sighed. “I guess I forget that you have ties that I will never understand.”

  “You do,” she kissed him. “You have friends you’ll miss.”

  “I do,” he kissed her again. “But not like you…and we can talk about that another day. How much longer do we have before that photo shoot?”

  “A couple of hours,” she tilted her head so he could kiss her neck. “Why?”

  “Oh, no reason,” he stood with her in his arms. “I just thought we could maybe watch some television—”

  “Is that all you wanna do?” She teased as he climbed the stairs with her still in his arms.

  “There you go thinking naughty thoughts again,” he pushed their bedroom door shut with his foot. “I’m really quite innocent.”

  “I’m not.” She giggled when he kissed her neck. “Mind if I corrupt you a bit?”

  “Honey, I’ve been waiting for you to ask me that all day…”

  Chapter Sixteen Serendipity

  Kat checked her cell phone and gritted her teeth when it showed no reply to the third text message she had sent. She tensed when Andrew’s hand came to her waist and he pulled the zipper of her dress up for her. Damned if that didn’t make her feel worse, especially when she turned with a smile, and had to blink to remind herself to not stare at his lips.

  “Do you have your contacts in yet?” He stepped unbelievably close as he handed her the blonde wig and stared at her eyes. “You look so different with blue eyes,” Andrew said after studying her for a second.

  “Thanks…” she grabbed the wig and stepped into the bathroom. “What alias are you using today? Was it Vinny?”

  “Yeah, I’m Vinny and you’re Bridgett. And that wasn’t really a compliment.” He chuckled as he leaned against the doorframe and watched her in the mirror. “Don’t get me wrong, you would still be beautiful with pink eyes, but green is definitely your color.”

  “How’s the blonde look?” She secured the wig on to her head.

  “You almost look like a different person.”

  “That’s the point,” she passed him and dropped onto the bed to put her shoes on, a pair of three-inch heels that she was dreading having to wear. “Tell me again why Michelle isn’t doing this?”

  “She’s with John at a convention that he’s a guest speaker at. It was a last minute high-tech conference that we couldn’t pass over. We need to get the company into the spotlight so we can get more investors.”

  “Why?” She asked nonchalantly. “All the money we get for smuggling and selling the cocaine from Colombia goes directly to Stellar Industries.”

  “Do you have any idea how much it costs to build one regenerator?” He chuckled, “Listen, when we aren’t out and about making money for the Agency, it’s my privilege to sit in an office at that building and play with numbers. Suffice it to say that we barely have enough money coming in to sustain all of our needs, let alone all the other small medical equipment projects we have going to appear legitimate.”

  “So Vegas is tying in to your business needs now?”

  “There’s another team that has a contact here…I’m thinking they either want to expand or need us to take over. Either way, it’s beneficial to the company. And I’m guessing this Tony dude is trying to make his claim to fame up the mafia ladder, which works well for us, since it’s going to be another source of income.”

  “So what are we resorting to here?” She attempted to secure the clasp of her necklace with the massive fake curls in place.

  “Here,” he took the necklace from her. “Let me help you.” She lifted the hair up and he stepped entirely too close for comfort to secure the clasp, her guilt meter registering a full ten points on the scale. Especially when he helped adjust the hair after it cascaded down her back again. She pulled the strapless dress up some so she had an excuse to take a step away from him, then after smoothing out the dress, she turned and faced him.

  “How do I look?”

  “Amazing,” he leaned back and looked her up and down. “Ready?”

  “Yeah, let me just use the little girl’s room and I’ll be right out,” she grabbed her clutch and ran back into the bathroom and locked the door before he could object.

  She pulled her phone out of her bag and almost threw it when it showed no response. Dammit. She texted Jason again, typing out that he needed to contact her immediately so she knew he wasn’t going to show up for their date because she wouldn’t be there.

  She flushed the toilet and washed her hands. Lying to Jason made her feel dirty, but she didn’t have a choice. Jason had been doing better at controlling his jealousy, which Kat was both proud and thankful for. She didn’t want to rock the boat if she didn’t have to.

  That meant that the last-minute mission to Las Vegas, which required her to pretend to be Andrew’s girlfriend, would best be handled with discretion. What Jason didn’t know couldn’t hurt him. So Kat had decided to tell a white lie. Jason didn’t need to know she and Andrew were sharing the company’s room at Caesar’s Palace and portraying a couple.

  She slipped her arm through Andrew’s when he offered it. As they made their way to the elevators, she managed to keep her smile in place when they both felt her phone vibrate in her purse.

  She opened the clutch just wide enough so she could slip her hand in. She turned the screen so that only she could see it. She exhaled slowly because she was grateful that he finally returned her text message. He texted he had just gotten a last-minute call to assist one of the attorneys at Brian’s firm, so the change in plans worked well for him too.

  “The girl in my astronomy class,” Kat smiled as she dropped the phone to the bottom of her bag and snapped it shut. “She’s so lost and has a panic attack when I don’t make it to class.”

  “Humans seem to have such an aversion to math and science,” he grabbed her hand and led her out of the elevator toward the casino. “Did you want to grab a bite to eat before we start?”

  “How long do you think we’ll be?”

  “I’m not sure,” he guided them to a small table in the bar area. “Tony said he’d meet us at the hundred dollar black-jack tables between eleven and twelve, which gives us some downtime. And with the time change, your stomach should be on a lunchtime schedule, so we can grab something small if you’d like?”

  “Yeah, sure,” she picked up a menu. She would probably vomit if she forced herself to eat, but understood his logic. “Are you going to eat?”
<
br />   “Yeah,” he perused the menu.

  She relaxed a bit as they sat and talked about nothing in particular, just news headlines that didn’t affect them. He told her more about Stellar Industries, the bogus company run by John that manufactured a large chunk of their technology. She tensed when he asked her why she seemed to be having a hard time getting into character, which she denied. She was fine, she assured him, but the accusation made her even more jumpy.

  When he ordered two mimosas, she turned hers down. She never drank when she was on assignment. But his raised eyebrow, along with his earlier comment, caused her to smile and drink it instead. Nor did she refuse the second mimosa when it arrived with her meal. The drink really was more orange juice than champagne, so it wasn’t having the slightest effect on her.

  He paid the tab, and guided her to the craps table. He showed her how to play, but she opted for watching instead. She was definitely better at providing luck for him rather than herself.

  She excused herself to the ladies room when she felt her phone vibrate and saw it was Jason. He wanted to know where she and Courtney were having lunch, a lie she had made up to blow off their lunch date, because he was sure he could get out of going to court with time enough to meet them.

  She swore under her breath and typed in a reply saying they had decided to run over to Courtney’s apartment, which was on the other side of town, so she would meet him at home that evening.

  “Hey, blow on these,” Andrew said holding the dice out toward her. “Are you okay?” He asked after tossing them and studying her for a moment.

  “Yeah,” she smiled. “I’m just hot.” She lifted her hair off of her back and fanned herself. “I guess those mimosas are starting to catch up with me.”

  “Good,” he handed her another drink after stuffing his chips into his pocket and guiding her farther into the casino. “You were so tense earlier, so it’s good you’re loosening up. I know snipers usually don’t work these kinds of details, but we need to pretend to be madly in love. So if a couple of drinks help you relax and get into character, then I say drink up.”