With a few minutes to reflect, she knew that by returning Trevor’s kiss she had allowed herself to enjoy a fraternization with him. But more importantly she also knew that Mike was right. She was jeopardizing her career and with that came another concern, a bigger one regarding Grainger. She would have to rely on her team members to help her find him and she had every intention of doing just that.
Jae also wondered if she would be doing it because it could also mean helping Trevor, who had been accused of being a killer and a terrorist. He was used as a scapegoat, while those responsible were probably trying to reproduce the so-called “supersoldier” serum.
Then there was Trevor’s awesome, out of nowhere punch to Mike’s jaw, which shed a light on a continuing problem for her. Mike’s possessiveness was disconcerting. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that he’d purposely turned a bad situation worse, and she knew why. He still harbored feelings for her.
Minutes later, when the patio door slid open, she was surprised when a tall glass of orange soda pop was passed down to her from Trevor’s strong hand. “How did you know that orange is my favorite?” she asked, accepting the glass and napkin he passed to her as well. When he said it was his favorite also, she didn’t believe him. “You’re lying. Now, how did you know?”
“Ronnie mentioned it back in Virginia,” Trevor said, grinning as he encouraged her to drink her soda. When she complied and commented that it was quiet inside her apartment, Trevor dispelled her unfounded fear. “No, I didn’t kill them, they left,” he said, pulling a stool over to sit on, facing her. “Your team members are very protective of you, especially Mighty Mike.” He held up his arms, foolishly flexing his muscles.
“I’m going to take off now,” he said, after a few seconds.
“To go where and do what?”
“Today’s revelations have put a different spin on things. But it hasn’t changed my goal. I have to find out who killed those men. I did tell your, um, posse in there that I believe SAC Grainger portrayed himself as someone else in order to help me. If I can find him then he’ll be the only one who can clear my name.”
“Trevor, what’s on that data drive you gave me?” she asked, setting the glass on the table beside the swing. “You should know we tried to open it and couldn’t.”
“It’s my full research, ” he said.
“If you knew I couldn’t open it, why the hell did you give it to me? It almost infected two of our office computers with a virus while trying to open it,” she accused.
“Safekeeping, sweetheart, and in the event I did turn up dead, I wanted you or someone you trust to follow the paper trail. For me, it dead-ends with Dan Willow aka Luke Grainger.”
“So you’re going to try and find him, huh?” When he nodded, yes, Jae told him she was going with him and dropped her feet to the patio floor. Placing his hands on her knees, he told her she wasn’t.
“Yes, I am. Besides, Trevor, you have no clue who Luke Grainger is or where to start looking for him. I do.”
“I know what he looks like and that’s a solid start,” he said with smug confidence.
“Excuse me, but you don’t know crap. I could have shown you another picture of Grainger and you wouldn’t have recognized him,” Jae retorted.
“Yes, I would have.”
“I doubt that, because for all your smarts, you didn’t recognize me.” Jae snorted.
“What are you talking about?” Trevor leaned forward.
Jae backed away and shook her head cynically. “Some analyst, researcher, head doctor, you are. I sat working right under your nose for ten days and when I approached you in that hotel lounge, you didn’t recognize me,” she said with equal smugness.
“Jae, sweetheart, you never worked with me,” Trevor said.
Moving toward him to get on eye level, Jae assumed a pinched smile.
Jae leaned forward as he gawked at her with wide, unblinking, and unbelievably clear blue eyes. She tucked her ponytail into a tight knot and assumed a pinched expression. She watched him blink, several times. “I’m positive you don’t recognize me, Trevor, because I was in disguise. I had light brown hair, hazel contact lenses, and my makeup included a prosthetic made of silicone, which altered the shape of my nose, mouth, and chin, not to mention the liquid makeup I applied made me darker. I also wore padding beneath my clothes so I’d appear thicker.” Jae leaned closer before changing her voice. “Pleased to meet you, Dr. Grant, just call me Miss James and no, for the tenth time you may not call me Regina. I prefer a professional working environment, if you don’t mind.”
“What the hell!” Trevor shouted with astonishment, pushed back, then jumped up from the stool as if he’d been burned. Backing away, he searched her face, studying every detail before dropping back onto the stool, stunned as he gazed into her eyes.
Jae dropped her hand from her hair and took a sip of her soda pop.
Trevor threw back his head and laughed, hard. He laughed even harder when she continued to stare at him as if he’d lost his mind. When he finally recovered, he reached for her hands and pulled her to her feet. “I was going to offer you that job permanently and with full benefits, too,” he said.
“I wouldn’t have been able to accept. I already have a job, Dr. Grant, and besides, you fired me, remember?”
Trevor dropped his forehead to hers. “You were spying on me weren’t you?” he asked quietly, kissing her cheek and holding her tightly.
“For the Bureau, yes,” came her whispered answer as she fought to suppress another growing bout of longing and heat centering in the pit of her stomach.
“What did you do?”
“My assignment was to upload data from your hard drives through an untraceable program linked to the field office.” When he asked how often she had done that, she told him every day during his lunch hour and then filled him in on some of the case.
“You were very good because I never suspected a thing.”
“Yes, I’m very good at what I do, Trevor.”
“Why did they send you?”
With his hands framing her face, Jae smiled demurely and batted her eyelashes at him.
“Oh, I get it. The FBI thought I’d be a pushover for a beautiful woman with buttoned-up-to-the-neck blouses, ugly chunky shoes, and an attitude, huh?”
Laughing, Jae pushed him back. “When that assignment was over, I took those outfits and shoes right back to the thrift store. The attitude, well, that was all mine for you staring at me and giving me your little one-word answers. Man, did that get on my damn nerves.”
“I would have never suspected you of anything. You didn’t even try to come on to me,” he teased affectionately between ripples of laughter.
“Oh please! You mean like those lab techs did? You didn’t see them teetering down the hall coming to your office. They primped up their hair as high as their silicone implants and then left your office as deflated as those boobs really were. Honestly, Trevor, that was fun to watch in an otherwise very dull job.” Jae made a sour face. “Oh, and hitting on you was the last thing on my mind. You were a big bear with all that hair—a throw back from the era of hippies holding signs of peace, love, and free pot.” Jae laughed at the image.
“I grew that hair for a reason, sweetheart,” he said and swept his lips across hers. “Would you consider hitting on me now, Miss Regina?”
“That’s not my name,” Jae murmured against the exhilarating effect his lips had on her.
“I know, but I used to imagine what it would be like to kiss her and now I get to find out,” he said seconds before his mouth covered hers hungrily at first, then more gently.
When Trevor’s arms enveloped her in his warm embrace, it pushed the previous bad stuff away. She went along when he stood up, pressing his body against hers, evoking desires she thought had deserted her long ago. He stirred her passion and she found that both alar
ming and exciting. And yet, it didn’t stop her from returning the kiss, although she could list a thousand reasons why she shouldn’t. Like her job…and her life. “Please, please stop.” She dragged her lips from his.
Trevor had heard those same words before on the night she’d been shot. In the motel she’d been partially sedated, but awakened and began fighting him while he struggled to keep her flat on the bed to prevent the wound from bleeding further.
After he’d carried her unconscious into the motel room, he’d had little time to do anything except get her undressed and fix her up. He’d been so concerned about making the impromptu operating room as sterile as possible he hadn’t focused on her face that had been contorted in pain, or her hands that were balled into tight fists at her sides. The image would be forever branded in his mind like the dead bodies of the Marines. Stepping back from her he said, “I’m sorry.”
“So now that you’ve gotten kissing Regina James out of your system, let’s get back to the matter at hand, shall we?” Jae was all business again as she mentally stamped out the flames of desire. “Trevor, as hard as it is for me to say this, let’s work together to find Grainger. I truly believe that by doing so, we’ll also get the answers you seek. Can we agree on that?”
Staring at this gorgeous woman, Jae Randall, stirred something in him that he couldn’t deny even if he wanted to. “Yes, Jae I can agree to that. Can we kiss on that to seal this partnership?”
“No, how about we shake hands?” She took his offered handshake.
“Darius issued a direct order for me to come down to your field office in two hours for questioning or they were coming back for me,” Trevor said, walking over to the patio railing.
Glancing down at the street, he spotted a tan sedan slowly rounding the corner, coming to a stop at the curb. When he looked in the opposite direction, he spotted another sedan. This one was gray in color, doing the same thing. It was apparent to Trevor that Darius and his posse didn’t believe that he or Jae would turn him in so they were coming for him. So much for giving me two hours, he thought cynically as he turned and walked over to the potted palm, which was leaning again. What he was actually doing was looking around the Egyptian-paneled screens where he had a partial view of the side of the building. He didn’t see any other unmarked or suspicious looking vehicles.
Turning back to her, he said, “I assured Darius that I didn’t break in or hold you against your will.” Trevor held up his thumb and forefinger to her raised eyebrows. “Tiny lie,” he said.
“What else did they say?”
“A lot, but basically Special Agent Mighty Mike and Amil both expressed a real passion for wanting to beat the shit out of me, while Special Agents Darius and Iverson chimed in with the many ways they could make that happen,” Trevor said, imperceptibly glancing at his watch and crossing the patio to the door.
“Where’re you going?” Jae asked, standing, prepared to follow him.
“I’m going to finish loading the dishwasher. Would you believe your crew used every plate and coffee mug you own?” Trevor encouraged her to sit back down by resting a hand on her shoulder. “Enjoy your oasis for a few minutes while I finish the dishes and when I’m done maybe you can tell me about Ronnie’s wedding as we head down to your office.” Trevor stepped inside the apartment, sliding the patio door closed behind him.
Glancing over his shoulder, Trevor watched her nod thoughtfully before rocking in the swing. He guessed she’d be fully asleep in five minutes.
* * * * *
Not far from the field office, Randy Cross was meeting with a man who’d proven his worth more times than he could count. Once again, their topic of discussion centered on adjusting Dr. Grant’s formula on their newest test subject, a man Randy knew was in excellent shape both mentally and physically.
“Randy,” Dr. Otis Holmes started, “as a physician, I’m telling you there’s too much of a risk of miscalculating the formulas again. I’ve been tweaking it and as you saw earlier, our current subjects are not staying under long enough to perform the task and rigors we’re putting them through. Again, I caution you not to get too comfortable by relying on it, particularly with this new test subject,” he said, holding up a three-ring binder. “I’m telling you there’s more but Dr. Grant didn’t write it down on paper, at least not in these papers,” he stressed fretfully.
“You let me worry about that because I believe Dr. Grant will be resurfacing soon,” Randy said and smiled, shrewdly.
“Then we’ll finally be able to get this business over and done with; too many lives have been lost due to our work,” the doctor added.
“Yes, but we’ll be paid more money than either of us would ever see in ten lifetimes. For that, Otis, I’m willing to suffer the humiliation of sitting at a desk job with a reduction in salary, not to mention, you’ll have ownership of this institution.” Waving his hand up, Randy continued. “But trust this. I’ll make all of them pay for what they did. Dr. Grant will get a taste of his own medicine and that is how we’ll get what we need.”
“Randy, please rethink any retaliatory action you’re planning. It was your hasty actions at the bank that led to your desk job, not the actions of your colleagues. I told you it was too soon to send those young men out there on such a task. But no, you wouldn’t listen and insisted they could pull it off. They weren’t ready and neither was the formula,” Dr. Holmes said, grabbing papers from his desk in frustration.
“Relax, Otis. The new test subject will be more than capable of the challenges you’ll be putting him through. He’s a tough bastard,” Randy said absently. “I saw that he followed your orders very nicely under the influence of the hypnosis, but the dosage may be the problem.”
“Yes, I’m afraid so, Randy. When he’s leveling down, he presents symptoms of rage and hysteria, so that’s where I’ll concentrate on tweaking the formula, make it stronger for his next level of tests so that it holds him longer,” Otis said, tapping his fingers on his desk.
Randy smiled and nodded at the doctor.
Chapter Twelve
Lifting her head from the back of the swing, Jae stretched lazily. She guessed her exhaustion stemmed from her middle of the night visitor, followed by her early morning invaders.
Jae got up and wandered over to the patio railing. Saturdays meant her neighbors would be starting their morning routines and because it was already heating up, the pool was sure to fill up by early afternoon.
Despite the morning hour, the street below was oddly quiet. At first glance nothing seemed unusual. But when she took another look she noticed a tan-colored sedan parked at the corner of her street. It looked undeniably familiar, like an FBI or government-issued vehicle.
Glancing down at her wristwatch, she saw that it was twelve thirty in the afternoon. “That can’t be right,” she murmured, bringing her wrist up to her ear confirming it was ticking. Widening her eyes in disbelief, Jae saw that she’d been asleep for almost two hours.
Rushing inside her apartment she looked around as she called out Trevor’s name. Not getting a response, she walked into the kitchen and opened the dishwasher. To her surprise, there was no blast of steam and the rinse cycle had been finished for at least an hour, not to mention the kitchen was spotless.
Walking further around her apartment she found every room empty. Finally, wandering into her bedroom, she saw the bed had been made and her cache of pillows was neatly stacked against the padded headboard. Her eyes lit upon a folded piece of paper on the nightstand, propped up on the broken lamp. With a sinking feeling, she crossed the room, snatched up the paper, and read the note.
I now owe you a bag of potato chips and a lamp. Take care, Sweetheart.
Anger bubbled inside of her, but her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when she heard a commotion and raced to the living room. It was coming from the corridor outside her apartment. As she approached, four hard raps shook the doo
r, causing her feet to halt briefly.
If she’d guessed correctly the hard raps were made with the butt of a metal police baton. She stuffed Trevor’s note into the pocket of her jeans before opening the door to find Darius, Iverson, and McGuire standing there. And they were not alone.
They were flanked by four Virginia police officers.
Darius’s eyes scanned the living room. Then using hand signals, he sent the officers in different directions inside her apartment.
Jae said nothing as she held out her hand for the search warrant that was being crumpled in Iverson’s sweaty hand. After glancing at the familiar document, she presented Darius with a bored expression. “Seriously?”
Darius moved past her, slamming the door behind him.
“So, where is that jerk-off doctor?” McGuire asked.
Ignoring him, Jae watched Iverson head for the kitchen. “Iverson, you already ate the rest of the pancakes and bacon.” Turning back to Darius she told him that Grant was gone.
“No, he’s not.”
“Yes, he is and I don’t know where he went. I fell asleep out on the patio and when I woke up he was gone.” Jae watched the officers give a negative head shake to Darius, indicating their search was futile, then they left her apartment as silently as they’d entered.
“Well, he must have vanished into thin air like Houdini because he sure as hell was here ninety minutes ago. Nobody saw him leave because we have cars parked on each corner,” Darius said.
“Hey, maybe he blended in with the hot babes walking down the hall heading for the pool. Oh, by the way, Jae, do you know the blonde who lives up the hall in C-cups, I mean in apartment 4C?” Iverson asked, ignoring Jae’s curled lips.
Darius continued. “Do you have any idea how much trouble you could be facing for helping him escape? Not to mention we had to go on record to get a judge to sign the search warrant and involve the cops. They already hate us, Jae, so how do you think that makes us feel having to come down on one of our own?”
Jae's Assignment Page 14
