Jae's Assignment

by Bernice Layton

  “Well, unless Special Agent Mighty Mike is in my room ready to punch me in the stomach again, I’ll be fine,” Trevor said and walked backward down the hall. “Hey, I’m in 706. Call if you need anything. Good night, Jae.”

  “Night,” she said as she went inside.

  * * * * *

  An hour later, Jae stood in the bathroom combing out her hair after washing and blow-drying it straight. The shower she’d taken didn’t relieve the tension in her back, but the light jazz music coming from the radio on the nightstand did. After slipping into a knee-length nightshirt and matching robe from her travel bag, she knew her tension came from her worrying about everything…Darius, Mike, Grainger, Trevor, and her job. Again, she found herself wondering why Trevor would take such a risk and come back to his hometown. When she heard a tap on her door, she put the question to rest as she retrieved her weapon from her bag. Going to the door, she squinted through the peephole to find him standing back and holding up a large plastic bag.

  “Hey,” she said, after opening the door.

  “Hi. I placed an order for delivery from a restaurant down the street and had them deliver it to the front desk. I didn’t know if you’d eaten dinner before you broke into my motel room earlier, so I got loaded nachos, sandwich cookies, and iced tea.”

  “Actually, I am hungry. All I’ve had were a few cookies and a soda before I came to your room.” She opened the door further.

  Coming into her room Trevor gave a doubtful glance. “You mean broke into my room, don’t you?”

  “Rule number one: never incriminate yourself.” Jae waved him to the small desk where he promptly unloaded the bag, then passed her a heavy Styrofoam box after she put her weapon away. “You know when I told you not to open your door if someone happened to knock also included you not leaving out of it, right?” When he simply nodded then waved to the food, Jae wasn’t going to waste her breath rehashing the dangers he faced if he was spotted. They ate in silence for several minutes while she sat on the bed, and he sat in the chair at the desk. As Jae made her way through the toppings of sour cream, salsa, guacamole, olives, peppers, and cheese to get to the nachos, the gnawing question returned: why’d he come back there?

  Absently, she reflected on what she’d read about Adian Cole, a man who didn’t even have a parking citation. His work as a physician had been unquestionable. By the time he’d enlisted in the military, he’d become a licensed psychiatrist. It backed up what he’d told her in Virginia about wanting to help heal the minds of troubled soldiers.

  Watching him eat, she was caught off guard when he glanced up and caught her staring at him. She noticed how relaxed he was as he bobbed his head in time with the music coming from the radio. Breaking eye contact with him didn’t stop the flood of emotion that hit her again, an awareness of him in a sexy, masculine way that sent another sensual ripple of excitement through her. “So, how do you stay so fit, Trevor?” she managed to say over a slight tremor in her voice, but she sipped her iced tea to cover it.

  “I run a lot,” Trevor said, with a hint of laughter in his voice.

  Jae glanced up and caught him staring at her and it immediately brought on a flashback of working in his office. Yes, she’d often find him absently staring at her and it got on her nerves then, but now she wondered what he’d been thinking about her. Did he think she was pretty? Was he as attracted to her as she was to him?

  “Why were you staring?” she asked as he popped a nacho heavy with cheese into his mouth.

  “I wasn’t,” he said guiltily.

  “Yes, you were.”

  “I wasn’t.”

  Jae waved a hand. “Now you want to play games?” When he slurped his iced tea, Jae stood up and set her container on the desk and faced him. “Okay enough about that. Tell me why we’re here.”

  He ignored her question and fiddled with his hands.

  “If you think you’re keeping me safe by not telling me, you’re not. Besides…I already know,” she said.

  “Know what? Why don’t you just tell me what you know,” he said, having finished his nachos. He gathered up their discarded containers.

  “Your real name is Adian Cole,” Jae announced and watched as a confused expression blanketed his face. “You’re wondering how I found out?” He didn’t answer. He simply stared at her. “I opened the right book.”

  “That’s impossible. Agent Willow assured me that my information couldn’t be found. He promised it would be in an encrypted file, one that was impenetrable.”

  “Well, I got it, but it wasn’t in a file.”

  “I don’t believe that.”

  “Believe it. Back at my apartment you asked me to trust you. I did and now I’m asking you to trust me because Grainger’s disappearance is in some way connected to you. I don’t know how or why, but right now I’m wondering why you’re here, Adian.” His expressionless face was becoming frustrating. “You took a big risk coming back to your hometown where somebody could recognize you. Why? Why would you do that?”

  “Adian Cole is dead. My name is Trevor Grant, but to answer your question, I had to come back here,” he said, his voice void of emotion. “Today,” he added.

  Seeing that he would not be as forthcoming as she’d hoped, Jae impatiently threw her hands up and in a voice louder than she’d intended her words sliced the air. “Listen, you’re still my assignment and I have an interest in anything that could get you killed, get us killed. Now, I’m sorry about your mother, truly I am, but why did you come back here and don’t you dare give me any crap about taking a trip down memory lane of your graduation night!”

  He glared at her before saying, “Jae, I didn’t ask you to tag along. You took it upon yourself to do that long before your crew broke into my room. Your questions about my personal life are out of the scope of your assignment and frankly none of your damn business!”

  Jae returned his hostile glare with one of her own. “Oh, you’d better believe it’s my damn business. Like it or not, you’re the key to finding Grainger.”

  “Because you want to prove that you didn’t fail your original assignment to get me to a safe location. That’s rich, Jae, because if you had succeeded in that original scenario we wouldn’t be standing here right now.” Trevor nodded. “But I will answer your questions, all of them, but only if you answer just one for me. Okay?”

  All Jae heard was that he would answer her questions and she had lots of them. “Okay.”

  “Why haven’t you told your parents, Elaine, Drew, and the rest of your family that you’re an FBI agent?” Jae’s eyes widened with surprise. “Oh, was that too personal for you, sweetheart?” he taunted, throwing in the endearment and mocking her by throwing up his hands.

  Caught off guard, Jae’s chest fell and she backed away from him lest she perform a move that would flatten him on his backside like she’d done to Mike. “That’s Mr. and Mrs. Randall to you and you’re absolutely correct. It’s none of your damn business!”

  “Why does that simple question make you so angry?” he asked.

  “Snack time is over, Adian. You can leave my room now,” she retorted.

  “Technically, it’s my room because I paid for it.”

  “If I still have a job when I get back to the office, I’ll put it in my expense report and reimburse you,” she said, stomping past him to the door. He caught her hand in his.

  A heartfelt apology was on his lips. “I’m sorry, Jae. It’s just that you have a great job and a wonderful and loving family. I think they would be very proud of you. That’s all I meant.”

  “They wouldn’t be proud,” Jae said solemnly, not meeting his eyes

  “You mean your sister Nina wouldn’t be proud? Yeah, I picked up on that,” he said.

  “Get out of my head, Dr. Grant or Dr. Cole or whomever you’ll change into next.”

  “Touché.”

&nbs
p; Pulling her hand from his, Jae said, “Listen, this isn’t a contest between us.”

  “Then what is it, Jae?” His voice softened at her downcast expression. “Was it that kiss?”

  “You know, for a man with no name, you seem to have all the answers, don’t you?”

  “I don’t have any answers. I’m supposed to be the one people come to seeking answers and yet, I can’t even do that any longer. I have a profession, two actually, that I love, but to practice them now makes that bull’s-eye on my back even bigger. Unlike you, Jae, I don’t have people I can call friends because I can’t disclose who I am or what I like to do. I can’t just hang out or take part in a charity softball event without constantly looking over my shoulder. My God, Jae, you have all of that and more. You’ve got a circle of guys willing to put their lives on the line for you and Mighty Mike is obviously crazy about you. Yes, I have a family. But to them, I’m dead. They’ve mourned me for five years. You’ve got a wonderful family but you can’t even stand up to your sister, Nina. Why can’t you tell her to get off your back?” Trevor stepped closer. “Why can’t you? You’re a big girl. You’re no longer the kid sister to be picked on or pushed around, are you, Special Agent Randall?”

  “Oh, and I’m sure everything was easy for you, Dr. Whoever or Whatever?” Jae shot back defensively.

  “No, Special Agent Randall, nothing has been easy for me! I’ve lost everything—my livelihood, my family, my lover, and my career. Trust me on this, nothing has been easy for me. I’m a man in hiding. Take a look at what you take for granted. I didn’t peg you as a selfish woman, Jae.”

  “Selfish?” Jae spat indignantly.

  “That’s right!” Trevor returned the furor.

  Jae huffed to the door and pulled it open. “Get out of here before I take aim at that bull’s-eye on your back!” She had to swallow against the sudden hoarseness in her throat.

  “What about your assignment and Grainger? Aren’t you worried I’ll skip out on you?”

  “Then start skipping. I’ll find Grainger on my own,” she snapped.

  Trevor picked up the bag of trash then walked to the door. He stopped and turned back to her. “To answer your question, I came here to bring my kid brother a gift that I hadn’t been able to send to him because he was killed overseas. Today would have been his thirtieth birthday and he had a love of sailboats. I found him the perfect gift. It was a paperweight with a sailboat in it, and I buried it with him today.”

  Trevor walked down the hall to his room.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jae stared at the ceiling in her room so long the cottage cheese patterns started to take shapes. The music was still playing but she wasn’t listening to it. It was just a source of company. She’d hoped to tune out her troubling thoughts.

  It didn’t work.

  She wasn’t angry at Trevor, not really. He’d simply called her out on something she was too stubborn to admit: the real reason she hadn’t told her family she was an FBI agent.

  Jae reflected on the assignments she’d been given over the years. Some were so dangerous she’d barely completed them unscathed. She knew without a doubt her parents would have worried themselves sick for her safety had they known. She had seen it before.

  Her Uncle Edward, her father’s brother, had been a security guard for an armored truck service. He would tell them of the brushes with death he’d had and the robbery attempts. Jae had always thought he was boasting, which only added to the fear and worry etched on her father’s face and her mother’s gasps as she covered her mouth in horror. She had seen their worry when they couldn’t reach him by phone and she’d seen their sorrow when they received word of his death. The armored truck he had been in had been targeted for a robbery by an armed gang. Her uncle and another guard had been killed.

  Yes that was a big part of it, but Jae also didn’t want to face her sister Nina’s ridicule, sarcasm, judgmental comments, and put-downs. There was no room in her line of business for self-doubt. All she’d ever heard growing up was why couldn’t she be more like her sister because Nina did everything she could to best everybody. Nina lived for the accolades and the attention, whereas Jae didn’t care one way or another. She scoffed at the awards and power plays that Nina always got. Unfortunately, Nina didn’t just put her best foot forward, Nina trampled over everyone else and their ideas, including Jae’s. It had always been that way between them and as adults their discord continued.

  A few years ago when she’d brought up the subject of being an agent to her parents, Nina chimed in, saying that a secretarial job was probably the best she could do. Hearing that, Jae ended up saying it was a government job, which Nina bashed, suggesting that the only good part about it was the potential for Jae to find a husband. What made it worse was that her parents seemed to agree.

  Jae was proud of herself and her accomplishments as an agent. She even thought her parents and Ronnie would be happy and proud to know how well she’d done these past seven years. But all of that could be tarnished by Nina’s disparaging and critical comments.

  Proof of that was at Ronnie’s bridal shower, bachelorette party and wedding. As the coordinator of each event, Jae planned everything right down to the charming toasting glasses. She thought they would be perfect when toasting the couple with her father’s homemade wine. But Nina criticized all of her plans and then went ahead and changed them. She ordered champagne flutes and sparkling wine for the wedding reception instead.

  “Why didn’t I stand up to Nina? I’m smart and I have good ideas. Why do I let her ridicule everything I do?”

  Trevor’s astute words replayed in her mind. You’re no longer the kid sister to be picked on or pushed around, are you?

  But it wasn’t just that Nina tried to run over her. She also tried to do that to Ronnie, Tarsha, and Kim, but they fought back. They stood up to the big bully that Nina had always been. They always did, but she didn’t. Why? “Because big bad bully, Nina always gets a pass,” she said resentfully.

  Growing up, Jae always wanted to be the perfect daughter, the favorite daughter. She did everything to please her parents in an effort to keep them happy and together. She could remember when she was twelve and for several long weeks, her parents separated. Being older, Nina understood the complexities of the male-female relationships and brushed it off as a spat. Ronnie was too young to care about anything beyond her toy chest, but Jae on the other hand witnessed and felt the loneliness of a broken home and her father’s sad face when he came to take them out for lunch or dinner on the weekends. She also recalled hearing her mother softly weeping at night. It was hard to take. But they came through it stronger, thankful, and more solid. But had she? Jae wondered.

  At ten o’clock at night, Jae slipped from the bed, put on her robe, and left her room.

  When she padded barefoot a few steps to the right to Trevor’s room, she had finished rehearsing the apology she would say to him.

  He’d been right on all counts and she felt like a heel.

  At the light tapping on his door, Trevor looked through the peephole and was surprised to see Jae. He hoped she hadn’t been sulking in her room then worked herself up and was returning for round two.

  After opening the door, he stood in the threshold. But instead of a crouching tiger, she looked incredibly small and vulnerable, and immediately Trevor knew she hadn’t come there to rehash the argument. “You want the rest of the cookies, don’t you?” he asked, trying to bring a smile to her face. When she shook her head no, Trevor asked if she’d wanted to come in.

  “If you don’t mind,” she said, briskly. As he stepped aside to let her enter, her eyes widened. “Wow, your room is much nicer and larger than mine.” She pointed to the sitting area and the workstation, complete with a large desk where his laptop sat.

  “Payer’s choice,” he said, closing the door, then he offered to switch rooms with her.

&nbs
p; “My room is fine and I will reimburse you as soon as I can.”

  “Good,” he joked. “That money will come in handy now that I’m officially unemployed.”

  “What does that mean?” she asked cautiously.

  “It was announced recently that the Kincaid Institute is not rebuilding the research wing so my project has been shelved. Unfortunately, that also includes the request I put in for a permanent administrative assistant. Having someone to input all of my data and handle the telephone calls was a lot of help and I never got a chance to thank the efficient Regina James. So, thank you for that, Jae,” he said before offering her a seat and returning to the executive-style chair at the desk. When she said he was welcome, Trevor had to strain because her voice was just above a whisper. He noticed that she was fidgety as she sat on the sleeper sofa and wouldn’t meet his gaze, and in that instant all he wanted to do was hold her in his arms again. “Anything you want to talk about?”

  “That’s a good one, Trevor. I’ll be sure to also include one psych session in my reimbursement request. Should I lie down on the sofa?” She rubbed her hand against the taupe suede fabric with a slight smile. “It’s nice.”

  “That depends on what you want, Jae.” Trevor kept his voice low and composed because the thought of lying down with her was uppermost in his mind.

  “You were right about Nina,” she said slowly. “She and I battled. She was a bully and still is. I don’t know why I let her run over me like she does.” Jae glanced up to meet his eyes as he assessed her. He said nothing and made sure his face gave nothing away. “Bet you’re thinking some agent I am, right?” She stood up. “Well, anyway, I just wanted to apologize for my inappropriate comments back in my room.” Shrugging her shoulders she said, “I’m blaming it on eating loaded nachos after ten o’clock.”