by Lisa Lace
My mind flashed back to the single rose in my hand I had laid on the table when we came back to Jori's apartment from the party.
"Jori. The rose," I gasped.
"What rose?" He frowned.
I moved my head towards the bouquet of roses on the table. Jori rose to his feet immediately. He grabbed them and ran out onto the balcony, throwing them, vase and all, as far as he could in the empty lot down below. They smashed, and we ducked down. Jori covered me with his body, waiting for the explosion.
Nothing happened.
I felt the loss when he let go of me, and we peeked over the balcony. We looked at each other and smiled weakly. Jori made a quick tour of the suite and reported that there were no more flowers in sight.
We sat down again. I felt sheepish for causing an alarm. Jori thought it was better to be safe than sorry.
"I remember there was a rose on the table. Where did you get it? I noticed it when I came back from the bar. I didn't know where it came from."
"Harrington," I said, feeling ashamed. "Before you showed up and the two of you had your showdown, he gave it to me. He said a lovely lady deserved a flower that matched her dress."
"He's a manipulator, Sam. Don't believe a word he says."
I shrugged. "I know that now. At the time, I thought he was a harmless old man, being mesmerized by my dress."
"I'm sure he liked the dress," Jori said, spitting out words like he couldn't stand to say them. "He likes women younger. He's anything but harmless, though."
"Obviously," I said, shivering at a sudden thought. I could have been carrying the rose when the bomb exploded. Jori frowned and stood up. He hesitated a moment but then came and sat down beside me on the couch. I leaned towards him, and he put his arm around me.
I drew in a deep breath. I felt better now. I didn't stop to consider why his touch helped me. I just enjoyed it.
"He is aware of some of my secrets, and he's worried about what I know. That's why he's trying to eliminate me. He's a powerful man and thinks nothing of killing people that get in his way."
"Was he threatening you when he spoke about an accident at the party?"
"He certainly was. I knew it at the time but I had no idea how or when he would strike."
I reached out and took his hand, interlacing our fingers together. Jori stared down at our hands.
"I shouldn't have married you, Sam. It was a huge mistake. I see that now."
"What?" I said, taken aback. I hadn't expected him to say that.
"I let myself get carried away by my cover story and forgot what's real. I should have left you alone. I could have stayed out of jail some other way."
"I'm not sorry I married you. And I'll stick by you, whatever happens," I said. "I'm not the type that runs away as soon as things aren't sunshine and roses anymore."
He gave me a pleasant half-smile. "That's sweet of you, Sam. And you don't know how much I appreciate it."
"But."
"But it's too dangerous. I'm in deep, and there's no getting out now until I complete the job."
"Jori. Please," I squeezed his hand. "Just tell me what's going on?"
He swallowed and looked away. He tried to pull his hand away, but I clung to him.
"Tell me," I said firmly. "You promised."
"I know. I promised. And I keep my promises because that's what a good guy does, right? My mother taught me to keep the promises I made." He frowned. "She wouldn't be proud of how many I've had to break recently."
"Jori. It sounds like you've been keeping these secrets for a long time," I said, untangling our hands and setting his gently on his knee. "If you want to keep them, it won't be a problem. I can't make you do anything. But I've had my share of secrets. I know they can eat away at you. I'm sure it would help you to tell me."
He pressed his lips together as if the words wanted to come out, but he wouldn't let them. He took my hand again. When he spoke, the words he said were the last things I expected to hear.
"I'll tell you everything, Sam. Just like I promised. But you can't say anything to anyone. Your life might depend on you keeping this secret."
"Okay. I promise not to tell."
"Good. I guess I should just say it." He breathed in deeply and spoke the words in a rush. "I'm a secret agent for the Vandwan government, and I've been undercover for years. We're trying to catch Harrington and prove that he's smuggling children."
Chapter Eight
JORI
I didn't know if Samantha was angry or shocked. She was certainly taking a while to process the information.
Maybe she would return to Earth. Was the financial incentive from TerraMates enough to keep her here? What if she believed she had made a huge mistake getting involved with a nutcase like me? It might be for the best, but I had grown accustomed to having her around. I studied her face, hoping that she wouldn't get up and leave.
Her eyes were dark brown. She had an elegant nose. Her lips were red and full. I had noticed that she never wore lipstick because her natural lip color was bright already. Her long brown hair went past her shoulders. Tonight she had it drawn up and curled; the curls draped behind her neck. Right now two curls framed her face, making Sam look so sweet I wanted to kiss her. I inched towards her unconsciously.
My movement broke her paralysis. "Don't do that," she said, finally finding her voice.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Don't kiss me. Everything I thought I knew about you has been a lie."
"I wasn't going to kiss you, Samantha."
She glared at me. "That's right. I wouldn't have let you," she said.
Maybe she was right. But her lips were too much. What did she expect?
"You don't work as a lifeguard? Was that part of your cover? What about Nathaniel? Is he your brother? For your cover personality, you should have picked someone who wasn't a jerk."
I held up my hand, and she fell silent. "Let me start at the beginning. My mother died when I was seven years old."
Her eyebrows darted up. "Whoa, don't you think that's too far into the story? Maybe you should start when you were born."
"It's necessary to start that far back to understand why I made certain decisions," I explained. "When she passed away I was devastated. I was her baby, and we were close to each other. My father wasn't the best parent. He tried, but he ended up spoiling and ignoring me. Nathaniel and Freya did their best to take care of me. I think I rejected them because they weren't her."
She didn't say anything, but squeezed my hand.
"I grew up self-centered. My mother raised me well, but I lost my way in my youth. By the time I turned sixteen, I had started going wild. Nobody could do anything to help me. I drove Nathaniel and Freya to distraction. My father washed his hands of me."
I remembered how I had no idea of who I was or what I should be doing. "Eventually I realized I was screwing up and I applied to a private school. I got in thanks to my family name. I toned it down a little at school because I didn't want to get kicked out. I'm lucky to have survived those years. I did some pretty stupid things."
"Didn't we all," Sam said to herself.
I glanced at her. She seemed to have her life together. Was it possible that she had ever been as confused as me?
"I was stupid as well, Jori. You'd be aghast if I told you all the dumb things I did as a teenager. Your story doesn't sound much different than everyone else's, although you did have more money."
How had I ever thought that this woman was lower than me? I was a fucking idiot.
"Then something unusual happened. I didn't know it, but it was the best thing that ever happened to me."
"What was it?" she asked.
"The Vandwan government has recruitment officers everywhere, and they spotted me at school. One of them offered to train me. At the end of the training, there would be a job with the government. One of the options was the secret service."
"Was that an offer anyone would refuse?"
"I never thought o
f refusing it at the time. If I knew what I know now, I might have chosen differently."
She stared at me. "What do you mean?"
"I haven't lived a normal life, Sam."
"No kidding." Her eyes lit up in a flash of understanding. "When you said earlier if things were different...you meant if you weren't a secret agent. Do you mean that things might have been different between us?"
"I don't know," I paused. I thought about saying what was on my mind. I've never felt like this before in my life. It was crazy. She filled me with desire. I felt comforted and supported.
It sounded like too much, even inside my head. I had no idea if she had feelings for me other than lust, so I opted for safer words. "I've never been married before. I am a government operative, so there's no use wishing things were different." I took a breath. "The training was fun," I went on. "It was a bunch of young men and women. We worked hard, and we played hard, and part of the training was to become completely trustworthy."
I laughed. "How ironic that I worked so hard to be worthy of someone's trust, and I ended up a criminal."
"I trust you," Sam said, tilting her head to look in my eyes. "I told you that, and I meant it."
I drifted off, thinking about my family and how my job had torn them apart. She put her hand on my face and made me look at her. Then she kissed me softly on the lips, pulling back quickly.
I continued my story before I could get distracted by the warmth of her mouth.
"I was in training for three years. I got a college degree, and we learned combat skills, studied martial arts, explosives, guns...a bunch of things that were exciting at the time, but seem mundane now."
"Right."
"The best part was a sense of belonging I hadn't felt since my mother had died. They organized us into teams, and we stayed with our team for the whole training period. We took care of each other. We ate together and fought together."
"Did you sleep together?" Sam said, one eyebrow raised.
"Yeah, there was a fair amount of dating, though we had to keep it quiet because we were supposed to focus on training and school."
"I can see why you would have enjoyed it. That feeling of being a part of something. It's important. Without it we just feel like we're drifting without an anchor."
"When I finished, they offered me a job. Not everyone went into the secret service. There were other jobs in the military or the civil service. They needed people with certain backgrounds, contacts, and skills."
"You were ultra-rich, had a bit of a playboy reputation and could easily get in with the crowd they wanted you to infiltrate."
"Exactly."
"So that's your cover. You're a selfish, brooding, jaded guy. Partying and out for himself."
"I'm afraid Harrington has figured it out. I'm not certain, but I believe he's the one that tipped off Nat and Freya to my supply nightmare."
"What did you truly do to divert supplies?"
"It was an idea of one of my 'buddies'. I went along with it to see if I could stop him or sabotage the operation. I didn't think I would get convicted for it."
I didn't want her feeling sorry for me, so I pressed on.
"Now he's threatened us, and a bomb has gone off in my apartment. It's getting difficult for me to believe he doesn't know who I am and how close I am to taking his whole racket down."
She shivered. "This isn't what TerraMates is all about."
"I'm sorry about that, Sam. I keep thinking I should never have married you. I've put you in danger, and that wasn't fair."
"What's done is done," she said, her voice matter-of-fact. She took my other hand. "I'm not sorry."
The look in her eye made my heart jump. I wanted to know why she wasn't sorry, but I didn't have the courage to ask yet.
"The government thought it was best for me to go to jail temporarily and remain out of sight rather than blow my cover. At the time, the extent of Harrington's knowledge was unclear."
"You had to go to jail as part of your job? That sucks."
"It would have looked suspicious if I had been convicted and released immediately. That's how they explained it to me." I tried to keep any doubts out of my voice.
"I guess so. It seems rather drastic." She looked at me with compassion.
"It wasn't as bad as you are imagining. They protected me as much as they could, and Vandwan prisons are some of the cushiest and least violent in the galaxy."
"Still," she shook her head. "I never thought about what it was like for you."
"I don't want you to. I got through it, and that's all that matters." But I felt the darkness and despair that had overtaken me during that miserable time threatening to overwhelm me now. I took a deep breath and suppressed my emotions. I was out. I was free. I was never going back.
She studied me. "If you're telling the truth this time, you're quite different than I imagined."
I didn't like how she was looking at me. "I'm no hero, Sam. I'm just a person trying to do his job. Once I rescue these kids, I'm out. I'm getting tired and burned out, but I have to finish it. It's become an obsession."
"The kids. He kidnaps children?"
"Yep. And then he sells them."
She looked disgusted.
"It sounds bad because it is bad. If possible, he sells them for adoption to the highest bidders. There's a lot of credits in that business, much more than mail-order brides. If no one wants to adopt, he sells their organs on the black market. Plenty of aliens want to do research on our underwater breathing and attempt to duplicate it for themselves. He's got quite an impressive operation going on."
After I saw the expression on her face, I hesitated before telling her everything I knew. She looked horrified. I wished I hadn't mentioned that part at all.
"Jori, you have to stop him."
"I know. He's preying on the environmental refugee camps where children are rarely cared for and have more freedom. Some camps aren't good at making the kids go to school. They're easy pickings."
"This is awful."
"I need to check in with my supervisor. I'm sure she already knows what happened, but I have to talk to her."
"Do you do that often?"
"Periodically. It's necessary right now. Then I'll see what they want me to do."
"What about me?" she asked.
"You?" I looked around the hotel room, trying to stare at anything except her. She deserved an answer. "I don't know, Sam."
"I understand," she said. A look of disappointment crossed over her face.
"The rose concealed an explosive device. One of the miniature ones designed to be hidden in small objects."
"That sounds like something Harrington would do," Mara, my supervisor said. "It's his style. Something he thinks would sound poetic, but is just stupid."
"What now?" I said. "My cover is probably blown."
"You have to maintain your cover until we know for sure."
"That's easy for you to say. I had to tell Sam."
Mara barely reacted. "Is she trustworthy?"
"Yes."
"Then don't worry about it. We'll need to flush him out. If he's figured out your cover, he will attack again. It's safer for her if she knows what to expect."
The thought was terrifying. Harrington had the reputation of being the most powerful and nasty criminal on Vandwa. However, part of me looked forward to a confrontation and putting all the subterfuge behind me.
"You don't have to march up to him and ask him if he knows you're a secret agent. But we can force his hand. Get in his face and talk to him. Because if he knows, he's not going to be able to resist showing us how smart he thinks he is. Remember what happened to Carlyn."
"Of course I remember," I said. I shook my head. "How could I forget? After he blew her cover, he dropped her over The Barrier." I repressed a shudder at the thought.
"She almost had him. She was a good agent, and she helped us get more information on Harrington than we ever had before."
"It came at quite a cost
. She had to pretend to be his girlfriend, and she lost her life," I said, feeling sick to my stomach. Carlyn had been my friend.
"We're going to get him this time, Jori. There's a party happening at his place."
"Perfect."
"Yes. Take your woman as an escort."
"I don't want Sam around me if her life is going to be in danger. She was almost killed because of me once, and I'm determined not to let it happen again."
"Be reasonable. I understand your reluctance, but you just got married. If you show up at this party without your wife, it's going to look weird. Rumors will start. Rumors that we don't want to float around before your meeting with the parole board."
I sighed. "If I work for the government, why can't they talk to someone on the parole board and get me a waiver? Why do I have to set up an elaborate facade that ruins two people's lives?"
"We've been through this before, Jori. Our government is big, and there isn't a lot of communication between the departments. It's impossible to explain your situation to the correct people in time to help you. The analysts said this was the most effective way to keep you in the field." She looked at me shrewdly. "Besides, when do you get to do anything you want?" she asked. "I thought your marriage had a single purpose. You can keep her safe, right?"
"Of course I can. But it's not right for me to endanger her."
"It's part of the job. The sooner we get evidence, the sooner we can send him to jail, and the sooner Vandwa will be safer for everyone, including your blushing bride."
I knew she was right, but it didn't make me feel any better. Mara sensed my capitulation and pressed forward.
"Go dancing. Dig around and see if you can find anything. Let's find out what he's going to do. We'll insert Damien and Joley for backup in case he goes after you. Do you think you can get them in?"
I shook my head.
"We'll figure out a way. You can help them from the inside if necessary. We have to get something on him, Jori. He has another shipment of children waiting to go. If we can arrest him before he gets them off-planet, then we have a chance of saving them."
