by Carol Roi
Opening my toilette kit, I pull out a bottle of rare heather/lavender water and, after wetting a cloth down with the mixture, apply it to my heated face. The scent calms my mind even as the water bestows its cooling effects. Before I leave the small room, I run damp hands through my hair, spreading more of the scent around me. I need to remain calm, in control of myself.
I step back out to the bedroom, pad over to the door leading to LaFollet's room and, against Jim's better judgment I'm sure, unlock the door and push it open a crack. I know that I'll know when Jan-Michel returns, but I need Jim to hear it too, or I'll give my secret away, and my Watcher's as well.
Returning to the living area, I see Jim has pushed the portable table, minus the teapot and pitcher, out of the room and has settled on the couch. I hope the hotel's staff removes the table from the hall before too long, or Jan-Michel may just figure out I have a guest when he returns. I'm really starting to worry. He's not called and it's nearly midnight. What if he runs into the Immortal who gunned down John David? Who tried to do the same to me?
Recalling the love seat isn't nearly as comfortable as the couch, I throw caution to the winds and sit back in the spot I had left. Which, conveniently, places me close to the man I've decided I want, if only for a short time.
"You seem a little preoccupied, Lee." He's refilled my tea and hands me the mug after I'm settled, my legs curled up underneath me.
"Sorry. I'm just not used to being watched and I keep wondering where Jan-Michel is."
His hand is warm on my shoulder. The mild squeeze, meant to be reassuring, only sends a flush of pleasure through my veins. "You want to try calling him?"
I sigh, "I'd say yes, but I don't think he took his cell phone with him."
"Try. It'll make you feel better."
Twisting in the seat, I reach to the phone and dial the number I know belongs to the phone Jan carries for his role as my employee. There's no answer. I long to try his other phone, his Watcher issued one, but I don't have the number. Reluctantly, I hang up the handset. "Nothing. I don't want to distract him from whatever it is he's doing, but I need to be the one to tell him about John David."
The hand that reaches up and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear is gentle. "Look, I'll tell him for you. If you want?"
I lean my head against the hand lingering on my hair. "That's sweet of you, Jim. Thank you."
Silence fills the space between us, as his hand keeps stroking my hair, causing the scent of the heather and lavender to waft into the air. I let my eyes close, luxuriating in the touch which has slowly worked its way under my heavy, long hair to lightly caress the nape of my neck. I shiver, not wanting him to stop, but to continue touching me.
His hand stops, and I open my eyes to look at him. "Jim?"
He moves in slowly, stopping only when his face is scant inches from my own. "What are you doing to me, Lee Eolia?"
"What do you mean?" I lick my lips; the color I applied earlier isn't doing its job for they've gone dry.
"I've only felt this way a few times in my life..." He keeps his left hand on my neck, and his right one takes up my left, his fingers playing a teasing game with my palm, then twining, lacing our fingers together. He glances down and touches the band on my ring finger. "Maybe it'd be better if I go..."
I grip his hand in mine, tightly. "No. Please? Stay?"
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure." I bring my free hand up to clasp him by the back of his head, and pull him close. His short hair is so soft against my skin. Our lips lock together and I'm drowning in sensations he's stirring in my body.
He's gentle, his hands freely roaming over the robe I'm still wearing, and I begin my own exploration of his body, even as Jim's feather light touch finds its way under the neckline of the silver shot white cloth. I turn slightly aggressive and help him to lose the sweater he is wearing then start on the buttons to his shirt, sliding it off his wonderfully muscled shoulders, just as my robe slips off my own.
"Oh, gods. Yes." His lips are starting to drive me towards the madness that is blind passion and lust, as he takes his kisses from my mouth, down my throat, stopping at my breasts where he pays exquisite attention to both, before untying the belt of my robe. He's near my naval before I stop him, and practically crawl on top of him, starting my own trail of kisses from his throat, working my way downward even as my hands, joined by his own, work his belt free and start to unzip his pants.
I'm just starting to slide those jeans over his hips, discovering, to my delight, he's not encumbered by more layers, when the tingling which has nothing to do with my arousal zips up my spine into my head. Jim must have heard something, for we're both moving at the same time; I've just pulled my robe back on, he's trying to button up his shirt, when the door in the bedroom opens.
"Lee? You still awa..." LaFollet walks into the room and stops dead in his tracks.
Jan-Michel LaFollet, having made arrangements for John David to watch Lee Eolia for him, left the Excelsior at noon to track down a few buddies of his from his time in the Navy. Men and women who might be able to dig up the information he needed.
At seventeen thirty hours, he realized there was no way for him to get back to Cascade from Portland before the others returned, and Lee would start to worry about him. He still had to stop and file his report on the incident last night with the Watchers. Pulling over at a public rest stop, he placed the call to the hotel, leaving a message for Lee. That done, he got back in the rental car he'd had delivered to him, thus leaving the Lexus for John and Lee to use if needed, and got back on the highway.
In five hours, he'd managed to track down the one person who could possibly shed some light on QuestScape and its owner. He was to meet his contact in two hours, in Seattle, at a coffee bar of all places. Pulling into Seattle, locating the coffee shop, he realized he had forty minutes to kill and called the home office of WindHawk Securities.
"Ruth? Jan-Michel. I need a favor from you, sweetie." He listened as the secretary asked about the trip and the news the security check had gone bad. "Yes, I know. It was just a case of bad timing; you know how Lee is. If there had been a problem, she would've backed out of the test." Leaning his head against the smooth glass of the phone booth, he finished asking his favor. "Ruthie, what I need you to do for me is to find the contract Azir faxed to us, the one for QuestScape, and fax it to me. I'm not in Cascade right now, I'm in Seattle." He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the business card he'd picked up from Kinko's, just across the street from the coffee bar, and rattled off the fax number to her. "Send it as soon as you can will you? Yes, I'll let Lee know you're praying for her. Take care."
When the fax came through, he had only five minutes to spare. Deciding to read over the contract after the meeting, Jan-Michel crossed the street and entered the coffee bar. His contact was sitting exactly where they said they would be, in the corner closest to the back of the shop and near the rear exit, their back against the wall. "Stertz?"
Taking a long drag off her cigarette, the dark haired, light complected woman nodded and gestured for him to sit. "Welcome to Seattle, LaFollet."
"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me." Jan-Michel gave his order to the waiter who stopped by the table, asking for an Irish Coffee, waiting for him to leave before looking at his companion. "So? What were you able to find out?"
Stubbing her smoke out in the ashtray, Brianna Stertz leaned forward. "Plenty. What do you want first? The background on Norman Ventriss or the upshot of what his company was reportedly working on for the DOD?"
"DOD, first, background later."
"Good." Brianna reached under the table and brought up a file from her open satchel, laying it before him. "First off, it wasn't a zip-drive that was taken from QuestScape." Seeing the surprised look on the man's face, she waved off his question. "Yes, there was a theft, but I don't think your boss had anything to do with it. The item which was reportedly taken was a DVD-RAM, holds up to 5.2 Gigabits of data... As to what w
as on the disk, I'm willing to bet it was the laser guidance system QuestScape was contracted to work on three years ago - and was due to be delivered next week."
Jan-Michel was reading over the file his one time girlfriend had handed him, and found the information on the program she was talking about. He let out a low whistle, just as the waiter returned with his liquor laced coffee. "Thank you." He sipped the potent brew, stalling as the waiter also placed another cup of coffee in front of his informant. Once the kid was gone, he smiled at her. "Brianna, the insurance against theft of this program alone could fund the POTUS Detail at Camp D for a year." He was referring to the Detail that worked Camp David for the President of the United States.
"I know. Convenient it was stolen, just when the company is about to face trouble that would make what is dogging Microsoft's tail pale by comparison, isn't it?"
"Wait a second." Pulling the faxed contract from his coat pocket, he read over the outline of the job Azir had set up. "Damn! That son of a bitch! Ventriss specified the date the test of his security systems would take place, and that the target was to have been a dummy. Fuck!"
"Mrs. Sadih wasn't on the mark when she talked with Ventriss, was she?"
"No. She lost her husband right after this contract was signed. I think she was going to do this job, honor Azir's deal with Ventriss, then retire from the business."
"She was set up, but I don't think Ventriss was behind what happened to her." Brianna pulled up another file, sliding it over to him. "Mr. Ventriss lost his only child, an adopted son, back in September. Bradley was bad from the word 'go' - was actually caught stealing sensitive data from his father's company, killed the investigator Daddy V had hired to look into the matter - and got killed in a jailhouse brawl while awaiting trial." She tapped the folder. "I'm just speculating here, but I'm sure his son's crimes are what gave Ventriss the idea to 'steal' the program, if only to hide the fact it wasn't working."
"What?"
Brianna shrugged as she lit up another cigarette. "I've got a friend on the inside of QuestScape, in Development, and as of two weeks ago, he tells me they couldn't get the program to boot up without smoking the motherboards of seven computers."
Jan-Michel sank back into his chair. "It's a dud. He can't deliver on his contract with the Department of Defense, so he arranges for WindHawk to take the fall - maybe even arranging to have the program destroyed before Lee ever walked into the building - and he collects a huge insurance settlement."
"More than that, Jan. The DOD probably will extend his contract and he could have a new team start from scratch instead of trying to 'fix' the program he already had. What needs to happen to forestall that is for the disc to be found, intact, and turned over to DOD."
"I let Lee walk right into the middle of this shit." He took a huge drink of his coffee, relishing the burning sensation the heated alcohol left behind in his throat. "Damn, I had a feeling I should've stopped her, but I allowed her to talk me into going along."
Brianna leaned over the table, catching the blond man's hand in her own, squeezing it hard. "You couldn't have known, Jan. Don't beat yourself up over this." Waiting until he had his emotions under control, she asked her own questions. "So, tell me. Report, Watcher."
Falling into a familar procedure, Jan-Michel put away his bodyguard persona and became the Watcher he was, giving the Archivist a full report, omitting his new status, about the previous evening's events. Two more cups of Irish Coffee and 90 minutes later, he left the coffee shop to return to Cascade.
It was well after eleven in the night when he pulled up to the Excelsior, but he still wasn't in the mood to return to his room or report to Eolia what he's found out about Ventriss and QuestScape. He'd lied to Brianna, the woman who had recruited him into the Watchers, the woman he'd once loved. He hadn't admitted his Immortality, nor that he felt he was growing too close to Eolia, maybe even falling in love with her - an admission of either of those facts could get him pulled from his post as her Watcher. Maybe even force him to resign as her employee, her bodyguard, and she was too vulnerable right now to have that kind of upheaval in her life.
The hotel's private bar, for members and guests only, was still open and he needed a drink to wash away the pain and taste of the lies that had fallen from his lips in Seattle. "Glenlivet, neat." His order was given to the bartender in a clipped voice, not inviting conversation. The man cut him off at seven drinks and Jan admitted to himself he was finally drunk. Paying the bar tab, he carefully made his way up to his room, nearly tripping over a portable table in the hall just outside the elevator.
That damnable sensation he now knew meant 'immortal in the area' hit him hard, driving away the fuzziness the alcohol had given him, as he strode past Eolia's room. "Good, she's here." Keying open the door to his room, he spotted the connecting room door that was cracked open and the light spilling through the slight opening. Muttering under his breath, he decided there was no time like the present to tell his boss what he'd discovered. Pushing through the door, he called out.
"Lee? You still awa..." The sight before him told its own story. Eolia's hair was mussed, her cheeks flushed and her eyes alight with passion. What shocked him was who she was with. "Ellison?!"
I walk over to LaFollet and tap his chin, "Close your mouth, Jan." He snaps it shut, turning hurt eyes to face me.
"What were you doing? As if I couldn't guess?" The snide remark drops into the room, lowering the ambient temperature.
"None of your business," Jim growls as I slip past Jan-Michel into my bedroom and leave the two men alone in the living area. I nearly have another heart attack as I hear, "She's your employer, not your possession."
"You have no right, Ellison!"
"Don't I?"
"NO! Get out! Leave! I don't want to hear it!"
"You should leave as well. I won't stand here and let you bad-mouth Lee."
"Oh, I'll leave all right. Kicking your ass down the stairs if I have to!"
"You're not man enough to do that, LaFollet!"
"Try me. Just go ahead and try me, Ellison."
"I need to call..."
"Then do it! But get the hell out of here!"
Oh, that tears it! I'm not some prize to be fought over. I rush back into the room, barely holding onto my temper. "Jan! Enough! Jim? I'm sorry, make your call, I just need to talk to my bodyguard for a minute." I grip my Watcher by his arm, which he tries to shake off, but I only dig my fingers, hard, into his muscle. "Now, LaFollet!"
I slam the door of the bedroom shut, after pushing Jan-Michel through it ahead of me, and glare at the blond man until he drops his gaze. "Good. Now listen to me, Jan-Michel Wyatt LaFollet... Jim was here because you weren't..."
"I left John David in charge. Where is he?"
"Dead."
The color fades from my bodyguard's face. I didn't mean to be so harsh, to tell him the news like that, but he didn't seem like he was in the mood to really listen. He sinks to the bed, and I join him there on the edge.
"What happened? You should have been safe here..."
I sigh, girding myself to tell the story. "We weren't here. I woke up around two and realized if we were to stay here, because of the investigation, then I needed to do some shopping. I dragged John all over the city with me. We were cutting through a back alley and," mindful of Ellison's presence in the suite, I stick to the story I had told Detective Rafe, "I saw him go down. No noise, nothing to warn either of us. He just fell."
Jan-Michel must have caught on to what I wasn't saying. There was an understanding light in his hazel orbs and he reached out to clasp my hands. "I shouldn't have left you alone."
"Jan, you couldn't have known. And you could've died as well." I'm certain the Immortal in the alley wouldn't have hesitated to take my Watcher's head, after shooting him.
"Who's going to tell his parents? His fiancée?"
I gently squeeze the hands holding mine, "C and Sharee are going to take him back to Rochester; they'll handle it. I
wish I could do it myself, but we're stuck here until this QuestScape business is tied up."
I rise to my feet, eager to see Jim again before he leaves.
"And Ellison? What's going on there?"
I shake my head, opting to ignore the question, and open the door to see Jim's on his cell phone, probably calling Blair like he had promised to. "Jim?"
"Hang on a second, Chief." He drops the phone to his side, "Yeah, Lee?"
"I'm sorry..."
"So am I."
"I'm here now, Ellison. You can leave my charge alone." Jim's hand drops from my cheek, which he had barely touched.
Oh, geez. LaFollet has followed me back into the room, and he's still in a pissy mood over what he thinks he saw. "Jan? I warned you. Back off. What I choose to do, who I choose to do it with, is none of your concern when I'm tucked away in my rooms."
"Azir..."
