As soon as he sat down, Carly basked in his fresh cologne scent and that warm sensation she always felt whenever she was near him. It took all she had not to reveal her true feelings for this man. But she was well practiced now.
“How is it?” JoAnna asked as Trevor wolfed down another bite of his pastry. “You certainly look like you’re enjoying it.”
Carly and Pauline laughed. Trevor smiled too, and nodded, as he chewed. “I am,” he said between chews, looking so charming, the ladies thought. He finished chewing it down. “It’s good.”
“So how long have you been in Marketing, Mr. Reese?” Pauline asked, and Carly wanted to roll her eyes. Here goes, she thought. Matchmaker Pauline at it again! Although, Carly thought with an inward smile, she was a tad too late this time.
“I’ve been in the field for about a decade now,” Trevor said.
“That long?” Pauline asked. “Why you don’t look a day over twenty-three, Mr. Reese.”
“Now that’s some bull,” Trevor said, and all three ladies laughed.
“Okay, you don’t look a day over thirty-three,” Pauline said to laughter. “That’s closer?”
“Much closer, yes,” Trevor said with a nod of the head, and wolfed down the last of his pastry. Carly took another bite of her sandwich. Pauline and JoAnna seemed more interested in the conversation than their respective, nearly untouched lunches.
Especially JoAnna. “But from what I’ve heard about Carly’s job here,” she said, “you guys don’t market products as much as you market people, right?”
“That’s right,” Trevor responded. “I didn’t want to call it Reese Consulting because many of our top end clients do not want to be associated with a consulting firm. Marketing makes it sound as if they are in business with me rather than, how do I put it?”
“Rather than at your mercy,” Carly said.
“Exactly so,” responded Trevor.
“Carly’s your best employee, bar none, I’ll bet,” JoAnna said.
“Bar none,” Trevor said and, before he realized what he was doing, reached over to Carly’s plate and grabbed the remaining half of her sandwich, leaving the untouched half for her to finish. It was something he always did at home because he knew Carly’s eating patterns. He wolfed that sandwich half down too.
When Pauline saw it, she elbowed JoAnna. JoAnna had already saw it herself. That was lover behavior, not boss behavior. And they both knew it.
Trevor and Carly realized his error too. And Carly knew her girlfriends were not about to let her live it down.
Trevor, instead, tried to quickly move on. “She keeps all of us honest,” he said, as he chewed. “I’m fortunate to have some excellent people working for me.”
“I think you should fire Dallas Shephard, however,” JoAnna said, and Carly couldn’t believe she went there. She stretched her eyes and looked at her friend.
Trevor thought it was rather intrusive also. “Oh, yeah?” he asked as he brushed the crumbs from the pastry and sandwich off of his hands.
But JoAnna didn’t back down. She was genuinely concerned about Carly. “Yes,” she said. “Carly told me about her insolence. She was completely out of line. If she had pulled that stunt where I work, at the Boston Times, she would have been fired on the spot.”
“I agree,” Trevor said. “But that was Carly’s call.”
JoAnna looked at Carly. “Then why didn’t you just fire the heifer, Car? She was trying to get you fired.”
“She was trying to get me demoted,” Carly said. “She’s ambitious. She wants my position. That’s what that was about.”
“Same difference,” JoAnna said. “Why didn’t you demote her or fire her or whatever?”
“Her skill level forced me to give her another chance,” Carly said. “She was up to no good, and I know she was, but in our line of work you can’t just dismiss the top people after one infraction. Mr. Reese didn’t recruit her for me to get rid of her that easily.”
“And in our line of work,” Trevor added, “ambition is good. I want her to want Carly’s job. Sabotage won’t get it. I’ll see through that bullshit, pardon my language, but I need my department heads on their toes at all times. I’m not here as often as I would like to be, and I need my organization to run as smoothly when I’m gone as it does when I’m here.”
“And don’t worry,” Carly said to JoAnna, “I have my eyes on her.”
“I hear you,” Pauline said. “There are lawyers who work under me that I would love to kick to the curb. But that talent is too hard to come by.”
“And they know it,” Carly agreed.
Trevor’s cell phone buzzed. He reached into his pocket, pulled it out, and looked at the Caller ID. “That’s why they try that shit,” he said.
“One thing I know,” JoAnna said, “is that I’m glad I don’t have to make those decisions. I’ll get rid of them first, and worry about the fallout later.”
“Then it is a good thing you don’t make those decisions,” Pauline said with a laugh. “You can’t let emotion rule the day. Like Mr. Reese said, I also think Carly made the right decision. Now if that chick pull that stunt a second time, then---”
“She’s out of here,” Carly said. “I already told her so.”
Trevor began to rise. “I’ve got to run, ladies,” he said. “It was nice to meet you. And Carly,” he said with a look of concern in his eyes, “I’ll see you later.”
“Yes, sir,” Carly responded, feeling some kind of way too, and Trevor headed out.
As Carly watched him leave, and a faint look of disappointment appeared in her big hazel eyes, Pauline, once again, elbowed JoAnna. But JoAnna had already seen it too.
“What a charming man,” Pauline said to Carly.
“Yes, he is,” Carly responded as she looked out of the window and watched as Trevor left the building, walked across the street, and got into a waiting SUV.
“Is he single?” JoAnna asked.
But Carly was still watching as the SUV drove away.
“Carly?” JoAnna asked.
It was only then did Carly look at her friends. “Oh, I’m sorry, Jo. What did you say?”
Pauline laughed. “I said was he single?” JoAnna asked.
Carly didn’t want to go there. But she knew Trevor’s little sandwich heist raised her friends’ suspicions. “Yes,” she said. “He’s single. Any more questions?”
JoAnna smiled. “He is fine,” she said. “That white man is super-fine.”
“Did you see that smile?” Pauline asked. “Did you see that rich, silky hair? Did you see those eyes that looked like they were purple-blue?”
“Purple?” JoAnna asked. “Nobody has purple eyes, Pauline.”
“They looked purple! They looked, what’s that color?”
“Violet,” Carly said. “And I agree with you, Pauline.”
“Thank-you! But, Car, JoAnna is also right. That white man fine. And I’m white, so I should know!”
“Did you see how well-dressed and well-mannered he was?” JoAnna asked.
“Oh, cut to the chase, Jo,” Pauline said, and then leaned toward Carly. “Did you see that joystick between his legs?”
The ladies laughed.
“When he stood up,” Pauline continued, “and looked into your eyes, Carly, I declare if he didn’t grow another inch.”
“Oh, girl, please,” Carly said with a laugh. “You need to quit!”
“I’m only telling what I saw,” Pauline said. “I saw a man in love.”
“Don’t go there, Pauline,” Carly said.
“I saw it too,” JoAnna said, and Carly looked at her. JoAnna was no matchmaker-type like Pauline. “I can’t go so far as to say he loves you, but I can go far enough to say he seems to care about you, Car.”
“So he’s the one you like at work,” Pauline said, “who doesn’t treat you right.”
Carly frowned. “What are you talking about, Pauline? I never told you anything about who I liked or didn’t like or who didn
’t treat me right.”
“You never told us anything about your love life, no,” Pauline said. “But we know you have one! And we already figured out that whoever it was had to be working here at RM because this is where you spend the bulk of your time.” Then she smiled. “But we never dreamed you’d wrangle yourself the boss himself!”
This was a nightmare, Carly thought. Pauline was not going to give it a rest until she had the whole story. And one day, Carly hoped, she could tell her. But not this day. “Anyway, ladies,” she said, wrapping up the last of her sandwich, “I need to get back to work, as I’m sure you do too.”
Pauline smiled. “In other words,” she said, “get out before I throw you out. Something like that?”
Carly laughed and began standing up. “Exactly like that!” she replied, and JoAnna and Pauline laughed too.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
As the Driver drove slowly through the streets of Boston, Trevor sat in the backseat of the SUV alongside Kent Lepeo, his station chief. Although “station chief” was a term the CIA generally used for their agents in charge on foreign soil, it was a term used in the black ops world too. Because the covert operations and the men Trevor was associated with was foreign to, and totally hidden from the American people.
“Dodge told me you wanted to see me,” Kent said, as they drove, and they discussed what went wrong on Trevor’s last run. Kent, a heavyset man in a designer suit and matching scarf, and an ankle length overcoat covering his massive bulk, was the agency man Trevor answered to. But even Kent had no answers either.
“Why was I set up?” Trevor ultimately asked.
“Nobody knows,” Kent responded. “At least I don’t know. They kept me in the dark too.”
“Dodge said he got the order to pull that bait and switch shit with Chekov.”
“He didn’t get the order from me. The advance team is still being debriefed, but they insist they were following Chekov all along.”
“Bullshit,” Trevor said. “They had to know it was Celletti. As soon as that fucker turned around, and I saw him for a couple seconds, I knew I had the wrong guy. But they’re trying to act as if they didn’t have a clue? And they were following him all week? Give me a fucking break!”
“But that’s where we are,” Kent said. “I don’t know shit, and you don’t know shit.”
“They were working for Celletti’s men,” Trevor said. “That has to be the answer, Chief. I don’t know why you would even entertain any other bullshit. They knew who was in that car. They had to know!”
“We’re working on it,” Kent said. “That’s the best I can tell you.” Then he looked at Trevor. “You made it out alive,” he said. “That’s the good news.”
“To the agency, or just you?” Trevor asked.
Kent didn’t try to sugarcoat it. “Probably just me,” he said. “And maybe the Hammer. But that’s why I keep telling you to watch your back. Things are going on. Terribly, crazy things.” Kent frowned. “Things out of my control. And it’s going to only get uglier.”
Trevor looked at Kent. “Tell me what you know,” he said.
But Kent was shaking his head. “Just watch your back,” he said.
“You told me that already. Tell me something I don’t know.”
But Kent remained silent.
“What about me?” Trevor asked Kent pointblank.
Kent looked at him. “What about you?”
“What do they know about me. About my life.” A wary look appeared in Trevor’s eyes. “About my duty to them.”
Kent looked away, his eyes wary too. “Everything,” he said. “You’re an agency man. Your life is an open book.”
Trevor had been careful. Very careful. But he was dealing with the government. “Such as?” he asked.
“Everything, Trev. Everything. They know what food you like. What designers you prefer. Where you piss, screw, and fart.”
Trevor’s heart began to pound. He smiled it off. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You have no secrets, Trev. They know you’re fucking Mick Sinatra’s niece, just as they’re sure you’re fucking every other good looking dame in that company of yours. You don’t give a damn about any of those women, so they don’t give a damn. But be careful. Don’t go breaking that Sinatra girl’s heart. You already have the government breathing down your neck. You don’t want Mick the Tick breathing down it too.”
They didn’t know the full extent of his relationship with Carly, just that she was a fuck partner. One of many, they thought, as Trevor wanted them to think. He was relieved.
“Who was heading up the advance team?” Trevor asked.
“I told you to give that a rest,” Kent responded. “You’re barking up the wrong tree.”
“Who, Chief? Just give me a name. Just tell me who was the fucker coordinating the car ride to the Bailey. Tell me who was the fucker who was responsible for making sure I had the right target. They were waiting on my ass, and nearly killed my ass,” Trevor said bitterly. “The least you should do is give me that asshole’s name.”
Kent looked at him. He stared at him with melancholy all over his face. “You remind me of me when I was a younger man. You know that?”
“His name, Kent. Tell me his name.”
And Kent was about to tell it. Trevor deserved to know. But the SUV suddenly came to a screeching halt, the Driver turned around with a gun in his hand, and shot Kent Lepeo in the face. And he turned the gun on Trevor. It was going to be what they called in the agency a two-fer. One shot to the face and then a successive second shot through the heart of a second victim.
But Trevor was nobody’s victim. As soon as the first shot was fired, he didn’t wait for the second shot. He moved up, reached over, and attempted to take the gun from the Driver before he could carry out his second assassination.
But the Driver was no weakling. He was almost as muscular and strong as Trevor was. But when the gun became pointed directly at Trevor, and it appeared that he was losing the fight, Trevor jumped over the seat, still holding the gun, and it went off in the opposite direction.
But the battle raged on. The driver knew he was dead if he gave in, and Trevor knew the same about himself. They fought for control. They hit against the door, the window, the front seat itself and fought to the death. Until the driver, once again, got the upper hand and the gun was pointed directly at Trevor.
Trevor knew he had to find that herculean will somewhere within himself. And He found it. He thought about Carly, and what it meant to him if he wasn’t able to see her again, or protect her and love her, and he found his second wind. He garnered all the strength he had, with every vein in his body displaying their distress, as he held that gun and turned it slowly and slowly and slower away from his face, and toward the Driver. And when it was turned just right, he found the trigger somehow, and fired.
He wasn’t sure he had hit him, until the Driver’s grip began to loosen. And then he held no grip at all.
Trevor’s hand that gripped the gun was bleeding, and his entire body was in pain, but he knew he had to move. He looked back, at his old friend Kent Lepeo, a man he actually respected. Kent’s face was now unrecognizable and his dead body was slumped over. Trevor hated that it had come to this. He hated what those bastards did to Kent. But it was business. He always had to remind himself of that. This was business.
He kept the gun used in the attack, got out of the SUV, and then walked away.
CHAPTER TWELVE
She could hear him when he entered her condo and began walking upstairs. She grabbed her phone on the nightstand and looked at the security camera on her phone to make sure it was him. It was him. He had a scarf wrapped around his hand, as if it had been injured, and his once-pristine suit looked worn and wrinkled. He looked as if he could barely make it up those stairs. But by the time he made it into the doorway of her bedroom, he was standing upright and was even attempting to smile.
“You’re still up,” he said as he entered the r
oom.
“Yep.” Carly was sitting on her bed, with her back against the headboard, reviewing a small stack of files.
“How was your day?” He stood at the foot of her bed.
“It was good. I got a lot of work done. I expected to see you back in the office this afternoon.” She looked at his wrapped hand. “But I guess you couldn’t make it.”
Trevor stared at her. She deserved so much better than this. “No,” he said. “I wasn’t able to get back.”
Carly wanted to ask what happened to his hand, but she knew not to. It certainly wasn’t a paper cut. It certainly wasn’t damaged because of moving a file cabinet in his office. She wasn’t going to pretend that it could be anything other than what it was: an on-the-job injury. Except it was on his other job.
She removed the files off of her lap and stood up. She wore one of his big dress shirts. She went to him and kissed him. “Take a shower,” she said. “I’ll prepare some dinner.”
Trevor wanted to pull her into his arms, and thank her for being there for him on a night like this, but he knew where he’d been. He didn’t want it to rub off on her. He kissed her back, and headed for the shower.
They had a quiet dinner, with Trevor, in bathrobe eating as if there was no tomorrow, and Carly ate too. But the tension in the room was heavy.
Finally, Trevor looked at her. When he saw the concern in her eyes, he stopped eating. “It’s going to get better for us, Carly,” he said to her. “I know it’s been hell lately. But it’ll get better.”
Carly smiled that reassuring smile Trevor had grown to love. “I know,” she said. “I just worry about you, Trev. I wish there was something I could do to help.”
Trevor reached out his hand to her. A hand he now had wrapped in an ACE bandage. “You are helping,” he said. “You do more for me than I can ever do for you. All I give you is grief. All you give me is love and kindness and more understanding than I could ever deserve. Don’t you ever think you aren’t helping me. You are. Okay?”
Trevor Reese: His Secret Love Page 8
