Beneath the Surface

by Cat Johnson

  Rick took a quick shower to help him wake up. If they had gotten a solid four hours of sleep the night before it would surprise him. While brushing his teeth with some toothpaste on his finger, for lack of his own toothbrush, Rick considered missing his usual full seven hours of shuteye well worth the sacrifice as he remembered all of the various looks of shock, passion, and satisfaction on Beth’s face the night before when he’d introduced her to new and exciting sexual experiences. Those memories had his dick hard and bobbing once again.

  Rick padded barefoot and naked back to the bedroom to find Beth waking up.

  She stretched and cringed. “Ow. I’m sore all over.”

  “Too sore for some fun?” He crawled into bed and nestled his erection against her while nibbling on her shoulder.

  Beth laughed. “If you can find a part of my body that’s not in pain, feel free to use it. But otherwise, I don’t think I can accommodate you. In fact, I doubt I will be able to walk or sit all day.”

  He smiled with satisfaction at the memories. She was right. He had invaded every orifice, some more than once. But Rick always did like a challenge. The situation simply called for a little creativity. He would love to feel his dick sliding between those breasts of hers. He pictured her tongue shooting out to tickle the tip on each upstroke. That thought had him throbbing. Of course there was always the good old sixty-nine. He could be gentle with her since she was sore, thanks to him—he loved knowing that. Hopefully, she wouldn’t be too gentle with him though.

  Considering the best course of action, he opened his mouth to make a few suggestions when she glanced at the bedside clock and sat straight up in bed. “Oh my gosh. Look at the time. I have to shower, dress and get to work.”

  Groaning, Rick rolled back to the pillow on his side of the bed.

  Apparently the party was over, but his job was far from over. Enough playing—for now—he needed to get back to work.

  “What’s on your agenda at work today? Your big crack?” Hmm. That sounded dirty. Rick amended that statement and added, “In the ceiling, I mean.”

  She giggled. “Yes, that’s one thing, among others. What about you?”

  “I was hoping a certain sexy conservation expert would give me a private, behind the scenes tour of the station.” He raised an eyebrow and waited.

  “All right.” She was so damn cute. She actually blushed at being called sexy, even after all they had done.

  “Good. I’ll look forward to it. Now go hop in the shower.”

  He could run home, change, check in with his contact for any updates and then get back to Grand Central for hopefully a more successful day. Although, as he watched Beth stroll naked across the room, he would by no means consider the prior day a failure.

  Beth stood just outside the Oyster Bar and frowned at the perplexing readout in her hand. “There seems to be an unexplained spike in vibrations.”

  Rick shrugged. “It’s a train station. There are giant engines rattling beneath the building day and night.”

  “But it’s more than usual. I know what the average vibration readings measure and this is far greater.”

  “Is there construction nearby?”

  Beth shook her head. “I’ll check again but no, there’s none that I know of. We’re a major historical landmark. Contractors are required to inform me of any work in the area that could impact or compromise the building. And even when they were doing the construction upstairs and installed the second marble staircase in the Main Concourse, the readings still didn’t look like this. It’s just strange it was overnight. Working major construction at night? It would cost a fortune in overtime with union labor.”

  Rick leaned one shapely jean clad buttock on the edge of her desk and totally blew her concentration to bits. Just when Beth was pretty sure she was about to say something else important too.

  “Where are your two underlings today? Maybe they know something,” Rick suggested.

  With the faint smell of his spicy deodorant assaulting her nose, and the memories of the prior night still so fresh in her mind as well as in her body aches, it took Beth a moment to process that he meant Robby and Lyssa. She glanced at her watch. “They should be here by now, but they’re college kids. They’re late more often than not.”

  “You should fire them then.” Rick frowned.

  Beth laughed. “They’re interns. They don’t get paid, so it’s kind of hard to fire them. The worst I can do is give them a bad evaluation at the end of term. Besides, they’re good kids usually, just young.”

  Rick walked his fingers across her desk, over her report and up her arm, to end at her chin. “Well I think we did pretty good last night for two old people.” She felt her face flush and he laughed. “You are so cute when you blush.”

  Scowling, she finally forced her eyes up to his. “No, I’m not. It’s embarrassing that I blush all the time.”

  “Yes, you are and it’s not embarrassing. It’s cute as hell.” Rick leaned down and planted a kiss on the tip of her nose—which sent tingles all the way through her core—just as the door flung open and the two youths in question flew in.

  Robby skidded to a halt just inside the door. “Beth, you have to come downstairs and see this.”

  It must be important since he didn’t take the time to tease her for being caught with a man on her desk.

  “Good morning to you too. What do I have to see? If it’s the off the charts vibration readings from the Whispering Gallery from last night, I’ve already got them.”

  Lyssa came forward to stand next to Robby. “No, but it’s quite possibly the reason for those off the charts vibration readings.”

  Beth was more interested now. She rose from her chair. “Take me there. You can tell me what you found along the way.”

  Rick rose from his perch on the desk. “I’m coming too.”

  This guy really was into architecture if he was interested in crawling around in the bowels of Grand Central Terminal in search of the source of a mysterious vibration.

  “Robby and I were at the library last night doing research for our final paper—“ Lyssa began.

  “—and we read about this secret entrance that Franklin Delano Roosevelt used to use.” Robby interrupted to complete Lyssa’s sentence.

  “From the Waldorf Astoria Hotel next door directly to a private platform here at Grand Central.” Lyssa jumped back into the tag team storytelling.

  Beth nodded. “Mmm hmm. I know all about that. So what?”

  “You knew and you never told us?” Robby stopped mid-step. “Beth, what the hell?”

  Rick also stopped in his tracks and looked more than interested.

  Beth threw both of her hands up in the air. “What? Besides the historical interest, it’s not important. That elevator between the Waldorf and FDR’s private platform has been sealed for decades. It’s welded shut.”

  “That’s the point. When we went looking for it this morning—“

  Lyssa’s sentence was cut off by Robby saying, “—it doesn’t look welded shut any more and we heard the elevator motor running.”

  “What? It can’t be. Who would be using it?” Beth frowned. “If some executive at the Waldorf is using it as a tourist attraction and didn’t tell me…” Her anger grew.

  “Hold on a second.” Rick put a hand on her arm. “Beth, I need you to tell me more about this.”

  “Sweetie…” Beth cut that endearment off, but not soon enough judging by the smug looks on her interns’ faces. “Rick, I’ll give you a tour later, anywhere you want. A lecture too, but right now I have to deal with this.”

  He shook his head. “No. This is important. You need to tell me now about any and all passages running through here that the public wouldn’t have access to.”

  “Why?”

  “I can’t tell you why. Just please, trust me.” The expression in his eyes pleaded with her and for some reason, she did trust him.

  She didn’t know why this was so important but she nodded and took
the time to explain. “Okay. Under Grand Central there are steam pipe tunnels and numerous storage areas. There’s also a network of underground tracks that almost no one is aware of, as well as a train platform with a secret entrance and an elevator straight up to the WaldorfAstoria Hotel. FDR used it as his private entry into New York, probably so he could avoid any press photographing him in his wheelchair. But like I said, the door to the elevator is supposed to be welded shut.”

  Rick whipped out his cell phone and held up one hand to silence her next question as he dialed. Whoever Rick called must have answered because he turned his back to her and she heard him say, “I’ve found something. I may need back up… A fucking secret train track that hasn’t been used in probably fifty years. Looks like it may be active again… Okay.”

  Beth watched Rick in confusion. What did the train track have to do with Rick’s marketing research? Were they going to use it in an ad campaign?

  She’d have speak to the Grand Central Partnership first. She wasn’t sure this was something they wanted tourists flocking there to see. It was not only in an off limits area, it was probably pretty dangerous and not even near up to today’s codes for public use. She was about to tell Rick all this, but he never gave her a chance.

  Instead, he stepped forward and placed a hand on Robby’s arm. “Robby. You have to take me to this secret underground elevator you found.” He turned back to Beth and Lyssa. “You two need to go back to your office and stay there. Do not call anyone. Do not tell anyone about what you’ve found. Wait for us to get back. Got it?”

  Beth shook her head. This was all too strange. “No. I don’t ‘got it’. Rick, what’s going on?”

  Rick sighed and turned back to her. Placing both hands on her arms, his expression softened. He took in a deep breath. “Please, Beth. You have to just trust me.”

  “I will, as soon as you explain yourself and your interest in these tunnels because I have to tell you, it isn’t normal if you are who you say you are. So are you? Are you really here doing marketing research?”

  He squeezed her arms a bit more tightly. “Not exactly.”

  As the tears threatened to fill her eyes, she wiggled to free herself from his grasp. “Let me go.”

  Robby took a single step forward protectively. Beth felt a little better that she wasn’t alone with this man. The man who she’d thought she knew but obviously did not, not one little bit. Her common sense screamed in the back of her brain that this situation was exactly the reason she didn’t date much. She’d done a heck of a lot more than “date” Rick last night. Her face colored again as she remembered all she had done with him, without hesitation, with complete trust. This time her eyes did fill with unshed tears.

  Rick took one look at her face and let out a curse. He pulled her farther away from where Robby and Lyssa stood watching.

  Robby took another step forward. “Beth?”

  “It’s fine, Robby. Stay there.” They were still in sight and could run for help should she need it. She turned a hurt filled glance toward Rick. “What do you want from me?”

  Looking torn, Rick glanced up at the ceiling. “This isn’t one of those places where they can hear me whispering from over there, is it?”

  Beth shook her head and scowled, remembering what she had whispered to him the night before. She was so stupid. “No, it’s not.”

  He let out a huff of breath. “Okay. I am going to tell you something that could at best end my career and at worst get me killed. I’m telling it to you because I want you to know the only reason I lied to you is because it was absolutely necessary.”

  “There’s never a good reason to lie.” She scowled and looked away.

  He gripped her shoulders and shook her lightly until she looked back at him. “Yes, there is. That’s what I am trying to tell you.”

  She let out a huff of her own. “Fine, tell me then.”

  “You can’t repeat this to anyone. Not the two kids over there. Not your boss or whoever. To no one. Understand?”

  Beth rolled her eyes. She wouldn’t repeat it because whatever came out of his mouth next would probably be as big a lie as everything else he had told her. And she had let him…she couldn’t even think of what she had let him do to her. The fact that she had enjoyed it was even more embarrassing.

  “Beth.”

  “Okay. I swear I will never repeat what you tell me.” She forced herself not to look away.

  “I’ve been deep undercover for the NYPD for two years trying to track the origin of huge shipments of drugs that are somehow mysteriously appearing in circulation on the city streets.”

  Well, this was a doozy. This guy had quite the imagination.

  He continued. “It didn’t seem to be coming in by boat through the harbor, we couldn’t catch anything crossing the borders by road or even by private plane. I mean I’m not talking small amounts here, Beth. I am talking truckloads full of drugs…or trainloads.”

  Her eyes opened wide, starting to believe him for the first time. “The private track?”

  He nodded. “Exactly what I’m thinking.”

  It still sounded a bit like a late night television movie to her. “Can I see some identification?”

  Rick laughed out loud. “Beth. Deep undercover means just that. I am not in any way identified with the department. I have one single point of contact by secure cell phone only. That is it. Otherwise, I’m on my own. If I show up dead in the street one night, I’ll be listed as just another John Doe.”

  She frowned, torn. “If you can’t be affiliated, how are you paid by the department then?”

  He laughed again. “Look, we get through today, I crack this case and stop those drugs from coming into my city and onto the streets, I will sit down and tell you everything you want to know. Right down to my pension and benefits plan. But right now, there isn’t time.”

  Dropping her gaze, she forced herself to ask one more question. “So you and I…it was all for your cover?” His cover. She sounded ridiculous using his spy lingo.

  He lifted her chin with one hand and lowered his head to speak close and right up in her face. “No. Don’t ever think that. I had my eye on you from the first moment I saw you yesterday morning, wandering around like a tourist and staring up at the ceiling. The fact you worked here was a coincidence and yeah, I’ll admit, convenient that I suddenly had access to a Grand Central expert. But you and I last night was just that…you and I. That was not work. That was me, a man wanting a woman he found…finds…very attractive and wants to know better.”

  She’d never felt more confused in her entire life, and that must have shown all over her face.

  “Beth. There will be plenty of time to doubt me later. If I’m lying you can take the story to the police or the damn New York Times if you want. But right now, what would it hurt to simply trust me? Please, let me do my job.”

  Pulling in a deep, shaky breath, Beth nodded. Raising her voice, she called out, “Robby, take him down there. Do whatever he says but be careful. Lyssa, you come back to the office with me.” Then she looked back at Rick’s relieved face. “If you are lying, and if you get Robby hurt in any way, I will track you down myself. My father was a cop before he died. I know my way around a gun.”

  Unexpectedly, Rick smiled. “You are full of surprises, aren’t you? And you can shoot. I knew there was a reason I was so attracted to you. I can’t wait to find out more later, and to repeat last night.” He grabbed her face and planted a big kiss directly on her lips. “Hold that thought.”

  Then he and Robby disappeared down the dimly lit hallway, and Beth was left to worry. Two thoughts dominated her thoughts. One, she hoped Rick had told her the truth. Two, if he had been truthful and was correct about the massive amounts of drugs coming through here literally beneath her nose, and he and Robby were about to stumble directly into the middle of the whole operation, she really hoped he was carrying a gun. A big one.

  Not too long after Lyssa and Beth had arrived back at the offic
e, Robby hurled through the door, alone and flushed. “What the hell is going on and who is that guy, Beth?”

  “Why? What happened?” Beth stood so fast, she sent her wheeled desk chair flying behind her. It crashed into the metal filing cabinet with a loud bang that did nothing to soothe her already jangling nerves.

  “We got down to the elevator. He took one look at it, dragged me back down the passageway, made me swear to come right back here to you and not talk to a soul or he’d do all sorts of bodily harm to me. Then he disappeared.”

  Beth sighed. So now Rick was down there alone, possibly with these drug runners. Should she call someone? If only he had given her the name and number of his contact at the NYPD. What if he needed help and his cell phone didn’t work down there? Her heart pounded. He could be killed and no one would ever know. Or, he could wrap up this case and disappear into his undercover network never to be heard from again. Or even worse than that, what if the entire thing was one big lie? Either way, truth or lie, what if she never saw him again?

  “What do we do now?” Lyssa, looking relieved at Robby’s reappearance, had run over to give him a big hug. If only Beth could do the same with Rick.

  The wheels squeaked across the tile floor as Beth pulled her chair closer to the desk and plunked her weary body heavily into it. “We wait and don’t tell a soul, just like he asked.”

  “What is going on here, Beth?” Robby asked again.

  “Honestly? I don’t know, Robby. I wish I did.” And that was the absolute truth.

  The rest of the day passed in agonizing slow motion as the three kept busy, Beth in particular in an attempt to keep her mind off what could possibly be going on right beneath their feet. They remeasured the cracked Guastavino ceiling tile in the Whispering Gallery and reset the motion detector. She delved into the stack of paperwork on her desk she had been avoiding. Mostly, she watched the clock and jumped each time the phone rang or someone knocked on the door, but none of the calls or visitors was the one she wanted.