Reflections of Grey: Book Three of the Alexis Stanton Chronicles

by Phelps, J. C.

  We rode the elevator down in silence and I led the way into the office. Lacewell was sitting in Gabriella’s chair when I walked in. She stood and gave me a cross look. I happily returned the expression.

  “Okay, ladies,” White stepped between us to get our attention. “We will be working together so we need to build a good rapport. First of all, Lacewell,” he directed all of his attention to her. “When you are at my apartment for business, or any other reason, you will treat my guests with respect. If I hear that you’ve turned anyone away again without informing me that I have company, we will have to do all our business dealings here at the office. Am I understood?”

  She rolled her eyes, said, “Yes,” but gave a loud sigh as if his requirements were ludicrous.

  “Ms. Grey.” Now he turned to me. “I completely understand why you don’t want Lacewell in your apartment after the way she treated you. However, I expect you to treat our other clients appropriately.”

  I was expecting him to reprimand me like he did Lacewell, but instead, he gave me permission to dislike her. I nodded my agreement and held my head higher as he led the way into his office.

  The stillness between the three of us would have been more than I could bear if Red hadn’t called almost as soon as we sat down.

  White’s conversation was short and his expression troubled as he handed the phone to Lacewell.

  “That was Red,” White told me as Lacewell spoke on the phone. “They found him.” His voice was muted so I worried if Evans was still alive.

  “Just go in and get him!” Lacewell yelled to Red.

  “We’ve got to go,” White said to me. “According to your messages, Sal wants Emma, so you are going to go get Evans back for us. Lacewell, let’s go.” She was totally absorbed with her phone call but managed to follow us to White’s Mustang in the parking garage.

  She got into the backseat without hesitation, allowing me to ride shotgun.

  White handed me Emma’s phone as we were driving.

  “Call him and tell him you just got the messages. He still thinks you are Emma so you will be.”

  Sal picked up on the first ring.

  “Emma?”

  “Yes,” I had a tremble in my voice.

  “Did you get my messages?” He sounded eager.

  “Yes. You didn’t hurt Mr. Evans did you?”

  “No. Here, you can talk to him.” There was a short pause and then I heard Evans voice.

  “Emma?”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes. Where are you?” He replied.

  “Almost there. Is he well armed?”

  I heard some rustling and then Sal’s voice.

  “Where is she?” When Evans didn’t answer quickly enough, “Where are you?”

  “I’m almost home.”

  “Are you alone?”

  “Yes.”

  His tone turned ominous. “You better hurry. I’ve been waiting for you for a long time. Where did you go?” He didn’t give me the chance to reply before he fired off another question and another.

  White stopped a block from the apartment and told me to walk the rest of the way and keep him on the phone. I did as I was told and saw Sal watching from my apartment window. As soon as he saw me his questions stopped.

  “Hurry up,” he said.

  I picked up my pace and walked straight for the apartment. I looked around as I crossed the street, hoping to see Red and Green somewhere nearby.

  Just as I noticed them sitting in a car near my apartment, Sal said, “What are you looking for?”

  “I’m just watching for cars while I cross the street,” I lied.

  “Well, don’t.” He hung up.

  White drove past me at a normal pace and I watched as he parked down the street out of sight of the apartment. I didn’t know how this was going to pan out. I’d never had a stalker before. If only I had realized how unstable Sal was while I was at Gigi’s I could have taken precautions.

  Sal was waiting with the door open.

  “Get in here,” he waved a gun at me.

  “Okay, just relax.”

  I saw Evans tied up in the corner as soon as I walked in so I started to make my way to him.

  “Leave him alone. I want to know where you were,” Sal demanded.

  “I told you she was back home, tying up some loose ends.”

  “I didn’t ask you, old man.” Sal pointed the gun at Evans threateningly. He turned his attention back to me. “You didn’t tell anyone where you were going, you just left.”

  “I couldn’t work at Gigi’s anymore. They were going to make me dance and I just couldn’t do that, Sal.” I was improvising.

  “Why? You would have been the best dancer there.”

  “I didn’t want to take my clothes off in front of strangers.” He stood, thinking.

  “Well, that’s good, I guess,” he said finally.

  “Give me the gun, Sal.” I reached for it and thought he was going to give it to me until he grabbed my arm and pulled me toward him.

  “I don’t think so. I need to deal with him first.” While holding me in a chokehold with one arm he waved the gun toward Evans. I struggled against him but realized he had a better hold on me than I’d previously thought.

  He fired the gun and I tried to pull free at the same time. Evans slumped to the floor and blood slowly pooled around him. My phone rang inside my pocket. Sal kept his grip on me and slowly turned me toward him. My phone rang again.

  “Answer it and tell them not to come in,” he ordered.

  “Who? I came alone,” I lied.

  “I’m not dumb! Just do it,” he shook the pistol at me.

  “Yes?” I tried to sound calm.

  “What happened? We’re coming in.” White’s voice was intense.

  “Not a good idea.” Sal took my phone from me and hung it up.

  “You are damn good looking but not that good looking. We found the bug you planted.”

  “What do you mean?” I continued to try to play Emma.

  “Don’t even…” he let his sentence die. “You were the only girl who up and left, making you the prime suspect. I know for sure now because of all your friends outside.” He shoved the gun into my gut making me double over.

  “We are leaving now.” He wrenched me around, holding my arm behind my back. Pushing me toward the door he told me, “Open it, slowly, and walk out, slowly.” As soon as the door was opened it revealed Red standing there. His sidearm aimed at us.

  “Take it easy,” he said as Sal pulled me closer to him, his arm back around my throat.

  “Back off,” Sal said as he pushed the gun to my temple.

  Red holstered his gun and backed away. “Lets talk about this. She’s just a woman. You don’t want to do this for a woman.”

  I started to shake my head, knowing that Sal knew I wasn’t who I claimed to be. He pushed the gun harder against my head, preventing me from moving any more.

  “I’m not stupid. What are you guys? F.B.I.? It doesn’t matter, I’m walking out of here. Back off!” Sal was getting jumpy.

  “Evans,” I croaked but my air was cut off by Sal’s arm.

  “Move it!” He kept his back against the wall as he moved toward the parking lot. Red stepped into the apartment as we moved further away.

  Sal slowly pulled me to the parking lot. I tried to look around but couldn’t move my head. I couldn’t see anyone else and started to feel a panic rising. I couldn’t let him get me into a vehicle. I tried to struggle but he just solidified his grip around my neck cutting off all of my air. I planted my feet and he tried to move me onward but failed until he lifted me by my neck. Grabbing hold of his arm with both my hands, I tried to lift myself up some so I could breathe. I failed and his grip only got stronger.

  We reached a dark colored Jeep and he put me back down on my feet but didn’t loosen his grip. My head started to swim and I felt weak. I fought against it but knew if he didn’t ease up I was going to pass out. I felt him trying
to fish his keys from his pocket but my vision was failing. My legs faltered and I went limp, sliding out of his grip. I had the sensation of falling but didn’t feel anything when I hit the ground.

  The next thing I knew White was kneeling beside me, brushing my hair out of my face. My stomach was turning and my head hurt.

  “Come on, wake up,” he coaxed gently. “We got him,” he said when I opened my eyes.

  I tried to apologize for passing out but my throat hurt and nothing came out.

  “We’re lucky he cut off your air. It gave us a chance to take him down.” His voice was soothing and despite my humiliation I felt somewhat better until I saw Lacewell standing in the background, grinning.

  I managed to partially sit up. In spite of my sore throat, I asked about Evans.

  “He’ll be okay, because of you.” This time it was Lacewell. Her tone was grateful, but strained. “He was shot in the shoulder and just played dead. He said that your struggling with Sal must have made him miss his mark.”

  “Sal knew I’d planted the bug,” I told White.

  “You were out for a couple of minutes. We know all this already and have it under control.”

  “What?” I was confused.

  “Emma Robertson and Michael Evans were killed here today but not before taking out the gunman.”

  “Sal’s dead?”

  “No, but he’ll be detained. Probably indefinitely.” Green added as he joined us.

  “The ambulance is on its way,” Red informed White.

  “You and I will ride in the ambulance with Evans and you’ll both die at the hospital, so don’t look too well yet.” White told me.

  I gratefully laid back down and didn’t hide how I really felt. I was sore all over and it was easier to look miserable than not to.

  *****

  Chapter Thirteen

  Black and I went to the cabin right after Emma was admitted to the hospital. They all agreed it would be good for me to stay out of the city for a while.

  “Besides,” White told me when I objected, “you’re up for a little vacation time.”

  After some half-hearted complaints I finally agreed to go to the cabin. I always found myself yearning for it anyway, especially now that they’d rebuilt it and added some real technology to the place.

  White had driven Black and me to the drop off point so we could hike the distance. We’d been given the option to be dropped off by Brown in the chopper but both of us wanted to do the long hike again. My first time up we’d broken everyone’s record for hiking time to the cabin and wanted to retest ourselves.

  Unfortunately we didn’t press as hard as we should have and instead of one day it took us three to reach the cabin. I was the first one to leave the designated route to do a little exploring but Black soon found something off the trail he wanted to see and we hiked around in circles.

  Sleeping out in the open is always invigorating but I was thankful to be at the cabin for our third night. My bed was more comfortable than the ground.

  Black and I didn’t waste any time and spent almost every waking hour outside. We went cave diving the first day. I’d forgotten how beautiful and awesome the caves under the lake were. The caverns snaked all through the mountains around us but one passage led into the basement of the cabin.

  Over the next couple of weeks we went base-jumping, did a lot of hiking and even did some target practice. Black never missed an opportunity to teach me something and had decided I needed to be proficient in archery. Every day, before we did anything else, I’d take the bow and arrows out to the range and practice. Black had shown me how to hold the bow and draw back the string properly but I still seemed to whack myself every so often. I had big welts that turned to bruises on my arm. It hurt more each time I did it and I found myself swearing loudly when I let my arm get in the way of the bowstring.

  “Language.” Black criticized.

  “Sorry,” I replied. Men, I thought to myself. They can swear and be thought macho but when I do it I’m considered uncivil. Instead of swearing I began to stomp my foot and hold my breath until the pain eased up. After one of my stomping sessions I noticed Black grinning while he let an arrow fly so I decided not to make any show of being affected.

  Finally, after two weeks of wonderful weather a thunderstorm kicked up so we spent the day in the cabin. I considered going up to the library and poking around on the computers but found a book instead.

  At dinner Black asked if I’d like to go on a camping trip. He laid out a large map across the table.

  “I’ve never been here, or here,” he pointed to different locations on the map.

  “Neither have I,” I grinned at him. I’d been to various places near the cabin but it was mostly for training purposes. I hadn’t been allowed the time to do much exploring. Black smiled back at me and we continued to pick our route on the map.

  Before the sun made an appearance we were already miles from the cabin. The rain from the previous day hadn’t dried up and I was soaked and shivering when we took a breakfast break.

  “Did you bring extra clothes?” Black asked.

  “Of course,” I was surprised he asked.

  “I’ll wait for you to change.”

  “That’s okay. The sun is coming out. I should dry up soon.”

  “Have it your way,” he raised his eyebrows.

  After the sun lit the world we slowed our pace and enjoyed the scenes around us. But when the sun went down we picked up our pace again and hiked through the night. I hadn’t expected this and by the time the sun rose on the second day I was decidedly tired. Again, we slowed our pace until the sun went down. We continued this way for the first three days but on the third night, Black said we were going to set up camp.

  “We’re getting out of familiar territory,” he explained.

  I didn’t care what his reasons were. I was thrilled we were stopping for the night.

  I laid out my bedroll and was inside before Black had his ready. I contemplated how comfortable the ground was this far from the cabin for only a few seconds before I fell asleep. I didn’t wake up until the sun was far above the horizon.

  Looking around for Black I found him near my bedroll. He was still wrapped up and snoring quietly. I was shocked to be up before him.

  I cleaned up my bedroll as quietly as I could. Then I went to Black’s backpack for the map. I opened it up a short distance from the still sleeping Black so the rustling wouldn’t disturb him.

  We’d made good time and should be at our destination in less than an hour. The closeness of our goal made me wonder how long Black was going to sleep.

  I started a fire to make breakfast and Black’s head peeked out from inside his bed.

  “I’m getting old,” he said as he realized the time.

  I smiled but didn’t say anything. I didn’t think he was getting old but Black and I communicated mostly without words. Well, Black rarely communicated with words.

  As I suspected, we were at our destination within an hour after breakfast and we weren’t disappointed. The color green was everywhere and the air smelled of fresh rain.

  The scene was like a jungle with close vegetation around a clear stream. Black’s target had been a small pond created by the stream. The sun filtered in through the moss-covered trees perfectly and I found myself wishing I’d brought a camera. Black already had one out and was looking mighty professional walking around taking shots.

  We spent two days camped near the pool. All the while Black was taking pictures of the area. The night before we started our grueling trek back to the cabin I found out Black was an aspiring photographer. He promised to show me some of his work when we returned to the cabin.

  We didn’t slow our pace for our return trip and made it back to the cabin in less time than it took to get to the small, secluded pond. Again, I was tired from the strenuous hike and lack of sleep. I planned on taking a shower and going straight to bed, but as we neared the cabin we realized there was someone there.
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  Lights shined through the windows so we slowed our pace. As we neared the cabin we both made an attempt to make no noise. Black motioned me around the back of the cabin while he made his way to the kitchen window.

  I was nearing the back door when I heard Black say, “It’s clear.” I turned and walked back toward him. Inside I saw Brown and White at the table.

  “Wonder what’s going on? We aren’t due to go back for a few days.” I said as we walked toward the front door.

  “Let’s find out.” He opened the front door and stepped in.

  I heard White’s voice. “Have you two had dinner?”

  “Not yet,” Black replied as we set our packs down.

  “Long day?” Brown alluded to my appearance.

  “Long week.” Black answered for me.

  “You’re here early. What’s up?” I couldn’t stand not knowing.

  “Nothing. Just thought we’d come up and relax for a couple of days.” White said.

  We stayed near the cabin for the next two days. Black suggested I keep up on my archery practice every morning so my healing bruises became fresh bruises. For some reason, I couldn’t remember to keep my arm out of the way of the bowstring.

  “You’re holding it all wrong,” White had snuck up behind me and I jumped at his voice.

  “You scared me.” I couldn’t help but smile.

  “You need to pay more attention to your surroundings at all times,” his eyebrows went up to compliment his sinister grin. He walked toward me and stood uncomfortably close. He wrapped his arms around me from behind, gripping the bow through my hands. I tried to take slow, deep breaths to keep myself from shaking at his touch but this only worsened matters. His scent was even more intoxicating than his touch. Purposefully I took some breaths through my mouth and calmed myself. His embrace was strong and solid, making me feel protected and vulnerable at the same time.

  “I’m never going to remember this,” I muttered.

  “Yes, you will,” he answered my unintentional utterance by turning me toward him.

  He gave me the same smoldering look he’d given me in my apartment the day we were waiting for Red to call back with news of Evans. I got lost in the moment and again time seemed to stand still. Slowly his face came closer to mine and this time I wouldn’t stop him. I wasn’t ready but had come to the conclusion that I’d never be ready for White. It was time to let him take the lead.