by Dale Mayer
Noah stared out the window, pissed that so many messengers were out there that you never knew which message would be the one that blew up in your face and which messenger was the one who wouldn’t end up being quite so innocent after all.
Chapter 7
Dianne stepped out of the shower, feeling a whole lot better and a lot less groggy. It wasn’t exactly the way she wanted to wake up, hearing Noah slamming somebody against the wall, knowing immediately it was an attack on their hotel room. She didn’t even know how to begin to thank him for being here with her, and, even though she was getting cheeky and giving him a bit of guff, it was more of a defense mechanism than anything. She didn’t want to be alone right now and couldn’t wait until this conference was over, and she could go to Ice’s for the weekend.
After that, she didn’t know what to do with her life, and it was partly what she wanted to discuss with Ice. They had both been talking about it over the last few years, and this was the first time Dianne had ever planned to stay for a visit here, being the first time she’d seen the compound in person. She and Ice and Levi met up all over the world when their paths crossed. But now, she was thinking about making a change and not heading back to Australia.
She’d also been offered a franchise opportunity and wanted to discuss that with her friend as well. Ice was hell on wheels when it came to business. Dianne didn’t really have anybody back home to talk to about it. This conference was one way of seeing if she could utilize any connections here. She wrapped her hair up in a towel and quickly dressed for the day in the clothes that she would wear to the conference. She just held off on the makeup and her blazer. As she stepped out into the other room, she was still toweling the water off her hair. “Did the coffee come yet?”
Too bad, Noah had gotten dressed himself. She was used to fit gorgeous males, but Noah had something special that set him above the rest. It was hard to define, but he had this smooth self-confidence, not arrogance, but an internal power of someone who’s seen a lot and who knew his capabilities and was comfortable with them in this world.
“It’s on its way,” he said, without lifting his head from the laptop.
“What are you doing? Tracking the poor kid paid to deliver that message?”
He looked up, smiled, and said, “We have to check out every lead.”
“It’s still all about the one guy,” she said. “It’s all about Maxwell.”
“Well, it’s all about you, but, therefore, it’s all about him too.”
“Now that Rory and Logan are here,” she said, “won’t all the attention transfer to them?”
“I hope so,” he said. “I really do.”
She looked at him. “I thought they were your friends.”
He burst out laughing. “They are, but they also know how to take care of themselves,” he said. “So, if they become the target, I have much less to worry about. Because then Maxwell won’t be coming after you.”
“Unless he gets through them,” she said quietly. “I know you guys all think you’re invincible, but you’re not.”
He gently smiled at her. “No, we’re not, and we don’t take it for granted. But what we are is very good at defending ourselves.”
“Yes, but remember. Bullets don’t care,” she said. Just then came a knock on the door.
She made a strangled exclamation and immediately stepped back.
He looked at her and said, “It’s probably the coffee. Remember?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I do,” she said, “and that just proves I’m a mess.”
“That’s all right,” he said. “You have every right to be a mess. Just relax. This was a rough start to the day, but it’ll get better from here on out.”
When he said it was a rough start, he was right. A shower, several cups of coffee, and pulling together everything for the first workshop of the morning should have put her back on track, but instead it felt like it would be another ugly day. She had to shake herself out of this mood. She knew that, as soon as she got busy and hooked up with all the people downstairs, she would shake off this fugue. Soon she was ready to go.
As she opened up the door to the hallway, Noah was right behind her. They walked down to the elevator, and she stood there, undecided. Since she was dressed more casually right now, he immediately nudged her gently toward the stairs. She looked at the stairs, back at him, and said, “I know it’s good for us.”
“It will also make you feel better,” he said.
She shook her head. “How does doing something that you don’t like doing make you feel better?”
“Well, you’ll feel better because it will get your blood pumping and releasing endorphins,” he said. “Besides, you don’t really hate doing stairs. I don’t buy it at all. That’s not you.”
“No, that’s true,” she admitted. “I’m just tired.”
“And with good reason,” he said. “When this is over, just remember. We get some downtime at Levi and Ice’s.”
“Trust me. That’s what’s keeping me going.”
“You’ll feel better as the day gets going.”
She yawned and nodded. And, sure enough, by the time they hit the bottom of the stairs, she had a smile on her face.
He grinned at her. “See?”
She rolled her eyes. “I knew I’d feel better,” she said, “but part of me begrudges having to.”
He chuckled. “It’s all good.”
She looked around and said, “What about the other two?”
“They’re here,” he said in that mysterious tone. “I already handed off our second delivered message to them. One of them is handing it off for Levi to inspect.”
She shook her head. “But do I greet them? Do I say anything?”
“You can. Why not? You’ll know a few hundred people here, won’t you?”
“Yes,” she said, admitting that with an odd look. “Because you don’t even think about how many people you actually know until you come to a conference like this.”
He looked at his watch and said, “You’ve got about ten minutes.”
She winced. “In that case, I need to move it.” With that, she swept ahead of him down the hallway, avoiding the crowds already pooling out in the lobby, then snuck into one of the side rooms. He kept up with her, as she was at the front, organizing the presentation and the papers she had set up for this morning. As the gong in the lobby rang for 8:00 a.m., signaling the start of the seminar, she turned and watched, as the crowd moved in, and the room filled up.
Pretty soon the seats were nearly full. She scanned the crowd, a smile on her face, as she waited for the last of the attendees to come in. She hated being interrupted, but it was a fact of life in these places and with this type of event. As soon as it calmed down, her gaze roamed around the room, searching for Noah but couldn’t find him. She felt her heart race, as she kept looking and looking, even as the crowd waited expectantly. Finally she caught sight of him in the very back. She took a long slow breath and flashed him a bright smile.
“Good morning, everyone.” And that’s how she started the session. It went on for hours, and, by the time they had a coffee break, the energy in the room was high. The audience had a ton of questions, but she finally managed to break it down and say, “Next, we’ll have a twenty-minute break, and refreshments are available out in the lobby. This is your chance to get up, to stretch your legs, to dance on the spot, or to do whatever,” she said. “We’ll reconvene here in twenty.”
And, with that, she stepped away. The room immediately erupted, as people got up and headed for the exits and the bathrooms and the coffee, and she understood the sentiment. But, for her, there would always be that rush of people who came forward, instead of leaving. And, sure enough, she was very quickly surrounded by a dozen people; some she knew, and some she didn’t. She quickly greeted those she did with hugs and greetings, smiled at the others, and answered as many questions as she could, only to find Noah standing at her side. She looked up at him.
; “Come on,” he said. “You need a break too.” She made her excuses, and he led her out to a smaller hallway. “What’s down here?” she asked curiously.
“Well, a bathroom, for one.”
“I could definitely use that,” she admitted. She quickly dashed into the restroom, while he waited outside. By the time she was done and had splashed some water on her face, fixed her hair, and stepped out, she felt a bit brighter.
“You’re holding up pretty well,” he said.
“At events like this,” she said, “you feed on the energy of the group. And, so far, everything’s good.”
“That’s good to know,” he said. “Do you want me to grab you a coffee?”
“I’m not so sure,” she said, checking her watch. “We’ve already used up a lot of time.”
“We have time,” he said. He took her back around that small hallway, then through another door, which took her to the side of the lobby. And right there was a coffee service.
She crowed in delight. “Man, I should have you with me all the time. I don’t know how you found this out. I’ve been to this hotel a couple times, and I didn’t know about that entrance and exit.”
“There are always extra hallways for the staff to move through to the main hallways,” he said.
She poured herself a coffee and looked up at him. He nodded, and she poured him one too. As she turned to hand it to him, she found him over at a plate of offerings, quickly selecting something for each of them.
“I don’t have much time,” she warned, but she stared at the cheese and berries with longing and then quickly scarfed down a few of each.
He laughed. “How about a croissant to hold all that down?”
She took half of it and moaned in delight. “Oh, my gosh.”
They walked back into the seminar room to see most of the people had reconvened, but still plenty of seats were empty, people still milling around. She walked up to the front podium, where she finished her snack. Noah grabbed the empty plate and headed for his spot at the back of the room. She called out her thanks, as he walked away. He lifted a hand in acknowledgment and kept on going. She knew that some people, particularly those who she knew so well, were watching them, probably curious and wondering what each of them were up to.
She had never shown up with a partner before, so this was a first for her too. The rest of the day continued pretty much on the same note. Every time there was a break, Noah was at her side. She sat with him at lunch, even though she hadn’t made any arrangements for him to attend, so that was a concern. But the staff never said a word, as he sat calmly beside her, during the whole thing.
“Are you even allowed to be here?” she leaned over and asked.
He whispered back, “Yes.”
She smiled and settled in to enjoy her lunch and the conversation at the table around her. They usually did the seating on a casual basis, but often, in conferences like this, they gave you a seat assignment, so that everybody was mixed up, and so that you didn’t just sit there with the same group of friends all the time.
She had a short stint in the afternoon; then she had a couple hours off. After lunch, she had a break. She stepped out into the lobby and took a long slow deep breath.
“Now,” he said, “do you want to go outside for a bit, or would you rather go up to your room?”
“I’d really like to go up to my room,” she murmured. “Just for a few minutes to relax, away from all these people.”
“Let’s go.” Quickly they made their way back up to the room.
When the door shut, she felt all the stress dropping from her shoulders. She turned and looked at him. “I didn’t realize how much stress I was under, until we got back here.”
He nodded. “There’s just that feeling that something is likely to go wrong,” he said, “so you’re constantly worried, even though you do your best not to show it.”
“Am I showing it?”
“No, you’re not showing it at all,” he said. “You’re doing fine.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” she said, “but I don’t feel that way on the inside.”
The afternoon progressed fairly calmly. At five o’clock, after her last session of the day, she felt the fatigue of always looking out and around hitting her. She was supposed to have been done earlier but someone else hadn’t shown up for a session, so she had covered it. Now she felt the pressure and was rather desperate to go to her room and chill. She headed to the elevators, only to find Noah at her side. “I almost forgot about you,” she admitted.
He laughed. “Well, I won’t take that as an insult,” he said. “At least this time.”
“It wasn’t meant as one. I was just feeling the pressure to get out of there, after taking on the extra seminar and all,” she said, the fatigue, in spite of all her efforts, easily showing.
“Time for you to have a break.”
“Well, that’s the plan,” she said, and she yawned.
“It might be a good chance to get yourself a nap.”
“Sounds good to me. Did you guys find anything?”
“Nope, nothing yet. Levi checked the second message. Not laced with drugs and basically the same message.”
“But the kid delivered it. Maxwell could already be long gone,” she said.
“Hope so.”
But something odd was in his voice. She looked at him. “You don’t believe that though, do you?”
“No, I sure don’t,” he said.
Her shoulders sagged. “You could have let me at least hope for a little while.”
“No point in doing that,” he said gently.
“I guess,” she said. “But I would really like to have all this over with.”
“I know you would, but we’re not to that point yet.”
“No,” she whispered. As they walked into her suite, she collapsed on her bed and said, “I am so done.”
“Lay back,” he said, “kick off your shoes, and curl up for a while. I’ll stay here for a bit until you’re out.”
“I’m not going to argue with you. At least I should nap that way.” She followed his instructions and was asleep within minutes.
*
Noah always wondered how somebody could sleep like that. Dianne had crashed like a baby. He did it when he needed to for power naps, for work, when they were out on missions and had but a few hours and nothing else, but he had never really seen it in other people. She did it with such trust and innocence that it amazed him even more. He was happy because it meant that she trusted him; otherwise she couldn’t sleep like that, but, at the same time, it was interesting to see somebody else conserve her energy and make good use of downtime, like she was.
His phone rang at that point. It was barely loud enough for him to hear it, but he looked to see it was Levi. “Hey.”
“How is she?”
“She’s just now crashed back in her room. She’s done with the first full day of the seminar, but these things have a nighttime schedule too.”
“How did it go?”
“Fine,” he said. “There’s been absolutely no sign of anyone or anything the least bit off.”
“Odd,” he said. “Those cases are the worst, aren’t they?”
“They sure are,” Noah said cheerfully, “because you keep looking, you know somebody’s out there, but they’re just playing the waiting game, leaving you with nothing to do but play along. You get stressed and frustrated because you’re forever looking over your shoulder, and, just when you get calm and think it’s all safe, well, that’s when they jump.”
“And that’s the plan with her, I’m sure,” Levi said.
“So far,” Noah went on, “there doesn’t appear to be any disruption in the seminar itself. We’ve split up the guest list, all the attendees and all the speakers, and we haven’t found anything that might be connected. Rory and Logan are currently going over the actual attendant and staff list, looking to see if we can come up with any cross-referencing there.”
“They di
d send some names back here for further checks,” Levi said. “So far, we haven’t come up with anything either.”
“No, it appears to all be related back to this one Maxwell guy.”
“That’s fine,” he said. “Way better that it’s a single attacker than a whole team.”
“I get that,” he said, “but Maxwell hired that kid, could be doing that now. Makes it much harder to determine if anybody else is here, standing in for Maxwell.”
“No sign of the kid?”
“Nope.”
“No sign at all?”
“No,” he murmured. “I have been keeping an eye out for him.”
“We’ve tracked him down. He’s normally a pizza delivery guy, was in college—until he couldn’t make the next term’s payments—and he’s been doing odd jobs since.”
“Right. So just a kid trying to get back into school.”
“As far as we can tell, yes,” he said.
“Well, at least his story checks out.”
“But that doesn’t mean the next guy’s will.”
“I guess the question is, how many times will Maxwell use other people, and what is the motive behind it?”
“Well, he keeps his distance, doesn’t he?”
“Except for when it came to attacking her, with a knife of all things.”
“Yet he didn’t seriously hurt her, which is another valid point. Because he isn’t trying to fatally hurt her, so it really was as much a warning as anything else.”
“But it scared the crap out of her,” he said, his voice turning hard. “So hardly an acceptable tactic.”
“No, but something to keep in mind. He didn’t shoot her.” And, with that, Levi rang off.
Noah stared across the room, where she still slept soundly. It was a good point on Levi’s part, but often, when warning attacks happened, they were followed up with something more violent and more vicious. It’s like the attackers were testing the waters, then got angry because the object they were after wasn’t paying attention. So the next attack would come on harder and stronger. Noah needed to make sure that didn’t happen this time.
