Chapter 11: Alex

I found out very little about Hope Enterprises, the company pushing to bring a casino to Kent.

I didn’t know if it was because they were intentionally keeping a low profile, or simply the fact that everything they were involved in seemed far too boring to make any headlines.

My research online resulted in a bunch of websites outlining just what the company was all about, their achievements, and basically a bunch of praises from obscure names I had never really heard of. Other than that, they seemed clean. A little too clean, but nothing that threw up red flags in my mind.

Alexis Hope was a completely different persona altogether. From the scant number of pictures of her I could find, she seemed like the type of woman who would walk through a steel wall to get what she wanted, and do it without breaking a sweat.

Black raven hair, blue eyes that promised to bore into your soul and learn your darkest secrets, and enough of a poise that radiated confidence and control to make any man uncomfortable.

She was not a woman I wanted to cross paths with.

When you put her next to the information I could find on her company, something just didn’t add up. It was hard to believe that someone like her would lack the ambition to be front cover news on every magazine in the country. I rarely met a woman in my professional career who was in a position of corporate power and had no desire for the spotlight. Alexis Hope radiated ‘newsworthy’, and the fact that I could find out so little about her made me skeptical.

I placed a call in to Raul in Miami, and after about fifteen minutes of assuring him that I was good, that Kent was beautiful, that Kelly was doing great, I filled him in on what I needed. He didn’t seem all too convinced that doing a background check on Hope Enterprises was worth his time, but the minute I told him I’d drive back to Miami and do it myself, he promised he would. Anything to make sure I got the rest I needed, or at least what everyone thought I needed.

I spent the couple of hours before my meeting with Jenni in the park. Samuel had shown Kelly most of the town, and from the looks of it, she wasn’t all too impressed. The park, though, was different. We took her to the duck pond where I had spent most of my afternoons with my father after my mother had died. It was a magical little place, secluded from the noise of the rest of the park, nestled amid large maples that hung over it like a protective veil. At night, if the moonlight was just right, you could easily lose track of time here. And there were nights where Samuel and I stayed there until dawn.

I drove them home, literally pulling Kelly away from the pond, and parked my car in front of the diner at exactly seven. Jenni came out a few minutes later, looking like she had had the worst day of her life, eyes droopy as she opened the passenger side door and all but collapsed in her seat.

“Home?” I asked. She looked beautiful, despite how tired she appeared to be. I caught myself tracing the lines of her cheek and jaw down to her neck and collar. I imagined my lips there, and quickly shook the image away.

Jenni shook her head quickly. “God, no, I’ve actually been looking forward to this,” she said.

“Actually?”

She giggled. “Yes, actually. If I go home now, I’ll crash, and that means the day’s been a complete waste.”

I shifted the car into drive and pulled out of the parking lot.

* * *

“You’re kidding!”

The coffee shop was a cozy little establishment just off North Main Street, surrounded by quaint little houses and with an evening crowd that wasn’t too much of an ear sore. We were sitting at a table by the large window looking out onto front garden that was decorated with enough gnomes and flamingos to make your mind spin, but the atmosphere was welcoming, and the soft rock music playing mixed with the aroma of fresh coffee splendidly.

“Nope, I’m serious,” Jenni said, laughing.

“Erotica?” I asked, shaking my head in disbelief. “I would never have imagined.”

“Why?” she asked, sipping at her coffee. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Agent Logan.”

“Apparently so,” I chuckled. “So why ghostwriting? Why not try publishing your own work.”

Jenni shrugged. “No idea, really,” she said. “Competition’s fierce, and getting a leg into the market’s hard. I got enough rejection letters to bind into an encyclopedia. Besides, it pays the bills.”

“But your ideas, you’re just giving them away.”

“Not really,” she explained. “Most of the time, they’re not my ideas. I get an outline to work with most of the time. So basically, I’m just filling in the spaces, if you think about it.”

“Wow,” I said, leaning back in my seat, and eyeing her. In the dim light of the coffee shop, she looked even more beautiful, and I found myself staring a little too hard. “Wow,” I repeated, not really knowing what else to say.

“I’ll send you a few things I’ve written,” she smiled. “Get your opinion and all.”

“I’m not much of a reader, to be honest, but sure, why not?”

She smiled wider and nodded, gazing out the window as we sat silently for a few minutes, just enjoying the coffee and each other’s company. I couldn’t remember the last time I had felt this comfortable, and it was strange. I found it funny that in Kent, of all places, I’d come across someone who didn’t make me want to immediately shoot myself in the head.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” I said. “Shoot.”

“Did you ever think of quitting?”

I frowned. “The DEA?”

She nodded.

I thought about her question for a few seconds, wondering just what I could say that wouldn’t make me sound too cliché. “Not really,” I finally answered. “I love the job. Small wins or not, I feel like I’m making a difference.” Yeah, not cliché at all.

“You’re not worried?” she asked.

“About what?”

“Well, you know?” She hesitated. “I mean, you were shot.”

I shrugged, trying to look like it wasn’t a big deal. “Part of the job.”

“Come on,” she scoffed.

“Okay, maybe that’s playing it down a bit,” I admitted. “Sure, it’s crossed my mind a few times. Especially since Kelly’s only got me and Samuel. I’d hate her to grow up without both parents.”

“But you wouldn’t quit for her?”

I frowned, wondering what she was getting at, and a part of me a little uncomfortable with where this conversation was going. I hated when people assumed that I didn’t care about my daughter, that I was being selfish, but I didn’t want to jump the gun and think Jenni was just going to attack me for this. She looked like she was genuinely concerned.

“If she asks me to, I probably will,” I replied. “So far she’s dealing with it as best as she can. She was my wall when I was bedridden after the accident. She’s a lot stronger than people give her credit for.”

“What exactly happened in this accident?” Jenni asked, leaning in and resting her chin on her hands.

I sighed and sat back, playing with the table spoon. “Long story.”

“I’m actually interested.”

“Actually?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

She smiled and nodded.

“We had a lead on a major drug deal, and my partner and I were assigned with staking the place out,” I started. “We didn’t think it would be anything. You have so many moles in the business, bad information is quite common. And if the information is right, the dealers usually get a warning before we can do anything. It’s rare that we actually catch a deal of that magnitude when it’s actually happening.”

“But this was different?”

I nodded. “The dealers showed up. My partner, Raul, wanted to wait for backup, but I was sure that by the time the cavalry arrived, the dealers would have been warned. So, we went in.”

“How bad was it?”

“Bad enough that I spent three weeks in the hospital, and another month at home with my twelve-year-old babysitting me and my father trying to keep our lives together. Two bullets almost ripped my guts apart, one missed my heart by a couple of inches, and two shattered my femur. I’ve recovered for the most part, but my leg’s still killing me. Some nights the pain is so bad I can’t even get out of bed.”

Jenni’s eyes were wide, and she looked at me with a mix of sympathy and concern. I wondered what was going through her head at that moment. Her eyes were fixated on me, staring at me for what seemed like forever, as if trying to read me, before she looked away and sipped at her coffee.

“Not a great story to tell at parties,” I tried to joke.

She looked up at me, her face clearly portraying that she wasn’t amused, and looked away again. “How did Kelly handle all that?”

I hesitated. I had always seen my daughter as a rock, and although I knew she had definitely been affected by the whole thing, she was quick to show that she was okay. We had never really discussed the shooting, or how she was doing. She never gave me a reason to believe that she was suffering from it.

“She took care of her old man, and did a pretty good job at keeping her head together, I guess,” I said. “We haven’t talked about it, really.”

“She’s a strong girl.”

“Takes after her mother,” I said.

Jenni looked up again. “How did she die?”

I choked a bit. I rarely talked about Janice with anyone other than my father, and even then, it was to remember something she said or did that had us both laughing out loud. The death part had always been something we avoided.

Come to think of it, you’re a family that loves to avoid touchy subjects.

True.

“Cancer,” I replied.

“Must have been hard.”

I nodded. “When it was bad,” I said. “She was strong, though, joked about it when she could. She loved life too much to let the sickness ruin her last days.” I hesitated. “I only realized that the thing was deadly when she was gone. She never made me feel like she was going to die. I think at some point I thought she’d fight it away.”

“I’m sorry,” Jenni said. She reached out and held my hand, and although I could see her do it, I couldn’t feel the touch. I had been brought back to a time I usually avoided reminiscing about, and the rush of emotions racing through me was overwhelming.

“It’s okay,” I said, trying to smile. “I have the memories of when it was beautiful, and that’s what I hold onto when I remember her.”

“Does Kelly remember her?”

I shook my head. “She was too young when it happened. When she asks about Janice, I share what I can, and make sure she knows that she was loved. It’s what Janice would have wanted. I never talk about the cancer.”

She squeezed my hand, and I smiled at her. I didn’t understand it, but for the first time ever, I didn’t mind talking about Janice with someone else. I was comfortable, too, as if this was right. Like Jenni had a right to know, for some reason.

“How about you drive me home, and go kiss your daughter good night?” Jenni smiled. “Besides, if I stay here any longer, you might have to carry me home.”

I chuckled, a little grateful at her attempt to lighten the mood. I nodded to the waitress and gestured for the check, noticing that Jenni was still holding my hand. And I was completely fine with it.