Chapter Seventeen
DECLAN CLOSED the refrigerator after getting two bottled waters. Jesus Christ Jane made him sweat. The sex was different this time. For some strange reason it felt more emotional, more connected. Tonight had been agonizingly sweet, passionate, tender. It confused him. Women fawned over him and did exactly what he wanted them to do. Jane wasn’t having any of his shit.
He sat at the breakfast table and sipped his water. What was he going to do? If asked four months ago if he was going to be a father, in a monogamous relationship, and under threat of death he would have laughed. Although he wasn’t sure if he could call what they had a relationship. Actually he wasn’t sure what he would define what they had as. They didn’t really talk about it other than Jane saying she was available for him to have sex with. There wasn’t anything easy about her. She was work. Admittedly, work he liked. What was he supposed to do? He set the bottle on the table.
He noticed a folder on the table with a real estate agents card paper clipped to it. Jane was house hunting. Was she seriously thinking about keeping the baby? He opened the folder reasoning with himself that he should have some involvement with choosing where his child lived.
He shuffled through the pictures of houses she’d printed off and they were nice but small. They wouldn’t do. The ads didn’t say anything about the school districts. They were to accessible to the public. Where the hell was he supposed to stay when he visited? In some hotel? If he was going to be involved he’d need to be on-site. He copied the real estate agents number into his phone.
His cell phone pinged with a text. Malcolm asked if Jane was okay. He texted back saying yes. Then noticed there was a text from his lawyer who had a friend in New Orleans who he could talk to about child custody issues. There was one from his brother asking how he was. He quickly texted him back promising him a call in the next day or so.
He grabbed another bottled water and headed back to the bedroom.
Jane was awake and checking out her wound in the mirror.
She was naked except for the bandage and any thoughts of talking about houses flew right out of his head. He held up the bottle of water. “Thirsty?”
“Were you worried I might be dehydrated?”
“You’re wounded.”
She smiled.
He sat on the bed. “Tell me about your mother.”
“Addy is a house wife with a lot of kids.”
“Your biological mother.”
She took a deep breath. “Why do you want to know?”
“Because you know everything about me and I don’t know anything about you.”
She walked over to the bed and got on it. “It’s not an exciting story.” She laid on her side and propped her head up on her palm.
“You’re very evasive. It’s sexy as hell.”
“She was born in Takar, ever heard of it?”
“Near Saudi Arabia. So how did you end up here?”
“My mother was raised in Paris and came here, as a young woman eventually settling in New Orleans.”
“Wasn’t that hard for a Muslim woman alone? I’m assuming she was Muslim.”
Jane nodded. “She had wanderlust.”
“So she met your dad, had you, and settled in New Orleans.”
“Then ended up murdered.”
“You say it so matter of fact. Why is that?” He listened for any emotion in her voice but there wasn’t any.
“Military training. You have to be dispassionate to deal with the job, it bleeds over into everything.”
“Why did you join the military?”
“I wanted to go to college.”
He tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear. “But West Point? You gotta drink the Kool-Aid. No offense.”
“None taken. I believe in America and wanted to serve my country. They paid me to go to school.”
“Have you ever met any of your mother’s family.”
“We weren’t a match. I’m too American.”
Part of him couldn’t believe she was answering all his questions. He had so many and he wasn’t going to stop until he was done. “Why bounty hunting and private security?”
“When I retired, I was recruited by the clandestine service--”
“The what?”
“CIA, Homeland Security, and NSA.”
He laughed. “Why didn’t you go? You could be Jane Bourne.”
She smirked. “That didn’t go well for him, but the alphabet agencies don’t have enough rules. So I decided to go on my own and work the jobs I wanted, with the people I trusted.”
“Do you make a lot of money?”
“You can make major cash if you don’t mind who you work with. Even if you do, you can make great money.”
“Most high paying job?”
“I made eleven million and change the job before yours.”
She really didn’t need his cash. That made him feel a whole lot better. “Can you tell me?”
“I can’t.”
“Craziest job?”
“I had to babysit a king’s barely legal boy toy at a gay strip club and Disneyworld.”
He thought rock stars had great adventures. Not even close. “Most fun?”
“I helped Mick bring in Nathan Hoyt.”
That was her. He’d heard he was hiding in Columbia with some drug cartel. “The hedge fund guy?”
“He was my fifty grand lap dance.”
“You got fifty grand for a lap dance?”
She rolled onto her back and raised her arms above her head and pushed her beautiful breasts up. “Don’t you think I’m worth it?”
He leaned over and kissed a breast. “I’d pay you a hundred.”
She let out a breath and pushed her body on the bed.
“If you ever flee from prosecution I’ll hold you to that. If you're nice to Duck he might show it to you.”
That he had to see. “You’re on film?”
“Duck told me he keeps it in his spank bank. I’m flattered. He’s seen me at my worst.
“You and Mick ever have a thing?” He’d been wanting to ask that question for a long time. They seemed close.
She shook her head. “You’re more his type.”
“Shit I couldn’t tell. Were any of those things you told me secrets?”
“Nope.”
“You know you owe me a few secrets.”
“When I got home from A-Stan, I had microdermabrasion and a chemical peel. Afghanistan isn’t skin friendly.”
“You don’t seem vain.”
She cupped her luscious breasts. “That’s the secret. Trust me, when Ruby and Pearl droop I’m getting those taken care of.”
Groaning he ran his thumb over one dusky nipple, and watched her body shudder. “They are a national treasure.”
“Thank you, but you have to promise not to say anything. It will ruin my rep and it’s easier to work with the boys if they don’t think I’m very girly.”
“Until I saw your apartment I wasn’t sure you had a girly side. Its sexy that you hide it.”
“When I met you I had no idea that you would enjoy the combat training. I thought you wouldn’t take me seriously. Oh wait you kept trying to seduce me.”
He let his hand meander down her stomach to the apex of her thighs. “Nothing about you is easy.”
“Should it be?”
“You give me your body, but there is a part of you I can’t touch.” He slipped his fingers between her supple thighs.
“Do you want to?”
The answer scared him. “Yes.”
Her voice was low and husky. “Why?”
“There is something mysterious about you and I want to find the answer.”
“I’m an ordinary woman.”
“There is nothing ordinary about you.” That wasn’t a line. Something about her had him coming back for more.
“Is it me or the challenge?”
“I’m intrigued by you. You only let me see so much.”
“Let’s be real, I’m not your type. If I allowed you to have a rotating line up of women, you would have never bothered with me.”
“You’re selling us both short.”
“Do you have expectations?”
His stomach tightened as she caressed his skin above his pants. “I want to keep sleeping with you.”
“Do you think you’re going to want to once your stalker is caught?”
Hell yeah, he thought. “I’m going to be in town for at least a year.”
“There a lot of beautiful women in this city, who would kill for a night in Declan Shaw’s bed.”
“Don’t think you can compete?”
“The real question is do I want to?”
She didn’t have to. She had all his attention. “Do you?”
“One of the most important lessons you learn as a solider is to live in the moment. I still haven’t learned that one. I’m a planner.”
Declan wasn’t sure how to take that. “Am I just a moment?”
Jane slipped her hand around his head and brought it to hers. “But what a moment it is.”
He smiled. “I can live with that … for the moment.”
“Take your pants off and we can have another moment.”
JANE KNEW SHE WAS DREAMING. The bedroom smelled of clean linen. It had rained in L.A. earlier that day and the smog had cleared. Her eyes had adjusted to the lights while she’d been waiting for two hours. What surprised her most was that she wasn’t nervous. She’d waited for this day since she was six years old. She could avenge her mother’s death. But that wasn’t why she was here in her grandfather’s Los Angeles home. She was acting as an agent of her government. She was there to assassinate an enemy of her country. A man who funded the death of American soldiers with his treachery. The fact that he’d killed her mother didn’t matter to her government. Hell they’d covered it when her grandfather had been their lapdog.
The door opened and she watched the old man shuffle to the bathroom. He took a few minutes and came out in his silk pajamas. He was so sure he was safe and secure in his house he didn’t have bodyguards. Not a bad tactic for a traitor. He got into the bed, and within minutes he was asleep. She heard his even breathing. She got up and moved to the bed and sat at the end of the bed, and nudging his foot. Bedcovers rustled and he fumbled for the lamp on the night table and turned it on. He stared at her for a second and she saw the fear in his eyes.
“Yasmeen?”
She shook her head. “Hello Grandfather.”
“You look just like her.”
“I know.”
“What do you want?”
She leaned back on her hand. “A conversation.”
“Is that all?”
He knew why she was here. She could see it in his dark eyes. Good, she’d hoped she wouldn’t have to fight him. “Why did you murder her?”
“She dishonored her family.”
“You divorced her mother and sent them to Paris. Did anyone remember you had a daughter to dishonor your family?”
He folded his hands over his lap and sounded so righteous. “She was to marry a powerful ally.”
“I see.”
“Were you raised by your corrupt father?”
Fox Elliot didn’t even know she existed. “No. I was adopted by an American family.”
“No better.”
“They raised me well, with honor, with respect for my country, for God.”
“You are Christian?” There was anger on his face.
“Yes, but I’ve read the Quran.”
“Your Arabic is passable,” he scoffed.
She knew he was lying, if her Arabic hadn’t been perfect she would have never been able to catch him. “Do you know the Quran said it is wrong to kill women and children?”
“If I had more time I would have killed you.”
Amazingly enough, she’d felt nothing. He was evil, to him her death would have be nothing. “You dishonored Allah.”
“What do you know?” He spit at her. “You dishonor Allah with your American ways”
She wiped it off her cheek and onto the bed covers. “I know that Allah is forgiveness. He is mercy. He is compassion.” Although she wasn’t raised Muslim she respected the faith. Addy and Pete had taught her to be tolerant.
“You are a woman, you know nothing.”
“I’ve come for two reasons.” She smiled. “I wanted you to know I forgive you for taking my mother away from me. I can show mercy.”
His dark eyes widened. For a moment he didn’t seem so frightened. “You aren’t going to murder me?”
She shrugged. “I’m still going to kill you. My government has no forgiveness for people who betray them.” She grabbed a pillow and held it over his face. They didn’t want it to look like natural causes. She didn’t have to wait long. He was an old man in bad health and she felt him slip into unconsciousness. She walked to her bag and took out an opened pack of his favorite cigarettes and pulled one out. Then she put the pack on the night table next to an onyx ashtray and matching lighter. She took out a pack of matches and lit the cigarette and inhaled. The smoke burned her throat, but she didn’t cough. She let the cigarette burn then put it in his right hand. If he didn’t insist on sheets from Takar they would have been flame retardant. Quickly a fire started. She waited until the bed was engulfed in flames then Jane hurried out of the house and slipped through a side gate. She strolled leisurely over the next three blocks not really thinking. She saw the car and quickly got into the passenger side.
Mick started the engine. “You okay?”
She took his Styrofoam coffee cup out of the cup holder and rolled down the window and dumped the coffee out. Then threw up in the cup. “I will be.”
Jane sat up in the bed. Her body covered in sweat. She was glad Declan had left and Mick had given her the day off.
DECLAN STOOD OUTSIDE of the high end baby store with sweaty palms. A bright blue crib and high chair was on display in the window. A six foot teddy bear with a blue ribbon around its neck was inside the crib.
“She’s made a decision.” Malcolm stood next to him. He’d come with Mick to see how Jane was, but Declan had been dressed and waiting for him behind the bar.
“Not yet.”
Mick joined them. “Is there something we need to talk about?”
Declan didn’t look at him. “Are you her dad?”
“I’m her friend. I gotta know if I have to disappoint your stalker by killing you myself.”
Declan stuck his hands in his jeans pockets. “Take a number.”
Mick rubbed his forehead. “Is she or are you planning on poking holes in the condoms?”
“She is. FYI, I wore my raincoat every time.”
Mick let out a long breath. “What is she going to do?”
Hell if he knew. He was just doing what he thought he was supposed to. Which consisted of not much. “She told me she didn’t know.”
“That’s usually Jane for yes, but maybe I shouldn’t be telling you this.”
“I’m invested.”
“How much?”
He felt Mick’s attitude change. “I’m changing my will I’m going to look at real estate.”
“Does she know?”
“Nope. I haven’t talked to her about it.”
“Why?”
“She’s still a tad hostile.”
Mick nodded. “That’s how she rolls.”
“You’re being very friendly about this.”
Mick gripped his shoulder. “Wait until you have to deal with her dad. I’m going to get a front row seat.”
“Thanks.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Let’s do this.”
“Why didn’t you tell me, I would have…” Malcolm pulled on his Black Flag t-shirt. “Worn a suit.”
“There is store call Rock Baby we’ll stop by there later and get some leather diapers.”
Malcolm snorted. “For you or the baby?”
“That’s just wrong.” Declan took a deep breath and headed into the store. When he found himself surround by cheerful baby clothes and furniture and he started shaking.
“Gentlemen how are you? I’m Bethany, how can I help you today?” A tall elegant blonde approached them.
“We’re just looking.”
“Of course.” Her smile widened. “If I may, when are the two of you expecting?”
Expecting what? “What?”
Her smile grew as she looked at them like they were idiots. “Are you adopting or inseminating?”
“Ahhhh.”
She nodded her blonde head. “Adopting? Out of state or out of the country?”
“I don’t understand.”
She poked her bottom lip out. “Louisiana is a red state. Things are still uptight and judgmental in our neck of the woods.”
“I can’t adopt here?”
“Sugar, this isn’t California.” Her eyes widened. “Oh you haven’t gotten a baby yet.” She sighed. “So we’re in the planning stages.”
Then it hit Declan she thought he and Malcolm were a couple. She had no idea who they were. Which was good because this could be on the internet in five minutes. “Sure.”
“Do you want a boy or a girl?”
Malcolm slipped his arm through Declan’s and leaned his head on Declan’s shoulder playing along. “We just want happy, and healthy.”
There was approval in her brown eyes. “Good for you. So many people adopt babies like they’re shopping for a car.” She crooked her finger. “Let me show you some of our unisex collection.”
Malcolm sighed. “Thank you for not judging.”
She waved her hand. “Sugar, I only judge if you have bad credit and I can tell you two are fine.”
“How can you tell?”
“Gucci.” She pointed to Declan’s gray short sleeve t- shirt. “Dsquared2 jeans and those divine John Varvatos motorcycle boots. You’re delicious.” She smiled again and pointed at Malcolm. “Your retro punk ensemble may scream I don’t care, but those cargo pants are scrumptious on you. I’m loving the Black Flag concert shirt. Vintage?
Malcolm nodded with a big dopey grin on his face. “Of course.”
Declan wanted to smack him. He was having way too much fun at his expense.
Bethany giggled. “We’re going to have so much fun outfitting your bundle of joy when they arrive.”
Malcolm clapped his hands. “Let’s do some damage to his credit card.”
Declan hated Malcolm today.