January 2007

Claudia offered a smile to Milo before walking into Jason's office.

"Where's your guard?"

"Logan's right outside."

"He got here five minutes ago. Where's Zander?"

"On his way to meet my father."

"By whose order? He was with you when you left this morning." Claudia was sleeping with Zander, and for the most part he didn't care. What she did in the bedroom was her business, but what he did care about was that she didn't ditch her guards.

"Monitoring my safety?" Claudia asked, sweetly smiling. "I'm touched, but it's none of your concern."

"No, it is my concern. It's my job to keep you alive." The Zacchara guards were good at their jobs and as long as their enemies, both his and hers, remained at bay they could guard her. But the moment the danger escalated or if they entered a war, her guards were being replaced with his. If the stakes were high, he didn't trust anyone other than himself to keep her safe.

Their arrangement worked out exactly they wanted. Not only did their union keep Alcazar and Faith from starting a war, Claudia was able to carve out her own business ventures separate from her father, both with and without him. Some of the activities fell more into her jurisdiction than his, but he let her run it and they shared the profits.

Most married couples exchanged gifts on holidays and anniversaries and they were no exception. Instead of sentimental gifts they exchanged property. For their first wedding anniversary, he'd given her the deed to an old warehouse on the far end of the waterfront and she'd given him a pier adjacent to his warehouse that she managed to buy from Faith. After the fact Claudia realized they'd exchanged the traditional gift of paper and told him they had to do it every year.

"So what you're telling me is that you care?"

Jason shook his head, knowing that Claudia would keep asking him until he admitted it. He'd learned early on that it was sometimes to agree with her instead of avoiding an answer. "Yeah."

Claudia smiled at the admission then shifted topics, "Why am I here?"

"Aside from meeting up with your guard?"

"I'm handling it."

"Make sure it doesn't happen again. If Zander - " Jason paused, he and Claudia never really talked about who they were sleeping with. She'd told him once that she'd rather not know. That even though they weren't sleeping together and she was sleeping with someone else, it would bother her to know who was sleeping with her husband. With the exception of Zander, he didn't know who else had shared Claudia's bed. The only reason he knew about Zander was that he saw the way Zander's touch lingered when he was helping Claudia with her coat or how his hand brushed her arm when he opened the door. The simple fact that Claudia didn't have a reaction to it, told him what he needed to know. "If Zander can't do his job, you need to find someone who can."

"That's why Logan is outside the door. Now tell me why I'm here before I leave."

"Justus drew up a new retainer agreement." He handed her the document. "There's a clause in there that if we're on opposite sides of a case, he'll be representing me and not you. Since we're both paying his retainer, you'll receive a prorated sum if he represents me."

"That's fine," Claudia said, scanning the document. "Mind if I keep this for now?"

"Go ahead."

"Are we done?" Claudia asked, glancing at her watch.

"Almost. James Craig approached me about helping him with a shipment. He wasn't specific but he wants me to guarantee the arrival of something. He also said he approached you and you turned him down."

"I don't like him."

"Why?"

"I don't trust him."

"Anything specific or just a feeling?"

"Instinct. I have a file on him at my office, I can have Zander bring it over. If you work with him, watch your back."

"Can you bring the file home tonight? I have a meeting with him in a few minutes. He should be here now."

"I can do that."

"I'll walk you out." He stood, and led her out of his office into the coffeehouse. "Don't ditch your guard."

Claudia groaned, "How is it ditching him if he takes orders from me?"

"He's not supposed to leave you alone."

"That's a double-standard. We both know that my shot is as good as yours, if not better."

Jason laughed softly, "You wish."

"Last time we went to the shooting range - whose target had more holes in it? Mine," Claudia proclaimed, the pride evident in her voice.

"My gun wasn't fully loaded." Claudia was an excellent shot, he had to give her that. She told him once that she'd been going to the shooting range since she was twelve. Before John was born, her father wanted to groom his daughter to take over. But once he had a son to turn everything over to, regardless of John's disinterest, Claudia got pushed aside and she was merely keeping John's place - to quote her father.

"Excuses," Claudia said, laughing.

"Just go."

"Bye." She turned away and nearly ran into James Craig.

"Mrs. Morgan," James said, his voice saccharine sweet. "Mr. Morgan."

"Mrs. Zacchara-Morgan."

Jason watched their exchange with interest. Claudia changed her name when they got married, but she rarely if ever used Morgan unless it suited her purposes. But right now, her purposes were to remind James Craig that she wasn't just Jason's wife, she was Claudia Zacchara.

"Mrs. Zacchara -Morgan," James said, reaching out for her hand. He made a move to kiss the back of her hand but Claudia pulled away. "It's a pleasure to see you again."

Claudia glanced at him for a second then turned back to Jason, kissing his cheek, "I'll see you at home. John's coming over for dinner."

"I'll be late - start without me." He had no intention of coming home for dinner, and Claudia knew it. She was just reminding him that their shipment was tonight and informing James Craig that even though they ran separate organizations, she had more influence over him than he ever would. Claudia nodded, offered a small wave and left.

James turned to watch Claudia walk out of the coffeehouse then followed Jason into his office, "Your wife is a beautiful woman."

"Don't talk about my wife. What do you want me to help you out with?"

"I have a shipment coming in - the contents are rather delicate and I need your guarantee of a safe arrival."

"My wife turned you down." Aside from a few joint ventures, their operations were completely separate. The only exceptions were that they utilized each other's resources, Claudia often used his ground transport services and he used her shipping lanes. Just because one of them didn't want to work with another person didn't prohibit the other from partnering up. But Claudia's reluctance to work with Craig made him cautious. "Why not go to someone else?"

"I want a guarantee that my shipment arrives intact. You can give that to me, no one else can."

"I need specifics. I need to know what I'm moving."

"I assure you that it's nothing that violates your ethical code. But if you're uninterested, perhaps I could persuade your lovely wife to do business with me."

"Perhaps not," Jason said, narrowing his eyes at him. "For whatever reason, she doesn't want to do business with you and if you want to do business with me, you need to not talk about her."

"You're rather protective of the missus."

Claudia was right, there was something about this guy that didn't ring true. He wasn't sure what, but he definitely had an agenda. "Whatever you think you know about my marriage, you don't."

"Oh but I do," James said. "I know that the two of you got married to prevent a mob war, a brilliant strategy and it worked. I also know that your wife isn't faithful to you and for the right price - "

"You better choose your next words very carefully," Jason warned. He was well aware of the fact that Claudia wasn't faithful to him, he wasn't faithful to her either. James Craig was the only person who was stupid enough to mention it to his face. It was aggravating him but not for the reasons Craig thought. He didn't care that Claudia was unfaithful to him, what he cared about was that people respected their marriage and by implying his wife was a whore didn't respect either of them.

"Maybe you're not the right man for the job. I think I'll arrange another meeting with your wife. I'm positive that with some persuasion, we could work out those little details and come up with an agreement that works for both of us. I'd be more than happy to pay her for her time - "

Jason grabbed him and roughly shoved him towards the door. He pulled James back to him and lowered his voice so there was no mistaking his threat, "You look at my wife, you touch my wife - " Jason paused to pull his gun out and shove it under James' chin. "If you even think about contacting my wife - I'll blow your head off."

"Touché," James said. "Now about my shipment. I - "

"You'll need to find someone else to bring in your shipment. I'm not interested."

"Rest assured, you'll be well compensated for your troubles."

"I don't need your money. My wife doesn't need your money. You might try contacting Faith Rosco - she needs your money."