Disclosure: Please see chapter 1 for the usual comments.
Author's note: This chapter and at least one other necessitate the change in rating. I hope all those who read it enjoy this as much as I did in writing it.
The things I do…
Chapter VII
By Callisto
The Renaissance Hotel
Pittsburgh, PA
Waking up had become a new experience altogether. She smiled with unspoken satisfaction as her body's minor aches reminded her of the physical exertions she had engaged in the night before. With gentle slowness, she brushed his tousled hair back and twined the dark, silky strands through her fingertips. The intimacy of her own actions still had the power to surprise and bemuse her. While the Centre had employed her, she would never have allowed herself the luxury of thinking of him in this manner. That moment on the island was an unexpected aberration, the only one since puberty had dawned on her life accompanied by raging hormones, which served to complicate matters. Her father, noticing the changes she was undergoing, immediately shipped her off to an all-girls boarding school as though the thought of raising her was something he was not only ill-equipped to handle but unwilling to even try. Her quietly budding infatuation with her old friend had mercifully gone unnoticed—except by the object of her desire. Her companion was apparently still asleep, the morning light creating shadows on his cheeks cast by his surprisingly long eyelashes. She smiled at him, staring at the stubble that sprouted on either side of his face during the night, charmed by the light flecks of gray that sneaked in making him look even more handsome.
Jarod remained quiet for a few minutes, feigning sleep so he could continue to enjoy the closeness of his companion and her subtle attempts to wake him. Without opening his eyes, he said abruptly, "If I'm indefatigable then I would say 'insatiable' would describe you best." He slowly ran his hand along the smooth and subtle musculature of her arm when he suddenly grabbed her shoulder firmly and rolled over on top of her. He stared directly into her eyes then kissed her fully on the mouth. Her reaction was to pull away quickly and stare at him with a wrinkled nose.
"Morning breath," she muttered softly to Jarod's answering laughter.
"Ummmm, you still taste good," he replied huskily as he turned his attentions to her exposed neck.
Smiling at his obvious enjoyment of her gentle reproach, her smile grew larger still when she confirmed her expectation of his early morning erection. A desire-filled chuckle was her response as she repositioned herself under him.
A couple hours later, Parker emerged from the bedroom freshly showered, wearing only underclothes. Almost a week had passed since she had escaped from the Centre to find her brothers and Jarod had arrived on the same day to 'rescue' her. A feeling of accomplishment permeated her being as she thought of the coup she had pulled off with Ethan's help. Keeping Alex out of the Centre's paws was something she had done for her now silent mother; rescuing Jarod's mother was something she had done for him alone. Margaret could no longer be used as a pawn to lure her eldest son into a Centre trap. Parker smiled lasciviously at the thought of her bedmate as she considered her own current selfishness. So far, he seemed content to spend entire days in her sole company and most of those hours sharing a bed. Knowing this exclusivity would soon end the second they returned home, she decided today would be slightly different. There were too many experiences she wanted to share with him, long talks to have with him while they caressed and commit to memory before she would be ready to let him go. That thought alone drove a shaft of steely coldness into her heart, so much so that she forcefully pushed it aside. She was determined to drag her horny man out of the hotel room for some fresh air, a nice restaurant meal and maybe, if their lust didn't get in the way, a walk through the shopping district.
Jarod stretched, scrubbed his hands across his face and looked around curiously. She had slipped out of the room unnoticed while he was busy responding to a hurried e-mail message from Angelo, who had reassured him that he remained unharmed and unsuspected by Raines and Lyle for his part in freeing Parker. Jarod searched through the Centre's database to see if anything new had been mentioned about either the assault on Lyle or the corporation's latest atrocity—Project Regeneration. He noticed that the timetable was still in place. Alex's urgency in finding the exact location of the Centre's next attack was contagious forcing him to complete the details of their own counterstrike ahead of schedule. As usual, Alex had only given him the bare details of what he suspected the Centre was up to but what he did say was enough to make Jarod share in his worry.
Shutting down the laptop, Jarod leaned back in his chair and stared out of the window as though suddenly absorbed in the view. She seemed almost unaffected by her captivity in the Centre which in itself spoke volumes. Most of her life, she experienced a large measure of freedom, for want of a better word, within the walls of that organization. Three weeks ago that had all been ripped away, violently and irrevocably. Jarod knew there must be psychological repercussions occurring within her, however she refused to speak of her two-week ordeal in any depth. Much to his surprise, Parker seemed to cling to him a bit more than she had previously and was more demonstrative with her affections. Jarod gladly accepted what she wanted to give but he was afraid that the duration of this display might be short-lived once she was forced to come to terms with her confinement by the Centre. He was facing an emotional conundrum; the love he felt for her was of a quality he had never experienced with any other woman and he wanted to make their relationship permanent but she was at a crossroads where before there was only a fork in the road, now she was facing a traffic circle of choices most of which were paths that would lead her away from him. Her severe reaction to the wreckage of her romantic past warned him to proceed with caution.
Jarod continued to stare out the window when he felt a pair of soft, muscular arms encircle his shoulders and the tender skin of his companion's face brush up against his sensitive, freshly shaven cheek. He exhaled a deep sigh as he enjoyed his lover's touch.
"A penny for your thoughts?" she asked quietly into his ear as she moved away to bite his lobe.
"I was thinking about you," he answered truthfully. Lightly grasping her arms to hold her in place he continued, "I wish you would talk to me about whatever Raines was doing to you. Nothing you could say would shock me or make me think less of you."
Sensing he wasn't going to let the subject drop, she decided on trying to make both of them more comfortable while she told him of Raines' experiments. "How about I tell you over breakfast? I ordered some bacon that isn't too badly burned, toast and a decent pot of coffee, join me?" She stood up straight, easing her wrists from his grasp. Jarod abruptly stood and turned to follow her.
"Hey, what are you doing with clothes on?" He demanded with evident disappointment in his voice.
Looking over her shoulder, she grinned at him and replied, "I've decided that we should go out and get some fresh air. Walk around a bit and enjoy the great outdoors. It'll do us both some good." A quick glance down at his body caused her grin to widen considerably. "I won't take no for an answer, no matter how much you tempt me," she said with a delighted chuckle.
He didn't need to follow her gaze to know what she was talking about. Returning her smile a bit sheepishly, he answered, "I can't help it. You've had that effect on me since we were kids."
Parker's reaction was a shocked half smile. "Really? Now this is something I definitely want to hear. Come on, before I start thinking up names for a certain overly active body part."
Once they had cleared the dishes away and Jarod had finished amusing Parker with the deeply flattering tale of his early adolescent crush, he waited patiently until she stopped joking about his revelations. Her light, playful teasing kept him from feeling she was maliciously making fun of him, that and her slightly reddened face told him that he wasn't the only one with those feelings so long ago. Noticing the serious expression on his face, Parker curbed her laughter and sat in a large comfortable chair in the living room.
"You want to know the tale of 'How I spent my last two weeks in the Centre'. To begin with, I went through what I imagine is the usual battery of tests. God, if I take another test in my life, it will be too soon," she said vehemently. "That bald Halloween horror put me through so many tests, I lost count. From physical endurance tests, to just about every stress test his twisted little mind could dream up. Every time he had me dragged into the sim lab, he would watch my face to see if I already knew what he was up to." Looking up at his expression of sympathy mixed with shared anger she continued, "the reason Death-breath didn't conduct any invasive physical tests, is because I anticipated him. Emil was bragging one day to Emily and Ethan about his prowess with a homemade chemistry kit, so much so that I decided to take him up on it. I asked him if he could make a serum, much like birth control that would not only fool my body but anyone administering a pregnancy test. I swore him to secrecy; so don't get on his case about it. I told him the truth—it was for my contingency plan. The kid is good, he came up to me with the completed serum in about a week, told me how to use it and how long it would last. I used it after my second physical endurance test. Somehow, I don't believe Raines ever suspected that it was Angelo who gave me the heads up."
"The serum worked then? Raines thought you were pregnant and left you alone?" Jarod asked incredulously.
"Yep. I also let it slip while under the influence of their latest truth inducing drug, that we had a brief fling shortly before I was caught, causing me to feel obligated to helping you in any way I could as an explanation of why I had gotten your mother away from the Centre's watchdogs."
"So he thinks you're pregnant with my child? They'll turn up the heat on us trying to get you back," Jarod said thoughtfully as he paced around the room in his boxer shorts.
Watching him pace, while picturing him without the shorts, Parker shook herself mentally and answered, "Well, not exactly."
Jarod stopped abruptly and stared at her. She smiled at him with a raised eyebrow and answered quickly as the tantalizingly naked image of him rooted itself firmly in her mind. "According to Emil's estimate, the serum wore off shortly before I escaped and was out of my system when the last round of blood tests were taken—the day before I left."
"So by now they are aware that you're no longer pregnant or never were—clever," he replied with admiration. He stood before her, hands on his hips. The dark boxer shorts were in stark contrast to his pale, muscle-defined, rawboned body.
"Ah, perhaps we can take that walk tomorrow?" she asked hesitantly with a lasciviously inviting smile.
Sanger residence
Suburban Pittsburgh, PA
The interior was dark and close despite the spaciousness of the home. Little to no light was able to pierce through the staunch sentries of curtained windows. In retrospect, he would recall an air of malevolence and violence permeating the upscale suburban home. As though beckoned by an unseen force, the two men noiselessly weaved through the traffic of expensively tasteful furniture, down a hallway and stopping at a bedroom door. He noticed his usually darkly enthusiastic companion seemed equally affected by the air of putrid air of fear induced pleasure oozing from the charged atmosphere. The door was eased open quietly and they braced themselves defensively. Instead, they were greeted by a heavy silence, complete and enveloping except for a soft, wetly intermittent burbling noise. The view from their night-vision goggles was something out of a psychotic's nightmare. Wet spatter was smeared in generous splotches on the wall above the bed. Pools of wet soaked the carpet in pools which continued to spread by the consistent contribution of fluids which dripped lazily from the mattress.
Alex entered the room stepping gingerly around the quickly expanding puddle and yanked the coverlet back exposing the hidden devastation. Horror gripped Jarod's mind as he took in the scene. Suddenly he rushed to the opposite side of the bed and the source of the burbling. Gently, with practiced movements, his gloved hands cupped the waxy, pale face of the dying woman. His fingers automatically checked for her pulse and found it weak and thready. Pushing the goggles from his eyes, he stared with saddened sympathy into the frightened, pleading eyes of the woman who was mutely asking for comfort and help. Without hesitation, Jarod murmured a prayer for the dead in Spanish for the forgiveness of any sins. A curious understanding flooded the woman's face, as calmness engulfed her eyes and with a final effort, she stared fiercely into Jarod's eyes, found what she was looking for and blinking her thanks she suddenly relaxed and succumbed to death.
While Jarod was praying for the spirit of the dying woman, Alex took out a small digital video camera from one of his numerous combat vest pockets and meticulously filmed every inch of the room, including the spatter and pools of blood. When the filming was done, Alex waited in grim silence as Jarod gingerly examined the dead woman's body and gave a much more cursory exam of the male body next to her. Straightening, Jarod looked down at the now peaceful face of the woman, unable to fully comprehend the pain and anguish she had been put through by the thoroughly debased mind that perpetrated this crime against her. Alex observed the wounds with far more detachment, having a better appreciation for the sick genius who was responsible for this horror. Jarod replaced the coverlet, finally shutting off the penlight he used for the exam and turned to his companion. With an almost imperceptible nod, he followed Alex from the room and towards their exit. Neither had left a trace of their visit as they retraced their steps. It was the small thud which caught their attention. Both men stopped in unison and without needing to look or consult each other, padded silently into the kitchen. Nothing appeared to have been disturbed here. The kitchen was large and well laid out giving the impression of being the hub of a busy household. Without turning on any lights, the men split up and started looking in the cabinets cautiously. Jarod was the one who found him curled up in a tight contortionist's ball, a small boy trying to make himself invisible in a lower cabinet. The child's eyes were wide and staring, his body rigid with fear. Carefully removing the cookware that surrounded the boy, Jarod swiftly reached in and pulled him out. Alex took a moment to stare at their find before stooping and returning the pots and pans to their place. The two pretenders stared at the child for another long moment before securing the boy and leaving.
The observer waited patiently in a side yard across the street from the target house. Control was oblivious to discomfort or boredom, only a strong commitment to perfection and devotion remained. The appearance of the two figures was a disturbing development—one that would have to be reported to the pathetically undisciplined project manager Control was obligated to inform. Anger flashed briefly in Control's eyes as the interlopers came into view. Before there was a chance to follow, the two figures disappeared as though they were nothing but a figment of the imagination. A soft huff of grudging respect escaped the Control's lips and much like the two figures, the other stealthfully retreated from the perch and started the long trek towards the rendezvous point.