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Chapter 24
Jesse stepped out of the shower in the bathroom he shared with Brennan. The shower had refreshed him somewhat, and it felt good to be clean. Grabbing a couple of towels out of the cupboard, he dried himself and wrapped one around his waist. He started to use the other to dry his hair but put it away instead when he remembered that his hair was still short. He hadn't yet gotten out of the habit. He stepped out of the bathroom and into his bedroom, where he stopped short.
Lexa was sitting, legs folded beneath her, on his bed. She was in her pajamas – matching black silk top and bottoms – and her hair was wet from a recent shower. When Jesse gave her a questioning look, she simply said, "I've gotten used to having you around."
"Bull. You just don't like sleeping alone," he retorted, only half joking.
"True. But that doesn't mean I can't be picky about who I sleep with."
Jesse snorted, remembering the time she had gone ahead and been with what's-his-name, the thief. That one had hurt, even though they hadn't been together at the time. "I'm sure."
"Okay, so I haven't been especially picky in the past. But all of the sudden, I find myself really picky. So picky, in fact, that I can't imagine sleeping with anyone else. Ever again."
Jesse chuckled nervously as the double meanings started to get to him. Lexa moved off the bed and towards him. "Lexa," he said, watching her hand as it touched his bare chest and trailed down, across his abdomen. He reached out to still her meanderings, placing his own hand over hers. "Are you sure about this? I don't want to you to get scared and run off. I think you can be happy here and I don't want to ruin that for you."
"It wouldn't." She leaned her head in, moving in to taste his mouth again. A taste that she had found unique and delightfully addictive.
"You're sure? Because I really like you here, with me, with us. I'd rather have you here, and us not be together, than for us to be together once or twice and then you leave."
"I want us to be together, Jesse."
"I won't take a one or two-night stand, Lex. I'm a relationship kind of guy. You're positive you want to do this?" He could already feel his body responding to hers. It would be hell to pull away, and it would mean another shower, but he could do it if he had to.
Lexa leaned her head back and looked directly into Jesse's eyes. She placed her hands on either side of his face, making sure that he could see and hear everything she was trying to convey. "I told you that I loved you. That doesn't happen to just anyone. It took me a long time for me to put words to what I feel for you, but I did. And now that I have, I don't want it to go away, ever. I want to be with you Jesse, for as long as you'll have me."
Jesse finally let himself believe. "Then you better get used to forever, because that's how long I will want you."
There was a smile on Lexa's lips when Jesse's mouth came down on hers. It didn't take too long for it to disappear, though. Under Jesse's ministrations, her body seemed to loose all feeling. It was all she could do to keep up with him, and she was grateful for his strong arm, which had reached around her back.
When he came up for air, Lexa let out the exclamation, "Wow. You are really good at that."
He chuckled. "I'm really good at a lot of other things." His eyes motioned downward.
Lexa glanced down to see that, while he had been kissing her, he had also been unbuttoning her top. She hadn't even noticed. Playfully, she ran her hand around his waist, grasping the towel there and then ripping it off. Jesse flinched, but otherwise gave no indication that he had noticed. "Feel better? Did that even the score?" he asked, bending his head to nibble at her neck.
She dropped the towel to the floor. "Yeah. I feel better." She gave him a sly, satisfied grin. "What else are you good at?"
Jesse
grinned back. "Just let me show you." He kissed her, moving forward,
pushing her toward his bed. He spent the next few hours showing her all
the things he was good at. Afterwards, he took another shower, this
time with her, and she showed him some of the things she was good at.
.
.
The next morning, Jesse and Lexa were a little late meeting Shalimar and Jesse in the computer bay. Upon entering the room, Jesse moved over to Brennan, who was working at one of the terminals. "Find anything yet. Any ideas about whether we go to Charlottesville or Santa Rosa?"
"Not a thing. We just got here, and I started looking through that list that we got from Kellogg's cousin, hoping that maybe something else would pop out at me. But so far, I've got squat."
Meanwhile, Shalimar, who had been at a second terminal doing something similar, moved over to stand beside Lexa. In a whisper, she taunted the taller woman, "I can smell Jesse all over you."
Lexa squirmed, not quite sure what to say.
Shalimar chuckled softly. "Relax. I'm just teasing. But you'd better take care of him."
"Oh, I will. I'm not going anywhere. I love him."
Lexa startled herself with the whispered declaration, which left a slightly stunned expression on Shalimar's face.
"Hey, you two. What are you talking about?"
Shalimar looked back over to the boys when she heard Brennan's voice. While she was stunned at what Lexa had just admitted, and the fact that she had admitted it, she was happy about it. "Nothing. You find anything, Jess?"
"The only thing that seems a little strange is the order for dehumidifiers. I can't figure out why they're on the list. I know it's got to be important, but I can't figure out why.
A small buzzer sounded throughout the room. Brennan, recognizing the sound, checked the security cameras and saw Katie at the entrance, ever-present briefcase legal papers in hand. He hit the button for the speaker. "What's up, Kat? Is the plumbing broken now, and you have to come over here to work?" he joked.
"Nope." Her voice was curt but excited. "But I found some things you guys might want to see."
"I'll go meet her at the door." Brennan hefted himself out of his chair and lumbered towards the entrance. A few moments later, he returned, carrying Katie's briefcase.
Jesse slung his arm around his sister's shoulders, giving her a hug. "So, what's so interesting that you decided to burrow your way underground to join us?"
"Well you're in a good mood!"
Jesse quickly removed his arm and blushed slightly. "So?"
Katie was delighted that she had managed to fluster her brother, but was confused as to why she had been able to. She looked over to Lexa, who also had a small flush in her cheeks. Ah. So that was why. She sighed inwardly. As much as she would to tease and congratulate her brother about his relationship with the raven-haired woman, there were more important matters at hand. The meeting I had with the family attorney turned up some very interesting stuff. He gave me a copy of Grandpa Lawrence's will as well as copies of all the legal documents that Noah had hastily drawn up two years ago."
Jesse looked confused. "We know what happened with those documents. Why are they so interesting? And when did you start calling him Noah?"
Katie harrumphed. "I started calling him Noah after I read these documents. You're lucky, Jesse. You stopped believing in him two years ago. Take a look at this." She pulled a packet of stapled papers out of the briefcase she had brought with her. She handed it to Jesse, and the others crowded around behind him to get a look. "It's a copy of Grandpa's will. Take a look at section B. It stipulates that upon his death, Kilmartin Enterprises, and all subsidiaries and related matters would be put in trust for you and me until we were 21. The mansion went to you. Mom got the house in Philadelphia and I got the vacation home in Martha's Vineyard. Noah didn't get a thing."
Brennan looked up from the will to Katie. "He must have been pretty pissed about that when the will was read."
"But this doesn't make sense." Jesse glanced from Brennan to Katie as he spoke. "Mom and Noah told us that when Grandpa died he left everything to them."
"Well, we were both still underage at the time, and neither of us asked any questions. Now look at this one. Weeks before Grandpa died, the will's stipulations 'mysteriously' changed. This is the copy of the will that Board of Trustees at Kilmartin Enterprises was given. In this version, everything except the house in Philadelphia was willed to Noah. Now, a month before Grandpa died, his long-time lawyer died and Noah was 'helpful enough' to help him find a new one, a guy by the name of Phillip Mason. Both wills are dated three months before Lawrence's death. But this one –" she pointed to the first copy she handed him. "- was in a safety deposit box that Noah and the new lawyer didn't know about. Three months ago, Mason was brought up on charges of fraud, but got off on a technicality. Either way, the Board and I had already made the decision to fire him for incompetence. We hired a friend of mine, a 28-year-old Harvard Law graduate named David Yoltz, whom I met through a mutual friend years ago. He's been going through all the old records, but they're in an incredible mess, which is why it's been taking so long to get everything at K.E. straightened out. Last week, he found the records for the safety deposit box. Grandpa had left. In the event of his death, only you or me could access it as soon as we turned 18."
Jesse frowned. "I was with Mutant X by the time I was 18. That made me pretty untraceable. But what about you? Why didn't you find out about this when you turned 18?"
"I was away at college by then. Noah, mom and I weren't close. We were, well, estranged. I only came back when Noah suddenly handed over the reigns to me. But Jesse, even if you hadn't been with Mutant X when you turned 18 there was another reason why you wouldn't have been notified.
"What was that?" asked Shalimar.
Katie reached into her briefcase. Withdrawing a single sheet of paper, she handed it to Jesse, who took it with his left hand while using his right to pass the two versions of the wills to Lexa. When he read what was on the paper, his jaw tightened and it looked like he wanted to tear the paper to pieces, or at least crumple it into a ball and toss it across the room.
Brennan tried to look over Lexa to see the paper in Jesse's hand. "What is it?"
Jesse thrust the document at Brennan. "It's my death certificate."
"What?!" Lexa and Shalimar both bent over the document.
Katie nodded. "It was dated about a year after you were sent to Genomex, Jesse. According to the legal world, you're dead, and have been for about 8 years. Had anyone, particularly a dedicated member of Grandpa's former staff, tried to look for you they would have come to a dead end. No pun intended."
Lexa looked from the certificate to Katie. "Jesus. I knew your guys' father was a nasty S.O.B. but I didn't think he go so far as to declare his own son dead just to keep the inheritance."
"Oh, Noah's a lot worse than that."
"How could he be worse?" Shalimar said begrudgingly.
Once again, Katie reached into her briefcase. This time she pulled out a manila envelope full of papers and tossed them onto the countertop. "Take a look. These are Noah's personal documents. He kept them in his own private safety deposit box at a small independent bank. I guess when he turned over K.E. and Power of Attorney to me, he didn't realize that it would mean that I would have access to everything of his. He never did think about the ramifications of his actions."
Brennan, Shalimar and Lexa began to paw through the documents on the table. Jesse simply stood there, hands on his hips. His was shaking his head softly and obviously trying to control his anger. "Give me the simple version. What's in this paperwork?"
Katie sighed. "There're some records of his communication with Genomex. He was apparently under the assumption that the 'tests' Genomex was administering were going to kill you. All he asked of that company was that they notify him of your death. When it got closer to your 18th birthday and they still hadn't sent word of your death, he got them to sign off on the false death certificate. It worked for both sides: Genomex got free control over you and Noah didn't have to worry about you challenging him for control of the company. There's also some information about his break with the Keary's company, ZDT. He was actually glad you broke things off with Alisha because a union between the companies would create questions that he wouldn't be able to answer."
Jesse still said nothing. Lexa moved over to him and took his hand in hers. He gripped it tightly, comforted by her presence. Though his family today no longer included Noah Kilmartin, it still hurt that the man who was his father had done such things.
"What's this?" Shalimar's tone was pressing as she held up a packet of papers held together precariously with a binder clip.
Katie took the papers from her and flipped through them. "This was one thing I didn't really recognize. It's a bunch of records for some company called Desis Microchip Supply. It's not part of Kilmartin Enterprises. Apparently, Noah was gathering information on that company, but he also worked for them. From what I can tell, he's still working for them, as a security consultant. But I can't figure out why, or why he gave up control over K.E. I didn't get much information on Desis either. It's just some dinky startup company in Charlottesville, Virginia."
Brennan, Jesse and Lexa looked up sharply at the mention of the city's name. Shalimar had seen the name on the documents, which is why she had pulled it out of the pile in the first place. Jesse quickly, but respectfully, took the papers from Katie. Lexa leaned over his shoulder and they scanned the information.
"Chien-Tan Wu. I recognize that name. He's one of the council members. Holly Jacobs. She worked in the lab at Dominion HQ. I saw her name at one of the stations when I downloaded the virus. I recognize more than half the names on here as people who work for the Dominion. This is too much of a coincidence."
This time Katie looked confused. "What's a coincidence?"
Jesse and Lexa moved each moved to a computer, tacitly working together to research of Desis Microchip Supply. Shalimar took it upon herself to resolve Katie's confusion and explained. "We've gotten some leads as to possible locations where they're keeping Adam. We've narrowed it down to two places. Charlottesville is one of them."
"And the information he gathered about the company…for blackmail maybe? You know, just in case."
"Bingo. That's my best guess, given what he did with Nexxogen."
Brennan moved around the counter to stand behind Jesse and Lexa. "Anything?"
"Yeah," Jesse slowly drawled. "Desis was set up years ago, but it's only recently become active."
"And look at the satellite images of the area. A month ago, there was a sudden increase in the population – there's more car traffic, rentals are up in the area, etc. Look at this. The thermal scan shows this dark spot. Charlottesville isn't that small; there can't be a space this size without some people on it. This area isn't a bog or anything. There's got to be something there that they're trying to hide." As she spoke, Lexa brought the images up on the larger screen behind her for the others to see.
Jesse slapped his hand against his forehead in a classic 'stupid me' gesture. "The multispectrum particle analyzers and the dehumidifiers. It all makes sense." He typed a few keystrokes, opening and searching through some files. "Aha. Adam's work needs the analyzers. That area of the U.S. is particularly humid. The analyzers need dry air to function properly."
"Add that to the surge in utilities that's been going through there lately...," Shalimar said, pointing to a chart on one of the screens.
"And we've got the location where they're keeping Adam."