A short one, but hopefullyI'm going to update again tomorrow!
Kartia - I'm actually english, I just adopt American idiosyncrasies when writting JE because she, and steph, are american! Sometimes I slip up though! Thanks again! :-)
Please comment! Feedback is greatly appreciated!
Chapter 21I dialled mom's number with trepidation. But, to my surprise, my mom decided to forgo the lectures about changing my job, instead she quietly asked if I was ok. I told her that I was holding up just fine, and explained that I was staying with Ric. My mom simply told me to bring him over for dinner again some time. I promised I would, and that was that.
Phew.
I spent the rest of the morning at the gym and in the pool. I love swimming. I love the way your arms cut through the water and propel you forward, and I love the way the water feels against your body. I climbed out of the water after a couple of hundred laps; feeling energised and revitalised. It was a huge pool, and it was testament to my physical fitness that I could swim so many laps and feel so good. Thanks Bro.
Now I had a choice. Shower or Jacuzzi. Hmm.
I climbed into the Jacuzzi and smiled as the hot water bubbled up and surrounded me. I slid further into the heat and tilted my head back. Heaven.
I heard the door click and I opened my eyes lazily to see who it was.
Ric.
In swimming trunks. Yum.
He gave me a warm smile and climbed in next to me. He wrapped his arms around me and put my back to his front. He rested his head on my shoulder and sighed softly in contentment, I felt the tension drain out of him like a switch had been flicked.
We stayed like that for half an hour or so, and then, with a kiss, Ric was gone. I scrambled out of the Jacuzzi and went to shower.
I ate lunch with Bear and then trundled off to the cop shop to sign my statement. Joe wasn't there; I wasn't sure how I felt about that. A bit relieved, and so a bit guilty, but also a bit worried he was avoiding me. I didn't want things to be awkward between us, we'd both said and done things that we regretted – I just hoped our friendship could survive it. Joe wasn't a bad man; he just wasn't the one for me.
As if he knew my thoughts, Bear laid a comforting hand on my shoulder and I gave him a fast hug.
We angled into Bear's Beemer and zoomed off home. We parked and I followed Bear back up to the security office, it was probably a good idea to familiarise myself with everything, right? Ok, Ok, so I was curious. Sue me.
I know I've teased Ric about 'the batcave' but honestly, that's what this place was like; there were computer and monitor screens everywhere. Little beeping noises were coming from somewhere and there was four men in black crowded around something. I inched closer to the back of the crowd, and so did Bear. Everyone was looking at one of the monitor screens. Ric and Tank were on it, from the surroundings I'd guess that they were in Ric's spare office. Both of their stances were angry.
'No.' Ric said. I was so startled I nearly jumped a mile, but that's when I noticed that the noise was coming from the screen – ah ha, the room was bugged.
Better remember that.
'You know we need her in on this one.' Tank stated.
'No.' Ric repeated. 'It's too dangerous.'
'We're running out of time! We've been working this case with the Feds for months. If we don't try and get it now, it'll be moved – and that'll be a couple of months work down the drain! Use your head, Ric, not your heart. She's an employee now, and a valuable one. You said it yourself; she's good. We need her tonight. It'll just be like any distraction job.'
I should have taken some vitamin supplements today; my brain's running a little bit behind. I only just realised they were talking about me.
'He's a murdering, raping, son of a bitch!' Ric argued.
'She'll have back up.'
'She's been through a lot lately, I don't want to ask her to do this.'
'For her, or for you? I saw the way you looked at that guy from Shellocs, Johnny. Man, green is not your color. You gotta get a handle on that jealousy, or you're not gonna be able to be her back up when she has distraction work.'
'Shut up.'
'We gonna ask her to help out or what?'
Ric sighed, 'I don't want to.'
'But we're gonna?'
'Yeah. We'll ask.'
Bear and I exchanged glances and snuck out the office, back the way we came. Bear and I went to the playroom. I quashed the urge to stand against a wall, looking at the ceiling and whistling. I might as well scream 'Ok, Ok, I did something bad! I spied on you!' Instead we started a game of pool. I was up by two balls when Ric and Tank came down.
'Can I talk to you Babe?'
'Sure. Here?'
'Our living room.' He replied. I nodded and Tank stole my cue so he could play.
'Which color are you?' Tank asked Bear. Bear gestured to the red. He was lying, but hey I wasn't gonna tell – It'd give Bear a slight up on Tank.
Ric and I walked to his living room in silence. I sat down on the couch and he sat next to me.
'I need to ask you two things.' Ric said.
Two? Well, I knew one of them.
'Hit me.' I replied.
His lips twitched up slightly at that, but the half smile died before it even had a chance – Ric's face was definitely sombre. With a deep breath, he started.
'Rangeman's been working on this case for a while. Peter Silvac. His parents disappeared when he was eighteen, and all their money went to him. The Feds think that he killed his parents for their money. But there was no evidence at the time. He's a real piece of work. He's a murderer, a rapist. Everything you can imagine, he's done it. But he always gets away with it.
'A few months back the Feds got some info that he's started into porn. At first they thought it was just S&M. But then he started mixing his drugs business with his porn business. Now he's selling films of people being tortured. He injects them with a drug he's developed, called X-2. X-2 induces agonising pain that leaves the victim screaming for hours. Several doses over time won't have any lasting effects, but too much in too short a time frame can induce a coma, and sometimes death.
'Last night we got word that he's planning on selling the formula for X-2 to a splinter terrorist group. He's selling it for $10million, but he only gets the money if the terrorists get all the copies of the formula. So, for the last few days Silvac's been stockpiling the drug, and in two days he's handing over the formula and all the copies.
'We know Silvac's going to a party tonight, and we know he always leaves his briefcase with the formula in his car. Rangeman's involvement has been building up to this. Obviously the Feds can't steal the formula, but if we did I expect the Feds might look the other way, and I expect that if the formulas managed to get to one of the Feds desks, some money would find it's way into the Rangeman accounts. Morally right, legally grey. So, question one: would you be willing to distract him while we extract the formula? Believe me, I don't want to ask you to do this, especially after the head thing. And it's perfectly ok to say no.'
'I'll do it. One question though, why does he leave it in his car?!'
'He's got a custom made car. It's rigged to explode if you don't type in the right code within a few seconds of opening the car. You sure you're up for this?'
'Yeah, but what's to stop the car going kaboom?'
'Nick's been hacking into Silvac's security, we know the code.'
'Ok, so what's question two?'
'Oh. It's more mundane. My ex-wife and her husband are going away for their anniversary and she wants to know if Alysha can come here?'
'Are you asking me if it's ok for your daughter you hardly get to see comes to visit?'
'Yeah. Would you like to meet her?'
'Of course I would!' I stopped myself from saying 'she's adorable!' but only just.
'So, it's ok with you?'
'Yes, but you don't need my permission!'
'I know that, but I want us to start making decisions together, and besides, you're living here too at the moment, so it affects you.'
'Thank you for asking,' I said. 'Even though you didn't have to.' I leaned over and kissed his lips lightly. They curved up, and this time the half smile didn't die.
