Enemy One (Epic Book 5) (22 page)

It became immediately apparent why a lookout was needed. As soon as the mocha-skinned Briton appeared, the whole of the shower room’s occupants turned in her direction. There was no attempt to mask their staring.

“This is why you’re here,” Esther said through her teeth, her lips showing no sign of movement. Reaching out for him, she wrapped her arm around his waist, wincing only somewhat when her hurt shoulder tugged him.

“C’mon,” said the Texan, easing her in. “Let’s find a stall somewhere away.”

As fortune had it, there was indeed a stall suitable for a woman to shower in. It was located at the very end of one of the rows and actually offset around a corner by itself—an oddity that simply followed the room’s natural architecture and ended up in a cove of sorts. It wasn’t
total
privacy—it was more like being seated in the corner booth of a restaurant—but it was better than being in the middle of everything. Just the same, it didn’t prevent the other occupants of the room from craning their necks to see where the exotic woman and the one-eyed cowboy had disappeared to.

As Esther stepped behind the curtain and pulled it shut, Jayden stood post just outside, leaning against the tile post that the curtain was connected to. Sliding his hands into his pockets, the Texan blew out a long, quiet sigh.

“Hey,” said Esther from behind the curtain.

Jayden quickly stood erect. “Yeah?”

“There’s no soap here. Or shampoo, or anything.”

Rubbing the back of his neck, Jayden answered, “Hang on, I’ll check some of the other stalls, see if someone forgot theirs.”

“Okay.”

Meandering around the corner and away from Esther’s stall, the Texan tuned his ears to pick out stalls that lacked any sounds of water splashing. There were several, and after a quick glance in each of them before they were claimed, he indeed came across a lone shampoo bottle left on one of their ledges. He returned to Esther’s stall, easing open the curtain just enough to pass the bottle inside. “No soap, but I found this.”

“I’ll make it work. You’re the best.”

“I try.”

She smiled. “I know.” There was a squeaking of rusty metal, followed by a cascade of water splashing against the floor. Jayden watched as Esther’s bare feet pressed against the side of the curtain. “God, that’s cold!” Several seconds of silence passed before she asked, “What was that sigh about?”

Angling his head, Jayden asked, “What sigh?”

“When I first stepped in here, I heard you sigh.” She quietly laughed. “I’m a scout, you know. It was all long and drawn out.”

His good eye growing distant, the Texan didn’t offer an answer. He simply continued staring at the floor.

On the other side of the curtain, Esther’s brown eyes narrowed. Though the water from the shower was now steaming with heat, she remained in place next to Jayden, separated only by the thin sheet of plastic. “Jay?”

At long last, he answered. “I don’t know. I guess I’m like…am I really your boyfriend now?”

A puzzled look came over her. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, with everything goin’ on. With what happened in
Cairo
, and now how we’re on the run. I guess I’m like, you know, can we still do this?” As if needing to correct himself, he said quickly, “I mean, I really, really want to. But…” His words trailed off.

Esther remained still. “But what?”

“Do you really like me enough to be with me through all this?”

Though he couldn’t see it, she shot a look at him from behind the curtain. “What in the world would possess you to ask me a question like that? Do you think I’m just playing with you like a toy?”

“No, no, no,” he said quickly, fidgeting against the tile. “I just worry that, you know, you’re not gonna feel like, or you’re not gonna have time, you know, to…whatever.”

“To whatever?” she asked with an arched eyebrow.

The Texan sighed again. “I don’t know what I’m tryin’ to say.” Looking down again, he kicked the corner gently with his boot. “I was just kinda excited.”

Very slowly, Esther’s smile crept out. “Excited about us?”

“Yeah…”

Her pupils dilating, Esther leaned her head close to the curtain. When no more words came from the other side, she rolled her eyes. “Keep talking!”

Jayden stood upright. “I just wish we’d done this sooner. Back at
Novosibirsk
, back when we had time to do everything. I feel like I finally got a girl who is…”

Once more, Esther leaned closer. Silence fell again. Her face fell deadpanned. “Seriously?” she mouthed silently to herself. “Jayden Timmons, finish your
sodding
sentences.”

Leaning back around the corner briefly, Jayden looked to see if anyone was paying them mind. With their being out of the crowd’s view for several minutes, focus had shifted away. Their privacy was intact. The Texan returned to the curtain. “A girl who is everything I ever wanted.”

Out of his view, Esther was motioning with her hands for him to continue. When he went on, she leaned back and mouthed, “Thank you!”

“She’s funny. She’s so smart. She’s drop-dead beautiful.”

Closing her eyes, the Briton smiled.

“She’s the kind of girl I never thought would take a likin’ to me.” As the world behind him faded away, his voice grew softer. “I don’t know what took me so long to see you like I see you now. It’s kind of like that whole thing with Varya had to happen so I could open my eyes and see what I really wanted. And it’s you.”

Eyes still shut, Esther drew in a breath.

“Also, you gettin’ drunk was a factor.”

At that, her eyes opened flatly. She gave the curtain a “Really?” look.

The Texan laughed a bit himself, then went on. “You know what I was thinkin’? You know how they always like to give couples nicknames, like mixin’ up their first names? I was thinkin’ with Jayden and Esther, they’d call us
Jester
.”

Dragging a hand down her face, she too managed a pitiful smile. “You are so hopeless.”

“What’d I do?”

“You were doing so well. You were romantic for two whole seconds. Then you talked about beer and named us
Jester
.”

Sighing, Jayden said, “Man, I’m sorry. I’m such a goober.”

“And then you said
goober
, which is another word that should never come up when you’re turning me on.”

A distinctive pause arose. “I was turnin’ you on?”

She
mm-hmm-ed
. “
Was
being the operative word.”

“Well hang on, I didn’t know that.”

“Obviously.”

His voice grew more determined. “Let me try again.”

Crossing her arms and smirking, Esther said, “I don’t know, Jay, you’ve steered pretty far off course.”

“Are you nekkid back there?”

Her eyes widened with a mixture of coyness and shock. “
Nekkid
…is what a toddler is.”

“Are you?”

“No, I haven’t undressed yet—” She barely had time to finish the statement before the curtain was pulled open. Inhaling, Esther was forced back into the shower, the water spraying against the back of her neck as Jayden stepped forward. “What are you doing?”

Closing the curtain behind them, Jayden turned to face her fully. The look in Esther’s eyes was part eagerness and part fear. It was fully tuned-in. With his cowboy hat still on his head, Jayden reached forward with his right hand, snaking his arm around her waist as she gazed in confusion. “C’mere,” he said quietly, pulling her against him as his left hand gently took hold of hers. Lifting it and holding it out, he maneuvered her into position. “Like this.”

It took several seconds of swaying for Esther to realize they were slow dancing. When it came to her, her brown eyes settled on him. For a moment, the scout became lost.

“Now this, I can do,” he said. Pressing her in against him, Jayden swayed her small body back and forth with as much freedom as the stall would permit. Though the water flowed warmly down Esther’s back, her gaze never wavered. It was solely on him.

“Can I tell you somethin’?” Jayden asked as he led her. Her silence begged
yes
. “You’re like a little dream. You come to me in the middle of the night, you bat them pretty lashes, then you take me with you. And now I’m here lookin’ at you, in that little soakin’ wet number, and I’m thinkin’ to myself,
dang
. If I never woke up, that’d be all right.”

Esther’s midsection tensed as Jayden’s natural progression inward guided the shower spray up her neck, to just under her hairline. Still, her brown eyes never moved.

The Texan stopped swaying. “You’re my little dream, Esther. I’m gonna hold onto you for as long as I can.” Dipping his cowboy hat forward, he angled his head close. “I’m gonna kiss you.”

Barely audibly behind a veil of trembling breathlessness, Esther whispered, “Okay.”

Jayden’s hand slid up the small of Esther’s back until his fingers slipped beneath the wet strands at the back of her scalp. Holding her there gently, he eased her in toward him. Esther’s eyes closed dizzily; she parted her lips.

There was nothing forceful about the caress that came when their lips touched. There was nothing roguish or brazen. The scout simply found herself eased backward, her head kept from the spray of the showerhead by the brim of the brown cowboy hat that sheltered her from the storm. Placing her hand against his chest, her dripping fingers traced the edge of his uniform. When he gently pulled his lips away, she asked him, “When did you become such a man?” Taking hold of the zipper at the top of his uniform, she slowly began pulling it down. When he placed his hand over hers, the motion stopped.

“Play nice, now,” he said.

“But I’m not nice.”

Beneath his black eye patch, the Texan smirked. “Not yet, you ain’t. But I’ll make a respectable woman out of ya.”

Esther arched an amused eyebrow.

Sliding her hand back into slow dancing position, Jayden said, “Best things come to those who wait.”

“Oh, you have
got
to be kidding me. Did you wait with Varya?”

“Maybe I did.”

Her eyes narrowed disbelievingly. “No, you didn’t.”

“Maybe I learned a lot with Varya,” said Jayden. “Maybe I learned there’s a time to rush in and a time to hold back.”

Angling her head just slightly, Esther said, “Maybe I don’t want to hold back.
Maybe
,” she said, dipping her head and peering into his good eye, “I just want you. Do you have a plan for that?”

The Texan didn’t answer her question. He simply let go of her hand, reached up, and picked his cowboy hat up and off his head. Esther’s shelter from the shower was gone. She held her breath and closed her eyes as the water hit her scalp, pressing her inverted bob down over her forehead. “Mm,” she said as liquid streamed down her face. “I see.” Before another word could be uttered, and much to the scout’s surprise, she felt Jayden’s hand as it cradled the back of her head. Opening her eyes abruptly, only to close them a moment later, she once again fell into his kiss, fighting to hold onto her breath as the Texan took it away. Then, as suddenly as they were there, Jayden’s lips were gone. Opening her eyes through the streams that trailed down, Esther watched as Jayden slowly backed away.

“We’ll get there,
señorita
,” the Texan said. He turned for the curtain. “Nice and slow.”

Throwing her hands up, Esther replied, “The bloody world is trying to kill us!”

“Welp,” he said, stepping out, then sliding the curtain back, “more incentive to survive. Now go wash that pretty hair of yours.”

Setting one hand on her hip and the other on her forehead, Esther shook her head. “I have finally met someone more mystifying than me.” Leaning her head back to let the water hit her face, she leveled it again then smoothed her hair back with both hands. “Señorita,” she whispered mockingly. “Since when do
you
say señorita?” Stepping out from under the water, she snatched the bottle of shampoo.

Sunday, March 18
^th
, 0012 NE

0718 hours

Norilsk, Russia

BY THE TIME 0700 rolled around, the whole of the Fourteenth had awoken, showered, and donned their borrowed Nightman uniforms—including Esther, who’d managed to find one small enough to fit into, finally allowing her to rid herself of the black maxi dress that had ushered in catastrophe in
Cairo
. Just the same, the pearl necklace and earrings were put back in place in an effort to look at least
somewhat
classy, and the scout’s hair, though damp, was as close to resembling a messy inverted bob as it was going to get in the space and time allowed. As for the men, looks mattered little. They were simply pleased to have slept and gotten clean.

Despite the much needed freshening up, breakfast was a somber affair, with the members of the Fourteenth sitting dispersed in the small eating area, either alone or in small groupings. Just the same, it allowed them the opportunity to observe the occupants of
Northern Forge
at close range—and it was there that the biggest surprise came.

Few of
Northern Forge
’s occupants were Nightman. On the contrary, most of them seemed to be civilians. There were metal workers, custodians, even a line chef. To be sure, there
were
some Nightmen present, but they were vastly outnumbered by grizzled, blue-collar workers. The question this prompted was obvious: where had they come from? Thanks to eavesdropping on the part of Boris, the Fourteenth got an answer.

The workers came from the city. More specifically, they came from an underground tram system that ran from Norilsk to
Northern Forge
, straight beneath the mountain itself. The tram system must have been in the original concept for the Soviet facility. It made sense. There was no feasible way that
Northern Forge
could exist with total self-sufficiency. Food, drink, supplies, these all needed to come from somewhere, and flying in and out of a mountainside hangar wasn’t exactly the most efficient means of running to the store. This was good news. It meant the Fourteenth wasn’t trapped inside the mountain. They could escape to the city through the tram system if the need ever arose.