The Gentlewoman (19 page)

“Ever the concerned roommate that she was.”

“Yes. So the firefighters radioed to the ones inside saying
that she was potentially still in there. They went floor to floor looking for
her.”

Jackson was in total suspense, looking between the women,
anxious to hear what happened.

“Ten minutes later we were all worried and really starting
to get upset that there was no word from inside the building. I turned my head
to look around when the front door of the dorm burst open and instead of the
firefighters we expected to see exiting the building, one very naked Rory
Morgan ran as fast as she could out the door, across the lawn, up the hill and
disappeared into the neighboring dorm!”

Jackson gasped and let out a shocked laugh, his mouth
hanging open in astonishment.

Jim was laughing and adding commentary where he felt it
necessary. “I was in the crowd. It took everybody a minute to realize what they
were seeing. It was hilarious!”

Rory narrowed her eyes threateningly at him. “I have shit on
you too, James. Don’t push it.”

Jackson was aghast. “No towel? You couldn’t grab something?”

Rory filled in the rest sarcastically. “No, Jackson, I
couldn’t. You see, when the doors of those rooms were slammed shut they all
automatically locked. At least all the ones I tried as I ducked and weaved to
stay away from the firefighters patrolling the floors while I was parading
around in my birthday suit.” She still seemed miffed at the experience.

Jackson threw his head back and laughed out loud.

She continued sourly. “Yes, it was fucking hilarious, let me
tell you. Every door I tried was locked. It was warm, so no coats were lying
around anywhere. There was nothing. I panicked and ran out as the firefighters
were flushing me out to seal the whole building off!”

“Wouldn’t it have been better to ask the firefighters for
help?”

“Well, yes, but it’s very difficult to think clearly when
you’re running around naked and panicked. Everybody always asks that when they
hear this story.” She rolled her eyes at Nicole.

Nicole was chuckling hard, Jim was trying to contain his
snorting and Jackson was shocked and open-mouthed. After a moment he finally
asked again. “Didn’t you have a towel?”

Rory raised an eyebrow, cocked her head and glanced coolly
at Nicole. “Well isn’t that the million-dollar question. Care to answer that, Mrs.
Dailey?”

Nicole straightened herself and tried to contain her
laughter. “You can’t prove a thing. Neither could the fire department!” She
broke into laughter again.

“No, but you were questioned, weren’t you?” Rory pointed out
accusingly. She turned back to Jackson. “Although neither the Athens Fire
Department nor I have ever been able to get a full admission from her, it is
alleged, and widely believed, that one Nicole McCleary, as she was known prior
to wedding the handsome James Dailey here, removed said towel from the shower.”
She turned back and arched an eyebrow to Nicole. “Before pulling said fire
alarm in an attempt to flush me naked from the shower, exposing me to the
hundred or so people we shared the building with. Not to mention the passersby and
all the people in the surrounding dorms.”

“From that day forward Rory was known as the Bobcat
Streaker. The story is still told on campus to this very day,” Nicole added.

Jim added his two cents. “There were other names too,
remember, honey? I can’t remember all of them but my favorite was Miss Squeaky
Clean 1998. We still call her Squeaky!”

“You can all go straight to hell,” Rory announced.

“I think that’s when she took up running,” Jim added.

“Fuck you both.” Rory hid her laugh.

Jackson took it all in, highly amused and entertained.
“Damn, I wish I had gone to college with you ladies. What made you do that to
her, Nicole?”

Nicole straightened and sobered before addressing Rory. “Oh
Congresswoman, would you be so kind as to field that question?”

“I have no idea what made you do such a cruel thing to your
best friend.”

“My ass, Morgan, tell your new boyfriend about the ad you
listed in the campus newspaper the week before you ran your white Irish ass
across that lawn.”

“I was just trying to be helpful; I don’t know what you
mean.”

“Fine, I’ll share. The prior week I had begun receiving a
string of very disturbing phone calls offering all kinds of, shall we say,
instruction of an adult nature,” she explained dryly.

“An adult nature?” Jackson asked.

“Yes. It seemed that my caring friend here believed that I
needed instruction in the art of fellatio. She placed an ad, with my phone
number and full name, for a ‘Head Instructor’. Everyone on campus saw it,
including the administration. It ran in the school’s help wanted section and
listed, in detail, the methods of instruction to be utilized.”

“I was thinking of poor Jim.” She shrugged but couldn’t keep
a straight face. “Those calls were hilarious. I think I still have the
answering machine tapes in the attic at home.” Rory laughed. “Remember the one
we swore sounded just like your economics professor?”

Nicole smiled and nodded. “I got an A that semester.”

They were relaxed and quiet on the drive back to DC. Jackson
glanced at Rory. She had a happy expression on her face as she stared out the
window, her head leaned back into the rest. She had such a pretty glow.

“I had a good time tonight.”

She smiled at him. “Me too. Thanks for hanging with my crazy
friends. I hope they didn’t scare you off.”

“It was pretty shocking, Squeaky.” He held his palm out over
the center console and Rory placed her hand in his. They intertwined fingers
and he caressed hers before lifting it to his lips. “Actually I think it
probably sealed it for me,” he stated.

Her head lolled to the side to face him again. “Sealed it?”

His eyes were on the road. “Yeah, sealed it. I thought maybe
I was falling in love with you before. Now I’m sure.” There was a moment of
silence before he turned and looked into her eyes. He could tell it was a
shock. Her eyes were wide as she stared back at him. He knew how she felt. This
was the first time in years that this was happening to him too. Or had it ever?

“Don’t freak out. You don’t have to say anything. I just
want you to know that.” He looked back at the road.

He pulled the car into the parking space and came around to
open her door. “You okay?” he asked as she stepped out. She had been quiet the
rest of the ride home.

She looked up at him. She was shocked and intimidated by his
admission. Panic had flared, but she tried to beat it back. She didn’t know
exactly how to proceed. She wasn’t quite to a place where she could consider
responding in kind. She felt it in every fiber of her being that she wanted to
give him that. He filled her, body and holes, and she wanted to be there with
him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and smiled up at him. In lieu of
words, she smacked a loud kiss onto his lips, thinking that some levity would
probably be a good ingredient.

He smiled back, seemingly relieved that she wasn’t on the
verge of a heart attack. “Come on, it’s cold out here.” He shouldered both
their bags.

As he inserted the key into his door, Rory tapped him on the
shoulder. He turned to her and she silently pointed behind them, to her door
that stood wide open.

Jackson’s reflexes were lightning fast. In one silent motion
he opened his door and lifted her through it to the safety of his condo.

“Stay here,” he murmured as he went tearing up the steps.
When he came back Rory recognized that the gun he sported was a nine millimeter
Glock. Her dad had owned one just like it. She had shot it a time or two. All
the FBI agents she’d had the misfortune of working with carried one too. That
must be why he kept it. It must have been his service weapon. He quickly checked
the clip and gripped it.

“Stay here while I check it out,” he whispered. His gaze was
steely and every muscle in his body seemed harder, more rigid. “Lock the door
behind me and don’t open it until I tell you to.”

“Maybe we should just call the police. I don’t want you in
danger.”

“I’ll be fine. Call the police if I’m not back in ten
minutes.”

Weren’t those statements contradictory?

She nodded silently, feeling numb. He slipped out and she
locked the door behind him. She walked over and propped herself on one of the
bar stools, taking her phone out of her purse. She gripped it tightly in her
hands, tracking the minutes closely.

She couldn’t believe this was happening again. Why the fuck
was her door open? And it was wide open, not pulled closed like last time. She
considered how it could have happened and strained to remember every detail of
their departure yesterday. Had she pulled it closed? Had she locked the door?
This had never happened to her before in her life. Maybe it was the door. Maybe
there was a mechanical problem or a strange atmospheric pressure kind of thing
going on. Or maybe aliens had invaded and entertained themselves in her pad
while she was out, she chastised herself. She rubbed her forehead hard as she
cursed silently.

Her hands were shaking. She was both cold and sweating with
fear. She stood and approached the door, looking at the phone to keep track of
how long it had been. Four minutes. She put her ear to the door to listen for
any noise. She paced back and forth.

Two more minutes passed and not a sound. She crouched next
to the door. Her heart was in her throat, fear threading through her body. What
if this was Roan? That bastard was mean. She had been wary of him since the day
she’d met him, on pure instinct. He was rumored to be crazier and meaner than
his brother Aidan, or so she learned from the feds. And she had seen firsthand
what that could mean.

The first tear slid silently down her cheek. She wiped it
away and rose to look out the peephole. She blew out a hard breath and paced
some more.

“Rory, open the door, it’s safe.” She heard Jackson on the
other side of the door and raced to open it.

She threw her arms around him. “Thank God!” He moved her
inside and locked the door behind him. He placed his gun on the counter and
hugged her tightly.

“It’s okay,” he offered while he held her. “I checked the
entire place and there’s nobody there.”

She listened intently, peering into his eyes. “Oh good.”

“But I want to be sure. I want to call the police and have
them come and take a look, maybe try to lift some prints.”

That idea made it too real. “Do we have to? It’s probably
just the door, or we forgot to lock it…”

Jackson looked at her with sympathy. “Baby, I closed and
locked that door myself when we left, remember? I had your keys.”

The bottom fell out and the shockwave of fear that ran
through her must have shown, because Jackson grabbed her and held her close.

Rory lay in Jackson’s bed staring at the ceiling. It was two
in the morning and she was finding it very difficult to sleep. After the
wonderful weekend they had it pissed her off that they had to come back to
this. Her heart was beating fast from the adrenaline. Jackson’s head was next
to her shoulder, his arm draped across her. She could feel his even breathing,
his gentle heartbeat.

The police had come and gone. They had taken her through the
condo to make sure nothing was missing or out of place. They had taken both
their reports and asked all the same questions that Jackson and Rory had
already thought of. There was nothing to be done. There was no sign of forced
entry and no reason to investigate. It was probably just a mistake; they must
have thought they locked the door but had somehow left without securing it.
Even though it was the second time, and Jackson clearly remembered closing and
locking the door. The two police officers tried not to seem condescending, but
both Rory and Jackson could tell they weren’t really taking them seriously.
Rory understood. She could hear her dad joking about some of the crackpot calls
they got at the station.

She closed her eyes and breathed deeply to encourage sleep.
Scary thoughts and possibilities ran through her mind. She remembered when
Shane had been assigned to her after she came home from the hospital. The lead
agent, Tagg, had explained that Aidan’s group was ruthless and revenge was part
of their business. They were going to protect her, he had vowed. Rory
remembered staring at him blankly, having no faith that anyone could protect
her after what Aidan had done. She didn’t care. She was numb and didn’t know
how she was going to go on living anyway.

She slowly rolled onto her side and looked at Jackson’s
handsome face in the dim light. She really hadn’t cared since then, if she were
honest with herself. Things had improved in increments but had never really
returned to normal. In all areas of her life, except work, she had been dead.
Aidan had succeeded in that manner in killing her.

She had given up. Her own protection seemed futile and
really, if she were completely honest, the idea of them finishing things had
seemed a relief. She had grown more understanding of people who’d taken their
own lives. That’s why she didn’t hesitate to send Shane away. That’s why she
was lax with her own security. How many times had Jackson admonished her in the
past weeks for his ability to walk in on her?

Things felt different now. Jackson had woken her up. He made
her enjoy life again, even got her thinking that maybe she didn’t have to be
alone. He calmed her. Granted not all her panic and PTSD were gone, but they
were better. He soothed her while simultaneously exciting her. She searched her
memory to find a time when anybody had felt this good to be around. She could
find none. Not even her marriage had offered her this sweet harbor. Now she had
something to be afraid for, losing Jackson. He said he was falling in love with
her. And she already knew she had leapt from that cliff.