The Incubus, Succubus and Son of Perdition Box Set: The Len du Randt Bundle (30 page)

Natasha giggled. ‘You’re everything
Tanya said you would be. The perfect gentleman.’

A bead of sweat trickled down the
side of Jared’s head. Was it warm in here? He noticed a thin trail of moisture
on her upper lip and had to consciously fight the urge to pull her closer and
press his lips against hers.

‘I see you two have met,’ Tanya said
as she entered the room with Amy.

Jared jerked upright; instantly
pulled back to reality from wherever his mind had been. ‘I was just...’ he said
and released Natasha’s hand. ‘We were...’

‘We have,’ Natasha said. She then,
with perfect stride and pace, walked over to Amy and shook her hand. ‘I believe
you’re Amy, right?’

Amy nodded.

‘I’ve heard so much about you,’
Natasha said. ‘It’s so nice to finally meet the two of you.’

That’s funny
, Amy thought.
Tanya
never mentioned you
. She resisted the urge to say it out loud and rather
replied with a friendly, ‘It’s nice to meet you too.’

‘Great,’ Tanya said. ‘Now that we’ve
all met, let’s eat, shall we? I’m famished.’

*   
-    -    -    *

 ‘So Tanya tells me that you’re
some sort of big shot import-export guru,’ Natasha said to break the silence.
‘It’s hard to believe that anyone could build a business empire in a town like
Kelwick.’

Jared blushed. ‘I had some good
people guide me along the way,’ he said and winked at Tanya. ‘But I didn’t come
to Kelwick to build a business. That kind of just happened.’ Natasha smiled and
Jared melted. ‘I was merely passing through.’

‘Good thing you stayed,’ Amy said
and placed her hand lovingly on Jared’s leg. ‘Or we might not have met.’

‘That’s for sure,’ Jared said as he
stole another glance at Natasha. He scraped some vegetables together and
scooped them on his fork. He used the scooping action as a ruse to—once
again—look at Tanya’s stunning niece. Their eyes locked briefly and he looked
away.
Is she looking at me?

‘You two look so good together,’
Natasha said. ‘Do you have any plans to get married?’

Jared almost choked.

‘I don’t know,’ Amy said and turned
towards Jared. ‘Do we?’

‘Now, now, ladies,’ Jared said and
grinned. ‘That would be telling.’ He filled his mouth with a good helping of
food and deliberately chewed longer than necessary. When he realised they were
all looking at him, waiting for him to continue, he added, ‘But yeah, there
might be plans in the not too distant future.’ He saw it best to change the
topic and shifted the focus to Natasha. ‘So where are you from, and what do you
do?’

Natasha smiled. ‘I’m a Personal
Assistant for the chairman of a major New York corporation.’

‘A Yank,’ Jared chuckled. ‘Which
company do you work for?’

‘Oh, I don’t know if you’d know
them.’

‘Try me.’

Natasha merely looked at Jared for a
long moment. Her eyes seemed to penetrate the very core of his soul, searching
for weaknesses to exploit. ‘Three-Six Solutions,’ she said finally.

Jared probed his mind. The name
didn’t ring a bell. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘You were right. I don’t know them. What
do they do?’

‘They specialize in networking
equipment; Servers, Routers, that kind of thing. They also do data recovery and
have recently acquired a company that’s made a breakthrough in human
identification technology.’

‘Human identification?’

She nodded. ‘It’s a chip that they
implant into you. This chip contains your identity and financial information.
It also keeps track of where you are at all times.’

Jared frowned. ‘Isn’t that an
invasion of privacy?’

‘It depends on your point-of-view,’
Natasha said. ‘Imagine clamping down on identity theft, financial fraud, drug
trafficking. Terrorists won’t be able to transfer money without the government
being able to lock onto it; kidnapped children would be instantly locatable.
Imagine not having to carry cash or credit cards around where thugs could steal
it from you or losing it in some foreign country where no one understands your
language. Imagine going to hospital and not having to fill out any forms or
having your entire medical history available in an instant when you’re
unconscious or otherwise unable to speak. No more queues in shopping malls. The
possibilities are endless.’

‘How does one weigh the right to
privacy against the right to worry-free living?’ he asked. ‘I must admit that
it sounds intriguing, but I don’t think that the greater population would fall
for something like this. They’re just not ready yet.’

‘Oh, you would be surprised how
easily someone could be swayed to get it, Mister Greene. It’s just a matter of
the right thing happening at the right time; call it a purchase trigger event,
if you will.’

Jared was intrigued. Amy was
clueless. ‘And this chip,’ he asked. ‘I assume that it will work on some sort
of radio signal?’

Natasha nodded.

The conversation became too
high-tech for either Tanya or Amy to follow. They just sat in silence,
finishing their meals as they listened to the two chatting about things only a
small percentage of the world’s population would be able to follow.

‘You should give her a job at Whyte
& Greene,’ Tanya said when she finally saw a chance to hijack the
conversation. ‘You know; something to keep her occupied while she’s visiting.’

Jared frowned. ‘I don’t know if you
should make her work on her holiday...’

‘Not at all,’ Natasha interjected.
‘It would be fun.’ She broke eye contact. ‘That is, if there’s something
available, of course. I would hate to intrude.’

‘Can’t promise anything,’ Jared
said. ‘But if there is something, I will be sure to let you know.’

‘That would be great,’ Tanya said
and pushed her chair back. ‘Please excuse Amy and me while we get the desert.’

*   
-    -    -    *

An awkward silence lingered in the
car for at least ten minutes. Amy didn’t look at Jared. She merely stared out
of the window at the golden sunset in the distance.

‘What’s wrong?’ Jared asked when he
couldn’t bear the silence any longer.

‘Nothing,’ she said bluntly. The
tone of her voice was a sharp contrast to the word that came out. There was
another moment of silence before she broke it. ‘You and Tanya’s niece or
whatever hit it off pretty well.’

Her name is Natasha.
Jared laughed out loud.
‘So that’s what this is all about? Are you jealous?’

Amy didn’t answer. She didn’t even
look at him. She merely stared at the last rays of sunlight as it set fire to
Lake Metanoia.

The car slowed to a halt at a
traffic light and Jared turned toward her. ‘Amy, are you seriously jealous of
Natasha?’

‘Natasha,’ she whispered. ‘That’s
her name...’

The traffic light turned green and
Jared crossed the road and pulled over. He cut the engine and for a moment said
nothing. ‘What’s all this
really
about, Amy?’ he finally asked. ‘What’s
going on?’

She turned to him and Jared could
see the redness in the corners of her eyes. ‘You barely spoke to me, Jared. It
was like I wasn’t even there.’ Her voice quivered and she had to keep herself
from yelling at him.

‘Nonsense,’ he defended. ‘I did talk
to you. Quite a lot, in fact.’

‘See what I mean? You never do
anything wrong, Jared. You’re always right!’

‘What?’

‘I’ve noticed the way you looked at
her. I’ve never seen such hunger and longing in your eyes for me.’

‘Are you kidding me?’ Jared asked,
unable to control his voice as well as Amy did. ‘I can’t believe we’re having
this conversation. Are you even listening to yourself?’

‘You were also only too eager to get
her into Whyte & Greene. I never had that opportunity.’

Jared fell back into his seat and
raked his fingers through his hair. ‘So
this
is what this whole thing is
about? Me offering her a job?’ He shook his head. ‘Amy, you know why I can’t
let you work at Whyte; and besides, it’s not like you need the money. I’ve got
that base covered for you. All I did was said that I will look into it for her.
I didn’t make any promises.’

‘It’s not about the job, Jared!’ Amy
snapped. ‘It’s not about the money either.’

‘Then what the hell is it about
then?’

She turned her head away from him,
avoiding eye contact at all cost. ‘I don’t...know.’

‘Right. Whatever!’ Jared started the
engine and pulled off, spraying dirt as the Vanquish shot away.

For a long moment neither of them
said anything. The awkwardness became unbearable to her. ‘Are we still going to
Church?’ Amy asked cautiously.

And propose to you while I feel like
this?
‘I
don’t think so,’ he said. ‘You can go, but I think I’m going to skip tonight.’

The rest of the drive home was spent
in silence.

*   
-    -    -    *

 ‘Did we succeed?’

Natasha closed her eyes for a moment
and raised her head before answering. ‘It appears that we have been successful,
yes.’

‘I am relieved,’ Tanya said. ‘But we
have to keep in mind that keeping him away from Church tonight was merely a
short-term goal. We don’t have much time left. For our plans to succeed, we
have to get rid of the girl permanently.’

Natasha grinned. ‘Oh, I wouldn’t
worry too much about her. Jared is as good as mine.’

*   
-    -    -    *

The first rays of the morning sun
broke over Kelwick’s horizon. The light advanced toward Jared’s office, slicing
through the lingering darkness at a lazy pace until it finally beamed through
his massive glass wall. Jared stood at the window and watched as Kelwick woke
like a sleeping giant. Something moved here, something stirred there. Finally
the town came alive.

Jared caught himself comparing the
beauty of the sunrise to that of Natasha. Elegant and graceful; breathtaking as
nature itself. He welcomed the thought as he made his way to his desk to pick
up his ringing phone.

‘You’re early,’ Shaun said. ‘Saw your
car in the basement.’

‘Couldn’t sleep,’ Jared said and
clicked the call to speakerphone before heading back to the window.

‘Any word from Lisa yet?’

‘No. She’s usually in by this time.’

‘First one in, last one out. You
really should give her a raise, you know that?’

Jared nodded. It was completely
unlike her to stay away without letting him know. He made a mental note to
contact the police before noon. ‘Can you join me for a minute, Shaun? There’s
something I need to ask you.’

It took Shaun only a minute and a
half before he walked through the doors. A minute and a half that felt more
like an hour and a half to Jared. ‘What’s up, boss?’

‘You’re happily married, right?’
Jared asked rhetorically, not taking his eyes from the magnificent view in
front of him.

‘Almost three years,’ Shaun humoured
him.

For a moment Jared didn’t say
anything. He merely watched the view. ‘How did you know she was the right one;
the one that you wanted to spend the rest of your life with?’

Shaun thought of various answers
that he could impress Jared with, but settled for the truth instead. ‘I don’t
know,’ he said and shrugged. ‘I just knew.’

Jared turned to Shaun and motioned
to the liquor cabinet. ‘Did you ever meet anyone you felt the same way about
after you married Samantha?’

Shaun frowned. ‘I’m not sure that I
quite fully understand the question,’ he said as Jared filled two glasses
half-way with Scotch.

‘Was there anyone else that you’d
rather have been with other than Sam?’

Shaun rubbed the back of his neck.
‘I can’t say that there was,’ he finally said. ‘Although there was this one
girl in accounting that I had my eye on...’

‘I’m not talking about an affair.
I’m talking about the longing to be with that person for the rest of your life;
the urge to skip work just so that you can be with her. Someone that you could
love just as much—if not more—than your wife.’

‘In
that
case,’ Shaun said as
he studied Jared’s facial expression, ‘I would have to say no.’

Jared sighed.

‘What’s wrong, Jay? What’s bothering
you?’

Jared didn’t answer.

‘Is it Amy?’

Jared shook his head. ‘It’s not Amy.
Well, not directly.’