The Protector (29 page)

Dinner came not long after that and I had to remove my arm from around her body.   Much to my surprise, the girl had gotten some kind of appetite back. She polished off her meal, and that made happy. An appetite meant some type of normalcy and well, this was probably as close as we were going to get to normal.

Before I knew it dinner ended and the waitress walked up with our check. I motioned for her to come a little closer and handed her a $100 dollar bill.  “Please, their dinner,” nodding my head to the older couple that sat next to us. “This is for their dinner and ours. Keep the rest.”  The waitress smiled and took the money.

Sonny looked at me in amazement. “You just paid for their dinner? Why?”

“They inspired me.”  It was all I said. I grabbed her hand as she grabbed for her purse. I turned to the older couple and waved and mouthed thank you.  I am not sure if they thought I was crazy or not, but I didn’t care. They gave me happiness tonight. And in the craziness that was my life, it was nice to smile.

I had decided after looking at a map we would head out of Reno and stay in Truckee for the night.  It wasn’t a long drive, and I figured no matter how late we got there we could stay and sleep a little bit in the morning. I wasn’t in a hurry to get to Oregon.  I wasn’t in a hurry to have to share Alison with anyone, even if it was in the interest of saving her life.

By the time we reached our hotel, which was about an hour and a half after we ate, I could tell that being on the road all day had taken its toll on both of us. I had pushed us hard that day, driving, and I knew she was done as much as I was.  The hotel I had chosen wasn’t an expensive one, my requirement was clean and lots of escape routes just in case.

The clerk looked at me rather funny when I asked for a room with two beds.

“Are you sure sir?” She asked motioning toward Alison, who was sitting on the couch in the lobby waiting patiently for me. Something on CNN had caught her eye but I hadn’t noticed what.

“Yes,” I turned to look at Alison. “She’s mad at me,” I responded.  “Two beds is a good thing.”  I tried a meager smile to make it look believable. The clerk just shrugged it off.

“I’m sorry sir, all I have is one suite left with a King size bed.  You can put pillows in between you if you need to?”  If I had been concentrating on her and not glancing back and forth between her and Alison, I would have noticed the quaint little smirk she had on her face.

“Fine. She’ll get over it.”  I handed cash to the clerk and signed for the room under an alias.  I pulled an extra $50 out of my pocket and handed it to the clerk. “If anyone asks we weren’t here.”  Her eyes grew wide as she looked at the bill I handed her.  “Her husband doesn’t need to know she was here.” I winked as I said it and walked away toward Alison. 

“What’s with that?” Alison said pointing to the still stunned clerk at the front desk. I turned and looked at her. She still had not moved from her place at the desk. Her face remained stoic.

“Nothing, I gave her incentive to be quiet if someone comes looking for us later.”

“Oh,” she stated flatly.  “Ok, then why did her jaw drop to the floor when you walked away?”

I hadn’t realized she had been watching my exchange with the clerk.  I could only laugh, “I told her that your husband didn’t need to know you were here.”  Alison’s eyes grew wide with shock. Her mouth too, dropped.  Except her knee jerk reaction continued as she slapped me upside the head knocking my baseball cap off of my head.

“YOU WHAT?” She almost yelled.

I quickly put my fingers up to her lips. “Shhhh sweetheart.”  I quickly picked up my hat and guided her to the elevator to our room. 

Her face was red with anger and embarrassment.  “And the reason you felt the need to say something like that?”

“Cover story. Hotel clerks are less likely to tattle on cheating couples when questioned about it. Fear of getting in the middle.”

“Oh,” her curt response made me want to bust out in laughter, but instead I kept my laughter to a minimum and led her down the hall to our room.

“I asked for a room with two beds, but they only had one, sorry.” I opened the door and held it for her as she walked in. It was a nice room, clean and it had only one bed. One very large King size bed.

She stopped and scanned the room and then turned to face me. “There’s a couch. I can sleep on that.”

I nodded my head in disagreement. “No, I can sleep on the couch.”

“You drove all day Jack. You need your sleep.”  She argued walking over to the dark brown couch. The couch was under the window that looked out onto the Truckee River. If we opened the window, I was pretty sure we would hear the gentle movement of the water below. Across from the bed was an armoire that held a fairly decent size flat screen tv.  “I am happy to sleep on the couch.”

I appreciated her offer, but truth was I probably wouldn’t sleep much anyway. Despite the relative surety they had not picked up on our trail, I still wanted to be cautious. “No, I will sleep on the couch.”  I put our bags down by the closet and handed her the overnight bag we had purchased.  She had a few things in there I had picked up for her in Phoenix and combined with her makeup bag she had magically produced out of the backpack she carried, she was set.

Alison turned and walked around the room.  It wasn’t a glorious room, but it was nice and comfortable. She seemed happy and that made me happy.  I followed her to the other side where the window was. She turned quickly and we collided. I caught her as she began to fall backwards toward the window. I pulled her up into my arms.

“Oh,” she used her arm as a brace and steadied herself. Her breathing accelerated and I could tell she was a little uncomfortable. I needed to let her go, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to pull her closer to me.

We stood there looking into
each other’s
eyes. I wasn’t sure what she was thinking but her heart was racing.  She didn’t try and break free of my grasp and her face came even closer to mine. I could feel her warm breath against my face.  She was so close, my pulse began to race and I was suddenly burning up.  I also wanted to laugh, I felt like some hormonally challenged teenage boy, wanting desperately to sleep with a girl for the first time. I wanted to kiss her and sweep her off her feet and throw her on the bed.  And frankly it was almost more than I could handle.  I envisioned wrapping my arms around her and kissing her deeply. But reality came rushing back as there was a knock at the door. 

“I, uh,” I gently removed my hands from her arms, “better get that.” In a way I was grateful for the interruption.

Alison took a deep breath in and nodded. I turned and walked swiftly to the door with my hand on the gun that was tucked underneath my shirt. I looked into the peep hole and realized it was the clerk from the front desk standing with a handful of pillows in her hands. I cautiously opened the door and smiled.
             

“I thought you might like some extra pillows.”   Her smile was pleasant and the thought was nice and it made me laugh.  If I was going to sleep in the same bed with her, pillows were not going to stop me.

“Thank you,” I murmured. “We appreciate it.”

“Please let me know if you need anything else. I am on until 5 tomorrow morning.”   She winked and turned to walk away.  I walked back into our room and bolted the door shut behind me.

“What’s with all the pillows?” Alison had taken a seat on the couch. She looked a little disheveled by our encounter.

“Um, something I might have mentioned. No big deal. Extra pillows for me and the couch.” I smiled and walked over to where she sat and threw the pillows on the cushion next to her.

“Seriously Jack, It’s a king size bed, we can both be adults can we not?”

I was shocked at her statement. Had we not been in an uncompromising position just a few minutes before? I couldn’t do it anymore. Another time close like that and that hormonally challenged teenage boy was going to take over.
             

“No. I’m taking the couch.”  My tone was curt, and the decision had been made in my head. There was no compromising on this one and although I didn’t want the silence from earlier to return I was not going to budge.

“Jack,” she appealed. “Come on there is…”

I didn’t let her finish her sentence as I brought my finger up to my lips with a shhh. “No.  Alison, this isn’t good for us.  Let’s not make this any more complicated than it already is.”   It was suddenly getting very complicated.

“I just thought.” She didn’t finish her thought. She just stood there motionless and tired.

I could see her face turn red in embarrassment but she was sincere in her effort to let me get a good night’s sleep. She had a genuine concern for me. For her I didn’t think it was
any more
than just that, being courteous. But I couldn’t and I wouldn’t put her in a compromising position.  Maybe I was chicken shit, I wasn’t sure, but it wasn’t right.  It was kind of ironic, I had no problem killing someone in the name of national security or to protect someone, I really had no morals when it came to that. But sleeping with her, taking advantage of her, it wasn’t something I would do.

She didn’t say anything further about the bed or the couch. But I could tell as she moved her clothes around in the bag we had bought earlier, she was nervous and still embarrassed.  I didn’t want her to be either. I wanted her to feel comfortable with me and not nervous and so far I was 0 for 3.  I knew I was running hot and cold and that probably confused the hell out of her. She rose from her seat and walked over to the suitcases carrying her clothes. “Do you mind if I take a shower?” 

I nodded my head no.  I thought the distance might do us some good.

“Lock the door please.”

Alison’s back was to me, so I couldn’t see the look on her face as she spoke but her voice was full of sarcasm. “Why? Afraid that if they break in, they might haul my naked rear out of the shower?”

She still stood there with her back to me. She didn’t move, waiting for me to respond.  “Go take a shower. Or I will throw you in myself.”  My reasoning behind her locking door was exactly what she thought, someone going in there, but I could guarantee her that it wasn’t going to be the men who were looking for her.

I won the battle that night and she slept in the bed soundly.  I watched her for a
while from the couch.  She had started out with her back to me, but soon she turned and her face lay gently on the pillow, her hair draped all around. She looked peaceful sleeping. Most of all she looked beautiful to me. There to was no fidgeting and hardly any movement at all.  I relished watching her.  Her breathing was so soft, I could barely hear her breathe and I had to concentrate to see the movement of her chest.

I wished desperately I could sleep as soundly as her.

16
Restless sleep

When I finally did drift to sleep, my dreams were flooded with visions of her. She was everywhere in my dreams. I am not sure if it was several dreams that melted into one, or if it was one continuous dream but I was grateful when the sun came
peeking
through the curtains.  I welcomed the sunlight and the prospect of moving on in our journey. 

It was still early when I woke and Alison still slept on the bed.  She hadn’t moved much during the night. I tried to be as quiet as I could as I got up to retrieve my laptop. I needed to check in with Seth and find out if we were any closer to a resolution.  I wasn’t sure if I wanted one just yet. Although our time yesterday had been contentious, I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could. I knew that once this nonsense was over, we would both have to go on with our lives.  I had come to the conclusion; I would probably be a passing story to her in a few years.

The computer booted up with barely a hum.  The screen came to life and I typed in the passwords I needed. It would take me a minute to get into a reverse proxy server. I needed to find one in Mexico or South America to make it look like we were there already.  Although it wasn’t full proof, it would get what I needed accomplished.

As I typed in my passwords, a million thoughts went through my head. I wasn’t sure what my next step would be.  I had emailed Seth with information I had, hoping I could trade it for Alison’s safety, but as of last night I still had not heard anything. That worried me. It wasn’t supposed to be that difficult.  But there were problems. The Israeli’s desperately wanted the processor as it meant an even strong defense system against those who wished to destroy them. For the group that attempted to hijack the processor it meant large sums of money to finance their operations by selling it on the black market.

What I hadn’t realized throughout this whole ordeal until recently was how valuable Tom had been to the whole process and now how valuable Alison was.  Tom was critical to the design of the processor and Alison to its manufacturing. Tom had been her mentor and shared much about the processor with her.  Knowing what she did and having access to the information she did, made her a target.

I was no longer surprised at why Tom had brought her into the picture, but I was wondering why now? Why had he sent her in his place? I was pretty sure something had gone wrong on his end before he was scheduled to leave for Tel Aviv. And maybe just maybe he figured by sending Alison he could fix this situation, send her and no one would know any different. He would say it was his way of introducing her to the operation.