The Protector (37 page)

I threw my hands up into the air and spun around to walk back to the hotel. “The woman hates me Joed?” 

             
He walked over and put his hands on my shoulders.  I tried to wiggle free but his grip was firm. “Alison,” He kept me still and looked directly into my eyes. “She doesn’t hate you Alison. She doesn’t trust Jack with you. There is a difference.”  His dark eyes penetrated right through me and I felt a little bit of calm wash over me.

I looked at him in despair. “Jack wouldn’t hurt me Joed, you know that.”

“That’s not it Alison. I told you yesterday, Jack has fallen for you. He’s compromised and it is best if he gets away to try and sort this situation out. We’ll only be gone a few days and then we will be back. That is why he wanted to come here. He knew you would be safe with Eric.”

             
The panic continued to rush through me but it quickly turned to anger as I realized that Jack once again had not told me the whole truth of what was going on.  I did not try and fight Joed any longer. I just stood there.

“I’m sorry Alison, he said he was going to tell you last night. I just assumed he had. And I know Noor has assumed the same.”

I turned and continued to walk down the path away from the hotel. My voice was calm, but the anger I was feeling was growing in intensity. “You’ll be back?”

He touched my shoulder in reassurance. “Yes.  We should know more and know better what we can do to ensure your safety and your life.”

I slowed my pace.  “Thank you for being honest with me. I appreciate it.” He smiled in gratitude. 

“I am sure he meant to tell you Alison. His head is not clear. “

Little did he know but those words stung me to the very core.  Jack wasn’t thinking right and I was the cause of it. The different emotions pulsed through my body as I thought of Jack and what I was doing to him. He was working, this was his job and I wasn’t letting him do his job to the best of his ability. I clouded his judgment. And this morning had only probably only made things worse. I didn’t say a word after that, carefully thinking about what my next plans would be. If Jack needed to leave to get a grip on reality, then so be it. I would go on with my life and let him get on with is.  Right then and there I knew what I needed to do.

20
Speeding Tickets and Heels

I was extremely grateful to Joed for taking Alison for a walk.  As much as I wanted to remain with her, next to her for the little bit of time I had left with her, I wanted to check out the man she was going to be spending her time with.

After I was sure they were out of range of the hotel, I went to the car and drove to where Seth had said the cop would be. I had asked Seth to hack into the GPS system the Grants Pass police department used to locate Eric.  My sole purpose was to get a look at this man and to talk to him.  Noor was not happy with my plan and expressed concern about interfering with Alison’s life any more than I already had. But as I had been doing quite a bit, I ignored her concern and ordered her to stay at the hotel and wait for the rental car.  I was sure the fireworks were going to explode once again, but they didn’t. She listened and I thanked her. 

Her last words were burned into my head, “It’s your Ass if you get a ticket from the guy!”

It wasn’t hard to find him. Grants Pass was a small community with about 25,000 people. There weren’t many places for the police to hang out.  There he sat in his car at the corner.  Another cop car was next to him facing the other direction.  My plan was to drive by and stop and ask for directions, but that thought suddenly changed as I hit the gas drove past him doing at least 10 over the speed limit.  As I expected his lights went on and his car came speeding up to mine.  I let my foot off the gas and pulled into a store parking lot about a quarter of a mile past where he had been parked. 

He sat in his car for a minute, I guessed to run my out of state license plate. I used the time to pull the license that matched my registration out of the middle compartment of the car.  Although it was all done under an assumed name, if he pulled my record, it would show I was a resident of Phoenix and had a few traffic tickets for speeding.  He finally opened the door of his car and stepped out.

He was taller and more built than I had imagined. He had to be about 6’2” with brown wavy hair.  It was a short cropped cut, to control the wave obviously.   His dark navy blue uniform fit his frame as he walked up to the car with an air of arrogance. As he approached my car I could tell he worked out, and he could hold his own in a fight.

“Sir,” I said with a straight face as he approached my car.

“Want to tell me why you were doing at least 12 over the speed limit?”  His question was filled with authority and arrogance. I so much wanted to knock that arrogance out of him, but I only smiled smugly and answered his question.  

“Sorry. I did not realize it.” I handed him my license and registration. “Can’t seem to find my hotel and well, wasn’t paying attention.”

He glanced down at my license which read Michael Roth.  He didn’t immediately acknowledge me but he did compare the registration with the license.  “You need to slow down sir. This is not Phoenix. I’m going to let you go but if I catch you again or one of the other officers does, you will get a ticket. “

“Thank you officer,” I responded. 

Eric took a step back and looked carefully at the car I was sitting in. “What is this? A BMW?”

I nodded in acknowledgement and reveled in the fact he knew little about cars. “yep,” I responded. Little did he know this car had originally been built for a high ranking government official in Oman, but I managed to get my hands on it when the guy was put to death for treason. Turns out BMW gives discounts for specialty cars that don’t get delivered.

“Never seen one of these before.” 

“Doesn’t surprise me,” I said under my breath low enough that he didn’t not hear me.

Eric handed me back my license and registration.  “Where are you staying?”

I told him and he pointed me in the right direction. And within a minute I had made my u-turn and headed back.  Noor had been right, I wanted to size up the competition.  But meeting him briefly did nothing to calm the nerves I had giving Alison up to him. It put only a face to a name. Seth had hacked into the city’s mainframe and pulled his human resources file.  He made a decent amount of money. He’d be able to provide her with a nice life, if she chose to accept his proposal.  He contributed the max to his retirement plan and had built up quite a nest egg.  Seth had also pulled up his credit report and I learned he owned a house in Grants Pass, an older one, he had been fixing up over the last few years. He owned two cars outright and had very little debt.  He had recently opened up a credit card at a
well-known
jewelry store in town and had made a modest purchase about six months ago.  If I had to put money on it, I would have guessed that it was Alison’s engagement ring.

As I headed back to the hotel, I hoped Sonny and Joed were back from their walk. I needed to talk to her and let her in on our plans. I had meant to do it this morning but there were too many distractions. Not to mention, I had not drummed up enough courage to tell her I was leaving for a few days. I dreaded the look on her face. I had promised her numerous times that I would stay with her through this whole thing. And here I was about to break my promise and board a plane without her to Washington.  Joed and I decided that this was the best course of action. She would be safe here with Eric and with Noor to watch out for her. One hint that there was a pr
oblem and Noor would take her t
o another location to meet up with us.

I sat in the car and rehearsed how I was going to tell her I was leaving for a short time. But as I played the scene over and over in my head, I dreaded the look on her face. I dreaded the conversation where she would once again accuse me of holding important information from her. I finally realized I had to complete the task and I needed to do it sooner than later. By tomorrow morning, Eric would know she was here and things would get increasingly complicated for me.

I took my time heading up to the rooms.  I still wasn’t sure what I was going to say to her and how I was going to say it to her. But as I opened the door to my room, it finally hit me. I just needed to explain it like it was. Tell her the truth and let her absorb it from there. Sure she would be mad, but it was what needed to happen.  Delaying it, avoiding it was just going to make it worse.

As I walked in, Joed was on farthest bed remote in hand watching a baseball game. For an Israeli intelligence officer, he was more American than anyone I knew.  He jerked his head up when I walked in.

“Hey, where’s Sonny?”  I threw my keys down on the table and looked at him. 

“Getting dressed.”  The Israeli responded but he didn’t take his eyes off of the game. 

“And why is she getting dressed, did you push her into the river?”  I wanted a more distinct answer from Joed, but I wasn’t sure if I was going to get it.

Joed shrugged his shoulders. “She came back from our walk and said she was going to surprise Eric.”   Joed’s face grew white when he realized what he had said. “You didn’t mention you hadn’t told her you were leaving by the way.”

Anger, fear, longing, each emotion raced through my body.  “You told her?” the words came through clenched teeth.

Joed nodded. “I thought you had told her last night or at least this morning. Wasn’t that the plan?”  This time he did look at me.  There was no sympathy in his face nor in his words. 

I took a deep breath and sat on the edge of the bed. “And how angry is she?”  She was a woman, I knew she was angry with me the question was just how angry was she. This was the last thing I wanted her to be  - angry.  I wanted to see her sweet smile and I wanted to hold her again.

“She’s angry.” Joed shrugged his shoulders. “No sure what you are expecting from her.”

“Why is she getting ready to see him tonight? I thought she was going to wait until tomorrow?’

Joed shrugged once again not knowing how to answer me. I rubbed my face with my hands. The thought of him holding her, touching her, even kissing her made my stomach turn.  The anger grew more intense as I thought about it but it was my own fault. I brought her here and I didn’t do the one thing I promised her I would do and that was stay with her until this was over. Surely she would understand why I needed to go. It was for her own good and I needed to put some space between us.

I could hear movement in the room next to ours. I got up and walked over to the door and softly knocked. I wasn’t sure if anyone heard me, I really didn’t care. I slowly opened the door and walked in.  Noor sat in the chair across the room reading a book. She looked up at me and smirked. She had an I told you so look on her face and this made my stomach turn.  I looked around the room and I saw Sonny standing in front of the mirror outside the bathroom.  Her hair was down around her shoulders and she was applying mascara.  Her eyes caught mine and she stood up straight. It was then that I noticed the black dress I had bought her in Phoenix. She turned to meet my stare, an angry smirk on her face.

The dress hugged her body perfectly. She had the top three buttons open just enough to show the tops of her perfectly curved breasts.  It was quite the tease.  It followed her curves down around her perfect hips and stopped right above her knees.  The dress was everything I had imagined when I picked it out. My body ached to be close to her. I took a step to meet her, but she quickly turned away and finished putting on her make up.

“Can I talk to you?” I asked through clenched teeth.  Talk was not what I wanted at the moment. I wanted to pull her as close to me as possible and kiss that angry scowl off her face.

“Why? Are you going to tell me you are leaving tomorrow?” Her voice was angry and I hadn’t expected any different.

I heard a giggle from behind me.  “Noor would you give us a minute please? And shut the door on your way out.” The last thing I wanted or needed was her snide comments in the background. I wanted to talk to Sonny by myself.

“And miss the fireworks? Hell no!” The red head responded.

I didn’t bother to look back at her, “Leave! Before I physically kick you out of the room.”  I heard rustling and the faint steps as Noor left.  It wasn’t until I heard the click of the door that I moved closer to Sonny.  “I was going to tell you last night, but it wasn’t the right time. And this morning, well.” I tried to smile, but I was sure my feeble attempt would do no good
to diffuse the situation. “You are
going to see Eric?”

She only nodded and finished applying her lipstick.

“I’m sorry Sonny.” I took another step closer to her.  She only stared at me. “Talk to me please.”

She nodded her head this time back and forth. She took two steps towards to me and stopped. I couldn’t read her face because I was too busy staring that the alluring and incredible figure she was.  Whoever said hotel lights were unflattering had never stood where I stood.  The light of the bathroom illuminated her hair. Her eyes burned green with emotion and her face, even full of anger, was the most beautiful sight for me to behold. Every inch of me that was man responded.

She took another step which I was sure was going to land her right in my arms but instead she breezed past me to the bed. There she sat down and put on the strappy high heels I had bought her. I stifled the groan that had built up in my chest. I had joked back in Phoenix that I had bought the dress for her to surprise Eric in and now I was regretting my words.  I bought the dress strictly for me. She was beautiful.