Elite 2: The Wrong Side of Revolution (10 page)

“Stay there,” he told her. “I’m just going to go lie down.”

“You’re free to join us,” Demérs offered as Daniel headed toward the staircase.

“That’s okay,” Daniel declined. Sitting around and watching television while the two of them cuddled on the other end of the couch wasn’t what he needed right now.

“I’m going to get cleaned up and let myself heal,” he told them.

“Well we’re getting Chinese food for dinner in a little while. Feel free to come down and join us when you’re ready,” Demérs told him as Daniel made his way up the stairs to the loft area.

“Thank you, I will,” Daniel accepted. For some reason he almost felt like crying. This man who he had spent so much time hating for so long was now being so kind. What Demérs didn’t realize was that Daniel owed him everything. Demérs’ support was the only thing launching Daniel forward rather than backward.

“Daniel,” Jordan called out as he reached the top of the staircase. He turned to see her steel blue eyes looking up at him while her head rested on Demérs’ lap. “I’m proud of you.”

Daniel gave a half nod and turned to head toward the shower. He wiped away a single tear once he was out of sight.

After his shower Daniel managed to lose himself in his healing trance, displacing any sense of time or space as he worked to repair and rebuild his tissue at an accelerated rate. It wasn’t until nine o’clock that he finally came out of it.

He felt extremely hungry, realizing that he hadn’t eaten since he and Jordan had lunch at the café before going to the jewelry store. He forced himself out of bed and made his way to the living room.

As he reached the top of the stairs he noticed Demérs and Jordan right where he’d left them on the couch, their faces lit by the solitary glow of the television screen. Daniel was surprised to still see them there as Jordan always hated sitting around for extended periods of time. He guessed that today was a rather special circumstance.

When he reached the bottom of the staircase he noticed that each now had a drink in front of them on the glass coffee table. Jordan had a beer bottle of some sort, while Demérs seemed to be enjoying a glass of scotch, neat.

“Hello sleepy head,” Jordan spoke, again sounding like she had just woken up. “There’s leftover Chinese in the fridge. Help yourself,” she told him.

Daniel smiled, unsure if Jordan could even see him in the darkness, and headed for the kitchen. Demérs just kept his eyes forward on the TV screen.

Daniel warmed up some leftover chicken and vegetable dish and some rice, once again surprised at his level of comfort in doing so. He wondered how different the atmosphere must have been when Titan had been the agent assigned to them.

Daniel sat and ate his dinner on a stool at the island counter in the kitchen, facing the TV. No one spoke a word the entire time he was eating.

When he was finished he rinsed his plate and climbed back up the stairs to his room. It appeared as though both Demérs and Jordan were now half asleep. He wondered if Salvador was still sitting outside the door, and if so, for how long he was expected to stay there.

He put that thought away and flipped on the TV in his bedroom. He flopped down on the bed and wondered what adventures tomorrow would bring.

When he woke in the morning he could hear the sound of the shower running downstairs. He went down to the living room and found it empty. He creeped down the hallway peering into each room, and found no signs of life. It appeared that Jordan and Demérs were in the shower together.

Daniel rolled his eyes and went back out into the main room. Apparently they too had become very comfortable with his presence in their home.

He looked around the room and tried to find something to take his mind off of his ex-lover and current client making their best efforts to conserve water. He decided he would make up his own workout routine.

He ran toward the spiral staircase and leapt up with his left leg, putting as much power into his calves, quads and hamstrings as he could. He rose almost halfway up the staircase, and quickly pushed off of the small section of stair that protruded out past the railing, and sprung himself up toward the balcony. When he was in range he grabbed onto the railing and swung himself over the top, feet first. The whole move took just under three seconds.

From there he moved to the top of the staircase. He grabbed onto the railing and straightened his arms, lifting his feet several inches off the ground. Arms locked, he bent his knees slightly to keep his feet from hitting each step, and walked himself down to the bottom of the staircase. When he reached the bottom he paused for a moment, and then began the more difficult climb back to the top.

When he arrived back at the top of the railing having successfully used his upper body and core strength to walk his hands up and down the staircase, he reached over and grabbed back onto the balcony railing. He did ten pull-ups on the railing before reaching his arm out to his left and pulling himself over a foot or two, and proceeded to do ten more pull-ups. He repeated the process until he reached the end of the railing, then reversed his course and made his way back to the start.

When he was finished, he noticed the shower was no longer running and let himself drop to the floor a story below. He landed on his feet in a squat, then sprung himself forward and sprinted to the top of the staircase, lifting his knees and planting a foot on each step as he climbed.

After reaching the top he smiled and made his way to his own shower, satisfied with his makeshift acrobatic performance.

In workouts that did not require especially extreme conscious control of his body functions, he now found it difficult to tell whether he had needed to open his neural pathways or not. He had so much practice with it that his conscious mind now understood what it was capable of and took over on an almost subconscious level. It was the same sensation of any athlete who reached their limit and told themselves to “push harder,” only Daniel’s mind interpreted “push harder” on a biological level, and also knew how to send the appropriate neurological commands to his muscles via the unconscious part of the brain that was designed to do so.

It was as though Doctor Horchoff had formally introduced his frontal lobe to the rest of his brain for the first time, and they had now become BFFs.

The remainder of Sunday was a rather uninteresting one, which Daniel was more than okay with after the day previous. Salvador had the day off and rather than being the fearless protector Daniel settled into the role of third wheel, though he made sure to stay on his guard when they left the apartment. If there was one thing he had done right the day before it had been recognizing the threat before it fully developed.

At first it seemed that Jordan had no desire to leave the apartment—and who could blame her?—but after a few hours boredom eventually set in and she and Demérs decided to go out to lunch and a matinee. They elected to take Daniel along and Daniel wasn’t sure if it was out of the need for protection or out of obligation to their guest. Regardless, Daniel was happy to get out of the penthouse for a few hours.

Though it was fairly awkward going out with Jordan and her fiancé/his client, Daniel couldn’t complain about another free meal and a free movie ticket. Jordan had requested to eat at a sandwich shop down the street from the theater and Demérs was happy to oblige. Daniel was happy to find that there were still some aspects of the simple life that hadn’t escaped Jordan.

As they ate their sandwiches, Jordan noticed the state of Daniel’s face and hands for the first time.

“Your cuts,” she said, touching her own face, “they’re almost gone.”

Daniel felt his face, remembering that he had taken the bandages off before entering his healing trance the night before. This morning when he looked in the mirror he had completely forgotten all about them.

“I heal quickly,” he countered, trying to play it off. “And the doctor at Elite gives me this special healing cream stuff that really makes a difference.” He hoped the room wasn’t beginning to stink from the utter bullshit flying out of his mouth.

“I’m going to have to find out how I can get some of that,” Demérs remarked, not fully believing Daniel’s story.

The movie they went to see was a new fantasy tale about a young man who travels through a interdimensional  portal that takes him to a land where he discovers the true origins of different mythological creatures.

Daniel was truly grateful for Jordan’s interest in fantasy films, because he had absolutely no desire to sit through a romantic comedy with an engaged couple beside him.

Demérs tried to sit between them when they found their seats in the theater, but Jordan quickly suggested that she sit in the middle. Demérs obliged and if he was perturbed by the suggestion, he did a fantastic job of hiding it.

Throughout the movie Jordan was whispering questions to Daniel, trying to keep the plot twists straight in her mind. She had always felt that asking so many questions made her annoying to watch movies with, but in reality Daniel had always found it adorable. He was more than happy to give his thoughts on what they were watching and found that it also kept him more involved in the story.

After the movie—which was fantastic—the trio spent the rest of the evening in the apartment drinking wine and telling stories. For dinner they had Mediterranean food delivered, which made Daniel wonder if the couple ever made any meals of their own.

They were able to pass hours just catching up and learning more about each other. Both Demérs and Jordan found themselves captivated by some of the stories Daniel told about his training and assignments at Elite. Jordan couldn’t stop laughing at some of the stories about Charlie and Shifty, and by the end of the night she was insistent that she be able to meet them one day soon.

Surprisingly—or not—Daniel couldn’t decide—Jordan and Gordon had come to feel like real friends, and not strangers. That shouldn’t have been a surprise with Jordan given their history, but he hadn’t expected to feel that way with Demérs. It seemed all ill-will had disappeared almost completely.

Jordan and Gordon
, he rhymed in his head.
How corny.

Around 10:30 Demérs decided to call it a night.

“We have a big day tomorrow,” he told Daniel. “We are going to be meeting Benze at his estate at nine A.M. Be ready to go at eight.”

“You got it boss,” Daniel replied, helping Jordan put their glasses away.

Demérs headed off toward the master bedroom while Jordan and Daniel finished cleaning up.

“You two actually got along today,” she commented.

“Yeah…well…maybe he’s not the total douche I remember from college,” he responded with a smirk.

When everything was cleaned and put away Jordan reached up to give Daniel a kiss on the cheek.

“I love you Daniel,” she said sweetly. “It means so much to me that the three of us can be friends. I missed you.”

“Yeah,” he said sheepishly, “I missed you to.” He couldn’t decide whether or not he was being truthful, but now that they had reunited, there was a part of him that wished they hadn’t gone so long without talking.

“Goodnight,” Jordan called to him as she turned out the lights and strode down the hall to join Demérs in their bedroom.

“Goodnight,” Daniel called back, watching her hips sway as she walked away.

“Fuck off,” he said to himself quietly before heading up to his bedroom. Tomorrow was his last and most important day on assignment.

Chapter 6

Daniel strapped on his Kevlar vest before buttoning his salmon colored dress shirt over top of it. Richfield had warned him that this job was potentially more dangerous than any he had been on previously, and to take every precaution to protect himself.

He had chosen to wear his new grey leisure suit to the meeting at Benze’s estate since he had not had the opportunity to do so earlier in the weekend. He threw the grey blazer on over his gun holster which rested on top of his salmon shirt, the top two buttons undone, exposing the upper most area of his chest. He then tied on his black shoes and made his way downstairs.

His bags were packed and ready to go on the bed. Upon returning from Benze’s his assignment would be complete, and he would return back to the Elite complex. What a bizarre weekend it had been.

As he made his way down the stairs from the loft to the living room he found Demérs, Salvador, and another man he did not recognize there waiting for him. Jordan was nowhere to be found—he imagined still in bed.

“Are we ready to roll?” Demérs asked him in an anxious fashion.

Daniel clapped his hands together at waist level and responded, “Let’s do it.”

The black SUV was waiting for them when they arrived downstairs. They walked through the doors of the building and this time instead of switching places with the driver, Salvador made his way around the front of the vehicle and jumped in the passenger’s side door.  The other man who Daniel did not know, opened the rear door for Demérs who hopped into the middle seat, then gestured for Daniel to follow. The unknown bodyguard then closed the door behind Daniel and went around the rear passenger door and got in the vehicle on the other side of Demérs.

The chain of command on an assignment in which the client had an already established personal security force was always a bit confusing. Salvador was Demérs’ normal head of security and therefore served as point person when calling the shots. However Daniel was the hired ace and it was his job to protect Demérs at all costs regardless of what Salvador’s orders were. Daniel needed to figure out how to both work alone and as part of a team simultaneously.