NorthernPassion (10 page)

Desiree remembered the phone in her jacket pocket. Without
stopping, she grabbed it and pressed the button that would normally summon the
built-in voice assistant. Hers, of course, let her send a direct message to
Sam. “I’m in pursuit,” she said. Normally, he could hear everything he wanted
to, if he was listening. She pressed the button. An alert tone sounded on Sam’s
end, letting him know things had veered away from the ordinary. A person
running the way this woman was had something to hide. This person had no
intentions of being found or caught. One other thing was clear—she was somehow
aware Desiree was no ordinary customer.

Desiree followed her as well as she could, but the going was
not easy. The stairwell was unfinished and had not been renovated in quite some
time. The marble steps were uneven and had worn down in the center. Some were
very smooth and downright slippery and on top of that, the light was dim. The
small fixtures barely replaced candles and didn’t give off much more light than
a candle might.

Sweat ran down Desiree’s face and into her eyes. She kept
moving, wiping at her face with her hand. The extra moisture was clouding her
vision and with things are dark as they already were, she couldn’t afford to
not be able to see what was in front her. One misstep and she would tumble head
first down the steps.

A door slammed open beneath her and Desiree stopped and
leaned over the railing, just in time to catch a glimpse of the woman tearing
through it, her hair streaming behind her. She was two flights below. The door
slammed shut and Desiree raced down the steps as fast as she could. She passed
the ground floor and threw the door open, practically falling forward into the
complete darkness waiting there.

For an instant, Desiree couldn’t breathe. “Damn.” One of her
senses was gone and her body had to choose how to react. She had to decide
whether she could no longer see, hear or breathe and make the other functions
start again. In the time it took to adjust, she fell back against a rough wall.
Desiree couldn’t see, but she could still hear the footsteps of the woman she
was chasing. Her shoes were giving her away. She strained to hear. The woman
was still running away from Desiree, only not as fast as she had before. The
woman might have also been blinded by the darkness, but she knew the way. That
gave her an advantage.

Desiree’s own breathing was loud in her ears. It echoed off
the wall and bounced around inside her head. Less disoriented now, she felt her
way along the wall, moving in the direction of the footsteps. As she moved,
even though there were no windows, it got less dark and she was able to make
out shadows around her. Old office furniture. She was in some kind of
subterranean basement.

The footsteps stopped abruptly. Desiree paused for a minute
and strained to hear and see anything that might give her a clue. There was
nothing, just the sound of her own breath inside her head. Her phone buzzed
like crazy in her pocket, but she ignored it. She had to focus or she would be
lost in the basement. Desiree shivered. The thought of being stuck in a dank,
dark place with heaven knows what wasn’t pleasant.

There was a cough ahead of her and to the right. Desiree
started down the hallway again, keeping one hand on the wall so she wouldn’t
get disoriented. Then suddenly, the wall disappeared. Desiree thrust both hands
out in front of her, feeling around to try to locate it, but she couldn’t. It
was pitch-black, there was no sound and she had no idea where she was. She
cursed, to herself this time.

Desiree listened hard again, hoping for another cough or
shuffle that would give her some clue about which direction she should go. No
one was that good. If the woman was still down there with her, she would make a
mistake sooner or later. Desiree tried to take a step back in order to re-find
the wall she’d been using to guide her. Uneasy, she took a step back. Instead
of a familiar, rough, hard surface, found herself up against a human body, one
much bigger and harder than hers, obviously male.

She gasped. Her breath caught in her throat. He was much
bigger than she was, practically a human wall himself. Had he been following
her the whole time? Desiree had been concentrating so hard on what was in front
of her, she didn’t even hear this very big person come up behind her. Panic
gripped her body. She tried to step away and spin around, but he stopped her. A
hairy arm looped around her body and he covered her mouth with his hand before
she could yell.

Desiree struggled against him, but he was more than twice
her size and held on to her with an iron grip. As anger flooded her body, she
struggled harder. What the hell was going on? Desiree’s training kicked in.
Without thinking, she moved the only part she really could and stomped down on
the man’s foot with her heel as hard as she could. She didn’t expect to really
hurt him, but the element of surprise might give her an advantage, even if only
for a few seconds.

And she got it. The unexpected move was enough to move her
assailant temporarily off balance. Desiree wrestled herself free, spun around
and took a swing into the darkness. She barely grazed him. He grunted as he
tried to move away, the sound giving Desiree a clue where to hit next.

She swung again, lower this time, in the generally vicinity
of where his groin might be. She missed, but suddenly the entire room was
flooded with light. Both Desiree and her assailant were temporarily blinded.

Sam screamed her name. “Desiree,” he said. “I’m here.”
Desiree blinked as her eyes tried to adjust. They were in a warehouse-type
room, as long as a football field. It appeared to run under all the buildings
on the street. They had been constructed for escape, or for people to move around
without having to go outside.

Her pulse pounded in her head as she switched to automatic.
Just as she had calculated, the man was almost twice her weight and a good six
inches taller. A look of confusion crossed his face as he looked past Desiree
to Sam. That one second was all it took. Desiree stepped back and let her leg
talk to his head. Her roundhouse kick landed, just as she planned, on the man’s
left ear. He stumbled backward. For a brief second, she was glad Sam had pushed
her so hard during training. Desiree turned and sprinted toward Sam, but the
man was too quick. He reached out and grabbed her again, slamming her against
the floor.

Her teeth chattered. Things moved in slow motion. Sam yelled
as he ran forward, hitting the man so hard he stumbled backward. Desiree tried
to make sense of what was going on from the ground but couldn’t quite focus. A
little voice in the back of her head kept screaming, only it wasn’t screaming
at her. “Shoot him,” it said, over and over. “Sam, why don’t you shoot him?”

There were no gun shots, only the sound of flesh against
flesh as Sam and the Mack truck fought. He may have been bigger, but Sam made
up for the other man’s size with his own quickness. Desiree rolled away.
Everything in her body ached. Slowly, she made her way to her feet and tried to
shake it off. She was stronger than this. Struggling to pull herself together,
Desiree gave herself a pep talk. Everything throbbed as she pulled herself to
standing. Finally on her feet, she leaned on the wall for support as the two
men fought near her.

The voice in her head stopped screaming at Sam and started
in on her. “Do something,” it screamed. “Is this what you trained all those
months for?” She took a deep breath and ignored the pain racking her body.
Desiree pulled back and threw a kick at the man’s hamstring.

She hit him in just the right place. He screamed and grabbed
his leg with one hand. He kept swinging at Sam with the other, but his aim was
off because his attention was now divided between the pain in his leg and his
opponent. The man stumbled, then grabbed Desiree again and threw her against
the wall like a rag doll. “Are you hurt?” Sam yelled.

The slight pause was all he needed. The Mack-truck man took
off running. He disappeared through a door. Sam ran for a bit. Desiree didn’t
follow. She couldn’t have if she wanted to. When Sam realized she wasn’t behind
him, he stopped in his tracks. Sam paced in a circle, then beat his hands
against the wall.

“Dammit,” he said. “You should never run into a dark space
like that without any backup. What were you thinking?” His chest heaved with
anger. “Who was that?”

Desiree groaned. “Someone who didn’t want me to catch
Geneva-look-alike.” Her breath came in heavy pants.

Her groan calmed Sam. His face softened for a minute and then
hardened again as he struggled with the conflict in his head. “I think we’re
going to have to ask the Jenilhams some hard questions.” He walked over to
Desiree, concerned. “You’re hurt, huh?”

Pride kept her from telling the whole truth. “Just a little
banged up. Nothing a hot bath won’t fix.” There were some things her partner
didn’t need to know.

“I’m sorry I yelled. Are you mad at me?” His eyes darted
around the basement, searching the shadows as he spoke.

She shook her head. “No, not at you. But I’d better never
see that woman again. I’ve got something for her. She made me sweat in my good
clothes.” Desiree hurt but made light of the situation to take both her and
Sam’s mind off her injuries.

That got a small smile from Sam. He shook his head and put
his arm around her waist. Desiree flinched. “I was hoping you’d have something
for me later.”

Her anger washed away. She chuckled. “Well, it all depends
on how well you nurse me back to health. Let’s go, please. There’s no telling
what else is down here.” Desiree leaned on Sam less than she needed to and Sam
took whatever she gave. Desiree railed at herself for getting into a situation
she hadn’t seen coming. Maybe Reed was right. Maybe she was not as on her game
as she needed to be. She both loved and hated that Sam had been there for her,
but she was also acutely aware her running into the dark basement hadn’t been a
smart thing to do. Her face burned with shame. She’d put them both in danger.

Sam was feeling some guilt too. He should have been the one
to go into the agency. And it shouldn’t have taken him so long to locate
Desiree. What if he’d come too late? His nostrils flared. There was no guessing
at what might have happened. He also hated that he cared so much. If anyone
else was his partner, sure, he would feel bad if they’d gotten themselves into
a scuffle, but they trained for that and it was part of the job. Sam hated that
for a few seconds his vision had been so clouded with anger, because all he had
been able to think of was that he might lose Desiree. Not Desiree, his partner,
but Desiree, the woman he loved. And that was a problem.

Party

The invitation was crafted of handmade paper. Sam ran his
fingers over it and appreciated its roughness. If nothing else, it had
definitely served to make both him and Desiree very curious. “Well, no expense
spared here.”

He turned the paper over in his hands. “Looks as if whomever
thought of this runs a class act. No corners cut, nothing. I could tell that from
the party the first night. All the alcohol was top shelf too.” Desiree
remembered the food seemed well done and had obviously been catered too.

They knew they would be invited to a gathering again, but
neither one of them believed it would be so soon. Just two days after the
Facebook message, the light-purple envelope had been pushed under their door
when they weren’t home. They’d checked the surveillance cameras and had come up
with nothing. There was no footage of anyone approaching the door, yet Sam was
still able to hold the evidence in his hands.
So much for technology.

“Do you think it means anything that it was only addressed
to you?” Desiree asked.

“Not sure, but I don’t think so. The envelope had my name,
but it’s clear they intended it for both of us. That could just be an
oversight. And “Comfort” could be either one of us.”

“Or both.” Desiree folded her hands across her chest, her
brow furrowed. “I’ve been called a lot of things, but oversight isn’t one of
them.” She tried her best not to pout but couldn’t help herself. She thought
she’d been doing a great job. After all, she thought she was the reason they’d
been invited into the inner circle of things so quickly. Maybe she was wrong.

“You’re going to have to put your pride aside, lady. All we
wanted was to be invited and we have been. It’s clear they want both of us.
There are two room keys here.”

Desiree took the elaborate key cards from Sam and examined
them closely. “I wonder what this is about, anyway. Who sends room keys as part
of a party invitation? And I’ve certainly never seen any room keys like these.”
Instead of being made of plastic, they appeared to be made of some thin metal.
The two keys were different. One had an abstract purple pattern all over it and
the other appeared to have a painting of some kind of flower in hues of red and
pink. No hotel she had ever been to had keys as elaborate as this.

“Apparently, this bunch does.” He shrugged. “Maybe the party
is in a fancy penthouse suite and we need these to operate the elevator.
Whatever it is, I guess we’re going to find out.”

* * * * *

Trepidation set in for Desiree as they arrived on a
tree-lined street similar to the street she’d visited for the consulting agency
just a few days ago. Sweat made her palms slick. Although it had turned out
just fine, she was still apprehensive as she remembered her encounter. That was
the first time she’d had to use her hand-to-hand combat skills in the field and
the fight kept playing over and over in her mind, like a replay at a football
game. She could still taste the hand that had slid over her mouth and the
bruises had not quite faded. A shudder ran through her and she pulled her light
jacket closer to her body. It wouldn’t help. The chill in Desiree’s bones had
nothing to do with temperature.

Sam was clearly uncomfortable too. He’d been unusually quiet
most of the afternoon. The grip he had on her had become just a tad too tight.

“Sam, you’re going to have to ease up, or we’re going to be
icing both my hand and my shoulder later.” He didn’t answer. Instead, he
loosened his grip a little and tried to be calm. Just like it had for Desiree,
the incident at the consulting company had made the separation between work and
life much more artificial. They’d only talked about it before and never had to
actually deal with fighting in the field. Things could get rough if either one
of them were hurt. They were both on edge and the thought of one of them sustaining
serious injury, or worse, was haunting them.

When they finally got to the building, Desiree noted it
didn’t look much different than the one she had been in earlier. It could have
been right next door. Just like the other building, this one was basically
unmarked and looked to be a mixed-use building too.

“We already figured out you can go in one door and come out
of the same building somewhere down the street,” Sam said.

“Or a block over. There seems to be a labyrinth inside of a
lot of these buildings. The architects were apparently mystery fans.” Desiree’s
voice was hushed.

“Or someone was a master at repurposing things.” Sam was
contemplative. The possibility for problems once they stepped inside the door
were endless. They could get lost inside and have a hard time getting out, just
like a real labyrinth. And the others involved would likely have an advantage
over them. They would know their way around. Sam nodded. “Anything is possible.
Hopefully there won’t be a reason to escape or flee tonight.” He licked his
lips. “So, there aren’t really any instructions on what to do here.”

“We can just ring the bell?” Desiree’s simple revelation was
enough to bring some levity to the situation. The both felt a little relief.

He turned the purple paper over in his hands. “It doesn’t
have a name or suite number or anything. That other building had several
companies and apartments inside.” They both took a deep breath as they stepped
through the elaborate double doors into a small vestibule. The post-war
building was a walk-up, an elevator had been retrofit, just like the one they’d
visited earlier, but unlike the consulting-agency building, there was no line
of doorbells with mailboxes and names next to it.

There was a small glass table just inside the entryway
adorned with a single vase of purple orchids. A purple carpet led the way to
the elevator door. They stood there and looked around. Sam made eye contact
with Desiree and shrugged. No mailboxes, no knocker, no directory. “Someone
really likes purple,” he said. The only button in sight seemed to be the
elevator call button so they followed the carpet to its end and Desiree pressed
the large gold button firmly.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. The room was so silent
that the sound of Sam and Desiree’s breathing echoed against the art deco
walls. Finally, the silence was interrupted by the slow creak of an elevator
approaching.

Desiree threaded her arm through Sam’s and prepared herself.
In just a few seconds, she would be thrust back into her role. No sooner had
she plastered her best Cover Girl smile on her face than the outer door of the
elevator slid open, revealing an old-fashioned wire grate.

There was a single person in the elevator—a man, clad head
to toe in a purple outfit that reminded Desiree of the uniforms of the Swiss guards
at the Vatican. A gold mask covered his eyes. He pulled the grate back and
blocked the entrance to the elevator with his body.

“Invitation?” he asked in a heavily accented voice as he
extended his hand.

Sam placed the purple envelope in the man’s palm. The
envelope and most of the man’s outfit were the same color. He peeked inside,
removed one of the key cards and then handed the invitation back to Sam and
stepped aside, ushering them into the small elevator. Once both Sam and Desiree
were inside, he pulled the grate closed once again, then pushed down on a
single lever in the elevator control panel.

The small boxlike elevator shuddered as the outside door
chugged closed and then bounced slightly as it made contact with the wall.
Desiree and Sam stared at each other but didn’t speak. Their eyes locked as the
elevator ascended. They both realized that there was no indicator anywhere that
said how many floors they would be going up. Instead, a red light came on as
soon as the door was fully shut. The elevator creaked and groaned as they rode
upward and both Sam and Desiree were acutely aware of the slight side-to-side
sway. Desiree held her breath, feeling slightly claustrophobic. The man didn’t
speak to them again or otherwise act concerned. He stared upward, in the
direction of the red light, and didn’t turn his head in either direction.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the elevator
stopped. The operator cleared his throat, then threw his lever again. A
different wall of the elevator creaked open this time.

Surprised, both Desiree and Sam jumped.

There was no gate on this side. Instead, the elevator opened
directly into the center of a dimly lit room. The elevator operator stepped
into the room, cleared his throat and announced them very loudly. Sam and
Desiree glanced at each other quickly and then away, concentrating on their new
surroundings. A few people stopped what they were doing and turned around to
look in their direction. They were on display, not unlike animals had been in
the
Jardin d’Acclimatation
in Paris.

The whole thing struck Desiree as a bit over-the-top, almost
ridiculous. She did her best to stifle the nervous laughter building in her.
The elevator operator, on the other hand, was very serious. He made a great
ceremony of taking the key card he’d removed from their invitation and dropping
it in a small slot at the top of what looked like a chrome mailbox in the
center of the floor. Instead of turning around, he stiffly walked backward,
retreating back inside the elevator. Desiree and Sam were stuck dumb as the
door closed in front of them, leaving them standing in the middle of the room.

The room was almost full and everyone in it was quickly back
to whatever they had been doing before but no one made a move to acknowledge
their entry, even after all the fanfare that had announced their arrival. Just
like at the cocktail party, people stood around in groups of two or three, too
close to each other and almost all clutched some type of drink. Instrumental
music played in the background, just loud enough to make the room seem warm,
but not so loud conversation was impossible. Desiree listened hard to the
people around her. Most of the people were probably just guests, but sometimes
information could be found in unexpected places.

The walls were lined with mirrors and appeared to be far
away from where they stood. They reflected on themselves, making it hard to
tell just how many people were in the room or even how big the room actually
was.

Every few feet, the vastness of the room they had entered
was punctuated by a small, round beverage table. People were clustered around
these, some leaning, some standing and resting their drinks on them. There were
few seats. Desiree looked around and noticed just a few couches around the
perimeter of the room but not one person was sitting.

“I wonder what they’re waiting for,” Sam said. He took a
drink from the table and handed one to Desiree.

“What do you mean?”

“They all look like they are waiting for something.”

Desiree looked around. “You’re right. They all seem to be on
edge. Maybe waiting for their liquid courage to kick in.”

“Or something.”

It was the “or something” that left them both in a state of
unease. Desiree moved closer to Sam, taking his hand. “What do you think he did
with the key card?”

Sam shrugged. “More importantly, did he do the same thing
for everyone?” Desiree smiled and tried to look as if they were having a normal
conversation. If they acted like everyone else, people would assume they
belonged, even if they didn’t recognize them.

“I’m sure we’ll soon find out.” A smile was plastered to his
face as he raised a glass in response to a woman across the room. Sam was a
master at this part of his job. He could play along with just about anything.

They didn’t have to wonder long. At that moment, the lights
got just a tad brighter and the music dimmed. Someone cleared their throat into
a microphone.

“
Bonjour, mes amis,
” the voice said. “Thank you for
joining us.” Both Desiree and Sam quickly scanned the room for the origin of
the voice.

“That sounds like Martin Jenilham.” Desiree’s voice was
barely above a whisper.

“It is.” Sam had finally found where the voice was coming
from. There was a small podium in one area of the room and Martin was standing
at it, speaking into a small microphone. The level of noise in the room lowered
and all eyes in the room appeared to be pointed in his direction. One woman
stood closer to him than anyone else. She didn’t appear to be comfortable with
the spotlight on her. Her smile was stiff and there was a certain formality to
her posture.

For a split second, she reminded Desiree of Vanna White. She
looked closer, studying her. She was familiar. There was something about the
way she stood there, half in a proprietary way and sort of like a trophy that
made her stand apart from other people around them.

“The fact that you are here tonight,” Martin continued, “means
you are special. Chosen. Only a few people get invited into our special circle
and we hope you will make the most of your invitation.” He paused and light
applause sounded through the room. “Here, we do what we want. Whatever your
fantasy is, you can have it come true here. In the company of mutually
consenting adults. We have only two rules. The first, this place is like Vegas
in France. What happens here stays here.” Laughter sounded throughout the
crowd. “The second, you must have fun. We hope you left your inhibitions
outside, because the fun is about to begin. If you don’t know what your fantasy
is, we are here to help you discover it.”

For a second, she was reminded of the place in India, from
their last mission. Desiree tried to keep a poker face as she and Sam made eye
contact. Apparently, they had arrived just in time for whatever festivities
were about to begin. “Where do you think Geneva is? I see a couple of people
from the other party but I don’t see her.”

“Not sure. Martin seems to be running the show here, though.”