The Protector (38 page)

“Sonny? I don’t want to go, but it’s the only way I can find out for sure who is after you.  Seth was able to find out some information. But I can’t track them with you.  You will be safe here.”

She slowly walked over and put her finger to my lip.  “Shhhh.”

I took her hand in mine and pulled her closer to me. “You look amazing. More amazing than I ever imagined.” She still didn’t smile, instead tears welled up at the corner of her eyes. And she looked away from me. 

“You promised.” She whispered.

“I know, but I will be back. I promise.”

“Don’t make a promise you won’t keep Jack.”

Her words stung. But this was a promise I intended to keep. “I promised you I would protect you to the end and I will Sonny, I will.” I reached under her chin to pull her face closer to mine.  “Why are you going to see him this afternoon?” The words were no more than a mere whisper off my lips. 

“I have to.”  I reached my hand up into her hair as she buried her face into my chest. “I realized that I will have to face him someday and there is no better time than the present.”

I pushed her shoulders away so she would have to look me in the face. A strange expression crossed hers as she looked into my eyes. “You are going to dump him looking like that?” I asked barely able to spit it out.

“Who said dumping him?” Her eyes were filled with surprise and irritation. “It was you who said I needed to figure out how I feel about him. While I am here, I guess I had better do that.” 

I couldn’t think of anything to say. Once again she had stopped me in my own tracks with my own words.  Sure there were lots of things I wanted to say to her.  So many things I wanted to profess. And I wanted desperately to wrap my arms around her and sleep beside her as I did last night. I wanted to continue where we had left off this morning. 

Sonny finally pushed herself away and walked to where her purse sat on the dresser. “Noor said she would take me to the station to meet him.  She said she would keep an eye on things. She didn’t think there was anything wrong with him bringing me back here. As long as he didn’t follow me up to my room.”

“No, he can’t follow you up to the room.” My response was harsh and raw.  I did not want him anywhere near this room or a bed!  “I got you a car to have so it fit the story.  It’s downstairs. That way you won’t have to rely him for a vehicle. Noor will have mine.” I didn’t explain to her that he would recognize my car since he had almost ticketed me less than an hour before.

“Thank you.”

“I will watch you tonight and Noor can take over tomorrow.”

She didn’t respond. I walked up behind her and turned so she was once again facing me. I bent down wanting so desperately to kiss her lips, but again she moved out of my grip. The ache in my chest was intense and my heart pounded so hard I was sure it would break out of my chest.   “Sonny,” I groaned desperately, pulling her close to me again.

“Jack,” her voice was strained, “Don’t do this please.” 

I didn’t want to release her from my grip but I did. “Will you make me a promise?” 

Her eyes met mine as she took a few steps backwards and sat on the bed. “What is it?”

“Don’t do anything stupid while I am gone please.”

She looked at me with such humor in her expression I thought she was going to bust out laughing hysterically at me. “What sleep with him?”

“No,” I could feel the heat rise in my face and the anger well up in my chest once again. I shifted my stance in frustration, “Try and hand over the processor on your own.” I turned to walk out of the room but quickly changed my mind and stopped before I reached the door. “And don’t sleep with him,” I quietly said under my breath, but I knew she could hear me.

I left the room with her laughter in the background. As I walked through the doorway to grab the keys to the rental car, a devastating feeling enveloped me as I thought of him holding her in his arms.

Noor rose from where she sat, but Joed stayed as I walked in grabbed my keys and hers.  “Come on, we’re leaving,” I muttered to both of them. 

“You are not all coming,” Alison protested. I had not realized she had followed me into the room.

“Yep, here’s the keys to the car. It’s the silver Nissan Maxima outside. It’s under an assumed name so please don’t speed. But just in case, Noor has your passport and
driver’s
license that match the rental name on the car.” I turned and threw her the keys to the car and turned back to the two stunned faces. “I said let’s go!.”  I had raised my voice and put enough force in it that both Noor and Joed moved.

“NO!” Alison yelled.  In all her glamour, she was still a force to be reckoned with. “Noor is going and that is it.”  She walked directly to me and grabbed the BMW keys out of my hand and threw them to Noor, who caught them effortlessly.

Surprisingly enough she did not have a smirk on her face. Instead she was registering pure shock as Alison had put her foot down.  Noor walked back into her room to grab her things.   Alison turned and followed her.

Joed who had stood up during the whole exchanged only shrugged his shoulders and sat back down to watch the baseball game. “If you think I am getting in the middle of this, you are sadly mistaken my friend. I suggest you sit down and watch the game. Noor will call if there are any problems.”

“Call?” Once again a thought registered in my head. Everyone in had a cell phone but Alison. Hers had been destroyed and it was traceable anyway.  I reached in my pocket and walked into the room where the two women stood talking quietly. I flipped the slim black phone over and over in my hands.

“Sonny?”

“Jack, let it go.”  She answered not looking at me.

I ignored her and walked up to her. “Take my cell phone please. Seth is getting me another one when I get to DC. I need you to be able to stay in contact when you are away from Noor.” I walked over and handed her the phone.   She hesitated as she took it.

This was a battle I had to accept I had lost.  Noor was going to accompany her this afternoon and there was nothing I could do about it.  Noor saw the intense look in my eyes and began to walk away from Alison, “I’ll meet you downstairs Alison.”

Alison turned to follow but I grabbed her arm and pulled her close to me once again. This time she didn’t resist nor did she push herself away to avoid me. “Be careful,” I seethed. For the second time that day, I lowered my mouth to touch hers.  As she did earlier in the morning she didn’t resist.

I didn’t let the kiss linger any longer than was necessary. I pulled away from her and waited for her to walk away from me, but she didn’t, she stood there looking away toward the door.  She seemed to be a million miles away.

“Be careful Jack,” she finally said her voice shaky.    I didn’t watch as she turned and walked out of the room and I didn’t move until I heard the door to the room close.

21
Old Flames and withering hearts

I refused to let the tears fall as I walked out of the hotel room.  I didn’t want Noor to see, as I knew she would know immediately that the tears were for Jack and I didn’t want Eric to see the sadness I was feeling.  I wanted him to know I was happy to see him. 

Noor was standing beside the BMW, which was parked next to the car Jack had rented for me. “Ready,” she asked with concern in her voice.

I nodded my head. I was afraid if I opened my mouth the tears would start coming and that was the last thing I wanted. I opened the door and put my purse in.  Noor just stood there watching me. “Yep,” I responded to her. The look of concern never left her face.  She only nodded her head and turned to get in to Jack’s car.

It took only a few minutes to get to the police station. I knew his schedule and I knew he would be there. I wanted to surprise him. I knew he was mad because I hadn’t called him or tried to make contact in the few weeks. I was sure he had talked to my mom who had told him I was out of the country for work again.  But I knew that wouldn’t satisfy him for long.

I pulled into the station and watched in my rear view mirror as Noor drove past the station. I wasn’t sure where she was going to go, but I knew she would be close in case I needed her. She had reassured me several times that for now I was safe. For the most part everyone thought Jack and I were in South America and that was fine by me.

I checked my hair and
makeup
in the mirror and got out of the car.  I wasn’t used to wearing dresses and I definitely wasn’t used to wearing such high heels.  I carefully pulled the dress down just a bit and checked my image in the car window as I closed the door.  I wasn’t used to looking at myself in the mirror, but I had to admit, I looked rather nice. Jack had nice taste in clothes I said to myself as I clumsily walked toward the station door.

The full impact of what I was wearing didn’t hit me until I walked into the station and watched as several heads turned toward me.  I ignored everyone and walked up to the desk.

“Can I help you?” The older man asked me.  His eyes followed my figure up and down. 

I wanted to run out of the station, but I knew the moment I turned, I would fall flat on my face because of the heels.  “Um, Officer Eric Hughes please?” I asked nervously.

My hands had begun to shake and I did everything in my power to hold on to the keys I still had in my hands.

“Can I tell him who’s here?” The man, probably in his fifties, seemed familiar to me. I was sure that Eric had once introduced us at one time but I could not remember his name or anything else. My head was pounding as I searched frantically for his name tag. Johnson I quickly read.

“Well it’s kind of a surprise officer Johnson, I’m Alison, his.. “ I stuttered not quite knowing how to answer exactly what I was to Eric.

“His fiancé?”

I could only nod my in response. So, he had spread the word even though I had not accepted his proposal. I also hadn’t turned it down either. I leaned into the desk to steady myself.  My knees were shaking so bad I was afraid I was going to fall over. My hair fell down into my face and I could smell the lilac scented shampoo I had used in the shower. Oddly enough it calmed my nerves. I hadn’t noticed the door open beside the desk and the two men walk out. I heard the chatter between them and recognized one of the voices and my heart shuddered in my chest.   I looked up and met Eric’s eyes.

His eyes grew wide as he looked at me standing at the desk. I smiled innocently at the man who had proclaimed to everyone his future plans for me.

“Alison?”

“Hi,” I said quietly.  I wasn’t sure if he heard me but before I knew it he had taken the two steps to reach me. His arms encircled me and I was being swung around like a rag doll.  My purse went flying and hit the officer he had walked out with squarely in the gut.  Thank God I had not put the gun in there that Noor had insisted I take. It was tucked safely under the seat of the car.

“Put me down Eric!” I yelled. He let go of me and the landing was not as graceful as I hoped it would be. As I began to slip, I felt Eric’s hand grab my elbow and held me up.

“Thank you,” I muttered.

“What are you doing here? You haven’t returned any of my calls and your mom said you were out of the country.”  He fired the questions at me like a professional. 

I took a deep breath and looked at him, “I’ve been away on business.” Eric’s friend handed my purse. “Thank you.”   I turned on my heels and walked to where he stood.  “Look we can talk about that in a bit.  I am here now  - surprise.”

Eric gave me a puzzled look and grabbed my hand and began to drag me through the door. “See ya guys.” I meagerly held up my hand and waved at the two men standing there.  Both had huge grins from ear to ear but nothing matched the smile Eric had on his face. I felt bad for him as he walked out into the parking lot. I wasn’t sure how this whole thing was going to end, but I knew I didn’t want him to get hurt.

I barely kept pace with him as we walked.  I had decided earlier that I was going to toss these shoes into the Rogue River behind the hotel when I got back to the room. I stopped as we reached the Maxima I was driving.  Eric continued to walk but quickly turned when he noticed I was not walking with him. He had been talking since we walked out of the station but I didn’t hear any of it. I scanned everywhere for the black BMW and Noor.  The sun had sunk below the building and the shadow of the day made it difficult for me to see. I didn’t see her anywhere. My heart began to thud as panic took over. Finally, I noticed lights flash off and on in the parking lot across the street. I took a deep breath of relief as I noticed the sleek dark car hidden. If I Noor had not flashed the lights to let me know she was there I would have completely missed the dark sedan.

“Rental car?” Eric walked up behind me and wrapped his hand around my waist pulling me close to him. I could feel every part of his body against the thin material of my dress.

“Yes. I was in Portland on business and decided to drive down and surprise you.” Noor, Joed and I had come up with a cover story and I prayed it was good enough for Eric to believe. I also hoped he would not catch on to my nervousness as I told the lie.

Eric’s arm tightened around my waist and I could feel my body tense up in anticipation of his next move. He turned me around and slowly tilted his head and kissed my lips.  My lips were stone and did not respond.  He didn’t seem to notice, or if he did he didn’t let on. “You look amazing Alison,” he breathed in as he moved his face from mine.  “Absolutely amazing. I don’t think I have ever seen you dress like this, heels and all.”