Trust Me (17 page)

“Are you sure?  You don't sound right.”

  “Yeah, I'm sure.  I told you it's just
been a stressful case, nothing out of the ordinary.” Alaina winced at the lie
as it left her mouth.

“Nothing out of the ordinary,
huh?
  I don't think so,
something is really bothering you. I wish you would tell me about it.”

“Elise, I'm fine, why don't we talk about you? 
How's work?” 

Their conversation went on as it normally did,
discussing work, dating and world events.  Alaina noticed Lynn and Donovan
were beginning to look bored as the conversation continued, but she really
didn't care.  After all she was supposed to act normally, and this was
part of her daily routine; if she had cut the conversation short Elise might
have thought something was wrong and her friend already had her
suspicions.  

When Alaina hung up the phone she asked, “So where do I
record all my calls?”

Lynn got up, picked up a pad of paper tossing it to
Alaina, “This will do. Don't forget one of us has to be present every time you
make a call.”

Alaina was fed up with Lynn's attitude. “Agent
McAllister, do you have a problem?  You seem to have something that you
want to say to me.”

Lynn gave her a cool stare, nonplussed by Alaina's
confrontation.
“Not at all.”
  Lynn obviously
wasn't going to reveal any more.

Alaina concluded that Lynn must have found out about
what had happened between herself and Donovan the previous night.
  If that was the case, there was nothing Alaina could do about
it.  She would just try to ignore it, although that might prove to be
difficult in these close quarters.

She waited until Lynn left the room.  Alaina
figured she probably had to use the washroom.  She looked at Donovan who
was working on his laptop, “She knows doesn’t she?”

He raised his head from the computer screen giving her
an apologetic grimace, “Yeah, she heard us last night and came down to investigate.”

“Oh God, I feel totally mortified.” Really could she
be any more embarrassed?

“Try not to think about it.  That’s what I’m
doing,” he said as he shrugged and returned to his work.

“Oh like that will help!” What a typical man! 
Like ignoring it would make it go away.

“Trust me, it helps,” he said without raising his head
again.

“I wonder how long she
watched?
”
It was too horrible to contemplate, but yet she couldn’t seem to stop.

Donovan’s looked up from his laptop.  His voice
was completely deadpan as he said, “Since my performance was stellar I’m not
concerned.” 

She reached over and grabbed a pillow from the couch
and threw it at his head just as Lynn re-entered the room.  Donovan easily
grabbed the pillow and tucked it behind his back as he said, “Thanks Alaina,
that’s much more comfortable.”

Alaina shot him a narrowed glance but she certainly
wasn’t going to continue this conversation in front of Lynn.

Lynn looked from one to the other and shrugged. 
She then moved to the table and started working on her laptop as well.

Alaina felt frustrated with nothing to do so she
asked, “If you two are working on the case is there something I can do to
help?”

Donovan and Lynn exchanged a silent look. Lynn gave
Donovan a nod
,  so
he turned to her and said, “If
you want you can go through the file I gave you concerning the bombing and see
if you see something we missed?  You might have information that you’re
not even aware of.”

Alaina was pleased to have something worthwhile to
do.  Donovan handed her the file again and she began reading it in more
detail.  She took her time hoping something would jump out at her. 
She kept reading about the bombing locations and she knew there was something
about them that was bothering her, but she just couldn’t figure it
out.  

The next couple days passed slowly, following an
unplanned routine.  In the morning Alaina would call the office, and then
she would make her usual phone call to Elise.  She was able to take
advantage of the pool since Lynn had kindly gone shopping and bought her a
bathing suit.  Alaina tried to approach the time like a holiday, but
Lynn’s hostility was beginning to get annoying.  With nothing to do, she
decided to win Lynn over. 

After she finished her morning swim, she dried herself
off looked over at Lynn and asked, “Do you play euchre?”

Lynn looked at her surprised before saying, “Are you
kidding?  I love euchre.”

“Awesome, let’s get a deck of cards and play,” she
said as she pulled on a pair of shorts and t-shirt over her bathing suit.

Lynn got up from the patio chair, “I think I saw a
deck in the one of the drawers.” She went into the condo and came back holding
up her find.
“Success.”
She had even brought a pad and
pencil to keep score.

They were just sitting down at the patio table to
start their game when Donovan came outside. “What’s up?”

Alaina glanced at him.  He was wearing jeans and
a t-shirt and looked sexy as hell.

“We’re going to play euchre.  Want to join us?” she
asked as she pulled her wet hair back into a ponytail.

Donovan pulled up a chair. “Sure you don’t want to
play poker?”

Alaina glanced at Lynn. “It’s your call?”

“Let’s stick with euchre. We’d need chips for poker,”
Lynn answered.

“I thought you needed four people for euchre?” Donovan
asked.

Alaina smiled. “You can play with three, and then it’s
called cut throat euchre.”

Donovan grinned. “Who knew euchre was so blood
thirsty?”

Alaina glanced over at Lynn. “He’s obviously an
amateur.”

Lynn began to shuffle. “Great, I’ll deal.  Loser
has to make dinner and just so you know, I was raised on euchre so you two are
definitely in the kitchen tonight.”

Donovan shot Alaina a sideways glance. “I told you we
should have played poker.”

Alaina ignored Donovan as she said, “Don’t be so sure
I was raised on euchre too.”

“Isn’t anyone concerned about my skills?” 
Donovan asked.

Lynn grabbed the cards and shuffled.  Shaking her
head she replied, “No not really Prentice.  You have a reputation of
sucking at cards.”

Alaina laughed in delight. “No, does he really?”

Lynn nodded sagely.
“Yep.”

Donovan looked affronted. “Deal Lynn and I’ll show you
those rumors are nothing but vicious propaganda.”

Lynn dealt the cards, and they passed the afternoon
playing euchre.  Donovan definitely held
his own,
but Lynn was the superior player.  There was something about the game that
created a sense of camaraderie.  Lynn who had been chilly the last couple
of days noticeably warmed up.  There certainly was a great deal of good-natured
trash talking and competition.  The simple card game seemed to ease the
tension in the house

Alaina couldn’t contain her laughter by the time Lynn
took the final trick since it was apparent Donovan wasn’t used to losing.
“Lynn, remind me not to run into you in a dark alley.  You’re ruthless.”

“Of course I am, you can’t work in a male dominated
profession and not be,” she said good-naturedly.

Alaina rolled her eyes and complained, “Tell me about
it.  I had to learn to play golf and drink scotch.  I hate golf.”

“But you don’t hate scotch?” Lynn asked smiling.

“Well I did at first, but it kind of grows on you.”

Donovan sighed dramatically. “It sounds like you’ve
suffered a lot with having to drink all that scotch, but it looks like we’re
cooking tonight.”

Lynn smiled. “Excellent, I hate cooking,” she said as
rose from her chair and went back into the condo to put the cards away. 

Alaina sent Donovan an apologetic look. “I should warn
you, I can’t cook.”

Donovan narrowed his eyes. “When you say you can’t cook,
what exactly does that mean?  Can you follow a recipe?”

She squirmed at bit in her chair.
“Sometimes?”

Donovan inclined his head toward Alaina, “Okay, it
looks like we’re going to have a cooking lesson.  You can be my sous
chef.”

That sounded intriguing she thought. “Oooh, is that
kinky cooking?”

He shook his head, trying to look apologetic.
“’Fraid not.
  It just means you’ll be doing the grunt
work.”

“Does that mean I’ll be your kitchen slave?” she asked
in a husky tone.  Elise would be so proud.

Donovan gave her a stern look. “Stop that.”

She tried to look innocent. “What?”

Donovan rose from his chair and he leaned over placing
a finger under her chin. “Meet me in the kitchen at 5:30 slave.” And with that
he went back into the condo leaving her to fantasize about all the fun things
they could do with her as kitchen slave.

That night she worked with Donovan in the kitchen
while they prepared a simple meal of steak, roasted potatoes and salad. 
She followed Donovan’s directions and found that cooking wasn’t so bad after
all.  She peeled potatoes, chopped vegetables and even learned how to make
a salad dressing.  Maybe she could learn to cook.  She just needed
the right teacher.  While they worked together they laughed and flirted
while Lynn graciously pretended not to notice.

The three of them sat down to a lovely dinner much to
Alaina’s surprise since she had been involved in the preparation.

Lynn raised her water glass. “Good work you two.”

Alaina raised her glass as well. “Well, Donovan should
get all the credit.  I just followed his instructions.”  She looked
over at Donovan and asked, “How did you learn to cook?”

Donovan shrugged and replied, “I mostly taught
myself.  I like to eat so learning to cook seemed to be the simplest solution. 
Besides ladies it’s steak and potatoes not rocket science”

Alaina laughed. “Well it seems like rocket science to
me.  I like to eat, but I’ve never learned to cook.”

“Me either,” Lynn added.

“Well Lynn, I guess we’ll just leave the cooking to
Donovan.”

Lynn nodded, “Works for me.”

Donovan sent Alaina a slightly smoldering look.
“As long as I get to keep my kitchen slave.”
 

Alaina blushed as a thrill went through her body at
that look.  She took a big bite of steak to try and hide her reaction. She
hoped Lynn didn’t notice. 

The rest of dinner went smoothly as they talked about
world events.  The three of them decided after dinner that it was time for
more euchre

The next day while Alaina was enjoying her morning
swim the distinct sound of a cell phone reverberated through the air. 

Donovan pulled the phone out of his shirt pocket,
“Prentice,” he stated firmly.  Alaina swam up to the side of the pool deck
expectantly. 

Donovan listened intently. “Okay, thanks Adams, that's
what we've been waiting for.” He turned off his phone, returning it to his
pocket before saying, “Well that was the news we all wanted to hear.  The
judge ruled in favor of the FBI's subpoena, disallowing Alaina's appeal against
disclosure.”

Alaina laughed in relief, “Well I never thought I
would be glad to hear I lost a case.  Just out of professional curiosity,
on what basis did the judge overturn my arguments?”

“On your first argument that access would violate
First Amendment Rights to free speech and association, the judge ruled you were
attempting to assert these claims too broadly. Your second argument of archival
privilege was completely discounted.  The judge didn’t believe the
academic freedom precedents you cited applied.  In addition, he thought it
was a dangerous precedent to keep otherwise discoverable documents from
disclosure by the simple fact they had been placed in an archive under a
restricted donor agreement.”

Alaina was slightly miffed. “Well I thought my
academic freedom citations were excellent.  Oh well, if I had to lose a
case I'm glad it was this one.  When can I go home?”

Donovan was not smiling as he said, “The problem is,
even though the FBI has the documents, it doesn't mean the evidence we're
looking for is necessarily in them.  The OAS seems to think you have
incriminating evidence against them, so you're not going to be safe until we
find whatever that may be.”

“Are you saying I could be in protective custody until
this case is done or until we figure out what evidence it is that they think I
have?”

Donovan looked at her apologetically. “We wouldn't
keep you in protective custody for such an extended period. The next phase, if
it proves to be necessary, would have to be witness relocation.”

“Relocation?
  I don't even know anything!  Why didn't
you tell me about this before?” Alaina demanded, becoming frightened at what
she was hearing.