Do you come here often?
I looked down the length of the pool cue, unable or unwilling to look up at the person holding it. I was shaking slightly, and no matter how much I wanted to tell myself it was from low blood sugar, I knew fear when I felt it. And I was terrified. Each of these men was easily twice my size, and I was completely unarmed. They had pool cues and goodness knows what else. As I stood there, unable to move, I felt another one of the men walk up close behind me. I could feel the heat radiating from his body and his breath tickled my neck. It wasn’t a good excited like the movies or books, it was terrifying. Sure, there was a chance I’d just run into the gruff biker with the heart of gold, but that was unlikely, and I knew it.
“Hey, baby, you come here often?” the voice behind me said. Even with the slick, tough-boy tone I recognized that voice. I almost fainted in relief, but instead I turned around and smacked him in the chest with my purse.
“What the hell, Jake?” All of my fear turned to anger, and I started shaking even more. Toss a coin belt on me and I would have made any belly dance instructor proud.
He just laughed, and grabbed my arm. I let him pull me to a back table just as Robert came back in, swearing and yelling about his car being broken into. The other men in the bar ignored him, and he sulkily settled back at the bar for another drink while he waited for the police.
“Gimme your keys,” Jake said. I handed them over without thinking, and he handed them to another huge, rough-looking man standing next to him. Without a word, the man nodded and left the bar. Presumably to move my car. Or set it on fire. I honestly wasn’t sure any more.
“What the hell, Jake?” I repeated myself, but I didn’t know what else to say.
He sighed and settled back into his chair, stretching out his long legs in front of him. I tried not to notice how good they looked in his worn-out jeans. I’d always imagined him as more of a cowboy than a biker, but this suited him. “You’re in deep shit, Sandra.”
“Really? Tell me something I didn’t know.” I was being snippy, but I thought I deserved it. “Like, perhaps, what the hell you are doing here.”
“Working.” He raised an eyebrow at me. I hated that. It was so sexy and disarming.
“You work at a graphic design firm,” I said, but my voice wasn’t as sure as it should have been.
“No, I don’t.” He signaled to the bartender, who brought over two drinks. A beer for him, and a Pepsi for me. The man did know me. I took a deep swallow and felt a little better as the sugar rushed into my bloodstream. My stomach rumbled again, reminding me that the ten minutes were up, and we had a deal. Jake smiled and signaled the bartender again. “I should say, I don’t anymore.”
“You switched jobs again? What is your problem?” As long as I’d known him, Jake had rarely kept the same job for more than a few months. I’d chalked it up to his artistic temperment. It would have bothered me more if he was ever unemployed, but he always seemed to get a new job right away and seemed responsible with money. It never occurred to me that it was anything other than…
“You’re a spy,” I said softly. A lot of things suddenly made sense. Things not quite said. The undercurrent to our arguments. And looking back, I could see where a lot of things were slightly out of kilter, but I dismissed them at the time. Hindsight, you know. It’s funny, they say you can’t change the past, and that might be true in a strictly factual sense. But when you change what you know about the past, and your perception changes, you realize that in a way you have changed your past. It’s a sobering and slightly depressing realization, because rarely does it change for the better.
He nodded, and took a sip of beer. “Not your kind, though.” He seemed about to elaborate, but fell silent again.
“Corporate.” I said, and it wasn’t a question. It seemed logical, and the job-hopping made sense. He’d always landed decent jobs at very large firms, no matter why he’d left the last. That should have seemed suspicious, but I was too wrapped up in my own job to take proper notice. He was probably investigating things like insider trading and tax fraud, getting the dirt on the CEOs and accountants.
He didn’t say anything. We stared at each other for a little while, and I hoped he’d elaborate, but keeping silent is the oldest trick in the book, and he was better at it. I broke first, and spoke up.
“Third time’s a charm, right? What the hell is going on, Jake?” Just then the bartender came out of the back with a club sandwich and a pile of fries, and I could have kissed him. I was so hungry I ate half the sandwich before I even realized Jake hadn’t answered me yet, and I looked up to give him a accusatory stare.
He grinned at me. “I’ll answer your questions after you eat, and we get out of here. But we can’t leave until your pal over there does. I don’t want to take any chances and draw any attention to you.”
I nodded, and concentrated on finishing the food. The bartender brought me a refill of my Pepsi, and we sat in silence, waiting for the police to arrive so Robert would leave. He didn’t seem bothered by the wait, though, and was getting really drunk for a man just nursing a beer.
“How many did he have before I got in here?” I asked. It had taken me a little while to gather up my courage and change clothes, but not that long.
“It’s not the beer,” Jake said. He shared another look with the bartender, who gave him a curt nod in response. Whatever they had going was on track. Suddenly I wasn’t so sure about my conclusion of corporate spy. This seemed a lot more dangerous. But he wasn’t going to tell me anything here, I’d just have to bide my time. I settled down with my Pepsi and waited.
Twenty minutes later the cops had shown up, took his statement and the statements of a few people in the bar, chalked it up to a random burglary, and had made Robert give up his keys to a biker who swore they were friends and that he would see that he got home safely. I visited the restroom one more time, then followed Jake out to the parking lot.
I don’t know why I was shocked when he handed me a motorcycle helmet, but I was. “Where’s your truck?” I asked.
“It wasn’t really keeping with the biker image,” he said. He stood, waiting patiently, as I stared at the helmet.
“I don’t like motorcycles.”
“You don’t really have a choice right now,” he said gently. “I promise to go slow and not do anything crazy.” He gave me a smile that I’m sure was supposed to be reassuring, but fell short.
“Yes I do. Where’s my car?” I looked up and down the street, but there was no sign of it.
“It’s been taken to a warehouse, where my boys are going over it with a fine-tooth comb to see if anything has been planted on it or if it’s been tampered with. We don’t think so, because we’ve kept an eye on it as much as we could, and sweep it every chance we get, but with your recent trip we just want to make completely sure.” He leaned close as he spoke to me, and it took all of my willpower not to lean into him. He looked rough and tough, but he smelled nice. Damn my hormones.
“You’re the one who gave me the car,” I said stupidly.
“Yes, that was us.”
“And you’ve been keeping tabs on me?” I didn’t know whether to be angry or relieved. If Jake had been keeping an eye on me, I’d never been in real danger. And yet, I think I’d proven I didn’t need to be watched over.
“Yes. I wasn’t going to let anything happen to you, though I admit you did give us the slip a few times. You’re good. If it hadn’t been for…” he trailed off, looking uncomfortable.
“Been for what?”
“Let’s get going, we have a limited amount of time here.” He shoved at the helmet in my hands, prodding me to put it on.
“Hadn’t been for what?” I asked again, my voice markedly louder.
He mumbled something under his breath.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that. If it hadn’t been for what?”
“The tracking device,” he said quietly.
“The what? I’m sorry, I can’t have heard you properly. You’ve been tracking me? Since when?” Suddenly I remembered running the bug finder over myself and the car earlier. “Wait, you can’t be. I used Robert’s bug finder, and it didn’t pick up anything. And those things are the best, top-of-the-line. If there was anything to find, it would. Unless….” A thought occurred to me and my breath caught.
He watched me closely, still not saying anything. I felt myself on the edge of tears and cursed under my breath. Now was not the time to fall apart. No matter what, I had to keep myself together. Whatever Jake was, whoever he worked for, at least they were there to help me. That’s all that mattered. I dropped the helmet on his motorcycle and walked away. He didn’t try to stop me.
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