Contingencies, page 25
He kissed her head lightly. He was sorry they had danced around each other for so long.
“Since we are confessing,” she said, “I have to tell you that some of my nightmares aren’t what you’d consider normal. That one more so because it was about you. Well, your death.”
“Like visions?”
“When you say it out loud, I feel like some sideshow freak.”
“I didn’t mean…”
“It’s okay, really,” she said. “They’re more like warnings. Some are vague and build over time but this one…I’ve only had one other as intense. When my parents died.” She continued playing with the lace. “I warned you I was a mess.”
He was at a loss for any words of comfort. Her seriousness rattled him. “What did you dream?” he asked.
“This black boney figure, like a reaper, put a bullet in your head then laughed at me. He said it was my fault you were dead. That I was the perfect distraction.”
Unnerved by the reference, Reilly did not tell her about Mariner’s nickname. It would only scare her more. The bullet that found Viktor was truly meant for him. “You could’ve told me,” Reilly said. “I would’ve done anything you wanted.” He kissed her mouth again. “Anything.”
“You actually did help in a way.” She gently ran her fingertips over his left bicep. “Well, this did.”
He thought about past comments made about his tattoo. The dragon was too dark, too fierce, too menacing. They never knew the reason why he had it or its meaning, nor did they even think to ask. Because of those reactions, he had never cared to explain.
“I focused on your shoulder until I fell asleep,” she explained. “I repeated over and over that it stood for power, protection of family and home, longevity.” Dani smiled deeply. “I focused a lot on the longevity part. It’s really a great tribute to Hank.”
“How’d you know that? Wait, never mind how. You know and that’s all that matters.”
“I know what he meant to you – the fights – how he always had your back. I’m guessing it was kind of rough growing up with the name Adrian.”
“There were no baseball or football greats when I was a kid so I expected the snickering at roll call. But later, when the taunting turned to shoves and fists, only Hank stepped up. He knew all about being odd man out. We sat with our faces cut and bruised, hands bloodied, and begged not to be sent home.”
“He was from a strict Japanese family?”
“Man, what was in that dossier? Yeah, he was. We were like brothers from the start.”
“He died on a mission.”
“Yeah,” he sighed then pulled her in tight. He kissed her head when she laid it on his chest and squeezed his eyes shut. From the beginning, he had prayed that those details had been redacted. She didn’t know and he could never tell her that his best friend had died saving her father. His heart pounded. She would never forgive him for keeping that truth from her.
“With you.”
“Yeah, with me,” he said through the heavy thump against his ribs.
“I’m sorry.”
“There are always risks,” he said as he considered them – past and present. The losses, and her reason for wanting to leave. She wasn’t running, she simply wanted him safe. She had been willing to give him up, where he insisted that she stay. She was so much stronger than he’d even realized.
“That’s what Michél told me, too, but when or where does risk cross the line? Viktor always said that it was ridiculous of me to try to do this job, that I was a joke and a distraction. He told me tonight that I was putting you in danger and all I could see was that image.” She lowered her voice. “I’ve put you at unbelievable risk.”
Reilly gently lifted her face to his and saw only sorrow. “If I hadn’t hesitated for that one moment when I looked to you, I would have beaten Viktor to the door. I would take your distractions any day. You saved my life. Again.”
“But it doesn’t change the fact that Mariner saw us together. What if –”
Reilly placed his finger gently on her lips. “I told you before, we’ll get him together.”
He kissed her again and wondered how he would ever stop.
Chapter 35
Reilly sat on the credenza in Commander Charon’s office reviewing reports from the massacre. The desk phone rang incessantly and Michél answered curtly after swallowing two aspirins to stem the obvious pounding in his head. He had been ripped apart by the hounding press wanting answers that he could not yet give. The violence at Versailles was being expertly manipulated by the propaganda machine as if death was jet fuel. Security forces and covert reserves were being stretched to capacity.
This meeting was taking longer than Reilly had expected. He checked his watch again wondering whether Dani was doing the same as she packed their bags and readied them both for whatever was coming next. The kiss she had left him with had made him impatient for the elevator and he detoured to the emergency exit stairs. His mood took him down the five flights quickly where he exited the side door, hailed a taxi, and switched to warrior mode.
Rain melted against the window and people dodged drops while he dissected how Daniella St. Sauveur Tyler had gotten such a foothold. His solitary kingdom has been easily conquered by a tiny queen who now reigned with a love he believed could never exist. He was supposed to be an expert in covert operations, trained in all sorts of weaponry and survival, but he had no weapon against her. He could weather extreme temperatures but after last night couldn’t withstand a day without her heat. He had survived being beaten, shot, stabbed and tortured, but would battle all of hell for her if necessary. He’d been trained for the unexpected but never this. She had flashed those big brown eyes and beautiful smile when she stopped to rescue him. It had been more like surrender.
He could hear O’Donnell telling him that she wasn’t another conquest. She wasn’t. Yet with everything Dani knew about him, his reputation, his exploits, the professional successes and the failures, she wanted him. He had no idea how that was even possible but one thing was clearly evident: if they didn’t eliminate Mariner, he’d never get the chance to find out.
A large map hanging from a board on the wall was covered in an assortment of colored pushpins indicating possible leads being checked by the Departmental and Mobile Gendarmerie. Every department under the Directorate-General’s control was being mobilized from each of its separate locations throughout the city. The pins showed no pattern or direction, as if he was everywhere at once.
“Mon Dieu! We will be right there,” Michél blurted. “The Plaza Hotel has been attacked.”
Reilly jumped to his feet. “Dani.”
“Wait!” Michél grabbed his jacket before chasing Reilly out of the building. Reilly frantically searched for a car with keys until Michél pointed him in the direction of his personal vehicle. “Stop, now!” he yelled. “I know what you are thinking, what you are feeling, but think for a second. We have to do this carefully.”
“Fuck carefully!”
“Rushing isn’t going to change anything. Now we know Mariner is still here and close so we have a better chance of getting him.” He unlocked the doors and they jumped in.
“With Dani as bait?” Reilly screamed. “What’s wrong with you? Drive before I get out.”
Michél put the car in gear and peeled out of the lot. The pain in his head screamed like the tires against the pavement. “Listen to me,” he demanded. “Mariner would not take a chance like this if he did not believe you were in that room. We can use that to our advantage.”
“Dani and I tried that already. It didn’t work and now...” Reilly pounded the dashboard. “She warned me about this last night. He saw us together. She knew this was going to happen and wanted to leave but I didn’t listen. I made her stay!”
With adrenaline pumping at full throttle, he could have run the five miles to the hotel faster. He had done the unthinkable. The thing he had promised he would never do. He left her behind. The bomb was meant for him.
“Can you drive this piece of shit any faster?” Reilly asked as questions screamed like the cries only hours ago. The only answer he had was who was responsible. “I was supposed to protect those people. Protect Dani. It was my job to save them. I’ve saved no one – and only made things worse.”
“You really are that arrogant,” Michél said engulfed by worry and dread. “Yes, errors were made, horrible errors, but to blame yourself? Have we all not worked hard to stop this devil? Has no one else given their life in that effort? Sorry to inform you but you do not have all the answers. You are human like the rest of us.”
Security was tight as they pulled up to the barricades set at the end of the street. Michél placed a call to the fire unit who readied a full HAZMAT suit as Reilly’s cover. He hung up only to have the phone ring again. Several undercover units had started surveillance of the immediate area and had issued a full lock-down.
“He’ll be close in order to verify his kill,” Michél said. He grabbed Reilly’s arm as he started toward the hotel. “Act like you belong. I know what she means to you, so focus.”
Resentment, hot and sharp, for the mission failure, for the demise of good people, from last night and the last ten years, assaulted each of Reilly’s senses. He only half listened as his gut wretched. Every scenario played out in his head to render him speechless. As one finished, another overtook him, making room for another until his brain tried to break free of the confines of his skull. He couldn’t keep up. He didn’t want to. He just wanted Dani alive.
Packed in the elevator with Michél and men from the response team, the lift raised five floors. The fact that it worked gave Reilly some hope that the damage might not be severe. Each moment was like a lifetime but it proved not long enough. The doors opened to charred devastation delivered by a specialized device that spread horizontally, not vertically. It destroyed everything in a forty-foot diameter.
Michél saw Reilly’s anguish through the mask and grabbed his arm again simply to get his attention. “I will find out who is in charge.”
Reilly nodded and stepped forward to survey the scene. He was instructed to blend in but he couldn’t move. Visually, he followed the blackened footprint out to the edges of the suite. What were once stylish furnishings were either disintegrated or damaged beyond repair. Shreds of blue silk streaked with soot clung to life on broken curtain rods. The walls between the bedrooms on either side had been reduced to rubble. Chunks of wood and plaster were scattered everywhere.
His stomach tightened at the remains of Dani’s beautifully carved Rococo-styled bed. Its coverings of fine linens were ripped and shredded. It was their bed only hours ago. The place where he had made love to her, held her, and confessed to her. Things he’d never done with any other woman. He didn’t want to think it might be that one and only night.
He turned his attention toward what was left of her bathroom and slowly made his way through the wreckage. Bits and pieces of porcelain mixed with water and soap on the charred marble floor. When Reilly removed his mask, several men from the unit stared at him. He kneeled to push around some of the pieces but her smell was everywhere. The knots in his stomach moved to his chest.
The large white marble tub lay in two pieces beneath an impression embedded like a chalk outline into the plaster. The thought of Dani’s body pushed into a walled grave and blood smeared above the lowest indent flooded him with more questions. Blood droplets on the edge of the broken tub rim shimmered in the sunlight poking through the clouds and shattered window. Unnerved to his breaking point, its rays settled on something shiny nestled within the slop. Dani’s medallion. He removed his glove then brushed it clean before balling his fist around the chain and running to find Michél.
*****
Mariner was secretly pleased when the first body was brought out wrapped in black and sealed tight. Several police units pushed past him in their rush. Another pushed him back with the growing crowds straining to get a look at the unfolding chaos.
One down, two to go.
Emergency responders arrived in droves. Such drama and so predictable. A twisted smile formed when a team of paramedics brought out a second stretcher. From his vantage point, he couldn’t tell who it was but a technician frantically waived and yelled while another gave oxygen to the person lying on the gurney. As they lifted it into the ambulance, he chuckled at their ignorance.
He didn’t deal in chemical weapons or hazardous materials. Last night’s poison was an exception because O’Donnell knew weapons would never pass security. Today’s elimination was specifically chosen for Adrian Reilly and his companion. He scoffed at her stupidity and choice of company.
They really thought he could be fooled twice though he would grant them one thing. He hadn’t adequately confirmed their deaths at the lake because he’d been in a rush. He resented that today’s plans had to change again but he wouldn’t make the same mistake. His fury built in light of his error and fueled his determination to wait for the third and final body.
He tempered it by enjoying the scene as if it were a theatrical performance. It was Paris after all. The curtain lifts on reporters scurrying for information, then builds to the second act with the swirling chaos of police and investigators and the terror of the general public as they frantically discuss the day’s, and prior night’s, events. The resulting panic would be a beautiful crescendo, with the climax being Adrian Reilly in a million little pieces. Chunks would also be acceptable.
Chapter 36
Commander Charon met Reilly at what had been the suite’s entrance. “Come with me.”
“Where is she?” Reilly demanded.
Michél handed him a card. “They took her here. She is alive but injured and before you ask, I do not know. The blast came from something on the coffee table, possibly something delivered by room service.”
“James.”
Michél nodded. “He is dead, apparently from an overdose but I think we know better. I am going to give a statement to the press when we get outside.” He tugged at Reilly’s suit. “Keep this on until you are out of sight of the cameras and crews. We’ll play this as an unfortunate gas leak and that one guest was killed immediately and the other guest and staff member succumbed to their injuries.”
“We tried this before,” Reilly said. “It didn’t work.”
“It might now with the whole world watching. I will make sure another body bag is escorted out in full view of every camera. He has to know that the entire world is hunting him.”
“He doesn’t care. He’ll disappear like he always does. We have to change tactics. He’s going to pay for this if it takes me the rest of my life.”
Michél gripped Reilly’s arm with full force. “If you do not calm down, that will be sooner rather than later. Now go. And be careful.”
Reilly snuck away, tossed the protective suit, and drove Michél’s car to the hospital. Each mile gripped him with suffocating panic but Michél’s words began to seep through when he pulled in the lot. He parked in a reserved spot and donned the Commander’s hat and overcoat.
He entered the emergency doors wanting to scream Dani’s name and rip through and apart everything and everyone in his way. With all the authority he could find, he informed the nurse at the station that he was sent to check on the victim from the hotel blast. She was more than helpful and he made a mental note to tell Michél he wanted Dani guarded while she recovered. His stomach fell at the thought she might not.
The unconcerned nurse casually pointed him to a row of curtained partitions in the trauma area then quickly disappeared when a doctor requested her help. The room was in motion as the entire staff scrambled like mice in a cornfield to tend to victims of a car crash. Left to search for Dani on his own, he found her in the furthest corner and could not choke back his overwhelming grief. He closed the curtain and gently sat on the edge of the bed uncertain if she was asleep or unconscious.
Tiny, pink cuts covered her right cheek where a dark bruise had already formed. An egg on her forehead the size of his fist was red and swollen and covered with several thin white strips to hold her lacerated skin in place. Remnants of blood were caked in the ringlets of her hair. Her right arm was bandaged inside a sling tied tight to her torso.
He wanted to touch her but didn’t know where. He pulled the gold chain from his pocket and let it puddle in his palm. I’m sorry Daniel, he said to himself as the tears he choked back lodged in his throat.
He picked up Dani’s free hand and placed the medallion inside it. She’d look for it as soon as she woke like she did every morning. He’d noticed even if she didn’t. It calmed her, centered her, and gave her hope in the chaos that he brought to her life. With the chain draped over the back of her delicate hand, he was reminded again how fragile life was and how stupid he’d been to think he could have one with her. He couldn’t protect her as a lover or a partner and now his partner couldn’t come with him. The thought of leaving her behind ripped him apart.
The only option was to walk away.
He couldn’t bring any more pain to her life. Not if he truly loved her. And he did. Like no one before or ever again. Morgan was right. Death followed him everywhere and the innocents that were tangled by his path were too many. His chest split by some invisible axe but he had one last way to protect her. He rose to leave as her heavy eyes opened.
“Hey,” she sighed.
Reilly couldn’t hold back. He failed his country last night. He failed her this morning.
“I hate that pitiful look,” she grumbled. “I look worse than I really am.” She closed her eyes to stem the nausea.
