On the way to work, Nate spent even more time watching me than usual. I didn't know if he thought I'd crumble into a ball of tears or what, but he had another thing coming if he'd come to that conclusion. I might have turned a little nuttier than usual, but crying wasn't something I'd ever been big on.
"Maybe I should come stay with you, or you could come stay with me for the next couple of days," he suggested. "We don't have any idea who this person is or how closely they're watching you."
?"You're joking, right? Have you not noticed I'm currently plotting your demise? Trust me, you wouldn't be safe sleeping within ten miles of me at the present moment. If we want to get technical, I really think you should be boarding a plane because the entire state may not be far enough away from me."
"Okay, maybe staying the whole night isn't the best idea. Can we at least meet in the middle and I stay with you until midnight or so?" he asked. "I just want to make sure you're safe in case this person decides a warning isn't enough. At midnight, I'll lock you in tight and come back in the morning to pick you up."
I was a little surprised he backed off staying glued to my hip that easily. Staying until midnight wasn't a good idea either, but at least he was going in the right direction.
"I can protect myself. It's not like I don't have training. What is it you think you can do that I can't? I know I'm smaller than you, but I do have equalizers."
"Training and actually being in a life-threatening situation is a little different. When someone is coming at you with a gun or knife, you may clam up. Your shyness could be used as a weakness in this case. Are you armed? You said you like knives; are you currently carrying any?" he asked.
"Of course. What kind of idiot do you take me for? I always carry them anyway. Putting them on has become part of my morning routine," I replied. "I live in New York City and take public transportation. I'm pretty sure that's been brought up in our conversations more than once."
"I don't need you reminding me of the dangers out there; I already have bad dreams. Are you going to tell me where you hide them yet?"
"No." I glared over at him.
"Can you at least tell me how many you have? Then maybe I can figure out where they are."
"No. You never know when I'll have to use them against you and I wouldn't want you to have the unfair advantage of knowing where they are. As far as the hanging out tonight to 'protect' me, my plans include watching the hockey game on TV tonight, so if you don't disrupt that, I guess you can stop by. I enjoy watching at home over going to a game because I find there are significantly less people crowded around my TV."
"Great. I can drive you home and we can grab some dinner," he said as he pulled into our parking lot.
"I've been eating out too much lately and I really want to make something at home. How about we stop at the store on the way back and I can grab some things to make a mess of appetizers we can snack on during the game," I countered.
It wasn't like I'd been eating grease-filled fast food, but I liked to cook and I was sure I'd feel better being in control of something. Even something as simple as making food.
"That sounds really nice. As long as I don't see rat poisoning going in the cart, you have a deal." He got out of the car and walked around to open the door for me.
If I was operating at full capacity, I would've had it opened myself. Between my sluggishness and Nate's lightning speed, he got the job done.
"You sure we should be seen going in together? I mean we're both arriving late and I wouldn't want people to get the wrong idea," I said as I stepped out of the vehicle.
"Who cares what they think? We haven't done anything to get anyone riled up yet, so they can just mind their own business."
We passed through security and waited while the elevator lowered us into the Pit.
"So what's in the rest of this building? It seems like only the bottom floors are government issued. I'd think most people would be suspicious by all the security for just this set of elevators."
"Maybe they are, but the directories indicate we're a biotech company, so it makes sense that we have an added layer of security. I've been here seven years and I don't think I've heard anyone question what really goes on in the basement. The companies here are listed in the directory if you are interested. I've never really cared."
We exited the elevator and walked through the door to my office. Carl was staring at his screen, as usual, and Liz was gawking at the two of us. I tried to give her my best "I'm really not interested in him" look in hopes that the daggers she was shooting my way would disappear.
No such luck. If Nate had any questions about Carl's intentions, his complete lack of even acknowledging we'd arrived proved there wasn't anything to worry about.
"You guys are running behind today," Liz said, smiling up at Nate.
"We had some police business to deal with this morning."
I didn't feel the need to expound on that. Waking up my computer by jiggling my mouse seemed like a more important task.
"Really? I hope it wasn't anything serious." Liz sounded so insincere that I almost told her not to quit her day job to become an actress.
"Nothing Nathaniel's friends in the NYPD can't handle. I'm sure they have everything under control. Has the bossman been by today?" Looking through my email nothing really jumped out as needing my immediate attention.
I was hoping Mr. Irving would come by with a new task that required my attention. Spending the day doing mindless tinkering on some programs wouldn't have bored me to tears, but I felt the need to hunt down bad guys.
"No, he called and said he'd be coming by around ten for a meeting to see where things stand and whether our resources are still needed," Carl said, finally joining in. I wasn't sure he'd even been listening.
"I think we have all the tracking done and know who our key players are now, so those specific resources will no longer be needed," Nate stated, clearly leaving out that a new player was added when Zuba's contact appeared as a human voodoo doll.
While they continued to talk, I started opening up emails to see if the content happened to be more interesting than the subject lines. There were a couple from Frannie, wondering how I'd been and if Nate and I had gotten any closer. She was impossible, and as far as I knew, she didn't know how much time I'd spent with him.
Most of the rest of the email looked like spam, so I took a little joy in deleting them. I found one that said it was from Watching You and a shiver crawled up my spine. I was hoping it was just spam, but instead of deleting it, I foolishly opened the email.
I instantly wished that I'd hit the red X to delete it. Of all the things I expected to see, photographs of Manny Martinez's murder weren't anywhere on the list. Words were added in the body of the email.
Just in case the note wasn't enough of a message, my sweet. This is what happens when people get in my way. Please make sure you don't end up in this position.
"Um, Nate," I started saying as I looked up at him, using his formal name wasn't a high priority in my mind. "I don't think Carl's services are quite over yet. You want to come take a look at this email I just opened?"
He made his way over and instantly started cursing, "Son of a?" He took his phone out and placed a call. Carl walked over to see what was up on my screen and immediately went green.
"Why would anyone send you pictures of a dead person?" he asked, trying to regain his composure.
"Thanks to Nathaniel, I got to meet the now dead man a couple of days ago. Evidently, someone was not happy I made his acquaintance," I replied.
"Carl, we need you to work your magic as soon as possible to find out where that email came from. We have until Wednesday night to get a lead on this guy before all heck breaks loose." Nate was putting his phone away and looked like he wanted to strangle someone. He kept curling and uncurling his fingers to make fists.
By then, Liz had come over and was getting a peek at the screen. "You do know how to make the most interesting friends, Avery."
After a
quick glance she went back to her desk, like me getting snuff photos was an everyday occurrence. It was no wonder we aren't close buddies. Before Nate arrived on the scene she was at least civil.
Carl moved back to his desk. "Just give me a sec and I'll get the email from Avery's inbox. I should be able to use its headers to track the guy down."
I could tell Carl was already at work. I didn't feel like trying to see if there was anything else in my mail that I needed to read, so I sat and waited to hear if there were any immediate reports. Nate hovered and paced around. I didn't think it helped matters, but it seemed to be a part of his process.
A few minutes later, Mr. Irving walked in right on time for his ten o'clock meeting. I didn't enjoy meetings, but I was ready to do something more than stare at my computer screen.
"Good morning, everyone, I hope nice weekends were had by all. So, Agent Barnes, how much longer do you think you'll be tying up our resources?" he asked, not seeming the least bit curious why Nate was pacing.
"I'll be here until at least Wednesday from all the information your team has been able to help me gather. As far as resources, I've enlisted Carl's help with a new email associated with the case."
"Really? Carl called me on the weekend to let me know he'd traced your email. What's happened since then?"
Nate gave a rundown of how we'd spent the weekend, otherwise known as the worst days of my life. After Nate finished, leaving a few portions out, like our little daytrip, Mr. Irving looked at me, astonishment clear on his face.
"You're doing undercover work? That surprises me."
"It surprised me too, but Nathaniel is a jerk who won't take no for an answer."
"Sir, Avery isn't done with her part yet. We still need her to be Zuba's date at the ball on Wednesday. It's our best opportunity to find out when the meet is taking place," Nate told Mr. Irving.
I exploded out of my seat. Sitting down wasn't going to do the tirade I felt coming on justice.
"You've got to be kidding me. There's no way I'm still doing that. As if I wasn't already trying to find ways out of it before, I started getting death threats. You really want to put me in that situation?"
"Avery, calm down. I never said you weren't going through with it. You said that and I wisely choose not to comment at the time because you were planning on ways to skewer me."
I hadn't mentioned the skewering, so the idea that he could read my mind popped up. I was screwed if that was true, and very thankful mindreading belonged in science fiction books.
"Obviously, Avery isn't up for this. Why don't I go as your date and I can butter Zuba up and try to get him to reveal the location to me," Liz said, like it was the biggest, brightest idea ever thought of. Since I already thought of it and had mentioned it more than once to Nate, I wasn't impressed.
"No, it has to be Avery," Nate said firmly. "Zuba was interested in her and I think since they already have a relationship started it's our best chance. I'll be at the hotel and I'm bringing a team now that things have escalated to the point we're at. You'll be safe."
He looked at me and tried to convey he was serious. I didn't need his pledge, I needed a time machine to take me back a week so I could say no to Frannie's offer of a hockey ticket.
"See what I mean. His ears aren't capable of understanding the word no. Boss, would it be okay if I call up my trainer and get some training in?" I asked. I was done talking to anyone in the room. "Just in case I need to be ready to defend myself. I feel the more practice I have the better. I doubt I'll make it to Wednesday the way my day is going, but I'm not going down without a fight."
"Go ahead. I can tell you now that you aren't going to be able to get out of this since his boss outranks me. Maybe we should get you issued a gun."
I was hoping Mr. Irving could make a call and tell Nate's boss that I wasn't equipped for field work, but that didn't sound like it'd be happening anytime soon.
"Thank you, sir, even though I'm trained with guns, I prefer to use my own method for defense."
I didn't bother shutting anything down. I grabbed my things and left the room.?It was my shortest Monday in the office ever.
"Avery, wait up," Nate said as he jogged to catch up. "You don't need to call a trainer. I can help you prepare for likely situations better than any trainer could. Plus, I'm your ride for the foreseeable future. No public transportation for you."
"Whatever. You know the way to the gym," I said as I rolled my eyes skyward, wondering what I did to deserve the things happening to me.
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CHAPTER 13
Push me, shove you, Oh yeah? Says who?