Kane
I entered the bar with Kendall in tow, quickly scanning the area. There were at least two-dozen people in here and they consisted mostly of middle-aged men and women having a casual drink. I'd have to keep an eye on them to make sure no one raised any red flags, but overall this many people were manageable. I spotted Jeremy sitting at a table in the back of the bar, watching us with his brows raised with surprise as we approached. I'd neglected to tell him Kendall would be accompanying me. “Hello, Jeremy,” I said as we sat down across from him.
“Well I must say this is a pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting anyone other than Kane, and frankly, my dear, you're much nicer to look at,” he laughed, reaching his hand out to take Kendall's. “I'm Jeremy.”
“Hi, I'm Kendall. It's nice to meet you,” she replied, shooting him a flirtatious smile as she gently shook his hand. It was an innocent exchange, and yet it left me feeling inexplicably irritated.
“So…” Jeremy hesitated, glancing back from Kendall to me, unsure whether he should begin talking.
“What did you find out?” I asked, prompting him to start. “You can speak freely in front of her.”
“All right,” he said, taking a deep breath, “The rumblings are that something is going with your brother. No one has heard from him for a few days. Not since some party the other night, but apparently he's been in contact with his staff. They've been managing business as usual. They were told he went on a last minute trip, but didn't specify the location. He's been emailing them regularly.” Someone has obviously been emailing them on his behalf, so as to not raise more questions about his whereabouts.
The waitress came by, interrupting us, causing Jeremy to abruptly stop speaking. “Drinks?” she beamed, her black unbuttoned blouse revealing some generous cleavage.
“I'm going to grab a beer,” Jeremy stated, looking at us both. “Is that all right with you?” I nodded in response. “How about you, Kendall? What would you like?”
“A beer sounds great,” she replied, casting him a warm smile.
“Beer…Really? My wife would never drink beer,” he stated, surprised, although I knew him well enough to know he was actually flirting.
“I bet she just hasn't found one she likes,” Kendall tactfully answered, trying not to offend anyone.
“Do you have a preference?” he asked as the waitress stood, casting rather impatient looks at Kendall as she waited for our order.
“Not really. I'm open. You decide,” she offered, flashing another broad smile. Jeremy turned his attention back to the waitress to order our beer, and I found myself watching Kendall carefully. I was wondering what she was thinking about. This woman was the most complex person I'd ever met, and I was beyond curious to learn more about her. She appeared to be studying Jeremy, and even I couldn't put my finger on it, she seemed different somehow — her entire demeanor had changed. I found my thoughts drifting back to the incident at the hotel. I wasn't sure how I felt about it all, but she appeared to have put it behind her.
“We should probably wait until she comes back with our drinks to start again,” Jeremy suggested as the waitress headed back to the bar. He turned his attention to Kendall. “So I know you drink beer, but what else is there to know about, Kendall?”
“Well let's see… I'm twenty-six, I'm a Capricorn; I like long walks on the beach. I just graduated top of my class with a Master's in Business. I'm currently planning on opening my own online clothing store. What else…”
“You have a Master's?” I asked, feeling a little silly that I didn't know that. I remembered her mentioning graduating from school, but I actually knew very little about her. In my defense, I'd technically only known her for three days, but somehow that timeframe seemed irrelevant given everything that had happened between us since then. Not to mention, I'd been an asshole who had called her names, belittled her, and judged her all the while not once actually trying to get to know her. I'd put in so little effort and yet she'd managed to figure out a lot about me without actually telling her anything. Fuck, I am an asshole.
“Yes I do,” she answered, sounding a little irritated. I couldn't blame her.
“Beauty and brains, I see. Have we met before?” Jeremy asked, drawing her attention back to him. “There's something very familiar about you.”
“No, I don't think so, but I've been told I have one of those faces,” she offered agreeably, “What about you? You said you were married. Kids too?” she asked successfully changing the subject as the waitress made her way back to the table.
“Yeah I'm married with twins, a boy and a girl. They're the best things to ever happen to me,” he offered, getting the standard 'aw' response from her. Jeremy did love his kids more than anything, and he was a great dad, although admittedly I was getting a little annoyed with the 'chit-chat'. I didn't bring her along to make idle conversation.
“What does your wife do? Is she a civilian or in the service as well?” Kendall asked, getting curious looks from both of us.
“Yeah she is. She's a Military Professor at the Naval Academy.”
“Is that where you met?”
“Yeah in our second year, it seems like a lifetime ago now,” Jeremy replied, sounding a depleted, “But wait, how did you know I was in the service? I never said I was,” he asked, and looked at me as though I'd said something to her. I shrugged in response because I didn't know how she knew things like she did.
“Really? You're surprised I know you're military? Why? Because of your warm smile, blue jeans and casual shirt?” she teased, laughing, “I've lived in D.C long enough to recognize you servicemen. Besides, you have military written all over you.”
“I do? I thought I was fantastic at blending in with civilians.”
“You're all right,” she laughed playfully, “but you still show some signs.”
“What kind of signs?”
“It's hard to explain. Most people wouldn't even notice them, but I can tell you're still an active, uniform-wearing kind of serviceman. You're probably of a fairly high rank too,” she said, pouring herself a glass of beer from the pitcher. “Plus you're friends with Kane, and although he hasn't confirmed his affiliation or the nature of his job, I have my suspicions. He seems to trust you so, you must go way back, likely to early adulthood. I say that because although you've lost most of your Southern drawl, it's still there and that gentleman charm was clearly born and bred in the South.”
“Who is this girl and where did you find her?” Jeremy asked me, looking incredibly impressed.
“First, you tell me what you found out,” I requested, hoping to get back on track, especially given that time was of the essence here. Besides, I didn't really like him paying this much attention to her or worse yet, them paying this much attention to each other.
“Right, well, your brother has made an enemy out of Senator MacFarland. It would appear that James was doing what he does best and was using his influence to block support from Senator MacFarland's pharmaceutical project. David Richton and Kyle Giles are said to have been overheard saying to Senator MacFarland that the situation was being 'handled' and that 'Senator Clarke wouldn't be an issue for long. They also said Senator Clarke had enough skeletons in his own closet to play with if required,” Jeremy paused, taking a long sip of his beer before he continued. “Now I tried to find more about what kind of project your brother was blocking, but I couldn't discover much. I mean I could have found out more,” he assured with a cocky grin, “But not without raising flags. I do know that the project associated with a product that is apparently revolutionary and will make them more money than any other product on the market. Whatever's going on, it's fair to say that your brother has pissed off a few people.”
“Who are Kyle Giles and David Richton?” I asked, knowing the names but not able to place them.
“Kyle Giles is a known lobbyist who works for Markin Pharmaceutical Incorporated, and David Richton is a partner at one of the top law firms: Nelson, Richton and Associates, whom I assume represents Markin Pharmaceutical. Markin is a newer company but it has quickly become the leading Pharmaceutical Company for mental health medication and supplies. Given the increasing volume of mental health diagnoses these days, the company is only going to get bigger,” Kendall answered, further amazing me by how knowledgeable she was. “If he's involved and it's this big, my guess is its some sort of new product for a common condition they can easily label and misdiagnose. Probably a product for depression, anxiety or even addiction.”
“There's one more thing you should know. They found Dominique's body. She's dead. It is looking it was a homicide,” he said, pausing a moment, “Judging from your lack of reaction, you already knew that. With the rumor the 'accidental' deaths of those women, along with the fact that they apparently worked for Dominique… it would appear that shit is getting pretty messed up,” I nodded, confirming his suspicions.
“Jesus, what on Earth have you gotten yourself into?” Jeremy questioned, taking a long sip of his beer.
“Not me, James. He's the culprit here and you're right it's not good. I won't tell you more than you need to know, but thank you for your help, Jeremy. I'm sorry I had to ask you, but I was stuck,” I stated apologetically, knowing full well that every time I involved someone in this it put them at risk. Thanks to Jeremy we now had some additional details to consider and I was almost certain we had a few initials we could match up to James' documents.
“You heading home tonight?” I asked, trying to lighten the mood.
“Nah, I'm going to stay in the city I think. Besides, it's nice to have a break every now and then.”
“I'll take your word for it. A wife and kids are not present on my long list of experiences,” I laughed, unable to imagine how challenging it would be to have a family. It didn't help that I knew how controlling and difficult Sheryl could be at times which had been causing strain in their relationship for years.
“What about your brother's girlfriend?” Jeremy asked curiously, “I saw her once at an event. She was incredibly sexy to say the least and probably one of the most uniquely beautiful women I'd ever seen, although, Kendall, you might give her a run for her money. Word is that she worked for Dominique; her name was Raina or something. She's apparently the most sought after escort in the city. I guess she wasn't exactly his girlfriend, given she was paid to go out with him, but I heard they spend a lot of time together. I just can't wrap my head around why anyone would do that job. I can't see your brother dating a drug user or something, but who knows,” Jeremy blathered, causing both Kendall and me to tense-up at the mention of her former professional alter-ego.
“Nah, she's not his girlfriend but they are friends,” I answered, clenching my jaw in frustration, “I've talked to her. She doesn't know much about all this and she isn't a drug user.” I answered grumpily, trying to look anywhere but at Kendall.
“Sad that a girl like that would need to do something like that. Hopefully she has some other guy taking care of her,” Jeremy continued, and I watched Kendall clenching her fists under the table. I didn't like what he was insinuating either. It made her seem pathetic and weak; granted I've had my issues with her profession I now knew that she was not weak, not in the slightest. Hell, I'd been guilty of calling her down like that too, but now that I knew better, it pissed me off to see just how judgmental people were. The first instinct was to assume so little of her. I knew a part of her wanted to reveal herself and put him in his place. I knew this because I was currently fighting the same urge, but we both knew better. It would serve no purpose to tell him she was Raina. If anything, it would only endanger her, and potentially him too.
“Well to be fair, my guess is a girl like that doesn't necessarily need a man. She can probably take care of herself just fine,” I offered, seeing a gracious smile conquer her lips.
“All right then,” he stated, focusing his attention on two of us. “How about you two? How did you meet?” he asked, motioning his index finger back and forth between us. “What's the deal here?
“We met at a bar,” Kendall answered quickly, beating me to respond, “It's a rather boring tale of boy meets girl, but they remain just friends.”
“Really? Just friends? I've never known Kane to be 'just friends' with a lady before,” Jeremy pressed, a small sly smile appeared on her lips.
“Yes, just friends… there are a lot of factors. I'm apparently not his type,” she said, causing Jeremy's brow to furrow together in disbelief. “I know, I was disappointed as well, but he said something about not approving of some of my past actions. Having said that, you can imagine Kane wasn't the most gentlemanly of people when we first met either, so no harm no foul. No one is perfect.”
Kendall leaned in towards him and cradled her chin with her right hand. “But the truth is, it's hard to find a guy who's a true gentleman these days. You know, like a real charming man who offers his date respect and attention. I'd be so quick to offer my undivided attention to someone like that.”
My anger spiked as I watched her whole demeanor change. I may have a somewhat more open-minded approach to her life choices, but this woman was unbelievable! In one breath she presented false information, knowing full well I couldn't correct it and then she flirted with him for unknown reasons. It was shameless because he's a friend who happened to be married. I could tell she was working him. I'd seen her in action at the party the other night, and truthfully, she was good at it. I mean, I doubted she had to try very hard to have men giving her attention, but Jeremy wasn't your typical hard-edged cocky military man. He's always been a real gentleman when it came to women, and she seemed to like stroking this part of his ego. It made sense now why James used her so much for events — she was good at this and could easily observe and adapt her behavior to people. By doing that, it put her one step ahead of them, which I imaged allowed her to have control. I remember my brother always had a talent for this, even as a kid. I could tell she'd learned a few tricks from him.