Authors: Nicola Claire
If this was Charlie's home then I was a Harley lover.
I snorted and then escaped the way I had come.
Leaning down, I let my fingers run slowly over her bedspread as I passed it.
Lovesick fucking puppy. Arghh!
I
watched
, stunned, as security camera footage on my cellphone showed Adam stroking my bedspread with a single fingertip and then climbing out of my bedroom window. The alarm had been triggered not more than two minutes earlier, when he broke the shutters in order to enter my home.
A closer look at the information coming in from my system showed he'd also set the programme to high alert, by crossing sensor pads on the roof. I smiled. Those had started the internal cameras going.
Except the one in the lounge. Why?
I looked up to see Amber finishing her conversation with Genevieve Anscombe at the counter and turn toward where I still sat. She'd insisted on a second coffee. I hadn't argued. The ball was in their court.
And this was their play? Sending Adam out to hunt me. And keeping me busy with Miss Let's-Be-Friends while Adam stabbed me in the back at my base.
The cellphone beeped. The sensor re-triggering on the roof. Five minutes later, without further input, the system would shut down again.
But my base had been compromised. Even if only by Adam.
ASI were fucking ballsy, I'd give them that.
I put my cellphone back in my jacket pocket and smiled up at Amber as she walked back to the table with two tall black take-away coffee cups sporting hot pink writing on the side.
Sweet Seduction on High,
it read.
Glancing around the café, taking the opportunity my perusal of the decor allowed to ensure no new hazards had appeared while I'd been distracted with Adam's catburglary skills, I took in the retro-come-rock'n'roll style Genevieve Anscombe had chosen for her store.
Pharrell William's "Happy" played over the speakers and one look at the inordinately jovial crowd and I knew the song somehow fit here. Some of Sweet Seduction's patrons sang along to the words without shame. Others sat and read, nodding their heads to the upbeat tune. More than a few shouted across the store to Gen, as they called her, and Kelly.
Both blondes ruled the atmosphere, wide smiles, big blue eyes under fluttering eyelashes; every male in the shop was enthralled.
Amber placed a coffee cup in front of me and I was relieved to have something other than pretty people watching to do. I took a sip, surprised she'd gone with a hazelnut latte this time. And equally annoyed that I liked it, despite never having bothered with the more exotic coffee flavours in the past.
Toying with her own cup she finally said, "What was it like being in the Navy?"
I'd expected a grilling. Interrogation techniques come in a wide variety of styles. From water boarding to fingernail removal. To a sunny day in a popular café across the table from an ex-stripper nerd.
I tried not to smile. Sometimes the least threatening were the most dangerous.
"What do you want to know exactly?" I replied, taking a sip of the coffee to slow down the merry-go-round we were about to board.
"I would think, even today, females are outnumbered by males."
"Like most services, be they military or emergency," I countered.
"But all those uniforms," she said with a knowing smile. "You can't tell me Ambulance overalls and Fire Service safety jackets compare?"
A burst of laughter erupted from the back of my throat. Of all the angles to pick, she chooses this one?
"I'm right, aren't I? Those dress whites. Yum!"
"A bitch to keep clean."
"They would be, wouldn't they? Well, still, I bet the men are buffed."
"And yours aren't?"
"Adam's buff, isn't he?" Ah, I see where she was going now.
"Yes," was all I'd give her.
She held my stare for a moment and then took a sip of her drink.
"Well," she finally said. "Tonight you'll see him in action."
"And I didn't when he beat the crap outta me in the ring?"
"That was play," she offered with flick of her wrist as dismissal. "He's a different man when he's at work."
Interesting. Was she warning me? Or trying to prepare me?
"Then I look forward to it," I said, finishing off my coffee. I checked my watch. A purposeful move to end the conversation.
"You don't have many friends, do you?" Amber suddenly said. Still sitting, still drinking her coffee as though we had all the time in the world.
Still interrogating.
"Huh," I managed, bringing my wandering gaze back to her avid stare. "Are you studying me, Amber?"
"I'm trying to extend the hand of friendship," she said with all meaning.
Of course, I didn't believe her. If Nick Anscombe suspected me of something then you could bet his IT gurus, who controlled the "brains" of ASI, would as well.
"My friends are all in the Navy," I replied; an answer that would make perfect sense, if I'd been in the Navy for the past eight years.
"At Philomel?" she pressed.
"Mainly," I replied, realising I was being herded into hazardous territory. Next she'd tell me she'd contacted someone within Philomel who hadn't recognised my picture when shown it.
Mal was good. He would have planted seeds for my cover deeply. Not even this remarkably talented computer hacker would disbelieve his work.
I hoped.
"Perhaps we should have a welcoming party," she advised. I worked not to groan out loud. "You could invite some of your friends and they could meet your new ones."
"Are we to be friends, Amber?" The words were out before I could stop them.
Where the fuck had that come from?
This was an assignment. Nothing more. And yet I couldn't get past the notion that Amber
was
trying to extend the hand of friendship. Despite who I might not be. Despite Nick Anscombe's concerns and the potential risk I posed to her firm. Amber was genuinely attempting to befriend me.
Of course, she could just be that good at getting under people's skin.
"Sometimes," she said so softly I had to lean forward to hear her, "things happen for a reason. The planets align. The sun comes out from behind dark clouds. The reasons for ducking no longer make sense. It's hard to see it for what it is. It's hard to believe anything other than what you've been taught to know is the truth.
"But you've got to try. You've got to take the hand that reaches out and grip it. Even if you think it might be attached to the body that will lead to your downfall.
"Take the risk, Charlie. I did."
She finished her coffee and stood up from her chair, then brushed her hair back from her face and looked up to the rafters of the café. I followed her gaze, locating the camera lens with ease; they weren't hidden. But you had to know to look up to see them at all.
I'd known they were there. The Department's dossier on ASI and their acquaintances had said as much. It had indicated the shop was used as a meet and greet for various liaisons ASI didn't want connected back to them. It had made sense when I'd read it. Logical to have an environment seemingly untainted by their notoriety but completely controlled - contained - by their technology.
ASI had always stayed one step ahead of our surveillance because theirs had been sophisticated and, quite simply put, the best.
But as I took another look around the brightly decorated, overly populated, comfortable and welcoming environment that made up Sweet Seduction Café, I realised that wasn't necessarily the case.
If control was their brains and their staffroom at ASI their heart, then Sweet Seduction was their soul.
Nobody used their soul as a venue to secure potentially dirty and dangerous contracts.
They used it as their haven. A place to go to and feel safe and unwind. Perhaps a place to send those who needed their help too, but weren't quite ready to step in the front doors of ASI.
And Amber had brought me here. To interrogate me? Or something else?
Extend the hand of friendship?
I wasn't ready for that. I wasn't sure I ever would be ready for that. They didn't know me. They didn't know why I was here. Where I had come from. What I had done to get to this place in my life.
I looked up at the camera lens again, knowing Eric would be watching his wife, keeping an eye on my movements, my facial expressions. My tells.
They knew I wasn't who I said I was. I knew the dossier I'd been given on them was not the whole truth. There were gaps in our knowledge, on both sides.
Were they involved in organised crime?
Or were they the good guys?
And if they were the good guys, then who the fuck was I?
I lifted my hand and saluted the camera. Saluted Eric and Nick and all the rest of the people associated with ASI. Whoever they were, they were the best targets I had faced in a very long time.
I felt awake. I felt invigorated. I felt emotions I had long since buried, pretended no longer existed, come alive. It wasn't just my strange and inexplicable reaction to Adam. It was all of them. They were so dedicated to each other. So tightly woven together; the true essence of a team.
And when faced with a threat they circled, they closed in, they protected their backs. But they didn't lose their humanity.
Adam had suspected something from day one, but he still reached out to me. Cain had as well, but met me on equal footing in that firing range. Nick new something was off, but hadn't shut me down yet.
And they had sent me with their newest recruit, their newest little angel, into their haven.
I didn't fully understand them. I couldn't comprehend that level of trust. It was restrained, certainly. It was couched in a wary amount of doubt. But it was a trust all the same.
It floored me. They floored me. When Ava had answered my call, I'd thought I had that same bond. But her brief assent to assist me was nothing compared to what these people would do should I ever become one of their team.
Really, truly a member of their family.
Ava came because I now owed her a favour.
Ava came because she was between assignments and bored.
Ava came because she was curious about Caleb.
Ava came to cover her arse. Not mine.
My world was so far removed from these people it was as if we lived on two different planets. We were aliens to each other and, yet, as I looked at Amber saying her farewells to Gen and Kelly behind the counter, I couldn't help thinking if push came to shove they would fight just as hard, just as deadly, just as much with every part of themselves to protect what they thought was right.
Isn't that what the Department taught us? That selfless defence of others at the risk of ourselves.
I knew why I was doing it, but why were they?
"Ready?" Amber asked, hitching her handbag up onto her shoulder, her car keys already in her palm.
I wanted to ask. Hell, I wanted to demand. Why? Why do you do this?
"Charlie?" Amber pressed, concern briefly flashing in her big chocolate coloured eyes.
"Hmm?" I managed, too distracted to hear her. Too distracted to realise the assignment was about to blow-up in my face.
"Is everything all right?" she asked.
I stared at her for a second longer and then nodded my head. It didn't matter if everything was all right or not, I had a job to do and I'd fucking well do it.
"Fine, Amber," I offered with a practiced smile. "Just got a text about my place. The alarm's gone off; I think I better go check it."
"Oh," she whispered. "That's bad." Yeah, I was thinking it was. Amber's instructions wouldn't have extended to a visit to my home.
Just what would the big bad imposter do there?
This should be interesting.
"It's just in Sandringham. Not too far out of the way," I said. "I can drive, if you like."
My cheeks hurt from fucking smiling too much.
"No, that's OK," she said, biting on her bottom lip and flicking a glance up at the cameras.
Game on. Now we'd see how far that hand of friendship actually extended.
Amber recovered admirably. Or she knew about the two shadows we had already and was putting all her faith in Abi and Ben coming to her rescue. It almost made me laugh.
But then I realised they were there not just because Nick had no doubt told them to, but because they'd want to protect Amber with their lives.
I was questioning everything I knew. Everything I had been taught to rely on. Not a colleague, another specialist like me; we were taught to trust our contemporaries with reticence. Ava had been a calculated risk; a chance to shine some light on the chess pieces. I was fairly certain now she wasn’t involved in my “test.” But this? What ASI had? No. If an agent couldn't get their assignment completed on their own, then they needed retraining. I had been taught to go things alone. To turn to my handler for incidentals and improvise everything else. Trusting anyone would come save me was foreign in nature. Seeing Amber do it so convincingly threw me for a loop.
Who were these people to upset my world so completely?
Who was I now that they had?
"Tell me about this hunt tonight?" I asked. The familiar call to complete my assignment settled me. "Who exactly is the mark?"
"Wayne Aaron Pascoe, a known associate of Mitchell Wallis," she advised, taking a deep breath to fortify herself at saying Wallis' name aloud.
He'd been Jaxon Harding to her. Someone she’d trusted. Someone she’d thought she'd loved. Being involved in anything to do with his former lifestyle must have taken a hell of a lot of courage or a fuckload of pent up rage.
I was going with both, Amber was appearing more and more than what she had at first seemed.
"He was a nobody in Wallis' hierarchy," she went on. "Overlooked by the Police at the time of Wallis' fall. Nick had a hunch about him, so we started paying attention to his moves and behaviour patterns. We didn't have much historic data to compare; even I didn't know him very well."
She turned to look across the car at me briefly, biting her lip and flushing pink from her neck to her nose.
"Um," she started. "Did you know Mitchell Wallis was, well, I knew him as Jax…Jaxon Harding," she stuttered.
Something gripped me; held me too tightly around the throat. I don't know what it was, but I found myself saying, "Yeah, I knew. You don't have to explain."