| Subject: Chapter 4 |
Author:
Juli
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Date Posted: Friday, May 19, 12:38:56pm
In reply to:
Juli
's message, "Anti-Virus" on Wednesday, May 17, 05:25:56pm
Chapter 4
Several days later, Carla and Nikita were once again in Papa Pig’s. The bar was more crowded this time as the approaching summer was bringing more crowds to the beach.
The two women had managed a couple of chairs at a small round table near the front window and had their heads together.
“Something’s not right,” Nikita told her friend.
“What’d’ya mean?” Carla asked, scoping the bar.
“I mean at work. Something’s not right with this new project. Wolfe has us working together and…”
“You have to work with that snooty married couple and the old guy?” Carla interrupted, making a face.
“Yeah, but its not THAT bad. But the thing is, the stuff the others are working on seems weird. I don’t see what it all has to do with my stuff,” Nikita said, her brow creased.
“So why do you have to work together?” Carla asked, stating the obvious.
“Exactly,” Nikita said, cutting off the rest of her sentence as a man was headed their way.
“Hey ladies,” the guy said with a big cheesy smile.
Carla smiled. Nikita groaned.
“Mind if I join you?” he asked, sitting down before they had agreed.
Nikita frowned at the intruder and looked him over. He was tall with close cropped blonde hair. What she could see of his arms were covered with tattoos.
“My name is David Fanning. What are yours?” he said, raising his hand for a server.
“I’m Carla, this is Nikita,” Carla offered, jumping slightly as Nikita kicked her under the table.
“Great! Hey what are you guys drinking?” he asked as one of the waitresses sauntered over snapping her gum.
“Sorry, we were just leaving,” Nikita said, taking Carla’s hand and standing up.
“No, don’t leave,” Fanning said, grabbing Nikita’s arm to restrain her.
Nikita looked down at his offending hand in astonishment. “You had better move that hand now, buddy,” she told him, her tone icy.
“Or what?” he said laughing.
“Nik, let’s just go,” Carla said, not wanting to cause a scene.
“No, stay. We’re just getting to know each other,” Fanning told them.
“Let. Go. Of. Me.” Nikita said through clenched teeth.
Fanning still held on to her.
“Hey buddy, the lady wants to leave,” a male voice said.
Nikita looked up to see her ex-boyfriend and current policeman, Marco O’Brian standing by the table.
“Screw off,” Fanning said, tightening his grip on Nikita.
“I said, let her go,” Marco repeated quietly. Nikita didn’t look at him.
“And I said, Get the f…” the rest of his sentence was cut off as Marco’s hand snaked out and grabbed him around the throat.
“Marco…” Nikita began, but his look silenced her.
“You are done here at this bar. Got it?” Marco told Fanning who was struggling to breathe. He had his badge pressed up hard against Fanning’s nose. “I don’t want to see you in here again.”
Fanning nodded as best as he could with the other man’s vice grip around his throat. Marco tossed him toward the door, and Fanning hurried outside.
“Thanks,” Nikita mumbled as Marco returned to make sure she was alright. She didn’t want to look into his eyes. She knew what she would see there – love, hurt, disapproval. She knew he still loved her, but the relationship had nowhere left to go. Marco wanted to get married and Nikita didn’t. They had stayed together for a little while, but it had become apparent that neither was going to change their mind. So they had split up. Unfortunately, they had many of the same friends and both still frequented “Papa’s.”
Marco put his fingers under her chin to tip her face up to look into his. “Are you okay?” he asked.
Nikita nodded, not meeting his eyes. “Fine,” she whispered. A crowd was now staring. “Let’s go, Carla.” She said, pulling out of Marco’s gaze.
“He might be still out there, Nikita,” Marco warned. “Let me at least walk you out?”
“Marco,” Nikita began to protest.
“That would be great!” Carla said, tugging on Nikita’s arm. “We don’t want to run into that gorilla again.”
Nikita huffed and started for the door. She didn’t notice the pair of green eyes that had watched the entire scene.
***
Michael had relayed the second failure to his team and then had headed for home. He thought about the elusive blonde. He realized that Fanning had been a complete disaster. His team did not have many male contacts for this sort of work. Most of their targets were men, and Josephine did an admirable job of making short work of them.
He started to ponder what type of man would intrigue her. He had come himself to get an idea of her personality. She was an academic, a brilliant one if her file was correct. Yet, she certainly didn’t dress or act the part. She looked as if she would fit in at a punk club, and she rode a motorcycle.
Michael made a mental note to check into her “rescuer.” There seemed to be some sort of history between them. “A past lover?” he mused. It certainly seemed so. The man could not have looked more forlorn.
Over the next few weeks, Walter, Michael and Birkoff tried a number of different contacts, male and female, to attempt to entice Nikita out of her shell. All were politely or not quite as politely, rebuffed. Each time, one of the three was at the scene to observe. They switched off to not draw attention to their presence.
One night, Walter was in Papa Pig’s with a beer. He was lucky that it was crowded and Nikita and Carla were forced to sit next to him at the bar.
“Wow it’s crowded tonight!” Carla exclaimed, ordering from the bartender.
“Yeah,” Nikita nodded.
“Do you think there are any prospects in here?” Carla asked glancing around.
“Carla, I’m sorry, but I HAVE to ask. Have you been setting up all these guys that are hitting on me?” Nikita asked bluntly.
Walter nearly choked on his beer, but covered it with a short cough.
“What?! You think I would set you up?” Carla asked in astonishment. “If I were going to set you up, I’d just introduce you and say ‘Nikita this is Joe, blah blah blah.’ I wouldn’t play games with you,” she said, slightly hurt.
Nikita sighed. “You’re right. I guess its just weird how all of a sudden…”
Walter worried about their plans, but Carla’s next words gave him relief.
“It’s not all of a sudden. We get hit on all the time. You’re gorgeous! Of course guys are going to hit on you,” she told her friend.
“I guess,” Nikita sighed.
As the night wore on, more and more people filled the bar and the two women talked to friends they knew and enjoyed themselves.
At one point, Nikita scoured the bar, moving her head back and forth to see better around the people milling about.
“What are you looking for?” Carla asked, curious at her friend’s behavior.
“The other night,” Nikita began in a quiet voice, “there was this guy I saw here. He was pretty hot. I was just seeing if he was here tonight. I thought I saw him, but I don’t think it was him.”
“Really?” Carla said, her eyes widening with interest. “Do you see him?” she asked, looking around.
“No,” Nikita replied glumly.
“What did he look like? Have you seen him before?” Carla asked.
“I’ve seen him once or twice, I think. He has reddish brown hair that’s kinda long. He tucks it behind his ears. A really great mouth. I couldn’t tell what color eyes, but they were maybe blue or green. The last time I saw him, he was wearing black pants and a grey shirt with this cool black leather coat. And I watched him walk out once…” her eyes closed.
“Yummy?” Carla asked, intrigued.
“He didn’t just walk, he kinda … stalked,” Nikita said, warming to her topic.
Walter’s eyes widened as he realized that she was talking about Michael. He only half heard Carla’s reply as he threw a bill on the bar and walked outside pulling out his cell phone.
“I’m telling you man, she is talking about you!” Walter said for the fourth time. Michael wasn’t buying Walter’s story.
“Walter, it would jeopardize the job,” Michael protested. “You don’t even know if it was me. It could be anyone she was talking about.”
Walter sighed. Birkoff saved him making a fifth try.
“Michael, what would it hurt for you to at least go to the bar and see if she’s interested. We’ve struck out on everyone else. We don’t have that much time left. I’ve dug into everything I can into the others at Section One and there isn’t an angle,” Birkoff protested quietly over the conference call.
Walter heard Michael sigh. He held his breath.
“Very well,” Michael said quietly. “But not at that bar. It needs to be more organic. I don’t want it to look like a setup. If we’ve learned one thing about this girl, its that she is different. We’re not going to get very far with a pickup line.”
“You’re right,” Walter agreed. “I’m heading back now. Let’s meet early tomorrow to come up with a plan.”
“Tomorrow then,” Birkoff agreed, the sound of keys clicking in the background.
“Very well,” Michael sighed.
Walter folded his phone shut and laughed as he walked for the car.
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