Tonight was… the first I’d felt like myself in years.
It almost felt like a redemption from the vengeance I’d sought. Vengeance that was always eating away at my soul.
Always seeking vengeance, never resting. Never able to stop thinking about what had been taken away from me.
Tonight was a break, and in that break, something cracked the wall I’d placed up around my heart. Something Jia did to me. I didn’t know what it was.
Maybe it was just… her. The effect she’d had on me, and I hadn’t been able to resist it.
Tonight I’d escaped with her and went to a place I never thought I’d see again. Somewhere I could just be myself.
“I was happy too,” I told her and it felt more like a confession.
A faint smile tugged at the corners of her lips and her eyes fluttered shut, closing as sleep took her. Within seconds she drifted into sleep and her hand floated down to her side.
I stayed where I was, just watching her.
Watching her and thinking.
Thinking about the warning logic screamed to me. It all came back now, full force. Rushing in on me. Logic and reality.
I was never supposed to get involved with her.
A week.
That was how long it took to change my mind.
It had been a week since this whole mission came about with its crazy path.
Usually I wouldn’t care. A job was a job.
This was just the first time in a long time that my heart came into question.
My heart had been closed for business for the last five years.
I wasn’t sure how this woman had found the key to unlock the door to it.
What was worse was everything else.
She was Giovanni’s daughter and when I’d said I had a job to focus on I really did mean that. It just wasn’t the job she’d thought.
I didn’t know what the fuck I was going to do. It seemed now that whatever I did for good or bad she’d end up getting hurt.
Chapter Sixteen
Xander
I must have slept for a max of an hour.
That was all I’d spare myself at the time I fell asleep. It was a good two hours after Jia.
I’d laid next to her thinking, until sleep took me too. Then soon got up and got dressed.
I ventured into the sitting room and got lost in her paintings and sculptures. Lost in her talent. It was a shame to see someone so talented being restrained from living out their dreams.
Europe would suit her. I’d gone many times as an agent. But there was just one time when I guess I couldn’t think of my visit as part of the job.
It was with Claire. We were both on leave for a week and she insisted on us going to Paris. She wanted to do the whole tourist thing and start with a tour of the Louvre, then on to visiting the sites and end our nights with dinner on top of the Eiffel Tower.
We’d done that every night. It was on that last night that I’d decided that the next time we went back I’d ask her to marry me. At the time we’d been together for over ten years and I’d wanted to take that next step with her.
It felt like I had my life in order and knew what I was doing. Marriage and the future with her. It was strange to think that I’d gotten to that point already in my life.
Then things changed when she was killed.
It was like I’d been lost ever since.
Thinking of Claire made me think of Jack. I’d resurfaced out in the open and he still thought I was dead. It didn’t seem fair. If all went as planned though, he’d be the first person I contacted.
I sat on the sofa and admired a painting Jia had done of a lake. It was my way of savoring the last traces of being here. The minute I walked out of this house I’d have to step out of the illusion of distraction last night created and face the music.
The Chameleon was in my presence last night. There just like that and in the same room. It was enough to tell me that I truly, truly had big things to worry about.
As the sun brightened and brought the new day footsteps sounded on the porch and a shadow moved by the window.
Someone was here.
I expected Giovanni, but I suppose I should have also expected the person who came through the door.
Armand. The prick.
When he saw me his face contorted into a frown.
“You can leave now,” he ordered, dismissing me.
“I don’t remember asking your permission,” I threw back. I didn’t know who he thought he was talking to.
“Xander Cage, just in case you didn’t know, I really don’t like you and it wouldn’t be wise to piss me off.”
I stood and got up in his face. “Armand, prick, I really don’t like you either and I don’t give a flying fuck about what pisses you off. It is you who shouldn’t fuck with me.”
I’d had enough of him thinking he could talk to me any old way. And, just because he thought I was after the woman he wanted. He didn’t have to do anymore thinking because I’d had her.
He smirked. “Testy, testy. I hope you had your fun last night keeping her bed warm for me.”
“I wonder if it’s the same kind of fun you had with the waitress,” I spat back. “Let’s do this, play it like this: you don’t ask me where my dick’s been and I won’t ask you about yours. Also, from where I’m standing I was pretty certain you seriously pissed off the boss last night. So if I were you, I’d tread softly.”
I didn’t want to leave yet. I wanted to stay until Jia woke up but it was best for me to leave.
I had to check in with Ethan and Wes. They were going to want to know what had happened last night. Wes would have heard the commotion through the wire but I switched it off from the moment I got in the car with Jia. I always switched it off when I spoke to her.
I didn’t wait to hear what the prick was going to say next. I walked out but glanced back up the stairs to Jia’s bedroom before I went through the door.
Sleep didn’t take me away from her. It took her away from me.
I contacted Ethan and Wes and headed to the meet-up office near my apartment.
They were both there when I arrived.
Wes looked worried.
“You alright man?” he asked.
I tipped my head and sighed. “I’m good.”
“Good,” Ethan empathized.
I sat next to Wes and looked from him to Ethan.
“What the hell happened, son?” Ethan asked.
I pressed my lips together and thought of how I’d start. With him I’d always thought it best to lay out the cards on the table in an objective way so I wouldn’t show my true feelings.
In this instance my true feelings and instinct told me we needed the bigger picture.
I proceeded to tell them what happened and as expected when I got to The Chameleon and the shooting, shock took them.
I ended my recount at that. They would have known I took Jia home and didn’t need to know what happened past that. They didn’t need to know that I’d just added to my list of things to worry about.
“Well there was nothing to report from the streets,” Ethan stated. “The team watching Giovanni reported that he was on the streets with his knights for the most part checking things out, then went home. That’s all. No secrets meetings with anybody. And, they never saw him meeting with anybody who looked like The Chameleon. So I think it’s safe to say he still has the prints.”