Never Go Home (3 page)

This section of
the building was gray. No other way to put it. Gray floors, gray cubicles, gray
doors on the offices. Even the windows were covered with gray blinds. Half the
people looked gray. Not their hair, their skin. Perhaps someone that paid too
much money for the work they did figured the dodgy look of the floor made the
workers more productive.

It depressed
the hell out of me, and I’d only been inside a few seconds.

I glanced into
the cubicles as I passed. Most occupants ignored me. The ones that didn’t
glared at me. They all did anything but work. I saw Facebook, Twitter, and a
couple rounds of solitaire being played.

So much for the
productivity theory.

A guard was
positioned at the end of the cubicle-lined corridor. He stared me down. I looked
anywhere but at him.

“You’re
supposed to have your ID clipped where I can see it,” he said.

I ignored him.

“You there,” he
said. “You hear me?”

I glanced at
him, nodded and angled my body in advance of turning to the right at the last
cubicle in the line.

“I need to see
your ID,” he said.

I fished out my
wallet and produced my identification card.

“Thank you.”

“I wouldn’t be
in here if I didn’t have it, you know.”

“I know,” he
said.

Asshole.

I continued on
until I reached Sasha’s office. The gray door was closed. I knocked three
times.

“Come in,” she
said.

I opened the
door, and said, “Give a guy a badge and a gun and all of a sudden he’s…” My
words tapered off. I hadn’t counted on another person being in the room.

Sasha and
another woman sat in chairs positioned in front of Sasha’s bare desk. The view
behind her empty high-back leather chair was of the Thames. Dark clouds
gathered in the distance. The other woman faced the window.

“Jack,” Sasha
said. “You met Marcia Stanton earlier.”

Marcia turned
toward me. She smiled. She could have been a toothpaste model.

“Yes,” I said.
“We had a cup of coffee together.”

“Right,” Sasha
said. “Forgive him,” she added. “He’s American.”

The way she
said it made me feel like I should apologize. Fortunately, that sensation
passed quickly. I grabbed the empty chair and placed it three feet between and
in front of the women. We formed a triangle.

“What’s this
about?” I asked.

“I wanted to
thank you,” Marcia said.

“Just doing my
job,” I said.

“You’re too
gracious,” she said.

“Jack’s one of
the best operators I’ve ever met,” Sasha said.

“I believe it,”
Marcia said. “I’ve never seen someone act so decisively.”

“I froze,” I
said. “And while I enjoy having my horn tooted by two attractive women as much
as the next guy, I can also tell when I’m being buttered up for something. So
cut the crap and tell me what’s going on.”

The women
looked at each other for a moment, then turned toward me.

Sasha said,
“Marcia feels that—”

“Allow me,”
Marcia interrupted. “Mr. Noble—”

I held my hand
up and looked at Sasha. “You told her my name?”

“It’s OK, Jack.
She checks out.”

I shook my
head. “Anyway, continue.”

Marcia glanced
toward Sasha, then back at me. She smiled. It wasn’t the winning grin she had
displayed a few minutes ago. The woman felt nervous now.

“I’m going to
assume you know my story. Most of it, at least. What you don’t know, Sasha will
fill you in on after I’ve left.” She uncrossed her legs and leaned forward.
“I’ve pissed off a lot of people, Jack. Some of those people want me dead, as
you are well aware. They are getting closer and closer to being successful. My
concern grows larger day after day. I go to sleep wondering if I’ll wake up. I
wake up wondering if I’ll live to go to sleep. I’m not sure how I even survived
that scenario today.”

“Neither am I,”
I said.

“What do you
mean?” she asked.

“You go have
coffee at the same place every day this week.”

“I’m trying to
reach out and become a part of this community so I can win the election.”

“You hire
amateurs for your security detail.”

She
straightened up and crossed her wrists at her waist. “They came highly
recommended. I was told they were the best in the business.”

“Then you were
duped. Those two guys out in front of the cafe, they were goons, Marcia. They
harassed old ladies, for Christ’s sake. You got a guy that gets up and goes to
the bathroom. Another leaves the table and bullies a man who was already shaken
by the thugs out front. That leaves you with two bodyguards, and that’s after
two-thirds of the staff behind the counter disappears. Frankly, Marcia, I’m not
sure how either of us is alive right now.”

The woman said
nothing. An awkward silence ensued. Sasha tried to break it.

“What Jack is
trying to say is—”

“There’s no
trying. I said what needed to be said. And I’m going to add to it. You’re
stupid for following through with this whole election. You’re going to end up
dead. Maybe not this week, or the next. Hell, you might make it to and through
the election. You might even make it through a term or two. But the longer
you’re in, unless you go the way of most other politicians, you’re going to
keep pissing off the wrong people and one day it’s going to come back to bite
you on the ass.”

Marcia narrowed
her eyes. Her hands rose into the air and became animated. “I know the dangers.
I saw what happened to the Prime Minister.”

I glanced at
Sasha. “She doesn’t know?”

Sasha shook her
head.

A few months
prior there had been an incident that brought Sasha, Prime Minister Alex
Parkin, and me together. In order to save the man’s life, I had to shoot him in
the shoulder. It worked out in the end. I didn’t go to prison. We caught the
bad guy, the bad girl, and Parkin became a hero.

“He’s lucky
he’s not dead,” I said. “Anyway, did you really bring me in here to talk about
Alex Parkin?”

“I’ll get right
to it, Jack. I know my security has been bad.”

“I
exaggerated,” I said.

“No, you
didn’t. I need the best.” She glanced at Sasha, then back at me. “That’s why I
want to hire you.”

“What?” I
looked at Sasha. She shrugged.

“Money is not
an object,” Marcia said. “You can name your price. I can provide every resource
you need. If you want to bring in your own men, I can accommodate that.”

I leaned back
in my chair and crossed my left leg over my right knee. Marcia’s stare never
left mine. She looked serious, and perhaps scared. The attempt today had left
her shaken. Understandable, I thought. She sat motionless. It was up to me to
respond. She was not going to break the silence.

“Listen, I’m
not sure what Sasha told you, or what your people might have said about me, but
I’m not in the body guarding business. It works against my natural instincts.”

“I saw you in
the cafe. You knew the two people behind the counter didn’t belong there.”

“No,” I said.
“I knew the girl didn’t, but then I figured the skinny kid was the plant. You
know what happened to him? He ended up wetting himself on the floor. I was just
as wrong as the men you hired.”

Marcia said
nothing. She leveled me with her dark eyes. Half of me said to take the job.
The other half said to run away.

“Sasha, tell
her I’m not the right guy for this.”

Sasha put her
hands in the air. “I don’t want to lose you, Jack, not for any amount of time.
But if you agree, I have no qualms about you going. I don’t want to see
anything happen to Marcia.”

“Thanks,
Sasha.” I shook my head.

“Four weeks, a
million dollars U.S.”

“What?” I said.

“One point
five,” Marcia said.

I rose and
walked past the women. The storm clouds to the north had thickened in the short
time I’d been in the office.

“Two million
dollars, Mr. Noble.”

“You could buy
a full team of pros for a quarter of that.” I turned to face her. “I’ll give
you the number of a guy. He’ll have four men here by midnight. They’re
specialists. They can keep you safer than I can.”

“I don’t want
them,” Marcia said. “I want you.”

“This is crazy.
I’m not a bodyguard.”

“I’m not
leaving this office until you say yes.”

“Hope you
brought a change of clothes then.” My cell buzzed against my thigh. I held my
finger out as I reached for it. “Hold on.” I glanced at the screen. “I’ve got
to take this.”

Sasha glanced
over at me. “Erin?”

“No, someone
from the States.” I walked past them, turned when I got to the door. “Let it
go, Sasha.”

I stepped into
the hall with the phone buzzing in my hand. No one seemed to notice or care. I
answered the call before it diverted to voicemail.

“Jack?”

I hesitated a
minute. It’d been over a year since I heard a voice that sounded like my own.

“Sean?” I said.

“How’s my baby
brother doing?”

“I’m doing OK.
How… How’d you get this number?”

“I’ve got my
sources.”

“Who?”

“Is this how
you start a conversation after going a year without talking to me?”

“No. You’re
right. Sorry, Sean. What’s going on? Is everything OK? Is Dad OK? Did something
happen?”

“Dad’s all
right. Crazier than a hoot owl, but he’s doing fine. Deborah and Kelly are
fine, too. No need to worry about them.”

I glanced at a
clock mounted above an office door. I performed a quick time conversion. It was
mid-day back home. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something had happened.
Sean was a lawyer and a busy guy. He wouldn’t call in the middle of the day for
nothing.

“You didn’t
call just to chat, Sean. I know you better than that. I mean, unless I blacked
out and it’s Christmas already. Just get to the point.”

The door opened
behind me. Sasha mouthed, “What’s going on?”

I shook my head
and walked away from her. An overhead light was out. The corridor between
cubicles and offices grew dim.

“I don’t know
how to put this, so I’ll just say it.” He paused. It sounded like he took a
drink. “They found Jessie dead last night.”

It felt like a
blast wave hit me. “Jessie? Jessie Kline? My old fiancé?”

“That’s the
one.” Sean paused a beat. “She’s Jessie Staley now. Or, she was.”

“Jesus.” I felt
the blood drain and my knees went weak. I found a wall to lean against for
support. “What happened?”

“I don’t know
all the details yet, Jack, but I’m hearing suicide.”

“That doesn’t
make sense. Jessie had always been a positive, strong woman.”

“When did you
last see her?”

I thought about
it. “Over ten years, I guess. Well, I saw her at Mom’s funeral. We said hi, but
that was it.”

“Things change,
Jack. I heard rumors that she wasn’t happy. I spotted her husband at the bar a
couple times. He was with other women. I never made much of it. He wasn’t all
over any of them or anything. Maybe there was more to it than I realized.”

“When’s the
funeral?”

“Three days.
You thinking of coming?”

I looked toward
Sasha’s office. “I don’t know if that’s possible right now, Sean.”

“I’m sure
Jessie’s family would appreciate it. Deb’d like to see you, I know that. Kelly
doesn’t even remember you. She knows your picture, but nothing other than that.
I’m sure it’s the same way with you and her.” Sean paused. The emotional impact
of his words set in. “And I wouldn’t mind a couple days catching up with my
baby brother.”

“I…” I couldn’t
say yes, and I couldn’t say no.

“Look, think
about it for a bit. Talk to whoever you need to talk with. I’ll call you in a
bit. You’ve got my number now. If you come to a decision before I get back to
you, hit me up.”

“Will do.” I
ended the call.

“Jack?” Sasha
said.

I walked away
from her, found an empty office and went inside. The chair behind the desk was
a replica of Sasha’s. I sat down. The chair glided in a half-circle. I looked
out over the Thames. An eight-person scull floated by. They worked in unison
with the exception of the coxswain who commanded their pace. Nothing in my life
worked as fluidly as that team.

Jessie had been
a part of my life since I was a kid. We hated each other when we were little. I
tormented her from first grade through sixth. Dirt and earthworms turned into
signs pinned on her back and crude jokes. One summer I grew up, sort of, and so
did she, a lot. Then I fell in love with her. It took three or four years to
convince her to give me a shot. I left for the Marines at the age of eighteen.
From that point we were on-again off-again for a few years. Eventually we went
our separate ways.

Eleven years
ago I wound up in a sticky situation outside of D.C. My partner Bear took a
bullet. I knew Jessie lived nearby. She was a trauma nurse at the time. I
thought the two of us might make a go of it then. It didn’t turn out that way.
I almost got her killed. I did get her and her parents threatened by someone
high up and out of my reach. We had busted a three-star Army General by the
name of Keller. Some folks didn’t respond well to that.

Last time I saw
her was at Dulles Airport. She went one way, I went the other. I took a few
months off after that. Spent it down in the Keys. She had an open invitation.
Never showed. She’d moved on. I did the same.

A rap at the
door interrupted my thoughts. I swung around in the chair. Sasha had already
opened the door and entered the office.

“What’s going
on, Jack?”

“Just got some
news from back home.”

“Another job
offer?”