Countermeasure (26 page)

“I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself,” Cassandra breathed hard in agitation, and bucked against him, still trying to push his body away.

Trevor banked the urge to press harder against her. He continued to pin her arms above her head and put some space between them. “I know you can take care of yourself, but friends are going to worry about your well-being, whether you want it or not—whether you like it or not.”

Trevor grew distracted by the feel of Cassandra’s sweet breath against his skin and leaned slightly forward. “All I’m asking is that you let me know next time so I can be there for you. With you.”

By the time he finished his statement, his lips were mere inches from hers. His mind went into overdrive and the need to taste the texture of her lips overrode his common sense. When her lips parted to protest, he silenced her by capturing her mouth with his.

The kiss made him numb to his surroundings. His sole focus became the softness of her full lips and the mingling of their tastes. Slowly, he released her hands and cupped her face with his, deepening the kiss. A jolt of electricity hit him when she responded, kissing him back just as urgently. Her freed hands gripped his forearms tightly and the kiss grew hot and deep—tongues exploring, teeth nipping.

In a flash, Cassandra pushed him from her. Both froze and stared into each other’s eyes. Before he could comment, she slipped into her room and softly closed the door between them. Trevor stared at the door and ran his fingers through his hair. His arms felt empty without her. The taste of her on his lips was sweeter than he had ever dreamed. It only made him want her more and filled him with a desire to taste her over and over again. He couldn’t let the heat of the moment die so easily.

****

Cassandra locked her door and leaned back against it. Her mind was in shambles. Her cheeks grew hot and a fire burned deep in her belly.
Holy shit!

The sensation of his lips touching hers, his tongue invading her mouth, had caused her brain to seize and she had become lost in him—tossed in a sea of sensation and desire, she hadn’t wanted to let go. When he had deepened the kiss, she had wanted to crawl inside him and absorb everything that was Trevor. For the first time in her life she wanted more…wanted it all.

Cassandra’s fingers touched her lips and her thoughts continued to spin out of control. His kiss was like the warmth of the sun on a spring morning, like the tide washing over her feet on the beach.
Oh God!
Like the taste of dark chocolate melting on her tongue. Suddenly, she wanted to laugh and twirl like a carefree child.

Cassandra’s heart raced a mile a minute when she realized that his kiss made her want to savor the moment instead of run as she had in the past. It was that last thought that truly scared her and made her feel vulnerable. She grew slightly lightheaded at the thought that he could hold the power to break her—as her father had been broken by her mother’s passing. She was determined not to let him.

A knock sounded on the door. “Cassandra!”

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.
Damn
.

“We’re not finished. Open the door. We need to talk.”

She forced her feelings down deep, turned around, rested her forehead against the door and said loud enough for him to hear, “There’s nothing left to say, Bauer. Do us both a favor. Stick to your data. It’s what you do best. If you can’t keep up, you can stay behind. We found her, didn’t we? Leave the rest alone.”

****

Back in his room, Trevor sat on the bed and tried to work through his turbulent emotions. The worry that had gnawed at him when she hadn’t returned from what should had been a short walk. The anxiety while he had searched for her in the maze of people. The relief when he had seen her waving her arms from the other side of the street. The anger over the fact she had followed Allison without even bothering to alert him—
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! The woman drives me bonkers.

What disturbed him more was the intensity of the kiss
and the feelings it invoked. To distract himself from dwelling on what had just taken place, Trevor decided to follow up with George and sent him a quick email asking if he was available to talk on chat. George quickly replied he would log in and, since he was at home, they could have a video conference.

“What’s up? Why the frown?” George asked as soon as the video feed was established.

“We got a lead. Cassandra found our girl.”

“That’s good news!”

“It gets better. She still has the formula in her possession. We tried to convince her to hand it over to us. I think she is on the verge of breaking. She’s confused, scared, and alone. Hopefully she understood we can help and will call us.”

“So what’s with the face?”

Trevor needed to vent his frustrations and he exploded, “It’s Cassandra. The lass is driving me nuts. Her plan to stake out the café was brilliant. Her hunch paid off big time. She took off for a walk and ran into Allison, but instead of letting me know she was in pursuit, Cassandra disappeared after her. She was gone for close to an hour!” Trevor’s inflection was a clear display of how deeply it had affected him.

“Oh, T.,” George half chuckled.

Trevor could see George was holding back his laughter. “What? Is it too much to ask to be included in what the hell is going on? What if something had happened? I wouldn’t even have known where to look for her.”

“Dude! Did you hear what you just said? Tell me. Are you more upset that she kept you in the dark, or with the idea that something could have happened to her? Personally, I believe she was thinking on her feet. She knew it was your one chance to find the woman. Besides, she came back for you, right? She could’ve ditched you and dealt with Allison on her own, but she didn’t.”

Is he right? Was I overreacting because I was worried about her safety and didn’t consider that she made a solid decision?
Trevor accepted that he needed to rethink everything from a different perspective.

He changed the subject. “Keep the taps on the family and let me know if you hear anything. Cassandra said Allison came out of a small restaurant when she spotted her. It would help if we could pinpoint where she might be staying.”

“Will do.” Before the call disconnected, Trevor overheard him singing what sounded like an old nursery rhyme under his breath: “Trevor and Cassandra sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g….”

Trevor shook his head, shut down the program, and flopped onto the bed. Covering his eyes with his forearm, he tried to wind down, but the case filled his mind. He was fast becoming concerned regarding what Allison had shared with them. The entity behind the theft was not one they should mess with.

What if someone had seen Cassandra trailing her? Had they been followed or watched while they made their way to the cathedral?
The simple project was quickly turning sour. Trevor exhaled deeply and tried to relax, but his thoughts kept finding their way back to Cassandra and their kiss. Its heat still seared him. Soon his eyelids grew heavy and the silly nursery rhyme played in his head: “…First comes love, then comes marriage.…”

****

Trevor woke to the ring of his cell phone. He realized it was pitch black out as he quickly pushed himself up and scrambled off the bed to grab it from the nightstand.

“Hello?” he answered in a groggy voice.

“Mr. Bauer?”

“Allison!” Trevor instantly recognized her voice. “Yes, this is Trevor.” Silence filled the distance and he could hear Allison’s heavy breathing on the other end. “Allison? Are you there?”

“Yes. Yes. I’m here. Can we meet?” Allison sounded emboldened, possibly by the hope they had awoken in her.

“When Allison? Just say where and when.”

“Now, Mr. Bauer! I need to see you both, now. You said you could help me. I’ve made my decision.”

“Where do you want us to meet you?”

“Here. My place.” Allison gave Trevor the address and disconnected.

Trevor rushed across the hall to Cassandra’s door and banged on it.

“Cassandra! Cassandra! Open up!”

“What the hell is wrong with you? It was just a kiss!” Cassandra bit out as she opened the door, sporting a scowl and a fighting attitude.

Trevor wanted to shake her. “We’ll talk about that later. We need to get moving. Allison just called.”

Allison set the phone down
, her thoughts whirling in her head. She had gotten herself into a hell of a mess and was having a hard time finding her way out of it. She had received the scare of her life when she had been confronted by the two people she now believed were her salvation—the only ones who could help her out of the snare she was caught in.

After talking to Mr. Bauer and Ms. James, she had finally found the way. For the past week, she had been visiting the many Parisian churches hoping for enlightenment. It had arrived in the form of these two strangers. That day, before heading to the Cathedral, she had stopped at the headquarters of the humanitarian group she had been in contact with and signed the final paperwork sealing her acceptance of the position she would be taking in Vietnam.

Allison had already decided to continue with her journey to fulfill her humanitarian pledge. She just needed to figure out what to do with the formula files. She couldn’t just discard them. That hard drive was the only existing evidence Allison had to prove she hadn’t sold or used it for her own benefit. They had presented her with the perfect solution. She would give them the drive and hope that they could expunge the trouble she had created.

Her earlier conviction that she was giving the formula to a company that would make the drug available to the world and all who needed it was a farce; Allison understood that now. She grimaced at how naïve she had been. She had allowed her personal beliefs and painful experiences to dictate her actions. If her older brother’s suffering hadn’t been so fresh in her memory, she never would have done so. Her judgment had been clouded by the horrific experience of watching a loved one wither and die due to a lack of available treatment for the degenerative orphan disease from which he had suffered—it was the only excuse she could muster to explain her total lack of common sense.

Allison dropped her head in her hands and thought of her family, how broken they had been when Brandon was diagnosed a couple of years back. The hope that some pharmaceutical company would develop a treatment for his disease had been in all their hearts right up until the harsh reality had hit them hard.

She had been working in the field for a few years before she had come to realize that, because of the small size of the population affected by the same rare disease, chances were there would never be any serious effort given to develop a drug that would help Brandon and others like him.

Even if her family could convince someone to finance the development of such a drug, it would still take years before an actual cure would be available—much longer than the time Brandon had left. She recalled the months of excruciating pain and declined cognitive abilities that he had experienced, the late nights hovering at his bedside in the very end. Nobody should ever have to suffer like that.

The idea that she could help someone avoid the same pain, or prevent a family from watching a loved one degenerate like that, had driven her to take the formula. She thought it would ease her family’s pain, her own pain, at Brandon’s loss, but she had been so out of it—caught up in the moment—that she didn’t recognize the story for the fabrication it was.

It was one of the stupidest decisions she had ever made when she had agreed to provide Carl Kenyon with the drug’s formula. Now the only thing left for her to do was to make things right—return the copied files to their rightful owner. She would give Ms. James and Mr. Bauer the hard drive and depend on them to put in a good word on her behalf with the company. Hopefully one day she would be able to go back home without the fear of prosecution. In the meantime, she would embark on a new life. Make amends for the wrongs she had done. The job in Asia was her ticket to redemption.

Allison reached for the hard drive buried between the cushion and the arm of the chair she was sitting on. She set it on the coffee table and walked to the small kitchen for a bottle of water. The sound of her apartment door slamming open against the wall startled her. Her heart pounded loudly in her ears as she stared at the man wearing a menacing smile.
Carl Kenyon.
He looked huge in her one-bedroom rental, bigger than what she remembered from their previous meeting.

“Hello, Ms. Davis.”

As Carl stepped further into the room, Allison dropped the water bottle and backed away. “What are you doing here? How did you find me? Leave now or I’ll call the police.” Fear bled through her trembling voice.

“I’ll be gone once you give me the hard drive.” Carl advanced toward her.

“No. I won’t give it to you. I know I was taken for a ride. You lied to me! You promised! I am
not
allowing
you
to turn
me
into a criminal for nothing!” She was scared, but, empowered by those words spoken out loud, she faced him head on.