His Secret Desire (7 page)

"Well he doesn’t see it that way. Looks like
he's out for blood. Does the town of Lovett, Maine mean anything to
you?"

The words felt like a punch to Katy's
stomach.

"Shit." She said. "He's doing this to ruin
me. He's an idiot but he's smart enough to know this kind of
publicity will destroy my reputation. If he produces a picture of
me and the press come looking, then that's it; game over."

"I'm sorry boss, but it looks like it's over
already. At least for now. Do you have enough money to stay low for
a while?"

"Sure. Money's not an issue. I've got bigger
problems than that right now. The cops were at my house today. A
disturbance was reported but I live in the middle of nowhere.
Someone put them up to it and I have my suspicions who."

"Forget suspicions, it was your boy
Patterson."

"Shit, shit, shit. I knew it wasn't my
imagination. Someone's been following me for days. I thought I was
going crazy. Damn it. Of all the people to get me, that schmuck.
The dumbest, most arrogant--"

She stopped in midsentence. There was no use
in getting upset about what was done. She needed to focus on more
immediate problems and finding solutions.

"What's new on Hargrave?" She said.

"He's the least of your worries. Apart from
his bizarre relationship to women the guy is clean. Cleaner than
clean. He's up to his ears in lawsuits over patents and other
corporate stuff but only because his company is so good. All the
other guys are falling over themselves trying to copy his
equipment. He's a big time philanthropist and a lot of his tech
goes into ground breaking medical devices that have changed
people's lives. Him and his brother are pretty damn awesome. Right
now they're working on light weight tracking devices to be worn by
military and security personnel. The days when warzone kidnap
victims can't be located will come to an end by all accounts.
Pretty amazing and 'out-there stuff'. Despite all that, still no
rabbit-holes."

'Rabbit-holes'. This was Suzy's way of
talking about red flags that threatened to lead down to less than
savory places. Katy was familiar with her friend's terminology.

"What's the bizarre relationship to women
thing?"

"Oh shit."

"What is it?"

"I'm watching CNN. This guy Patterson has a
picture of you."

"Fuck. God damn it." Katy glanced nervously
in her rear view mirror. That damn sedan with the scary looking
Latino was still following her.

"How the hell did he get that?"

"How should I know? Maybe I've been getting
sloppy or maybe he had some technology already that passed my sweep
when we met. Maybe the guy just isn't as dumb as he looks."

"Obviously not."

"Is it a clear shot of my face?"

"Clear as day."

"God damn it."

"You better stay low baby. This doesn’t look
good. If your old employer sees this--"

"Shut up. Not another word. I've got to go
because it looks like they already have."

Suzy froze. Her crazy long distance, no name,
covert relationship to her old friend was a lifeline to her. She
was the oldest friend she had and the loss of her to that evil
crime dynasty had hit her hard. She desperately wanted to call her
friend by her old name but didn't dare.

"Stay on the line. Don’t hang up."

"I've got to go. Someone's following me. This
isn’t safe for you anymore."

"It never was. Don't hang up. Tell me where
you are."

"No way. Come on, I don’t know how much
longer I've got. What else do you know about Hargrave."

"It's not important."

"Just tell me for Christ's sake."

"Okay, it's about his women. He's choosy.
Very choosy. But he always goes for geeks, engineering types, high
IQ. Always slim and good-looking but always tech-heads."

"I'll be damned."

"He has a thing for girls like…"

"Girls like you." They both said at the same
time.

"Ah, ah. Girls like
you.
Suzy said.
You're the hot one."

Suzy glanced in her rear view and saw the car
behind her looming closer than ever.

"Cut it out Suzy… shit, I've got to hang up.
I need to take care of this right now."

"Wait--"

Katy ended the call and pulled her car over.
Her Sig Sauer was in the glove compartment and she considered
taking it out. If this was her old boss tying up a loose end then
it might actually come to that. On other hand, whoever it was
probably had more experience with firearms than she did.

She looked in her rear view mirror to see how
close her pursuer had come but there was nothing there; just trees
and country road.

"What the hell?"

There was no sign of the car or its burly
occupant. Katy didn't know whether to be relieved or more terrified
than ever.

Her phone buzzed and she picked it up. Only a
very short list of people had this particular number and she didn't
recognize the one on screen.

Not good.

She made a few taps on her phone to access a
feature known only to manual reading geeks like her, and in an
instant she was listening to the caller go to voicemail on speaker
phone.

"Ms. Maldon, I need to know where you
are?"

What the hell?
It was Clayton
Hargrave.

She snatched the phone up.

"How the hell did you get this number?"

"Why the hell aren't you at home getting
ready for dinner? I've been busting my ass getting a god damn
vegetarian meal ready for you for the last hour and my surveillance
guy tells me you are halfway to Canada already. I thought we had a
deal?"

This is a Blackphone, encrypted, noiseless,
how the hell…?

She searched the forest around her and then
looked into her rear view mirror.

"Oh shit. He's there again." She hissed into
the phone.

"Stay calm Ms. Maldon. Don’t leave your car.
Tell me what he looks like."

"He's tall, over six foot, Latino looking or
maybe Hawaiian--"

"Stop there. That's enough."

"He's walking towards my car. I'm gonna use
my weapon."

"Don’t do that Katy; he's
my
guy.
That's Angel for Christ's sake, I asked him to stay with you and
keep you out of trouble until my car came to pick you up for
dinner."

Katy looked into the rear view mirror and the
figure she saw looked obviously concerned and extremely
non-threatening. She sobbed into the phone with relief.

"You damn asshole. You scared the life out of
me. I thought I was… I thought he must be…"

"Must be who?"

Another near slip up. It felt like she was
falling apart, her fake life beginning to crack up inside her own
head.

"No-one. I just didn’t know who the hell was
following me."

Angel tapped on the window.

"Ms. Maldon, my name is Angel Montoya, I work
for Mr. Clayton Hargrave. Can I please speak to you for a
moment?"

"Tell your goon to leave me alone." Katy
said.

"He's not a goon, he's an old college friend
and the best personal security professional on the East Coast.
However, if you insist I will tell him to leave you alone. Give him
your phone."

"Call him yourself, I'm not opening the
door."

Clayton sighed and then put the call on mute
while he dialed Angel directly and spoke with him directly through
his earpiece. The tall man nodded and backed away from Katy's car
and then Clayton's voice returned to her ear.

"Is that better?" He said.

"It's better. Now can you please tell me how
you got this number?"

"Of course I can. I'll tell you just as soon
as you get here."

"I'm not going to your place so you can tell
me now."

There was a silence while Clayton considered
his words. He was more used to putting people under pressure than
trying to put them at ease.

"Would you mind telling me where you are
going?" He said.

"I can't. It wouldn't be good for you."

"I think I can be the judge of that."

"Not this time. I can't help you Hargrave.
I'm officially no longer in the business of protecting other
people's privacy. As of one hour ago I am now retired. You'll have
to find somebody else."

"Is this because of Jack Patterson?"

Shit.
From total blackout, untraceable
anonymity to total wide-open exposure in a matter of hours.

"I've never heard of Jack Patterson." She
said in low, grim voice.

"That is what I would call a perfect example
of implausible deniability Ms. Maldon. Shall I ask the question
again?"

She sighed. "God damn it. No. Don't ask it
again."

"I'll take that as a yes in that case."

"Take it whatever way you want Hargrave. Why
don't you cut to the chase? What's your damn angle in all of
this?"

"I keep telling you, I just want you to
consider working for me."

"Does working for you include taking care of
your bedroom needs as well?"

There was a tense pause. Katy had spoken in
the heat of the moment, barely considering her words. Now that they
were out there the effect was beyond ridiculous; the thought of
taking care of his physical needs set of a minor explosion of
prickling sexual desire between her legs. It wasn't what she needed
at this precise moment.

"I'm not a teenage boy Ms. Maldon." He said,
noting the twitch the words had sent through his cock. He might not
be a teenage boy but this woman was making his body behave like one
with her brassy, sassy and direct language.

"If I engage you professionally then I assure
you that the utmost professional decorum will be maintained at all
times."

"You sound like a sociopath Hargrave. Did
anyone ever tell you that?"

"And you sound like a girl Mike Hammer Ms.
Maldon. Did anyone ever tell
you
that?"

"If you know about Patterson then why would
you even want me to work for you?"

"Because I know that Jack Patterson is one of
the biggest ignoramuses in the world of pro football. What
surprises me is that you agreed to work with that moron in the
first place but then refused to consider either me or my brother
Dale as clients."

"So you and your brother both like to play
stalking games. That's as creepy as it get."

"He's not stalking you. He gave me your
number right after he told me that he had just had a narrow escape
from you today. He saw your mug on CNN not a half hour after you
turned his business down flat."

"So that's how you got my number, but why the
hell would he even give it to you? What did you tell him? That you
wanted to hire the failed privacy consultant yourself?"

"I told him I thought you were beautiful."
The words disarmed Katy momentarily. Clayton continued on. "I told
him I was interested in meeting you and that I wanted your number.
He warned me to stay away from you, but he also knows that when I'm
serious about something then I don't let anything get in my
way."

"You should take your brothers advice
Hargrave. He must be the smart one in the family because when I
told
him
to take a hike he high tailed it."

"Dale is the brash one.
I'm
the smart
one and right now the question on my mind is why exactly would a
beautiful and mysterious young lady, obviously highly intelligent
and extremely accomplished, go on the run just because her face
showed up on CNN as a celebrity 'privacy consultant' for a football
player the whole world knows is an idiot?"

"Are you waiting for an answer from me?"

"I'm not expecting you to play ball right
away Katy, you will eventually, but in the meantime I can only draw
my own conclusions. And here's what I've come up with. First off,
your first name isn't Katy and your last name isn’t Maldon. Shall I
tell you what I think your real name is?"

Katy's heart tightened. Her name was the key
to that would unlock all of her past, all of her most closely
guarded secrets. She couldn't bear to hear him say it out loud.

"Stop." She said, her voice choked with
emotion. "Don’t say it. I don't want to hear what you think my name
is."

He can’t know, he's bluffing. Stay low. Stay
clean. Leave no trace.

Her heart had gone from frozen to pounding
hard.

"Why is that Nadia--"

"That's enough. I don't want to hear it."

"Nadia Komerov."

"It's enough. Don’t say my name any more.
Don’t use it. Not over the phone, especially not on the fucking
phone."

The pain in that voice was new for Clayton.
He delighted in breaking down walls of silence, in gently squeezing
the darkest secrets from his women before he pushed them to
heartbreaking orgasm, but the rent tone in this woman's voice was
uncharted territory.

He relented. It would be enough.

"Okay, Katy… Ms. Maldon, whatever you want to
be called, just listen to me know. Take a deep breath, calm down,
I'm on your side and everyone who works for me is on your side as
well. Now take a look around you."

Katy looked desperately from side to side,
like a hunted animal. The headlights of her car illuminating the
twilight woodland seemed tinier and lonelier than ever. The tall,
solid figure of Angel Montoya waiting patiently by was, by
comparison, compellingly comforting in a way she hadn't felt since
she was a scholarship student at MIT without a care in the world
beyond passing her next exam.

Clayton's deep, calm, even voice continued
on. Her cell phone was squeezed to her ear and it sounded as though
the tall, sexy man was in the car next to her.

"Now I'm telling you Katy, that wherever you
think you're headed tonight it won’t be safer than turning around
with Angel and coming to stay with me tonight. I guarantee
you."

She looked out into the now inky blackness of
the forest again and quailed. She had planned to drive all night to
the Canadian border and then change vehicles as soon as she crossed
over, but she knew no-one north of the border; it would be just her
and some money and an account number in the Cayman Islands. She
would be more starkly alone than ever before.