Eleven (Brandon Fisher FBI Series)

Chapter 29 & 30

Chapter 29

PART OF ME EXPECTED TO wake up to a ringing phone, the other to a knock on the door. Neither happened. Surprisingly I woke up on my own to a hotel room where sunlight filtered in through the sides of the drapes. The alarm on the side table read nine thirty.

I missed Deb with an ache in my chest. I wondered how she was making out at Nadia's and worried if she were safe. I thought of calling last night, but by the time we got in, it was too late.

I picked up the cell to make the call, but it rang on the way to my ear. ID said it was Jack. I took a deep breath and sat up on the bed. I stretched my neck left to right and softly slapped my face to wake up. "Special Agent Fish—"

"Where are you?" Jack's voice carried more aggravation than was there before we left yesterday. He seemed to be a man who needed sleep, and this case had us going on the minimum human requirement.

"At the—"

"Don't tell me you're still in bed."

I sprung from the bed as if he could see me and drew back the drapes. The bright sun blinded me, and my eyes instinctively shut for seconds until they adjusted. When they opened, I looked around the room. "I'm not."

"Hmm."

I knew what that one was for. He didn't believe me. "What is it, Jack?"

"Don't change the subject, Kid. I'm the one who asks the questions. Where's Paige?"

I hesitated to answer because I didn't know.

"Is she in the room with you?"

"Jack?"

"I know about the two of you."

I dropped into a sofa chair by the window and watched vehicles whizz by on the street below. Everyone in a hurry with a place they needed to be, even on a Saturday.

"Kid?"

"It's not like that."

"Hmm."

"It was a long time ago." Why did I feel like I owed him an explanation?

"Is that the sin the Redeemer wanted you to confess?"

"Let me guess, it's only because of pillow talk you know about my affair with Paige." The words charged out infused with a fuel of their own.

"You know about us." There wasn't any shame in his voice, neither any regret.

"I do."

"Well then."

"Surprised you sent me away with her. Late nights, far away from home." I spoke with my eyes on the bed I came from. The sheets and comforter were thrown back in my haste to get up. I pictured Paige lying there and played this like a poker game. "She's here now if you want to talk to her."

"Sure."

He was calm, non-judgmental. He had called my bluff.

Now what? "She's still sleep—"

There was a knock on the door followed by my name being called out.

"Let her in. I have news for both of you."

Jack must have heard the knocking. I detected amusement in his voice. He won this round. I unlatched the chain, unlocked the deadbolt and opened the door. Paige stood in the hallway holding a tray with two extra-large coffees and a paper bag clenched in her hand. She looked at my boxer shorts and smiled. She passed me the tray and I balanced it with one hand as I held the cell to my ear with the other.