Part 9 (1/2)

Avery let her hand fall to her side, defeated. She knew she didn't have any choice but to accept James terms. Until he believed her and found nothing out, she was stuck here.

”OK, we'll play it your way, but at least let me have a say as to who my jailer is. Right now I really don't want to see you. If you care for me even a little bit, let Clay look after me. I'll talk to him. Not that I have anything new to add to the questions the Feds already asked that I'm sure you know about.”

”You really hate me that much?” James asked, his chest feeling tight.

”Yes, James, right now I do. Clay did not try to get me in bed, to get me to talk. He didn't try to wine and dine me. He didn't try to charm me with lies. I know the investment job was a lie, but Clay and I seemed to find a friends.h.i.+p of sorts, that I don't think he was putting on. So If I have to stay here, at least let me have Clay as my jailer.” Avery looked at the floor.

James nails were biting into his palms as he listened to Avery. He stood stock still and couldn't believe the hurt he felt at her words. Turning on his heel, he strove to the front door. Taking one last looking back at her, James quickly slipped through the door. He couldn't stay a minute longer. His chest hurt. She wanted Clay. James let his hands unclench and walked to the elevator and pushed the b.u.t.ton for the office below. He knew Avery would be safe in the apartment. No one could get up into the building, the elevator only worked when known index fingerprints were scanned into its system. Not something that anyone knew about, only his and the guys' fingerprints worked. Avery was not going anyplace.

James stood in the elevator after the doors opened on the office floor. He had to take a minute and get himself together. This was a business, he couldn't take it personally until the job was done. He would let her have her way until she was out of danger, and then all bets were off. He wasn't letting her go. No, he had already staked his claim and she would just have to get used to it.

Stepping out of the elevator, James straightened his shoulders and bristly walked to the office front door. He hoped the guys had found something. Opening the door, James walked past the front desk into the small meeting room that he could hear their voices coming from.

Clay watched James enter the room. He could tell that James was hurting, they had been together too long and in too many situation for James to completely cover it from him. He knew James was in deep, but this looked even more serious than what he had thought. Clay took a look at the other guys around the table, only Angel seemed to have picked up on James's mood. Angel always seem more in touch that the rest of them.

”Well did we find anything?” James asked, taking his seat at the top of the table his face revealing none of the emotions churning inside him.

”Don't you think we should talk about what went on upstairs first?” Clay didn't want to b.u.t.t in on James's personal agenda, but Avery was the key to this whole job.

James looked at Clay, his face a blank mask. He tried to pull off the nothing-is-the-matter look. Clay wanted to say more, but held his tongue when he saw the hollow look in James's blue eyes.

”She wants you to be her guard, Clay. I tried to get through to her, but the only one she wants to talk to is you. So after this meeting, I would like you to go up and stay in the apartment until she is ready to talk.” James had a hard time talking to his friend. Avery was his and even though he knew he could trust Clay. He didn't want him around her. It didn't make sense with all their history, but James couldn't stop himself from being unreasonable about it.

”Where are you going to stay?” Clay tried to keep his tone neutral as he knew James was close to exploding.

”I'm going to stay in the office. I kind of got use to sleeping on the sofa this last month,” James tried to joke. ”Now let's get down to business, shall we.”

Chapter Seventeen.

Avery looked around the quiet apartment after James had left. She really didn't hate him, no, her problem was she cared too much. She knew part of her heart was already his, and to have him admit that it was all lies was just too much. How much more could she take? Her parents had lied to her, and now James and the men that she had befriended.

Walking through the bedroom into the bathroom, she washed her hands of James's soot and walked back out and crawled under the covers of the bed. It even smelled of James, She thought of getting up and finding another bed, but the smell seemed to calm her, as she drifted off to sleep remembering the wonderful evening they had spent together before it had turned to h.e.l.l.

Clay woke her the next morning with a steaming cup of coffee. He had to have been up a while, as his brown hair was still wet from a shower.

”Well you sure stirred some s.h.i.+t with James last night. He looked like he lost his puppy.” Handing her the cup, he sat on the corner of the bed. Clay wanted her to know that he didn't approve of her treatment of James.

”Well the way I see, I lost all of the puppies. Not only one. It looks like you all had me fooled. I hope you all had a great time while you were doing it.” Avery turned it around on him. She wasn't the one at fault over this. They were.

Clay reached and patted her foot in a fatherly way. He had to defuse the situation, they wouldn't get anyplace if Avery had her back up. ”Avery, we all didn't lie. We were doing our job and I know James didn't have to ask you out. He wanted to. I should think by now you know James only does what he wants.”

He carried on when he saw that he had her attention. ”Why don't you look at the good thing for a change. You were able to move out of the rat-infested apartment of yours, away from your friend Danny. You had a better job than slinging hash and having your a.s.s pinched. You got to go to the opera. What more could you ask for, all the while under our safe guidance.” Clay tried to make light of her situation.

Clay had always seemed to be straight with her, so Avery took a few minutes to think. It was easy to be sarcastic, but she really liked Clay and knew he could supply some answers.

”You're right with what you say, but it still was all a deception. Put on for me so you all could get close and find out any secrets that I might have,” Avery declared in a tired voice. She hadn't slept well with her mind racing over all the events since she had laid eyes on James for the first time.

Avery pushed up in bed, one hand keeping the coffee cup steady, the other brus.h.i.+ng back the hair falling into her eyes.

Clay's eyes zeroed in on the charm bracelet on her arm that she had failed to remove in the night before crawling into bed.

Reaching out, Clay touched the small charms surrounding the bracelet.

”Was this one of the mementos from your family? I know you lost most of them in the fire. This is very pretty, is it yours or something that was your mother's?” Clay asked, his gray eyes scanning all the charms attached to it.

”I'm sure you're not interested in my bracelet...OK, if you want me to talk, we'll start there. It's my bracelet, my parents gave it to me on my sixteenth birthday. It was originally my mother's, she added charms whenever something she thought was important to remember happened.” Avery put her cup down on the bedside table and started to go through the charms, touching them one by one. ”This one is when I was born”-she held up a small baby charm-”next is the cross for my first Communion. This one is books, for my first day of school.” Turning the bracelet around, she told Clay the story each charm held.

Clay noticed one that didn't seem to fit well with the others. Reaching out he pointed out the small key between the books and the small graduation cap. The key was gold like the rest of the charms, but some of the gold had started to wear off, and silver was showing through some parts.

”What's this for?” Clay tried to sound casual, but Avery noticed the change in his tone.

”This one?” Avery picked up the key between her fingers. ”I really don't know. It was there when my mother gave it to me. I never thought to ask her about it, and well now it's too late. I'm sure it means something to her. She only put what she thought was important on this bracelet,” Avery explained to Clay again.

Clay rose from the bed, trying to not startle Avery with his abrupt movement. ”I think it might be very important. I'll be right back.” Clay moved swiftly from the room into the hall and pulled out his cell phone.

James answered on the first ring, as if he was waiting for the call.

”James, can you and Angel come up here right now? I have something I want you both to look at.”

Chapter Eighteen.

”Does she want to see me?” James had been pacing in his office waiting for Clay to call and give him an update. He was having a hard time staying away from Avery, especially after he had went back last night and watched her sleep in his bed. He had wanted to climb in with her and cuddle all night. G.o.d she really had him by the b.a.l.l.s.

”James,” Clay spoke into the cell again, trying to get James's head in the game. ”This is important, more important than Avery's not wanting to see you. Get your a.s.s up here now. And that's an order from your pretend boss. I think I like giving you orders, let's do this on the next job, OK.” Not waiting for James to respond, Clay closed his cell and walked back into the bedroom.

”I think you should get up and dressed. We are going to have company soon.”

Avery flipped the covers of the bed back, and slip her legs out, ”Who's coming? I don't want to see James yet. I'm still mad at him,” she said as she walked to the bathroom.

”Well I hate to give you bad news, but James is one of the two coming. I know you're mad at him right now, but give the guy a break. He really put a lot of effort into this job so you would feel comfortable. He didn't grab you, tie you to a chair, and force the information out of you. No, James gave you a job and apartment and if I'm not mistaken, some romance, as you ladies like to call it.”

Avery blushed as she closed the bathroom door. Clay saw too much with his knowing gray eyes. He knew that she and James had gotten closer than just dating.

Clay sat on the couch and poured two cups of coffee for James and Angel shortly after they arrived and sat down across from him in the living room.

Angel just took the coffee and leaned back in his seat, not saying anything. James grabbed his cup of coffee and started in on asking Clay for an explanation right away. James didn't look like he had slept much and was on edge, as he didn't sit back and relax into the couch.

Clay picked up his cup. ”This morning, I brought Avery her coffee in bed,” he started.

”What right do you have to be in her bedroom, I just asked you to watch her. Not seduce her when she sleeping.” James jumped up, almost spilling his coffee with his abrupt move. He was being unreasonable, he knew it, but couldn't take back his words.