ESCANTA: A James Thomas Novel (The James Thomas Series Book 1) (17 page)

“Okay, where to after brunch?”

“We walked to a few places, errands I had to run. My bag was hung over my shoulder, and I didn’t put it down at all. And then I went to my Barre class before we came home,” Mak said, completing the summary.

“Your regular Barre class?”

“Yes. But Cami was there, and our bags are in the room with us.”

“It doesn’t matter—routine presents an opportunity because it makes you predictable.”

“But I know most of those girls,” Mak said, unable to imagine any of them putting a note into her bag.

“You don’t know them, you only think you do. People can be persuaded very easily,” James said. “Open the bathroom door.”

Already?
Mak hesitated, remembering she was in her pajamas, without a bra.

She put her arms over her chest and unlocked the door. James greeted her with a onceover but he didn’t laugh, or make a comment; in fact, his face was completely unreadable.

“Are you okay?” James asked.

“Not really, you’re freaking me out,” Mak said, rubbing her arms that were chilled with fright.

“I’m not trying to. Come out of the bathroom,” he said, stepping to the side wide enough to give her room to walk past.

“Can you please tell me what that note means?” Mak said, standing beside her bed.

James looked like he wasn’t going to tell her, but he did. “It’s a military phrase. It’s the first thing you say when you’ve been engaged by the enemy. The note was intended for us, not you. Someone is watching you, and they know you have protection. It’s a warning.”

“A warning for what?” Mak said, sitting down on the edge of her bed, taking the weight off her shaky legs.

“I don’t know yet,” James said distractedly. He looked over his shoulder, and Mak peered behind him to see Deacon Thomas walking toward them. He nodded at James, a silent communication of sorts—a conversation that Mak knew she was deliberately being left out of.

“Hey, Mak,” Deacon said.

“Can you please pack a bag?” James continued. “We need to move you out of here tonight.”

“What? No! It’s the middle of the night and I need to get a few hours of sleep before court tomorrow.”

“Mak, I can’t guarantee that you’re safe here. It’s not my apartment of choice for you, so it’s best if you stay in the vacant apartment at Thomas Security until we can source a better place for you,” he said calmly.

“Move again? No. I’m in the middle of the biggest trial of my life and I’ve already moved once. Can’t you just increase the security here?” Mak was standing up again, the frustration giving her body a new lease on life.

“It’s not the ideal apartment—”

“And whose fault is that? You were the one who said Thomas Security couldn’t take me on and then proceeded to set me up with a company that you then decided you didn’t like. If you had just done this from the start, we might not be in this situation.”

“I know, I made a mistake,” James said, looking directly at her.

“
We
made a mistake, Mak,” Deacon chipped in. “We realize this is far from ideal, but keeping you safe comes before convenience. And the sooner we get going, the sooner you can get to bed. We’re not trying to make this difficult, but staying here is really not a good idea.”

Mak rubbed her gritty eyes. “I can’t believe this is happening tonight of all nights.”

“I think it’s intentional that it happened tonight of all nights,” James said. “I don’t believe in coincidence…They’re trying to rattle you before what is going to be a big day for you tomorrow, right?”

He was right, and that fact made Mak’s ears steam with anger. And moving and sleeping somewhere foreign was only going to make it worse.

“Right,” Mak said, almost spitting out the word. “Do I have a choice about moving tonight?”

“You have a choice about doing it the easy way or the hard way,” James said, his carefree appearance not faltering. It infuriated her further. She was angry about the note, angry that she was letting them upset her, and she was anxious about tomorrow. It was a bad combination.

“What kind of a choice is that?” Mak said, glaring at him.

“You’re wasting time,” he said softly. Mak didn’t want soft, she wanted him to be angry—to feel as pissed off as she did.

“Why are you so calm? It’s irritating!” Mak said.

Deacon cracked a wide smile. “I’m
so
glad someone’s finally said that to him,” he said, chuckling as he patted his brother on the shoulder, and then walked out of the room.

James remained leaning against the doorframe like they were discussing the weather. “Pack for a couple of days, and we’ll go from there,” he said.

Mak puffed out a frustrated sigh. She didn’t want to waste any more time, but she felt like by moving in the middle of the night, it was letting whoever sent her that message win. They wanted to cause upheaval in her life, and they’d succeeded.

“Well, can you please leave so I can change?” Mak threw in ‘please’ in order not to sound like a complete bitch, especially considering she’d just told him he was irritating. The calmness really was fury-provoking, though.

“You’ve got five minutes and I’m coming back in,” he said and then closed the door behind him.

Mak quickly changed into a pair of jeans and a sweater, and then pulled out three suits for court and layered them into one suit bag. She dashed into the bathroom and packed three bags of makeup and toiletries. She then threw some underwear, pajamas, shoes and other necessities onto the bed. And then ran into a hurdle: she had no idea which box her overnight bag was packed in.

She was madly pulling things out of the three unpacked boxes she had in her room when James walked back in, and he looked a little shocked. “What are you doing?”

She looked around her, realizing that it looked like she’d just ransacked her own bedroom. “I can’t find my overnight bag. I don’t know which box it’s in,” Mak said, depositing even more belongings on the floor.

James came to her. “Stop, stop. You don’t need an overnight bag.” He put his hand on her forearm, gently guiding her away from the box. He looked at the bed. “Is this everything you’re packing tonight?”

Mak nodded her head, noticing her lacy lingerie was in full view.

James reached for one of her pillows and removed the pillowcase. He handed it to her. “Put the loose things in here and I’ll carry the cosmetic bags and suit bag. Let’s go.” He picked up the three bags, cradling them in one arm, and then picked up the suit bag with the other.

“Oh, I need all those files too,” Mak said, quickly packing her things into the pillowcase.

“Deacon!” James yelled and Deacon materialized in her bedroom. “Can you please take Mak’s notes?”

“Of course,” he said. “Do they all go in here together, Mak?” Deacon asked, holding open the bag.

“Yeah, that’s fine, I’ll sort them out when we get to the apartment. Thanks.”

Mak’s eyes traveled over her bedroom, wondering if she’d forgotten anything. James seemed to be able to read her mind.

“If you need anything else, just let me know and I’ll come back and get it. Even if it’s in the middle of the night, that’d be fine. Let’s go,” he said for the second time.

Mak followed James, and Deacon followed behind her. And this order resumed once they got out of the elevator and moved toward the waiting car.

“You need to sit in the back,” James said, before climbing into the passenger seat and Deacon into the driver’s seat.

The car was deadly silent on the drive to Thomas Security. No one spoke, no radio played, no phones rang. Mak was equally relieved and surprised when they pulled up into the parking lot. Every single car was the same: a black sedan. They looked like soldiers lined up in perfect organization. And there must have been at least thirty in the lot. Mak wondered how many more there were during the day hours.

The men carried all of her belongings into the elevator and when Mak could no longer bear the silence, she spoke. “Why do you have a spare apartment here? How many apartments are there?”

“We keep one apartment vacant for purposes just like this. Our clients need it from time to time. It’s fully stocked like a hotel room, including tea and coffee and juice. Anything else you need, just let me know,” James said.

“And how many apartments are there?” Mak said, not giving him a chance to ignore her question.

“There are five, Mak,” he said finally.

The elevator sang a high-pitched note and they stepped out. James entered a code, opening the apartment door.

Mak’s eyes bounced over the apartment—it was very nice, nicer than the apartment she had been living in prior to this entire ordeal.

They put her belongings in what she assumed to be the bedroom and then they were back in front of her.

“There is a phone by the bed, which our numbers are programmed into. Alternatively, call my cell if you need anything,” James said.

Mak noticed that he always instructed her to contact him first. Mak was on the understanding that the brothers ran the company together, but James certainly seemed to be the one in charge.

“Okay,” Mak said with a hint of resignation. She wasn’t pleased about being here, but she was pleased that she was safe.

The brothers left and Mak went into the bedroom. She changed back into her pajamas, brushed her teeth, again, and pulled out some notes. It was past one in the morning and she had to be up at five, but she knew she’d have a better chance of sleeping if her mind was prepared.

When she was confident in her preparations, she turned off the light and pulled the blankets up under her chin, but her eyes refused to close.

Contact. Wait out.

What were they waiting for? And how long would they have to wait?

The black sheet of sky was littered with twinkling stars. James lay on the rooftop lounge chair, staring at the cosmos above him. Nature had always been his refuge, probably due to the amount of time he’d spent outdoors during his training years, and then on various missions. No matter the magnitude of his problems, nature had a good way of bringing it back into perspective. He was but one small soul in this world, a world that would go on long after he passed.

The rooftop door opened and James rolled his head to the side. Deacon walked toward him.

“Do you want to be alone?” Deacon asked, standing at the foot of the second chair.

“No, it’s fine, sit down,” James said, swinging his legs down and sitting up to face Deacon. “I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to pursue her.”

“It’s the right decision, James,” Deacon said.

“I’d almost convinced myself that I could do it…That between you, Samuel, Cami, and me, that we could cover every base and protect her. And then that note slipped through and it was the perfect reminder that I can’t always control every factor…” James said, sighing. “I’m in no hurry to move her out of here, though. I’ll find her an apartment tomorrow, but I don’t want her to leave Thomas Security until her trial is over.” They normally tried to have clients out of Thomas Security within a week, in the event another client needed the apartment, but James was prepared to risk it because right now she was his priority.

“It’s going to be harder for you to resist her knowing that she’s sleeping one floor down,” Deacon said.

James already knew that, but protecting her came first. “I don’t care, I’ll deal with it. I want her to be safe, and nowhere is safer than this building.”

Deacon nodded his head in agreement. “You have thought about what is going to happen if she wins, though, right?”

James grimaced. “That they might go from trying to scare her to teaching her a lesson?”

“Exactly,” Deacon said, biting his lip.

“I know. Part of me doesn’t want her to win for that reason, but if she doesn’t win…she will beat herself up for a long time over this case, and I don’t want her to go through that either,” James said, looking down at his hands.

“We’ll just have to see how it goes. What else can we do at this stage?”

Deacon was right, there was nothing to do about that but wait it out.

“At least she’s entertaining,” Deacon said with a hint of a smile.
“‘How are you so calm? It’s irritating!’”
he said, impersonating Mak. “That was fucking hilarious! You should’ve seen Samuel giggling a few minutes ago in his office. He said he’s going to save that camera footage somewhere very safe.”

James chuckled—even he’d thought it was funny.

Deacon rubbed his neck like he had a crick in it and James thought it was probably due to the emotional stress he’d been causing him.

“You’re right that something has changed since Paris. If I’d met Mak before that all happened, the attraction would’ve been there, of course, but I would never have allowed myself to even consider the possibility of a relationship. I was given something I had never wanted, or even considered, and now I can’t stop thinking about how lonely our lives are. I find myself wishing, hoping, that the future can be different but it can’t—our pasts have made sure of that,” James mused, more to himself than Deacon.

Deacon nodded slowly, thoughtfully.

“We need to keep a very close eye on her,” James said, getting back on track. “I want to follow her tomorrow, but I don’t want her to know I’m there. You need to be in that courtroom with a hidden camera, and I’ll be outside. We have to be there as backup for Cami just in case something happens.”

“I agree,” Deacon said confidently.

James looked at his watch. It was two in the morning but he didn’t feel tired at all. And he didn’t want to lie in bed, tormenting his mind. He’d made the decision not to pursue her, and now he had to accept it.

“You’re not going to sleep tonight, are you?” Deacon said.

“I thought I might go to the gym and release some of this frustration.”

“Up for a bit of boxing? I’ll hold the pads since I’ve been such a pain in the ass lately.” It was Deacon’s version of an apology.

James smiled; it was exactly what he needed. He wanted to beat the shit out of something, or someone, and if Deacon had offered himself up, that was his problem. “Let’s go, brother.”