Black And White Ops

Chapter 3

They spent the night in Monique’s bed, although neither was able to get any sleep. Every sound in the apartment had her on edge; sure the police were coming back. To make matters worse, it was an old building, almost eighteen stories tall. The walls weren’t that thick and they could hear the conversations in the units next to them. At four in the morning the music became very loud from someone’s place. It was the weekend but a party was underway. Monique was used to it by now, but she could see Rick disturbed by all the sounds.

“So how did you know where to find me?” she whispered to him in the dark of her room. He was right next to her in bed with the sheet over him.

“I followed you after we met at the coffee shop,” he said. “And figured out what apartment was yours by the directory. There’s not too many Monique Harrison’s in St. Petersburg. In fact, I think you might be the only one. It occurred to me that knowing where you lived might come in handy. It did.”

“But you got into my apartment without my knowing,” Monique pointed out.

“The locks around here aren’t that sophisticated,” he told her. “Getting through them isn’t hard if you know what you’re doing.”

“And my hiding place?” she asked again.

“Really, Monique,” he told her. “An icon in the closet? You might as well put a red ‘X’ on it.”

Now she felt foolish and scared at the same time. Five years she’d lived in Russia, but Monique might as well have gotten off the plane yesterday for all the stupid things she had done. If Rick had been waiting for her, another professional could have accomplished the same thing. And the next person who came through might not be so helpful.

At the same time, this was the first time in years she’d shared her bed with any man. Just feeling his hot proximity was making her wet. Monique curled up against him and he didn’t pull away. Even if she was a cover he was using, it was something she hadn’t had in a long time. He wasn’t wearing a thing under that robe. All she had to do was pull on the tie and it would unravel in the bed. She kept wondering if he was uncircumcised. A few men she’d slept with in Philadelphia were; it was a strange thing to see if you weren’t used to uncut co*ks. She didn’t notice any tattoos on Rick, did he have some piercings she didn’t know about? She’d played with a guy who had both nip*les pierced once, back in the states. He’d asked her to tug on them when they were in bed. But Rick didn’t seem like the freaky type. Too bad, after this evening she could use a lot of freakiness. Or at least a cup of tea served by a naked man in handcuffs.

“Who do you work for?” Monique asked him when he rolled over to face her. “The CIA?”

“No,” he replied. “I wish I did because they have a good retirement plan. I’m an independent contractor. I work for a department which Uncle Sam uses for jobs he doesn’t want any connections to. I’m here because an office in that building needed to be eliminated in a very spectacular way. Don’t you think it was quite a spectacle?”

She looked into his blue eyes with her brown ones. “Yes it was. Why the hell did you draw all that attention to yourself? I thought you James Bond types worked with extreme discretion or something like that.”

He put one hand out and ran a finger down her face. Monique was ready to put it in her mouth but didn’t want to give him too many ideas just now. “Sometimes you want to make a point,” he told her. “Sometimes you want the bad guys to know never to fu*k with you again,” he told her. “My job was to make them sh*t their pants if they even consider it the next time. I think I succeeded with no loss of life.”

“Except now you’ll have everyone in St. Petersburg after your white ass,” she told him in anger. “And me too. How long do you think it will take them to figure out you planted the bomb?”

“Long enough for me to say vos voy danya,” he told her. “I’ve already arranged for my extraction tomorrow. You can come with me if you want. As a matter of fact, I think you should come along, just in case Mr. Rastolnikov comes back. This time he might not want to know anything about your s*x life.”

“Mr. Who?” she asked.

“You know, Crime and Punishment, the novel,” Rick explained. “The one where the guy kills the old woman.”

“Sorry,” she told him, touch his hand, “I never read that book.”

“I want you to slap me,” he told her. “Do it hard so they can hear us in the next unit.”

She gave him a little pop in the face which barely registered.

“Oh come on,” he said, “Do I have to get you mad?”

This time she could hear it, but it didn’t carry very far. Why did he want her to slap him?

“Hey,” he said to her under his breath. “I’m the big bad man who just stole your teddy bear.”

Slap! She hit him hard across the face. Rick sat up and rubbed his cheek. Monique was up on her elbows looking at him, ready to kill. Her eyes flamed wide and he could tell her teeth were clenched. And at that precise moment, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life.

“I hope no one in the next room heard that,” he said. “On second thought, I hope they did. It will back up your alibi if you need one.”

“You have a lot of nerve in my bed talking to me like that,” Monique growled under her breath. “I never had a teddy bear!”

“Christ you are a lively one,” he said rubbing his face again. “I think I found the right combination of words. Little girl all upset?”