CHAPTER2

Sydney paced the small hotel room, anxiously and glanced at her watch for the third time. Cate had explained the rest of why she had asked them to come, and then had to leave the room to take a call from her supervisor. Nigel had grown unusually quiet through it all and had not said a word, since he had seen the picture of a man that could be his father’s twin.

Cate had brought up Ian Worthingham, the man who deeply resembled Nigel, and mentioned that there appeared to be a connection between Ian and Maxwell Mason. They wanted Nigel to pretend to be Ian again, as it appeared that Mason did not know of the Ian’s death. It would be a way to trap him.

Sydney couldn’t stand the silence any longer and she walked over to sit beside the Englishman on the bed. “Nige?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you okay?”

“Sure.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine, Syd.”

“We don’t have to do this, Nigel. We can just walk away.”

He released a long, slow breath and rose to look out the window, folding his arms across his chest. “Yeah we do.” He stared out at the city lights below. “I…I just don’t know if…”

Sydney moved to stand behind him. “What?”

“Well, before when I…had to pretend, I had the Lancet, Sydney. I don’t think I can be…convincing without it.” Nigel shook his head, frowning. “I mean…I’m nothing like Worthingham. How do I…”

“Nigel, are you suggesting that we borrow the Lancet from the university so you can cut yourself again?”

“Well…” He glanced at her and saw her disapproval. “No, no I guess we can’t. I…how else can I do it, though, Sydney?”

“Nigel, we don’t have to do it at all. To be honest I’d rather we didn’t. Cate almost got you killed last time…”

“It wasn’t her fault!”

“She’s a trained agent, Nigel, you’re not and she put you into a situation you had no training for.” Sydney turned him to face her. “You could have died, because of her carelessness.”

“Sydney, it was my choice to help Cate and I had the strength of the Lancet to protect me.”

“Yes, until it wore off. Nigel, the point is, she shouldn’t have put you into that kind of situation.”

“That kind of situation?” he repeated, agitated. “You mean a dangerous one, Sydney? One that involved getting kidnapped, beat up, and shot at?”

“You’re not a trained agent, Nigel!”

“I wasn’t a trained Relic Hunter, either, Sydney, but that didn’t make any difference, so why should what Cate asked of me months ago, be any different from what you asked of me three years ago?”

Sydney didn’t have an answer. He was right. She had put him in situations that are far more dangerous and with much less training. Did that make her as reckless as Cate? She’d always resented the agent for almost getting Nigel killed, but in all honesty how often did she put her assistant at risk on their hunts? Granted, she’d always gotten them out of it, but did that make it less irresponsible?

“Well…you’re my assistant, not Cate’s!”

Nigel stared at Sydney to stunned to respond.

Cate closed the door, sensing the tension. “Am I interrupting something?”

His gaze lingered on Sydney a few more minutes, before he unfolded his arms and moved away from the window. “No, nothing. We were just wondering how I was going to pull off being Ian again, last time I had help.”

Cate smiled at him. “I think there was more of you than you realize, Nigel. I have no doubts in your abilities.” She paused and placed and hand on his shoulder, revealing a deeper intimacy. “I know this isn’t going to be easy for you, so if you have any reservations say so now, we’ll find another way to get Mason.”

Nigel returned her smile; she had to know he could refuse her nothing. “Tell me what to do.” Sydney made a noise and he glanced at her as she crossed her arms over her chest in disapproval.

Cate beamed at him and indicated the door off to the left. “There’s a change of clothes for you in the bathroom and a package of hair dye. Do you need help putting it in?”

Nigel shook his head. “No, I can manage.” He glanced at Sydney once again, before heading into the bathroom and closing the door behind him.

Cate noticed Sydney’s displeasure and walked over to her. “Look, I’m sorry if…”

“I’m warning you, right now, Cate,” Sydney interrupted. “If anything happens to him, if he gets hurt in any way, I’m holding you responsible.”

“I don’t want anything to happen to him either, Sydney. I care for him too.” She smiled. “I think he can handle himself just fine. You should have seen him the last time…”

“Cate, he was empowered with the Lancet the last time. It gave him a confidence he doesn’t naturally possess.”

“You’re wrong. Yes, the Lancet made him powerful, but there was more to it than that, Sydney. Nigel was…different. It was a side of him I never saw before.”

“Because he was pretending to be someone else, Cate.”

“Exactly, and he made it real, so real even I couldn’t tell the difference. There’s much more to him than you think, Sydney.”

Sydney bristled, how dare Cate try and tell her the kind of person Nigel was. Sydney had known him for much longer Cate. “I know one thing for sure, Cate, I know the only reason Nigel is doing this is because of his feelings for you. He doesn’t want to get involved, he hates danger, he hates putting himself at risk.”

“How can you stand there and say that?” Cate demanded, in disbelief. “Sydney, look at what the two of you do. How can you make that kind of claim? He’s in danger all the time when he’s hunting for a relic.”

“That doesn’t mean he enjoys it, Cate!”

“Then why do it?”

“Because it’s his job!” Sydney snapped. “This…international intrigue and undercover agent crap is yours. Nigel should have nothing to do with it.”

Cate smirked. “You don’t have any problem with it.”

“I’m not Nigel.”

“So you’re saying that you don’t think Nigel can handle the same things you can?”

“He can’t!”

Cate stared at her, surprised. “Sydney! How can you say that, Nigel isn’t a coward.”

“No, he isn’t and he does hold his own,” Sydney admitted. “But there is a difference to holding your own and having moments of brilliance to being able to handle the kind of situations we get into, on his own.” Sydney waved her hands at Cate and lowered her voice, angrily. “Nigel doesn’t know how to fight; he barely gets by most times. It’s not an insult to him it’s a fact. He’s a scholar not a warrior.”

Cate shook her head and also lowered her voice. “I think you under estimate him, Sydney.”

“I do? Is that why you’ve given him the impression that he isn’t…man enough for you?”

“What?” Cate paled, slightly.

“Nigel may be many things, Cate, but he is not stupid. He sees a hell of a lot more than you realize and he always knows when someone is being dishonest with him. How long are you going to keep stringing him along?”

Cate flushed. “Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?”

“Excuse me?”

“Before you condemn me for being dishonest with Nigel, shouldn’t you deal with your own lies first?”

“What the hell are you talking about, Cate?”

“Don’t play dumb, Sydney; it doesn’t become you. You know how you feel about him and you…” She paused as her phone rang again. “What?” She paused, glared at Sydney once more, and headed for the door. “I’ll be right there.” She snapped the phone shut and turned around, her expression suddenly remorseful. “Look, Syd, I don’t want to fight you on this, or at all. You and Nigel are my friends; can’t we just agree to disagree on this one?”

Sydney hesitated, and then nodded. She didn’t want to fight either; she liked Cate. She was attacking the agent out of fear, because she didn’t want Nigel to get hurt. “Okay.” She frowned. “Cate, do you think this guy really is Nigel’s father?”

“No, Nigel’s parents are dead, but there has to be a connection somewhere. I mean, first Nigel finds a man that could be his twin, and then another man surfaces that looks identical to his own father and they both know each other. There has to be something connecting all of them.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Sydney muttered, turning to stare out the window. Nigel rarely discussed his parents and he was not close to his brother. How hard would this be for him, lying to a man that looked so much like his dead father? How could that be easy for anyone to do?

“I’ll be right back,” Cate said. “When Nigel is ready we’ll head to France, that’s where Mason was last seen.”

Sydney nodded and continued to stare out the window. “What exactly is my roll going to be in this, anyway?”

“Yourself actually.”

“Huh?”

“To give credibility to Nigel being Ian, we’re going to have him steal a relic from you, in front of Mason.”

Sydney’s eyebrows rose. “Oh really?”

“Mason will expect you to put up a fight of course, so you guys will have to work out a routine that will enable Nigel to win.”

Didn’t they just have this conversation? “Nigel isn’t really a fighter, Cate.”

“We have twenty four hours to make him into one.” She paused. “Of course, the Lancet would really help in that area…”

“No.”

Cate shrugged and headed for the door. “Okay, okay. Just a suggestion, you said you didn’t want him to get hurt.”

Sydney glared at her. “That’s not fair, Cate. The Lancet belongs to the university. It isn’t mine to remove on a whim.”

Cate held up her hands, peacefully. “Relax, it was a joke. I’ll be back shortly.”

Sydney started to pace again, trying to calm herself. She really didn’t like where this was going. First Nigel was going undercover, then he was going to have to pretend to fight her for a relic, before going off, alone with this Mason guy; a dead ringer for his dead father. This was not good.

The bathroom door opened and her breath caught in her throat at how different Nigel looked. She hadn’t really seen him in his full Ian guise, she’d caught up to him and his deception had been discovered. His hair was darker, and gelled away from his face in a deliciously roguish style. He wore dark, leather pants, a black, open v-neck silk shirt, and black boots, tipped with silver. Chunky silver rings adorned several fingers on both hands, including his right pinky, which was almost completely covered in a pointed silver cone. A silver chain around his neck, and matching nose ring completed his outfit and he was fitting a third piece of jewelry on the higher portion of his right ear.

“Nigel?” she asked in disbelief.

He grinned at her and turned around for her to view his new ensemble from all angles. “What do you think?”

Sydney was speechless; he looked positively edible; her sweet, conservative assistant suddenly oozed sex appeal. “I…you look…different.”

Nigel smirked and shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, doesn’t feel very comfortable though, everything’s a little…tighter fit than I’m used to.”

Sydney didn’t doubt that, she was sure she could see his pulse through those pants, but she chose not to embarrass him. “Well…you sure look the part, Nige. I’m impressed.”

He smiled, relieved. “Really, Syd? I want you to approve.”

Sydney shrugged. “You already made up your mind to do this, what does my approval matter?”

“Syd, come on, of course it matters. You’re my friend. I don’t want to…to disappoint you.”

Sydney walked over to him, inhaling the light scent of his aftershave. “Nigel, you could never disappoint me.”

Nigel flushed and beamed at her. “Likewise, Syd.”

Sydney grinned as the door opened and Cate entered carrying a pizza and a six-pack of drinks.

“I see everything still fits,” she grinned, setting their food on the bed and handing Nigel the small sunglasses that Ian usually wore. He put them on and she nodded. “Perfect.”

Nigel pulled off the shades and moved toward the food. “Glad you approve, now can I eat?”

Both women laughed as he opened the pie box and removed a slice.

About an hour later, Nigel, having curbed the hunger in his stomach, watched as Cate and Sydney choreograph a routine that he and Sydney would use to fool Mason. As much as he was enjoying watching the two women wrestle, he was not the least interested in getting involved. Which was why he hesitated when Sydney called him over.

“Come on, Nigel, your turn.”

“Um…Syd…I really don’t think…”

“Nigel!”

Nigel set his soda down and took Cate’s place, taking a deep breath and trying to calm his sudden nerves.

“You were watching us, Nigel,” Cate encouraged, grabbing a piece of pizza out of the box and settling on the bed. “Just do what I did.”

Nigel wished that it were that easy.

“Okay, come at me, Nigel.”

“Syd, I really think…”

“Do it!”

Nigel lunged for her satchel, as he had seen Cate do, let Sydney block and tried to turn around to bring his hand down on her neck, but he stumbled and knocked them both to the floor. Sydney grimaced and pushed him off.

“Try again,” Cate insisted.

The third time Nigel ended up on his back. He stayed there and looked up at the two women. “This is insane! I’m simply not coordinated enough for this, Sydney.”

Sydney shot an ‘I-told-you-so’ look at Cate as she gave her TA a hand up, noticing his wince as his hand went to his back in protest.

“You can do this, Nigel,” Cate assured, ignoring Sydney’s glare. “Ian would be able to fight, so you have to be able to hold your own as well.”

Nigel scowled at them, and then noticed Cate’s gun on the dresser. “Can’t I just shoot her?’

“Nigel!” Sydney gasped, her lips twitching in amusement.

Nigel walked over and picked up the gun. “Worthingham wouldn’t waste time fighting you, Syd, you’re too good.” He aimed the gun at a nearby lamp. “Judging by the last time we met him, he would just shoot you. He was more than ready to kill us before.”

“That’s true,” Sydney agreed. “He didn’t seem the type to get his hands dirty fighting.”

Nigel set the gun down. “So, we make it look like I shoot you, take the relic, and off I go.” He turned to Cate. “You did say he was a cold hearted murderer, it would be more in keeping with his style, don’t you think?”

Cate nodded. “I suppose we could do that,” she agreed. “Give you a gun that only shoots blanks and set up some blood packs on Sydney, it could work.”

Sydney grimaced at the idea. “I think I’d rather the fighting.”

Nigel smiled slowly and cocked his finger at her. “Come on. Syd. It’s just pretend.”

She rolled her eyes.

 

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