CHATPER FOUR

            Nigel awoke with a start, surprised to find that he had fallen asleep, and he quickly glanced at his watch. Midnight ! How long had he been asleep? Why hadn’t Sydney or Cate called him? He bolted upright, and then realized that someone was in the bed beside him, which also startled him.

            He winced, waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, and finally made out Cate’s beautiful face upon the pillow. His heart constricted a little at what he might have had with her, but then the pain eased. It just hadn’t been right for them.

            He started to slide off the bed, but Cate suddenly woke, her training alerting her to any change in the room. She smiled and reached out a hand to stop him.

            “Hey, where are you off to?”

            “Why didn’t you wake me?” he asked instead, scowling in disapproval. “I never meant to sleep this long. We could have been finding out…”

            Cate braced herself on her elbow. “I already made some calls, we’re just waiting to hear back.” She smiled again and lay back down, her golden hair spilling luxuriously across the pillow. “Besides, Syd said you needed the rest.” She patted the space beside her. “Come here.”

            Nigel frowned but did not lay back. “I am here.”

            Cate pouted and then sat up. “Nigel, we need to talk.”

            “Do we?”

            “Yes.” She reached out to caress his shoulder. “I’ve…I’ve missed you, Nigel.”

            Nigel lowered his eyes; he really didn’t need this now. “I’ve missed you too, Cate,” he replied, honestly. He had missed her, there was no doubt that part of him still loved her, but he’d given up on them having a normal relationship.

            “Then why didn’t you call me?”

            Nigel sighed; they’d had this conversation before. He played with the fabric on his comforter. “I…I don’t know.”

            Cate sat up straighter and moved closer to him, close enough that her sweet breath caressed the cool skin of his face. “Nigel…I know things haven’t been…well like you said, normal between us, but I thought we were going to try…”

            Nigel had tried; he had called her after the last time they’d had this discussion, when Patel had kidnapped Sydney , but Cate seemed distracted, or she couldn’t talk or he had to leave a message. Nigel found that when she did answer; he didn’t know what to say to her. What was there for them to talk about? The sex had been great, they really connected in bed, but out of bed, there seemed to be nothing to keep them together.

            “Nigel?” Cate asked when he still hadn’t answered. “What is it? Why won’t you talk to me?”

            “I don’t know what you want me to say, Cate.”

            Cate stared at him frustrated. “Say you love me?” she suggested, softly. “Say you don’t want to see me any more, say something, anything that will tell me we even have a relationship?”

            Nigel lifted his eyes to hers, wishing with all his heart that things weren’t so complicated. “I do…” he began and then lowered his eyes again. “I…you know how I feel, I’ve told you before.”

            Cate smirked and placed her hand on his thigh. “It’s been so long, I’ve forgotten,” she teased, disappointed when she didn’t even get a smile out of him.

            He had never said the actual words, but he hadn’t needed to, she knew that he loved her. She could hear it in his voice, in his smile, and the way he kissed her. She caught his chin with her fingers and lifted his face, touching her lips to his in a sweet, passionate kiss. “Tell me what to do, Nigel?” she whispered when they parted. “I want this to work between us. I love you. Tell me how you want me to change and I will.”

            Nigel was feeling more and more confused. He loved Sydney , he truly did, but it appeared that he was not totally over Cate yet. “I don’t want you to change, Cate.”

            “Then what do you want?”

            Nigel shrugged. “I…I don’t know.” He rose from the bed. “I thought I did, but now…I just don’t know.” He moved across the room, quietly opened his bedroom door and stepped out.

            He moved down the hall to his living room, and spotted the lights from the TV playing against the white walls of his apartment as the only interior illumination, the volume was down very low. He looked over the back of the sofa and shook his head at Sydney , still sitting up, her head bent with her chin touching her shoulder, sound asleep. He had meant to give his bed to Sydney , not for her to sleep on his lumpy sofa.

            He touched her shoulder. “Syd?” No response. “Syd?”

            She moaned and came half awake. “Hmmm, Nigel?”

            “Come on, Syd. Go sleep in my room.”

            Sydney tiredly shook her head, crossed her arms over her chest and closed her eyes again. “No, I’m fine here.”

            Nigel walked around and settled beside her. “Please, for me? I wouldn’t feel right you sleeping out here.”

            Sydney smiled slowly, but her eyes remained closed. “Always the gentleman, hey?”

            “Always, so come on, then.” Nigel caught her arms and carefully started to pull her up, sighing when she resisted and intentionally stretched out on the cushions. “You want me to carry you in there? I shall, you know.”

            Sydney ’s smile broadened and she opened her eyes, her gaze mischievous. “Really?”

            Nigel flushed. “ Sydney !”

            “Even with Cate in your bed?”

            Nigel shook his head, his cheeks growing darker. “What has that to do with anything?”

            Sydney shrugged and grinned again. “Think you can handle us both?”

            Nigel gaped at her, and then pulled his lips into a thin line; he wasn’t up to her teasing right now. “I have no doubt,” he retorted. “Though I suspect the theory shall never be tested. Now, are you going to go to bed or not?”

            Sydney surprised him by catching his arm and pulling him down beside her, almost atop her. “How about you come here?”

            “Syd!” Nigel scrambled back up and adjusted his shirt. “Stop playing around!”

            Sydney scowled and sat up. “What’s wrong?” she asked, quietly. “I thought…I thought we were still okay?”

            Nigel blinked, confused. “Huh? We are? What do you…?” He paused and stood up, suddenly.

            Sydney frowned. “Nigel?”

            He moved away from her, towards the window and looked down. The patrol car was still there, but something wasn’t right. He grabbed his stomach, feeling as if someone had punched him in the gut, and the pain doubled him over.

            “Nigel!” Sydney rushed over and crouched beside him. “What’s wrong?”

            Nigel shook his head, he couldn’t speak, couldn’t catch his breath. He squeezed his eyes shut and saw the flash from a gun barrel. His eyes flew open and he dropped to the floor, pulling her with him. “Get down!” he demanded.

            “Nigel, what is it? What’s wro…”

            Suddenly, a single bullet pierced the glass in the window above them and they flattened themselves against the floor. A sniper!

            Cate rushed out of the bedroom, alerted by the sound of gunfire, with her gun drawn. “What is it, what’s happening?”

            “Get down!” Nigel and Sydney cried and Cate dropped as a second bullet flew into the apartment, missing her by inches and shattering the clock on the wall behind her.  Sydney and Nigel had crawled apart and now sat on the floor, on either side of the window. She started to peek through the window to see the sniper, and was narrowly missed by a third bullet.

            “He’s got to be in the building across the street,” she decided, glancing at Nigel who was having his usual reaction around gunfire, covering his head and moaning with anxiety.

            “Do that again!” he warned her, forgetting his fear for the spike of anger caused by her foolishness. “And I’ll shoot you myself!”

            Sydney smirked and lowered herself to the floor. “Well, we can’t stay here like a couple of ducks,” she decided as she started to slide across the floor on her belly, toward the sofa.  She waved at him and he obediently started to crawl forward. “Come on, if we can get outside we can cut through the park and try to trap him in the building.”

            Nigel paused to stare at her as if she had lost her mind. “ Sydney ! He has a gun!”

            “So, we take the gun away.” She was almost at the front door when a bullet splintered the wood just above the handle, destroying the lock. All three people covered their heads and flattened themselves against the floor again.

            “The balcony!” Nigel hissed, grabbing at Sydney ’s ankle and turning back toward the hallway. Both women followed as fast as they could and managed to get inside the bedroom just as the front door was tossed open. Nigel closed the door behind them.

            “We could have…” Sydney began, angry for him contradicting her, but Nigel was already tossing open his balcony doors and pushing her toward them.

            “Talk later, move now,” he whispered urgently as he hustled her and Cate outside and quickly closed the doors again.

             “We had a better chance in there; we had the element of surprise…” Sydney ’s words were cut off as the door to the bedroom inside was tossed open and they heard the sound of rapid-fire bullets destroying the bed where Cate had been sleeping moments earlier.

            Cate’s eyes widened in horror.

            “Yes, and they have the element of death!” Nigel retorted, betraying his fear.

            “Come on,” Sydney encouraged, leaping up on the rail. “Over to the next one.”

            The trio leapt to the next balcony and started to shimmy down the fire escape, just as Nigel’s balcony door was thrown open and bullets started bouncing off the metal stairwell.

            “Head for the park!” Sydney cried as she dropped down to the ground, covering her head as she ran to avoid the bullets coming her way. The trio ran across the road and into the thick foliage of the park not stopping until they got to the three-horse fountain on the other side.

            “Do you think that he followed us?” Nigel asked, as he sat on the outer wall of the fountain and tried to catch his breath.

            “I don’t see him,” Sydney replied, peering into the darkness. She turned towards him, suspicious. “How the hell did you know, Nigel?”

            “Know what, Syd?”

            “That! That it was going to happen?”

            “The flying bullets kinda gave it away, Syd,” he retorted sarcastically.

            Sydney moved closer. “You knew before that. You were at the window and you knew. How, Nigel?”

            Nigel was saved from answering when his cell phone rang and he jumped startled; he had forgotten to take it from his pants pocket when he had gone to lay down, he was grateful for it now. He snatched it up. “Hello?”

            “Nigel?”

            His eyes widened. “Karen? What’s wrong, are you all right?”

            “I’m okay, I’m at the office. Someone tried to break in and the custodian called me when he couldn’t get hold of you or Syd.”

            “We’ll be right there, Karen.”

            “What’s going on?” Sydney demanded, her own expression mirroring his concern.

            “There’s been a break in at the office,” Nigel told her, flipping his phone shut. “Karen is there now, I said we’d be right over.” He scowled. “This is not good, Syd. First someone plants a bomb in your car, then they send a hit man, and now this. Someone wants you dead.”

            “Come on, the campus isn’t that far, let’s get to the office and see what Karen knows,” Sydney decided.

            Karen greeted them as they entered the ram-shackled office, and reported that the police had already been and gone and printed what they could. She noticed that Nigel was wincing at the bright lights. He had not had the chance to grab his glasses before their escape, and Karen quickly dug in her purse for her own sunglasses.

            “You’re an angel, Karen,” Nigel offered as he accepted them and put them on. He felt silly having to wear them inside, but his eyes were still too sensitive to bright light.

            Karen smiled and tossed Cate a smug look, before briefing everyone on what had happened.

            “Was anything taken?” Sydney asked as she glanced through the mess that was her office.

            “Not that I can tell,” Karen replied. “It looks like they just wanted to tear up the place.”

            “There must be a reason behind it,” Cate decided, as her cell rang. She excused herself and moved over to the corner of the office to take the call.

            Nigel checked around his desk, picking up books that had been knocked off the shelves and trying to sort through the mess. He pulled his chair out to get to the papers beneath and cried out in alarm, stumbling backwards. “Syd!”

            Sydney, Cate and Karen rushed forward. There, on Nigel’s seat was a large dead rat, pinned to the chair by a knife and with a note wrapped around it. Sydney snatched up the note and unfolded it.

            “What does it say?” Karen asked as she helped the shaken Nigel to his feet.

            “It says, you’re next.”

            Nigel paled. “As in…me, next?”

            Sydney nodded grimly and crumpled the note in disgust.

            “Syd…what are we going to do? Whoever this is, they’ve managed to invade both our homes and now the office?”

            Sydney stared at him; she had no answers to give. She glanced at Cate. “Did you find out anything?”

            “Of the names you gave me, it was like you said, they were either dead or in prison,” Cate informed pulling the pad out of her pocket. “But there are three names on here that I have no information on.”

            “Which ones?” Nigel demanded, forgetting about his scare and moving to her side to glance over the list.

            “Well, that woman you said disappeared, that tried to sacrifice you in her basement.”

            Nigel winced, that memory was still one of his worst. “Elizabeth Ruckeyser,” he muttered grimly. “Although, we’re not even sure that was her real name, she led us to believe that she dispensed with the original curator.”

            “This fellow that you said worked for the government, Major Hillhurst? Interpol has never heard of him.”

            “That figures,” Nigel commented. “I assume that the people he worked for are also non-existent, but I don’t think he’d be after us. We only had the one run in with him, and that was over an artifact that he managed to take back; I don’t think he’s behind this.”

            “I agree,” Sydney nodded. “He was bad news, but he was more interested in the artifact we found. Now that we no longer have it, I don’t see that he would bother us.”

            “Who else?” Nigel asked.

            Cate glanced at the list. “Well, your friend Da Viega, who you said may or may not be dead.”

            “Well, that narrows the list a little anyway,” Sydney offered, noticing the grim look on her partner’s face.

            “Yes, assuming that the Gural Nataz hasn’t just decided to go whole hog and put all their effort into that bounty on our heads.” Nigel groaned and dropped into Karen’s chair. “We really have made too many enemies to figure out whom this could be. That list doesn’t even have the relic hunter’s we’ve beaten for a relic.”

            “Don’t be so negative, Nigel.”

            Nigel glared at her. “I’m not being negative!” he snapped. “Why can’t you stop being so bloody gung ho?”

            “I’m not going to let whoever this is intimidate us, Nigel.”

            “I hate to break it to you, Sydney, but they’re intimidating the hell out of me! So far they’ve chased us from of our homes with both explosions and machine guns and they’ve tried to destroy your office-what part of that is not intimidating?”

            “That’s only because you made us leave your place, Nigel. We could have made a stand there and…”

            “If he hadn’t we’d all be dead, Sydney ,” Cate reminded in Nigel’s defense. “He probably saved our lives.”

            “You’re wasting your breath, Cate,” Nigel muttered as he rose and again started clearing up.

            Sydney glanced at him, hurt by his tone. “What does that mean?”

            “What do you think it means? You’re not invincible Sydney and I sure the hell am not either, so why can’t you stop acting like we are?”

            “I don’t!” Sydney denied, offended. “Just because I don’t run away at every little thing…”

            “No, heaven forbid you run away like a normal person would!” Nigel snapped, bolting to his feet. “Who cares if we’re out gunned or out numbered, let’s just stay and fight and tick them off more, while we hope for a miracle!”

            “At least I’m not a coward!”

            “ Sydney !” Cate exclaimed on Nigel’s behalf, and then cast a worried look towards the now silent Englishman.

            Sydney flushed, furious that she let her anger get away from her and reluctantly met Nigel’s hurt gaze.

            “How about I run out and get us something to eat at that all night deli across the street?” Karen offered, distressed that the two friends seemed on the point of war.

            “No, not by yourself, Karen,” Nigel refused just as quickly, finally looking away from Sydney and lowering his voice in deference to the secretary.

            “He’s right, we don’t need you getting mixed up in this,” Sydney agreed, all the anger had left her as well. “Whoever is after us may try to use you as leverage, Karen. Is there anywhere you can go for awhile, a friend you can stay with out of town?”

            “I’m not leaving you guys at a time like this!” Karen refused. “Besides, I’m not afraid.”

            “You should be,” Nigel replied as he righted one of the plants in the corner. “I’m damn well terrified.”

            “Nigel, we’ve been in situations like this before…” Sydney began.

            “Not here, Sydney ! Not at the university! Why can’t you see the difference? This isn’t just someone we’ve run into on a hunt. This is not an angry relic hunter trying to beat us to a relic and it’s not a guerilla force from a foreign country, this is here at home. They’ve stepped into our territory, the one place we could always escape to, that always felt safe! How does that not frighten you?”

            Sydney stared at him, startled by his hostility, despite the fact that his words rang true.

            “Um…I think I’ll go with you to get those sandwiches, Karen,” Cate suddenly offered, seeing the tension between the two partners.

            “No, don’t…” Sydney refused and ran her hand through her hair, agitated. “It’s better if we all stick together, none of us should go off alone.” She glanced at Nigel, her expression softening. “Nigel’s right, we don’t know who we’re up against and until we do, there’s safety in numbers.”

            Nigel met her gaze full on. “I…sorry, Syd. I’m just…I didn’t mean…”

            Sydney nodded; she’d forgive him if he’d forgive her. “I’m sorry too, Nige. I just hate being bullied.”

            Nigel smirked. “I know. You’ve never been good at standing around and waiting.”

            She smiled. “No, I haven’t.” He really did know her well.

            Nigel reluctantly pulled his gaze from hers and looked at Karen. “What did the police say when they were here?”

            Karen shrugged. “The usual, asked about suspects, what was missing and they dusted for prints.”

            Nigel nodded. “Do you think we should contact them and let them know about the sniper, Syd?”

            Sydney leaned against his desk, thoughtfully. “I don’t know that it would do any good,” she replied. “We don’t really know who we can trust anymore.”

            Nigel’s eyebrows rose. “You think someone in the police department is leaking information?”

            “I’m saying we don’t know who is after us and what connections they might have. How did they know where you lived, Nigel, or that we were there?”

            “I’m in the book, Syd, and process of elimination might have easily told them where to look. It was an error on my part to take you back there really, it would be the first place they’d look.”

            “But it wasn’t the first place they looked,” Cate reminded. “It was several hours before the sniper even showed up.”

            “So, they might have just needed to gather their forces,” Nigel said. “There could be any number of reasons…”

            “There was no one in the car, Nigel.” Sydney stated, grimly.

            “Huh?”

            “When we were running to the park, I passed the patrol car parked outside, there was no one inside.”

            Nigel nodded, he’d noticed that too, but long before they’d been outside. It was one of the things that had alerted him, that and that weird feeling. “The sniper could have shot the officer and hid the body, Syd.”

            “Why?”

            “Why what?”

            “I see what you mean,” Cate countered. “Why kill and remove the guy, when it would be better to make things appear normal by leaving him in the car.”

            “I don’t like the way this is sounding,” Karen muttered and hugged herself, apprehensively.

            “You think it was an inside job?” Nigel asked Sydney . “That whoever is after us has a connection in the department and they…What? Paid off the officer outside my building to conveniently disappear?”

            “It’s possible, Nigel.”

            “But why? Why even go to the bother of pretending that he was there to protect us? Why not just kill us the minute we arrived, or come upstairs under the pretence of checking things and just taking care of us that way?”

            “I don’t know,” Sydney admitted, scowling. “But we since we don’t know who we can trust and…” Her eyes landed on Karen. “We don’t want anyone else here to get hurt; we need to draw our would-be assassin away from here, away from Trinity.”

            Nigel nodded, finally she was making sense. “I agree, we can’t stay here and wait for them to pick us off.”

            “So, where do we go?” Cate asked.

            “Somewhere where we’d have the advantage,” Sydney decided. “A place that might be dangerous for anyone else, but a breeze for us to survive.”

            Nigel scowled; he knew where this was going. “I really hope you aren’t thinking about…”

            “It’s the only way, Nigel.”

            “Syd! I would not say it was a breeze when we were there…”

            “But we know the terrain better than anyone else could…”

            “Agreed, but we may end up with more trouble than we can handle if we go back. We didn’t exactly make any friends the last time.”

            Sydney shrugged, she had already made up her mind and the adrenalin was kicking in. “So, we call in a few favors, we can do this, Nigel.”

            “What are you guys talking about?” Karen asked, feeling left out.

            “Yeah, want to clue us in here?” Cate agreed.

            Nigel and Sydney were staring at each other in that silent communication they often shared. Finally Nigel sighed and nodded. “Right then, I’ll grab what we need.”

            Sydney grinned, excited. “Karen, book two tickets to…”

            “Make that three,” Cate interceded. “I’m in this with you.”

            “May as well do four then,” Karen decided, firmly. “I’m waiting around here to be kidnapped or ransomed again, once was enough for me!”

 

 

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