Covert Alliance (15 page)

Chapter 12

K
elly did her thing as super server, especially now that the person she was serving was Alan. She didn’t need to impress anyone but him.

Well, maybe Ella, since she still didn’t know why her boss was being so nice. Maybe she’d figure that out later.

Now, after strutting just a little sexily since it was Alan and not Stan she approached, she set a mug of steaming black coffee down on the table before him, put her own down, too, then handed the metal cream container to Alan. He looked at her with an expression she read as thanks...and more. He seemed amused. And, well, was the lust in the air only because she felt that way about him, or was it reciprocal? Or was he merely performing here, in keeping with the way they’d decided to play things?

All of the above, she figured.

He waved toward her seat with his right hand—one of his strong, sexy hands that had been all over her last night...

She felt herself start to flush, and after taking her seat, she sipped her coffee to give herself an excuse to feel, and look, so warm.

“Can’t stay long,” Alan warned, “but I’m here because I promised to come.”

“Big doings at Government Plaza?” she asked.

“Meetings, meetings and more meetings this afternoon.” He leaned toward her. “I’m not sure what the discussions will be about, but all city council members will be involved.”

What he didn’t say, but told her anyway, was that Councilwoman Arviss would be busy—too busy to have her son and Eli in to stuff envelopes today.

That was okay. Kelly couldn’t keep showing up every time they were there anyway, as much as she wanted to.

“I get it.” She looked around. There was a family occupying a table behind Alan, but otherwise she had chosen an area that wasn’t too busy. She could talk here as long as she kept her voice low. “Did you happen to see the people accompanying...you-know-who when he left?”

He nodded. “I recognized them. Local business folk who sometimes come to meetings, mostly about promoting Blue Haven and boosting tourism and spending money, that kind of thing. Without raising taxes, of course. But they didn’t include...”

He tapered off, choosing to be ambiguous, too. Good. They were on the same wavelength. She figured he referred to the real estate guy, Baranka.

But she had to get a little more specific now. “One of them—well, we saw Councilman Grodon out in a more social atmosphere the other night.”

Alan would know what she was talking about—when they had run into Stan and the woman she had just learned was named Dora at Tony’s Lounge. He nodded.

“I... I’m impressed by her and would like to meet her.”

“Why?” he asked.

Kelly didn’t feel comfortable talking about it here. “No big deal.” She looked so intensely into his brown eyes that he undoubtedly knew she was lying. “We can discuss it all later.” She paused. “Can we meet for dinner tonight?”

“Sounds good to me.” Alan’s grin looked genuine. “We’ll talk later and make plans.”

He left about five minutes later after finishing only one mug of coffee, paying for it and Kelly’s, too—and, yes, leaving Kelly a generous tip. For show, she figured, since Ella, who handled the bill at the cash register and ran his credit card through, including the tip, appeared impressed.

Kelly had just taken the orders of three college-aged kids at a table near the door when Ella approached her and told her how much the tip was.

“Not bad,” Kelly responded, smiling. “Thanks for letting me take that break.”

“I gather you’ve got something going with that security guy.” The usual intense expression Ella leveled on her staff was there, but it was tempered with a small inquisitive grin that lit up her attractive face.

“I...well, I don’t really know yet, but I wouldn’t mind if we got to know each other better.” Would Ella consider that a good thing? At least it wasn’t grounds for her to fire Kelly.

“Well, I know he’s started ordering food from here, including for events for the bigwigs at Government Plaza. If you can encourage more of that, I’ll let you have more breaks when he comes in.”

“Of course.” Kelly felt herself sigh a bit in relief. There was an explanation. Whether she could deliver on Ella’s hopes—whether Alan could deliver—remained to be seen.

Ella headed toward the door, and Tobi approached from her nearby serving area. “So when are you going to tell me what’s going on—with that guy, and with Ella, and—”

“With everything, right?” Lang had also joined them.

“It’s too soon to know” was all Kelly let herself say. She liked her fellow workers here—a lot. But telling them anything, even that she really was interested in Alan the security guy, seemed like too much information, at least for now.

She only hoped she would soon accomplish all she had set out to do here, and assist Alan in his success, too.

Then, when Stan was somehow stopped, she would be thrilled to shout it all to the world.

Including her new friends here.

* * *

On his brief walk back to Government Plaza, Alan called Judge Treena on his specially encrypted and secure phone, but she wasn’t available. Instead, he spoke with his immediate superior officer at the CIU, Director Walt Jones, who reported to Judge Treena.

“Nothing new,” he told Walt, a sixtysomething former army colonel who had been in government security for over fifteen years. “As I told Judge Treena before, I am in contact with our missing subject and keeping an eye on her. At the moment, she’s not in my way and hasn’t been recognized, so I wouldn’t suggest you send a team to extract her. She might actually be an asset to my assignment.”

“You know that’s against policy,” Walt stated.

“I do, but I also know this isn’t the first time this protocol has been used.”

“Interesting. You after a new main squeeze as well as a collaborator?”

“I only want it to look that way to people here so our collaboration will go more smoothly.” No way would he tell his superior, or anyone else associated with the Identity Division, that he actually felt attracted to Kelly.

Besides, unlike the other situation they alluded to, there was no way he’d wind up getting that close to Kelly. He’d do his job here, she’d help because it might wind up fixing things for her nephew, and when they were done with that they’d be done with everything else, as well.

“Well, all right, though you know I’ll discuss this with Judge Treena. If she says otherwise, you’ll need to deal with it.”

“Understood.” Alan said goodbye and hung up.

He did understand. Whether he would comply was another matter—and he found this realization disturbing. He was all about obeying orders. That came from experience.

He was now on the sidewalk a block away from the plaza. His thoughts roiled from the recollection.

It had been years since he had been a navy SEAL. He’d joined the military right after college and excelled there as he always had in school. He’d attributed his success to getting along with people—and following orders, especially in the navy.

But on one mission in the Middle East, nearly his last, when he and his team were given orders to avoid attacking an enemy despite a clear threat to civilians on a fishing boat, he saw a fellow officer choose to attack—but the enemy force was prepared. The fellow officer came out of it okay, and so did the fishermen, but another man on that mission was shot and nearly killed.

Though he could understand why the officer who chose to disobey had done so, the incident reinforced Alan’s determination to follow orders, and to despise those who refused to.

Which made his camaraderie with Kelly especially difficult, despite the good reason for it.

Alan noticed now that he was surrounded by people outside the government building. Many headed up the steps while others exited. The building was tall, a faux marble, and fairly regal-looking for a town this small, although it was the West Coast and relatively upscale. It would be a nice location to grow up in, maybe, as Kelly’s alter ego had done.

He hurried upstairs with the crowd and headed to the security office on the first floor to check in. None of his colleagues were there, which didn’t surprise him. They’d be up on the fourth floor, preparing to observe the proceedings in the council meeting room and its environs that afternoon. Alan headed there as well.

The hallway was full of people, and not only city council members and their assistants. Some were people Alan had seen with Stan recently, businesspeople he apparently was friendly with for whatever reason—although Alan suspected it was mostly for Stan’s own financial interests. Maybe these people were simply generous with their donations and campaign contributions, but Alan wouldn’t be surprised if more than one was engaging in bribery.

The group all seemed headed for the meeting room. Seeing Dodd down the hall also observing gave Alan some relief. From a security perspective, things appeared under control.

As the hallway emptied more, Alan saw Councilwoman Regina Joralli exit from her office near where Dodd stood. The all-business president of the council immediately placed herself in the middle of the remaining group and made her way to the front of the line to enter the meeting room.

Then Stan emerged from his office, and he wasn’t alone. The woman with him was the same one who’d been with him and others earlier when they’d left the Haven—also the same woman who had been with him at Tony’s Lounge the other night.

The woman Kelly had expressed an interest in getting to know better in case she happened to be Stan’s current main squeeze. What was her name?

Dora something, wasn’t it?

It now looked as if this afternoon’s meetings might present opportunities Alan hadn’t anticipated.

He felt antsy waiting for the rest of those in the hallway to file into the meeting room, and was glad when he could finally follow.

The room was crowded, but all council members were seated around the table in the middle. So were some visitors, including Dora, who unsurprisingly sat beside Stan.

Would Alan get an opportunity to speak with her to get more info on who she was, so that he would have more than her first name and the town of Blue Haven to plug into his secure data sites?

As it turned out, he learned a lot more just standing there keeping an eye—and ear—on things than he’d anticipated.

And wouldn’t Kelly be surprised?

* * *

This felt like a real date.

Alan had picked Kelly up at her apartment a few minutes ago, after she returned from work, showered and changed into one of the few pretty dresses she had brought along. It was silky and pale blue, with short sleeves and a slim, knee-length skirt.

“So we’re going to the Blue View?” she asked. Previously, both over the phone and when he had insisted on coming upstairs to get her, Alan had seemed in a strange mood, as if he had information he was happy about but wasn’t sharing.

Well, maybe she would learn what it was.

“Yes, we are.” Alan glanced toward her briefly as he drove his gray SUV through Blue Haven in the direction of the cliffs holding the elite restaurant.

Alan hadn’t been near Kelly when she’d overheard Stan talking to the business guy beside him at the Haven, asking if he had ever been to the Blue View. Even so, were they headed there because Alan had reason to believe Stan was there, perhaps with the man he’d been chatting with?

But her goal wasn’t to follow Stan around—unless he was taking his son out to dinner at that expensive restaurant, which Kelly doubted, at least not without some ulterior motive.

“Sounds good to me,” she said, contemplating how to find out what Alan was really up to. “Is this just to give more credence to our acting like a couple here? Do you think some of Stan’s cronies will be there? Even if they see us there, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll look at us as anything but a security guy trying to impress a restaurant server, so they’re unlikely to open up and answer questions about their businesses or their relationships with Stan.”

“You’re right, but I learned something today that will potentially make this dinner particularly enjoyable. And even if nothing comes to pass on that front, we should still have a good time. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I’m paying. A security guy may not make a lot of money, but he earns more than a waitress, and besides, this security guy wants to be seen as someone trying hard to impress the server of his dreams.”

The grin he shot at Kelly was cute and sexy and made her feel all warm inside—as if what he was saying were real. But of course she knew better.

She smiled nevertheless. “Thank you, sir. I’ll definitely be impressed.”

“That’s good. Any idea what kind of food they serve there?”

“I know what they used to serve, but let me check.” Kelly looked up the menu on her phone, and they discussed the possibilities as Kelly refused to gulp or comment on the high prices. Alan clearly knew what he was getting into.

They quickly passed through the streets of downtown, and Alan started up the narrow, winding road that led up the nearby mountain toward the developed cliff-side area containing the Blue View. Kelly hadn’t been there since returning to this town. She hadn’t gone there often before, either. There were a few expensive shops near the restaurant and a resort hotel, but not much else there, and Shereen’s budget as a schoolteacher hadn’t allowed for too many visits to that exclusive area.

Twilight approached, but fortunately streetlights lined the road. They met a few cars coming down the hill, and Alan caught up with a short line of vehicles heading the same direction. The road circled the mountain somewhat, and from some angles the skyline meeting the ocean was visible and breathtaking.

Eventually, they reached the restaurant, where the side of the mountain had been carved into a large, flat area where businesses were located. Alan parked the car, then, as Kelly opened her door, went around to help her out of the passenger seat.

A perfect gentleman, Kelly thought. Or at least that was the impression he wanted to give—not that he had to do anything like that around her, and she doubted anyone else was paying attention, though she noticed a few other patrons getting in or out of cars around them.