No Rules (9 page)

All five exchanged puzzled glances, eventually looking at Jess.

She shook her head adamantly. “I have no idea. This is your puzzle; I’m just the messenger.”

“Maybe you’re more than that,” Donovan said. “There’s some reason Wally involved you, Jess. Maybe you know more than you think you do.”

It was the same theme he’d been expounding since he found out about her dinner with Wally, and she was tired of it. Tired of the Omega Group. Tired of reliving a two-hour chunk of time until her whole life revolved around it. “I’m a writer and an illustrator. I’m
not
a historian. If there’s a vase from some New Kingdom pharaoh’s tomb that’s of significance here, I have no idea what it is.”

Donovan’s eyebrow quirked up. “New Kingdom?”

“That’s what they call the era when Luxor was prominent in ancient Egypt. The city was called Thebes then, back when they buried all those dead pharaohs in the Valley of the Kings.”

“And you just happened to know that?”

She didn’t care for the interested looks from the five people gathered at the other end of the table. “So what? My dad was a fanatic on ancient Egypt, so yeah, a few things rubbed off. Me learning to recite the dynasties and the names of each pharaoh is the same as you memorizing batting statistics for the Boston Red Sox. Kids do stuff like that.”

Donovan nodded. “Yes, they do. For me it was dinosaurs. I could identify dozens you’ve never heard of.”

“My point exactly.”

“While you learned the dynasties of ancient Egypt.”

She narrowed her eyes, determined not to get sucked into their mission any farther than she already was. “I don’t know a damn thing about vases.” Unless he meant the canopic jars that held the organs removed from the pharaoh’s body…
No, don’t say it.

Donovan smiled as if he didn’t believe a word of it. Evan said, “We’ll see.”

She didn’t want to ask what that meant. It meant nothing. She was going home to Houston ASAP. Home to her safe, predictable life.

Mitch had been listening thoughtfully. “So the vase is probably a clue, and Jess might be able to figure it out. But I think you’re part of the story, too, Tyler.”

Donovan was finally distracted from whatever he’d been planning that was sure to keep her from going home. “How’s that?” he asked.

Mitch glanced around the group. “Come on, you guys didn’t catch it? Tyler’s the wolf.”

Avery blinked, then chuckled. “He’s right. Wally always said you were a wolf.”

“But that was in relation to…” He hesitated, with a quick glance her way. “Women.”

“Yup,” Kyle agreed. “He said they couldn’t tame you. You devoured women like a wolf, but you couldn’t be domesticated.”

Donovan looked uncomfortable but considered it. “So what’s that mean?”

“If the wolf takes the rabbit to the beavers’ lodge, maybe it means he wanted you to take the lead on this mission.”

Donovan didn’t appear to have any objections to that interpretation. Maybe he had some special skills that would help in this case.

“So who’s the rabbit?” he asked. “Avery?”

“Why me?”

He grinned at her. “Because I don’t think Kyle or Mitch would make a good rabbit. It sounds too soft and fuzzy.”

Avery frowned. “Wally wouldn’t do that to me. I’m not some fuzzy little bunny rabbit.”

Jess believed it. There was a hard edge to Avery that didn’t fit with the image of a cute little bunny. No one in the group did. She didn’t know what her father had been thinking, because no one here reminded her of a bunny rabbit.

A bunny rabbit. Her thoughts screeched to a halt. No, it couldn’t be.

Images rose from the place where she’d tucked them away, deep inside her mind. Happy, laughing memories, some of her very earliest ones, of her and the daddy she’d adored. Her dad would rub her hair fondly and use his favorite nickname for her, the one she’d insisted he drop after one of her kindergarten friends had made fun of it.

Donovan’s curious voice cut through the wild cyclone spinning in her mind. “What’s wrong, Jess?”

She raised her horrified gaze to his. Taking a shaky breath, she tried to talk and felt the words stick in her throat. She swallowed and licked her lips. “He called me Bunny.” It was barely a whisper, but they all heard it, and stared. “When I was very young,” she explained. “My dad called me Bunny. It was an endearment. A nickname, but I got teased about it and hated it, so he quit using it. Oh, shit,” she groaned, “I don’t want to be the rabbit.”

Donovan stared at her, no doubt remembering the story as she’d recited it. The timid, scared rabbit. The wolf she feared but had to trust to take her to the beaver’s lodge. They both knew how well it fit.

Evan took a decisive step back from the table. “Pack your bags; you’re all leaving for Egypt immediately.” He looked at her. “Jess, you, too.”

Evan strode from the conference room. Mouth agape, Jess stared after him, then at the three members of the rescue team who were ignoring her as they rolled up the map. In five seconds, everything had changed. Mitch, Avery, and Kyle were already discussing how they would alter their cover story to accommodate her presence, as if they took it for granted that Evan could knock her serene world off its axis with a simple order and send her flying off to Egypt.

Not Donovan. He still stared at her. Maybe he was as appalled as she was at the idea of taking her along on their rescue mission.

“We’re interpreting it wrong,” she told him, concentrating on keeping desperation from quaking through each word. “My father wouldn’t pull me into this, you said so yourself.”

“But he did. I don’t know why yet, but…” A faint smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. “He told you to trust me.” His voice had dropped, becoming almost seductive, as he tilted his head thoughtfully. “What else did he say about the wolf and the rabbit, Jess?”

Instantly, her imagination was inventing more of the story. The defenseless, timid prey confronting a sly predator. A predator who made her pulse pound and her breasts tingle and whom she’d been instructed to trust.

She needed an emergency session with Dr. Epstein, right now.

Panic flooded every cell in her body. Whirling, she ran after Evan, finding that he’d already crossed the living area and was headed down a hallway. She power walked to match his purposeful strides. “I’m not going to Egypt.”

He glanced at her, but didn’t slow down. “I’m sorry, I know this disrupts your plans, but it can’t be helped. And it’s obviously what Wally wanted.”

She didn’t give a shit what Wally wanted. “I have a life, Evan. Deadlines to meet. Appointments to keep.”

“We’ll take care of notifying people for you.”

More panic boiled to the surface at the way the Omega Group assumed control and took over her life. “You don’t get it. I don’t work for you. You can’t just order me to go to another country.”

His look was the sort of visual reprimand one might give a child. “Lives are at stake, Jess.”

Guilt trip. She wasn’t falling for it. “I know, that’s why I came to Chicago.” Well, not exactly. She’d come because a man in Nipagonee Falls had tried to kill her and Donovan had given her no choice. But she’d stayed here because of those two hostages, damn it. She wasn’t entirely unsympathetic. “I helped you. My part is over.”

“I think your part is just beginning,” Evan said.

No. Fear battered at her insides like a trapped bird trying to escape. She couldn’t be part of this for so many reasons. Evan had no idea. It wasn’t only the look on Tyler Donovan’s face, that unsettling mixture of interest and hunger that burned into her like fire. He was some sort of hormonal aberration she’d work out later. She could resist him—would resist him—and he wasn’t the type to use force on a woman. At least, she was pretty sure he wasn’t. Hell, he probably wouldn’t need to. Women probably begged to be with him.

No, her problem went deeper than Donovan. She couldn’t go with them. Simply flying to Nipagonee Rapids had required two Valium and a session with Dr. Epstein before she could trust her life to the questionable physics of keeping several hundred thousand pounds of airplane aloft. Fear of flying, Dr. Epstein had said, another loss-of-control issue. Hell, she was fine with flying; what she had was a fear of dying. Planes fell out of the sky. It happened. And Evan expected her to fly to the other side of the world? Over an ocean? On a mission that surely involved some sort of violence?

She hopped aside as Omega’s director turned into an office, then followed him in. He took a seat at the desk and began punching keys, his attention on his computer monitor.

She slapped both hands on the desk, leaning close so he couldn’t ignore her. “I don’t even have a passport. I don’t mean with me, I mean not at all. I don’t travel out of the country. Ever.”

“I’m taking care of that now. You’ll have one in a few hours.”

The unexpected answer derailed her momentarily. “You can do that?”

“We’ll need a photograph. I think we can use one of the surveillance photos Donovan sent.” He was talking to himself as he skimmed through images on the computer.

She leaned sideways to see them. Several candid shots of herself covered the screen, pictures that had to have been taken outdoors with a telephoto lens. He clicked to another page and selected one with a plain background, obviously taken at the funeral home. “This’ll do.”

Irritation slid through her panic. She’d known Donovan had been watching her, but this felt more invasive. Creepy.

Focus, she told herself firmly. “I’m not going. You can’t make me.”

He looked up from the computer screen finally, settling back in his chair as he studied her. “Jess, sit down.”

“No thanks.” She wasn’t staying that long.

He sighed. “You’re a smart girl.”

She snorted. “Smart enough not to fall for obsequious flattery.”

“You know what Wally told you, and you helped us figure out what it means, so you know the situation. And you’ve met the rescue team. They’re capable people, experts in what they do, and they’d never put your life at risk. I feel confident that you’ll be safe.”

“In a city where two Americans were just taken hostage? In a country full of political unrest? Forgive me if I’m not as confident as you.”

“They’ll keep you safe,” he repeated. “Each one of them would die before letting harm come to you.”

“We can all die together. How comforting.”

“Jessie.” It was exactly the way her father used to say it to get her attention. She frowned, resisting the impulse to go soft inside. He wasn’t fighting fair. “I didn’t stress the team’s experience to impress you. You need to understand that these people know weapons and tactics, not history. Especially not ancient Egyptian history.”

Not falling for that, either. “Neither do I. I write kiddie lit. You want to know why I’m good at it, Evan? Because I have a lot of those childish fears myself. Embarrassing and childish, but there you have it. I’m not exactly the person you want in the middle of a tense rescue operation.”

“You know more about ancient Egypt than any of our operatives, Jess. That’s why Wally went to you, why he broke a promise and a fifteen-year pattern of behavior. You know he was serious about not involving you in his life, serious enough that he stayed away all those years. He missed you every day.”

“If that’s true, it wasn’t my fault.”

“But he pulled you into it by telling you this story.”

“Bad judgment, there. He was desperate.”

“He was brilliant to the end. He put you in the story on purpose. Do you really think the rabbit doesn’t describe you? Afraid to travel, afraid of the aggressive male wolf accompanying her?”

Only partially. She’d been afraid of the wolfish Donovan, but also strangely attracted. She flushed and kept her mouth shut, wondering just how much her spying, nosy father had revealed to his best friend about her.

“He told you to trust Tyler Donovan. My God, I can’t believe he worked out such a clever way to hide his information with an assassin two steps behind him. He was so good at what he did, even better than I knew.” He swallowed hard and shook his head. “Never mind. The point is we need you. I don’t know why yet, but Wally knew we would. Obviously it has something to do with a vase. We’re depending on your knowledge. Two hostages are depending on you, Jess. We can’t rescue them without you.”

What was she supposed to say,
Let them die
? But the thought of that plane trip, of the foreign culture she’d be thrown into, had her trembling inside. People speaking a language she couldn’t understand except when sexually harassing American women—she’d heard all about that. Plus, food she would be afraid to eat. Water almost certainly unsafe to drink. “I’ll phone it in. The team can call with any questions, and I’ll answer them, day or night.”

“What questions? They wouldn’t even know what to ask. And who’s to say they’ll have cell service?” His steady gaze was kind but firm. “You need to be there, Jess. If you don’t believe me, believe Wally. He discovered where the hostages were and his scenario says the rabbit goes to the beavers’ lodge. She doesn’t call them on the phone.”

Hot tears formed, threatening to fall. Tears of frustration and defeat. Her mind screamed at her not to go, but she was trapped by a sense of responsibility. Of basic morality. She couldn’t let two people die because she was afraid of leaving her familiar world and her safe routines. Because she was afraid of life outside of a protective shell and terrified of an alpha male who didn’t hesitate to kill when necessary and who looked at her with an insatiable hunger.

It was just the sort of thing she’d criticized her mother for, hiding from life behind her fears.