Saints and Assassins (The Sentinels) (4 page)

Finding nothing of consequence, he decided to
make a shopping list for his personal assistant, Greta. He needed food and some dishes if he was going to be staying in this apartment for a while.

Eve
found herself at the gy
m the next morning
beating the crap out of the punching bag.

Her trainer, Jason, held the bag as she threw a punch.

“Damn, Eve what’s got you so pissed off?” His eyes were wide and she glared at him.

“Some. People. Are. Just. Rude.” She panted between punches.

“I hope you’re not mad at me
!”

Jason had coerced Eve to try
some light spar
ring and training one day in the gym when the bikes and other equipment were full. She immediately loved it. If she ever felt the need to exert some energy, this fulfilled her needs.

“No
.” Eve rolled her eyes at him.

“Well, that’s a relief. Dare I ask who ticked you off?” Jason held the bag tightly
as if he expected her to continue.

Eve switched her glance back to the bag and seized
the opportunity to punch it
again.
“No!” she grunted.

Her irritation with Mr. Mysterious had grown to the point that she
thought of h
im with every swing. She had only wished it
were
his thick skul
l that she punched instead.

It didn’t make sense though. There were two and a half million people in the city and what difference did it make if
he
didn’t give her the time of day?

By
the end of her workout
,
Eve
had
decided to shower when she got home. She didn’t feel like listening to chatter in the locker room and wanted the solace of her apartment.

The hot water of her shower relaxed h
er a bit, but not quite enough. Thoughts of this man’s face kept invading her head. She let her mind wander and imagined what it would be like to feel his touch all over her body. She wanted his hands to caress her breasts and touch her intimately. Letting a sigh escape, she shut off the water.

The idea of wanting a complete stranger
to
want
her was ludicrous. Eve roughly combed her hair as she stood in front of the sink.

“I must be losing my mind!” She slammed her hand on the bathroom counter.
If one man in one day could bring her to the anxious brink that she stood at now, she needed to be some
where else. She needed a change even if it was temporary.

Eve went to her laptop and only one place came to mind. Hawaii.

Three reasons
.
First
and most obvious
it was warm
er than
Chicago was
and
second
, because Michael had taken her there for their honeymoon and she
had
loved it.  Lastly, because it was safer than going to
Mexico
or somewhere else that required a passpor
t. She was just a little skittish about going
somewhere outside the U.S. by herself.
She knew she had probably watched one too many episodes of 48 Hours on CBS, but she still didn’t want to take the risk.

With
one small
suitcase,
she
was ready to go. She had learned from her first trip that there was no need in over packing because all
one
really need
ed
wa
s a swi
msuit and a pair of flip flops
since she planned to spend most of her time on the beach. She would shop for anything else she might need while there.

Wednesday morning
arrived
, so she grabbed her
suitcase and headed to t
he lobby to
catch
a cab to the airport. Phil was at the desk today, she stopped to tell him that she would be
gone for
two weeks
.  He
jokingly asked
her to bring him back a pineapple,
she laughed and agreed. He hailed a cab for her and she
could not
help but notice
Mr. M
ysterious had passed behind her.

As she rode to the
air
port,
she wondered if she would see
Mr. Mysterious
much when she returned. Not that it mattered because he clearly had no interest in her.
Eve
arrived at the airport shortly and got through the security checkpoint with her suitcase.  It was small enough that she could take it as carryon so she
would not
have to wait
for luggage
when she got off of the plane
.
  Eve went to her terminal and waited. 

Still having more than
an hour before boarding at this point she decided to read.  She wrapped herself up in a suspense novel and ignored everything and everyone around her until they called for first class boarding.  This was one of the few things that she did splurge on, first class tickets.  She preferred the seclusion and th
e
legroom
.  Being five foot
eight,
she especially liked the
legroom
. Eve took her seat and continued reading her novel. 

Someone stopped next to her and put a bag in the overhead compartment, she looked up
only to see Mr. Mysterious
.
She had to do a double take to ensure that her eyes weren’t deceiving her.
 

“I suppose I am sitting next to you,” he stated looking down at his ticket and then at h
er.

“Sure,” she replied slowly. No freaking way is
he
here on this plane!

Oka
y, now
we are
beyond weird and
have
moved o
nto spooky
.
He took his seat and smiled at her. She noticed
that
st
range sensation in her stomach
again
as she looked at him.
His strong features had completely captured her attention. The line of his jaw and chin made her wonder if they were as smooth as they looked. Shaking that thought
away,
she extended her hand toward him.
No matter how much he had angered her, she didn’t have it in her to be rude to him.

“I’m Eve, Eve Nash.”

“Adam St. James.”
The straight line of his lips let her know h
e shook her hand
out of obligation
and that was the end of the pleasantries as he turned his handsome face away.

Eve sighed, but at least he hadn’t been quite as cold as their previous encounter.

Everyone else
boarded the plane and
so she went back to
reading
her
book, but felt more frustrated than she had before deciding to take her
vacation. The whole point of her trip
was to get away from her erratic thoughts of
Adam
and the confinement of a plane
only made them worse.

Eight hours sitting next to the newly identified
Mr. St. James
would most ass
uredly prove to be an eternity
.  Eve had lived through worse, so she wou
ld just focus on the end result of
sitting on a beach in a few hours, drinking Mai Tai’s.

Relaxation. 

The takeoff was smooth and she soon retired her book and decided to take a nap. 
Leaning the seat back as far as possible, Eve closed her eyes. As usual, she tried not to dream.

****

Adam
sat quietly next to Eve as she slept
,
wondering what she
dreamt
about.
What did someone
like her dream of? She had lost her husband and lived a
solitary
life. While he had seen her smile from time to
time,
he could only imagine the pain inside her and attempt to
compare it to his solitary existence
.
Maybe she didn’t dream at all. Even he dreamed though
,
and that brought him more pain. Especially since those dreams were of Eve.

Unknown to her he watched her chest move up and down slightly as she breathed. Her golden brown hair lay gently across her face as she leaned back against the leather seat.

He couldn’t help but think that she looked so calm and peaceful, and beautiful. She flinched once as she slept and he quickly jerked his head back to face the front of the cabin, afraid that she might catch him looking at her.

Over the past year
that is
all that he had done, too.

He had watched Eve every single day even though his pay had ended just a few weeks after her husband had died.
When Eve’s husband had
died,
he felt a responsibility deep inside him to keep her safe.

Being a Sentinel required all of his attention and devotion to each job. This one in particular had turned from devotion to obsession in his business partner’s eyes.
             
They had actually argued for weeks about his behavior and mental state. In the
end,
Adam retired from the program. He knew it was cr
azy, but there was nothing on
earth that would keep him from protecting Eve.

No matter how long it took.

Back to the present,
Adam had
to
refrain from
reach
ing
over and touch
ing
her full
,
soft lips. He had noticed them the first time he had seen her, but knew that he could never touch them.

The things he wanted to do to that mouth or any other part of her body for that matter.

It only reminded him of b
eing in the elevator with
which
stirred a fir
e within him that left him in pain.

His desire
to kill the people that
wanted to harm
her
peaked.
That was the only advantage that he could find to being attracted to a woman that he couldn’t have.
He might get the opportunity to take out his aggressions on whoever had brought him to this point in his life.

Frustrated wit
h himself for even thinking like that
he shoved his hand through his hair and sighed deeply before he leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. He focused his thoughts on the agenda of his trip. Once he checked in to the hotel he would have people to contact and arrangements to follow up on, but nothing could take his mind
off
Eve as he drifted to sleep.

At least he had the comfort of knowing that she lay next to him, safe.

****

Eve
woke to the smell of something burning
. The air smelled
of flesh and hair.
She panicked.
Looking around frantically she
realized it was a dream, but her heart pounded and she had already gone into a panic attack.
Out of reflex
she reached for the arm rest, but she had inadvertently taken hold of Mr. St. James hand instead.
A moment passed as she understood where she was and that she had a death grip on her neighbor’s hand.

She jolted from her seat and darted
away to the lavatory. 
G
asp
ing
for her breath
,
she locked the door with shaky hands. Eve knew her symptoms all too well.
She had
seen th
em a hundred times in patients and knew it was a panic attack.

To calm herself she
splashed cool water on her face
while
trying
to catch her breath. She reassured herself that it was just a dream
, but t
he odor lingered around her and she couldn’t make it go away.
A few
moment
s
passed and
she sat down on the closed toilet to regain her composure.

“One.
”
S
he inhaled slowly and exhaled slowly.