The Exhibition (An Executive Decision Trilogy) (22 page)

Harris lowered the camera. What he’d waited for, the honesty he’d hoped for, was exploding onto him, and he was no longer sure he really wanted it. He was certainly sure he didn’t want her to have to relive it for his benefit. ‘Stacie, you don’t have to –’

She continued. ‘When I couldn’t take it any more, when I wouldn’t … do what he asked me, then he …’ Her breathing was rapid, ragged. Harris moved closer, fearing she’d hyperventilate. But she took a couple of deep breaths and hugged herself still tighter. ‘He hit me. And … he kept hitting me. I tried to fight back, but I was no match for him. And when he was done, when I couldn’t … respond any more, he left me.’ She pulled a couple more tight breaths and shifted so that her back pressed up hard against the stone. Amazingly, her eyes were dry. ‘I don’t know how, but somehow I managed to call Al Marston before I lost consciousness. I woke up in the hospital.’

The knot of rage Harris felt growing at his center threatened to rip him apart. He wanted to do things to Jamison; he wanted the man to suffer like he’d made Stacie suffer. The sound of her voice, soft, sure, neutral in spite of what she shared with him, drew him back, held him tight there in the present where she was with him.

‘When I finally came to, I could understand Zoe’s despair. I could understand why she … why anyone would contemplate … a way out. But Al wouldn’t let me despair. I owe the man so much for standing by me. When I was well again, he introduced me to Sasha from the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg. We hit it off right away. It didn’t hurt that I speak Russian and that I know how to hold my vodka. Sasha was a powerful player, with questionable connections of his own, so Jamison backed down on using me as a whore, and for those few months leading up to the exhibition he gave me a little more space to work. I suppose I was effectively under Sasha’s
krysha
, his protection, during that time. But even with such a major exhibition, I knew I’d need help, I’d need a plan. That’s when I found K. Ryde. I was one of the agency’s first clients, and it was Ryde’s PR genius as much as my own desperation that helped me force Jamison’s hand, to make him take the money and leave me alone.’

Harris didn’t know what to say. There were no words for what he felt, for what Stacie had been through or for what he wanted to do to Jamison. For a long time he said nothing, only sat next to her, looking out over the dry canyon as though somehow by avoiding her gaze he could give her a little space, a little privacy for her vulnerabilities, for how she had lain herself bare before him. It was only when he realized she was shivering that he settled closer and pulled her to him. At last, he gathered his thoughts from the maelstrom enough to speak. ‘Why did you go back to him? I mean this time?’

She pulled away and chafed her arms. ‘I told you I was desperate.’

‘You don’t really expect me or anyone else to believe that, do you?’

‘It doesn’t matter what you believe.’ Her reply was cool, distant. ‘What matters is that I’ll pay my debts. I promise I will. Then all of this’ll be over with.’

She stood to put her pack back on, and he came to his feet and caught her by the shoulder, not wanting it to end like this, not wanting her to leave until they were good again. When she tried to push him away, he pressed her between his body and the stone of the cliff face. ‘You can’t just shut us all out, Stacie.’

‘I never wanted you involved in the first place. I never wanted any of you involved but you couldn’t leave it alone.’ She jerked back against him but there was no place to go. ‘You couldn’t just let it go.’

He moved in closer until his body pressed up to hers, holding her tightly against the stone. ‘No, I couldn’t, and I can’t, and neither can anyone else who cares about you and neither would you if the situation were reversed. So whether you like it or not, I’m here to stay. We’ve already discussed this, so get used to it.’ He punctuated his point with a harsh kiss that couldn’t have been very pleasant for her, but then he was angry, worried, scared for her.

Instead of shoving at him as he’d expected her to do, she curled a hard fist in his hair and ravaged his mouth with every bit as much ferocity as he had given her, pulling him still closer, rubbing her body against his, making him instantly and startlingly erect.

She snaked a hand down between them, savaging his fly until he feared for what lay beneath, until her fingers wriggled and dug their way into his walking trousers to possess his cock with a tight grip, as though it was a weapon, one she was about to use to do serious damage.

He fumbled to return the favor, with her ripping at her own fly to make room for him, to guide his fingers down over her mons. Her eyes locked his in a devastating gaze that felt as though she could see right through him.

‘I need you to touch me there.’ Her voice was a breathless whisper. ‘Where I’m wet, where I’m open, where I’m always hungry for you.’ Her breath caught; her eyelids fluttered and she sucked her bottom lip as he found her cleft, wet and open as she’d promised. ‘You can’t tell me you don’t want to be like those cats.’ She guided his hand still further, manipulating it until first two, then three fingers pressed up into her. ‘You can’t tell me that when I present myself to you all hot and ready and begging for it, you don’t want to service my need. You can’t tell me you don’t want to get a little primal with that cock of yours.’ She gave him a hard squeeze and drove her hand up and down his length, thumbing the already abundant precome over and around the tip until he gritted his teeth and held his breath while his hips bucked hard against her efforts.

He scissored her deep with three fingers and raked the silky slickness of her up and over her clitoris, and the sounds coming from the back of her throat easily resembled the sounds the female cougar made when the male mounted her. Wildly, madly, they fucked each other’s hands. The wind had risen and, even on the clear morning, the chill left no doubt about lingering for more than the quickest of releases. Then she shifted, pressed her back hard against the stone, and rested both of her hands on his shoulders. Before he could protest the removal of her fingers from his cock, she wrapped her legs around his waist, her still clothed crotch rubbing tight and insanely hot against his exposed cock as she began to rock and gyrate, and it was all happening way too fast.

‘Stacie, I –’

‘Shut up, Harris.’ She spoke between chattering teeth. ‘I need to come, and so do you. You can fuck me properly when we get back to the SUV. It’s too damn cold to linger.’ With each sentence she ground against him, bearing down with the extra leverage the cliff at her back afforded. Almost before the words were out of her mouth, she convulsed. Her spine stiffened and her shivers had nothing to do with the cold. Harris could stand no more. He felt the eruption deep in his groin. It might have been embarrassing had the circumstances been different, but as he tried to cover himself, tried to hide the results of Stacie’s hard ride, she shoved his hand away, pushed him back, and practically fell into the space between them positioning herself so that she caught his release, all of it in her mouth. What could he say to that? What could he do but hold her there, helplessly grunting the weight of his need into the back of her throat? It was an act as intimate and as primal as the cougars mating on the rocks minutes ago. And sex, any kind of sex, with Stacie Emerson was worlds apart from any other sexual experiences he’d ever had.

As she stood and wiped her mouth on the back of her hand, the look of hunger in her eyes, the promise of more sex to come in the SUV before the trip home couldn’t help but lighten the mood. As they straightened and tucked and donned their packs, he wondered if that was why she did it. Whatever her reason, it definitely worked for him in ways he was still trying to get his head around.

The walk back to the SUV was at speed. They had seen the mountain lions and the wind had risen to a howl, bringing with it fast-moving nimbus clouds that, this time of year, could easily enough drop their load on the Cascades in the form of snow.

Back at the vehicle, Harris shook his head when Stacie started to get in on the passenger side. ‘Into the back seat, woman. You promised me a fuck and I intend to collect with interest.’ She offered him a salacious smile, then tossed her bag into the back. Even before she was seated, she’d pulled off her fleece and sweater. Harris nearly split the seam of his trousers when she unhooked her bra and shrugged it off, then pulled the door to behind her as she slid into the seat totally topless, nipples hardened by the cold and, he hoped, by thoughts of what he intended to do to her. She held his gaze with a look that was only slightly this side of filthy as she undid her trousers and slid them down along with the lace underwear that matched her bra. Her bare bottom, which, no doubt, was still slippery from their cliffside romp, rested against the pristine black leather and the flutter of her eyelids told him she appreciated the contrast of the cold seat against her hot nether parts.

Harris nearly tore his zipper out to free himself as she shifted in the seat and opened her legs wide, shoving until the walking trousers were down around her shins. Then, as though he wasn’t even there, she began to stroke herself, one hand resting low on her belly, almost as though she was attempting to hold everything in tight so she could watch the other hand dipping and swirling and sliding between her thighs. The SUV smelled of dense, sweet heat. As Harris released himself, his own hot scent added to the thickening pheromonal cocktail of arousal.

She moved a hand to pinch and tweak her nipples, watching as he released himself from the bind of clothing, then she turned just enough that he could see what she was doing between her legs, even hobbled as she was with her trousers and boots. ‘So, are you gonna make me do this alone or are you gonna saddle up?’

It took him two seconds to slide into the condom and then they scooted and maneuvered until she was directly in front of him, her delectable bare bottom nearly in his face. He shoved the driver’s seat all the way forward so they had leg room and, with her leaning up so he could finger her open, he hunched in for a quick taste that made her quiver all over. Then he eased her back, enjoying the exquisite view of her sheathing him, slowly, deliciously, all the way until she sat down onto his lap, her back to his front. Then she began to rock in tight little circles onto his erection. He reacquainted one hand with the weighty swell of her breasts and the urgent press of her nipples while the other stroked her clit with slick little thrusts between his index and middle fingers.

The road wasn’t much travelled, but still anyone could have seen them – or at least anyone could have seen them before they steamed over the windows with their heat. The SUV rocked and bounced beneath them as their efforts grew more urgent, as their need for release grew more intense. Stacie grabbed onto the back of the driver’s seat and bore down hard. Harris braced his feet against the floorboard and returned the favor, feeling the wet rush of her arousal like liquid silk against his probing fingers, and the hard nub of her clit like granite against the pinch and stroke, pinch and stroke of his hand.

‘I need to come, Stacie,’ Harris gasped against her bare back. ‘I feel like I’m gonna explode.’

‘I want you to come,’ she managed. ‘I want you to come and I’ll come with you, hard, just like the cats.’

And with that, she gave a little grunt and a shift followed by a tight squeeze, and they both climaxed hard and deep and wrenching. It could never have been otherwise after the day they’d had.

There was no easy way to snuggle in the back seat, but they managed a modified spoon position, feet and ankles still bound with trousers and boots and Harris still cock-deep inside Stacie’s delicious body. As their breathing slowed and he felt himself softening inside her, he nuzzled her neck, and she offered a slow, lazy laugh. ‘I haven’t done it in the back seat since high school.’

He nibbled at her nape. ‘I’ve never done it in the back seat. OK, in the back of a pick-up once but that’s hardly the same, is it? Nearly froze my ass off.’

‘Speaking of which,’ she said, ‘it’s not getting any warmer in here and I’m starving. You have any more of those gourmet peanut butter sandwiches you made this morning?’

‘I just happen to have a couple,’ he said, pulling out of her. ‘I’ll give you the recipe if you’d like.’

In a few minutes they were dressed and headed back to Portland, polishing off the rest of the food Harris had packed and the last of the coffee as they drove.

Chapter Twenty-Six

‘Nothing left in the freezer but a couple of frozen lasagna dinners and some Tater Tots,’ Dianna yelled down the stairs.

Kenny looked up from channel surfing in the middle of the couch in Harris Walker’s TV room. ‘Jesus, I didn’t think they’d be gone this long or I’d have laid in supplies. Did you think they’d be gone this long?’

Dianna came down the stairs and leaned against the wall with her arms folded across her chest. ‘Well, they were looking for mountain lions, and Flannery did say they might spend the night. Plus they’re fucking each other so I’m not surprised, no.’

‘Then why didn’t you bring supplies if that’s what you suspected? Did you know that the place is too far out for deliveries?’ he asked, turning off the TV.

She gave a non-committal shrug. ‘I can call Bud and have him get us something if you want. He’s always up for it.’

Kenny grunted, tossing the remote onto the coffee table. ‘It isn’t that. Fuck, I’m just going stir crazy. All that lovely outdoors just beyond our window and we can’t even take advantage.’

‘It’s dark,’ Dianna said. ‘What are you gonna take advantage of?’

‘How ’bout a breath of fresh air? Hmmm? How ’bout just not being caged up all day and night.’

She shrugged again. ‘I can forgo fresh air and the great outdoors for what I’m being paid, thank you very much. I’ll heat up the lasagna.’

‘Wait,’ he called after her as she turned to the stairs. ‘How ’bout I go bring back something?’ He reached for a hooded sweatshirt hanging on a hook next to the stairs. ‘I could wear this, pull the hood up, you know. I’m already dressed like Walker.’ He slipped into the jacket and pulled the hood up.

His partner shook her head. ‘Dressed like that you’ll have any respectable takeout place thinking you’re there to rob them. Anyway, I’m fine. I don’t mind whatever’s in the freezer.’

‘Eat like a bird, do you, Di?’ he asked.

She flipped him off.

‘Well, I’m not fine. I’m starving and I want … I don’t know. At least I want a really good pizza, or there’s that Chinese takeout we passed to get here, you know the one I’m talking about?

‘Yeah, the one in the all-night Chevron station.’

‘That’s the one. Strange combination, but how bad can it be? What do you say? At least it’ll be different. You up for it, Di?’ He looked around the room, still wearing Harris Walker’s sweatshirt. Here, I’ll wear this.’ He found a battered canvas hat he imagined the man wore for outdoorsy sort of things and put it on. ‘What do you think? I look just like him, don’t you think?’

Di stood once again with her arms folded across her chest, looking him up and down. ‘Flannery won’t like it.’

‘Flannery doesn’t have to know. I’ll just take the Jeep. I mean, Walker left me the keys and I’ll be back before you even know I’m gone. What do you think?’

She gave him a bored look. ‘You bring it, I’ll eat it,’ she said. ‘But it’s your ass if Flannery finds out.’

‘Fair enough.’

In less than five minutes, Kenny was rattling along the sorry excuse for a road that led to Walker’s cabin. You’d think with a house like that on a lake like that the man would at least have some work done on his road, but who knew how these environmentalist types thought. Anyway, the Jeep was a nice one, fully loaded, and, in all honesty, Kenny had driven a whole lot worse. He’d love to take it off road and put it through its paces. But, sadly, for tonight, a sweet and sour chicken run was the only pace the Jeep would get put through.

He had a suspicious mind, Kenny did. But in his business that was definitely a job requirement, so when an SUV pulled out behind him from the next road up, he kept one eye on it and the other eye on the road. Just in case. He couldn’t really imagine anyone following him on this no-brainer of a job, but it was his training. There was always the little niggle that something might not be right. That niggle passed when he signaled and pulled into the turning lane to the Chevron station and the SUV signaled too, but turned into the street just beyond. There, no worries, he reassured himself and turned his attention back to Chinese food.

When he finally arrived at the Chevron, it was completely deserted and the dumpsters had been pushed to the side of the building for the morning trash pick-up. If he didn’t know that the place was open 24 hours, he’d have driven on by thinking it was closed. He parked by the scrub of rhodies out of the way of the gas pumps, though it wasn’t like there was a crowd. Oregon had no self-service pumps, so if he’d parked by the pumps, the attendant would come out. Having moved up from Texas, he still couldn’t quite get used to someone else pumping his gas.

Inside, his order hadn’t taken long, since it was the only order. The chef, who looked like he could use a nice long sleep, offered Kenny a tired smile as he handed over the takeout bags. Kenny wondered how such a place stayed open, but he figured in tourist season they made up for the slow times. He walked longingly past the cooler proudly sporting some of the area’s best micro-brews. Sadly, he was working, so he picked up a couple of two-liter bottles of Coke, then thought better of it and made one of them diet. He grabbed a handful of any kind of candy bar that might pass the time more interestingly and a couple bags of chips. He was contemplating getting some brownie bites when the cook ran toward the door shouting “fire”.

Kenny shoved his stash on the counter, nearly upsetting one of the takeout bags, and ran after the clerk, who followed the cook yelling something about damned kids having no respect any more and something really rude about what should be done to their parents.

It was then Kenny saw the blaze in the dumpster. As he ran to help put it out, what he didn’t see was the man sneaking from the shadows beyond the rhododendron thicket, the man who squatted, then slid flat on his back beneath Harris Walker’s Jeep.

*               *               *

Harris hadn’t really planned to get them back home so late. But he discovered, after their adventure with the mountain lions and the incredible lovemaking that followed, he wasn’t willing to give up having Stacie all to himself just yet. He couldn’t think of a safer place, nor a more exciting place than the Painted Hills unit of the John Day Fossil Beds to keep her mind off of everything for a few more hours. They’d feasted on a picnic they’d bought in Mitchell. They found a place in the protection of several of the multi-colored hills where the biting breeze couldn’t get to them and the autumn sun could. Then they’d driven the extra miles over slow winding roads through the exquisite emptiness of the high desert with its intriguing play of color splashed liberally across distance, color that was barely green and barely blue, yet always guaranteed to mesmerize. On the narrow twists and turns of the high roads there could be no speeding even if they had wanted to, and they didn’t. They arrived in time to catch glimpses of the palisades of the Clarno Unit of the fossil beds just before the sunset. They’d had the remains of their picnic on the long drive back to Portland, after which Stacie dozed in the passenger seat – seemingly dream-free this time. For that Harris was relieved. He knew she had to be exhausted and way beyond stressed out. If she could rest, that was the best thing for her.

He found himself driving slower and slower the closer they got to his house. There had never been a time when he wasn’t happy to return to the cabin on the Water Hole. It was home, and he had loved the place since he was a little boy when it still belonged to his grandfather. But this was different. He had managed to keep Stacie away from thoughts of Jamison and all that they had to return to. It had felt good to be able to ease her burden for just a little while, though he had to confess it was a burden he still didn’t fully understand – other than the trouble that Ingrid Watson was now in with Jamison. But even Marston had said that Ingrid had walked into that herself.

Stacie was a fortress of secrets, and with every little bit she did share, he found himself feeling more and more fearful of what she still kept hidden. He let her doze, though he noticed from time to time that she wasn’t dozing at all, that she was staring out the window, lost in her thoughts. He pretended not to notice. It had been hard enough for her, what she’d had to reveal these past few days. He wouldn’t make it harder by prying.

They were about to turn down the road toward his house when his cell phone rang, and they both jumped. He nodded to Stacie, who picked it up.

‘It’s Flannery,’ she said, putting it on speaker phone without asking.

‘Walker.’ The man’s voice sounded strained. ‘Are you and Stacie all right?’

‘Yes, we’re fine. We’re almost home.’ Harris felt the hair on his arms prickle. ‘Why?’

‘Listen very carefully. I need you to turn around, wherever you are, and go to the Pneuma Building to the private entrance. Wade’ll meet you there. Don’t go home first. Under no circumstances are you to go home first. Do you understand?’

‘OK. I’m on my way.’ Harris was already off the road and turning around. ‘What’s going on?’

‘I’ll explain when you get there. Just do it, OK?’

‘On my way,’ Harris repeated, shooting Stacie a questioning look.

It was after 2 a.m. when they arrived at the Pneuma Building. Wade was at the private entrance waiting for them. He gave Stacie an uncharacteristic hug and offered Harris a nod.

‘You wanna tell us what’s going on?’ Harris said.

Just then, Flannery’s SUV pulled up beside them, and he got out looking tired and frayed. But when he saw Stacie and Harris, he spoke without greeting.

‘It’s Kenny.’

‘What, you mean Kenny out at Harris’?’ Stacie asked, her grip on Harris’ arm tightened.

‘He’s dead.’

Stacie gave a little gasp and Harris felt her knees give as she braced herself against him. ‘Dead? What happened?’ he asked.

‘Look, I’ll tell you everything, but I think it’s better if we do this inside.’

No one spoke again until they were in Wade’s Dungeon. Ellis, Dee, and Marston were waiting there already. There was a whirlwind of hugs and someone thrust coffee cups at each of them as they all settled on the sofa and in the chairs Wade had pulled into his lounge area. He took point in a ratty recliner that was always his favorite.

‘What happened?’ Stacie asked again, setting her coffee cup on the end table untouched.

‘It was an explosion,’ Flannery told them. His face looked ashen and the lines of his mouth were hard. ‘Your Jeep, Harris. The man decided he wanted some takeout Chinese, so he took your Jeep, wore your jacket and hat just in case.’

Stacie blinked twice, as though she was in bright light, then shoved her way off the sofa and made a run for the door. She might have made it if she hadn’t tripped over Harris’ foot and practically fallen in his lap, struggling to get away as he closed his arms around her. ‘This is all my fault, my fault. This is all my fault,’ she said over and over again, her voice breathless. ‘I have to leave. I have to get out of here. He did this, Jamison did this, and it’s all my fault.’

‘It’s not your fault, Stacie. If it’s anyone’s fault it’s mine for thinking up such a scheme.’ Harris held her tight, taking a knee to the inside of his thigh before he settled her down onto the sofa next to him, still holding her.

‘It damn well isn’t your fault. Either of you,’ Marston said. ‘The sonovabitch has crossed the line this time. He can’t get away with this.’

‘Yes he can.’ Flannery spoke quietly. ‘They caught the man who did it. I did a little background check. He claimed to work for some obscure group called the Valderian Liberation League. Claimed his efforts were all due to some bullshit he’s been told about Walker helping Ellis take jobs away from honest, hardworking Valderians.’

‘That’s hogwash. There’s no such movement,’ said Wade. ‘If there were, we’d know, and there’s certainly no one in Valderia who would welcome what Jamison would bring.’

‘Of course it’s hogwash,’ Flannery said. ‘But it’ll pass to get Jamison off the hook, and anyway, it doesn’t matter. One of the policemen who caught him got a little bit too handy with his gun, so he’s dead. No one can cross-examine him that way. More people in Jamison’s pockets, I suppose.’

‘The point is,’ Harris said, ‘it was supposed to be me.’ He felt strangely calm about that fact. He could hardly feel happy when someone had died in his place. All he was really happy about at the moment was that Stacie was safe next to him, and he wasn’t about to let her out of his sight.

‘That’s exactly the point,’ Flannery agreed. ‘And though you may not believe it, the fact that it was supposed to be you gives us a little bit of a grace period.’ Instantly the man had everyone’s attention. ‘Maybe for at least a little while we can let Jamison and his thugs believe they accomplished what was intended, that it was Harris Walker killed in the explosion.’

Stacie gripped Harris’ arm and shivered.

Flannery continued, ‘That means, at least for the moment, Walker’s safe.’

Stacie’s grip got even tighter on Harris, and he couldn’t say he didn’t like it.

‘What about notifying next of kin, that sort of thing?’ Wade said. ‘I don’t mean to be morbid, and I certainly wouldn’t want to cause unnecessary trauma, but if we want to keep up the ruse, that’ll have to happen.’

‘Believe it or not,’ Harris said, ‘my parents are trekking in the Andes. I won’t hear from them for the next week at least. That’s one less thing for us to worry about.’ He turned his attention to Stacie. ‘By the time they get back to civilization the exhibition will be over and we’ll have dealt with Jamison.’

‘Good, that’s good,’ Wade said. ‘Until they can get in touch with Harris’ parents, the cops will keep the identity of the deceased confidential. I’ve seen to that already.’

‘You need to let me go,’ Stacie said in a voice that was barely more than a whisper. ‘That’s the best way to deal with Jamison right now. You need to leave me alone, all of you, and let me do what I have to.’

‘Not gonna happen,’ Harris said. ‘I’ve already told you.

‘Stacie.’ Flannery spoke to her as though she were the only person in the room, the way he always did when every word he said mattered. Harris had noticed that about him. ‘If we’re going to take advantage of this bit of luck –’