Chapter 18

~Chapter 18~

~July 1st, 2014: 7 Days After Bombings
Josh and Lexy had stayed up late the night before, talking things over and trying to comfort Lexy. She was suffering from what Nathan called a bad case of shellshock. Because of this, Lexy was allowed to sleep in, even though the other three members of the household got up early to take care of some remaining business from the night before.
After a quick breakfast, Josh and Wraith went upstairs into Josh’s bedroom. Walking into the room, the wall to the left had a large door set into it. While it was designed to look like a normal door, upon close examination one would see it was made out of a very thick metal. And, should one try to open the door, they would find it nearly impossible. This was the door to Josh’s “Den”, his secret office. The door was held closed by a powerful magnetic lock that also, through reversing the poles of the magnetic force, would open or close the door without the aide of a person.
Inside the Den was an impressive Telecom video and audio communications setup along the wall to the right of the door. To the left was a desk with four computers, all useable and in perfect working order, all routed through two large monitors. Next to the desk was a number of shelves, loaded full of all sorts of communications and intelligence gathering gear.
In the center of the room was a circular table with holographic image projectors set into the table and into the ceiling above. The projectors worked together to create a 3D image in the space between them. Designed by Shadow Tech, a company publicly owned by a man called Mike Murdock and secretly owned by Wraith, the projector system was not currently available to the public.
While the projector system was impressive, and all the equipment in the room was very expensive, the thing of real value in the Den was the wall of filing cabinets along the back wall. Here was stored Josh and Wraith’s records of every criminal and criminal action since the 1990’s. Here was a store of knowledge and information that would make the CIA and FBI jealous. This, of all the things Josh and his little team had every done or collected, was the most dangerous.
And it was through these files that Josh and Wraith went through and removed six folders from. One for each of the members of the team Pyros had hired last night, and the last for Pyros himself.
Josh and Wraith copied each file and put the copies into manila envelopes. Then Wraith took the files and drove off in Josh’s black Silverado pickup, the bed of the truck covered by a blue tarp. The plan was that Wraith would take the bodies and leave them somewhere the police would find them, along with the files. The files held more than enough evidence to condemn the men to life in prison, and in the case of Cult and Pyros, the death penalty. This, then, was Wraith’s destination.

After eating his breakfast, Nathan spent most of the morning outside working on his Harley. Now that Pyros and Carl Mash had been eliminated, he planned on going on with his life as he always had. Which for him meant mildly intoxicated and as wildly as possible.
Scarlet, on the other hand, was not doing so well. She sat in the living room on a couch, a half-eaten bowl of cereal on the coffee table before her, watching the morning news with a glum expression and even glummer attitude.
The strange thing, as Nathan noted on one of his trips to the kitchen to wash his hands, was that there was also a tequila bottle on the table next to the cereal. Scarlet rarely drank in the morning, and never drank anything as strong as tequila. Nathan made a mental note of it, intending to bring it up with Josh later, and went back out to work on his bike.

Wraith got back around noon and put the Silverado away in the underground garage. He walked into the dining room where Lexy was learning how to sharpen a throwing knife from Josh, and Scarlet looked on.
“I am leaving.”
Lexy looked up surprised, but Josh just continued with what he was doing.
“You want to borrow a car?”
Wraith shrugged, “Actually, I was hoping you could drop me off at the airport.”
Josh nodded, and Lexy threw him a disbelieving look before turning back to Wraith.
“Where will you go?”
“Back to New York. I have business there I left unfinished and someone has to keep an eye on the Board and their actions.”
Josh put the knife and his sharpening kit away and rose to his feet. His gray eyes settled on Lexy.
“You want to go out to dinner? Maybe go to the mall? See a movie? Anything?”
Lexy took a surprised moment to think.
“Um… I don’t really care.”
Josh nodded as if she said she wanted to do something specific.
“Ok, we’ll go with all of the above.”
Wraith and Lexy exchanged bemused glances as Josh got the keys to the Mustang he left on the bar and headed into the living room.
He put a hand on Scarlet’s shoulder, “Me and Lexy are going to take Wraith to the airport, then go to the mall and get dinner and maybe see a movie. Don’t expect us back until late.”
Scarlet nodded absently, her eyes fixed blankly on the TV.
Josh watched her for a moment, and then headed for the back door.
He called over his shoulder, “Lexy, Wraith, come on. We’ll tell Nathan where we’re going on our way to get the car.”
Lexy was very pleased with this turn of events. While she was sad to see Wraith go, she was getting an afternoon and late night out with Josh. For her it was a dream come true, a night in Heaven.
Nathan was sitting on the step to the garage’s backdoor, looking over some greasy piece of his cycle. He looked up and grinned.
“Hey, I think I almost know what’s wrong with her.”
Josh stopped and looked at the pieces of Nathan’s bike that were strewn over the walkway.
“What’s wrong?”
Nathan shrugged, “Dunno, I only said I almost knew. You guys goin out?”
Josh nodded and opened the door leading into the garage for Lexy and Wraith.
“Yeah, Wraith is heading back to New York and me and Lexy are going to go to dinner, hang out at the mall, and probably see a movie.”
Nathan touched his fingers to his forehead in a kind of casual salute.
“Translation: You won’t be back until around like four in the morning and you want us to behave and not wreck the house.”
Josh smiled and clapped his old friend on the back.
“Close enough.”

Nathan stayed outside trying to figure what was wrong with his bike until sometime around six o-clock. Then he went inside and, after washing his hands and grabbing a beer from the fridge, plopped down on a couch in the living room. Since Josh had left Scarlet had disappeared, taking with her the breakfast she had left on the coffee table, but leaving four empty tequila bottles.
Nathan didn’t worry about the bottles, but turned on the TV and started surfing channels in search of something good to watch. As he surfed he called over his shoulder in the direction of the stairs.
“Hey, Red, you wanna watch some TV or something? Looks like we have all night to ourselves.”
“Yes, all night.”
The sultry voice from behind him caused him to turn around in surprise. But what he saw, standing by the end of the pool table in the adjacent room, surprised him even more.
There, her hair flowing down over her shoulders, was Scarlet. Her pose accented her body’s curves, her legs clad in black jeans that almost sparkled in the dim light. Her light, almost white, blue shirt was partially unbuttoned, and the plunge of the neck gave the illusion that she was wearing little, if anything, underneath.
Nathan just stared, his brain not fully registering what was happening.
Scarlet walked towards him and around the couch, her hips swaying seductively with each step. She straddled his legs and leaned in close to him. Her scent filled his nostrils and her hair fell forward and brushed against his shoulder. Her shirt fell away from her body, revealing that the illusion of having nothing underneath was not an illusion.
Nathan’s breath caught in his throat and he found it difficult to speak. When he did it was in a hushed, husky tone.
“Scarlet, what are you doing?”
Scarlet ran a hand down his chest, and Nathan could feel his heart quicken.
“Don’t play silly with me; you know how I feel about you. And I know you feel the same way.”
Nathan had a hard time keeping his eyes on her face; they kept dropping to her neckline, and beyond.
“What… how would you know how I feel?”
Scarlet laughed lightly and brushed her lips against his.
“Call it woman’s intuition.”
Nathan had women on his mind all right, but it wasn’t their intuition. But something was nagging at the back of his mind, something out of place.
Then it hit him. Alcohol, Nathan smelled alcohol.
Scarlet was drunk. She had never been able to take her liquor well, and normally was very careful about what and how much she drank. The four empty tequila bottles and the song “Tequila makes her clothes fall off” ran through his head.
He grabbed her hands, which were slyly making their way to the hem of his shirt and, gently, pulled them away.
“No, Scarlet.”
Scarlet sat back slightly, a look of disappointment and confusion playing across her face.
“What? Don’t you want me?”
Nathan shook his head, “Not now, not like this.”
Scarlet leaned in and kissed him full on the mouth, her green eyes glinting playfully.
She drew back after a moment and licked her lips.
“You’re just being silly, you’re a man. Men will take a girl anyway they can get her.”
Nathan pushed her back and made her get to her feet.
“No, not me. And not with you. If we ever are going to be together I want it to be because you and I both want it to. Not because one of us is drunk and not thinking straight.”
Scarlet stood before him, lost. Her eyes suddenly flared up and she shoved Nathan back onto the couch.
“Fine! But as far as you are concerned, this was your last chance!”
She turned haughtily and began making her way to the stairs. But halfway she stumbled and fell against the pool table.
Nathan jumped up and got to her just as she fell to the floor. He took her unconscious form and laid it on the guestroom bed. Then, quietly and more sober than he had been for a long time, Nathan went back downstairs to watch TV.

Josh and Lexy walked hand-in-hand out of the Hollywood Theatre in Portland. They had, at Lexy’s request, gone to see the new James Bond movie, Cold Vengeance. Now, as they walked to their car, Lexy couldn’t stop talking about how great she thought the movie was.
“Wasn’t that awesome? I just love Harry Chase, he’s such an amazing actor. What did you think, Josh?”
Josh shrugged, “I dunno, been there, done that.”
Lexy laughed and playfully punched his shoulder.
“Whatever, Mr. Tough Guy! I bet you never have jumped out of a three-story building into a pickup bed!”
Josh thought a moment, “No, your right. It was five stories.”

Sometime around four in the morning, Scarlet came down stairs massaging her temple. She had changed into regular blue-jeans and a white tank-top, but Nathan still saw her in the sparkly black jeans, plunging blue top, and desire-filled green eyes.
Scarlet slumped onto the other couch.
Nathan glanced over at her, “Feeling better?”
Scarlet shook her head slightly, “Hell no. Fells like a rock band had auditions for a new drummer inside my head.”
Nathan didn’t comment, but after a moment Scarlet’s head came up sharply.
“Oh Hell… Nathan, I’m really sorry about anything I said earlier. I let the drink get to me… I don’t even remember what I did, was I bad?”
Nathan cast a quick glance at her, and the horror and fear in her eyes told him she remembered everything she had done.
But he just shrugged, “Nah, you weren’t so bad. People say and do crazy stuff when they’re drunk.”
Scarlet just sat there, and after moment, rose to go back upstairs.
Before she headed upstairs, she turned and looked back at Nathan.
“Thank you…”