Chapter 10
Shannon
I’m distracted at work again and do my best to act normal.
Whatever that means. Sandra finds me in the teacher’s lounge and leans against the counter as I get a fresh cup of coffee.
I didn’t sleep for shit last night. Between the stalker situation and having Ace five feet away from me all night, I tossed and turned until almost dawn.
I woke up before my alarm went off, and now I’m exhausted.
“You look tired,” Sandra said. “This stalker thing has you worried, huh?”
“Kinda.” I try to be nonchalant.
“Maybe you should see someone, you know? Like a therapist. Maybe it’s all in your head.”
I sigh. “Maybe.” I hate lying to my friend, but Ace made me promise not to tell anyone anything, and it makes sense since we didn’t know who we’re looking for.
“What are you going to do over Christmas? Going home?”
“I don’t know,” I evade. “I was going to, but with this stalker thing going on, maybe I’ll stay and have my mom come here. My place is small, but we can share a bed. It’s not a huge deal and having someone with me might help.”
Sandra makes a face. “Really? You’d stay here? Dude, I’ll be on the first plane to the U.S. the minute finals are over next week. I can’t wait to get out of here.”
“Why do you live here if you hate it so much?” I ask, frowning. “I love Germany, and Cologne is filled with so much history and wonderful food and people and—”
“It’s just another old, ugly European city,” she said, a bitterness in her voice I’ve never heard before. “When my contract is over at the end of this year, I’m out of here.”
“Oh.” I don’t know what to say to that. “I’m sorry you’re unhappy here. Maybe one night next week we can get dinner or go to the Christmas markets or something.”
“Sure.” She flashes a smile, her previous surliness gone.
“Sounds fun. See you later.” She leaves the room and I watch her go curiously.
It’s a bummer she plans to leave after her contract is up because she’s my best friend here at work.
I’m used to being on my own, though—it seems like everyone I care about leaves me. One way or another.
* * *
Ace is waiting for me in front of the hotel when I arrive after work, and after I put down my things, he suggests we go out for the evening instead of sitting at the hotel worrying about what we might see on the new surveillance video feed.
He says his buddy Chains is on top of it, and I can’t think of a reason to say no, so we take a taxi to the area by the Cologne Cathedral, which is adjacent to one of the Christmas markets, and join the crowds.
“Have you been to the cathedral?” I ask as we walk up the street.
“Not inside, no.” He shakes his head. “Usually when I’m in Europe, I’m on a mission, so unless whomever I’m following is pretending to be a tourist, I don’t have time for a lot of that stuff.”
“That’s sad,” I tell him. “There are so many fabulous things to see all over the world.”
“There’s a lot on my list of things to do once I retire,” he says with a smile.
“How old are you?” I ask. I know he’s older than I am, but I’m not sure by how much.
“Thirty-seven,” he replies. “Thirty-eight next summer.”
“I’ll be thirty-two in May.”
“I know.”
Our eyes meet and we laugh.
“So do spies work until they’re sixty-five?” I ask him.
He shakes his head. “Not usually, though some do. To be honest, I think my days are numbered. I don’t love the job the way I used to.”
“How come?”
He stuffs his hands in his pockets and looks away, staring at the bright lights ahead of us at the entrance to the Christmas market.
“I thought I was fighting for the good guys, and mostly I have been. But no matter how noble the intentions, there’s always politics involved.
People vying for someone else’s job and using what we do to gain power.
It’s hard to know who to trust, including your bosses.
And sometimes the red tape makes it almost impossible for me to do what I have to do.
I’ve given my country nineteen years. Maybe it’s time for me to do something else. ”
“You’d retire? Really? Won’t you be bored?”
“Chains, my buddy that’s been helping me with your situation, owns a security and bodyguard company, so I can always get a job with him, but I’m not worried about being bored. I’d like to take some time off, travel, do some things I’ve always wanted to do.”
“Like what?” I feel like a giddy schoolgirl on a date with the high school football team quarterback. I want to know everything about him, immediately, as if we might not have a lot of time and he’ll disappear from my life like a thief in the night—again.
“Like tour the inside of cathedrals all over Europe,” he says with a faint smile. “Swimming with sharks in the South Pacific. Snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. The list is pretty long.”
“Have you ever wanted to settle down?” I ask quietly, my heart beating a little harder as I wait for his answer.
“You mean, with a woman, or in one place?”
I frown. “Both, I suppose.”
“To be honest, I’ve never wanted a house in the suburbs, a dog and two-point-five kids. I’d be open to having a special woman in my life, maybe even a kid, but settling in one place, working some nine-to-five job and doing the same thing every day sounds like hell on earth to me.”
I dip my head, slightly embarrassed because that’s exactly the kind of life I have. Minus having someone special in my life.
“I love my job,” I say after a moment. “So, it doesn’t feel like drudgery. I love being able to dig into the minds of kids, whether they’re five or fifteen, and help them discover the world around them. There’s always a bad day now and then, that’s part of life, but in general, I love what I do.”
“That’s how I used to feel about what I do,” he says. “The last few years have changed me. A lot has happened, things that have changed my view of the world more than me as a person. But I suppose those go hand in hand.”
“I suppose they do.” We enter the Christmas market, and despite the dark turn our conversation took, it’s hard to feel down amid the bright lights, decorations, and the wonderful scents we’re immediately assaulted with. My stomach growls, reminding me it’s been hours since I’ve eaten.
“Potato pancakes,” Ace says suddenly. “Do you like them?”
“I love them,” I respond with a grin. “Though I try not to indulge too often.”
“It’s almost Christmas. Come on!” He tugs me toward a booth, and we get in line.
“You’re going to get me fat,” I protest mildly, though I’m mostly kidding. I haven’t been running the last week, but I do it often and it keeps me in shape. “I’m going to have to run a hundred miles this weekend.”
“Do you run?” he asks.
“When I can.” I nod. “This time of year is hard because of finals coming up. Lots of paperwork, papers to grade, grades to turn in…”
“When does school let out?”
“Next Wednesday.”
“So just one more day this week and three days next week? And you’re off until when?”
“Second week of January.”
“There are perks to teaching,” he says as we got up to the counter. He gets us two orders of potato pancakes, one with applesauce and one with a horseradish-type sauce, and I’m impressed with his command of the German language.
“You speak German well,” I say as we stand at a bar-height table to eat.
“Like I told you, I have a thing for languages. I speak a lot of them.”
“How many?”
He pauses. “Eight fluently, four or five more that I can muddle through.”
“Thirteen languages?” I gape at him. “I thought I was cool because I speak three and a half.”
“Is German the half?” he asks.
“Yes, but I’m learning.”
“We can practice if you want.”
“Are you going to be around long enough for us to practice?” I meet his gaze intently, as if that’s a very important question.
Because it is.
To me, anyway.
“Would you like me to be?”