Chapter Six

CHAPTER SIX

Woodley

The more this Joe character spoke, the less threatened Woodley felt about the guy trying to take advantage of Harris and make a move on him. Joe was not a player; hell, he wasn’t even in the same ballpark.

Woodley sat with the rest of the team at the rental, watching as Harris endured what might be considered the roughest pseudo- date ever. He was beginning to feel like an idiot for being jealous in the first place. Smooth.

“ Okay, am I the only one having a hard time believing this guy is a threat in any way?” Gunner asked.

“ I was about to say the same thing,” Woodley agreed.

“ It’s not him I’m interested in,” Spencer said. “Conor, do you get anything from the other guy at the bar?”

“ That fuckin’ giant dude?” Conor asked.

“ Yes. He strikes me as out of place,” Brick stated from the hotel room.

“ He’d be more in place at a bodybuilding competition,” Shaw quipped.

Conor moved closer to the screen as two plates of wings arrived for Harris and Joe. Woodley watched as Conor homed in on the mystery man. It was fascinating watching Conor switch on and concentrate on the muscled stranger. The guy never glanced Harris’s way but kept his eyes on the game on the television. At points, he even cheered when one of the teams scored and groaned when a whistle blew. The guy seemed oblivious to anyone else in the bar. Too oblivious, perhaps.

“ He seems to be forcing himself not to look across the bar,” Woodley commented.

“ Agreed,” Spencer said.

“ Something’s off.” Brick’s voice came across the comms. “What are you getting, Conor?”

“ Nothing.”

“ Nothing?” Brick asked.

“ Absolutely blank. That’s impossible,” Conor said as his eyes widened.

“ Impossible?” Woodley asked.

“ Yeah, I always get something. A feeling, a stray thought, but this guy’s a ghost.”

“ I don’t like it,” Jennifer said. “I’ve relayed everything to my brother. He’s aware of the situation.”

“ Could it be the distance or something blocking you?” Spencer asked. “You might be too far away from the hotel.”

“ I don’t think so. I can get a read on that Joe guy, but as I’ve said, Joe isn’t his real name. He’s easy to read. Full of deceit and a bit fearful of Harris.”

“ Likely because he knows my brother’s a former test subject and has abilities.”

“ True enough,” Woodley agreed. “Civilians fear what they don’t understand.”

“ It’s human nature to avoid or destroy what scares them,” Conor said.

“ Like us,” Jennifer said, her tone expressing her sadness.

“ I know which side this Joe is on, and it’s not avoiding,” Conor stated.

“ Jennifer, can you let Harris know I’m sending Fletcher in and to play along,” Brick said.

“ Done,” Jennifer answered.

The mundane conversation continued between Harris and Joe as Fletcher’s camera came online on the second screen. He entered the restaurant, made an appearance of looking around until he spotted Harris, and headed in that direction.

Woodley kept his eye on the stranger as Fletcher sat on the barstool beside Harris. The guy didn’t react, which was odd, considering the big redhead always got looks wherever he went.

“ Found you,” Fletcher said.

“ I wasn’t hiding,” Harris said, acting annoyed. “What’s up?”

“ Brick wants us back in the suite.”

“ He’s not my boss.”

“ Man, do you always have to do shit the hard way?” Fletcher asked, falling into his role as peacekeeper.

“ It’s part of my sparkling personality.”

“ Let’s go before he comes down here looking for us.”

Harris huffed, pulled out his twenty-dollar bill, and looked at Joe. “Thanks for the conversation, Joe.”

Joe waved off Harris’s money. “It’s on me. Maybe we’ll have a chance to talk again.”

“ Yeah, maybe,” Harris said with a nod before standing and following Fletcher out of the restaurant and up to the elevators.

Both men visibly relaxed once the elevator doors shut behind them, and they were alone.

“ Any idea who the new guy is, the one who looks as if he could bench-press a bridge?” Shaw asked.

“ Working on it,” Spencer said, and Woodley watched as the information specialist went to work on his tweaked-out laptop.

He couldn’t help but wonder if the guy was a friend or foe and what the hell he was doing there in the first place. The last thing they needed was another unknown, in this case, filled with unpredictable variables. This was his idea of hell, absolute hell.

***

Harris

“ What the hell,” Harris growled as he entered the hotel room. “He could have made a move to capture me tonight.”

“ Believe me when I say that guy has no moves.” Shaw laughed.

Harris couldn’t help but chuckle. “Fine. What’s going on?”

“ Unknown individual is in the mix,” Brick stated.

“ Are we sure the guy is even part of this?” Harris asked.

“ No. However, if Conor can’t get a read on the guy, something’s up in my book. It’s not worth the risk. Better to regroup with more information.”

Harris couldn’t argue with that and sat down at the table with Brick and turned to look at the monitors. Spence was off to the side working away, and Jennifer, Woodley, Conor, and Gunner sat around the table at the rental with the rest of the crew milling around in the background.

“ I’ve hacked into the hotel security cameras,” Spencer stated. “Putting visuals up on screen now.”

The left-hand monitor flickered to life as Harris secured the transmission, and the hotel lobby appeared on the screen. People mingled, employees carried on behind the registration counter, and hotel porters wheeled luggage carts in and out of the building.

“ Let’s have a look in the restaurant and bar area,” Spencer said before the picture changed again.

They watched as the camera panned around the empty restaurant and zeroed in on the bar. It was close to eleven in the evening, so only a few people were left scattered around the area.

Joe and the stranger were still sitting at the bar, and another couple was on the opposite side of the room, unable to keep their hands off each other.

The stranger had yet to attempt to approach Joe in the five minutes it took them to return to their room and didn’t appear to be in any hurry to do so.

“ Do you think we could be wrong?” Jason asked from the other screen at the rental. “They’re still not looking at each other.”

“ Are you getting anything, Conor?” Harris asked.

“ Still a blank. I can feel Joe’s disappointment at Harris leaving and the couple’s hormones raging; they’ll likely leave for their room within minutes. However, the stranger is still a mystery.”

As if on cue, the couple stood; the man threw some bills on the bar, and they quickly exited.

“ Well, when you’re right, you’re right.” Gunner laughed.

“ That didn’t take a lot of power to figure out.” Conor laughed. “I’ll be surprised if they make it to their room with all their clothes on. I feel bad for their respective spouses back at home.”

Cheaters, great. Sometimes, Harris envied Conor’s ability, but then he was reminded how horrible it would be to see into certain people’s depraved minds.

“ Big guy’s getting his bill,” Brick said, and everyone turned back to the monitor.

“ Maybe he’ll pay with a credit card,” Spencer said.

“ I can hack into their accounting system if he does and get his details,” Harris agreed as he changed screens on his second laptop.

They watched in anticipation as the man reached into his wallet, only to deflate when he pulled out cash.

“ Shit,” Harris groaned.

He slid the cash under his bill and turned to leave without giving Joe a second glance. Whatever they’d been waiting to see wasn’t going to happen. It was anticlimactic, and Harris couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. He’d hoped to have confirmation that the stranger was part of the Noah Group.

“ This doesn’t remove him from being a person of interest,” Brick stated. “I want more information on him by daybreak.”

“ On it,” Spencer said. “I’ll start with the facial recognition software.”

“ I’ll start with the hotel records,” Harris said. “In case he’s registered in this or any nearby hotels.”

“ We’re off to do more recon on the dive bar across town,” Gunner said. “We’ll report in later.”

With plans in place and another long night of work ahead, Harris watched Woodley work in the background at the rental. The man represented everything Harris swore he’d never allow himself to crave, let alone possess.

As if sensing Harris’s eyes on him, Woodley turned to look at the monitor, and though they were miles apart, the heat of his gaze had the same effect on Harris as if they were mere inches apart. His pulse sped up, his mouth went dry, and he wanted nothing more than to hold the man down and kiss the hell out of him.

He wasn’t sure how long they stared at one another, but it wasn’t until Fletcher dropped his bottle of water, spraying water down the front of himself and swearing loudly, that their connection was broken and Harris forced himself to concentrate on his laptop. He didn’t have time to be sitting around making fuck-me eyes at Woodley. What was he thinking? Days away from one of his most dangerous missions, and he couldn’t keep his head on straight.

He stood with his laptop and went to his bedroom, as far away as possible from the monitor. This wasn’t getting any easier; he hadn’t expected it would, but this obsession surpassed what he’d prepared for. Woodley’s words vibrated through his memory; they were well and truly screwed.