Courting Danger

    "Whose?" Juliana repeated staring at the large bouquet of flowers that sat on her desk.  No one had ever sent her flowers before, even after a date.  She had always been careful to make it clear that she did not have any interest in continuing any relationship with any man.  Long ago she had decided that she was not going to be like her mother.  Her mother had married her father out of love and as far as Juliana saw, the only thing the marriage brought her mother was heartache and debt.   
    Over the summer on her trip to Mexico Juliana had found the most beautiful wedding band.  She fell in love with the ring and bought it.  Later while she basked on that warm Mexican beach, inspiration had struck her.  She had in her hand or to be accurate, on her finger the way to end her coworkers' matchmaking plots.  When she arrived back to work after vacation she simply waited until someone noticed her ring.  Once noticed, Juliana spun a tale of a whirlwind romance with a Mexican businessman named Raul, which she had worked out on that beach.  What she did not count on were her fellow female office workers to insist on an after-the-fact bridal shower for her surprise nuptials.  The next day, she sadly informed her coworkers that Raul was too busy with his business to come to any fiesta that her office was planning.  And of course, Juliana politely refused to have a party without him.  So far she had successfully delayed the party and with any luck it would be forgotten.
      "They're for you," repeated Charissa breaking into Juliana's thoughts.  Charissa fingered the soft petals as she admired the blooms.  "The delivery boy was waiting at the door when I opened up the office.  I bet they're from your husband, Raul."
    "Maybe," Juliana hedged.  Silently she wished she had thought to send herself flowers from her 'husband'.  She filed the thought away as she picked up the envelope from the cute little holder that sat in the middle of the bouquet.  She opened it and read the simple message silently: Love, Raul.  Her mind spun, Raul? Raul was not real. I made him up on the beach.  The only place he exists is in my mind. Who sent-
    "So-" said Charissa trying to peek at the card. "Is it from Raul?"
    "Raul?" 
    Charissa rolled her eyes, "Yes, did your husband Raul send you the flowers?"
    "Yes," said Juliana, her throat tightened making her words sound fake to her own ears, "He is so sweet!"  She stuffed the card hastily back into its envelope, ripping it in the process.  She needed a reason for the flowers and why she was surprised.  Her thoughts scrambled for something plausible.  Why did men send flowers?  The answer came quickly to her, Apologies.  "He, um, one of his business holdings in Mexico, um, requires his attention, immediately. He has to fly to Mexico immediately, for a few days.  And feels bad about leaving me alone."
    "Oh how awful for you," said Charissa oozing compassion.
    Juliana looked at her in surprise. Charissa sounded almost...sarcastic. 
    "You know," said Charissa catching the look, "newlywed, husband gone for a few days.  I'm sure you will miss him terribly."
    "Oh, yes, terribly," Juliana quickly agreed and looked around for some way out of this conversation and away from Charissa.  Her eyes settled on her desk, "You know we really should get to work now."
    "Of course," said Charissa taking a step toward her own desk.  She paused and turned, "we could do a girls' night out while he's gone, if you want."
    "I'll let you know." said Juliana as she moved the flowers to the far side of her desk and booted up her computer.  There was no way she was going to do a girls' night out with gossip spreading Charissa. Her eyes traveled to the bouquet.  The flowers were absolutely beautiful, expensive.  Orchids at this time of year were not easily found and she had never seen the red variegated rose that was the star in the center.  No one, stress the one, knows I made up Raul.  So, who had sent me the flowers?  And Why?


    To those who walked past, Sabastian Walker looked relaxed as he leaned his nearly seven foot frame against the lamp pole and played with is IPod touch.  Sabastian, Bas to his friends, liked it that way.  What those around didn't know was that his IPod touch was not your average IPod.  Instead of trying to decide what tune to listen to next, he was watching and listening to what was going on in the office of the building across the street.  Bas glanced around, aware that he had stayed in this spot too long.  Casually, without taking his eyes fully off the scene on his IPod, he moved to stand in front of a nearby store and pretended to check out the store's window.  His quarry, Amphelice Juliana Devalcourt, walked into view of the camera that he had planted in the flowers that he had paid a delivery boy to delivered to her.  She was not getting much work done today.  Her coworkers had been buzzing about her desk all day, asking her questions that she had not been prepared to answer.  A partial smile crossed his face as yet another coworker came to her desk and began to ask questions.  He had put Miss Devalcourt in quite a spot and hoped to use that unsettling of her to his advantage in finding out the truth. 
    When he had been given the case to find Henry Devalcourt's grown children and determine if they had the missing files that the recovery crew couldn't find, Bas performed a standard background check.  That's when he discovered that the quiet Amphelice Juliana Devalcourt had made a mess for herself.  His mentor's words echoed in his head: 'When you create your cover story, always figure out your background story as completely as you can.  Anything you miss will kill you'.  Miss Devalcourt had figured out enough of a back story for her made-up husband to pass the initial questions that her coworkers had asked, but if any of them looked deeper, her story would unravel with a speed that would make her head spin.  And although she would not die from the reveled truth, it would make her life uncomfortable for a while.  From what he had witnessed today, some of her coworkers already suspected that Miss Devalcourt was not being totally honest about her new spouse. 
    Bas moved down the street to the little cafe on the corner to order a coffee to go.  Miss Devalcourt's day should be about done according to his research.  He had spent yesterday morning, while she was at work, searching her apartment for a sign of the missing files.  That was what led him to this.  He had found nothing in her apartment that suggested that she knew anything about her father's life. Now he needed to get close enough to her to find out what happened to the contents of Henry Devalcourt's office when the family home was sold after Miss Devalcourt's mother's death.  His interview with Henry Devalcourt's two youngest children had shown him that they knew nothing of their father's activities let alone about any files that Henry Devalcourt might have stashed.  Miss Devalcourt was the eldest of Henry Devalcourt's three children and the executor of the mother's will, she had to know something.  The eldest usually did. 
    Bas checked his IPod as he heard Miss Devalcourt say good-bye to someone and saw that Miss Devalcourt was leaving her office.  Now all he had to do was follow her and wait for an opportunity to get close enough to talk to her to find out what she knew.  It sounded easy, but it was going to be a challenge since Amphelice Juliana Devalcourt kept any man who tried to enter her life at a distance and more often than not pushed totally out of her life.  Bas did not fully understand why she did this and to him it really didn't matter.  He needed to find the missing files and she was his last lead.


    What a long day, Juliana sighed to herself as she juggled the flowers, the groceries and her purse, while she searched for her key chain.  It seemed like half the office had come to 'ooh' and 'ah' over the flowers she had received.  Like no one there had ever received flowers before, she thought still annoyed and amazed at the questions they asked her.  'Which florist delivered the flowers? How much did Raul spend, do you think?  Did you and Raul have a fight?'
It is none of your business, she wanted to shout at them, instead she shrugged or repeated the lie about Raul having to leave to deal with his business in Mexico.  Charissa's comment that Raul should have delivered the flowers in person started a new round of questions about when they, her co-workers, would get to meet Juliana's mysterious husband.  It was really no wonder that she was by the end of the day more than ready to go home to her quiet, empty apartment.
    She finally found the keys and tugged them out from under her wallet.  Water splashed in the vase that held her flowers.  All she needed was to spill water all over her favorite suit.  She had paid more than she wanted to for this suit, but it fit her flawlessly.  Carefully she reposition the vase making sure it was not going to spill, then adjusted the bag of groceries which was threatening to slip from her grasp.  Then using one hand, Juliana tried to find the right key for her door among the keys on the key chain.  The vase tilted sideways as she almost dropped the keys.  She watched as a large masculine hand caught the vase and righted it without spilling a drop of water.
    "I got it," said the deepest male voice she had ever heard.
    "Thanks," she mumbled out of habit as her senses reeled.  There were no men living on this floor. There were men living above her and below.  She forced her surprise away and snapped, "I was managing just fine."  With the right key now found she inserted it into the lock, turned it and opened the apartment door.  Practically tossing the groceries on the table next to the door, she turned intending to grab back her flowers.  She had to look up to see his face.  Oh my! Her flower rescuer was tall and built like someone who had been in the Marines.  "Thank you again," she forced out, "I have it under control," she grabbed the vase of flowers and backed into her doorway.
    "No prob," her flower rescuer said.  "From your husband?" He nodded to the flowers.
    "Yes," she reached behind her blindly for the door knob, "I've got to, um, make him dinner now.  He'll, um, be home any second."  She finally found the door knob and backed up only far enough so the she could shut him from her sight.
    "Nice meeting you," she heard him say though the closed door as she locked it.  Quickly putting the flowers and her purse down on the floor she stood on her tippy-toes to look through the peep-hole.  Her flower rescuer stood there for a second before a grin broke his face.  She scowled at him from her side of the door. Why was he smiling?  Then she watched as he walked up the hall.  There were only five apartments on this floor.  She had wanted the one furthest from the stairs, but had to settle for the second furthest.  Some little old lady lived quietly in that apartment, last she knew.  Now her flower rescuer walked toward that last apartment.  She pressed her ear against her door and heard a door close. Frowning she peeked through the peep-hole again trying, she knew, in vain to see if one of her other neighbors had entered the hall.  No one came into view, which did not surprise her.  The only the apartment door that she could see from her peep-hole was the one nearly directly across from her.  Sighing she pulled away from the door, picked up the vase of flowers and her purse.  Tomorrow I'll talk to the landlord to find out if the quiet old lady still lives next door, she thought as she deposited the purse on the table by the door and grabbed her groceries to take to the kitchen.  I'll move like I did last time, she thought, before I'll live on the same floor as a man. I am not going to end up like my mother!


    Bas sat at the small two person kitchen table in his borrowed apartment reading the day's paper.  His laptop computer sat facing him, on the screen was Miss Devalcourt's living room.  The room held none of the usual nick-knacks that most women he knew loved to collect.  He could hear her soft footsteps as she moved around out of sight of the camera.  All was quiet this morning in her apartment.  It was Saturday and she did not have to be at work.  He smiled to himself.  Over the last several days he had 'managed' to cross Miss Devalcourt's path daily.  Now she had started to vary her routine to try to avoid him.  Like she even has a chance, since I know her every move, he thought as he glanced at the computer's screen. 
    At first he had thought the first born of Devalcourt's children was a liar and a cheat.  Now he saw that she was just afraid to let people in.  For all his research, he did not know what the day to day life had been like for Henry Devalcourt's family.  The firm never paid well, but expected complete loyalty.  Marriage, families and any type of social life was discouraged. It was the price one paid for service to the firm. 
    Bas looked at the screen again as Miss Devalcourt entered the picture and plopped herself down on her couch. She was dressed in everyday type jeans, t-shirt and tennis shoes, with her hair pulled back into a ponytail.  Despite that she appeared stylish.  A scowl was the only thing that marred her look. His phone buzzed.  He grabbed it without taking his eyes off her. 
    "Walker, here."
    "Status."
    Bas recognized his superior's voice, "Making progress, Sir," he answered.
    "The Alpha wants this wrapped up by tomorrow."
    "What?  There is no way, Sir, that that is going to happen," said Bas as he watched his quarry get up and leave the room. "This one has to be handled with kid-gloves.  She's very skittish."
    "Your orders have changed, Walker," said his superior, "finish the job by tomorrow.  The Alpha has assigned you to another case starting Monday." There was a slight pause, "If you cannot finish the job, another agent will be assigned to complete it."
    "Yes, Sir," said Bas.  His phone went dead as his superior hung up.  He took a deep breath and set his phone down.  His eyes traveled to his computer screen.  He knew he had to get this over and done with, but over the last few days he had come to like Amphelice Juliana Devalcourt.  She did not deserve to be put in a hostage situation and that would be exactly what would happen if he could not find proof that she did not have the files or if she did have them, get them from her. 
    He watched as she reentered the living room, this time carrying a laptop computer.  He recognized it immediately.  If he had not been watching her on his computer he would have sworn she would have stolen it.  A frown creased his brow.  He reached out and clicked the box to make her image smaller, then opened his briefing folder so that the two windows sat side by side on his screen.  He scrolled through his research and the general information about his mission.  One of the things mentioned was Henry Devalcourt's computer.  He found the entry, 'Parts of agent's computer was found.  Believed destroyed.'  Bas looked at the computer that sat on Miss Devalcourt's lap.  It was identical to his computer.  The general public could not buy these computers anywhere.  It was standard issue for agents in the firm.  Damn, where had she hidden that?  It had not been in her apartment when he had searched it and her purse was not large enough to hold it.  He grabbed his phone and dialed it.  He needed to get inside her apartment, now!


    Juliana sat on the couch in her living room with her father's old laptop on her lap looking on the internet for some idea on how to get rid of the gorgeous hunk that seemed to be following her every time she turned around. She had checked with her landlord that first morning after he had prevented her flowers from falling and found out a few things.  His name was Sabastian Walker and he was a relative of Mrs. Roth, the neighbor who lived in the end apartment.  He was staying in her apartment temporally to cat-sit while Mrs. Roth was out of town visiting her sons.  At least I won't have to move, she thought, since this Sabastian Walker will only be here for two weeks.  I can avoid him for that long.  Like all the men she had dated before, she saw him as a deadbeat.  Any man who had time to cat-sit and follow her about could not possibly have a job.  No one will drain my soul like Dad did to Mom.  And yet her mother had given up after her father had died refusing to live without him.  Juliana never understood why.  The man never seemed to keep a job longer than a few months, was rarely at home and barely brought home enough money to feed a flea. 
Juliana wondered if she should take a short vacation so that she would not be around while Mr. Walker was cat-sitting.  Ever since she the day he had entered her life, her world had been turned upside down.  Her nice simple idea to avoid the dating scene and preventing herself from meeting a man like her father had turned into a mess.  All her co-workers were pressing to meet the husband she had made up.  Some mysterious person had sent her flowers from her non-existent husband and Mr. Walker seemed bound and determined to be in her life. 
    Grrrr! She growled at the computer as her search yielded a mess of websites that had nothing to do with what she wanted.  She needed to think.  A knock on her apartment door interrupted her silence.  Who could that be? She wondered as she got up off the couch and went to the door.  She stood on her tip-toes and peeked through the peep-hole.  The sight that greeted her was a large bouquet of flowers. 
    "Who is it?" she asked not taking her eye off the flowers.
    "Delivery for Miss Devalcourt," came the muffled reply.
    "You have the wrong apartment," she retorted, not about to accept another bouquet of flowers.
"No I don't," insisted the delivery person. "Your are Amphelice Devalcourt and these are for you!"
    Juliana sank off her tip-toes stunned.  Everyone she met knew her as Juliana, no one but family knew her first name was really Amphelice.  This was not happening, she thought feeling as if her world was tilting out of control.
    "Open the door, Miss Devalcourt," came the stern order.
    Juliana swallowed, unlocked her door and opened it.  Sabastian Walker entered carrying the flowers.  "Who told you my name was Amphelice?" She demanded as he passed.
    He paused and looked down at her, "Your father," he said simply before he walked over to the coffee table and place the flowers down on it.  "Close the door, Miss Devalcourt," he said when she did not immediately do so. "You and I have things to discuss."
    Juliana started to comply when her brain came out of shock.  She halted and growled, "get out or I call the police."
    "Call the police," said Bas plopping himself casually into the armchair next to the couch, "I'm sure they'd be interested in learning about your fraudulent activities."
    "My what?" She blanched.
    "You accepted gifts from co-workers after you told them you were married."
    "I... I am married." Juliana stammered.  Bas gave her a look that said he knew the truth.  She swallowed hard and closed the door.  "How did you find out?"
    "I have my ways," said Bas vaguely with a wave of his hand, "but be assured that if I found out so will others."
    "Okay," Juliana said walking slowly toward him.  She stopped at the opposite end of the couch from him. "What do you want?"
    "For starters," said Bas leaning over to pick up her father's computer where she had left it on the couch. "Where did you get this?"
    "It was my father's."  When Bas gave her a raised eyebrow that said he didn't believe her she hastily added, "Dad gave it to Mom the day before he disappeared and two days before he was found dead in the park."
    "Any idea why?"
    "Why he was killed or why he gave Mom the computer?" Juliana asked.  Before Bas answered she continued with a shrug, "No to both."  Her brother had thought the computer was stolen and had advised handing it over to the authorities.  It was obviously an expensive custom-made laptop.  Mom had been too distraught to care about the machine and had told Juliana to take it.  Juliana enthralled with the idea of finally having her own computer didn't care where it came from and since no one who came to investigate her father's death had asked if her father had a laptop she happily kept it. 
    “Have you reformatted or deleted the hard drive on this thing?"  Asked Bas breaking into her thoughts.
    "No," said Juliana with a frown, "why would I want to do that?"


Bas struggled to remain calm.  It was very possible the files that he sought were on this computer, intact. Forcing himself to shrug nonchalantly he said, "to destroy data."  The confused look that crossed Juliana's face told Bas that she had no idea what she had or who he father had been.  His pulse raced as he closed all the windows she had open.  It only registered briefly, in his excited mind that she had been looking up how to deal with being stalked before he clicked on the decorative icon in the lower right hand corner.  Immediately a new window opened.  It was green and had only a password box in the center of it.  Bas typed 'amphelice' into the box.  The screen changed and a welcome message for Henry Devalcourt appeared.  Bas heard Juliana gasp and realized that she had moved to stand next to him to see what he was up to.
    "I never saw that before," she whispered.  He glanced briefly up at her as he accessed a list of files.  The missing files were the last on the list.  Bas smiled and closed the lid knowing it would close the program and power the unit down.
    "What..." Juliana started to say but stopped when he turned to face her.
    "The less you know the better," Bas said briskly as he stood up to tower over her, her father's computer tucked under his arm.  He watched as several emotions played across her face before anger settled in.
    "How dare you!" She exploded, "You sent those flowers to my office, didn't you.  You caused all that grief that I had to endure ever since that day.  I was living my living quietly then you had to interfere.  You followed me around, poked your nose into my business and now... now you tell me I'm better off not knowing!  Knowing what?" She took a deep breath, "Was all this about my dad's old computer?  Were you the one who killed my father?"
    "I did not kill your father."  Bas said struggling with the desire to tell her the truth, all the while knowing what that could mean.  "Amphelice--"
    "Don't call me that!" she snapped.
    "I'm sorry.  Your father always referred to you by that name."
    "You knew my father?" She asked cautiously.
    "Yes," admitted Bas, "I can't tell you more without risking your life.  Some things are better left unsaid."  He started toward the door then stopped feeling sorry for her he said, "I need to take your father's computer.  I'll send you a replacement as quickly as I can."  Then not waiting for her to respond he left.   


    Sabastian Walker was true to his word and two days after he walked out of her apartment and life she received a new state of the art computer.  The next day Juliana asked for a few days off from work citing personal reasons. For the first time ever she did not go away to some exotic place, instead she called her siblings and together they went to the storage unit where they had stashed the stuff from their parent's house until they could deal with it.  Going through the boxes upon boxes stuff, Juliana and her sibling began to understand more of themselves and their parents.  They found several old shoe boxes filled with love letters from their father to their mother and a shoe box filled with their mother's diaries. The diaries told of a deep understanding love between to people who, through difficult times, were doing the best they could.  The diaries also hinted that her mother knew that their father had secrets and suggested that he had confided some of those secrets in her.  Juliana even found a letter from her mother instructing her to keep her father's computer safe and out of sight, until SRW came to claim it.  She had no idea who SRW was, but it didn't matter because she had allowed Sabastian Walker to walk away with it.  She told her siblings about Sabastian Walker and they admitted talking to a guy who matched his description.  They wondered over why he wanted the computer and if he could be the SRW their mother wrote of.  Not that they could ask him since Sabastian Walker was nowhere to be found.  Juliana cried a lot during that week away from work and did a lot of soul searching.
    When she returned to work Juliana returned what wedding gifts her coworkers had given her.  "I don't feel right about keeping these," she explained, "Raul is no longer in my life." 


    Bas watched as Amphelice Juliana Devalcourt walked out of her apartment from his vantage point just down the street.  He wanted to tell her about the man who had been his mentor when he first entered into The Firm.  If he was honest with himself, he just wanted to get to know her first hand, not through his mentor’s eyes! 
    His phone rang, “Walker here,” he said starting to follow her.
    “The Alpha has a new assignment for you,” said the voice he knew so well and despise so much.
      Bas kept a tight grip on the groan the wanted to escape as he stopped walking.  “I’m on my way in now,” he lied as he watched Amphelice Juliana Devalcourt walk away.  He did not hear his superior’s reply as he shut off his phone and stared after Amphelice.  Part of him wanted to chase her and ask her out to dinner.  Instead he stood there until she was no longer in sight.  Cursing he turned on his heel.  “Good-bye, for now, Amphelice,” He said softly, “someday we’ll cross paths again.”

--The End --