“To King De Lascaux, master of devious plots!” I replied.
We drank our wine and laughed as I related exactly how the afternoon had gone. When discussing how Bridger would proceed with the knowledge that Emmy’s father was the king of the region’s Night Children and how that information would have a relatively short window of exclusivity, we talked about how I should proceed with the various spy agencies showing interest in me.
“Remain useful and interesting to Colonel Bridger,” Mr Lascaux urged. “I think that he will be willing to give you what you ask if he thinks that he can glean more information from you.”
“The moment we go public that’ll dry up,” I said, leaning back. “He’s only going to play as long as he believes he has some sort of advantage over the rest of the world.”
“This is undeniably true,” Mr Lascaux agreed. “So use him while you can. Do you think this Colonel Bridger will have any actionable information on this Ahmet Asker individual?”
“It’s a possibility,” I said. “Especially with the photos. Odds are the guy has passed through Heathrow at some point, right?”
“Yes, I imagine he must have,” Mr Lascaux agreed. “What information are you hoping for?”
“I mainly want to know if he did fly out of Istanbul. If he did, and maybe they know if he does use that airport frequently… That would indicate a likely tie to Marfan.”
“So… Tell me what happens if Asker is from Istanbul?” Mr Lascaux asked.
“We find him, and watch him there in Turkey. If he spends a lot of time with Marfan, we can infer that he acts as Marfan’s errand boy,” I said.
“Acting in Marfan’s home territory will be risky,” Mr Lascaux cautioned. “Very risky.”
“We have some advantages in that regard,” I said. “Don’t worry- we’ll be prepared.”
“Let me know if I can offer any assistance.”
“I think that your biggest contribution might come in the aftermath,” I told him. “If we clean the Marfan clan out entirely there’ll be a big leadership vacuum in their nation. If you have any knowledge of who might be best to support in taking over after Marfan is gone…” I said.
“Are you seriously planning to exterminate the whole family?” Mr Lascaux asked, surprised.
“From what I’ve seen, that is a poisonous tree and all the branches are just as bad. If we’re going to go in hot and heavy, we’ll do it with the intention of pulling that entire tree out by the roots,” I said.
“You have the means to do this?” Emmy’s dad asked, still trying to process the idea.
“We have the means right now to go in and cause major damage, but we want to make damned sure that we have the right target. We also need to fill in our knowledge base of who to target- that’s why our surveillance program will have to be quite thorough before we go in with the long knives,” I told him.
“When you say, ‘major damage’, what exactly do you mean?”
“We know the locations and layout of Marfan’s main house, his country house, his mistress’ apartment, and the houses of his two living sons. We could go in tomorrow and kill everyone we find in those places and be done within a few hours. The trick will be keeping it quiet and making sure we leave no loose ends. That’s where the real planning comes into play,” I said.
“How do you have this information?” Mr Lascaux asked, amazed.
“Insiders,” I said, not wanting to give all my secrets away. “When the time comes, it’ll be quick and complete. That’s why it’d be best to have another family or group that would be ready to step into their place at a moment’s notice.”
“There is another noble family… You might call them progressive, but that is only when compared to the Marfan clan. The Tezcan family is respected and too powerful for the Marfans to sideline entirely, but they have been kept out of positions of power and not allowed to take root in Istanbul, which is the seat of their nation’s power. While they are not particularly friendly towards us in the West, they are not actively hostile, either. I am certain that they would gladly seize the reins if given enough support,” Mr Lascaux said, thinking about it. “The trick will be to avoid the impression of foreign meddling.”
“It’s also really important to not tip our hand,” I said. “We run the risk of somebody informing Marfan if we tell these Tezcan people what’s about to happen.”
“Yes…” Mr Lascaux said, thinking about the problem. “We will need to be very circumspect.”
Changing the topic a little bit, I told Mr Lascaux about the Egyptian phone number that Big Joe had been in contact with, the one who had been trying to get Big Joe to take action against Emmy and me.
“I don’t know who that might be,” Mr Lascaux said, pondering the problem. “I have people in Cairo. I’ll get them to look into who might be agitating against the two of you.”
“Let me know if you find out. If it’s a relatively little fish we can deal with them quickly enough, but if it’s a big dog, we might have to take some time to plan an approach,” I said.
Emmy’s father gave me a long, appraising look. “You are not willing to let things lie, are you?” he asked.
“No, sir, I am definitely not,” I replied, refilling my glass. “As far as I am concerned, I only have two kinds of enemies: The dead, and the soon to be dead.”
Eventually the topic turned to Emmy and how she was doing.
“I think she’s turning the corner,” I said. “The loss hit her hard, but she’s beginning to laugh and smile again. We’re gonna get through this, but it’ll still take a while.”
“It has only been a few months,” Emmy’s dad said. “Grief never disappears entirely, but it does diminish with time.” After a long moment of thoughtful silence, he looked up at me. “When Êmeraude was attacked in San Francisco and her mother went to visit her, you told her mother to be just that- a mother, and not the queen of her people. I would urge you to remember the wisdom of that sentiment. My daughter needs you now more than ever, but not as the queen of your people. She needs your love now. Show her your softer side. Hold her in your arms, remind her that she is loved. I regret that her mother and I were never…” he trailed off, lost in memories.
“How did your meetings go?” Emmy asked me when I got back to the apartment.
“Really well,” I answered. “I got a few balls rolling- everything I needed to get done.”
“That is good,” she replied. “Are you hungry? We got enough curry to feed a small army. There are a few samosas as well.”
“Curry sounds good,” I said, giving her a kiss. “Did everything get delivered today?”
“Not quite,” Emmy said, her shoulders sagging. “We forgot a few necessary things for the home studio. They will be delivered and installed tomorrow. Will you be home?”
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“I have no plans until Friday,” I said with a shrug. “I was hoping we could maybe sleep in and have sex all day, but that’s more of an aspiration than an actual plan.”
“We can only have sex all day if we start early,” Emmy admonished. “If we sleep in, then we will only have sex half the day.”
“Good point,” I admitted. “I guess we should head to bed early so we can wake up refreshed and ready to face the day.”
“Jeremy has already gone to his room to watch television,” Emmy said. “You should hurry up and have your curry, then we will take a bath and go to bed to get our rest.”
“Bossy!” I laughed.
Angela had specified just about the biggest porcelain tub you could find- plenty of room for three. This meant that it was generously spacious for just Emmy and me- another subtle reminder of what we had lost. We did our best to ignore all that empty space in the tub while we enjoyed our soapy time there in that bathroom Angela had designed for the three of us.
“This is nice,” Emmy said as she leaned back against my chest. “Thank you for this.”
“Thank you, babe. You were the one who suggested an early evening,” I replied, kissing the top of Emmy’s head.
“And an early start to tomorrow, do not forget,” Emmy said, wrapping my arms around herself.
“That’s right- you promised me sex all day,” I said. “I’m going to hold you to that promise- and hold you to me, too.”
“Leah, I want…” Emmy said, thinking about how to phrase it. “I want to feel your weight on me when we make love. You have been treating me like a porcelain doll- so very cautious, concerned that you might break me. I do not want that, Leah. I want you to ravage me. I want you to show me your beastly side again. Take me, Leah. Take me good and hard. I need this. I need this very much."
“Are you sure? I don’t want-”
“I am very certain,” Emmy said. “My doctor said that I have recovered physically. I do not think you would hurt me by loving me too hard. But Leah, it has been a very long time since I have felt your wild side and I need to feel that you still lust for me in that way. I have been… afraid that you no longer find me desirable. Yes, I know intellectually that it is not true, but the heart is not always governed by the head.”
“No, it isn’t,” I agreed, squeezing her tightly. “I’m sorry if I’ve been too… I don’t want to say, ‘gentle,’ but I guess that’s close enough. I’ve been so worried about you, and yes, a big part of that is not knowing how you were doing, physically or emotionally. I’m sorry I’ve been treating you like a porcelain doll, and you’re absolutely right that I have been.”
“I am ready to return to life, Leah. Yes, I do want this time off from performing, but I want to enjoy it. I do not wish to continue to wallow in my misery any longer,” Emmy said.
“Em, I want to ask you a question, and I want a real, true answer. Don’t tell me what you think I want to hear. Tell me how you feel about this,” I said, nuzzling behind her ear.
“What do you want to know?”
“Em, we’ve been surrounded by Angela ever since she- since we lost her. Photos of her on the wall, spending time with her family in her home town, and now here, in this apartment that she designed. What I want you to tell me honestly is whether or not this is helping you, or hurting?” I asked.
“I miss her, Leah. I miss her every day,” Emmy said, after giving it some thought. “But… I think that these reminders are good for me. This house, it reminds me of the love and the joy that Angela had, and reminds me that there is a way to live that embraces this way of being. Leah, Angela showed me that there is an entire side of life that cares little for power, wealth, or influence. She taught me that family can mean more than duty and obligation. It can also mean unconditional love. This is a lesson I wish to never forget, Leah. Being surrounded by Angie’s memory will help me remember, and will remind me to keep it in my heart. I want to continue looking at that photo of Angela looking over her shoulder. I want to continue to use those Japanese kitchen knives she insisted we buy in Tokyo. I want to feel that Andean wool rug in the living room here beneath my bare feet. Leah, I want to be surrounded by Angela’s memory. If I cannot have her, let me continue to have those reminders.”
“I think we should print a few more photos of her for our walls,” I said. “I miss her, too, and want to remember her.”
Breaking out of the melancholy of the moment, Emmy sat up and turned around to face me, smiling. “You know I downloaded all of her photos, right? From her computer and her camera’s memory cards? There were some very saucy pictures in there. Very saucy.”
“I saw a few from her time with Antonio,” I admitted.
“I do not think you have seen all, or even most,” Emmy said. “Some are very explicit, but most are simply nudes. I do not know how old she was when she started taking these photos, but she looked very young in some of them.”
“She always looked young,” I protested.
“She looked younger than Cecy is now,” Emmy said. “Young enough that I am worried about the legality of even keeping them.”
“I guess we can look at the metadata to see if she was underaged,” I said. “But I think she said that she didn’t get her first camera until she was in college.”
“I would hate to have to delete any of the photos,” Emmy said. “I do hope that they are legal.”
“Not to change the subject,” I said, changing the subject. “But I have noticed a distinctly woeful lack of sexy nude pictures of you. I think we need to have a little photography session. I’ll shoot a bunch of hot photos of you so I can look at them when we’re apart.”
“Fair is fair,” Emmy said, leaning back and resting her arms on the sides of the tub. “I will need masturbatory material of you as well. For when you travel for business.”
“We already promised Ange’s Nikon to her cousin,” I said, thoughtfully. “I guess we’ll just have to buy another one for ourselves.”
“Tomorrow,” Emmy commanded. “I can already visualize how I want you to pose.”
“I guess we’ll have to kick Jeremy out of the house,” I said.
“Everyone in our New York house has seen you nude. Why not him, too?” Emmy teased.
“Ugh,” I groaned. “Yeah, no thanks.”
Knowing that Emmy would sleep for hours yet, I made my way down to the building’s fitness center when I woke up early. It wasn’t a real gym in the sense of weights, mats and so on, but it did have plenty of cardio machines of various sorts and a full selection of weight machines of various kinds.
I ran for an hour on a treadmill, but that was all I could take before boredom set in. I vowed to find a real gym as soon as I could as I stared at the television showing BBC News with the sound off, since the fitness center had no windows.
Jeremy was up and having breakfast when I got back to the apartment.
“I’m going to get us memberships at a real gym for the time we’ll be in London,” I told him. “The fitness center downstairs just won’t cut it.”
“I worked out down there yesterday,” Jeremy said. “It’s fine for businessmen and housewives, but that’s it.”
“Jeremy, I’ve been thinking,” I told him. “Like I told you before, I want you to continue in this role for the long term. I can’t ask for a more committed protector than you- you’ve proven that beyond a shadow of a doubt.”
“But?” Jeremy asked, clearly concerned at the way the conversation was going.
“But you need more training,” I told him. “I can tell you’re still not fully recovered from your injuries and I don’t want to slow your healing down any at all, but I think it’s time we start to work on your skill sets. I want you to be the very best you can possibly be, even if it takes a while. You’ve been doing a great job of getting back on your feet- believe me, it shows. I’m thinking that when we get back to the US I’m going to enroll you in a professional bodyguard training program, and an evasive driving school, and so on.”
“How long will all that take?” Jeremy asked.
“As long as it does,” I told him. “That doesn’t matter much. What matters is that I’m investing in you, right? I see your potential, and I know- I mean, I absolutely know that you’re committed to protecting Emmy with your life if need be. I can’t possibly ask more than that. So what I want is to take the diamond in the rough and polish it up. If it takes a year for this to happen, that’s fine. I know you’ll do your best and when you’re done and ready Emmy will be safe with you right there.”
“A year?” Tiny gasped.
“I have no idea how long the programs last or anything like that,” I said with a shrug. “Like I said, that’s of secondary importance. Most important of all is that you learn what you can.”
“You know I’ll do anything you ask, my queen,” Jeremey said, his shoulders dropping a little. “But I hate the idea of being away and leaving Queen Emmy unprotected.”
“I know you do,” I agreed. “But I think we can make this work.”
“I’ll do my best,” Jeremy said, but it was obvious that he didn’t like being sent away.
“Tomorrow morning we’ll go to a local fight gym and get a real workout in. I want to see how you’re progressing,” I told him.
“I don’t know if I should look forward to this or dread it,” he said wryly.
“Dread it,” I assured him.
I’d just finished my shower and gotten dressed in jeans and a comfy shirt when Jeremy announced that the sound engineering guys had arrived, so I woke Emmy up and got her moving and into her own shower. I stayed to watch to make sure she didn’t fall asleep while bathing. At least, that’s what I told Emmy, but I don’t think she believed me.
I toweled her off when she was done, and it was a familiar sort of fun game we played. I helped Emmy get dressed, too, and soon enough she was in the small studio supervising the electronics installation, then playing her guitar while the techs got everything dialed in just right.
Once they were gone it was time for lunch. The weather was dreary, a cold but light rain keeping the day dismal. Grateful for the concierge’s shopping service, I made us a salad with grilled chicken, for lack of any desire to go out. As a bonus, eating in allowed Emmy to return quickly to her pocket-sized studio.
Apparently the whole ‘sex all day’ thing had gone by the wayside. Still hopeful for a hot night, I fired up my computer for a day of work. I consoled myself with the knowledge that at least I had an incredible view out of the giant two-story-high windows facing the west from my desk.