Page 50 of The Deception: Hercules Valentine and I
Who’s That Girl
Hercules Valentine
Fifteen Minutes Earlier
Ivaguely pay attention to the city going past my window. James is driving me home. I've heard that voice before. “Hercules,” she said in Lark’s tone with her same inflections. And I wasn't remembering the girl I ran into at the track and then slept with during a drunk spell fueled by misery. No, the speaker and I shared a more intimate connection, a link that’s closer than sex and more profound than physical attraction.
I told Lark that I had a meeting to get to—but I don’t. And I don’t want Mason involved in what I have to do. My instincts have been blaring like a fire-engine motorcade ever since I laid eyes on Lark Davenport. I hate to even think it, but it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility.Is she…?
I sip the warm air of the cab and let it rest in my lungs for a second.Shit.I release my breath. I have to exhaust every avenue.
I pinch my bottom lip.The way she tastes… smells… that night…
If it’s her, then I would want to know why she’s working for me under a false identity.
“My calendar,” I whisper.
I was scheduled to be traveling to New Delhi and London when she started on Monday.
“You okay, boss?” James asks.
I rub the back of my neck, trying to the resolve the anxiety that’s gripped me. “Yeah,” I say with a sigh.
“Because you look like a man with women problems.”
“You’re close. It’s work and a woman.”
“Shit, a double whammy.”
I snort a chuckle. “Double whammy? What the hell is that?”
“That’s right, you’re one those dudes who never watch TV. It’s from a game show that used to be around before you or I was born. The only reason I know about it is because my lady likes to watch the Game Show Network before we go to bed.”
“What a minute…” I lean forward. “When did you get a lady?”
James laughs. “I know, it was fast, wasn’t it?”
I momentarily stop thinking about Lark as he tells me about a woman who used to be his friend with benefits. Then on Wednesday, she gave him an ultimatum. “It’s not all about the sex, though. When I thought about her moving on to be with some other dude, that wasn’t going to work for me. I want to be with her.”
“So you got down on one knee and did what?” I ask, grinning.
“Asked her to be my girlfriend and then starting eating vagina.”
I burst out laughing. Nobody can make me forget my woes like James. He keeps talking about his new girlfriend, including a lot about her anatomy. I wonder if he hears himself.
I think about Lark. The more I picture her face, the more I see Paisley Grove. I can’t put a finger on what made me like her in high school. Lots of girls are beautiful, and she had beauty in spades. Lots of girls were quiet and shy just like she was. She had a seriousness about her that a teenage boy like me found enthralling. Granted, everybody treated her like shit because of the whole Valentine-country bullshit. Orion started that code at the school when one of the Groves attended for a few months. I heard the other students made it hard for that student, so he quit. I can’t remember the guy’s name, but he was Treasure Grove’s brother. Her brother was the reason Treasure and Orion met. She confronted him on her brother’s behalf, and then my brother and Paisley’s cousin started getting it on shortly thereafter.
My SUV clears the gate and drives into the underground parking lot.
“I still want to see you settle down with a beautiful lady, Herc. Shit, look at all the bells and whistles you got.”
“Bells and whistles?” I ask.
“Like what I’m doing right now.”
We laugh as the door to my private garage within the parking lot raises. He pulls in. The lift turns on automatically, and up my vehicle goes.
“I don’t want a girl who wants me for my bells and whistles, though,” I say.
