Niall (Vigilance 2)

“Damn. Do you want to eat it or have sex with it?”

Marco grinned. “How about I have sex with you, then eat the saltimbocca.”

“I can work with that.”

“So what about you?” he asked. “What’s your favorite dish?”

“This lobster may be it,” I said, taking another bite.

“It is damn good.”

“But I guess… You’ll think I’m boring.”

He shook his head. “Rigid, controlling, way too into rules, but never boring.”

I rolled my eyes and confessed what I most loved. “Steak, a really good rare steak with a peppery marinade with creamy mashed potatoes on the side and cherry pie for dessert. It’s just the best.”

Marco’s expression softened. “I can appreciate that.”

I tried to think of more questions because I suddenly wanted to know everything about him. What made Marco the man he was? I knew some of his past, but I wanted to know the little things, the details that added up to make him who he was. Over the last few days, I’d learned more about the disgusting men we were stuck with than I had about Marco.

“What’s your favorite place you’ve traveled?”

He frowned. “You know, I really haven’t traveled much. I’ve spent most of my life in Boston, but this is nice. If only it wasn’t owned by assholes.”

I smiled. “Maybe I can get X to buy it once we put an end to Arlington and his friends.”

“That is an excellent idea.”

“You really you haven’t been that many places?”

“Nope. I’ve been to New York, Maine, Niagara Falls, and Vegas, but I’m not really much of a traveler. What about you?”

“I traveled a lot with the Bureau but much of that was to places I wouldn’t want to visit again. My favorite city is Edinburgh.”

He frowned. “Did you go there on assignment?” I was sure he was trying to figure out what kind of hostage situation I would’ve dealt with in Scotland.

“No, just on a vacation. Right after I finished training at Quantico. I went with a classmate who had family there. I fell in love with the city. If I was going to move out of the country, that’s where I would go, but I’d hope for plenty of opportunities to visit a place like this.”

Marco took a sip of champagne. “This place really is paradise, minus the fucking scum we’re with.”

I vowed right then to make time to enjoy the sun on the beach with him tomorrow. Marco was right. We were stuck here, so we might as well enjoy what we could.

“My turn to ask a question,” Marco said. “If you were a superhero, what superpower would you want to have?”

“That’s a good question,” I said as I pondered it. “I’d like to be able to fly.”

“Huh, I would’ve thought you’d pick mind reading. If you knew what someone was thinking, it would be a lot easier for you to convince them to do as you said.”

“That might’ve made things easier when I was working as a hostage negotiator, but I don’t think I could stay sane if I knew what the horrible people I had to deal with were thinking.”

“Yeah, I guess that would be pretty hard to take. But why flight?”

“Every time I’ve been injured on the job, it was when I was trying to outrun somebody. If I could fly, it would be a hell of a lot easier to escape in tight situations.”

He nodded. “Flight would’ve come in handy tonight. We wouldn’t have had to scale that tree.”

“See? It’s very useful. What would you choose?”

Marco didn’t hesitate. “Super strength.”

I gave him a slow once over. “I think you might already have that one.”

He grinned. “I’m no weakling, that’s for sure, but to be able to just move a car out of the way with little effort or to be able to shove my way through a wall to get to someone. That would be awesome.”

“I suppose it would.” I barely got the words out before an unstoppable urge to yawn hit me.

Marco smiled. “Finally sleepy now?”

“Yes. I think all the food made me tired.”

“Come on then. Let’s go to bed.”

We cleared away our trash. The champagne was long gone, and I felt a pleasant buzz when I flopped down on the bed on my back and looked up at the ceiling.

“Is the room spinning for you too?” Marco asked.

“A little.”

He didn’t say anything else, and I lay there listening to the sound of his even breathing until I fell asleep. I imagined playing in the ocean with him, but in my mind we were naked and the beach was all ours.

The next day things went sideways, and we never got that time on the beach.

After an amazing breakfast of waffles with any imaginable topping, bacon, and a gorgeous fruit salad, Arlington announced that he had talked to their anonymous partner, and they were ready to move forward with more concrete plans. Marco and the other main players were closed in a meeting room for most of the morning while I lay by the pool listening to the conversations of their companions, minus Malachi who was nowhere to be seen, and hoping none of the cats I’d seen would think I wanted companionship.