"Has he made a move on you? Has he tried to kiss you?"
"Not really. Well, sorta. But I asked him to." Lara chafed under the look of horror LaToya was giving her. "I didn't mean it. It was an interrogation technique."
LaToya scoffed. "I must have missed that lesson at the academy. But now that I think about it, you do need to make a move on him. Get him to take his clothes off."
"Why would I do that?" Although the prospect did sound rather appealing. "I have no interest in him that way."
LaToya gave her a skeptical look. "Are you going to tell me you never thought about jumping his bones?"
Lara's face grew hot. "Fine. But if he's really an alien, then we're probably not biologically compatible."
"Oh good Lord, you're right. He might not even be a mammal. He could be a reptile and have two... hearts."
Lara grimaced. "You've been watching too much science fiction. Just because Jack can teleport, that doesn't make him some kind of lizard."
The phone rang.
Lara jumped. Was Jack finally returning her call?
"It's the lizard," LaToya whispered.
"Don't be silly. He's as human as you and me." Lara hurried to the phone, then hesitated. "No, you answer it."
LaToya lifted both hands in the air. "I ain't talking to no alien."
"He's not an alien." The phone rang again. "I need someone else to hear him, so I'll know I'm not crazy."
LaToya heaved a sigh. "Okay. I'll do it for you." The phone rang again, and she grabbed the receiver. "Hello? You have reached the Boucher and Lafayette terrestrial home."
Lara groaned.
"You want to talk to Lara?" LaToya spoke with a high-pitched sweet voice. "May I ask who's calling? Why yes, Jack, I'll fetch her right away. Just a moment, please." She covered the receiver with her hand. "It's the talking lizard. And honey, he ain't selling insurance."
CHAPTER 6
Sometimes Jack wished he didn't have superior hearing.
"He's not a lizard," Lara whispered.
"Then he's another kind of alien," the other woman muttered. "And this Jack is jacking with your mind to make you see him as human."
He shook his head as the two women continued to discuss him in urgent whispers. Obviously, Lara had told her roommate about him. Now there were two mortals who knew too much. He could erase the roommate's memory, but Lara would probably resent his jacking with her friend's mind. And she'd simply tell her friend everything again.
He retrieved a bottle of synthetic blood from the mini-fridge and popped it into the microwave. Whenever he was in New York, he resided at Roman's townhouse on the Upper East Side. The Russian-American Malcontents were headquartered in Brooklyn, not far away, but luckily, they were laying low at this time. And the security system at Roman's townhouse had been improved to make it safe.
Jack usually stayed in a guest room on the fourth floor so he could use Roman's office and mini-fridge on the fifth. The microwave dinged, announcing his breakfast was ready. He poured the blood into a wineglass, then sauntered to the desk with his cell phone by his ear.
"Hello, Jack?" Lara finally answered. "Sorry you had to wait. I was... in the shower."
She was a lousy liar, but he considered that a virtue. "I hope you put something on, bellissima. Otherwise, my imagination will run wild." As if it wasn't already.
"I-I'm dressed. I'm glad you called. I left some messages on your phone this afternoon."
"I just heard them a minute ago." He sat behind the desk and booted up the computer. "I work at night, so I'm... asleep during the day."
"Me, too, but I had trouble sleeping today. So I decided to cook you dinner, but when you didn't call back, we... uh, we ate it. Sorry."
"That's all right." Jack sipped from his wineglass. He figured the dinner invitation was part of a plan to confront him with all her questions. Unfortunately, he couldn't give her any answers. "I'm sorry I missed it."
"That's okay. Maybe you could drop by for dessert?"
Merda. He wasn't sure how to handle this. Maybe he could put her off for a few months. Then Ian would be back from his honeymoon, and Jack could return to Europe. Lara would never be able to track him down.
He grimaced. Avoiding her till he could run away seemed cowardly. And the thought of never seeing her again was downright depressing. "I-I have to go to work soon."
"But I really wanted to see you tonight." Lara's voice sounded strained. "I can meet you somewhere when you go on break."
She wasn't going to give up. Normally Jack admired a person who stuck to a project till it was done, but when the project was him, he was beginning to feel as desperate as Lara sounded.
He didn't want to tell her where he was staying or where he was currently working. "I'll drop by your place for a few minutes." He typed in her address on MapQuest.
"Thank you! Do you need directions? Or does 'dropping by' mean you're going to magically appear in front of me?"
Jack winced. How could he deny his ability to teleport when she'd seen it? He studied the map to her apartment. "I'll drive. I should be there in thirty to forty minutes."
"You know where I live?"
"Yes." He would ask Phineas and Connor to cover for him at Romatech for an hour or so. He heard Lara whispering again to her roommate.
"I doubt he's driving a space shuttle," Lara muttered.
Nine circles of hell. Lara was going to be really angry when she realized he couldn't tell her anything.
"So, uh, I guess you have an Italian car?" Lara asked.
"Not here in America. I'll borrow a car from a friend." Roman always kept one at the townhouse.
"What kind of car?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Oh, no reason. But if it's really big, you might have trouble parking."
He couldn't resist. "Bellissima, it is big, but I've never had trouble parking it." He smiled as a period of silence stretched between them.
"O-kay," she finally said. "I'll see you soon." She rang off.
Jack finished his breakfast while he pondered her request for a description of his car. She was up to something. If she were a Malcontent, he'd suspect her of wanting to set a car bomb, but he didn't think Lara wanted to kill him.
Of course that could change if she learned the truth about him. He knew from experience that women didn't react well to the truth. He'd have to be a fool to repeat the same mistake and expect a different outcome.
"Hey, someone's parking down the street," LaToya reported on her cell phone. "Oh, I forgot. This is a stakeout." She switched to a low, urgent voice. "Possible sighting of male subject, driving a red Toyota."
"A Toyota? That doesn't sound very Jack-ish," Lara said. Thirty minutes had passed, and she was waiting anxiously in the apartment on the third floor, while LaToya was stationed on the street below. Their plan was for LaToya to spot Jack arriving so she could write down his license plate number. Then, while Lara interrogated Jack in the apartment, LaToya could run his plates.
Lara watched from the living-room window as LaToya wandered slowly down the street, pretending to window-shop. It was dark outside, but the street-lamps cast yellow pools of light that reflected eerily off the wet cement.
"Subject has exited his car," LaToya whispered into her phone. "Dark hair. Average height. Average looks."
"Jack has black hair," Lara said. "But I'd say he's taller than average. And way better-looking than the-"
"Average alien?" LaToya muttered. "Subject has entered the deli. Don't think he's our man. And it's starting to drizzle again, dammit."
"You want to come in?"
"Negative. I'm on a mission. Possible alien incursion." LaToya pulled the hood of her LSU sweatshirt over her head. "Hey, I wonder what aliens eat. I hope your Jack isn't here to harvest us for food."
"Jack is not an alien." But Lara wasn't sure what he was. She glanced around the apartment to make sure it was presentable. The dishes had been rinsed and stashed in the dishwasher. The kitchen opened onto the living room, which was so small, it was easy to keep clean. Her bedroom was a little messy, but she didn't intend to invite Jack there, even though LaToya insisted she should strip him to check for multiple belly buttons or hidden scales and gills.