Bounty

Chapter 8
Whiskey flavored pain
Alexa stifled the grunt that nearly slipped when she put the cloth that was heavily soaked in rubbing alcohol to the wound on her upper right shoulder. She bit her lip and held it there until she was numb to the burning, then kept it there a little longer, before wiping once across the gash that the bullet had left there. She moved her arm and turned her head to have a better look at it. The bullet had scraped a piece out of her just about as long as the sniper bullet itself. She had already thanked God that it hadn’t done more damage and she thought it a good idea to thank him again. Alexa wasn’t much for religion but she knew there had to be something out there bigger than all this, if that wasn’t true she would have been dead hundreds and thousands of times over.
Alexa wrapped her other hand around the long necked bottle of Jack Daniels on the nightstand of the hotel room, and took a swig. After wiping her mouth with the back of the hand she surveyed the place for a second or two. Rodriquez had put her up in this hotel for the night and possibly the next and she had to say that it was quite nice. The floors were clean, the bathroom was big enough to stand up in and of course the bed didn’t make her think she would be infected by something they didn’t yet have a cure for if her bare skin touched the mattress.
She wrapped the bandage around her arm and had to adjust it a bit so that the silver barbed wire tattoo that decorated her skin just above the wound could still be seen. She put one edge in her teeth and the other in her empty hand and pulled tight so that it would stay secure, then stabbed a safety pen where the ends met to keep it there.
Just when she’d laid back on the big comfy bed with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and the remote control in the other, there was a knock on the door. Alexa glanced over to it with more of a glare than a gaze and there was a sense of annoyance in her voice when she asked, “Who is it?”
“It’s me, James.” The voice answered back.
Alexa glanced at the digital clock to her right and read “Two thirty AM.” Aloud before groaning. “Whaddaya want?”
“I’m here to talk to you. Can you let me in please?”
“Talk?” Alexa repeated to herself. She hesitated for more than a moment before clicking the television off and rolling off of the bed. She took another swig from her bottle on her way to the door and opened it with the other hand.
James stood in the doorway, in a simple white collared shirt with a wife beater visible on under it. The shirt was tucked into his jeans in the front to show off the large buckle he wore. His feet were covered with white sneakers and in his hand he held a simple leather bag. He had a smile on his face that showed that he himself was surprised that she had opened the door.
“Good evening, Alex.” He greeted her.
She nodded half-heartedly and turned, “Hey.” She replied and made her way back to the bed. She sat on the edge of it and took another swig.
“Drowning your sorrows in hard liquor I see. That’s not all too healthy you know.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever Mr. Smith. So are you gonna come in and talk to me about whatever it is that you came here at two thirty in the morning to say or are you gonna stand there like a bump on a log all night?”
James looked down and realized he was still standing in the doorway, partly because she hadn’t invited him in and secondly because he was subconsciously afraid to. Her way of being suggested intimidation, and though they butted heads on an almost constant basis he had respect for her and he knew she had some for him, it’s just the way that she chose to show it by not showing it at all threw him a bit. He was used to corporate women, being the son of one of the biggest and most powerful men in business today had made sure that he never encountered much else. When he had met Alex about a year and a half ago it had been a breath of fresh air. Sarcastic, revengeful, strong willed, man-eating and all around sexy air that could kill you with a well placed punch, but fresh none the less.
He chuckled dismissively and looked around as he stepped in, honestly looking for the “Enter at own risk” sign that should be displayed in plain sight. Since there was none he figured he would be in the right if he sued the hotel for putting her in a room without one. He looked around for a seat and saw two, set at a table near the window across the room. He motioned towards it with one hand. She noted his motion and followed him to the small rounded table. He sat down first and watched as she did do also. His emerald colored eyes locked on the bulbous bandages around her upper arm and instantly he felt something by way of concern tighten in his chest.
“What happened?” he asked.
She shrugged it off, “Got winged by a bullet tonight.” She said like she was telling him that it was about to rain. “No biggie.” She offered him the whiskey bottle with a grunt that said, “Have some?”
“No thank you.” He answered, “We have much more pressing matters to converse on, Alex.”
“Oh really?” she took another swig. “Like what?”
“We have reason to believe that the Mexican army is in cahoots with one they call the Tracer.” He slid a file over to sit in front of Alex on the desk.
She sighed, “Ever with the files, eh Smith?”
“It’s my job. Any way, as you’ll find in this briefing The Tracer is a highly trained assassin and right hand man of the Kingpin of the drug running that goes on in the entire southern hemisphere.”
“So…what does that have to do with me?”
“Earlier tonight you faced a member of one of his army’s better squads.”
“And conquered.” Alex added. Her hunger for approval was nothing if not apparent.
“Yes, you did. And let’s just say that’s much more than any other person who has ever gone up against them can say.” James said but continued when the haughty smirk on Alex’s face became more than apparent. “Granted.” He said firmly as to draw all of her attention to him, “There was only one of them.”
“And I didn’t even break a sweat.” She assured, her voice raising just a hair but he could tell he had offended her. This was what he wanted. There was something about seeing her mad that he liked. “I could have taken on more. Maybe even the whole squad.”
“Now, now Alexa.” He used her full name to come across as her superior, to make her feel like a child even. It worked. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.”
She glared silently at the side of his head as he slid fished something from the bag he’d brought in. He pulled out a blue and black head set and placed it on the center of the table. Alex’s glare softened and was replaced by a look of confusion. “What’s this?”
“It is a highly technical training module. Ideal for the likes of combat, both hand to hand and fire-arms.” He nudged it with his fingers so that it slid slightly closer to where Alex sat. She took it in one hand and eyed it thoroughly before placing it back in the center of the table.
“What does it do?”
“It’s a simulator, Alex.” He said in other words. “You put it over your eyes and it modifies this reality into the alternate reality you want it too.”
“Why didn’t you just say that?”
He sighed and continued the whole speech that he had previously prepared for her. She only chuckled; she loved to get him all revved up like that.
He’s sexy when he’s annoyed. She thought. But then again he’s sexy when he’s just about anything.
“Alex.” His voice brought her back to this present reality and he realized he’d said something to her and she hadn’t been listening to him.
“Huh?”
He sighed again, thinking she would never make it as a partner in his firm like he was, she was too air-headed and cocky, but he decided not to voice it. He liked to see her angry but there was a difference between angry and ready to slit your throat. James instead thought it best to just repeat himself.
“I said, are you ready to try it?”
“Me?” she pointed dumbly to herself, “Right now? I don’t know.” Alex had never been the type for technology. She had always been a fan of that “do it yourself” way of life, which she found ironic since she was slightly lazy and would marry a microwave if it had certain other presets. Any thing that can cook a burrito in 30 seconds flat was a friend of hers.
“Believe me it’s perfectly safe.” By the look on her face she was still slightly skeptical, so in the next instant James said something he never meant to say. “You know I would never do anything to harm you Alexa.”
There was a slightly uncomfortable silence in the hotel room for what must have been only ten seconds while Alex stared at him. She searched those emerald eyes as if they were going to give her a correct reply to that statement. They didn’t, so she had to try her tactics. “How do I use ‘em?” Her tactics being to completely ignore all his attempts, whether said attempts were purposeful or not.
He cleared his throat and seemed happy for the welcomed aversion. “Yes,” he stood and moved around the table to stand behind the chair in which Alex sat. “Well. You put these on like glasses.” He paused while she did so. “Then turn these knobs here.” He did. “I have already preset this to the first training area.”
“Wait. Training? James I fight demons for a living. What can you possibly train me on?”