Forty Degrees Below

Chapter 17

Now, at this point, you may well ask, what the hell was going on? Jake certainly was! To say it was out of character for Anya would probably amount to the biggest understatement of the year, but who's counting? On the face of it, she'd given her consent, but he had this sneaky suspicion there was more to this than met the eye. It was too easy, yes? His point exactly. That is until Curtis got up, and left the room.

He took the opportunity and decided to play his deception card. "It was me you heard earlier when you were on the phone," Jake confessed.

"I wondered whether it was you. I was just chatting with one of my girlfriends," She said looking away.

"Thought so," he lied. "It must be lonely out here sometimes."

"Yes," she replied. "I go outside when I want to speak sometimes. It feels more private that way, being away from the old man."

"I understand."

"You didn't happen to..."

"...Hear anything?" he said finishing her sentence. "Nothing blasphemous," he retorted with a forced, cynical smile.

"Oh, okay ... I think." He could tell she wasn't expecting that answer.

"Your secret is safe with me." Jake thought that should keep her feeling uneasy for a little longer.

He felt he had the upper hand, but it was important not to leave her scheming too long. "So, going back to my original thoughts, I have to admit that I'm somewhat perplexed. This 'understanding'  bit you were expressing a little earlier." She looked confused. "About Curtis deciding to go ahead with the article. Even from you, it rolled off the tongue a little too quickly for my liking, what are you up to exactly?"

"Oh, Jakey, Jakey, Jakey, always the suspicious one. Couldn't you be content for once that maybe I've seen the error of my ways, and come back to partake with you in the light of my realisation?"

"You couldn't rephrase that could you? It's the 'partaking with me bit' I'm not so sure about."

She looked around, checking the room was clear, then sidled up next to him on the sofa. "You know how I feel," she said looking at him with sultry eyes. "Curtis can be such a bore at times, whereas you ..." Just then he entered the room. 

Anya, very cleverly diffused the situation distracting and him asked, "coffee anyone?"

"Not for me sweetheart, I think this calls for a little celebration. What say you, Jake, fancy a little wine?"

He should be breaking open the champagne, or single malts, at least, thought Jake. "That sounds like a good idea! Yes, I'll join you in a toast to a collaborative effort," he replied, trying not to make eye contact with Anya.

"Anya took that better than I'd hoped," commented Curtis as soon as she'd left the room. 

"One thing I meant to ask you, why did you cover for me when you lied to Anya that you'd told me to look into the disturbance outside the door?"

"Well, I knew that you'd guessed correctly, and I didn't want to ruin your relationship with Anya, so I thought it would be easier to deflect any potential disagreement on me, I guess. We need all our resource pointing toward the real perpetrators. I don't think they'd target Anya, do you? It's me they're trying to keep quiet, wouldn't you agree?"

"I think so."

"You know, I marvel at the way you're dealing with all of this. It's not been exactly straightforward, has it?"

"I guess not."

"I mean, you must have wondered what you've started sometimes. I don't think you could ever have imagined anything like this."

"Can't say I did."

"But the plus for me is that you and Anya seem to be getting on really well, and that's what I was trying to preserve. I can tell she's grown very fond of you."

At this point, Jake had to suppress laughter. Hmm, yes 'very fond' is an appropriate observation Jake thought if you wear the hide of a Rhinoceros that is.

There was one dangerous thing, though; he was not going to jeopardise his relationship with Curtis for a fling around the back of the proverbial bike sheds, especially as it was his wife we were talking about here. He said to himself. No Jakey boy, you just keep your eyes firmly fixed on your goal; otherwise, you'll be going directly to jail, you won't pass go, and you definitely won't be collecting a reward.

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"It took a little longer than we'd hoped, but we're onto phase two," said Anya in hushed tones over the phone to Mercedes. "Can't speak for too much time. Otherwise, they'll get suspicious. Nearly got caught out earlier today."

"What happened?"

"Jake's what happened. Thankfully, I don't think he heard too much; otherwise, he would have said, it was a close call, though, I don't want to run the risk of getting caught again."

"Understand. Well, you know what to do. Whatever it takes, stop the article from finding its way to print."

"And what exactly are you going to be doing in the meantime?"

"He's up there in Santa Barbara with you, and we're here in LA, unless, of course, you'd like us to crash the party..."

"I just want to ascertain, what you're doing while I'm working my butt off here," replied Anya sarcastically.

"Well, not to put too finer point on it - nothing, which is probably why you've got the lions portion of the share in the first place, unless of course, you were feeling charitable." 

"No, anyway I'm quite looking forward to this next bit. It'll certainly test Jake's sense of loyalty."

"Look, I don't care about Jake's loyalty, just do whatever it takes. Heck, what you stand to gain from this you could buy Santa Barbara!"

She was right. This deception just got a whole lot more interesting, thought Anya. She'd just postpone her deliberations on the merits of deceiving everyone for now. At least, until she'd successfully thrown Jake off the idea of publishing the article, and they've completed stage two. She couldn't wait to see the look on Kurt's face. Then, the kitchen door opened, and the devil himself appeared.

"You haven't seen the corkscrew anywhere here have you, sweetheart?"

"You looking for this one, by chance?" She said opening the draw and lifting a very corkscrew looking object out.

"How did it get in there?"

"As far as I know, it's always lived here," she retorted sarcastically. She handed it to him, and he went away muttering to himself.

If you can lose a corkscrew that quickly, she thought, how difficult will it be to lose your own wife?