Chapter 15: Close Call

 On the other side of Sin City the mayor arrived at his office with his private chopper. As soon as he landed,he went straight to the office where he was welcomed by his secretary.

"Good morning Mr Gallows,you have an unexpected guest in your office waiting for you" she told him

"And you let that person in without my permission?" He asked her

"There was nothing I could do. He also said that you will be pleased by his arrival" she added on

The Mayor walked into his office wondering who could possibly be his guest yet he had no arranged meeting with anyone for the rest of the day. As he walked into the office he was welcomed by the smell of a lit cigar and immediately he knew who was waiting for him. Seated on his chair was a well groomed man who was in a suit and glasses,crossed feet and had a cigar on his fingers as he puffed out a cloud of smoke. On his side was a cane with a golden wolf head carved at the top and red crystals for it's eyes.

"What do I owe the pleasure of having the commander of Sin City police department in my office?" The mayor asked as he walked to his shelf and poured himself a glass of whiskey.

"I'm just dropping by to know if you have heard anything concerning our little urchin the slayer. Have you heard anything about him so far?" Ray asked

"Nothing so far. Those guys at LA are either in the dark or they are clearly hiding information from us." The Mayor responded

" I need a better answer than that one. We need to be ahead of these people Mr Gallows. If you want to retain your seat you should have something for us or else we cant guarantee you a win in the elections. If the people learn about what we are doing we will be gonners. I just talked to the president this morning and he was not that happy with what is happening right now. He's asking why Daymond is not behind bars already yet he has given us all the resources to utilize them." Ray said as he took another puff of his cigar

"We both know that none of us anticipated for what happened outside the courtroom. It is that unfortunate incident that threw our plans of course. Have your boys at the agency discovered anything concerning our shooter?" Gallows asked

"At the moment we still have nothing. The guys are still trying to dust the scene. Fortunately they found out where the shots came from, funny thing is the place is almost two kilometers out. Now that's not something you hear everyday, and unfortunately they still have no solid leads at the crime scene. This just goes to confirm that we are not dealing with an amateur, The accuracy, the distance, the cleanup... Something is not adding up. This is not just something that we can overlook,we need to find our shooter as fast as possible" Ray said

"Well I don't know if it'll be of help but Legit has an extra hand in the case. He goes by the name Jason West, I'm not familiar with him and have never seen him around so he's probably new in town. Have your guys do a background check on him, something doesn't feel right about him but I can't put my finger on it" Gallows said as he remembered meeting the new face in the conference room

"No problem. I just hope we don't have to worry about him since we have enough problems already at hand" Ray responded

Ray got up from his seat and headed for the door before turning as he opened the door,

"And remember, none of this should see the light of day else we will all go down together" Ray said as he exited Gallows' office.

Meanwhile at LA premises, Jason was going through the files in the office he shared with Athena when he heard a knock at the door. He knew that Athena had gone to the bank to sort out some finance issues concerning investors in their company so he wondered who could possibly be at the door.

"Come in" he said our loud

To his surprise, it was Marla at the door. She walked into the room wearing a smile showing her milky white teeth. She looked a bit different with her office wear compared to the last time he saw her.

"Hey there Jason, where's your roommate?" She asked as she came close to his desk.

Now the office was divided into two sections. From the door to your right was Jason's side where his desk was and opposite to him was Athena's desk and in between the two workplaces were shelves for both of them. 

"She's away on an assignment that Alpha gave her" Jason replied as he put the files away to have a better look at her.

"Are you busy?" She asked as she sat on the edge of his desk facing him

"Yes,a little bit" he replied as he tried to avoid looking at her since from the way she was seated her office skirt had been pulled slightly up above her thighs exposing some skin.

She leaned forward a bit and asked again teasingly,"Are you busy busy or just busy?"

"Owkay,how can I help you?" Jason asked as a smile escaped his lips.

"Help me? I don't need you to help me with anything. I think your forgetting something." She said as she leaned back

"Ooh,that. I find it very unorthodox for a lady to be making the moves on a guy, what makes you so eager to know me better that you took the liberty of reminding me that I should take you on a date?" Jason asked rather curious.

"Well if the person is good company, why not?" She responded as she got up and started walking towards the door.

As she got close to the door Jason called out to her which brought her to a halt. He got up from his chair and walked to where she stood. He put one hand around her waist pulling her a bit closer to him.

"Well...if I make good company how about you join me at lunch, say 1pm?" He asked

She tried to look for a befitting answer as they both looked into each others' eyes. A smile started forming on her face, and not just a simple smile this one had mischief written all over it.

"No" she responded softly

"No?" Jason asked a bit stunned at the answer.

"You heard me. Last time we met in a crowded place packed with tons of people. This time I want it more private, so I'm not doing lunch in a restaurant" she responded 

"Ok, seems fair enough. How about this, meet me at the Sin City dock. When you get there ask for a boat named Ariela. I'll be expecting you at around 7pm." Jason responded after a short period of thinking of the best place to take Marla. As he expected she seemed surprised at his offer,well,more confused than surprised.

"Its a date" she said as she tried not to ask too many questions. Now the problem was,that for the whole time Jason had his hand around her waist she had been drawing closer to him with every passing second. They were so close to each other that they could feel some shockwaves passing through their bodies. Slowly Marla started going in for a kiss as Jason just watched her. When their lips were on the brink of touching Marla noticed that Jason had broken eye contact and looked at the door. She tried to listen in on what he was listening to but she heard nothing. Almost immediately Jason released his hold on her waist and without a word went back to his work desk,pulled our the files he was dealing with leaving Marla standing there more confused than ever about what had just happened. Out of frustration she walked back to his desk and as she was about to shout at him for leading her on then just leaving her to hang dry he gestured for her not to shout and with one hand gave her some documents while he started counting down from five with the other hand. Still in confusion she watched as he went down from five and when he reached one the door opened and Athena walked in holding some documents from the bank. Puzzled at how accurate he had nailed that she turned back to him only to be met with a wink.

"Marla if you don't mind please can you drop those files to Kayla and ask her to photocopy them for me" Jason told her as he watched Athena go and take a seat." And one more thing please,tell her to send someone to bring Athena a cup of coffee. She must be exhausted "

"Yes please. Thank you Jason" Athena said as she finally settled into her seat

Marla slowly walked out of the room with more questions than answers on how Jason was able to do that. But she knew that he would at least explain that to her during their second date.