Ashleigh was asleep. She had kicked the heavy covers from her body and now lay sprawled across the bed, her body wrapped in a white sheet. Lying on her front, one arm used as a pillow, her dark hair falling over her face, breathing steadily, she was exposed and vulnerable. Something happened deep within her dream, and she frowned, shifting position until she was comfortable once more, and fell back into a deep sleep.
Dressed in a dark robe, Alec sat across the room, watching his most recent lover as she slept. The vodka was beside him, and finding his glass empty he refilled it. Disturbed once more he took another mouthful of the cold liquid.
Ashleigh Kain had preyed on his mind recently, since he had first made love to her nights previously. Like a memory he couldn't quite grasp she had flickered in and out of his thoughts, irritating him with its frequent occurrence. He couldn't lay his finger on why it upset him so much. He could remember her as a child, a girl with huge watchful brown eyes and a shyness that made her hide behind her long dark hair. David, David Kain, his friend, had been so proud of his daughter, and besotted with both her and his beautiful wife Emma. So much so that Alec had secretly scorned him for being weak. Emma had died, and Alec saw David's devastation, but had not been able to understand it. In the end David had lost everything, killed in action. And Alec had always blamed his weakness. Ashleigh was a woman now, and already Alec could see that she had the same weaknesses inside her as her father.
It had begun as a power game. The sudden realisation of who exactly had been lying at his feet in an unconscious heap, and the bargaining chip he had now possessed. He hadn't expected to be attracted to her, but he had suddenly become obsessed with the idea of her, having what James had, and then going further than James had been, so he had taken her to his bed. But now... now something had changed.
Despite his reluctance to admit it, Alec was still in possession of a conscience, a deeply buried one, but it was still there. The lessons after Goldeneye had taught him humility, trapped within his helplessly shattered body. He had no regrets, well if he did, he wouldn't confess to them, following the aftermath of the incident, but now he faced reality. He was still a powerful man and the name Janus could still strike fear into a rival's heart but that was it. He had rivals now that were getting stronger and Alec could no longer be considered top dog. The question that haunted him constantly was 'what next?'
He gazed almost enviously at the sleeping woman, jealous at the simplicity of her life, she had her career to focus on, she went to work, she went home, saw her friends, worked towards her next career stage. Simplicity itself.
He frowned. He was getting weak. He should have killed her when he had the opportunity to. Or at least kept her captive. It would have been easier, and it would have destroyed James. Instead he had let emotions and the past rule him. If she hadn't been David's daughter, would that have made a difference? Or was it the very fact that she was a Kain the reason she kept creeping back into his thoughts?
He had a decision to make. He sat still once more, and let the darkness surround him.
Caught in the void between dreams, Ashleigh turned over, seeking a more comfortable way to sleep, and in that brief moment of waking she opened her eyes. Seeing Alec watching her from the shadows, she started, pulling the sheet closer around her, and sitting up.
'You scared me,' she accused him. 'Couldn't you sleep?' she asked, and then cursed herself inwardly for stating the obvious.
Very slowly he began to speak. 'It wasn't me. I didn't kill Vaskov, or Gregory Fraser, and I have no involvement with the Hermes project.' His eyes bored into her, trying to convince her of his innocence. He wanted her to believe him.
She bit her lip. 'How can I trust you Alec?'
'I'm a dead man. I have no interest in biological warfare.'
