Alea Iacta Est

"King James! What's shaking, brother?" Jack asked.

"Holy shit, Wolfman Jack!" Came the sleepy reply.

"Hey, I hope I didn't call too early, Jimmy."

"Naw, you're good, Jack. Are you back in CONUS?" Jimmy asked, referring to the ubiquitous US military acronym for the CONtinental United States.

"Sure am, and I wanted to see if you're free in the next day or two so we can catch-up." Jack said.

"Bullshit, I know you, Jack, you've got some wild hair up your ass, and you think you can convince me that I should help you with it." Jimmy replied, laughing.

"You know me too well, brother. Seriously, I do want to catchup; and bend your ear on an idea I have." Jack thought he heard the muffled, feminine sound of a woman disturbed from sleep on Jimmy's end of the phone. Jimmy confirmed this without Jack having to ask, as Jack heard him put his hand over his phone and say something to her (whomever she was), and then the sound of fabric rustling, no doubt Jimmy getting out of bed to continue his conversation away from the sleeping woman. "Good for you, Jimmy!" Jack thought, thinking back darkly on the last time he'd had dinner with Jimmy and his girlfriend, Jenny... "Spiteful bitch, that one." Jack thought, smiling as he concluded that Jenny would not be content to let Jimmy peacefully talk to Jack, she'd insist on yelling her continued insistence that Jack was a misogynistic pig concerned only with working to preserve the patriarchy and keep the BIPOC enslaved; Jack didn't think enough of Jenny to bother looking up whatever the fuck she'd meant.

"Sorry," Jimmy apologized.

"That's okay. It's not Jenny you're trying to stay quiet for, is it?"

Jimmy paused before answering, but when he did, his voice was clear and sounded happy. "No, it's not Jenny. It's the woman I should have asked out and for whom I should have dropped Jenny, two years ago."

"Damn, Jimmy! I can tell you're in love, you're speaking all proper and shit."

Jimmy laughed. "I'm free Sunday night, how does that work for you?"

"That works fine. You okay to meet me at Baby Doll's?"

"What? The strip joint?"

"Yes. That a problem?"

"That place is not exactly your cup of tea, at least not anymore, now that you're rolling in those lucrative contracts. There's a story, isn't there?"

"Again, you know me well, brother." Jack said, confirming Jimmy's indirect way of asking Jack if there was something he couldn't talk about, or didn't feel comfortable doing, on the phone. Jack had answered in kind, confirming Jimmy's suspicion without offering details; at least, not on the phone.

"Okay, I'll meet you there, but I don't want to make an evening of it." Jimmy told him.

"Got it. See you there around 1800."

"Roger, see you then."

Jack hung up, and headed back to his condo with breakfast.

X

Saturday, 1100

Jack closed the front door behind him, set the breakfast containers on the kitchen counter and got out a large serving plate and a flat wooden tray he'd picked up somewhere, or perhaps one of the faceless women he'd dated had left with him. He plated a generous portion of the scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, pancakes and hash browns, and a muffin and brought the tray, a bottle of real maple syrup, a glass and a pitcher of ice water and proceeded to his bedroom. "Damn. I should have picked up some orange juice, too." He scolded himself, mentally.

He found Veronica still sleeping, the room very warm but dry. He didn't turn on the lights, but he did very slightly twist open the blinds, letting an anemic shaft of daylight seep into the room, providing just enough illumination to let him see the surface of the bed and set the tray down, then he placed the clean glass and pitcher of water on the floor, afterwards picking up Veronica's cup from the previous night.

Veronica lay mostly flat on her back, with her head facing toward the side of the room where Jack stood. He bent down and kissed her softly on her lips, and whispered her name, touching her shoulder.

"Ronnie, I brought you breakfast. Are you hungry?"

Veronica stirred, and slowly opened her eyes, looking up at him sideways, smiling and inhaling slowly and deeply.

"Mmmm... Jack? What time is it?" She asked groggily, slowly pulling herself up to a sitting position and then stretching her arms high over her head. Her exposed skin was naked, the comforter coming up to her waist.

"It's a little after 11:00 in the morning. Are you feeling hungry?"

Veronica yawned and once again stretched, the movement making her full, ebony breasts gently shake; she smiled at him sleepily, blinking twice and nodded. Jack helped her lift the comforter up and drape it over her breasts and then tuck it under her arms and behind her. He did this out of a concern for her temperature rather than a sense of modesty. Then he placed the tray with its plate of food on her lap, and poured her a glass of still cold water, making sure to let a few ice cubes slide in.

When Jack put the tray on her lap, Veronica noticed the warm glow through the bottom of the tray, as well as the hot, enticing smell of the hash browns, eggs and bacon. It smelled delicious and made her feel almost fully alert and awake. "It smells wonderful. And real maple syrup; I don't think I've ever had that before. Thank you!" She said to him, smiling and leaning over to kiss his lips before taking the fork and spoon he'd laid on the tray for her and digging in, eating politely, but with gusto. Jack watched her eat, found it enjoyable, though he could not fully understand why.

Veronica finished all the food he'd brought her, and her third glass of ice water, sat back and exhaled deeply and with satisfaction. "I don't know why I'm so hungry, or tired, but that really feels good. Thank you, Jack." She smiled at him in a way that made him feel awkward, her eyes and smile conveying nothing at all casual in her appreciation. She reached out and took his hand, squeezing it and rubbing her thumb over the back of his hand. Even in the dim light in the room, Jack found her incredibly beautiful, felt his cock begin to stir and no longer felt awkward at the adoration she showed him.

"Why are you so nice to me?" She asked him again, her voice quiet and tight with emotion. He couldn't see it in the available light leaking into his bedroom as Veronica's eyes slowly filled with water, fat tears formed and slowly slid down her cheeks. Once again, Jack's simple and totally unsolicited thoughtfulness touched her, as yet another example of such treatment that she had rarely encountered in her life.

She saw him shrug, and look down at the floor, and despite the weak light, she could see the blush of embarrassment on his much paler skin than hers. "It's just the right thing to do. You're tired and went through a hell of a week, the least I can do is let you rest and make sure you have a hot meal." She gently wiped her eyes and nodded. She was about to thank him again, when he continued. "Plus, I have to be honest; I really like you, Ronnie, I care about you; And, I like how it feels to take care of you. I'm also really glad that you're here, that I can be with you." She wiped her cheeks and eyes clear of tears, finishing just as he leaned over and kissed her again. He intended his kiss to be a gentle peck, but she took hold of him, each of her hands on his face, she held him and kissed him back, longer than he'd expected. She kissed him for at least a minute, and ended by sucking his lower lip into her mouth and pulling gently on it with her teeth as she let go of his face and felt him slowly pull away.

"Thank you." She said simply, and smiled at him adoringly as he smiled awkwardly and cleared her plate, silverware and tray from her lap.

Veronica remained sitting, with her arms gently folded in her lap, thinking about so many different things, feeling a mix of elation and once more her growing and deep attraction to Jack, while still feeling some confusion as to what her status was with him. "Am I his girlfriend? His mistress? His fuckbuddy? I like him, and I really love how he treats me and takes care of me, but where is this going? And why was he asking me so many questions about Dante, Lamar and those clubs?" She heard him washing the dishes by hand, drying and putting them away, then his footsteps as he returned to the bedroom.

"How are you feeling?" He asked her, sitting down on the bed, next to her. She reached out and took his hand in hers, and smiled as he interlaced his fingers with hers. She closed her fingers and held his hand firmly in her grip, then put her other hand on top. She liked the contrast in their color, and the feel of his large, strong hands against hers. "Better."

"Still a little sleepy?"

"Well..." She hesitated.

"Sleep and relax. I've got some more errands I need to run. Your clothes and other things should arrive tomorrow, and tomorrow night I'm meeting a friend for dinner. Between now and then, I need to talk with you some more about 'fuck-stick.'"

She nodded, not really wanting to think about Dante, but glad that she had the chance to go back to sleep and continue to rest. Veronica concluded for the moment that perhaps this exhaustion was a result of after so long of not feeling secure and safe, finally feeling as such. That made sense to her, which was what she found to be the case last night while Jack held her in his arms as she fell asleep.

Jack leaned in and kissed her once more, softly and lingeringly on her lips, then stood up and turned the blinds back to block out the light from the room, wished her to sleep well, and shut the door behind him as he left. She pulled the blanket back over her shoulder as she slid back down and into the bed, shut her eyes and very quickly fell back into sleep.

Jack finished off the breakfast food, which had gone cold since he'd prepared Veronica's tray, but after as many years as he'd grown accustomed to mediocrely prepared, lousy tasting meals at irregular times and of frequently questionable quality, he didn't focus much on the taste or texture, but rather on simply consuming it as fuel. Addressing that basic need, he sat down at his computer, and pulled the curtains closed behind him (One never knows who's watching; why take a chance?). He booted up his computer, logged in, and began making his preliminary electronic reconnaissance of the four clubs Veronica had described, and setting up plans to surveil each of them. He planned to determine Dante's routines, the difficulty he represented as a target, likely routes of ingress and egress for each club, as well as the traffic patterns associated with them, static and roving security (both police and those organic to the neighborhood or the clubs themselves), and possible suitable sites for extended observation posts (Jack loved multi-story parking garages). Finally, he put together a list of what he'd need for his electronic surveillance, scrolled through imagery and made plans to personally case each of the four clubs.

"Time to work." He said.