“You’ve got it, babe,” she answered as she reluctantly pulled away and said goodnight to him.
The girls left at 10 o’clock. Jay asked the entire protection detail to gather round for a strategy meeting. He positioned specialists on every floor and at every entrance to the hotel. He even put two on the roof. Between his staff and the police, he had a small army. It was enough manpower to cover the entire hotel and still let tomorrow’s scheduled teams get some sleep. There was nothing worse than tired security specialists, Jay thought. They tended to make mistakes. There was no room for error from this point on.
They all expected the lunatic to call in the middle of the night. Jay had the switchboard shut off Reid’s phone and reroute any incoming calls to him. He was spending the night on the suite’s pullout couch. The night passed without any problems.
The phone rang at 8 a.m.; Jay had been awake and waiting. Picking up the receiver, he heard the computerized voice announcing the time and dropped the receiver back on the cradle. He had been hoping the perp would call again. He went in and woke Reid, whose eyes sprang wide open as Jay lightly tapped on his arm. “Easy does it, Reid, everything’s fine. It’s time to get up.”
With a faint sigh of relief, Reid got out of bed. Still half asleep, on his way to the bathroom, he walked right into the portable massage table that had been left after yesterday’s massage. When he came out of the bathroom, another masseuse was waiting for him. Reid found it hard to completely relax while Jay was in the room, but he knew better than to ask him to leave. When the masseuse was done, she and Jay left the room so Reid could shower. Jay came back in as Reid was getting dressed. “Might as well put this on now, so you can get used to it,” Jay said, handing Reid a bulletproof vest.
“Oh shit, I can’t play with that on,” Reid said with a long face. He took the vest and weighed it in his hand. “It doesn’t feel as heavy as I expected.”
“It’s Zylon. It’s much lighter than Kevlar. I didn’t think you could play in a Kevlar vest. There is some controversy over Zylon’s safety level, but I figured you’d put up a fight if I wanted you to wear heavy body armor. I’ve been wearing Zylon since its introduction.” “I guess if you’re here talking about it, it must work.” “The fact is I haven’t been shot at while wearing Zylon, but I know people who have and are alive to talk about it. Of course, the biggest and most obvious shortfall of any vest is that it won’t stop a shot to the head or any other body part it doesn’t cover. The potential for lead poisoning, while decreased, is still a possibility.”
Reid chuckled. “Lead poisoning, that’s good. I can’t believe you have me laughing about the possibility of getting shot. I guess at this point, I’ll take whatever protection I can get. Actually, if I thought I could swing a club with it on, I’d wear a suit of armor,” Reid said as he put on the vest.
He swung his arms around with exaggerated movement, testing the flexibility of the vest. Grabbing a four-iron that happened to be in the corner of the room, he took his stance and swung.
Crash. The club shattered a lamp. Jay couldn’t help from bursting out in laughter. Simultaneously, Stu flew through the door with his gun drawn in a firing stance. Reid, bug-eyed, dove to the floor screaming, “It’s all right, I just broke the lamp.” After a quick assessment of the situation, Stu lowered his gun.
It took a moment for everyone to calm down, especially Jay, who had found the entire scene hilarious. Reid waited for his nerves to settle, then, after making sure he had enough room, he took a few practice swings. “This really isn’t so terrible; I can actually swing without much restriction. Now Jay, if you can get a grip, I’d like to get out of here.”
Jay took a deep breath to help stop his laughter. It worked briefly, but his face reddened with pressure until he burst out again. Slowly, he regained control of himself and the eruptions ceased. “Sorry, I just keep picturing the whole situation. I don’t know what was funnier, you breaking the lamp, or your response to Stu pointing his gun at you.”
“That’s some reaction to have over a client in terror. Glad I could make you laugh. Now get over it already,” Reid said with a grin. “I really need to get to the golf course and try this thing out.”
Chapter 34
By 10:30, Reid was hitting balls at the range. Before leaving the hotel, he had tried on a bunch of shirts, picking the only one in the closet that hid the bulky vest. The shirt was a baggy, button-down golf shirt with a brown argyle print. It was totally out of character for Reid, and as far as he was concerned, really ugly. He didn’t even know where it had come from until Jay saw him wearing it and said, “Good, I’m glad you like the shirt. I thought you might need something nice that could hide the vest, so I bought it and had it hung in your closet yesterday. Looks pretty good. What do you think?”
Reid wasn’t sure if he was joking or not. “It’s nice, Jay, real nice. Does it hide the vest well enough? It feels pretty awkward.”
“No, you look great. It hides the vest perfectly. As they say, you’re stylin’, dude.” “Who says that?” Reid asked, frowning. “I don’t know, heard it someplace. Sounded cool when I heard it, no?” “Can we go now?” At the club, Reid was caught up in thought as he changed into his golf shoes. The day he had been dreading was here. Totally uptight, he had to go through his regular game day regimen and try to loosen up if he wanted to win. Then he thought, Do I want to win? Is it worth the risk? Is someone really going to try to kill me if I win? Am I going to die today? Tomorrow? Reid was so caught up in thought, he didn’t notice that Buddy had walked up next to him. “You all right?” Buddy asked. “You don’t look so good.”
Reid was startled. Buddy had snapped him out of his reverie. “What did you say?” he barked.
“Take it easy, man, I only asked how you’re doing, but it’s kind of obvi ous. You want to take a walk or something?”
“No, thanks. I need to stretch and hit some balls. I’m so damn tense. I’ve got to loosen up.” He paused for a moment, then chuckled. “What are you laughing about now?” “It’s kind of funny if you think about it. I need to loosen up to win. But, if my fear keeps me from loosening up, I’ll probably lose. If I lose, I have nothing to worry about. Hell of a conundrum, huh?” Reid chuckled again.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. It’s a little strange, but right.” Buddy gave Reid a questioning look. “So what’s it gonna be, boss? Win or lose?” “You know the answer. Let’s go kick some ass.” The vest was cumbersome but only evident if one looked very closely, and today, no one would be allowed that close. The security team was staying as tight as possible around Reid. He had to hit a few extra balls to loosen up. After his second bad shot, Stu kidded, “If you want me to go kick someone’s butt, I’d be more then happy to. That is, if you think it will help.”
Reid chuckled. “Thanks Stu, I appreciate the offer. If I can’t get it together in a minute or two, I might accept.” “Just say when…and who. If you care.” “Believe me, I could pick a few out here.” Reid nodded his head in the direction of the other players. He proceeded to hit more balls, getting better with each one.