was just there, closer to her. And they were talking. And then she was laughing and then she couldn't take her eyes off him and Felix turned to see if Davette could watch this, knowing what she knew. But she stared just like the men.
And it Went on and on until Felix just couldn't stand it any longer.
"Get the car," he told them.
Cat looked at him. "What are you planning - "
"Just get the car. Bring it around to..." He looked around. "Bring it around to that entrance over there. What is that? The west side? And wait for me."
"Felix," Cat began again. "Tell us what you're - "
"It won't hurt to find out where he takes her," was all he would say.
They left. Felix stayed. And watched.
When the new couple, master and slave, stood up from the bar, Felix checked his watch. Nine minutes. Nine lousy minutes between life and death. It was like watching a slow-motion traffic accident.
Felix paid the tab and trailed along behind them. It carried all half dozen of her shopping bags in one easy grip. The girl was on its other arm, smiling and looking hypnotized up to its face as they made their way to the exit.
They walked out the glass doors and to the edge of the sidewalk and waited there, talking, as if for a taxi. Felix meandered on around to one side toward the Blazer, parked several yards away.
He got in and told Cat, sitting behind the wheel, to pull away and around a line of parked cars before they got noticed. Cat obeyed. By the time he had steered them back around to where they could again see the couple, the limousine was there.
It was a long black Cadillac and it pulled to a smooth stop at the curb in front of the couple. From the driver's door stepped a tall pale man wearing a chauffeur's uniform. He stepped to the door closest to the couple and opened.
Davette gasped when the tall, handsome, silver-haired man stepped out.
"My God!" she whispered. "It's him!"
"Who?" the men demanded.
"It's him!" she repeated and turned to Felix. "The man who sent Ross to kill Jack!"
Felix hadn't taken his eyes from the man. "Are you certain?" he asked her in a strange voice.
"I'm positive. It's him. He's the one. I saw him twice. I...
"What?" Cat asked.
She tilted her head, staring. "I don't know exactly. It's just that... Well, he looks so familiar. I mean, he looked familiar then. And he still does."
Felix was still watching the silver-haired vampire as he got out of the limo, was graciously introduced to his procured victim, even more graciously - with many bows and flourishes - ushered everyone into the rear of the black car.
"Follow them," Felix said.
"Felix!" said Cat excitedly, "if this is the guy, then he's the one who's been after us."
"Well, Felix? Say something!"
"Just follow them, Cat," the Gunman replied and his voice was too hard and too dry for further conversation.
They all went to far north Dallas, past the yuppie suburbs and into the sprawling countryside, with its sprawling golf course and estates, to a fortress.
It didn't look like a fortress, not to an untrained eye. It simply looked like a glamorous, incredibly expensive country home. It just happened to have a seven-foot-tall rock wall around it and a black iron automatic gate and a gatekeeper's booth. Hidden along the wall, where you could only see them if you looked for them, were electric wires, electric lights, and, Felix could only assume, penetration sensors.
A fortress.
The limo had already turned into the gate and Cat was slowing down as he passed the entrance when Felix barked at him: "Speed up! Speed up! Go past! Don't let them notice this car!"
"I just wanted to see the name on the - "
Felix roared at him. "Move, goddamn you, Cat! Move the fucking car!"
Cat blinked, obeyed, hit the gas. They sped quickly past the entrance.
"Now," said Felix a mile later, "take us to the hotel." And his voice was calmer but his tone - his tone was still sharp ice. Cat and Davette exchanged a look but didn't speak throughout the trip. Felix sat alone in the back seat. He stared out the side window. He didn't move. But the pulse on the side of his neck throbbed rhythmically with the lights from passing traffic.
By the time they got back to the suite, Cat couldn't stand it anymore.
"Felix, dammit! If you had just let me see who it was!"