by Sam Cheever
Her abductor held very still, his gaze on the hole in the wall. Bullets pinged through the doorway and tore fractured holes in the cheap, hollow door. Still he waited, depriving the shooters of a target. Nici realized what he was doing. He was playing a dangerous game, waiting for them to come to him.
Her fingers clenched into fists as her heart pounded. She’d give anything for the 38 Special S&W in her purse.
Her kidnapper tensed and Nici fought the urge to scream for help. No sooner did she have the thought then the door crashed back on its hinges and a huge man with glacial blue eyes and a big, silver gun burst through, bullets ripping the tiny room into fragments.
CHAPTER THREE
The man flailed in an ugly pantomime of death as bloody holes blossomed across his wide chest. He crashed down hard onto the toilet, his head smashing against the seat and bouncing off before dropping back into the hole like a victim of excessive partying.
Her kidnapper didn’t even wait for the body to settle before he was up, grabbing her hand and yanking her out of the room. They dived through the door into a hallway whose walls were adorned with fuzzy wallpaper in faded gold swirls. Beneath their feet the worn red carpet was stained with undefinable things.
Adrenalin heightened Nici’s speed and reaction time and she had no trouble keeping up with him as he sprinted quickly down the hall. She realized she’d left her shoes behind but figured that was probably better, considering that running in the ridiculous heels would have probably caused her to break an ankle.
An elevator dinged at the end of the hallway and her kidnapper jerked to a stop. He turned and kicked the nearest door open, pushing her inside ahead of him. He slipped in behind her, pushed the door closed and leaned against it, gun ready.
Nici started to pace. The bed was tousled, covers trailing across the floor. The room was empty, but she could hear the shower running through the closed bathroom door and knew it was only a matter of time before they were discovered. Nici prayed her hunky kidnapper didn’t use his big gun against an innocent bystander. “We need to get out of here.”
He tapped his finger over his lips and went back to listening at the door.
Footsteps pounded past, followed by the sound of voices. Listening carefully, Nici thought she heard two different men outside.
A moment later the voices disappeared and the elevator dinged again. She sagged against the wall. “They’re gone.” The shower stopped running. Nici fought panic. “We need to get out of here.”
He shook his head again, frowning. “Not yet.”
More footsteps pounded down the hall, heavier ones and quicker. A beat later a tense voice broke the silence. “Police! Come out with your hands up.”
Silence met the cop’s command.
The bathroom door started to open. Her kidnapper shoved his gun into its holster and pulled his jacket over it.
A middle aged man jerked to a stop in the doorway, his pasty belly hanging over the thin white towel around his waist. His eyes went wide, his mouth slackening. “Who are you?”
Her kidnapper pushed the door open, nodding to the man. “Sorry about your door.” He pulled Nici through and pushed the broken door into place. Wrapping an arm around her waist, he sauntered toward the stairs. “Act natural.”
From their hotel room down the hall, the sounds of police radios squawking had Nici’s nerves on edge. What was she doing? She should be running toward the police instead of away from them. She hesitated and he gave her a little tug. “Don’t even think about it. You don’t want the dead guy in that bathroom to lead back to your father do you?”
Nici wasn’t sure how that would be possible. But it was clear her kidnapper knew her father so, until she knew what was going on, she decided to play it safe. She allowed herself to be pushed through the stairwell door and hurried down to street level.
As they rushed through a seedy lobby toward the busy street beyond, Nici turned to him. “I need your name. I can’t keep thinking of you as my kidnapper, it’s coloring my opinion of you.”
He chuckled darkly. “Okay, I’ll play along. My name is Franco. But you already knew that.”
She rolled her eyes. “No. I didn’t. Which is why I asked. And you can call me Nici.” When he shook his head she added. “Because that is my real name.”
“Just when I thought you couldn’t take crazy into new territory.”
The sun beat down on her as they stepped outside. Her head gave a quick twinge of unhappiness before the pain disappeared. She frowned, wondering if Franco had given her something while she slept. She’d gone from being near death to feeling perfectly fine in a matter of only a few hours. “What exactly does that mean?”
He glanced sideways and ducked into an alley, pulling her along with him. The alley opened up onto another street ahead, and there was lots of foot traffic they could hopefully get lost in. “Remember that Halloween party? When you were eighteen?”
She shook her head, frowning.
Franco chuckled. “You dressed as the back end of a horse so we wouldn’t recognize you when we finally found you at that party.”
Nici grinned. It did sound like something she would do. “I take it Elena wasn’t supposed to be at the party?”
To her amazement, he gave her an assessing look. “No. You weren’t. Why do you insist on lying to me? The dark hair isn’t fooling me. It won’t fool your father either.”
A jolt of fear skittered through her. Nici’s father wouldn’t be surprised by her brown hair. She’d been coloring it since eighth grade, when she realized boys thought blondes were stupid. She jerked away from him, dancing backward when he tried to grab her again. “I think it’s time you told me why you were sent to abduct this Elena chick.”
His jaw tightened. The forest green gaze narrowed on her. “Are you telling me you really don’t remember who you are?”
“No, stupid. I’m telling you I know exactly who I am and I’m not this Elena chick. Whoever she is, I feel sorry for her. But that doesn’t mean I’m willing to replace her in her nightmare.”
He scrubbed a hand over his jaw, clearly rethinking the situation. Finally he expelled air and shook his head. “Okay, I give up. Just for grins let’s assume your name is Nicola Roche and I have the wrong girl. Tell me about yourself. Where’d you come from?”
She fought the urge to tell him it was none of his business. But if telling him would set her free... “I live in Southwest Indianapolis. Near Speedway. My parents are Walt and Cindy Roche, members of Saint Matthews Catholic Church in Brownsburg. I call my mother every day just to chat and I have dinner with them every Sunday night. If I don’t show up tonight they’ll call the police. They’re probably already worried that they haven’t heard from me today.”
By the time she finished his eyes were wide. He looked flummoxed. He reached out and touched her forehead and she slapped his hand away. “Don’t.”
He glanced away, his body tense. “What in the world could they have given her?” he murmured.
“I’m right here and nobody gave me anything at Vixen’s last night. You just made that up.”
When his gaze flashed back to her it was filled with anger. “You think I conjured up a drug? An injection?” He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a baggie, holding it up for her to see. Inside the clear plastic was an empty syringe. “I found this on the floor outside the ladies room before I approached you. In fact, I’m guessing I just missed the guy who injected you with it. That’s probably why you were still there instead of tied up inside a van speeding across the city.”
Unease trickled down her spine. “Just because you found that on the floor doesn’t mean anything.”
“Doesn’t it?” He took a step closer and she forced herself not to retreat, unwilling to let him witness her fear. He shook the bag a few inches from her face. “It’s quite a coincidence that you were attacked in that exact spot...” He rubbed a warm, lightly calloused finger over the area on her neck where she’d been bleeding. �
�...that you had an injection mark on your throat and got violently ill shortly afterward.”
Anger brought heat into her face. She knew he was right, but she used the anger to keep from admitting it. “Why do you care, anyway? I don’t even know you. Whatever happened to me in that nightclub, it’s none of your concern.”
He took another step and suddenly she was pressed against the warm brick of the building behind her. His heat flared over her and the hard lines of his body made something deep in her belly go warm and soft. But she fought to keep a glare on her face, even though her wretched body was reacting in an uncomfortable way to his nearness.
“What is it to me? Here’s what it is to me...I was there when you were attacked but I wasn’t able to protect you from it. Your father’s probably going to fire me for that. It’s my fault you got sick. And now the people who injected you are following you. They’ll do anything to have you back.”
She crossed her arms over her chest to keep him away. It worked only moderately well. He straightened slightly but didn’t step back. “Why would they do that? Why would they inject me with something to make me sick and then follow me around? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“His hard green gaze held hers. “That’s what we need to find out. I presume they expected to carry you out of Vixen’s with them. Maybe they gave you some kind of date rape drug and you had a bad reaction to it.” He held the baggie up again before sliding it back into his jacket pocket. “That’s why I brought this. We’re going to have it tested to see what they gave you. Hopefully that will tell us something.”
She shook her head. “You keep saying ‘they’. It was only one guy. He probably did give me a date rape drug. He was just a single perv. It’s unfortunate that he’s still out there, but I highly doubt he’s coming after me. There’d be no reason to.”
He finally stepped back and she let her lungs fill with air. “Then how do you explain the attack this morning?”
She started to answer and stopped. She really couldn’t explain that. Shaking her head, she straightened away from the wall. “They were probably after you. With your prickly and bossy personality I’m sure you make enemies everywhere you go.”
To her amazement he laughed. “You could be right about that.” The smile slid away and, before she knew what he was going to do, he stepped toward her again, pressing her against the brick with his hard body. He trapped her chin between two fingers and tilted her head up, his lips parting slightly as he stared into her face. She felt herself drawn to his questioning gaze, confused by the vulnerable quality there. Maybe she’d misjudged him.
Tires squealed on the street they’d just fled and his head jerked toward the sound. The black truck that had pursued her the night before was there and it was backing up, clearly intending to turn down the alley.
He swore softly. Grabbing her hand he took off running. And she had no choice but to go along with him.
###
“I’m telling you I think the doctor’s been compromised!” Franco argued into the phone.
Nici stood beside him, her eyes wide as the other patrons in the diner turned to stare at him. Franco forced himself to speak softly. “There’s no other way to explain their finding us so fast.”
The man on the other end of the phone sighed. “I hope you’re wrong, Franco. Dr. Ainsley has been a friend of this family for decades. She delivered all of our kids. I trust her with my life.”
“Then how is it that as soon as I called her and asked her to meet us at the motel The Foundation found us?”
Silence met his question. Gordon DeVitis didn’t trust easily. He had few friends and even fewer business acquaintances who knew the details of his life. It would be hard for him to reconcile himself to the possibility that he’d been wrong about one of them. Finally he said, “Okay, I’ll check into it. In the meantime, you need to bring Elena here. It’s too hard to protect her out there.”
“Agreed.”
“Good. I’ll send one of the boys to get you. Just sit tight.”
“Hurry. Osgood’s people have proven to be nearly unshakable. I’m really worried about her safety.” Franco threw her a look and found his heart tugging at the lost expression on her pretty face. She was clearly scared and he hated it.
“Perry’s on his way. If you need to run again call the limo and tell them where you are.”
Franco agreed and disconnected. He’d already ditched his cell phone and Elena’s phone had apparently been in her purse, which had been dropped on the street when she’d fallen ill.
“Who’s The Foundation?” Elena asked him as he ushered her toward an empty booth in the back. The cheap flip flops he’d bought her at the corner drugstore slapped noisily against the linoleum as she walked.
“The people who are chasing us.”
She slid into the booth and he scooted in beside her, his gaze scouring the windows at the front of the place for signs of the dented truck.
“If you know who’s after us then you should also know why.”
He looked up as the waitress approached, giving her a smile. “Coffee and pie, please. Apple.” When the woman glanced toward Elena, Franco spoke up. “She’ll have the same.”
She punched him on the arm as the waitress walked away. “I didn’t want pie. I want a burger and fries.”
“No time. Your brother’s going to be here shortly.”
He felt her tense and turned. Her pretty face was scrunched into a frown. “What does Erik have to do with this?”
He fought an exasperated sigh. Whatever game she was playing he was going to have to do better going along with it. The best hope of keeping her safe was for her to trust him. And she wasn’t going to trust him if he kept telling her he didn’t believe her. “Perry is coming to get us. Once we’re safely home...at the DeVitis mansion...we’ll figure out what’s going on.”
Her eyes went wide at mention of the DeVitis’s. “The uber rich pharmaceutical tycoon? That DeVitis?”
“That’s the one.”
She twined her long fingers together and whistled. “Holy crap. Is that Elena’s family?”
The waitress settled cups of steaming coffee and thick wedges of pie in front of them. Franco handed her his card. “Thanks.”
Nici dug hungrily into her pie, her eyes closing with pleasure as the first bite hit her tongue. Franco couldn’t help smiling. It was good to see her eat something for once. It was usually a battle to get the too-thin heiress to eat. The thought gave him pause and his gaze slipped over the perfect, but nicely padded form of the woman seated next to him. She definitely wasn’t fat but she didn’t look malnourished either. Was it possible Elena had gained weight without him noticing?
“Hello?”
He blinked, realizing she’d asked him a question. “Yes. That’s Elena’s family.” He frowned. “Your parents in Speedway. Are they your birth parents?”
She swallowed a bite of pie and took a sip of coffee, her face soft with pleasure. “As far as I know.” Then she stopped with a bite of pie halfway to her mouth. The wary look returned to her face. “Why are you asking me that?”
“You look so much like Elena DeVitis.”
She studied him for a long moment and then shrugged. “Ever heard the term Doppelganger? Apparently she’s mine.”
A long, black car slid up to the curb outside and Franco signaled to the waitress. He was suddenly anxious to speak to Gordon face to face. He’d be interested in his boss’s impressions once he’d had a chance to meet and speak with the woman who insisted she wasn’t Elena DeVitis. Whatever had happened to cause Elena to harbor such delusions...a hit on the head or some kind of drug that initiated memory loss...Franco was definitely out of his league. And the fact that he was having uncharacteristically...warm...feelings for his client made him nearly desperate to be relieved of full responsibility for her.
He’d been Elena DeVitis’s bodyguard for almost six years and he’d never felt more for her than a brotherly affection. These new feelings we
re not only out of line but dangerous. Gordon DeVitis was not a man to be trifled with. If he even suspected Franco might be getting closer to his daughter than he should, Franco would be lucky to only lose his job.
He really didn’t want to find out how he looked in concrete loafers.
CHAPTER FOUR
She was starting to understand why Elena DeVitis ran away. First the rogue bodyguard who thought kidnapping was an acceptable form of protection...a bodynapper...and now the brother from Hell. Or if not Hell, at least some equally appalling and terrible place. Then it hit her. Perry DeVitis was the human equivalent of a mammogram. She almost smiled as she had the thought, but his hostile dark blue gaze narrowed as her mouth twitched, as if he was judging her for daring to be amused.
Suddenly she’d had enough. “Stop staring at me.”
Perry blinked in surprise and then doubled down on the staring. “You look different.”
She could almost feel Franco taking notice of Perry’s words. “Different from Elena? That’s because I am. My name is Nicola Roche. I’m not your sister.”
Perry turned an astonished gaze to Franco and Nici caught her sexy bodynapper lifting a brow in an unspoken “I told you so” maneuver.
“That’s right, male kidnappers, you’ve nabbed a doppelganger. If you’re very smart you’ll let me go immediately.”
To her vast amazement, Perry snickered. “I liked her better as the horse’s ass.”
Franco snorted out a laugh and then cleared his throat, the smile diving south when Nici glared at him.
“What do I have to do to convince you two clowns?”
“It isn’t us you have to convince.” Perry jerked his chin toward the window. “Welcome to DeVitis Manor, the only true monarchy on American soil. King Gordon is awaiting your subjugated presence forthwith.”
She leaned close to the window as the limo slowed and turned. The driveway looked to be nearly a mile long and was cut off from the road by a serious looking black iron gate with even more serious looking men with guns guarding it.
