by Sam Cheever
“What’s that?”
“How did Osgood keep finding us? Aside from the motel, when I called and told her to meet us, there was no way she should have known where Nic and I were.”
Gordon frowned. “I’ve been giving that a lot of thought. I think they might have injected a tracker into Nicola.”
Franco’s eyes went wide. “Sir?”
“That syringe you gave us. It contained a very potent date rape drug. A designer mix that would have knocked a normal person out for a day or two. I’m guessing it also contained a tracker, in case Nicola managed to get away from them in the crowded nightclub.”
“Ainsley has a PhD in Chemistry,” Doug said. “It wouldn’t be out of her range to create a designer drug.”
Gordon looked at Nic. “I’m afraid you’ll be visiting the lab sooner than you expected, Nicola. I’ll want someone to examine you for the tracker.”
“She’ll be safe as long as she stays here,” Doug offered.
Nici blanched at the idea. “I can’t stay...”
“She’ll be safe once we get our hands on Ainsley,” Gordon interrupted.
“Mike, Erik and I will find her, sir,” Franco assured him.
Gordon nodded. “Bring her back here, Franco. That isn’t a request. It’s an order.”
Franco inclined his head. “Sir.” He turned on his heel and strode out of the room.
###
As soon as the men left the house, Elena grabbed Nici’s hand. “Come on.” She pulled Nici out of the study and down the hall, toward the back of the house.
“Where are we going?” Nici asked her sister.
“I’ll explain on the way. We need to get out of here before they see us leaving.”
Deep, male voices rumbled from the living area of the house and Nici picked up the pace as she heard one of them ask where Elena was. “They’re already looking for you.”
Elena jerked Nici through a door and called out to Ciara, who was working a massive pile of dough on a marble topped island. The heavyset housekeeper looked up and frowned as Elena pulled Nici past and out a glass door at the side of the big room.
Ciara just shook her head as Nici closed the door behind them. “Will Ciara tell them we came through?”
Elena shook her head. “Not a chance. She’s always supported my independence against all the Neanderthals in this house.”
From the worried frown she’d seen on the housekeeper’s face, Nici had her doubts about that. “Where are we going?”
“To the shed. Come on, we need to run. Keep close to the house until we reach that copse of big evergreens there.”
Nici stayed on Elena’s heels, happy as an easy jog turned into a full out run that she’d always taken the time to stay in shape. Still, she was panting as a small building came into sight and she stopped to bend over at the waist as Elena pulled back the wide, metal door. Pointing to the mud-covered red four-wheeler inside she said, “Climb on. We’ll take this the rest of the way.”
Nici was glad to stop running until Elena turned the key in the powerful vehicle and they shot out of the shed and took a turn on two wheels, roaring up the side of a hill and down an incline at breakneck speed. She held on tightly as Elena drove like a madwoman toward a high, stone wall in the distance.
She barely slowed as the fence grew nearer and Nici started to worry her sister wouldn’t stop before hitting it. “Elena...?”
Elena ignored her breathy plea and barreled onward. At the last possible moment she threw on the brakes and the four wheeler skidded to a stop, digging a trail in the moist grass and finally coming to rest with only inches to spare.
Elena threw her a grin. “I love doing that.”
Nici climbed unsteadily from the four wheeler, scraping hair out of her eyes with a shaky hand. “Yeah. Loved it.” She was starting to think she wasn’t going to be able to keep up with her twin. “I think this is a good time to tell me...”
“No time. We can get out right through here. I’ve got a car hidden on the other side of the wall.”
Oh good, Nici thought crankily. The idea of Elena behind the wheel of a car wasn’t terrifying or anything. “Elena, I can’t leave. You heard what your dad said about the tracker.”
Elena blew a raspberry. “You’re fine. Ainsley’s nowhere near us right now. She and all the other rats are on the run. We’re just going to run to the reservoir for some peace and quiet. I have a hidey hole nobody will find. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be anywhere near this house when they drag Doctor Ainsley in.”
Nici hadn’t thought about that. What if Gordon and the other men hurt the doctor? What if they did something to her that Nici couldn’t excuse? She’d feel like she should try to stop them. The belief that Franco would never be involved in such a thing made her feel better. Still... “Maybe we should stay...” Nici tried again.
“Don’t finish that thought. If we go back the testosterone wave will run us over and we’ll never get out of that house again.” She shoved a small bush to the side and pointed to a space about three feet by three feet where the stone had been chipped away. “That’s why I’ve been working on this for the last few months. A few stones at a time. Security never saw it behind this bush.” She got down on her knees and crawled through the fence. As Nici got to her knees Elena’s feet disappeared and she expelled a soft rush of air, as if she’d fallen onto a rock.
“Elena?” Nici pushed through and frowned, not sure what she was seeing. But before the terrifying scene before her eyes registered, two sets of hard hands grabbed her arms and dragged her through. She found herself face to face with Doctor Ainsley. “Thanks so much for bringing Elena to me, Nicola. If it wasn’t for you I’d have never gotten my hands on her. Now I have you both.”
Nici’s gaze slid to her sister, who was lying face down in the dirt of the road. Fear for her twin’s safety suddenly made her own life seem less important. “What did you do to her?”
Ainsley barely offered Elena a glance. “She’s just sleeping. You will be too, in a minute.” Though Ainsley gave off an air of having won, her cracked lips turned up in a smile, the woman’s face was an unhealthy gray and her hair was limp, the course gray strands thinner than Nici remembered them. “You’re sick.”
Doctor Ainsley flinched, her victorious smile sliding away. “That’s none of your concern.”
“You’re trying to make a cure for yourself with our blood, aren’t you?” Nici didn’t know why she felt compelled to keep chatting the doctor up, but she figured every moment she bought herself was a bonus.
Ainsley shrugged. “Your blood offers a gold mine of possibilities. I’m happy to benefit from it now, but trust me when I say we have much bigger plans for it...and you.”
Nici shook her head. “You won’t get away with this.”
Ainsley laughed. “What? You think your big handsome boyfriend is going to save you? He’ll never get to you in time. And if you get away we’ll just find you again.”
“How?” Nici asked. “How did you find us so quickly?” Nici wanted to swear. She suspected she already knew the answer to that. And she should have listened to her gut about leaving.
The victorious smile returned. “We’ve wasted enough time.” She glanced toward a man standing a few feet off. “Sedate her. We have a long way to go tonight. I want to get started.”
The man was cadaver-like, with pale skin stretched over bones and not much else. He walked with a limp and had a tattoo of a skull and crossbones on one forearm. In his bony grip he held a syringe.
Nici couldn’t let him inject her. She pushed fear from her mind and allowed her self-defense training to kick in. She made herself go limp and dropped downward. The men holding her hadn’t been expecting that and, when their grip loosened in reaction she jabbed an elbow into one man’s groin and head butted the second man in the gut.
Both men staggered a couple of steps but recovered too quickly. The one she’d pummeled in the family vault kicked out, taking Nic
i’s legs out from under her. She hit the ground hard and, before she could scrabble to her feet, the cadaver with the syringe was on her. He straddled her chest, his bony knees pinching her arms to the ground.
His eyes were dead and his smile terrifying. “Sleep tight, Snow White,” he told her as he lowered the syringe to her arm.
A muffled “pffft” was all Nici heard as the man jerked, his dead eyes widening as a blood flower blossomed in the center of his forehead. Two more soft gasps of air sent the men on either side of her diving to the ground. One of them didn’t get up. The other man, the one she’d head butted in the gut, reached for his gun as he scampered toward a felled tree. He never made it.
He jerked twice and crashed to the dirt face down.
Nici shoved the cadaver off and looked around, trying to see where the shooting was coming from. A slim figure wearing a black hoodie separated like smoke from the thick trunk of a tree across the road. The figure held a rifle and had it pointed toward Ainsley, who was making a run for another dark SUV.
“Don’t kill her!” Nici screamed. The gunman’s head swiveled in her direction and she held up her hands. “We need her to find out who she’s working with.” Nici would never know what possessed her to speak to the shooter, but she was even more shocked when the gunman listened. The rifle went off and Ainsley went down, screaming bloody murder as she clasped her knee. Another shot and Ainsley was writhing on the ground screeching in pain. She wasn’t going anywhere without help.
The shooter strode closer and threw something on the ground next to Nici. It was a cell phone. Nici tried to peer beneath the hoodie but the gunman kept his head down. Something about him was very familiar. Then the gunman spoke and she knew why. The words were eerily familiar. “Trust nobody.” Then the shooter turned away and started running.
And Nici used the phone to call the police.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“So who was it?” Elena asked again.
Nici shook her head. “I wish I knew, Elena.”
Franco wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Leave her be, brat. She’s told you everything she knows.”
Elena shook her head. “I doubt it.”
When Nici bristled, Elena held up her hands. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. It’s just that, if I’ve learned anything in the Psych Warfare classes I’m taking...”
Nici laughed. “You’re taking Psych Warfare classes?”
“Sure. Doesn’t everybody?”
Nici glanced at Franco and he shrugged. “She’s weird.”
“Anyway...” Elena glared at Franco. “You’re probably disassociating something. Some little tidbit of information that might help us find the gunman.”
Nici thought about her sister’s premise and nodded. “You could be right. I can tell you that I don’t think the gunman was a man.”
“That’s a start,” Elena said, growing visibly excited. “So what did she look like?”
Nici slid Franco a look, her guilt over not trusting him when they were on the run rekindled. “Um, I think it might have been the woman in the park.”
Franco frowned. “But I thought that was Elena.”
Elena’s eyes went wide. “Not me. You saw some chick who looks like me?”
“Not really.”
When they both gave him a funny look, Franco clarified. “She reminded me of you. She was tall and slender and I guess my mind just made the mental leap,” he told Elena.
She shook her head. “Okay, so we’re looking for a tall woman.”
“With silver hair,” Nici added. When they looked at her she said, “I saw a lock of silver hair when she jumped me in the cabin.”
“That was her too?” Franco asked, clearly irritated.
“I think so.” She bit her lip as he stared at her, clearly expecting more of an explanation. Sighing, Nici just put it all out there. If he was mad, he was mad. There was nothing she could do about it. “I recognized the voice. At the cabin she told me, and I quote, ‘Don’t trust him’.”
Franco’s frown deepened. “That’s why you ran?” He didn’t wait for her to respond. He crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. “Now it all makes sense. You were different after the attack. Cooler and more distant.” His gaze shot to hers. “I can’t believe you took a complete stranger’s word over mine.”
“Not really. But it made me curious. Why would she break into the cabin just to tell me that? And who the hell was she? I guess I was just looking for some answers.”
“That’s perfectly understandable,” Elena said with a glare toward Franco. “This bunch doesn’t tell you anything.”
“So you are fond of saying. Every chance you get,” Franco groused back. “One thing’s sure. She’s clearly a professional sniper. I’m guessing she’s also responsible for the dead man we found in the mill after they took you,” he told Nici.
The front door slammed and they turned to find Gordon and Doug striding toward them.
Franco straightened away from the wall and Nici turned on the couch, watching him. His body language was taut, angry, and his face reflected the same emotion.
“Did they get Doctor Ainsley to talk?” she asked Gordon.
He walked over and placed a hand on Elena’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”
Elena covered his hand with her own and smiled up at him. “I’m fine. Really. Mom’s been in here a hundred times with everything from painkillers to hot chocolate.”
Right on cue, Anshelle DeVitis’s light step hurried toward them from the kitchen. She was holding a large mug in two hands and smiled when she saw her husband, giving him a kiss before handing Elena her mug. “I put exactly ten mini marshmallows in as you requested, your highness.”
Elena fought a grin. Inclining her chin she took a sip, declaring it perfect. “You may continue to serve me,” she told her mother in a haughty voice.
Anshelle laughed. Looking at Gordon, she placed her hand on his cheek. His demeanor visibly softened with her touch. “She’s not talking is she?”
Gordon grabbed her hand and kissed her palm. “No. And Pamela won’t let me interrogate her.”
Franco snickered. “I wonder why.”
Gordon threw him an angry glance. “I explained to her that we had nothing to do with the dead man at the mill.”
“What about the guy at the motel? Did she trace that one to me?”
“No.” Gordon frowned. “She didn’t mention it. It’s good you paid with cash and avoided the lobby cameras.”
When Franco looked down at the ground, frowning, Gordon added. “That was self-defense, son. You have nothing to feel guilty about.”
Franco shrugged. He felt guilty for not telling Pamela what happened. The investigation was going to go into the “unsolved” column and would be a black mark on her record.
Anshelle sat down on the couch next to Nici. “Where are the boys?”
“They went to The Foundation,” Gordon told his wife. “They’ll bring Osgood here before the police figure out they need to round him up for questioning.”
Franco frowned. “Gordon...”
His boss held up a hand. “Don’t even think about acting like a cop right now, Franco. I’ve had my fill of them for the morning.”
Franco sighed.
“I’d like to go home now,” Nici told the room. She straightened her shoulders as they all gave her a horrified look. Lifting her hands, she smiled to soften the blow. “Look, I’m not walking out of your lives. Now that I’ve met you...” Her gaze slid to Elena and her sister grinned, making Nici laugh. “I want to get you know you better. But I have a life...another family...and I love them too.”
Anshelle’s pretty hazel gaze shimmered with unshed tears. She clasped Nici in a hug that was much stronger than her slim frame would have led Nici to expect. “I understand, Nicola. But promise me we’ll see you often.”
“I promise.”
Nici turned to Gordon. He was frowning. “You won’t be safe.”
“Y
es she will, sir. If you’ll allow me, I’ll continue to guard her.”
Nici bit the inside of her lip to keep from smiling. That arrangement sounded better than good to her. It sounded downright delicious.
Gordon narrowed his gaze at Franco, clearly considering it. “All right. I’ll reassign Erik to Elena.”
Elena grimaced but Nici read a spark of pleasure in her sister’s gaze. Erik and Elena clearly liked each other. That made Nici happy.
She gave Elena a hug. “Let’s get together soon. I’d like you to meet my parents...” She hesitated, looking at the DeVitis parents with uncertainty.
To her amazement, it was Gordon who gave her a reassuring smile. “It’s okay, Nicola. The Roches are the parents of your heart.” He wrapped an arm around Anshelle’s waist. “We’ll be happy just to have you in our lives.”
Anshelle nodded in agreement, silvery tears sliding down her pretty face.
“Shall we go then?” Franco asked.
Nici was grateful to him for slicing the painful goodbyes off. She hurried to the door and through it, breathing deeply of the warm Spring air as Franco closed the door behind her.
“You look relieved,” he told her as he stepped close.
She turned toward him, liking the way his big, hard body made her feel. She glanced up and into his eyes, seeing a reflection of her interest there. Placing a hand on his broad chest, Nici nodded. “There was a time when I thought I was going to be a prisoner in this house.” She looked up at the classic stone façade, noting the black shutters and the burst of color in window boxes across the front. “It’s a pretty prison. But still a prison.”
He lowered his head, one finger skimming along her throat and dipping to the tender spot between her breasts. “Very pretty.”
Her body warmed, need coiling deep in her belly, and Nicola lifted her lips to his, eagerly anticipating the kick of awareness and lust his kiss would initiate.
She wasn’t disappointed.
The touch was soft, tentative at first, but it deepened quickly, growing fervent as she responded with eagerness. His hand found the back of her head, holding her in the kiss as his mouth opened and his tongue found hers. Heat spiraled like a living force around them. The air fairly crackled. Nici had never felt such a strong connection to another human being...let alone toward a man.
