by H. D. Gordon
When we were pulled up, I nearly collapsed into him, falling into his large chest and burying my head there as the cool night wind tugged at my clothes.
I realized belatedly that tears were streaking down my face. “I thought I was going to fall,” I whispered, the words coming out small and sincere.
Nick gave me his boyish smile and ran a thumb down my cheeks, holding me tight against his body—me tucked under one arm, and the child we’d just saved tucked under the other.
It’s safe to say that despite my obsession with Nick Ramhart for about as long as I could remember, I had never loved him more than I did in this particular moment. His ginger hair stood out on his head, his sharp eyes and handsome face filled with an amount of relief that almost matched my own.
It was totally unlike me, and perhaps as inappropriate timing as could be, but the strong urge overcame me, and I kissed Nick quickly and fervently on the lips, the sound of approaching sirens ensuring my haste. As I pulled back from him, I felt his wide chest rising and falling rapidly beneath me, and I felt as though if he looked at me with any more heat a fire just might catch in his eyes.
“The glass!” the girl said, drawing both of our attention away from each other, severing the strange, intense moment. “It’s cracking!”
“Shit!” Nick said. “Don’t move.”
He shifted, reaching into his jacket pocket as the glass window beneath us gave an audible pop.
“Nick,” I warned.
He shifted again, making the glass fracture farther still.
“Nick,” I repeated, panic entering my tone.
The second before the glass gave way beneath the three of us, Nick Ramhart met my eyes and gave my hip a squeeze. “Do you trust me?” he said.
In my ear, Sam snapped, “Hell no!” and had the situation been less intense, I might have laughed at her reaction.
With a shuddering breath, I nodded. “Yes,” I said, and realized only as the word was spoken that it was true.
This made Nick smile, and his arms tightened around the orphaned child as the glass finally called it quits. Just before we fell, Nick said, “Then, just hold on tight.”
And then we were falling, once again.
***
I changed my mind! I didn’t trust this fool! We were going to die!
Or so my panicked mind screamed at me as we crashed through the ceiling and plunged through open air, the inside of the Cross Corporation building flashing by in a blur.
The child was screaming again, and if the sheer shock of it all hadn’t scared the voice out of me, I would have been doing the same. As it was, I gripped the two of them in a bear hug and buried my face against Nick’s neck, the slight scent of his aftershave filling my nose.
Along with the sound of her screams, the alarm system in the building began to blare, causing a ringing in my sensitive ears that made me clench my teeth. The structure was composed in a way that left the center of the building completely open, the ceiling slanting up all the way to the top of the cube, where I was sure a single office was located.
Just when I was sure we were going to make impact with the hard floor, we were yanked taut and went swinging through the central part of the building. After my heart dislodged from my throat, I looked up to see that Nick had managed to fasten us to a bungee.
He lowered us slowly, and when the soles of my boots finally touched the floor, I had to resist the urge to get down and kiss it. My blood was rushing so fast through my veins that I could practically hear it in my ears.
The girl clutched at us both, drawing our attention once again. She didn’t say anything, only cried and held tight.
“Aria,” Sam said, “you gotta get out of there. Now.”
I knew she was right, as the Masked Maiden was pretty much public enemy number one in Grant City at the moment, and the flashes of red and blue were already filling the foyer as the police approached the building.
I bent down before the child, smoothing some of her chestnut hair out of her face and offering her a smile that made my chest ache. “What’s your name, darling?” I asked.
The girl sniffed, running a hand under her nose and blinking up at me with big brown eyes. “R-Riley,” she said.
My ears told me that a tactical team was approaching as we spoke, but I found that I couldn’t bring myself to leave. I had to know that the girl would be okay.
To my utter amazement, Riley made it easy for me. “You’re the one they’re talking about in the news,” she said. “The one they call the Masked Maiden, huh?”
I nodded, my throat suddenly tight.
“Aria,” Nick said, placing a hand on my shoulder. “We gotta move.”
Riley nodded, more tears running down her little cheeks. “Go,” she said. “Or they’ll put you in jail.” She swiped at her face, puffing her little chest out, her aura revealing to me that this child of only eight was still terrified, but trying with all her might to be brave and strong.
If I ever have a child, I thought, let her be something like this one.
“Thank you,” I told her, my voice but a whisper, nearly drowned out in the blare of the sirens and alarm.
“The police are coming,” Nick told the girl in his no nonsense way. “You’re safe now.”
Riley nodded, her eyes still locked on me. “I don’t care what they say about you on TV, Masked Maiden,” she said. “You’re my hero.” She mustered a smile that broke my heart, and added, “Go.”
I kissed her forehead, not trusting my voice again, and stepped into Nick’s open arm. He wrapped his hand around my waist, tipping a wink at Riley that made the poor girl blush before turning back to me.
“Ready to get out of here, sweetheart?” Nick asked.
“Yes,” I said. “Take me away.”
He grinned his charming grin. “Thought you’d never ask.”
Just as the Grant City police entered the Cross Corp building, Nick clicked a button on his bungee, and we were sailing upward, back out into the harsh wind of the night.
CHAPTER 38
“Well, that was way too close for comfort,” Sam said, her brows knitted tightly together as she looked at me.
I took off my jacket and mask, replacing them in the case Matt had set up at the lair. “You’re telling me,” I said.
“I listened in on the scanners,” Matt said, joining us over by the bank of computers. “Riley has been returned to the girls’ home. She’s safe and sound. You did good.”
I knew Matt was trying to be positive, but my mood had taken a nosedive, and I could feel the approaching depression brewing within me the way animals could sense a coming storm.
“Good?” I said with a snort. “He got away. The bastard got away.”
“We’re still going to get him, Aria,” Sam said. “And you guys saved the girl, so just take a deep breath and relax.”
A part of me understood that my friends were only trying to help, but the other part of me didn’t want to be coddled. I wanted someone to understand how messed up this whole situation was, to agree with me that it all sucked major butt cheeks.
Whether it was because he could read my aura, or because he was a Halfling like me, and thus, affected in the same way, Nick picked up on my mood. I was starting to slip into darkness, and I’d nearly forgotten he was even there until his warm hand touched my hip.
“Rest,” Nick said. “We need to get some rest.” He met my gaze and held it when he saw that I was going to argue. “So we can go after the Scarecrow again tomorrow.”
The urge to scream at them all that there was no time, that this could not be put off, that the Scarecrow had to be apprehended, and now, came over me so strongly that it took effort to ignore it.
But Nick was right. I was exhausted, both mentally and physically, and I was no good to anyone if I didn’t restore my strength. So, after telling Sam and Matt good night, I allowed Nick to follow me back to my apartment.
When we got to my door, I had to force myself not to look acro
ss the hall for Thomas Reid. It seemed that man would never stop invading my thoughts, and my mind was occupied enough as it was.
As I opened the door to my apartment and wandered inside, I realized Nick hadn’t followed me. I turned back to see him still standing out in the hall.
My stomach flipped with nerves. There was nothing I could do against it, despite how ridiculous it was, considering the fact that I’d almost died tonight. Or maybe it was precisely the fact that I’d almost died tonight, but I didn’t feel like playing games.
Mostly, I didn’t feel like being alone.
“Come in,” I said. “And close the door behind you.”
Nick looked a bit surprised at the way in which I said this, as if it were an order rather than a request. Like an order, he did what I said, stepping into my tiny apartment and closing the door behind him.
Now he was the one who looked nervous. It was almost amusing, except there was no part of me that was amused at the moment.
Nick stood semi-awkwardly over by the door, an uncharacteristic thing for him, as he always exuded self-control and a certain calm. Something had shifted between us for sure, even more so than before. I wasn’t sure at all when or how it had happened, but things were not the same. I was not the same.
Without much thought, I came forward so that I stood toe-to-toe with my old mentor, with the man I’d loved since he was a boy and I a girl, and was hyperaware of the way my chest was rising and falling.
Nick’s brown eyes were narrowed in an almost predatory way that was common with most Peace Broker men. It was something that was burned into them, a cautious cynicism that kept them alive in many situations—if that’s what one could call living.
That fire I’d glimpsed earlier on the roof of the Cross Corp building was back in his gaze, blazing bright enough to heat the room.
“Aria,” Nick said, his voice coming out rough, somehow gritty. “What are you doing?”
The question should have given me pause, but I was past that somehow. Beyond. My answer came without much thought on my part, as if my actions were being led by a part of me I most often ignored.
My hand came up between us, and then my fingers settled over his wide chest, splaying out there and feeling the beat of his heart beneath his warm skin. The pace of it seemed to be rapidly increasing.
“Whatever I want,” I said, looking up at him, my head tilting back and my long hair falling back over my shoulders. “I guess I might as well do whatever I want.”
“Aria,” Nick repeated. His shoulders were stiff, his stance almost defensive. “I think you’re under a lot of stress right now.”
All of a sudden, I felt like crying, his words stinging more than they probably should have. Anger threatened to rise in me, so I took a shaky breath and closed my eyes.
“Will you just shut up and kiss me, Nick?” I heard myself say, my eyes still closed, and my heart lowered, too.
There was silence from where I knew him to be, and I could feel the heat of rejection beginning to rise in my cheeks with every second it held.
Then, warm hands cupped my burning face, the fingers toughened by hard work, but gentle as they held me near. I felt the air stopping up in my chest, the world shifting again. Where it would stop this time, I hadn’t a clue.
Our bodies came together as one of Nick’s hands fell to my waist and pulled me close. The warmth of him welcomed me, and I fell into it like a blanket pulled fresh from the dryer. I hadn’t realized until just this moment that I had been so very cold.
When Nick’s lips met mine, they were hesitant, careful, as if I were something he was afraid of breaking. Or maybe it was the other way around.
It was as though the floodgates had been pulled open, and our kissing became fevered and harried.
My heart was beating so fast in my chest that I could feel it pulsing under my suddenly flushed skin, and my hands gripped at Nick with urgency, tugging at his shirt, tangling in his hair.
He lifted me up and my legs wrapped about his waist of their own accord. I had never been with anyone before in this manner, and there was a part of my mind screaming at me that this was strange, imperfect timing. If I’m being one hundred percent honest, it was this same part of me that was scared.
As a blossoming young lady, my earlier teenage years had brought with them thoughts of how my first time would happen, but I guess I’d always figured I would be more prepared, that it would be more premeditated. It would be a lie to say that I hadn’t hoped it would be with Nick Ramhart, despite the disapproval the Peace Brokers displayed toward their operatives when concerning sustained relationships.
Nick had taught me so much in my life, I supposed it made sense that he should be teaching me this, too.
When you cut into it, though, the truth of the matter is, sometimes a girl just needs to be kissed. Sometimes a soul just needs to be loved. Would I regret it? Maybe. Was I going to do it anyway? It would seem, yes.
With his strong arms, Nick held me to him as he lowered my fold-up bed from the wall, his lips trailing down my neck and igniting a fire somewhere low in my stomach. As he laid me gently onto the bed, he pulled back, and his big brown eyes met mine.
“Are you sure about this?” Nick asked, and I watched as his familiar aura flashed with concern and hesitance.
For some reason, this made me laugh. “Not at all,” I answered.
Then, I pulled him down to me, and there was nothing else to be said.
CHAPTER 39
“An Amber Alert has been issued this afternoon after reports of another missing child came into authorities earlier this morning. The mother of six-year-old Maleia Jackson awoke to find her daughter missing from her bedroom. Police are asking for tips from anyone who thinks they may have information regarding Maleia’s whereabouts.”
Without thinking, I lifted the large metal table in front of me, flipping it up into the air as though it weighed nothing and sending it crashing against the brick wall of the warehouse. It clanked and clattered with a noise so loud that both Sam and Matt cringed visibly. Nick was the only one who didn’t flinch.
On the television screen, the reporter carried on, uncaring of my tirade.
“This kidnapping comes on the heels of other recent travesties that are plaguing the children of Grant City. Just a couple days ago, Shaylee Taylor was found brutally murdered and left in an alley on the eastern end of the city.”
“Dear God, turn it off,” Matt mumbled, his face oddly pale for his dark complexion.
Sam did as he asked, and the television screen went black. “Shit,” she said.
“It’s the girl I saved from the burning building the other night,” I heard myself mumble. “He took her. He probably set the fire, caught me on camera carrying her. It’s been him all along.”
I stalked over to the plastic case and grabbed my jacket and mask, not knowing what I was going to do, but knowing it had to be something. As I pulled the jacket over my shoulders, Sam said, “Aria, this isn’t your fault.”
I only looked at her. What point was there in arguing?
“You can’t just go out tonight like usual,” Sam added. “The entire city is on the hunt. They want blood, and the police and press are all but pointing the finger at you.”
Now words came to me, and they came out harsher than intended. “You want me to just sit here and do nothing?”
Sam met my eyes square, not intimidated. “I want you to not get yourself killed because you feel guilty over something that’s not your fault.”
“We have to find out where he’s holed up,” Nick said, pushing off the wall and joining the group, stopping me from saying something I probably would’ve regretted. We hadn’t spoken about what had taken place the previous night. A text from Sam had woken us up, and things had kind of tail-spun out of control from there.
Now, we were once again at the lair, and the Scarecrow had taken another little girl. I could still remember Maleia’s little face as I’d saved her from the building fire a
few days prior, could see the terror behind her big brown eyes and the adorable black, curly puffs of her hair. I knew all too well what the poor child was probably feeling right now. I knew on a deep level that she was likely more terrified than she’d ever be in her entire life.
And, with these thoughts, I knew what I had to do.
***
First, I had to slip out from under the watch of Nick and my friends, which would not be as easily done as said. They surely could guess that I would take off on my own, and the entire day of December 27th was spent under their watchful eyes.
I could hardly use the bathroom without Nick or Sam coming to make sure I hadn’t slipped the gate, but I knew my opportunity would come, so I spent most of the day working out with Nick in the section of the warehouse where weights and exercise equipment was set up. I did this only after a rather heated argument with Sam, where she insisted I allow her to try to find the Scarecrow again.
“Just sit the hell down and let me try,” she snapped. “Give me the day. Please.”
Though I could practically hear the timer on Maleia’s life ticking down, I gritted out an agreement and waited as the time slipped by in the indifferent way time has.
“But if you can’t find him,” I told her. “I’m doing it my way.”
Eventually, after minutes and hours that felt long and agonizing, I was rewarded with the setting of the sun. Wiping some sweat from my brow and replacing the dumbbells I’d been using, I wandered over to where Sam sat at her bank of computers.
“Any luck?” I asked.
Behind the thick black rims of her glasses, Samantha Shy’s eyes were red from staring at screens all day. She shook her head, her strawberry-blonde hair slightly more disheveled than when we’d arrived here this morning, and her shoulders slumped in defeat.
“If I did have any luck,” Sam said, “I would’ve told you. There are a billion places the Scarecrow could be hiding.”
I placed a hand on my friend’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Why don’t you take a break?”
Sam pulled her eyes from the screen at last and stared up at me. “What are you gonna do, Aria?” she asked me, and with a sinking in my heart, I saw that she was on the verge of tears. “And why do I get the feeling it’s something I really don’t want you to do?” she added. “Everything is going so wrong, and I’m scared. I’ve got the worst feeling in my gut.”
