He poked his head out from the bathroom, towel drying his hair and asked, “How did you get the sword past airport security? The luggage goes through an X-ray machine.” Then he ducked back inside.
“I was afraid baggage security would confiscate it. Instead, I ordered it online and had the company mail the sword to camp.”
There was a knock at the door. Charlotte was naked under her short kimono. She double-checked the robe covered her important bits and then went to the door.
“Who is it?” she asked.
“Room service.”
Charlotte peered through the peephole. The room service waiter had his face turned slightly so she only had a view of his profile. She peered down and saw the cart had a bottle of champagne in a bucket of ice with a linen napkin over the neck, flutes and a small bowl of strawberries. Tempting as it looked, they hadn’t ordered anything.
“I’m afraid you have the wrong room,” she said through the door. “We didn’t order champagne.”
“It is a birthday surprise from a friend,” the waiter said.
“Who’s at the door?” Atakan called out from the bathroom.
“It’s room service. I think Iskender sent a bottle of champagne for your birthday.” Charlotte opened the door and stepped back to let the waiter roll the cloth-draped cart into the room.
“Where do I sign?” she asked. She’d put the gratuity on the bill.
“No need to sign, madam. The sender has taken care of everything,” the waiter said and popped the cork, replacing the bottle into the bucket. “Good day.” He nodded and left the room, closing the door behind him.
Charlotte looked over the bowl of fat strawberries. When she reached to pluck one out the cart rocked. “What the hell...”
Tischenko rolled out of the other side of the cart and leapt to his feet, a gun in his hand.
“No!” She immediately covered her mouth knowing her cry would bring Atakan.
“Charlotte...” He didn’t finish as he stepped into the bathroom doorway, a towel around his hips. His clothes lay on a side chair while his gun lay in the soft holster on the nightstand out of reach.
“Vadim,” Tischenko said and smiled. “Nasty scar. My doing?” He pointed the barrel of the auto to the still pink scar on Atakan’s shoulder.
“You used to be a worthy opponent. I see age has made a coward of you. You can only challenge unarmed men now,” Atakan prodded.
“You think I am troubled by your insults? I am not. I am troubled that you still breathe. And, I am a little bit troubled that, once again, I will not have the chance to rape your woman. No time, I’m sorry to say. The shots will draw security. Therefore after I kill you, I will kill her.”
Tischenko pointed the gun at Atakan’s heart.
At the same time, Charlotte shoved the cart into Tischenko’s side. He stumbled to the right and fired. But Atakan fired first. In the few seconds when Tischenko wavered from the cart hitting him, Atakan had grabbed his gun, shooting while it was still holstered.
Tischenko’s round struck the bathroom doorframe. He didn’t get a second round off.
Atakan shot twice. The first round struck Tischenko in the solar plexus. The second hit just above the heart as he collapsed. His gun bounced from his hand across the floor toward Atakan who recovered it and threw it onto the bed.
Charlotte hurried over to Atakan. “Are you hit?” she asked running her hands over him.
“No, he didn’t miss by much. But, he missed.”
“Oh my God, when Tischenko fired and you dove to the side, I thought he’d shot you.” Her panicked breathing refused to slow and it felt like her pounding heart wanted to escape her chest.
Then the hotel door burst open and Rana rushed into the room. She threw herself on top of the dying Tischenko. Tears poured down her cheeks and onto Tischenko’s shirt. She alternately held his face in her hands and spoke in rapid-fire Turkish and then laid her head on his chest again.
Her pounding heart and panic forgotten at the sight of the revealed relationship, Charlotte moved to stand next to the couple. She wanted to kick Rana in the ribs for pretending to be a friend. If she’d never met Rana, Tischenko wouldn’t have known about the hotel room. Atakan almost died today because she’d foolishly told Rana her plan for his birthday. Bringer of bad luck.
“You should be sailing away. I said leave me.” A wet cough racked Tischenko and he spit blood.
“I could not leave without you so I followed you.”
Tischenko touched a bloody hand to her face and then ripped a necklace with a medal from his neck. He put it in Rana’s palm. “I told you the saints do not like me,” he said with a ragged breath.
“Maksy, you cannot die. I will not allow it.” More of Rana’s tears fell, wetting Tischenko’s face.
“He’s almost dead now. He’s bleeding to death internally. One of those bullets had to have hit an artery,” Charlotte said, taking perverse pleasure in telling Rana the terrible information.
Tischenko struggled for breath, a raspy sound coming from him as he tried to inhale. The rasp turned to a gurgle and then he was silent.
The sound of running feet came from the stairwell end of the corridor.
Rana cried out and snatched Tischenko’s gun from where Atakan had tossed it on the bed. She was in mid-turn towards him when Charlotte grabbed the sword from the chair and swung it down on Rana’s forearm.
A jumble of sounds filled the air, simultaneously, or so it seemed to Charlotte. A sickening snap and instantaneous scream came from Rana, men shouting for Charlotte to drop the sword, Atakan telling them he was a Ministry agent in Turkish. In the distance, a police siren wailed.
Charlotte let go of the sword and raised her hands. Atakan managed to get the confusion sorted out fast. Security confiscated both guns and the sword. They radioed for an ambulance and had the crying Rana sit in a chair while Charlotte and Atakan dressed in the bathroom.
Within minutes uniformed police officers arrived followed shortly afterward by the ambulance. One of the officers would ride with the medics to the hospital where Rana’s broken arm would be treated. Once she was out of emergency, she’d be transported to the jail hospital ward.
As Rana started to step through the door with the officer escorting her, she turned to Charlotte.
“I loved him,” she said, cradling her blue-black and purple discolored arm.
“Not as much as I love Atakan.”
#
After they gave their statements and the detectives granted them permission to leave, Atakan and Charlotte were moved to a different suite.
Charlotte sank down onto the bed and then popped back up at the knock at the door.
“Relax,” Atakan said and went to the door. He looked through the peephole and opened the door. One of the detectives stood in the hallway. He and Atakan talked briefly.
“What did he want?” Charlotte asked.
“To give me an update and to tell me I can pick up my gun tomorrow at the station.”
“What was the update?”
“Rana told them where Tischenko’s boat was and they’d have to hurry if they wanted to apprehend his accomplice. They caught him. He admitted to bribing a room service waiter...who is no longer employed here. Rightfully so in my opinion.”
“Good.”
She didn’t jump when someone knocked on the door again. She and Atakan took turns at the peephole when the party identified himself as room service.
They opened the door to a creepy déjà vu scene. Standing there was a waiter with a bucket of champagne, a bowl of strawberries and a huge bouquet of roses on a cloth-covered cart.
A man in a nicely tailored suit who had been next to the waiter ushered the waiter inside. He introduced himself as the hotel manager and explained how much he regrets the attempt on Atakan’s life occurred in his hotel. By way of apology, he personally chose a bottle of Cristal champagne from our private stock. He instructed the waiter to open the champagne and wished them a pleasan
t stay for the remainder of their time.
“The stinkers. I asked if they carried Cristal when I booked the room. I wanted to order us a bottle for this evening. They told me no,” Charlotte said after the manager and waiter left.
Atakan embraced her from behind. “You saved my life twice today. I guess now I’ll have to marry you.”
Charlotte pressed her back into his chest. “I should say yes, if only to end your tragically unromantic marriage proposals.” She felt his smile against her neck.
“I’m serious about our marrying.”
“Immigration isn’t a problem for me now so why do you want to marry?”
“I didn’t like the way Tischenko said, your woman in his threats.”
“They’re just words Atakan. Chatter from an evil man.”
He turned her in his arms. “It wasn’t words but the how he spoke them—the dismissive way he referred to you.”
“Atakan—”
“He diminished your importance to me. Never again will I have someone think of you as just my woman.”
She hugged him, burying her face in the crook of his neck, she told him, “You are my world and I love that I am yours.” Then, she raised her head, leaned back in his embrace, and smiled. “Although technically that wasn’t a proposal, it was the best non-proposal ever.”
“I’ll check into French law to see if anything special is required.”
“French law?”
“I want to marry there. We’ll finish our vacation, only this time it is our honeymoon.”
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Table of Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Four
Byzantine Gold Page 24
