Donna Joy Usher - Chanel 02 - Goons 'n' Roses

by Donna Joy Usher

  ‘Thanks.’

  He watched me for a moment longer – the look on his face said he liked what he was seeing – and then he headed into the restaurant. The afternoon sun had been creeping along the footpath and had finally reached our table. I stuck my legs out and closed my eyes, enjoying the feel of the warmth on my skin and the memory of his gaze.

  I murmured in annoyance as the warmth disappeared. Stupid clouds. Where had they come from? I hadn’t seen one cloud since we had gotten here. I opened my eyes to see whether it was a little fluffy cloud that would soon be gone, or a big, I’m-going-to-ruin-your-afternoon cloud.

  It was definitely an I’m-going-to-ruin-your-afternoon cloud. Just not the type I had expected.

  Boris stood there, casting a long shadow over me. He was showing his pointy teeth off in a full smile. Vladimir was standing next to him, but Dmitrij was nowhere to be seen. Possibly with the car then.

  I was surprised at how calm I felt as I tabulated the information and made decisions based on the facts at hand. I didn’t know how long Billy was going to be talking and anyway, I really didn’t want to drag him into this.

  ‘Look out,’ I screamed, ducking and pointing past Boris’s shoulder.

  My ruse worked, and they both swivelled, their hands going to their belts. I jumped up and, praying Maria would forgive me, smashed my chair over the back of Boris’s head. Then I took off, running down the road.

  I used the very powerful knowledge I had gained from watching copious action movies and I dodged and weaved as I ran. The first bullet whizzed past my head and slammed through the window of a car ahead and to my right.

  Fuck. I couldn’t believe they were shooting at me. I mean even on the job back in Sydney I’d never been shot at. I swerved to the right between a couple of the parked cars and continued running with the line of vehicles between them and me. Of course that was only going to work until they ventured onto the road, but it bought me a little time to work out what the fuck to do.

  My lungs were starting to burn and I could hear my breath coming in harsh gasps. I really had to start some sort of fitness campaign when I got home. Being continuously chased had more than highlighted how unfit I had become.

  I heard a gun bark again and ducked while I ran. The bullet ripped a small piece of tarmac out of the road a few metres in front of me.

  Holy shit. That had been close.

  A second gun joined the first and then there was a roar of a motorbike. Billy screeched to a halt beside me and yelled, ‘Get on.’

  I didn’t need to be told twice. Grabbing the helmet from his outstretched hand, I vaulted onto the back of the bike. I wedged the helmet onto my head, threw my arms around his waist and leant down as low as I could. My weight hadn’t fully settled before the bike was leaping forwards. I heard a gun fire again and almost instantaneously felt a stinging on my right arm.

  ‘Shit,’ I said, looking down. A bullet had nicked the side of my arm.

  ‘You all right?’ Billy’s voice came from within the helmet.

  ‘Yep. You?’

  ‘I’ll be better when I’ve had a coffee.’

  I started to laugh and then I couldn’t stop. I clung onto him as tears ran down my face.

  ‘Are you crying?’ he asked.

  I shook my head, and then realised he couldn’t see me. ‘No.’ I gasped for air. ‘I’m laughing.’

  He glanced back over his shoulder at my face and then shook his head and said, ‘You’re unbelievable.’

  I looked back over my shoulder at the traffic, as I did up the helmet. A black SUV pulled out and dodged around a slower moving vehicle. I tapped Billy on the shoulder and said, ‘I think we’ve got company.’

  He adjusted his side mirror and peered into it for a second. ‘Black SUV a few vehicles back?’

  ‘That’s the one.’

  He swore and kicked the bike up a gear, darting out and around the car in front. The driver we cut off leaned on his horn and yelled a few choice words at us. I was tempted to give him the finger, but I figured one vehicle trying to kill us was enough.

  Billy took a hard right, accelerating as soon as we were around the corner. The black SUV followed and suddenly there were no vehicles between us and them. I saw the passenger side windows being rolled down and I knew that within seconds bullets would be raining down upon us.

  I bashed on Billy’s shoulder trying to warn him and he shouted, ‘Hang on.’ I clung to him with both arms while he executed a sharp right turn into an alley. I was hoping he knew where he was going. The last thing we needed right now was to get caught on a dead-end street.

  The alley was wide enough for the car to follow, but it gained us another few seconds breathing space. Billy was weaving the bike from side-to-side when we heard a gun fire behind us.

  I shrieked and ducked down, making myself as small a target as possible on the back of the bike. Even though I didn’t know if it would stop a bullet, I was glad I had on the helmet.

  The bike roared out of the end of the alley and swung left across a line of traffic. Tyres screeched and horns blasted and I could see faces – some horrified, some angry – staring out at us through the different windscreens. The back of the bike skidded from underneath us and I envisioned us sliding down the road with the bike on top. That was going to hurt. I heard the throttle growl and the end suddenly kicked back in beneath us. Then we were flying away from the oncoming cars.

  ‘Holy shit,’ I said, staring back at the mayhem behind us. The black SUV was caught in the end of the alley waiting for the traffic jam we had created to clear. If we were lucky, we would be out of sight by the time they were free.

  We rode for a few more minutes, Billy taking seemingly random turns. I lay my head on his back and took some deep breaths trying to quieten my poor heart. It had done more beating over the past couple of days than it normally did in a month.

  A few moments later I realised that my fingers were digging into Billy’s stomach muscles. And I found myself noting that those muscles were rock hard. I released my grip and trailed a hand up the length of his abdomen and back down.

  He turned his head and met my eyes for the briefest moment. I could see the same look on his face that I was sure was on mine. Desire. We had all this adrenaline racing around in our blood stream and it seemed the emergency was over. It would be a sin to waste all that adrenaline.

  I moved my hands up so that they were sitting over his chest, just to be sure that his pectoral muscles were as hard as his abs. They were. Then I slid my fingers back down to the band of his jeans.

  Things were about to get really interesting when there was a blast of a horn. A car charged out of a side street narrowly missing the back of the bike. It was the black SUV. I could see Boris in the front passenger seat. He was grinning maliciously.

  Billy leant forwards and dug around in the bike tank-bag. ‘You’re going to have to take them out,’ he said.

  ‘What?’

  He pulled a Glock 22 out of the bag and passed it back to me. ‘Have you ever fired a gun?’

  ‘Not in anger,’ I lied.

  ‘Just point and shoot.’

  That was easy for him to say. I couldn’t hit an object when both it and I were stationary. Now he wanted me to take out a moving vehicle from the back of a weaving bike. Geez Louise.

  ‘I’m going to lure them onto an empty street,’ he said.

  Empty street? Good plan. At least there was less chance of me hitting an innocent.

  He overtook a few more cars and then turned left into a side street. The black SUV turned about a hundred metres behind us.

  ‘Now,’ Billy yelled.

  I turned around as far as I could and hooked my left arm around to the other side of his body for support. Then I lifted my right arm, aimed in the vicinity of the black car, and fired off six rounds in rapid succession.

  I probably would have missed totally if Billy hadn’t swerved the bike to the right at that precise moment. Two bullets peppered into
the bonnet of the car. One went through the windshield, and the other three tore into the front right tyre.

  The tyre exploded into a mess of rubber, dragging the car to that side. It wouldn’t have been an issue except they had all ducked when my bullet had whizzed through the windscreen. I saw Dmitrij desperately dragging the steering wheel to the left, but it was too late.

  The car ploughed into a dumpster, metal shrieking and tearing as it came to a dead stop. The last thing I saw were the front airbags exploding.

  I handed the weapon to Billy, who slid it back into the tank-bag.

  ‘Nice shooting,’ he said. There was a pile of admiration in his voice that I didn’t deserve.

  I shrugged and wrapped my arms around him again. He detoured back to the restaurant and stopped the bike near the chair I had ruined on Boris’s hard head.

  I climbed off the bike and watched Billy remove his helmet and enter the restaurant. I took off my helmet, pushing back the stray bits of hair that had escaped my bun and pinning them into place.

  ‘I think we should lie low for a while,’ Billy said when he came back a few moments later holding my bag and the leather jacket.

  ‘Where did you have in mind?’ I was hoping it was somewhere we could lie really low. Like, horizontally low.

  ‘My place.’ He said it with a straight face but there was a twinkle in his eyes.

  ‘I concur,’ I said.

  We stared at each other for a few moments and then suddenly, we were kissing. He crushed me to him, one arm around my waist, the other holding the back of my head.

  Kissing him was even better than I had imagined. I wrapped both arms around him, clinging to him as his lips, insistent as they moved over mine, took my breath away. He was running his hand up my side when he suddenly stopped and pulled away.

  He looked down at his hand. There was blood on it. He turned me sideways to look at my right arm.

  ‘I got shot,’ I said, shrugging. ‘It’s just a scrape.’

  ‘What am I going to do with you?’

  ‘You could try spanking me.’

  He burst out laughing. ‘Get on the bike. I need to take you home and clean you up.’

  ‘Oh good,’ I said, sliding into the jacket and pulling my helmet back on. ‘Cause I’m feeling pretty dirty.’

  ***

  Billy lived in a small apartment in a run-down, red-brick block, on the outskirts of town. It was small but surprisingly tidy. The well-worn furniture gave it a homely feel and for a second I was homesick for Hickery.

  He led me into the bathroom and retrieved a first-aid kit from a small vanity. He washed and bandaged the small nick the bullet had made in my arm. Then he kissed it better.

  We hadn’t said much since we’d left the restaurant and I didn’t think now was the time to start talking. I let him trail kisses from my arm up to my neck and then I took him by the hand and led him to his bedroom. I pulled his shirt up over his head, pausing to stare at the contour of his muscles.

  They had felt good to the tips of my fingers, but even that hadn’t prepared me for the perfection of his body. Swimwear models everywhere would be throwing in the towel if they got a glimpse of Billy’s abs.

  I shook my head and blew out some air and then I pushed him onto his bed, watching those muscles ripple as he shuffled back towards the top. Still staring, I pulled my t-shirt off and crawled on top so that I was straddling him. I must have looked hilarious with my Band-Aids and the bandage on my tanned arm, but he didn’t seem to be finding me funny; quite the opposite in fact.

  I could feel his erection pushing up through the fabric of his jeans and I was suddenly, totally turned on. But I didn’t want to rush this and miss the delicious sensation of my body winding tighter and tighter, so I didn’t do what I wanted to – get naked immediately – and instead I lay forwards on him and took his mouth with mine.

  His body was like silk and steel, as he moved beneath me. Our tongues touched, diving into each other’s mouths as our lips danced together. He moaned gently against my mouth and trailed his fingers down the bare skin of my back.

  ‘You are the most intriguing woman I have ever met,’ he said, running his lips across the sensitive skin under my ear. He took my lobe into his mouth and sucked gently.

  I groaned and ground my hips down into him.

  He sucked in a breath of air and bit me lightly on the neck. ‘I don’t know any other woman who could inspire both the Russian and the Italian Mafia to capture her.’

  A cold chill raced down my spine at the same time that a hot flush swept over the rest of my body in a wave. Memories flitted through my mind:

  Billy watching The Russian’s hideout while Tommy Tiger entered.

  Our conversation last night when I had told him that Martine and I were going to The Chocolate Bar for breakfast.

  Billy speaking fluent Italian to Maria.

  I pulled away from him and bit my lip. ‘I’ve been a bad girl,’ I said, as I gently rolled my hips.

  He closed his eyes and reached for me again. I captured his hands and placed them on my breasts while I continued the motion of my lower body. ‘And when I’ve been a bad girl I like to be really naughty.’

  His breath caught in his throat and he let out a low growl as he massaged my breasts.

  ‘Stay here,’ I commanded. ‘I’ll be right back.’

  He watched me as I left the room. I grabbed my handbag, rumbling through its contents till I found what I was looking for and then I tossed the bag into the bedroom. I’d need it again in a moment.

  I moved to the doorway where I leaned against the frame. I was going to have to do this right if he wasn’t to get suspicious. I undid my shorts, wiggling out of them in the most seductive way I could manage. Feeling stupid, I twirled them on one finger before flinging them off towards my bag. By the grin on his face I could tell he liked it.

  Then, thankful I had worn my sexiest underwear, I sauntered towards the bed with the cable ties Martine had given me in one hand.

  ‘I’m going to do things to you that you’ve never had done before.’

  That was probably true.

  I slapped the end of the cable ties against my bare stomach a few times, watching in satisfaction as his eyes widened in response.

  ‘I’m going to satisfy you so that you never let me go.’

  That was a blatant lie.

  I shimmied back up his body while he stroked me and for a second I considered abandoning my plan. The problem was that he felt so damned good. It had been too long since someone had loved me, and the warmth of his body, the feel of his skin, was intoxicating. I wanted to feel him pinning me down with his hard body. I wanted to wrap my legs around him as he took me. I wanted to feel him deep within me until we were both totally, exhaustingly sated. Couldn’t I just enjoy him for an hour or two?

  But then I remembered Roger and cold water ran through my veins.

  He’d felt good too.

  I guess that was the problem with bad boys. They weren’t called that because they sold Girl Guide cookies in their spare time.

  I moaned a little, and shifted my hips over his erection as I lifted one of his arms above his head. He closed his eyes and his breathing increased and I knew if I kept up that rhythm I could do whatever I wanted and he wouldn’t realise until it was too late.

  I took one of the cable ties and secured his wrist to the bedhead, making sure I had done it the right way around. Then I did the same with the other arm.

  When they were both secure I leant down and I kissed him one more time. Then I wiggled back off him and hopped off the bed. His eyes flew open and he stared at me.

  ‘The thing is Billy,’ I said, pulling my shorts back up. ‘I never told you about the Italian Mafia.’

  His eyes widened as he shook his head. ‘I’ve been keeping an eye on you.’

  ‘And you were the only person who knew where I was going to be this morning.’

  ‘I didn’t tell them,’ he said. ‘Chanel, you have
to believe me.’

  ‘I’d like to believe you,’ I said. ‘But I can’t risk it. Sorry.’ Reaching into my bag I grabbed the roll of Duct Tape. I ripped a piece off and looked down at him.

  As I lowered the tape towards his mouth he said, ‘Don’t do this Chanel. You’re making a big mistake. I’m an…’

  ‘Idiot?’ I finished for him as I secured his lips with the tape.

  He shook his head and made some muffled noises while I plucked my shirt off the floor. I pulled it back on while he struggled against the cable ties.

  ‘Bye Billy,’ I said, blowing him a kiss. ‘It’s been fun.’ And then I turned and headed for the front door.

  9

  Mother, Where Art Though?

  I considered taking his motorbike, but I didn’t know how to ride one. I didn’t want to ruin my super-cool exit by crashing his bike and ending up in hospital. So I caught a cab back to The Luxor.

  By the time I got there the shock of what I’d been through that day was starting to affect me.

  ‘I got shot,’ I said to Martine when she opened her hotel room door. And then I burst into tears.

  ‘Sweet mother,’ she said, pulling me into the room.

  I held my bandaged arm out for her to admire while I sniffled.

  ‘What the… who did… how… I don’t know what to ask first,’ she admitted.

  ‘Fucking Russians,’ I said, slumping onto one of the chairs. My legs were having trouble supporting me. ‘They tried to kill me when I was at lunch.’

  ‘Is Billy okay?’

  I grimaced as I said, ‘Sort of…’

  ‘What do you mean sort of?’

  ‘I may have used those cable ties to secure him to his bedhead.’

  ‘That’s some kinky shit.’ She sounded impressed.

  ‘Not like that,’ I said, wishing it had been like that. ‘He took me out for Italian.’

  ‘And for that you tied him to the bed? Lucky he didn’t take you for Vietnamese.’

  She got a smile out of me. ‘He speaks fluent Italian.’

  She stared at me for a second and then raised her hands as she shook her head. ‘Still not getting you.’