Krystal's Bodyguard

by Molly Rice

  He wondered why he’d been so averse to the idea of settling down. He had settled down. He just hadn’t done so with a partner.

  Well, he thought, grinning, all that was going to change the minute Dana was well enough to go with him to apply for a marriage license. He patted the pocket with the pager again, as if for good luck.

  And then some impulse he was never able to explain made him take a right on Lincoln instead of a left, and he headed back to Minneapolis.

  Only one thought kept playing over and over in his mind; he was never going to be more than a pager call away from Dana again.

  A LAST DESPERATE SURGE of will gave Dana the energy to lurch her body upward. She heard a grunt, feet stumbling, felt the pressure leave the pillow as the assailant was caught off guard. She rolled onto her side trying to scramble out from under the covers, thinking only to break free, run from the danger. But the man had recovered himself and reached for her before she could clear the edge of the bed. His big hand closed around her injured arm and the blast of pain made her fall back to loosen the pressure of his hold.

  Pain blinded her to everything else. She had tried to scream but her mouth and throat were so dry she couldn’t do more than grunt. The pillow came down, shutting out even those meager attempts to cry for help. She put her hand up, tugging at the pillow, trying to let even a pinprick of air under it. It was no use. The man was too strong. Which once again begged the question, How had he got past the guard and where had he found the energy?

  Dizziness prevailed and she felt her body go limp. She was going to die. Never going to see Krystal or Nico again…

  NICO STOOD in the doorway, adjusting his eyes to the dim light, which was partly obscured by his own body. For a moment he thought the figure bent over Dana’s bed was her doctor, examining her.

  He started to call out when it hit him that the doctor would have at least turned on the night-light. He took a step forward and saw Dana break away from the guy, heard her cry of pain, saw the man lift something that might have been a pillow and bring it down over her face.

  The guy was big, as big as he. He fought with matching fervor, his fists landing on Nico’s person over and over, though some fell short of their mark. In those instances it was because Nico had landed a few well-aimed parries of his own. Somewhere in the red haze of fury he was conscious of the sound of Dana crying and weakly calling for help, of the sound his gun made when it fell and slid away on the highly polished floor. But the guy wasn’t going down and Nico wasn’t quitting until he did.

  The lights came on suddenly and a woman’s voice cried out, “What’s going—Oh, my God! Security. Somebody call security!”

  In the moment that Dana had gulped that first unexpected gift of air, she’d not registered what had happened—was happening. She heard the sounds of men fighting, heard the grunts, the sound of air being sucked in when a blow landed, but her arm throbbed horrendously now and her mouth was so dry she felt she could suffocate from that alone.

  Childishly she thought, This is not good for me, as her head fell back against the pillow. Did she pass out for a moment? The lights were on and there were shouts in the hall and the sound of a multitude of footsteps pounding up the hall toward her room.

  She could see the two men thrashing on the floor and saw that Nico was pinned beneath the other man.

  She tried to get out of bed, thought she could somehow help him. But even if such a major feat had been possible she saw it was unnecessary when the room suddenly filled with people led by two security guards, their guns drawn.

  “One of ‘em’s hurt,” a guard cried. One of the nurses ran to the man on the floor and the other rushed to Dana’s side, immediately starting up the machine that would take her pulse, blood pressure and heart rate.

  Dana looked past the nurse at the scene in the corner. She blinked, shook her head, tried to focus. It must be delirium, she thought She rubbed her eyes and looked again. Nico was leaning against the wall, holding his arm across his stomach, his eyes closed, breathing heavily.

  The guard and a nurse were kneeling on either side of the man on the floor.

  The man was Joe Lake.

  Dana’s head thudded against the pillow as she fell into a complete faint

  Chapter Eighteen

  Nico Scalia waited for Mindy to signal that the boss was ready to see him. But when she did, he didn’t seem to see her, his eyes transfixed on something beyond the window.

  Mindy got up and went over to the chairs lined along the wall beside Stella Martinson’s door.

  “Nico,” she said, touching his shoulder. He snapped to attention. “Stell is ready for you, hon.”

  Nico nodded, got up, looked around with a confused expression on his face and then seemed to connect with reality. He went into Stella’s office.

  Mindy stood there, staring at the closed door, shaking her head.

  “Something wrong, Min?” Luke Avery asked as he passed by.

  “Notice the way Nico’s been acting lately?”

  Luke stopped, stroked his chin, squinted his eyes in thought. “Now that you mention it Scalia seems to drift in and out when anyone talks to him and I heard on the office grapevine that he’s turned down two juicy cases. I happen to know firsthand that he quit our bowling league and refused our annual invitation to the S.P.P.D. Halloween Ball.”

  He frowned at Mindy. “Scalia used to be the most outgoing, fun-loving guy on staff.”

  “Well, let’s hope Stell asked to see him so she could get to the bottom of it and find a way to get him back on track.”

  STELLA WAS ALREADY AWARE of what was bothering Nico. Heather Wilson had confided in her because she was worried about him. She couldn’t just blurt it out, she had to finesse him. She pretended to be reading a file she already knew by heart.

  “So, Nico,” she began, “it looks like you’ve decided to take your vacation this month. Not the greatest time of year unless you’re headed for the South Seas.”

  Nico stared at her, dumbfounded. “Vacation?”

  “Or a honeymoon?” Stella slyly suggested.

  His laugh was short, bitter. “From your lips to God’s ear,” he said, his eyes suddenly glittering with pain.

  “Trouble in paradise?”

  Nico expelled a ragged sigh and fastened his gaze on his shoes. “Let’s just say, if you’ve got an assignment for me, I’d appreciate it.”

  “Nico, you turned down two assignments in the past two weeks.”

  Nico shrugged. “Something else,” he said. But there was a definite lack of interest in his tone.

  “I’ve got a case that’s right up your alley. Industrial sabotage. Sort of a rerun. We did this one a few years back. Taylor Industries.”

  Nico’s head sprang up and she saw that his face had paled.

  “Is this some kind of joke?” he demanded. “If so, it’s not very funny.”

  Stella gently shook her head. “No joke, Nico. This is a legitimate assignment. Nothing but surveillance and a little snooping around. Mostly waiting to catch someone in the act, actually.” She hesitated and then added, “Not much contact with the client or the employees. You’ll be on your own for the most part and there’s no time limit. The order read, ‘As long as it takes.’”

  In other words, a long, dull, brainless, routine assignment. Nico gave Stella a long searching look. Normally she’d never have suggested this kind of job to her best detective. But maybe he wasn’t her best anymore.

  “Okay—so it’s legitimate. But is this a misguided plan to get me involved with Dana again?”

  Stella shook her head, never breaking eye contact. “I’m not running a mating agency here. You want the job or not?”

  He thought about working for Taylor, Dana’s father, a man he’d never met and didn’t relish meeting now. Wouldn’t everything on the job remind him of Dana? And wouldn’t there be a chance he’d even run into her there? He knew she held her mother in low esteem, so if she had any kind of relationship with her fa
ther, she probably met with him at his office.

  Dana had begged him to stay away from her, insisting she needed time to work through the past, and needed to be alone. If they ran into each other at Taylor Industries, would she think it was a setup?

  He stood. “May I have a little time to think it over?”

  Her gaze never altered. “Twenty-four hours,” she firmly stated.

  Nico left her office and the building immediately.

  As if on automatic pilot, he found himself driving to the hospital. He parked on the street across from the side of the building where Dana’s room was located. Her window was a blank screen reflecting the sky and the smokestack of a distant building.

  Sitting there gave him some comfort though he’d never caught a glimpse of her at the window.

  He’d been there maybe ten minutes when he heard a car pull up behind his. A moment later, heard a familiar voice.

  “‘You and Papa go up to your mama, I’ll be right along.”

  Before he could react he saw his father crossing the street, holding Krystal’s hand. At the same moment the passenger door of his car was flung open and his mother climbed into the seat beside him.

  “So, Young Dominick, this is what you’ve come to?”

  “Mama, I didn’t expect to see you.”

  “Of course you didn’t. Maybe if you had you’d have shaved? You don’t come to the house, you sneak around in your car and drive right by, you sit out here and moon for a woman who needs you but you don’t go inside. My proud, arrogant son, a wimp now.”

  Anger flared and then dissipated. “You don’t understand,” he said.

  “No, I don’t,” Rose admitted. “Krystal has been pining to return home and is confused by all the losses in her life. But you’re too busy licking your wounds to give her back something she can depend on. Dana has lost her best friend, and worse, has to face that he murdered her husband and at least two other people, including a fellow policeman. That he tried to murder her. But you leave her alone with her pain, her guilt, her fear of ever trusting anyone again, instead of sitting by her side proving there is someone she can trust.”

  “She told me to stay away!” Nico yelled.

  Rose leaned forward and slapped his face. “You don’t yell at your mama,” she said in a calm voice.

  The slap had more stunned than hurt him. Nico put his hand to his cheek and glared at his mother. “I’m not a kid anymore,” he warned.

  “No? Still you act like one.”

  They sat in a mutually stubborn silence for a few minutes while Nico mentally vowed he was going to buy a pack of cigarettes at the first convenience store he came to and Rose thought this would be a good day to make bread, to work her anger and frustration out on a massive hunk of dough.

  As usual, Nico relented first. Mama’s streak of mulishness could keep them sitting here without speaking for weeks on end.

  “I’m sorry, Mama,” he said.

  Rose gave him a suspicious look with a tilt of her head. “Sorry enough to go up and see Dana?”

  “She won’t see me. I’ve tried. She refused.”

  “So, you’ll try again. And if it doesn’t work today, you’ll try again tomorrow. Loving a woman doesn’t mean giving up being a man, Nico. It should make you more a man.” When she got out of the car she shook both her head and fist at him. He had to grin. Something about her reminded him of Dana.

  NICO STOOD in the open doorway staring at Dana. She looked better than she had the last time he’d seen her, the day after Joe Lake tried to kill her. But there was still a fragile quality about her, as if a good wind could blow her apart.

  A part of him that had shut down rose up and filled his chest, tautened his muscles, drove a burst of energy to stimulate his brain. He wanted to grab her up in his arms, hold her safe forever. Wanted to slay dragons for her. Wanted to fight her enemies, defend her causes, shower her with attention and gifts.

  He stood and watched her as she stared out of her window, unaware of his presence.

  And then she pulled her gaze from the window and turned her attention back to the TV set high on the wall beside the door.

  That was when she saw Nico, her hand going to her chest, a gasp emitting from her throat, her blue eyes widening into circles of surprise.

  “Nico!”

  He took a step into the room and stopped. “Are you going to call Security?” he asked, wary of her reaction.

  She blushed and the added color in her cheeks gave him a flash of the old Dana.

  “I deserve that, I guess,” she admitted.

  “If you still don’t want to see me, I’ll go. But I warn you, I’ll be back.”

  “In that case, you might as well come in.” The sauciness of old but with a solemn expression on her face.

  He went to the foot of the bed and pulled a chair over, sitting as far from her as possible. He wasn’t going to stay away any longer, but he was going to let her set the pace.

  Dana’s head fell back against the headboard and her eyes closed for a minute.

  “I want to thank you for respecting my wishes,” she said when she opened them.

  An alarm went off in Nico’s head. His hands fisted in his pockets, his breath caught in his throat. He felt he’d choke if he tried to speak. He opted for silence.

  Dana saw the tension in his posture and wondered what there’d been in her words to alarm him. She tried again.

  “I know most men would have ignored those wishes, or read them as an end to the relationship and gone on to someone else.”

  “It’s only been two weeks,” Nico reminded, “not enough time to find someone else unless you’re a coldhearted person who has nothing but surface feelings for women.”

  He flushed as he realized he could have described himself in those terms before this year, before he’d met Dana Harper.

  Her gaze was probing, made him feel exposed, but he didn’t look away.

  “You didn’t even try to see me. I thought that was out of consideration for my feelings.”

  “It was. But it hurt like hell just the same. How did I know you’d ever let me back in?”

  A look of true confusion dulled her eyes. “But you knew I was in love with you.”

  He pulled his chair closer, leaned forward. “Dana, when they brought you around and you looked up and saw me hanging over your bed, you screamed at me to go away, to get out You got hysterical until the guard ushered me out

  “The next day was no better though your tone was altered. Very calmly, and with no hint of emotion on your face and in your voice, you told me you couldn’t see me ‘for a while.’ That you needed to work things out alone. You literally begged me to stay away.”

  Dana twisted her fingers together, trying to wring some help from her hands. “It wasn’t only you, Nico, I quit my job, as well.”

  “Wha-aat?”

  She looked away. “I felt tainted, dirty by association, not worthy to be called an officer of the court.”

  It floored him. How had she fallen so completely apart in such a short time, and all because of a scuzz like Lake?

  “I should have been here,” Nico exploded. “I should have helped you make more rational decisions, helped you see none of this was an onus on you. Instead, I was off rubbing salt in my wounds and then whining when it burned.”

  He pushed the chair back and strode to her side, taking her hands in his. “Dana, please, don’t do this to yourself. If you don’t want me, okay, I’ll learn to live with it But please don’t throw everything else away. You’re not responsible for Lake’s twisted mind, his corrupt value system. And I’ve seen you in court, I know how much of yourself you put into your work. Don’t let a fragmented ego keep you from the work you love and excel at. Don’t let…”

  His sentence trailed away, unfinished, as it struck him that he’d done exactly that with his own career.

  “Nico?” Dana tugged at his hands, frightened by the look on his face, the way he’d suddenly paled.

&
nbsp; He collapsed on the side of the bed and closed his eyes. “We are the most well-matched couple I’ve ever seen,” he said in a hushed, almost reverent tone. He opened his eyes and looked into her face. “We make all the same mistakes, think alike, go off half-cocked in the same way. We’d make a great clown act together.”

  Dana arched a haughty eyebrow, another look from the past he’d loved. “I’m not sure I like that image of us,” she stated, sniffing.

  For the first time in days, Nico grinned. “Calls ‘em as I sees ‘em, love.”

  “So what do we do about it?”

  “We could start by getting you out of here. Why are you still here, anyway?”

  Dana lowered her eyes, plucked at the edge of the blanket. “I don’t know. Apparently my vitals haven’t been right.”

  “Of course not,” Nico snapped. “You’ve been in an intense depression all this time. I’d bet my medical career that sitting in this hospital has only increased your depression and kept your system from functioning normally.”

  He stomped over to the locker and got her bag out. “Come on,” he ordered, “get dressed. I’ll wait outside.”

  “I can’t just walk…”

  “Do you need help dressing?”

  “I don’t think so but…”

  “Good. I’m going to tell the desk you’re releasing yourself.”

  “But Nico, I…”

  Impatiently he turned back, his hand on the door handle. “Do you trust me, Dana?”

  She didn’t hesitate. She nodded.

  “Then just let me handle this. You’re no more sick than I am.”

  If he felt any qualms about his high-handedness, he squelched them when he reached the desk and told them Dana was checking out. The feeling that he knew her better than anyone, that he knew how to get her up and running again, was stronger than his fear that he might be way off track and might be endangering her.