Unwelcome Protector

by Alexa Wallace

  She would have to give up both copies of the code. No matter what lies she told Zina about losing the second copy, Zina would never believe her and would continue to hound her. This meant that Zina would win, but so would she. She would save the man who'd cared for her since she'd been a child, and the man who now cared for her as a woman.

  Punishment for Zina could wait. Even without the evidence of the code, the evidence of witnesses would force the authorities to investigate Zina and cause her serious problems. No authority could easily ignore witnesses like an ex-employee, an ex-business associate and a journalist with a solid reputation.

  Was she being naïve? What could go wrong? What if Zina took the code but refused to let her grandfather go free? Ada could do nothing and would lose on all fronts.

  Did she have another option? Make a third copy of the code? Technically it wouldn't work. The real copies would show traces of being transferred from the Argentum server but a copy of a copy would not. Zina would claim forgery and she would win.

  Would Alex understand her decision? After a moment of anger she was sure he would, but it would put their new relationship at great risk. After all, she intended to lie to him, to deceive him. Was their relationship strong enough to overcome what he might see as a betrayal? She knew instinctively that her grandfather and Ralph would see things her way. Alex would still get his story, but it would be incomplete, for a time at least. Eventually Zina would lose. Her own ambition and the corrupt influence of those around her would bring her down.

  She'd made up her mind. Logically and instinctively the benefits outweighed the risks. She would have to handle the hurdles as they came and use her main asset, her brain, to clear them.

  She settled back on a deck chair and tried to sleep, but she knew she wouldn't. Her mind was too active. At one point she began to doze but woke with a start. The phone? Zina. Finally.

  'Why did you send Tursunov to kill Alex Marlowe?' Ada said angrily, immediately on the attack. 'What was the point of it?'

  'And good evening to you too, my dear.'

  'Spare me your sarcasm, Zina. Behaving like a criminal will only result in someone's death, maybe even yours, no matter how invincible you think you are.'

  'Ada, that was not my decision,' Zina said, sounding calm and reasonable. 'As I told you yesterday, I'm involved with certain partners who dictate the way I do business, and they see Marlowe's accusations as damaging Argentum.'

  'Partners who use killers to get their way will cause more damage to Argentum than Alex could ever do.'

  'Alex, is it? Have you become a little too friendly with Marlowe? He'll lead you astray, my dear. You're too young and inexperienced to deal with a man like that. You don't want a repeat of that university incident several years ago, do you? My heart grieved for you during that sad and bitter time. I don't want to see you suffer again.'

  'Don't pretend that you care about me, Zina. What matters are your actions, not your words. I want to see my grandfather! Where is he?'

  Zina was silent for a moment. When she spoke her voice had hardened. 'Fair exchange is no robbery, my dear. Where is my code?'

  'I have it, but you won't get it until I see my grandfather.'

  'Rushcutters Bay marina,' Zina said, 'mooring forty-seven, at midnight. Mr Twist will meet you there.' Her voice softened. 'We'll exchange our packages and then all our troubles will be little ones. Do you remember the games we played when you were a child?

  'Those days are gone, Zina. They'll never come back again.'

  'It's my fervent hope that they will, Ada. It's my hope that in time we'll be reconciled. Time heals all.'

  'You've committed too many sins, Zina. After tonight, we'll never speak again. I'll be there at midnight.'

  She hung up. The lights were on in Campbell Parade and the night was closing in. If Zina was true to her word, her grandfather would soon be out of his underground prison and on his way to Rushcutters Bay, probably under the careful watch of Tursunov. She would tell Alex that she was meeting Zina at three in the morning. He would probably plan to leave here before midnight to reach her grandfather before he was moved. But when Alex arrived he would find no one there. He would be safe, and so would Ralph and Tony and whoever else Ralph had enlisted. After Zina had kept her part of the bargain and her grandfather was free, she would ring Alex and confess her deceit. She would have to take her medicine and hope he would understand why she'd acted the way she did.

  To meet Zina she needed to leave here after ten. How would she get away? She could only hope that Alex would be sleeping so that she could slip out. She would manage it somehow. She hated the need to lie and deceive but her mind was made up. Now she had to make it work so that those she cared for would survive the coming night.

  Alex woke and found himself alone on the sofa. It was dark outside. He checked his phone. Only eight. How long had he slept? An hour? He could have done with three. He went into the bathroom and sluiced his face with cold water. Where was Ada? He checked the bedroom, then heard movement on the balcony. Ada was sitting on a deck chair and toying with her phone. Instantly he was alert.

  'Zina called?'

  Ada nodded without looking up. 'She wants to meet me at three at Rushcutters Bay,' she said quietly. 'She's on her yacht.'

  He sat down beside her and took her hand. She looked tired and distracted.

  'That's good isn't it?' he said. 'Now we have a schedule. We'll leave here before midnight, depending on how organised Ralph is. I'll ring him later. Then we can get to your grandfather before Zina moves him. I just hope she doesn't decide to move him before we get there.'

  Ada nodded without speaking. He kissed her lightly and put his arm around her shoulders. She leaned heavily against him.

  'You're tired,' he said. 'Let's go inside.'

  He sat her down on the sofa and held her closely again, feeling her softness. He wanted to do more than just hold her, but he felt somehow that to do so would be taking advantage of her. She was Miss Vulnerable again after being Miss Aggressive, or at least Miss Practical, for most of the afternoon. It had to be the result of tiredness and the strain of worrying about her grandfather.

  'Lie down in the bedroom,' he said. 'Get some sleep.'

  'It won't work. I won't sleep until it's over.'

  There was no point in pushing her. He knew himself how difficult it was to sleep when your mind kept churning with worries and wild imaginings. The only solution was to be busy.

  'Let's start getting ready. We have a few hours before we leave.'

  Alex took his rucksack from a nearby armchair and opened it.

  'I brought my father's Colt pistol. I hope we don't need it, but someone is sure to be guarding your grandfather. We've got to be prepared. I hope Ralph and Zac don't cause any problems when they show up.'

  'You should have more confidence in your father. He wants to be there to protect you.'

  Miss Perceptive again. He squeezed her shoulder playfully. 'Are you lecturing me, ma'am?'

  'Just reminding you.'

  'There's no better man to have on your side in a sticky situation. But sometimes he takes unnecessary chances.'

  'Well, I've got a feeling he'll make it through the night without any problems,' she said.

  'What's your crystal ball tell you about me?'

  'You'll make it through as well,' she said quietly. 'I know you will. We'll have a lot to talk about afterward.'

  So they would. They'd have a future to talk about. A long future, as far as he was concerned. But for now he wished she would spark up and sound a little more positive. The tiredness again.

  He looked at her slim, brown legs and resisted the urge to reach out and stroke them.

  'You'll need a pair of jeans tonight,' he said. 'Those shorts won't be much protection underground.'

  She nodded. 'I've got a spare pair. And you'll need a torch.'

  He went into the kitchen and found a torch near the power panel and swapped new batteries into it.

 
'Will the phones work down there?' she said when he got back to the sofa.

  'Probably not in the unused tunnels. The repeaters in the active tunnels might send some signal through. We shouldn't need our phones.'

  'You'll need a map.'

  He grinned. 'Why? I'll just follow your pretty backside.'

  She smiled and leaned back into his shoulder. 'You said we need to be prepared for anything.'

  He took his notebook and pen from the rucksack and watched as she sketched the lines of the active tunnels and the connecting doors that led to the old command centre.

  'Check the screens on the way down so you know when the next trains are due. Duck into a wall alcove for protection if a train passes.'

  'You're making it sound as if I'll be on my own.'

  She smiled up at him. 'I'll be with you all the way.'

  The inviting curve of her lips drew him down and he kissed her softly. How long did the kiss last? What explained its strange dreamlike quality that he'd never before experienced? In the seconds that passed it seemed that her inner thoughts had crossed the space between them and found their way into his own consciousness. He imagined a film passing in front of his eyes, each frame telling the story of a part of her life. First was the story of the child without parents, sitting alone in a schoolroom somewhere, staring through the window at the children at play on the other side of the glass. Then he saw the story of the teenage girl guided through her early life by an old man who struggled to give her the confidence she needed to take her own place in the world. The story of the young student and the foolish man who took what she gave and cared nothing for it, passed too briefly. He wanted to know more. The last showed the hurt and confusion of betrayal by a surrogate mother who had now become a mortal enemy. For a brief moment he'd seen into her mind. Was this some new aspect of love he'd never been aware of?

  When the kiss ended, she looked into his warm, brown eyes. Strangely, she felt playful. Her heavy concerns, what was about to happen in a few short hours, all of it seemed to have drifted away. Was that what a kiss was supposed to do? Dissolve your cares and unhappy memories?

  'I heard about a romance in years gone by that made you very unhappy,' she said. 'A little birdie told me.'

  'I can guess who that little birdie was,' he said with a dry smile.

  'Do you feel about me the way you felt about her?'

  He reached out and moved a stray strand of hair behind her ear. 'That's impossible to answer. You and she are two different people. I was a different man then.'

  She faked a grumpy frown. 'That's not the answer a woman wants to hear.'

  'At least I'm honest.'

  'Sometimes a woman doesn't want the honest answer.'

  'You want me to lie?'

  'No, I just want the truth about what you feel now.'

  He took her hand. 'What I feel now is that you're working with me, not against me. With her, I was never certain. I can trust you. That's the important difference.'

  Suddenly she felt the playfulness evaporate and the somber mood of only moments ago returned. For a second she toyed with the notion of telling him what she planned to do. But he would never agree to a plan that allowed Zina to win. She was too tired to fight that battle with him now. All she could do now was enjoy the moment with him. She would have time later to worry about the consequences of her actions.

  The movement of his hand on hers brought her body back to life with a jolt.

  'Are you still there?' he said, his voice deeper than usual. 'You disappeared for a second.'

  'I was thinking about our future.' She was beginning to realise now it wouldn't be much without him. After tonight, remaining as friends only could never be enough. When he went down into that tunnel she wanted him to take some part of her with him, some reason to want to understand why she'd lied to him, some reason to want to come back to her.

  'I think our future is promising,' he said. 'I thought you felt the same.'

  Promising? Was that all? She wanted it to be certain. They both had to pass some kind of test to make solid the connection between them and give them a stronger reason to trust each other. What they had right now was not enough for that to happen. And what unforeseen things might happen tonight? What if her plan was faulty? What if Alex didn't come back alive?

  She stood. 'Come into the bedroom.'

  He got up and put his hands on her shoulders. The warmth of his touch sent a shimmer of heat down her back and sides. He looked into her eyes. 'Is this what you really want?'

  She smiled. 'Isn't the invitation plain enough?'

  'Couldn't be plainer.'

  She knew this was right for her now, right for them both. If the future she wanted didn't come to pass, at least she would have this memory of being with him. She would never have to live with the regret of not knowing.

  She wrapped her arms around his waist. 'Come into the bedroom,' she said again, hearing the boldness in the words. Was this her voice speaking? She'd never in her life spoken to a man like this, with such confidence.

  He closed his arms around her, taking her prisoner in a warm and muscular embrace, and kissed her softly. 'Too late to change your mind.'

  'Once my mind is made up,' she said, 'I never change it.'

  Why would she want to? She'd fallen for him. The only questions now were how far would the fall take her, and where would she land?

  Alex gazed down at the woman in his arms. He felt no need to hesitate. Why should he? What she was offering was evidence of her commitment to him. How committed was he? His feelings of want for her, and not just her body, told him how much. She was willing to become his in a way he could never have anticipated only half a day ago. His response had to be just as honest. He wanted her to know that his wish was not to own her, to govern her life, but to protect her.

  The sea breezes had strengthened now and beat solidly against the front windows, but inside the bedroom in the glow of the bedside lamp a small island of quietness existed. He ran his hands over her blonde hair and traced the soft line of her cheek with his finger. Her blue eyes were welcoming, with an undercurrent of vulnerability, devoid of the aggressiveness she'd shown in the hours after they'd first met. She was beginning to care for him, and with the caring came uncertainty for their future. He understood this instinctively and shared the uncertainty, and it worried him. Tonight he needed to remain cool in the battle with Zina, and right at this moment Ada was peeling away that coolness, layer by layer.

  As he kissed her, Ada felt a tremor in his body as if he'd tried to resist a force that he was unable to overcome. His kiss was deep and searching, a kiss that told her he had made his choice. The knowledge that he now belonged to her warmed the centre of her being and gave her a feeling of power.

  He lifted his head and smiled down at her. She spoke his name just to hear its sound.

  'Is that the first time you've called me Alex?' he said.

  'It feels natural to me now. We've stopped being strangers.'

  She gripped his shirt and pulled him toward her to kiss him again, a kiss that this time was even more pleasurable because of her feeling of being in command.

  She felt his hands move beneath her T-shirt, around her waist and then upward toward her breasts, without quite touching them. She felt her nipples harden with the nearness of his fingertips. The warmth at her centre spread outward and suffused her whole body. She lifted his shirt and slowly ran her hands across the flat hardness of his stomach. When she held her hands still, she felt his muscles move like coiled snakes. She realised his clothing had disguised the lean fitness beneath and the feel of his tight skin surprised and excited her.

  He shrugged off his shirt and threw it over a chair, then wrapped his bare arms around her and held her against him.

  'The sea breezes are rising again,' he said. 'When you lie awake at night you can hear them follow a pattern of rises and falls. It's almost as if they're alive. Can you hear them now?'

  She nodded into his shoulder and felt h
is lips against her ear as he spoke. His body enclosing hers gave her a feeling of protection and peace that she'd never felt around any other man. The dangers of the coming night almost faded away.

  She raised her face to his and kissed the corner of his mouth.

  'Whatever happens tonight,' she said, 'we'll have the memory of being together now. Let's not waste these moments.'

  Without words and without effort he lifted her body and carried her to the bed. She sank down into its softness and curled herself around him, holding hard onto his shoulders and absorbing the firmness of his body. His kisses on her mouth, her neck, her shoulders became more heated as her own passion rose.

  She stripped off her T-shirt and threw it aside to feel the burning heat of his skin against hers. Then, as she began to want more, she encircled his thighs with her legs and drew him up against her, feeling his hardness in her groin as he swayed against her.

  The heat in her body rose with his until he suddenly pulled back, breathing heavily, holding himself in a state of tension, trying to maintain control. She sensed he was near a breaking point and the knowledge brought again a feeling of power that she could control his passion, forcing him to fight to resist.

  But then, as if in retaliation, he lowered his head and began to softly kiss her breasts, lingering here and there at the tender tips to await a response and then beginning again. All the while his fingers trailed along the soft ridges of her upper body, stopping and starting, teasing and taunting, until she began to give small cries of pleasure that she was only barely aware of. Was that her voice?

  She watched him stand, undress completely and lie down again beside her. Without rising she stripped off her shorts and underwear in a few swift movements until they lay together naked, hardly touching, feeling sparks jump across the paper-thin gap between their bodies.

  Her senses gave over completely now to the urgent need for sex, ignoring the outside world. She reached for him and drew him across onto and into her body, welcoming the moment of pleasure as he entered her and the sensation of fullness and connection.