by Nancy Warren
His hand tightened. “You’re causing a scene. Sit down. All of you.”
There was something in his tone that made them all comply. She couldn’t have described it without using hyperbole. Deadly intent was the closest she came. Which would be ridiculous if you hadn’t noticed the utterly cold expression in his eyes.
“You two were obviously roused out of bed to come here,” he said in that same cold tone.
“That’s not—”
“Your clothes are a mess, your makeup is smudged and you have a hickey on your neck.”
“I had a busy day, I—”
His voice sliced through Julia’s words. “Cut the crap. Why are you here?”
Hailey glanced up and saw a sight that made her heart leap. Heading toward them was Rob. He was soaked to the skin, his leg a little stiff so she knew it was paining him. From the way he was panting he’d been running.
She had never been so happy to see anyone. In that moment their gazes connected and she saw such fierce, passionate love in the depths of his eyes she wondered how she had ever doubted his feelings.
As he closed in on their table, he said, “Why don’t you cut the crap?” to her dinner date.
“What the hell’s going on here?” Dennis asked. His expression was hard suddenly, his eyes scanning the area behind Rob. It was as though a mask had fallen off. The smug, look-how-rich-and-successful-I-am, I-want-to-settle-down-and-I-might-choose-you act was gone. As she stared at the cold, hard man, she wondered how she’d ever thought him charming. Or good-looking. What she saw in his face made her skin prickle.
Rob looked tougher than she’d ever seen him. “Let’s just say your date is over. Come on, Hailey.” He held out his hand to her. There were so many messages he was trying to send her, but she only received one. Loud and clear. Come now, I’ll explain later.
Oh, and I love you.
Julia and John were already rising, Hailey started to stand, held out her hand to Rob. Soon she’d be out of here.
In that brief second before they could reach each other, another hand clamped on her arm.
Again.
She did not like being manhandled, she did not like having spent an awful evening with a crummy date and she most of all did not like the knowledge that something bad was happening and she had no idea what.
She bared her teeth and swung around to Dennis. “Let go of me.”
To her fury, he didn’t let go. He tightened his grip and yanked her hard so she lost her balance in the damn high heels she’d worn, hit her hip on the table and fell into his lap, knocking most of his glass of wine on top of both of them.
She tried to scramble up, saw Rob coming for her, and then out of the corner of her eye saw the flash of black metal.
A gun.
21
“OH, SHIT,” ROB SAID when he saw the gun and stopped in his tracks, his hands clenching at his sides, even as she felt the hard metal press into her side.
“Sit. Down,” Dennis said to Julia and John.
Julia looked as though she were going to cry. She sat.
John sat.
Dennis Thurgood motioned Rob to Hailey’s now-vacant chair.
Rob hesitated, and then sat.
She could feel the tension in Dennis in the rigidity of his muscles. Otherwise he seemed cool and unruffled, as though he took his dates hostage by gunpoint all the time.
His calmness was almost as frightening as the gun.
The wine seeping through her skirt made her skin sticky.
“What we’re going to do is leave this restaurant together. You—” he nodded to Rob “—go first. Open the door for all of us. You two go next. Hailey and I will exit last. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you to act normal. I wouldn’t want anybody to get hurt.”
“Then what?” Rob demanded. “After we’re outside, then what?”
“I will take my date home like a gentleman. And you three have a nice night.”
“I don’t—”
She gasped as the man with the gun jabbed it into her ribs.
“This is not negotiable.”
“Okay,” Rob said. “Okay.”
Rob got up slowly. Began to walk to the door.
“Now you two,” Dennis said.
Julia and John rose and followed Rob. John reached for Julia’s hand and clasped it.
“Now get up slowly and don’t do anything stupid. I am in no mood to dispose of a body tonight. Understand?”
She nodded. It was awkward getting out from behind the table with the gun and the man both pressing against her. She felt angry and helpless. She couldn’t imagine a worse combination.
Her eyes searched desperately for their waiter. If there was one person who’d love to cause this guy trouble, it had to be him. He was nowhere to be seen.
She felt sweat prickle at her hairline, tried to make eye contact with other diners, staff, anyone. However, it was one of those discreet places where every diner had the illusion of privacy and the staff did their best to be invisible.
Great. Just great.
Rob was ahead of them, taking his sweet time getting to the door. John and Julia were following his pace. Her heart was beating uncomfortably fast and she felt as though she couldn’t breathe.
The hand holding the gun was rock-steady. The notion that he’d killed before crossed her mind, only to be banished. She’d end up a blithering basket case if she let herself think like that. She had to keep her wits about her. She wasn’t alone.
She wasn’t alone.
Even if this turned out to be the last evening of her life she had the blinding realization that she wasn’t a rootless army brat anymore. She had Julia, a friend so firm that she’d risk her life for her friend.
And she had Rob. For as long or as short as their future might be, she knew that he loved her and that he’d do anything to keep her safe.
Her eyes threatened to mist as she discovered she already had what she’d been looking for. A home. People she could count on.
Roots.
And no creepy, self-centered, gun-toting thug was going to take that away from her.
There was a way. There had to be. Somebody would see them, he’d lose his focus for a moment. That’s all it would take.
Even as she had the thought, one of the waitstaff stopped playing by the invisible rule. And, thank God, it was their waiter.
“Excuse me, sir. I think you forgot to pay your bill,” he said in a loud voice.
Yes!
She felt her companion go absolutely rigid. As she’d guessed he’d completely forgotten they hadn’t paid yet.
Then he turned them both. She could feel him put on his fake smarm act. “My girlfriend’s not feeling well. Let me get her outside for some air. I’ll be right back.”
The waiter glanced at her and she widened her eyes trying to yell “Help!” without saying a word.
He looked more skeptical than heroic. As if they were dine-and-dash artists who pulled stunts like this all the time. Her evening went down another notch, if it was possible.
“Her friends could take her outside while you take care of the bill,” the waiter said. As she’d hoped the commotion had caused a few of the diners to start paying attention. If anything at least now people had a reason to remember them.
Rob had stopped inside the door, Julia and John standing with him.
Two older women had finished paying and were rising from their table, handbags in hand.
Rob said something to Julia and John and began to push open the door.
A chorus of sirens penetrated the quiet restaurant as the door opened.
She felt the change in her captor. His heart began to bang and his breath came in harsh pulls. “Shut that door and get back inside,” he snarled.
John shut the door and maneuvered himself so he was standing in front of Julia.
The older women headed for the front desk, their coat-check slips in their hands.
“Sit back down,” Dennis ordered them.
“I said sit down.” And he pulled out the gun for all to see.
The woman looked at him for a steady second, then said in a firm tone pitched loud enough that Hailey suspected her friend was hard of hearing, “Come on, Mavis. I think we’d better sit down.”
The other woman had her back to them. “But we’ve got ballet tickets, and I am not missing the opening.” And she continued on her way.
For a second, the awful pressure of the gun pressing into her was relieved. She barely had time to shut her eyes and scrunch her shoulders when the gun blasted.
A big chunk of plaster rained down from the ceiling.
The woman referred to as Mavis shrieked and turned.
“You’re not going anywhere. This restaurant is in lockdown.” Then Dennis began hauling Hailey backward, away from the front door and Rob, back to the kitchen.
“Those of you pulling out your cell phones, don’t forget to tell the cops I have a hostage.”
He dragged her back, even as the older woman with the pearls said, “You’ll never get away with this.”
Hailey searched for Rob, wanting the reassurance of seeing his face, but to her dismay, he was ducking out of the front door.
No, she silently cried. Don’t do it, Rob. Don’t be a hero.
She knew in that moment that he was going to try and run around the building and cut them off. However, he was an unarmed man with an injured leg. Her captor was a hardened criminal with his own gym and the definite advantage of a handgun.
He was so familiar with his way to the back entrance to the restaurant that she had to assume he’d checked out the layout before he ever made a reservation here. She wondered what it would be like to live like that, always ready to run. Ready to kill. Never entering a front door until you knew how to get out the back.
The hallway bypassed the kitchen, where, from the bustle and sounds of pots banging and food sizzling, she had to assume the drama playing out in the front hadn’t penetrated. He dragged her down the hall, past the bathrooms and a storage closet to a fire door.
“Open the door,” he snapped.
No one had followed them though she had to believe police and help were on their way. For now it was only the two of them here. She had no options.
She pushed the metal bar of the fire door and eased it open.
He held her and peeked around her shoulder, shielding himself with her body in the reverse fashion to John and Julia.
No flashing police cars greeted them. The lot was quiet. His car was exactly where he’d left it.
“Head for the car.” He hit the button on the keypad that unlocked his fancy rental. “You’ll be driving.”
As she began to move to the car she heard the scuffling of shoes and Rob came running around the corner toward them.
“What the—”
“Dennis!” Rob yelled. “Leave her behind. Take me instead.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because I’m a high-profile guy. My company would do a lot to make sure I was safe. I’m a media personality. You can use that as leverage to get away.”
“Why don’t I take you both?”
“It’s not practical,” Rob was panting from the effort of getting here so fast.
“You don’t have time to secure one of us and two hostages put you in more danger. You know that.”
“Come closer, let me see you.”
“No, Rob. Don’t,” she cried, feeling her captor’s hatred for the man she loved.
Rob was walking forward, hands held up and high as though he were surrendering.
“That guy really pisses me off,” Dennis Thurgood said and fired.
“No,” she screamed, even as the bullet hit Rob in the chest, knocking him down and backward.
As the man she loved hit the dirt, something snapped inside her. A terrible scream was ripped from her throat and anger so red and hot rushed through her that she had no conscious thought—only action. She grabbed his gun hand before Dennis could fire again, squeezing it with both hands, driving her knee up into his groin with every bit of adrenaline-fired strength in her body. She caught him off guard and he grunted and swayed but didn’t let go of the gun.
They wrestled for it, and she knew her superstrength couldn’t last for long and he’d only be incapacitated for a few seconds. She had to get that gun. She bared her teeth and fastened them onto his wrist like a frenzied pit bull.
She had no thought of her own safety, was only determined that he wouldn’t get a chance to hurt Rob anymore.
Rob wasn’t dead. He wouldn’t be dead. He couldn’t be. Life without Rob was not an option. And she was going to put everything she had on the line, including her life, to make sure that Dennis didn’t have a chance to finish him.
He kicked her but she didn’t let go. She tasted blood and bit down harder. If she could just get the gun out of his hand....
Suddenly she wasn’t alone anymore.
A shadow appeared in her peripheral vision. There was movement. Impact.
Dennis gave a grunt and the gun dropped.
“You can let go of his arm now,” Rob said gently.
She did. Realized Rob was standing with the gun trained on Dennis who was sagging against the nearest car.
She took a few steps away from him, tried to figure out how Rob could be standing, decided that believing in miracles was a healthy option and bent over to draw in some deep breaths.
Rob pulled out his cell phone. She heard him say, “The fugitive has been subdued, the hostage is safe. The man holding the gun is friendly. Understood?”
And within minutes, all the sirens and flashing lights she could have wished for converged.
Rob was quickly relieved of the gun, her client/date/kidnapper was led away in handcuffs. While a number of people in various uniforms were suddenly swarming, giving orders, asking questions, Rob put up a hand. Turned to her.
He took a step forward. She took one and suddenly they were in each other’s arms. As she grabbed him tightly into a hug he winced.
“Oh, I forgot. He shot you. How did you...”
He lifted his shirt and she saw the dark vest. “Kevlar,” he said. “I wear it in the field. Decided to throw it on tonight. Most of the time you don’t need them, but once in a while—”
“They can save your life.”
She touched the spot where the bullet had hit. “You’d have been killed.”
“Probably.”
Her eyes filled. The stress and pent-up anger and fear of the evening roared up. “What would I ever do without you?”
“Hailey, God willing, you are never going to have to find out.”
As she looked up, she found him smiling down at her and then they were kissing, hungrily.
Yes, everything inside her shouted. This was so right.
Yes.
* * *
“WE’LL WORK IT OUT,” he said, holding her so tight she could feel that he was trembling, too. “I got a book deal. I can stay home more.”
“I love you enough to let you go.”
“And about Bellamy House...”
“I don’t think Dennis Thurgood is going to buy it,” she said, with a faint laugh that would go hysterical if she wasn’t very careful.
“Nobody’s going to buy it,” he informed her.
Hope filled all the places where fear had lived a few seconds ago. “No?”
“I’m taking it off the market. I’m keeping it.”
“Oh, Rob.”
“I don’t know exactly how all this is going to work. But I’m not losing you. I can’t lose you.”
“But your job...”
“It’s only a job. The thing is, I thought I was like my mother. I thought I couldn’t settle down. But I’m not. I was running away. I’ve been running away since I was fourteen years old.” He touched her face where a raindrop skidded down h
er cheek. “I don’t need to run anymore.”
“Mr. Klassen?” a uniformed cop asked, coming close.
“Yes.”
“We’re going to need to talk to you both down at the station. Get your statements.”
“Tonight?” Rob turned, looking tired and frustrated. “Can’t it wait until the morning?”
“I’m sorry sir, but—”
“Of course it can wait until the morning,” a firm and somewhat familiar voice said.
Hailey stared to see the elegant woman with the pearls step carefully over the puddles to reach them.
“I’m Judge Eleanor Hanover,” she said. She handed them each a business card. “We’ve got plenty of reasons to hold that man in custody. Let these two get some well-earned rest.”
“Of course, Your Honor.”
“Thank you,” Hailey said.
She smiled at them. “That was quite an eventful evening. If you could come by the precinct at nine o’clock?”
They both nodded. She couldn’t imagine arguing with this woman.
Julia and John arrived next.
Julia grabbed her friend in a hug so tight Hailey’s ribs threatened to crack. “Oh, honey. I am so glad you’re okay.”
“Me, too.”
“And Rob. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. Exactly.”
A wry grin twisted his mouth. “You were looking after your friend. I get that.”
“No hard feelings?”
He shook his head. Julia put out her arms to hug him.
“Not too hard,” Hailey warned. “He got shot.”
“Again?”
“It’s kind of a bad habit,” Hailey said, on another hysterical giggle.
“One that’s going to stop,” Rob promised.
“We haven’t met. I’m John.”
The men shook hands.
And then they stood there. The sirens were muted. Most of the cop cars had left. Dennis Thurgood had been taken away.
“Do you need a ride home?” John asked.
“Yeah. Actually, we do,” Rob said.
On the way home Hailey demanded to be told the whole story. Between getting three different versions of the tale, she finally pieced together that Rob’s instincts had been right all along; that Julia was the best friend she’d ever had and that John was Julia’s perfect match.
