“Thanks, Charlie. Let’s get out of here and head home, then.” She nodded to one of the venue’s regular security guards and stepped out into the cool night hoping to clear her head.
It must’ve only stopped raining a short while ago. Not a surprise for Seattle. The sidewalk pavement shone silver in the light of the streetlamps, with highlights of green or red from the traffic light at the top of the alley.
“The others left for the train station already. I’ll walk you to your car.” Charlie gave her a lopsided grin.
She shook her head. “No worries. You need to catch the bus, right? Don’t wait for me. I’m parked just up the street anyway. Totally safe.”
“You’re sure?” Charlie’s brows drew together and briefly she flashed back to the way the mercenary’s scowl had darkened his face. A fierce expression—not frightening so much as intimidating—and Charlie couldn’t be more different. What she needed now was more than any of her friends or family could do.
“Yes.” She forced her lips to widen in a smile. “Absolutely.”
Another door opened farther down the alleyway, the venue’s other back exit. Several men and women stepped out, all with the dark suits of the personal security her client had hired. Funny the way Henderson enjoyed flaunting his mercenary security, but they’d carried themselves with better polish and sophistication than the majority of the guests.
Speak of the devil. The man she’d spoken to and his colleagues must be heading home too, wherever it was for each of them. She wondered if they called each other “colleagues” or something more...militant.
“See?” She turned back to Charlie. “I’m not even alone back here. Get going. And if anything happens, I’ll shout to those guys for help.”
Charlie eyed the group dubiously. “Men like those aren’t safe to be around, Miss Cheng. I bet the women aren’t either.”
As if Charlie could do anything against them.
No, that was uncharitable. “Thank you. Really. But I’m sure I’ll be fine. You get yourself on your bus or I’ll have to drive you all the way home.”
She made a shooing gesture to Charlie and after another moment’s hesitation he turned, jogged up the alley to the street and headed for the bus station. She followed at a walk because trying to jog in heels this high was ridiculous. Plus she’d probably trip and break an ankle. An added embarrassment she did not want with those people, with him, behind her.
Maybe in an immediate emergency they’d actually move to action. Or they might just shout the name of a private investigator to her.
Not fair.
Shaking her head, she huffed out a laugh at herself. She was in all sorts of a mood this evening. And who would blame her? But being temperamental wasn’t going to convince anyone to help her, and she needed help. She’d take every moment of frustration and rage and swallow it if it could get An-mei the help she needed faster. What Maylin had to do was be constructive, figure out next steps. There was always something else to be tried. Somehow.
And sometimes it seemed like every street in downtown Seattle was uphill. So no one would judge her if she took a breather up at the top of the alley and maybe stood at the corner a minute longer than necessary. If anyone did, she’d blame it on the crosswalk signal changing sooner than she thought she could cross.
Honestly, she needed to build up better cardio.
Screeching broke through her thoughts, the sounds of tires on wet pavement. She turned to her left and instinctively threw up her arm against the glare of insanely bright headlights.
“Down!”
A wall slammed into her left side, taking her to the ground and rolling with her until what was left of the air in her lungs was forced out in a whoosh as they hit the side of the building.
How? How had they rolled away from the street? And...what...?
Tires peeled.
“Are you okay? Hey!” The words boomed in her head from far away, like someone shouting through a fog.
Too many lights swam across her vision, images burned on her retinas blending with the streetlamps overhead. Her throat contracted and her lungs burned.
Breathe.
She gasped and cool air rushed in, clearing away some of the fog.
“That’s it, sweetheart. Take another breath nice and slow. Slow.” Strong hands patted her down, touched her with gentle purpose. “Does anything hurt? Your neck, your head?”
“The way you took her down, it’s amazing her skull isn’t splattered all over the sidewalk.” Another man’s voice floated over from some distance away. Or was it a shock thing?
Maybe she was in shock.
Did people’s feet get cold at times like this? Only her left one.
“Your left foot is colder because you lost a shoe when I shoved you out of the way.” A thread of amusement ran through the original speaker’s voice. She liked the sound of it. Kind humor, like what she heard in his words, was the sign of a good man. “I’m going to help you to a sitting position, but if anything hurts at all, you let me know right away and we’re laying you back down. Understood?”
“Yes.” She said it out loud on purpose, because she was pretty sure she’d been talking out loud anyway so it’d be good to know if she could do it when she actually meant to.
The same big hands she’d taken note of before took hold of her, one sliding under her neck to give her support as she came up to a sitting position.
“Slow,” her caretaker admonished.
His choice of speeds was frustrating.
“Had to be a DUI.” The owner of the other voice had returned. “Driver ran up one curb and down the other all the rest of the way down the street. Got a couple of letters off the license plate. Lizzy and Victoria are securing the immediate area and calling it in to 911. Ambulance en route.”
She turned her head to peer up. Blond hair, tanned skin, suit. One of the private security guys, the one who’d been snitching fried shrimp all night. She remembered Charlie coming to her nervous about whether to tell the guy the food was for the guests, but she’d laughed it off and made sure they kept the supply of that dish hot and ready. Fried shrimp were always popular anyway. Then what the man had said caught up to her.
“No ambulance. Really. I’m not hurt.” And she didn’t need to spend all night in the emergency room for a couple of scrapes and bruises. She hated hospitals with a passion.
“They’re on their way.” Her rescuer didn’t leave room for argument. “They can look you over first, then you can decide.”
His now authoritative tone, colder and clipped, sounded much more familiar than she’d initially thought. She peeked up at him through the escaped strands of her probably insanely messed-up hair.
Of course. She always had a special kind of ironic luck. The very man who wouldn’t help her earlier was now kneeling beside her, shielding her from the night breeze with an arm around her shoulders.
“By the way, Cinderella, one of my teammates found your shoe. Victoria says shoes this expensive matter to a lady.” The other man held it out to her. “Sorry, but I think it was a casualty. My name’s Marc and this is Gabe, but I gather you two already met earlier. Lizzy and Victoria are sweeping the area to see if there’s any security cameras we can mention to the police for possible footage of the car.”
Fantastic. She reached to take her shoe, planning to mourn the heel hanging by a few stitches later, but Gabe took it instead.
“Hey, I could get that fixed.” She hoped.
Gabe raised an eyebrow and tucked the shoe, careful of the barely attached heel, into his suit pocket. Most guys like him left the freaking temporary stitches in the pockets so nothing could go into those. “Your purse isn’t big enough for it. I’ll hold on to it until the medics get here and look you over.”
What was she supposed to do, leave her other shoe on
? Maybe he’d pocket that one too.
“No serious injuries. I’m sure. Just some scrapes and bruises, probably.” She tried to return his intense gaze with an assertive one of her own. “And my name is Maylin.”
He might have saved her—and she was thankful—but as knights in shining armor went, he lacked any sort of courtly charm. Not a big deal. No need for princesses or fairy tales here. Those had been An-mei’s favorite stories, not hers.
“Pretty sure your head hit the pavement when I took you down.” A pang of regret there, she was sure of it. “We should get you checked for a concussion.”
She thought about how they went to the ground and the strength it must have taken for him to roll both of them away from the street. Admittedly, his size probably helped him. He had a lot of height and weight on her. But he and his colleagues had been several yards behind her, even if they had been catching up to her on the way out of the alley. How fast was this man?
Sirens. The ambulance, most likely. And if she didn’t string her thoughts together more coherently, they might decide she really did need to go to the emergency room.
“I’m also not sure that was a DUI, so why don’t you tell me more about your missing person and why someone might not want you to find her?”
She stared at him wide-eyed and took in the grave expression, sharp eyes hidden in shadow, and the angle of his jaw. Tall, dark and seriously impressive as this man was, why did he believe her now?
His colleague crouched down on the other side of her. “What are you saying, Gabe?”
“I’m saying I’m fucking sure as hell that car was idling on the street. It was waiting for her.”
Don’t miss HIDDEN IMPACT by Piper J. Drake, available now
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Copyright © 2015 by Piper J. Drake
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Angela James for your understanding and incredible patience. Every chance I have to work with you is a fantastic learning experience!
Thank you to Courtney Miller-Callihan, for not only putting up with my random insanity but accepting me in all my madness.
And countless thanks to Matthew Beckerleg for reading through the rough parts and helping me get to a better working draft, reminding me to eat and giving me space to get the book done without distractions.
Also available from Piper J. Drake
and Carina Press
Hidden Impact
And watch for the next Safeguard novel, Contracted Defense, coming soon!
About the Author
Piper J. Drake (or “PJ”) began her writing career as PJ Schnyder, writing sci-fi and paranormal romance and steampunk. She has recently received the FF&P PRISM award for her work, as well as the NJRW Golden Leaf award and Parsec award.
Now Piper is exploring the complexity of romantic suspense, incorporating her interests in mixed martial arts and the military into her writing.
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ISBN-13: 9781459290457
Deadly Testimony
Copyright © 2016 by Piper J. Drake
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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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Deadly Testimony Page 26
