by Lara Adrian
“Uh, Michelle.”
She lifted her eyes above the coffee cup and looked at him, curious what else he wanted. “Yes?”
“I’m Nick, by the way. I’m new to the neighborhood.” He offered his hand.
Hesitantly, Michelle shook it. “Hi, Nick. I’m Michelle, but then you already know that.”
A broad grin made his face look younger than he seemed at first sight. She allowed herself to look at him more thoroughly now. He had a stubble beard, the kind a man who didn’t have time to shave for two or three days would sport. It made him look rugged. His hair was medium-brown, but not dull. There was a healthy sheen to it. His eyes were green-brown, his skin on the light side as if he spent lots of time indoors. He wore a short-sleeved light-blue polo shirt and black cargo pants. Despite their loose fit, it was evident that his legs were muscular, just like his arms, though he didn’t look like a bodybuilder. He was lean.
“Listen, I get it if you don’t want to be seen with me.” Nick motioned to his shirt. “Stains and all, you know.” He grinned disarmingly. “But considering you made me spill my drink, maybe you could make it up to me by keeping me company while I finish what’s left of my mocha?”
“Now I made you spill your drink?” She had to laugh at that.
“Yep. The moment I saw you, I lost all control over my body.”
Michelle rolled her eyes and walked toward her favorite spot, a large armchair in one corner. Was Nick coming on to her, or was he just being overly friendly? “The way I remember it is that you didn’t even see me. That’s why you spilled your coffee.”
He winked. “Darn, you got me.” Then he suddenly leaned in, lowering his voice. “Normally that line works, you know, but I guess you’re too smart for that.”
Michelle laughed. She had no defenses to his boy-next-door charm. It was disarming. And non-threatening, and that’s what she needed right now. Some normalcy in her life.
She motioned to the second armchair, while she slunk down in her favorite spot and set her computer bag down. “Guess I’m not getting rid of you that easily.”
Nick sat opposite her and lowered his backpack to his feet. “I’m kind of like caramel, sticky but sweet.”
She chuckled. “So that pick-up line… Has it actually ever worked for you?”
He shrugged. “I’m still refining it. Rome wasn’t built in a day either.”
“So that’s a no then.”
“Wow, do you always jump to conclusions this fast?”
“Only when the evidence is pretty clear.”
Both sides of his mouth tilted up. “What are you, Michelle, some kind of detective?” He leaned across the small table between them and set his drink down. “Should I be afraid of you?”
“Should you?” She ran her eyes over him once more. Maybe he should be afraid of her. After all, he looked rather innocent, and she was anything but.
By all accounts, she was a criminal, though she’d never really seen herself that way. She’d been a hacker since she’d first surfed the internet. Exposing things the government wanted to hide from its people had been her mission in life. Anonymous had been her family, anarchy her religion. But all that was gone now, because she had to serve the very enemy she’d fought against for so long: the US government. She couldn’t even run to her old friends, the other hackers, because doing so would only endanger them, expose them. She had to get out of this by herself.
Which begged the question why she was wasting time flirting with Nick. Because, yes, she was actually flirting with him. She would be better off getting back to work and trying to deliver the person Deep Throat was looking for.
However, everybody deserved a break once in a while. And what was the harm in talking to a nice guy for a few minutes? It was relaxing, and maybe this was the way to recharge her batteries and get a second wind for today.
“So you’re a local,” Nick said, just as she opened her mouth, talking over him, “You’re new to the neighborhood?”
Embarrassed she chuckled. “Go ahead.”
“No, no, you first,” he insisted.
“Did you move here recently?”
“Yes, this week. I’m from a small town in Indiana.”
Just as she’d thought: an innocent in the big city. “What brings you here?”
“Work. I needed a change of scenery.”
She nodded. “Yeah, I get that.” She wanted a change of scenery, too. Preferably a sandy beach in a country that didn’t extradite to the US.
“You work here in D.C.? At the university?” he asked.
“At the university?” Her eyebrows snapped together.
He motioned to her computer bag. “You look like you could be a lecturer or something.”
She smiled. If only she had a harmless job like that. “I think you need to work on your detective skills a little more,” she joked. “I could be a student.”
Flashing his white teeth, he said, “But you’re not. Not that you look old, but you look a lot more serious than any student I’ve ever met.”
“I could be a graduate student or a resident.”
“Yes, but they are generally too tired to stay awake.” He pointed at the young female doctor napping in a chair across from them. “Or too focused on their thesis.” Nick pointed to a young man typing away on his laptop so furiously that she was wondering if either he or his computer would start smoking soon.
“Point taken,” Michelle admitted, enjoying the little game they were playing more than she should.
“You’re gonna keep me guessing, aren’t you?”
“You seem to have fun. Don’t most men like a challenge?”
“Guess so. But I’m just a country bumpkin from Indiana. And you’re a sophisticated woman from the Capital. I’ve got the feeling you’d just be playing with me.” He winked.
The country bumpkin routine she didn’t buy at all, though it was cute, she had to admit. “You’re quite the charmer, aren’t you? Is that why you moved to D.C.? To try out your country charm with city women?”
“Something like that.” He reached for his mocha and took a sip.
“So what do you do then?”
“For a living you mean?”
“Yeah, for a living. Unless, of course, you’re independently wealthy and are just mingling with the working masses for kicks.”
“I wish.” He grinned. “But I’m a working stiff.”
“And you’re not gonna tell me what you do, right?”
“You strike me as the kind of woman who’d rather find out for herself. Am I right?”
“Are you trying to make yourself more interesting than you are?”
He leaned over the table, lowering his voice. “Is it working?”
She met him halfway. “I’ll tell you once it is.”
“Well, I’d better leave then, before we become too familiar and all my mysteriousness is going out the window.” He rose quickly and grabbed his backpack. “It was nice meeting you, Michelle. Maybe I’ll see you again sometime.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
She watched him as he marched toward the entrance door, his gait determined. His butt muscles flexed with each step, and she wondered what other moves he had. Moves she didn’t mind him using on her. Moves of a more intimate nature. She licked her lips at the thought. It had been a while since she’d been with a man. Maybe that’s what she needed to unwind: a passionate fling. It didn’t have to mean anything. In fact, it was better if it didn’t. Her life was too much of a mess already anyway. She didn’t need a relationship to add to it.
At the door, Nick stopped, but before he pushed it open, he looked over his shoulder, grinning straight at her.
Embarrassed that he’d caught her staring, she took a sip of her lukewarm latte, pretending she hadn’t watched him. But they both knew she had and with undeniable desire. Because, despite the brief interaction, there’d been a spark.
And maybe that spark could ignite something.
A quick fire.
A flame that wou
ld burn brightly before it fizzled out again just as quickly.
5
Nick had waited for the right moment for several days. It was time.
He’d done his homework and had found out where Michelle lived, what her routine was, who she met, where she shopped, and what she ate. Most of the information he’d gathered simply by following and watching her without her noticing him. The rest he’d gleaned from internet searches. There wasn’t much online about her, almost as if somebody had taken great pains to wipe out her digital footprint. Either she’d done it herself or somebody in a high enough place had done it for her.
In either case, Michelle was on the path to becoming a ghost. Here today, gone tomorrow. Instinctively Nick knew he didn’t have much time to make a move. Today he’d go to the coffee shop and ask her out. He’d use all his charm to get her into bed, and then he’d look at that precious computer of hers, the one she never left home without, the one she never let out of her sight, not even when she used the restroom at the coffee shop, when he’d seen plenty of other customers leaving their laptops unattended while using the facilities.
Freshly showered and shaved, Nick waited at the next pedestrian crossing for the light to change. Beside him several people waited while a woman jogged in place, her eyes pinned to the lights across the street.
The premonition came out of nowhere like it always did, though he didn’t always know immediately what he was looking at. This time he did. He recognized her immediately: Michelle. She was leaving the coffee shop, bumping into a customer on the way out. The man was cursing at her, but Michelle didn’t even turn her head as if she didn’t notice him. She appeared distracted, with a worried look on her face. Something was bothering her.
Nick felt himself reach out his hand, wanting to wipe the worry from her face, but in his vision Michelle kept walking, approaching the intersection where the light turned at that moment. She only briefly looked to her right, before stepping into the crosswalk. She didn’t even see the taxi coming from the left. It hit her and flung her into the air. Behind the cab, her body slammed onto the hard asphalt like a rag doll. He knew immediately that she was dead. Knew it with a certainty that sent a chill to his bones and froze the blood in his veins.
“No!” he cried out and pushed the vision aside.
Tossing a quick look to either side of him, he dashed through the intersection, darting between the cars, drawing vile curses of the motorists onto himself. But he didn’t care. He had no time to lose or Michelle would die.
Why he had the visions and when, or how they appeared, Nick didn’t know. It was his special gift—and the reason he lived in hiding. But today, he would use his gift to save a human life. If he wasn’t too late already.
The light backpack he always carried slung over one shoulder, Nick ran through the busy early afternoon crowd that clogged up the sidewalks, pushing people out of his way if they didn’t let him pass quickly enough. Curses and angry shouts followed him, but he barely took any notice. He was close, so close. Just another two blocks to the coffee shop.
He raced down the sidewalk, briefly stepping onto the street when a wheelchair user blocked his way. A car honked at him, but he kept running, darting between two vehicles to make a right turn into the street where the coffee shop was located at the end of the block.
A man he recognized from the premonition approached the door of the coffee shop. The door almost hit him in the face as it was opened. The woman exiting was Michelle.
Shit!
From the corner of his eye, Nick saw something flash yellow. He snapped his head to the side. The cab was passing him.
“Michelle!” he called out at the top of his lungs, waving at her.
She neither heard nor saw him and kept walking, approaching that fateful crosswalk.
Nick launched into an even faster sprint, pushing off the hot asphalt with all his strength. His heart raced as his lungs worked overtime.
Gotta get to her! Run! Damn it, run!
“Michelle!” he cried out again, but a car honking drowned out his voice.
A few more yards, just a few more. You can do it!
He darted past a woman with a small child, catching up with the taxi. Ahead of him, Michelle stood at the crosswalk, looking to her right, away from him and the approaching cab. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion now. The cab approaching the intersection… Michelle lifting her foot to take a step into the street…
“Michelle!” Nick barreled toward her.
Michelle ripped her head in his direction, eyes wide, mouth open, freezing in her current position, one foot on the street, one on the sidewalk. Nick lunged for her, turning her sideways in a split second, away from the traffic, inserting himself between her and the taxi, which had just reached them.
He pushed her away from him, toward the middle of the sidewalk. He tried to pivot with her, but the mirror of the cab caught in the strap of his backpack, ripping it from him and swiping his arm. The impact knocked him sideways. Nick was slammed against a metal newspaper rack, his left arm and side taking the brunt of it. But he didn’t have time to worry about that now, nor about the screeching tires or the excited shouts around him.
Instead he searched for Michelle. When he finally found her, she was in the middle of the sidewalk, upright, but visibly shaken. He ran his eyes over her, but saw no obvious injuries.
Relieved, he slumped to the ground and rested his back against the newspaper rack. “Thank God,” Nick murmured to himself, air rushing from his lungs now.
“Jesus Christ!” Michelle ran toward him, staggering a little and looking shaken. “Oh my God!”
“You all right, Michelle?” He looked up at her.
She breathed heavily as she crouched down to him. “That cab would have hit me!” Her lips trembled. “If you hadn’t been there…” She closed her eyes for a moment, swallowing hard.
He reached for her hand, but winced at the pain in his arm and side. He breathed through it, willing the sensation to subside.
Michelle’s eyes flew open and she shot a look at his arm. “You’re hurt. Don’t move. I’ll call an ambulance.”
Instantly, Nick shook his head. “I don’t need an ambulance. I’m fine.”
He didn’t want an ambulance. Nor did he want a police report about the incident. While he had built a fake identity for himself, he wasn’t about to test how well he’d covered his tracks.
Several bystanders crowded around. A man pushed through them: the taxi driver.
“You all right, buddy?” he asked, his voice shaking.
Nick quickly nodded.
“Shit!” The cabbie ran his hand over his head. “You stepped right in my path. Wasn’t my fault.”
A few pedestrians grunted angrily.
“Typical cab driver!” one of them cursed.
Nick used his good arm to push himself off the ground and, using the newspaper rack for leverage, pulled himself up. “I’m fine. Nothing happened.” He pasted a thin smile on his face, nodding to the cab driver once more. “I’m all right. No need to hang around.”
“You need a doctor to look at you. You could have a concussion,” Michelle insisted.
Nick put his hand on her forearm and squeezed it. “I’m fine. Trust me.”
The cab driver tossed him an unsure look, scratching his neck. “You sure? You not gonna sue me afterward?”
“I’m not gonna sue you. It was entirely my fault.”
Finally, the cab driver marched back to his taxi. Nick turned to the other pedestrians who continued to hover, making sure they didn’t miss anything.
“Honestly, nothing more to see here,” he insisted and made a shooing motion.
“Is that your bag, ma’am?” A kid pointed to a computer bag on the sidewalk.
Michelle nodded and the boy handed it to her. “Thank you.”
Slowly, the people disbursed. Nick glanced around. It was possible that somebody had already called 9-1-1 and the police were on their way. It was best no
t to risk hanging around here any longer. He reached for his backpack, glad to see that it was still intact from landing on the curb.
“Somebody has to look at you,” Michelle said beside him.
He smiled at her, her concern touching him. “It’s just a little bruise. I’ll survive.”
“Please, let’s get you to a hospital.”
“I can’t. I don’t have health insurance right now.” It was true, although that wasn’t the reason he didn’t want to see a doctor. “I just need to ice down the area.”
Michelle let out an annoyed huff. “Damn it, do you have to be so stubborn?”
He grinned. “You think I’m stubborn?”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, then let’s go to my place. I’ll look at your injuries and I swear if I think it looks bad, I will deliver you to the hospital myself.”
At her bossy statement, Nick felt like saluting as if she were a drill sergeant in the army. But he suppressed the urge. “Yes, ma’am.”
6
At least Nick wasn’t objecting to her helping him.
“Can you walk?” Michelle asked, looking him up and down.
“I can. Where do you live?”
She motioned toward the path she’d originally been heading down. “It’s not far. Just a few blocks.”
Michelle hoisted her computer bag over one shoulder and waited for the light to change to green, letting out another breath. She was still shaking, but the reality of what had just happened was settling in. She’d been about to cross the street without looking. And had Nick not been there, she would have walked right into the path of the taxi. Everything could have been over in seconds. She shuddered at the thought.
“You okay?”
At Nick’s concerned voice, she lifted her face to him. “I guess it’s only just now sinking in. I can’t believe I was so careless. It was so lucky that you were there. How did you realize—”
Nick took her hand in his and squeezed it. “Don’t think about it any longer. It’ll just drive you crazy. I’m happy that I caught you in time.”
At the odd phrasing of his words, she snapped her eyebrows together. “Were you looking for me?”