by Linda Grimes
Oops. “Um…” I searched my brain for plausible deniability. When I couldn’t find any, I shrugged.
“You are a puzzle, Miss Haligan. I had thought to leave you here while I took care of some business, but I now believe I must
take you with me after al. Perhaps you wil do the smart thing and guide me to Miss Worthington.”
“I already told you—not possible.”
“That is a shame.” He sounded genuinely regretful, which made my stomach twist.
“Look, there realy has been some sort of misunderstanding. Sure, I know Mina, but—”
“Let me have your pack.”
“Huh?”
“Your knapsack.” He didn’t wait for it, but slipped it off my shoulders.
I let go of it reluctantly. Heck, I didn’t even know what was in it, other than the cel phone that was my only connection to Bily,
but giving it up gave me a pang, like losing a security blanket.
Nils unzipped it and dumped the contents onto the bed. Along with the phone, there were toiletries, a few changes of
underwear, an extra pair of jeans, a sweater, and Mina’s medieval maiden outfit.
Crap. Guess Bily thought I’d like a souvenir.
Okay. Stay calm. I could brazen this out. It wasn’t like there weren’t dozens of costumes just like it al over Visby. Nils
couldn’t know for sure it wasn’t mine, so I kept my face bland.
“What?” I said. “Can’t I have a costume?”
He didn’t say anything. He merely picked up the linen dress, shook it out, and held it up against me. It was a good four or five
inches too long. “Maybe,” he said. “But not this one. Now, where is Mina?”
“Look, Nils, I’m not taking you to Mina. Face it.”
“We shal see.” He tossed the dress back on the bed, took my phone, and scroled through the contacts list. He seemed
satisfied with what he saw there, and punched the cal button.
He paused, waiting for the connection to go through, staring at me the whole time. When he finaly spoke, my stomach fel.
“Miss Worthington? How nice to hear your voice again—our recent time together was cut far too short. However, I have had
the good fortune to meet a friend of yours. Ciel Haligan. Here, I’l put her on.”
Chapter 20
“Mina, this is Ciel. I’m okay. You got that? I’m—”
Nils puled the phone away from my ear. “You see, Mina, what I tel you is true. I’m sure you’d like to see your friend again,
but maybe I’m wrong. You don’t seem to want to see your boyfriend again very badly, after al.”
He paused, listening to whatever Bily was making up on the spur of the moment. Trust Bily to be prepared for any contingency
—Mina was obviously one of the contacts Bily had listed, so it was “Mina” who answered.
“So you say … yes, I understand about panic … no, Ciel is fine—for the moment—but I believe she would rather continue her
vacation without me. Once you’re safely back with me, I wil let her go.”
I grabbed for the phone. Nils was faster than me, and held it out of my reach. So I yeled. “No, don’t do it—I’m fine! He
won’t hurt me. Realy, I’m—”
Nils swept my legs out from under me with his foot, pushed me face-first onto the bed, and held me there with one knee.
“—oof, fine, I swear, don’t listen to—” A resounding smack on my backside interrupted my desperate reassurances. “OUCH!”
Before I could yel anything else, Nils stuffed part of the quilt into my mouth and held it there while he went on talking. I
mmphphed helplessly against his protected fingers.
“Realy, Mina, I think it would be best for al concerned—certainly for Trey and Ciel—if we arranged a meeting. Yes? Very
good. The Maiden’s Tower in thirty minutes. Outside the wal. Any vendor wil be able to direct you there. Oh, and if I notice a
police presence, or anything out of the ordinary—and I must warn you, I have a good eye for such things—your friend Ciel wil be
staying with me, and it wil be a long time before you see her or Trey again.”
He hung up and released me. I spit out the quilt, baled up my fist, and slugged his jaw.
I’d never seen anyone look quite so shocked. “Ow! What did you do that for?”
“You hit me first, you fucking prick!”
He sighed, scrubbing at his face, as if he could rub the pain away. “It was necessary to convince Mina to come.”
“It hurt!” I didn’t know why I should be so surprised, but I was. Viking or not, deep down I hadn’t believed he’d hurt me.
“It wasn’t so bad. I didn’t hit you hard, only enough to make some noise. You didn’t leave me a choice.”
I sat up, arranging myself into a more dignified position. “She won’t come, you know. She’s smarter than that,” I said huffily.
“She wil come,” he responded, way too confident, and dialed a number. He spoke rapidly in Swedish. I heard Per’s name; the
rest was gibberish. Crap. If there was anybody I didn’t want to see again, it was that asshole.
“Listen, Nils, can’t we talk this over? Whatever you’re involved with, it isn’t worth the kind of trouble you’l be in once the
police find out about this. It’s not too late—”
“You are wrong. It is much too late.” He reached for Mina’s costume and held it out to me. “Here. Put this on.”
I refused to take it. “Oh, no way, buster. Uh-uh. I am not putting that on—” I stopped myself before I said “again.”
“Yes, you are.”
“Forget it.”
His face was an implacable mask. I hate to resort to whining, but I’m not above it when the situation warrants. “Come on, it’s
way too long for me. I’d trip al over myself in it.”
He reached beneath his tunic and retrieved a large knife. It had a carved wooden handle and a lethal-looking blade. My mouth
went dry, and I was beginning to regret hitting him. Just how pissed off was he? “Whoa, now, big guy. Let’s not be hasty—” I
backed away.
He looked from me to the knife, and back to me. “You realy think I would use a knife on a woman?” There was genuine
shock in his voice.
“Wel, you did hit me,” I said, thinking it wasn’t such an unreasonable assumption.
He emitted a short, disgusted sound, and neatly sliced the bottom six inches off both the dress and tunic. Returning his knife to
its sheath, he said, “I don’t have to use a knife to make you put on the dress.” He stabbed the words into me with eyes sharper
than his blade. I think he was kind of miffed that I’d even entertained the notion.
I snatched up the dress and tunic, pissed as hel myself, mainly because he was right. In my current form I was no match for
him, and it wasn’t like I could switch auras in front of a nonadaptor. Jutting out my chin and flashing him the evil eye, I said, with
as much authority as I could gather, “No, but you do have to leave the room. I won’t change in front of you.”
He opened his mouth to protest, but after studying my face he said, “Fine. Just so you know, that window is stuck shut and I
have men posted in the back garden.”
After he closed the door behind him I checked the window and backyard anyway. He hadn’t lied. So much for that big idea.
Resigned, I changed as fast as I could, wanting to get myself decently covered before he thought better of taking his eyes off me.
The dress and tunic fel gracefuly over what few curves I had rather than molding to them, as they had Mina’s, but with Nils’s
alterations the fit wasn’t too bad. I was stuffing my clothes into my backpack when he rejoined me.
“You won’t be needing that.”
“But—”
“Le
ave it,” he said, taking my hand and heading for the stairs.
Nobody from the herd of Vikings in the living room questioned him as we left the house, and my attempts at conversation as we
hurried through the streets fel flat. I might as wel have been talking to the town wal.
The longer he was quiet, the more nervous I got. Al I could think about was Bily rushing headlong into a trap, hindered by
Mina’s aura. Because he would come for me, I had no doubt about that. And Nils wouldn’t release me without seeing Mina, so
Bily would have to be Mina. He would be just as helpless as I was.
I tugged on Nils’s arm, which had about as much effect as a toddler yanking on a rottweiler’s leash. So I dug in my heels and
leaned backward with al my weight. That at least slowed him down, but only long enough to swing me over his shoulder. My
breath left me in a whoosh. I couldn’t believe he’d do that right in front of al the people wandering the streets with us. Was he
nuts?
“Put me down, you Viking pig!” I yeled. Wel, in my mind I yeled, but a shoulder in the solar plexus tends to hamper the
necessary breath support, so it came out as more of a wheezing whisper. I doubted I could be heard more than a yard away.
Frustrated, I pounded on his back with both fists. Seemed my earlier comparison of him to the town wal wasn’t too far off the
mark. Stone would have been softer. Kicking my legs didn’t work either, since he held them tightly to his chest, no doubt
protecting his precious manhood.
Didn’t matter, I told myself. People would notice. Some Good Samaritan would help me, or cal the police, or at least question
Nils long enough for me to get away.
That’s when I heard the applause start. A few random claps at first, then, after Nils addressed the crowd in a stentorian growl
of indecipherable Swedish—with a decidedly macho overtone—a thunderous ovation erupted. The crowd parted to make way
for us. If I’d been upright, my jaw would’ve dropped. The idiots thought we were street performers. Freaking bunch of drunks.
Nils leaned forward. For a second, I thought he was putting me down, but when I realized he was bowing, I gave up. It was
too fucking surreal to do otherwise. I hung my head and stared at the firm, perfectly formed ass moving beneath his tunic, and
entertained myself by imagining a steel-toed boot planted there.
After a few minutes, the crowd grew bored with watching me being hauled around like a sack of potatoes, and dissipated, but
it wasn’t until we were outside the wal that Nils spoke to me.
“We are almost there. Wil you behave if I set you back on the ground?”
My first impulse was to tel him to fuck off, but I bit my tongue. Comments like that, while exceedingly satisfying for a moment,
didn’t tend to enhance one’s situation in the long run. I settled for crossing my fingers and saying, “I’l try my best.”
I guess it was good enough for Nils, because I found myself back on my feet, facing him. The blood that had been pooling in
my head left it in a rush, and I had to grab his forearms to keep from faling. He obligingly held me upright by my elbows until I
was steady.
Once my head cleared I gave him the dirtiest look in my repertoire. He had the grace to try to look ashamed, but he couldn’t
keep his eyes from crinkling at the corners.
“If you laugh, I swear to God I wil kick your big, hairy Viking bals.”
His eyes widened a bit, but he said, “They realy aren’t so hairy.”
“Hairy or not, it’l feel the same to you.”
He shrugged. “I doubt you could kick so high in that dress.”
“Try me,” I grated out, reaching down to lift the dress up far enough to let me maneuver.
“No, no, that’s okay. I won’t laugh.” He glanced appreciatively at my calves before he settled his face into blankness.
I dropped the hem—it’s not like he would’ve stood stil and let me kick him anyway—and looked around. There weren’t as
many revelers on this side of the wal. “So, what now?”
“Now we wait for Mina.”
“I already told you, she won’t come.”
“We shal see.” Stil maddeningly sure of himself.
“Look, I’m not going to let you trade me for Mina. You have to know that.”
“No, I don’t expect you wil.” Way too agreeable.
It finaly dawned on me. “You have no intention of letting me go, do you? You’re just using me to get Mina back. I’m bait.”
He shrugged, the barest trace of an apology in his eyes. “It would hardly be wise to set you free to go to the police, now would
it?”
If he hadn’t grabbed both my hands, I would’ve slugged him again, but he was ready for me this time. Despite Herculean effort,
I couldn’t get free. So I did the clichéd feminine thing, and stamped my foot—right down on top of his. (Hey, a cliché had served
me wel with the frying pan.) It may not have worked as wel as when I’d had Trey’s weight and muscles at my disposal in the
cigar store, but it didn’t go unnoticed. Nils swore under his breath in Swedish. At least, I’m pretty sure it was a swear word.
When he didn’t budge, I did it again, more out of frustration than spite, though spite may have factored in a teensy bit. Same
word from him (yeah, definitely a swear word—no mistaking the tone this time), and a shake, folowed by, “Stop it! Don’t make
me think this would be easier with you unconscious.”
I thought briefly about morphing into a carbon copy of him, just to shock him into letting me go, but it was too risky—
somebody might come upon us at any second. Besides, my dress would split.
“Damn it,” I said, after letting out an angry breath. “I don’t understand you. You were nice enough to me—” I caught myself,
coughed lightly, and continued. “Mina. Mina said you were the good one. Why are you being such a jerk now?”
He cocked his head and studied me. After a moment, he sighed and said, “I am trying to help you. I like you, Ciel. You are
brave and funny. You have a sharp mind, an even sharper tongue”—I squirmed at that—“and a great right hook,” he added with
a rueful smile.
“Realy?” I said, kind of flattered at that last bit.
“Truly. My jaw is stil sore.” He was teasing now. Actualy, that made me relax a little. If he was teasing me, it probably meant
he wasn’t planning to kil me.
“You can let me go now, you know. I won’t hit you again.”
He shook his head. “You would run. For now you must trust that I know best.”
“Why should I?” I said peevishly. “You’re a part of some wacko group that gets off on dressing funny and kiling people. And
kidnapping,” I added. “Let’s not forget that.”
“There’s more to it than you know. I can’t tel you everything, but one smal thing I can say … if you promise to tel no one.”
A secret? That could be useful. I dropped the peevishness. “I promise.” Which was a big lie, and I couldn’t even cross my
fingers, gripped as they were in his big hand. I wondered if God made alowances for extenuating circumstances, or if I could look
forward to another explosion in the near future.
“I am trying to get Mina back before Per finds her. He is very angry with her, and she wouldn’t be safe if he finds her first. I am
sorry to have to use you for this, but I can think of no other way.”
“Oh, so now you’re the hero. Right.” I didn’t worry as much about sarcasm as I did lying. If God held sarcasm against you, I’d
have been blown to kingdom come before I was out of grade school.
“Not a hero,
no. But Per has gone too far. Men should not hurt women.”
Ha. Says the man who’d whacked me on the bottom not half an hour earlier. Guess he didn’t count that. And I didn’t happen
to think men should hurt other men either, but at least he was halfway on the right track.
“Is he the one who shot at her at the hotel?” I asked.
“Not personaly, no. But he ordered it.”
“Mina said she may have, um, conked him on the head a tiny bit?”
“Oh, yes. She gave him quite a headache—one he won’t forget or forgive easily. It is best he doesn’t find her.”
A chil settled in my stomach. “Let me go when Mina gets here. Let us both go—”
“That I cannot do. It wouldn’t be safe for either of you. Per has too many men looking for Mina. So, now. Can I trust you to
say nothing about this to anyone? It would not go wel for me—or for Mina’s fiancé—if Per found out.”
“Do you realy have Trey somewhere?”
He held his breath for a few seconds, coming to a decision. “Yes. We have Trey. He has information we need, but is not being
cooperative. Per believes Mina may be useful in convincing him to be more forthcoming. I must keep that from happening. Per is
planning to kil them both after he finds out what Trey knows.”
I puled away as far as I could, considering he was stil holding my hands securely. “Why do you even need Trey?”
“He was the one who approached us, and Per was perhaps too anxious to include a wealthy American in our ranks. Access to
money is always handy. Now that he has been exposed as an infiltrator, Per is determined to stop him. But first he must find out
what Trey has already told his superiors.”
“You know what? Per is an asshole.”
He lifted one side of his mouth in a rueful half-smile. “Per is a fanatic. Fanatics tend to be extreme.”
“Okay. An extreme asshole.”
Laughing, he finaly let go of my hands. “You are the most astonishing girl. I wish I could—” He stopped and stared over my
shoulder. I looked behind me to see what had distracted him.
Another neo-Viking strode toward us. The good news was the newcomer wasn’t Per. The bad news was that it was Per’s
buddy, Nonto, carrying an animal-skin bag that looked to be loaded with something heavy. If he was here, how far behind could