by Selma Wolfe
She looked down at it and half of Nikki wanted to yell, “No!” The other half wanted to take off running for the door. But she didn’t do either.
A smile curved over Ghost’s lips. Nikki felt like all Ghost had done since she walked in was give her Cheshire grins. She hated it. She hated Ghost. She thought maybe she hated Mark a little too, and anything he’d done with this woman. And the fact that he hadn’t told her about it.
Do I really have any right to know? Nikki asked herself. Probably not. But she was angry anyway.
Ghost tapped the receive button and held up the phone.
“Hi Nikki. Are you okay? I’m sorry I ran out like that,” Mark’s voice sounded very loud in the quiet room. “I’m coming back now.”
Nikki opened her mouth to speak, but Ghost beat her to it.
“Your princess is in another tower, darling,” she said, and smoothly shut off the phone.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
There was nobody in his apartment, and no sign of a struggle.
Mark panted in the entrance to his apartment. He’d run the rest of the way back, even though he’d known in his bones that he’d be too late. The words useless, useless chanted like a mantra in the back of his head.
He pushed away the thoughts with some difficulty. He didn’t have time for this. Nikki didn’t have time for this.
What Mark wanted more than anything was to turn right back around and run out the door to take his chances. But Mark forced himself to methodically, if quickly, go over the apartment from top to bottom, looking for anything that might prove useful.
What he did find told him more than what he did find - mostly because he found nothing. Ghost had planned this. It hadn’t been a spur of the moment decision fueled by rage or whatever illogical motivation made her snap. Mark still wasn’t sure what exactly pushed her over the edge, and the thought made his blood freeze with fear for Nikki.
He almost called back to beg - he wasn’t above begging, not if it would give him even a chance of getting Nikki away from Ghost - but stopped himself. Obviously Ghost was aware of some kind of connection between himself and Nikki and was exploiting the hell out of it. Mark wasn’t sure how angry it made her, but he wasn’t willing to risk exacerbating the situation.
“Think, dammit,” he growled at himself, alone in the middle of his apartment in the early hours of the morning. Panic clutched at his heart and threatened to bring him to his knees. He had no idea where Nikki was, no idea what Ghost was doing to her, and no idea how to find her.
Useless mess, the little voice in the back of his head whispered at him again. Give up. Call the police and let them fix it. What could you do but screw everything up worse?
Mark fished his phone slowly out of his pocket and listened to the dial tone.
“This better be good,” a sleepy voice said on the other line. Mark would have smiled if the circumstances had been any different.
“It’s not,” he said flatly. “Sorry, Julian. Ghost kidnapped Nikki and I have no idea where she is.”
“Shoot,” Julian said, his voice coming over the line alert and collected in a single second. “Any idea what she wants?”
Mark brought a hand to his forehead and dug his knuckles into his skin, willing himself to think.
“To hurt me? Obviously,” he said, trying to force his thoughts to flow out loud. “I don’t know if it’s just for me, though. That doesn’t make sense, she has to want something else. We didn’t let her get the last painting, so… Oh. The other painting. It just came back to the MoMA,” Mark breathed.
“What painting?” Julian said, his voice fuzzy and far away. Mark heard a zipper. “C’mon, quick.”
“Starry Night. The one everyone puts the Batman logo in. It was on loan and now it’s back at the museum. That’s what Ghost wants.” He was still worried desperately, but the familiar flow of logic soothed Mark and made things come into focus. “She kidnapped Nikki to distract me. She couldn’t have known if I’d guess her plans, and since I guessed her last one out of the blue - it was because of Nikki, total chance, that caught both of us off guard - she couldn’t risk it.”
“Gotcha.” A door slammed on the other end and Julian was breathing raggedly into the phone like he was rushing around with it clamped to his ear. “Sounds like she’s probably not even going to bother much with Nikki. Ghost might just dump her somewhere and take off.”
And now Mark was moving too; rushing out the door and down the stairs as quickly as possible. He would have taken the stupid elevator without hesitation, but the stairs were quicker so he didn’t bother with the symbolism. “Might do. Can’t take the chance though. Call me when you know anything?”
“You do the same. Stay safe, Champ.” Julian cut the connection.
Mark jammed his phone back into his pocket and sprinted down the street, weaving through startled passer-bys and praying he was going in the right direction.
Ghost shrugged on a large jacket that she’d actually hung on a hook by the door. It seemed odd to Nikki that a criminal would do something so sensible and ordinary as hang up her coat. But then the long trench fluttered around Ghost’s frame, obscuring the knife and gun, and Nikki understood.
“We’re going to walk quietly back to your apartment, and you’re not going to do anything stupid,” Ghost said. “Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Nikki said. She shot a glance at Ghost’s hands and wondered how fast Ghost could reach her weapons. Maybe she wouldn’t dare draw them in the middle of the street. She could run.
In the time it took for Nikki to look back up from Ghost’s hands to her face, Ghost shot across the room and grabbed Nikki by the throat. Shockingly strong hands dug into her neck and Nikki choked. She brought her hands up and tore at Ghost’s arm but it was useless; the thief’s grip was too tight and Nikki’s panic made her motions inefficient.
Black dots started to dance in front of Nikki’s eyes. She lifted her leg and aimed a weak kick just as Ghost’s fingers loosened and the other woman let her go. Nikki fell over her own kick and tumbled to the floor.
“No, you can’t escape,” she heard Ghost say quietly above her. Nikki wheezed and nodded frantically. She understood.
Before she could really get her breath back Ghost grabbed her arm and marched her out of the apartment.
It was all Nikki could do to keep her feet underneath her as Ghost dragged her down the stairs and out the apartment door. Nikki blinked in the early morning sunlight and tried desperately to keep up. Because it was early there weren’t a ton of people clogging the sidewalks yet, but Nikki caught a few surprised glances thrown her way. She wondered if bruises were blossoming on her throat. It ached.
She coughed and Ghost gave her a rough shake. Nikki held back the next cough.
“Get out your key,” Ghost said in her ear. Nikki blinked and looked up at her apartment building. She dug in her pocket for her key and shook her head, trying to clear away the fuzziness.
They walked inside and Ghost led her into the elevator without pause.
It was such a small thing, but all of the dread that had cowed Nikki so thoroughly turned over in her chest and suddenly changed into resentment. Anger burned hot through her veins, chasing away her aches and fear, pushing them back somewhere manageable so that Nikki felt them from a distance without being controlled by them.
She remembered Mark walking into this elevator with her; remembered his hesitation and then his determination to do the right thing by Nikki. She latched on to a primal, resentful thought - It was wrong that Mark was battered and scarred from his experiences and Ghost was untouchable.
Nikki thought of what Mark had said about the last person he’d shared his experiences with. “They sound like an asshole,” she’d said. He’d laughed and agreed. Nikki had no doubts now that Ghost had been that person.
Anger tightened in her chest and morphed into white-hot rage. It was impossible for Nikki to know for sure how much of Mark’s pain he owed to Ghost, but instinct told
her it was more than her fair share.
The elevator dinged and they stepped out onto the landing.
“Your interior decor is a little sad,” Ghost commented as Nikki fiddled with the lock. Her hand was trembling, but in anger, not in fear. “Not as sad as Mark’s, of course, but that’s to be expected. Nobody’s as pathetic as Mark.”
That was the last straw. Nikki whirled around; she saw strands of her blonde hair whip Ghost across the face. Ghost backed up with wide eyes, her face suddenly cautious.
“What do you know?” Nikki demanded. “What the hell do you know about it? You think because he cares, because he treats people well, that he’s pathetic? Because he has demons? News flash, psycho, so does everyone that isn’t a complete sociopath! I think he’s amazing.”
The air felt very quiet in the moments after her little speech. Ghost’s face was blank and cold. Nikki felt a shiver of foreboding run up her spine.
“Well,” Ghost said, her face still eerily expressionless. “If that’s how you really feel.”
Then she lunged forward and Nikki fell back through the doorway of her apartment with a shout of alarm.
Mark’s feet slapped the pavement hard as he drew close to Nikki’s apartment. The chill morning air burned his throat. His muscles ached, but he forced himself to keep moving toward the building.
He paused outside and pulled out his phone again. He tried Nikki’s number. The dial tone droned in his ear.
He drew in a deep breath and prepared to go into the building.
His feet wouldn’t budge.
“Dammit,” he growled. But no matter how firmly he told his body to move, it wouldn’t. He was paralyzed in place, unable to take another step forward towards whatever was waiting for him in Nikki’s apartment.
Mark cursed himself for a coward, but he knew that wasn’t it. As much as he dreaded the thought of being at Ghost’s mercy a second time, that wasn’t the panic that gripped his body like a vice.
It was the thought of what she could do to Nikki.
Every night Mark relived the things that had happened to him in his nightmares. He remembered everything in brutal, painful detail. And the thought of Ghost hurting Nikki like that was… Mark desperately shoved the thoughts away. It was too difficult to even contemplate.
Ghost was unpredictable and dangerous. She might just tie up Nikki and threaten her into submission. Or she might take out all her anger and jealousy on Nikki’s skin.
As horrific as the images that played across his mind were, Mark knew he couldn’t afford to dwell. It was so hard to push himself past the numbing panic, but Nikki was in trouble. And if he’d made the wrong gamble - if Ghost hadn’t brought her back to this apartment - then Nikki would have to wait on him even longer.
He pictured Nikki’s smiling face in his head. He thought of the way her lips curled up when she laughed. He imagined the waves of her blonde hair falling around her shoulders, and remembered the way it felt when her sweet-smelling hair brushed against his skin. The reasonable part of his mind knew that it was insane to feel this way, but in that moment Mark felt like he’d die if anyone dared to hurt her.
Mark moved forward.
The memory of Nikki melted the frozen feeling in his limbs and he rushed up the steps of the building. He ran through the entrance and toward the stairwell. Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay.
He put out a hand to open the door to the stairwell but before he could grasp the handle, it flew open in his face.
One of Mark’s hands went up instinctively to block his face, and the other went to his belt. He jumped back and waited, prepared for anything.
Nikki skidded to a halt and stared open-mouthed at Mark, who stared back at her with huge eyes. He was poised to defend or attack and for a moment Nikki didn’t move.
“Um… hi,” she said carefully after a few seconds had passed by. She let the door swing shut behind her and stepped forward. Mark lowered his hand and regarded her silently. He looked stunned.
“You… Ghost took you. Didn’t she?” he asked, sounding uncertain. Nikki couldn’t blame him. She was still a little shocked by the turn of events herself.
She nodded. “Yeah. She showed up to your apartment with a gun.” Nikki didn’t miss the anger that flashed in Mark’s eyes at her words. “I had to go with her, sorry. She took me back here and tied me up, but I got out. She took my phone so I couldn’t call you… I was going to go back to your apartment and try to figure out a way to reach you. I don’t know your phone number off the top of my head yet, and, um… Yeah. I guess that’s it.”
Mark continued to just stare at her as Nikki trailed off into silence. His expression was unreadable and grim. Nikki fidgeted under his gaze. Had she done something wrong? She couldn’t think.
Without warning Mark moved forward. For a second Nikki tensed up, but she didn’t back away, not even when Mark’s arms went around her and pulled her close, crushing Nikki against his chest.
“You’re amazing,” he breathed. His light eyes stared down at hers. He looked almost… awed. And though he wasn’t smiling exactly he looked blindingly happy, making his handsome face so beautiful that it almost hurt to look at.
It took Nikki’s breath away.
“Mark…” She didn’t know what to say - nothing seemed like enough. Nikki didn’t know how to tell Mark the way it felt to see him; the relief and joy that coursed through her veins in a heady rush.
Then she didn’t have to worry about it, because Mark dipped his head down and touched his lips to hers. For a second he just pressed his lips against hers, more a question than a kiss.
Please, Nikki’s heart answered, and she arched up into him, sealing their lips together in an unequivocal yes.
Even though Mark had initiated it, part of Nikki worried that he would push her away like he had after their first kiss. That rejection had hurt so badly. But she was willing to risk it again - couldn’t not - because there was nothing in that moment that she wanted more than this. She pushed closer to Mark, her whole body singing with the feeling of him against her.
This time Mark didn’t let her go; didn’t back away. His arms tightened around her back. One of his hands splayed across her shoulder blades and the other slid lower to press possessively against her lower back. He angled his head, deepening the kiss, and Nikki lost herself in the soft wet heat between them.
When they finally pulled away, both of them were breathing raggedly, gasping for air as they came back to earth. Nikki glanced around the hallway, slightly abashed. She’d forgotten where they were. She started to move away but Mark didn’t let her go. He left one hand on her back and brought the other up to trace gentle fingertips across her cheek.
“You are the most incredible, intelligent, resourceful woman I have ever met,” Mark whispered in her ear, the heat of his breath spilling down her neck and tingling through her body.
There was nothing Nikki wanted to do more than to sink into this delicious moment and cherish the way that Mark was looking at her. But his words reminded her of what had just happened. If she wanted to be the woman Mark thought she was - the woman she wanted to be - she needed to focus.
“We… are going to talk about this later,” she said, reaching up to hold Mark’s face between her hands, stretching out the moment just a little longer. His stubble scratched lightly against her palms and she wondered what he’d neglected in order to find her. What he would have tossed aside if it was necessary. Mark’s light eyes watched her carefully and he nodded in agreement. Nikki sighed.
She dropped her hands and stepped away so as to remove herself from temptation. Mark let her go though he was still watching her like a hawk.
“Ghost is headed to the MoMA,” she said. “We need to get going, now. She’s probably there already.”
Nikki headed for the door and Mark followed hot on her heels.
“I’m up to date at least that far,” he said, holding the door even as they rushed through it. His long legs easily kep
t pace with hers as she all but jogged down the street. “The police are already on the way. Are you alright? We don’t need to go. Did Ghost hurt you in any way?”
Mark’s hand shot out and he grabbed her shoulder, spinning Nikki around to face him. His expression was dead serious. It was obvious that Nikki was relatively fine or she knew that she’d never have gotten this far without the interrogation, but of course, there were many ways to cause someone pain.
She smiled up at him as reassuringly as she could and laid a hand over his. Mark jumped a little at the contact but didn’t budge.
“I’m fine, honestly. She just tied me up and left me in my apartment. It wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I expected. Oh - except she did choke me. Uh, a little. But I got better.”
Mark’s face darkened. His hand went slowly to her collar, his eyes seeking permission, and he tucked it aside. When he caught sight of the bruises that marred Nikki’s skin his fingers tightened in the fabric and something frightening passed fleetingly over his expression.
Nikki swallowed. Mark loosened his fingers and stepped away. His face calmed so that he looked normal again. She wondered if maybe she had imagined it. Mark was such a polite, good-hearted gentleman that is was hard for Nikki to imagine him as anything harsher.
“She won’t do that again,” Mark told her, and the way he said it, Nikki believed it.
They resumed walking, weaving through the crowds of people unerringly toward the MoMA. All of their work with the map had given Nikki a familiarity with the city that she’d never felt until now.
“How did you get away?” Mark said, glancing over as they pushed past a group of tourists. “You said she tied you up - Ghost is usually quite thorough.”
Nikki nodded. “Yeah,” she said, rubbing absently at her wrists. Then she brightened. “But Ghost didn’t count on Charm.”
It clearly took Mark a second to follow. When he did, he looked bemused.
“Your lizard?” he asked. “Forgive me, but I’m having trouble believing that reptile slithered out of its cage and untied you.”