by Vonnie Davis
Not only was she running away from members of The Red Hand, she was also running from the sensual magnetism of Niko. A very intriguing man who, only hours earlier, had strutted into her life, full of arrogance and attitude. A young man—emphasis on the young—who made her feel, hope and dream.
****
Niko sat forward, his hands dangling between his spread legs. What had he been thinking? He glanced over his shoulder through the bookstore window. She was wiping her eyes. Dammit, she was still crying. Crying because he pushed her. Why had he pushed her? She’d be gone soon, out of his life. Just what was his goal here? To shield her or seduce her?
“She going to be okay?” Derrek handed him Aly’s camera and then cast nervous eyes to the bookstore window.
“Yeah, once I apologize. I pushed her too hard.”
Derrek sat, pulled out his saxophone and hung it at his neck. “Good luck, man. Women are a puzzle. They’ll break your heart every time.” He moistened the reed and, placing the mouthpiece in his mouth, began playing a soulful tune.
Niko stood and walked across the small courtyard, rubbing the back of his neck. She was right. He allowed his protection assignment to get personal. In fact, he did so from the moment she regarded him with those soft blue eyes in the elevator back at headquarters.
Granted he didn’t have to keep his arm around her to keep her safe. Nor did copping a feel of those fantastic legs of hers back at the shoe store heighten her security. Although, it had heightened his awareness of her. The woman was starving for a man’s touch; it was evident in her reaction. She all but purred when he had his hands on her, and what man wouldn’t be turned on by such a sensual response?
Aly was like a tight rosebud sorely in need of warmth to open and bloom, and she most definitely made him warm—damn hot, to his surprise.
He ran his hand over his face, remembering that frantic kiss along the street. Aly was accurate in her suspicions. There’d been no real need for the kiss—except for his very real need to taste her. Lord, she had a sweet mouth.
Something about her pulled at him like metal chips to a magnet. Still, he had no right to allow his attraction for her to enter into all of this. Hadn’t he always executed his assignments with the highest degree of professionalism? This assignment could be no different. He glanced back at the window of Shakespeare and Company. “Okay, Aly, if this is how you want to play it, so be it.”
Niko stepped over to Derrek’s open saxophone case and dropped in enough euros to pay for a night in a hotel. He laid a business card on the bench next to the saxophonist. “Call me if you need anything. Maybe we could meet for an espresso in a few days.” Derrek gave a quick thumbs-up sign and nodded as he wailed some mournful notes, drawing an audience for the impromptu street concert.
When Niko stepped into the bookstore, Aly was stooped over, looking at dusty books on the bottom shelf of one of the myriad of bookshelves. She held two books when she straightened, a smile of delight on her face. Niko went to bookshelves on the opposite side of the store, determined to grant her the space she wanted.
This quirky, eccentric bookstore was one of his childhood haunts. His papa brought him here as part of their “Boys Day Out.” As the only boy in a houseful of sisters, he deeply needed that male-togetherness time. He and his papa, an accountant for the French government, stopped at the Notre Dame to say a prayer and light a candle before going for breakfast. Then they visited a museum and later had canapés along the street, often while watching street performers. Their excursions always ended here, looking for literary treasures.
As a teenager, he devoured English books from this store to broaden his understanding of the language. Then after he returned from Carnegie-Mellon to help care for his papa, he came here often. As the man he fiercely loved grew weaker while his cancer grew stronger, Niko scoured these crowded, dusty shelves arranged in a tight maze, looking for books he knew his sick papa would enjoy. He read to him daily, especially after he got too weak to hold a book. There were memories here, wonderful, yet bittersweet.
A man with reddish-orange spiked hair, wearing a faded Elton John T-shirt stood behind the counter. Eddie, his name tag read, chewed on the end of a pencil in between scribbling in a notebook. From time to time, Niko felt him staring at him. No doubt Eddie was a tumbleweed passing through on his way to nowhere.
Niko looked through a book, Sketches of Paris. His gaze slid to Aly. An olive branch perhaps? She might enjoy this. Aly turned the corner in the bookshelf-maze, and he took the opportunity to secretly buy her the book. Wallet in hand, he approached the clerk.
“G’Day, mate.” Eddie, the clerk, took the book from Niko. “There are two more volumes in this Paris sketch series. Interested?” The gold cross in his earlobe dangled when he spoke.
“I might be.”
Eddie looked around as if trying to remember where the books were stored. “I thumbed through those sketch books just the other day. Bein’ an artist, they caught my eye.”
“Where are you from?” Niko detected an Aussie accent.
“Australia. Brisbane. I’m here to experience Paris, study art and do a bit of poetry writin’.” Eddie’s eyes were scanning the shelves. “Ah, here we go, mate.” He dragged over a stepstool and climbed to reach what he was after. Turning, he leaned down to hand the two books to Niko.
“Thanks. Sketches of Parisian Rooftops and Sketches of Gardens of Paris.” He quickly scanned through the pages. Aly would love these.
Eddie hailed a greeting at two men, dressed in suits, when they entered and ambled through the narrow store, quietly talking as they stepped up the wooden steps to the next section.
Niko briefly glanced at them before flipping the books over to check the prices. “I’ll take all three.” He waited for the total and paid his bill. “Wrap them please so my lady friend can’t see them. They’re a surprise.”
“Oh, lucky her. I just love…”
Suddenly, screams followed by loud thumping and books falling filled the bookstore. Niko sprinted in the direction of the high-pitched shrieking, gun in hand. He bounded up the steps and rounded the corner. “Aly! Aly! What the hell.”
He skidded to a halt. One of the well-dressed men he saw entering the store earlier was on the floor, books covering most of his body. His companion was staggering, holding his hands over his eye and screaming like a banshee as blood ran down his face.
In the corner stood a pale and trembling Aly, her frightened blue eyes dominated her face. “They…they grabbed me! Said they’d kill me if I resisted. I…I karate kicked them.” She swallowed, obviously trying to gain control. “Kung…kung-fooed the hell out of them, too. And…and…”—she pointed to the screaming man still on his feet—“I think I poked his eye out with one of my stilettos.”
Niko ran a hand down his face, keeping it over his mouth to hide the smile. What a piece of work. He wanted to laugh. He wanted to hug her. And damned if he didn’t want to shake the daylights out of her for stepping out of his sight. Hadn’t he told her to stay with him?
“You okay?” Niko’s gaze swept over her, looking for injuries. He fought the urge to pull her to him and embrace her until her trembling stopped. Frankly, if he were honest, his nerves weren’t the greatest right this moment, either. When he heard her scream earlier, cold fear did a free-fall straight through his system.
Some professional he was. While buying books, his charge, his Aly, had to defend herself. His gaze took in the shambles. By the looks of things, hell if she hadn’t done a damn fine job. “Answer me! Did one of these bastards hurt you? Are you okay?”
“I…I gotta pee.” She was shaking violently. No doubt going into shock. Today’s events finally took their toll.
“I’ll show her to the dunny,” came the Aussie accent behind him. “Ain’t no wonder she’s gotta use the loo. The woman beat the bullocks out of the blokes, she did. Gobsmacked ’em, I’ll wager. Shall I call the police or will you?”
“I am the police. Counterterrorism u
nit. Call for back-up anyway. But see to her first, please? Then call for an ambulance, too.” He holstered his weapon. The shrieking attacker was getting on his nerves. He narrowed his eyes and cut them to the suited banshee. He wouldn’t touch him until Aly was out of seeing distance.
“Come along, sweet pea. Ol’ Eddie will see you to the loo.”
A full-blown, sledgehammer-thumping headache was brewing behind Niko’s eyes. When the salesclerk and Aly rounded the corner headed for the toilette, Niko executed a Karate Shotokan bunkai strike, similar to one he used earlier on their chaser. This time though, he used a hammer-fist blow to the pressure point in the man’s lower jaw.
Thankfully the blow incapacitated and shut-up the freakin’ screaming man with the injured eye. After he slumped onto the floor, Niko whipped out a plastic zip-strip, crouched with his knee in the small of the man’s back, jerking the man’s arms behind him to secure his hands. He applied another zip-strip to his captive’s ankles.
Books moved and someone behind him grunted. Niko rotated just in time to see the older of the two attackers make a break for it. Niko chased the man outside and dove onto his back. The momentum of Niko’s jump forced them onto the cobblestone courtyard. Air whooshed from the man beneath him when he hit the stones. The entwined pair rolled across the courtyard, pummeling each other. Grunts and panted breaths punctuated the early night air. Each fought to gain the upper hand.
Niko’s strength and experience quickly put his opponent on his stomach. Planting his left foot as a base, he yanked his opponent’s arm across his back into an arm bar, cranking it until either the man screamed or he smelled urine.
The man’s screams pierced the night air.
With his left hand at the man’s shoulder, Niko slid his right leg alongside the rib to support the arm bar. Planting his left knee into the middle of the screaming man’s spine, he removed his revolver from his back holster and jammed it into the base of his captive’s neck.
“You’re under arrest.” He leaned over the man and whispered in his ear, “You should probably know I’ve got this health condition where my fingers cramp at night. I’d hate for a bad cramp to make my finger pull this trigger. Wouldn’t you?” He shoved the barrel of the gun deeper into the man’s fleshy neck.
His captive swore and nodded.
“Now, I’m in a bit of a quandary. If I remove this gun so I can put handcuffs on you, I lose my advantage, unless I shot you in the knee first.”
“We will kill you! We will hunt you down! We know all about you, you arrogant swine. You will regret this.”
Niko tilted his head to the side. “That wasn’t a very nice thing to say.”
In his peripheral vision, two tourists passing by gasped and gawked. One took a camera from his shirt pocket and snapped a few pictures.
Keeping the barrel of his gun rammed into the back of the man’s neck, Niko stood, yanking the man to his feet. The determined stranger broke Niko’s hold and attempted to flee once more.
With no hesitation, Niko shot him in the back of the knee. Screams filled the air as the man crumbled, his blood filling the cracks of the cobblestone courtyard.
Sirens wailed in the distance. Police vans converged on the scene. Derrek appeared at Niko’s side. “Need any help?”
Niko nodded. “His partner is inside, in the alcove of bookshelves on the left. He was unconscious when I left him. Could you go in and make sure he stays put? I have him restrained, but I don’t want to take any chances.”
Derrek flashed a huge grin. “Gladly.”
Two blue police vans careened to a halt. Niko exhaled a long, ragged sigh. Small tremors started; the adrenaline rush was waning. Soon exhaustion would set in. What a long, damn day! How did these two assailants know Aly was here? Had he missed a tail again? Was he being that sloppy?
Police officers in their black uniforms jumped out of the vans. Niko flashed his badge and began relating the facts. He sensed Aly’s presence behind him while he talked in hushed tones to the police.
He turned briefly to make sure she was okay. He wanted to grab her and shake her. Then he wanted to kiss her senseless. “Stay put. Don’t step out of my sight again. Do you understand?” Her eyes widened in shock or anger at his harsh, demanding tone. He guessed his hard glare told her the matter was not open for discussion. Or maybe the experience inside the bookstore made her see the danger of going off alone. She nodded in response.
An ambulance pulled as close as it could to the courtyard. Medical personnel rushed to the interior of Shakespeare and Company. Niko called one over to examine Aly, who insisted she was fine. The courtyard was filling with onlookers curious to what was happening. They weren’t the only questioning people. Damned if he didn’t have a few questions of his own. Like who took the picture of him and Aly together in the garage at headquarters, and how did the terrorists always know where they were?
Chapter Seven
He was angry; that much was evident. In fact, Niko Reynard, his bottom lip split and his cheek bruised and swollen, fairly pulsated with irritation. Alyson couldn’t believe the way he spoke to her. What happened tonight was not her fault.
She was minding her own business, looking at books and deciding what to buy. Then two men came into the little book-lined alcove. Because they were well dressed, she wasn’t alarmed. A tremor shivered its way through her as she relived the shock of their confrontation and the menacing way in which they grabbed her. She was learning terrorists came in all sizes, shapes and manner of dress.
“Your gent’s quite pissed, ain’t he?” Eddie, the clerk from the bookstore, bumped his shoulder against Alyson’s.
“You noticed?” She bit out a harsh laugh. “By the way, he’s not my gent. He’s my protector. Nothing more.
Eddie put his arm around her and squeezed her shoulders. “Oh, girlfriend, if he looked at me the way he just looked at you—hot and smoldering with anger and passion—I’d be in satin-pink-thonged heaven.”
She looked at him for a beat. “You should meet my ex-husband.”
“A gay bloke, was he? Oh, sweet pea, don’t tell me you were his ‘beard.’ That’s just so cruel. Better to come out of the closet than to use someone like that.” He squeezed her shoulders again.
“Chaz didn’t have the balls to be honest about his sexuality. He never gave a second thought to using me to hide behind.”
“Bugger hurt you bad, didn’t he?” Darkness and shadows created by the shop and restaurant lights played an illuminating dance on the small courtyard. Blinking lights from the ambulance added additional gyrating shimmers as dusk gentled into night. Even so she could see the kindness in his eyes.
Alyson exhaled a long sigh. “Yeah. Yeah, he did.” She reached out and flicked his dangling cross earring. “I like you, Eddie from Australia. I wish we had the time to become friends.”
He patted her shoulder. “Oh, sweet pea, we are friends. With some people, it’s an instant connection, you know?”
Her gaze swept over Niko’s straight back and broad shoulders. One of the sleeves of his suit coat was ripped and he was dusty from rolling around on the cobblestones. There was a definite connection to Niko, too, and she’d yet to define it in that orderly way she preferred. “Yes, my friend. I know.”
Odd she was emotionally connecting quickly, first with Niko and now Eddie. She usually moved with caution when making new friends. Part of her reserved nature, she supposed. Yet, here in Paris, she felt unencumbered by past habits. She was changing; Paris was changing her. Frankly, she was unnerved by them.
Earlier, inside Shakespeare and Company, for the first time, she used moves she learned in karate class. Even as she executed the kicks, the action seemed surreal, dreamlike.
On the other hand, Niko was obviously accustomed to violence the way he punched and shot with cold precision. What kind of man was he, really?
Niko was domineering, yet caring. Possessing self-assurance in that arrogant French way, he still displayed kindness by encouraging
her about her art. That one act endeared him to her. No one had ever discovered or shown immediate respect for her secret desires until this man. Even with all the terrors this day had thrown at her, she felt safe in his presence.
Ambulance attendants wheeled the gurney past them bearing the man with the injured eye. He turned his bandaged head toward Alyson and outstretched his hand and pointed his finger. The hate in his eyes speared her, the force of it almost causing her to back up.
Niko turned and leaned over the injured man. Suddenly a knife was in her protector’s hand and brandished in front of the man’s mouth. The man nodded. Niko snapped the knife shut, slipping it back into his pocket.
“Oh, a switchblade! Girlfriend, that just blows the air up my skirts. I do love a dangerous bloke.” Eddie bumped his shoulder against hers again. “He’s all passion and edgy as hell with it. I see how you look at him. Honey, you better jump his finely muscled frame. He’s as fit as a mallee bull.”
“Nonsense. We’ve only met today. I’ll be leaving for home soon.”
“Darlin’ if you leave, it’ll be the biggest mistake you ever made.” Eddie leaned closer to whisper in her ear. “That’s destiny standing right there. Your destiny. Now, I better get back inside and tend to the store. Come see me again. Promise?”
“I’ll try. My life is so chaotic right now. I have no clue what’s going to happen from one minute to the next.”
Eddie ran a finger down her cheek. “Yes, but don’t you feel alive with it? Pulsate with the energy of the unknown? Alive, like a daisy blowin’ in the wind?”
She had to admit he was right. “Yes.” Eddie turned to step back into Shakespeare and Company. She turned and found herself eyeball to eyeball with Niko and his fury.
“You want to tell me why you walked out of my sight? Didn’t I tell you back at the hotel you needed to be with me at all times to be safe?” He grabbed her arms and hauled her against him, fierceness in his dark eyes. “What part of that didn’t your sweet mind understand?”