Flight Risk

by Kim Baldwin

  And she still knew virtually nothing about Alexi Nikolos. In fact, Alexi was stubbornly circumspect and annoyingly determined to fend off her advances. What’s up with that, anyway? I don’t throw myself at women. But I sure am doing about everything I can to get her to bed, despite the obstacles. And they were safe, now. Surely Alexi could loosen up a little.

  Damn it. I know she’s interested. She’d seen it in Alexi’s eyes in the dressing room, and again last night, right before that maddeningly brief kiss. She could still feel Alexi’s hands gently cradling her face. What the hell is the problem with a quick bit of fun in the sack? A much better way to pass the time than backgammon, that’s for sure. And no one ever needs to know.

  While she was dressing that morning, Blayne had decided to do whatever she could to try to get to Alexi, the way she had been getting to her during their last game of backgammon. Those glimpses of the fire beneath Alexi’s cool exterior were far too rare. Most of the time, she was a stone, controlling her emotions and reactions so well that it was nearly impossible to determine what she was thinking or feeling. But I know she was feeling what I was last night. I know she wanted to kiss me…really kiss me.

  She yearned to see more of that passionate nature in an unguarded moment. And most of all, she wanted to see if she could stir Alexi’s blood the way Alexi was stirring hers.

  There would certainly be plenty of opportunities if they were cooped up together like this for the foreseeable future. Romantic dinners and evenings by the fire. Oh yeah. Plenty of opportunities. I just have to be patient.

  After Alexi had signed for the check, they strolled to the lobby together, Alexi heading toward the front desk and Blayne toward Guest Services.

  Bill hailed her while she was still several feet away, and she cringed, hoping Alexi didn’t hear. “Back again! Fiona, right?”

  “Hi Bill.” She kept her voice low. “I just came to see what all you offer in the way of things to do around here.”

  “Sure. Let me give you this.” He handed her a colorful brochure peppered with pictures of fishermen, hikers, birdwatchers, and couples in kayaks and canoes. Inside were brief descriptions of the amenities and outdoor activities available through the lodge. Hmm, in-cabin massages. I could use a little of that right about now, but unfortunately it’s Alexi’s hands I’d like to have on me and not some masseuse’s.

  All the same, Blayne was impressed with all the classes and special events available to guests. There were fly-fishing, birding, and cooking classes, wine-tastings and eco-tours, spa treatments, family fishing derbies and poker tournaments. Quite a range of activities. This has got to beat the hell out of whatever WITSEC had planned for me. She still wondered about that. She had been born and raised a Yooper, with a passion for the unspoiled natural beauty that was Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, so this Canadian wilderness was welcome and familiar.

  She’d been worried from the start that WITSEC would plant her in some hot, desolate environment, devoid of any real change of seasons—Vegas, or Phoenix, or Miami. She could not be happy long in a place like that. But this? She could get used to this. No problem.

  “Thanks a lot. This looks great.” She glanced toward the front desk. Alexi was still preoccupied with the clerk, but had one eye on her as well. “Well, better get going. See you soon.” Hopefully very soon.

  “Take care, Fiona. Go Spartans!”

  As she crossed the lobby toward Alexi, she took a few moments to admire the coiled beauty of the WITSEC Inspector. She looked absolutely relaxed, casually leaning against the counter, amiably chatting with the clerk. But Blayne had spent a lot of time watching her lately, and she was beginning to recognize subtle things about Alexi that told the real story. No matter how nonchalant she might appear to be, the reality was she was always alert. Always keenly focused on her surroundings. She managed to keep an eye on everything and everyone without it appearing obvious she was doing so. At least she was always that way when there were other people around.

  When they were alone, now that was another story. She had managed on at least a couple of occasions to get Alexi thinking personal—very personal. The way she was looking at me just before she kissed me. Damn, do I want her to look at me like that some more.

  Alexi straightened as she approached and concluded her conversation with the clerk. Whatever she said made the young woman laugh, and Blayne felt a flash of something—a flutter of regret. She wished she had been the recipient of Alexi’s clever remark.

  “See any classes or anything you wish you take advantage of?” Alexi tilted her head toward the brochure and events calendar in her hand.

  “Oh, don’t you be talking about wishes, and taking advantage…unless you really mean that.” Blayne wagged a finger at her reproachfully, suggestively, and was gratified to see a faint flush tint Alexi’s cheeks.

  “I…I did not mean…”

  “Yeah, yeah. You never do.” Blayne’s smirk of pleasure at ruffling Alexi’s composure was interrupted by a sudden yawn she could not repress. Her sleepless night was beginning to catch up with her. Maybe a nap when we get back to the cabin. Then, this afternoon…I’ll see if I can ruffle her up some more.

  They rode the short drive back to the A-frame in silence.

  Alexi tried desperately to dispel the provocative image that had sprung to mind when Blayne said the words taking advantage. They were back in the dressing room, but this time, she wasn’t frisking Blayne, she was fucking her, up against the wall, and Blayne was loving every minute of it.

  Her body resonated with arousal, painful arousal, and she didn’t dare look at Blayne on the ride back. How the hell am I ever going to get through this? She can turn me on with words alone. The first thing she had to do when they got back was to get a few minutes to herself, in her room. Appears I am going to be doing a lot of that.

  She parked the Prizm in front of the cabin and they stepped out into the late morning sunshine. She was so intent on her imminent orgasm that she didn’t immediately see the dark silhouette waiting for them on the screened-in porch.

  Blayne had taken three steps forward, and was almost directly between her and the intruder before his movement caught Alexi’s attention. The sudden realization that someone was waiting for them made her heart leap into her throat. “Blayne! Down!” She reached behind her for her gun, which was stuck into the waistband of her pants.

  Blayne turned uncertainly in her direction.

  “Down!” Alexi repeated, as she darted forward to shield Blayne with her body.

  “Alexi! Stop! It’s Theo!”

  She had the gun pointed at him, ready to fire, but his words penetrated, and his voice was instantly familiar, so she froze, and tried to will her heart to slow down. “Damn it, Theo! You nearly got yourself killed!” She turned to Blayne, whose eyes were wide in shock. She looked ready to bolt. “It is all right. He is my boss.”

  Blayne’s fear transformed to anger when she realized there was no imminent threat. “How the fuck is he here? You told me you weren’t going to tell anyone where we were!”

  “And I did not,” Alexi assured her. “I do not know how or why he is here, I assure you, but I sure as hell intend to find out.” She put the gun back in her pants, and they resumed their trek to the porch. Theo met them at the door.

  “Sorry to take you by surprise.” Their visitor extended a hand toward Blayne. “Miss Keller, I’m Theodore Lang. I’m the head of WITSEC’S Chicago division.”

  Blayne eyed him suspiciously, nodding that she understood. But she made no move to shake his hand, and he let it drop.

  “How did you find us, Theo?” Alexi said without preamble, her irritation evident. “And how long have you known where we were?”

  “We’ve known since midnight.”

  “We?” Alexi asked.

  “Three at the task force headquarters,” he clarified. “Which means I cannot guarantee your safety here.”

  “How, Theo?”

  His eyes shifted to Blayne. Alexi
followed them.

  “What? Why are you looking at me?” Blayne fidgeted under their scrutiny.

  “You promised me you wouldn’t call,” Alexi said. “I trusted you.”

  “I didn’t!”

  “Go pack your things, Blayne.” It was not a request. “We need to leave. And bring me your passport.”

  “I said, I didn’t call anyone!” Blayne argued, not budging. It was important to her that Alexi believe she had kept her word.

  “You can trace an email as easily as you can a phone call, Miss Keller,” Lang said patiently.

  Blayne felt suddenly light-headed. “Oh, shit.”

  “Pack, Blayne.” Alexi’s voice was clipped. “Quickly, please.”

  “All right. I’m going.” Blayne headed upstairs toward her room.

  Alexi turned to follow but Lang stopped her with a hand on her arm.

  “We need to convince her to get back into the program, Alexi.” He pulled a folded document from his inside breast pocket. “These are her papers. I have a helicopter waiting, but I want her to sign before we get on it.”

  Alexi scanned the standard agreement. Blayne would be admitted into the Witness Protection Program in exchange for her promise to testify. Papers were usually given to the witness during their formal orientation, but Blayne had never made it that far. “I do not think she will sign these, Theo.”

  “She has to. Cinzano’s attorney has filed a petition to get him released,” Lang said. “You know we’ll never convince a judge to keep him unless we have a sworn statement from her that she’ll testify.”

  Blayne rejoined them, her duffel bag packed and ready to go. She handed her passport to Alexi.

  “You have two minutes to try to convince her, Theo.” Alexi gave him back the WITSEC documents. “Which is how long it will take me to pack.”

  Alexi headed upstairs, half of her hoping that Blayne accepted the offer so that they could take the chopper out of there, the other half wanting the situation to remain as it was. Just her and Blayne.

  “Miss Keller,” Lang addressed Blayne as soon as they were alone. “I know you’re reluctant to return to the program, and I understand why. But we can protect you much better than Alexi can by herself. And we need your agreement to testify in order to keep Vittorio Cinzano in jail until the trial.” He unfolded the papers in his hand and handed them to her. “If you sign these, we can be on a helicopter headed out of here in five minutes. You’ll be in a new, safe location by tonight.”

  Blayne glanced through the document. “I am going to testify,” she told him, but in truth she still wasn’t entirely sure about that. Her intentions were good, but more and more, she wanted to distance herself from all of the danger and uncertainty that awaited her in WITSEC. Alexi had made her feel safe again, and she was reluctant to do anything to change the status quo. “But I’m not going to sign anything.”

  She handed the papers back. “When I agreed to let you people make all the decisions for me, I was shot at and nearly killed by a bomb aboard a plane. Since Alexi has been taking care of me…Well, I’m the one who screwed up, not her. I like things the way they are.”

  “We have far more resources than she does alone,” Lang argued. “She can’t protect you better than we can within the program.”

  “If you’re so capable of protecting people, what about Claudia Cluzet? Have you kept her safe? Do you even know where the hell she is yet?”

  Lang frowned. “No,” he admitted. “No leads on her or her father.”

  Damn. She fought back sudden tears. Oh, Claud.

  “By rights, actually,” Lang said, “WITSEC was never responsible for protecting the Cluzets. It was the Chicago P.D.’s…”

  Blayne cut him off. “Like I said, I’m not going into the program. I’ll take my chances with Alexi.”

  “Miss Keller,” he snapped. “Be reasonable.”

  “I’ve made up my mind.”

  Upstairs, Alexi threw the last of her things into her duffel and retrieved the money bag from under the bed and added their passports to it. She was furious at Blayne for sending the email, but relieved that Theo had gotten to them before anyone else.

  She turned to head back downstairs, the bags slung over one shoulder, but something made her take one last look out of the big triangular window that had served as such an excellent vantage point.

  There was a dark sedan parked in the near distance, on the little two-track that ran up to the cabin.

  Her blood ran cold.

  A sudden flash momentarily blinded her, a glint of sunlight off metal, and when she blinked past it, her eyes focused on a man with a gun, approaching the porch through the trees.

  Her heart thudded heavily in her chest. Blayne!

  Chapter Sixteen

  Alexi took the stairs three at a time and bolted to the porch, throwing down her bags and drawing her weapon en route. She found Blayne on the floor, Lang hunched over her, gun in hand, trying to protect her. “Shots,” he rasped, when he saw Alexi.

  Staying low and moving fast, Alexi half-pushed and half-pulled Blayne into the cabin, as Theo lingered briefly behind to cover them. Just as they reached the doorway, a bullet hit the doorjamb near Alexi’s head and splintered the wood. Another grazed Lang’s left arm, just below the elbow, and took out a small chunk of flesh. He groaned and scrambled inside after them.

  They’d heard no shots being fired. Their assailants were using silencers.

  The door had barely closed behind them when it was peppered with gunfire. Alexi wrapped her arms around Blayne and brought her roughly down onto the floor.

  Blayne got the wind knocked out of her but lay where she was. Alexi’s body shielded her on one side, the counter on the other. She gasped for air, trying not to panic. All of her senses seemed heightened as her mind and body struggled with opposing urges to flee and fight. She felt Alexi’s weight shift slightly to allow her to catch her breath.

  “You all right, Theo?” Alexi asked in a low voice when the shooting subsided. A dark stain was blooming around the neat bullet hole in the arm of his coat.

  “Not serious.” He scrambled forward and crouched beneath the front window.

  “Where is the helicopter?”

  “Just over the rise behind us.” Theo risked a quick glance outside from one corner of the window. “You can’t see it from here, but it’s not far. The pilot is Chicago P.D. When we fire back, the shots will bring him in.”

  “He knows the situation?” Alexi asked.

  “Enough to tell the good guys from the bad guys.” Theo seemed about to say something else when one of the rear windows suddenly burst inward in a shower of glass, and they all hugged the floor again as the shooting resumed.

  Chunks of wood from the back door flew through the air to land all around them. More bullets pierced the front door. Determined they would walk out of here, Alexi curled protectively around Blayne’s back and signaled Theo. A brown-haired man in a dark winter jacket was poised just outside the porch door, gun in hand, intently focused on who might be lurking just inside the screen.

  Theo raised his weapon and fired twice through the window, but the thick double panes deflected the bullets and the man ducked down out of sight, unhurt. He met Alexi’s eyes and shook his head. His bullets left large holes and spider-web cracks in the glass above his head.

  Two more large caliber bullets came through the back door. One shattered the ceramic base of a lamp, three feet from Blayne and Alexi.

  Theo’s shots will be heard across the lake, so the gunmen will need to finish this fast. Alexi figured there were probably no more than four of them, since she had seen only one car outside. She had to take pre-emptive action. She could not wait until they shot their way in. Her body was energized and her senses were on hyper-alert, analyzing every detail of her surroundings while she considered avenues of escape and likely scenarios.

  “When I tell you…go around the counter, and lie flat, up against it,” she instructed Blayne in a low voice. Th
eir bodies were snuggled tight together, her breasts pressed against Blayne’s back, her face in the curve of Blayne’s shoulder. It was one of her favorite positions when she was fucking someone with a dick, and that familiar body memory flashed into her head when Blayne half-turned so that their cheeks met and pressed against each other.

  She shoved the image out of her mind as quickly as it had intruded, pushed it out with a fierce determination. Thinking like that will get you both killed. Focus. They were in a lull between shots. She knew it would not last.

  “Go!” she told Blayne, shielding her as she moved around the counter.

  Once Blayne was lying flat, she took up a position next to the rear window that had been shattered.

  Before she exposed herself to get a look, she listened.

  It took a few seconds to filter sounds over the pounding of her heart and the other ambient noise—the faint hum of the refrigerator ten feet away. Then she heard it. A very subtle metallic tapping, just outside. It lasted only a few seconds. The nervous tapping of a ring against the handle of a gun, perhaps. Human, whatever it was. And so close she knew someone was standing directly through the wall. She raised her pistol until it barely cleared the lower left corner of the window and fired three times, angling the gun slightly with each shot, knowing at least one of the bullets would find a target. A heavy thud of impact confirmed that a body had hit the ground, and she heard a long groan.

  Alexi listened intently for several seconds, but could hear no further noise from outside and risked a quick glance up. A flash of movement in the woods warned her and she darted out of the way as a bullet whizzed by and sank into the wall behind her. She was back up and firing almost at once, but the man was gone, concealed behind the side of the cabin that had no windows and no door. Eight bullets left.

  Theo was alternately keeping an eye on the front of the cabin, and on the rear. His vantage point allowed him a clear view of anything passing by the window Alexi was crouched beneath. Alexi had to split her attention three ways—on her own window, on Theo’s, across the cabin to her left. And on Blayne, to her right.