by Elle James
“Which way?” Declan asked. “Alabama is college football. The Patriots are a real team.”
“Toward us,” Gus muttered without moving his lips. Then he snorted. “I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.”
“Yeah. You watch your team. I’ll watch mine.”
The woman in black sailed past them, her head held high, her silky black hair flowing around her shoulders, her chin tilted upward, displaying a long, regal neck.
Damn she was beautiful. But something about her didn’t fit in with the other women in the room. She was thin, but athletic, and she walked with confidence and purpose.
Perhaps it was the purpose that made her different than the other women in the room. Most were content to socialize and mingle. Not the woman in black. She appeared to have something on her mind and was in a hurry to get it off.
“Passing you now,” Gus said, his gaze remaining on the ladies’ restroom as the woman in black walked away.
“Got her in sight,” Declan affirmed. “Appears to be in a hurry.”
“Unlike every other woman in the room.”
“Maybe she forgot to let the dog out at home.”
“Yeah.” Gus relaxed a little, since the woman in black appeared to be leaving and, as such, no longer seemed a threat.
Charlie emerged from the ladies’ room laughing and talking to another guest similar in age to the wealthy widow. When she spotted Gus and Declan, she nodded, letting them know she was okay. Then she walked away with the other woman, rejoining the crowd in the ballroom.
Gus and Declan followed, not too far behind.
Several men came between Charlie, Gus and Declan.
Before Gus or Declan could work their way around the group of men, the woman in black appeared beside Charlie and hooked her elbow in her grip.
“She’s back, and she’s got Charlie,” Gus said to Declan.
Gus shoved his way through the men, without excusing himself. He didn’t have time for pleasantries when someone had Charlie and was leading her toward an exit door.
Caught in the group of men, Declan fell behind.
Trying not to stir up panic, Gus half walked, half ran after the two women who disappeared through the exit door into another part of the grand hotel.
His heart beating faster, Gus gave up trying to keep it cool and broke into a sprint, hitting the exit door hard, just seconds behind the two women.
The woman in black was hustling Charlie toward another door at the end of the hallway, talking in a low tone as they moved.
Charlie skipped to keep up.
Her abductor shot a glance over her shoulder, spotted Gus and glared.
“Stop!” Gus shouted.
The woman didn’t follow his command, just kept moving, dragging Charlie along with her.
Unencumbered by another person, Gus caught up to the two women as they reached the exit door to the outside.
“Gus,” Charlie looked over her shoulder. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Let go of Mrs. Halverson,” he demanded.
“Not until I have some answers,” she said. “She’s the only one who can help.”
Gus pulled the gun from beneath his jacket and pointed it at the woman. “Let go of Mrs. Halverson.”
The black-haired woman released her hold on Charlie and raised her hands. “I don’t want to hurt her. I need to talk to her.”
“Then set up an appointment when she’s not at an event and when we can properly vet you,” Gus said. “For all we know, you could be a criminal. Perhaps you should come with me and talk to the security guards. Are you even a registered guest?”
The woman’s eyes widened briefly. Then as if a shutter slid down over her face, she became completely expressionless. “No.”
“No, you’re not a guest?”
“No, I won’t go with you to the security guards.” She backed up a step, then another.
“Charlie, get behind me,” Gus warned.
“It’s okay. She said she wouldn’t hurt me.”
“Please, do as I say,” Gus insisted.
Charlie frowned, but moved behind him.
“Now, either you come with me willingly, or my partner and I will take you there unwillingly. Your choice.”
She shook her head. “I can’t.” In a flash, she turned and slammed against the door, pushing it outward enough to slip through and out into the night.
Declan came running down the hallway. “Charlie, are you all right?”
“I’m fine, but I don’t think that woman is.” Charlie shook her head.
“Stay with Charlie,” Gus said. “I’m going after her.”
“I’ve got her,” Declan said. “Go.”
Gus raced through the door and out into the night. Two guards caught him before he’d gone three steps. They pulled his arms up behind him and disarmed him. “What the hell. Let me go. There’s a woman I need to catch.”
“She said you’d come flying out the door after her,” the guard holding his right arm said.
“She also said you had a gun and you were going to kill her.” The man on the left held his pistol.
“I have a conceal carry license. I’m here as bodyguard to Charlotte Halverson. That woman tried to abduct her. You should have captured her, not me.”
“Right. And I’m Santa Claus.” The guard on the right snickered.
Two men raced around the side of the building and ground to a stop, silhouettes in the darkness.
“Gus?” one of them said. “Did you find her?”
“Mack? Snow?” Gus called out.
“Yeah,” Mack responded. “What’s the problem?”
“She got away, thanks to these guards.”
“Don’t come any closer, or I’ll shoot,” said the guard holding Gus’s Glock.
Mack and Snow held up their hands. “Don’t shoot. We’re here as bodyguards to Charlotte Halverson.”
“I told them the same, but they’re not buying it,” Gus said. “Call Declan. Tell him to notify the man in charge of security that their guards are holding up the wrong person.”
The guard holding his arm up between his shoulder blades pushed it up higher.
“Hey, you don’t have to break it,” Gus said. “I’m not fighting you.”
Gus could hear Mack talking to Declan through his headset. A moment later, the radios clipped to the belts of the guards holding him hostage both squawked.
“Peterson, Rawlings, check the identification of the man you’re holding,” the voice said. “If his name is Augustus Walsh, you can release him. He’s here with Charlotte Halverson and needs to get back to her.”
The man holding his arm gave it one last shove up between his shoulder blades before he released it. “Sorry,” he said, though he really didn’t sound sorry at all. “Just doing our jobs.”
“I get it,” Gus said. “I was, too.” He rubbed his sore arm. “If you see that woman again, detain her. She tried to take off with Mrs. Halverson.”
“We will.” The guard holding his weapon handed it back. “No harm, no foul.”
“Yeah.” Gus holstered his Glock and straightened his tuxedo jacket. “Now if you’ll excuse us, we have to get back to work.”
“By all means.” The guard who’d jacked up his arm waved him by. “You’ll have to go back around to the front of the building. The door you came through doesn’t open from this side.”
Gus took off, jogging. He met up with Mack and Snow.
“Did you see a black-haired woman in a long black dress?”
Mack and Snow both shook their heads.
“If you do, keep an eye on her. She tried to take off with Charlie.” Gus moved past his teammates, hurrying back to the entrance of the hotel. Declan was capable of handling Charlie’s safety on his own, but Gus wanted to be there in case
the woman in black returned for a second attempt.
Chapter Three
She should have known Charlotte Halverson would have multiple bodyguards protecting her. A woman of her wealth and status might as well have a target on her back at all times. A person could collect a significant amount of ransom money if he successfully abducted her.
Money wasn’t her goal with the Halverson woman. Answers were worth much more to her. Why did she have those coordinates on her wrist? Why did she have a Trinity-knot tattoo? Why had she been detained and tortured in Syria? Why had she been there in the first place?
More than anything...who was she?
All the effort she’d gone to in order to gain access to the gala had been a bust. All she needed was to talk to the Halverson woman and no one else. At this point, she wasn’t going to risk interaction with a single soul other than Halverson. If the woman’s bodyguard hadn’t been so attentive she might have gotten her alone long enough to figure out the puzzle of her existence. Now she was back to square one. Not even square one. The bodyguards would think she had tried to abscond with the rich widow. They wouldn’t let her anywhere near her now, and she still didn’t know if she could trust anyone other than Halverson.
Once she’d made it past the guards, she’d circled the entire building, counting the number of security personnel on the outside at every entry or exit point. The only reason she’d gotten through the first time was she’d gone in as one of the housekeeping staff, with her dress and shoes tucked beneath the uniform she’d pilfered from the back of a laundry van. She’d helped clean rooms, stating she was new.
Eventually, she slipped out of sight and hid in one of the unoccupied rooms until close to time for the gala to begin. She’d showered, dressed and applied the makeup she’d borrowed from one of the rooms. The shoes had belonged to one of the guests at the hotel. Appropriately dressed, she’d found her way down a staff elevator to the kitchen and from there into the ballroom after a majority of the people had already arrived. She’d mixed and mingled as if she belonged until she’d spotted Charlotte Halverson.
Thankfully, by the time she’d made it to DC, her bruises had faded enough that makeup covered them. The swelling around her eye had all but disappeared.
Now, standing outside the Mayflower Hotel, frustration ate a hole in her gut. The only keys she had to her identity were the tattoo on her wrist and the woman inside, and she was stuck outside. Without a coat, the cool air wrapped around her, raising gooseflesh on her skin. She wrapped her arms around her middle and stared at the Mayflower Hotel wishing she had one more chance. Just one more chance was all she needed with Charlotte Halverson.
* * *
THE WOMAN IN the black dress haunted Gus. All the way around the massive hotel he searched the shadows for her. Damn the security guard for stopping him from capturing her and getting answers about why she’d tried to take Charlie.
Did she want to take Charlie away and hold her for ransom? Had the Halversons wronged her or someone in her family, requiring retribution? Was there another reason she’d tried to get close to Charlie, to give her something, tell her something?
Mostly, he couldn’t forget the brown-black eyes filled with mystery and a touch of sadness.
Who was she?
Once again, he had to run the gauntlet of the security personnel at the front door and the woman holding the tablet with the list of names of persons who were allowed inside.
Gus wondered if the woman in black was on that list. If not, how had she managed to get past the security personnel? And if she was able to get past them, who else had done the same?
That thought made him worry that much more. Once his ID had been compared to the names on the roster, he hurried to find Declan and Charlie.
Making a beeline for the ballroom, he searched the faces, finally finding Declan, who stood with Charlie at the far end of the ballroom. Declan was easy to spot. He was a good head taller than most of the women and many of the men in attendance.
Gus worked his way around the side of the room, refusing to make eye contact with anyone, in case they waylaid him and tried to strike up a conversation. He wasn’t in the mood to talk to strangers. Except maybe the woman in the black dress.
Ten minutes had passed since he’d left Charlie and Declan inside the hotel to chase after the woman who got away.
“Everything okay?” he asked when he finally reached them.
Charlie frowned. “I can’t get that woman out of my mind.”
Gus caught himself short of saying, you and me both, sister. Instead, he nodded. “Did she hurt you in any way?”
“No,” Charlie said, shaking her head. “She kept saying she just needed to talk to me. Something about being the key to who she was.” The older woman’s frown deepened. “There was a certain desperation in her eyes. I should have gone with her.”
Declan touched Charlie’s arm. “We don’t know who she is, or why she felt the need to drag you out of the hotel. For all we know, she could have been on a mission to kidnap you and hold you for ransom.”
Charlie looked up into Gus’s eyes. “I don’t think so. She didn’t hold a gun or knife to my head. I could have shaken free of her grip had I tried hard enough. I truly believe she only wanted to get me alone to talk to me. About what, I can’t imagine. I’ve never seen her before in my life.”
* * *
“DO YOU THINK she might claim to be a secret daughter of your late husband?” Declan asked.
Charlie snorted. “I don’t think so. We didn’t have children. John was infertile.” Her lips curled into a sad smile. “He wanted children, but he never could have fathered them. No, the woman couldn’t have been his daughter.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m getting a headache. Perhaps it’s time for us to leave and let the younger people stay and dance the night away.” She straightened her shoulders and placed her hand on Declan’s arm.
Gus fell in step at her other side.
They’d only gone a few feet when a loud, whining sound penetrated the roar of voices in the ballroom.
Gus tilted his head and listened as the noise continued. “Fire alarm.”
The hotel concierge appeared at the opposite end of the ballroom, carrying a bullhorn. “Ladies and gentlemen. We’re sorry to disturb your evening, but what you are hearing is the fire alarm. We need everyone to leave the building through the closest exit to you.”
Declan pointed to one of the signs to the outside. “This way.” He cupped Charlie’s elbow and led her toward the exit. Gus cupped her other elbow and the two men escorted her out of the ballroom, into a long hallway with a bright red exit sign over the door at the end. In the hallway, the alarm was even louder.
The door at the end of the hallway, like the one he’d chased the woman in the black dress through, opened to the outside.
“Should we go out a door closer to the bulk of the crowd?” Gus suggested.
“No,” Charlie said. “They wanted everyone out in case there really is a fire.”
Gus pushed open the door. Before he stepped out, he looked for the security personnel first. No one stood outside. In fact, the back of the building appeared deserted.
Gus held open the door while Declan led Charlie out of the building.
“Are you guys evacuating?” Mack said into Gus’s earpiece.
“We are,” Declan responded. “We just stepped out of the building at the southeastern corner. We’ll make our way around to the front, coming up the eastern side.”
“We’re on our way to rendezvous with you,” Mack said.
As they rounded the corner of the building, men jumped out of the shadows and surrounded them.
Declan and Gus stepped in front of Charlie.
“We’ve got trouble,” Gus said into his microphone.
“How much trouble?” Mack asked.
“Six deep,” Gus sai
d. Six big burly men, none of whom wore the uniforms of the paid security guards.
Gus braced himself as the men rushed them.
The first one to Gus swung a meaty fist at his head. Gus ducked and slammed his fist into the man’s gut.
The man doubled over but was replaced by the next man behind him.
Gus didn’t let the fact they were outnumbered slow him down. He had to keep even one of them from getting to Charlie.
Declan had his hands full, throwing punches, ducking some and taking a couple to the jaw. The men they were fighting were trained combatants. For every punch Gus threw, they hit back with equal aim and dexterity.
While Gus and Declan fought off two each, the fifth and sixth men circled around them and grabbed Charlie’s arm.
She screamed, kicked and cursed, doing her best to protect herself. But she was one woman. The two men were bigger, stronger and meaner than anything she could offer in the way of a fight.
Gus punched and kicked like a madman, but he couldn’t free himself from the two men fast enough to help Charlie and neither could Declan.
Then, out of the shadows, came a whirling dervish in a black dress. She attacked the men holding Charlie, landing a side kick in one guy’s kidney. She spun and swept her other foot around, hitting the other guy in the temple.
Both men staggered and loosened their holds on Charlie long enough for her to get away.
The woman in the black dress didn’t stop there.
When the men reached out for Charlie again, the woman grabbed one man’s arm and, using his own momentum, flipped him. He landed hard on his back, the wind knocked out of his lungs.
The other guy, seeing his partner laid low, went after the woman in the black dress. He grabbed her from behind around the middle and lifted her off the ground.
Gus had his own hands full taking care of the two who had him cornered. One pulled a knife and lunged at him. Gus grabbed the wrist of the hand holding the knife, twisted it around and slammed the knife into the second man’s ribs. The man went down with the knife still stuck inside him.
An elbow to the nose of the man still standing got his attention. Gus brought up his knee at the same time he slammed the man’s head down. He lay still on the pavement.