I wiggled into the dress and viewed myself in the mirror. It was sexy all right. It clung and it plunged and it revealed all the right things. I jumped up and down a few times and mimicked running on the spot. It was comfortable and it didn’t creep up my thighs. It was perfect. Correction – it would be perfect with the magic tape.
‘I’ll take it,’ I said as I exited the change rooms.
‘What? I don’t even get to see it?’ Martine crossed her arms and stared at me.
‘Not till tonight.’ Hopefully it would take her mind off her date.
‘About tonight…,’ Nick said.
I gave him my best death-stare and he pretended to lock his lips and throw away the key. If only.
‘Well.’ Martine looked at her wrist watch. ‘Maybe you will have time to do your hair.’
I hoped so. I was going to take this dress and…I looked at the price tag and gasped. And I was going to put it right back on the rack and wear something already in my wardrobe.
‘Here.’ Martine took it from my hand and flounced towards the front of the shop.
‘No,’ I squawked. ‘I can’t….’
She placed it on the counter and said, ‘Consider it a present.’
‘For what?’
‘For being the best friend a girl could have.’
Nick let out a chortle as I smacked myself in the head. ‘Wait,’ I said. ‘I set you up.’
A confused look crossed her face. ‘You mean…you’re not my friend?’
‘No. I mean, yes. I mean…Oh you be the judge.’ I took a deep breath and dragged her back down to the change room beyond the hearing of the shop assistant. ‘I organised a date for you this evening.’
Her face broke into a grin. ‘With Mr Tall-Muscled-and-Bronzed?’
‘Try tall, white and skinny.’ Nick, like the annoying squirt he was, had followed us to the back of the shop.
‘Oh.’ Her eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms across her chest.
‘Shut up Nick.’ I waved a hand at him. He was almost on the floor again. ‘I had to.’ My voice took on a pleading quality. ‘It was either that or possibly blow my cover.’
She tapped one foot on the floor.
‘It’s only a drink.’
‘Just one drink?’
I nodded.
‘And let me get this straight. If I do this, I will be doing my country a favour?’
‘Martine.’ I grasped her hands with mine. ‘You will be doing the world a favour.’
‘Well then.’ She dusted her hands together. ‘Why didn’t you just say so?’ She marched back to the counter and slapped her credit card down. ‘And we’ll take these too.’ She picked a pair of dangly earrings off a stand and put them with the dress.
Disappointment masked Nick’s face for a few seconds before his smile broadened again.
‘What?’ I didn’t like it when he looked so happy.
‘I still get to see the look on her face when she meets this guy,’ he said.
‘Whatever knocks your socks off.’ I was struggling with my guilt over letting Martine pay for the dress. I knew I shouldn’t have. But it was so pretty.
And I really wanted Billy to see me in it.
Even though I hadn’t said it out loud, I slammed a hand over my mouth. Thoughts like that could go away until after Harry told him. If Harry told him.
Martine handed me the paper bag and Nick pushed open the door to the shop. I followed the sound of him while I gazed at my dress nestled into its bower of tissue paper.
‘Thank you.’ I reached out and squeezed Martine’s hand, and that was when Boris Tolokonsky jumped out from behind a bush. He waved a knife as he ran at us.
I let out a squeak as Nick said, ‘Holy shit,’ and Martine took off in a sprint towards the buggy. Her reflexes were always better than mine, but I wasn’t far behind her this time. What surprised me was how fast Nick could run on those little legs of his when he had to.
Martine had the buggy started by the time I jumped in the front.
‘Nick,’ I screamed. Boris was only a few metres behind him.
‘Go,’ he yelled waving an arm at us.
‘Not without you.’ He may have been a little pain in the arse, but he was my little pain in the arse and I wasn’t leaving him behind.
Martine backed up the cart and faced it up the hill, hitting the accelerator as soon as Nick jumped in the back. I would like to say that we roared away from Boris, but sadly, the best the cart could manage seemed to be the same as Boris’s top speed. And that was before we hit the hill.
‘Aghhhhhh,’ Nick yelled as Boris’s free hand clamped onto the back of the buggy. He slashed at Nick with the knife, narrowly missing as Nick dodged to the side.
Nick leant over the seat and grabbed my handbag, spinning it over his head and down onto Boris’s hand. Something hard must have made contact because Boris let out a roar and let go. His lips pulled back in a grimace, revealing his pointed teeth.
‘Step on it, Big Bird,’ Nick yelled.
‘I am.’ Martine’s voice came out in a terrified shriek.
‘Give me my bag,’ I yelled at Nick.
‘Why?’ He swung it at Boris as he tried to grab the cart again.
‘I need my phone.’
‘You’re going to make a phone call? Now?’
‘Yeah. I need to book a manicure.’ I leaned over and grabbed the bag, feeling around inside it for my phone.
Nick watched me in disbelief until I turned the phone toward Boris. ‘Hard evidence?’
I nodded my head.
All of that had taken place in the space of maybe twenty seconds. Of course, that was unfortunately the length of time it took us to reach the foot of the hill. The buggy’s top speed dropped dramatically and Boris, who had begun to drop off, let out a triumphant yell and started to close the gap.
I aimed my phone’s camera lens at him but just as I pushed the button, Nick’s head popped up in front of me. He held three golf balls in his hands and, as I watched, he pegged them at Boris.
The first ball whizzed past Boris’s head, but the next two smacked him in the forehead. His head rocked back slightly and Nick let out a war cry of excitement.
‘Video,’ Martine said, ‘get video.’
I flicked my phone onto video mode and hit the record button.
Boris sprinted towards us, growling as he reached for the cart, his lips drawn back in a smile of triumph. And that was when Nick let him have it.
Ball-after-ball left Nick’s hand, all of them aimed precisely at Boris’s face. He set up a rhythm as he grabbed them out of the bag, and those balls kept pounding the huge mobster.
Boris roared in anger and sprinted faster, blood oozing out from one of his nostrils.
‘Take that,’ Nick yelled. ‘And this one’s got your name on it as well.’
‘Little man,’ Boris growled. ‘When I get my hands on you….’ A ball smacked him in the mouth before he could finish his threat, and his free hand went to his throat as he stumbled.
We started to pull away from him as our cart laboured up the hill. I was really wishing we had stolen Matt and Tara’s cart that morning.
Boris coughed and the ball flew out of his mouth. One of his eyes was swelling shut as he resumed his pursuit.
‘He’s like a Terminator,’ Martine squealed. ‘He just keeps coming.’
But Nick’s aim from that distance was just as good. The balls zoomed towards their target, thwacking into his head and neck.
‘Woohoo,’ I yelled as a ball popped Boris in his remaining good eye. ‘Go Nick.’
‘Did you get that?’ He turned and held his thumbs up to the camera.
‘Getting it all buddy,’ I said.
Boris slowed to a walk as we reached the top of the hill.
‘Eat our dust,’ Nick yelled.
I waved at Boris as he disappeared from view.
‘Man.’ Nick sat back down in his seat. ‘That was intense.’
‘That was awes
ome,’ I said.
‘Shame you guys aren’t carrying guns,’ Martine said. ‘Would have solved all our problems.’
Nick and I looked at each other. I knew I was packing and I was pretty sure he was as well. ‘Yeeeaaah,’ I said. ‘Real pity that.’
‘Yep,’ Nick said. ‘Real shame.’
Martine looked over at me and then swivelled to look at Nick. ‘Geez Louise,’ she said. ‘You guys are unbelievable.’
We were silent the rest of the way back.
Martine parked the golf buggy and the three of us jumped out and trotted to the apartment. I was hoping Billy was there so we could show him our evidence. We may not have shot shot Boris, but we had video shot him.
‘Billy,’ I said as we opened the door and barged into the apartment. I froze, staring at the doorway to Sal’s bedroom.
Billy and Sal stood in the doorway. She was wearing a strapless, blue and white striped dress that finished well above her knees. But that wasn’t the problem.
She had her hands on her hips as if pushing the dress back and Billy had his hands on the top of the zip.
They froze when they heard us, the slow smile of a Cheshire cat spreading over Sal’s face. Billy stared at me with a guilty look on his face and I waited for him to say, ‘This isn’t what it looks like,’ but he didn’t.
The question was, had he zipped her dress up, or had he been about to unzip her?
We had just been chased by a knife-wielding maniac, but now I felt sick. Billy’s hands were touching her skin. Had they been kissing? Had she seduced him with her brain and her beauty?
I wouldn’t have blamed him if she had. I mean I knew I was cute in a girl-next-door kind of way, but Sal was something else.
‘We got Boris.’ Nick pushed me to the side and ran towards Billy with his hand in the air for a high-five.
Billy let go of Sal’s zip and stepped away from the doorway to meet Nick’s hand with his own. ‘What do you mean you got him?’
‘He attacked us and Chanel got video footage of him. Show him Chanel.’
‘Ummmm.’ I shook my head trying to get the vision of him and Sal together out of it. ‘Yeah. Here.’ I stuck my hand out towards him with the phone in it.
He didn’t meet my eyes as he took it.
Sal pressed in close to him as he started the video, the side of her breast skimming his arm. I tried not to look but I couldn’t take my eyes off them. Had they morphed from a fictitious to a real couple?
A smile crept onto Billy’s face and Salindra let out a laugh. ‘Good shot,’ she said.
When it got to the end Billy shook his head. ‘I’m impressed with how calm you all remained.’
Was he kidding? All you could hear as the video played was squealing and screeching.
‘He was prepared to use that knife and yet you both resisted the urge to shoot him.’
I snuck a look at Nick. His face had the same perplexed look on it I was sure mine did.
‘If you had shot him, and not killed him, he would have been taken to a local hospital. The authorities here don’t have the manpower to put a proper guard on him at such short notice. His men would have had him out within the hour. Now we have the hard proof we need to bring the Bureau in.’ He grinned as he looked me in the eyes for the first time since we had arrived home. ‘Good work. Both of you.’ He strode to the kitchen table and started the process of moving the video from my phone to his.
‘Come on.’ Martine pushed me towards my room. ‘Hair, make-up. We have a new dress, remember?’
Oh, I remembered all right. It was just that now, I didn’t really care what I wore that night.
Martine waited till we were in my room with the door closed before she rounded on me. Then she took me by my shoulders and shook me.
‘Ahhhh. What’s that for?’
‘For being stupid.’
‘You heard what Billy said. If we had shot him he would have just escaped again.’
She snorted. ‘I don’t for one second think that that was your reason for not shooting at Boris.’ Her use of the word ‘at’ showed that she knew my marksmanship skill was non-existent. ‘But that’s not what you are being stupid about. He was zipping her up, not undressing her.’
I slumped onto the bed. ‘You think?’
‘That’s why her hands were on her hips. She was holding her dress back to make it easier for him.’
‘Either that, or pushing her breasts out so he could see them better.’
‘She doesn’t need to shove them out to see them.’ She lifted her hands out in front of her and made squeezing motions. ‘You can’t miss them. Besides he was behind her. He couldn’t see them from there.’
Perhaps she was right. But I couldn’t shake the feeling I’d had.
Why wouldn’t Billy hook up with her? He was single. She was stunning. They were hanging out pretending to be a couple. And just as I couldn’t imagine that any woman wouldn’t want to be with him, I also couldn’t imagine that any man would turn her down.
I was looking down the barrel at defeat.
‘Stop it.’ Martine’s hand slapped my face gently. ‘You need to get ready.’
She was right. I had a job to do. I nodded and pulled the dress out of the bag, lying it on the bed while I admired it.
‘Thank you for this.’ I trailed my fingers over the soft fabric.
‘Don’t forget these.’ She pulled the magic tape and earrings from her handbag. ‘I’ll get Billy to drop me home. You concentrate on looking stunning.’
‘Pick you up just before six.’
She nodded her head. ‘For my…date.’ Her lips pulled up into a little smile. ‘Is Alex going to be there? Seeing me with another man might give him the courage to ask me out. Nothing like a bit of competition to spur a man into action.’ Her eyes sparkled with anticipation.
I had to give her full marks for her optimism. If only I could borrow a bit of it, I might just make it through the next few days.
6
The Funeral March
I didn’t have time to curl my hair so I straightened it instead. It turned out it was the perfect hairstyle for the dress.
By the time I slithered the black fabric down my body and checked my make-up, I was almost back to my old self. Almost.
‘Come on Toots.’ Nick banged on my door. ‘Time for Big Bird to meet her Prince Charming.’
‘Her name,’ I said as I opened the door, ‘is Martine.’
Nick’s mouth fell open and he let out a low whistle. ‘Got to tell you Princess, you scrub up okay.’
‘Okay?’
‘Meh.’ He shrugged. ‘A little better than okay.’
‘Thanks Nicky.’ I ruffled his hair as I walked past.
Billy was waiting by the front door. His eyes widened as he saw me. ‘You look very….’ He cleared his throat. ‘Very nice.’ He pushed the door open and gestured for me to go first.
‘So do you.’ Nice didn’t come anywhere near how delicious he looked. As I brushed past him I caught a whiff of his aftershave and only just managed to resist the urge to sink my teeth into his neck. What was it about that scent? Musky, manly, powerful. It was as if they had captured every element of Billy that I loved and turned it into a fragrance.
Thoughts like that weren’t helping.
‘Where’s Salindra?’ I was surprised she wasn’t jammed up against him.
‘Gone to watch Matt and Tara.’
‘Oh right.’ I shook my head. Time to put all the whole Billy and Salindra thing aside and concentrate on the problem at hand. And our current problem was getting Martine to her date so he didn’t decide to lodge a complaint against me.
We were silent on the way to get Martine. Well, that’s not entirely truthful. I was silent. Nick and Billy chatted about American football, a conversation I couldn’t have joined in even if I had wanted to.
Martine wasn’t out the front waiting for us like normal. A flutter of worry started up in my belly. Where was she?
I j
umped out of the cart and trotted around to the hotel entry.
‘Chanel, wait,’ Billy called.
She wasn’t in the foyer either.
He grasped my arm as I headed for the elevator. ‘After this afternoon I would think you’d be more careful.’
I looked around the hotel. People were everywhere. I waved an arm at them. ‘Witnesses,’ I said.
He tugged my arm and I let out a squawk as he dragged me sideways into a dark, empty room. He pressed me up against the wall behind the door and murmured, ‘And how many of them are rushing to your aid right now?’
My breath caught in my throat. He loomed in front of me, all lean muscle and ominous strength. I felt my breathing quicken and my heart racing like a frightened rabbit. Except, I wasn’t frightened at all. I was totally turned on.
He put a hand onto the wall behind me and leaned in. ‘You would already be dead.’
Wow. Way to break a mood.
I pushed him away from me. ‘Not funny.’
‘Just making a point. Trouble follows you. You’d think you’d be more careful.’
I tried to still my wildly-beating heart as I waited for the elevator. I fussed with my hair and straightened my earrings, and did anything I could to stop myself from thinking about the feel of Billy’s body.
Damn him and his rock-hard abs.
‘Where’s Nick?’ I asked as the elevator doors opened.
‘Making sure nobody puts a bomb on our buggy.’ He shook his head. ‘A week ago, I would have placed money on my never having to say that sentence.’
We were silent the rest of the ride to Martine’s floor. I was praying she had lost track of the time. If something happened to her I would never forgive myself.
It was a tense walk to her room. I knocked on the door and then tapped a foot as I waited for her to answer.
Please let her be all right.
When she didn’t answer. I knocked again.
Panic was just starting to work its way up from my stomach to my brain when I heard the sound of a safety chain jingling. A moment later the door opened.
Martyn stood on the other side of the door. ‘Martine can’t come out to play,’ he said in his monotone voice. His bald head looked remarkably like an egg hovering above his tweed pyjamas.
Two Weddings and a Fugitive (The Chanel Series Book 4) Page 12