Double Danger

by Trilby Plants

  “Wait a minute,” Alyssa said, struggling to rise. “What about the men outside?”

  Nick grinned. “Will’s going to arrest them. Loitering, driving a car with a broken taillight, suspicion of being suspicious characters. Maybe pandering or soliciting. He’ll think of something.”

  “Good idea,” Will said. “I can’t hold them long without some reason, but I can at least get them out of the way until both of you are safe.” He glanced at his watch. “Let’s say we start the show in twenty minutes.”

  Nick looked at the bedside clock. “One o’clock, then ‒ no lights, no siren.” Will nodded.

  Alyssa gazed at Nick, unable to say a word.

  Will removed Nick’s jacket and handed it to him. Nick donned it over his denim shirt and stared soberly at his friend. “You be careful, buddy. Don’t take any chances.”

  Will nodded. “Yeah, I won’t.” He paused, looked at Alyssa, then back at Nick. “One more little detail.” He inclined his head toward Alyssa.

  Nick, as though reading his thoughts, nodded. “I’ve been thinking about that.”

  Alyssa looked from one man to the other. “What? You’re talking about me, aren’t you?”

  Nick put his hands on Alyssa’s shoulders and looked at her for a long moment before he spoke. “You’ve been wanting out of this since the beginning. And right now I’d like nothing better than to send you with Will to someplace safe. But after seeing both my name and his on a hit list, I don’t know where that safe place would be. I think we have to ask for protection for you.”

  Alyssa swallowed the lump in her throat. “Meaning what?”

  “Meaning,” Nick said, “that you come with me, and when I give the drive to Frank, you go with him and the Marshals, and they take care of you.”

  Inside Alyssa a spreading dismay took hold. “For how long do they take care of me?” she said. “I have things to do, a life.”

  Nick slid his arms around her and pulled her against him. “I don’t want you to get hurt.” He touched her cheek with one finger. “It shouldn’t be for too long, just until they find out who’s responsible for all this.”

  Alyssa heard the false note in his voice. It could take a long time. Time her life would be on hold. But she would be with Nick. There seemed to be no other choice. She drew in a breath. “Okay.”

  Will reached for the doorknob, then turned back. “The cemetery? Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

  “I hope so,” Nick said.

  After the door closed and Nick locked it, Alyssa strained to hear Will’s footfalls as he moved away from the back of the motel, but she heard nothing. “He’s so quiet,” she said.

  “He’s good,” Nick said. “Let’s get situated.” He moved to the end of the bed and pulled the mattress onto the floor.

  Alyssa threw him a questioning look.

  “Building a barricade.” He dragged the mattress across the room and leaned it against the door.

  “How is this going to help?”

  “Might slow a bullet.”

  He crouched down next to the window and motioned to Alyssa. “Turn off that light in the bathroom and come over to me.”

  Alyssa did as he asked. She almost fell over the chair Will had moved. She gulped back an exclamation.

  When she hunched next to him, Nick carefully pulled back the edge of the curtain and the shade and peered out into the darkness.

  “They’re still there.” He moved aside so Alyssa could have a look.

  Gooseflesh covered her arms. “Yes. They certainly are.”

  “Actually,” Nick said, “That’s good. If they’re sitting in a car outside, they’re not here in our laps, and they’re not sneaking up on Will, who’s supposed to be sneaking up on them.”

  “That’s a point,” Alyssa said. His breath blew warm on her cheek.

  “I need you to do something else.”

  What now?

  “When Will and his deputy come to arrest these guys, he’ll need some kind of a distraction so it’ll be easier to get them. I think if we switch on the light and both of us stand in front of the window close together, that’ll have them focusing on us rather than on what’s around them. But if I’m watching out the window I can’t reach the lamp. So I ‒”

  “Want me to do it,” Alyssa finished for him. “Sure.”

  “You’ve got to keep down.”

  “Right, right,” she said. “Wait a minute. I have an idea.”

  Maybe her years of playing children’s games would pay off. Only this was no child’s game. She felt her way across the room to the lamp and pulled it toward her. The cord reached to the end of the bed. She removed the shade and set the lamp on the floor. She pulled the curtains back, leaving the window covered only by the flimsy roller shade. Then she knelt on the floor next to Nick.

  “What are you doing?” he said.

  She pointed to the window shade. “Do you think a silhouette of me taking off my shirt will be distracting enough?”

  “Honey,” he said, “a silhouette of you would distract everyone. But you can’t stand up and strip in front of the window. You’d be a target.”

  “I won’t have to stand up. I can kneel. With the light behind me, the silhouette will show up taller than I really am. I think I can turn on the light, pull my shirt over my head, then drop down in only a few seconds.”

  “You could be shot.” She didn’t respond. Thinking. “Alyssa, I said they could shoot you.”

  “I heard you.” She forced calmness into her voice, leaned back on her heels and showed him that only her head was above the windowsill. “If they do shoot, they’ll be aiming at the shadow on the shade, way over my head. But it won’t get that far. By then, your friend will have arrested them.”

  “You really think you can do this in a few seconds and not expose yourself too much?”

  “I am going to expose myself,” Alyssa said, grinning mischievously. She told herself not to think about the guns. Nick reached out and squeezed her arm.

  “Sorry for the bad pun,” she said. “Yes. I can do it.”

  “Okay.” His expression was unreadable in the dimness. “If there’s any shooting, you duck and run. Out the back door, left along the fence, and run like hell. Have you got that?”

  Alyssa nodded. “If there’s shooting, I go out the back door low, left along the fence, and run like hell.” She hoped her voice didn’t betray her apprehension.

  “Okay.” Nick pointed at the clock. “Twelve fifty-five. Let’s ‒”

  “Get situated,” Alyssa finished.

  She mentally rehearsed her moves. Switch light on, straighten, pull shirt seductively over her head, turn to the side, pose, duck. It shouldn’t take more than ten seconds.

  “You okay?” Nick whispered.

  “Yes. I just wish I could test this to see if the light’s at the right angle.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “I guess the dress rehearsal is the first and only performance.” He settled at the corner of the window and lifted the edge of the shade.

  For a few minutes all was quiet. Alyssa kept up her mental rehearsal so she wouldn’t think about the fear and uncertainty that churned in her stomach.

  Then Nick’s quiet voice broke the silence. “Okay, a car with no headlights. That’ll be Will. It’s coming up the road behind them. Okay … now.”

  The clock flashed 1:00.

  Alyssa did her routine just as she had mentally rehearsed. Switch ‒ the light blazed on. Straighten ‒ her shadow sharp and clear on the window shade. Pull ‒ the shirt got caught on her chin. She pulled harder. It slipped over her head. Turn, pose ‒ she caught a glimpse of Nick gazing at her, and ducked. She hit the floor and crouched by the end of the bed.

  “Police.” A voice outside. “Out of the car, real slow, hands where we can see ‘em.” Car doors opening, and other voices.

  “Alyssa.” Nick said. “The light.”

  She switched it off, plunging the room into darkness once again. She blinked, bli
nd in the darkness. Nick edged the window shade up.

  “What do you see?” she said.

  “Will’s got them.” The light filtering in from outside showed the relief on Nick’s face. “No problem.”

  She poked her head up and stared out at the handcuffed men under the neon Vacancy sign. A tall man with startling blond hair and a shorter man stood beside a dark sedan with their hands cuffed behind them. Standing next to Will, an older man with a slight paunch held a gun on the two.

  “It’s them,” she said. “The men who were at my house. Do you know them?”

  “I don’t recognize them.”

  “Who’s that other man with Will?”

  “A retired deputy, Jack Pierson. He gets called in sometimes for jail duty because he has experience and won’t make rookie mistakes.”

  Will and Jack put the two men into the back seat of the patrol car. Jack went to the Dumpster and dug out what looked like a small briefcase, holding it with a latex-gloved hand. He got into the patrol car’s passenger seat, and Will went around to the driver’s side. Before Will got in the car, he turned toward them and gave an okay sign by circling his thumb and forefinger. Then he pantomimed pulling down the shade, drew a curvy figure in the air with his hands, and tipped an imaginary hat before circling his finger next to his ear.

  Nick put his arm around Alyssa and drew her close. “Will enjoyed your performance, but he thinks you’re crazy. One hurdle down, one to go.”

  Alyssa was conscious of Nick’s hand on her bare skin. A delicious sensation of warmth emanated from the contact. A different kind of warmth flooded her midsection. She wanted to move away, but was riveted by Nick’s closeness and his masculine smell. She wanted to melt into him, to forget for a while the danger that threatened to engulf her.

  Nick let the shade drop and looked down at Alyssa. “Nice outfit,” he said.

  “Was I sufficiently distracting?” She reached for her T-shirt.

  Nick leaned against the front wall next to the window and gazed at her. “Indubitably,” he said.

  “I assume that’s a ‘yes.”’ She slipped the shirt over her head.

  “Yes, that’s a yes.” Nick gave her a hand up. “You did good, Alyssa. But you scared the hell out of me.”

  “I was scared, too, but I suppose that’s not news.”

  Nick kept his grip on her hand. Alyssa thought he would say something, but he released her and turned away. He replaced the lamp on the end table, dragged the mattress back onto the base and threw the bedspread over the bed. He sat down on it.

  She dropped into the armchair opposite him, tapped a staccato beat on her knees with her fingertips. Images rushed through her mind. Uncle Henry. The office in the shop. Henry’s funeral. A decision.

  “Nick, I’ve been thinking.”

  “Am I in trouble?”

  “No,” she said. “It’s just I’m tired of being afraid of everything. Especially guns.”

  Nick tilted his head slightly and looked puzzled. “Being afraid of guns is a logical, healthy fear.”

  Alyssa shook her head. “The way I react is not logical or healthy. I want to stop going into catatonic stupors. I want to stop shaking every time I see one. I want to look at one and be able to go on thinking.”

  “How do you expect to accomplish that?”

  “Desensitization, I suppose.” She bit her lip. Perhaps the idea she was forming wasn’t such a good one after all. It might be better to go on avoiding what made her so afraid. Since Uncle Henry’s death, she had ignored her feelings, and it hadn’t helped. She was tired of being afraid, and even if she never had to face guns again ‒ and she prayed she wouldn’t ‒ it was time to try something else. “Uncle Henry taught me to shoot. He thought if we had a gun in the house, I should know how to use it. Now, I’d like you to show me how to shoot yours.”

  Nick considered for a moment. “That’s not desensitization, that’s shock therapy.”

  “Yes, I suppose you’re right.” She took a deep breath and leaned forward in the chair. “I just thought if you’d remove the bullets and let me point and sight, maybe I can begin to stop being so afraid.”

  Nick shook his head “Against my better judgment, we’ll give it a try.” His gaze turned stern. “If you freak out, that’s the end of it.”

  He eased off the bed and unholstered his gun. He ejected the magazine and put it into his pocket. Alyssa followed him to the back of the room. Her knees shook, but she stood next to him, determined to follow through.

  He held the gun in his palm. “Okay, here’s the lesson. This is a nine-millimeter Sig Sauer. It’s not the kind of gun your uncle had. It has a bigger kick, and it’s accurate over a longer distance.”

  Alyssa gazed at the weapon in horrified fascination. A vivid memory surfaced of another time and the other gun ....

  “Alyssa, Alyssa,” Nick was saying. “Talk to me, tell me what’s going on in your head.”

  “I was thinking about the ivory handle on Uncle Henry’s gun. It was an antique. Maybe I was wrong to ask you to get rid of it.”

  Nick stared at her a moment, then cleared his throat. “Well, what’s done is done.”

  Alyssa reached out and ran her fingertip along the barrel.

  “Now take it,” he said.

  She clasped the gun awkwardly around the middle. It hardly weighed anything for an object that could deliver such tragedy.

  Nick extended his hand. “Now, give it back to me.” She handed it back. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes.” She breathed for the first time since she had touched the weapon.

  “Okay,” he said. “Next step. Say that lamp is your target. You hold the gun, point at the target, sight along the barrel, and squeeze the trigger.” He held the gun out to her. “You probably remember how to do that. Keep in mind it’ll jump more than your uncle’s.”

  She took it, hands trembling, and tried to follow his instructions ‒ hold the gun, steady her aim with her other hand cupped beneath her right hand, point at the target, sight along the barrel, both eyes open. She did all of those things. The weapon wavered. She could not make herself squeeze the trigger.

  She shook her head. “I can’t. Even though I know it has no bullets, I can’t do it.” She handed the gun back.

  Nick holstered it and patted her shoulder. “It’s all right. You know, I feel a little funny getting you re-involved with guns. Even though weapons were part of my job, I never wanted to get too comfortable with them.”

  “Uncle Henry taught me what guns were for and how to be careful with them. I’ll never forget that. What I have to come to grips with is fear. I’ve made a start. I’ll have to do the rest of it in my own time.” She pointed to her forehead. “It’s all in here.”

  Nick stroked her cheek. He pointed to his heart. “And here. I remember what you said before when you were sort of hysterical.”

  She looked at him questioningly.

  “You said you were in love with me.”

  “Oh Lord.” Alyssa sighed. “Did I really say that?” Knowing full well she must have.

  He nodded. “Is it true?” His voice had fallen to a hoarse whisper.

  She did not hesitate. “I’m afraid it is.”

  His eyes held questions. “I can’t promise you anything, Alyssa, except that I would give my life for you if it comes down to it. You will be safe.”

  He stroked her cheek. The contact made her tremble.

  “I don’t need promises,” she said. “Maybe tonight and tomorrow are all we have. Can we go back to camp now?”

  He swept an arm around. “What? You don’t like mirrored ceilings?”

  “No. I want to hear the sounds of the night and the wind when we make love.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Oh, yes, more than anything in the world.” She savored the look on his face: surprise that softened to realization.

  A few minutes later they were in the van with Bella curled up on Alyssa’s lap, heading through the darkness to their
isolated camping spot.

  They left the cat in the Suburban with clean litter, fresh water and a packet of food she greedily attacked.

  Nick opened the tent flap, shone a flashlight around the interior.

  “Checking for snakes?” Alyssa ducked inside.

  He laughed. “Will told you about that?”

  “Yes. But don’t worry. Snakes don’t come out at night.”

  “Not that kind of snake.”

  He set the flashlight down and partially covered it with a corner of the sleeping bag. It lent a pleasant glow to the interior of the tent.

  Nick gathered her into his arms. His kiss was unexpected, yet welcome. At first tentative, it quickly became urgent.

  Maybe this wasn’t a good idea, but Alyssa would not give up this moment for anything. Her decision made, she responded, surrendering to him. His tongue parted her lips, and she melted against him, trembling with the force of her desire. Just when she thought she would faint from lack of breath, his lips released hers and traced a line of fiery kisses down her throat.

  He hesitated, raised her chin with gentle fingers and gazed into her eyes.

  “It’s been a long time for me, Alyssa.”

  “Me, too.”

  “No boyfriend, no current significant other? Carl?”

  “Carl really is my business partner. He has a girlfriend. Kate. They’ve been living together for almost a year. They’re getting married. There’s no one in my life. There was once, but ....” She shrugged.

  “Bad scene?”

  “Yes. He cheated. He wanted me to forgive him, be what I’m not.”

  “I can’t imagine why anyone would want you any other way. When I saw you in the parking lot, when you yelled at me ‒”

  “I’m sorry. I was ‒”

  He put a finger to her lips. “Don’t apologize. At that moment my fate was sealed. I’m in a bad position here, Alyssa. I might not get out of this alive. I’ll do my best to protect you. I promise you that.”

  She snuggled into the space under his chin. “You don’t have to promise me anything, Nick. Let’s just go with the moment and see where it takes us.” Need burned inside her. Did he feel the same?