Blake held on to my hand a little longer than necessary, and Steph looped her arm through his, forcing him to let go. Her action might have been subtle, but I knew beyond doubt she’d done it because I looked uncomfortable.
“We still have some serious mingling to do,” she said, and I was just as happy to let her and Blake go.
I hoped the look in my eyes gave Blake the message that I would feed him his balls if he hurt my sister. There was no way of telling from the little smirk on his face as he and Steph stepped away into the burgeoning crowd.
I worked my way to the bar and ordered a glass of white wine, then found myself a convenient corner shadowed by a large potted plant where I could mingle by myself without drawing too much attention. Yes, I was playing the part of wallflower and wasn’t particularly bothered by the fact.
For the record, standing in a corner by yourself in a snooty country club watching the filthy rich strut around in their one-of-a-kind designer gowns and ostentatious jewelry is not my idea of a good time. The wine helped a bit, taking the edge off, but after I’d finished my first glass, I didn’t dare get another. I’m a bit of a lightweight when it comes to drinking, and I did have to drive home when the evening’s fun and games were done.
Steph and Blake, young and good-looking, were quite a striking pair in the midst of the decidedly older crowd. Steph flitted around like an anxious hummingbird, making sure she talked to everyone, smiling and vivacious. Blake stuck close to her and I was pleased to see that, while he made social when necessary, he spent most of his time scanning the crowd, alert for any threats. I’d checked the guest list against the list of known Olympians Anderson had given me, but just because I hadn’t identified any Olympians on the list didn’t necessarily mean none would show up. After all, Konstantin had made it abundantly clear that the Olympians had money to burn. Someone with that kind of money could probably find a way to get themselves on the guest list at the last minute. So, much as I didn’t like Blake, I had to reluctantly admit I was glad he was there.
The cocktail party was only an hour long, but it felt like an eternity. My feet were killing me, and I was bored out of my skull. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to the dinner and auction parts of the evening, but at least then I would be able to sit down.
When eight o’clock finally rolled around, I followed the herd into the sumptuously appointed dining room. Annoyingly, there were assigned seats, so I had to either wander around the tables looking for the place card with my name on it, or stand in line to ask the nice man by the doorway to check his alphabetized list. I chose to wander.
Steph knew how much I enjoyed these affairs. She also knew I didn’t like mingling with the sort of people who attended them. I made an educated guess that she would have been her usual considerate self and seated me at her table. I scanned the room, figuring that red dress of hers would stand out like a beacon, but I didn’t see her.
At first, I wasn’t even remotely concerned. She was, after all, in charge of this event, not a guest. I figured she was taking care of administrative details, or just talking to the stragglers who hadn’t come into the dining room yet. But as the seats at the tables filled up and I still saw no sign of her, a niggle of alarm ran through me.
I located the table that Steph and Blake were going to be sitting at—right at the front, of course—and I found my own place card directly opposite hers. But still no Steph. No Blake, either. Maybe that meant they’d slipped away for a quick make-out session, but I didn’t think so. Steph wasn’t what I would call a control freak, but she did put a lot of time and energy into these events, and she wouldn’t just wander away for a little me-time. Unless Blake used his nasty power on her, but that was a thought I could hardly bear to contemplate.
Telling myself I was being paranoid and overprotective, I slipped out of the dining room toward the bar and lounge. There were still a few people out there, ignoring the signals that dinner was nigh. But no Steph. I was going to start questioning the staff to see if they could tell me her last known location, but my cell rang, sending a shiver down my spine. True, the call could be completely innocuous, from anyone. But in my heart, I knew it was bad news.
My instinct was confirmed when I pulled out my cell phone and saw the caller ID: Alexis. What were the chances I would mysteriously lose sight of Steph, Alexis would call me moments later, and the two were not related? I prayed for a miracle as I reluctantly answered.
“What do you want?” I asked, my voice harsh with a fear I couldn’t hide.
Alexis laughed. “What’s the matter, Nikki? You sound tense.”
“I’m not in the mood to banter with you. What do you want?”
“Do exactly as I tell you, and I promise no harm will come to dear Stephanie.”
I swallowed a cry of anguish as he confirmed my worst fears. “You can’t hurt Steph!” I said. “My family and I are under Anderson’s protection.”
Alexis laughed again. “Is that how he told you it would work? Or just wishful thinking on your part?”
“He and Konstantin have a deal!” Oh, please, God, let that be true, let me not have been a complete dupe.
“A deal that doesn’t include Stephanie. She isn’t really your family, after all.”
“She’s my sister!”
“But adopted. Not related by blood. A technicality, perhaps, but one we mean to exploit. Because you chose to seek asylum with Anderson, we cannot touch you. But Stephanie is fair game.”
“Let her go, you bastard! She has nothing to do with this.”
“I’ll be happy to let her go. No one has to get hurt in this scenario. Come to me, renounce Anderson’s protection, and she’ll go her own merry way, none the worse for wear.”
What were the chances I could trust Alexis’s word? Slim and none. The problem was, I didn’t see that I had any alternative. Alexis had Steph, and that left me with precious few options.
“How do I know you really have Steph?” I asked. I knew deep down in my gut that he was telling the truth, at least about that. But stalling for time seemed like a better alternative than rolling over.
There was a little scuffling noise on the other end of the line. Then I heard Alexis’s voice in the background, saying “Let your sister know you’re all right.”
My entire body went tense as I braced myself for the impact of my sister’s terrified voice. But Steph is made of sterner stuff than that, and she was every bit as protective of me as I was of her.
I knew she was there, knew Alexis wasn’t lying, but she didn’t make a sound. My throat tightened as I understood what she was doing: keeping her mouth shut in hopes that by not giving Alexis proof that he had her, she would keep me from coming after her. My eyes teared up.
“I’m not going to let him hurt you,” I said, the words feeling hollow. Even I didn’t believe I could protect her from Alexis. Why should I expect her to be convinced?
Alexis didn’t like her show of defiance. I heard a harsh slap, and Steph’s involuntary gasp of shock and pain.
“You’d best learn to do as you’re told,” Alexis growled in the background.
Steph still didn’t say anything, though her gasp had already given her away. I cursed myself for asking Alexis for proof when I had believed him all along.
“I believe you!” I shouted into the phone, hoping my voice was loud enough for Alexis to hear.
There was a little more shuffling around, and his voice came back on the line. “You have thirty minutes to get to 28 Hillsboro Road in D.C. The door will be unlocked, so you just come right in. You come in, your sister goes out. If you don’t get here in thirty minutes, the party will start without you.”
I recognized the address from my list of Olympian properties. It was in Woodley Park and, if memory served, it was up for sale. I mentally calculated the distance and fought another jolt of terror. “That’s not enough time,” I told him. Maybe if I drove like a maniac and hit every light green, but…
“You’ll have to make i
t enough.”
“Please,” I said, hating to beg, but willing to do it for Steph’s sake. “It’ll take me ten minutes just to get my car. Give me forty minutes to get there.” I was already hurrying toward the exit. “I’m on my way now. Please don’t hurt her.”
“All right,” he answered in an almost sensual purr, “I’m feeling generous tonight. You have your forty minutes. I look forward to seeing you again.”
I turned my phone off before I was tempted to answer him with too much honesty.
SEVENTEEN
Forty minutes gave me a fighting chance of making it to the rendezvous on time, but I was still going to be cutting it damn close. Despite the wintry temperature, I slipped my heels off as I burst through the front door and ran toward the parking lot. I’d run faster carrying them than wearing them, even if I ended up with a collection of pebbles buried in the balls of my feet. I stayed on the grass instead of the sidewalks whenever possible.
It was a long sprint to the parking lot, made longer, no doubt, by my fear. The cold air burned my lungs and stung the skin of my bare arms. I hadn’t even considered stopping to pick up my coat on the way out, and little black dresses with spaghetti straps aren’t great cold-weather gear.
Where the hell was Blake? I wondered belatedly. He’d been sticking to Steph like glue the whole evening. How had he let Alexis snatch her out from under his nose?
My gut cramped with fear again. Had Blake sold her out? Had he come with her tonight so he could more easily separate her from the crowd and hand her over to Alexis?
I shoved that thought out of the way. For the moment, it didn’t matter. What mattered was getting to that damn house before Alexis went to work on Steph, and it was going to be a close call. Gravel tore the bottoms of my feet, and my breath formed frosty clouds in the night air as I continued to sprint. I was so focused on my ultimate goal that I didn’t immediately notice that all four streetlights in the lot were out, not until the waxing moon slid behind a bank of clouds and made me suddenly aware of the darkness.
I stumbled to a halt just as my feet hit the asphalt. This was a country club, not some neglected inner city parking lot. If even one streetlight had burned out, they’d have fixed it within the hour. For all four to be burned out at the same time seemed so unlikely as to be impossible.
The little hairs at the back of my neck prickled, but I decided I didn’t have time to be cautious. My silver rental was parked in the rear corner of the lot, and I started forward again at a brisk jog, too winded to manage another sprint.
I made it about halfway across the lot before I ran into something like an invisible wall. I hit it full force, rebounding wildly. My arms flailed for balance, and the shoes I’d been carrying in my left hand went flying. The impact had knocked what little wind I had left in my lungs out of me, and my legs were too quivery from the long run to hold me.
I sprawled inelegantly on the asphalt, my dress making an alarming ripping sound as the skirt hiked up my thighs. I broke the fall with my hands, scraping the skin off the heels and grinding dirt and pebbles into the wounds.
When I looked up to see what I’d hit, Jamaal’s body seemed to coalesce out of thin air. I belatedly recognized the uniquely yielding properties of flesh and bone that had characterized my invisible wall.
Jamaal grinned down at me, the expression fierce as any snarl. “Going somewhere?”
I tried to draw some air into my lungs, but I hadn’t recovered from the impact yet and could only stare up at him, imploring him with my eyes to get out of my way.
“You shouldn’t have fucked with us, Nikki,” he said, the grin/snarl growing wider.
I had no idea what he was talking about, of course. I also didn’t give a damn, not now, not when Steph was in danger.
I finally filled my lungs enough to get some words out. “We can do this later,” I gasped. “My sister’s in trouble.”
He snorted, the cold air making his breath a soft white cloud like the puff of smoke from the fire-breathing dragon’s nostrils. “You don’t get to decide when we do this.”
He reached for me, and I rolled violently to my left, scraping more skin off my bare arms as I avoided his grasp. I’d torn my dress enough when I’d fallen to give me some freedom of movement, and I managed to lurch to my feet.
“Alexis has my sister!” I tried again, though I didn’t have high hopes of getting through to Jamaal. Maybe he and Blake were in this thing together, Blake to hand Steph over to Alexis, Jamaal to delay my rescue attempt and give Alexis time to …
I didn’t want to think about what he might do to Steph if I didn’t make it there in time. “Please, Jamaal!” It came out a sob, but he didn’t strike me as the kind to be moved by feminine tears. “Let me go!”
“You think I believe a single word that comes out of that lying mouth of yours?” he asked. “You’d say anything to get out of taking your medicine.”
Because of my profession, I’d taken pains to learn a fair amount of self-defense. However, I knew I couldn’t defend against Jamaal, at least not for very long. If he were an ordinary person in an ordinary situation, maybe I’d be able to fight him off long enough to make a run for it, but I couldn’t afford to run for it. I had to get to my car, and he was in my way.
“I don’t have time for this,” I muttered under my breath as my heart kicked frantically behind my ribs. I had no hope that I could fight Jamaal off in hand-to-hand combat. That meant I had to try to reason with him. But how could I reason with a half-crazed death-god descendant who was convinced I was the enemy?
I held up my hands in a gesture that was supposed to indicate surrender, hoping Jamaal would take a step back from the edge. “Look, I don’t know what you think I’ve done this time, but—”
“I heard you talking to Maggie,” he replied, stalking toward me, muscles bunched to pounce, eyes practically glowing with his hatred.
It took me a minute to figure out what he was referring to. When I did, my eyes widened. He was talking about the day I’d found Emma’s ring. I suppose he’d been eavesdropping. I’d speculated at the time that Jamaal would jump to the worst possible conclusion if he found out, and it looked like I was right. I backed away from his approach but forced myself not to run, despite the dangerous intensity of his expression.
His lips pulled back from his teeth in a snarl. “I’m glad Maggie didn’t tell Anderson. Glad she left you to me.”
“I know you don’t want to believe it, but I found that ring in the pot, just like I said.”
He shook his head hard enough to rattle his beads. “The truth is your boss Konstantin sent you to kill Emmitt, then ordered you to spy on us. You’ve been leading Anderson on, telling him you would find his Emma, but you never had any intention of finding anyone, did you?”
Sweat dewed my skin, despite the cold. Every moment I stood here talking to Jamaal was a moment I lost in my race against time. If only I’d thought to bring my gun.
“If it’s within my power, I swear I will find Emma,” I said. “But right now, I have to help my sister. She’s an innocent bystander, Jamaal, whatever you might think about me. Please let me go to her, before Alexis hurts her.”
Jamaal turned his head to the side and spat like there was a bad taste in his mouth. “Don’t try to sell me that crock of shit! Blake is with her, so Alexis wouldn’t get within a hundred yards of her. You think you can lie to us, kill one of our own, and I’m just going to let you run away? True, I’d catch up with you eventually. But I’m tired of waiting for my pound of flesh.”
I wanted to scream with my overwhelming frustration. In the distance, a car engine gunned, and headlights headed down the main driveway toward the gates. This lot was too far away from the clubhouse for anyone there to hear me if I screamed, but maybe when the car got close enough, I’d be able to get the driver’s attention.
I sucked air into my lungs, preparing to let loose the longest, loudest, most blood-curdling scream in the history of the universe. Tires squeal
ed as the car I’d spotted gunned the engine again, hurtling forward at a speed that would do a NASCAR driver proud.
Before I managed to get any sound past my lips, Jamaal’s fist connected with my jaw.
He’d been well out of arm’s reach when I’d allowed my attention to stray to the approaching car for that brief fraction of a second, but that moment of distraction was all he’d needed. His punch lifted me off my feet and threw me backward. Pain exploded through my head, my vision dancing with fireworks as my legs turned into jelly.
My back slammed into one of the parked cars, foiling my second attempt to force out a scream as the impact knocked the air from my lungs. The scream probably wouldn’t have done me much good anyway, I decided as I sat on my butt and tried to blink the fireworks away. The car I’d been hoping to flag down was going so fast I expected a sonic boom to follow in its wake. It was well past us by the time I staggered to my feet to avoid Jamaal’s next attack.
My head was swimming from that first punch, but my desperation helped me hold on to consciousness. If I blacked out, Jamaal would be on me in a heartbeat, and I’d never make it to Steph in time.
Something trickled over my upper lip. I brushed at it with the back of my hand. Blood. For the moment, I was glad it was dark, or I might have gone even more lightheaded with the sight.
Jamaal was grinning like a madman—which is pretty much what he was at that moment. As he closed the distance between us, both his hands clenched into heavy, dangerous fists. He swung at me again, his right fist aiming for my nose. This time, I managed to duck. Unfortunately, I wasn’t prepared for the follow-up from his left, which caught me right in the gut.
Gagging, desperate for air, I collapsed to the ground once again. I retained just enough brain power to roll, this time avoiding a vicious kick from Jamaal’s booted foot.