In a Fix (22 page)

After he closed the door behind him I checked the window and backyard anyway. He hadn’t lied. So much for that big idea. Resigned, I changed as fast as I could, wanting to get myself decently covered before he thought better of taking his eyes off me. The dress and tunic fell gracefully over what few curves I had rather than molding to them, as they had Mina’s, but with Nils’s alterations the fit wasn’t too bad. I was stuffing my clothes into my backpack when he rejoined me.

“You won’t be needing that.”

“But—”

“Leave it,” he said, taking my hand and heading for the stairs.

Nobody from the herd of Vikings in the living room questioned him as we left the house, and my attempts at conversation as we hurried through the streets fell flat. I might as well have been talking to the town wall.

The longer he was quiet, the more nervous I got. All I could think about was Billy rushing headlong into a trap, hindered by Mina’s aura. Because he would come for me, I had no doubt about that. And Nils wouldn’t release me without seeing Mina, so Billy would have to be Mina. He would be just as helpless as I was.

I tugged on Nils’s arm, which had about as much effect as a toddler yanking on a rottweiler’s leash. So I dug in my heels and leaned backward with all my weight. That at least slowed him down, but only long enough to swing me over his shoulder. My breath left me in a
whoosh
. I couldn’t believe he’d do that right in front of all the people wandering the streets with us. Was he nuts?

“Put me down, you Viking pig!” I yelled. Well, in my mind I yelled, but a shoulder in the solar plexus tends to hamper the necessary breath support, so it came out as more of a wheezing whisper. I doubted I could be heard more than a yard away.

Frustrated, I pounded on his back with both fists. Seemed my earlier comparison of him to the town wall wasn’t too far off the mark. Stone would have been softer. Kicking my legs didn’t work either, since he held them tightly to his chest, no doubt protecting his precious manhood.

Didn’t matter, I told myself. People would notice. Some Good Samaritan would help me, or call the police, or at least question Nils long enough for me to get away.

That’s when I heard the applause start. A few random claps at first, then, after Nils addressed the crowd in a stentorian growl of indecipherable Swedish—with a decidedly macho overtone—a thunderous ovation erupted. The crowd parted to make way for us. If I’d been upright, my jaw would’ve dropped. The idiots thought we were street performers. Freaking bunch of drunks.

Nils leaned forward. For a second, I thought he was putting me down, but when I realized he was bowing, I gave up. It was too fucking surreal to do otherwise. I hung my head and stared at the firm, perfectly formed ass moving beneath his tunic, and entertained myself by imagining a steel-toed boot planted there.

After a few minutes, the crowd grew bored with watching me being hauled around like a sack of potatoes, and dissipated, but it wasn’t until we were outside the wall that Nils spoke to me.

“We are almost there. Will you behave if I set you back on the ground?”

My first impulse was to tell him to fuck off, but I bit my tongue. Comments like that, while exceedingly satisfying for a moment, didn’t tend to enhance one’s situation in the long run. I settled for crossing my fingers and saying, “I’ll try my best.”

I guess it was good enough for Nils, because I found myself back on my feet, facing him. The blood that had been pooling in my head left it in a rush, and I had to grab his forearms to keep from falling. He obligingly held me upright by my elbows until I was steady.

Once my head cleared I gave him the dirtiest look in my repertoire. He had the grace to try to look ashamed, but he couldn’t keep his eyes from crinkling at the corners.

“If you laugh, I swear to God I will kick your big, hairy Viking balls.”

His eyes widened a bit, but he said, “They really aren’t so hairy.”

“Hairy or not, it’ll feel the same to you.”

He shrugged. “I doubt you could kick so high in that dress.”

“Try me,” I grated out, reaching down to lift the dress up far enough to let me maneuver.

“No, no, that’s okay. I won’t laugh.” He glanced appreciatively at my calves before he settled his face into blankness.

I dropped the hem—it’s not like he would’ve stood still and let me kick him anyway—and looked around. There weren’t as many revelers on this side of the wall. “So, what now?”

“Now we wait for Mina.”

“I already told you, she won’t come.”

“We shall see.” Still maddeningly sure of himself.

“Look, I’m not going to let you trade me for Mina. You have to know that.”

“No, I don’t expect you will.” Way too agreeable.

It finally dawned on me. “You have no intention of letting me go, do you? You’re just using me to get Mina back. I’m bait.”

He shrugged, the barest trace of an apology in his eyes. “It would hardly be wise to set you free to go to the police, now would it?”

If he hadn’t grabbed both my hands, I would’ve slugged him again, but he was ready for me this time. Despite Herculean effort, I couldn’t get free. So I did the clichéd feminine thing, and stamped my foot—right down on top of his. (Hey, a cliché had served me well with the frying pan.) It may not have worked as well as when I’d had Trey’s weight and muscles at my disposal in the cigar store, but it didn’t go unnoticed. Nils swore under his breath in Swedish. At least, I’m pretty sure it was a swear word.

When he didn’t budge, I did it again, more out of frustration than spite, though spite
may
have factored in a teensy bit. Same word from him (yeah, definitely a swear word—no mistaking the tone this time), and a shake, followed by, “Stop it! Don’t make me think this would be easier with you unconscious.”

I thought briefly about morphing into a carbon copy of him, just to shock him into letting me go, but it was too risky—somebody might come upon us at any second. Besides, my dress would split.

“Damn it,” I said, after letting out an angry breath. “I don’t understand you. You were nice enough to me—” I caught myself, coughed lightly, and continued. “Mina. Mina said you were the good one. Why are you being such a jerk now?”

He cocked his head and studied me. After a moment, he sighed and said, “I am trying to help you. I
like
you, Ciel. You are brave and funny. You have a sharp mind, an even sharper tongue”—I squirmed at that—“and a great right hook,” he added with a rueful smile.

“Really?” I said, kind of flattered at that last bit.

“Truly. My jaw is still sore.” He was teasing now. Actually, that made me relax a little. If he was teasing me, it probably meant he wasn’t planning to kill me.

“You can let me go now, you know. I won’t hit you again.”

He shook his head. “You would run. For now you must trust that I know best.”

“Why should I?” I said peevishly. “You’re a part of some wacko group that gets off on dressing funny and killing people. And kidnapping,” I added. “Let’s not forget
that
.”

“There’s more to it than you know. I can’t tell you everything, but one small thing I can say … if you promise to tell no one.”

A secret? That could be useful. I dropped the peevishness. “I promise.” Which was a big lie, and I couldn’t even cross my fingers, gripped as they were in his big hand. I wondered if God made allowances for extenuating circumstances, or if I could look forward to another explosion in the near future.

“I am trying to get Mina back before Per finds her. He is very angry with her, and she wouldn’t be safe if he finds her first. I am sorry to have to use you for this, but I can think of no other way.”

“Oh, so now you’re the hero. Right.” I didn’t worry as much about sarcasm as I did lying. If God held sarcasm against you, I’d have been blown to kingdom come before I was out of grade school.

“Not a hero, no. But Per has gone too far. Men should not hurt women.”

Ha. Says the man who’d whacked me on the bottom not half an hour earlier. Guess he didn’t count that. And
I
didn’t happen to think men should hurt other men either, but at least he was halfway on the right track.

“Is he the one who shot at her at the hotel?” I asked.

“Not personally, no. But he ordered it.”

“Mina said she may have, um, conked him on the head a tiny bit?”

“Oh, yes. She gave him quite a headache—one he won’t forget or forgive easily. It is best he doesn’t find her.”

A chill settled in my stomach. “Let me go when Mina gets here. Let us both go—”

“That I cannot do. It wouldn’t be safe for either of you. Per has too many men looking for Mina. So, now. Can I trust you to say nothing about this to anyone? It would not go well for me—or for Mina’s fiancé—if Per found out.”

“Do you really have Trey somewhere?”

He held his breath for a few seconds, coming to a decision. “Yes. We have Trey. He has information we need, but is not being cooperative. Per believes Mina may be useful in convincing him to be more forthcoming. I must keep that from happening. Per is planning to kill them both after he finds out what Trey knows.”

I pulled away as far as I could, considering he was still holding my hands securely. “Why do you even need Trey?”

“He was the one who approached us, and Per was perhaps too anxious to include a wealthy American in our ranks. Access to money is always handy. Now that he has been exposed as an infiltrator, Per is determined to stop him. But first he must find out what Trey has already told his superiors.”

“You know what? Per is an asshole.”

He lifted one side of his mouth in a rueful half-smile. “Per is a fanatic. Fanatics tend to be extreme.”

“Okay. An extreme asshole.”

Laughing, he finally let go of my hands. “You are the most astonishing girl. I wish I could—” He stopped and stared over my shoulder. I looked behind me to see what had distracted him.

Another neo-Viking strode toward us. The good news was the newcomer wasn’t Per. The bad news was that it was Per’s buddy, Nonto, carrying an animal-skin bag that looked to be loaded with something heavy. If he was here, how far behind could Per be? My stomach sank.

“Ahiga?” Nils said. Huh. So that was his name. “What are you doing here? We are not supposed to meet until later.”

Ahiga didn’t answer. He kept walking until he was right next to us, pushed me as far away from Nils as he could, and walloped him upside the head with his bag.

Chapter 21

Nils crumpled, leaving me standing there staring at the black-haired Berserker.

“What the hell did you do that for, you big oaf?” I slammed his chest with the heels of my hands, surprising him enough that he actually fell back a step.

I knelt beside Nils and ran my fingers over his face. I didn’t think his jaw was broken, but he was going to have a hell of a bruise.

“Uh, Ciel?” the big guy—Ahiga, Nils had called him—said.

“What?” I said, testy and not much caring that he was twice my size and could break me in half with one hand. I felt the back of Nils’s head where it had hit the hard dirt. No bleeding, no indentation. Good.

“Ciel, what are you doing?”

“I’m checking to see—oh, my God!” I whirled my head around to get a better look. “Billy? Is that you?”

“Of course it’s me, you twit. Didn’t you know I’d come for you?”

“Well, yeah, but I was expecting Mina. That’s how you answered the phone.”

“Go up against Hulk Hogan there in Mina’s aura? Do I look like a complete idiot to you?”

I scanned him from head to toe and raised one brow. “If the moccasin fits…”

“Never mind. I answered as Mina because I heard the Mina ringtone. The phone I gave you had some of my auras listed in the contacts, with all the numbers forwarded to my phone—I figured you’d catch on when you saw them, and call whichever me you needed most.”

“I didn’t exactly have the opportunity to phone you myself,” I said wryly, looking at Nils for signs of consciousness.

“Relax. He’s not dead. Now, come on. We have to get out of here. There are a few too many of my European brethren roaming the area for comfort. Mark is waiting for us on the boat.”

My heart skipped a beat. “Mark is here?”

“Yeah. He’s the surprise I was telling you about back at the hotel. He flew over on a company plane and rented a sailboat. It’s at the marina—he thought it would be easier to get you and Trey off the island if we bypass public transportation. Less hassle, less explaining, no waiting for new documents.”

My mind raced ahead. “But that’s great—we can take Nils, too.”

“You’re not getting the picture here, cuz. Nils is one of them. The bad guys. He’s going to be rounded up with the rest of them once we’re sure Trey is safe. Then Trey will testify against the bunch of them,” he said, his voice low and level.

“Nils might not be alive to freaking testify against if we don’t take him with us,” I whispered back, exasperated. Why could Billy never see my side of things?

“And how do you propose we do that? Ahiga is strong, but I can’t carry your buddy there all the way to the marina. Besides which, we don’t need the attention that would bring us,” he said, his voice not quite as soft.

“Then we’ll just have to wait until he wakes up, won’t we?” I said, taking my own voice up a notch.

With noticeable effort, Billy brought his voice down. “Time, Ciel. We. Don’t. Have it.”

“Don’t blame me—you’re the one who hit him,” I said, trying but failing to follow suit.

“Damn it, I was saving you!” he shouted.

“That’s beside the point!” I matched him decibel for decibel.

“AHIGA!” a horribly familiar voice boomed out from the direction of the gate.

We both stopped short and turned to look.

Crap
. It was Per.

My head snapped back to Billy. “Just play along,” he said, suddenly calm. He positioned himself between me and the oncoming mini-horde, lifting one arm in greeting to Per and the men who were with him. All were costumed similarly—the perfect Viking swarm.

Per spoke heartily as they approached. “What is the yelling about, my friend? Have you found a nice Swedish girl to amuse yourself with until—” He stopped when he saw Nils.